Is Sexism A Single Mother - 949 Words

Sexism has been a significant problem in the United States since women obtained the right to vote in 1920. Women have been faced with challenges ever since they entered the same work force as a man. Women get paid less than a man working in the same field during the same job as them. Woman that are a single parent have a hard time supporting a family only making enough to get by. According to WhiteHouse.gov, â€Å"On average, full-time working women earn just 78 cents for every dollar a man earns. This significant gap is more than a statistic -- it has real life consequences. Women make up over half of the work force and are still being paid less than a man working the same job.† Being a single mother and working trying to take care of your children are hard and not making enough to really support your family can have many mental effects on you. Being a single mother affect the children in more than one way, it can redefine their whole character. Woman should get paid the same amount as a men maybe even more because of the different responsibilities a woman has. My mother was a single parent ever since her first child was born in 1988. My mother had three girls and adopted one boy, because after I was born she was told she couldn’t have any more kids. My mom was working for the state as an accountant, even with that job my mom still wasn’t making ends met. We went time where we didn’t have lights or running water, so we would go next door to my great-grandmothers house to getShow MoreRelatedSingle Mothers : An American Family1306 Words   |  6 Pagesaccepting of those made up of gay parents, interracial parents, single parents, and even those who choose not to have children. Despite the general upward movement in positivity towards these different groups, a recent Pew Research poll has come to show that a good majority of Americans (approximately 70%) believe that one of these is inherently â€Å"bad for society†: single mothers (Conan 2011). This kind of attitude is not new, either; single mothers have continuo usly been viewed by society as lacking or incompetentRead MoreFeminism : The First Wave Of Feminism1267 Words   |  6 PagesFeminism is a movement calling for social change, holding to a belief that women are oppressed by American society due to patriarchy’s inherent sexism. This social movement explained quite simply started in the 19th century when women fought for the right to vote, sought to improve workplace conditions for women as well as increase working opportunities. From this initial movement, called first wave feminism, stemmed other waves that though somewhere in the same vein, they held many differing goalsRead MoreOne Unaccounted For Factor That Is Impacting The Level1445 Words   |  6 Pagespoverty. The majority of the current literature on the subject of American’s support/opposition to economic redistribution tends to focus on identities such as race, class, and gender as separate entities. Applying the theories of hostile/benevolent sexism and rac ism, I argue that analyzing intersections of identities such as race and gender in conjunction, and as interdependent, will provide a clearer picture as to why Americans are less favorable towards redistribution, and specifically welfare. Read MoreGender Equality At Work, By Emily Peck988 Words   |  4 Pagesconcept is one of the main targets in the corporate world - to achieve gender equality. Women are more susceptible to discrimination at a workplace more than men because of the existence of the belief that women are less competent than men along with sexism, which is a hidden player. In the article At This Rate, It’ll Take 100 Years to Get Gender Equality At Work, the author, Emily Peck, outlines the various reasons as to why women face discrimination at work, why these women are less interested inRead MoreMulan Sexism Analysis1393 Words   |  6 Pageseventually saves China from the Hans, almost single-handedly. In the end, she becomes a national hero, brings honor to her family, and starts a romance with the soldier who trained her. However, while Mulan seems to be a feminist movie, it is an example of a woman tolerating and helping maintain sexism. Throughout the beginning of the movie, Mulan’s family shows constant discontent with who she is. After Mulan fails to work with the matchmaker, her mother is obviously upset that her daughter is havingRead MoreIntersectionality In Sister Outsider Audre Lorde1508 Words   |  7 Pagesof her own and she was younger than my mother. Often me and my sisters would go to her house for the day. It was here where I really got a sense of my privilege in the social and economic class and perhaps in my position as a white woman. Her house was at least a quarter the size of my family’s home and her children never went to university, two of them already had kids of their own. In a study done in 1999 published in Gender stratification: Structural sexism found that African-American women earnRead MoreWomens Rights Movements1199 Words   |  5 Pagesbusiness suit comes up to her and starts to yell at her telling her she is ugly, will never be good enough, she is stupid, she will never get anywhere in her life. Although the woman hears him she steadily continues walking because she has to be a mother to her children, she has to a be shoulder for her husband to lean on and cannot stop because she is forced to live up to an image of multi-tasking and not showing signs of giving up. Women have been looked down upon, stereotyped, and even not treatedRead MoreRhetorical Analysis Of Why Are All The Cartoon Mothers Dead?1477 Words   |  6 PagesRhetorical Analysis: â€Å"Why Are All the Cartoon Mothers’ Dead?† For many Disney stories, as noted by Carolyn Dever, character development begins in the space of the missing mother. The reason behind why the death of mothers is beneficial to character development, may be an unknown fixture of fiction so deeply embedded into the animation world that it has become somewhat of a mystery. In the article ‘Why Are All The Cartoon Mothers Dead’, Sarah boxer makes the claim that patriarchy and misogyny areRead MoreSexism Within Advertising : A New Era Of Social Justice1397 Words   |  6 PagesSexism within Advertisements As a whole, this society has greatly improved, with new cures to old diseases, more efficient ways to complete daily tasks, and new technology with information at our fingertips. Along with these newfound practices, humanity has also given rise to a new era of social justice. Humans everywhere are working everyday to ensure everyone is treated with equality and respect. Nevertheless, humanity still has a long way to go. The mission will not be complete until there isRead MoreBook Analysis : I Lost My Tooth 910 Words   |  4 PagesDiakite illustrated by Baba Wague Diakite, and (Soup Day) written by Melissa Iwai. Both of these texts are great examples on how innocent books may have accidental negative implications. These books may show bias, discrimination, prejudice, racism, or sexism. Also, these texts can show different contributions and lifestyles differences between cultures also community and cultural norms. I Lost My Tooth in Africa, is a short children’s story about a young girl whose family is taking a long journey to

Dealing with e-commerce projects require proper business management Essay

Essays on Success Factors of E-Commerce Essay The paper "Success Factors of E-Commerce" is a perfect example of an essay on e-commerce. E-commerce is one of the most employed modes of managing projects in the current business environment. This is due to the fact that it has been associated with several benefits that vary from one business entity to another (Bacchetta, 2011). However, research has also shown that there are certain disadvantages that business entrepreneurs may experience as they employ concepts of e-commerce (Bacchetta, 2011). This research will focus on factors considered as beneficial to business entrepreneurs when they employ e-commerce techniques. It shall also provide a brief conclusion that basically indicates demerits associated with e-commerce.  Ã‚   Success Factors of e-commerceOne of the most common benefits that have been associated with e-commerce is the fact that it improves access to products and services in remote regions (Laudon Travor, 2002). For instance; some businesses have employed operatio nal techniques that involve working through social networks, majorly for purposes of marketing i.e. use of eBay or even Amazon (Barnes Hinton, 2008). In addition, the concept of e-commerce among various business entities facilitates business processes owing to the fact that it reduces physical and manual modes of operations that may be tedious and time-consuming.Another success factor of e-commerce is based on the fact that it creates a scenario where business entrepreneurs operate without the need for physical stores. That is, such businesses are operated online or even through social networks for purposes of marketing, operations et cetera (Barnes Hinton, 2008). Moreover, e-commerce enables businesses to operate continuously through a twenty-four-hour system. Researchers have also argued that e-commerce allows customers and business entrepreneurs to undertake instant transactions i.e. making payments and getting services through online services et cetera. In some cases, e-commer ce business operations services have been associated with a reduction of human-errors that tend to occur in the course of the transaction, hence promoting the achievement of maximum profitability (Laudon Travor, 2002).  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ConclusionDespite the fact that e-commerce has been associated with various benefits, research has indicated that it is also a subject of several challenges that may hinder the success of a business. One of the challenges associated with e-commerce is that it reduces physical contact or personal touch between business stakeholders. Researchers have also argued that the lack of physical contact caused by e-commerce reduces occurrences or social networks among business entrepreneurs. Products and services offered through electronic processes create a scenario where clients or customers cannot have contact with goods or services before purchase: Some clients usually prefer having a feel, touch or physical experience, a need that is denied by most e-commerce activities. On the other hand, e-commerce creates a need for internet access among clients and business entrepreneurs; thus, making it complicated for clients that cannot access the internet to access services.

Fuzzy logic in car safty Free Essays

Car safety issues are wide-reaching problem. This problem is mainly due to human driving which involves reaction times, delays, and Judgment errors that may affect traffic flow and cause accidents. In some cases, the cause of the accident is distraction on the part of the driver and failure to react in time. We will write a custom essay sample on Fuzzy logic in car safty or any similar topic only for you Order Now Even in some cases, it could be cause by environmental factors (Song, 2005). Advanced system of auxiliary functions has been developed to help avoid such accident and minimize the effects of collision should one occur. Fuzzy logic provides tools for dealing with imprecision, which is fundamental to many engineering problems. The level of safety in our society could be archived by applying fuzzy logic control system. Fuzzy logic control technique has become an active area of research in the application of industrial processes, which are not friendly to straight control techniques. It attempts to emulate human mind for checking the processes parameters and to take decisions regarding the control action (Eugene, 1985). Fuzzy control become a huge industry in Japan and other countries where it was adapted into home appliances such as scum cleaners, microwaves ovens, video cameras, washing machines, etc. A fuzzy controller acts or regulates by means of rules in a more or less natural language, based on the distinguishing feature: fuzzy logic. On the other hand, to reduce car accidents we are going to examine a system, which makes the drivers, pay more attention and alert them before an accident takes place. Because of this, we shall acknowledge the digital systems because they are easier to handle with, so the first thing in the development is to convert all variations in the car environment into digital signals without any changes. The ultrasonic transmitter circuit sends its vibrations in front of car, when these vibrations reflected the ultrasonic receiver circuit would take these vibrations and amplify it. Moreover, send it to the microelectronic, which can compute the distance between the car and anything in front it (as shown in the figure 1 below). At the same time, the Infrared ‘R) circuit senses the round of the wheel and sends it signal to the microelectronic, which can compute the car speed. After that, the microelectronic sends the output signal to the speaker and The LCD. In addition, of these output devices the microelectronic sends output data to a personal computer using the serial port. Figure 1: Overview of the used hardware; copied figure (from Journal of Computer science 4 (1 2): 1061-1063, 2008]) We shall consider developing level of safety under three steps, which are: Defining level of safety Calculating each degrees of risk between two vehicles, and Combining these degrees to level of safety with average speeds in some divisions (Method et al, 2001). In the other hand, to ascertain the danger degrees of each car, and the base elements, fuzzy sets and their membership functions, are define by using survey data and degrees of risk (Chunk, 2003). In addition, if-then rules of inference engine are made by rou gh set theory. Conclusively, to get the level of safety in some divisions, fuzzy membership function values of each safety result is averaged, and a method to et ‘Level of Safety based on these degrees relates with an average of safety speeds is suggested. Definition of Level of Safety Safety being a wide-reaching problem, has gained various definitions from several authors. The level of safety in a road division means the grades, which people feel about the possibility to experience, rear-end collision including relentlessness in the division (Song, 2003). This definition is composed of three elements related with roads in themselves, driving behaviors in this road, and relation between drivers and roads. These three factors are mix in microscopic driving behaviors on roads, and five gyroscopic traffic condition variables are selected such as velocity and acceleration of lead and following cars, and the gap distance between these cars divided the minimum safety distance (Method et al, 2001). The minimum safety distance (MS) is the distance that following car needs to avoid a rear-end collision. The traffic condition in itself can be included into velocity, drivers’ behaviors are able to be included into oscillations of accelerations in every two seconds, and degree of risk in the system can explain the gap distance divided the minimum safety distance (MS). Where, : following Car speed Response time : Possible deceleration rate However, these results are not level of safety but risk degrees of two Cars (Fuller, 2005). Definition of Fuzzy Sets and Membership Function The member functions are divided into speed fuzzy sets and acceleration fuzzy sets (Method et al, 2001). Speed fuzzy sets are composed of three sets, ‘high speed’, ‘medium speed’, and ‘low speed’. Their membership functions are based on macroscopic traffic condition data and number of accident. Acceleration fuzzy sets also consist of three sets, ‘positive acceleration’, ‘no acceleration’, and ‘negative acceleration’, and membership functions, which are based on microscopic field, survey data and maximum and common acceleration rates of vehicles. The gap distance/MS sets are divided into three fuzzy sets, ‘more than 1’, ‘around 1’, and ‘less than 1’ using microscopic data. The combined danger degrees are about from 0. 4 to 0. 55 that corresponds to common situation defined in fuzzy set, and this result means that people drives more or less safely bearing some anger because there are possibility to happen accidents in traffic condition in itself but drivers believe that they can response properly to a danger situation. Moreover, this result shows that there are some danger situations n each two vehicle, but in road divisions, the danger degrees become normalized. Figure 3: Relation between Speed and Danger Degrees For this reason, ‘Level of Safety should not include the combined danger degree directly, and should be deducted from relationship between speeds as well as danger degrees. In order to find their relation, pairs of average speed and danger degree are, shown in figure 3. We find that danger degrees are low in low speed level and high in fast speed level, and the level of change is not high in low and rapid speed situations. However, in medium speed case, danger degrees are increase vapidly, and there are two points of inflection. If danger degrees do not change rapidly, drivers would react properly because their expectations to the road conditions are fixed, but if they change fast, the situation on a road division would be dangerous because the expectation of drivers cannot be fix. Consequently, the simple possibility of accidents depends on the grades of change in danger degrees, and the severity depends on the quantity of danger degrees. Conclusively, this seminar suggests ‘Level of Safety such as in Figure 4. First, range of Level of Safety in which relentlessness and possibility of accident is high is defined as Very dangerous situation’, E. Similarly, that of range which relentlessness or possibility is high is suggested as ‘dangerous situation’, D, and which relentlessness and possibility is usual as ‘common situation’, C, and which possibility is low and relentlessness is high as ‘safe situation’, B, and which possibility and relentlessness is low as Very safe situation’, A, these are shown in Table 3 below. Finally, relation of danger degrees and average speeds develops the intercepts of each level of safety, UT it needs to be more precisely define by further study based on more investigation. Table 3: Level of Safety Definition The possibility The severity The range(km/hrs) Very safe -18 c 25-40 (or) High 18-25, 40-53 53-63 Figure 4: copied figure (from [Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies]) 8. 0 CONCLUSION This seminar work shows how the system provides a solution to decrease the car accidents by giving the drivers more time to avoid the accidents. Adjusting the sensitivity and the accuracy for the measuring circuits is important to ensure that the assured parameters represent its actual values. The use of microelectronic makes it possible to implement the system with less hardware components. The microelectronic, FISTICUFF was chosen among all the other microelectronics because of its low-cost and small size. In addition, we evaluated safety degrees on a road division, and suggest ‘Level of safety. The method to develop ‘Level of Safety from degrees of danger and combined using fuzzy theory, and we combined danger degrees to define level of service with average speeds. This is the first trial to define How to cite Fuzzy logic in car safty, Papers

I agree on life sentence free essay sample

A crime is a crime, wheter it is done intentionnaly or accidently it still is a crime. Juvenile crimes have been presented always. There has been a lot of contraversey about a Juvenile commiting a servere crime should suffer life sentenced in prison. Age shouldn’t be a factor when a crime is commited, a crime has been done and there must be consequences to take. Life sentenced is appropiate based on Mental Instability, Age and Damange that person could have caused to family, friends and loved ones. Mental Instability: Mental Instability can be present in a crime. Wheter that person has brain damage or has suffered many traumatic situations growing up, shouldn’t impead the reduction of life sentenced. Crime has been commited if Mental problems are involved the best decision should be putting in that person in a Mental Instability facility for treatment. That person shouldn’t be set free or reduced punishment just cause of that factor. We will write a custom essay sample on I agree on life sentence or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It puts in danger the society that we live in. Age: Age shouldn’t be a factor of reduction of punishment. Wether a person is 13 years of age and has commited a serve crime isn’t different than a 50 year old commiting the same crime. Damage has been done to the society and the safety of people. However; people state that a 13 year-old hasn’t developed fully to know what’s right to wrong. But does that also apply to a 50 year old? They also have commited the same crime. Should there punishment also be reduced because they haven’t fully matured? It is a pretty absurd statement. Age shouldn’t reduce the punishment of a juvenile. A crime has been commited and there are punishments for those actions. Damage to family, friends and Loved ones. Most of the people who encountered situations in where a Juvenile has commited a crime think they shouldn’t be sentenced to life. But that person who simply reads articles or see’s it on the news, don’t know how the family feels about lossing one of their loved ones. The damage that person has caused to a family member is something that can not be explained unless someone has suffered something similar. Life sentence is approiate for the situation and doesn’t violate the 8th Amendment of the United States Constitution. Conclusion: Life sentece to a juvenile is appropiate when he/she has taken a persons life away. Jail maybe can change that persons way of viewing life. But not the way how the society view him. People may say that a few years in jail is the correct, that it will change that person. But a person wouldn’t feel comfortable if there neighbor is a criminal. It would put in danger the society wheter that person has changed or still remains the same we shall never know. A person wants the best for themselves and having an ex-criminal as there neighborh isn’t the right path, the insecurity the shall face. Life sentence in jail is appropiate when facing these kind of situations. There is a punishment for everything you do incorrectly in life.

Role of modern art museum

Human beings rely so much on the past to solve future and the current life challenges. Thus this mere fact calls for efforts to make the past more meaningful and relevant in the current day to day activities undertaken by mankind.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Role of modern art museum specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This has led to acute need of establishing of modern art museums in our society because their collections are usually presented in a very artistic manner which initiates curiosity amongst the audience who come to visit such museums. Consequently the audience becomes aroused and inspired by the works of the museums. Thus this enhances meaning attachment in the objects of the museums, thus making them relevant to the current generation unlike the other kinds of museums which are too conservative in their collections. The historical management of modern art museums involves the curators who are so ri gid in their roles. In the modern art museums the curator shifts his or her duties to an artist and the audience acts in position of the curator. This makes the curator understand the expectations of their own audience and thus making them to be in a position to make relevant modification in their collection in order to ensure that they are focusing on the needs of their clients. This will at long run ensure quality of visits rather than the quantity of visits in the museums and thus this encourage tourists to visit a particular museum several times. This is not a common practice with majority of tourists because most of them usually plan to visit specific sites once in their life time. Unless that particular site is extra ordinary impressive to the tourists they cannot come again for a revisit (Hamma 1). In this case we are going to address the various roles played by the modern art museum amongst them being the educative, aesthetic and social roles amongst many others. Finally we will also look at the possible evolution of the modern art museum. The first and most important role of the modern art museum it the aesthetic function which is commonly associated with beauty. Here the most important point of emphasis is the efforts made by the modern art museum to impress their audience. This is mainly done by ensuring that the collections of object and also their presentations in the modern art museum is quite attractive and relevant to the people who usually come to visit such museums. The artistic work is usually made in a way that the visitors who may be either domestic or foreign tourists are in a position to have self enjoyment in the modern art museum. This vital objective of ensuring that the tourists get maximum enjoyment in such museums is also facilitated by huge investment in various recreational facilities such as development of restaurants which well equipped with various social amenities to suit the interests of both domestic and foreign tourists.Ad vertising Looking for essay on art? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More If all this facilities are in place the tourists will be encouraged to visit a given modern art museum several times which is not a common practice with most of tourists because tourists usually plan to visit a particular site of a museum not more than one time in their life span (Cobb 1). In this case the modern art museum usually makes a lot of efforts in diversifying it resources meet the expectations of the visitors and this may also include the in need for having most attractive and unique paintings and also if possible getting the real artists who have performed such works so that they can demonstrate by real example to the tourist if so requested and this will do good to the tourists since they will have a real experience and they may want to come back along with their friends or family members. Secondly, the other function played by modern art museum a nd which is of great impact on the academic world is the educative role which is effectively undertaken by modern art museum. This has made most of modern art museums to carry the name of education centers since most of the local educational authorities have implemented policies in which the modern art museum have established links with various institutions of learning comprising with different groups of learners ranging from pre primary pupils to even college and university students (Richmond 1). In these forums the teachers in different groups of learning levels can have official booking to take their pupils or students there for interactive learning and such modern art museum will ensure all object and facilities are organized in a way which triggers learning curiosity amongst the specified group of learners. Here the visitors who are generally termed as tourists will have all the time to ask various questions to the responsible curator and in return receive the most relevant and accurate response accordingly and this will highly be of crucial importance to the learners since it will satisfy their curiosity aroused and enable them come to concrete formation of opinion about various issues either which they may have come across in class work or through general knowledge of life. This will consequently lead to most relevant conclusions made by learners of various learning groups since these conclusions are derived from personal observations made by the learners and also real experiences of the situation by the learners.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Role of modern art museum specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Also in the modern art museums the learners can have the young tasks can also have the privilege of coming on one on one interaction with hero artists or their works and this can be of great inspiration to the young people who may wish to grow and be like or even become better than s uch artists. Modern art museums also provides the most appropriate and convenient places for learners and most especially learner in higher levels of studies a chance to undertake their research work on various issues which their reference can only be found in such modern art museum. Thus by the acts of teachers taking their learners to modern art museums they will be acting in accordance with the stipulations of constructivist theory which says that learning is a process which is very active and it demands that one should make meaning out of objects as they are brought to our thinking abilities by our senses. And this means that the learners can comprehend to great magnitudes what they have experienced other than what only exists in theoretical world and this reduces the abstractness of various concepts and principles learned in class work. This is very evident in most works of history and also art since their perfect conceptualization is highly correlated to visits made in the mod ern art museum since the resources in such museum provides firsthand experience to the learner which is very critical towards effective learning (Pfaelzar 1). Also the experiences obtained from the works of modern art museums can also be incorporated by schools through the relevant authorities in the school curriculum in order to prepare learners to grasp the various opportunities and also prepare the pupils for adult life. Thirdly, the other most important role played by the modern art museum is the social role. In this case the modern art museum acts as social institution whereby a lot of community undertakings are carried out which are quite relevant to the given society.Advertising Looking for essay on art? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The modern art museum preserves the cultural heritages of particular community and thus all positive cultural values can be passed from one generation to the other by virtue of the existence of modern art museum otherwise such beautiful cultural values and practices will be eroded with time if not conserved in the modern art museum which does so in ways which are quite meaningful and relevant to the contemporary generation. Also the modern art museum can be used as a platform for creation of awareness to a given society about the different cultures in other societies thus making them informed and thus sensitive when presenting some objects which may be culturally sacred in other societies. In the modern art museum the members of a given society can learn about the endangered species of flora and fauna and thus take the necessary measurements in order to preserve the endangered species for sustainable co-existence. The modern art museum can be used to initiate dialogue aimed at facil itating realization of a particular change. For example modern art museum played a very critical role in addressing the issue of racism because they created platforms whereby people could talk freely about racism in United States of America and this went ahead and captured the attention of the media (Hamma 1). From the above we can say that the modern art museum acts as memory banks for all events and objects in the society which is of great utility to the members of a given social group. The evolution of the modern art museum could have been as a result of the realization of acute need to preserve some endangered species of fauna or flora and most specifically the need to change the way other museums used to present their objects to their audience in order to be relevant and meaningful to the modern generation and also add the taste of beauty and entertainment in the museum and thus development of modern art museum. The preservation of various artistic objects in a modern art museu m will at least give an opportunity to the existing and also the generation to come to have an experience of seeing such species of fauna or flora. The museums can also result from some historical sites or events or objects which needs to be preserved and also from some very rare objects which might be quite valuable such gold which is a very precious stone (Cobb 1). All these objects are installed in the most artistic way in modern art museums which also contains the paintings of most famous artists and thus the need to preserve them being quite enormous. It is very clear from the above discussion that the modern art museum plays a very vital role in the lives of mankind. This is because people can always refer to their past in order to face the present and the future in the most meaningful and relevant manner. Also the modern art museums are a great source of recreation to humanity at large. Here we have talked about the roles of modern art museums which have included educative, s ocial and aesthetic roles. We have also looked at the possible evolution of modern art museums. Works Cited Cobb, Matthew. â€Å"Why evolution is true†. 2010. Web. Hamma, Kenneth. â€Å"The role of museums in online teaching, learning, and research.† 2004. Web. Pfaelzar, Morgan. â€Å"The role of the art museum†. 2010. Web. Richmond, Philips. â€Å"How you can get evolution back into zoos and museums.† 2008. Web. This essay on Role of modern art museum was written and submitted by user Sherlyn Collier to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Maternal Love essays

Maternal Love essays No one loves you like your mother. Mothers are full of love and devotion, full of the patience of saints. They are pure and good. Or mothers are vulgar, instilling false values into the hearts of their daughters because of the societal privileged relationship of the maternal bond and the too-overwhelming presence of maternal flesh and weight. Louise Edrich's Tales of Burning Love portrays a mother of the first stripe, a mother as traditionally self-sacrificing and selfless as apple pie, a trapeze artist of the delicate societal relations that spin around the human heart regarding motherly and daughterly love. In contrast, Tereza's mother of Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a crude woman whom is oppressive to her daughter in the girl's eyes because of her vulgarity and the way the woman emotionally exploits the maternal bond. To Tereza, her mother represents all she despises about the town in which she Both mother-daughter relationships, however, portray a kind of inescapable destiny in terms of the relationship between mothers and daughters in terms of the daughter's later relationships with men and their own sense of self hood. Whether the women resist these former relationship patters that they see in their mother's relationships with their fathers, or seek to mirror them in their relationships with men and their own bodies, these daughters cannot escape the maternal influence and modeling A perfect artist on the high wire and a perfect mother in the whirl of societyor at least so seems Anna Schlick. Once upon a time, Anna was a famous trapeze artist. Now she takes the guise, however, of a conventional, society wife. She is married to a jealous, abusive husband, the wealthy but emotionally and morally bankrupt Lawrence Schlick. Lawrence is constantly filled with a sense of overwhelming, destructive ...

British Airways Cuts Expenditures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

British Airways Cuts Expenditures - Essay Example This contest will be open to all; however, the entries should be coupled with at least a round-trip ticket for the last 3 months and for the succeeding months. Particularly, it should be a story telling about taking off to new heights in life-may it be a flying story of a person who decided to leave his family to study or work abroad or simply conquering the fear of heights. 1. The target audience is mainly the loyal customers of British Airways. This is comprised of the people who have become a priced possession for the company. Thus, it is very important to protect them from the negative impact of bad publications, which means that they should always have a good impression towards the company. 3. The promotional budget is just small for this promotion as there is not much equipment necessary for the production. Collection of the entries can just be placed in British Airways ticketing offices. 4. "Your message strategy consists of a positioning statement and three support points. They address key target market problems by stating a benefit; i.e. why the target market should care about your product, service or company. A message strategy can be extremely detailed and is like a recipe for all marketing communication" (Lawson Abinanti).

GEOINT and Asia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

GEOINT and Asia - Essay Example Such views include the state and its citizens, children and their parents, husband and wife, liberty and authority, hierarchy and equality as well as rights and responsibilities. These differences have existed for centuries and have at times threatened world peace (Fawn, 1999). The two regions also have a lot of differences regarding political ideologies as well as political regimes. These differences could be attributed to the increased levels of awareness between these civilizations, since this intensifies civilization consciousness. More and more people migrating from the Asian region receive increased receptivity and hostility from the western world. Studies reveal that the western world reacts more negatively to Asian investment in their countries than from other regions. When people from the two regions interact, their civilization-consciousness is enhanced, which further invigorates the animosities and differences, thus explaining why it stretches such a long way back in history (Huntington, 1997). The increasing economic regionalism can also be attributed to the differences between the two regions. Most countries in the western world prefer intraregional trade between themselves and this only enhances economic regionalism. This reinforces western Christianity as well as European culture in all aspects of trade, therefore isolating the Asian region because of its unique civilization. In this case, cultural differences between the two regions will hinder their economic integration (Doyle, 2009). Other issues causing differences between the western world and the Asian region range from immigration to human rights and the environment in general. The clash of these two civilizations could be said to be occurring at the macro-level. This means that they compete for economic power as well as relative military (Fawn, 1999). They also want to control third parties and international

The Systems Development Life Cycle Methodology Essay

The Systems Development Life Cycle Methodology - Essay Example Moreover, the other steps of system development lifecycle includes a comprehensive system design and actual implementation and testing (DocStoc, 2009; Shelly & Rosenblatt, 2009; Pressman, 2001). However, a lot of researches have shown that the use of traditional software development life cycle causes various issues and concerns regarding effective software development. This paper is aimed at presenting a number of issues which significantly control the process of the software development and can be changed to offer more flexible and unstructured approach for software development (DocStoc, 2009; Shelly & Rosenblatt, 2009; Pressman, 2001). Actually, the traditional software development lifecycle is composed of a rigid set of development stages that are aligned to each other in a less flexible way. As a result, entire software development process faces several serious issues and concerns regarding software development. For example, what if the design stage of a software development proc ess uncovers requirements that are strictly impracticable or very expensive to establish or develop? What if issues and errors found in the software requirements and design stages are encountered in implementation phase? In addition, the time duration between preliminary investigation and testing typically spread over several months. What if basic needs, requirements or priorities of a client are changed or system users understand they ignored critical needs all through the software development analysis phase? In fact, there are numerous issues and concerns which make the traditional software development lifecycle a more rigid and inflexible process. In addition, there can be numerous other issues which can create serious problems for entire software development process and can result in projects failure or do not able to convene the user’s expectations when deployed (DocStoc, 2009; Shelly & Rosenblatt, 2009; Pressman, 2001). In order to analyze issues and problems in traditi onal rigid and inflexible software development approach, I will present some facts and figures from international software development reports. In this scenario, Standish Group's well-known CHAOS Report of 2000 shows that more than 25 percent software development projects still fail. In many cases projects suffer from issues and problems as a result it becomes a failure, or without practical software deployment. Unluckily, this report demonstrates a huge increase over CHAOS reports from previous years. Moreover, at the present there is additional proof of the same kind (VersionOne, Inc., 2012; Bender RBT Inc., 2003; Erdil, Finn, Keating, Meattle, Park, & Yoon, 2003). In addition, failure issues and numbers strengthen what a vast majority of us experienced personally. Additionally, the waterfall software development approach is a risky and expensive methodology to develop software systems. That is why, majority of software development firms is adopting agile and new software developm ent methodologies for the reason that they are more flexible and innovative alternatives (VersionOne, Inc., 2012; Bender RBT Inc., 2003; Erdil, Finn, Keating, Meattle, Park, & Yoon, 2003). Moreover, when we look for a better approach for software development we see Agile as one of best approaches. In fact, agile software development techniques came out of the real-life development experiences of experienced and skilled software professionals who had practiced the main issues and

People Usually Save Some Money

People Usually Save Some Money Chapter 1: Problem and Its Background INTRODUCTION: Savings has always been an important issue for the people to consider. People usually save some money from their income after incurring necessary expenses for the future needs. The cause of saving was not under attention in the developing countries previously, so measures to ask people to save money were very difficult to be taken. But now as time is passing by, youngsters are more into saving money and realize it to be an essential part for transforming their lives more luxurious ahead. Our elders use to tell our youngsters about the importance of money savings and thats the reason some youngsters also prefer saving for their future needs and for other entertainment purpose. But if we ask our elders and parents regarding the youngster saving habits, we generally come to know that they dont pay attention towards savings. And to some extend it is correct. Some of the questions arise here are: Why dont they prefer saving? Do they know the importance of saving? Do we have the right perc eption regarding our youngsters saving habit? In this research we will be finding out our youngsters saving habits, its reasons and its effects. Nowadays the youth is more aware about saving money where social media plays a vital role. Apart from this, due to the recession, parents as well encourage their children to save more and more as expenses are being incurred. Moreover, due to increasing opportunities, youngsters try to save and are well aware as to where they have to spend and where they have to stop themselves. Plus when youngsters move towards savings and are motivated towards it, so they try to adopt different ways to invest their money and for this they usually prefer to open up their bank account which also assists them to create long term relationship with the banks and become their loyal clients. This is the time when it has become our essential responsibility to know the perception of youngsters regarding money saving and what they really think about it and what makes them to save money or spend it. Here I would like to describe the meaning of perception through the definition. According to the business dictionary website, Perception has been defined as The process by which people translate sensory impressions into a coherent and unified view of the world around them. Though necessarily based on the incomplete and unverified information, perception is equated with reality for most practical purposes and guides human behavior in general.1 (Business Dictionary) Perception usually differs from person to person and also affects the behavior of a person. It could be in the favor as well as against the situation. Moreover, perception is defined as the process of interpretation and giving meaning to that interpretation by organizing it.2 (Lindsay and Norman, 1977) From an article regarding the saving practices a person said when he was of the age 18, his parents used to advise him to save money for future from his pocket money3 .They used to bring ceramic pots for saving the cash in it. But now more and more other alternatives have been developed for saving money like UBL Young Savers Account, Bank Al Habib Young Savers Account, and Bank of Punjab Young Lions Account etc. Moreover it not only for the adults, but youngsters even childe of the age two can be benefited with the services of the bank to open up an account for savings. Now a days, progressively more banks are focusing and becoming a centre of attraction in order to enlighten people to save money especially youngsters are being targeted in this regard. Different campaigns are being made for attracting the youth for awareness. Banks like ABL and HBL are among the banks that are motivating the young generation to save money. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM: The statement of the problem is to know as to what the perception of youngsters is towards savings. What they really think about it whether beneficial or not. Due to the increasing expenses can they easily save money for themselves? The objective of my of my research is to know their money saving perception. The second objective is to know the challenges faced by them in order to save money. The third objective is to know whether they feel good and comfortable to get opportunities in saving money in the current crucial time of economic shifts. The problems on which I have worked upon are listed below: To know the opinions and the insights of youngsters towards savings as to what is their perception regarding it? What are the reasons they come across that dont let them to save money? Does saving leads them to become materialistic or gaining power is their desire? Can their savings provide support to the economy? SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY: This research would really be helpful for the people who are working for the youth of Pakistan especially. Moreover, the Banks and other financial institutions can get advantage through it because these entities are now focusing youth and inviting the youth to save more and more for their future, for the country and for the humanity as a whole. Moreover, the saving schemes can also get advantage through this to know the behavior of the youth towards these campaigns. Since this research covers the perception of youngsters, related to their saving practices, so they will get to know their opinions, their requirements, their point of views and their insights towards saving. SCOPE: The scope of this research is prospecting. It will help us to know the beliefs of youngsters aging from 18 to 26 years. This is the age limit for the respondent that was positioned. Many banks are now working to improve and make better educational programs for the youngsters which will affect them when they would become young adults. The reason for these programs is to create awareness among the people and to help them in establishing themselves. LIMITATIONS: While working for this research, I got to know that most of the respondents have made up their minds to go abroad and work their instead of being a part of their country and strive for it. Some of them are more inclined to depart from here and grab the opportunities to settle abroad due to having more chances to make them able and prove themselves competent. Many of them have got negative views for saving money. In order to have the correct balance of the sample, I came about some problems in finding the actual respondent level. The time period was limited and the survey size was small which would have affected the results. Some of the respondents were uncomfortable to share their information in their information in the questionnaire which also affected the results. The results of youngsters saving perception are not totally representative. Since it contains the replies of limited people so the results are dependent on it. DELIMITATIONS: Some of the delimitations of the study are s follows: The perception of the youngsters with regard to saving may change in future Due to access of new technology and other attractions for the youth they are likely spend money even if they plan to save it. DEFINITIONS: Perception: Youngsters: It includes youngsters aging form 18 to who have enough knowledge of how to save money. CHAPTER # 2 Chapter 2: Research Method and Procedures Introduction of the chapter: Chapter two of the study starts with the research design that describes the central part of the thesis. This chapter then includes research methods which explain the nature of the study conducted, after this it includes the respondents of the study which are the people who responds to the queries asked. After this comes the research instruments which are the tools needed to conduct the research. Then the sources of data which are the means through which we can get appropriate data for the study and to get actual results. Research design: The research design shows the type of research conducted. The type of research carried out here is causal in nature. In the causal research the relationship is proves with respect to the relationship with the variables. The reason to use this kind of research is to know the perception, behavior and insights of the youngsters towards money saving. For this certain interviews and surveys were prepared. Research methods: The study was carried out through both the primary and secondary data collection methods. The study conducted was causal research. From the primary data collection method, quantitative and qualitative study was conducted to present in the numeric form on the basis of opinions and survey conducted through the questionnaire from the respondents. As far as secondary method is concerned, internet and other publications were used to complete the study. Respondents of the study: The primary respondents of the study were the young adults who filled the questionnaire to let us know their opinions and perceptions and apart from this, the interviews conducted from bank managers also come under our primary respondents. Moreover, I did conduct one in-depth interview. It was conducted in such a manner that the six people were in the group having the age bracket between the ages 18 to 26. They discussed their issues and perceptions in detail. Sample: Random sampling was done among the young adults under the age bracket of 18 to 26 years of age. The respondents could be from high school, college, university or any other level. The main reason to select this age is to know their money saving perception and to know what their opinion is regarding different factors that motivate them to save money. A total of 105 respondents were taken on to account for the survey. The sample size was 105. Research instruments: The research instruments are basically the tools needed to conduct the study which eventually helps the researcher to get the prior and appropriate data according to his or her preferences. The tool used in this study is the usage of a questionnaire which was filled up by the respondent who was maximum the age limit required. Sources of data: In order to complete the study the data requirement was one of the main constraints. So for the completion I had to conduct survey from the youngsters aging 18 to 26. Moreover, different articles, books and internet links were the sources of data. Apart from this interviews from different individuals were carried out. Treatment of data: The data collection was analyzed through the statistical tool of SPSS. Along with this bar charts and graphs are used to clearly discover the differences. CHAPTER # 3 Chapter Three: Review of Related Literature and Review INTRODUCTION OF THE CHAPTER: In this chapter, review of all the related writings is considered. Here these writings are summarized and explained. In this chapter, local and foreign literature is included. In the local literature, reviews of the writers are written along with the sources from where they have been extracted which belongs to the local writers. In the foreign literature, reviews are added of the foreign writers. RELATED LITERATURE: It contains the reviews and other theories that supports the topic and tell about the pros and cons of the study through the research conducted by the researchers previously. FOREIGN LITERATURE: Money, money, money how do attitudes toward money impact vanity and materialism? the case of young Chinese consumers 4 A study was conducted in China among the young and the main reason to conduct the research was to know their perception regarding the money and what are the main factors that led them to save money. It is very important now to know the perception of the youth because it helps he strategists and other marketers to shape strategies for them to help them get the best out of life and provide opportunities to them by providing a platform. Through this research paper the author wanted to know the increased materialism among the youth of China. The factors outlined in the research paper were power and prestige, anxiety and distrust. These are some of the motivational factors that motivate the youth to save money. It stimulates them and encourages them to think about money saving. The power and prestige factor explains that the youth save money and would like to have it because it provides them a sense of authority and they feel reputed and classy. The other factor is the anxiety factor that relates that people who dont have enough to spend money but even then they go for purchases in order to reduce their worries. They do shopping and spend their money which provides them a feeling of relief and leisure. The distrust factor explains that they are cautious when are asked to spend money for different purchases. They think several times to spend their wealth. As time is passing by the possession to keep the money among Chinese youth is increasing rapidly. They usually see the high class status people and learn from them that they should also acquire money because through having money and saving it, they would be regarded as powerful and role models for others. Apart form this recent studies show that a new subculture is emerging in China by the name of Bobo which indicates that people save money and acquire it only to become an icon which reflects their personality and where they can attain the luxuries of life easily. The Chinese youth is becoming more and more materialistic in the sense that due to modern era and coming up of new attractions in the society motivate the youth to have money and then acquire things they want. They think that if they will have enough money to spend then they would be able to purchase things of their interests. Moreover in the past, the perception was not have money for spending it on the luxuries of life but now the trend ha changed and they feel good when they spend their money on the means that make them feel happier. Apart from this other attractions to get money and save it is though the credit cards and loans provided. Different promotional campaigns can help the youth to be taught the importance of saving and having money which can assist them to take active and strong decisions as to where and how to spend their money and how they can save it for different situations.4 4Srinivas Durvasula, Steven Lysonski, (2010),Money, money, money how do attitudes toward money impact vanity and materialism? the case of young Chinese consumers, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 27 Iss: 2 pp. 169 179 According to Berti Bombi, Human Development theory states that: Children start saving money when they grow and progress. When they get the awareness and identify the advantages provided by saving money they gradually begin to save more and more. Moreover, during their growth stage, they come across biological, psychological and cognitive stages that let them learn to save, which helps them to get the clear concept of saving money5 (Berti Bombi, 1988 ; Strauss, 1952) http://csd.wustl.edu/Publications/Documents/WP12-23.pdf 5 Saving for the Future- Trends, Patterns and Decision-Making Processes among Young Americans6 The personal savings rate has been dilapidated very rapidly in the U.S. Due to the recessionary period, the situation is becoming worse day by day. People there are in debts and it has become very difficult for them to pay off. Because of this, now extreme attention is being given to the young generation of US. They are being encouraged to save money and accumulate it for their bright future. One of the main costs is for the expenses incurred by the college tuitions. The financial highlights previews that it has now become very difficult for the people to cope up with financial catastrophe around. Some years back, people used to save money mainly to fulfill their necessities, but now the trend is changing. Apart from this much other responsibilities have emerged that include the repayment of credit card bills, tuition fees etc. But people cant help themselves to swallow this bitter truth that whatsoever be the result, they have to undergo through such period where there is so much of difficulty and complications. Keeping in mind the existent trend, the young generation should be aware of the consequences and should get a lesson from it. They should be taught to save money for their present and ultimately future for a better and enhanced outlook of life. In this piece of the literature, it points out to the three main objectives for conducting the research. Firstly the form of the savings done by the young adults, secondly how do they do it, and thirdly, what policies could be implemented for the young adults to help them understand the financial knowledge and encourage them to save more money. According to some of the findings, it was seen that young adults are more into debt than the income they get. The reason for this is the attractions that let them to spend money. They focus on their wants additionally rather than controlling themselves to spend money. They have little control over things to spend money on. It was also found that the young adults had to go through the decision making process where they have experience the five phases of decision making. As time passes by, the need of these young adults arises which inquires for more accounts to buildup their portfolio. The vigor to have more money and accounts for it remains same, but as time surpasses the characteristics or the performance progresses. According to this literature it states that, many of the facts are available from those young adults who have already saved money, but there is no or less data available of young adults that show the challenges they face when thy have to do the money savings. In order to educate the young adults proper training should be provided to them and it is very important at this point in time. It would require uphill effort to instruct them. The larger entity and other financial bodies should pay attention to it to provide counseling to the young adult and to encourage them to save money for their better future. 6Sarah Outcault, (June 2012); Saving for the Future- Trends, Patterns and Decision-Making Processes among Young Americans, Pardee RAND Graduate School Testing an Asset-Building Approach for Young People-Early Access to Savings Predicts Later Savings7 The literature includes three parts. Firstly it includes the young peoples saving behavior towards the asset management practice. Young people are less knowledgeable regarding the strategies promoted for enhancing the asset management. Second part of the literature talk about the behavior of young people savings with regard to the models and concepts presented by the authors earlier. Mainly the neo classical theory, economic socialization theory and institutional models are quoted. Third part of the literature proves whether the money saving practices adopted by the parents in the adolescent brings out better results or when the money saving programs are in touched later in life or when time in need. For the most part the low income households behavior was analyzed. Economic socialization theory talks about that if parents teach their children the money saving pattern, then eventually by their warmth and attention the children would be benefited in the later stages of life. They will have more information, more benefit and more opportunities. If parental attention towards letting child save money by giving them allowances and becoming a role model or an example for them, then they will also adopt the behavior parents commit which will eventually help them shaping their lives. It is stated that if young adults are taught to save money from their younger ages, it would not only improve their habit of saving but they will also be aware of the financial information and other concepts and programs that can help them save money for their future. Institutional model relates that if young people are made conscious of the external facilities at the earlier stages of life like money saving programs, services and products then they will also become good de cision makers of their future. From the literature it was sorted out that young adults, who are emotionally involved with their parents with regard to adoption of money saving behavior, are more experienced and know the inns and outs of it. Apart from this asset management techniques are also well learnt by those young adults whose parents are involved in it and explain to their children about it. Young adults having saving accounts can accumulate more wealth when they have appropriate knowledge about it and other products and programs if transferred to them accordingly can bring a positive impact for them. 7Terri Friedline, William Elliott, Gina Chowa, (2012), Testing an Asset-Building Approach for Young People-Early Access to Savings Predicts Later Savings, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis, CSD Working Papers No. 12-12 Contributions of Qualitative Research to Understanding Saving Theory for Children and Youth 8 U.S and world is paying more attention towards Asset-Based programs. The main purpose of these programs is to encourage financial security and to offer positive effects throughout the life of person. But very little or no attention was paid towards childrens saving and the effects of saving for youth and children in this regard. There are many reasons of the importance of asset accumulation for children. Some of the reasons include the saving in childhood is of longer period of time which can be invested as well as can provide greater financial return even if the amount is smaller and these returns are likely to help the children in their education as the cost of tertiary education have increased and shifted to parents and students. Second, the process of asset accumulation in early childhood helps in child development. Third, these practices not only help the children to understand complex financial knowledge and skills but also shape their money management skills. Above all it provides the security for their future needs especially educational needs. There are several theories that provide insights on process and effects of money savings on children. These theories include human development, structural approach, socialization, behavioral economics, and institutional theory. According to the development theory young children are capable of understanding and know that saving is beneficial for them. Childrens cognitive abilities, increases during transitory period from childhood to adulthood but socialization increases form exposure and encouragement to gain knowledge about the financial world. Moreover behavioral economist suggests that vigilant design of financial services and products can increase the chances of making good financial choices regardless of individual characteristics. This paper sheds the light on how children saving are being affected by these theories and examines the evidence to understand the effect and relationship between childrens age and economic socialization. This articles aim was to contribute to saving theory for youth and children by using qualitative studies of three different Child Development Accounts. These accounts provide the opportunity to accumulate savings for the benefit of child. These accounts include, I Can Save a college saving program in school for elementary age children, Opportunity Passport program which provides incentivized saving account, and SEED for Oklahoma Kids, a randomize experiment of incentivized saving plan for children at birth. 1st study explored that most of the children who participated in ICS program belong to the families whose average educational level was 11th grade and reported family income were below $25000 despite the fact that the school where the research took place was racially and economically diverse. 2nd program study (Opportunity Passport) was developed by Jim Casey Youth Opportunities (JCYO) a part of JCYO Initiatives 2009 program for whole country. The participants of this study had received training in financial literacy and upon completion of training, they were provided with an Individual Development Account and a Checking Account. The participants were aged14-24 years and vary from site by site among all four sites. The 3rd study was the large-scale study of universal Child Development Account with randomly selected babies born in Oklahoma in 2007 an experiment known as The Seed for Oklahoma Kid (SEED OK). This study also reveals that most of the families who save more were having a reported income of less than $30,000 and were African Americans. All these three studies had common theme and differences and paying particular attention we could learn about savings of different age of people. Moreover these studies can also provide the insights of how people of different age group think about saving. The ability of participants was affected by circumstances and individual characteristics as described in three studies. Their savings abilities were also affected by some institutional factors. Individual level factors reveal that ICS participants had very low understanding of financial matters because of their elementary age but they were excited about learning it whereas in OP most of the participants had better understanding of money as compare to younger children. Despite having limited income they were engage in much higher level of saving participation for their future needs. On the contrary, looking back to their childhood, younger children in OP and mothers in SEED OK had not learn about how to save during their transitional age towards adulthood. And because of that in OP young children had receive no or little guidance in money management and savings from their families. Although the participants and their families learnt about saving and money management during those studies but they also identified some obstacle to saving. These obstacles include low income, high expenses, and low support in all three studies. Moreover they also identified some institutional factors as bad experience with financial institutions which also hindered them to save. These studies found that the participant appreciated the incentives given to them for savings and had influenced them to save more and pay attention towards money management. Moreover the restricted access to their accounts forced them to save although they didnt like it. That means incentives can take youth and their families towards saving. Effects Of Saving The participants of all three studies discussed their perceived effect of savings on their lives. In all three studies participants positively accepted savings but it can be tempered according to their need and desire. Some of the effects they discussed include enhanced understanding of saving services and product and its use, Savings provides positive vision of future and sense of security, improved financial skills and knowledge as they received training of financial skills and money management during Opportunity Passport program. Moreover participant provided improved understanding between future education and savings. They used their IDA accounts to pay their educational expenses or to purchase attainable assets (e.g. Laptops etc.) These studies show that some program features have greater impact on savings depending on development stage and age group. Foster youth perceived it more positively than other groups as they face greater challenges as, higher poverty, more prior negative banking experience tenuous relationship with family. They appreciate the financial boost provided by OP program. But at the same time they required more guidance about saving and money management and the restrictions helped them to understand development task and importance of accumulation some saving. Study showed that they need more ways to generate money to deposit in to CDAs. The U.S. internationally has never been quicker in moving towards electronic and cell-phone based financial services. Moving towards it and making innovation in it may encourage youth and children to save more. Moreover, children and youth should pay more attention in accordance with their development stage. Saving campaign and information can be designed in a way that appeals particular age groups. As OP youth and mother of toddlers in SEED OK articulated frustration and difficulties in meeting immediate expenses programs shall be made to overcome these obstacles. 8Margaret Sherraden , Clark Peters, Kristen Wagner , Margaret Clancy , Baorong Guo (2012)- Contributions of Qualitative Research to Understanding Saving Theory for Children and Youth , University of Kansas School of Social Welfare and the Center for Social Development at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis, CSD Working Papers No. 12-23 Areas further studies: The areas of further studies are to know that whether youngsters will be motivated if they would be provided with some educational campaigns regarding it. Will they save money for there futures keeping in mind the crucial economic downturns? They should help the country as well by saving money and investing it in areas where the country get benefit as well the person himself. Variables: Independent: Income level, economic shift, prom campaigns Dependent variable: Purchasing power, word of mouth, HYPO: Youngsters who save money learn more patience Youngsters who save money for their education Youngsters get the motivation to save the money from their parents Among youngsters reasons for saving less money are increased expenses Youngsters feel that in the current economic situation they can get more opportunities to save money youngsters who think saving money is beneficial REC: INSTAED OF BRANSHCES, MAKE A SECTIONFOR TAREGTING THE YOUNSGTERS AND PROMOTE THEM TO CREATE AEARENESà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ THEY SHOULD GO TO C=SCHOOLS, UNI CONDUT ROAD SHOWS. TEACH THEM HOW TO SAVE FROM EARLY SATGESà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ TEACH THEM HOW TO COPE WITH THE RECESSIONARY PERIOD. AND HOW TO MAKE BUGET AND MAKE FINANCIAL.THIS WILL HELP THEM TO BE INDEPENEN. THORUGH THIS THEIR COMMUNICATIIN SKILLLS WOULD ALSO INCREASE. THERE IS S MUCH POENTIAL AMONG YUNGSTERS, BUT SINCE NO PROPER PLAFORM IS BEING PROVIDE TO THEM SO THEY ARE EFT BEHIND. IT S ENGROSSED WITH THE TALENT. THEY SSHOULD BE MOTIVATED AND ENCOURAGED.

Essay --

The Tea Party’s Influence on American Politics Throughout American history, the role and size of the United States government has been debated since the 1st United States Congress. In modern times, a new conservative group, known as the Tea Party has formed to advocate for smaller government, fiscal responsibility, and restoring traditional American values. This group has made it tougher for Democrats and Republicans to solve their differences. Receiving dramatic support when it formed, the Tea Party, acting as the most conservative members in government, has changed American politics by dividing the Republican party, making it tougher for Congress to pass bills, showing major opposition to the President, and causing gridlock within the government. The Tea Party is defined as a conservative grassroots movement that, â€Å"calls awareness to any issue which challenges the security, sovereignty of domestic tranquility of our beloved nation†¦Ã¢â‚¬ .1 In addition to this, there are many based Tea Party groups around the country, such as Tea Party Patriots and Tea Party 911.2 Furthermore, the formation of the Tea Party is not fully defined. Many Tea Party activist like to refer to the 1773 Boston Tea Party as when their movement was established.3 However, it is argued that the modern Tea Party formed on a nationwide protest, known as the Tax Day Protest, on September 12, 2009.4 This group was protesting nationwide against 787 billion dollar stimulus package and the 3.5 trillion dollar deficit that was implemented by the Obama Administration and a Democratic controlled Adams 2 Congress.5 While many argue that the Tea Party was formed as a grassroots coalition, others claim that this movement was funded by elites, former politicians and con... ...ugh time on dealing with the debt ceiling once again. Thirty Republican Tea Party members oppose raising that debt ceiling. Because of this, Republicans have to create a bill in which they will receive Democratic support. Hopefully, a bipartisan solution by all members will allow the debt ceiling to be risen.44 The Tea Party has changed politics by making the Republican Party more Conservative and making the legislation process slower. They have indeed influenced and change politics in the election process and caused the necessity of bipartisanship in Congress. In addition, they brought the debate about the interpretation of the Constitution, restoring traditional values, economic ideologies in America, and the role and size of the United States government. The Tea Party will go down in history as one of the groups that has changed American politics in many aspects.

Higher Education Marketing Mix

CHAPTER 3 MARKETING’S ROLE IN HIGHER EDUCATION 3. 1 INTRODUCTION Chapter 2 introduced some of the major changes and trends that have taken place in the higher education environment both internationally and locally. Although higher education institutions can be classified as non-profit organisations, the challenges discussed in Chapter 2 necessitate higher education institutions to take on the organisation-like behaviour of profit organisations and to become more marketingoriented.An understanding of the environment in which higher education institutions operate, provides an essential background against which to understand and assess the benefits of focusing on students as customers. If higher education institutions understand the landscape in which they operate, they can begin to plan to serve the market effectively and efficiently with their marketing strategy. Being marketingoriented requires that organisations have knowledge on external forces (as explained in Chapter 2), b ut also knowledge on customers’ needs and wants (to be addressed in Chapter 4).It is against this backdrop of changes in the environment, such as the decrease in government funding and the increase in competition, that the need for marketing in higher education can be seen. In order to survive and to develop a sustainable competitive advantage in a changing higher education landscape, higher education institutions should satisfy the needs of their customers by adding value. Institutions should provide more benefits to their customers than competitors if they want to stay competitive.In the competitive environment in which higher education institutions operate (refer to Chapter 2), enhanced customer satisfaction may be one of the ways in which institutions can create and sustain a competitive advantage. This can be achieved with the effective application of the marketing mix elements. Marketing, and more specific a market-orientation, can provide a detailed understanding of th e needs of ustomers and ensure that higher education institutions address the needs in as – 73 – efficient and comprehensive manner as possible. In short, higher education institutions need to set marketing objectives and formulate a marketing strategy. Given the market-oriented focus and importance of the marketing mix elements, the main focus of this chapter will be on higher education institutions’ formulation and implementation of the elements of the services marketing mix.This chapter will explore the literature available on the changing role of marketing, the marketing concept, market- and marketing-orientation, consumer behaviour and the integration of all the units of a higher education institution to formulate a service product strategy, price strategy, distribution strategy, communication strategy, people strategy, physical evidence strategy and process strategy in order to meet the needs of students. 3. 2 THE CHANGING ROLE OF MARKETING Marketing plays a major role in any organisation and is viewed by Lamb et al. 2004:5) as a process that starts with identifying customer groups, finding out about their needs and wants, matching what the organisation can offer with what the customer wants and then effectively communicating and selling it to the customer. Although the primary aim of marketing is to satisfy the needs of customers, it involves a cluster of activities such as product/service innovation, design, development, distribution, advertising, selling and how the product/service is acquired and used by the customer.Machado and Cassim (2002:2) regard marketing as the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organisational objectives. Mowen (1995:7) states that the importance of understanding consumer behaviour is found in the definition of marketing as a human activity directed at satisfying needs and wants t hrough a human exchange process. Effective marketing requires a higher education institution to identify their target audiences, understand them, and communicate with them as directly and interactively as possible (Laurer, 2006).According to Shoemaker (1999), marketing is the proactive management of the relationship between a higher education institution and its various – 74 – markets by using the tools of marketing: service product, place, price, promotion, process, people and physical evidence. Marketing’s greater contribution lies in its ability to facilitate the exchange process that takes place between the non-profit organisation such as the higher education institution, and each of the customer groups it addresses (Sargeant, 2005:295).Marketing can provide a detailed understanding of the needs of such customers and ensure that the institution addresses these needs in as efficient and comprehensive manner as possible. This understanding of customers’ needs can aid organisations in creating and sustaining a competitive advantage. Lynch and Baines (2004:171) found that higher education institutions’ sustainable competitive advantages are usually based on superior knowledge, reputation, innovation or architectural related advantages.However, marketing is not stagnant and over the years the marketing activities of organisations have changed. Kolter (2003) and Strydom, Jooste and Cant (2000:10) identify four stages that strongly influence the evolution of organisations’ marketing activities. These stages are referred to as production, sales, marketing and societal marketing. The production orientation focuses on the internal capabilities of the organisation rather than the needs of the market, while a sales orientation is based on the premise that people will buy more if aggressive sales techniques are used.Both of these orientations lack a customer focus. Organisations realise the importance of marketing and building long-term relationships with their customers; thus, a marketing orientation. The societal marketing orientation builds on the marketing orientation but adds that customer value must be delivered in such a way that it maintains or improves the society’s wellbeing. According to Kotler and Fox (1995:11), there are also definite stages in the evolution of marketing in higher education.The focus has moved from â€Å"marketing is unnecessary† to â€Å"marketing is promotion† to â€Å"marketing is positioning† to the stage where in some cases marketing is seen as part of strategic planning for higher education institutions. Law (2002:4) is of the opinion that higher education institutions in South Africa are moving from â€Å"marketing is promotion† to more emphasis on positioning and strategic planning. This stage is also described as the â€Å"marketing company† era. The marketing – 75 – ompany era is characterised by short- and lon g-term marketing planning and the whole organisation’s efforts are guided by the marketing concept (Perreault & McCarthy 2002:34). The marketing concept is a management philosophy with the basic premises that an organisation needs to research the needs and wants of customers and then produce products or services that will satisfy these needs and wants (Strydom, Jooste & Cant, 2000:12; and Kohli & Jaworski, 1990:467). The marketing concept will be explained in the next section. 3. 3 THE MARKETING CONCEPTChurchill and Peter (1998:12) describe the implementation of the marketing concept as an organisation that satisfies customer needs and wants as a means to achieve their own objectives. Although it seems simple, it is complex in the sense that changes within the economic, social, political and technological environment, as discussed in Chapter 2, constantly leads to changing customer needs and wants. Lamb et al. (2004:17) state that institutions who want to survive in the futur e will have to be customer-focused, market-driven, global in scope and flexible in its ability to deliver superior value to ustomers whose preferences and expectations change continuously. Foxall and Goldsmith (1998:7) feel that consumer orientation stems from an organisation’s adoption and implementation of the marketing mix (price, service product, promotion, place, people, process, physical evidence), but adds that the adoption and implementation of the marketing concept has four major implications: †¢ The success of any organisation depends above all on the consumers and what they are willing to accept and pay. †¢ The organisation must be aware of what the market wants, preferably well before production commences. Consumer wants must be continually monitored and measured so that, through service product and market development, the organisation keeps ahead of competitors. †¢ Top management must achieve the integration of all the components of the marketing s trategy into a single strategic plan, based on knowledge of consumer behaviour. – 76 – Mowen (1995:4) underlines the importance of the marketing concept by stating that the marketing concept embodies the view that an industry is a customer satisfying process, not a goods producing process.An industry begins with the customer and its needs, not a patent, raw material, or selling skill. The general acceptance of the concept that an organisation functions to fulfil consumers’ needs and wants, through understanding their exchange partner (customers), makes the study of consumer behaviour, and thus this study, essential. Mowen (1995:5) and Churchill and Peter (1998:13) agree that the basic idea of the marketing concept is to give the customers what they want.However, consumers are not always sure of their wants or what they are being offered, and are much more open to persuasion than is commonly acknowledged by the marketing concept. The marketing concept is based on four basic principles: consumer orientation or the target market; long-term maximisation of profitability or another measure of long-term success, total organisation effort, and social responsibility (Kotler, 2003:20 and Perreault & McCarthy, 2002:34). The four principles of the marketing concept will be briefly explained below. 3. 3. THE PRINCIPLE OF CONSUMER ORIENTATION Strydom et al. (2000:12) view consumer orientation as the first principle of the marketing concept, indicating that all actions should be aimed at satisfying consumer needs, demands and preferences. Although this implies that the consumer objective is to achieve total need satisfaction, it does not mean that an organisation must provide for unrealistic consumer needs. According to Kotler (2003:20), organisations have to carefully choose their target markets and then prepare a tailored marketing programme.Research conducted by Conway, Mackay and Yorke (1994:35) on higher education institutions in the United Kingdom (UK) found that more than half of the institutions did not have a customer orientation in their planning and that most institutions merely pay lip service to the variety of target markets they serve. This study will attempt to gather the necessary information to enable institutions to become more customer oriented in understanding the needs and wants of students, specifically regarding the choice factors and information sources used when selecting a university. 3. 3. THE PRINCIPLE OF INTEGRATION AND COORDINATION OF ACTIVITIES – 77 – Strydom et al. (2000:14) define a system as an integrated whole – a group of related units working together to achieve a joint objective. The second principle suggests that marketing activities of a higher education institution should be closely coordinated with each other and with other functional areas such as production, finance, administration, human resources and procurement. The marketing concept has been a useful mechanism in helping to unify the independent functional areas to increase customer satisfaction.All seven marketing mix instruments (price, service product, promotion, distribution, people, process and physical evidence) should complement and reinforce one another in such a way that the student will prefer the institution’s service offerings to that of competitors. 3. 3. 3 THE PRINCIPLE OF MAXIMISING LONG-TERM SUCCESS The third principle is directed at achieving market share, return on investment and the objectives of the organisation. Marketing plans and corporate goals must be closely coordinated to ensure profitability.Maximising profitability is the primary objective of a profit-seeking organisation and can be achieved only through the consideration of consumer needs. Non-profit organisations attempt to achieve some other objective than profit. This does not mean than they are uninterested in income, as they have to generate cash to survive. However, their primary goal is non-econom ic, and for higher education institutions that is to provide education. Although there is an emergence of for-profit higher education institutions, as discussed in Chapter 2, non-profit higher education institutions also need to focus on their long-term sustainability.For-profit organisational success is measured ultimately by profitability. For non-profit organisations, measuring success is not so easy. Higher education institutions’ success can be measured in research output terms, number of students taught, student pass rate, range of qualifications of staff or even the quality of teaching. The combination of these factors makes the measurement of success difficult and can lead to conflict. For example: more students and larger classes may reduce time needed for research by staff to deliver the required research outputs.The principle of maximising long-term success is therefore more complex in higher education institutions than for for-profit organisations. Marketing is of growing importance to non-profit organisations, because of the need to generate funds in an increasingly competitive arena. Even – 78 – higher education institutions that rely on government funding must show how their work is of benefit to society and must meet the needs of their customers. 3. 3. 4 THE PRINCIPLE OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITYZikmund and D’Amico (2001:20) state that the pure marketing concept disregards environmental changes and problems and focuses on short-term customer satisfaction rather than on the long-term wellbeing of society. Involvement and concern for the environment and the society in which the marketing task is performed are typical characteristics of a strategic approach to marketing management. Organisations should therefore strive to obtain the goodwill of the society, rather than only the support of the target market. By demonstrating social responsibility, higher education institutions can earn the goodwill of the public and governme nt.This has a long-term dimension that can favourably influence the future of any institution in terms of funding and a steady supply of customers. From the discussion of the marketing concept and its principles, it is clear that by accepting the marketing concept, institutions have recognised that consumers and their behaviour has a direct bearing on the formulation of a marketing strategy – and therefore the relevance of this study. The marketing concept helps to bring focus and enables an organisation to satisfy consumers’ needs (Perreault & McCarthy, 2002:41).If higher education institutions want to be successful in today’s dynamic higher education landscape, competing for resources, support and customers, they too should adhere to principles of the marketing concept, especially being consumeroriented, when conducting their business. Applied to higher education, the marketing concept holds that higher education institutions should conduct their planning bear ing in mind and recognising that they exist primarily for the purpose of providing a service product to students. Campus activities should thus focus on satisfying the needs of students (Massad & Tucker, 2000:1-5).The philosophy of the marketing concept forms the underlying basis for an organisation’s market- and marketing-orientation. These two concepts will be briefly explained in the next section. – 79 – 3. 4 MARKET-ORIENTATION AND MARKETING-ORIENTATION Throughout the literature, the term market-orientation and marketing-orientation is used interchangeably (Payne, 1988; Kohli, Jaworski, & Kumar, 1993 and Sharp, 1991). Notice should however be taken of a small group of authors, such as Cravens, Lamb and Crittenden (1996), who argue that there are slight differences between the two concepts.However, it is not the purpose of this study to argue or investigate if there are differences between these concepts, but rather to show how the adherence to these concepts can enable higher education institutions to survive and grow (Voon, 2006:598). 3. 4. 1 MARKET-ORIENTATION Market-orientation refers to everyone in the organisation being committed to the customer and adapting in a timely way to meeting the changing needs of the customer. Market-orientation is a bias towards the market, requiring knowledge of customer needs and wants, competitors and external forces (Evans, James & Tomes, 1996:209).Kasper (2002:1047) defines a market-orientation as the degree to which an organisation and all its thinking and acting (internally as well as externally) is guided and committed to the factors determining the market behaviour of the organisation itself and its customers. Kohli and Jaworski (1990:3) define market-orientation as the activities involved in the implementation of the marketing concept. An organisation with a market-orientation determines the needs and wants of the target market and delivers the desired satisfaction more effectively and efficien tly than the competition.Thus, market-orientation extends beyond the marketing concept philosophy, as it also offers a process for delivering customer value. A market-oriented organisation understands customer preference and requirements and effectively combines and directs the skills and resources of the entire organisation to satisfy customers’ needs. According to Kasper (2002:1052), a robust market-orientation has become a strategic necessity for any service organisation due to increasing market turbulence and intensifying competition.He states that the market-orientation of an organisation can be seen as a particular position on a scale ranging from being truly market-oriented to not being market-oriented at all. Results from Kasper’s research show that a market-oriented service organisation has an open, employee-oriented, result-oriented, pragmatic, – 80 – professional, well-communicated, marketing goals-oriented, market knowledge (customers and comp etition) system with dedicated employees that know what customer focus and service means.Market forces (refer to Chapter 2) changed the landscape of higher education into a competitive environment requiring a market-orientation (Koerwer, 2001). According to Couturier (2002), reduction in government support and increase in new technologies and improved learning produce students with high expectations and this further pressurises higher education institutions to become more market-oriented. Shoemaker (1999) states that glossy brochures, catchy slogans and the existence of marketing programmes do not give higher education institutions a market-orientation.Marketorientation requires a philosophy and a culture that go deep in the organisation. This means an institution where students are involved in the service production process and where administration, faculty and support staff work together effectively. A marketorientation requires a commitment and power from top management. Shoemake r (1999) states that a market-oriented higher education institution is characterised by: †¢ A top management actively involved in providing institutional marketing leadership; †¢ A marketing process integrated to reflect, recognise and involve all institutional stakeholders; Marketing plans that are well distributed among top institutional officers; †¢ Outside marketing consultants used to build and enrich the institutional culture; †¢ Regular and structured marketing research studies of all important stakeholder areas; †¢ A marketing-oriented planning culture that includes the participation of all stakeholder areas; and †¢ Marketing evaluation systems in place to assure continuous monitoring and improvement of marketing programmes and strategies. – 81 – 3. 4. 2 MARKETING-ORIENTATIONAn organisation with a marketing-orientation adheres to the principles of the marketing concept and offer customers what they need (Perreault & McCarthy, 2002: 37). Marketing-orientation implies that the main task of a higher education institution is to determine the needs and wants of target markets and to satisfy them through the design, communication, pricing, delivery of appropriate and competitively viable programmes and services (Kotler & Fox, 1995:8). Laurer (2006) states that strategic plans of higher education institutions will have to become marketing-oriented plans.This begins with an environmental scan that determines how society is changing and then outlines how programmes, pricing and access to learning (distribution), employees (people) and process will meet these changing needs. According to Massad and Tucker (2000), higher education institutions in the United States have embraced a marketing-oriented approach to admission. They state that the trend began in the late 1970’s in the USA and is driven by increased competition and a shrinking enrolment pool. Higher education institutions in Shanghai started in 1999 to re form their policies to be more marketing-oriented (People Daily, 1999).These policies include practical plans such as providing enough residence and departmental buildings for students and lecturers, logistic service renovations, and improved logistic service quality. Several reasons exist why achieving a marketing-orientation is problematic for some higher education institutions (Sargeant, 2005:297): †¢ Conflict between management and academic interest. There is a split in the responsibility for dealing with customers between departments and an institution’s central administrative function. †¢ The lack of a strategic perspective.Courses are sometimes established and maintained for the status of the department or institution rather than where there is clear evidence of an economic viability or long-term demand. †¢ The diversity of the marketing activity. Marketing is conducted by a variety of players, such as the admissions officer, school liaison officers, res earch officer and faculties, making the coordination difficult. †¢ Academic value. Some institutions still perceive marketing as being incompatible with their education mission. – 82 – Nevertheless, higher education institutions must aim to become marketing-oriented.The market concept forms the underlying philosophy for both a market and marketingorientation. A marketing-orientation is an all-embracing concept referring to both behavioural and philosophical standing of marketing, therefore incorporating the market-orientation. Thus, for the purpose of this study, the term marketing-orientation will be used to indicate a market- and/or marketing-orientation. 3. 5 MARKETING STRATEGY AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR According to Hawkins et al. (2001:7), an effective marketing strategy is based on knowledge of the environment, competitors and customers.The study of customers’ needs, perceptions, aspirations, motivations, culture and decision-making processes is called co nsumer behaviour (Du Plessis & Rousseau 2005:8). Consumer behaviour serves as a basis for marketing strategy formulation. Figure 3. 1 indicates that an understanding of consumer behaviour is the basis for marketing strategy formulation and will serve as a visual guide for the remainder of this chapter. It also visually shows the integration and link between Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. Figure 3. begins with the analysis of the market (Step 1) in which the organisation is operating. It requires a detailed analysis of the organisation’s capabilities, strengths and weaknesses, competition, the economical and technological forces affecting the market, and the current and potential customers in the market (refer to Chapter 2). The consumer analysis component of the first step enables an organisation to identify groups of individuals with similar needs. The identified market segments, in step two, can be described in terms of demographics, media preference and geographic loc ation.One or more of these segments are then selected as target market, based on the organisation’s capabilities relative to those of its competition, taking into account current economic and technological conditions. The organisation then decides on the desired image of the service product or brand, also known as the service product or brand position. The third step entails the marketing mix/strategy formulation. Hawkins et al. (2001:14) point out that a marketing strategy basically answers the question: How will we provide – 83 – superior customer value to our target market?The answer requires the formulation of a consistent marketing mix. Thus, the marketing strategy is formulated in terms of the marketing mix. Lamb et al. (2004:12) point out that this step involves the determining of service product features, price, communications (promotion), distribution (place), people, process and physical evidence that will provide the customer with superior value. The total service product is then presented to the target market, which constantly engages in processing information and making decisions to enhance and maintain their lifestyles.The marketing strategy (as implemented in the marketing mix) intervenes between the decision-making process of consumers (Step 4) and the outcomes/goals of an organisation. The outcomes of the organisation are determined by its interaction with the consumer decision-making process. Organisations can only succeed if consumers see a need that the organisation’s service product can address, become aware of the service product, decide that it is the best viable alternative solution, proceed to buy it, and become satisfied with the results (Hawkins et al. , 2004:22-23). The consumer decision-making process will be discussed in detail in Chapter 4.Finally, the reaction of the target market to the total service product produces an image of the service product, brand or organisation, sales (or the lack thereof), and some level of customer satisfaction among those who did purchase. As the components of the market analysis (Step 1) was discussed as part of the trends in the higher education landscape in Chapter 2 and the consumer decision-making process (Step 4) will be explained in Chapter 4, the remainder of the chapter will focus on the STP process (Step 2) and marketing strategy (Step 3) as depicted in Figure 3. . – 84 – MARKETING MIX/STRATEGY (CHAPTER 3) Service product (3. 7. 1) Price (3. 7. 2) Promotion (3. 7. 3) Place (3. 7. 4) People (3. 7. 5) Process (3. 7. 8) Physical evidence (3. 7. 9) Problem recognition (4. 7) Information search (4. 8) Alternative evaluation (4. 9) Selection and purchase (4. 10) Post-purchase process (4. 11) OUTCOME Customer Satisfaction Sales Product/brand image/organisation Source: Adapted from Hawkins, Best and Coney (2001:8). – 85 – CHAPTER 3 STP- PROCESS (CHAPTER 3) Segmentation, target market and product positioning (3. 6)CONSU MER DECISION-MAKING PROCESS (CHAPTER 4) STEP 4 CHAPTER 2 MARKET ANALYSIS (CHAPTER 2) Competitors Company Consumer Conditions CHAPTER 4 STEP 3 STEP 2 STEP 1 Figure 3. 1: Marketing strategy and consumer behaviour As the components of the market analysis (Step 1) was discussed as part of the trends in the higher education landscape in Chapter 2 and the consumer decision-making process (Step 4) will be explained in Chapter 4, the remainder of the chapter will focus on the STP process (Step 2) and marketing strategy (Step 3) as depicted in Figure 3. . 3. 6 SEGMENTATION, TARGET MARKETING AND POSITIONING (STP PROCESS) Marketing strategy formulation for organisations takes place via the process of integrating segmentation, targeting, positioning and the services marketing mix. Once organisations have segmented the market, they must determine the market potential of each segment and then select segments to target. A target market can be defined as a fairly homogeneous group of customers to w hom an organisation directs its market offering.Organisations must determine a mixture of the marketing elements that they will combine to satisfy their target market. Selecting a market-oriented strategy is referred to as target marketing. A specific marketing strategy specifies a particular target customer (Perreault & McCarthy, 2002:47). Most non-profit organisations serve several groups or publics. The two broad groups are donors, who may be individuals, trusts, companies or governmental bodies. The second group consists of their clients such as students, parents, government or employers.Often higher education institutions need to satisfy both groups and this complicates the marketing task (Lovelock & Wright, 2002:233). Students, prospective students and their families are seen as customers or consumers who must be attracted to the institution, who must be satisfied, and who must have a good experience at the institution. This will ensure that they spread positive word-of-mouth and influence other potential students to select the institution (Reich, 2004).Students can be regarded as the primary clients of higher education institutions and parents, employers and society as secondary beneficiaries. As an institution’s target market changes, new needs and trends evolve (as discussed in Chapter 2), making it necessary for institutions to rethink their position and often to reposition in order to address the new needs or trends (McGolddrick, 2000:54) This study focuses on students as a target market of institutions, as traditionally most institutions’ marketing efforts are directed at satisfying 86 – the needs of students. This study will provide insight into the demographics and choice factor importance that forms part of students decision-making behaviour, which will aid higher education institutions in understanding their target market to ensure satisfaction through implementing an appropriate marketing strategy. After segmentation and t arget marketing, organisations should position their market offerings in such a way that it is perceived to satisfy the needs of customers better than the competition. According to Hawkins et al. 2001:289), a product’s position refers to the schematic memory of a brand in relation to competing brands, products, services and stores. Brand image, a closely related concept, can be defined as the schematic memory of a brand without reference to competing brands. Strydom et al. (2000:14) regard a product’s position as the way consumers perceive a product or service in terms of its character and advantages in relation to competitors. Du Plessis and Rousseau (2003:276) state that the important underlying principle is recognising that the marketing battle today is fought in the minds of the consumer.Research shows those products or services that enjoy high awareness levels usually enjoy dominant market penetration and market share. But awareness is not enough; the service prod uct must have a meaningful position in the mind of the consumer and stand for something of value to the consumer. Mowen (1995:18) defines product differentiation as the process of positioning the product by manipulating the marketing mix so that customers can perceive meaningful differences between a particular brand and competing brands.A highly differentiated brand may have strong competitive advantages, because it is easily recognisable as being different from competitors. Institutions need to know how they and their service products are positioned in the student’s mind. The stimuli that institutions employ, such as advertising or sponsorships, can influence the service product’s interpretation and thus its position. Hawkins et al. (2001:289) is of the opinion that organisations frequently fail to achieve the type of service product image or position they desire, because they fail to anticipate or test the consumer’s reaction.These positions have developed an d evolved over time. Therefore, the message received from the organisation must be consistent or change in a deliberate manner to reflect or alter a desired change in brand position. – 87 – Strydom et al. (2000:134) state that organisations must position their brands so that they are perceived to satisfy the needs of the target market better than competitors’ offerings. The institution must develop a unique appeal for the brand in the consumer’s mind and position the brand as filling a particular need of the consumer.Berman and Evans (2001:122) point out that through positioning, institutions devise their strategy in a way that projects an image relative to the institution’s category and its competitors, and elicits consumers’ responses to their image. Sargeant (2005:322) notes that positioning can also have a profound impact on the success or failure of fundraising initiatives and attempts to work closely with commerce and industry. Those h igher education institutions that are perceived as being either of high quality or as unique in some way, are likely to have the greatest success in these areas.Law (2002:3) states that it is important for institutions to distinguish themselves from competitors in terms of values that are important to the student. Therefore, higher education institutions need to develop a clear position that can be stated simply, effectively and often (Dehne, 2001). The author continues by saying that as competition becomes stronger, an integrated marketing strategy based on the identified positioning of the institution will play a crucial role.If organisations want staff and students to project a positive image, they must clearly define exactly what that image is; not vague understanding, but specifics (Sharpe & Harville, 1987). Law (2002:4) emphasises the importance of addressing the values that are important for prospective students in the publications of the institution. It can therefore be said that in the positioning of the institution, the needs and perceptions of important values of the respective public should be seriously considered.The elements of higher education institutions’ marketing are mixed to form an integrated strategy where each component plays a role to position the institution in its chosen target market (Van Biljon, 1992:65). According to Czinkota, Kotabe and Mecer (1997:217), organisations must first determine how they want to position their service products and use their service products’ position as basis for developing their marketing strategies. This means that after the STP (segmentation, targeting and positioning) process, organisations must blend the services marketing mix elements into a marketing strategy that reflect the organisation’s desired osition to their target market. – 88 – The next section focuses on the services marketing mix and its elements as it pertains to higher education institutions. 3. 7 TH E SERVICES MARKETING MIX OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS The development of a marketing strategy involves the coordination and combination of the marketing mix elements (Mowen, 1995:19; and Hawkins et al. , 2001:6). It is the combination and coordination of the elements in the marketing mix that enables organisations to meet customers’ needs and provides customer value.A traditional marketing mix consists of the following elements: price, service product, promotion and place (distribution). However, due to the intangible, inseparable, heterogeneous and perishable nature of services, the traditional marketing mix was extended to include process, people and physical evidence (Goldsmith, 1999:178). Because higher education institutions mainly provide intangible service products, the extended marketing mix, better known as the services marketing mix, forms the focus of this chapter.Higher education institutions need a well-developed comprehensive marketing strategy that is caref ully communicated throughout the institution (Robinson & Long, 1987:44; Brooker & Noble, 1985:34) and the services marketing mix will help higher education institutions to shape their service offerings according to the needs of their customers. Grove, in Kraft (2006) showed that in the marketing of education, the marketing mix is the single most important determinant of marketing success.In the light of the fact that marketing can influence the consumer’s behaviour and the services marketing mix can assist higher education institutions in developing a holistic and well thought-through service offering, the seven services marketing mix elements (service product, price, promotion, distribution, people, physical evidence and process) will be discussed in the main part of this chapter. – 89 – 3. 7. 1 THE SERVICE PRODUCT STRATEGY OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS The most basic decision that higher education institutions have to make is what programmes and services th ey will offer to their students, alumni and donors.An institution’s service product strategy determines its identity, position and how customers will respond to the institution. A product is anything a consumer acquires, or might acquire to meet a perceived need and thus the sum of all the products and/or services offered by an organisation. To define the term service is not easy or simplistic. Although the process may be tied to a physical product, the performance is essentially intangible and does not normally result in ownership of any of the factors of production. Services create value and provide benefits for customers at specific times and places.Lovelock and Wright (2002:3) define services as an act or performance offered by one party to another. Irons (1997:12) defines services as perishable, transient acts that have no lasting material, being mainly presented by people that cannot be separated from the provider. Therefore, the personal characteristics of the provider are an important part of the service. Du Plessis and Rousseau (2003:175) state that these definitions reveal that the nature of service centres on the characteristic of intangibility and that it is this feature that distinguishes services marketing from the marketing of physical goods.The goods and services continuum is shown in Figure 3. 2 below. Figure 3. 2: Goods and services continuum Tangible dominant Complete tangible products Tangible products with supporting services Intangible dominant Hybrid offers Source: Adapted from Palmer (2005:24). – 90 – Major service with supporting products Pure services It is evident that in services, the intangible element is dominant. The provision of education, although intangible, also contains tangible elements. Institutions provide service activities such as the teaching process and contact with customers (intangible element) as well as learning aterial such as textbooks (tangible element). McCollKennedy (2003:6-7) regards goo ds and services’ tangibility on a continuum, rather than in one category. At one end of the continuum are the intangible services and at the other end are tangible products. Higher education, which can be described as a major service (intangible) with minor supporting products (tangible), are leaning towards the intangible side of the continuum. In addition to categorising services based on their tangibility, it is also useful to identify who or what is the direct recipient of the service.Services can either be directed at people’s bodies, intangible assetes, physical possessions or people’s minds such as education (Lovelock, 1996:29). In order to better understand the concept of services, the distinguishing characteristics of services will now be explained. The basic characteristics of services are briefly outlined below (Lovelock & Wright, 2002:14-16): †¢ Customers do not obtain ownership. Customers usually derive value from a service without obtaining ow nership of any tangible elements; †¢ Service products are intangible performances.Intangible refers to something that is experienced and cannot be touched or preserved. Although services often include tangible elements, the service performance itself is basically intangible; †¢ Customer involvement in the production process. Customers are often actively involved in helping to create the service product by helping themselves or by cooperating with the service personnel. Customers cannot sit back and wait for the experience to be delivered as they do with the purchase of tangible products they have to participate. †¢People as part of the service product. Given the fact that different service personnel may deliver the service product to customers, it is difficult to achieve – 91 – uniformity in service delivery. This difference (heterogeneity) in attitude and action will typically result in very different customer perceptions of the quality and overall sati sfaction levels. People are such an important component of service delivery that it is added as an element to service organisations marketing mix and will be discussed in Section 3. 7. 5; †¢ Importance of time.Customers have to be physically present to receive services. Customers are becoming increasingly time sensitive and speed is often a key element in good service delivery; and †¢ Services are perishable and cannot be stored like physical goods. Thus, although education includes tangible elements such as textbooks, chairs and notes, students derive value from higher education without obtaining ownership. Students are involved in the education production process as they participate in and help make the final service product, by giving inputs in class or participating in campus events.As higher education is perishable and cannot be stored, students must be physically present to receive education. It is evident that offering educational services involve special challenges , since most services education is intangible, inseparable, variable and perishable. Developing service products that satisfy consumers’ wants and needs are a critical marketing activity for institutions (Hoyer & MacInnis, 2001:40). Consumer research can provide useful information for service product decisions.According to Czinkota et al. (1997:109), information provided by consumer behaviour research, such as this study, can help organisations to decide which attributes to add to or change in an existing offering; aid them in correctly naming or re-naming their organisations and make effective packaging and branding decisions. Higher education institutions should evaluate its academic programmes and service product mix periodically, and particularly when considering modifications. Some programmes are more central than others.Education offerings are specifically essential programmes that institutions cannot do without. Other programmes may be easier to modify, like recreation al activities that are usually auxiliary programmes. Certain programmes will play a major role in attracting customers and these are called flagship programmes (Kotler & Fox, 1995:282). – 92 – Information provided by this study will enable institutions to determine the importance of some components of their service product (variety of study courses, academic quality and sport programmes) in the institution selection process of students.Higher education institutions must also develop a pricing strategy for their service products. The pricing decision is of utmost importance, as this will ensure income for higher education institutions that will enable them to implement al the other decisions such as promotion, distribution, processes, physical evidence and people. Section 3. 7. 2 will focus on the pricing strategy of higher education institutions. 3. 7. 2 THE PRICING STRATEGY OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONSIn this section, the pricing strategy of higher education insti tutions will be discussed by defining the term price, explaining possible pricing objectives of higher education institutions, explaining discounts and highlighting the role of price. Price plays an important role in the marketing mix, quality perception, attracting customers and providing revenue to institutions. Price is the amount of money (or some other item that is exchanged or bartered) that the buyer exchanges for a service product provided by the seller. Lamb et al. (2004:570) describe prices as that which is given up in exchange to acquire goods and services.The price of a service plays two major roles. Firstly, it influences how much of the service product the customer will purchase, and secondly, it influences whether selling the service will be profitable for the organisation or not (Machado & Cassim, 2000:99). Prices can be seen as the amount that a customer (students, parents or employers) must pay to be educated. The price of higher education institutions are influenc ed by the subsidy from government as well as donations and the cost of presenting the course, prices of competition and inflation.Price, for students, consists of a monetary cost as well as other costs, for example effort cost (completing long essay application forms), psychological cost (stress of enrolling in an institution far from home) and time cost (visiting or attending open days at different institutions) (Kotler & Fox, 1995:311). Students and their parents are not just interested in the institution’s list price (official – 93 – tuition and fees printed in a catalogue), but also the effective price. According to Kotler and Fox (1995:312), the effective price is the amount the customer will actually pay for all the educational benefits and value received.Prospective students may find it difficult to measure effective price early in the decision process, since effective price can only be known after the student has gone though the application process and h as been accepted and financial aid has been allocated. Tuition fees represent only a fraction of the total cost of attending a higher education institution and living cost and other education related expenses must also be considered by students (Anon, 2006b). Diederichs (1987:112) found that price plays an important role in students’ choices of a higher education institution.The first aspect organisations should consider when pricing a service product is to decide on the pricing objectives they want to achieve. Pricing objectives can influence the price of the service product and include: maximising profit (short- or long-term), building market share, maximising long-term customer perceptions of the value of the service product, maximising immediate cash flow, positioning the service product in a certain place in customers’ minds, and targeting a given segment of the market.Higher education institutions may pursue more than one of these objectives at the same time depe nding on the situation they are facing. A new higher education institution emerging after a merger may aim to position their service product, as well as targeting a given segment and maximising long-term perceptions of value (McColl-Kennedy, 2003:270 and Machado & Cassim, 2002:106-107). Higher education institutions should take into account three factors when setting prices for their educational programmes: †¢ Firstly, cost, by determining the amount of revenue needed to cover expected operating expenses; Secondly, customer demand, which emphasises that the final price decision is always made by the customer; and †¢ Thirdly, competition, as institutions have to weigh their â€Å"value† and establish their price relative to their competitors. Institutions should always consider the effects of a given pricing policy on enrolment, the nature and mission of the institution, the prices charged by competition and the – 94 – effect of their prices and price c hanges on actions of competition (Kotler & Fox, 1995:309).The pricing objective of a higher education institution will also affect its discount policy, as discount influence profit, market share, cash flow and positioning. Once the basic price is established, organisations need to establish some flexibility in terms of that price. Discount can be defined as the reductions to the basic price (Machado & Cassim, 2002:116). Higher education institutions need to determine and publish their prices (tuition fees) and discounts. Financial aid is seen as a form as discount by students.Kotler and Fox (1995:310) state that financial aid is not just used to attract students to increase the size of classes, but also to ensure the needed composition of the class to meet diversity objectives. Student aid or financial aid makes it possible for many students from low- and middle income families to afford higher education (Anon, 2006b). Cabrera and La Nasa (2000:10) found that financial aid especiall y influences students positively to select a particular institution and also allows parents to consider a wider range of institutions.This study will include the importance of financial aid in selecting a higher education institution. Diederichs (1987:114) found that a higher education institution’s price policy should take into consideration the facilities needed, quality of education and competitiveness, as students often use the price of a product or service as an indicator of quality. For example, more expensive institutions may be viewed as providing better education. Some institutions make use of their price/quality relationship by trying to raise the prestige and attractiveness of their institution by raising the tuition fees.Higher education institutions must carefully consider the role of price in the marketing mix, as price can be used as a quality indicator and thereby influence the perception of the institution’s position. Higher education institutions ofte n offer substantial amounts of financial aid to talented students to maintain their competitive advantage. Students and parents are looking for the best overall deal in terms of educational quality and prices (Laurer, 2006).Courant (2006:4) is of the opinion that higher education institutions prepare students to lead an examined life and should therefore price higher education as an expensive, high value proposition. Wallace (2003:32) argues that higher tuition fees will enable institutions to improve the quality of education and in countries where higher education is subsidised or offered for free, education would be held in higher esteem if a price were attached to it. However, Beckett (2005) warns that institutions – 95 – should be aware that charging top fees may cause institutions to loose students and not widen the participation.Wallace (2003) states that universities in France, England, the United States and Germany are facing the same problems with the price of education, as government funding for education is decreasing and institutions have to look at increasing tuition fees. The result is that students in these countries are protesting the price increases. The increased value of a higher education degree, increased research at universities, reduced state funding for public higher education institutions and monopolistic behaviour of higher education institutions are other possible reasons for higher prices (Barry, 1998:84).Higher educational institutions rely on tuition fees, donors and government subsidies as sources of revenue. As discussed in Chapter 2, changes in the financial environment emphasise the trend of institutions to cut cost, increase productivity and offer more financial aid to students. Most educational institutions depend heavily on tuition fees to keep operating and pricing therefore becomes very important. Price plays a role in determining who will apply, who will attend, who the institutions will serve, what the ins titutions will be able to offer and whether the institutions will meet its enrolment objectives and revenue needs.From the discussion it is evident that a pricing strategy is important for education institutions because they depend on revenue to operate, especially in the light of the decrease in subsidies (refer to Chapter 2). Price is part of the marketing mix and should be considered as an element of the institution’s strategy planning. When setting price, decision-makers should understand how students perceive price and the importance of price in selecting institutions.According to Cosser and Du Toit (2002:77), price is an important factor considered in choosing a higher education institution. It is important that higher education institutions know the cost of producing the service, know the price of competitors, identify pricing factors that are relevant to pricing decisions, and decide on a pricing strategy that will attract enough students. It is evident from the above -mentioned that higher education management needs information on the students and market to make effective pricing decisions.This study will provide some insight on the importance of price in the institution selection process. – 96 – Higher education institutions can have good quality educational services offered at the right price to students, but if students and parents are not aware of these services and prices, they will not consider the institution. It is thus important that higher education institutions communicate with their prospective students and parents. The next section will focus on the promotional or communication strategy of higher education institutions. 3. 7. THE PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS Educational institutions need to effectively communicate with their target market(s) and publics. Institutions must inform students and parents about its goals, activities and offerings and motivate them to take an interest in the instituti on. To identify and satisfy consumers’ needs, an institution must have a good understanding of the consumer in order to gain a competitive advantage through its marketing mix (service product, price, distribution, promotion, process, people and physical evidence).Persuasive communication is central to the marketing of service products as features, benefits and values must be communicated to the consumers to influence their purchase behaviour. Everything and everybody in an institution has a role to play in communication. Examples include the organisation’s brand name or logo, campus grounds, service product quality, prices, employees, delivery vehicles, buildings, the technology the organisation has at its disposal, the capital the organisation has at its disposal and the organisational philosophy.Kelley and Mahady (2003:2) are of the opinion that promotion is an element sometimes overlooked by non-profit organisations. They argue that even if an institution offers som e of the best programmes and services, these will not be utilised to the fullest if the market they were intended for has no knowledge of their existence. The remainder of Section 3. 7. 3 will focus on the definition of promotion, the communication process and the integrated services marketing communication (ISMC) mix available for higher education institutions. According to Hawkins et al. 2001:19), promotion or marketing communication includes advertising, the sales force, public relations, packaging and any other signals that the – 97 – organisation provides about itself and its products and services. Lamb et al. (2004:466) describe the promotional strategy as a plan for the optimal use of the elements of promotion, namely advertising, sales promotion, publicity and personal selling. Many higher education institutions are returning to promotional or communication tools to promote courses in an attempt to maintain and/or expand their market share.The importance of com munication can be seen in the establishment of communication departments, more funds that are allocated to marketing and appointing marketing managers or external communication experts to help with promotional activities. Higher education institutions are making use of radio, television, newspapers, buses, taxis and open days as well as more professional brochures and promotional material as vehicles for communication (Jones, 2002:41). This is necessary, since higher education institutions can no longer depend on pass rates alone to attract students.In order to utilise the promotional tools to their fullest and to ensure effective communication, higher education institutions need to understand the communication process. Communication involves the creation of shared meaning between participants. The intangibility, inseparability, perishability and heterogeneity of services create special communication requirements and involve the risk of miscommunication that is not so evident in the marketing of goods (McColl-Kennedy, 2003:236). Communication can be viewed upon as the transfer of a message from a sender to a receiver by means of a signal of some sort via a channel or medium.The sender translates his/her objectives, ideas and concepts through language into a message also known as encoding (Strydom et al. , 2000:344). The receiver tries to decode the message before he/she can comprehend its meaning and then the receiver reacts or responds to the message (Lamb et al. , 2004:326). The disturbances (physical or psychological) that prevent the successful transfer of the message are known as noise. Noise influences all the components of the communication process and places obstacles in the way of effective communication.Higher education institutions are the senders, while the receivers of the message are the potential students, existing students, parents, employers or alumni. For the purpose of this study, the focus is on the students of a higher education institutio n. This does not mean that institutions do not need to communicate with other publics such as alumni, parents, donors, government or the general public as well. According – 98 – to Jones (2002:44) the student’s ability to decode the message is influenced by his/her past experiences, feelings, emotions, attitudes and perceptions of the institution.Thus, higher education institutions need to fully understand their target market to identify the appropriate intended messages for the target market. The communication process gives higher education institutions the opportunity to influence prospective students’ behaviour by developing a message that creates awareness, position themselves in the mind of the student, change the student’s attitude towards the institution, or encourage the student to apply to the institution (Jones, 2002:45). The most popular communication/promotion objectives are general image enhancement and awareness of the institutions (K ittle, 2000).According to Jones (2002:43), emotions or feelings also play an important part in the encoding process and it is vital that higher education institutions should have empathy for other people’s cultural backgrounds. Higher education institutions need to select a medium that will attract attention, arouse interest and present the message clearly (Kotler & Fox, 1995:353). Higher education institutions need knowledge about the language of the prospective students, knowledge of forms of communication and general background information about the prospective students in order to encode successfully.The media that will be investigated in this study include: printed media (advertisement in magazines, newspapers or outdoor media), broadcasting media (advertisements on radio and television), direct mail or direct marketing (newsletters and brochures of higher education institutions), body language and direct communication through representatives of the institution (school v isits by staff or open days attended by students), word-of-mouth (conversations with alumni, friends or family members), or websites. In Chapter 4 the different media will be further discussed as part of the sources of information used by students.The promotional mix that an institution uses is determined by the student market’s expectations and requirements of the service products, together with the other elements of institutions’ marketing decisions. Machado and Cassim (2002:157) describe the promotional mix as the blend of promotional methods used by the organisation to communicate. A huge array of promotion elements exist, such as direct marketing, sales promotions, advertising, Internet and sponsorships. The communication process and the promotional mix elements (advertising, public – 99 – elations, personal selling and sales promotions) are used by organisations to communicate to their prospective customers. The message that reaches the customer sho uld be the same regardless of whether it is an advertisement on the radio, websites, open days, or a newspaper insert. To ensure the careful coordination of all the promotional mix elements, organisations must adopt the concept of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) (Du Plessis & Rousseau, 2005:345). For a higher education institution, this means that the institution coordinates all its communication activities.Zeithaml and Bitner (2000:405) suggest that a more complex integrated form of communication is needed for services, hence the ISMC approach as shown in Figure 3. 3. This concept requires a complete communication strategy that involves staff, every interface the institution has with its students, stakeholders and the community at large (Jones, 2002:450). Laurer (2006) suggests that institutions must coordinate all the promotional elements so that they meet the needs of students and parents who will pay for their products and services. Figure 3. serves as a visual guide f or the discussion