Little Children Movie Review Essay

â€Å"You couldn’t change the past. But the future could be a different story. And it had to start somewhere. † This final statement sums up the message of the Little Children, a film opus of Todd Fiend, that talks not merely about a love affair of two married persons, but the story of struggle and redemption of common folk living in an upper-middle class suburban Boston. This notwithstanding, the film also shows a stereotypical, albeit real depiction of the contradictions in such a neighborhood – the soccer moms, the disempowered husbands, better called ‘house-bands’, and the bored housewives in terrible need of an ego boost. The film review shall mainly quote dialogue from the film, in order to showcase fully the power of this story about suburban Northeastern America. Sarah Pierce is a successful academic and campus figure, but has since lost all glory upon her marriage to Richard, and subsequent birth to Lucy, a self-assured little girl who refuses to do everything Sarah requests. She currently suffers from an absolute absence of love in her relationship with Brad, shattered further with her catching Richard in a fit of masturbation, while wearing her panties around his head. Moreover, she eternally despises the pretentious moms she sees in Lucy’s playground all the time. The lines with sarcasm are clearly suggestive of her clear disdain for the mothers, to wit – Mary Ann: He should just be castrated. Just snip, quick and easy. Sarah Pierce: [sarcastically] You know what else you should do? Nail his penis above the entrance to the elementary school. That’d really teach him a lesson. This initial situation of Sarah inextricably creates the objective conditions for the future love affair with Brad, because one cannot reasonably expect, despite promises made at the consummation of marriage that she can eternally be faithful in the wake of the loveless situation that she is in. Her disempowerment as an intellectual by becoming a fulltime housewife living in a sea of pretentious women around her also gives further ammunition, albeit personal isolation from her community-at-large, for the blossoming of a new yet forbidden relationship with Brad. The other player in this love affair is Brad Adamson, a ‘house-band’ whose career is at a standstill – he failed the bar exams twice, and his wife is a successful documentary filmmaker, named Kathy. In such as situation, he feels absolutely helpless, in view of the fact that it is his wife that serves as the breadwinner of the family, and his main task for every given day would be to accompany their child Aaron during his playtime. Without an actual career to speak of, and a similarly successful past as Sarah, it is without a doubt a situation which would create the necessary conditions for his decision to enter into an affair with Sarah – them hopeless beings supposedly full of potential, now finally united. The proverbial meet-cute of film may be the scandalous yet affirming prank they pulled against the pretentious mothers in the playground, when Sarah and Brad hugged each other, to the absolute disdain of the mothers. The prank unleashed their long-kept longings of spontaneity and passion, long gone in the running of their marriages and only to be found again in each other’s embrace. Sarah, as the formerly empowered intellectual, possesses almost the same ridicule at Richard as what she has against the pretentious mothers, to wit – Brad Adamson: You have a nice place here. Sarah Pierce: You think? Yeah, Richard does pretty well for himself. Brad Adamson: Oh, yeah? What’s he do? Sarah Pierce: He lies. They shall soon engage in passionate love-making during a fierce rainstorm, but only after Brad realizes that their feelings for each other are mutual, as shown by a picture kept by Sarah in her study. Nonetheless, the couple in the affair approach their forbidden relationship, with great fervor, but a bit unsure, with even a tinge of guilt and remorse, particularly on the part of Brad, to wit – Brad Adamson: Do you feel bad about this? Sarah Pierce: No, I don’t. Brad Adamson: I do. I feel really bad. The other characters in the movie are as interesting as the two main love-struck protagonists. Ronnie McGorvey is an indecent exposure offender, having served prison time and has since moved back into the neighborhood with his mother. Ronnie seems to have been unreformed in his perverted ways, when he masturbates yet again during a date set by his mother, ruining the date, and destroying all hopes of him ever finding love. His return, nonetheless, is met with great protest by Larry, Brad’s teammate in touch football, and a disgraced police officer. His protests turn violent at times, not content with the mere handing out of flyers and posters about Ronnie, but also vandalizing his house, and almost assaulting Ronnie and his mother. Their seemingly grown-men, good vs. evil conflict reaches a terrible turn when a drunken Larry goes to Ronnie’s house with a megaphone, waking the entire neighborhood and shaming fully Ronnie and his mother. As his mother tries to stop Larry from further his drunken actions, he pushes her to the ground, triggering a heart attack which would soon take her life. Nonetheless, before entering death’s door, she writes a note to Ronnie with a chest-pounding plea – â€Å"Please be good boy. † This triggers Ronnie to go on a fit of rage for losing his mother, ending in castrating himself, in pursuit of his mother’s request at death. Larry would soon realize how grave his mistake was and looks for Ronnie, and bring him to the hospital for medical attention. The stories of Ronnie and Larry ironically show the awkward sense of justice and reason disgraced persons in the community pursue to redeem themselves to their loved ones and to the community. Ronnie, in the most dramatic expression of remorse and love to his dead mother, has cut of his testicles – the physical object of his sexual perversion, in order to unrealistically undo the hurt feelings of his mother created by his former acts. But despite the spectacle of it all, the drama attended by it, there is no point in doing such. The mother is dead, and the date has been left crying. On the other hand, Larry, the disgraced police officer, puts the law into his own hands by maligning Ronnie’s person and by engaging into overt acts of harassment and violence in pursuit of this. The objective is clear, that despite his failure as an officer of the law, he himself continues to be an upright man, rejecting sexual depredation and moral turpitude in the person of Ronnie. He does his brand of redemption to a serious fault, notwithstanding through aimless grandstanding, by lumping together Ronnie’s person to that of his mother, by vandalizing her property and pushing her to the ground in pursuit of his shame campaign. By doing such, he fails in the end, because the object of vigilante-ism is not the person whose life was lost, but some innocent person whose continued life could have influenced Ronnie towards full redemption from his sins, without need of castration, nor the spectacle of it. Meanwhile, the affair between Brad and Sarah becomes all the more serious, to the point that Kathy herself now witnesses the truth of the affair through the tacit sexual tensions between the two during a dinner. They have even agreed to run away together, as when two young star-crossed lovers would leave their unyielding parents in pursuit of their hasty, yet seemingly ‘true’ love. In pursuit of this, Sarah even declares the situation to Mary Ann, to wit – Mary Ann: Oh that’s nice. So now cheating on your husband makes you a feminist? Sarah Pierce: No, no, no. It’s not the cheating. It’s the hunger – the hunger for an alternative and the refusal to accept a life of unhappiness. The two were prepared to leave their loveless homes, their young children and their real spouses to perfect the ‘love’ long lost, and which now they have found through one another. This feeling of seemingly ‘great love’ is expected, but appears clearly as one that is fleeting, one that is artificial, one that was created by the sordid personal experiences of their lives, where the affair’s function was a mere outlet of a love that is merely not sought, but never absent, in their own homes. Such is how their love is that in the film’s climax, at the supposed point of no return by meeting on the night they agreed upon to run away for love, the family and the past they have left pull them back, not through force, but by circumstances that put everything back into its proper perspective. Sarah’s Lucy gets lost, and a panicked mother searches for her relentlessly in the playground where she left her, only to soon find her along under a street light. It is on this moment, that the bubble of ‘love’ in the affair is completely pierced, that the idea of the absence of love is merely in her mind, nothing more, and Lucy is the personification of that love, that has never been absent, but as stated above, a love merely unsought. Brad himself experiences a similar piercing of the ‘love bubble’, in the exact moment towards their scheduled departure for love. Brad, the confident but now disempowered lawyer-to-be, has failed to leave his goodbye letter to Kathy when he met a serious accident while trying some skateboard tricks. No clue has been given as to why he failed to leave the note to Kathy, but what can be surmised is that he probably felt the same as Sarah had, the inability, at the final instance, to create the actual physical wedge between his past and his supposed future with Sarah. This unstated inability to leave is further buttressed by Kathy’s rush to the hospital to meet Brad at the emergency room doors, showing that despite acting as the breadwinner of the family, she is not without love for her husband, and that, as in Sarah’s case, Brad’s idea of a loveless home is again, a love merely unsought, waning and almost at the point of death, yes, but present with the ability to be roused to life again. In all these, the film shows who the real Little Children are in this story of suburban America – it is the adults who allow their feelings to get in the way of principled contemplation of relationships and love.

Analyse the work of Louis MacNeice, entitled, The sunlight on the garden

In this essay, I shall analyse the work of Louis MacNeice, entitled, ‘The sunlight on the garden. ‘ It is a modern verse that offers a self-reflexive commentary on life and its key elements. In similarity to the traditional epic verse, the poem is an expression of the speaker's particular personalities and motives. I intend to explore these two subjects in greater detail in my essay. According to the Oxford English dictionary, a poetic analysis is the process, or ‘detailed examination of studying a poem†¦ o determine its nature, structure, or essential features. ‘ This is a common practice used by both reader and critic in the reading of prose and poetry and I will adopt this technique in my essay. MacNeice's poem from the thirties transcribes the period of great hardship in the Western World, as well as the speaker's self-hardship of love and death. The Wall Street Crash in 1929 started a worldwide economic depression that lasted for much of the decade and industries such as steel, ship-building and coal mining suffered. Moreover, unemployment in Britain soared which left a hollowed and pessimistic outlook on life. This had a strong impact upon poetry of the time, this particular poem illuminating the confusions and irresolvable issues of the common man. There are many social and political events that influenced MacNeice's work, the First World War being the most significant. Though the event took place decades before the poet's publication, there are strong elements of futility, death and decay in his language. The line, ‘we are dying, Egypt, dying' in particular, is reflective of the dreary society that both the poet and the people lived through. The poet's reference to the Shakespearian tragedy suggests that the speaker or even MacNeice himself suffered from heartache or loss. The line, ‘hardened heart' expands this idea, revealing a meta-level of vulnerability and self-consciousness of both the poem and its writer. Moreover, MacNeice's use of the pronoun ‘we' rather than, ‘I' highlights that this is a communal suffering, a contrast to the typical self-infliction of epic poems. There is great discussion as to the traditions of the poem, MacNeice's experiments with classic meter and rhyme making the poem difficult to follow. The partial-serpentine rhymes, ‘minute within it' for example, are demonstrative of his varying rhyme scheme and poetic technique. However there are evident poetic qualities which suggest that he is writing in the style of lyric-epic poets. Firstly, the poem's occasion is focused on the past rather than the present-self. The line, ‘but glad to have sat†¦ ith you' emphasises the speaker's preoccupation with past events and his constant struggle with time and death. Furthermore, the narration of events (combined with the speaker's emotional and reflective self-expression), creates an identity of the lyric self that is not found in the traditional epic. The speaker's constant preoccupation of the self and of death is a strong characteristic of elegiac poetry. Moreover, instead of using the typical third person perspective found in Greek epic poetry, MacNeice uses, ‘we' and ‘you', typical of the lyric-epics of the time. Perhaps the poet, like other modernist writers, aspired to move away from the traditional epic layout and create a more modernised work as this was a fashionable movement in the early twentieth century. The poet Wordsworth, for example, experimented with new styles and verse forms to re-invent and modernise the lyric. Having identified the poetic form and tradition, I am now going to analyse the language in MacNeice's work. The use of imagery in all forms of poetry is a common technique used to draw the reader into poetic experiences, primarily through the senses. This is a characteristic in, ‘The Sunlight on the garden', where the work's title immediately evokes a simple image of beauty, nature and hope. The first line however, immediately transposes one's expectations as MacNeice's speaker descends into a metaphysical state of suffering, ‘sunlight†¦ hardens and grows cold. ‘ Moreover, the imagery of Egypt ‘dying' also reveals the somewhat macabre state of his vision; absent in love, emotion and feeling, ‘hardened in heart. MacNeice's vivid poetic imagery such as the line, ‘nets of gold', arouses our senses and evokes the speaker's pure and simple vision. Furthermore, the imagery of, ‘birds' and ‘flying' appeal to not only our sense of sight but also to the speaker's hope for freedom. However, on a meta-level, again our understanding is transposed as the imagery of ‘Cage' and ‘net' enforces not freedom but a sensation of being trapped and confined in one's self. In addition to imagery, another dominant characteristic of MacNeice's poem is rhyme. The rhyming scheme follows the same pattern (ABCBBA) in each stanza. The partial-serpentine rhyme of the poem acts as an enjambment, the syllabic meter from the previous line being carried to the next. This is again similar to the continuity of time and death that the poet discusses. The enjambment of the first line in the poem follows a rhyming word which then follows another rhyming word (‘garden hardens†¦ cold'). In doing so, the unavoidable continuity of time and fate is highlighted. Moreover, the confusion of poetic forms and rhyme scheme add to the futility and the speaker's lack of power or control. The use of alliteration ‘cannot cage' emphasises the futility of one's attempts to stop time. Again the speaker's self-consciousness is exposed by the poet as he ultimately fails in this, the line, ‘we cannot beg' emphasising his vulnerability of self. The disjointed and reckless rhyme scheme, as well as the varied pentameter, trochaic and heptameter, sound more fluid when spoken orally to an audience. MacNeice continues this old tradition of verbal poetry and in doing so, the beauty of the poem overcomes the confusion of the poetic form, acting as a work of art for both the eyes and ears. Now that I have analysed rhyme and rhythm, I am going to look at the purpose of the poem and the issues the poet raises. One of the fundamentals purposes of the poem that presents itself is that the speaker has a constant preoccupation with love and regret. The line, ‘our freedom†¦ advances towards its end' is suggestive of a strong nostalgia and pessimism in the speaker. This is a self-consciousness that he readily admits to his audience, perhaps something that he could not have done through another medium. There is also a strong debate upon reading the poem that he could be talking to his lover. The sentiments in the last stanza, ‘glad to have sat†¦ with you' and, ‘hardened in heart' imply that the poem's purpose is a written expression of his feelings towards her, a romantic perspective on the traditional lyric-epic. However, the most prominent purpose for MacNeice's work is that the poem is the speaker's farewell to his loved ones. The line, ‘we shall have no time for dances' coupled with the endless discussion of time and indeed death, infers that life, indeed his life is running out and no matter how many a ‘net of gold' he uses, one cannot prevent it. Having analysed the purpose of the poem, I am now going to identify the implication of the poem on primarily the reader and the effects on society itself. At first glance, there is little political reference in the poem, something that one would not have expected, particularly at a time of economic turmoil and war. However there is a strong implication on our philosophical understanding of love, life and fate. The phrase ‘we cannot cage the minute', for example, highlights the delicacy and futility of time that not even the speaker can stop or control. This in turn, highlights the vulnerability and weakness of man who has no control over fate, despite ‘the nets of gold'. This weakness of man represents a nation under threat with the foreboding threat of another war, and the future economic difficulties in the thirties. There might also be a political implication in the line, ‘We cannot beg for pardon', relating in my mind to the horrors and mistakes made in the first word war. In conclusion, the poem, ‘The sunlight on the garden' written by Louis MacNeice, is a typical lyric-epic poem focused around love, loss and time. There are many other themes (the speaker's gender for example) and aspects the poem's structure that I could have looked at in greater detail, rather than focusing solely on imagery and rhyme. The poem educates us about the importance of time and the growing shift occurring in epic poetry, a movement which MacNeice evidently took part in and which in turn affected the evolution of poetry in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

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Critically analyse two of the theories that seek to explain the Essay

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Murdoch Family Business Analysis - Essay Example The business was originally set up in the year 1828 by two emigrants of Scottish origin into Australia in 1828 viz. Reverend James Murdoch and Helen Murdoch. The members of this family are prominently known as the international proprietors in the world of media. The family business is especially popular in the United States of America, United Kingdom and Australia. Some of the members of the Murdoch family have also carved a niche of themselves in the area of clergy, military and arts in Australia. The Murdoch Family Business is highly reputed for its business legacy and because it has been a highly successful and completely family controlled business which has been managed in an impressive manner over the generations of the functioning of the business empire (Page, 2003).Currently, the Murdoch Family Business holds stakes in a number of companies and corporations in the arena of media including News Corporation, the Times of London, and Sunday Times, 21st Century Fox and The Herald and Weekly Times Limited. The Murdoch Family Business is mainly concentrated on the mass media and entertainment industry either through the direct ownership companies or through stakes in internationally acclaimed entertainment and media companies. The different companies under the control of the family operate in various verticals of the mass media and entertainment sector. As per a report by Forbes in 2007, Rupert Murdoch was the 73rd ranked billionaire in the world who has a net worth of USD 9.1 billion as of 2007 (Forbes Magazine, 2007). By 2013, Rupert Murdoch went on to become the 33rd richest individual in the United States of America and the 91st richest individual in the world. From 2007 to 2013, the net worth of Rupert Murdoch as the owner of the Murdoch family business rose form USD 9.1 billion o USD 13.4 billion. Also, in 2013, Rupert Murdoch and the family were ranked as the 33rd most influential family in the world. The fortune

Phenomenological Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Phenomenological Psychology - Essay Example As a result f this bracketing f the naturalistic positing f reality and the epoche f the beliefs that correspond to this positing, the how f the givenness f such outer and inner objects is to be phenomenologically investigated qua their status as the "meanings" (Sinne) f "that which is," meanings that are now given to "pure consciousness." For Husserl, Sinn designates that which is manifest to phenomenological reflection, subsequent to the "bracketing" f the "reality" f both "inner" and "outer" objects (and eventually the horizon f the natural world) and the epoche f the natural attitude's naive belief in the transcendent reality f these objects and world-horizon. As such, Sinn articulates the status f the phenomenologically "reduced" phenomena f these objects and world-horizon and the corresponding natural attitude which is manifested when the phenomenological attitude no longer "goes along with" the natural positing f these objects and world-horizon in terms f the taken-for-granted status f their transcendent reality. ... In the case f "meaning," there is the suggestion f "conceptuality," which brings along with it misleading connotations f "mental" and/ or "abstract" reality. In the case f "sense," there is the suggestion f "sense perception," which also carries with it "sensible" and/or "physical" connotations. Since the phenomena referred to by Sinn may include the phenomenologically reduced manifestation f both "concepts" and "sense perception" without, however, necessarily being exhausted by either, I will sometimes leave the word untranslated, as a reminder that the scope f its reference may exceed these possibilities. (The reference f Sinn to the phenomena f the nonobjectifiable horizon f the natural world and the attitude that posits its reality, for instance, is one such case f the term's scope exceeding both conceptual and physical phenomena.) The naturalistically posited external and internal objects are therefore not to be investigated in terms f their naturalistically posited statuses as "realities" transcendent to consciousness; rather, they are uncovered, in accord with their phenomenologically psychological "reduced" status as "meanings" manifest to consciousness "purified" f such positing (and belief in this positing) f transcendent reality, in terms f the "immanent" subject matter f the science f phenomenological psychology. And it is precisely the lived-experience f such meaning and its structure that articulates the positive account f the subject matter f psychology provided by Husserl's phenomenological psychology. Insofar as both psychological and transcendental phenomenology are defined in terms f the reflective securing and eidetic unfolding f "pure consciousness," their demarcation must be sought, then, not

Culture and World Wide Web Essay Example for Free

Culture and World Wide Web Essay Basis ternet has changed our lives, before the internet, Life was completely different. In early times, people sent letters for communication, but now a day, The World Wide Web has changed the world in more than one way. The Internet has suddenly changed politics, business, and culture. Now today, there is no need to sent letters, it is the modern era, the information technology time, in which information can take not more than half second to be sent. ternet has changed our lives, before the internet, Life was completely different. In early times, people sent letters for communication, but now a day, The World Wide Web has changed the world in more than one way. The Internet has suddenly changed politics, business, and culture. Now today, there is no need to sent letters, it is the modern era, the information technology time, in which information can taternet has changed our lives, before the internet, Life was completely different. In early times, people sent letters for communication, but now a day, The World Wide Web has changed the world in more than one way. The Internet has suddenly changed politics, business, and culture. Now today, there is no need to sent letters, it is the modern era, the information technology time, in which information can take not more than half second to be sent. The technologies are growing, developing, but did the culture changed and turned iternet has changed our lives, before the internet, Life was completely different. In early times, people sent letters for communication, but now a day, The World Wide Web has changed the world in more than one way. The Internet has suddenly changed politics, busiternet has changed our lives, before the internet, Life was completely different. In early times, people sent letters for communication, but now a day, The World Wide Web has changed the world in more than one way. The Internet has suddenly changed politics, business, and culture. Now today, there is no need to sent letters, it is the modern era, the information technology time, in which information can take not more than half second to be sent. The technologies are growing, developing, but did the culture changed and turned into a single culture, not at all. Discovery of computers and internet has come like a miracle to mankind. Through this the worldwide communication has increased. People are gaining knowledge about other cultures, but this does not mean that they are fully adopting the other culture and this is because soness, and culture. Now today, there is no need to sent letters, it is the modern era, the  information technology time, in which information can take not more than half second to be sent. The technologies are growing, developing, but did the culture changed and turned into a single culture, not at all. Discovery of computers and internet has come like a miracle to mankind. Through this the worldwide communication has increased. People are gaining knowledge about other cultures, but this does not mean that they are fully adopting the other culture and this is because sonto a single culture, not at all. Discovery of computers and internet has come like a miracle to mankind. Through this the worldwide communication has increased. People are gaining knowledge about other cultures, but this does not mean that they are fully adopting the other culture and this is because soke not more than half second to be sent. The technologies are growing, developing, but did the culture changed and turned into a single culture, not at all. Discovery of computers and internet has come like a miracle to mankind. Through this the worldwide communication has increased. People are gaining knowledge about other cultures, but this does not mean that they are fully adopting the other culture and this is because so The technologies are growing, developing, but did the culture changed and turned into a single culture, not at all. Discovery of computers and internet has come like a miracle to mankind. Through this the worldwide communication has increased. People are gaining knowledge about other cultures, but this does not mean that they are fully adopting the other culture and this is because so

Brand Building And Positioning For Cadburys Marketing Essay

Brand Building And Positioning For Cadburys Marketing Essay The history behind marketing efforts of most modern businesses is that the company should recognise the needs of their customers and produce products and services to gratify those needs. Like this, the customer is in the middle of the business and the decision-making process. A business which monitors this viewpoint is a market-orientated. In this unit Im going to be focusing on Cadburys and House of Fraser and how they operate. Im also going to talking about the marketing techniques and relationship marketing. The production concept this is where a business concentrates on producing economies of scale in production and distribution of product or service. This undertakes that customers will purchase items that are lower priced; this is so that the demand is driven by availability. Examples of this can be found in construction suppliers, where construction firms will purchase cheaper building materials to increase their profit margins. Cadburys and House of Fraser do not come under the product concept. For example, a builder selling bricks to someone comes under this section, whereas the two other organisations dont. The sales concept this is mainly known as the hard sell this is because the product or service is produced and personal selling and other high pressure selling skills are used to convince customers to part with their money. Example of this could be in a place where double glazing is sold. The marketing concept unlike all the others above, the marketing concept puts all t heir customers first, they want to put their customers in the centre of all decisions before the product or service is developed. By doing this the business is likely going to be more efficient and doing this will benefit the company and/or market. Focusing investment on products that customers are going to need and use instead of investing in products that customers may not like which means they wont purchase it. Cadburys uses a good strategy to connect with people, the way they achieve this is by sponsoring and promoting their products or even TV programmes. Cadburys In 1824, John Cadbury opened a grocers shop at 93 Bull Street, Birmingham in the 1830s. Among other things, he sold cocoa and drinking chocolate, which he prepared himself using a pestle and mortar. Johns wares werent just inspired by his tastes; they were driven by his beliefs. Tea, coffee, cocoa and drinking chocolate were seen as healthy, delicious alternatives to alcohol, which Quakers deemed bad for society. House of Fraser House of Fraser is a British premium department store group with over 60 stores across the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was established in Glasgow, Scotland in 1849 as Arthur and Fraser. Although established in Glasgow House of Frasers largest store is located in Birmingham. By 1891 it was known as Fraser Sons. Marketing Techniques (Growth Strategies) The business analyst Igor Ansoff outlined some important strategies for business growth. He identified four key approaches to growing a business in 1957. Market penetration is a group of customers who may buy a product, so if someone was to produce a video game for the PS3 to be sold in the UK, your market would likely to be people in the UK who own PS3s. A business could grow by increasing the number of people in the market who purchase your product. Market development is when a company markets an existing product to a new market. For example, the PS3 game, you might want to sell your game to different countries. Nothing about the product changes it just gets sold to another market. Product development is when a business develops a new product to sell to the existing customers. So once a customer has bought your product you could sell them something else such as, an expansion pack that may include more content. Diversification here is where a business markets new products to new customers. This works two different ways, the business could produce a new product in that area that it understands or it could go into a completely different area that is an unrelated area. House of Fraser uses the flexible incentive by allowing these things: Ease of ordering Online services Free, fast and a secure delivery Fulfilment House of Fraser Business Incentive vouchers are available in denominations of  £1,  £5,  £10,  £25,  £50 and  £100. You can order by post with a cheque or credit card using the enclosed order form, or by phone with a credit card. Credit account customers may order via email. All vouchers can now be redeemed online. Your House of Fraser vouchers will be despatched next day if the order is received by 11.00am. The Business Incentives team will be happy to arrange delivery direct to multiple addresses, on request. A small handling fee is levied for this service. n order to increase sales Cadburys needs to undertake a range of marketing activities before deciding upon the best way to encourage the purchase of its product. When identifying the basic principals which Cadburys must apply to its marketing will be its basic objectives because all business must have objectives it allows them to increase sales and make profit. Corporate aims are the long term intentions of a business, whereas corporate objectives are the specific targets required to achieve the aims. The common aim and objectives of the corporation such as Cadbury includes the following: Survival Profit maximisation- which is often taken to be the reason why firms exists and to be the primary objectives in practices most firms have a hierarchy of objectives when a firms survival is threaten it may profit maximise in order to restore its financial health. Growth- which includes Cadbury selling new products or expanding overseas. Diversification- which is the spreading of business risks by reducing dependence on one product. Sales maximisation- which is the increasing of sales Improving the product image-which includes creating a new logo or launching a new brand of product and creating more attractive packaging. For example, Cadbury set out two objectives for the development of their chocolate, Fuse. These were: 1. To grow the market for chocolate confectionery 2. To increase Cadburys share of the snacking sector Cadbury promotes its products in various ways such as the use of above the line promotion, which is where a product is advertised through consumer media such as television, magazines, newspapers and radio. Relationship marketing (Cadburys House of Fraser) Relationship marketing is where a business concentrates on the long term value of a customer. This means knowing who the valuable customers are, starting relationships, maintaining enhancing and terminating them in order to produce a sustainable profit. Cadbury Schweppes is a marketing focused company. Its success depends on on satisfying the needs of its consumers. It is able to do this by frequently listening to consumers and learning about their changing necessities. In response to these requirements, Cadbury Schweppes strives to create new products, build on existing core brands and find new ways to add value to existing products. By gaining the visibility, profitability and volume in the global market, a business is best placed to provide its consumers with quality products and the best value for money. House of Fraser are responsible for all central marketing communications sent directly to customers this includes all email newsletters, messages in their Recognition Card member statements, local targeted mailings on behalf of stores or suppliers and national mailings/emails about events and offers for example, sales, launch of new season. Brand awareness A common marketing objective is to raise customers brand awareness. This could relate to a businesss overall brand for example, BMW or to a product brand within the company for example, Mini. Effective raising of brand awareness can raise sales; this is because customers will subconsciously or consciously try to find a brand when buying an item or service. A high level of brand exists where consumers start to use the brand name in place of the product type. The House of Fraser brand is differentiated from other department store groups in the UK by our 160 year history in the UK retail market, their wide geographic reach (across the UK and on-line), broad range of high quality premium branded merchandise offered at competitive prices, our increasing exclusive House Brand offering and our commitment to providing an imaginative, exciting and relevant shopping experience to their customers. The Cadbury brand has a profound impact on individual product brands. Brands have individual personalities aimed at specific target markets for specific needs e.g.TimeOut, for example, is an ideal snack to have with a cup of tea. These brands derive benefit from the Cadbury parentage, including quality and taste credentials. To ensure the success of product brands every aspect of the parent brand is focused on. A Flake, Crunchie or TimeOut are clearly different and are manufactured to appeal to a variety of consumer segments. House of Fraser have a voucher discount scheme their vouchers carry exceptional discounts as shown below. The discount may be deducted from the invoice or taken as additional vouchers. As a finishing touch we can supply complimentary wallets and envelopes in which to present the vouchers. These can also be personalised with your companys logo, if required (there is a print cost associated with personalisation, please ask the Business Incentives team for details). Brand building and positioning It takes time, patience, effort and investment for brand building and maintenance. It is essential for a business to first recognise its brand values. The central messages that it wants is its customers to understand when they think of the brand. For example, the car Mercedes- Benz, this car is high performance, safety and prestige. Brand building and positioning for Cadburys Cadburys has identified these brand values and adjusts its advertising strategies to reflect these values in different markets. Its strategy can vary from increasing brand awareness, educating potential customers about a new product, increasing seasonal purchases, or as is currently the case in the Choose Cadbury campaign to highlight the positive emotional value of the brand. In Ireland, Cadbury has identified three key consumer segments of impulse, take home and gift. These segments reflect consumers decision-making processes. Since its inception, Cadbury in India has stayed ahead thanks to their constant marketing initiatives, that have at all points in time understood the needs of and opportunities in a changing nation but Nestle had stood firm in second position resulting from their responsibilities and providing quality products. Amul an Indian company has been able to create brand quality and thus selling their product through their name. Brand building and positioning for House of Fraser One of the most valuable aspects of the House of Fraser brand is the equity built up over many years as an endorser of the prestigious brands they have as part of our portfolio. Their ability to have a uniform and clear brand identity across all our channels is therefore of paramount importance,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¨as so that they look to leverage this heritage in the exciting development of our brand. The House of Fraser Business Incentives team is available to advise you on how to maximise the effectiveness of our vouchers. Well be happy to discuss your objectives, make recommendations and, if required, create an individually tailored package. Our experience in the field can help you develop promotional ideas and we can suggest ways of adding value for example, through use of the House of Fraser Personal Shopping service. OBJECTIVE OF ADVERTISING To educate the Market Building brand awareness To encourage seasonal purchases To increase consumption

The Rationale Approach In HR Planning

The Rationale Approach In HR Planning Like any other form of planning, Human Resource Planning (HRP) is a rationale approach to the effective recruitment, retention and deployment of people with in an organisation, including, where necessary arrangement for dismissing staff, (G.A. Cole, 2004). HRP is therefore concerned with the flow of people through and sometimes out of the organisation. Normally it is a requirement for every organisation to plan ahead and make some assessment of their present employee situation, so as to ensure that an appropriate range of skills is available for the entire department within the organisation. Human Resource Planning is essentially concerned with analysing the existing human resource situation, assessing the external labour market and forecasting the supply situation, forecasting future demands for people and establishing and implementing human resource plan, (G.A. Cole, 2004). The organisations goals for securing the workforce whether for short or long-term includes recruitment and selection, training and development, promotion, redeployment and career planning, pay and productivity, motivation and appraisal, retirements and redundancy, all depends on a sound human resource planning process. Considering all the above organisations goals, Human Resource Planning has contributed a lot in helping Care UK to achieve its goals. Care UK is the leading independent provider of health and social care in UK. Its deals in Residential care services, Homecare services, Mental health services, Learning disability services, GP practices, NHS walk-in centres NHS CATS and NHS treatment centres. It has its head office at Connaught House, 850 The Crescent Colchester Business Park, Colchester Essex, CO4 9QB. In consideration to the Care UK recruitment and selection planning, the organisation has adapted both the internal and external recruitment and selection planning process for the managers and health care workers respectively. To maximise its internal capability and run its current 59 nursing or care homes, the organisation want to recruit more managers internally by offering a clear career path that will attract excellent candidates and keep these who have already joined us, said Carol Cunningham Care UK project manager. Candidates applying for home managers have to go through a rigorous selection process that involves recommendation by a senior manager or regional directors, aptitude and personality test and a structured interview with the project manager and operational manager to be selected. The Care UK recruitment policy is structured to ensure that all staff will be fairly employed, while meeting the criteria and standards set by Care UK and in accordance with appropriate legislation, (www. Care uk.com). As a recruitment process, Care UK do advertise their vacancies in the organisations website, national and local newspapers, job centre and internet. The organisation does strive to ensure that applicants are kept informed of their progress through the recruitment procedure and candidates are selected on the basis of their ability to perform the job required. Care UK operates an equal opportunity during its recruitment process where applicants are given equal opportunity regardless of their race, sex, religion and age. Basing on the sector of which the organisation operates, much emphasis has been put on the recruitment and selection process as it is a requirement that the right candidates are given jobs. As a result a sound recruitment and selection planning is needed to attract the right candidates for the jobs. As a legal requirement, all the applicants who are applying for positions of healthcare or domiciliary care assistants are subjected to a number of checks before they are selected. These checks includes, enhanced Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) disclosure, right to work, occupational health check and verifiable reference check including full employment history. Only the candidates with a satisfactory outcome of the above checks are selected interviewed and offered the opportunity to trained and work with the organisation. As a form of legal requirement, employees that are selected and offered job by the organisation are provided with a written particulars for employment which stipulate clearly the title of the job the employee is employed, scale or rate of remuneration or the method of calculating remuneration, intervals at which remuneration is paid, holiday pay, sick pay pensions arrangement, grieverance procedures applicable and length of notice to be given on either side. A written employment contract is then handed to the successful candidates that have been employed by the organisation. Having followed the Care UK recruitment and selection planning, the organisation has strict and tough policies when conducting its recruitment and selection process due to the nature of the sector in which it operates. The organisation does follow the right procedures by engaging in both internal and external recruitment process when vacancies do arise within the organisation and advertising the vacancies through all the avenues which makes it not discriminatory to the people interested for the available jobs within the organisation. Only the right candidates are offered the jobs merits while considering the legal requirements. The organisation through its recruitment and selection process puts all the legal requirements of employment like Criminal Record Checks, equal opportunity, Health and safety at work Act, 1974, Human Right Act, 1996, National Minimum wage Act, 1998, Human Right Act, 1998 and Employment Right Act, 1998 to mention but a few. Care UK has a sound training and development policy do to the nature of the sector in which the organisation is in. The organisation spends a lot of resource in the provision of training and development of staffs to ensure not only a regular supply of skills to employees but also as a way of improving on the employees standard of work. As an organisation, Care UK also sees an important role for training and development in the provision of skills and improvement of employee motivation. Since the organisation policy is based not only with the recruitment of people with experience but also individuals who willing and capable of working, it is paramount that the training and development of staffs is strongly looked at and also because the sector is too much regulated with new equipments brought in so frequently couple with new regulations, employees need to have thorough training and development policy well put in place. At Care UK, new employees for the post of healthcare assistants und ergo a three days intensive induction training to introduce them to the field of healthcare and the challenges they will faced ahead during the course of their working with the organisation, (www.care uk.org). After the induction training, specialised trainings are brought in and this is done through identifying training needs required by the employees and annual training updates are compulsory for all staff. Healthcare assistants are encouraged to undertake further qualifications and whenever possible, are provided with the opportunities to extend their studies through National Vocational Qualification, i.e. (NVQ2 and NVQ3). Those who are aspiring for the post of managers are carefully selected against rigorous selection framework and are subject to induction processes and are expected to continue to develop professionally, supported by the organisations performance and personal development planning processes. Having looked at the training and development policy of Care UK, it is of a high interest to develop a plan for professional development and training of the employees of the organisation. Before doing this, a clear distinction should be made between development and training. Development is a course of action designed to enable the individual to realise his or her potential for growth in the organisation while Training is concerned with the acquisition of a body of knowledge and skills which can be applied directly to work of a particular type, (Penny Hackett, 1994). As a well known fact, a well-trained employee will have the confidence and the competence to produce better quality service and now turning to Care UK as an organisation, the first step to develop a plan for development and training for employees is to identify the individual training needs. Healthcare assistances are faced with a challenge of working with some complicated equipments and treating of patients which require s proper training. By analysing the training needs, this will help to assess the employees competence and identify what is required to perform the tasks. The second step would be to design a training programme for the organisation. For Care UK, training programmes should be both on-job training and off-job training as demonstrations on how to use equipments and coaching of trainee requires on-job training while presentations, interactive video, lectures and computer base training is more a off-job training. The third step is to identify the training courses that will help the employees to gain confidence and have the competence to perform the tasks. This will includes both the in-house training courses (tailor-made courses to suit the objective of the trainees like moving and handling techniques), external courses like shadowing of new healthcare trainees, and qualification courses like National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs), (Penny Hackett, 1994). So turning to Care UK, employee s trainings should be structured to meet the objective of the organisation which focus on developing the employees to meet their potentials of facing challenging situations at work and giving them the opportunity to extend their studies through National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs). Care UK as an organisation has a sound way of motivating the employees. This is done through training and promotion of employees. By training and promoting the staffs they feel they are part of the organisation. This can be evidenced through training of home managers scheme adapted by Care UK. After their training they are always promoted to senior management positions and also healthcare assistants are trained before they are allowed to start work. This also improves on their confidence and creates in them that the organisation rely want them and they are part of the organisation. Staffs are also encouraged to take external courses like National Vocational Qualifications payable by the organisation. All these makes the employees feel motivated to work for the organisation. This feeling of belonging to the organisation makes employees motivated as Abraham Maslow explained in his motivation theory. Employees are also rewarded for their hard work and this is done through pay and reorga nisation where each month the organisation announce an employee of the month and gifts and present are then given to the nominated employee. By recognising the good work done by the employee like this make them motivated to work hard and also encouraged other employee to work harder as they do also want to be nominated for the employee of the month. The organisations do strive hard to mach the pay of the employees to other employees in different organisation in the industry and all the employees are paid over the national minimum wage. This as well makes the employees not seek employment elsewhere as they feel better of at the organisation. At Care UK employees are supervised and given proper guidance as to how to do their work. Through proper supervision, employees feel more confidants when performing their tasks and motivated to work for the organisation. These things like good pay, high quality supervision, fringe benefits like gifts and presents are the hygiene factors to motiva tion as Herzberg pointed out in his motivation theory. Through high level of team building at Care UK where employee are trained to work in a team through double up calls, healthcare staffs are fully motivated as they feel safe when carrying out their duties. By encouraging team work within the organisation the employees feel they are part of the group hence working towards fulfilling the goals of the organisation. Team work plays a bigger role in motivating employees as they tend to learn more from each other. AS most employees at Care UK have a different value goals that they all want to achieve, as some want to be home managers, employees are rewarded differently basing on their individual needs. Employees are properly selected and trained basing on their value goals and as they see achieving their goals as is with the organisation, they will be motivated to increase their effort in achieving goals. Like employees who want to be home care managers will work hard with the expectat ion that they will one day be home care managers in the organisation as trainings are always provided to them. This feeling of expecting some reward in the future do motivate employees to work hard as mention by Vroom in 1964 in his Expectancy theory of motivation. Care UK also do organise end of year party for their staffs which brings a sense of togetherness at the organisation as employees do get to know their fellow workers. This kind of togetherness at the organisation helps to motivate employees to work towards the goal of the organisation. At Care UK appraisal of staffs are done after every six month where employees are asked individually by their line managers what they feel about the organisation, any area of concern that they feel should be improved, how they feel about their working conditions, any concern with other staff member. Through this appraisal exercise, employees are free to hear all their concern and where necessary proper steps are taken to improve the organis ation and facilitate the employees in performing their duties. At Care UK, the organisation is structured from top to bottom i.e. hierarchical arrangement where one level of jobs is subject to control by the next higher level. This kind of management is bureaucratic in nature and more authoritative in nature. The employees at the bottom of the hierarchy do not influence the decision making in the organisation a lot. Decisions are made from top to bottom. Because of the bureaucratic nature, the organisation enables the authority of officials to be subject to published rules and principles. Thus authority is legitimate, not arbitrary, (G.A Cole, 2004). In the organisation, information is passed from the top management to the healthcare staffs at the bottom. Little do the bottom healthcare staffs at the bottom influence the decision being made at the organisation. The top managers formulate all the rules and regulations to be followed by the bottom staffs, there is a clear separation of officials from the ownership of the organisation though the ap pointment to offices are made on the grounds of technical competence. This management style can be identified by Max Weber and the idea of Bureaucracy. Max Weber in his management school of thought do try to explain the kind of management style that Care UK has adapted. The management style is would recommend for Care UK would be more of a democratic nature where employees are given a bigger say in making decisions as it is through their hard work and commitments that has made the organisation where it is today. The employees work on the ground interacting with the clients and they are the eye of the organisation. If the are given a quit proportion to make decisions on haw to run the organisation it would improve on the image of the organisation and they would feel more part of the organisation. Since human resource planning is concern with the flow of people though and some times out of the organisation, Care UK has adapted a strong policy towards its human resource planning. This can be seen through the organisation recruitment and selection planning policy, training and development of its employees, promotion of the staff to new and top levels, redeployment and career planning processes, pay and motivation policy, appraisal of staffs. All these depend on a sound commitment of the organisation towards human resource planning. Care UK also has an effective recruitment and selection planning policy which comply with the national care standards and national laws of the country like criminal record checks, right to work in the country, equal opportunity, health and safety at work Act, national minimum wage Act to mention but a few. All this is done by the organisation throw its strong human resource planning.

Solar Energy Essay -- A Level Essays

Solar Energy Why do we build passive solar homes? Most people familiar with the subject of alternative and renewable energies would reply with a variation of many answers to this question. â€Å"To act locally in an ever expanding global market.† â€Å"The solar panels or photovoltaics will pay for themselves in a given amount of time depending on the system implemented.† â€Å"I would build a passive solar house to take myself entirely off the grid.† These answers seem to be common when it comes to the world of alternative energies. Although the majority may reply to this question with similar answers there has to be a flip side or different view on any topic including renewable energy. â€Å"Green building,† or building with natural supplies is yet another way to recycle the earth’s minimal resources. Combining green building and solar passive idioms is nothing new to the alternative energy market, but it does raise a few different questions about the role of humans co-existing with nature and their living spaces. This paper will discuss the aesthetic values of living in tune with the earth through passive design. For thousands and thousands of years, man lived on the earth as we still do today. Nomadic peoples resorted to hunting and gathering, which gave way to organized agriculture that developed in Mesopotamia. The major step that propelled us into our present day lives was the industrial revolution. Now as â€Å"evolved† creatures we have fallen prey to the technological advances and have come to depend on them, especially with our ever-increasing population on earth. Environmental degradation, over population, war, and economic decay have become mainstays on our agenda as world citizens. These issues must be dealt with o... ...g close to the earth, foraging for food, walking to my destinations and relying on my fellow man for help when I was in need taught me something. Living close to the earth is and will always be the answer to our questions. Passive design and solar technology is just the next step. Most of the technology that has been brought about in the past century or so has been done so under a roof or in the shadow of the industrial revolution. We need to implement the ideas of passive solar upon all people. This would in turn create alternatives to what people had originally thought in the past. Where can we find or develop new â€Å"green† ideas as opposed to other technologies that separate us from nature. A new way of thinking must come about for the good of all mankind. Bibliography Chiras, Daniel. The Solar House. Chelsea Green Publishing Company. Canada. 2002.

It’s Time to Include Gays and Lesbians in Our Study of Literature Essay

The growth of gay people as a group has been astonishing. It is not possible to guess how exactly we will grow from our experiences in the years ahead, but it is possible to predict that growth will continue, one way or another. A diverse and strong global community has been established.(Clark 60) Dr. Don Clark, clinical psychologist and university professor, boldly expresses his views on the changing nature of the gay and lesbian community in his text, Loving Someone Gay. Clark describes how far gay people have advanced in the last thirty years, moving from isolated and fearful existences to lives marked by political power and potential. Indeed, the gay community, and lesbians in particular, have transformed into large and respected forces in American culture. As with any societal group, their cultural contributions have continued to expand and develop along with their newly acquired political finesse, giving the gay community a sense of pride in its artistic and literary achievements. Since education is a primary source of transferring cultural understanding and awareness, it is essential that educational institutions respect the achievements of this newly empowered community in the selection of relevant curriculum. But they must also be careful; while many texts offer a rep resentative portrayal of the gay community, there are others which reveal a more narrow view. For example, in 1973, author Rita Mae Brown published a shocking exploration of one girl’s growing up lesbian in America. Creating images of rape, incest, and promiscuity, Brown portrayed a cold, angry character willing to blame her sexual identity on a dysfunctional family and an unyielding educational system. While uniquely American in both its authorship and... ...EBSCOhost. Glenbrook North H.S. Lib., Northbrook, IL. 8 Apr. 2002 . Randolf, E. â€Å"Women and Other Women.† Art Journal Sum. 1991: 29-34. MasterFILE Elite. EBSCOhost. Glenbrook North H.S. Lib., Northbrook, IL. 8 Apr. 2002 . Roberts, Edgar V., and Henry E. Jacobs. Literature—An Introduction to Reading and Writing. New Jersey: Prentice, 2001. Ruoff, A. Lavonne Brown, and Jerry W. Ward, Jr. Redefining American Literary History. New York: MLA, 1990. Worth, Chrissie. â€Å"Rita Mae Brown verifies outspoken attitude during Oxford visit.† The Daily Mississipian 23 Apr. 1996. 1 Apr. 2002 . Zacks, Rebecca. â€Å"LeVay Shares Thoughts on ‘Gay Gene’ Research.† Scientific American 7 June 1996. 3 Apr. 2002 .

Does Airport Security Make Us Safer? Essay -- airport security is utte

On the morning of 22 March 2016, three coordinated nail bombings occurred in Belgium: two at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, and one at Maalbeek metro station in Brussels. In these attacks, 32 victims and three suicide bombers were killed, and over 300 people were injured. Another bomb was found during a search of the airport. Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attacks.[1] 1. "Another bomb found in Brussels after attacks kill at least 34; Islamic State claims responsibility". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 22 March 2016. It has become a regular part of air travel, the common airline passenger expects to have to undergo certain screenings before they ever board an aircraft. The procedure of removing shoes, jackets, belts, laptops, etc. has become a regular occurrence and most people feel a feeling of security because these precautions are taken with every passenger. But are travelers as safe as they feel? Airports are broken into five areas of security, the Public area, Sterile, SIDA (Secure Identification Display Area), Air operations Area, and Secure. The common thoughts about security breaches at an airport are those of someone getting through the sterile area, this area is where individuals are screened prior to getting to the aircraft gates. The reason for this perception stems from the attacks on the morning of September 11th 2001, where nineteen hijackers made it through security screening and on to four aircraft leading into the worst loss of life due to terrorism in the history of the United States. However, this paper will focus on the latter security areas through the security precautions taken to try and prevent unauthorized access as well as notable failur... ...13, from http://www.nec-nis.co.jp/en/product/videosecurity/hbacs/ Oliver, B. (2013, February 20). Investigation: Airport security - Dallas News | myFOXdfw.com. Investigation: Airport security - Dallas News | myFOXdfw.com. Retrieved November 18, 2013, from http://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/21290524/investigation-airport-security Pescador, K., Renga, A., & Gay, P. (2012). N/A. San Diego International Airport, Lindbergh Field (p. 110). s.l.: Arcadia Publishing (SC). Stereovision. (n.d.). The ultimate in anti-piggybacking technology. Stereovision. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from http://www.boonedam.us/securityaccess/stereovision.asp Stoller, G. (2011, July 12). Airport security breaches since 2001 raise alarms. USATODAY.COM. Retrieved November 24, 2013, from http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/story/2011/07/Airport-security-breaches-since-2001-raise-alarms/49326312/1

Formalist Literary Theory

Written Report: Russian Formalism and New Criticism Formalism is a literary theory that was spearheaded by two main bodies – Russian Formalists and New Critics – which focused on understanding the literary text through the text itself. Its principles posed a great shift from the traditional approaches during its time, and so it sparked a movement in the field of literary studies that would adopt new perspectives and ideas.While Formalism received much criticism due to its dubious methods of the closed reading of a text, its lack of a solid theory of language, and so on, it was also able to establish the notion of literary study being a partly scientific, objective process, and its framework would serve as a starting point and a great influence for future ideas and theorists to come. Old Criticism. The form that literary studies had taken during the second half of the nineteenth century, positivism, was largely based on the genetic approach: critics concentrated on uncov ering the sources and genesis of particular works.The role of biography and history reduced the importance of literature itself in literary scholarship. Study of literature had become a loose aggregate of philosophy, history, psychology, sociology, etc. As Jakobson said, historians of literature had become practitioners of what he called ‘homespun’ disciplines based on psychology, politics, and philosophy, where literature itself could only offer secondary and defective evidence. Emergence of Russian Formalism Formalist theory emerged from the meetings, discussions, and publications of the Opojaz (The Society for the Study of Poetic Language) and the Moscow Linguistic Circle.They were dissatisfied with the ways of studying literature in the academe. Opojaz was based on St. Petersburg, dates back to 1914, and dissolved in 1923. Its nucleus was formed by Sklovsky, Eikhenbaum, Brik, Tynyanov. MLC came to life in 1915. Its best known member is Roman Jakobson. When he left t hem in 1920 for Prague, they lost their most talented member, and ceased to be a significant formalist center. Some of the figures who influenced Russian Formalism were: Andrei Bely and his work, Symbolism Said that, â€Å"our knowledge of reality is never direct†¦ we do not know reality except approximately through symbols. * Literary criticism has to be preoccupied with the specific forms of artistic creativity. * What is joined in the symbol in a humanly inseparable way is form and content. * Literature is both spatial and temporal. Other arts like sculpture or music realize themselves within only one of these forms. * Reality appears to be different from that seen in a work of art. It is â€Å"deformed†. Occurs by certain specific constructive forms. These are to be investigated. Immersed in the mystery that the mosaic of art covers, the critic lose their view of their proper task. They search for something that is beyond it before describing it with any accuracy. A . A. Potebnja * Literary activity is cognitive and tightly connected with its medium – language. * Poetry is a form of thinking in images, the ‘shape’ of which is dependent on the linguistic features of a given language. * Poetic image need not mean a static picture of something, it can also mean action. Not just spatial, but temporal too. * Images play a synthetic role in our thinking.Poetry strives to reduce the wide variety of complex phenomena to a small number of images. * Imagery is not basic aspect of poetic craft – but also sound. Images are not the only means to convey meaning in a poetic work. Emergence of New Criticism The prominent figures in the movement for the New Criticism were John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, and Cleanth Brooks. They initiated a professionalization of American literary studies – one way of spreading the ideas of New Criticism was by publishing New Criticism based textbooks to be used in universitie s.These individuals saw the contemporary world as driven by desire in profit and greed, as well as â€Å"triumphs† in modern science, threatening to destroy tradition and everything that was not immediately useful – including poetry. Poetry is a means of resisting commodification and superficiality. Some of the figures who influenced New Criticism were: T. E. Hulme * â€Å"Romanticism and Classicism†. Romantic view: man is intrinsically good, spoilt by circumstances. Classical view: man is intrinsically limited, but disciplined by order and tradition to something fairly decent.Romantics are regarded as a well of possibilities. Classicals are regarded as finite and fixed. * Classical view leads to poetry. Romantic one to uncontrolled flights of emotions and metaphors. * New poets will disclaim the thought that poetry is a vehicle for expressing emotions, but rather, it provides a precise description of the world around us. T. S. Eliot * Those who treat literature as a product of a historical moment or a philosophical foundation should be called historians and philosophers. * Rejected vague emotionalism and verbal profusion of Romantic style.Critic should be preoccupied with literature itself, its accurate usage of words, rather than the phenomena flanking it. * Does not deny that emotions enter poetry, but rejects the directness of the overflow. Disliked sentimental poetry and respected tradition. * Highest poetry should synthesize thought and feeling, argument and image, the rational and the non-rational. Literariness. The first question for the Formalist was not how to study literature, but what the subject matter of literary study actually is. To get specificity for literary study, it entails the exclusion of all mimetic and expressive definitions of literature.Because in regarding the literary text as an instrument of expression (a point of view which will lead us to the personality of author, leading to biography or psychology) or repr esentation (we will see the it as a picture of society, leading to history, politics, or sociology), we overlook the specificity of its literary qualities. What makes a text literary? This was a concern for the Formalists. What distinguishes literature from, say, a news article or a travel book? Simply put by Eikhenbaum, literature constitutes differences from other orders of facts.The object of study of literary study is not an object, but a set of differences, and the science will consist of the study of those specifics which distinguish it from any other material. Literary studies analyze the differences implied in the opposition between practical and poetic language. The differential element of poetry, gives it its specificity. We owe this difference to the process of defamiliarization. According to Sklovsky, art defamiliarizes things that have become habitual or automatic. Take for example the act of walking. Walking is a daily activity. We have ceased to be aware of it.But whe n we dance, the automatically perceived gestures of walking are perceived anew. â€Å"A dance is a walk which is felt. † In the same way, everyday use of language is something that is natural or unconscious. But language in poetry is more or less the same language we know, but this time, we have become more aware of its presence – it is a new sensation to be felt, just like the dance. Practical language constitutes the main automatized elements made strange by art. Everyday language is made strange in poetry, and in particular, the physical sounds of words themselves become unusually prominent.Poetic speech is formed speech. Poetic speech is not the specialness of vocabulary (e. g. just because a poem uses an unfamiliar word like â€Å"lo! † does not mean that it is poetic speech), but because its formal devices – like rhyme and rhythm – act on ordinary words to renew our perception of them, as well as their sound texture. Because of that, defamili arization is found almost everywhere form is found. The poetic speech that one would find in a poem is a deliberate act of creating a form that is based on defamiliarized language. As Jakobson described it, poetry is organized violence committed on ordinary speech.It roughens up and impedes pronunciation of ordinary speech – syntax, rhythm, semantics. Devices and Function. Poetry makes use of literary devices – hyperbole, parallelism, repetition, iambic pentameter, and so on. That poses the question: can’t devices lose their function? Because the literary devices themselves were subject to automatization of perception since they are in literature now, they lose their distinction as literary and non-literary. Literariness then is a feature not just of form as impeded speech, but more importantly, of impeded form.So the defamiliarization will not wholly depend on the existence of devices, but their function in the work they appear in. For example, foregrounding gi ves us a dominant factor. A work will contain passive or automatized elements that are subservient/subordinate to the dominant element. So what would interest a Formalist, is how the elements are interrelated. How do these automatized elements give way for the foregrounded element, or perhaps, what makes the foregrounded element stand out; the device could have been just commonplace or uninteresting, so how does it achieve its dominant status in relation to other devices?In other words, the active components of a work are now differentiated not only from the practical language, but from other formal components which have become automatized. Fabula and Syuzhet. However, the method for analysis and the literariness of poetry cannot be applied exactly for prose narrative as well. They have different constructions. The Formalist study of narrative was based on a distinction between the events and construction of a prose narrative – Fabula and Syuzhet. Fabula (plot) refers to the chronological sequence of events. Syuzhet refers to the order and manner in which they are actually presented in the narrative.Syuzhet creates the defamiliarizing effect. We could have a crime story and it could be told in its chronological sequence: there was a crime, the police went to investigate, they had to seek for the help of a world-famous detective, and he solves the crime, the end. From point A, it ends to point D. That is the Fabula. Manipulation of the Syuzhet though, allows it to be told in a different, more defamiliarized way. We could start with the ending wherein the crime was already solved, or we can start in the middle of the sequence of events wherein the detective receives a request for his assistance.We can even tell the story from the point of view of the killer. All of it makes for a new way of telling a common plot. Close Reading. When we do a reading of a text, we ought to focus on the text of a work; exclude the author’s intention, historical and cu ltural contexts. The text was an object of literature complete in itself. It is an autonomous entity, and therefore should be treated as one that is not dependent on its creator or external influences. If the goal of reading a text is to get its meaning, then we should not look further from the text.Form and meaning are intimately connected and should not be analyzed separately. Good literature transcends the time of the author. Who cares if X was in love with lady Y? We should disregard the details of such, and focus on how the poem focuses on scorned love. Emotion and Intention. William Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley’s essay, The Intentional Fallacy, talks about the mistake of attempting to understand the author’s intentions about his work since it violates the autonomy of the work. The meaning of a work should be contained solely within itself. The Affective Fallacy talks about the mistake of nterpreting a text through the emotions of the reader. A text must be unders tood not relatively, but its meaning must be inherent. Paradox. Poetry should carry the element of heterogeneity, of negating their own affirmations. They are better equipped for whatever treatment they will undergo. Homogeneous poetry cannot bear â€Å"ironic contemplation†. It is irony and ambiguity that make for good poetry. Poetry is paradoxical in nature. Life is complex. The force of the paradox holds a poem together, it builds unity and coherence within the text and the task of the critic is to lay bare these paradoxes and show how they work.Poetry says something ‘for real’ that is not equal to a logical statement or to an emotional attitude. It is not just a psychological stimulus, as Richard said. Poetry obliquely tells us something about the nature of reality. All of its meaning is linguistic, but not all that is pertinent to meaning can be explained by linguistic analysis. Literary History. The dominant devices in a particular genre and/or period contr ibute to the evolution of literature. When they become familiar, new works will pick them up to make them perceptible again.Through this, genre evolves. If so, then literary language is not a planned development of tradition, but a colossal displacement of traditions. Legacy Formalism, because of the specificity it wished to explore, thus creating the concept of literariness, was a productive and adaptable framework. Formalism anticipated and influenced some important ideas in 20th century literary theory – central position of language, devaluation of biographical element, importance of norm deviation, etc. will be featured by future theorists from Jakobson to Barthes. ShortcomingsThey have no developed theory of language, especially since Formalism was made in a pre-Saussurean view of language. Marxist critics argue against the absence of any social dimension in Formalism’s conception of literature. They claimed that use of language is social and ideological. Referenc es: Bertens, Hans. Literary Theory: The Basics. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2008. Jefferson, Ann & Robey, David. Modern Literary Theory: A Comparative Introduction. Totowa, N. J. : Barnes and Noble, 1984. Thompson, Ewa. Russian Formalism and Anglo-American New Criticism: A Comparative Study. The Hague: Mouton, 1971.

PlayStation 3 VS Xbox 360 Essay

Although PlayStation 3 are both great systems, PlayStation 3 the better buy. Both consoles have awesome features such as 3D motion gaming, unlimited music, and online play. Only one of these consoles can be consider the best of the best. The PlayStation 3 is by far the superior console with its Blu-ray integration, amazing cell processor, and rechargeable wireless controller. The first difference is The PlayStation Network is free, whereas Xbox Live Gold charges a gamer yearly to use their services. After making one PlayStation purchase, a gamer does not have to worry about internet again. A person gets all the same features on PlayStation 3 for $250 dollars, plus forty extra gigabytes of memory. However, Xbox 360 costs $249 dollars plus fifty dollars for a one-year membership. Not including the fee of fifty dollars a person does not obtain the full features because they always have to worry about renewing their membership. Another difference is the PlayStation 3 controllers are rechargeable, while Xbox 360 controllers need batteries or other attachments. With the PlayStation 3 a gamer receive one controller with a chord to charge it. Also when the controller dies a gamer can hook it up to their PlayStation and it will still play as it charges. In contrast, a Xbox 360 does not come with a rechargeable controller, a gamer constantly has to buy batteries or pay extra for attachments. With the Playstation3 having the rechargeable controller gives a gamer more gameplay. Last but not least, PlayStation 3 graphics seem more defined, but Xbox 360 graphics are often unrealistic and cartoonish. The PlayStation has Blu-ray player for better graphics and watching movies. It’s very crisp and smooth because of the quick cell processor. On the other hand, Xbox 360 does not have Blu-ray capabilities and its processor is much slower. That makes the game’s and movie’s resolution much lower. The PlayStation 3 has faster and  more efficient technologies and that leads to better gaming experiences. Finally, with the free network that the PlayStation 3 has it will save a person more money than Xbox 360. Also having the rechargeable wireless controller with the PlayStation 3 a gamer is able to have more gameplay without worrying about paying for batteries or extra attachments. Last, even though Xbox 360 has an unlimited amount of games, its graphics are not as realistic as the PlayStation 3. In conclusion, the PlayStation 3 is by far the better gaming system to buy.

Ducati Case Analysis Essay

Executive Summary As of year 2000, global motorcycle market is dominated by a handful of players. Japanese manufacturers such as Honda, Yamaha, and Kawasaki are low cost players while Harley and Ducati are in the high end of the spectrum and have been able to successfully establish themselves as a premium brand. Harley dominates the cruiser motorbike segment and is a really strong player in the US, where it has a big fan following and loyal customer base. However Ducati has been struggling to increase market share and reach to Harley’s level of profit margin that is highest in industry. Ducati is self discovering itself with Minoli to target right customer segments, retaining its core competencies and establishing its brand image for which Ducati stands for. Minoli’s consideration of entering into Harley’s niche market of cruisers is an excellent choice for Ducati’s future growth, as it reinforces the premium flagship of products that Ducati is famous for. We recommend Ducati develop a â€Å"sports-cruiser† motorbike that offers the riding style and comfort of a cruiser such as Harley Davidson, and yet be fast and nimble. We also recommend offering customization capabilities through Ducati.com and company-owned stores as well as single franchise stores that would continue to offer the same legacy and brand association that Ducati loyalists prefer. The motorbike will be priced at E12,000 (USD 16,200) which is right in the range of Harley’s custom cruiser motorbikes and will take a  step away from Ducati’s current line of sports bikes. This move may seem a bit risky at first, but the fact that Ducati’s R&D expenses will be fairly low due to availability of high quality engines and large su pplier pool; this will not require significant new investment to the current setup. Additionally, the company will be able to entice new customers in a niche segment with high margins and get a significant opportunity for gaining market share. Also, Introduction of these motorbikes in Europe initially will also reduce the possibility of a backlash from Harley who is the leader in the US market. Ducati can then expand to US once they have acquired some sales momentum. Ducati does not expect retaliation from the low-cost Japanese players as it is still positioning itself as a premium manufacturer. However, there is still possibility of new entrants or Japanese makers to introduce a knock-off model in which case Ducati will be able to distinguish itself on attributes including high performance, customization, brand image and the prestige that it has historically enjoyed and is respected for in the industry as well as the global market. Evaluation of Global Motorcycle Industry Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki and few of high end premium manufactures that include BMW, Harley-Davidson, Triumph and Ducati comprised the Global motorcycle Industry. These manufacturers compete in different market segments and select demographics based on different attributes and styles of motorcycles across the product offerings. Our analysis of the industry is summarized using Porter’s Five Forces analysis (Exhibit 1) Suppliers: Recent trends in the motorcycle manufacturing have been leaning towards outsourcing of most motorcycle components and the companies doing the final assembly in-house. Most manufacturers have multiple choices of component suppliers that they may switch at will. This strategy provides them with high negotiation power, reduced fixed assets, and greater flexibility to meet changing market conditions quickly. However, the companies need strong commitment from their suppliers for a quicker turn around, efficiency and quality. Buyers: Customers/end users have been categorized into different segments such as knee-down riders/fast riders, easy riders, hot rods/urban riders, and weekend riders. These riders choose the bike based on performance, lifestyle, function and comfort. A motorcycle is a highly  differentiated product that is used for transport and has lots of alternatives or competitors, and for this reason buyer power is high. Customers have myriad of choices ranging from different styles of bikes such as sports, super sports, off-road/dual purpose, cruisers, naked bikes, etc. to different brands including high end names such as BMW, Harley Davidson, Ducati, and low price options from Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, etc. Entry Barriers: The motorcycle industry is very difficult to enter and compete in due to high capital investments spent on R&D, well-established relationships with suppliers, and strong brand loyalty and recognition that has been established for decades. Motorcycles are becoming more and more technologically advanced, which makes it very difficult for a new entrants to compete on a similar level without large amounts of capital and innovative differentiators. Rivals: Rivalry between the eight major motorcycle manufacturers can be considered high. The total number of motorcycle manufacturers has declined dramatically, with only one major manufacturer remaining from the US. These major players are fierce competitors and are vying for market share based on the brand, style, attributes, service, and price (especially Japanese companies). As a result of such high competition within the industry, manufacturers constantly need to improve designs and functionality. Substitutes: Lastly, several substitutes are available if we consider motorcycle only as a mechanism of transport. However, in many cases, a motorcycle is beyond a mere mode of transportation as a curator in the case said, it is a â€Å"perfect metaphor for twentieth century.† Riding motorcycles provide a unique experience, and it has been a cultural icon as presented in a number of Hollywood movies. In this sense, threat of substitutes, which may be sports cars and racing cars or other mode of transportation, could be considered fairly low. The following section describes changes in the industry and how that affects Ducati. Industry Changes & Implications on Ducati: The industry is advancing at a high pace today due to technological innovations, such as the introduction of electronic components, advent of CNC and CAD technologies, advances in material science to introduce lighter and stronger composite materials. Superior engine performance combined with lower emissions and fuel consumptions is rapidly changing the face of the industry and competition. There is also a push from the manufacturers to improve  components like sophisticated air assisted forks, mono shock rear suspension, and front and rear disc brakes to meet the customers’ hunger for better quality as derived from market survey results and customer feedbacks. These technological changes and quality improvements are positive for Ducati who is abreast on its technological innovation and performance. Advanced engineering and state of the art technology have always been Ducati’s strengths, as evident by the number of World Superbike Championships won by Ducati between 1990 and 2000 (8 victories). Lighter materials help Ducati to continuously improve its already superior performance and retain its position in the sports segment where it already has a stronghold. Additionally, the outsourcing of components and in-house assembly platform of manufacturing turns in favor of Ducati as most of Ducati’s suppliers are concentrated in the Emilian district – a major hub of specialized parts and components suppliers. Ducati typically enters into short-term contracts with its suppliers. Effectively, Ducati has enjoyed a strong hold on its supplier base which in turn has made them the most-efficient manufacturer in the industry and this strategy will continue to provide them the flexibility and edge in design and sourcing of new components going forward. Ducati’s Current Strategy Frederico Minoli, the CEO of Ducati, had two strategic goals in mind when he took over: double digit growth and equaling Harley-Davidson’s profit level of EBITDA margin of 20%, which was the highest in the industry. The challenge was split within the company into polarized directions; Engineers wanted to continue company culture of high focus on product, and Minoli wanted to appeal to broader spectrum of customers and not just extreme riders. The following section provides our analysis of Ducati’s current strategy using Strategy Diamond method (Exhibit 2). Arenas: Ducati primarily offered performance bikes in sports and street category, which are broadly identified as Hyper-sport, Super-sport, Naked and Sport touring. They face tough competition from Japanese manufacturers such as Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki, who have captured the lion’s share of the market. Research shows that a large number of new registrants are categorized under customs and small motorcycle segments with 32.7% and 22.9% market share respectively in 2000 (Case Exhibit 2). Ducati is lagging behind  in this segment as far as the market share goes. In regards to geography, Ducati has distribution through Italy, US, Germany, France, Japan, UK (Case Exhibit 14). Ducati currently attracts and retains young male â€Å"knee down† riders and racing aficionados who associate Ducati with extreme performance and functionality, and recently there has been an increase in women customers (who comprise of 8% of their Monster line – their most popular model). This could be a growing segment that Ducati has not yet considered. Lastly, Ducati’s products are in the sports niche; 41% to 54% of its customers own large bikes greater than 500cc. It gradually entered in sport touring category to address older customer base and also entered into accessories and apparel b usiness by acquiring Gio.Ca.Moto which produces line of accessories for Ducati. Nonetheless, Ducati’s limited editions in 1999 were icing on Ducati’s portfolio. Vehicles: Ducati has excellent engineers and designers who themselves are fanatics of the motorcycle- they are purist â€Å"knee down† riders, and have strong beliefs in speed, performance, and passion for races. Ducati invested a large proportion of their revenue in designing new technology, development of products and human resource management. Ducati’s core strengths including the Desmodromic valve distribution system and the technical superiority of its engines, and their collaboration with other firms such as Lamborghini and Ferrari fueled Ducati’s growth. Ducati advertises through specialized magazines and focus on the Italian style, history, young riders, and a sporty attitude. Ducati.com website used the internet as a vehicle, and sold 500 units of a limited edition in 31 minutes and 2,000 units in 10 days at different times, educated customers, and created awareness about its brand, this has been a real win for Ducati. Differentiators: Ducati’s goal was to improve average quality of dealers and increase competence sales force unlike Japanese manufactures who utilized multi-franchise retailers to sell multiple brands with less specialized knowledge of products. Secondly unlike their competitors, they established Ducati clubs approximately 400 which allowed members to â€Å"live† at racing events and get inside access to teams. Ducati also participated in social events and museum tours that has helped Ducati disseminate information about its history and brand which increased customer loyalty and helped acquire new ones. Ducati is heading in the right direction but is still far from Minoli’s vision to enable and foster dealers  to connect with clubs more easily. Staging: Minoli strategized Ducati to turn into a powerful brand and would move away from just competing with Japanese brands. Ducati decided to build museum instead of fixing the raining roof and that’s one key factor in building the brand image of Ducati and sending the right signal to employees and customers. It then identifies the 5 core attributes that Ducati signifies – technologically advanced engine, tubular trestle frame, Italian style and its unique engine sound. Ducati was able to reduce the time to market effort for all its new products utilizing their research centers muscle. Another important decision Minoli took was entering into accessories and apparel producing business. This created the â€Å"world of Ducati† a very successful initiative to build on Ducati brand and strengthen its customer loyalty. Economic Logic: Ducati is a premium brand that consumers appreciate and regard highly. The brand image and legacy allows Ducati to keep prices high and hence reap high profit margins on its motorbikes, accessories, apparel, etc. Ducati motorbike prices can max out at $21,895 compared to $14,350 for Harley Davidson, $9,500 for Triumph, and $9,300 for Honda. Also, its limited edition bikes were sold at world-wide price of E26,000 that made Ducati reap huge profit margins. Ducati’s own marketing and distribution process and exploiting power of internet (Ducati.com) helped it retain most of its profit and have higher margins and they controlled their production costs by standardizing components, (eg: only two crank case and 3 cylinder designs).. Recommendations and Specific Actions Arena: We recommend Ducati to design and launch a custom sports-cruiser bike targeting sports bike fans, who would prefer the riding comfort, style, and customization of a cruiser. This new product is essentially a fast motorbike that has a sports engine morphed into cruiser style chassis. We also recommend offering customization services to suit the style and needs of our individual customers. This will be introduced initially in Europe and eventually in the US and Asia. Europe is the market where Ducati has experience, design expertise, preferred supplier base, proximity to racing arenas, and association with other world-renowned sporting car companies like Maserati and Lamborghini. Hence, building a strong foundation in Europe first provides the advantage that is very hard to imitate by others. Our  target segment is riders in the age group of 30-50 who like the comfort and the style of a cruiser, and yet prefer the power, speed, and especially the handling that is synonymous to a sports bike. Additionally, there is interest in customization especially for cruiser segment that we would like to exploit and offer as an added benefit to our customers. Furthermore, we will leverage light-weight design components (magnesium alloy frame, carbon fiber body and parts) to provide the performance edge needed in a sports bike. This will attract young riders as well as women, who typically prefer lightweight bikes. Vehicle: Initial launch will focus on current Ducati owned stores. This will help us gauge customers response; provide early feedback from Ducati loyalists, as well as opportunity to attract customers using word-of-mouth advertising. Based on the feedback and learning from this rollout, we would be able to identify other possible locations to open new stores (combination o f company owned and single-franchise dealers), starting from Italy, and then expanding out into the European sub-continent. We do not plan to open any new stores immediately, until the market picks up and demand is more than 25% of existing sales. The assumption is that any increase within 25% of sales volume can be managed via the existing stores. Any franchising will be done through single-franchise dealerships so as to maintain more control and emphasize quality. As a long-term plan, we also would like to add 10 new Ducati owned stores leased at strategically important cities around Europe, which would cost us E10M (E200K/year) over 5 years , and another E5M for maintenance (design, upkeep, staffing, taxes etc.) Differentiators: Customers value Ducati for its brand, high performance engines, strong association with racing, Italian style, and the unique sound of its engine, among other things. We believe that our strategy will help maintain our core competencies and resources intact, while allowing us to expand into newer space as well. The customization services that we also plan to offer along with our product will be a value-add service to Ducati loyalists, which can be priced at a premium. These customization services include different body styles, paint schemes, accessories etc., which will benefit from the availability of the large pool of supplier base that we have local access to. This large and varied supplier base also provides Ducati with buying power and quick turn-around time of new designs. Advertising expenditure for Ducati comes to about  three times that of Harley in the year 2000 alone. About 14.5% of gross revenue is being spent on advertising, marketing and sales effort, close to about what we get in return as our net income. We do not plan to cut down on advertising and marketing but will have to come up creative, more cost effective ways to get our message out there to reach a broader spectrum of customers like Minoli envisioned. Using channels such as word-of-mouth, social-media, YouTube videos, collaboration with sports bike bloggers, commentators, and also investing and expanding Ducati fan/owners clubs are ways we can leverage cost-effective marketing techniques. Economic Logic: Our R&D team (including HPE) already has several high-end performance engines that can be utilized in designing such a bike, hence we feel our major R&D expenses will be towards the design of the frame and body components. This will reduce our overall R&D spend, as compared to a full blown redesign/production of a new engine technology. Furthermore, we only need about E2M for R&D expenses; E5M for CAPEX, leaving the remaining E12M for advertising. This CAPEX budget covers the additional manufacturing capacity as well as assembly line expenses. We plan to leverage the existing network of suppliers by continuing to outsource. We forecast a sale of 3,300 bikes to be sold in the first year after launch (initially Europe only), priced at E12,000 ($16,200 per unit), see Exhibit 3, which is 2% of the worldwide cruiser/custom motorbike market, where Harley is the leader. Ducati was able to sell about 3,500 units of its sports touring after launch, so we think that we should be able to meet this forecast of 3,300 for the new sports-cruiser hybrid. Thereafter, we project a 10% growth in sales in the 2nd year, and thereafter about 15% growth in the 3rd, 4th and 5th year. We are assuming that the life-span of a design is typically for 5 years; thereafter, this design/model would be retired or become obsolete. We would price the bike at about E12,000 so that it is not seen to be a cheap bike, while at the same time making sure it is not too expensive for Ducati fans to buy. At a discount rate of about 8% and an initial investment of E17M to launch the product in Europe, we anticipate a net return on investments of a bout E16.8M in 5 years. Major Internal and External Risks Currently, there is no market research available that shows a segment in Europe and US who would like to have a hybrid cruiser that drives as a  sports bike. The retail chain and distribution channels available in Europe and the US are perhaps more familiar with Harley-Davidson dominating the cruiser segment, and the Japanese players competing in both the cruiser and the sports segment in Europe. Ducati is a world renowned Italian sports bike brand and although we are positive that we will have considerable success in carving out a sizable market segment with this new product we plan to launch, there is always a risk in going after a new market segment, especially a niche segment. Significant capital would have to be invested to arrange ad campaigns, events, retail chains to raise awareness, all before a dime is earned. Internal Risks: Ducati’s expertise lies in the sports bike arena, and it has never offered a cruiser style motorbike. The needs of this customer segment are definitely different than the sports bike segment, and it is possible that Ducati could run short on delivering a product that meets the needs of the segment itis targeting. Ducati may not necessarily have the skills or the expertise to provide this sort of value to its customers. Translating and adapting its core skill-set to a different model type to develop a product more aligned with the cruiser model is not going to be easy. Also, this move could upset hard-core Ducati fans, who would not want Ducati to be associated to anything other than sport bikes. Ducati could possibly risk losing their loyal fan base, if it were to diversify into bike-variants other than sports. Diversifying too far from what Ducati is known for also puts the reputation and prestige of the company and its engineers who have become respected and well-known in the industry for making high quality performance bikes. The technical excellence and performance that Ducati is so well-known for around the world could well be seen to become diluted by moving into a cruiser bike segment which historically has been associated with a different demographic segment altogether. Yet, by carefully positioning this new product to be a sports bike at its core and by re-establishing our commitment to producing high-quality performance bikes that we have come to be known for, we could potentially re-assure our current fans. External Risks: Harley Davidson has dominated the custom cruiser segment for years with a very loyal fan base and supplier chain. Ducati’s entrance in this segment will be seen as an aggressive move by Harley, and Ducati must be prepared for some backlash. Harley has a strong network of suppliers, and distribution channels in the  US, and has set high entry barriers for Ducati in the US market. Ducati’s suppliers are primarily located in Bologna, and hence Ducati has enjoyed the benefit of being in close proximity to a large pool of supplier base and component manufacturers. Going with sports cruiser hybrid could mean that Ducati may need to establish relationships with a whole new set of suppliers based out of the US. US suppliers might not necessarily have a sense of the Italian style, a core value that the product provides. Therefore, we do not plan to enter the US market just yet, thereby preventing getting ourselves into a face-face with Harley. Once we build some credibility with customers in Europe, where we have a strong supplier base, and a decent distribution channel, we could potentially launch in the US in 2-3 years time frame based on the success of this launch. European markets have been dominated by Japanese players in sales volume, and entering the market could prompt them to bring out a competing product of their own, which could eat into the market share that Ducati is hoping to grab with this hybrid. If Ducati does not differentiate its product and service offerings enough, there is a risk of being dragged into a price war with the Japanese. However, this is the arena where Ducati shines and has made its name- superb performance, exquisite design, and the racing dominance. By strategically positioning our product for a whole new segment of customers Ducati can protect itself from appearing to start a war. By providing additional customization services, which would be charged at a high premium, we separate ourselves by going after an audience who is not a typical low-cost Japanese bike buyer. BMW successfully launched and defined its own cruiser and so can Ducati! Exhibit 3: Projected Sales Year Unit Sales Growth Units Sold Price/Unit (in Euros) Total Revenue EBITDA 0 -â‚ ¬17,000,000 1 3,300 â‚ ¬12,000 â‚ ¬39,600,000 â‚ ¬6,930,000 2 10% 3,630 â‚ ¬12,000 â‚ ¬43,560,000 â‚ ¬7,623,000 3 15% 4,175 â‚ ¬12,000 â‚ ¬50,094,000 â‚ ¬8,766,450 4 15% 4,801 â‚ ¬12,000 â‚ ¬57,608,100 â‚ ¬10,081,418 5 15% 5,521 â‚ ¬12,000 â‚ ¬66,249,315 â‚ ¬11,593,630 NPV â‚ ¬16,862,800