Individual Reflection on Marketing Simulation Game Assignment - 1

Individual Reflection on Marketing Simulation Game - Assignment Example My part included taking care of the marketing plan to be able to evaluate and understand the market in which the company operates as well as its competitiveness in the industry. In this project, our main aim for my part of the project was to help us in assessing and understanding the competitiveness of MYPHONE Company. In addition, the simulation was also aimed at creating awareness about various resources such as finances, research and development, sales, as well as the costs for carrying out different marketing activities that were required by the company. The experience and the knowledge that were achieved from this simulation were intended to be used in sound decision making for the betterment of the growth of the company as far as its marketing sector is concerned. The simulation will also help to add more knowledge in the world of marketing in this company, which have not been realized. I was able to achieve the goals that this simulation intended to find out. This is because; the simulation looked both the internal and the external assessment of the company. Such analyses are very important in finding out which internal or external factors are responsible for the companys growth or barring the company from growing in the market. Such analyses were very helpful in unravelling what marketing strategies should be applied by the company to combat its unfavorable environmental factors and how the favorable factors can be turned into opportunities that can be exploited. MYPHONE was found to operate in a very competitive market. At least from the weaknesses, strengths, opportunities and threats of the company, it is easy to know the level of competitiveness of the company when compared to its competitors. It was easy to know the weaknesses of the company in order to make corresponding decisions and strategies that could be used to change the weaknesses into strengths. The strengths of the

Magnolia Therapeutic Solutions Essay Example for Free

Magnolia Therapeutic Solutions Essay Therapeutic Solutions is a nonprofit organization in New York City that specializes in psychotherapy for individuals diagnosed with Post Traumatic Syndrome Disorder (PTSD). The organization was created in 1998 by Mary Stewart. Mary recognized a significant demand for therapeutic services in NYC for individuals suffering from PTSD. Despite a large body of research showing the positive effects of psychotherapy on PTSD symptoms, at the time, there were very few organizations in NYC that specialized in the use of professional psychotherapeutic services to work with PTSD individuals. Seizing the opportunity to provide a much needed service, Mary established Magnolia Therapeutic Solutions (henceforth referred to as Magnolia) and ran the organization as the Executive Director. Due to the unique position of the organization and a number of funding sources willing to provide start-up grants to Magnolia, the organization grew quite quickly. In 1998, the organization began with six employees, and each employee wore many different hats to ensure the sustainability and growth of the organization. However, by 2000, the organization’s staff size had grown to 34. Thanks to the continued growth of demand for services and the tangential supply of grant money, the organization was performing quite well. Staff members were now no longer required to perform more than their main task, the annual budget was now over $1. 3 million, and the organization had already received many prestigious awards and accolades for the services that they have performed for NYC. On September 11, 2001, NYC suffered one of the most devastating acts of terror ever inflicted on the United States. The NYC local government was quick to act and immediately called in a variety of services to provide assistance in the overall relief effort. Magnolia, having been noted for its specialty in PTSD services, was asked to attend to the needs of the upsurge of individuals suffering from PTSD because of the terrorist attack. NYC provided a sizable, 1-year grant to the organization to help it meet capacity issues that resulted from increased demand for services. Subsequently, Magnolia hired more counselors and used the remaining grant money to increase other administrative services within the organization. The assistance Magnolia was able to provide to the PTSD victims of the terrorist attack was substantial. Considering the great success that the organization enjoyed, when constructing the 2002 budget, Mary insisted that Magnolia included the 1-year grant that it received for 2001 because she believed that the grant would be renewed for 2002. Additionally, despite the ailing economy, Mary placed steeper demands on the development department to raise even more money than 2001 by budgeting anticipated grant revenue higher for 2002. The total budget was $2 million dollars and was approved by the organization’s board of directors. If you were on the board faced with the decision to approve or reject this budget, what would you do? † Ultimately, the organization suffered a $500,000 shortfall in the 2002 budget when the large city grant was not renewed and revenue fell short of predictions. Subsequently, Mary was forced to layoff one third of the staff. This had a very large and negative affect on the remaining staff and caused the organization to stagnate over the next few years.

Differentiation in the Marketing of Fashion Clothes

Differentiation in the Marketing of Fashion Clothes Consider current practices of differentiation in the marketing of fashion clothes Report on: a) The current situation in the UK and regional markets (market segments, key players, sales practices, trends, opportunities and threats) The UK clothing market is essentially mature, following changes in the profile of the UK retail market for clothing during the 1990s. There was a major shift away from traditional sources of purchasing, such as department stores, clothing independents and variety stores, in favour of discounters, supermarkets and sports outlets. This reflects the ‘casualisation’ of the UK and the downward pressure of cheaper, imported products on retail price levels. Shopping for clothing and footwear is increasingly moving away from the traditional high street locations to out-of-town shopping centres, where families may typically spend a good part of a day browsing and shopping in a wide range of stores, rather than visiting their local high street to shop in specific outlets. Mainstream women’s clothing is still strongly populated by private labels from variety stores, such as Marks Spencer or Bhs, and clothing specialists, such as Next, River Island and Principles. Premium product ranges remain focused primarily on department stores and there is some degree of â€Å"trading up† to labels such as Alexon, Planet, Viyella or Jaeger by consumers with greater disposable income levels (Global Market Information Database, 2005). Discounters significantly strengthened their share of consumer purchasing over the last two decades, largely due to the success of the Matalan and Primark chains. However, there are indications in the last two years that strong growth in the position of supermarket groups, largely due to their expansion into fashion wear, is beginning to shift value-driven purchasing in their favour away from discounters, though this shift is not yet decisive. Supermarkets are becoming increasingly involved in clothing; with companies suc h as Asda, Tesco and J Sainsbury have all launched clothing collections under a brand identity during the past few years. For example, J Sainsbury commissioned fashion designer Jeff Banks to launch a clothing range and Asda’s George at Asda range quickly became well-established, making supermarkets increasingly key players in the market. However, supermarkets still tend to focus on price, rather than fashion, and are thus not yet truly key players on the scale of Marks and Spencer, Next and Matalan (Global Market Information Database, 2005). The UK consumer increasingly regards an item of clothing or footwear as a disposable item, rather than an investment and this has affected both consumers’ approaches to purchasing decisions, and the fashion marketers’ sales practices. Whilst quality remains important, as an item must be fit for use, fashion styles play a much greater role in everyday purchasing than previously, so that a piece of clothing may not be expected to last longer than one season. This, in turn, places an emphasis on price levels; and the significantly increased availability of ‘value’ brands in supermarkets and discounters, which stimulates volume purchasing without contributing to value sales development. There is also a growing emphasis on purchasing clothing for leisure use, which has a direct impact on the sales practices used, and on their styling. The dramatic increase in purchasing of sports clothing and footwear during recent years was largely underwritten by fashion marke ting, rather than by a significantly higher level of participation in active sports. Although a necessary requirement of life, which requires regular replacement for functional reasons, let alone in response to fashion trends, clothing sales show an increasing trend of been strongly affected by price discounting during recent years (Global Market Information Database, 2005). Increased competition at retail level, particularly due to the growing involvement of supermarkets and discounters, is causing deflation on prices in most UK clothing and footwear. This situation has been further exacerbated by the growing globalisation of product supply, with formerly UK production increasingly relocated to low-cost production units in the Far East and Eastern Europe. This major shift of production of clothing away from the UK to low-cost production locations, primarily in Asia-Pacific or Eastern Europe, has raised marketing threats for several UK companies over ethical issues surrounding the reported exploitation of cheap labour in these overseas production units. There was extensive media coverage of Marks Spencers decision to abandon its previous strategy of sourcing the majority of its products from UK production (Global Market Information Database, 2005) To compensate for this shift in production, leading UK manufacturers began to emphasise their extensive expertise in product design, which adds value to the finished product. This offers an excellent opportunity for companies with the necessary experience to design and market new ranges of products with lower production overheads. b) Your assessment of the marketing strengths and weaknesses of the key players in terms of branding, reputation, differentiation and elements of the marketing mix. Marks Spencer has historically had a reputation as a leading retailer in the UK’s clothing sector, and this is a position that the company undoubtedly aspires to maintain. The bulk of its turnover is attributable to clothing, approximately 50%, and food, with 44%, (Global Market Information Database, 2005). However, as competition in the apparel sector intensified in the late 1990s, Marks Spencer struggled to maintain market share. Marks Spencer has always positioned and differentiated itself as offering reasonably priced, high quality and well-fitting clothes, but this marketing strategy received something of a battering at the end of the 20th century, as designers and commentators alike criticised the company for the very aspects of its brand which had traditionally attracted customers to the chain. However, Marks and Spencer’s marketing mix, primarily its design and quality, has received far more favourable press in recent years, and a renewed focus on casualwear and the core womenswear ranges, Per Una and Blue Harbour, have helped the company improve performance and regain market share (Strategic Direction, 2005). Matalan’s combination of low overheads, due to low cost out-of-town locations and overseas direct product sourcing, has enabled the chain to undercut high street competitors by as much as 50% on its own brands, and by as much as 35% on external branded products. Complementing its low price differentiation, Matalan also has an astute marketing mix. It operates as a clothing club: customers pay a mandatory  £1 membership fee for the privilege of shopping at the stores. Membership information also enables Matalan to use direct marketing and to target customers with catalogues and tailored clothing lines to meet demand (Rowley and Haynes, 2005) The potential of the discount clothing market remains significant. Marginally larger than its leading competitor, New Look, Matalan looks relatively well placed to make the most of burgeoning opportunities in the discount sector. However, the recent slowdown in the clothing market does not appear to have been to Matalan’s advantage . The company should be in a position to benefit from trading down by consumers in the event of economic down-turn, but recent figures suggest that consumers are shopping elsewhere to get the best deals on designer names, and that Matalan’s bargain image now counts against it in the increasingly celebrity image-driven fashion markets Next is one the major success stories of the upper end of the UK clothing mid-market. A retailer of fashionable, moderately priced clothing, for trendy men, women and children, Next offers products targeted at the top end of the mass market, and aims to combine individual styling with quality and value for money. Resisting the temptation to be overly trend setting, opting to differentiate itself by offering sensible and stylish clothing, rather than highly fashionable items, Next has maintained strong consumer loyalty. Since the early 1990s, Next has resisted all attempts to increase the number of clothing brands that it operates, convinced that diversification would ultimately be to the detriment of the Next brand. The success that it has achieved over many years as a result of product development, the progressive move to larger stores and the increase in the number of home shopping customers has convinced both the retailer itself and investors that it is right to continue with this marketing mix (Datamonitor, 2005) c) Your marketing recommendations for any organisation wanting to enter the market. In 2009, the United Kingdom apparel retail industry is forecast to have a value of $45.8 billion, an increase of 18.5% since 2004. The compound annual growth rate of the industry in the period 2004-2009 is predicted to be 3.4% (Datamonitor, 2005). This indicates that there will be space for new retailers to enter the market for clothing. However, consumer purchasing of clothing and footwear is now moving away from traditional outlets, such as department stores, variety stores and high street specialists, towards grocery supermarkets and discounters. This reflects a general move to out-of-town shopping, with consumers particularly attracted to the convenience of purchasing all their clothing items at the same time, and in the same store as they regularly buy groceries (Global Market Information Database, 2005) The brand name of an item of clothing also acts as a strong influence on the purchase decision, particularly among younger consumers. Peer pressure means that it is critically i mportant to be seen wearing the â€Å"right† brand of sportswear, and sales of children’s wear have been boosted by this fact in recent years. At the same time, parents are typically enjoying a greater degree of disposable income during the review period, which is increasingly focused on spending on fashion items for their children (Coughlan, 2006). Equally, the downward pricing trend in the UK fashion retail industry has led many retailers to focus upon profitability, rather than sales growth in recent years. Companies are continually trying to cut costs by utilizing measures such as larger retail formats, and by shifting production or changing their suppliers to lower cost regions in Latin America and Asia-Pacific. Some retailers have cut production and entered into niche markets in an attempt to add value to their business and improve margins. The UK retail industry is thus undergoing significant changes; traditionally dominated by high street retailers, supermarket chains such as ASDA and Tesco are expanding their clothing lines aggressively and gaining an increasing share of apparel sales. Originally the supermarkets purely focused on price to make their apparel attractive to British consumers and subsequently there was a certain stigma attached to their garments. However, as time has passed and supermarket labels have beco me more widely accepted, they are moving their range of clothes more upmarket, placing increased pressure on to traditional apparel retailers. Given this, any organization wanting to enter the UK fashion retail market is likely to have to differentiate itself based on brand, rather than quality or price. As new entrants will almost undoubtedly lack the buying power and reach of MS, Next, Matalan or Tesco, they would be better advised to concentrate on building a profitable niche, and the best way to do this is to make themselves a desirable brand. Given the preference for the latest fashions, at reasonable prices, with clothes only intended to last for the season they are purchased, the ability to react rapidly to changes in the market is also vital for any new entrant. This would differentiate them from the large chains, which often have structured, lean, and slow supply chains. Finally, although the need to base production facilities abroad, to take advantage of low labour costs, is now widely recognised as being vital to profitability, there have been high levels of negative publicity over potential â€Å"sweatshop† working practices. As such, a significant advantage can accrue to an organisation which differentiates itself on the basis of providing good wages and working conditions to its overseas workers, provided that the price of the clothes can still be kept competitive. References: Coughlan, S. (2006) Spoilt for choice. BBC News Magazine. Accessed 14th June 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5071222.stm Datamonitor (2005) Apparel Retail Industry Profile: United Kingdom. Global Market Information Database (2005) Clothing and Footwear in the United Kingdom. Euromonitor International. Rowley, J. and Haynes, L. (2005) Customer Relationship Management: The Matalan Way. Marketing Review; Vol. 5, Issue 2, p. 175. Strategic Direction (2005) Will the real Marks Spencers stand up?: Searching for that winning brand. Vol. 21, Issue 9, p. 28.

Harry Houdini Essay -- Essays Papers

Harry Houdini What comes to mind when one thinks of Harry Houdini? There are many things one could say, magic, escapes, perseverance, hard work, determination, fame, etc. Houdini was a master magician as well as a superb escape artist. (Harry 1) Houdini was one of the most determined men in history. He was so obsessed with achieving his goal that no matter what got in his way he pushed it aside. Even if it were his parents he would ignore them. Many things got in his way but he was so focused that he ignored them. This is the story of the greatest Magician that ever lived. On April 6th, 1874 Ehrich Weiss (Harry Houdini) was born to Rabbi Mayer Samuel Weiss and his wife Cecelia on March 24 in Budapest, Hungary. (Timeline 1874 1) After Erich was born, his father had many problems in Hungary and came to Wisconsin. The Weiss family joined Rabbi Weiss in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he led a small Reform congregation. At age nine, Ehrich and some neighborhood friends establish a five-cent circus. Wearing red woolen stockings, he bills himself as "Ehrich, The Prince of the Air." (Timeline 1874 1) Harry Houdini lived a very rough childhood. His father had failure after failure. Since Weiss couldn’t survive in Wisconsin, he brought Erich with him to New York City. In the city, they lived in a boardinghouse on East Seventy-ninth Street. Ehrich works a variety of jobs to help support the family. In 1891, Ehrich teamed up with Jacob Hyman, a friend from his job at neckwear cutting firm. They form a magic act called â€Å"The Brothers Houdini.† (Timeline 1874 1) All his life Ehrich loved magic. One magician he especially admired was Robert-Eugene Houdin. Ehrich started calling himself â€Å"Harry Houdini.† The next year Eric experienced a grave tragedy. His father died on October 5, 1892 at the age of 63. (Timeline 1874 1) Ehrich was seventeen years old. He had experienced such a hard life that he just kept on going. Many people said that his childhood was the reason that he was so mentally strong and determined. Meanwhile â€Å"Harry† as he called himself now was performing on the Midway at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Later that same year, Jacob Hyman left The Brothers Houdini and was replaced by Harry’s brother Theodore, or Dash as he liked to be called. That summer, Harry met fellow performer Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner. After three weeks of getting to... ...(Timeline 1912 1) Later that year, the legacy of Harry Houdini ended as he died in Detroit on Halloween, from complications of appendicitis. Several days earlier, a student had struck him in the stomach in his dressing room, even though he was hurt, he refused to cancel his shows until it was too late. His death triggered mourning and tributes around the world. Houdini's funeral was held on November 4th at the Elks Clubhouse on West Forty-third Street in New York. As many as two thousand mourners packed the ballroom, and the event was widely covered. (Timeline 1912 1) In conclusion, I feel that Harry Houdini was the greatest Magician that ever lived. He was so talented that he was able to do more than just magic. He amazed people for years and was probably 100 years ahead of his time. Harry Houdini will never be forgotten for his achievements. Works Cited Harry Houdini, Master Magician: A study of a master’s childhood and how it affected his adulthood. December 13,2000 Timeline of Harry Houdini’s Life, 1874-1898 December 15, 2000 Timeline of Harry Houdini’s Life, 1899-1910 . December 15, 2000 Timeline of Harry Houdini’s Life, 1912-1926 December 15, 2000

Accusations Without Proof

Accusations Without Proof In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, he tells the story of Salem, Massachusetts during the witch trials. He does this to draw a comparison between the red scare of the 1950s and the false accusations of the girls and the community in Salem in 1692. In his play the little girls who are about twelve to eighteen, they were dancing naked in the forest with a black caldron with Tituba.Paris is the one who finds them and ow all the girls have to lie and say Tituba is in touch with the devil, act like they see evil spirits, and say that people were witches even thou they were not. In the end a lot of people die over silly things that could not even be proven. Some of the things they would do for punishment was, they would hold them underwater for ten minutes and if they came back up dead they were not witches, if they were alive they were. It was a lose lose method and not the best way to solve things.Most cases they came up dead. Another thing they would do is Ju st hang hem and not give them a chance to explain themselves. When they would take them into court and testify that they were not in touch with the devil the girls would act like they see things, and start to get scared. One girl went as far as faking a coma for several hours. The people that died did not deserve to over something silly like little girls trying to get out of trouble. This was much like the Red Scare because, everyone was paranoid thinking communism was taking over.People were questioned to see if they were communist, ust like in The Crucible. It Just goes to show how fast rumors can spread. Arthur Miller wrote about The Crucible because he wanted to show how close it was to the Red Scare, and that people would be questioned without proof. The point of this book is to demonstrate how hysteria and rumors can cause people a lot of problems, which in this case caused several people to die. In the Red Scare people thought Russians were spreading communism. In The Crucibl e people thought witchcraft was spreading through Salem.The girls went as far as letting eople close to them die Just to save themselves from getting in trouble. When Proctor and another member of Salem start an argument over whose land they are on, rumors start to spread that the girls are doing this to get their neighbors land. Elizabeth is the one who convinces John into admitting that he has seen the devil. John agrees to do it. The officers of the court rejoice in finding out something about the trials. But John refuses to give up anymore names in which he saw with the devil.The officers of the court want John to make his confession public but he grows ith anger and tears up the document he was suppose to sign. John and three others were hung at the very end of the book. All of the Salem witch trials could have been avoided if the group of girls would nave Just contessed to dancing naked in the torest. They could nave saved several lives from being ended and unnecessary punishm ents. People had to sit in Jail for years and would have killed themselves instead of going crazy in Jail.In the end they still got in trouble but if they would have confessed right away they would have robably Just got in minor trouble instead of ending up having a bunch of innocent people. The court didn't handle the situation in the right manor either. They put people in Jail that they had no proof against. They could have thought of better ways to decide if they were witches or not instead of having them killed. In conclusion all of the Salem Witch Trials could have been avoided and lives could have been saved if the self-centered girls would have Just confessed right away. â€Å"Mr. Hale, you surely do not doubt my Justice. † -Danforth

Differences Between Parameters and Statistics

Differences Between Parameters and Statistics In several disciplines, the goal is to study a large group of individuals. These groups could be as varied as a species of bird, college freshmen in the U.S. or cars driven around the world. Statistics are used in all of these studies when it is infeasible or even impossible to study each and every member of the group of interest. Rather than measuring the wingspan of every bird of a species, asking survey questions to every college freshman, or measuring the fuel economy of every car in the world, we instead study and measure a subset of the group. The collection of everyone or everything that is to be analyzed in a study is called a population. As we have seen in the examples above, the population could be enormous in size. There could be millions or even billions of individuals in the population. But we must not think that the population has to be large. If our group being studied is fourth graders in a particular school, then the population consists only of these students. Depending on the school size, this could be less than a hundred students in our population. To make our study less expensive in terms of time and resources, we only study a subset of the population. This subset is called a sample. Samples can be quite large or quite small. In theory, one individual from a population constitutes a sample. Many applications of statistics require that a sample has at least 30 individuals. Parameters and Statistics What we are typically after in a study is the parameter. A parameter is a numerical value that states something about the entire population being studied. For example, we may want to know the mean wingspan of the American bald eagle. This is a parameter because it is describing all of the population. Parameters are difficult if not impossible to obtain exactly. On the other hand, each parameter has a corresponding statistic that can be measured exactly. A statistic is a numerical value that states something about a sample. To extend the example above, we could catch 100 bald eagles and then measure the wingspan of each of these. The mean wingspan of the 100 eagles that we caught is a statistic. The value of a parameter is a fixed number. In contrast to this, since a statistic depends upon a sample, the value of a statistic can vary from sample to sample. Suppose our population parameter has a value, unknown to us, of 10. One sample of size 50 has the corresponding statistic with value 9.5. Another sample of size 50 from the same population has the corresponding statistic with value 11.1. The ultimate goal of the field of statistics is to estimate a population parameter by use of sample statistics. Mnemonic Device There is a simple and straightforward way to remember what a parameter and statistic are measuring. All that we must do is look at the first letter of each word. A parameter measures something in a population, and a statistic measures something in a sample. Examples of Parameters and Statistics Below are some more example of parameters and statistics: Suppose we study the population of dogs in Kansas City. A parameter of this population would be the mean height of all dogs in the city. A statistic would be the mean height of 50 of these dogs.We will consider a study of high school seniors in the United States. A parameter of this population is the standard deviation of grade point averages of all high school seniors. A statistic is the standard deviation of the grade point averages of a sample of 1000 high school seniors.We consider all of the likely voters for an upcoming election. There will be a ballot initiative to change the state constitution.  We wish to determine the level of support for this ballot initiative.  A parameter, in this case, is the proportion of the population of likely voters that support the ballot initiative.  A related statistic is the corresponding proportion of a sample of likely voters.