Poultry Management System

A management system is the framework of processes and procedures used to ensure that an organization can fulfill all tasks required to achieve its objectives. Businesses today are developing and upgrading their system into more high level system to lessen the time and effort of performing their complex jobs. Comparing to their old system like their MS Excel System in inventory, sales, monitoring and production they are now implementing a system that manages all their complex transactions. In the global arena, Willmar Poultry Company (WPC), one of the largest turkey poultry producers in United States operates in the production of turkeys and other livestock. Moreover, they prefer to have a solution which both strong in manufacturing and financing area. Further, they want to streamline data entry and reporting, increase in flexibility and functionality, and improve data access and decision making capabilities. So, in managing all their diverse transaction, WPC implemented the system, Microsoft Business Solutions-Axapta. (Willmar Poultry Company, 2000) In the national scene, Maya farms, a large integrated farm located some 40 km from the city of Manila. It maintains some 60,000 pigs, 12,000 egg-type chickens and a few hundred heads of cattle. Soon after the embargo in 1973, Maya farms started experimenting on the industrial uses of biogas generated from the manure produced by their livestock. It developed systems that enabled the farm to use methane gas from the manure as substitute for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and as source of energy to run internal combustion engines that power its deep-well water pumps, feed mixers and generators and some other electric equipment in the farm. After they succeeded the implementation of the biogas, they developed a system that focuses on their transactions especially on their purchasing, selling and giving inventory in mid 90’s. After several years of developing new system that would manage their fast growing farm, they successfully implemented their new system â€Å"Livestock Inventory System† which caters to their diverse transactions like purchasing and selling of chickens and other livestock. (Integrated Livestock – Fish Production System, 2000) Locally, a company that maintains egg-type chickens in their farm is (LBF) Lacia Breeder Farm located at Taglono, Toril, Davao City. The farm seeks innovative ways to improve the health of their breeding stock. Moreover, the farm needs faster decision making, secured records, and powerful reporting every time they see and need the data. Since, they are using MS Excel System in recording and processing their transaction they encountered problems that would prolong their decision making in improving the farm. Moving forward, Lacia Breeder Farm’s passion for innovation continues as they seek out and discover new technology that will provide them with distinct competitive advantages necessary in providing the highest quality poultry at the greatest value to the customers and consumers. Hence, they recognize that the future is only a day away and are always considering new ideas and technology as they continue their relentless commitment to innovation. In response to their innovation, the researchers have proposed a system called Poultry Management System that would help the farm in managing their diverse transactions. Statement of the Problem The Lacia Breeder Farm (LBF) is using MS Excel for their transactions in the farm. While, using the old system, LB Farm encounter problems which cause them delay in transacting businesses of the farm. Moreover, in using the their existing system for a long period of time there is a need of a reliable, secure and fast management system to handle their diverse transactions and to strengthen their operations. Based on our interviews of the farm manager, the problems found upon using their existing system have been identified. There is a delay in generating reports. Upon using the MS Excel application, it would take several days in producing reports because the management still has to gather all the data. They have to encode all the gathered data and looked to their columnar to check if the reports and data are the same as recorded in their columnar book. They also have to encode each data again and again in every transaction that they have done and categorized each data into particular reports. Duplication of data is essential for back-up purposes but in this case, LBF produced a redundant report that would delay them in their decision making. Thus, in determining the history of their transactions and reports of their inventory still they have to scroll over their old system and find the necessary data of that particular report. Moreover, this could cause the disorganization of reports that would hinder their operation. It would also delay them to generate reports, since the data will not be automatically updated in their MS Excel System. Stocks are not monitored properly. Since they are using the Microsoft Excel for the monitoring of their feeds and medicines, the farm management encountered a problem in determining if there is still available stock in their stockroom because in Microsoft Excel, although it calculates the remaining stocks, the management still needs constant monitoring to their MS Excel just to determine if there are stocks available. Moreover, if this happened they will check the stockroom how many feeds and medicines available. They have to calculate again from their columnar and notebooks the consumed feeds and medicines to determined the availability of the stocks. There is miscalculation of data that leads to inaccurate result. While using the MS Excel System, the management is hesitant to use the formula for their MS Excel because sometimes it will be modified by the user. There are also instances that they are confused on the accuracy of the result of their MS Excel System because the user or the manager inputs a wrong formula that makes the calculation inaccurate and it can only be identified once double-checked. This would also create confusion in determining the stock’s availability and accuracy of the files and records in inventory of their products. The records and files are misplaced. The daily, weekly, monthly and yearly reports are misplaced for once it had been recorded in their MS Excel and printed, the hard copy will be compiled in a folder without label and placed on top of the table because they don’t have proper cabinet for storage. Some records are thrown in the garbage if it is assorted to the old files and it is hard to find the files for it was thrown away. Some records are also misplaced by the manager for he will bring them in their main office in Panabo; sometimes he left them on his car or misplaced somewhere else. This is why files and records are hard to find during retrieval. Furthermore, they will consume too much time in retrieving the misplaced files because they have to scan all their unlabeled folders, to their assorted files and in case of lost of file/s. They have to scroll over to their MS Excel System just to find the needed data because some data and files are in the farm and others are in the main office at Panabo which took so long because of the distance between the farm and the office. And also, they have to check on their columnar book back again to get the files that were lost. Files are unsecured. The files that are supposed to be viewed and accessed only by the manager are viewed and accessed by unauthorized personnel due to lack of security privacy of their MS Excel system. Based on what we have seen in their MS Excel System, they don’t have a security like asking password every time they accessed the files. When the manager is not in the office, the caretaker or employee could view and access the confidential files and could even change and erase the data recorded. They could easily hacked on other files which is not supposed to be accessed by unauthorized personnel since it is easy to accessed the system because of the lacking of security. Even, they could ruin the entire program or changing the program set up. And, change the formula which leads to a wrong output. There are also chances of data lost once it was accessed by the caretaker or other employee. The manager has to evaluate again the encoded data to double check and to ensure the files that have not been purge and change. Assumption of the Study This study aims to develop the management system of Lacia Breeder Farm to provide fast and accurate farm transaction. Based on the identified problem, this study assumes to: Generate accurate and particular reports in every transaction. Through using this management system, it would give them a report on a particular transaction. This would help them to analyze and decide what the next move to further improve their farm. Moreover, this would lessen the encoding process of the data because it can generate automatically the reports after the data are encoded. It will not block any operations of the farm because it can generate reports easily. Thus, this system automatically updated reports that needed on particular operations. Provide convenient way of monitoring the stocks. Through using this management system, it would give the management an update monitoring of the stocks availability. This would lessen the work in encoding, retrieving and processing manually all the data encoded and needed. Provide a system that can give accurate calculation of data. This gives proper calculation of data and gives accurate result since the formula is embedded and cannot be accessed by someone else. Hence, it would determine, give accurate result and proper calculation of the stock remained in the stockroom. Provide proper storage for all records and files. This management system provide proper storage for it has a big storage system which the database of the system. It would help the management in easily searching the files that are lost. It provides an update detail of the files and records to be retrieve. Further, it fastens the time consumed in retrieving data. And, they will not anymore scan all the files, records and columnar book just to find the needed lost data. Provide a system that has security like asking password. It would not allow any user to access the system to secure all the file/s and record/s inside. It will give the management a better and safe data for further uses. Hence, only those registered users can access, view and add data. These would be a great help for the farm for they do not have anymore double check the records and files for it is secure. Thus, categorized personnel have their own category in accessing the data for example; the manager can access all the detailed, confidential and important data while other users have a limitation. Review of Related Literature To provide a background and framework of the investigation, selected literature related to the study are presented in this section. These include theories, systems, principles, concepts and views, which have a direct bearing to the variables of the study. Poultry is any domestic fowls, such as chickens, turkeys, ducks, or geese, raised for food, meat or eggs (Grolier New Webster’s Dictionary) is the main product of the poultry farm before developing any computerized information system to manage the transactions accurately and reliably. Based on the research, the following are the factors should be considered in managing the farm which is important in developing a system for poultry farm and to understand the processes involved (Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, 2005). Hatching. The development of a mechanical setter and Hatcher has permitted the large scale production of chicks with little labor. While many of the eggs produced on the farms are unfertilized, only those eggs which are fertilized will hatch. Fertilized eggs can be purchased from breeding operations, or by the successful mating of a rooster and a hen by natural methods or by using artificial insemination. Turkey production relies on the use of artificial insemination to produce fertile eggs. The continuous genetic selection for turkeys with large breast muscling has resulting in many breeds which are no longer capable of copulating because of their large and awkward size.

Current Marketing Trends of Adidas Essay

Abstract Adidas is among the renowned producer, dealer and the retailer of highest quality sports products. Adidas is a brand which is not only famous around the world because of its fashionable and stylish sports products but also for several soccer teams, players and tournaments. In the past, the company uses only traditional ways of advertising and was successful. Nowadays, the changing environment of advance technologies forces the organization to improve their marketing strategies. The use of mobile devices and digital media marketing trends are the better opportunity for the Adidas to enlarge their market share by capturing their target market easily and to produce more effective marketing strategies. Internet is also a great option for Adidas to promote its products worldwide. This is not only modern way of advertising but also cost effective. Introduction and Marketing Trends Adidas is among the renowned producer, dealer and the retailer of highest quality sports products. Adidas is a brand which is not only famous around the world because of its fashionable and stylish sports products but also for several soccer teams, players and tournaments. In the past, the company uses only traditional ways of advertising and was successful. Nowadays, the changing environment of advance technologies forces the organization to improve their marketing strategies. Mobile technologies are becoming very common among the people around the world. Innovative technologies and the Digital media are presenting improved means for Adidas to get easy access to their target market. In order to compete in technological and more competitive environment in which Adidas has to face strict competition from its rivals like Nike, the company must move from traditional sources to mobile and digital media marketing in order to meet the demand of customers and to cope up with future consumption trends. The marketing trends are changing day by day. The use of mobile devices and digital media marketing trends are the better opportunity for the Adidas to enlarge their market share by capturing their target market easily and to produce more effective marketing strategies. SWOT Analysis Strengths Global incidence in more than 200 countries Extensive product line Focused on technological development and performance improvement Sponsorship to numerous worldwide supports events like streetball, soccer, football and tennis etc Strong brand image and reputation in products related to sports performance Large market share in US and European sports markets Weaknesses Lack of promotion and advertising schemes as compared to its major competitors like Nike Lack of proper customer service in some areas Limited budget for promotional and advertisement schemes Unable to responds quickly to changing fashion environment Opportunities Able to extend its international market through ecommerce and retail outlets Market share can be improved through efficient advertisement schemes Usage of advance technology can help Adidas to reach consumers effectively and more quickly Opportunity to advertise and enter new products in Europe before bringing in US market Threats Numbers of competitors are increasing continuously Competitors are trying to dominate market share of Adidas High risk is associated if company shifts from traditional marketing strategies to the digital marketing campaigns Worldwide financial crisis Branding, Brand Identity, USP, Target Market and Customer Expectations Brands are created to convey a compound message rapidly to its intended customers. Brands have the ability to convey the message emotionally and have the capability to get customer’s attention. According to the American Marketing Association â€Å"Brand is a term, symbol, contrive and the special characteristics of a product which differentiate the products and services of one supplier from the products and services of another supplier†. According to the Kotler (2003) â€Å"Brand is a sign, name, symbol, term, design or the mixture of all these and is aimed to recognize the products and services of one supplier or the group of suppliers with the products and services of another supplier of the group of suppliers†. Adidas is maintaining its brand on three grounds which are target market, sports products and its retail stores. The company always struggle hard to maintain perfection in its products, distinguished quality and the achievement of large market share. In order to provide memorable experience of sports products Adidas hired trained employers to deliver the unforgettable customer experience. Adidas believes that unique and innovative design of its sports products, improved environment of its retail outlets and enhanced customer service retentive helps the company to gain positive brand image (Kotler and Armstrong, 2004). Brand Identity People are wondered that how Adidas administer their operations to establish powerful brand identity. The major reason of this success is the distinctiveness and the simplicity of Adidas which makes it among the most renowned brand logos around the world. Adidas achieved this success by continuously describe its logo with the help of its numerous sponsorships, ad campaigns celebrity endorsements and different sports events. It is very important for any business to establish strong brand identity because it maintain and enhance ROI (Return on Investment). Strong brand identity leads the organization towards better business opportunities and by maintaining and enhancing strong brand identity Adidas is competent to endeavor into sports equipment and sports apparel. Adidas increase its target market with the help of co-branding its brand identity by some other renowned brand names at the time of entering in a business project with Stella McCartney in order to design and produce sports clothes for women named by â€Å"Adidas by Stella McCartney†. Unique elements of brand help the business to attain enhanced brand perception and the stable depiction of strong brand identity helps the Adidas to become among the most desirable brands of the world that has been grown from a shoes business into a main sports brand business around the world ((Kotler and Armstrong, 2004). Unique Selling Point Every business wants to distinguish itself from its competitors available in the target market. USP (Unique Selling Point/Proposition) is the real thing that’s helps your business to distinguish itself from its competitors and is the thing which is considered as unique and different. Adidas through â€Å"Impossible is Nothing† helping its target market to easily achieve their sports goals. Adidas presence in more than 200 countries with its retail outlets provides easy access to sports products. In all 200 countries these retail outlets are located near to its target market. Customers can easily go to store and can buy the product of their choice easily. Target Market and Customer Expectations Adidas preferred target market is males and females of ages between 12 to 24 years old. Although it has customers from all the ages as it’s easy and comfortable footwear’s are liked and used among the people belonging to all ages. Its customers are fashionable. The consumers of Adidas products expect from the brand to be affordable and hold superior quality. People desire to buy a brand which is generally sporty, cool, acceptable and urban. Customers desire for numerous options of interaction and customization. Colors and unique styles are vital elements of Adidas brand image which lots of customers are searching for and the customers wants long term and positive relation with the brand. Marketing Mix Product Adidas introduced a wide range of technologically modern and highest quality sports products especially footwear to its customers. The major reason behind this is to satisfy sports teams and the champion athletes who trust only on Adidas and considers that it helps them to achieve superior performance while playing. The major benefits of sports products are that it satisfies customer’s needs and demands. In order to survive successfully in the competitive market Adidas always try to accommodate customer’s wants and needs at priority basis. As a result, for sports apparels this brand has ascertained itself as most leading provider. The company is struggling hard to maintain its brand image and brand loyalty through constant improvement and up gradation of unique features of its products (Czinkota et. al., 1997). Price Adidas always try to maintain its unique style of introducing and delivering innovative, highest quality and stylish sports products by charging best and economic pricing to its customers. In start, Adidas earns its brand view of being expensive by offering high prices for its sports products but now Adidas is holding affordable and inexpensive price strategies for its sports products. Through its cost effective pricing strategies, Adidas is becoming cheaper and more demanded as compared to its competitors. This helps the company to gain more market share. For some products Adidas utilize the market skimming strategy for example for T-mac shoes Adidas charge high price for white color than other colors of similar product version (Kotler, 2003). Place The beginning of an enjoyable shopping is if the product is available at the right place. In the beginning, Adidas focused its concentration to a single country only but now it has its incidence in more than 200 countries around the world. In these countries Adidas is distributing its sports product in its retail outlets. The environment of these retail stores is inspiring, interactive and simple to shop. This is the uniqueness of Adidas that all of its retail outlets are located at best places and are easily accessibly for its target market. Adidas also provides online shopping facility for its customers. People have the facility to visit Adidas website and place the orders of their choice product from all over the world (Kotler and Armstrong, 2004). Promotion Adidas focus on many promotional strategies in an effort to imprison its desired target market. The basic reason behind the promotional and advertisement strategies is to enhance their business image as well as to become the number one brand of the sports world. Commonly, Adidas advertise its products with the help of mass media. Point of sale and â€Å"Impossible is Nothing† campaign is renowned promotional strategy of Adidas. The business is now increasingly using internet as a major tool of advertisement. Internet, mobile and digital media marketing helps the Adidas to gain a move from traditional promotional strategies to new and successful promotional strategies (Thomson et al., 2006). Ethical Policies and the Corporate Social Responsibility In today’s competitive environment if the business wants to be socially successful and acceptable they need to do some ethical and social acts which must be beneficial for the society. Adidas is among those companies who are the supporters of many charity events and foundations around the world. Adidas foundations are deeply involved in events related to sports. For example â€Å"Turns a new leaf† is an Adidas project and the amount earned though this project was given to those poor people of different countries who are unable to purchase a shoe. This was very triumphant marketing of Adidas brand around the world and it provides the customers with additional benefit as they get new shoes at the same time they donate to poor people. In terms of environment â€Å"Cotton from Sustainable Sources† is one more ethical and moral policy. Thus these kinds of acts by Adidas are not only making it socially acceptable and favorite but also helping the Adidas to get more market share because these policies not only helping the society but also a great tool of marketing for Adidas around the world (businessethics, Business Ethics, [Online]). Conclusion and Recommendations Adidas is a business that is providing its target market with sports related products at competitive and original price. No doubt Adidas is facing strict competition as there are also some sports companies offering innovative sports products. Hence the Adidas has the ability to extend its market share and to become the dominant company of the sports world by creating new support programs with sports teams and professional athletes worldwide. Adidas should avail opportunities for effective advertisement of its product to hold more market share. Adidas can take advantages of mobile and digital media marketing for the promotion and advertisement of its sports product and it will help Adidas to gain increased hold on its target market. In order to compete with its competitors i.e. Nike, Adidas should introduce new line of products like footwear and basket ball apparel. As the Adidas is renowned for its soccer products and has the great chance to raise attentiveness among its customers about the basketball products to occupy the major share of sports market. It would be very useful for Adidas to sign an athlete to increase its market value and to gain market share in the market segment of basketball. As the current marketing trends are going away from traditional marketing strategies so it would beneficial for Adidas to adopt modern strategies of advertisement like mobile and digital media marketing. Internet is also a great option for Adidas to promote its products worldwide. This is not only modern way of advertising but also cost effective. References Czinkota, M., Kotabe, M., & Mercer, D. (1997). Marketing Management: Text and Cases. Massachusetts: Blackwell Business Gobà ©, M. (2001). Emotional branding the new paradigm for connecting brands to people. New York: Allworth Press. Kotler, P. (2003). Marketing management. 11. edn. Upper Saddle River, N. J.: Prentice Hall. Kotler, P., & Armstrong, G. (2004). Principles of Marketing (10th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Sheth, J.N., Gardner, D.M. and Garrett, D.E. (1988) Marketing Theory: Evolution and Evaluation. New York: John Wiley. Thompson, C., Rindfleisch, A. & Arsel, Z. (2006). Emotional Branding and the Strategic Value of the Doppelgà ¤nger Brand Image. Journal of Marketing, 70(1), pp. 50-64. http://www.businessethics.ca/definitions/business-ethics.html

Market Entry Plan Essay

The Aluminum market in Europe does not have a good prospect to be expanded. Alcoa claimed that it will shut down the factory in Portovesme, Italy, and reduce the output of the factory in Spain. This is because Alcoa and European commission have argued for the power supply contract for a long time. Moreover, the European debt crisis led to a depressed economy. Thus, Alcoa decided to turn its market out of Europe and then start to look for other oversea markets. Although, Africa is one of the poorest continents of the world, in some countries, such as Mozambique, the economy has been growing steadily. From this prospective, we recommend Alcoa to open up the market in Mozambique, South Africa. We conducted the research based on sources from on-line resources. Our proposal focuses on analyzing the operation of Alcoa and the opportunity of a new market. 2. About Alcoa Alcoa is the world’s most famous producer of aluminum and fabricated aluminum, and it is the biggest miner of bauxite and refiner of alumina. Alcoa has over 61,000 employees and over 200 locations in 31 countries. Alcoa not only provides hard alloy extrusions, forgings, Alcoa ® wheels, but also has its expertise in other light metals. The sales of Alcoa were $25 billion in 2011. 2. 1 Brief History Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa Inc. ) has 120-years’ history. During the 1920’s, Alcoa monopolized aluminum production in North America and produced more than 63 percent of the world output. At the end of World War I, Alcoa produced excessive capacity, especially for civilian uses. However, the war made Alcoa realize that it was very important to improve the quality of product, and Alcoa invested more money in research and development. In 1925, Alcoa entered the first external market, Canada, and it held over half the rimary aluminum in the world. In 1958, Alcoa started the first major overseas mine-to-metal venture in Suriname. After the successful venture in Suriname, Alcoa decided to expand the offshore ventures. In 1960s, Alcoa developed operations in Australia and Brazil. At the same time, Alcoa drove the strategy to focus on commercial real estate construction and fabricated products. The Easy-Ope n aluminum technology made Alcoa hold a large percentage of the canned beer market. In the 1970’s, Alcoa continuously expanded the overseas market and used mathematic modeling to control the production. In the 1980’s and the 1990’s, Alcoa focused on producing non-aluminum products and was concerned about safety. From 2000 to present, Alcoa has made strategic mergers and acquisitions, such as Alumax, Reynolds. 2. 2 Business Operation Alcoa Business System (ABS) is the core used to manage Alcoa businesses. Here are its three principles: ?Make to Use The first principle is based on customers’ will and demand, such as single-piece production, on demand; defect free, at the lowest possible cost, made safely. ?Eliminate Waste The second principle aims at exposing and solving problems and focuses on cost cutting and cost saving during all their manufacturing and business processes. ?The People Linchpin the System The third principle is concerned with creating on environment which satisfies people. Also, Alcoa tries to identify and solve problems, and link to their transition from â€Å"make to inventory† to â€Å"make to use†. 2. 3 Product Scope Alcoa produces various products, such as flat-rolled products, hard alloy extrusions, and forgings; as well as Alcoa ® wheels, fastening systems, and precision. Here are some important products of Alcoa: ?Aerospace Alcoa is the world leader in single-crystal technology for advanced castings that withstand the extreme temperatures of clean-burning aero engines. ?Automotive Alcoa builds a better car, truck, trailer or vessel. The reason for this is using more aluminum to reduce the overall weight of the vehicle, which significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions. ?Building & Construction Alcoa has always offered unique advantages for designing the shape, appearance and sustainability of modern buildings. These new aluminum components can achieve green building standards. Alcoa also provides high-performance glass, which allows for efficient light control, lower energy consumption, corrosion-resistance and immunity from the harmful effects of UV rays. ?Packaging Aluminum packaging solutions deliver freshness, convenience, and security for food, beverages and other products. For example, the aluminum bottle offers premium, high-end packaging options. 2. 4 Targeted Market According to the statistics, Asia, North America and Western Europe are the top three aluminum consumption areas in the world. In Asian region, such as China, Korea and India, these developing countries have an increasing demand for aluminum. However, the total amount of aluminum consumed in America, Canada and Japan experienced a downward trend. At this point, Alcoa’s target market should pay more attention to China and India. Besides, although Africa is endowed with natural resources, aluminum resources have no commercially exploited value. Therefore, all the producing raw materials are dependent on imports from foreign countries in South Africa. In other words, Africa is mainly producing primary and secondary aluminum products. As a result, if Alcoa exports other forms of aluminum products to Africa, Alcoa will gain a huge profit. Figure 1: Target Market of Alcoa 2. 5 Strength and Weakness Alcoa is the world’s largest miner of bauxite and refiner of alumina. Also, it has a long history started in 1888 so the company is an expert in administration and producing. In addition, Alcoa is the leading producer of primary aluminum and fabricated aluminum all over the world. Alcoa has received many records and good will, such as 100 Best Corporate Citizens 2012—Corporate Responsibility Magazine. What is more, advanced techniques and unremitting effort in innovation make its products and services play an important role in the aluminum market. However, Alcoa is faced with the problem of pollution. For example, Alcoa’s pollutions made the residents who lived six kilometers away from the factories get sick. As a result, Alcoa was punished by the government in Australia. 3. New Oversea Market: Mozambique Located in Southeast Africa, bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world. Mozambique is abundant in rich and extensive natural resources, and its economy is based largely on agriculture. Today, the economy is growing very fast in Mozambique, and the developed legal system makes Mozambique become a hope in this poor continent. We recommend Alcoa to enter this market, because of the prosperous development of Mozambique. 3. 1 Economy in Mozambique Mozambique is in the poorest region in the poorest continent of the world, Sub-Saharan Africa. Besides, it was considered as the second poorest country, with a per capita GDP below the African average. 4 percent of the population of Mozambique was below the poverty line in 2008. But, economic growth in Mozambique has been strong since the country’s civil war ended in 1992, and it has emerged as one of the fasted growing economies. Since 1996, economic growth has been stable; the economic growth rate was around 6. 2 percent in 2009. The inflation rate has been around its lowest level in a decade. Also, the rea l income grew rapidly, and it tripled in the same decade. Moreover, the real income has grown by 14 percent in 2001 and 11 percent in 2002. However, Zimbabwe, a neighboring country, has declined 8 percent in 2001 and 6 percent in 2002. Currently, more foreign firms have invested in Mozambique, and these firms are mostly in the aluminum industry and mining industry. The foreign enterprises can enjoy tax privileges in Mozambique. In 2010, UK exported around 112 million pounds to Mozambique with imports at almost 78 million pounds. A British mining group has invested 1. 3 billion dollars in the country, which covered aluminum industry, tourism, and it leads to much foreign exchange. The large towns and cities have been promoted by the influence of foreign investment; however, the influence does not apply to the rural area in Mozambique. We can infer that the economy in Mozambique is the hope of this region, comparing to other country in Sub-Saharan Africa. 3. 2 Political System in Mozambique During the civil war, the politics and economy were disrupted. Since the end of the civil war, the political situation in Mozambique has been stable. The government is determined to maintain national unity, and implements appropriate and pragmatic politic policy. Mozambique held the first democratic elections on October 1994, under international scrutiny. Although some limitation exists, for example, the electoral process was boycotted in municipal elections in 1998; this election system can help the electorate to express their will. Mozambique now has developed an elected democracy, which gives rise to a strong legal system. Moreover, a good legal system protects private property and provides incentive to people to invest and produce by both domestic and foreign investors. 3. 3 International Relationship Mozambique has very close relations with its formerly British-ruled neighbours in Africa, because these countries shared experience that fought against white rule. This led to Mozambique joining the Commonwealth in 1995. Mozambique also dispatched troops to contribute to the United Nations, helping them in peacekeeping affairs in Burundi, and participated in South African Development Community peacekeeping training and planning. 3. 4 Aluminum industry in Mozambique 3. 4. 1 Brief Introduction of the Market Alcoa is located in 31 countries all over the world. However, it is only located in two countries in Africa: Morocco and Guinea. To start up a new business in Africa is a brand new challenge for Alcoa. Mozambique is growing rapidly in recent years. The Aluminum industry has a very significant impact on this country’s economy. In order to attract foreign investment and capital, Mozambique’s government takes special policy. The country is not the producer of minerals, but the overseer and promoter of mining activities. This is good news and a great chance for Alcoa to enter the aluminum market in Mozambique. The development of Mozambique’s economy urges big companies’ entry like Alcoa to provide funds and advanced technique. The labor wage is low there, which is also a benefit for Alcoa. Aluminum is a key element in Mozambique’s economic growth. The export of aluminum accounts for nearly 60% of the country’s total export amount. The strongest rival is Mozal, which is the largest company among the country. However, the potential market is still huge. The construction of buildings and machines for production are all relative with aluminum. The fast growth of economy in Mozambique will drive the demand of aluminum. The domestic market can not satisfy the demand and will turn to foreign companies or investment. It provides a great opportunity for Alcoa to gain a sizable market share in this new market. 3. 4. 2 Operation in Mozambique ?Geography Mozambique lies beside the Indian Ocean in southern Africa, and this convenient location is good for delivering goods or trading with others through marine transportation. Besides, it is relatively easier to generate electricity here by taking advantage of sea water at a coastal position. ?Natural Resources Mozambique is well endowed with natural resources, such as coal, titanium, natural gas, hydropower, tantalum, and graphite. However, the country’s natural resources are not fully exploited. Mineral resources such as gold, gemstones and bauxite have not been mined yet. Mozambique’s natural wealth can satisfy Alcoa’s demand for natural resources. ?Transportation Under great efforts, Mozambique’s transportation infrastructure has been improved in recent years. The Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD) aimed at improving current infrastructure conditions in Africa. The first phase of the AICD focused on 24 countries that together account for 85 percent of the gross domestic product, population, and infrastructure aid flow in Sub-Saharan Africa. Mozambique was included in these 24 countries. Transportation plays an essential role in a company’s business plan to purchase raw materials or deliveries of finished goods to customers. ?Local Government Policy Since its first trade policy review in 2001, Mozambique has taken actions to liberalize its trade regime. Its tariff was reduced in 2002 and again in 2007, with maximum rates lowered from 30% to 20%. Therefore, it is a piece of good news for foreign companies to directly invest in this market. ?Workforce Mozambique is a developing country. Compared to developed countries, Mozambique’s labor cost is relatively low. As a result, it helps Alcoa reduce costs and increase revenue. Take the minimum wage for a 19-year old worker or an apprentice for an example: in Mozambique, the wage is 80. 5 US dollars per month, Australia is 1597. 1 US dollars per month, Brazil is 299. 6 US dollars per month, Jamaica is 215. 0 US per month, and China is 182. 5 US dollars per month. ?Economic Condition The economy was boosted in many aspects, such as mining, financial service and construction, which helped to push GDP real growth rate to 7. 2 percent in 2011. Moreover, the consistence of high foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, along with strong agricultural growth and infrastructure investment will drive growth to 7. 5 percent and 7. 9 percent in 2012 and 2013. Good economic conditions indicate Alcoa can gain huge potential profits. Figure 2: Real GDP growth of South Africa ?Advanced Technology Alcoa is the world’s third largest producer of aluminum so it implies that Alcoa has advanced technology and equipment. It well known that Mozambique has abundant resources, but aluminum firms in Mozambique can only produce limited types of aluminum products out of technology problems. Under this situation, with its advanced technology, Alcoa can produce aluminum products which are extremely demanded by Mozambique’s market. 3. 5 Competitors: Mozal: Mozal, an aluminum smelter is belong to BHP Billiton, is located in the Maputo province of southern Mozambique. Mozal was the first major project for BHP Billiton in Mozambique and it was Mozambique’s largest private investment in the past 30 years. BHP Billiton is a leading global resources company and one of the world’s largest producers of major commodities. Mozal is one of the largest smelters in Mozambique; the output of Mozal is more than 500,000 tones of aluminum per year. In the two construction phases, the project of Mozal contributed more than 160 million to the local economy. Especially the employment of Mozambican, which make good use of the local labor and stimulate the local’s contractors and suppliers’ profit. The local government and the Mozal’s operations teams have created a great achievement by cooperation. Harmonious industrial relations were created during the construction period; no days were lost because of any industrial action. The local government and the Mozal have benefited a lot from needs-based infrastructure, social and community development projects. It’s a kind of win-win cooperation. 4. Evaluation Alcoa’s expansion in to Mozambique is a bold attempt as Alcoa does not have much experience of open up a new business in Africa. However, as one of the most famous companies in aluminum industry, it can provide adequate funds and mature management to support the operation in Mozambique. This country’s development relies greatly on foreign companies’ investment. Government in Mozambique will provide preferential policy to Alcoa. Besides, the low labor cost in Mozambique helps Alcoa to save operation cost. Although Mozal, the strongest competitor, has taken the largest project in Mozambique, the potential for Alcoa to enter this market is strong. Alcoa has built up a good reputation, with a long history and rich experience in aluminum industry, and this cannot be competed by Mozal. We recommend that Alcoa should seize this opportunity to enter the aluminum market in Mozambique with its advanced technology and experienced management.

Management accounting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Management accounting - Essay Example In context of a gallery overheads using traditional costing would first be gathered department wise (that are exhibition department, collection department, education department, shop selling products, and others) and then allocated to different exhibitions, seminars, and other activities of the museum on some suitable basis. On the other hands under ABC overhead costs are first assigned to major activities and not to departments before assigning them to products or services. ABC creates cost pools for service activities and overhead costs of these service activities are directly allocated to products or services by using cost drivers. Activate based costing (ABC) is different as here costs are first accumulated for each of gallery activities and then those costs are assigned on the basis of appropriate measures (cost drivers) and their effects to exhibitions, seminars, and other activities of the museum. The objective of traditional costing is to allocate costs for the purpose of computing overall financial profits or losses. But the approach of ABC is to compute costs for each activity separately. Under ABC the gallery will have information about costs of holding exhibitions separately from costs of arranging seminars as allocation of common overheads relate to specific activity and not to all activities finding some convenient way to allocate them. For example costs of white washing and decoration of exhibition hall for a specific exhibition will be an exhibition expense and not that of administration or housekeeping department to be allocated later to all activities of the museum or gallery. This reflects that traditional costing is influenced by financial reporting requirements. That is not the situation with ABC, where the costs are gathered primarily not for reporting only but for computing the impact of costs of each activity on different functions of the museum. A dance dire ctor’s salary has nothing to with costs of

Taxation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 4

Taxation - Essay Example is leaves the income tax and capital gains taxes as the two most important taxes to any household in UK, with huge implications on the consumption and investment patterns in the country. However, the taxation policy in the country does not observe neutrality in that it may discourage deferment of consumption and investment by taxing savings and returns on investments more into the future than now. The income tax is paid per any tax unit that is beyond the personal tax free allowance. The tax is charged from diverse types of savings and is charged at a basic rate of 25% or a higher rate of about 40% (OECD 2007, 13). On the other hand, capital tax operates much similar to the income tax above; there lacks a clear distinction between income and capital gains tax in UK. Any investor with a capital gain of  £5800 or below per annum is exempted from this tax. However, any income above this level is taxed based on the gains at marginal rate of the income tax. In U.K, today, any transaction on savings is treated differently under the taxation policy; the mode of taxing any savings is a vital feature of the UK tax base and leads to an understanding of the comprehensive income tax. In most cases, the comprehensive income tax refers to a case where the income from savings, the labour tax and any other elements that make up the tax base are taxed equally. On the other hand, in expenditure tax, the returns from taxes are not taxed until the individual uses the savings for consumption, at which the tax is known as an expenditure tax or consumption tax (Mirrlees, 283). The major difference between the two taxes is in the treatment of savings. Taxation of savings has an impact on the investment and consumption choices of individuals and companies in UK today. According to Mirrlees report, several effects were identified resulting from the taxation of savings. One, there is an attempt to design a carefully leveled taxation system that seeks to equalize the tax burden of the

The English Patient Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

The English Patient - Essay Example He takes fragments and paragraphs cut out of other books and includes them in his novel. There is intertextuality richness in the novel including statutes, myths, christian imagery, desert images and references to portraits. His novel is swollen with different images just like Almasys common place book swollen to twice the original thicknes. The emphasies on the importance of maps is evident in The English Patient. Books, people, faith and art work are all reduced to maps to their skeletal structure. The reduction is a form of econstruction similar to the one of bombs in the novel. For giving the germans the desert maps, Almasy is considered a traitor and his treason justifying the preoccupation of the novel with maps. In the analysis highlighting the importance of maps, the gravity of his crime is evident. As a form of knowledge, maps give power to those who have them. Almasy claims that his map drawing ability motivated the Bedouins to save him. He goes further to explain that â€Å"they kept me alive for a reason. I was useful you see... I am a man who can recognize an unnamed town by its skeletal shape on a map† (Ondaatje, p.18). The Bedouins try making use of Almasy’s vast reservoir of information. For some, he draws maps going beyond their own boundaries and for other tribes explains the mechanic of guns(Ondaatje, p.22). Almasy claims having information like a sea in him and that he knew maps of the sea floor. maps depicting weaknesses in the earths shield, charts painted on skin containing various routes of the crusades. These maps have great destruction power since they depict weaknesses in the earths shield. The weaknesses would be exploited to create a destructive earthquake or to errupt a volcano in the land of the enemy. Heble observes Ondaatje’s based character of Almasy on that of a real person. Almasy’s slippery identity is an analogue to the English patients in the novel. Totosy argues that Almasys fictional position,

Marketing Management Apple iphone V RIM Blackberry Essay

Marketing Management Apple iphone V RIM Blackberry - Essay Example This means that the marketing activities in the firm must be fully coordinated and well managed and the chief marketing executive must be awarded an important role in company planning. As these moves occur marketing management begins to develop. Marketing management is the marketing concept in action or an orientation of management in the scientific and systematic marketing. A significant characteristic of marketing is its peculiar and sometimes unique requirements. Marketing as a concept .and function is unique in that it faces out from a business. Its purpose is to take things to the market and bring information and ideas back from the market. Because of the dynamics of any market marketing activities and ideas are continuously changing and revising. Marketing for enterprise today will be different to yesterdays marketing and will change to something different again in the future. Because of this dynamic marketing and marketers must constantly seek and gather information. Most ente rprises have established information flows whereby statistics on sales and fluctuations in these will be continuously monitored. However such statically information flows are not enough and marketers gather information and market intelligence intuitively and continuously as an everyday occurrence in doing business. This in turn contributes to and sometimes shapes the constant marketing flux. As the value of marketing to business grows and as new concepts and applications of marketing emerge and evolve so to does the need for up to date market intelligence. Thus marketers need for deep and detailed qualitative research becomes more crucial and its importance lies in the need to understand phenomena and to gain meaningful insights into circumstances and changes. Market-led strategic model is adopting to provide more value to the customers. The new marketing frame work is designed to help to cope with the demand of the new customer. It is customer-oriented approach, as there are new tr ends and realities; mere traditional approach to the marketing is not at all successful in all cases. So a new approach is adopted which is the market-led strategic change. It is all about the concentrating on the demand or value of the customers while adopting strategic change in marketing. In this study some important factors is provided to transform the process of going to market. Business model is important for implementing innovation properly. Business models convert new technology to economic value. Business model serves to link technical input to economic out put. Value proposition is one of the components of business model. Value proposition is a description of the customer problem, the product that addresses the problem and the value of the product from the customer's perspective. Other components of business model involve market segment, value chain structure, revenue generation and margins, position in value network and competitive strategy. With the increase of competition and challenges, mere concentration of advertising, branding, new product launches is not enough to stand up in the market. The drivers of the new marketing is Value strategy, market strategy, internet strategy, process strategy and change strategy. Value strategy is a coherent and customer oriented and gives superior value to each of the customers in terms of matters affecting to the customers Market strategy is a clear and strategic pathway to market which clarify value proposition and identify the way in the process of go

Awareness of business systems methodologies appropriate to the Essay

Awareness of business systems methodologies appropriate to the analysis of complex international logistics and supply chain systems - Essay Example The first stage as given by Dong, Xu and Song (2013) in analysing a problem situation is to clearly identify the problem or opportunity. In the context of ElMesmary, Song and Dinwoodie (2014), the problem identified can be said to be issues with the strategic/tactical and operational planning problems involved in the container terminal logistics processes in Alexandria. ElMesmary, Song and Dinwoodie (2014) observed that strategic/tactical planning problems arise at the first stage of the planning process for container terminals as planners seek to tackle terminal design problems as part of the overall technical feasibility and performance. Operational planning problems have also been noted to come about when logistics processes are being taken in the container terminals (ElMesmary, Song and Dinwoodie, 2014). The second stage of using HSA in analysing problem situation has been said to involve the description of the situation in its current state via the use of diagrams and open discussion. Based on Azevedo, Ferreira, Dias and Palma. (2009), the following diagram can be used to describe the identified problem with strategic/tactical and operational planning. Based on the diagram given above, the main source of the problem can be said to come from the Alexandria container terminal, which is transmitted in the form of multimodal interfaces and IT systems. As the problem manifests, it becomes further amplified with bottlenecks in the container terminal logistics process which act as noise source. The diagram also shows that the problem identified is received by the strategic/tactical and operational planners and further dropped with the container terminal managers as destination (Kim, 2005). The third stage with the use of the HSA has been said to involve the process of describing the situation as it would ideally be. In this regard, it can be said that the strategic/tactical and operational planning was expected to

Literature review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Literature review - Essay Example adership has led to some difficulties in implementation, the potential benefits for the organization as well as the stakeholders, meaning owners, board members, managers, employees and consumers cannot be ignored. The following literature review illustrates this progression. In â€Å"Meta-Analytic Reviews of Board Composition, Leadership Structure and Financial Performance† (Dalton et al, 1998), the authors establish that there is no direct connection between the composition of traditional organizational boards or board leadership structures and financial performance of the organization despite widespread belief that such a relationship exists. After exposing this basic belief, the authors examine a number of different forms of board compositions and leadership structures and illustrate the means used to evaluate any relationship between these and the firm’s financial performance. Although these relationships have been studied in a variety of ways in the past, this study focuses on bringing the research together to determine whether the findings have yielded any meaningful results. Because this study takes into account numerous other studies, it is able to provide a more broadly-based view upon the findings of each study conducted and conc ludes that, despite individual reports of inconclusive results, is able to demonstrate that while there does not seem to be any direct relationship evident between the board and the firm’s financial performance, further study into the various ways board subcommittees might affect the firm is recommended, giving rise to many new theories regarding organizational leadership. In a study entitled â€Å"The Illusion of Leadership† (Weber et al, 2001), the problem of the large group in bringing about effective, efficient leadership in the organization is examined as the authors study how groups tend to work together through the use of coordination games. The authors suggest that the traditional means by which individuals are

Autonomous intelligent agent topic tracking system Dissertation

Autonomous intelligent agent topic tracking system - Dissertation Example The researcher states that technology has forever changed the way journalists approach their careers, but there have those proverbial bumps in the road. For instance, Google found itself with a bit of quagmire following the 9/11 attacks on the Unite States. People were using keywords that they were hoping would put them right where they needed to be for the must up to date information. Unfortunately, Google as a search engine couldn’t meet the demands and a worse, the search engine just didn’t know what to do with these unfamiliar strings of words. For the first time, the internet failed people – both those hungry for news and those eager to get their columns in before deadline. A key component in the globalization of the world economy involves the transfer of intellectual material across borders. Access to new ideas and information is an important means of development in most economies. Today, thanks to the Internet, the flow of information is much easier; intel lectual ideas and property can be exchanged across borders almost instantaneously. Except perhaps in China where government officials block access not only to individual web sites, but to entire search engines. While China’s leaders recognize the value of the Internet as a tool for building economic competitiveness and technology capabilities, they have established what is known as the Great Firewall to filter what Chinese citizens can read on the Web, and effectively maintain the Communist Party’s grip on power.... Today, thanks to the Internet, the flow of information is much easier; intellectual ideas and property can be exchanged across borders almost instantaneously. Except perhaps in China where government officials block access not only to individual web sites, but to entire search engines. While China’s leaders recognize the value of the Internet as a tool for building economic competitiveness and technology capabilities, they have established what is known as the Great Firewall to filter what Chinese citizens can read on the Web, and effectively maintain the Communist Party’s grip on power. This paper discusses how China’s limitation on free access to the Internet influences the country’s ability to achieve meaningful economic progress. The CEO of AltaVista, one of the search engines banned by the Chinese government, noted that "censorship is not compatible with his vision of free global access to information" and has stated that he will not screen his siteâ €™s content to cater to Chinese officials. Yahoo Inc.’s Chinese portal in contrast has pledged to censor itself. This paper supports Yahoo Inc.’s decision and the contention that the current Chinese internet policy has helped the economy in achieving exponential economic growth. China’s policy in the context of technology during the last fifteen years has highlighted the undeniable reality of how a global power can adopt a need to use basis approach in strengthening internet limitations and censorship. Theorists have often felt that the main objective of adopting this policy is principally accounted for by the desire to strengthen national sovereignty and to enhance economic development. Obviously, these are two

What colleges should teach Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

What colleges should teach - Essay Example Burke-Vigeland concluded that the current fixed forward step-sitting arrangement of lecture halls is unsuitable for interactive learning as it prevents students from expressing their individuality. He advocates for a flexible classroom which allows professors and students to restructure the classroom to allow team discussions, reversible writing on the walls, incorporation of technology that enables communication with other students around the world, and adaptation of the room for different course work (Burke-Vigeland, n. p.). In the article, What Should Colleges Teach? Stanley Fish raises concern regarding a recent trend whereby college courses are increasingly diverting from their main discipline of focus into other unrelated disciplines. He focuses on the discipline which he teaches, literature, and points out an observation he made whereby writing courses in colleges nowadays tend to focus on analysis of various social issues such as globalization, racism, and sexism instead of f ocusing on writing. As a result, few students taking writing courses in college are able to write a clean English sentence. The author asserts that writing courses should focus exclusively on writing and teach nothing other than grammar and rhetoric (Fish, n. p.). In the article, Rethinking the Way College Students are Taught, Emily Hanford asserts that the traditional method of teaching in colleges whereby students learn through non-interactive lectures is no longer effective since most students are not able to absorb most of the information that is usually disseminated in a single lecture. The author advocates for the peer-instruction method of teaching in colleges and provides proof of its effectiveness by referring to the success of a number of professors who use this method to teach their students. These include Joe Redish, a physics professor at the University of Maryland, Brian Lukoff, a researcher in education at Harvard University, and Eric Mazur, a professor of physics at Harvard University (Hanford, n. p.). In Rethinking the Way Colleges Teach Critical Thinking, Scott Johnson laments the way through which colleges teach critical thinking. He asserts that current practices whereby students are taught through lectures to memorize information is not achieving one of its aims of developing student critical thinking skills. He uses his specialty discipline of instruction, Earth Science, as an example to demonstrate how students can be taught facts while simultaneously gaining crucial critical thinking skills. Johnson asserts that the best way to achieve this purpose is to dedicate a significant portion of the course teaching students how the factual information of the course was gathered through logical and critical evaluation of available information (Johnson, n. p.). In the article, Colleges Should Teach Intellectual Virtues, Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe underline the importance of helping college students develop intellectual virtues in addition to the traditional roles of teaching them the skills of their discipline, literacy skills, and critical thinking. The authors assert that colleges should help students develop intellectual virtues so as to mold them into all-rounded human beings (Schwartz and Sharpe, n. p.). From the five articles analyzed, it is evident that the education students acquire in colleges does not completely suit their needs and requirements for both professional and personal development. Technology and globalization have

Visual Literacy Essay Example for Free

Visual Literacy Essay 1. Although Howling Wolf’s drawing is seen as naively executed by the standards of Western art, why do we conclude that his record of the treaty signing event is more honest than the illustration rendered by the other artist? * In Howling Wolf drawing he included the â€Å"Medicine Lodge Creek.† His drawing had Native American women with their backs turned away from the people while they watched the signing. This to me was drawn to make the women look as if they had played an important role in the signing. He included a red strip of paint in their hair to show they were married women. Artist John Taylor did not include â€Å"Medicine Lodge Creek† in his drawing. Taylor’s drawing only included one lady by the name of Mrs. Margaret Adams. She was supposed to be the interpreter for the Arapaho. I think that Taylor’s drawing is dishonest because he did not correctly draw Wolf’s drawing. Wolf’s drawing is more honest because he drew full ledge women and drew proof of the signing. I think that Taylor’s drawing was bias towards the black women. He did not include the Native women because he did not want to show that they played a big role in the treaty signing. 2. Why did the White artist ignore the many native women who were present at the treaty signing? Do you think this omission was deliberate or unintentional due to cultural bias? * He may have thought they weren’t as important as Mrs. Margaret Adams. Since she was the daughter of a French Canadian trapper she showed more importance in his drawing. I think he ignored them in his drawing to be bias because they were Native Americans. He could see that in Wolf’s drawing they played an important role witnessing the treaty signing. Taylor in my opponent didn’t want them to be of any importance in his drawing. By portraying only one woman he was trying to change the original picture. He made his drawing include the people he felt was of importance to the treaty signing. I think he left them out because he didn’t want the Native American to feel as if they were any more important than Mrs. Margaret Adams. Another reason I feel he left them out is because they may have had a great deal in what the treaty said and he did not want to portray that in his drawing.

The Work And History Of Green Day Music Essay

The Work And History Of Green Day Music Essay Its something unpredictable, but in the end its right. I hope you had the time of your life. Most people have heard this song on the radio at some point or another as it gets played frequently. This is one of Green Days biggest hits called Good Riddance, from the album Nimrod. Every Green Day fan at some point must have wondered how Green Day went from being a local band filling tiny clubs with a few hundred fans to an international best-selling band filling huge stadiums for their shows. It sure wasnt an easy road. Things were tough in the beginning. They never gave up even though they were hardly making any money for a few years. Green Day had a huge influence on music throughout the 90s, so heres their story. Billie Joe Armstrong was born on February 17, 1972. His father Andy Armstrong played drums in a jazz band and was a truck driver to make money. Five year old Billie Joe began singing in childrens hospitals and old peoples homes to keep them company. He was already developing his musical abilities at such a young age. This marked his entrance into the world of music. Later that year, he recorded his first studio song called Looking for Love. Right before Andy passed away, he bought young Billie a 1956 Fender Stratocaster copy made by Fernandez. This really sparked an interest in the promising musician-to-come. He called this guitar Blue, and he played it till it could be played no more. He really wore this guitar down, and later had copies of it created so he could still use his trademark guitar while playing shows. Next, came along Mike Dirnt on May 4, 1972. His mother was a heroin addict that had separated from his father, so he was adopted soon after birth. He was born with an enlarged mitral valve in his heart, which would cause him to have panic attacks and nervousness later in life. One night, his mother brought home a new guy and he was to be Mikes new step-dad. They never hit it off until Mikes mom moved away. But his sted-dad passed away when Mike was 17, so he moved back in with his mother. Mike was a tall, skinny, energetic kid and was also a class clown. He met Billie Joe in 1983 at school, and the two hit it off because they had a similar sense of humor. They bonded over their love for The Ramones. Mike had been messing around on the guitar, but then switched over to bass. He and Billie Joe wrote their first song together called Best Thing in Town. Both came from very poor families, and they had barely any money to afford records or instruments. The only way for them to hear music w as to play it. So Mike saved up for a bass. Tre Cool was born on December 9, 1972. His dad had flown helicopters in Vietnam. Wanting to get away from civilization, his dad moved them near the town Willets up in the mountains where their closest neighbor was a mile away. Turns out this neighbor would be a huge influence on Tre Cool. Larry Livermore, a punk rock fan, magazine writer, and musician would let Tre Cool hangout at his house and listen to his records. One of Larrys friends had moved to Brazil and left his drum set at Larrys house. Tre Cool started to play it occasionally and became interested in drumming to punk rock right away. Eventually, Larry recruited Tre to play drums and a local named Kain Kong to play bass. They formed the punk band called The Lookouts. They released their debut 12/cassette single, One Planet One People, on Larrys newly created Lookout! Records. They went on to record a few more albums/eps with Tre on drums. During April 1986, a venue was discovered at 924 Gilman Street, which was a run-down industrial area. Many local punks helped clean up the venue and begin turning it into a real venue; not some run-down abandoned building. After passing the health, safety, and fire inspections, it held its very first show on December 31, 1986. This venue quickly became the staple for many punk bands. A lot of punk bands that made it big in the 1990s started playing shows at Gilman Street. One of these bands was the precursor to Green Day, Sweet Children. Sweet Children formed sometime during 1987. It consisted of Billie Joe, Mike, and they recruited a drummer by the name of John Kiffmeyer, aka Al Sobrante. After a few practices, they played their first show in 1987 at the side lounge at Rods Hickory Pit to about 30 friends and a few patrons wondering what the noise was. The show went over well, and Rod sold enough ribs to invite the band back for a second show. Afterwards, they began playing shows wherever there was a power supply- house parties, garages, and at school. It was at one of these shows that the band first met Larry Livermore. Sweet Children played in front of five people, but they played their hearts out which drew Larrys attention. On November 26, 1988, Sweet Children had their first gig at Gilman Street. They were so well-received that they played again on January 1, 1989, and a third time on February 11, 1989, supporting Chrimpshrine at the bands last show ever. They played their fourth show at Gilman in 3 months on February 24, but this time they were second on the bill, as opposed to opening. In early 1989, Sweet Children went into a local studio and recorded four tracks. Displeased with their current name, they played their last show as Sweet Children on April 1, and changed it to Green Day shortly afterwards. The name was inspired by a remark made by the character Ernie on Sesame Street. They released their first single in April 1989 on Lookout! Records. It was entitled 1,000 Hours, and they released in under their new name Green Day. On March 20, 1989, Operation Ivy played their final show and Green Day also played this show as the first with their new name. Billie Joe had enough of home life by 1989, and he moved out to join Mike living in an abandoned building on West 7th and Peralta, located in West Oakland. He also dropped out of school on February 16, 1990; the day before his 18th birthday. This was a good career move for Billie Joe because it allowed him to focus all his attention to Green Day. After seeing the success of 1,000 Hours, Larry Livermore signed Green Day to Lookout! Records. On December 29, 1989, Green Day entered the studio to begin recording their first full-length and the recording started at 4:30 p.m. By January 2nd, the album was mixed and mastered. The total cost was $675 for the studio time. To test how well the album would do, Larry recorded another single called Slappy, and released that sometime in 1990. It was generally well-received and built their fan base even further and solidified the idea of releasing their first full-length. Early in 1990, Green Days first full-length was released on vinyl, cassette, and CD. The name was 39/Smooth. It was pulled from the band constantly saying smooth. Also, it was Billie Joes brothers 39th birthday and he jokingly mentioned that they should add this somewhere in the title. Billie Joe had one goal in 1990: keeping the band going at all costs. He concentrated on booking a 45-date US tour for the band, and he managed to do so. As soon as Mike graduated school, they left for the tour. On the inlay of the Slappy EP, it read the following: To raise spending money for the tour, Mike shucked clams, Billie Joe flipped pizzas, and John drove a diaper truckà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ During this tour, Billie Joe met a girl in Minnesota named Adrienne, and he fell for her pretty fast. He booked a few tours afterwards around seeing her. While they were touring in Minneapolis, they went into a local studio and recorded four songs for an EP in a low-budget and quick manner. Sweet Children EP was r eleased on Minneapoliss Skene! in late 1990. During July 1990, the Lookouts played their final show. They decided to call it quits because they simply lived too far away from each other to schedule practices. But they also left behind IV, a four track single that featured Billie Joe on lead guitar and backing vocals, which was released in January 1991. Al Sobrante decided to quit Green Day in autumn 1990 in order to go to college full time. Dave EC from Filth and the Wynona Ryders filled in on the drums for a few weeks, but he quit on his own. Finally in November 1990, the two asked Tre Cool to play drums for them. He agreed, and the line-up for Green Day was finally solidified. He fit right in the band with his quirky sense of humor and his energy. They embarked on their first US tour with Tre in 1991. One night after a New Orleans show, they returned to their van only to find that someone had broken in and stolen their money and most of their possessions. Even after that, the band drove through the night to get to their next show in Auburn, Alabama, where fans donated clothes and money to the young band members. On that first tour with Tre, they were supposedly approached by IRS Records, a major record label. But with some self-restraint on Mikes part, they turned down the offer because they knew that the label would have screwed them over in the end. They entered the studio for the first time with their new drummer Tre Cool in 1991. Thanks to the small-time success of their previous album, they had a larger budget, $2,000. Recordings were split between two short sessions in May and September of 1991 with producer/engineer Andy Ernst helping, a total of four days of recording. That autumn, they bought plane tickets to Europe and flew over, while each band member was still only 19. They funded the trip from their modest royalty checks from their Lookout! releases and any U.S. touring profits to pay for basic necessities such as airfare and van hire. Using equipment borrowed from other bands every single night, they played sixty-four shows over the span of three months. We snuck copies of our records over by hand to sell, recalls Mike. To get our own T-shirts made we had to sneak over the photo negative and get a screen made in Germany so we could print them as and when we needed to. Then we had our amp heads, which were hell-heavy to carry. Mine lasted a week and Billies a total of one day. In Denmark if they like you they throw beer at you, so that was very much. Our instruments were toast. There would be anywhere between 50 and 500 people in places like Germany, Poland, and Spain. If they were lucky, theyd get paid above their guarantee of $170, but some shows theyd only get paid with some beer or communal chili. On December 17, 1991, Green Day received the first finished copies of their sophomore album. They decided the show they were playing in Southampton was going to double as a Kerplunk! release party. January 17, 1992 marked the official release of their second album. It was released by Lookout! on CD, vinyl, and cassette. For their next tour in support of Kerplunk!, Tres father bought a former mobile library. He ripped out the interiors and installed bunks, equipment racks, and the odd attempt at home comfort and also, for a while at least, became their new designated driver. In August 1992, at a show at Gilman, Green Day brought out a couple of new tunes. Longview and Better Not Come Around (which was the early version of When I Come Around) received great reactions from the crowd, and the songs sounded like their best and tightest material to date. After touring without management, they decided this needed to change. They contacted Cahnman Management, a company run by two attorneys, Elliot Cahn and Jeff Saltzman, who had previously worked with Primus, the Melvins, and Mudhoney and had impressed Green Day. So they hired them for the job. Immediately, their managers began approaching major record labels, tempting them with a band who sold over 50,000 albums based on just raw talent alone. The members of the band were all living together in the basement of a large, ramshackle, student-dominated Victorian house at 2243 Ashby Street, which was just down the block from the pristine entrance to the esteemed University of Berkeley. They were getting many calls from major record labels, who heard that this young cult had now sold a total of 60,000 copies of their cheaply recorded independent releases and wanted this band to sign to their roster. Warner Bros., Geffen, Sony and everybodys mother wanted to sign us, said Tre, but we held off for quite a long time. Why? Because David Geffens money was paying for us to go to Disneyland. We kind of milked them. We wanted to hold out until we got complete artistic control. We wanted to be the bosses and not let somebody else tell us what to do. Of course, the first offer is bull****, the second slightly less, the third still kind of sucksà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦we thought F*** this, its our lives. Its like getting married or something. This would all change when they met Rob Cavallo of Reprise Records, a subsidiary label of Warner Brothers. He was different than all the other higher ups; he actually played guitar and came from a musical background. Also, he had worked with other punk bands such as Jawbreaker and the Muffs, and this had sparked Green Days interest. The way he got through to them was he brought his guitar and joined them in jamming, then later went out for ice cream with them. It was that day that he convinced them to join the roster. Finally in April 1993, they signed to Warner Bros./Reprise for an initial deal of five albums, with the plan that Cavallo would produce their major label debut. Also, they made sure that Lookout! would still own the rights to their first two albums, the idea being that the indie labels support would earn them money even if Green Day was no longer with them, a move which has paid off very well for Livermore and Co. over the past 10 years. Although Lookout! had just lost their most profitable band, the combined sales of 39/Smooth and Kerplunk! had reached the one million mark by the close of 1995, so they were still making money off Green Day. They played their last two shows at Gilman Street that year, never to look back. While recording their next album Dookie, they had a much larger budget and more time to lay down tracks in the studio. When the album was completed, they played a bunch of dates over the summer with Bad Religion on their Recipe for Hate tour. Dookie was finally released on January 11, 1994. The lead single from the album was Longview. It quickly topped the Billboard Modern Rock chart. Billie Joe was the first in the band to get married. He tied the knot with his long-time lover Adrienne in a quick ceremony in July. The next day, his wife revealed that she had been feeling somewhat different recently, so they stopped to pick up a pregnancy test. A few minutes later, the newlyweds discovered they were about to become parents. The same year, Green Days popularity was on the rise. They were asked to replace the opening band the Boredoms in Lollapalooza 1994. Another huge deal for them was when they were asked to play Woodstock 94, as a late addition. This was a day to go down in history. They arrived in upstate New York on August 11, and it had been raining continuously. The ground was completely churned up and all mud. As they began playing songs, the crowd went nuts and began flinging clumps of dirt and mud everywhere. Billie Joe caught the first clod and put it in his mouth. Eventually, he took off his pants as the crowd went even wilder. Fans began climbing on stage to get closer, and soon a riot broke out. The band had to be hauled away in a helicopter to escape the crazed fans. The summer of 1994 was a busy time for them. Their music video for Longview had been nominated by the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards at the Metropolitan City Opera House for Best Group Video and Best Alternative Video. The next night they had a show in Ohio. The whole summer consisted of flying all over the US from show to show, night after night. Their next big stint was a show in September set up by a Boston radio station that attracted about 100,000 people. Within minutes of hitting the stage, the crowd had surged forward and knocked over safety barriers and havoc broke out. They were concerned that the entire lighting rig was going to come down, so the promoter pulled the plug. This just made the crowd riot even harder and spill out onto the streets of downtown Boston. The night concluded with 60 arrests and dozens of injuries. A very respectable thing to do, the band had a policy that door prices were to be kept affordable with a ceiling price of $20, even though they could charge much more. Sometimes shows even went as low as $5, and their official t-shirts cost a maximum of $10. They were still receiving much controversy from the punk community though. People were claiming that they had sold out when they signed to a major record label and that they had compromised their music. Sometime in 1994, someone was so opposed to Green Day signing that they wrote Billie Joe Must Die on a wall at 924 Gilman Street. One night, a fan asked Billie Joe Whats punk? He then kicked over a garbage can and exclaimed, Thats punk! So the fan kicked over a garbage can too and replied, Thats punk? And Billie Joe then replied, No, thats trendy. Billie Joe still knew what punk was and still had it in him, even though his band was selling millions of albums and quickly becoming the hottest band of the 1990s. They had lived the lifestyle of true punks for many years before they struck it big. One would think that their dedicated fans would be happy for them being successful after sticking it out through the tough times; going through years of having no money. If anyone deserved to make it huge, it was definitely Green Day. Since its release, Dookie has sold over 16 million copies worldwide and is the bands top selling album. They have sold over 65 million copies worldwide and are undeniably one of the biggest rock bands there are today. If it wasnt for their music, the whole music scene might be a lot different than it is today. Punk wouldnt have taken the mainstream spotlight in the 1990s, and most punk bands that formed around the same time as Green Day wouldnt have made it as big as they did. Green Day single-handedly changed the direction of music in the 1990s.

Internal Analysis Strong And Weak Points Marketing Essay

Internal Analysis Strong And Weak Points Marketing Essay Analyse basically the chosen marketing mix. (normally you use the actual marketing-mix, but since that does not automatically exist now in the Netherlands, you need to assess the (known and/or expected) strengths and weaknesses. Elements to analyse actual strategy of the company (abroad) and strong /weak points influencing you mkt-mix (e.g. investment budget can be too low) Use your own survey results concerning the product or substitute products where relevant, in order to know if this influences (strong point/weak point) your actualperformance. Elements you must include are therefore: * product (benefits, attributes, core, actual, augmented -branding strategy) * price (pricing strategy -price setting), including costs you will have, break-even, etc * distribution (chosen partners, online, direct ): strategy and costs * communication : strategy and costs, can be internal and external, is promotion wise related to distribution and product/branding Also, but less extensive, since this goes beyond IP-1à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ * personel/employees: HRM -strategy and costs * purchase function / supply chain: costs for managing the value chain, etc * finance ! (investment =? Do you have the money ? Do not ignore, you need it for your budgetting, so at least name it and explain how much is involved, keep the costs as low as possible )(finance=communication costs, personnel costs, starting up costs, The total must be coherent, realistic and financially feasible Relevant conclusions CHAPTER 2 INTERNAL ANALYSIS -STONG AND WEAK POINTS Introduction The internal analysis of the company can be also associated with SWOT analysis. This is an analysis of the strenghts, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company. Internal analysis is essential for the company because it can measure the companys current situation and it can help to further the development of the company. By analysing these four sides of the company we can better understand what is needed to further the growth of the company. It is necessary to analyse our situation in its current position in order to make better planning for the future. Since our goal is to introduce the product and the company to the Dutch market successfully we need to internally analyse our strenghts, weakneses, opportunuties and possible threats in the new market. By the internal analysis we can also make improvements in our overall marketing strategy. By internal analysis of the company we can easily identify marketing opportunities, problems and evaluate performence. The main purpose o f the internal analysis is to gain a better picture of the companys overall performance and to help us with making better marketing decisions for the future growth. Structure of the internal analysis This analysis is going to show the strenghts and weaknesses of our marketing strategy. We will analyse each part of the marketing mix in order to estimate its efficiency. Elements to analyse: Extensive analysis: Actual strategy of the company and strong/weak points influencing our marketing mix Product analysis Pricing analysis Distribution analysis Communication analysis Less extensive analysis: Personnel/Employees HRM strategy and costs Purchase function/Supply chain Finance At the end of the analysis we will provide a relevant conclusion. Actual strategy of the company and strong/weak points influencing its marketing mix Product analysis Our market offering is a soft, multivimatin drink. What is special about our product is the concept of the product. It stands out from other multivitamin drinks in the same product group. In this part of the analysis we are going to analyse the benefits, attributes, the core of the product, the actual product, the augmented product. The analysis will include the strong and weak points of the product which will affect our actual performance. Product benefits: As a main benefit of our product can be considered the fact that it is healthy and it includes a lot of vitamins.Another benefit is the innovative packaging. It is attractive and offers to the customers a special way of drinking. It is also interesting and more fun than other products in the same product group. The cap consists vitamin powder which falls into the water in the bottle immediately after opening the cap. Product attributes: Product Quality: For the quality we dont have to change anything, because our product GO! Now has a very good quality, and its a very popular drink because of quality in Eastern Europe. So we hope that Dutch consumers will have the same opinion about our product. Product Features: Based on our survey, we dont have to add any additional features for our product. Product Style and Design: Our product has an eye-catching style, so we dont have to change it. For design, its a bit a problem for now. We think that in future we will change it for the Dutch market, because design it is a deep understanding of customers needs. But for now we will leave it the same. Branding: Brand is very important for the product, and our product brand is still unknown for the Dutch market. For Dutch market we have change already the name of our brand, so we made it much easier for local consumers. Packaging: We have quite a good packaging, especially for the Dutch market, because our main product GO! orange flavor is in orange color, and, based on survey, people like especially this feature of our product. The only thing that we have to change is that we have to translate the product information from creation to Dutch and English languages. Labeling: We will not change the label, we dont need this, because based on the survey we made, we found out that consumers are fully satisfied with the product we offer. Product Support Services: We will conduct a survey among our customers periodically to assess the value of our future service, and that will also help us for obtaining new ideas. Core customer value of our product: Our product offers to the customers healthy and refreshing drink. It improves their lifestyle. It is also a new way of drinking which is a lot of fun. Actual product: GO! is a a refreshing multi-vitamin drink in innovative package, adapted to everyone who lives on the go and actively enjoys their free time. The product itself is in an orange packaging. It is a new way of drinking. You open the cap. Add GO! water to suit your taste. Then you close the cap and shake the bottle. Your GO! is ready. In the end you enjoy the unforgettable taste of your favorite multivitamin drink. The slogan of this product is Open and GO! Augmented product: The service the company provides is that if you are not satisfied with the product they will do everything they can to help you with your problem. They have also a delivery service, you order it on the internet and deliver the next day. Delivery takes too long so this is a weakness but if there is big interesnt in buying the product online we can make changes and fasten the delivery of the product. Branding strategy: Even though the brand is very popular in some East European countries it is still unknown in the Netherlands. We will make some changes in the brand name because it is too difficult to remember and it doesnt make any sense for the Dutch consumers. Of course, it is still possible to keep the brand name of the product but it will not be the best choice because its too long and its also hard to remember and pronounce. We need something simpler in order to make our product popular. Our products original brand name was Cedevita GO! and we have decided to shorten it and change it only to GO!. The new name is easier to pronounce and to remember its also with big letters so it draws the customers attention. Also the word Go have a meaning in English and it means proceed which associates with sport and physical activities that are important for the health. Pricing analysis We suggest for the client to put the price at à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 2,00 The price Atlantic Grupa puts is à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1,40, the retailer price is à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1,70, so the best price for our client would be à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬2,00 since the customers in Holland have a little bit more money to spend. And since the nature of the product is to be on the go, it would be a normal price since the other products are quite expensive as well(tank stations, AH to go etc.). And with à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬2,00 you would have a nice price. And combined with a psychological setting it would result in the final of à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬1,99 Another part of our pricing analysis is that the price of our product is quite high to reflect a certain amount of exclusiveness. So in that sense, we would like to pick premium pricing from the options Kotlers mentions to us. Abroad the BEA is 15,849 since this amount of euro is the constant costs. That means Atlantic Grupa has to sell exactly 11.321 bottles of cedevita GO!. With a sale of 1.684.295 and a net income of 99.292 in 2010 it is fairly easy to get out of the BEA in Holland. In Holland however, we have to include promotion costs in our constant costs and that will result in slightly higher BEA. We still believe that this BEA can be seen as a threat if our promotion program fails, normally companies always expect losses in the first few years. The promotion costs will be around 20700 and this will increase the BEA to 11.321+8280=19.621 Distribution analysis Distribution channels for our product: It is an indirect marketing channel, because we will sell our product in supermarkets. That means that we have to use one or more levels of intermediaries to help us to bring the product to final buyers. It is crucial to use this marketing channel for our product, because intermediaries could create greater efficiency in making goods available to target markets. Through their contacts, experience, specialization, and scale of operation, intermediaries usually offer the firm more that it can achieve on its own. Our distribution channel will look like this: Producer Wholesaler Retailer Consumer Distribution functions: Information: with information we could know more about actors and forces in the in the marketing environment, that affect our product. Promotion: with promotion we could tell more about our product to our target consumer market. Matching: this will help us to bring the product, which is matched to Dutch consumers needs. Physical distribution: the main function of physical distribution is to: transport and store the goods. Financing: with financing we can cover the cost for the product chain. Risk taking: we need to take risk of carrying out the channel work. Distribution objective and strategy: Main objective is to minimize the total channel cost of meeting customer-service requirements. That means that we have to focus on our target market group, to satisfy needs and wants of our customers, and minimize the channel cost. We will use intensive distribution strategy for our products, we will stock our products in as many outlets as possible. Our products have to be available where and when consumers want them, to provide maximum brand exposure and consumer convenience. Use of logistics: Logistics involves getting the right product to the right customers in the right place at the right time. So it is very important to organize in the right way. First of all we need a warehouse in the Netherlands, to store our products, while they wait to be sold. We will use the distribution centres, because they are design to move goods rather than store them. This will help us to take orders, fill them efficiently, and deliver goods to consumers as quickly as possible. Then as the inventory management also affects customer satisfaction, we have to decide how much inventory to order. We have to maintain balance between carrying to little inventory and carrying too much. After that we need to choose transportation for our product. The best way to transport our goods is by trucks. Mainly, because truck is highly flexible in their routing and time schedules, and they can usually offer faster service than railroads. The last step is a logistic information management. We will use the internet-based electronic data interchange (EDI). EDI will provide us with a simple, fast, and accurate process for capturing, processing, and sharing channel information. EDI costs exists of: Implementation Time Maintenance Fees VAN Charges Mailbox Costs Communication analysis Communication target groups: Our target groups will be: Young people Physically active people Sportsmen Students People who travel very often Communication objectives: Our main objective is to make the consumers buy our product. But this is not a very easy task since in order to fulfill it we need to understand the consumer and his needs and wants. We also need to know on which buyer-readiness stage the target audience now stands and where should it be. The buyer-readiness stages are the stages which the consumer normally passes through on their way to purchase. It includes awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, and purchase. Since our product is new to the Dutch market we already know that our target group is not aware of the product. So our first task will be to make consumers familiar with the new product. After that we need to use the promotion mix tools in order to create positive feeling and conviction about .It is possible that we will offer special promotional prices in order to attract customers. Still, the most important thing is to convince the consumers that our product provides superior value for them and to get them to the purchase stage of the buyer-readiness stage. Media: We will use nonpersonal communication channel for our product, this means that we will use media that will carry messages without personal contact or feedback. Basically, we will use online media (e-mail, company web site, and online social and sharing networks), print media (newspapers, magazines), display media (flyers, posters). Promotion tools: For our product Go! we will use advertising and sales promotion. For advertising we will mainly use online advertising, which includes: Contextual ads that appear on a search engine results pages Companys web site Banner ads Social network advertising Advertising networks E-mail marketing. We will also use In-store advertising, which includes: Placement of product in visible location in store Advertisements on shopping carts Advertisements on in-store video displays For sales promotion we will use special cents-of deals to attract consumers ` attention by offering strong incentives to purchase our product Go! Promotions: We will advice our client to use sales promotions. The best is to use consumer sales promotion. That means that we will target our promotion on a consumers. Good examples of the consumer sales promotion are: Cents-off deal: Offers a brand at a lower price. Price reduction may be a percentage marked on the package. Price-pack deal: The packaging offers a consumer a certain percentage more of the product for the same price (for example, 25 percent extra). The non-stop retailing can be used to promote the clients product to the customer. Each of our competitors has a web-site and the products can be purchased online. The sites also include a lot of promotions. Non-stop retailing allows customers to research the product online first and then decide rather to buy it or not. The web-sites do more than selling products to the customers; they also make them go to the supermarket and shop there. Promotion budget: We will use objective-and-task method, because we think that it is the best method for our promotion campaign. With this method we will: Define specific objectives Determine the task that must be performed to achieve these objectives Estimate the cost to of performing these tasks (the sum of these cost is the proposed promotion budget) We surf the Internet and found out that our communication budget will vary from 18100 to 20700 euros for a month, depend on quantity and quality we will need to promote our product. It consists of: Magazines advertisement-from 13000 to 15000 euros Advertisement on the most popular Dutch social web site Hyves 700 euros Advertisement on various Internet search engines (Yahoo, Google) from 900 to 1500 euros To create and maintain our Go! Web site 1500 euros Flyers and posters 300 euros Employee salary for posting flyers and posters 2000 euros Since the product is completely unknown on the Dutch market we need to do a lot of promotions and advertisements in order to make it popular. This is of course a weak point because we need to build an image of the product from the zero. We will spend big amount of money on promotions and this can also affect the product price because it can make the product too expensive. Personnel/Employees HRM strategy and costs The HRM-strategy is in terms of originality as innovative and interesting, as the product itself. First of all I want to mention that there is a majority of women on the work floor and based on the financial reports they are doing quite well with their current settings. There are 62% females and 38% in the company with 1800 employees in total. We would recommend decreasing the brand managers since there are more then 200 of them in the company. Instead of focusing on the amount of brand managers we think that their salary would be better spent on mass-marketing, of course it would be less effective but you have a much greater public you can reach. The median age is around 30 but we believe that this can be lowered if younger people can be hired instead of the older ones, this is a price-cutter and also brings fresh wind/talent to the company. finance If we estimate the total calculation of our financial analysis we have to take account with the following factors: Personnel costs/research costs Promotion/media costs Distribution costs( EDI system) Transportation costs We believe that there is no personnel extensive use in our project( or at least in the early steps of it), with a research department of around 50 people divided into finance, marketing and laws should be sufficient enough for a non-superficial answer to the obstacles Atlantic Grupa will face. So if I calculate the total personnel costs with an average salary of 1800 euro(the centre is located in Eastern-Europe, lower salaries) it should be 180050= 90.000 Gross salary costs every month for the personnel/research ( I believe these 2 factors can be merged into 1since research is always done by the personnel.) Furthermore, promotion costs will be around 20.000 euro`s a month. The distribution costs is very tricky since setting up a logistic information system(EDI) is quite expensive which is mainly used by the bigger companies. The costs start from 40.000 euros and can reach 900.000 euros depending on mapping size, it is also important to note that maintaining an EDI costs around 18% of the price you paid for the system every year. A price of 200.000 for the system is enough to guarantee a high quality distribution system. Transportation costs are around 7 cents for every bottle sent, so 70.000x 0.07= 4900 euros So if i calculate everything together it would result in: 200.000+90.000+20.000+4900=314.900 euros starting up costs with 36.000+90.000+20.000 extra every month and 0.07cents x every bottle sold (variable cost)=146.000 extra per month 314.900 Euros+ 146.000 every month(and perhaps some credits ;-)), we believe that this fits in the SMART approach -