Disneyland Paris Marketing Analysis Essay

Introduction Following the success in America, Walt Disney decided to build a similar entertainment and vacation park in Europe. On April 12, 1992 the park was opened the first time as Euro Disney ® Resort. Nowadays it is known as Disneyland ® Paris, which is located close to Paris in France. It consists of two theme parks (Disneyland ® Park and Walt Disney Studio Park), one entertainment district (Disney Village)1 and 14 hotels owned by Disneyland ® Paris2 The opening of Disneyland ® Paris was debated. People were afraid of being affected by the unhealthy life style and consumption of the Americans. A French journalist wrote, â€Å"I wish with all my heart the rebels would set fire to [Euro] Disneyland† and a French philosopher said, â€Å"It is not America that is invading us. It is we who adore it, who adopt its fashions and above all, its words.† All in all people were against the opening of Disneyland ® Paris.3 How important is Disneyland ® Paris at this moment? How is it using marketing? Who are the customers, Americans and/or Europeans? Is Disneyland ® Paris a competitor in comparison to other amusement parks? Which challenges does it currently face? To find answers these questions, we will analyse Disneyland ® Paris? performance through a SWOT-Analysis, which gives us an idea of its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. As we come to a conclusion, we will also give an advice to Disneyland ® Paris on what it can improve in order to perform better. Internal analysis The market Disneyland ® Paris is in a heterogeneous oligopoly. A heterogeneous oligopoly is a market in which there are a few sellers, and a lot of buyers. The sellers are in competition with each other and they are well informed about the actions of other sellers. Therefore, the decisions firms make, mostly are affected by decisions that their competitors make, and the other way around. Disneyland ® Paris is an actor in the market of amusement parks. In almost every European country you can find an amusement park. However, not all of these parks are offering accommodations and dining services, which makes the trip more of an unique and exciting experience. This market is  heterogeneous because, even though amusement parks seem the same, the feeling and experience in each one is completely different. Furthermore, only a few sellers can oversee decisions made by competitors. Next to that, there are many buyers. In 2013 14.9 million people visited Disneyland ® Paris4. Disneyland ® Paris’ position and performance As mentioned before, Disneyland ® Paris welcomed 14,9 million guests last year. This makes it the biggest tourist destination in Europe, especially compared to the Eiffel tower, which only attracts approximately 7 million visitors per year5. In comparison to other amusement parks How many visitors did other amusement parks in Europe welcome in 20136? ‘De Efteling’ (Holland) – 4 million visitors per year ‘Movie Park Germany’ (Germany) – 1.3 million visitors per year ‘Europa Park’ (Germany) – 4.6 million visitors per year ‘Gardaland’ (Italy) – approximately 7 million visitors per year Set side by side to other amusement parks in Europe, Disneyland ® Paris is doing really well on their visitors count. Financial performance Disneyland ® Land has been taking losses in 2011, 2012 and 2013. So with respect to its profit, Disneyland ® Paris is not doing that well at all. Their net loss was admittedly high in 2012, with 100.2 million euros. In 2013, they managed to cutback the loss to 78.2 million euros. See appendix, table 1. Notwithstanding, it is still a considerable amount of money. So how come that Disneyland ® Paris, the biggest amusement park in Europe, is taking a loss? 14,9 million visitors per year seems to be a high amount of visitors, but in the past three years, the number of visitors per year has decreased and the hotel occupancy rate has gone down. Even though the amount of money that visitors spent (per visitor) has slightly gone up, it is not enough to make up for the decrease in visitors. See appendix, table 2. Conclusion Despite the fact that Disneyland ® Paris is the biggest tourist attraction in Europe, and even draws more visitors than the Eiffel Tower, it is not financially healthy. Disneyland ® has again been taking a big loss.  Disneyland ® Paris has to change its strategy to achieve positive numbers and to start making profits. Value What Disneyland ® Paris offers to their guests is not only an amusement park, it is an experience. Disneyland offers two parks, Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park, with a total of 59 attractions. As stated by http://corporate.disneylandparis.com/: ‘Disneyland Park captures the wonder and fantasy of a classic Disney theme park while the Walt Disney Studios Park features the magic of movie-making.’ To make the Disneyland ® Paris experience complete, it offers several hotels, 63 restaurants, sport facilities, a wellness center, baby-care service, life-size Disney characters and a lot of shows and parades in the classic park as well as in the studios park. The value that Disneyland ® Paris offers is not just visit an amusement park with only fun rides, but an actual chance meet the characters from the Disney movies. Visitors can hug and take a picture with their favorite movie characters. Besides Disneyland  ® Paris made sure that its visitors stay in the Disney-feeling, even when having diner for example. Another part of the value that Disneyland ® Paris offers is that it combines the Walt Disney Studios Park with the classic park. For example ‘De Efteling’ (Holland) does not have a movie-oriented park, and ‘Movie Park Germany’ (Germany) does not have a classic park, but only the movie segment. The fact is that the customer does not need to choose between those two options at Disneyland ® Paris, but can have both at Disneyland ® Paris. A lot of other amusement parks in France or Europe also have astonishing attractions, but Disneyland ® Paris offers more than that. Disneyland ® Paris’ marketing mix As mentioned before, Disneyland ® Paris has a lot to offer. It serves their customers an amazing experience. Due to all this, the park had 14,9 million visitors last year. However, just like any other company, they used different tools to be this successful. Product Disneyland ® Paris offers several products and not just the amusement parks that people always seem to think about. Next to the two parks, they also own seven hotels owned by itself and seven partner hotels, including a free bus  connection from and to the park. Most of the hotels have their own special features, for example tennis courts, swimming pools, fitness centers, and pony ride. Furthermore, the resort includes Disney Village, which is a street where many shops, bars, restaurants, and attractions are located. Next to all this, the resort also includes a golf complex. The target segments of Disneyland are mainly families with children. When customers come to Disneyland ® Paris they expect to have a good time, not only for the children, but also for the parents. They might even want to feel as children themselves again. Disneyland ® Paris tries to give its visitors this experience using their parks, hotels and all the other features. Apart from feeling like a child again, some parents are looking for some relaxation and sports, which can be found at Disneyland ® Paris as well. All these products are part of the well-known brand Disney, even the hotels. This big mixture of products sets Disneyland ® Paris apart from other attraction parks. Even though other parks may have a brand and shops, most of them do not include a hotel. Even less parks accommodate a golf complex! These advantages make Disneyland ® Paris to what it is: a very attractive get-away. Strengths: Disneyland ® Paris offers a lot of different products. This makes it interesting for many target groups. It is not only for families with children, but can also be for groups of friends. Weaknesses: All the Disney items may become a bit too overwhelming. Price When the decision to visit Disneyland ® Paris is made, tickets need to be bought first. Tickets are sold on the website of Disneyland ® or throughout a travelling agency. The prices for tickets can be found in the appendix, table 2. As seen in the table, the park gives some discounts. For example, instead of paying for three day, one day is given for free. When the intention is to stay for more than one day, the opportunity to book a hotel is available. The tickets are already included in the price of the room. The price of the hotel for one night and one adult range from â‚ ¬111.00 to â‚ ¬663.00. Children from the age of 3 till 11 can spend the night in the hotels for free. However, these prices are not fixed but can fluctuate according to the needs and wants of customers. The prices in restaurants differ. They range from less than â‚ ¬15.- to over â‚ ¬25.-. This gives a wide range for customers and includes something for every target segment, rich or  poor. Having an inexpensive dinner might sounds great to most parents, since often the food in (other) attraction parks is very expensive. Strengths: The low prices of some of the restaurants can be considered as a strength. Usually the food in attraction parks is very expensive. Also, parents often believe that the trip itself already cost much money, so having some inexpensive restaurants gives Disneyland an advantage. Weaknesses: The entrance price of the park is very high, much higher than those of other parks, which are usually around â‚ ¬30.-. Furthermore, the stay in hotels might be too expensive for some customers. Promotion Disneyland uses several tools in promotion, such as the television, radio, advertisements and face-to-face communication. It sends out advertisement on the television on children and family senders. It also play ads on the radio, using the voice of Mickey Mouse. By reaching out to mostly children, it achieves its success. Next to these forms of promotion, it also posts advertisements for example in newspapers and children magazines. Also, there is the face-to-face communication. Visitors inform friends and family about their experience in Disneyland ® Paris, making the listener start thinking about Disneyland ® Paris positively or even negatively. Finally, there is a form of promotion that is not in the hands of Disneyland ® Paris itself, namely the media. Reporters and journalists write about Disneyland. These articles can be positive, but can also be negative. Unfortunately for Disneyland, it is very hard to prevent negative news. The only thing that Disneyland ® Paris can do is to show the journalists are wrong with their writings after their publications. Strengths: Focussing commercials on children is a smart move. Children can be very powerful towards their parents’ spending. Which parent does not want to see his or her child happy? Disneyland ® Paris is a fun experience and makes families bond. Weaknesses: Just like any other company, Disneyland can come across some negative media. Not only by journalists, but also people that have been in the park and have had a negative experience. All of them can start spreading the word about their experience. For example, in an article in The Independent, from May 6th 2010, which explains how employers of Disneyland ® Paris have had accidents or committed suicide, due to some issues with the management of Euro Disney. 7 Place Disneyland ® Paris is located very near to Paris, 32 kilometres to the east. This makes it a central point in Europe. It is well accessible by car, since the park is located near a high way. Across from the entrance of the two parks lies a train station, Marne la Vallee-Chessy. This train station has a direct high speed train service to cities like Bordeaux, Marseilles, Nice, Lyon and even Brussels. Also, the Eurostar services a direct line from London to this station. Another easy way to get to the park is to go buy bus, since there is a direct bus service provided from two international French airports, Charles De Gaulle International Airport and Orly Airport. Strengths: Disneyland ® Paris is easily accessible, which gives them a great advantage. Weaknesses: Disneyland ® Paris is located in a place where the weather is very unpredictable. You are never a 100% certain whether the weather will be good or whether it will rain all day. Also the surrounding villages might experience some troubles with Disneyland and its facilities. For example the train passing by only 200 meters from a city like Chessy. This can cause nuisance for the people living there. External Analysis An external analysis concentrates on all external variables that influence a company’s performance. They determine a company’s success, its chances and risks. Therefore it is a very important task for marketers to know the environment in case to adapt to trends. Marketers need to know and understand them in case to adjust their strategies. The external analysis is split up into two parts, which are called microenvironment and macroenvironment. 8 Micro-Environment The microenvironment is about â€Å"[†¦] the actors close to the company that affect its ability to serve its customers [†¦]† (Kotler/Armstrong 2012, p. 66). In order to handle the customers, a company?s task is to build up a good relationship with those actors, that consist of other companies, suppliers, marketing intermediaries, competitors, publics and its customers. Customers As mentioned above a company has to create value for its customers. In order  to do so, Disneyland ® Paris has to know its customers’ needs and wants. First of all Disneyland ® Paris has to divide the market into smaller segments. Afterwards it has to decide which groups to target. There are many variables to use to split up a market into smaller groups and to decide whether to enter or not. In the following consumer analysis we look at the main variables like geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioural. 1 Disneyland ® Paris? consists of a consumer market, which means Disneyland ® Paris is targeting individuals and households buying services and goods. The consumer market is a combination of a local and international market. Even Disneyland ® Paris is located in France, using the geographic segmentation, which divides a market into different nations, states, regions, countries, cities or even neighbourhoods, its main target group is Europe. As we can see in table 4 (see apendix), Disneyland ® Paris? target market consists of seven major groups and the rest of the world. T he table describes the major groups with the share in percentages from 2011 to 2013. The groups are France (51%), United Kingdom (14%), Spain (8%), Belgium (6%), Netherlands (6%), Italy (3%), Germany (3%) and the rest of the world (9%). With certainty we can conclude these are the biggest groups, not only through the table, but also through the official website which is presented in many languages. 9 A company also needs to make a decision whether for example which age, gender, family size, income they want to reach. These variables belong to the demographic segmentation. The book â€Å"Principles of Marketing by Kotler and Armstrong†¦p 191† says: â€Å"Demographic factors are the most popular bases for segmenting customer groups. One reason is that consumer needs, wants, and usage rates often vary closely with demographic variables.† (Kotler/Armstrong 2012, p. 191) Transferring this strategy to Disneyland ® Paris? customers, we can easily see its target groups w ithin the geographical segmentation. Disneyland ® Paris is mainly focusing on families with children within the age of 3 to 15 years10, which remains to be a problem as analysed later on. Secondary it also provides services and attractions to adolescents and older generations. As we have analysed in the first part of the paper, Disneyland ® Paris offers services and attractions for people in each life-cycle stage.11 As a result we can see Disneyland ® Paris is not mainly focusing on children, it is primarily focusing on family activities as a whole. The family size does not play a big role, because  also singles, classes or just big groups are welcome to visit the world of Disneyland ® Paris. Other variables are psychographic and behavioural. Disneyland ® Paris is targeting consumers who are looking for adventurous and unforgettable holidays, which belongs in the behavioural segmentation. Disneyland ® Paris requires visitors who are enthusiastic, active and dreamer. To achieve holidays like that people has to pay a high amount of money, therefore Disneyland ® Paris is targeting the working class with a higher income. All in all Disneyland ® Paris typical customers are not only young families with their children, also adolescents and groups, all from Europe. Because of the fact Disneyland ® Paris is quite expensive it is focusing on families with higher income, who want to experience a unique and adventurous entertainment. Competitors A company in the same business or in a similar business is called a competitor. In order to be successful, a company has to grant higher value than its competitors do. The same applies for Disneyland ® Paris. What are its competitors and how strong are they? In Disneyland ® Paris? case its competitors are not only located in France, also in Europe (compare table 5). The amusement park business is growing at a steady rate. Still Disneyland ® Paris is the market leader in this business. To evaluate its competitors in this market, it is necessary to take a more detailed look at them. One way is to look at the customers the amusement parks are targeting. Those parks who have the same target groups are closer competitors for Disneyland ® Paris. As mentioned above, Disneyland ® Paris? target groups are families with children and adolescents, who want to make a unique experience in connection with a longer holiday stay in Disneyland ® Paris. The majority of amusement parks are listed in table 3, which are focusing on customers who just want to stay for a day. Therefore Disneyland ® Paris and the other parks in comparison have mostly different target groups and goals. Another factor are the yearly guests. The main competitors are ?De Efteling? in the Netherlands with 4.2 million visitors and ?Europa Park? with 4.6 million visitors in Germany. Even if Disneyland ® Paris has twice as much guests (16 million) (see table 5), those theme parks have the same strategy in creating an overall theme-park atmosphere while targeting the same groups (families with their children and adolescents). Nonetheless, Disneyland ® Paris has  the highest market share and is definitely the market leader in this business. Its overall appearance with the whole Disney World makes the park unique in comparison to ?De Efteling? and ?Europa Park?. But it is very important we do not leave out of account the fact, Disneyland ® Paris is struggling from its debts and losses, as mentioned before. While Disneyland ® Paris is recording losses, the other two parks are recording profits and performing better financially.12 Disneyland ® Paris needs to watch out in order to stay the market leader. Competitive Strategies Disneyland ® Paris is using an effective brand strategy. These results in having a strong image of the Disneyworld in the customers? minds and reaching a higher value people put on Disneyland ® Paris. Besides, there are four basic competitive strategies used by marketers. The first one is called overall cost leadership, which tries to achieve the highest market share while having the lowest costs as possible. Another one is focusing on creating a high differentiation within the companys? product line (differentiation). Some companies also choose to serve just a few market segments instead of reaching the whole market. The fourth strategy is called middle-of-the-road which combines the strategies. Company performances are showing they are performing worse with it.13 While following one of these strategies – overall cost leadership, differentiation, focus or middle-of-the-road- companies want to give a superior value through value disciplines. Introducing all of them, operat ional excellence concentrates on reducing â€Å"[†¦] costs and creat[ing] a lean and efficient value-delivery system.† (Kotler/Armstrong 2012, p. 537) Another strategy is to concentrate on the needs and wants of the target groups (customer intimacy), while the last discipline called product leadership is always offering new and better products to their customers. Disneyland ® Paris? strategy is to combine the differentiation strategy with the customer intimacy strategy. Through the analysis in part one, where we have seen the financial debts of Disneyland ® Paris, it is definitely not pursuing the overall cost leadership strategy. Instead Disneyland ® Paris is focusing to expand its park while creating new products and services for all stages of the age life circle. This implies for the differentiation strategy. Doing this, Disneyland ® Paris has to know  its customers’ needs and wants very well, which results in customer intimacy. Reaching this goal Disneyland ® Paris is spending a high amount in research to develop modern products and services.14 It is marketing its amusement mark through digital media and internet to reach the adolescents and teens. Disneyland ® Paris owns the position as the product leader in its business, because it is always innovating and creating new products to keep its park attractive. It is steadily offering leading-edge products and services, not only to reach new customers also to convince customers to visit Disneyland ® Paris again. Macroenvironment In comparison to the micro-environmental analysis the macro-environmental analysis is not about the close actors around the company, it is about the larger societal forces as demographic, economics, natural, technological, political, and cultural forces, that effect the microenvironment. The trends of the factors listed before form the opportunities and threats companies have to deal with15. In case of Disneyland ® Paris the demographic change is one of the most important topics. The demography is looking at the populations’ structure and its shift. As we see in figure 1 (see appendix) the economy experienced an enormous decreasing trend in the birth rates, which resulted in an aging society. Smaller family sizes are the aftereffect of this trend. More important is to take a look how the demographic change will go on in the future. Figure 2 (see appendix) gives us an economic prediction of how the current situation affects the population structure in the future until 2060. Figure 2 (see appendix) shows the development from a bell shaped population towards a form like an urn. This is an indication of an aging population with less births. In 2011 the biggest age group was defined of people in the age of 15 – 55 years. In 2060 it might happen, this group becomes less and the age group of 60 – 90 years will increase. Referring to Disneyland ® Paris, as we analysed earlier in the paper, the main target group of Disneyland ® Paris are young families with children and adolescents. Therefore the demographic trend is a threat it has to deal with. Disneyland ® Paris has to change its structure towards satisfying older generations instead of focusing only on children and adolescents in order not to lose a high amount of customers. In addition Disneyland ® Paris has to  experience a price increase i n non-renewable resources such like oil and water, which belongs in the category of the natural environment. The price increase in oil in the last years is obvious16. Through higher prices for the resources, Disneyland ® Paris has higher costs. Disneyland ® Paris could increase its ticket prices, but how would customers react? Disneyland ® Paris is saying by itself it has to learn how to use its resources mainly water, paper and energy more wisely and efficient17. Even Disneyland ® Paris is geographically not affected by the consequences of the climate change, it is fighting against it. In its ?2013 Reference Document† Disneyland ® Paris is saying it helps †[†¦] through its environmental policy, in particular with its water consumption initiatives and its efforts in preventing and fighting pollution discharges.† Also within the social environment Disneyland ® Paris is putting a high emphasis on negotiating contracts with its suppliers. Disneyland ® Paris is listing its requirements in the ?2013 Reference Document? (p. 144): â€Å"Not to use child labor or forced labor; To treat each employee with dignity and respect and refrain from adopting discriminatory practices in hiring and employment; To respect employees’ right to associate, organize and bargain collectively; To provide employees with a safe and healthy work environment and to ensure that all accommodations provided to employees comply with health and safety standards; To apply laws and regulations relating to wages and working time, environment, manufacturing, pricing and sales and distribution of merchandise, Not to use subcontractors to manufacture Disney products or components without a prior written agreement [†¦] When a breach in standards is identified, the supplier must correct it or stop producing for [Disneyland ® Paris].† These points are showing the high social responsibility Disneyland ® Paris cares about. Besides this it is also trying to market its products child-oriented, improving its food in quality and safety and provides customer health and safety. Disneyland ® Paris also agreed to support the French economy and the employment18, but we won’t elaborate about that too much right now. Strategic advice and conclusion As analysed in the paper there are many threats Disneyland ® Paris has to deal  with. But, threats are not necessary bad for the company, they can also constitute opportunities to improve its strategy. Mentioned before, the demographic change is one of the biggest threats. Disneyland ® Paris has to change its concept towards older age groups in case of not losing customers. Disneyland ® Paris has already done a lot in this direction offering products and services to those age groups.19 This does not mean Disneyland ® Paris is safe, it still need to analyse its older customers? needs and wants in order to innovate products and services satisfying them. One advice is to improve the arrival and departure. Even though Paris and therefore Disneyland ® Paris are easy to reach, it can be still improved. An idea is using the international train Thalys. Thalys is offering many routes through five European countries – namely Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Unit ed Kingdom, stopping in 31 cities20. Disneyland ® Paris could cooperate with this company to create new packages (combining Disney-tickets with traintickets) for an easier and cheaper arrival/departure. Referring to the countries mentioned above, mainly these countries are presenting the target groups within Europe. As we analysed Disneyland ® Paris need to reach new customers. A possibility is to advertise itself more in eastern European countries such like Poland and Russia, which population became more willing to spend money on holidays. As we can see on Disneyland ® Paris? website, it does not offer its official website in those languages (www.disneylandparis.com). This is a point that can be improved to reach completely new target groups. Not only those countries seem to be interesting, also emerging countries such like south-western European countries. In order to reach them, Disneyland ® Paris could try to convince Thalys to expend its routes towards these countries. Another factor is Disneyland ® Paris seriously has to keep its prices stable or even lower them. Of course it is not that easy to reduce them while resource prices and therefore costs are increasing, but Disneyland ® Paris could building its own wind farm using renewable resources to produce own energy. This fact will not only contribute in lowering prices, it will bring a new philosophy that pays attention to the environment and it earns the trust of those people who are environmental conscious. Disneyland ® Paris can include this point, in case they implement this strategy, in their advertisements. Coming away from lowering costs and prices, Disneyland ® Paris can improve its image  through higher sociable responsibility. The main advice giving Disneyland ® Paris is to introduce a sensitization campaign, which is called cause-related marketing. â€Å"Cause-related marketing has become a primary form of corporate giving. It lets companies â€Å"do well by doing good† by linking purchases of the company?s products or services with fund-raising for worthwhile causes or charitable organizations.† (Kotler/Armstrong 2012, p. 85) Considering that Disneyland ® Paris is focused on families and children, for every ticket sold a portion can be donated to a charity for poor children. Not only Disneyland ® Paris would benefit of this marketing concept through higher profits, also children living in the underclass are better off. In one sentence: Disneyland ® Paris would not only give smiles to children visiting the amusement park, it also gives smiles to children that are not experiencing the unique and exciting dream world of Disneyland ® Paris. Reference List ?De Efteling?, official website http://www.efteling.com/NL/Over-de-Efteling/Pers-en-Publicaties.html 19-02-2014 21:36 De Efteling, Press Information 2013 http://www.efteling.com/media/Pdf/Persmappen/Persmap%20ENGELS%202013%20DEF.pdf 17-02-2014 20:18 ‘The independent’ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-dark-side-of-disneyland-paris-1964505.html 16-02-2014 15:39 Disneyland ® Paris http://www.disneylandparis.com/ 20-02-2014 18:06 Disneyland ® Paris, article about Disneyland ® Paris? decline http://disneyatwork.com/2013/08/is-disneyland-paris-in-decline/ 20-02-2014 18:03 Disneyland ® Paris, brochure http://corporate.disneylandparis.com/CORP/EN/Neutral/Images/Community%20report %202012.pdf 19-02-2014 14:23 Disneyland ® Paris, financial performance http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fcorporate.disneylandparis.com%2Finvestor-relations%2Ffinancial-indicators%2Findex.xhtml&h=NAQG1F7MB 20-02-2014 16:26 Disneyland ® Paris, overall information http://corporate.disneylandparis.com/about-our-company/the-narrative-of-numbers/index.xhtml 20-02-2014 18:02 EURO DISNEY S.C.A. (2013): 2013 Reference Document http://corporate.disneylandparis.com/CORP/EN/Neutral/Images/fr-uk-reference-document-2013.pdf 19-02-2014 15:48 Europapark http://www.europapark.de/lang-en/Home/c1174.html?langchange=true 20-02-2014 18:03 ?Moviepark?, article http://www.derwesten.de/staedte/bottrop/kirchhellen/1-25-millionen-besucher-im-moviepark-id6139835.html 20-02-2014 18:07 Oil prices http://moneyweek.com/prices-news-charts/oil/ 17-02-2014 16:23 Philip Kotler & Gary Armstrong (2012, 14/E): Principles of Marketing, Global Edition, Pearson, Harlow, England Philip Kotler & Gary Armstrong (2014, 15/E): Principles of Marketing, Global Edition, Pearson, Harlow, England

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Buddy Holly - Research Paper Example It was his family who encouraged his early musical gifts, and he was able to learn playing the fiddle and the piano from a tender age, even as his older siblings taught him how to play the guitar. The family had a business in tiles, while the parents were tailors, but they all let Buddy Holly develop his musical gifts in small and big ways, providng much moral support. Then after secondary school, he formed a band, out of which he further developed his talents, until that fateful event in 1955 when he fronted for Elvis Presley who was touring through their town, and was shortly after signed to a recodring contract by an agent who saw him perform. His early work with the Crickets in 1956 and 1957 paved the way for a career as a solo artist, in 1958, but that career would prove shortlived, as he was killed in a plane crash just a year after. His most famous songs, as reflected in their landing in the Top 40, would come from his work with the Crickets before 1958, notably ‘That Wi ll Be the Day’ recorded in 1957. In all, seven songs from the Cricket era landed in the American Top 40 from that time that Holly spent as the lead of the Crickets. Without that fateful plnba crash shortening the brilliant career of Holly, he would have been in his seventies by now, and would have left as big an imprint as the other greats of rock and roll who have come after him, and who have all cited his work as instrumental in shaping the course of their own music and of rock and roll in general. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Maria Elena Santiago holds the intellectual property rights to the work of Buddy Holly and all artifacts associated with the estate, and this is due to the fact that Santiago had become Holly’s wife in 1958. It was on their first date that Holly proposed marriage, and though the widow would suffer a miscarriage, the consummation of their marriage occurred just a few

Forecasting Alliances Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Forecasting Alliances - Essay Example The two powers have managed to form strong alliances that exist until today. In fact, the two exercise their mutual influences under the frameworks of Western powers across greater part of the world. The influence of the two powers have probably been due to their held ideology of democracy that intends to promote liberalization and thwart communism seen as derailing global economic, political and social integration. Much resistance against the Western powers has been coming from Russia and China, and their allies like Cuba and some Middle East countries. Despite the resistances, Western powers seem to have made significant successes bearing the spontaneous transformation of Russia and China to adopt capitalist ideologies that have seen rise in the number of billionaires found in the two countries. However, there exists consistent strategies and conspiracy by some countries to alliance with intention to challenge the Western powers. The possibility of success of the likely alliances i n challenging Western powers requires careful examination and study. Russia, Cuba and Venezuela share similar history of perpetuating communist ideologies characterized with no democracy. In fact, the three countries were once under the unity of the Soviet Union, which diminished due to unbearable influence of capitalism of the Western powers. Among the three, Russia is the only strongest in the global arena with stronger military, economic and political influence. Russia boasts of endowment of massive natural resources including natural gas, oil and metal among others. Venezuela on the other hand boasts of rich oil reserves that mark the backbone of its economy (Keck). Cuba on the other end boasts of highly trained professionals and unexploited oil reserves. Located just below the southern part of North America, Cuba and Venezuela have been depending on each other in various aspects. For instance, since 2000, Cuba has been exporting

Preschool Observation Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Preschool Observation Project - Essay Example 3. The three physical features that made me determine that John was a preschooler were his talkative feature, attentiveness, and his profanity behavior. I realized that he was talkative by the way he said many and different things in a short period. His attentiveness was evident by the way he paid attention to questions and enjoyed discussing serious issues. His profanity was evident by the way he used silly words most of the time. 4. According to my observation, John was in good health. This is arguably true because his height and weight fit for a child of his age. Nevertheless, although he was slightly bigger than others, this could be attributed to hormonal differences that differ from one person to another. On the other hand, I was convinced that his psychological well being was fit. I concluded this because for the duration not less an hour, I closely watched and monitored his behaviors as he interacted with other pupils. At one point, he played a role of a football referee and his conduct was normal. He even tried to resolve a misunderstanding between two players. As for his nutrition, I could see him eat comfortably his lunch meal. However, I observed that he had small injury on his face, but being at his age, I took it to be normal because such injuries occur when children of his age are playing. 1. According to what I observed from John, there were some gross motor skills involved. For the time that I observed John, I observed him running, throwing, and skipping. When they played hind and seek game, John used to run when hiding from the seeker. He threw stones at some targeted destinations to hit a marked ground as required by the game they were playing. Skipping was also evident most of the time when they were playing. 1. During the one hour that I observed John, I could see him use his fine motor skills well. I observed that John could easily use the spoon to feed himself, tying his she races, and drawing some shapes. During

Consumer behaviour analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Consumer behaviour analysis - Assignment Example One of the advantages of undertaking an analysis of consumer behavior is that it enables the business to produce goods and services that meet the specific needs of consumers. Businesses have to make a consideration of the buyers’ cultural determinants of their purchase patterns and other factors so that they address them in the product design and development (Kumra 32). In assessing the culture of the target market, consumes have to understand that some products can do well in certain places and not others. In this case, they have to ensure that they avoid those places that they do not stand to sell their products for various reasons. Alternatively, they can design products that fulfill the needs of those populations effectively. A marketing strategy refers to approach designed by a business to increase its sales and achieve a sustainable and reliable competitive advantage in the market place. The strategy comprises of all the fundamental short and long-term activities in the marketing field. A reliable marketing strategy in a company addresses the analysis of initial situations towards the process of formulating, evaluating and selecting market –oriented approaches in tandem with the laid down goals and objectives (Morphitou and Savvas 201). In designing this strategy, cultural considerations that will play a role include the beliefs and values of people pertaining the goods and services (Mooij 35). The company has to design a marketing approach that appeals to the market’s beliefs and practices. For instance, when people believe that smartphones are essential in enhancing the value of their personal and social services, the business has to use promotional tools and language the emphasize on this issues. Secondly, consumer behavior characteristics are also essential in designing the marketing strategies. Consumers’ preferences for certain brands

Essay questions Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 15

Questions - Essay Example The caliphate period also started in this century. In this century Hazrat Ali and his sons were martyred. That was the point when shiism came into being when the opponents regret the martyrdom. The 8th century was known as the golden period of Islam. It’s when Islam gained its roots in the major countries. Many mosques were built; mathematicians were there to invent new solutions such as algebra. The Mongol invasions left a great impact on the Muslim empire. At first it brought glorious days when Babur and Akbar were the rulers but then it declined drastically because they started enjoying the luxuries and forgot about the empire. The wealth was wasted on wars and building palaces. Many rebellions stood up to weaken the empire even more. The Iranian experience is based on the class, cultures and traditions of Iran. The cultures are followed from an Islamic point of view. The class is differentiated on the basis of the wealth the society has. The classes have different views and traditions. For example: The primary source of kinship is security. Zoroastrianism is the pre-Islamic religion which emerged in Iran (previously known as Persia) and established its roots in India. The followers believe in one invisible God and one sacred book. Their beliefs are laid upon the monotheistic and dualistic

Legal Environment Essay Example for Free

Legal Environment Essay Sexual harassment is always a legal topic in the work environment because the ramifications are so severe, but at the same time very abstract to describe what can constitute sexual harassment. This paper will take into consideration different elements of the law including Employment Law and cases tried before the U. S. Supreme Court. It will also offer suggestions for corrective action pertaining to the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace. In corporate America, sexual harassment is a huge concern amongst many organizations. The matter of sexual harassment is an issue that needs to be immediately attended to in order for companies to avoid large costs associated with lawsuits stemming from allegations of being sexually harassed in the workplace. Sexual harassment is usually an immediate damage. According to Crucet et al. (2010), â€Å"sexual harassment can cause damage to a company’s representation, status, customers, as well as their proceeds†. Sexual harassment can be identified as any unwelcome sexual jesters or advances, request for sex, and/or any physical or verbal conduct that may be considered in a sexual nature. The legalities circling sexual harassment can be broken down into two particular categories. According to Crucet et al. (2010), â€Å"the first category is quid pro quo and the second one consists of a hostile environment†. The first category of quid pro quo (this for that) sexual harassment usually involves an employee and a supervisor because in most situations only supervisors have the power of hiring and firing an employee. It also â€Å"involves some express or implied linkage between an employee’s submission to sexually oriented behavior and tangible job consequences† (Mallor et al. 2010, p. 1328). An example of quid pro quo could be related to a supervisor telling his female employee that â€Å"if you do this sexual favor for me, then you will be promoted†. According to Tyner Clinton (2010), â€Å"other examples include managers requesting sexual favors, and the receipt or non-receipt of those favors as a condition for making hiring, termination, promotion, and other placement decisions. † Quid pro quo is easier to identify than hostile environment harassment. The second category of sexual harassment is called hostile environment harassment. According to Mallor et al. 2010), â€Å"hostile environment harassment, occurs when an employee is subjected to unwelcome, sex-related behavior that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to change the conditions of the victim’s employment and create an abusive working environment† (p. 1328). The key element of any type of harassment is unwelcomed sexual advances but in hostile environment harassment it is definitely a bit tricky and at times hard to define (Tyner Clinton, 2010). Both categories of sexual harassment violate Title VII of Employment Law that is in place to protect equal opportunity in the workplace. In order to avoid or limit their liability for sexual harassment allegations, an employer must act immediately when issues of sexual harassment are brought to their attention in addition to providing adequate training on sexual harassment along with having an effective policy in place that identifies the definition of sexual harassment. A current ethical situation that I have encountered in the workplace involves hostile environment harassment. I have an employee by the name of Bob Doe that has been accused of sexual harassment in the workplace. Bob has been working as an Admissions Counselor under my supervision since January of 2011. Bob is married with three young children between the ages of ten to sixteen. Bob is a great worker but people still feel uncomfortable around him and comes off much different that the other male employee or co worker. He carries around an aura or vibe that makes the female employees feel uncomfortable. For instance, when Bob has a conversation with other female employees he tends to get too close and invade personal space. He is often caught saying vulgar and raunchy remarks that are HR inappropriate and has a habit of speaking under his breath a lot. Many of the female employees have claimed that he stares at them for periods of time without saying anything. He is medium to tall height, with a muscular build and tends to wear tight articles of clothing to reveal his muscles. Bob is middle aged and is about 5-10 years older than the average of other Admissions Counselors. In August of 2011, one day another male employee approached me and said that Bob had made some remarks to him regarding another female employee. Bob told this male employee â€Å"that he would love to catch her drunk† about that female employee. As a supervisor, this remark made me feel very angry that one of my employees would make comments like that about another employee and I immediately reported this action to my Director, Steve. Steve said that he really couldn’t do anything about that comment because I could not confirm whether or not he said it based off of the word of another employee and that the comment was not heard by the female employee. The director then told me to stay away from the gossip in the workplace and not to get involved in drama, He reminded me that I am suppose to be above that sort of office slander and that I was put in this position to make others people at their job and not be a whistle blower. I acknowledged what he told me and agreed that I would do a better job moving forward, but I still asked him to please report this incident to Human Resources. Steve said that he would handle the situation and would report the incident to Human Resources. Steve likes to handle all HR issues as he calls, â€Å"in house†. Steve wants the managers to run an incident by him before going to HR because he feels that he can handle the issues and that only if the cause was serious enough and if he was not present then we could go to Human Resources, otherwise we were to seek his approval or direction first. The second incident that involved Bob was in November 2011, when he approached another female employee on the team and grabbed her from behind and hugged her. Although he was not being overly aggressive and had a smile on his face, the female employee named Helen was caught off guard and felt violated and asked Bob not to touch her again because it made her feel uncomfortable. Bob laughed it off and said â€Å"Gezz girl relax! You know it’s not like that† and pointed at his wedding ring and walk away. Helen approached me and told me what happened. I immediately pulled Bob into a conference room and told him very sternly that it was inappropriate to hug and/or touch another employee in the workplace especially if it is unwelcomed because it could be viewed as sexual harassment. He said he understood and apologized for his behavior. At this time, I felt that this particular incident did not need to be reported to Human Resources since I felt I had a pretty good handle of the situation. I, however did document the incident in his employee activity log and mentioned it to my director who also said I handled the situation appropriately The third incident that happened regarding Bob was in January 2012. Bob was flirting with a female employee named Lisa who was not an employee on my team but still in the same division. Bob then began to grab Lisa’s hand and hold it with his hand. As Lisa pulled away, she asked Bob â€Å"why are you trying to hold my hand? † Bob’s response was â€Å" you’re so hot you’re making my hands clammy. † This was another sexual harassment issue that could have blown up. Once Lisa’s manager brought this situation to my attention, I once again called Bob into the conference room and explained to him that this was his second warning not to touch another employee, especially a female employee because it is inappropriate and unwarranted and if it were to happen again, then I would have no choice but to personally report him to Human Resources. Once again, I turned to my Director, Steve to seek his advice. Steve again told me that as long as you feel that you handled the situation appropriately and documented it then Bob should be fine. At this point I started getting the feeling that Steve didn’t care about the safety of my female employees and that he just wanted to avoid HR to avoid a situation. I felt as if Steve was allowing this to happen to prevent himself from looking bad. I then decide that I had to take the situation into my own hands and be more cognizant of Bob’s behavior with other employees. There have been a number of other times that Bob continued to make inappropriate comments to other female employees. He would compliment girls on their dress and say how nice their legs looked or that a certain color really brings out their figure. However, there were no mo complaints from Bob in regards to touching another employee inappropriately. He eventually decided to move onto another role with a different company and that was that. Sexual harassment is subjective because everyone identifies and perceives sexual harassment differently. Bob did come from the food and beverage industry where he was a bartender and a lot of his employees were cocktail waitresses in a night club in downtown. He did mention that in his previous job that he was very friendly with his staff because the culture would be more tolerable, especially with alcohol being involved. So, he may not have viewed his actions as being sexual harassment to his female employees, but obviously the employees felt otherwise. Author Tyner and Clinton write that â€Å"According to the law, the victim must be a â€Å"reasonable person† (Tyner Clinton, 2010). The â€Å"reasonable person† standard initiated in the landmark case of Rabidue v. Osceola Refining back in 1986. According to Tyner Clinton (2010), â€Å"in this case the majority ruled that vulgar language and the sexually oriented posters did not result in a working environment that could be considered intimidating, hostile, or offensive under the guidelines. † Essentially Judge Keith felt that â€Å"sexual harassment should not be judged by a reasonable person but rather by a reasonable victim† (Tyner Clinton, 2010). It is the victim that feels uncomfortable and is claiming the allegations of sexual harassment. They are the one that feel that the acts of another are unwelcomed and violating their legal rights. Unfortunately, as a manager of fourteen Admissions Counselors, at times I don’t have the presence to be everywhere at all times. I have frequently not been present at urgent moments because I was helping or assisting another employee. I always made it a conscience effort to praise in public and coach or criticize in private. This was the course of action I took with Bob whenever I witnessed an inappropriate behavior from him. I took him into the conference room and let me know that what he just did is not acceptable. I did not want him to feel that he was being discriminated against because he was an older male. I know that it was my ethical duty to make sure that all of my employees have the right to feel safe in the workplace. This topic really sticks out to me because as a manager of a big company we are constantly having sexual harassment trainings and seminars on how to identify and prevent instances from occurring. A manager at the training shared with the rest of the managers a horrific case of sexual harassment from one of her employees. The employees name was Tim and he was a very skilled and tenure Admissions Counselor and often looked at as a great example of a successful hard working Admissions Counselor. When a female new hire Kristy was added onto the same team as Tim the manager advised that the new hire learn from Tim and create best practices and habits that Tim has. Kristy was near Tim a lot because she was given orders to learn from Tim. Tim would use this opportunity to flirt with Kristy constantly and asking her very intruding questions about her personal life such as, if she is dating anyone or if she is interested in a relationship or just â€Å"hooking up. † Kristy became very ucomfortable when Tim started to text message her at night saying that he is bored now that he is divorced and that he wants to meet her early in the morning to go over performance strategies. When Kristy finally confided in another employee the manager was brought to attention. The manager immediately told Kristy to go to HR right away and the manager went to her supervisor and they both took immediate actions. Because of Tim’s behavior Kristy was about to quit her job and she would attempt to be sick in order to stay away from Tim’s desk. Tim’s behavior created a hostile environment because Kristy was in fear of encountering Tim. This incident not only saddens me for Kristy, but also made me sad because of what Bob had done in the past to my fellow employees and I had not taken immediate actions like I should have. Legal Viewpoints: The U. S.  Supreme Court According to Crucet et al. (2010), â€Å"in 1980 the Supreme Court said that sexual harassment was a breach of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. † Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 â€Å"prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin in hiring, firing, job assignments, pay, access to training, and apprenticeship programs, and most other employment decisions† (Mallor et al. , 2010, p. 1323). An important case that first appeared the â€Å"reasonable person† argument was in the Rabidue v. Osceola Refining in 1986 mentioned earlier in this paper. This case is often cited as the predecessor to the landmark Supreme Court case of Ellison v. Brady in 1991. In Ellison v. Brady (1991) the Supreme Court rules that â€Å"it is unreasonable to use a â€Å"reasonable person† standard since the rules were established by men† (Tyner Clinton, 2010). This is where the â€Å"reasonable victim† came into existence. The court went on to say that â€Å"we note that the reasonable woman victim standard we adopt today classified conduct as unlawful sexual harassment even when harassers do not realize that their conduct creates a hostile working environment† (Tyner Clinton, 2010). This Supreme Court ruling is of great importance. Many of times, harassers don’t even realize what they are doing is wrong because their perception of reality is off. Two important Supreme Court cases in 1998 created the framework for deciding whether or not employers were held liable for sexual harassment committed by its employees. The first was Burlington Industries v. Ellerth (1998) and the second was Farragher v. Boca Raton (1998). According to Cabassa (2011), â€Å"employers in jurisdictions where courts have allowed indemnity claims against employees for actions giving rise to harassment cases† are on the rise. There are many cases linking to sexual harassment in the workplace that they have launched a litigation committee that covers employment law to covering all legal issues related to the employment relationship (Cabassa, 2010). The question still stands on whether or not a company is liable for sexual harassment committed by one of its employees. The answer to that question lies on â€Å"whether the harasser was a coemployee or a supervisor of the victim, whether the victim suffered tangible job detriment and whether the company had sexual harassment policies, training, and grievance procedures† (Mallor et al. , 2010, p. 1328). Therefore, in order for a company to release themselves from association and allegations of sexual harassment a number of things need to be considered. Suggestions for Corrective Action According to Das (2007), â€Å"sexualization itself, as a precursor to signaling, could arguably stem both from a targets developmental trajectory and from later-life experiences that get layered onto this basic personality substrate. † Therefore, although Bob had these precursor straits of sexualization prior to him going through divorce, the later-life experiences of divorce layered into his life may have caused him to be more relentless. Regardless of his personal life experiences, Bob needs to be in line with the Employee Handbook and follow its policies. It is imperative each company have a Human Resource or Employees Relations Representative that can handle any allegations of sexual harassment. It is first and foremost important for a company no matter of size small or large, to have an Employee Handbook in place to identify what is considered acceptable and what can be recognized as sexual harassment. Then adequate training needs to be in place to help identify what may be considered as sexual and/or ostile environment harassment. After the training, each employee should be required to sign off on an acknowledgment form acknowledging that they know and understand the sexual harassment policy. Once those guidelines are set then it is important for managers and supervisors to take the allegations of sexual harassment very seriously and prevent any further occurrences to take place. If allegations of sexual harassment are made, it is important for Human Resources to open an investigation immediately to determine the facts of the case and to get each sides of the story.  Once the pieces of the puzzle are in place, then the next step is to take appropriate disciplinary action up to and including termination of the harasser. This measure will hopefully prevent sexual and hostile environment harassment. Conclusion In conclusion, the Employment Law has been established by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 allowing every person the right to pursue a career and economic gain with the absence of sexual harassment in the workplace. The U. S.  Supreme Court has been a huge help in identifying the law surrounding and interpreting the U. S. Constitution as it pertains to sexual harassment. According to Tyner Clinton (2010), â€Å"the Society for Human Resource Managers reported in 2002 that 97 percent of employers have written sexual harassment policies and that 62 percent of those employers provide training on sexual harassment. † Therefore, as a society we are on the right track to preventing harassment of any type in the workplace especially unwelcomed and unwarranted sexual advances.

Climate Change Term Paper Essay Example for Free

Climate Change Term Paper Essay Are we a burden to the society or a blessing? , We are the ones who will choose our own way, but we must see to it that the path that we are heading will not lead us to destruction. Many youth of today are engaging in worthless things like vices: smoking, drinking, alcohols, using drugs and etc. we are not aware that those things are just a waste of time, money and most of all it will ruin our future. We became a burden to our family and to our surrounding instead of being a blessing to them, as a child to their parents our responsibility is to make them happy as our payment for their sacrifice and efforts to raise us, we owe out lives to them. Make yourselves worthy to live the life that is given to you by the creator, don’t waste it, for our lives are precious. Let us open our eyes and mind and focus on the things that have worth and not on things that have worth and not on things that will destroy our lives. True happiness can only be found in our precious creator Jesus Christ, if you are searching for peace and love goes to him and he will give it all, and you’ll realize that this world will not give you satisfaction, it will only be found in him.

Business Report Al Ain Dairy Farm Marketing Essay

Business Report Al Ain Dairy Farm Marketing Essay Al Ain Dairy, first established dairy farm in United Arab Emirates is a leading producer of dairy products. Al Ain Dairy began its business in 1981 and with time it now has three cattle farms with more than 3,000 head of milking steers and one camel farm with more than 200 dairy animals. With significant investment in dairy production technology, packaging machines and testing equipments, Al Ain Dairy farms were able to achieve hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) certification in 2009 (an ISO 22000:2005 certificate) which means they can supply products to the UAE and export the same for the international market. Al Ain Dairy aim is to be the preferred choice of dairy and poultry products of households in UAE. Dairy have range of beverages and dairy products such as fruit yoghurts, Benecol yoghurts, coffee drinks, drinking yoghurt, potted cheese, crà ¨me caramel, custards, fruit desserts and cream for his customers. The dairy also provides variety in milk from normal to flavors like strawberry, banana and chocolate. The company also supplies fresh fruit juice in six flavors produced from fresh juice concentrate. With the increased demand of camel dairy products since early 2008, company has also involved himself in production and supply of camel milk and camel milk ice cream. Retail Presence of Al Ain Diary Products According to a recent study by the Department of Economic Development (DED) UHT juices and UHT milk as products that have great potential for export. In line with this, Al Ain Dairy, the first established dairy farm in the UAE and a leading producer of dairy products, has become one of the few dairy farms in the region to fully depend on its own herds of cows after it has launched a project, among its many activities, to minimize importing and boost local cow breeding with aims to increase milk production and further strengthen its leading position in the highly competitive market. Al Ain has more than 3000 milk producing cows and 2500 young stocks that are supplying the raw milk products to various outlets in country. According to one of the press report in UAE, in Q1 of 2009, the company saw an 18% increase in sales campared to the same period in 2008. In January 2010, the company have increased its total output by 23% compared to the same period in 2009. Al Ain Diary has its own retail chain of stores named Farm Fresh. Best of Al Ain Dairy and Al Ain Poultry products which have be known to be of high quality, healthy and fresh and specially their nutritious products such as Camel Milk, Max Calcium, Benecol, Optimil, Slim are available in all farm fresh outlets. Eng. Abdullah Al Darmaki, CEO, Al Ain Dairy, said: Our aim is to promote our Retail Concept and Exclusivity by introducing Convenience Shopping for our customers. According to one of the press realease in UAE, The dairy and fruit juices industry is expanding at a rate of 10% annually and currently meets 56% of the demand in the UAE, Despite of the current 26 operating cattle farms in the country which contain 15,000 cows producing 167,000 tonnes of fresh milk annually, the local markets needs are still being covered by imported products. Highlighting the huge demand for dairy products in the UAE, the local market faces an essential need to expand according to recent studies which have further recommended that dairy industry should research and develop new and differentiated products designed to meet specific needs and tastes of the local consumers as imports do not completely satisfy the demand. Commenting on this subject, Eng. Abdullah Al Darmaki, CEO, Al Ain Dairy, said: The decision to grow our own cattle has been derived from Al Ain Dairys vision to be recognized as the preferred choice of dairy products for all customers and to become a self-sufficient plant that provides a 100% locally manufactured products Current level of maturity of the companys supply chain of its beverage products The objective of every supply chain should be to maximize the overall value generated. The value of as supply chain generates is the difference between what the final product is worth to the customer and the costs the supply chain incures in filling the customers request.(Chopra, Meindl 2006) The diary currently have 26 operating cattle farms in the country which contain 15,000 cows producing 167,000 tones of milk annually. It is important that fresh and safe milk should be reach to consumer. For this Al Ain Diary farms have eight step critical procedure name cold chain to supply of milk from cow to consumer The cold chain procedure ensures the supply of fresh and safe milk to consumer. Firstly the cows are milked under hygienic conditions, then the raw milk output is examined by technicians at the processing plant to ensures that the milk is of the required quality and standards. The milk is then stored in silos at a constant temperature of +4 °C before starting pasteurisation. The milk is then goes under pasteurisation and homogenisation. Before storing milk from diary to sales depots it is packaged or formulated into other dairy products Al Ain Dairy has its own fleet of vechicles which is fitted with cooling units to ensure that milk should be reach to reatilers at required temperature. Al Ain Dairy salesmen coordinate with retailers regulary to monitor the temperature of cold storage units used to display products. The cold chain process ultimately gives assurance to consumer that they are purchasing the freshest milk that has been produced, stored and distributed under the most hygienic and controlled conditions possible, said Al Darmaki. Objectives Zero stock-outs Stock out is when business run out of stock; and zero stock out is when this condition never occurs. But it does not mean that business to hold too much buffer stock. It is to ensure that a business has exactly the correct amount of stock at any one time. On-time delivery of orders On time delivery is to measure the efficiency of supply chain which in turn measures the amount of finished product or service delivered to customer on time and in required quantity. It helps determine how efficiently we are meeting our customers or agreed deadlines Operational Decision And Analysis Company takes decision on the basis of individual customer needs. The aim of supply chain operations is to fulfill customers needs in the best possible way. There are six key elements to a supply chain: Production Supply Inventory Location Transportation, and Information Company needs to take decision at all these levels to achieve the objectives of zero stock out and on time delivery. Production Our aim is to meet customer demand and satisfaction for this company need to work on capacity, quality and volume of products. We need to focus on what are customers requirements and the market demands to take strategic decisions for production. On the other hand, operational decisions will focus on scheduling workloads, maintenance of equipment and meeting immediate market demands. Supply While keeping the quality high company needs to determine what facilities they are able to produce. Company can also go for outsourcing if required, but company should be careful to select the same. Inventory It is a critical issue in effective supply chain management. Operational inventory decisions should ensure the optimal levels of stock at each location. Company need to focus on how much product should be in storage and need to balance the same to meet market demands as market demands fluctuate. Location Decision regarding location should consider that facilities should be located near to consumer. Production plant should be close to raw material; and distribution and stocking facilities should be placed to prime location to the dedicated market Transportation Transportation encompassed 30% of the cost of product, so using correct transport mode is critical decision. Here company has its own fleet of vehicles to ensure smooth delivery of products under hygienic and controlled conditions. Information In todays competitive world astounding paper work and discordant computer system are unacceptable. Decision should be taken to obtain information from the point of end use. Need to have good coordination throughout the whole supply chain. For this network of computer and internet should be used to streamline the flow of information. Some software can also be used over LAN for account management and communication. Al Ain Dairy Farms provide technical expertise, team facilitation, leadership, and direction in deciding how you will meet the challenge. According to one the press realease in UAE, Al Ain Dairy has expanded its quality control system at local farms and processing plant through the establishment of two new technologies; a Food Lab System and Somatic Cell Counter. The voluntary testing equipment, which is adopted to ensure that all the companys dairy products meet international quality standards in accordance with the companys recent ISO certification. According to Mr. Abdullah Saif Al Darmaki, CEO of Al Ain Dairy, the continued growth of the UAE dairy industry will depend on the ability of large-scale producers to maintain international health standards as operations become more complex and geographically fragmented. The farms supplied raw milk must also go through additional screening procedures at the laboratory, using a Swedish-made Somatic Cell Counter. Somatic cells are white blood cells secreted by the cow and are one of the key indicators of whether raw milk is suitable for refinement. While this screening is a common test at dairy farms, few companies also implement the practice at their processing facilities. Recently Al Ain Dairy, has increased its juices product line by introducing two new juice flavours, guava and pineapple, to complement its existing range of six fruit juice products. Commenting on the introduction of the new flavours, Abdullah Saif Saeed Al Darmaki, CEO of Al Ain Dairy said: Growing our consumer base has been an important goal for us. With increasing demand in the market, we wanted to reinvest a significant portion of our profits in expanding our product lines and raising our production capacity. So far we are happy with the results. The company have also installed a High Efficiency Particulate Air Filter (HEPA) to filter the facilitys air and ensure a sterile working environment. According to one company report, better efficiencies and cost saving plans during a year also encouraged the growth of gross operating profits by almost 23%.

Bilingualism Essay -- essays research papers

The Limitations of Language   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The 14th Amendment in the United States Constitution dictates that any citizen of the United States shall receive the equal protection of civil rights, with due process of the law and cannot be discriminated against based upon race, origin, sex, class or political affiliation. Thus, educational policy in the United States is focused on providing the equal opportunities for all students. One heated debate in American education policy making is the use of bilingual education in public schools. Because there is a growing number of students (especially those in grade school) whose home language is not English, major literacy and learning disparities are created when non-english speaking students enroll in public schools that teach in English only. Students with limited English proficiency will have to work harder to achieve the same level of other students whose home language is English. Bilingual education is a program designed to alleviate the educational inequaliti es and disparities caused by present educational system. The focus of bilingual education is to guarantee that these students: 1. Learn the basic subjects (math, science, reading, social studies) in their home language from the time they enter school. The advantage of teaching students with limited English proficiency the basic subjects in their home language is that they will promote their academic progress while learning the English language. 2. Learn...

Teaching Adults: Is it different? :: Education School Essays

Teaching Adults: Is it different? The adult education literature generally supports the idea that teaching adults should be approached in a different way than teaching children and adolescents. The assumption that teachers of adults should use a different style of teaching is based on the widely espoused theory of andragogy, which suggests that "adults expect learner-centered settings where they can set their own goals and organize their own learning around their present life needs" (Donaldson, Flannery, and Ross-Gordon 1993, p. 148). However, even in the field of adult education, debate occurs about the efficacy of a separate approach for teaching adults. Some believe that adult education is essentially the same process as education generally (Garrison 1994) and therefore does not require a separate teaching approach: that is, all good teaching, whether for adults or children, should be responsive in nature. The question of whether teaching adults is different remains ambiguous. For example, research summarized in an ERIC Digest(Imel 1989) has shown that even those educators who say they believe in using an andragogical approach do not necessarily use a different style when teaching adults. Additional myths and realities related to teaching adults are explored in this publication. Two areas are examined: types of adult learning and what learners themselves want from teachers. Different Types of Adult Learning One way to approach the question of whether teaching adults is different is by examining the types of learning in which adults engage. Drawing upon the work of Habermas and Mezirow, Cranton (1994) classified adult learning into three categories: Subject-oriented adult learning-In adult learning contexts that are subject oriented, the primary goal is to acquire content. The educator "speaks of covering the material, and the learners see themselves as gaining knowledge or skills" (ibid., p. 10). Consumer-oriented adult learning-The goal of consumer-oriented learning is to fulfill the expressed needs of learners. Learners set their learning goals, identify objectives, select relevant resources, and so forth. The educator acts as a facilitator or resource person, "and does not engage in challenging or questioning what learners say about their needs" (ibid., p. 12). Emancipatory adult learning-The goal of emancipatory learning is to free learners from the forces that limit their options and control over their lives, forces that they have taken for granted or seen as beyond their control. Emancipatory learning results in transformations of learner perspectives through critical reflection (Mezirow 1991). The educator plays an active role in fostering critical reflection by challenging learners to consider why they hold certain assumptions, values, and beliefs (Cranton 1994).

The Return: Nightfall Chapter 1

Damon Salvatore was lounging in midair, nominally supported by one branch of a†¦who knew the names of trees anyway? Who gave a damn? It was tall, it allowed him to peep into Caroline Forbes's third-story bedroom, and it made a comfy backrest. He lay back in the convenient tree fork, hands clasped together behind his head, one neatly booted leg dangling over thirty feet of empty space. He was comfortable as a cat, eyes half-closed as he watched. He was waiting for the magic moment of 4:44A.M . to arrive, when Caroline would perform her bizarre ritual. He'd already seen it twice and he was enthralled. Then he got a mosquito bite. Which was ridiculous because mosquitoes didn't prey on vampires. Their blood wasn't nutritious like human blood. But it certainly felt like a tiny mosquito bite on the back of his neck. He swiveled to see behind him, feeling the balmy summer night all around him – and saw nothing. The needles of some conifer. Nothing flying about. Nothing crawling on them. All right then. It must have been a conifer needle. But it certainly did hurt. And the pain got worse with time, not better. A suicidal bee? Damon felt the back of his neck carefully. No venom sack, no stinger. Just a tiny squishy lump that hurt. A moment later his attention was called back to the window. He wasn't sure exactly what was going on but he could feel the sudden buzzing of Power around the sleeping Caroline, like a high-tension wire. Several days ago, it had drawn him to this place, but once he'd arrived he couldn't seem to find the source. The clock ticked 4:40 and beeped an alarm. Caroline woke and swatted it across the room. Lucky girl, Damon thought, with wicked appreciation. If I were a rogue human instead of a vampire, then your virtue – presuming you've any left – might be in danger. Fortunately for you, I had to give up all that sort of thing nearly half a millennium ago. Damon flashed a smile at nothing in particular, held it for a twentieth of a second, and then turned it off, his black eyes going cold. He looked back into the open window. Yes†¦he'd always felt that his idiot younger brother Stefan didn't appreciate Caroline Forbes enough. There was no doubt that the girl was worth looking at: long, golden-brown limbs, a shapely body, and bronze-colored hair that fell around her face in waves. And then there was her mind. Naturally skewed, vengeful, spiteful. Delicious. For instance, if he wasn't mistaken, she was working with little voodoo dolls on her desk in there. Terrific. Damon liked to see the creative arts at work. The alien Power still buzzed, and still he couldn't get a fix on it. Was it inside – in thegirl ? Surely not. Caroline was hastily grabbing for what looked like a handful of silken green cobwebs. She stripped her T-shirt off and – almost too fast for the vampire eye to see – had herself dressed in lingerie that made her look like a jungle princess. She stared intently at her own reflection in a stand-alone full-length mirror. Now, whatcan you be waiting for, little girl? Damon wondered. Well – he might as well keep a low profile. There was a dark flutter, one ebony feather fell to the ground, and then there was nothing but an exceptionally large crow sitting in the tree. Damon watched intently from one bright bird-eye as Caroline moved forward suddenly as if she'd gotten an electric jolt, lips parted, her gaze on what seemed to be her own reflection. Then she smiled at it in greeting. Damon could pinpoint the source of Power now. It was inside the mirror. Not in the samedimension as the mirror, certainly, but contained inside it. Caroline was behaving – oddly. She tossed back her long bronze hair so that it fell in magnificent disarray down her back; she wet her lips and smiled as if at a lover. When she spoke, Damon could hear her quite clearly. â€Å"Thank you. But you're late today.† There was still no one but her in the bedroom, and Damon could hear no answer. But the lips of the Caroline in the mirror were not moving in synch with the real girl's lips. Bravo! he thought, always willing to appreciate a new trick on humans. Well done, whoever you are! Lip-reading the mirror girl's words, he caught something aboutsorry . Andlovely . Damon cocked his head. Caroline's reflection was saying, â€Å"†¦you don'thave to†¦after today.† The real Caroline answered huskily. â€Å"But what if I can't fool them?† And the reflection: â€Å"†¦have help. Don't worry, rest easy†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Okay. And nobody will get, like,fatally hurt, right? I mean, we're not talking about death – forhumans .† The reflection: â€Å"Why should we†¦?† Damon smiled inwardly. How many times had he heard exchanges likethat before? As a spider himself, he knew: First you got your fly into the parlor; then you reassured her; and before she knew it, you could have anything from her, until you didn'tneed her any longer. And then – his black eyes glittered – it was time for a new fly. Now Caroline's hands were writhing in her lap. â€Å"Just as long as you really – you know. What you promised. You really mean it about loving me?† â€Å"†¦trust me. I'll take care of you – and your enemies, too. I've already begun†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Suddenly Caroline stretched, and it was a stretch that boys at Robert E. Lee High School would have paid to watch. â€Å"That's what I want to see,† she said. â€Å"I'm justso sick of hearing about Elena this, Stefan that†¦and now it's going to start all over.† Caroline broke off abruptly, as if someone had hung up on her on the phone and she'd only just realized it. For a moment her eyes narrowed and her lips thinned. Then, slowly, she relaxed. Her eyes remained on the mirror, and one hand lifted until it was resting lightly on her stomach. She stared at it and slowly her features seemed to soften, to melt into an expression of apprehension and anxiety. But Damon hadn't taken his eyes off the mirror for an instant. Normal mirror, normal mirror, normal mirror – l era! Just at the last moment, as Caroline turned away, a flash of red. Flames? Now, whatcould be going on? he thought lazily, fluttering as he transformed from a sleek crow back into a drop-dead gorgeous young man lounging in a high branch of the tree. Certainly the mirror-creature wasn't from around Fell's Church. But it sounded as if it meant to make trouble for his brother, and a fragile, beautiful smile touched Damon's lips for a second. There was nothing he loved more than to watch self-righteous, sanctimonious, I'm-better-than-you-cos-I-don't-drink-human-blood Stefan get in trouble. The teenagers of Fell's Church – and some of the adults – regarded the tale of Stefan Salvatore and their local beauty Elena Gilbert as a modern Romeo-and-Juliet story. She had given her life to save his when they'd both been captured by a maniac, and afterward he had died of a broken heart. There were even whispers that Stefan had been notquite human†¦but something else. A demon lover that Elena had died to redeem. Damon knew the truth. Stefan was dead all right – but he had been dead for hundreds of years. And it was true that he was a vampire, but calling him a demon was like calling Tinkerbell armed and dangerous. Meanwhile Caroline couldn't seem to stop talking to an empty room. â€Å"Just you wait,† she whispered, walking over to the piles of untidy papers and books that littered her desk. She rummaged through the papers until she found a miniature video camera that had a green light shining at her like a single unblinking eye. Delicately, she connected the camera to her computer and began typing a password. Damon's eyesight was much better than a human's, and he could clearly see the tanned fingers with the long shining bronze nails:CFRULES . Caroline Forbes rules, he thought. Pitiful. Then she turned around, and Damon saw tears well up in her eyes. The next moment, unexpectedly, she was sobbing. She sat heavily on the bed, weeping and rocking herself back and forth, occasionally striking the mattress with a clenched fist. But mainly she just sobbed and sobbed. Damon was startled. But then custom took over and he murmured, â€Å"Caroline? Caroline, may I come in?† â€Å"What? Who?† She looked around frantically. â€Å"It's Damon. May I come in?† he asked, his voice dripping with mock sympathy, simultaneously using mind control on her. All vampires had such powers of control over mortals. How great the Power was depended on many things: the vampire's diet (human blood was by far the most potent), the strength of the victim's will, the relationship between the vampire and the victim, the fluctuation of day and night – and so many other things that even Damon didn't begin to understand. He only knew when he felt his own Power quicken, as it was quickening now. And Caroline was waiting. â€Å"I can come in?† he said in his most musical, most beguiling voice, at the same time crushing Caroline's strong will under one much stronger. â€Å"Yes,† she answered, wiping her eyes quickly, apparently seeing nothing unusual in his entrance by a third-story window. Their eyes locked. â€Å"Come in, Damon.† She had issued the necessary invitation for a vampire. With one graceful motion he swung himself over the sill. The interior of her room smelled like perfumes – and not subtle ones. He felt really quite savage now – it was surprising the way the bloodfever had come on so suddenly, so irresistibly. His upper canines had extended to about half again their size, and their edges were razor-sharp. This was no time for conversation, for loitering around as he usually did. For a gourmet, half the pleasure was in the anticipation, sure, but right now he was inneed . He drew strongly on his Power to control the human brain and gave Caroline a dazzling smile. That was all it took. Caroline had been moving toward him; now she stopped. Her lips, partly open to ask a question, remained parted; and her pupils suddenly widened as if she were in a dark room, and then contracted and remained contracted. â€Å"I†¦I†¦Ã¢â‚¬  she managed. â€Å"Ohhh†¦Ã¢â‚¬  There. She was his. And so easily, too. His fangs were throbbing with a kind of pleasurable pain, a tender soreness beckoning him to strike as quickly as the lunge of a cobra, to sink his teeth to the hilt in an artery. He was hungry – no,starving – and his whole body was burning with the urge to drink as deeply as he liked. After all, there were others to choose from if he drained this vessel dry. Carefully, never taking his eyes from hers, he lifted Caroline's head to expose her throat, with the sweet pulse throbbing in its hollow. It filled all his senses: the beating of her heart, the smell of the exotic blood just under the surface, dense and ripe and sweet. His head was spinning. He'd never been so excited, so eager – So eager that it gave him pause. After all, one girl was as good as another, right? What was different about this time? What waswrong with him? And then he knew. I'll have my own mind back, thank you. Suddenly Damon's intellect was icy cold; the sensual aura in which he'd been trapped frozen over instantly. He dropped Caroline's chin and stood very still. Hehad almost fallen under the influence of the thing that was using Caroline. It had been trying to snare him into breaking his word to Elena. And again, he could just barely sense a whisk of red in the mirror. It was one of those creatures drawn to the nova of Power that Fell's Church had become – he knew that. It had been using him, spurring him on, trying to get him to drain Caroline dry. To take all her blood, to kill a human, something he hadn't done since meeting Elena. Why? Coldly furious, he centered himself, and then probed in all directions with his mind to find the parasite. It should still be here; the mirror was only a portal for it to travel small distances. And it had been controlling him – him, Damon Salvatore – so it had to be very close indeed. Still, he could find nothing. That made him even angrier than before. Absently fingering the back of his neck, he sent a dark message: I will warn you once, and once only. Stay away from ME! He sent the thought out with a blast of Power that flashed like sheet lightning in his own senses. It ought to have knocked something dead nearby – from the roof, from the air, from a branch†¦maybe even from next door. Fromsomewhere , a creature should have plummeted to the ground, and he should have been able to sense it. But although Damon could feel clouds darkening above him in response to his mood, and the wind rubbing branches together outside, there was no falling body, no attempt at dying retaliation. He could find nothing close enough to have entered his thoughts, and nothing at a distance could be that strong. Damon might amuse himself sometimes by pretending to be vain, but underneath he had a cool and logical ability to analyze himself. He was strong. He knew that. As long as he kept himself well nourished and free of weakening sentiment, there were few creatures that could stand against him – at least in this plane. Two were right here in Fell's Church,a little mocking counterpoint in his mind said, but Damon shrugged that off disdainfully. Surely there could be no other vampire Elders nearby, or he would sense them. Ordinary vampires, yes, they were already flocking. But they were all too weak to enterhis mind. He was equally certain there was no creature within range that could challenge him. He would have sensed it as he sensed the blazing ley lines of uncanny magical power that formed a nexus under Fell's Church. He looked at Caroline again, still held motionless by the trance he'd put on her. She would come out of it gradually, none the worse for the experience – for whathe'd done to her, at least. He turned and, as gracefully as a panther, swung out of the window, onto the tree – and then dropped easily thirty feet to the ground.

Effect of Media on Eating Habits Essay

Currently this is a serious and growing concern for public health officials, registered dietitians, and families interested in living their day to day lives in a healthy manner. Youth are at the highest risk. According to the National Health Examination Survey, children ages 11-13 have highest rate of daily television viewing (Brown, 2008, p. 316). In a 2007 study, children were more likely to be overweight when they watched more television (Gable, Chang & Krull, 2007). Currently, the second leading cause of actual death according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention is poor diet and physical inactivity (Schneider, 2006, p. 270). Trends that lead to poor diet and physical inactivity, eventually obesity in adults and children alike, stem from habits that form early on in childhood. This creates an endless cycle that perpetuates from generation to generation. Obesity is currently an issue that threatens the majority of Americans and its prevalence has increased substantially in the last three decades (Schneider, 2006, p. 72). It’s caused by a number of different factors including genetics, physical inactivity, and poor eating habits. Two of the three factors noted can be strongly associated with television media. A study conducted at the University of Minnesota in 2009 found an increased incidence of eating in front of the television was primarily due to advertising and reduced metabolic rate in adolescence (Barr-Anderson, Larson & Nelson, 2009). Reduced metabolic rate decreases one’s need for calories. Individuals of this demographic typically don’t take this fact into consideration and eat as much as before their exposure to television was such a significant part of their daily routine. This tendency leads to unwanted and unnecessary weight gain. Increased weight has shown to elevate the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and most kinds of cancer not to mention obesity (Schneider, 2006, p. 270). A less commonly recognized phenomena related to this issue is that people don’t know what healthy choices are and in turn, they are more likely to fall victim to any temptations set before them. These enticements are provided most commonly by television media advertising directed at less educated, more easily influenced audiences. For example, inexpensive fast food that is a particularly popular type of advertising might seem like a logical source of food for some families that do not have access to, or know anything better. Environment There are many problems that make up this complex and layered situation. Many social, cultural and economic factors contribute to these dietary patterns and eating habits that develop over a lifetime (Schneider, 2006, p. 77). The amount of time children spend with different sources of media from: television, film, video games, and computer or online media is exceedingly taking up the greater part of their time. With the average five and a half hours children spend using media on a daily basis, the only thing they spend more time doing is sleeping (Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 2004). From age two to twenty, only eighteen years, that adds up to over 29,900 hours spent with media and 1. 8 times more than the 16,000 hours spent in school grades k-12 (Grossberg, 2006, p. 93). That equals out to approximately 20 hours per week according to a study done in 2006 (Francis & Birch, 2006). Not only in the time spent exposed to media is a risk factor for children, but the way in which the media is consumed is also a major contributor to this situation. In the home, if there is a lack of parental control monitoring children’s media exposure, children are then at a higher risk of being influenced. Children heavily influenced by the media have the ability to manipulate how money is spent and savvy companies see them as the consumers to be targeted (Peregrin, 2001, p. 6). Children sometimes even spend their own money on the products they see repeatedly reinforced around them. Advertisers use this well known fact to target children because they know the powerful influence children can have on their parents purchasing decisions (Peregrin, 2001, p. 56). In an article written in 2001, Registered Dietitian, Adrienne Dorf expressed her opinion about educating child ren who are exposed to excessive media. She emphasized the need to explain the difference between television programs and commercials to children who may not be able to differentiate the two. Dorf urged parents to explain the idea of sales and the fact that the food advertised via commercials may not be the best for our bodies. Dietary habits form over a lifetime and are greatly influenced by the social environment and family setting as well as the media (Schneider, 2006, p. 277). From time to time parents struggle with taking their children into the supermarket for groceries just because they don’t want to fight about what the new craze is in sugary cereal or what unhealthy snack crackers are showing more commercials on television or the latest cartoon characters face on their box. It is a common to see a mother or father who gives in to please their child when he or she throws a tantrum in the middle of the aisle to get something they want. This repeated action can be a detrimental in the long run if it persists and continues. Impact Food industries have a goal to sell as much of their product to the public as possible. They will do anything they can to encourage American’s to eat and spend more money on any of their products. Most food advertised is high in fat, sugar, and salt leading to children in the grocery store begging their parents for candy and unhealthy snack foods (Borzekowski & Robinson, 2001). Foods advertised taste â€Å"good† resulting in advertisements publicizing foods with high amounts of sugar, fat, and salt towards younger generations. For example, fast foods and high sugar cereals are two of the most commonly publicized items during children’s programming. Studies have shown that children under the age of 6 years of age cannot distinguish between television programming as opposed to commercial advertising (Borzekowski & Robinson, 2001). The primary problem is that children who spend excessive amounts of time exposed to television media are more likely to be overweight. According to the National Longitudinal Survey of Labor Market Experience, Youth Cohort (NLSY) a strong dose-response relationship was found between television viewing and the prevalence of overweight (Brown, 2008, p. 316). Adolescents from 10 to 15 years old who reported watching more than 5 hours of television per day had greater odds of having a BMI in the 85th percentile (Brown, 2008, p. 316).