Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Human resourse Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Human resourse - Essay Example Greenway Industries has employed members of both the families and began to grow and made huge profits. Later some issues took place in the firm due to existing reporting process. One of the female members (Kate) in the family believed that male dominated operation will reduce her privileges. The firm has 45 female employees, most of whom work in lower-level clerical positions or on the assembly line. Practically none are in middle or senior or professional positions. Donna’s board membership stands out as an isolated example of female authority. Kate is the daughter of Bob’s and Donna, married to Peter who is the chief finance officer. Kate is not a board member and works in the company’s accounts section on a casual basis when her work at home allows. Kate worked in a big law firm that had enlightened policies in relation to its female workers. She believes that a wholehearted approach to the preparation of the Agency report is called for and her values would make some kind of tokenistic report unacceptable. Kate has begun an informal campaign—mostly through some gentle pressure on her husband Peter and her mother—to have the firm take the reporting process seriously. Robert Lim sees Kate’s move as an attempt to find a spot on the board for her. Kate denies this but believes that her daughters have a genuine interest in joining the firm when they are older. This creates pressure for the board of directors from Donna because of Kate. A family owned business involves one or more family in ownership and control of the business. It is the oldest form of business organization. It is â€Å"A  small or medium-sized business that is controlled and operated by members of a family. It may be organized as a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or limited liability company.† (Business definition for: Family business. 2009). Family owned

Monday, October 28, 2019

Nike Promotions Essay Example for Free

Nike Promotions Essay After looking at Nike’s marketing strategy with respect to product, price, place and promotion, the outstanding success of the brand name calls for more attention to Nike’s promotional strategies. Nike’s promotions and advertisements have been deemed the best in the retail industry. The â€Å"Just Do It† slogan is supposedly one of the most famous and easily recognized slogans in advertising history. It would be safe to claim that brand management is easily one of Nike’s core capabilities. With the company’s advertising budget today reaching $2.4 billion, it is worth looking into Nike’s advertising strategies and how these strategies helped strengthen the brand image. 1980-1988: Early Advertising Before television advertisements, Nike released several successful print ads. One of its earliest print ad campaigns was the â€Å"There is no finish line† campaign by John Brown and Partners. The posters were an instant hit, since, it did not focus on the running shoe product, but instead on the person wearing the shoes. At this early stage, Nike saw the lucrative value in sports sponsorships. The company began sponsoring track and field athletes like Carl Lewis. With lucky breaks, Nike signed some bigger names in the athletic world like Wayne Gretzy and, probably the most important sponsorship signing in Nike history, Michael Jordan. 1988: The JUST DO IT Campaign This campaign was probably Nike’s most known and successful. In 1988, Nike worked with ad agency Wieden and Kennedy to create the slogan Just Do It. The company used this campaign to cash in on the jogging/fitness craze of the 80s. Top competitor Reebok was sweeping the aerobics race so Nike responded with Just Do It ads that practically shamed people into exercising, and more importantly, to exercise in Nikes. The Just Do It ads truly embodied the philosophy of grit, determination and passion to encourage consumers to embrace the culture of fitness rather than focus on the product. The Just Do It campaigns were also successful because of their celebrity features including Bo Jackson, John McEnroe, and Michael Jordan. These famous athletes reassured the quality of the Nike product and gave Nike a â€Å"hip† brand image. These ads were basically turning sweaty, pain-ridden exercise into something sexy and exciting. And lastly, the Just Do It ads were usually humorous, thus connecting to consumers on a level that made them comfortable and feeling positive about the brand. 2000-2005 Using its cooperations with various ad agencies, Nike released several popular and well-received TV commercials. In fact, the company received two Emmy awards for best commercial twice. The first was for â€Å"The Morning After,† which featured a runner on his morning jog on January 1, 2000, facing the chaos of the Y2K predictions. The commercial really connected to consumer emotions, as speculations of the new millennium were the conversation buzz around that time. The second Emmy was for a Nike commercial called â€Å"Move† that featured many famous and regular athletes performing a serious of athletic pursuits in a creative â€Å"pass it on† way. Starting in 2005, Nike released another successful ad campaign that were targeted at athletic woman. The ad focused on women’s Thunder Thighs and Big Butts, encouraging them to embrace their athletic body parts and shapes. This was yet another successful way Nike connected to the consumer on a personal level, as we all know that women tend to care about their self images. 2005 to Present Having built up an empire of a brand, Nike continued to focus on celebrity endorsements. Nike took famous athletes in a variety of sports to feature them in ads. LeBron James from basketball, Tom Brady from football, Ronaldhino from soccer, Roger Federer from tennis and Tiger Woods from golf, just to name a few. Using the A-list, top-notch names in the athletic world really helped tip Nike over into the â€Å"elite† brand division. At this point, Nike is reaching its peak in sales and in brand image. Having reached this peak, Nike is now changing up the promotion game and branching out to the digital world. With a 40% decrease in print and TV advertising, Nike is now trying to stray away from superstars. Now that Nike as perfected the art of branding, it is moving on to a world where consumers want to be told less. In 2010, Nike launched its new marketing division called Nike Digital Sport. This digital focus on sports conceived the Nike+ platform, which is a marriage of Apple and Nike technologies that allows people to track their athletic performance. It is also a platform that allows Nike to virtually have personal conversations with its consumers and, subtly study its consumer’s behavioural patterns. Overall, it seems like Nike is always in tune with consumer preferences and addresses them through strategic and well-executed advertising tactics. It is no surprise that the Nike brand is one of the most well recognized in the world.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Othello - Values And Attitudes :: essays research papers

"If Othello didn’t begin as a play about race, history has made it one." The Venetian society that Othello is set in is representative of the writers context. The attitudes and values that Shakespeare reveals through the text are those same attitudes and values of Elizabethan society in England in the sixteenth-century. Although Othello is set in Venice and Cyprus, the attitudes and values shared in the text are probably reflective of the attitudes and values of Shakespeare's own society. It is difficult to assess the attitudes and values of people in sixteenth-century Britain to the relatively few blacks living amongst them. We are given an insight into those attitudes and values through the representation of race and gender in the text of Othello.These attitudes and values are indicative of what a culture believes in and supports. By the time Othello was written the English were becoming more and more aware of the existence of other races in the world besides themselves. There had been a lot of travelling and blacks were beginning to be used in Europe for the slave trade. During the time the play was written, the Queen of England had banned all blacks from entering the city. She spoke of them as "Negars and Moors which are crept into the realm, of which kind of people there are already here too many". It seems that Shakespeare is almost mocking the Queen by characterising Othello as a black man who has a high ranking position in the Army and who marries a white aristocratic women, against her fathers will. Ruth Cowlig suggests that the presentation of Othello as the hero must have been startling for Elizabethan audiences. This may have been the case, but through the representation of Othello we are able to see that some members of society such as the Duke, looked over his colour to assign him his position whereas, others such as Iago, look on his colour as a way to mock him. Hostility is shown to Othello by characters such as Iago and Roderigo. This attitude may have been encouraged by the widespread belief in the legend that blacks were descendants of Ham in the Genesis story, punished for sexual excess by their blackness. The Elizabethan's discussed at length whether this skin colour was due to life in a hot climate or whether it was a punishment for sin. To the Elizabethan's, who thought hierarchically, fair skin was the epitome of beauty and therefore dark skin ranked below it.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Difference between cost accounting and financial accounting Essay

?In recent years, the range of accounting application is expanding rapidly, along with the increasing demand of economic market. As is well known, accounting is a key aspect of business. And in the accounting profession, there has been already existed interpenetration and overlapping among the different kinds of accounting. Cost accounting and financial accounting are two main components of accountancy. The former one is a part of accounting. In cost accounting, it dramatically researches the variable cost, fixed cost, overheads and capital cost, which is beneficial to calculate the cost and control the cost. And in another part of accounting, financial accounting, we record the business and make the financial statements through this kind of approaches. There are lots of similarities and differences between these two methods. Meanwhile, each of them has its own scope of application. People use different accounting methods to solve different financial problems. Cost accounting refers to the total cost of the products. It is a mixture of financial accounting and management accounting, and it is a method to analyze the cost information. The former method is a procedure of gathering, calculating, concluding and evaluating various alternative courses of action, (Vanderbeck, E. J. 2013), while the latter one is a field of accounting, which is considered to be the provision of financial statements prepared for decision makers and other stakeholders. (Wikipedia, 2013). The latter method is the process of integrating financial data that taken from an organization’s accounting records and issuing in the form of statements for the advantages of people outside the organization for an interval time. (Weil, R. L. 2012). More and more differences are appeared in cost accounting and financial accounting. Firstly, we use them for different purposes. Cost accounting aims at calculating cost of production or service in a scientific way and then facilitating cost control and cost reduction. The main purpose of cost accounting is to analyze, determinate and control of the total cost. The purpose of financial accounting is to find out the results of an accounting year in the form of Profit and Loss Account and Balance Sheet. The main function of financial accounting is to record financial transactions, find out profit or loss and identify financial position. Next, they are different in recording. In cost accounting, both actual transactions record and estimations are used. For example, when we mentioned budgetary control and variance analyze, we set the standard cost which is based on the estimations on previous data. And these estimations may differ slightly from actual cost. While in financial accounting, since the recording is limited to use actual transaction, the estimation is not allowed to prepare income statements and balance sheets. In addition to the above, their control aspects are also diverse. For the cost accounting, we focus on the techniques of controlling the cost. For instance, a company is planning to generate three products, A, B and C. If the percentage of C is 40%, product A and B are produced at only 10%. We will intend to manage the cost of product A and B by means of different approaches. However, in financial accounting, we just ensure to record the transactions correctly, but are not concerned with the controlling of cost. (Kumar, V. 2012). At last, their forms of reference are different. In cost accounting, it is possible that there is no reference following. Regulation can be had only from a body of conventions followed by cost accountants. Nevertheless, in financial accounting, references can be made in case of difficulty to the company laws and case decisions. It is also a challenge for the canons of sound professional practice when to devise or operate a system of financial accounting. Although there are a number of differences between cost accounting and financial accounting, they still have something in common. One of the similarities is that they both based on the financial reports. Management accounting and financial accounting are two major branches of accounting. Therefore financial accounting belongs to the second level. Cost accounting is in the third level, as a branch of accounting information system, it provides record of cost and reports the number of information, and all these information is for the financial accounting. Financial accounting is used to produce financial reports and statements, including the balance sheet, income statement and statement of cash flows. Their financial reports are supported by each other. Moreover, both of them focus on ways to improve company performance. Even though one concentrates on parts of company, the other one focuses on the entire company. According to the financial statements, it can supply information of profitability and financial status to the interested outsiders. Useful information not only can be provided to the businessman for making decisions; also the reports can be used for cutting cost and acquiring more profit and wealth of business. The final objective is to take measures to understand their finances and enhance the performance through the financial report analysis. Accounting brings a great deal of help to us, at the same time we have to take into account the limitations of different accounting methods. One of the limitations facing by the cost accounting is that its inapplicability. Cost accounting is normally to accounting for the cost of industries. It is significant to identify the different categories of expenses and allocation of expenses, which is considered as a complicated system for accounting. In order to collect the data and prepare for the reports, different forms and formulas are needed. It is true that cost accounting cannot be applied with advantage to trading concerns and concerns of small size. As claimed by Nigam Lal B. M. et al. (2004), â€Å"There is no ready-made system of cost accounting applicable to all industries irrespective of their nature or the nature of the article produced or service rendered. The system should be adapted to the industry concerned. † Hence, it becomes complicated and it cannot apply to all types of industry. What is more, financial accounting also has some limitation such as its untimely information. This method is defined to supply information in the form of statements which always include Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Account for a period, once a year as usual. The information of expenditures is provided on the basis of historical transactions. So the information which merely indicates the past action is only concerned with historical interest and previous analysis. According to Siyanbola, T. T. (2012) said, â€Å"the business requires timely information at frequent intervals to enable the management to plan and take corrective action. † For example, during the current year, if a corporation has budgeted ? 240,000 sales for a year whereas the exact budget of every month is difficult to be recognized. In other words, the information about a relatively short period time can hardly be produced to some extent. Furthermore, financial accounting also lacks analysis of losses. It does not provide complete assessment of losses because of defective material, idle time, idle plant and equipment. Besides, it is difficult to analyze the distinction between avoidable and unavoidable wastage. People will not know the information about losses. In summarize, both of the two accounting methods are good techniques for ascertaining profitability and helpful for decision making. Cost accounting is an essential aspect of accounting information about the problems of core managerial control while the object of financial accounting, which is different from the former one, is to identify the profitability and to give information about the financial position of the business. Even though there are some distinguish and approximation between them, we regard different accounting methods as guidance in the office, so long as more attention should be paid to their limitations.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Junk Food Essay

Junk food is considered an unhealthy food which only contains a small amount of nutrients, or provides much more energy than body needs. Examples of junk food include frozen desserts, hamburgers, pizzas, carbonated beverages, fried chickens. Nowadays, a great many individuals buy junk food frequently. At the same time, people are overweight from day to day. This essay will analyse why junk food is particularly popular. To some extent, junk food has negative effect on health and eating less junk food might be better. Firstly, junk food is harmful to people’s health. It is not only non-nutritious but also including a large sum of oils, sugars, fats, salts, calories and antiseptics. Some serious problem will be generated with eating numerous junk foods for a long time, such as obesity, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension and heart disease. My experience is a convincing example. When I was a freshman in the university, my course schedule was extremely busy. I ate Junk Food for lunch everyday. Fresh food was replaced by junk food and my weight rose sharply. At the beginning, I did not realize that it really made me overweight until the semester finished. I found junk food can increase people’s excess weight. It can be seen that junk food has many disadvantages as previous study. However, why do people buy it frequently? On the one hand, an increasing number of fast paced life makes people have to choose the junk food as their daily diet. It is obvious that eating junk food is a time-saving and money-saving way to resolve their problem perfectly, when they working and studying very busily, which makes people ignore the fact that junk food is frequently harmful. The awareness of individuals need to be improved on behalf of people’s health. On the other hand, why do individuals buy junk Food is the result of excellent marketing strategy. Firstly, people are usually misleaded by overwhelming advertisings. For instance, the advertisement of vitamin water from the Coca-Cola always repeats that it just contains vitamin and nothing  about sugar. In fact, the main component of the vitamin water is the fructose which is the major cause of obesity and drinking a bottle of vitamin water is equal to drinking a can of coke almost. It is witness that the advertisings make up the misleading to consumers. In addition, some brand of junk food, like KFC, McDonald’s, push out a meal with toys for children. There is a straightforward purpose to attract children’s attentions. Thirdly, some junk food restaurants have a playpark which supplies several small slides and plentiful plastic balls for children. Parents prefer to choose a table near by the playpark to take care of their children in the McDonalds’ or KFC. Apart from above examples, there are a variety of marketing methods or skills, which influences individuals imperceptibly. Despite the fact that junk food is not only non-nutritious but also destructive, individuals often choose to eat it, due to a series of extraordinary marketing strategies which is hard to resist and fast paced life makes people just have limited choices. Therefore, trying to eat less junk food as far as possible is beneficial to people’s health.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

post test essays

post test essays After the television commercial campaigns, advertisers must turn to another kind of researches in order to know whether the ad performs well in the competing category and competing ads. This kind of researches after the campaign is called post-testing. Here we will explain the procedures through the post-test research of Danone biscuits done by Millward Brown in Shanghai. We will focus our attention to one of its sub brand: Tiki which had experienced a renovation in its product. This research adopted the face to face interviewing at home method. The researchers chose their target group as males or females between 18 to 54 years old who have bought any biscuits in last 3 months. The research period is from R5 June 11 to July 8 and R6 from July 9 to August 5. In this period, they realized 64 interviews per week. 1. A general overview of TVC input. This stage is for the researchers to have a global insight in the biscuit market in the recent 20 months. Here we find that Tiki ¡s product, after the renovation, was launched to the market in May 2001. The weighted GRPs reach 284 and it is above the average 250. Firstly, compared to Danone High Calcium ¡s  ¡Sunflower ¡ and Tuc ¡s re-edited commercial  ¡Celebrity ¡, the  ¡Butterfly ¡ for Tiki is weak in aided, unaided awareness and the ad story recall score is not good enough. The awareness of Butterfly is much inferior to those two ads, especially in the second month, whereas the other two increase their awareness by 6%-7%, Butterfly reduces by 7%. In the ad story recall, it does not have a good performance either. Maybe the difference rests on the short exposure of ads and people need a period of adaptation to accept the new product and new ads, for it is measured in the recent two months whereas the other two. Secondly, the researchers try to know exactly which parts of the ...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Intermediate Level English Proverbs for ESL Class

Intermediate Level English Proverbs for ESL Class Learning proverbs - or sayings - are a great way to get insight and improve your English. Unfortunately, some proverbs are easy to understand and others more difficult. This article provides twenty intermediate level proverbs that are right for your level. Each proverb has a definition for you to learn the proverb. Once you have learned these twenty proverbs, match the situations to the appropriate proverb at the end of the article. Teachers can use these activities with proverbs in the classroom to help your learners. After a storm comes a calm.  When life is difficult, remember that things get better and calm down sooner or later. Beauty is only skin-deep.  Physical beauty is not the only important thing. Blood is thicker than water.  People who are in your family are more important than people you meet in life. Never send a boy to do a mans job.  Its important to give important tasks to people with experience. Clothes make the man.  The clothing you wear change how you appear to yourself and others. Whats done cannot be undone.  Dont worry about a mistake, you cant change it. Half the truth is often a whole lie.  Providing only certain details, and hiding others indicate that something is false. Great minds think alike.  Used with friends to say that we are both smart. One hand washes the other.  If I do something for you, you will do something for me. Every Jack has his Jill.  Everyone can find the right person in life. Love makes the word go round.  The most important th ing in life is love. Never is a long time.  Similar to never say never.  Dont so no to things in life. Things may change. Money talks.  Money can be used to convince people that something is right or needs to be done. Old habits die hard.  Things that you do often are difficult to stop doing. Practice what you preach.  You should act like you say others should act. One step at a time.  Go slowly, be careful. Truth is stranger than fiction.  Life is very surprising. Variety is the spice of life.  Its important to do many different types of things in life to make it interesting. Practice makes perfect.  If you want to be good at something, you need to do it often. When in Rome do as the Romans do.  Its important to follow the local customs when in a different location than your home. Matching Proverbs Exercise Match the proverbs below with the appropriate situations for the proverb. Proverbs After a storm comes a calm.Beauty is only skin-deep.Blood is thicker than water.Never send a boy to do a mans job.Clothes make the man.Whats done cannot be undone.Half the truth is often a whole lie.Great minds think alike.One hand washes the other.Every Jack has his Jill.Love makes the word go round.Never is a long time.Money talks.Old habits die hard.Practice what you preach.One step at a time.Truth is stranger than fiction.Variety is the spice of life.Practice makes perfect.When in Rome do as the Romans do. Situations I know things are difficult now, but soon things will get better and easier.Dont worry too much about your looks, youve got a great personality.Remember hes your brother. That relationship will always remain.We need to choose someone with more experience for this contract.Its amazing how I feel when I put on a suit.Stop worrying about the past and your choices.Even though it seemed like a good idea, the fact that he left out some details should have been a clue to the problems.You and I are thinking the same thing!If Tom helps Peter a little, Peter will help Tom at some time in the future.You will find a partner some day. Its going to happen!The best way to success is to treat people with respect.You might say you dont want to do that job today, but tomorrow might be a different story.I know he shouldnt have won the election, but he had a lot of rich donors.Ive tried to quit smoking many times. I just cant do it!If you say that everyone needs to arrive on time, make sure that you als o arrive on time. Things take a long time to accomplish. Take your time and do each thing well.Sometimes I read the news and am very surprised and amused by what people do.Make sure to try all sorts of things in your life. Otherwise, youll get bored.It took years to become a good piano player.Watch how the people act and do the same. That way youll fit in no matter where you are.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Execute and Run Applications and Files From Delphi Code

Execute and Run Applications and Files From Delphi Code The Delphi programming language provides a quick way to write, compile, package, and deploy applications cross-platform. Although Delphi creates a graphical user interface, there are bound to be times you want to execute a program from your Delphi code. Lets say you have a database application that uses an external backup utility. The backup utility takes parameters from the  application and archives the data, while your program waits until the backup finishes. Maybe you want to open documents presented in a file list box  just by double-clicking on them  without opening the associated program first. Imagine a link label in your program that takes the user to your home page. What do you say about sending an email directly from your Delphi application through the default Windows email client program? ShellExecute To launch an application or execute a file in a Win32 environment, use the ShellExecute Windows API function. Check out the help on ShellExecute for a  full description of parameters and error codes returned. You can open any document without knowing which program is associated with it- the link is defined in the Windows Registry. Here are some shell examples.   Run Notepad uses ShellApi;...ShellExecute(Handle, open,c:\Windows\notepad.exe, nil, nil, SW_SHOWNORMAL) ; Open SomeText.txt With Notepad ShellExecute(Handle,open,c:\windows\notepad.exe,c:\SomeText.txt, nil, SW_SHOWNORMAL) ; Display the Contents of the "DelphiDownload" Folder ShellExecute(Handle,open, c:\DelphiDownload, nil, nil, SW_SHOWNORMAL) ; Execute a File According to Its Extension ShellExecute(Handle, open, c:\MyDocuments\Letter.doc,nil,nil,SW_SHOWNORMAL) ; Heres how to find an application associated with an extension. Open a Website or a *.htm File With the Default Web Explorer ShellExecute(Handle, open,http://delphi.about.com,nil,nil, SW_SHOWNORMAL) ; Send an Email With the Subject and the Message Body var em_subject, em_body, em_mail : string;begin em_subject : This is the subject line; em_body : Message body text goes here; em_mail : mailto:delphiaboutguide.com?subject em_subject body em_body ; ShellExecute(Handle,open, PChar(em_mail), nil, nil, SW_SHOWNORMAL) ;end; Heres how to send an email with the attachment. Execute a Program and Wait Until It Finishes The following example uses the ShellExecuteEx API function. // Execute the Windows Calculator and pop up// a message when the Calc is terminated.uses ShellApi;...var SEInfo: TShellExecuteInfo; ExitCode: DWORD; ExecuteFile, ParamString, StartInString: string;begin ExecuteFile:c:\Windows\Calc.exe; FillChar(SEInfo, SizeOf(SEInfo), 0) ; SEInfo.cbSize : SizeOf(TShellExecuteInfo) ; with SEInfo do begin fMask : SEE_MASK_NOCLOSEPROCESS; Wnd : Application.Handle; lpFile : PChar(ExecuteFile) ;{ParamString can contain theapplication parameters.}// lpParameters : PChar(ParamString) ;{StartInString specifies thename of the working directory.If ommited, the current directory is used.}// lpDirectory : PChar(StartInString) ; nShow : SW_SHOWNORMAL; end; if ShellExecuteEx(SEInfo) then begin repeat Application.ProcessMessages; GetExitCodeProcess(SEInfo.hProcess, ExitCode) ; until (ExitCode STILL_ACTIVE) or Application.Terminated; ShowMessage(Calculator terminated) ; end else ShowMessage(Error starting Calc!) ;end;

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Semantic Clues assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Semantic Clues assignment - Essay Example (1) Determine if the word is defined in the sentence; e.g., an oncologist is a doctor that treats cancer. (2) Discover whether the unknown word is placed in contrast or opposition with a known word using signals like but, however, yet or in contrast; e.g., we are either right- or left-handed, but Rita is ambidextrous. (3) Refer to your background knowledge to guess the meaning of a word; e.g., John has been a teetotaler since his drunken driving accident. (4) Put together some of the main points or attributes associated with a word; e.g., her quick, nervous, and angry greeting signaled her petulance. (5) Look for examples, as when the unknown word indicates a general category and the sentence includes words that would fit under that category (usually works with nouns); e.g., Childhood maladies such as mumps, chicken pox, and measles can be treated easily. 4. (a) Why did Andrew suspect his sister (b) Who were the players in the baseball cards that Andrew was missing (c) Why did Andrew's father lack concern for the missing cards (d) How did Andrew show that he was upset 5. Children respond to print through environmental experiences and shared reading of quality texts. By modeling specific phonetic skills, sounding out some words as they are written without explicit teaching of letter-sound relationships, teachers can develop phonemic awareness in children.

Friday, October 18, 2019

UGG boots case study Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

UGG boots case study - Assignment Example The brand was later expanded to produce sandals, clogs, boots, slippers, and handbags. Tsubo LLC, which produces sports and dress casuals, sandals, heels, and boots. In 2003, Australian sheepskin manufacturers started selling their products online at lower prices after Decker started making millions from UGG Australia sales (Windsor, 2010). Decker sales dropped as consumers preferred the UGG product at lower prices. The actions by Australian manufacturers were unethical because Decker owned the Trademark UGG and using it to sell their goods was ripping off the corporation. In addition, another act that shows the brand’s impact on ethics is through unfair competition. This is evident when competitors imitated UGG and sold fake products to customers who had no idea that they were buying imitations. Some producers went to the extremes of using cow skin instead of sheepskin (Worley, 2014). This is wrong as these actions were taking advantage of consumers whose real intention was to buy and enjoy the benefits brought about by the real UGG Australia products. Brand names, therefore bring about the worst from people who want to take advantage an d make money from consumers who lack the knowledge of knowing whether the products they are buying is real or just a cheap imitation. The owners of the products also suffer due to reduced sales after putting in resources to produce, advertise, and market their products. Their image also suffers, as wronged consumers who bought fake products will taint their name saying that the products they are selling are of poor quality. Other people may say that it is also wrong to raise sheep for their skin and use that skin to make products. It occurs as animal cruelty to the supporters of animal rights (Seltzer 2011). There is a query whether consumers are concerned that those beautiful, comfortable, and must have items were due to shaving

Writing about writing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Writing about writing - Essay Example In this paper, comparisons will be made between two articles that discuss Walter Isaacson’s retelling of the life of Steve Jobs, one of the most influential men in this century. It is curious to note that although both articles are presented in the same form of media, that is, online newspapers, the piece written by Janet Maslin for the New York Times appears more convincing and appropriate because of the words she used, how she presented her topic and the way she wrote her article. Since Walter Isaacson wrote best-selling biographies of Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin, it was not a big surprise that Steve Jobs wanted the Isaacson to write his life story. Nevertheless, because Jobs was as popular as his inventions, Isaacson’s book, which came out only a few weeks after the Apple inventor died, had expectations to meet. In October 2011, two articles came out online from Reuter and New York Times discussing Isaacson’s â€Å"Steve Jobs.† Penned by Fred Schruers and Janet Maslin, respectively, the articles gave contrasting opinions on Isaacson’s most recent best-seller. ... Given the hype surrounding the literary work, it is easy to assume the need for the book review. Steve Jobs was not only well-known because of his Apple creations. His personal life and work ethics are also public knowledge. Readers worldwide would be very interested to read about how the man built one of the most trusted names in the world of technology. The question is would their money be worth it. Would the book be a good buy? Janet Maslin addresses this curiosity when she says, â€Å"His story calls for a book that is clear, elegant and concise enough to qualify as an iBio. Mr. Isaacson’s â€Å"Steve Jobs† does its solid best to hit that target. (Maslin)† In effect, she is telling her audience that the book is as satisfying as the other â€Å"i† products from Apple, namely: the iPad, iTunes and iPhone. Since almost everyone around the world has an iPad and/or an iPhone, wanting to have the iBio would appear to be a given reaction. Maslin repeats her a pproval of the book writing, â€Å"So, â€Å"Steve Jobs†... must reach across time in more ways than one. And it does, in a well-ordered, if not streamline, fashion.† Maslin also makes it easy for the viewers to get an idea of how Steve Jobs is presented in the book by allotting each paragraph of her article to specific topics the book covers. One paragraph describes how the Isaacson tells about the beginnings of each Apple product. Another paragraph mentions Jobs’ rival, Bill Gates. Yet another one talks about how Jobs’, through the book, talks to the past, present and future generations. Employing very familiar words such as iPod, iPad, iMac, NeXT, Pixar and iTunes, Maslin was able to introduce the book to the general public, her

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Education quiz Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Education quiz - Essay Example Literal interpretation of written works also restricts them to understand emotions and to draw conclusions from written texts. The diversity of the requirements for understanding something demands effort from them which if not met could have the learner socially incapacitated. b. What instructional accommodations are generally recommended for students who experience this exceptionality? (For the sake of brevity, limit yourself to no more than three important accommodations. You do NOT have to elaborate, other than perhaps a sentence for each one.) To help such students, teachers are encouraged to give explicit instructions made simple so that the learners can be able to follow. Daily reviews would be a great help to assist them in retaining information that are important especially in the learning process. Since the understanding of a learning disabled student is limited, modeling is very helpful as it would be easy for them to understand what they see put in action than things expre ssed in words. 2. With respect to students who experience ADHD: a. In what way does this exceptionality affect the individual’s literacy development? For students with ADHD, their learning development could limit them to the very few things that they able to concentrate on. As ADHD learners usually have difficulty in focusing to a certain task, the possibility that an assignment could be completed could be far from possible. They usually exert more effort in keeping still to finish a certain task especially when it comes to writing so their communication skills can be affected. Reading could be a lesser trouble for them but being unable to concentrate in the task also affects their understanding as well as the acquisition of important information received in reading. b. What instructional accommodations are generally recommended for students who experience this

Litereary elements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Litereary elements - Essay Example Symbolism enables the author to replace some of these abstract ideas and thoughts with a concrete image or object, reducing the space needed to express them while still conveying the deeper elements. In The Literary Symbol by William York Tindall, symbol is defined as â€Å"the outward sign of an inward state† where ‘sign’ indicates a material object and ‘inward state’ refers to feelings, thoughts or a combination of the two (1955). Whether it is actually referred to as such or not, symbolism often provides a story, poem or play with an added element of meaning and depth that would be difficult to accomplish in any other way. To help illustrate how this is done, the use of symbolism in the short story â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† by Edgar Allen Poe, the poem â€Å"Sailing to Byzantium† by William Butler Yeats and the play â€Å"Fences† by August Wilson will be analyzed. Edgar Allen Poe has often been considered the master of the short story. He employs two primary objects in â€Å"The Tell-Tale Heart† to symbolize the cause of his narrator’s madness. The old man’s eye is the first of these symbols to appear within the text of the story. As the narrator attempts to explain why he felt led to murder, he continues to blame his actions on the old man’s eye. Basic medical knowledge today quickly identifies this condition as symptoms of a cataract, a film that gradually creeps over the eye of an elderly person, changing the color of the eye to a pale bluish color. It is this encroachment that seems to so bother the narrator because it symbolizes the idea of the evil eye. This ancient idea holds that the holder of the evil eye has the power to harm people or possessions just by looking at them. The presence of the evil eye, thus the evidence of the existence of evil, in the loved old man is the catalyst that leads to the narrat or’s madness. The other major symbol

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Education quiz Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Education quiz - Essay Example Literal interpretation of written works also restricts them to understand emotions and to draw conclusions from written texts. The diversity of the requirements for understanding something demands effort from them which if not met could have the learner socially incapacitated. b. What instructional accommodations are generally recommended for students who experience this exceptionality? (For the sake of brevity, limit yourself to no more than three important accommodations. You do NOT have to elaborate, other than perhaps a sentence for each one.) To help such students, teachers are encouraged to give explicit instructions made simple so that the learners can be able to follow. Daily reviews would be a great help to assist them in retaining information that are important especially in the learning process. Since the understanding of a learning disabled student is limited, modeling is very helpful as it would be easy for them to understand what they see put in action than things expre ssed in words. 2. With respect to students who experience ADHD: a. In what way does this exceptionality affect the individual’s literacy development? For students with ADHD, their learning development could limit them to the very few things that they able to concentrate on. As ADHD learners usually have difficulty in focusing to a certain task, the possibility that an assignment could be completed could be far from possible. They usually exert more effort in keeping still to finish a certain task especially when it comes to writing so their communication skills can be affected. Reading could be a lesser trouble for them but being unable to concentrate in the task also affects their understanding as well as the acquisition of important information received in reading. b. What instructional accommodations are generally recommended for students who experience this

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

International Crime Witness Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

International Crime Witness - Assignment Example Notably, as per the fourth amendment of the US, courts orders police not to involve in unnecessary seizure or search of any place or individual without any warrants. Furthermore, as per the Fifth Amendment, an accused cannot be forced by the court of law to make any statements that might act against his well being in future instances. Furthermore, to seek fast trail as per the sixth amendment is also another right of accused in the US that is taken into consideration by the court of law (Missouri Protection and Advocacy Services, n.d.). On the other hand, in the UK, criminal accused are provided with the right of appropriate hearing in the court. Individuals, irrespective of the nature of their accusation must availed proper legal hearing with the assistance of a well experienced solicitor. In the UK, accused will also have the right to see the evidences on the basis of which any decision can be taken against him/her by the court of law (Jacobson & Talbot, 2009). Different legal approaches also exist amid the two nations i.e. the US and the UK with regard to the treatment provided to the defendants. Defendants of suspects in the UK who is accused of a particular crime will need to encounter with several trails by the court of law. They will be liable to get legal assistance from the legal authorities of the nations so that his/her rights of getting a fair trial could be ensured (Talbot, 2012). Similarly, in the US court, criminal defendants are provided with equal opportunities to clarify their point or justify themselves as an innocent. Furthermore, fair access to the legal assistance provided by the government to its citizen, is also practiced in during trial proceedings of criminal defendants in the US. Once crime against a particular accused is justified and proved, he/she will be imprisoned in the US for a particular period of time based upon the

Monday, October 14, 2019

Political philosophy Essay Example for Free

Political philosophy Essay John Locke, an English philosopher, used the idea of natural laws to make vital contributions to society. He worked his way up through Westminster School and Oxford and enrolled in the Church of England. He was interested in science and became one of the best practitioners of his time. With Locke’s connections, he met men of England but was also suspected for being disloyal. He went to Holland and returned in 1688, after the revolution. Locke made an influence on political philosophy including modern liberalism. Two Treatises of Government was his most powerful writing where he claims to tell the story of politics. But he did not present that he was the author until near his death. In his writing, Locke explains the difference between political power and paternal power. He wanted people to be comfortable with independent political thought, or in other words take the road less traveled. Also, Locke believed that first you must understand that politics come from the state of nature and natural law in order to understand political power. Locke’s natural law says that individuals take care of others. Locke wanted to create a better government that would consider all people, not a government with kings and nobles. He believed that there should be no one to enforce laws and that neither good nor evil existed in nature. Locke also believed that the people of nature are created equal and have rights to all things. Because of this, a constant state of war exists. Locke wanted people to act more responsible and morally and face their consequences if there were any. His influence on organizational behavior and theory impacted the founders of the United States’ principles. Locke was a creator of the idea of the separation of powers. He also influenced the modern educational theory. His theories are strong when it comes to prosperity, scarcity, money, and property. He claims the government must protect and individual’s private business and property. He believed that if there was a general increase in wealth it would lead to the increase for common good. Locke’s liberalism influenced the United States of America with the Declaration of Independence. He will always be known as the Father of Liberalism. He distrusted government power and proved a statement. He believed that an individual’s right is more important than just a king democracy. He left a legacy of theories for religion, economics, human understanding, and politics. Works Cited Griffith, F, Mark.. â€Å"John Locke’s Major Works. † International Journal of Organization Theory and behavior. 01 July. 2003: 227 elibrary. Web. 16. Feb. 2012.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Theory of Economics in the Film Industry

Theory of Economics in the Film Industry Introduction In this essay I shall examine the theory of economics within the film industry and how it contributes to the production and distribution of mainstream Hollywood films. For the purposes of this essay I shall be researching and commenting solely upon Hollywood productions. My research will include an examination of different theories that investigate and explain how economics shape the way that film is stripped down to its bare essentials so that the business of making movies can begin in earnest. Throughout this essay I shall investigate the importance of budget, audience, genre, stars and guidance ratings in relation to the success of a movie. With the collation of this data I shall explore how these economic factors sculpt what is recognised as mainstream Hollywood cinema; investigating how important they are in shaping the strengths and limitations of what is exhibited onto cinema screens across the world. Using this information I shall argue the pros and cons of how a rigidly structured industry can produce works of art, passion and brilliance whilst being presided over by a business-orientated mentality that should, in theory, stifle any creative development. In my conclusion I aim to explain how this is possible and what may lie ahead in the future. Economics of Film The way that economics work in film is complex. There are a great number or variables that need to be taken into consideration from the outset when preparing any kind of financial package to put a film project into production. This ‘green lighting’ analysis seems to have become an exact science over the years in Hollywood; it has had to be as the average budget to make and market an-MPAA accredited major film in 2005 was $96.2 million (this includes $60 million in negative costs and $36.2 million in marketing costs).[1] With the average budget totalling almost $100 million the stakes are high, and the pressure to recoup the costs and go on to make the film an official success are immense. Unlike low budget films where the emphasis is to produce the film for as little money as possible, Hollywood aims high and expects high returns. It is this importance of making money in Hollywood that has led to widespread criticism of its methodology of producing films. How can art be held at ransom to the demands of cash flow forecasts and daily target sales? In his book, Hollywood Cinema, Richard Maltby questioned this paradox: For the vulgar Romantic in us all, Hollywood is not Art because it is commercial. For the vulgar Marxist in us all, Hollywoods enslavement to the profit system means that all its products can do is blindly reproduce the dominant ideology of bourgeois capitalism.[2] In its simplest form it is possible to split Hollywood into two significant camps; the business of making movies and the production of film. Obviously this is an extreme simplification, but for the basis of this essay it can be used to identify how the images we see on the silver screen on a Friday night begin life as a list of figures and calculations on an economist’s laptop. The fact that Hollywood is a multi-billion dollar industry guarantees its survival. It deserves to be viewed upon as a completely different entity to any other artistic medium such as photography , painting or sculpture. The reality is that the audience actually sees an identical copy (a reproduction), but this does not take away anything from the original work. It is not like going to a museum and looking at a reproduction print of a work of art instead of the actual brushstrokes of the artist. As such there is no real loss in value because of this. Richard Maltby writes that: The economics of Hollywood rely expressly upon this technical possibility, since any number of prints can be struck from an original master negative and exhibited simultaneously.[3] There have been many different models that have been introduced to analyse the process of how economics work in Hollywood. The common denominator of these theories is that the most effective way of studying the medium of film is to study it on its own merits and not as a broad comparison to other media. This focused view of film in the field of economics has been labelled as ‘micro-economic research’: Given the interesting characteristics of movies as ideal examples of differentiated products and of the institutional arrangements governing their production and distribution, such increased data availability would make this an exceptionally attractive area for applied micro-economic research.[4] In the late 1970s, American economist Thomas Guback wrote his essay Are We Looking at the Right Things in Film? in which he argued that the study of cinema seemed to ignore the ‘analysis of cinema as an economic institution and as a medium of communication’[5]. Nearly thirty years on Guback’s concerns are still relevant in that a lot more attention is given to the understanding of a film’s economics. Another economist, Professor Robert Picard, explained the importance of audience consumption in 1989 when he stated that: Media economics is concerned with how media operators meet the informational and entertainment wants and needs of audiences, advertisers and society with available resources. It deals with the factors influencing production of media goods and services and the allocation of those products for consumption.[6] When Picard speaks of the wants and needs of the audience he is introducing a wide range of attributes that need to be addressed when contemplating how a film must be produced to subjectively please its audience, and therefore returning its costs. This concern is highlighted in the industrial organisation model created by Douglas Gomery. In it he describes how the analyst must focus on the objective description o f the organisation (in this case the film production) and not the subjective response (how the audience reacts): The industrial organization model of structure, conduct, and performance provides a powerful and useful analytical framework for economic analysis. Using it, the analyst seeks to define the size and scope of the structure of an industry and then go on to examine its economic behaviour. Both of these steps require analyzing the status and operations of the industry, not as the analyst wishes it were. Evaluation of its performance is the final step, a careful weighing of what is versus what ought to be.[7] What these theorists introduce to the equation is that there are many problems that need to be addressed before embarking on the goal of putting a film into production. This uncertainty is readdressed by Arthur de Vany in his book, Hollywood Economics. In it de Vany explains the uniqueness of each individual project and how its life as a commercial product in the theatrical market is hazardous. He introduces the idea that films exist in a battling arena, a box-office tournament, fighting against one another for the public’s attention: Motion pictures live and die in the box-office tournament as they are challenged during their run by a randomly evolving cast of new competitors. The challengers come from films previously released and from newly released films. The contending films are ranked by filmgoers and those with high rank survive and are carried over to the next week. Low ranked films fail and are replaced by new contenders.[8] This colourful analogy of films as knights in shining armour jousting for the acceptance of the audience is a perfect example of how weaker films (financially rather than artistically in most Hollywood films) are often tossed aside by bigger and stronger productions. He continues to say that: The leading products command a disproportionate share of the market and they have longer runs. Even then, a films rank in the tournament is ephemeral and its life unpredictable.[9] Using de Vany’s theory it becomes apparent that certain actions by the parties responsible for production prove vitally important to the success of the project. These actions are described by Albert Moran in his study of film policy: â€Å"Policy is a series of practice engaged in by an agency – whether government, private, or commercial – to achieve a particular set of outcomes.†[10] These outcomes, in this particular case the target being that of a successful movie release, rely on many attributes and the policy exists in a â₠¬Å"complex field affected by factors such as constitutional and legislative arrangements, general economic conditions, the prevailing culture, social awareness, and technological capacities, as well as such human agencies as politicians, business entrepreneurs, white- and blue-collar labour, bureaucrats, and cultural and social workers.†[11] It is easy to be bogged down by so many different economic models and theories when analysing how the Hollywood system works. With so many factors influencing the results the process becomes a minefield of potential disasters waiting to happen. How can anyone truly predict what is going to be a successful film? Writer Harold Vogel highlights this quandary when he points out that: â€Å"Of any 10 major theatrical films produced, on the average 6 or 7 are unprofitable, and 1 will break even.[12] If we were to surmise that this list of ten films were produced by the same studio in one year then the models as used by Picard, Gomery, et al really do not ease the pressure faced by the film executives. The cold, hard facts point at only a 20-30% success rate in their annual production slate recouping their costs. It is all very well studying the market, assessing the competition and second-guessing the audiences’ preferences, but the fact is that 60-70% of the studio’s produc t will lose money. If we reintroduce the MPAA’s statistic that the average major release in 2005 cost around $100 million, it would mean that the studio understands that only two movies from their annual releases must do enough business at the box office to recoup their own costs as well as the costs of the $700 million from the other eight films. According to the MPAA in the full calendar year of 2005, only eight films grossed over $200 million, twelve films grossed $100 $199 million and 36 films grossed $50 – $99 million.[13] Economic models can only interpret the market to a certain point; blind faith takes over after that. Vogel breaks away from the other theorists by boldly stating that: There are no formulas for success in Hollywood. We find that much conventional Hollywood wisdom is not valid. By making strategic choices in booking screens, budgeting and hiring producers, directors and actors with marquee value, a studio can position a movie to improve its chan ces of success. But, after a movie opens, the audience decides its fate. The exchange of information among a large number of individuals interacting personally unleashes a dynamic that is complex and unpredictable.[14] Vogel’s theory on the exchange of information from the public audience unleashing a complex and unpredictable dynamic typifies the world in which the Hollywood film is now being made. It is now, more than ever, that the success of a film in the box office is paramount to how Hollywood works. He describes the essence of the movie business as this: â€Å"The mean of box-office revenue is dominated by a few blockbuster movies and the probability distribution of box-office outcomes has infinite variance! The distribution of box-office revenues is a member of the class of probability distributions known as Là ¨vy stable distributions. These distributions are the limiting distributions of sums of random variables and are appropriate for modelling the box-office rev enues that motion pictures earn during their theatrical runs†¦ Movie projects are, in reality, probability distributions and a proper assessment of their prospects requires one to do a risk analysis of the probabilities of extreme outcomes.[15] What I believe Vogel is saying is that the importance of ticket sales from the box office shapes the type of movie that the studio will produce. A blockbuster film that boasts a line up of A-list stars will fare significantly better than a film that has no stars attached; the fact that the blockbuster might be an artistically inferior film has no real relation to its success. In turn, the ‘bigger’ the picture the more people go to see it. The more people go to see it, the longer it runs at the cinemas. The longer it runs at the cinemas, the more revenue the studio gets back. This means that a studio is more likely to release a major film, perhaps one of its 20% profit-movies, with big stars attached; this acts as insurance t hat it should, theoretically, be widely accepted by the audience. Vogel adds that: The complex dynamics of personal interaction between viewers and potential viewers overwhelm the initial conditions. The difficulties of predicting outcomes for individual movies is more sensible than the current practice of greenlighting individual movie projects.[16] Therefore the studios can have a clearer idea of how the movie is going to fare if there is a star attached. This is a Hollywood trait that has been successful since the 1920s and the Hollywood Star System. If you were to ask an average cinema goer what the most important ingredient of a Hollywood blockbuster was the answer, more often than not, would be that of an A-list star in the leading role. This is not a modern phenomenon in Hollywood. The star system was first professionally handled with the introduction of United Artists, a talent management company formed by D.W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, William S. Hart and Mary Pickford in 1919. Nearly ninety years later the importance of the agent in Hollywood can determine the success of an entire studio; it is their client that attracts a vast number of the public to the cinemas. If it wasn’t for the love affair that the viewing public has for celebrity then Hollywood would be a different place, yet the power of Hollywood as the market leader in film is unassailable; even from competitive new film nations such as India’s Bollywood productions. The ‘Big Six’ (Warner Bros., Paramount, Twentieth Century Fox, Sony, Disney, and Universal) and the Hollywood stars still ‘front’ the production. As Douglas Gomery writes: The Big Six studios retained a growing appetite for hot new talents. By the late-1990s newcomers Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck, as well as proven box-office winners like Jim Carrey and Tom Cruise, could command $20 million a picture.†[17] He argues that the current climate of Hollywood movie production is more akin to the Golden Age of the 1930s and 1940s. He believes that nothing much has changed in this time as the Big Six still have a dominant control over production and distribution: â€Å"†¦the end of the 20th century was the era when the Big Six in Hollywood achieved its greatest power and profitability.[18] Another believer in the power that stars have over a film’s performance at the box office is S. Abraham Ravid who was analysed the impact of well-known and well-loved acting talent on individual productions: Profitabil ity studies have been closely related to the study of stars. Stars have always been a puzzling phenomenon. Some stars seem to have vastly superior talents, whereas many others do not seem very different in looks or any other observable characteristics from many other talented performers. Yet, they receive vastly more attention, money, and recognition than anybody else.[19] Another important factor in understanding the economics of Hollywood is by analysing the demographics involved in worldwide releases. According to the figures from the MPAA, in 2005 the total domestic box office receipts in the United States remained near $9 billion and global box office receipts came in at over $23 billion. Admissions in US cinemas decreased 8.7% in 2005 to 1.4 billion.[20] The importance of understanding how the audience reacts to certain types of films is paramount in determining what projects are most likely to recoup their production budgets. One way of assessing this information is by identifying what genre of film is most successful at the box office. I shall examine the importance of genre in Hollywood later in the essay, but for the time being I shall focus on the importance of the film’s appointed rating. In the UK the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) uses a scale of ratings to ‘give the public information that empowers them to make appropriate viewing decisions for themselves and those in their care.’[21] In the United States the classification system is similar yet it is not fully enforceable as it is here in the UK. The MPAA ratings range from G (General Audiences; similar to our U), PG (Parental Guidance), PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned; similar to our 15), R (Restricted; similar to our 18) and NC-17 (Over 18 Only). Using the statistics supplied by the MPAA it is apparent that, ‘consistent with past years, PG-13 films comprised the majority of top grossers for the industry, with PG and PG-13 films accounting for 85% of 2005’s top 20 films’[22] In closer inspection the top 20 grossing films were made up of 5% G-rated, 25% PG-rated, 60% PG-13-rated and 10% R-rated. It is also interesting to note that since 1968, nine of the top ten grossing films have been PG and PG-13-rated (the other is R-rated); this is even though only 33% of films released since 1968 are PG or PG-13-rated co mpared to 58% of R-rated movies. [23] In his studies, Arthur de Vany examined a ten year period of Hollywood production and found some interesting facts: From 1985 to 1996, inclusive, Hollywood made 1,057 R-rated movies; just 60 G-rated movies were made during that same period R-rated movies accounted for 52 percent of the 1,689 movies that did not feature a star and they accounted for 57 percent of the movies that did feature a star. The 100 stars of the A-list appear in, produce or direct more often in R-rated movies than in any other rating.[24] Using the same research data it is interesting to note that less than three per cent of low budget R-rated movies included a star compared with ten per cent of medium budget and 45 per cent of high budget productions: Success rates are a more representative measure of revenue earning power than is the number of high grossing films. The success rate for R-rated movies is just 6 percent, whereas 13 percent of G- and PG-rated movies are hits and 10 percent of PG-13 movies are hits. The box-office success rates for all non-R-rated movies (G, PG and PG13) are twice the rate for R-rated movies.[25] Mainstream Hollywood To summarise all the information I have analysed above, it would seem that the best possible way for a Hollywood executive to decide whether to green light a project would be to make sure that the film was directed by a known director, starred two A-list actors and had a PG-13 rating. Also to be taken into consideration would be adaptations of popular books or remakes of previous films. True to form, Hollywood’s Big Six released the following last year: Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith (Fox); Harry Potter (Warner Bros.); The Chronicles of Narnia (Buena Vista); War of the Worlds (Paramount); King Kong (Universal); and Hitch (Sony). It is no coincidence that these six films from the Big Six represent six of the top eleven grossing films, with a combined gross box office total of almost $1.6 billion.[26] However, as previously mentioned it is the R-rated movie that is the most popular release in Hollywood. This is mainly due the subject matter of the story that classifies it as such. This subject matter is defined by genre. Film is a medium that can be divided, and subdivided, into different categories. These categories allow the filmmaker to choose what style the script will be filmed with. The resulting production will then attract an audience that appreciates that specific type of film. These categories and sub-categories are referred to as genres and sub-genres. The idea of genre caters mainly for the mass-produced studio films, most notably those of Hollywood. In his book ‘Genre and Hollywood’, author Steve Neale iterates this by stating that: The definition and discussion of genre and genres in the cinema has tended to focus on mainstream, commercial films in general and Hollywood films in particular.[27] This is supported by another writer of genre, Barry Keith Grant, when he identifies that genre movies are those commercial feature films which, through repetition and variation, tell familiar stories with familiar characters in familia r situations.[28] The most popular genres such as action, comedy, gangster and war films are almost always classified as an R-rating; this is why such a large percentage of Hollywood production falls into this category. So why is it that Hollywood still gambles on making films that, according to models, theories and past experience will not go on to make the studios rich? At the start of this essay I simplified the Hollywood process by splitting it between the business and the art. The business of Hollywood is to make money by getting audiences to watch their product, however, it is not as simple as that (thankfully). Even though it may seem that Hollywood is run by men in suits, there is still a lot of power held by the artists. These artists are in turn respected by the business men because they make them money. This money is made by investing in their ideas and vision. This vision is what eventually makes it onto the big screen. There are hugely identifiable strengths weaknesses in the Hollywood system; this is best demonstrated using the first film from the list I have just mentioned. Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith grossed $380 million and is a blockbuster science-fiction film. When the orig inal Star Wars was released in 1977 there was nothing to compare it to, it created a new style of filmmaking that was light years away from the B-movie science-fiction films previously. Admittedly, the hype of the film and its predecessors certainly helped its success at the box office but it is still a movie that exemplifies the Hollywood experience; pure escapism. It can be labelled as ‘painting by numbers’ in so much that it has a popular director (George Lucas), a couple of A-list stars (Ewan McGregor, Samuel L. Jackson) and a PG-13 rating. However, these attributes are just that; minor factors that make up the whole. Twenty years ago when Hollywood was in its darkest hour, such a major project would probably never have been given the infamous green light. The early 1980’s saw a dramatic drop in box office receipts. The beginning of the decade saw a 9% drop in tickets sold nationwide in American cinemas when only 1.02 billion were sold. This figure got worse in 1986 when just over 1.01 billion tickets were sold[29] (compared to over 4.5 billion ticket sales in 1930). The home video market had certainly dented theatrical sales but Hollywood would always recoup somehow. The immediate problem was the cost of keeping cinemas open; a similar situation to the post Depression period of the 1930’s. Another financial reshuffle was in order. The Big Six were now part of conglomerates. Gulf Western (Paramounts parent company) also owned Madison Square Gardens, Desilu, Simon and Schuster, and Paramount Pictures Television. Yet, only 11% of Gulf Western’s revenues were derived from entertainment industry holdings and just 4% from Paramount Pictures in 1981. That same year, United Artists was bringing only 12% of the revenues in for Transamerica, Universal represented 22% of MCAs income, and Warner Bros. accounted for 24% of Warner Communications revenue.[30] However, by 1989, the entertainment division of Gulf Western, led by Paramo unt Pictures, accounted for over 50% of Gulf Western’s yearly income during a year in which Paramount had only fourteen releases and a 13.8% share of the market thanks to the success of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ($197 million domestic box office),[31] demonstrating again just how important a single film had become by the end of the 1980’s. These blockbusters were to save Hollywood and allow it to grow stronger, and in 2002 ticket sales were over the 1.52 billion mark which was the highest figure for over twenty years, and the blockbuster continues to support the film industry to this day. Without the blockbuster there would not be the same number of people visiting the cinema. Without these audiences cinemas would close. Without the cinemas there would not be the same number of films released; and only the blockbuster would survive. In typical Hollywood irony it is the blockbuster that is keeping world cinema and low budget cinema alive. Conclusion Hollywood is more than just a location on the map. Hollywood is a business, a factory, a production line, a pool of talent, a byword for escapism and a place where dreams come true. Over one hundred years ago when Edwin S. Porter’s 1903 movie The Great Train Robbery introduced complex narrative structure in its editing techniques, and a decade later D.W. Griffith’s 1915 feature The Birth of a Nation grossed $10 million at the box office, it was evident that Hollywood had firmly grasped the concept of making movies. One hundred years later it is still producing films that make enough money to keep the business running. In conclusion to my research I have found that Hollywood operates on the basis that economics contribute considerably to the end product of the films produced. Without an in depth knowledge of how the market works the system would come crashing down. It would seem that this dependence on economic structure and theory would stagnate the film industry; only allowing the studios to release films that were targeted to a specific audience with restricted themes that would guarantee a return on profits. However, the statistics do not back this theory up. Hollywood does release blockbuster films that are almost generic in the way that they play, but the vast majority of films released are not going to return the costs involved. This is where the artistic side of Hollywood shines through. The fact that Hollywood is run as a business does not stop it producing the occasional work of art. There are not many businesses or industries that operate on the basis that around 70% of its product will make a financial loss. This is where the strengths and weaknesses of mainstream Hollywood are most visible. The 20% of film releases that go on to make a profit are all around us; advertising, marketing, merchandising, et al. Sometimes it is hard to get away from the Hollywood publicity machine that pumps its information out to the public, but this is the only way that it can get a return on its investments. It is the blockbuster that keeps the industry running, and as such we have to be prepared that for every Harry Potter there is a Brokeback Mountain and a Capote. Bibliography Burton, Graeme (2002) More than Meets the Eye (Third Edition) Arnold Publishing Curran, James (2000) Mass Media and Society Arnold Publishing de Vany, Arthur S. (2003) Hollywood Economics: How Extreme Uncertainty Shapes the Film Industry Routledge Gomery, Douglas (1989) Media Economics: Terms of Analysis Critical Studies in Mass Communication (Volume 6, Number 1) Gomery, Douglas (2003) The Economics of Hollywood: Money and Media in Alexander, Alison et al [ed.] (2003) Media Economics :Theory and Practice Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Grant, Barry Keith (1986) Film Genre Reader University of Texas Press: Austin Lewis, Jon (1996) Trust and Anti-Trust in the New Hollywood Michigan Quarterly Review Volume 35:1 Maltby, Richard (2003) Hollywood Cinema Blackwell Publishing Moran, Albert (1998) Film Policy: Hollywood and Beyond in Hill, John Church Gibson, Pamela [eds.] (1998) The Oxford Guide to Film Studies Oxford University Press Neale, Steve (1999) Genre and Hollywood Routledge: London Picard, Robert (1989) Media Economics: Concepts and Issues Sage Publications Ravid, S. Abraham (2005) Film Production in the Digital Age – What Do We Know about the Past and the Future? in Moul, Charles C. (2005) A Concise Handbook of Movie Industry Economics Cambridge University Press Smith, Sharon P. Smith, Kerry V. (1986) Successful Movies: A Preliminary Empirical Analysis Applied Economics (issue 18:5) Vogel, Harold L. (1990) Entertainment Industry Economics: A Guide for Financial Analysis Cambridge University Press Wasko, Janet (2003) How Hollywood Works Sage Publications US Theatrical Market 2005 Statistics Leaflet Motion Picture Association of America British Board of Film Classification website www.bbfc.co.uk Box Office Mojo website www.boxofficemojo.com The Numbers website www.the-numbers.com 1 Footnotes [1] Statistic taken from the US Theatrical Market 2005 Statistics Motion Picture Association (p14) [2] Maltby, Richard (2003) Hollywood Cinema Blackwell Publishing (p45) [3] Maltby, Richard (2003) Hollywood Cinema Blackwell Publishing (p45) [4] Smith, Sharon P. Smith, Kerry V. (1986) Successful Movies: A Preliminary Empirical Analysis Applied Economics (issue 18:5) (p506) [5] Wasko, Janet (2003) How Hollywood Works Sage Publications (p6) [6] Picard, Robert (1989) Media Economics: Concepts and Issues Sage Publications (p7) [7] Gomery, Douglas (1989) Media Economics: Terms of Analysis Critical Studies in Mass Communication (Volume 6, Number 1) (p58) [8] de Vany, Arthur S. (2003) Hollywood Economics: How Extrem

Saturday, October 12, 2019

gatmoral Moral Responsibility in The Great Gatsby :: Great Gatsby Essays

Moral Responsibility in The Great Gatsby Bang! Gatsby's dead! George Wilson shot Gatsby! However, who is morally responsible for killing Gatsby? The obvious answer would be George since he pulled the trigger. However, it is clear, if for no other reason than for the unimportance of George in the book, that others were also partly responsible. In The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tom, Daisy, and George are morally responsible for the death of Gatsby. Tom, because of his tattling on Gatsby, can be morally blamed for the murder of Gatsby. When George talked to him, Tom told George it was Gatsby's car that hit Myrtle, but he failed to mention that it was Daisy driving. Even though it was never directly mentioned, it is shown that Tom knew Daisy was the one who killed Myrtle when Nick said, "...and anybody would have said that they were conspiring together," (p.146) when referring to Tom and Daisy talking in their house. This "conspiring" was probably a plan to get Daisy away from the whole incident. Furthermore, Tom and Daisy leave town the next day, proving Tom's knowledge of Daisy's guilt by just trying to escape with her. Even knowing this, Tom still had the indecency to tell George it was Gatsby's car. Tom can also be morally blamed for the killing of Gatsby because of his affair with Myrtle. George killed Gatsby not only because he thought he killed Myrtle, but also because he was under the impression that Gatsby was the one having the affair with his wife. Tom knew George was thinking this and when George talked to him, Tom seized his opportunity to get off the hook for his sin and directed it to Gatsby, making himself even more morally incorrect for doing it. It is clearly justifiable to blame Tom for Gatsby's death. Daisy can also be put morally responsible for Gatsby's death. Her bad morals relating to Gatsby's death are displayed when Gatsby said, "Anyhow - Daisy stepped on it. I tried to make her stop, but she couldn't..." (p.145) Daisy was not morally responsible enough to stop the car after she hit Myrtle. She would also not take the rap for driving the car later, but instead, left town.

Friday, October 11, 2019

Angelina Jolie Biographical

Angelina Jolie, an example of the powerful and modern woman. Recently, Angelina Jolie released a statement: â€Å"l wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy. But it is one I am very happy that I made,† talking about her decision to undergo a preventive double mastectomy after being diagnosed with a cancer gene.Angelina Jolie, a movie star, Award winning actress and named highest paid actress by Forbes magazine, three words could describe her: talented, beautiful, rich. It would be very easy to go on and on about her on-camera success, instead this essay will illustrate her real life success and how despite all of the disadvantages mentioned above, Angelina Jolie, manages to be a philanthropist, independent, family woman, therefore a powerful example of the modern woman.Childhood Philanthropist Jolie raised by a hard working single mother did not have an easy childhood, her mother was often absent and as a result she had an ea rly start on depression, aving lived this, Jolie is particularly sensitive when it comes to childhood matters, and in her adulthood she has worked on eradicating extreme rural poverty and lack of education, helping not only kids but also adults all over the world, supporting over 25 causes and creating foundations on her own, not only donating large amounts of money but also her own time.Teenage years resilience At the start of her acting career in her teenage years, Jolie had a hard time with drugs and casual sexual encounters, Adulthood Family woman Coming from a broken family, beautiful movie star Conclusion No matter what your stage is, if you are a teacher and you are working in a small school, a nurse in a hospital, a scientist is a dark lab room. Movie star or not own your stage Angelina Jolie Biographical Essay By Yaridis-Cervantes

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Miseducation of Filipino Essay

Prof. Renato Constantino, in his essay entitled â€Å"The Miseducation of the Filipino†, writes about the coming about of the miseducation and the consequences of such action in the lives of the Filipinos, then, now, and perhaps the future. Promoting and imposing the â€Å"unFilipino† identity in Filipinos was the miseducation that Americans pursued during the time when they â€Å"posed† as a benevolent ally to the Philippines, and they proved victorious indeed because they had completely subjugated the Filipinos, both in minds and in hearts. Education is a very vital factor for one’s development. And as we all know, through education, one’s mind is molded because of the teachings, ideas, and values taught to him. Due to this fact, it’s only either of the two that will happen: the person will become productive provided that he was taught with the right things, or, the person will become otherwise since he acquired negative things. Personally, I learned and realized many things about the history and relationship between the Americans and the Filipinos upon reading this paper. It is quite intriguing what the main reasons really were the Americans in taking power over the Philippines. Was it for the good of the Filipinos or the Americans’ good? Whatever it was, they succeeded in almost every aspect of conquering the land because they knew the most effective way to subjugate Filipinos minds: by controlling our education. They created a new generation of good colonials, the â€Å"unFilipino† Filipinos. The indigenous ways of life of Filipinos had been changed to the American way of life. That was ridiculous because certainly, America and Philippines vastly differed from each other in so many ways, and therefore, their ways of life based on their differing needs should be entirely different. But the Americans insisted on creating a â€Å"carbon-copy† of themselves in Filipinos through the imposition of their language in their education. I went to elementary and high school in the Philippines, and I know for a fact they used both English and Tagalog as the media of teaching. In the long run, I think this resulted in both positive and negative ways — positively, because I was uprooted to the U. S. and I was able to use the â€Å"smattering† English I know to communicate with others, and negatively, because as I have just realized, I feel the â€Å"impediment† in my thought process because I cannot think consistently in one language. All in all, I liked this piece because it reiterates the importance of education to not only produce literate people but also to produce people who would use that education to better their nation.

Budgeting Process Is a Waste of Time and Valuable Resources Essay

A budget is a plan for financing an enterprise or government during a definite period, which is prepared and submitted by a responsible executive to a representative body (or other duly constituted agent) whose approval and authorization are necessary before the plan may be executed. In the case of Uganda, it is a financing plan for one year prepared by the president and approved by Parliament. Some scholars have argued that budgets are a waste of time and valuable resources. But this statement is not entirely true as the budget process has some very useful roles in public administration as shown below;- Financial control. Government needs to be able to exercise control over the ministries and departs – i. e. to make sure that the ministries are keeping to plan and that necessary actions can be taken to put them back on track when needed. Government needs to have control tools to make sure that financial plans and targets are being achieved, and the best tool is the budget. The budget is a plan set out in numbers, which enables the government to exercise control. The difference between what is budgeted to happen and what actually happens is termed a variance. A favorable variance means that ministry or department is doing well while an adverse variance shows those that are not. Allocation of scarce resources. One of the biggest tasks of government is the allocation of scare resources. This is often done through the budget. Resource allocation refers to the distribution of resources, and in particular finance, from the center to peripheral levels. Because the budgetary process is often participatory, it enable the various ministries and local governments to identify their needs and present them to the centre. Programme Coordination. The budget process serves very well to coordinate government departments and ministries. It is at this budget process that the government can get to know who is doing what and at what cost. Government can for example be able to tell that water for irrigation has been covered under the Ministry of Agriculture and should therefore be omitted from the Ministry of Water and Environment. Communication. The public budget serves as a communication tool to a variety of audiences. The general public, civil society, and legislators all receive information from the budget process. Once the budget has been approved by the legislature and signed into law, the ministries and other agencies become the information recipients. Importantly, each of these actors perceives the budget differently. Budget also communicates upwards. Ministries and various agencies must prepare a budget that persuades the president that they support him and his manifesto. At this level of the process, the information in the budget document must explain why a program deserves continued support, how it meets the president’s policy priorities, and how well it is using the resources it has been given. After a ministry budget has been incorporated into the national budget the primary audience for communicating information shifts from the executive to the legislative branch of government. The primary goal at this stage is to provide information to legislature with the recommendations and analysis that serve as the basis for their decisions. Perhaps the most important purpose for public budgeting is to communicate a ministry’s intentions and performance to the citizens. The media also plays a major role in presenting budgets to the citizens. The key events in the budget processes and budget documents must serve to support a mass communication task. Successful communication helps to build legitimacy for the government and its programs. Budgeting as a Governing Tool. Public budgeting has become an increasingly central galvanizing force for both the administrative and policy side of governance. This process begins with the preparation of program-level, agency-level, and then ministry-level requests for the coming fiscal year. This budget process presents a political platform for the selection of policy choices and for the allocation of resources to support those choices. The development of a national budget provides the foundation from which to organize a coordinated response to these complex problems and needs. Financial Accountability. Reflecting its roots, the budget process provides the tools to ensure financial accountability. Legislative oversight and audit functions are important activities that provide an opportunity for ministries to demonstrate that they have complied with legislative directives. This compliance provides assurances to both elected officials and to the public that the ministry and its programs are serving the public interest. Influence on the Economy . The spending and taxation policies of the central government and local governments have economic impact. Of course, the central government, with its sh11 trillion for 2012/2013 has far more impact on the economy than billions the local governments spend. From an economist’s point of view, the budget serves the following combination of economic objectives: * funds social service programs for those in need, thus increasing the demand for private sector goods and services; * reflects tax policy that affects business and individuals; * reflects and funds the enforcement of commercial, transportation, land use and environmental regulations that affect the business climate; * funds education and other training programs that enhance the country’s human and economic resources; * funds routine purchases (like stationary) and capital projects (like Bujagali dam) that stimulate economic activity; * serves to redistribute wealth across the country’s residents; and * Supports the government as the largest single employer. Public Budgeting as Political tool. The budget process presents a series of opportunities for elected officials and interest groups. The perspectives and needs of elected officials and interest groups may fr equently contrast with the values and hopes of most public administrators. Understanding these contrasting needs is a useful key to understanding the budget process. Elected officials must respond to their constituent’s needs and demonstrate a record of leadership. MPs must demonstrate an ability to use government to solve problems in their constituencies. Survival of an MP rests on this ability. In contrast, civil servants often rely on public service and professional values to guide their sense of action and accomplishment. For example, at the ministry of finance, the minister (who is not elected) and budget analysts are primarily committed to acquiring the resources necessary to maintain the efficient and effective delivery of programs, not delivering on promises to constituents. The budget process provides leadership opportunities to bridge and reconcile these competing perspectives. The promises of an election campaign must be quickly translated into policies and programs. Campaign goals and visions must be translated into legislation and directives that can reform and reorient the ministries. The budget also provides an opportunity for the executive to engage with the legislature. When executive and legislative branches are divided, compromise is usually necessary to meet the constitutional duty shared by the Executive and legislative branches i. e the president must present a budget to the legislature and the parliament is constitutionally required to enact a budget. Waste of time. On many instances, however, budgets may appear of a waste of time when they are not adhered too. In Uganda for example, The Monitor newspaper reported that the budget for Sate House had jumped from Shs66. 1 billion approved in September last year to Shs204. 4 billion. On the day to day running, there always unforeseen consequences that governments have to cater for and often need extra resources beyond what is budgeted for. An example in Uganda was the Bududa landslides, In the US we have seen incidences such Hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans in 2005. But that is only a perception. Budgets play a very big role in public management and administration.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Estrogen and progesterone ( Advanced pharmacology) Essay

Estrogen and progesterone ( Advanced pharmacology) - Essay Example Pills containing progesterone also act by secreting thick cervical mucus which blocks the movement of the sperm beyond the cervix. There are many different types of progesterones like synthetic or oral progesterone, crinone, injectible progesterone and progesterone suppositories. Before recommending an oral contraceptive pill which is usually a combined oral contraceptive pill (COCP) to the client, a detailed clinical history must be taken. The history should cover information like the previous and current medications taken by the client, herbal and over the counter remedies and drug usage. In case of women above 35 years and women with a history of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, migraines, gall bladder disease and pulmonary hypertension, COCP recommendation should be avoided (Petitti, 2003). The oral contraceptive may either be a combination birth control pill or a minipill. The combination birth control pill contains both progestin and estrogen and different combinations of active and inactive pills which may be conventional or continuous dosing type. Progestin is the only constituent of the minipill. The combination birth control pills may be monophasic or triphasic. In case of a monophasic birth control pill, every active pill comprises of the same quantity of progestin and estrogen, whereas the triphasic combination birth control pill contains three different types of pills that contain different hormones taken for a period of 3 weeks. Other than oral contraceptives, there are also novel approaches available to prevent conception. Ortho evra is a trans-dermal patch that is worn on any region of the body like abdomen, buttocks, upper arm or upper torso except the breasts that delivers progestin and estrogen in an uninterrupted manner into the blood stream through the skin. Contraception is also achieved through depot specific injections. For instance, Depo provera is medroxyprogesterone acetate which could

Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Urban Studies Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Urban Studies - Assignment Example Boo introduces her readers to other Annawadi residents such as; Asha, an aspiring Annawadi politician; Sunil; an orphaned trash scavenger; and Manju, Asha’s virtuous daughter. Manju is poised to become Annawadi’s first female college graduate. Chapter five of the book is separate from the other presiding four chapters. The business of burning, part B, quotes Rambha Jha, an Annawadi mother, who says, â€Å"Rich people fight about stupid things. Why shouldn’t poor people do the same?† Every chapter depicts hope inherent among the residents of Mumbai. The Beijing Olympics would hopefully connect the garbage trade to the global market. The hopes of the under citizens are, however, in vain. From the book, it is evident that Mumbai is a place of festering grievance and ambient envy despite the fact that its citizens are full of hope and ambition. These chapters are simple, and despite the deeper rooted possibilities of what they might be trying to convey, they are a typical case prototype. The chapters are built around most of the assumptions made about under citizens and their views of life and of the whole world. A closer analysis of these chapters shows evidence of underlying issues being presented. Chapters 6, 7, and 8, are about, â€Å"The business of burning.† It tries to bring out the issue of economic hope and indicates the intensity of official corruption among Annawadians. Boo brings to light the corruption of the police and legal community, as well as the seething resentments between Muslims and Hindus. When poor people are involved in corrupt activities, it is termed as wrong. This case is not the same if corruption involves the rich. In my opinion, Annawadians are so desperate for success and would love to do things like the rich do. They create illusions among themselves by doing things according to how the rich do theirs. In chapter 6, the Husains empty their hut onto the maidan. Other citizens judge the wealth of

Monday, October 7, 2019

Term Paper 2 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

2 - Term Paper Example Table of Contents Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Analysis 5 SWOT Analysis 5 Porter’s Five Forces Analysis 7 Staying Power 9 Summary and Conclusion 12 Works Cited 13 Name of the Student: Name of the Professor: Course Number: Date of the Paper: Strategic Analysis of Corona Beer Introduction This study has chosen Grupo Modelo in order to analyse the case study. In the first part of the study, the company overview will be provided followed by some information on its top brand ‘Corona Extra’. Grupo Modelo- Company Overview Grupo Modelo is a big and well known brewery company in Mexico. It was established in the year 1925. It alone holds 63 percent of the beer market in Mexico and exports its products to United Kingdom and United States. It has a joint venture with a company named Molson Coors Brewing Company UK Ltd. It exports mainly the Corona, Pacifico and the Modelo brands. Among them Corona Extra is one brand which is the fourth largest selling beer in respect of the volume. It is one of the leading brands sold worldwide. In the United States, the Corona Extra is at the top among the imported beers. Analysis SWOT Analysis Swot analysis is an important tool for strategic planning (Boone, and Kurtz 46; Ferrel, and Hartline 122). It helps in decision making after understanding the dependency and the relationship between a particular company and its environment (Pahl, and Richter 27). This business planning tool helps to overcome the threats and the weaknesses. It is one of the traditional methods of strategic management. Strength The top brands of Grupo Modelo have huge demand in the domestic as well as the international market. Corona Beer, which is one of the leading brands of the company, is the fourth largest selling beer in respect of the volume. The company leads the beer market in Mexico and hence enjoys the market share leadership. It possesses cost advantage due to the large volume of production. The leading position in the beer mar ket not only enhances the sales of the company, but also strengthens its financial position. It has a strong management team which has a positive impact on the performance of the company. The overall unit cost of the products of the company is lower as compared to the competitors which help them to achieve competitive advantage in the market. The strong tradition that is followed while providing services attracts the customers and the quality of the services provided helps in retaining these customers and achieve success in the market. Weakness One of the main weaknesses of the company is that most of its brands are manufactured for the domestic market in Mexico. The company has lesser number of brands serving the customers in the international market. The company should make efforts to increase the brands delivered in the global market apart from serving as a leader in the Mexican market. The company has not performed much product innovation in the past few years. The changing tast es of the customers might result in losing them. Opportunity The company has the opportunity to expand its operations in new market segments. The expansion of the services in new and international markets will lead to a rapid increase in the growth of the company. It also possesses the opportunity to introduce some more products and expand its product line in order to accommodate with the changing tastes and preferences of the customers. It has the