Oracle Corporation Essay

The Central Intelligence Agency had commissioned the project to build a commercial database management system for IBM mainframe computers and code-named it Oracle. Software Development Laboratories took the Oracle name in 1982. After completion of the project, Ellison, Miner, Oates, and Scott had a vision of developing and distributing their database software as a profitable business opportunity. From 1982 to 1986, Oracle had achieved 100% growth. On March 15th, 1986, Oracle went public, one day after Microsoft’s initial public offering. From 1986 to 1989, revenues skyrocketed from $55 million to $584 million, making it one of the largest independent software companies in the world, employing over 4,000 people in 24 countries. The Oracle Corporation’s objective of becoming a profitable database software company had been achieved. Market and industry growth continued until the third quarter of 1990. Oracle suffered a $15 million dollar loss on $240 million in revenues. Between 1988 and 1991, operating margins had plummeted from 23 to 3 percent. During this time, the company’s stock value also fell. Oracle responded by letting go of 400 employees in the United States and reorganizing its senior management team. This business problem was the direct result of something the company simply overlooked. As the company was focusing all of its energies on growth during the late 1980’s, they were losing sight of their internal operations and infrastructure. They also planned their expenses based on the 100% annual growth rate they experienced in the prior years, causing them to lose money. In addition, they delayed the delivery of their latest product, which allowed the competition to draw closer to them. However, the release of their next product would see Oracle quickly rebound and turn things back around. In July of 1991, Oracle was working on a new database software that had the ability to manage text, video, audio, and other data through a set of loosely connected servers. This database software was called Oracle 7, and was one of many IT solutions that would put Oracle ahead of the competition and save the company. 996 saw database sales grow by 20 percent and then to 10 percent in 1997, the year Microsoft released its rival SQL server, which was a cheaper alternative database release with aspirations of stealing Oracle’s market share. During this time, Oracle attempted to expand beyond databases and entered into the two largest application software markets, enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management. Ellison saw this as a lucrative business opportunity, considering the fact that the ERP market was estimated at $20 billion in 1999 and projected to exceed $65 billion by 2003. The CRM market was estimated at $4 billion in 1999 and projected to exceed $16 billion by 2003. Ellison recognized that CEO’s wanted to understand profitability per costumer and to be able to detect dissatisfaction before the customer leaves. He realized that ERP and CRM software would allow CEO’s to do that by turning database information into knowledge about consumers. Ellison’s vision of internet-enabled software began to take shape in 1999 with the release of Oracle8i. It was followed by internet-enabled versions of all the company’s key software products. A key IS solution in the development of Oracle Corporation would be Oracle e-Business Suite, which would include a collection of ERP and CRM applications that automated many necessary business functions. This would be the beginning of the high impact IS solutions to follow. In June of 1999, Ellison declared that Oracle would attempt to save $1billion dollars by the end of 2000 by transforming into an e-business. Ellison then eliminated all non-e-business options from the company. This bold move was an incredible success and a brilliant IS solution to some of the company’s business problems. The changes were easy and smooth to implement. An example given in the case was that of an expense report. In the past, a sales rep would fill out an expense report and manually send it to headquarters. Now the sales rep just completes the forms on the web where the report can be tracked. Not only did this create $6 million dollars in direct savings, the reports were easier and faster to complete. This solution did not only benefit employees, but customers, too. In the past if a customer wanted to demo Oracle’s software, a sales rep had to set an appointment to do the demo in person. Now, the sales rep can gain access to the customer’s browser and, over the phone, can do the demo over the browser at Oracle. com. The shift to self-service was a very necessary and profitable solution for Oracle. They began saving millions of dollars and hours of time. Another business problem Oracle had was a lack of centralization in the business. One clever way they did this was by changing incentives for country managers. Country manager’s incentives were originally based on revenue. This was to be changed to shift their incentives to be based on margin. In the past, 97 e-mail servers existed with almost 120 databases in over 50 countries. This was dramatically reduced when Oracle gave each country CEO a choice. They could receive free e-mail through Redwood Shores or pay to service an e-mail server, which would directly impact their margin, and ultimately, their variable pay. This was a very effective IS solution to the lack of centralization problem the business had. Oracle would continue to centralize the business by pulling human resources, legal, sales administration, and marketing out of each country office and consolidating them at Redwood Shores. Oracle now had a single system that served everything. Oracle saved a lot of wasted money by centralizing its marketing department. The products were the same in every country, so the centralization made sense and was absolutely necessary. By June of 2000, Oracle had gone from 63 to 17 company websites worldwide. By August 2000, the company was down to one website, Oracle. com. This solution saved the company a lot of money that was being wasted operating multiple websites for multiple countries and confusing the brand with different languages, colors, and logos. The transformation to e-business saved Oracle a ton of money, but this wasn’t the only benefit of the move. The switch also generated marketing pull. Oracle’s customer base grew as a result of having better information about their customers’ and sales outlets. The pull strategy came to fruition by two combining factors. The story of the company’s transformation combined with the new gained credibility the company received by performing this transformation so publicly. Now instead of sales reps attempting to sell the CEO of another company their software, CEO’s were going directly to Oracle technology to transform their own businesses. This pull allowed Oracle to open an online store, as opposed to hiring more sales people to handle the increased demand. This latest IS solution, in turn, created more sales. In 1999, Oracle began streamlining its Oracle University, which supported 2500 full-time employees in 143 countries while enrolling about 500,000 students annually. These Oracle courses led to the certification of developers and programmers that the company needed to continue growth. This business solution was yet another great move designed to farm their own employees. iLearning technology was then created as a means of a continuing education extension to Oracle University’s certification process. This software would be hosted online and could be updated daily without patches. Oracle Corporation is a great example of a company who had the ability to predict the future of technology and make innovations to lead the industry. They took risks, and they paid off. Larry Ellison took a big risk when he eliminated all non-e-business elements out of his business and made the transformation to e-business, and his company was rewarded with tremendous cost savings and higher revenues. He also predicted at the end of a June 2000 press conference that the software industry would vanish and be replaced by a service industry. This remains to fully be seen, but it appears there could be truth to this. Cloud computing has been the next innovation in computer technology, as we say many companies now providing services that used to require us to install software on our computers.

Negotiation Between Countries

I want to do that from three different fronts, namely; Cultural differences in communication The patterns of communication between the countries are different even though tooth countries communicates basically in English language as an accepted language of communication. Communication in this sense can be verbal or non-verbal. Non- verbal also Includes written communications. Nigeria has over 400 languages but English language Is the accepted lingua franca. The united States has other native languages but English Is still the accepted language of communication.Though I will communicate in English with my American business partners but I must also understand that the way the Americans write and pronounce some words is different from the way we write and pronounce our words in English language. The American counterparts for instance will write the word â€Å"favor as favor† but I will write the word â€Å"favor as favor† because Nigeria was colonized by the British, so we take our language after the British pattern of writing and communicating.Nigerian are exclusion minded in communication; we will tend to see how the conversation does not align with what we already know and would usually want the American counterpart to align with our own position of knowledge. The American partner will rather communicate based on an Inclusive mindedness; they will rather want to know how what I am saying makes sense. American look for the sense In the conversation, does the numbers tally, are the figures correct, so they have a broader view to the conversation.Also Most Nigerian communication style follow after the collectivists' culture; (Grove & Hallowed; 1994) â€Å"Collectivists convey negative feedback indirectly via an intermediary or by quiet withdrawal of a perquisite. Sometimes they omit saying anything that's negative. If you are managing employees in (or from) a collectivist culture, you might not find out what's going wrong in your operation until the proverbial eleventh hour; there's deep reluctance to upset group harmony by ailing you the bad news†.This means we would rather not say â€Å"no† to you openly even though we disagree, but we will rather let the conversation go on peaceably until we have another time to object to most of the Initial points of our conversation. My American partner would rather tell It the way It Is If It doesn't go down with them. (Grove & Hallowed; 1994) They pattern after the Individualist culture In conversations. Generally speaking, American culture communication style are usually Comfort talks, they are emotionally objective and practical in approach, their interactions are usually very direct and open.They don't hide any cards off the table, they play all the cards on the table. But when it comes to reactions, they react to issues analytically and they remain persistent in their analysis until otherwise convinced. These are the factors that influences how Americans communicate. Cu ltural differences in negotiation and conflict-resolution Let's think of a scenario of negotiation with our U. S. Partner for a presentation from an IT company overseas. The American makes his presentation very apt and technically done by expressing his overwhelming objective points and reasons why the product is best for my company in Nigeria. Well, we would say â€Å"the presentation is brilliant but I still do not trust this guy. He thinks objectively while I think subjectively, so our negotiations can either stall or proceed based on how we handle this cultural differences between our cultures. (Mimicked, 2010) To most Americans, difference is a threat, they will naturally tend to overlook similarities and take note of the difference when they first begin the negotiations. We Nigerian are looking for similarity with what we already know and experience, similarity makes us comfortable in the negotiation.During negotiations with Americans, you must understand that they hate silen ce, and they would often interrupt you at intervals during negotiations, while that is rude in my country, to interrupt someone while he is still talking, the Americans have that as a normal way of life. Cultural differences in problem-solving and decision-making In terms of problem solving, the American approaches it from a highly objective point of view, they would naturally first carry out a critical analysis of the problem and then cake decisions based on the facts on ground.While we Nigerian usually make decisions based on sentiments sometimes, we decide to enter a business agreement when we feel intuitively inclined to do so, there is mostly no objective reason except we feel convinced inside that this is a good buy so we make the money decision. I would first seek an understanding of the cultural differences that have been highlighted earlier. After which I will approach the negotiation objectively, knowing that is how my American partner thinks.I will also approach most of o ur negotiation room an individualist point of view while also letting my American friend understand the collectivist point of view. My approach would be to achieve a win-win situation. In my country I can afford to have a win-lose situation during negotiations but I understand that the American is highly objective and would not go by my sweet talks or by my expressing an overwhelming emotional conviction about the business I am trying to sell to him. So my thought pattern will naturally change from when negotiating with my fellow country man.The factors of negotiation and business allegations to consider in this case would be; Listening skills- I will need to be more active in listening so that I get the objective point the American is making rather than rely on my emotions to guide my decision making in the negotiation. People skills – I need to feel comfortable with our differences and not look hard for similarities between us before I connect with the American counterpart. BATAAN – I must establish what the Best Alternative To Negotiated Agreement is. This is vital to my than what I may have done otherwise. The BATAAN is what I can or might do if an agreement cannot be reached.This is my final position in case an agreement is difficult to reach. Have a Plan – I would consider having a plan ahead of the negotiation. My plan would likely include the following: (Yachted, D; ND) Trying to establish the negotiating style of the other party. This helps me think through how best to communicate and go through the process of negotiation and making educated guesses as I go along. What are my interests? This is gives me a perfect reason to answer the question of why? Before the negotiation. What is my real interest? What are the interests of the American Partner?I must understand where y American partner is coming from what are the shared interests we have and what are the opposing interests. Opposing interests is what I must negotiate. What do I have that I can trade that is of lesser value to me and of higher value to the American Partner? This helps me consider the options in the give and take phase of the negotiation. I must know beforehand what I can trade off at any time during the negotiation that is of a lesser value to me and of a higher value to my partner. What are three options I can implement to move the negotiation from compromising to joint problem solving?

Analyst Apple 4ps

Analysis, segmentation and marketing mix of Apple Introduction The aim of this report is to analyse the current position of the company which includes the products, current strategic position, and current financial strength. Different types of marketing tools are used in this report. PEST analysis and Porter’s five force model for looking into the external environment. SWOT analysis for looking into the internal environment of the organization.This report also looks into market segmentation and the marketing mix of the product. Apple was first introduced by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne on April 1, 1976 to market and sell the Apple personal computer kit. The first computer kits were hand built and was kept for a public display first at the homebrew computer lab. This computer kit consisted of Motherboard with RAM, CPU, and some video chips.Since then apple have come a long way in the market all over the world and they are one of the leading companies in electroni c products. This can be known with the information given below: Current Strategic Position Apple believes in continuous improvement and they look into all the key sectors like environment, health and safety management systems and the quality of our products, processes and services.Looking into the Principle and goals of Apple, Apple has set out their own principles where they look to meet all the health and safety requirements, promote energy efficiency, and their main goals are; innovation is the most important thing for apple, to increase the number of sales of the product in the education field, providing new and user friendly software for the customers, and last but not the least providing high quality products to the customers.Looking into the current strategic position of Apple, with the introduction of its own operating system, hardware, software application, and with a completely new design, Apple looks to meet all the customer requirements like new products, ease of use, an d an innovative design of the product. Apple is currently focusing on, brand awareness and improving the product by increasing the financial investment on marketing and advertisement, they are looking at expanding the retail segment by opening more number of stores all over the world, they are looking at keeping it up with the competition by mplementing a cost leadership strategy, and they are looking to continue the reputation of being the leader in innovation for new technology by implementing product differentiation strategy. Looking into the current finance position of Apple, on October 19, 2009 Apple announced the financial results for the year 2009. The company posted revenue of $9. 87 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1. 67 billion. These results can be compared to the revenue of $7. 9 billion and net quarterly profit of $1. 14 billion in the previous year quarter. International sales also helped 46% of the quarter’s revenue.Gross margin is 36. 6% when compared to the previous year quarter which was 34. 7%. Apple reached 17% increase when compared to the previous year quarter by successfully selling 3. 05 million Mac computers during the quarter. PEST analysis and Porter’s five forces are very important tools to establish the external environment of Apple: PEST Analysis Political Factors Different countries have different rules and regulations which can act as a positive or a negative barrier which can result in restricting the companies or lend opportunities to the company.Good thing for Apple is NAFTA, European Union and other regional trade open doors so that the company can have a wider market in Europe, Asia, Latin, and America which can offer enormous potential to the company. Beatles lawsuit against Apple can affect the reputation of the company in a negative way. There is a direct impact on the overall business of the company (Apple) due to the political uncertainties caused by terrorism. Apple relies on the government to give a grant and intellectual property obtained from third parties. Economic FactorsApple has been affected in the last year by the slow economic and that resulted in low consumer spending. However the current economy shows consumer spending, some amount of improvement, and investment might increase as well. In US due to the weak economic condition the educational segment is encountering a large loss in many states. Hence this has caused a negative impact over the Apple’s sales in the educational segment. With respect to sales of product Apple having a worldwide market can be affected by currency exchange rate and by international trade regulations as they obtain the components of the product from foreign suppliers.Social Factors Apple have designed their own computers and their own software’s which will help this generation as the computer and internet usage is rapidly growing worldwide. With the introduction of Mac people have more information, gain more knowledge about different types of computers and becomes a good source of opportunities for the Apple computer industry. Education has become the primary issue for the new generation which is a key factor for the company’s business. Social factors also include internet revolution, shopping online, Brand awareness of the company. Technological FactorsTechnology is experiencing a rapid boom in this generation, and people appreciate more and more innovative changes in their systems and are switching over to the new information appliances and Apple have been successful in providing new appliances. There is a rapid growth in the usage of the internet which is also a good opportunity for the company. The traditional desktop is becoming outdated with new products coming into the market like Mac laptops. This new technology can be used in schools, collages, and by professionals as they will be able to gain the more knowledge and this in turn increases the demand of the product.Porter’s five f orces Porter’s five forces model is an excellent model to use to analyze a particular environment of an industry. In this report we are entering the PC industry and hence Porter’s model will help us to find out about: Competitive Rivalry Competitive rivalry for Apple is very high as it is a competition among the big companies and it is fierce as everyone is aiming at a larger market share, intensive price cuts and changes. PCs are differentiated as hardware / software configurations. Competition is mainly based one cost. The main competitor for Apple is Microsoft.Microsoft also has their own operating system but is providing it to the customers in a very cheap price when compared to Apple. Hence I can say that there is a fierce price competition. Bargaining Power of suppliers. (Low) Looking into Apple, the company is highly dependent on component suppliers. If the supplier wants to increase his profits he can put pressure on the market by supplying the components at a higher price. Apple is running at a higher risk than other as they are working with only few selected suppliers. Bargaining Power of customers. Low) In the PC world there is high number of suppliers in the industry and Apple being a part of it, has its product price higher than the other company products. Hence there will be lot of options for the customers to buy the cheapest and the best product. Threats of substitutes. (Low) In the present generation PCs represent 90% of the market share as they have multiple configurations, performance and price ranges. Looking into Apple they have their own operating system called as Mac and there is no product competing in the market. Threat of new entry.In the world of PCs any company that has a new technology that is efficient in terms of price and performance is considered as a threat to the industry. Looking into Apple there is no threats from any new entrants as there is no product competing in the market. Apple has a very good brand imag e and it will be very difficult for the new entrants to pose a threat to the company. SWOT analysis is also a very important tool which will help in establishing the internal environment of Apple: SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis is a market tool which helps to understand the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats in a business.During the strategic planning process the most commonly used tool is SWOT. STRENGTHS: Corporate reputation is high. Apple manufactures have their own product and their own operating system hence they have a good control over the product. Leader in innovation and product differentiation. Apple has a very good strategic alliance with HP. Creativity style. WEAKNESSES: Apple has set high prices on their products. Apple has high inventory in their products. Apple has problems in distribution of their products. Apple has too many product lines. OPPORTUNITIES: Demand for innovation. Internet. Growing industry.Employee benefit programme. Opportunity to create a ne w software markets and selling the hardware in those markets. THREATS: There is fierce competition among the PC industry. Loss of market share. Price competition. Increase in supply’s costs. Market Segmentation The market segmentation includes: Demographical bases. Geographical bases. Behavior bases. Psychographic bases. 2. 1 Demographical bases (age, family size, life cycle, occupation) Looking into Apple, the Demographical market segment is successful because they are developing products on the age, life cycle, occupation of the people.They are distributing their products into various places and the PCs are categorized on age, family size, for example they would have more games and entertainment in the PCs for the kids and a professional PC with all the latest software’s. 2. 2 Geographical bases (states, regions, countries) Looking into the geographical bases of Apple they have established their business all over the world like U. S. , South America, Europe, Japan, a nd Australia. Recently Apple chose to implement a vertical growth strategy and began expanding their own retail stores.The company also sells its product via third-parties dealers, or via internet through their own website or through the iTunes online music stores. 2. 3 Behavior bases (product knowledge, usage, attitudes, and responses) In this market segment Apple providing good product knowledge to the customers by advertizing on search engines, T. V. as they have a very good brand image. Using this brand image they are continuously coming up with new ideas and products and attracting the customers. Apple has got a very good response rate as many of the customers are looking for new designs and innovative products which Apple is successfully delivering. . 4 Psychographic bases (lifestyle, values, personality) Looking into Apple the psychographic market segment is successful because they are developing products on the lifestyle of the people such as Mac book for the younger generat ion. Apple having a very good brand image has very good value for its products as they are different and innovative. Looking into the personality (style) sector Apple is providing their products with different colors for the people who like fancy colors. MARKETING MIX Marketing mix is the combination of the product, the price, place and promotion. These are popularly known as Four Ps.When the marketing condition like political, social, economic, and technological factors change even the marketing mix has to be changed. The four Ps are listed as below: 3. 1 Product: Apple is committed to sell original, good looking products that have an easy-to-use interface. The company offers a range of personal computing products, related devices and various third party hardware-products. In addition, the company offers software products (Mac OS X), server software and related solution; professional application software; and consumer, education and business oriented application software.Apple has been very innovative by finding new usages for its Mac computer, such as desktop publishing and strong graphics/animation capabilities. The Mac functionality for managing multimedia files from cameras, DV recorder and MP3 devices has been very popular and successful. 3. 2 Price: Apple price is known to be above average in the industry. The company is using a differentiation strategy and focuses more on innovation, and quality. This strategy is justifying their premium prices.Lately, however, their new technology and their high cash flow allowed them to lower their price and to offer more discount to certain markets such as the education market. This new pricing strategy may help Apple to compete better with the non-Mac user market but might cause some issue with the brand image/recognition. 3. 3 Place: Apple’s operating segments are comprised of: U. S. South America Europe Japan Australia. Recently Apple chose to implement a vertical growth strategy and began expanding their own retail stores.The company also sells its product via third-parties dealers, or via internet through their own website or through the iTunes online music stores. 3. 4 Promotions: The best in the Apple Mac is that songs can be played only from iTunes and hence Apple In 2003, formed a strategic alliance with PepsiCo. The Pepsi iTunes music promotion calls for people to use the winning code found under the Pepsi’s bottle caps products to redeem songs from Apple’s iTunes music Store. This promotion has already been successful for both companies and increased the awareness of the iTunes presence in the market.In 2003, Apple also announced marketing partnerships With America Online that are aimed at driving iTunes use deeply into the mainstream. Apple computers could play a song only from the iTunes. Apple and America Online have agreed to put iTunes â€Å"buy this song† buttons next to every song that’s listed in AOL’s music service, which its 25 mil lion subscribers can access. Clicking the button will automatically launch the iTunes music jukebox and begin downloading the song; billing will be handled through the customer’s existing arrangement with AOL.Apple has a joint venture with Hewlett Packard. Apple has produced an iPod for PC users and the success of this product was a good way for the company to capture non-MAC users. The company’ also drew on endorsements from music stars. In 2005, Apple Computer has initiated a partnership with Wal-Mart that saw the iPod shuffle featured at Wal-Mart discount locations around the country. Read more: http://www. ukessays. com/essays/marketing/analysis-segmentation-and-marketing-mix-of-apple-marketing-essay. php#ixzz2QZbbQKIn

Cheating Essay

Cheating Essay There are many problems in the world everywhere we go. Businesses, school, homes. There is a big problem in schools, especially high school. Cheating Essay is a big problem for teachers and a headache to have to watch out for. Teens have figures that it is okay to cheat because everyone does it. Dishonesty has become a big factor in today society, and this effects everyone in some way. Cheating effects everyone in some way. Cheating occurs everyday, in every school. Cheating occurs even in the nicest schools, including private schools. This usually occurs when someone does not study for a test or just does not feel like thinking. Also, one might do it because he knows he can get away with it. There is a wide range of cheating that can go on in schools. It can be a simple as copying one word, to copying the whole test. Whatever the extent of the cheating, that does not make it right. In todays society, teens just assume that cheating is an exceptable way of getting through test. They dont care even though they know the consequences. Cheating effects me because when I study, someone else may do better than me because they cheated. This may ruin the curve for the class. And that is not fair because I could have gotten a better score. With that, sometimes I feel taken advantage of when someone kind of glances over at my paper. I dont always cover it up, but sometimes I do. Cheating can also make a person loose respect for you. They may figure that they can always cheat off of you. This will become a routine, and they will always do it. This effects my motivation to learn because I figure that studying is not worth it anymore. I figure that since everyone is cheating, I mind as well not study as hard. This can be frustrating because it ruins the learning environment in the classroom. Cheating widely effects others also. Excepting cheating only sends a negative massage to everyone. We are saying that teachers dont care, and you can get away with it. It shows how low out society has stooped to just get a grade. No matter what the motivation to cheat, the bottom line is that it is wrong. But today, so many do it, teachers have to watch even more carefully, and trust is broken forever. Trust is broken between everyone. In conclusion, we have faced the problem of cheating. We know it is there. But now the question is: What shall we do about it? That is hard because there are so many dishonest people who do not care in this world. For now, all we can do it tighten down on cheaters. And just dont let them cheat. If everyone would guard themselves against cheaters, they might give up. Of course that means we cant cheat off of others. We need to build back up our trust of people, because without trust our world will crumble. .

Analysis of the business operations of Toyota Essay

Analysis of the business operations of Toyota - Essay Example also been able to achieve competitive advantage within the highly competitive automobile industry across the globe by applying supply chain and inventory management concepts. The Toyota Prius is one of the products by Toyota that has helped the company to gain a competitive advantage because of its focus on providing greener energy solutions that the vehicle market desires. Additionally, Toyota also applies the lean philosophy of manufacturing that advocates for the minimization of any wastages and also focuses more on achieving cost reduction measures in order for the company to continue running efficiently. The Toyota Prius has been able to reduce costs because vehicle consumers have shifted from the conventional fuel powered vehicles that are usually affected by fuel costs. The company also solves its problems adequately by continuously training its staff on how to handle certain production challenges and also anticipate for such problems in future. With this, this essay will review and critically analyze the operations of the Toyota company with a keen focus on the Toyota Prius vehicle, which will also include figures that would illustrate the production process of the same. The production system applied by Toyota is highly standardized and it also effective because it eliminates wastages through the lean production and movement, which is one key principle in operations management (Eyob & Tetteh 2012, p. 225). Also known as the TPS (Toyota Production System), this philosophy tends to be customer oriented that have led to the adoption of the same strategy by other companies across the globe. This strategy is a flexible one and has helped in the running of daily activities at Toyota because of the outcomes that it seeks to achieve. According to Jayaram, Das & Nicolae (2010, p. 280), one of the desired outcomes that this process tends to have is that the company seeks to provide high quality vehicles to their consumers with the cost attached to them being as

Answer 6 question about Japanese Economy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Answer 6 question about Japanese Economy - Essay Example On the contrary, the American society has yet not adopted anime as a popular medium of advertisement, and advertisements made in America ensure they are not used in advertisements. A2. In the current era, Japan is known for its holistic views regarding product development. The Japanese way of product development consists of six items that makes it different from other economies. These six items include the factor of built in stability, self-organization of project teams, the concept of multi learning, management of subtle control, fostering a culture of organizational transfer of learning, and finally overlapping development phases. A4. One thing everyone knows of who has been to Japan is the high use of vending machines. There are many reasons for the abundance of vending machines within Japan; however, for the purpose of this essay we will shed light at a few important ones. To start off Japan is cash based economy, and unlike other countries cash based transactions are a norm in Japan. This makes buying from vending machines much easier and comfortable for people rather than having to particularly buy from a store which charges cards. Secondly, Japan is a relatively safe country with significantly low crime rates. This makes tampering vending machines less likely, and therefore highlights the possibility of boosting sales through vending machines practically anywhere. Most importantly what needs to be noticed here is that the Japanese people prefer walking long distance rather than taking cars, therefore this helps companies to boost their revenue by placing vending machines at various places so they can be used by passerby’s to purchase things as they walk. A6. Japan is one of the top economies of the world. However, despite this fact the country finds it significantly hard to attract talent across the globe. While there are many reasons for this problem, the bulk of these

Integrated Marketing Communications Assignment 2

Integrated Marketing Communications 2 - Assignment Example First class passengers are served breakfast along with afternoon and evening meals. There is an onboard shop serving a range of alcoholic, cold and hot beverages. The train service has been identified in various industry awards. In the year 2010, it was awarded as Year’s Best Rail Operator at Travel Globe Awards. It is also known as one of the most preferred domestic passenger service in the United Kingdom. The trains are known to be environmental friendly as their carbon dioxide emission is 78% less than average domestic flights and 76 % less than cars (Virgin Trains, 2013b). Integrated Marketing communication Integrated marketing communication has become as a major phenomenon since early 1990s. Corporate and marketing communications are few of the critical persuasive factors used by organizations for market connection (Constantinides, 2006). The objective is to deliver certain perception of products, services and brands to consumers, customers and stakeholders. As a result o f the increasing variety of promotional and communication tools, modern day channels are able to disseminate messages in wide forms. According to Kliatchko (2008), â€Å"integrated marketing communication is audience-driven business process of strategically managing stakeholders, content, channels, and results of brand communication programs.† Marketing communication planning or mix can be characterized in the form of its communication strategies in the market. The various ways through which an organization communicates to its market are advertising, sales promotions, personal selling, direct marketing and public relations (Gronroos, 1994; Ferdous, 2008). Advertising Advertising can be described as a non-personal strategy for mass communication offering great level of command for people responsible for design, manufacturing and delivering of advertising messages (Fill, 2006). This message is transmitted in a particular style and manner which best suits the customer as well as management’s requirements. Regular usage of advertising is critical for creation and maintenance of brand personality, especially when it is integrated with other elements of the mix. It is a dominant form of advertising communication for many firms (Panda, 2003). In any case, advertising needs a carrier so that message can be delivered to the desired receiver (Pelsmacker, 2001). Sales promotions Sales promotion is used for delivering the action plans. Sales promotion and advertising harmonize each other as promotion is short term to generate sales and advertising is for long term awareness and relationship building. Sales promotion is also a non-personal form of marketing communication targeting a smaller audience. The techniques include offering better offers and adding value with the objective of future sales. Various presentation kits such as, catalogues, selling aids and brochures, are used for sales staff. Financial mechanisms such as, promotional pricing and incentive s, are used as a push strategy by companies (Young and Aitken, 2007). Public relations Public relations can describe as relationship management between an organization and its various stakeholders. It is an attempt to establish and preserve shared understanding, good relationships and goodwill with the secondary targets,