Netflix Reaction Paper

Netflix: Responding to Blockbuster Again The concept covered in the discussion on Netflix responding to blockbuster is an interesting topic. Netflix is a great example of disruptive innovation. Its DVD-by-mail turned the video rental business on its head and helped push Blockbuster into bankruptcy. As a start-up and outsider, Netflix was able to see that Blockbuster underserved many users. In response, Netflix created a business that offered more affordability, accessibility and availability to these under-served customers.Netflix saw this as a great opportunity and with customers busier lifestyles, demand and the advancement in the technology, Netflix made a move and serve the underserved customers of Blockbuster. Netflix is definitely the most successful of these Blockbuster-replacement services and has been steadily gaining power over the years. They started out as a DVD rentals-by-mail service and business has been booming ever since they introduced a streaming subscription servi ce as well. The rise of internet media also raised the success of Netflix.Blockbuster’s demise was linked to the success of Netflix. The business model of Netflix focuses on addressing unmet needs on the part of consumers. The business model for video rental industry back then in early 2000 was to pay-per-rental. Customers were frustrated by late fees and not being able to find their movie of choice when they wanted it. Netflix used a design principle that any company aspiring to succeed at disruptive innovation must adopt – Think Big. Start Small. Fail Quickly. Scale Fast. Think Big.Netflix pursued the big idea of streaming video, even though it would render obsolete its mail-based system for distributing DVDs. By contrast, most companies think small—they try to protect their existing business even if they can see a long-term threat from the Internet or other technological disrupter. These companies tell themselves they’re making incremental improvements , only to wake up one day and find the world has changed. When that day comes, they switch to panic mode, as Blockbuster did once it realized Netflix had transformed DVD distribution. Start Small. Netflix started with lots of small projects.This way, the company would know the market reaction and work out the kinks before going national. Fail Quickly. When early efforts at streaming video looked iffy, Netflix adopted the poker player’s mantra that most money is lost early in a hand, when the tendency is to hope that something good will materialize even though reason suggests otherwise. Netflix folded, saving its money for the day when it finally got a good hand. By contrast, most companies keep playing bad hands far too long, partly because those involved know they’ll get tarnished by association with a failure.Scale Fast. Netflix is now scaling streaming video fast, maintaining the lead it worked so hard to build over competitors. Numerous companies have, however, won early battles and lost the war at this stage of innovation. Innovations are successfully developed but never find a home because, unlike Netflix, the company isn’t willing to attack its core business. It’s worth noting that Netflix is still very much a work in progress and should continue its quest to bold innovations in order to maintain its current competitive advantage.

Leadership Career Management And Personal Development Education Essay

Personal effectivity ( Parker & A ; Stone, 2003 ) means the ways of self-development aiming to better 1s personal, societal and other contexts of calling. This study has made for sketching the chief factors of brooding pattern and its consequence on uninterrupted personal development. This thought may assist anyone to happen out his or her strengths and failings of daily life ; it may assist to categorise one ‘s personality and can assist to pull off many environmental factors. Improvement of behavioral competences ( accomplishments ) ensures personal effectivity. Persons ( Parker & A ; Stone, 2003 ) with the accomplishments of good apprehension, effectual communicating and accurate hearing and leading quality can easy do difference by taking them towards success. For developing self-understanding, it is compulsory to concentrate on personal individuality. Knowing thyself helps to place major strengths and failings that will take anyone to take the right determination for their hereafter. Beliefs and values help to develop personal foundation. Positive beliefs will assist persons to take the right determinations for their hereafter and negative believes will take them towards confusion. Harmonizing to Robbins ( 1986 ) , to organize persons ‘ personalities, foundation beliefs and values play an of import function. Furthermore, harmonizing to some theoreticians, one of the most of import and powerful beginnings is the belief and this powerful beginning can be influenced by some factors like instruction, faith, imposts and civilization. It has besides influenced by person ‘s experiences. There are two types of beliefs and these are positive and negative. Behaviour and public presentation can be influenced by these beliefs. Performance can be severely affected by negative beliefs and the antonym can be done by positive beliefs. The positive beliefs aid to increase assurance. In a survey, Kolb cited by Burt ( 1995 ) mentioned that past experiences can assist to organize the hereafter program and besides can assist to better persons. For personal development I do n't analyze merely the successes but largely analyse the failures more and it helps me to pull off my effectivity. David Kolb explained a learning rhythm with four related factors which is really effectual in experimental acquisition. Harmonizing to Kolb, proper analysis and use of past experiences helps to make on personal effectivity. Lack of success can assist to increase experiences. These experiences can play an of import function of be aftering for the following state of affairs and besides aid to better the person. David A. Kolb with Roger Fry ( Mintzberg, 1977 ) emphasizes effectual communicating, which can incarnate cognition and accomplishments and is helpful for self-development. Team spirit and higher public presentation are encouraged by good communications. Facts, emotions and demands are the cardinal elements of communicating. The encephalons logic and sentiments are the basic of facts. The non-logical and non-rational activities are emotions. Fundamental development demands are logical. Assorted types of communications help anybody to better personal development. To better personal development verbal, non-verbal and the written communications play of import function. Tone of voice and organic structure linguistic communication besides listening are the chief characteristics of active communicating and effectual for personal development. By following Kolb ‘s experimental acquisition, commanding emotions is the cardinal factors for me to take the right determinations at right times . In my sentiment and experiences, theories do non precisely supply a solution for every contingency. To use any theory I think fast on my pess. Theory gives me the footing of understanding techniques to use this to pattern more expeditiously. Past experiences and achieved accomplishments assist me to foreground farther countries for preparation and development. King and Kitchener ( 1987 ) province that, ‘the brooding model theoretical accounts aid anybody to better some accomplishments, helps to believe for future activities, helps anybody in fast and busy state of affairss ; contemplation helps larning new things accurately, helps to organize new constructs and assist to recognize new thoughts ‘ . At the really beginning of this study I thought that it was really complicated but after sometimes I knew that it was a affair of believing. Alternatively of basking the study I became resentful because its meddlesomeness. Schon ( 1987 ) emphasizes on betterment of professional cognition. The ‘reflection in action ‘ and the ‘the contemplation on action ‘ are the contemplations of Schon. Harmonizing to King and Kitchener contemplation has developed my cognitive ability and for this ground I have learnt more about contemplation and about myself. I besides think that everybody should use the experiences drawn during contemplation Gibbs ( 1988 ) represented a brooding theoretical account which deals with the straightforward affair and it besides expresses the state of affairs clearly. This theoretical account is related to feelings analysis and experiences rating. Johns ( Platzer et. al. , 1997 ) represented a structured contemplation theoretical account. This structured contemplation theoretical account of acquisition can be used to understand the analysis of critical incident. It is by and large used in more complex affairs of determination Reflective ( Robert, 1974 ) pattern helps me to larn self-development and it besides helps me to develop my communicating accomplishments in many ways which is really critical for my individuality. The personal individuality and realistic communicating system assist me to take any organisation in any environment. Brooding pattern helps to organize leading, which influences the ideas and behaviors of assorted people. The place of the leader may be formal or informal. Brooding patterns help to reexamine, program, proctors and to measure the advancement of persons. I am now able to supply some techniques which can assist anybody in some plans. For the uninterrupted personal development I can take some stairss, like: Bettering a monolithic and logical vision. Form an active and acute direction squad and take the squad with the aid of achieved experient and accomplishments. Leading any organisation or any squad accurately and harmonizing to squad direction regulations. I can develop the verbal and body linguistic communication accomplishments which may impact communications positively. I can supply constructive feedback for pull offing people and besides can assist to pull off single ‘s personalities. I can assist to develop interfacing accomplishments across any concern organisation and besides can assist to take assorted obstructions for the peculiar squad. I may accept unfavorable judgment, supply feedback and can take any positive input from learned persons. Using the Gibbs theoretical account I can go really clear about any state of affairss and can take farther stairss for improvement. From John ‘s theoretical account I have learnt how to critically analyse any affair.Portfolio.2My disbursement clip in the pupil concern conference was excessively effectual that it has made great impact on my accomplishments and larning new things. This first professional betterment conference was an unwritten presentation in forepart of all of our pupils. The presentation in forepart of our pupils was an exciting affair for the first clip and taking portion in this conference I found that it was direct and really related and consecutive to the point. Participating in the conference and showing my work in the personal and professional development seminar my assurance improved a batch to show my plants to others and larn many things new like how body linguistic communication helps to show emotions and thoughts what I could non thought earlier. At first clip I could non understand many systems related to conference and thought that it was merely exercising which may open the appeal of the participant and we knew better every one from the conference. One of the presenters emphasizes on the presentation manner and about the demands of presentation which was rather hard affairs. The presenter showed how to show the study, what is the basic construction of the study and besides showed the attitudes related to presentation. From this seminar cubic decimeter learnt presentation manners and formats easy which are much needed in the professional life particularly in the concern sector to depict new merchandises and publicities. None the less I think that it is a good manner to pass on through to other pupils and lectures if it were used by other pupils. Roll uping information has been indispensable to the class all the work that I have presented even the study that I ‘m composing now. The conference is a great manner of meeting for me with the professionals. From the pupil concern conference I have learnt the procedure of informations aggregation and besides the manner of informations presentation which was presented by some professionals. I learnt from the seminar that garnering information from assorted beginnings and use it in exact sector is a critical affair for any professionals. After achieving the conference I have changed my working manner in any class study and seeking to follow the professional manners. Now I am doing the notes of any of import information related to my class work to use it for the current and future mentions. Now I am utilizing direct and clear informations presentation sy stem. I have non faced any major jobs during my acquisition in the conference. I felt that I was able plenty to get the better of any unexpected state of affairss and I could larn in faster manner. In the seminar some subjects related to creativeness and communications were discussed which was irrelevant to our class. If I expanse this subject it can be easy observed that I have improved some of my presentation accomplishments and this advancement happened because of the effectual conferences. This conference is a great chance for me to larn new and necessary things. From this conference I learnt how to pull audiences by assorted speaking and utilizing proper organic structure linguistic communication, how to undertake audiences inquiries etc. For the hereafter I am be aftering to make my work in the more organized ways which will salvage my clip and will assist me in my professional life. After the conference I am seeking to better my presentation accomplishments and manners. Following the instructions of the erudite presenter I am making better in this sector twenty-four hours by twenty-four hours. Now a twenty-four hours I do n't hotfoot any of my professional activities. Because of the contemplation it can develop the grad which I am acquiring. Now I am satisfied with the activities those I have performed until now.Portfolio.3By ( Weber, 1947 ) the choice leading people may act upon really easy and this quality may command many hard things in many unexpected state of affairss. This leading may be designated from dependable authorization or can be dependent on owns ability. The Greenwich MBA plan helps to better the leading in many effectual ways in some practical sectors. This system holds some indispensable elements. As a good professional it is really indispensable to be cognizant of assorted format and demands environing them. Detecting the different signifiers of leading and besides its utility and bad consequence professional should develop the failing points. The class Leadership taught me how to work in a squad as a leader and as a member to accomplish squad aims. Transformational leading is the best manner of leading that I have learnt from this topic. Transformational leader motivated his follower to travel beyond bound. Good leader encourages, listen to followings and tried to acquire involved to the whole procedure and accomplish results. So from now I ever try to pattern these leading accomplishments. Now I ever listen to my squad member ‘s sentiment, doing any determination democratically, resolve any job with unfastened treatment. I have learned some utile concern tools like SWOT, FIVE FORCES, PESTLE from scheme and transmutation class that will assist me to understand the external and internal environment that are related to concern. In add-on how should I use chances by utilizing my strength? Besides prevent any approaching menace through extinguishing my failing. It will assist me to understand the state of affairs and take the determination about right clip and topographic point. I have learnt scheme to take the concern make profitable and to avoid losingss. So, I will detect both the internal and external environment related to my company and will seek to better it ; I will contrive some newer schemes to pull the of import stakeholders of my company. As money is the chief factor for any concern and utilizing the fiscal direction cognition, I have learned how to take investing determination, how to pull off financess, more over importance of liquidness. Pull offing hazard throughout the undertaking, cost volume net income analysis helped me to take determination which one will be profitable for me. Besides assist me to do a fiscal planning for organisation, now I will see the gross growing with attention ; I will take stairss to maintain the monetary value of the merchandise sensible ; I will do a good relation with quality and cost ; I will pay attending on a specific concern country ; I will take the best measure against the chief rivals Besides Human resource direction helped to larn enrolling procedure, behavior preparation and development that employer required for their organisation. It taught me to larn conflict declaration between squads and single. For new staffs choice I will seek to avoid enlisting bureaus. For the feasibleness and significant part of clients I will contrive a strategic architecture for my company. For the company ‘s improvement I will seek to rewrite the policies and regulations of my company, I will contrive the newer competitory infinite ; For better chances I will implement unfastened ended and dateless testing system. I will seek to abandon disused thoughts for my company. To do my company successful I will non merely add value but will reinvent it. I will construct a good relation among providers, clients, concern spouses and stakeholders of my company that I have learned from my concern context and international concern environment. More over utilizing Information direction scheme in my concern I will be able to makes its sole, efficient, and cost-efficient.Mentions:Burt, C. ( 1995 ) . The grounds for the construct of intelligence, British Journal of Educational psychological science. 25 ( 2 ) . In: Broadfield, A. et Al. ( 1998 ) . Organizational Behaviour and Analysis: An Integrated Approach. 1st erectile dysfunction. Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education Limited, pp.158-77. Gibbs, G. ( 1988 ) . Learning by making: A usher to instruction and larning methods. Oxford, England: Further Education Unit, Oxford Polytechnic. Mintzberg, H. ( 1977 ) . ‘The director ‘s occupation: folklore and fact ‘ , Harvard Business Review, vol.55, no.4, July- August, pp. 49-61. In: Buchanan, D, and Huczynski, A. ( 200 ) . Organizational Behavior: An introductory Text. 5th erectile dysfunction. Harlow, England: Pearson Education Limited, pp.494. King, P. , and Kitchener, K.S. ( 1994 ) . Developing brooding opinion: apprehension and advancing rational growing and critical thought in striplings and grownups. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Parker, S. , & A ; Stone, B. ( 2003 ) . Developing Management Skills for Leadership. 2nd erectile dysfunction. published UK, Prentice Hall. pp.32-39. Platzer, H. , et Al. ( 1997 ) Promoting brooding practicians in nursing: a reappraisal of theoretical theoretical accounts and research into the usage of journals and diaries to ease contemplation, Teaching in Higher Education, Vol.2, No.2, pp. 103-121. Robert, K. ( 1974 ) . Skills of an Effective Administrator, Harvard Business Review, September-October, pp. 90-101. Robbins, A. ( 1986 ) . Unlimited Power, published in UK, Simon & A ; Schuster. 2nd erectile dysfunction. pp. 231-232. Schon, D. ( 1987 ) . Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. pp. 57-62. Weber, M. ( 1947 ) . The Theory of Social and Economic Organization, trans. and ed. A.M. Henderson and T. Parsons, Oxford University Press: Oxford. In: Buchanan, D, and Huczynski, A. ( 2004 ) . Organizational Behavior: An introductory Text. 5th erectile dysfunction. Harlow England: Pearson Education Limited, pp.770.

Bureaucracy in Public Administration

Even though bureaucracies sometimes seem inefficient or wasteful, setting up a bureaucracy helps ensure that thousands of people work together in compatible ways by defining everyone’s roles within a hierarchy. Bureaucracy is an organization that is structured with regulations set in place to control activity. The bureaucratic stricture is usually implemented in large organizations and governments. It is represented by an assembly of knowledge, power, and Hierarchy. The Knowledge of the organization consists of the technical expertise and the understandings necessary to carry out specialized tasks, along with the capacity to gain more information as needed. The power is the central political resource, enables the organization to change in spite of what others may think. Hierarchy is the arrangement of people holding authority over others with the ability to command behavior and punish lack of compliance. Bureaucracies are meant to be orderly, fair, and highly efficient. Which means having a clear-cut division of labor is necessary. The principles of Bureaucracy hierarchy and of levels of authority mean a firmly ordered system of super and subordination, in which a super supervises their subordination. Such a system offers those governed the possibility of appealing the decision of super to higher authority, in a regulated manner. Within any bureaucratic authority there are principals of organization orthodox. According to the Weberian model, created by German sociologist Max Weber, a bureaucracy always displays the following characteristics:- Hierarchy: A bureaucracy is set up with clear chains of command so that veryone has a boss. At the top of the organization is a chief who oversees the entire bureaucracy. Power flows downward. Specialization: Bureaucrats specialize in one area of the issue their agency covers. This allows efficiency because the specialist does what he or she knows best, and then passes the matter along to another specialist. Division of labor: Each task is broken down into smaller tasks, a nd different people work on different parts of the task. Standard operating procedure (SOP): Also called formalized rules, SOP informs workers about how to handle tasks and situations. Everybody always follows the same procedures to increase efficiency and predictability so that the organization will produce similar results in similar circumstances. SOP can sometimes make bureaucracy move slowly because new procedures must be developed as circumstances change. In the past, organizations were commonly structured as bureaucracies. A bureaucracy is a form of organization based on logic, order, and the legitimate use of formal authority. Bureaucracies are meant to be orderly, fair, and highly efficient. Their features include a clear-cut division of labor, strict hierarchy of authority, formal rules and procedures, and promotion based on competency. Management or administration marked by hierarchical authority among numerous offices and by fixed procedures, the Administration of a government chiefly through bureaus or departments staffed with nonelected officials. Public administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. As a â€Å"field of inquiry with a diverse scope† its â€Å"fundamental goal†¦ is to advance management and policies so that government can function. † Some of the various definitions which have been offered for the term are: â€Å"the management of public programs†; the â€Å"translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day† and â€Å"the study of government decision making, the analysis of the policies themselves, the various inputs that have produced them, and the inputs necessary to produce alternative policies. Public administration is â€Å"centrally concerned with the organization of government policies and programmes as well as the behavior of officials (usually non-elected) formally responsible for their conduct† Many unelected public servants can be considered to be public administrators, including heads of city, county, regional, state and federal departments such as municipal budget directors, human resources (H . R. ) administrators, city managers, census managers, state [mental health] directors, and cabinet secretaries. Public administrators are public servants working in public departments and agencies, at all levels of government. In contrast to private enterprises, government-owned corporation or municipality owned enterprises are not always or even usually managed on the basis of the profit motive. A deficit in this latter case does not spell the end of the enterprise or even the beginning of reforms, because it is generally assumed that the reason the enterprise exists is to ‘render useful services to the public’ (i. e. mploy a large part of the local population as its workforce or charge an artificially low price for its products or services), not become a slave of the profit motive. What is notable about the very idea of bureaucracy is its severe rational modernism. Political modernity and bureaucracy are largely symbiotic; the rise of the state paralleled the rise of the bureaucracy. One of the philosophers of the modern economizing state and the modern bureaucratic idea is Adam Smith (1723–1790), whose defense of the division of labor promoted the bureaucratization of the early Westphalia state. Indeed, Smith’s ideas are elemental to Weber’s core tenets of bureaucracy: the rigid division of responsibilities and tasks and the economization of organizational forms. Whereas Smith advocated the division of labor in order to promote efficient economic growth, Weber suggests the division of labor for the efficient production of goods or services. Inevitably, bureaucracy was conceived as, and has become, an economizing tool for the rationalization of complex and ambiguous environments. The rationality of bureaucracy is a central idea within Weber’s ideal type. In fact, Weber himself suggests that bureaucracy be a rational-legal form designed to promote the rationalization of organizational tasks and goals. The rationalizing tendency of bureaucracy, while being one of the elements most open to contemporary criticism, was also its most attractive quality for the architects of Enlightenment-guided governance, who sought alternatives to earlier forms of despotic and aristocratic dominance. The adoption of the bureaucratic form by theorists of liberal government has its roots in the legal protection of natural (rational) rights for all. In fact, embedded in the rationalization structure of bureaucracy is the elimination of particularism the diminishment of universal individual rights for the sake of traditional forms of class or ethnic domination. Those responsible for the French Revolution pined, within their writings, for the rational nonexceptionalism of the bureaucratic form. Indeed, as Maxim lien de Robespierre (1758–1794) and later Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859) identified, the ancient regime was epitomized by the irrational occupation of power by a centralized bureaucracy of the ruling class. The bureaucratic organization of rational-legal authority involves the following necessary criteria: the specification of jurisdictional areas, the hierarchical organization of roles, a clear and intentionally established system of decision-making rules, the restriction of bureau property to use by the bureau, the compensation by salary (not spoils) of appointed officials, and the professionalization of the bureaucratic role into a tenured lifelong career. The idea of bureaucracy suggests that rules, norms, merit, regulations, and stability are paramount to the operation of government. The rule-bound nature of bureaucracy has been widely critiqued in modern political and sociological analyses; however, the number of alternative forms of organization that have received as much consideration is limited.

THE CAUSES OF CRIME ARE REALLY IRRELEVANT AS FAR AS SITUATIONAL Essay

THE CAUSES OF CRIME ARE REALLY IRRELEVANT AS FAR AS SITUATIONAL REMEDIES ARE CONCERNED - DISCUSS - Essay Example In spite of this definition, some people persist in their behavior and thus commit crimes; the political society reacts by punishment, treatment or prevention.1 The hallmark of criminality is that, it is a breach of the criminal law. Lord Atkin in Proprietary Articles Trade Association v. A-G- for Canada2 stated that â€Å"the criminal quality of an act cannot be discerned by intuition; nor can it be discovered by reference to any standard but one; is the act prohibited with penal consequences?† Criminology is the scientific study of crime and criminals vis-à  -vis society. To know more about crimes they have to be measured and recorded. Measuring crime and Criminal Behavior is one of the most important functions of criminology. The availability and computing of crime statistics is a vital component of law enforcement. Crime statistics provide us with important facts that theories must then explain. Measuring crime and finding the crime rate is essential to discover the root causes of crime. The who, when, where, how of crimes is addressed by the quantitative techniques of measuring crime and which are vital in answering the why of crimes. Measuring criminal behavior is not just an academic exercise in futility, for it can fruitfully be used in evaluating criminal justice policy initiatives, policing, judicial and correctional administration amongst various other uses. The classicists4 believed that criminal behavior was a function of the human ability to choose an individual course of action. This school was based on hedonistic psychology. According to this psychology, man governs his behavior by considerations of pleasures and pains; the pleasures anticipated from a particular act may be balanced against the pains anticipated from the same act, or the algebraic sum of pleasure and pains from another act. The actor was assumed to have a free will and to make his choice

Investment Analysis of Coca Cola and Pepsi Essay

Investment Analysis of Coca Cola and Pepsi - Essay Example Later he formed Pepsi-Cola Company in 1902. In 1965, Pepsi-Cola Company was merged with Frito-Lay, Inc. which created PepsiCo, Inc. PepsiCo. has expanded to include various range of foods like snack foods, health drinks, etc. Their current head is Indra Nooyi who is the Chairman and CEO (Penzkofer, 2007). The major customers of the company are the young generation of people and also include the sportsman. They use mainly Sustainable Sourcing program which leads to improved performance. Coco-Cola is a carbonated soft drink company headquartered in United States. It was introduced in the year 1886. It was intended to be a patent machine; this company was bought out by Asa Griggs Candler. Through his marketing tactics, Coke became a giant Soft-drink company. The company products are sold through license Coca-Cola bottlers. The bottlers basically hold contracts to produce the cold drink and package them in cans and bottles using sweeteners and filtered water (Pendergrast, 2000). They are then sold through merchandise Coco-Cola stores and also through the vending machines. The Company also sells soda fountains to the major restaurants and food service distributors across the world. Currently Muhtar Kent is the Chairman and Chief Executive officer of the company. Answer 2 Seeing the trend we conclude that the price of Coca Cola since its incorporation in 1962 has fallen to Rs. 57.16 and then has risen to Rs. 70.71 in 2012. It shows that that the price level is slowly increasing with each passing day. This shows that the company is performing well. Seeing the trend we can tell that since the initial date of Incorporation in the year 1977, there has been a downward trend in the price level of the stock due to major economic downturn faced by US. From the year 2010 to 2012 the price level has risen. It also shows that the price level is rising and the company is earning profit. Answer 3 Two Major events of PepsiCo In February 2011, PepsiCo acquired two-third stake in Wi mm-Bill-Dann Foods. It is a Russian juice producer and Dairy company. Through this PepsiCo increased its stake in the company by 1.37% by buying 601.948 WBD shares. Thus they acquired overall 98.63% stake in the company. PepsiCo had to pay 3.884 roubles per share and also $32.7 per depository receipt. With this acquisition, PepsiCo has expanded their market positioning and hence it has given them a competitive leading position in the market. The share price increased as a result of the acquisition. In February 2012, Indra Nooyi took the decision of restructuring the company by cutting down 8,700 jobs. It equalled to roughly 3% of PepsiCo’s global workforce. This enabled them to increase the amount they allocated to the branding activities. PepsiCo was facing increased costs in their operation. The company first wanted to increase the prices of their products at first. But then they recognized the fact that consumer may not accept the price rise. Hence they started to do the r estructuring plan. Pepsi made the tough decisions because they expected that the companies will face higher input cost of the raw materials as compared to other previous years. Indra Nooyi the CEO of PepsiCo said that the reduction will affect over 30 countries. There major reason was that they wanted to increase the allocation towards the branding activities like advertising, marketing etc. They wanted to increase the expenditure from $ 500 million to $ 600 million in the year 2012. Their major focus was on North America, where they wanted to invest about $100 million in displays, storing racks etc.Indra Nooyi pointed out that by doing this restructuring PepsiCo wanted to save about $1.5 billion by 2013. They took this step because of economic uncertainty which

Systems Thinking Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Systems Thinking - Assignment Example Alman (2011) noted that â€Å"systems thinking have been described as an approach to problem-solving where "problems" are viewed as symptoms of an underlying system.† This means that in the context of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, applying systems thinking would mean that the hospital will focus on finding underlining causes of problems so that treating symptoms alone will not create a situation of problems reoccurring time and over again (Meadows, 2008). There are a number of ways in which the hospital has applied this key principle of systems thinking. First, the hospital has as part of its three main goals, the need to emphasis on research and teaching. Meanwhile, researching in pediatric care entails practices that bring system builders closer to the need to always dig beyond problems that are seen on the surface. Instead, they dig very deep to ensure that causes of problems that are seen on the surface are addressed from its root cause. Another important principl e of systems thinking is the fact that it incorporates the role that all stakeholders have to play in the solution of a given problem. This is also something that has been in practice at the hospital since 1994 when the management of the hospital decided to undertake a dramatic shift from the way it went about its business to focus on improvement of the hospital’s delivery system. Once systems thinking has been adequately applied at the hospital, there are several values that the leadership of the hospital will derive.

Sculpture Across the Paliolithic to 300BCE have the same hair Essay

Sculpture Across the Paliolithic to 300BCE have the same hair - Essay Example This idea enables a viewer like me to identify social statuses of Greek models. I believe that the long, symmetric and curly hairstyles imply ancient Greek tradition and culture. Four sculptures from Ancient Greece captured my interest. These sculptures are important works of art, and they are displayed in famous museums. The first is the Statue of a Youth from Paul Getty Museum. This statue is also featured in Janson’s History of Art textbook. The second one is called Head of Hades from the Online Metropolitan Museum of Art. The third is called Statue of a Kouros, which is displayed at J. Paul Getty Villa Museum located in Malibu, California, and the fourth is the Kore, located in Akropolis Museum in Athens and is also featured in Janson’s History of Art. While I was gazing at these works of art, one aspect caught my attention: the similarity in hairstyles of ancient Greek sculptures. I noted that all sculptures have symmetrical braids or curls that cover the forehead. The first sculpture is called Statue of a Youth. It is located at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, California under â€Å"Sicily: Art and Invention between Greece and Rome Exhibit.† The sculpture dates back to 470-460 BC from ancient Greece. It is made of marble and measures 181 cm. tall. The sculpture presents a young man, a charioteer from Mozia in Sicily. On one hand, his small face and well-built body form emphasizes his youth and strength. On the other, his hairstyle, which according to the caption, â€Å"ends in ringlets,† may seem feminine to modern viewers. Many would think that his hair is fashionable, some would wonder who styled it; others might take interest in the cultural background of the hairstyle. These reflections could lead to the inkling as to why the charioteer has ringed braids. Was this the fad in Ancient Greece or did social status have anything to do with the hairstyle? The caption states, â€Å"The Mozia youth's capped hair ends in ringle ts, an untypical feature, and symmetrical.† This caption acknowledges the fact that the artist employed symmetry in his art, despite the half-twisted gaze of the young man. It also declares that the hairstyle is untypical or uncommon; hence it is important to consider tracing back the history of braiding among CVbnm,.charioteers and the whole society of ancient Greece to know the relevance of the hairstyle in display. Nevertheless, I will reserve my findings in the latter part of this paper. Statue of a Youth (the Mozia Charioteer, detail), 460 B.C., Sikeliote (Sicilian Greek). Marble, h: 181 cm. J. Paul Getty Museum The statue is placed in the middle of the room, making it the center of attraction. From this location, viewers can note the importance of this piece of art in Greek art and culture. The sculpture is not within a glass case. Made of marble, I suppose it can stand heat and cold, and will not tarnish easily. Nevertheless, some features are missing, such as the arms (and hands), nose, and one shoulder, which could help give more information to the viewer. I am not sure if these are intended or the sculpture was actually damaged at some point in its existence. According to the book, the sculpture was damaged when Carthaginian forces seized the artworks from Sicily. The figure, which displays the features or a charioteer from

Movie report - Malcolm X Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Movie report - Malcolm X - Essay Example It seems that the relationship between Islamic religion and America is caught up with violence, and in fact as the camera cuts back and forth between the flag, the Islamic preacher, and the video of the attack, flames start to consume the edges of the flag until finally all that remains is a burning â€Å"X† with the last traces of stars and stripes. The abiding memory of this film will be the clash between Islamic black people and the dominant white American values which do not give a fair and proper place to African American citizens The characters in the film are introduced in a segregated way, just as the society of the time was strictly divided into black and white domains. The African Americans are shown enjoying life in the streets and in the barber shop, where men try to straighten their hair to appear more like white men. Their scenes are set to lively jazz music, and the colors used in the black family scenes in the film are rich browns and creams. In contrast, the f irst sight of white Americans is a group of Ku Klux Klan members arriving on horseback in the dark of night, clad in their white robes, to terrify the mother of the unborn Malcolm X. The narrative voice explains the complex hatred of white people that he has grown up with, due to the experiences of his parents, both of whom had suffered violence at the hands of white people. The main character, Malcolm Little, starts out as a slightly ridiculous person, dressing up in fancy suits, experimenting with drugs, and trying to make money through robbing people. He becomes much more serious, however, when he is caught by the police and sent to prison. He was already well informed about religion and politics due to his father’s profession as a pastor, although he clearly does not agree with his father’s view that black people should leave America and go back to Africa where they originally came from, and start up a new nation there, without all the prejudice and oppression that is found in America. It seems that the time that Malcolm spent in prison was the beginning of his re-education into the real history of black oppression in America. He learns to interpret everything around him differently, and follows the teachings brought to him by prisoner Baines, and other famous Muslim leaders, learning in the end to bend his knee to Allah, even though this was very hard for him. The film shows through the life of Malcolm X, that radical Islam can be a way to fight back against the four hundred years of oppression. He has a vision in his prison cell that changes him for ever. He makes a comparison with the experience of Paul on the road to Damascus. His old friend Shorty, who was imprisoned with him, thinks he has gone mad, and the way that Malcolm has chosen is shown to be a difficult one, that means he has to give up so many aspects of his previous life. The film shows how Malcolm evolves from a criminal to a moral human being, and when he starts to wear his heavy glasses, he appears also to be like an intellectual. His marriage is shown as something genuine and positive, but his relationship with the brothers in the â€Å"Nation of Islam† becomes difficult because he has higher moral standards than even the man in his vision, Elijah Mohamed. This is an interesting dimension of the film, because it shows

Accounting Issues Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Accounting Issues - Assignment Example Retained earnings are the accumulated wealth of earnings not paid as dividends that the company obtained over the years. The cash balance of the company as of December 31, 2012 was $2,800,000. In terms of retained earnings the company had a balance of $31,400,000. Based on the asset distribution of the company it seems as if the company invested its retained earnings in the past in property, plant, and equipment. Common stocks, preferred stocks, and bonds payable are three distinct financial instruments that corporations can utilize to raise money. A common stock can be defined as an equity security that has last claim on residual assets and earnings of a corporation (Tewales, Bradley, Tewales). Common stocks are traded in the open market and its price fluctuates daily. A common stock gives its owner a participation stake in the ownership of a company. Common stocks have voting rights. At the end of the fiscal year shareholders are eligible to receive dividends if the board of direct ors declares them. A preferred stock is a special type of stock that has a claim on a corporation’s earnings, dividends, and assets ahead of common stock, but behind debt (Tewales, et al.). Corporations are mandated to pay dividends to preferred stock holders. If dividends are not paid they become cumulative and must be paid in the next accounting period. Preferred stocks do not have voting rights. A bond is a long term note that corporations sell to the general public. A bond has the obligation of paying its holders an interest payment to be paid on a quarterly, semiannual, or annual basis. The interest rate paid on a bond is known as the coupon rate. The principal of the bond must be repaid to the investor in full upon maturity date. The use of preferred stock is ideal for the company for a variety of reasons. First of all the use of preferred stocks does not dilute the power of the current owners of the company because preferred stocks do not have voting rights. Most impor tantly preferred stocks are accounted for as an equity option. The debt on the balance sheet of the company will not increase by selling preferred stocks. The use of preferred stocks does have a cost as the company will be obligated to pay dividends to the owners of preferred stocks. The capital structure of the company did not include any preferred stocks at the end of 2012. The company has a covenant on its previous debt that requires the firm to maintain a debt ratio below 60%. The total liabilities of the company in 2012 were $48.6 million, while its total assets amounted to $90 million. The debt ratio of the company is 0.54. This ratio is an indicator of the solvency of the company. If the company were to acquire an additional $10 million in debt its debt ratio would increase to 0.65 violating the existing covenant on its debt. The firm would also not quality for a $20 million loan since doing so would increase its debt ratio to 0.76. The use of capital leases is a viable finan cing arrangement that the company can use to acquire equipment and machinery. The debt analysis performed on the company showed that additional debt is a limiting option due to a covenant on its existing debt that requires the firm to maintain a debt ratio below 60%. The use of a capital lease is a very attractive option because the debt on the lease is not reflected on the balance sheet liabilities section, but the asset being leased is considered an asset in the accounting books of the company. The use of a capital lease affects both the income statement and balance sheet of the firm. The balance sheet is affected because the leased equipment must be included in the asset section of the balance sheet under the

The Cola Wars Essay Example for Free

The Cola Wars Essay There are two well known beverage companies, Coco-Cola and Pepsi. They have competed considerably and distributed the beverage market profit for several decades. In the open market, it is difficult to exactly tell which one is the winner within the perfect competition, since both companies use different style of promotion and product to expend their markets. The competitive environment of the carbonated soft drinks started about three decades ago. In the beginning of 1960 Coco Cola was dominating the market but this dominance was significantly challenged by Pepsi- Cola. This challenge by Pepsi was declared as Cola Wars. During this competitive war a variety of products were introduced from both sides. Lot of $ amount was spent on celebrity advertising and even coke changed its formula. The strategic changes occur due to Pepsis challenge to the dominance of Coca Cola. In spite of the fact that Pepsi Cola attacked on the dominance of Coca Cola in bottled soft drink, both Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola have benefited from this battle due to stimulated continuous growth of the industry. During this Cola war both the companies faced lot of problems which we shall discuss in the light of the case study on Cola wars. Brief History of Coca-Cola John Pemberton invented the original formula of Coca-Cola way back in 1885. By 1888, three versions of Coca-Cola were introduced. Candler incorporated the Coca-Cola and started its marketing. Coke achieved the status of national drink in USA. Coca cola bottles sale started in 1984 and in 1955 sale of cans was started. Chattanooga became the first site for Coca-Cola bottling company in 1899. In 1985 Coca-Cola attempted to introduce new formula. Most of the consumers liked the taste but so many ceased the purchasing because of certain reasons , therefore company switched back the new product and gave it the name of Classic Cola. In the 21st century coca cola history achieved another milestone and introduced Diet coke in 2005 and latter introduced Coca-Cola Zero. During this the company faced may ups and downs in the international market, particularly faced tough competition given by PepsiCo and the competition of both companies was give the name of Cola wars . Brief History of Pepsi-Co la Like Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola also started in the late 1800. In 1883 Caleb Bradham a pharmacist invented Brads Drink which was latter known as Pepsi-Cola. In 1904 the availability of Pepsi was in the six ounce bottles. The initial growth was not significant compared to Coke. In 1950 when Pepsi was near to bankruptcy, Alfred joined as CEO and a real challenge to coke started, Alfred made the goal to beat Coke. In 1963 the company introduced 16 ounce Cola. Pepsi-Cola competed, Coca-Cola through (sirpepsi.com) increased franchise bottling network after 1932 and expended its products range. Pepsi makes an advertising history when it introduced first advertising jingle broadcasted nationwide. The jingle Nickel, Nickel became a hit and was translated in 55 languages. In 1964 Pepsi Diet was introduced. Pepsi has increased its product range over the years and the range includes Mountain Dew, Diet Pepsi, Sierra Mist, Aquafina and Starbucks etc. Pepsi has also taken over Gatorade from Quaker Oats in 2000, which is its part of diversification of business.(ezinearticles.com) Pepsi has competed Coke in many countries and gave Coke a tough time to retain its market share. Now Pepsi Cola stands No.2 in the soft drink market after Coca-Cola and in some of the countries it stands No.1. The Coca-Cola Companys Resources and Capabilities Coca-Colas differentiation and competitive advantage are mainly due to its numerous valuable resources and capabilities. Intangible Resources Coca-Colas greatest strengths reside in its intangible resources. It is mainly thanks to its reputation and brand equity, that it can differentiate itself from its competitors. In fact, in 2006, Coca-Cola was the worlds most valuable brand, worth $67.5 billion, according to research by Interbrand (Grant,2008, p. 134). Its name and products are well known and appreciated in nearly every single country in the world and its availability enables Coca-Cola to nearly always be at ones reach if desired or needed, just as it promises to do in its mission. It relies heavily on product innovation, marketing and developed distribution systems in its differentiation strategy. This has enabled it to be the market leader since many decades and to maintain this position, even catching PepsiCo up in the race for the 2nd most sold soft drink (Alani, 2011). It has gained great loyalty over the years, of consumers who would not drink anything else but Coca-Cola products. In fact, s ome have become so loyal that when Coca-Cola introduced New Coke with a new recipe, it was a tremendous failure, underlining that authenticity is more important to consumers (Greenwald, 2005). Human Capital The Coca-Cola Company has about 139,600 employees globally, working and living in over 100 different countries. As attracting and retaining talent all over the world is one of Coca-Colas most important goal, the company takes pride in its leadership and innovation programs, empowering its employees and wanting to create an inspirational workplace. Creativity and passion are some of the core values that are shared across the company worldwide. (The Coca-Cola Company, 2012). Tangible Assets The Coca-Cola Company can count on sound, substantial tangible assets that have even been growing in the past few years. Some figures include the firms cash level: $12.803 billion in 2011 (increased from $8.517 billion in 2010), total current assets: $25.497 billion in 2011 ($21.579 billion in 2010) and plant and equipment: $14.939 billion in 2011 (compared to $14.727 billion in 2010 and $9.561 billion in 2009). (Yahoo! Finance, 2012). All these figures show that Coca-Cola can count on vast tangible resources to finance its operations, acquisitions and other activities such as marketing and corporate social sustainability. Coca-Colas Capabilities Coca-Cola has great tangible and intangible resources. Its products, factories, bottling partners and financials are resources that enable Coca-Cola to ensure quality, flexibility and responsiveness. One can count on the firms consistency and worldwide presence and continuous supply. Also, the companys human capital and brand equity are other resources that create long-term value, loyalty and performance. These are really the firms core assets, on which it has built its sustainable competitive advantage. All these assets enable Coca-Cola to outperform its competitors consistently by being globally available, coherent, and innovative. Future Considerations The companys history, brand equity, people and partners are assets that are difficult to imitate while being extremely valuable. Also, Coca-Colas most traditional itself is not replicable, as its recipe has always been kept a secret and it has been able to appropriate its resources (through secrecy, increasing bargaining power and embeddedness). Its strategy and competitive advantage have been so sustainable mainly thanks to these resources and the durability of its product. Coca-Cola is constantly working on maintaining these advantages in order to remain the market leader. Its acquisitions (both up and downstream the value chain and horizontally, of diversified products) and its persistent marketing efforts prove the firm’s intention to remain on top of the industry and tackle all challenges early and innovatively. It takes many of the opportunities it sees, including entering the healthier products market (100 of the latest 800 products it introduced w ere low calorie or low sugar) and increasing its sustainability and corporate social responsibility efforts (consuming water in a more sustainable manner, helping causes all around the world, etc). The Coca-Cola Companys strategy and competitive advantage are extremely sustainable, although some threats do lie ahead. Increasing competition and lack of resources (or government regulations on these resources) are main issues that the firm will face. Competition from cheaper brands, from more local products, or from healthier, niche brands is really increasing and could decrease Coca-Cola’s market share considerably in the future. They will need to differentiate themselves even more and focus on their core competencies and assets, which are the most sustainable. The company’s new emphasis on environmental and social measures is a great start to increasing the preservation of the planets limited natural resources and increasing its brand equity and awareness. PepsiCos Resources and Capabilities Intangible Resources Similar to The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCos strategy is mainly based on establishing a differentiation advantage. Its strong intangible resources enable it to be a strong competitor. In fact, its brand equity and other intangibles such as its reputation, strategic relationships with suppliers, bottling partners and distribution centers result in customer loyalty. The performance- and family-oriented culture (especially visible amongst executives is another asset that leads to firms long-term success, as developed by Morris (2008). The overall awareness and availability of Pepsi products increase the value of this brand equity. Human Capital PepsiCo is a massive company in terms of its sheer size alone, with a workforce of nearly 300,000 employees. Performance is strongly rewarded and employees enjoy generous benefits. Communication and collaboration between teams and divisions are facilitated through general openness and support for the upper management and executives. Its workforce is well trained and selected for its motivation and skills. (PepsiCo, Values and Philosophy, 2012) In the light of its executives recent decision to reformulate Pepsis strategy and restructure the firm accordingly, the CEO announced in February 2012 that 8,700 employees would be laid off, spanning over a range of thirty countries, representing about three percent of its current workforce (Huffington Post, 2012). This should lead to reduced costs, increased efficiencies and larger investments in marketing and research and development. Tangible Resources One of the main differences between Pepsi and Coca-Cola is that PepsiCo is diversified and has a strong global presence in the convenience food industry too. This enables PepsiCo to have even larger global sales and outreach, with more economic stability and mitigation of risks as a result of all its product diversification. Even when carbonated soft drink sales started to drop a couple of years ago, PepsiCo still had strong revenues and performance in other sectors, such as its Frito-Lay snacks. PepsiCos tangible resources can be summarized with some figures. Its cash levels were $4.067 billion in 2011 ($3.943 billion in 2009), its total current assets were $72.882 billion in 2011 and $12.571 billion in 2009) and its plant and equipment amounted to $19.698 billion in 2011 (compared to $19.058 billion and $12.671 billion in 2010 and 2009 respectively). These are lower than Coca-Colas and PepsiCo assets were overall better in 2010 than in 2009 and 2011, maybe due to recent strong investments in Pepsi NEXT and other global acquisitions. (Morningstar, 2011). PepsiCos Capabilities Overall, PepsiCos diversified tangible resources, skilled and intensively trained workforce and strong brand equity lead to its financial control capability and exemplary strategic management of multiple businesses. These enable PepsiCo to successfully manage its large portfolio and stronger diversification which in turn leads to larger sales and revenue, but also economies of scale and synergies mainly in its research and development, distribution and marketing functions (Grant, 2008). Also, its culture and structure lead to responsiveness and innovation. PepsiCo is capable of ensuring the quality and constant availability of its products in thousands of locations across the world. Moreover, the fact that PepsiCo is involved in different businesses has also enabled it to build on its healthy new image in many areas which creates even more coherence and credibility, as it can combine owning more nutritious and healthy drinks now with the production and sales of low calorie and low fat snacks or meals. Future Considerations PepsiCo has been growing and innovating successfully for decades, despite the recent slower growth challenges it has faced. PepsiCos extremely large and diversified portfolio, sales in over 200 countries and its long-term efforts for employee empowerment and satisfaction and strategic relationships with partners are some of the main reasons why PepsiCos competitive advantage is sustainable. Its brand names and global presence are so significant that it would be tough to lose its advantage to competitors, new entrants or substitutes, especially as it is still extremely innovative and investing a lot in its future growth plans with its strong RD, new healthy products following or leading global trends and emphasis on doing good to the planet and its inhabitants and to its all its stakeholders as a whole (PepsiCo, 10-K Report, 2011). PepsiCos performance and future could be rather optimistic. PepsiCo is successfully taking advantage of its opportunities (sustainability and healthy product diversification) while responding to its threats (ensuring the sustainability of natural resources such as water and potato fields) through several of its new programs and adaptation to global consumers tastes and needs with innovation and speed-to-market (PepsiCo, Purpose, 2012). All these should be positive signs for the future, although not everything is as simple given PepsiCos recent challenges exhibited in its financial performance and shareholders dissatisfaction. Also, nothing guarantees that investments and innovation will pay off, with the launch of Pepsi NEXT that could be yet another failure in the industry. PepsiCo will have to prolong its efforts in its corporate social responsibility measures, in ensuring quality franchises (with its bottling partners mainly) and in developing and marketing successful new products, starting with Pepsi NEXT. It is thus refocusing its resources and capabilities on these new opportunities that Coca-Cola is also exploiting fully.

SWOT Analysis of Tesco Express

SWOT Analysis of Tesco Express The organisation which we have taken for the study is Tesco Express the sub brand of Tesco Plc. In our study we are going to identify, describe and evaluate the following management area of Tesco Plc, where we will be involving Marketing Principles to give proper management report on the basis of below strategies: The Organisation Orientation The competitive advantage of the organisation The Impact, positive and negative of the organisations Marketing Mix Management report of Tesco Express- Strength, weakness and improvements that will help to maintain competitive advantage in near future Origin of Tesco Tesco Plc the leading Britain retailer among the top three retailers in the world. They are operating 3700 stores among the world and they have employed around 470,000 employees. They are operating in 14 countries and they are UK, Republic of Ireland, India, China, Japan, Czech Republic, Hungary, Malaysia, Poland, Slovakia, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, and USA. Tesco Plc was started by Jack Cohen in 1919 and the name Tesco was first appeared in the shop in Edgware in 1929 since the company has grown they were implementing their innovation in different business. Jack Cohen founded Tesco and his first day profit was ÂÂ £1 among his ÂÂ £4 sales on selling a grocery from the stall in East London. In the year 1924 the first in-house brand of Tesco has launched and they named that product as Tesco Tea. The names come from the initial of TE Stockwell, who was a partner in the tea supplies and the CO from Jack Cohens Surname. In the year 1932 Tesco stores limited have changed to Tesco private Limited Company. Tesco the brand which have changed their way they do business so fundamentally in each and every part of its company. Because of this change they have done in to business which also includes the loyalty management. For that they have taken a different expertise among the world as the earliest and that they have that named as Clubcard. Tesco joined with DunnHumby and created a Clubcard to tracks the buying behaviour of their 13 million customers, through recording and tracking consumption data from shopping bills. Tesco and DunnHumby have jointly built, maintain and mine a rich customer database with information derived from all customer touch points. Using this customer database, Tescos marketing department is then able to manage changes in either individual or general consumption patterns and adapt their marketing strategies accordingly. Clubcard is a reflection of the attributes of the business and its commitment: a strong team ethic, a commitment to serving customers, and most of all, top-to-bottom retailers pragmatism. Tesco made customer loyalty marketing work, when every other British supermarket loyalty programme in the late 1990s failed, faltered or never got started. Every year since 1995, headlines have proclaimed the death of loyalty scheme, usually enthusiastically supported by other retailers whose loyalty schemes are distant memories. Yet Clubcard is never questioned as a strategic priority by the management. Instead, Tesco has responded to the critics by measurably building sales through Clubcard, using the relevant knowledge it creates to improve the way it runs its business. The Organisation Orientation: Definition An approach to business that centres its activities on satisfying the needs and wants of its customers. The production department when starts to manufacture the product, it focuses on the promotion, distribution, pricing etc. How Tesco implemented its Market orientation: It overall beats the competition in producing the best quality product to the end users with great customer satisfaction as mentioned below. Flexibility Plan and goal setting Managerial and interpersonal skills Flexibility Tesco Express is widely opened across the cities in UK and gives options to many consumers to shop easily. In total there are around 150 shops which is great benefit to the consumers. They have introduced online trading where customers can place an order and buy it without any hindrance. Self billing has been bought up to avoid queues, saves time and energy, people can use the self bill system and pay by themselves and also introduced Club cards in which they can measure sales and improve accordingly by collecting database. Plan and goal setting Every organisation has its own plans and works only with the setting right goals at right time. Plans are to maximise sales and profits, maintains No 1 retail store in UK. Targets competitors and remains as a market leader, provides goods/services that are cheap and affordable to public. Business plans and modules are followed to achieve respective goal. Each objective has deadlines to meet so they have to meet their set objective within the stipulated period of time. Ex- Point of sale is an important merchandising activity to remind, people to stock up, just in case, a different product in categories has been brought together under Barbecue Theme, and a sale tends to increase. With the exceptions of meat, Tesco Express has brought all its barbecue products together under one category in store in order to promote sales and profits. Managerial and interpersonal skills- Still not yet completed Marketing: Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably. (C.I.M, 2001) In this cut throat competition, Tesco innovates and re-innovates the new product as per the marketing environment in comparison with its fellow competitors. Healthy competition gives the best outcome of the product like price and quality. The main aim is to maximize customers value as a source of competitive advantage. Tescos Marketing Concept Meets customer needs, wants and preferences more effectively and more closely than competitors Asda, Sainsbury WM Morrison supermarket. The basic philosophies of the organisation are production and sales, it integrates the various activities like production, selling, distribution promotion, advertisement and human resource management in a profitable way for the service of the customers. Production: Focuses on the goods where quality matters and profit is gained on the volume of sales. Quality should be maintained in all the stages of production Tesco the company which are offering more than 100 products under their own brand Tesco. Comparatively they are quality oriented and price oriented. These products are mainly targeted their customer daily needs. They are following exact market economics to market their products. Sales: Even Tesco has its own products in Tesco express also they sell products from different brands too. While comparing with other products Tesco products is more cost effective and with high quality. Tesco Express is one of emerging sub brand in the UK is offering the customer to minimise their shopping time. New innovation has been brought in the form of advanced technology for the customers to generate and pay their own receipts by them. Goals have been divided into 3 different sets- Once it sets up the plan with the right objective, the next strategy is to maximise sales with customer satisfaction. Let us take through with 3 different sets of goals. The organisation recognises the market movements of its competitors in order to maintain good mindset in peoples mind. It strives hard to satisfy customers needs, preferences and taste which is very big task. The last and foremost goal is carried out in the internal management to increase productivity with great coordination among staff members who works as a team. Let us concentrate on planning aspects with involving planning strategies as discussed below. Marketing Planning: Marketing Planning: Turning strategies into implementable action and it is a detailed written statement where each and everyone in the organisation must follow the principles and guidelines and act accordingly. Planning is decide in advance what to do and what not to do, planning plays a vital role in the supermarket division as it deals with FMCG products, in day todays business the sales increases rapidly when everything goes according to plan. Internal and External Environment Key Aspects- Position of Tesco when compared to other companies. Where are we now? Significant improvement has shown in identical market in UK Marketing Audit Market Research Environment Analysis How did we get there? They got there simply because of good performance which was solid. Where are we heading and where do we want to be? Tesco express has strived to achieve the highest standards to ensure the long-term access to quality products and maintain their position as the UKs number 1 supermarket. Tescos aim is to keep customers happy, to achieve high profit margins, to motivate workers, expand its marketing strategies, and support economic issues and to be friendly towards the environment. Tesco aims to cover every conceivable part of the consumer base with management controls. Review Procedures Management Controls How might we get there? It has good marketing mix strategies and implements successfully. By doing so it has reached heights by giving services to consumers. Tesco Express should make als Marketing Mix Which way is best? Are we on course? How can we ensure arrival? Choice criteria Screening Modelling Company Profile SWOT Once marketing planning is carried out successfully the next step is to concentrate on marketing audit. It can be analysed with the inclusion of Strengths Weakness Opportunities Threats (SWOT). Once the major part is carried out successfully with all the research analysis and datas, it gives us the strategic position. The overall evaluation of a companys strengths, weakness, opportunity and threats is called as SWOT analysis. It is a way of monitoring the external and internal marketing environment. Good marketing is the art of finding, developing and profiting from these opportunities. A marketing opportunity is an area of buyer need and interest that a company has a high profitably of profitably satisfying. There are three main sources of market opportunities are. The first is to supply something that is short supply. This requires little marketing talent, as the need is obvious. The second is to supply an existing product or service in a new or superior way. The last method often leads to a very new product or service by offering lower price with good quality. To evaluate opportunities companies can use Market Opportunity Analysis (MOA) to determine their attractiveness and profitably of asking questions such as Can we focus the target markets and reach them with cost-effective method and trade markets? Can we deliver the benefits better than any actual or potential competitors? Will the financial rate of return meet or exceed our required threshold for investment? Does our company possess or have access to the critical capabilities and resources we need to deliver the customer benefits? Can we articulate the benefits convincingly to a defined target market? Based on the above Kotlers theory we will be giving out SWOT analysis data. Strengths A wider range of products including fresh and healthy food are available. Tesco express has added around 800 new product lines last year. Stores have increased by over 35% since 2000. Quality of products is sold. All classes of people can afford to buy. It has strong Market Leadership. Strong and good brand image. Weakness Range of stores is limited in Tesco Express and price is not as good as main stores. Inventory turnover is weak. Does not respond queries in time. It mainly concentrates and depends only in UK and Europe. Turnover is poor. Opportunities Planning to open retail environment in Euro zone. Tesco Express has been bought up in density area to satisfy customers requirement with ease. Opportunities in India and other international markets and also they have got private labelling schemes. Threats Intense cut throat competition High interest rates in UK. Labour wages are increasingly at a higher rate. Difficult conditions in International markets. Competitive advantage of the organisation Jack Welch, former CEO of GE says, If you dont have competitive advantage, dont compete. (Jobber 2007:773) In the face of global competition and cut throat competition, there are many competitors are growing day by day and the rule of survival for the fittest comes into picture. Companies are forced to survive by increasing the production and sales at a better rate. With todays technology changing day by day oragnisation has to put the best foot forward to stay and compete. As a result they gain enormous experience to handle different sets of consumers and their buying habits Marketing is all about to generate transactions and to generate relationships. No organisation stands alone in the market without competitors; the company cannot develop its products by developing the product range and its features but also faces the competitive environment of the market. The factors which analyses the changing economic environment in the trading community and reacts accordingly. The competitors also influences various factors such as success or failure of a business in any market conditions, this is why it is important to consider systematically a number of aspects of competitive behaviour. Competitive analysis is a systematic approaching in understanding the key factors of the planning strategy in terms of objectives, resource allocation and implementation through the marketing mix. A good understanding of these factors reveals the organisation to be in a stronger arena in building and sustaining foundations for the firm to hold its position to maintain the reputation in the longer run. Once an organisation finds with whom it is competiting and which category of the competition of the emerging market. When competitors are identified, the probability of forming them into clusters, depending on focus and strategy. The outcome of the identified clusters identifies strong and weak competitors in each group which can be considered as the strategic opportunities defined. These are the number of different characteristic that can be used for identifying strategic segments, which in turn provides a useful framework for evolving opportunities in business environment that leads to an order of implementing organisational behaviour techniques of competitors data that relies on financial performance of the segments served in marketing strategies. The arch rival of Tesco express is Costcutter The arch rival of Tesco express is Costcutter because they are the one who have similar marketing policies to overcome its rival. Tesco Express is spread all over the United Kingdom with in and around 1000 outlets but Costcutter is with 1600 outlets. Comparatively Tesco express and Costcutter got the same logic of attracting their customers to sell best quality with reasonable price . However when we analyse the competitive advantage of Tesco to overcome its fellow competitors with new innovation called Auto billing and paying system but Costcutter lacks with that facilities. opening as wel as closing times varies with Costcutter as it is opened 24 hours open and Tesco express opens from 6am in the morning and closes 10pm in the night. So all we can say is that they are the perfect competitors with having leads and falls with each other in different facts. Tesco express is using different segmentations to make the Tesco express successful among their competitors and their segmentations are geographic, usage and loyalty; On geographic segmentation they categorise their shops according to the market. They mostly were concentrating on the region where they can have the more people who are be the bread and butter consumer that means people who wants to buy one or two products at that specific period of time. Theres a brand familiarity that you dont always get from a local store and the concept is familiar through use of the superstore predecessor. On usage segmentation being an express the range are limited and choice or very little and the price is bit higher than its own Tesco extra. On the loyalty segmentation they have just rock the concept called Clubcard. They have track the customers with the card and it make them to analyse to find the exact need of customer and they serving them according to their needs. Mission Every business has its goals/objectives and works on directions set by the management. No firms can succeed without objectives and tagline of Tesco is, Every little Helps. This tagline has created a realistic statement which is motivating and creates intent in the organisation. The realistic purpose is to provide focus and direction through the conduct of the business. Specific Measurable Accurate Realistic Time bound (SMART). SMART comes into picture once SWOT analysis is completed. Strategy> Behaviour standards Tescos Marketing Objectives The main aim is to retain customer satisfaction and maintain number 1 Retail Company in the UK. To maximise sales and profit To provide reasonable price to the consumers. Marketing Environment Marketing environment and its influences. It has been divided into 2 different categories based on 4ps. Micro Environment Macro Environment Micro Environment has been divided into 4 divisions namely Suppliers Distributors Competitors Customers Macro Environment has been divided into 5 divisions namely A) Socio Cultural Environment Factors affecting demographic structure of the population, lifestyles, attitudes, cultures, issues of public and private concerns, tastes and demands. B) Technological Environment Creates new product opportunities and improve production. C) Economic Environment It determines demand and supply chain. D) Political and legal Environment Rules, laws and regulations are operated as per the Government bodies. Ex: Smoking in public places E) Ecological Environment -Factors such as global warming, pollution, recycling, packaging etc. Macro environment with Tescos principles Socio Cultural Environment Brassington and Pettitt has given definition regarding Demographic, where he briefly explains that it is the study of the measurable aspects of population structures and profiles including factors such as age , size, gender, race, occupation and location. Tesco express has widely opened across and also outside UK to satisfy customer needs and preferences. Where in it represents strengths and weakness. There are wide range of products to satisfy all ages and all classes of people. It broadens tastes and demands according to peoples lifestyle and their expectations. If it does not satisfys then customers can lose interest and faith. Technological Environment- When an organisation uses more and more different techniques then flexibility comes into picture. Tesco express operates paperless transactions. It brings out new innovation strategies to market the product as per the existing environment. The recent one which it has introduced new way of billing system call, Till , where customers can pick, pack and invoice themselves.. This new system has given new dimensions to the customers to save an extra time. Market research is carried out on a regular basis where an organisation collects information with the respect to the customer focus Economic Environment- In this Economic environment 2 key words which handles the whole market is demand and supply. When there is a demand in the market supply increases automatically, this will have a huge impact in the business environment. They concentrate on the factors affecting economic business and monitor them in order to overcome. Political and legal Environment- Each and every organisation concentrates on the government laws, rules and regulations. Tesco Express follows strict rules and regulations and gives out warning signals to the customers. It also gives smoking free environment. Ex- Smoking is prohibited Ecological Environment- It aims to set up a greenery environment in the form of waste, packaging, recycling, and also cutting carrier bag use. It converts waste into an energy source and reduces the amount of waste going to landfill by over a third and works on waste targets scheme which are reviewed and reported every week. We have taken examples of 2 like packaging and recycling. If we take packaging with the product name called Eggs. Packaging helps to protect and preserve food for longer duration and promotes the product to reach the customers in the best condition. Recycling facilities are available in all our markets except China and Turkey. Tescos future plans are to implement recycling facilities even in respective countries as mentioned to have a global impact in the marketing environment. In UK we have 600 recycling centres of our larger stores. Last year we helped customers to recycle approximately 200,000 tonnes. Market Segmentation The identification of groups of individuals or organisations with similar characteristics that have significant implications for the determination of marketing strategy. (Jobber 2004) Segments can be defined on the basis of Tesco principles. ? Customer Satisfaction- customers can be pleased all the time because all the products are available under one proof so chances of pleasing them will be on higher note. They dont target individuals indeed they target on the whole. Customers have variety of products to choose and satisfy their preferences. Ex- Products are sold to all age groups with reasonable price and with most importantly good quality Methods of Segmentation Geographic It targets customers as per the location, country and also takes into consideration whether it is Rural and Urban. Before it opens any new branches, it undergoes market survey based on the customers potential within the respective location. It also makes sure that for which county products are produced, plans for the available resources so that can be used up to the fuller extent, different sets of people has different taste and preferences according to their lifestyle. Ex China and UK. In China people have different lifestyle as compared to UK. Demographic Once it does sets up the business by creating a layout of the geographic successfully, now the next part is to introduce product based on the marketing analysis which includes people age, sex, race, income, occupation, socio-economic status. It collects complete database and then goes forward. Surveys are conducted at regular intervals with the interest of not losing customers focus and interest. This reduces the negative impact on the organisation. Geo-Demographic Geo- Demographic is nothing but the combination of geographic and demographic. Organisation works on the purchasing behaviours of the people. Once it gathers the available date by doing research in first and second stage and then works as per the prescribed plan. Postcode systems can assist agencies in the new business development, customer profile and identification. Psychographic Tesco divides the market on the basis of life style and personality of the consumers. It targets people of all ages with their requirements. From grocery, eatables to liquor. Types of Target Marketing Need to include on the basis of Tescos target marketing with the inclusion of 4 ps. Undifferentiated and differentiated marketing. Let us talk about the Positioning of Tesco. In earlier days Tesco did not have the brand name but when sales started picking up and demand was on higher side, it did not compromise quality in order to reduce price and it is very convenient to the customers to purchase products as quality of products are available. Once customers got an idea how good Tesco is then Tesco gained its brand name. With the brand name Tesco started to experiment the products with greater profits and then it is managing the customers with great customer loyalty. Philosophy of entire marketing mix hinges with good positioning and failed to do so creates unsound positioning. Positioning Strategies Reasonable price Good quality More and variety of Products Clearance sales Weekend offers and Festive offers Keys to successful positioning are based on competitiveness, successful positioning, creditability and consistency. Repositioning of product Takes place when positioning of products declines. Change in customer tastes and preferences. New competitors enters the market Marketing Mix An Effective marketing mix Tesco compromises on price and does not compromises on quality More demand and more supply. Customers loyalty Refer http://www.cim.co.uk/filestore/resources/10minguides/marketingmix.pdf The Impact, positive and negative of the Tesco Express marketing mix Marketing mix is divided into 7ps but let us concentrate on 4 ps which as follows. Promotion Place Price Product. We will critically discus 4 ps in the following stages. Promotion Promotion is generally referred as awareness created towards the introduction of new product and also the availability of the existing product by means of selling activities and advertising. The main aim of promotion is to spread awareness of the products, uses and benefits. It helps the organisation to position their products in the market to reach customers. The effective tool of promotion of Tesco Express is in the form of television and email adverts, message should be clear and simple so that it can reach the targeted audience by creating a desired response. There are different types of promotions such as advertising, personal selling, public relations and sales promotions. Promotional strategy- One of the Tescos key strategies in the promotional activity is, Clubcard loyalty scheme where it has been a huge success and in turn their market share has been increased. This change has led them to be a market leader. They were giving best and competitive prices to the market, products like fresh vegetables, fish, chicken , mutton, beef and all sorts of necessary day to day needs which were outsourced from the farmers , fish, mongers , butchers directly. They have opened number of convenience stores in every possible place and therefore have a good appeal to a huge number of customers in the market environment. Therefore had a very huge response when they had introduced the club card plus debit card scheme. They not only target higher classes of people but also different classes of people. Introduction of Tesco finest and also budgeted version called Tesco value which is having very huge impact in all the classes of the people. Now it shows how they promote their market to reach different classes of people. Advertising- It can be defined as any paid form of non-personal promotion transmitted through a mass medium. The sponsor should be clearly identified and the advertisement may relate to an organisation, a product or a service. The key difference, therefore, between advertising and other forms of promotion is that it is impersonal and communicates with large numbers of people through paid media channels. (Ref 1) Each and every organisation will advertise for the products produced, Tesco has always gives ads saying that they sell cheapest product in the whole of UK and it is one of the cheapest selling supermarket, where they claim that the price of the products is at least a penny less than their competiting firm in the advertisement featuring Prunella scales and Jane Horrocks comparing bills between Tesco and other stores. Stringent rules has to be followed when it is giving comparative advertising as per UK governments rule and abides the body for advertising standards, the Committee of Advertising Practice as listed in the rules and regulations act. They also have different advertisement taglines called, Every little helps, We sell for less, 1 billion pounds off, is youre nearest the dearest, Low prices every day because we sell 10000 everyday. There have been many advertisement campaigns stating that their products are cheaper to their direct competitors. Personal selling and sales force- According to fill (2002, p. 16), personal selling can be defined as: An interpersonal communication tool which involves face to face activities under taken by individuals, often representing an organisation, in order to inform, persuade or remind an individual or group to take appropriate action, as required by the sponsors representative. (Ref 2) Tesco has been occupied in all the field of business with a brooder marketing strategy; as far as personal selling is concerned they do not need, since they vastly deal with day today products. The only personal selling that they follow is online shopping which is not related to this category of marketing. Sales Promotion- According to the institute of sales promotion, sales promotion is: According to the institute of sales promotion, sales promotion is: The store offers a wide range of promotional offers in various times, if they open a store they would give away vouchers having a 2 pound discount on every six pounds spent for every passerby, club card members, computer tokens for schools. Below are the examples of New Year sales promotion. Examples of the New Year promotions offers include: Danepak Maple Cure Back Bacon 220g, was ÂÂ £3.00, now ÂÂ £1.50 Extra Large Pineapple, was ÂÂ £3.00, now ÂÂ £1.50 Baking Potatoes 2.5kg, was ÂÂ £1.92, now ÂÂ £1 Dolmio Original Bolognese Pasta Sauce 750g, was ÂÂ £2.12, now ÂÂ £1.06 Princes Tuna Chunks In Brine 4X185g, was ÂÂ £5.39, now ÂÂ £2.69 Maryland Choc Chip Hazelnut Cookies 150g, was 86p, now 43p. Kelloggs Special K Oats and Honey 425g, was ÂÂ £2.87, now ÂÂ £1.40 New Covent Garden Plum Tomato Sweet Basil Soup 600g, was ÂÂ £1.97, now 98 SWOT Analysis of Tesco Express SWOT Analysis of Tesco Express The organisation which we have taken for the study is Tesco Express the sub brand of Tesco Plc. In our study we are going to identify, describe and evaluate the following management area of Tesco Plc, where we will be involving Marketing Principles to give proper management report on the basis of below strategies: The Organisation Orientation The competitive advantage of the organisation The Impact, positive and negative of the organisations Marketing Mix Management report of Tesco Express- Strength, weakness and improvements that will help to maintain competitive advantage in near future Origin of Tesco Tesco Plc the leading Britain retailer among the top three retailers in the world. They are operating 3700 stores among the world and they have employed around 470,000 employees. They are operating in 14 countries and they are UK, Republic of Ireland, India, China, Japan, Czech Republic, Hungary, Malaysia, Poland, Slovakia, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, and USA. Tesco Plc was started by Jack Cohen in 1919 and the name Tesco was first appeared in the shop in Edgware in 1929 since the company has grown they were implementing their innovation in different business. Jack Cohen founded Tesco and his first day profit was ÂÂ £1 among his ÂÂ £4 sales on selling a grocery from the stall in East London. In the year 1924 the first in-house brand of Tesco has launched and they named that product as Tesco Tea. The names come from the initial of TE Stockwell, who was a partner in the tea supplies and the CO from Jack Cohens Surname. In the year 1932 Tesco stores limited have changed to Tesco private Limited Company. Tesco the brand which have changed their way they do business so fundamentally in each and every part of its company. Because of this change they have done in to business which also includes the loyalty management. For that they have taken a different expertise among the world as the earliest and that they have that named as Clubcard. Tesco joined with DunnHumby and created a Clubcard to tracks the buying behaviour of their 13 million customers, through recording and tracking consumption data from shopping bills. Tesco and DunnHumby have jointly built, maintain and mine a rich customer database with information derived from all customer touch points. Using this customer database, Tescos marketing department is then able to manage changes in either individual or general consumption patterns and adapt their marketing strategies accordingly. Clubcard is a reflection of the attributes of the business and its commitment: a strong team ethic, a commitment to serving customers, and most of all, top-to-bottom retailers pragmatism. Tesco made customer loyalty marketing work, when every other British supermarket loyalty programme in the late 1990s failed, faltered or never got started. Every year since 1995, headlines have proclaimed the death of loyalty scheme, usually enthusiastically supported by other retailers whose loyalty schemes are distant memories. Yet Clubcard is never questioned as a strategic priority by the management. Instead, Tesco has responded to the critics by measurably building sales through Clubcard, using the relevant knowledge it creates to improve the way it runs its business. The Organisation Orientation: Definition An approach to business that centres its activities on satisfying the needs and wants of its customers. The production department when starts to manufacture the product, it focuses on the promotion, distribution, pricing etc. How Tesco implemented its Market orientation: It overall beats the competition in producing the best quality product to the end users with great customer satisfaction as mentioned below. Flexibility Plan and goal setting Managerial and interpersonal skills Flexibility Tesco Express is widely opened across the cities in UK and gives options to many consumers to shop easily. In total there are around 150 shops which is great benefit to the consumers. They have introduced online trading where customers can place an order and buy it without any hindrance. Self billing has been bought up to avoid queues, saves time and energy, people can use the self bill system and pay by themselves and also introduced Club cards in which they can measure sales and improve accordingly by collecting database. Plan and goal setting Every organisation has its own plans and works only with the setting right goals at right time. Plans are to maximise sales and profits, maintains No 1 retail store in UK. Targets competitors and remains as a market leader, provides goods/services that are cheap and affordable to public. Business plans and modules are followed to achieve respective goal. Each objective has deadlines to meet so they have to meet their set objective within the stipulated period of time. Ex- Point of sale is an important merchandising activity to remind, people to stock up, just in case, a different product in categories has been brought together under Barbecue Theme, and a sale tends to increase. With the exceptions of meat, Tesco Express has brought all its barbecue products together under one category in store in order to promote sales and profits. Managerial and interpersonal skills- Still not yet completed Marketing: Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably. (C.I.M, 2001) In this cut throat competition, Tesco innovates and re-innovates the new product as per the marketing environment in comparison with its fellow competitors. Healthy competition gives the best outcome of the product like price and quality. The main aim is to maximize customers value as a source of competitive advantage. Tescos Marketing Concept Meets customer needs, wants and preferences more effectively and more closely than competitors Asda, Sainsbury WM Morrison supermarket. The basic philosophies of the organisation are production and sales, it integrates the various activities like production, selling, distribution promotion, advertisement and human resource management in a profitable way for the service of the customers. Production: Focuses on the goods where quality matters and profit is gained on the volume of sales. Quality should be maintained in all the stages of production Tesco the company which are offering more than 100 products under their own brand Tesco. Comparatively they are quality oriented and price oriented. These products are mainly targeted their customer daily needs. They are following exact market economics to market their products. Sales: Even Tesco has its own products in Tesco express also they sell products from different brands too. While comparing with other products Tesco products is more cost effective and with high quality. Tesco Express is one of emerging sub brand in the UK is offering the customer to minimise their shopping time. New innovation has been brought in the form of advanced technology for the customers to generate and pay their own receipts by them. Goals have been divided into 3 different sets- Once it sets up the plan with the right objective, the next strategy is to maximise sales with customer satisfaction. Let us take through with 3 different sets of goals. The organisation recognises the market movements of its competitors in order to maintain good mindset in peoples mind. It strives hard to satisfy customers needs, preferences and taste which is very big task. The last and foremost goal is carried out in the internal management to increase productivity with great coordination among staff members who works as a team. Let us concentrate on planning aspects with involving planning strategies as discussed below. Marketing Planning: Marketing Planning: Turning strategies into implementable action and it is a detailed written statement where each and everyone in the organisation must follow the principles and guidelines and act accordingly. Planning is decide in advance what to do and what not to do, planning plays a vital role in the supermarket division as it deals with FMCG products, in day todays business the sales increases rapidly when everything goes according to plan. Internal and External Environment Key Aspects- Position of Tesco when compared to other companies. Where are we now? Significant improvement has shown in identical market in UK Marketing Audit Market Research Environment Analysis How did we get there? They got there simply because of good performance which was solid. Where are we heading and where do we want to be? Tesco express has strived to achieve the highest standards to ensure the long-term access to quality products and maintain their position as the UKs number 1 supermarket. Tescos aim is to keep customers happy, to achieve high profit margins, to motivate workers, expand its marketing strategies, and support economic issues and to be friendly towards the environment. Tesco aims to cover every conceivable part of the consumer base with management controls. Review Procedures Management Controls How might we get there? It has good marketing mix strategies and implements successfully. By doing so it has reached heights by giving services to consumers. Tesco Express should make als Marketing Mix Which way is best? Are we on course? How can we ensure arrival? Choice criteria Screening Modelling Company Profile SWOT Once marketing planning is carried out successfully the next step is to concentrate on marketing audit. It can be analysed with the inclusion of Strengths Weakness Opportunities Threats (SWOT). Once the major part is carried out successfully with all the research analysis and datas, it gives us the strategic position. The overall evaluation of a companys strengths, weakness, opportunity and threats is called as SWOT analysis. It is a way of monitoring the external and internal marketing environment. Good marketing is the art of finding, developing and profiting from these opportunities. A marketing opportunity is an area of buyer need and interest that a company has a high profitably of profitably satisfying. There are three main sources of market opportunities are. The first is to supply something that is short supply. This requires little marketing talent, as the need is obvious. The second is to supply an existing product or service in a new or superior way. The last method often leads to a very new product or service by offering lower price with good quality. To evaluate opportunities companies can use Market Opportunity Analysis (MOA) to determine their attractiveness and profitably of asking questions such as Can we focus the target markets and reach them with cost-effective method and trade markets? Can we deliver the benefits better than any actual or potential competitors? Will the financial rate of return meet or exceed our required threshold for investment? Does our company possess or have access to the critical capabilities and resources we need to deliver the customer benefits? Can we articulate the benefits convincingly to a defined target market? Based on the above Kotlers theory we will be giving out SWOT analysis data. Strengths A wider range of products including fresh and healthy food are available. Tesco express has added around 800 new product lines last year. Stores have increased by over 35% since 2000. Quality of products is sold. All classes of people can afford to buy. It has strong Market Leadership. Strong and good brand image. Weakness Range of stores is limited in Tesco Express and price is not as good as main stores. Inventory turnover is weak. Does not respond queries in time. It mainly concentrates and depends only in UK and Europe. Turnover is poor. Opportunities Planning to open retail environment in Euro zone. Tesco Express has been bought up in density area to satisfy customers requirement with ease. Opportunities in India and other international markets and also they have got private labelling schemes. Threats Intense cut throat competition High interest rates in UK. Labour wages are increasingly at a higher rate. Difficult conditions in International markets. Competitive advantage of the organisation Jack Welch, former CEO of GE says, If you dont have competitive advantage, dont compete. (Jobber 2007:773) In the face of global competition and cut throat competition, there are many competitors are growing day by day and the rule of survival for the fittest comes into picture. Companies are forced to survive by increasing the production and sales at a better rate. With todays technology changing day by day oragnisation has to put the best foot forward to stay and compete. As a result they gain enormous experience to handle different sets of consumers and their buying habits Marketing is all about to generate transactions and to generate relationships. No organisation stands alone in the market without competitors; the company cannot develop its products by developing the product range and its features but also faces the competitive environment of the market. The factors which analyses the changing economic environment in the trading community and reacts accordingly. The competitors also influences various factors such as success or failure of a business in any market conditions, this is why it is important to consider systematically a number of aspects of competitive behaviour. Competitive analysis is a systematic approaching in understanding the key factors of the planning strategy in terms of objectives, resource allocation and implementation through the marketing mix. A good understanding of these factors reveals the organisation to be in a stronger arena in building and sustaining foundations for the firm to hold its position to maintain the reputation in the longer run. Once an organisation finds with whom it is competiting and which category of the competition of the emerging market. When competitors are identified, the probability of forming them into clusters, depending on focus and strategy. The outcome of the identified clusters identifies strong and weak competitors in each group which can be considered as the strategic opportunities defined. These are the number of different characteristic that can be used for identifying strategic segments, which in turn provides a useful framework for evolving opportunities in business environment that leads to an order of implementing organisational behaviour techniques of competitors data that relies on financial performance of the segments served in marketing strategies. The arch rival of Tesco express is Costcutter The arch rival of Tesco express is Costcutter because they are the one who have similar marketing policies to overcome its rival. Tesco Express is spread all over the United Kingdom with in and around 1000 outlets but Costcutter is with 1600 outlets. Comparatively Tesco express and Costcutter got the same logic of attracting their customers to sell best quality with reasonable price . However when we analyse the competitive advantage of Tesco to overcome its fellow competitors with new innovation called Auto billing and paying system but Costcutter lacks with that facilities. opening as wel as closing times varies with Costcutter as it is opened 24 hours open and Tesco express opens from 6am in the morning and closes 10pm in the night. So all we can say is that they are the perfect competitors with having leads and falls with each other in different facts. Tesco express is using different segmentations to make the Tesco express successful among their competitors and their segmentations are geographic, usage and loyalty; On geographic segmentation they categorise their shops according to the market. They mostly were concentrating on the region where they can have the more people who are be the bread and butter consumer that means people who wants to buy one or two products at that specific period of time. Theres a brand familiarity that you dont always get from a local store and the concept is familiar through use of the superstore predecessor. On usage segmentation being an express the range are limited and choice or very little and the price is bit higher than its own Tesco extra. On the loyalty segmentation they have just rock the concept called Clubcard. They have track the customers with the card and it make them to analyse to find the exact need of customer and they serving them according to their needs. Mission Every business has its goals/objectives and works on directions set by the management. No firms can succeed without objectives and tagline of Tesco is, Every little Helps. This tagline has created a realistic statement which is motivating and creates intent in the organisation. The realistic purpose is to provide focus and direction through the conduct of the business. Specific Measurable Accurate Realistic Time bound (SMART). SMART comes into picture once SWOT analysis is completed. Strategy> Behaviour standards Tescos Marketing Objectives The main aim is to retain customer satisfaction and maintain number 1 Retail Company in the UK. To maximise sales and profit To provide reasonable price to the consumers. Marketing Environment Marketing environment and its influences. It has been divided into 2 different categories based on 4ps. Micro Environment Macro Environment Micro Environment has been divided into 4 divisions namely Suppliers Distributors Competitors Customers Macro Environment has been divided into 5 divisions namely A) Socio Cultural Environment Factors affecting demographic structure of the population, lifestyles, attitudes, cultures, issues of public and private concerns, tastes and demands. B) Technological Environment Creates new product opportunities and improve production. C) Economic Environment It determines demand and supply chain. D) Political and legal Environment Rules, laws and regulations are operated as per the Government bodies. Ex: Smoking in public places E) Ecological Environment -Factors such as global warming, pollution, recycling, packaging etc. Macro environment with Tescos principles Socio Cultural Environment Brassington and Pettitt has given definition regarding Demographic, where he briefly explains that it is the study of the measurable aspects of population structures and profiles including factors such as age , size, gender, race, occupation and location. Tesco express has widely opened across and also outside UK to satisfy customer needs and preferences. Where in it represents strengths and weakness. There are wide range of products to satisfy all ages and all classes of people. It broadens tastes and demands according to peoples lifestyle and their expectations. If it does not satisfys then customers can lose interest and faith. Technological Environment- When an organisation uses more and more different techniques then flexibility comes into picture. Tesco express operates paperless transactions. It brings out new innovation strategies to market the product as per the existing environment. The recent one which it has introduced new way of billing system call, Till , where customers can pick, pack and invoice themselves.. This new system has given new dimensions to the customers to save an extra time. Market research is carried out on a regular basis where an organisation collects information with the respect to the customer focus Economic Environment- In this Economic environment 2 key words which handles the whole market is demand and supply. When there is a demand in the market supply increases automatically, this will have a huge impact in the business environment. They concentrate on the factors affecting economic business and monitor them in order to overcome. Political and legal Environment- Each and every organisation concentrates on the government laws, rules and regulations. Tesco Express follows strict rules and regulations and gives out warning signals to the customers. It also gives smoking free environment. Ex- Smoking is prohibited Ecological Environment- It aims to set up a greenery environment in the form of waste, packaging, recycling, and also cutting carrier bag use. It converts waste into an energy source and reduces the amount of waste going to landfill by over a third and works on waste targets scheme which are reviewed and reported every week. We have taken examples of 2 like packaging and recycling. If we take packaging with the product name called Eggs. Packaging helps to protect and preserve food for longer duration and promotes the product to reach the customers in the best condition. Recycling facilities are available in all our markets except China and Turkey. Tescos future plans are to implement recycling facilities even in respective countries as mentioned to have a global impact in the marketing environment. In UK we have 600 recycling centres of our larger stores. Last year we helped customers to recycle approximately 200,000 tonnes. Market Segmentation The identification of groups of individuals or organisations with similar characteristics that have significant implications for the determination of marketing strategy. (Jobber 2004) Segments can be defined on the basis of Tesco principles. ? Customer Satisfaction- customers can be pleased all the time because all the products are available under one proof so chances of pleasing them will be on higher note. They dont target individuals indeed they target on the whole. Customers have variety of products to choose and satisfy their preferences. Ex- Products are sold to all age groups with reasonable price and with most importantly good quality Methods of Segmentation Geographic It targets customers as per the location, country and also takes into consideration whether it is Rural and Urban. Before it opens any new branches, it undergoes market survey based on the customers potential within the respective location. It also makes sure that for which county products are produced, plans for the available resources so that can be used up to the fuller extent, different sets of people has different taste and preferences according to their lifestyle. Ex China and UK. In China people have different lifestyle as compared to UK. Demographic Once it does sets up the business by creating a layout of the geographic successfully, now the next part is to introduce product based on the marketing analysis which includes people age, sex, race, income, occupation, socio-economic status. It collects complete database and then goes forward. Surveys are conducted at regular intervals with the interest of not losing customers focus and interest. This reduces the negative impact on the organisation. Geo-Demographic Geo- Demographic is nothing but the combination of geographic and demographic. Organisation works on the purchasing behaviours of the people. Once it gathers the available date by doing research in first and second stage and then works as per the prescribed plan. Postcode systems can assist agencies in the new business development, customer profile and identification. Psychographic Tesco divides the market on the basis of life style and personality of the consumers. It targets people of all ages with their requirements. From grocery, eatables to liquor. Types of Target Marketing Need to include on the basis of Tescos target marketing with the inclusion of 4 ps. Undifferentiated and differentiated marketing. Let us talk about the Positioning of Tesco. In earlier days Tesco did not have the brand name but when sales started picking up and demand was on higher side, it did not compromise quality in order to reduce price and it is very convenient to the customers to purchase products as quality of products are available. Once customers got an idea how good Tesco is then Tesco gained its brand name. With the brand name Tesco started to experiment the products with greater profits and then it is managing the customers with great customer loyalty. Philosophy of entire marketing mix hinges with good positioning and failed to do so creates unsound positioning. Positioning Strategies Reasonable price Good quality More and variety of Products Clearance sales Weekend offers and Festive offers Keys to successful positioning are based on competitiveness, successful positioning, creditability and consistency. Repositioning of product Takes place when positioning of products declines. Change in customer tastes and preferences. New competitors enters the market Marketing Mix An Effective marketing mix Tesco compromises on price and does not compromises on quality More demand and more supply. Customers loyalty Refer http://www.cim.co.uk/filestore/resources/10minguides/marketingmix.pdf The Impact, positive and negative of the Tesco Express marketing mix Marketing mix is divided into 7ps but let us concentrate on 4 ps which as follows. Promotion Place Price Product. We will critically discus 4 ps in the following stages. Promotion Promotion is generally referred as awareness created towards the introduction of new product and also the availability of the existing product by means of selling activities and advertising. The main aim of promotion is to spread awareness of the products, uses and benefits. It helps the organisation to position their products in the market to reach customers. The effective tool of promotion of Tesco Express is in the form of television and email adverts, message should be clear and simple so that it can reach the targeted audience by creating a desired response. There are different types of promotions such as advertising, personal selling, public relations and sales promotions. Promotional strategy- One of the Tescos key strategies in the promotional activity is, Clubcard loyalty scheme where it has been a huge success and in turn their market share has been increased. This change has led them to be a market leader. They were giving best and competitive prices to the market, products like fresh vegetables, fish, chicken , mutton, beef and all sorts of necessary day to day needs which were outsourced from the farmers , fish, mongers , butchers directly. They have opened number of convenience stores in every possible place and therefore have a good appeal to a huge number of customers in the market environment. Therefore had a very huge response when they had introduced the club card plus debit card scheme. They not only target higher classes of people but also different classes of people. Introduction of Tesco finest and also budgeted version called Tesco value which is having very huge impact in all the classes of the people. Now it shows how they promote their market to reach different classes of people. Advertising- It can be defined as any paid form of non-personal promotion transmitted through a mass medium. The sponsor should be clearly identified and the advertisement may relate to an organisation, a product or a service. The key difference, therefore, between advertising and other forms of promotion is that it is impersonal and communicates with large numbers of people through paid media channels. (Ref 1) Each and every organisation will advertise for the products produced, Tesco has always gives ads saying that they sell cheapest product in the whole of UK and it is one of the cheapest selling supermarket, where they claim that the price of the products is at least a penny less than their competiting firm in the advertisement featuring Prunella scales and Jane Horrocks comparing bills between Tesco and other stores. Stringent rules has to be followed when it is giving comparative advertising as per UK governments rule and abides the body for advertising standards, the Committee of Advertising Practice as listed in the rules and regulations act. They also have different advertisement taglines called, Every little helps, We sell for less, 1 billion pounds off, is youre nearest the dearest, Low prices every day because we sell 10000 everyday. There have been many advertisement campaigns stating that their products are cheaper to their direct competitors. Personal selling and sales force- According to fill (2002, p. 16), personal selling can be defined as: An interpersonal communication tool which involves face to face activities under taken by individuals, often representing an organisation, in order to inform, persuade or remind an individual or group to take appropriate action, as required by the sponsors representative. (Ref 2) Tesco has been occupied in all the field of business with a brooder marketing strategy; as far as personal selling is concerned they do not need, since they vastly deal with day today products. The only personal selling that they follow is online shopping which is not related to this category of marketing. Sales Promotion- According to the institute of sales promotion, sales promotion is: According to the institute of sales promotion, sales promotion is: The store offers a wide range of promotional offers in various times, if they open a store they would give away vouchers having a 2 pound discount on every six pounds spent for every passerby, club card members, computer tokens for schools. Below are the examples of New Year sales promotion. Examples of the New Year promotions offers include: Danepak Maple Cure Back Bacon 220g, was ÂÂ £3.00, now ÂÂ £1.50 Extra Large Pineapple, was ÂÂ £3.00, now ÂÂ £1.50 Baking Potatoes 2.5kg, was ÂÂ £1.92, now ÂÂ £1 Dolmio Original Bolognese Pasta Sauce 750g, was ÂÂ £2.12, now ÂÂ £1.06 Princes Tuna Chunks In Brine 4X185g, was ÂÂ £5.39, now ÂÂ £2.69 Maryland Choc Chip Hazelnut Cookies 150g, was 86p, now 43p. Kelloggs Special K Oats and Honey 425g, was ÂÂ £2.87, now ÂÂ £1.40 New Covent Garden Plum Tomato Sweet Basil Soup 600g, was ÂÂ £1.97, now 98