Mktg Plans Essay Example for Free

Mktg Plans Essay The type of decision-making a consumer uses for a product does not necessarily remain constant as the needs and wants of consumers are constantly changing and newer innovations are constantly being churned out to fulfill our changing needs. Nowadays what would usually involve a routine response behavior is not as simple because of the enormous variety a consumer has to choose from. There are many things that a consumer can evaluate in terms of purchasing a product; packaging, price, reputation, and whether or not there is a sale on the item can all be factors that a consumer evaluates. It might be even that the product is currently very trendy at the moment that would motivate the buyer to purchase it, which would be a case of limited decision-making. There are also many sociodemographic factors that affect the type of decision-making a consumer uses for a product. For instance, if you receive a big bonus and have more income going into your household, you may choose to use limited or extensive decision making in picking out a product with better brand recognition and of better quality. Another reasons that affect the type of decision-making a consumer uses for a product does not necessarily remain constant is for different occasions the product is being used for. For example, if someone were to attend a fancy party whose host you are trying to impress, you would use extensive decision making in order to pick out a wine that tells the host that they have class and a fine taste in wine. An example of how the type of decision-making I use has not remained constant is for my use of high-end fashion items, such as shoes from Ferragamo. If I wanted a pair of shoes from the main website I would search all over the web for the same shoes at a discounted rate for me to get the best deal on them. However, if I see shoes that I like and are on sale on the main Ferragamo site, I would buy them right away with no hesitation. Buying a high-end product at a discounted rate would lower my buyer’s remorse. A new service that is targeted at the college student market are house-cleaning services. The house-cleaning services often come in packages for a full clean up service for a minimum of 2 hours for around $65-$80. This service can be extremely profitable within the college student target market as a general conception of the college demographic is that they are fans of instant gratification. They are the ones who would rather not spend the time buying cleaning products at a store to clean their whole house, when it would only take 65 dollars (split between 2-4 roommates) for their house to be spotless in 2 hours. Although this service is offered, I don’t think they have capitalized on the college student market enough. I often hear these services through word-of-mouth or by an occasional Groupon deal. There are several different forums house-cleaning services can be offered to the college demographic in a more effective way: enhanced web presence, and cross-selling once a clie nt has been established are some of them. The main factors a house-cleaning service needs to consider when targeting a college target market are price and long-term commitments. A college student often has a limited budget on what they can spend so the cost of labor of a cleaning service has to be reasonable in order to outweigh the prospects of buying their own cleaning products at a much more affordable rate. Students are constantly on the lookout for deals and discounts and are constantly on the Internet, so Groupon, Living Social, Facebook, and Craigslist are great ways to advertise the service. The Internet is also a great source for students to research the ratings of the company offering the service because credibility of the company offering the service is highly important for a house-cleaning service since they are entering your home and have access to all your personal belongings; this is a way you can eliminate your competitors – by being the most credible and collecting the most amount of favorable reviews online. Long-term commitment is important because this is a service that needs to be used frequently in order to churn out the most amount of profit. A student must find value in having their house cleaned frequently by being pleased with the outcome of the service the first time. In order to yield customer returns and customer satisfaction, the house-cleaning service company can offer deals such as â€Å"For every 1 time you use us, you get 35% off your next house-cleaning,† or â€Å"Buy a package deal of 4 house-cleaning services for the price of 3.† They can even offer additional services such as laundry services that include cleaning, folding, and ironing. Timing is another factor a house-cleaning service can capitalize on since college students are those who want instant gratification. You can offer a service that is available 24 hours and have the job done in an hour and a half. Lastly, a house-cleaning service could take advantage of the social issues trending. Currently, while flu season is in full throttle, many students are getting sick. A house-cleaning service could advertise their flyers at a student health center or somewhere that students get flu shots with advertisements that stress on the need for a clean and germ-free house so that students can avoid getting sick. A company can create an atmosphere on its website by reflecting the same amount of value and prestige they have in there store directly onto their website. There are several factors a company needs to evaluate such as the usability of the website (whether or not it is easy to navigate, whether or not the functions work, and whether or not all the products are available), the websites atmosphere (sounds, presentation, layout ect.) The atmosphere of the website should communicate to the customer that it is a viable and reliable means of purchasing their products by making it look professional. The website atmosphere can encompass music and designs that compliment the prestige of the actual store. For example, the online store for Louis Vuitton evokes a very prestigious feel where many of the functions of the website are there for aesthetic purposes. The photographs used on the website are taken by professional photographers and the typeface is very elegant and classy. Although there is a lot of information on the website, it is very organized and flows very well in a direction that pushes a consumer to dig deeper into their site, finding more products to look at. The website is also organized in categories of their products which makes it easier to navigate around, such as shoes, dresses, and my favorite category, sale. Furthermore, there is a function on the website that allows a customer to zoom in on the product, allowing able to hone in on every inch of the product, assuring the products quality. A customer can browse the product from every angle and determine whether or not each specification of the product is suitable for them. Lastly, when a customer has decided to purchase a product, the website suggests more products for the consumer to buy that have a similar style to the one they have purchased and guarantees returns and a full refund if they are unhappy with their purchase. The process is also simple and fast, which eliminates the possibility of a consumer backing out of their purchase. It is obvious to the consumer that Louis Vuitton is a top-tier brand through its intricately and carefully designed website. The price is all extremely high, but it emphasizes its strong global presence in the most luxurious retail markets and gives you an impression that the brand is worth the money. If I were to start a pet grooming service in a town where there are two established pet groomers, I would price lower in order to gain recognition and penetrate the market. I would set my penetration price to a low price and sell my services in bundles in order to expose the services I offer as well as show that the quality of my services can match up to the existing competition. Once I have captured an interested audience, I can begin to maximize on customer loyalty strategies to keep them coming. I would constantly monitor my competition in order to learn about new services they offer as well as their prices in order to stay competitive. Since I am offering lower costs, it would be essential for me to estimate and calculate my demand and cost in order to not lose money in this endeavor. I would attempt to lower my overhead costs in running my grooming service at locations I do not have to rent, such as my house in order to yield a profit quicker. I would position my company to be a smaller, less established company who can do the job just as well as the other grooming services. I would start off by using my friends and family to bring in their pets for me to display my services on my front lawn in order to attract attention to potential customers so that their perceived quality of my services are that it is legitimate and that I take good care of their pets. Other reasons for why I would price my product low is because a pet grooming service is not a necessity, which means that in a down economy, a pet grooming service wouldn’t be anybody’s priority. Therefore a low price point can convince them that the value in having a well groomed pet is worth the money. Lastly, I would differentiate my services from my competitors in order to lower the associated price elasticity. I believe this value trade-off will drive the market to the lower-priced alternative.

Gender Identity without Gender Prescriptions Essay example -- Philosop

The feminist philosopher Susan Bordo suggests that the dilemma of twentieth-century feminism is the tension between a gender identity that both mobilizes a liberatory politics on behalf of women and that results in gender prescriptions which excludes many women. This tension seems especially acute in feminist debates about essentialism/deconstructionism. Concentrating on the shared sex of women may run the risk of embracing an essentialism that ignores the differences among women, whereas emphasizing the constructed natures of sex and gender categories seems to threaten the very project of a feminist politics. I will analyze the possibility of dismantling gender prescriptions while retaining a gender identity that can be the beginning for an emancipatory politics. Perhaps feminists need not rely on a reified essentialism that elides the differences of race, class, etc., if we begin with our social practices of classification rather than with a priori generalizations about the nature of women. Perhaps it is easiest to begin with that which seems self-evident: we categorize people according to sex. Therefore, it also seems self-evident that women form a (natural) group based on a shared sex, resulting in a common gender identity. Historically, feminism politics have relied on this assumed sameness among all women. Feminism can represent the interests of all women because, after all, women are all alike in being women. Of course, women differ with regard to race, class, age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and so on. But these differences have been seen as less basic than the shared similarity of sex and gender. Recently, however, more and more feminists have protested that these differences matter just as much to one's identit... ...sitions within each of these [economic, cultural, socio-political] contexts .... Despite considerable variability in what this means for particular women, this general feature of women's experience is sufficiently universal, by all anthropological and historical accounts, that it would seem to support at least a qualified conception of a distinctive women's standpoint, one which takes into account the fact that gender is by no means the only factor shaping women's lives" ("The Philosophy of Ambivalence: Sandra Harding on The Science Question in Feminism as found in Science, Morality and Feminist Theory" eds. Marsha Hanen and Kai Nielsen, Calgary: U of Calgary P, 1987, 68). (25) Bordo, Feminism/Postmodernism, 153. (26) To paraphrase Bordo "the chief imperative was [is] to listen, to become aware of one's biases, prejudices, ignorance" Feminism/Postmodernism, 138.

Is Torture Ever Ok? Essay

A lot of times in these scenarios there are no other options and torturing someone is the only way to get fast results before it is too late. I am a utilitarian thinker and I believe in the greatest good for the most people. If a lot of people’s lives are at stake in a situation and can be saved because of one criminal’s pain then torturing is the way to go. I believe that torture can be morally justified in many extreme circumstances and by regulating torture by law then it could benefit our society. My first argument will show how torture can be used to help stop a bank robber who has many hostages. Suppose, the authorities arrested one of the conspirators of the bank robber and they weren’t getting anything out of him. The bank robber told the authorities that if they didn’t get him a plane out of the country then he would start killing hostages. The authorities don’t know where the bank robber is or the hostages. The bank robber says they only have fifteen minutes to arrange him a plane before he starts killing the hostages. The authorities could torture the conspirators and get the information they need to save the hostages and arrest the bank robber or they could let the hostages die. This is why in my opinion torture is morally justified in this situation. The first argument I used shows a real example of how torturing can save people lives, arrest a criminal, and prevent more people from dying in the short and long run. A stakeholder from my last paper, Mirko Bagaric, agree with me. Bagaric is a professor of law at Deakin University and according to him, â€Å"torture is justifiable when used as an information gathering technique to avert great risk† (Bagaric, p. 264). In my example, it obviously agrees with Bagaric’s statement. There are many variables that go into whether or not torturing someone in a severe situation is permissible. Bagaric wrote a list of these variables: â€Å"1. the number of lives at risk; 2. the immediacy of the harm; 3. the availability of other means to acquire the information; 4. the level of wrongdoing of the agent; and 5. the likelihood that the agent actually does process the relevant information. † I believe that if these were the five rules in a law that regulated torture so we could set a compromise with people who think torture should never happen. The biggest reason I believe torturing is ok in harm-based situations is because it is our moral duty to save other people’s lives. In my opinion, some moral duties override others. The moral duty to save thousands of people overrides the moral duty to respect someone’s physical body, who is holding information from you because they want all those people to die. Everyone must agree that the most basic and important human right is the right to life. If you have a chance to save thousands of lives and torturing is your only option then the choice is obvious. Torturing must be ok in some circumstances, in order to save lives. I am not saying that people should torture a person to death because that violates their right to live. But, if the torture only causes some physical pain to one person to save many lives then torture should be morally and legally permissible. In Heinz site, whenever torturing someone there should always be a doctor there to make sure the person being tortured isn’t killed. I do not think torturing is always ok and it should always should be the last option, but when worse comes to worse saving thousands of people is worth torturing a person who is ok with those people dying. People who oppose torture at all times are deontologists. Deontologists believe that general rules and values must be respected regardless of the outcome. According to them even a savage terrorist who wants to kill their family and friends should not be harmed because it is immoral to inflict physical pain on someone. They believe that you should never bend the rules even if it causes death. Some of them believe that if you allow torturing that you will start down a slippery slope. For example, this slippery slope could lead up to killing a prisoner to avoid a bomb going off and killing thousands. And, what if, you killed the prisoner and he or she didn’t give up any information. The slippery slope of sinning leads to more sinning according to deontologists. For them, torture promotes violence and sin. Although, I do agree with some of the components from the other side’s argument it doesn’t change the fact the torture is needed in some malicious cases. I agree that you should not cause another person physical harm, but if harming this person can saves lives I believe it is morally ok. People have a greater moral obligation to preserve our species and defend our family and country. If physically harming one person can help us do this then torturing should be acceptable. Opponents to torture also stated that we will go down a slippery road to sin and killing people being tortured, but I disagree. I believe that we are rational enough to be able to torture someone and keep them alive. When torturing someone I think it would only be acceptable if a doctor was present to make sure the person be tortured didn’t die. Also, I believe we have to be one-hundred-percent positive the prisoner has the information we want, otherwise; torturing them would be wrong. I know that torturing is wrong in most cases but in should be acceptable in others. Bagaric states that â€Å"A legal framework should be established to properly accommodate these situations,† (Bagaric 274). If torture were to be regulated instead of prohibited, it would bring out greater good then it would harm. Torture happens whether it is prohibited or not. If we create the idea of a torture warrant at least we are stating what we are doing instead of hiding it. The only way to get a torture warrant would be to meet the five variables Bagaric wrote. Doctors being present when a prisoner is being tortured also insures that his or her life is being watched over carefully. In this example it shows that torture can be regulated to insure we don’t fall down a slippery slope and that it will help save many people in the future. My second argument shows that regulation of torture is better than prohibiting it. In my opinion, admitting what you do is better than lying about it. â€Å"Torture is outlawed in Israel yet they have been criticized all over the world for torturing people,† (Dershowitz). They are being hypocritical. It is a known fact that the United States tortures people secretly to find vital information. Although they try to be secretive about it, they usually get caught. It would be better if everyone knew that torture does happen and has to sometimes. I agree and wish that we never had to do it, but sometimes to save lives you have. By regulating torture, people will not be hypocritical about it and there will be rules pertaining to the issue. An obvious objection to this argument is again, the slippery slope. People against torture believe if you open the door to torture, even if you regulate it, you will lead to more and more torture. They say even if you torture is needed in extreme situations that making it legal will allow torture in less desperate situations. Again, I can rebuttal this objection of the slippery slope for regulating torture. First off, torture is already used even though it is legally prohibited. I believe making regulating torture will actually decrease it. People will have to get torture warrant and we should make very sure those are hard to get. Second, Bagaric and Clarke say, that â€Å"there is no evidence to suggest that the lawful violation of fundamental human interests will necessarily lead to a violation of fundamental rights where the per-conditions for the activity are clearly delineated and controlled. † For example, we use the death penalty in the U. S. , but we still value life and haven’t been putting people to death unless it was for a legitimate reason. Religions such as the Muslim-American religion state, â€Å"It is irreligious, immoral, and unethical†(Rashid 1). They state their religious history is full of stories demanding that we condemn abuse and torture. The Muslim-American’s say that, â€Å"The Prophet Moses sacrificed his royal position to stop an act of torture† (Rashid1). They state, the Prophet Muhammad forbade the mistreatment of prisoners. Torture offends Muslim-Americans because it is immoral nature. They state that the torture of human beings at the behest of the American government must be condemned. They say that, â€Å"Simply because another country allows torture does not mean we should encourage and utilize the moral weakness of others† (Rashid 1). They explain that when we ratified the Convention Against Torture President Ronald Reagan said, â€Å"[We] clearly express United States opposition to torture, an abhorrent practice unfortunately still prevalent in the world today. † They also applaud President Obama for shining light on these shameful practices. Finally they said, â€Å"We cannot be deaf to the voice of justice, but must establish it. Torture is not just† (Rashid 2). The Muslim Religion has many valid points, but I disagree that torture is always wrong and immoral. Sometimes bad things can be used for the greater good. My father who was a veteran of the Air Force knows how important it is to get vital information out of enemies. My father believes, like Bagaric, â€Å"when many lives are at risk and the only way to save someone is torture them then you should do what is necessary. † My dad has been through torture training. My dad states that, â€Å"if the other side is going to torture us then we have to have to learn the same tactics. † My father said in the interview, â€Å"that torture should always be the last option, but when things are turning for the worst then sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. I agree with my father and I think that even torture may be immoral by itself it can be used to help people who are going to be killed which makes it moral. In conclusion, I believe prohibition of torture is wrong and that there needs to be a regulating law that allows torture so we can gather vital information. If there are more instances where thousands of peopleâ₠¬â„¢s lives are at risk and there is no other way of saving their lives then to torture someone then we most allow it. It should be morally acceptable to save people’s lives and I believe a people’s lives are worth more than an evil person’s physical pain.

Persuasive Speech Topics for College Students

How to Find Winning Persuasive Speech Topic? Coming up with a good idea for a persuasive speech may seem like a piece of cake. However, when you get a real task to perform, you suddenly realize that either your mind is completely blank, or you can come up with something boring and silly. So, how to invent a topic that will be interesting and provide a good opportunity to exercise public speaking? These simple tips can help you: Keep the balance: choose an area you are truly interested in, but avoid the topics which may be too touchy. Sometimes try to express the opinion opposite to yours. Choose a controversial issue, but do not go too deeply in religious, ideological or political concerns. Make your topic up-to-date, locally oriented and important for the audience. Limit the issue by choosing a part of the problem. Here are some ideas which you may find interesting: Developed countries should not help developing ones financially. Free higher education cannot conform to the standards of the modern society. Modern art will possess no cultural value in one hundred years. The failure to achieve your aim means there was no real desire to succeed. Business success is a matter of luck and has nothing to do with professionalism. High academic results are not important for your future professional success. In order to ensure free college education for all, government must introduce an additional tax for large and medium size companies. Despite being strict, college admission procedures fail to guarantee the right people being chosen. Long-term unemployment benefits discourage people from looking for a job and stimulate the unemployment. School curriculum must place a greater emphasis on science than humanities, as humanitarian subjects are easier to master.