Strategic Marketing & Planning (Blue Ocean Strategy) Essay

Strategic Marketing & Planning (Blue Ocean Strategy) - Essay Example Based on the findings of the report and the desert climate of Saudi Arabia, the frozen yogurt business may succeed. The strategy targets families with children between three years and twenty years, thus this is the target market for the company. Ideally, the company may bait them by offering punch cards and coupons upon a given number of purchases. Today, the most appropriate method of reaching the teenagers and youths is the social media. The company could attract customers to the company by offering coupons and other promotional gifts through their social media such as Twitter and Facebook. This will attract a loyal customer base as well create awareness on the company’s products and prices (Willy et al., 2011:150). In all stages of the strategy, the idea is to create value innovation and differentiation from the existing industry. The paper proposes a blue ocean-based campaign labeled â€Å"Froyo Goes Green†. The main objective of the campaign is to attract customer to the company through offering environmentally friendly products and services, including biodegradable consumables such as spoons, cups, and containers. Moreover, the company will provide unique flavors and toppings that are not available in other competing stores. Introduction Every business, regardless of the industry of operation, has a chance to fail or succeed. As with all other business ventures, a frozen yogurt business can prove profitable if run properly. Indeed, we live in an informed generation where people are conscious about their diet and health, thus constantly looking for healthier alternatives to their favorite foods and drinks. Conceptually, the traditional ice-cream corn is a favorite for many people, thus initiating a frozen yogurt venture at any time is essentially right. Nonetheless, a business owner must undertake a comprehensive research of the target market to ensure that their business ideas are viable. Depending on the marketing and organizational framewo rk, a frozen yogurt may be either market oriented or sales oriented. This paper seeks to determine the orientation of the frozen yogurt industry in Saudi Arabia using illustrations to back the orientation. Additionally, the paper explores the strategies to improve the effectiveness of the company, with emphasis on improving the strategic planning process using the Blue Ocean Strategic model (Kim and Mauborgne, 2005:23). Background Saudi Arabia is among the fast-growing economies in the world. A significant portion of the country’s GDP comes from oil and gas, and the growing private sector. The climate in the country is desert-like, with average temperatures of 45o and highs of 50o. This climate creates a potential market for frozen desserts in the market. The company may tap this opportunity and provide the Saudi Arabians with healthy frozen yogurts to cool off their day. More than 50% of the Saudi Arabians earn incomes above $50,000, thus majority will afford a frozen yogurt dessert worth between $3 and $5. Saudi Arabia provides a promising business environment for organizations that focus on customer needs and demands, as well as those that observe the health regulation of the kingdom. The frozen yogurt market is not a new venture in Saudi Arabia: the industry has

Angel and Demons Book Report Essay Example for Free

Angel and Demons Book Report Essay ANGELS AND DEMONS Angels and demons is a heart pounding adventure written by the author Dan Brown and published in 2000. Dan Brown is also famous for his bestselling novel The Davinci code (published 2003); both these novels feature the fictional college professor Robert Langdon as the main character or â€Å"hero† in the story. Both of these stories revolve around the delicate subject of religion as he incorporates religious fact into fantasy. First off, our characters include Robert Langdon who is a professor of symbology at Harvard University. He is flown to a Swedish nuclear research facility known as CERN (Which really does exist) by the director of CERN Maximilian Kohler to investigate the murder of esteemed scientist Leonardo Verta. Leonardo Verta was the head scientist of a research group working on an antimatter energy source until he was killed, and the anti-matter stolen. Robert leaves CERN with Leonardos daughter Vittoria Vetra to Rome in search of the stolen anti-matter. Robert leaves CERN with a new counterpart and one clue to solve the unraveling mystery of who stole the anti-matter and killed Leonardo Verta; the ambigram branded into the scientist chest saying Illuminati. Soon after arriving in Rome Robert and Vittoria are rushed to Vatican City by commander of the Swiss guard Commander Olivetti, as the situation grows more dire after four high ranking cardinals are kidnapped by the illuminati assassin, with one clue, one will each be slaughtered on the alters of science along the path of illumination. When the threat comes in that if they don’t stop the assassin by eight o’clock the Vatican will be destroyed, as they race against the clock to stop the destruction of the Vatican new problems will rise and betrayal is around every corner. This book is strongly recommended for readers who enjoy large scale mysteries and people who enjoy stories involving conspiracies. This is because this story involves a race against time and a struggle to stop a secret society that controls half of the government itself. This tale is a mind bending race against time and an enemy who seems to be everyone and control everything.

AIDS :: Free AIDS Essays

AIDS The United Nations AIDS organization released disturbing estimates Thursday of the seemingly relentless expansion of the HIV pandemic. At a time when many Americans are increasingly optimistic that state-of-the- art drug therapy might eliminate the virus, HIV is taking a heavy toll worldwide. According to the agency, every minute of every day somewhere in the world, six people become infected with HIV: 7,500 adults per day and 1,000 children. About 30 million people have acquired the virus during the last 15 years; 6.4 million of them have died of AIDS. Behind this mounting death count are the signs of growing social disruption. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa, more than 1 million children have lost their parents to AIDS. And within four years, there will be more than 2 million AIDS orphans in the following seven countries combined: Dominican Republic, Kenya, Rwanda, Thailand, Uganda, the United States, and Zambia. Illness and death among young adults due to HIV have reached such proportions in some countries that overall national economics and productivity are affected. In Uganda, for example, 44 percent of all premature deaths are attributable to AIDS. In terms of years of labor productivity, AIDS is responsible for more than 66 percent of Uganda's economically significant losses. The virus is also spreading into new areas. For example: -During the last three years, HIV-infection rates among Vietnamese prostitutes jumped from 9 percent to 38 percent. -Infection rates among blood donors in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh have soared from 0.1 percent to more than 10 percent. -In the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Nikolayev, HIV-infection rates among narcotics users exploded in 1995, jumping from a 1.7 percent in January to 56.5 percent in November. -South Africa, long spared, is now being overrun.

Rbs – Abn Amro Acquisition

Background: ABN AMRO had come to a crossroads in the beginning of 2005. The bank had still not come close to its own target of having a return on equity that would put it among the top 5 of its peer group, a target that the CEO, Rijkman Groenink had set upon his appointment in 2000. From 2000 until 2005, ABN AMRO's stock price stagnated. Financial results in 2006 added to concerns about the bank's future. Operating expenses increased at a greater rate than operating revenue, and the efficiency ratio deteriorated further to 69. 9%. Non-performing loans increased considerably year on year by 192%.Net profits were only boosted by sustained asset sales. There had been some calls, over the prior couple of years, for ABN AMRO to break up, to merge, or to be acquired. On February 21, 2007, the call came from the The Children's Investment Fund Management hedge fund which asked the Chairman of the Supervisory Board to actively investigate a merger, acquisition or breakup of ABN AMRO, stating that the current stock price didn't reflect the true value of the underlying assets. TCI asked the chairman to put their request on the agenda of the annual shareholders' meeting of April 2007.Events accelerated when on March 20 the British bank Barclays and ABN AMRO both confirmed they were in exclusive talks about a possible merger. A consortium of banks, including RBS, Belgium's Fortis, and Spain's Banco Santander also proposed an acquisition and finally won the deal. The RBS-ABN Amro deal is also unusual in that it led to the fall of not just one buyer but two: the Belgian-Dutch bank Fortis was nationalised by the Dutch government last year to avert a liquidity crisis. On 22 April 2008 RBS announced the largest rights issue in British corporate history, which aimed to raise ? 2billion in new capital to offset a writedown of ? 5. 9billion resulting from the bad investments and to shore up its reserves following the purchase of ABN AMRO. On 13 October 2008, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced a UK government bailout of the financial system. The Treasury would infuse ? 37 billion ($64 billion, â‚ ¬47 billion) of new capital into Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Lloyds TSB and HBOS Plc, to avert financial sector collapse. This resulted in a total government ownership in RBS of 58%. As a consequence of this rescue the chief executive of the group Fred Goodwin offered his resignation, which was duly accepted.In January 2009 it was announced that RBS had made a loss of ? 28bn of which ? 20bn was due to ABN AMRO. At the same time the government converted their preference shares to ordinary shares resulting in a 70% ownership of RBS. The 452-page report by the FSA into what went wrong at RBS found that the bank conducted inadequate due diligence into ABN, on the basis of just two lever arch files and a CD. â€Å"The board was fully aware that it could undertake only extremely limited due diligence in respect of the ABN Amro acquisition.However, it ap pears to have treated the fact that such constraints on due diligence are normal in any contested bid as, at least to some degree, entitling it to disregard this impediment. † Once they started to look around ABN’s trading books after the acquisition, they realised that a lot of their businesses, particularly what you would call model businesses where valuations were based on assumptions, were based on forecasts that were super aggressive,† said one senior former RBS trader. The woes at RBS were in stark contrast to its consortium partner Santander, which had acquired businesses that proved relatively simple to separate.Quite how well Santander had done out of the deal, became only too apparent on November 8 when it announced it was selling Antonveneta to Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena for â‚ ¬9bn, â‚ ¬2bn more than the price it had bought it for less than a month earlier. On 9 February 2010, the businesses of ABN AMRO acquired by the Dutch state were legal ly demerged from the RBS acquired businesses. This created two separate banks within ABN AMRO Holdings, The Royal Bank of Scotland and the new entity named ABN AMRO Bank, each licensed separately by the Dutch Central Bank Transaction:RBS (UK:RBS), Santander (US:STD), and Fortis offered 30. 40 euros in cash and 0. 844 RBS share for each ABN Amro share, valuing the Dutch bank at 38. 40 euros a share. The deal was valued at â‚ ¬67 billion. Barclays offer for ABN AMRO was â‚ ¬67. 5bn, â€Å"Our philosophy is to offer as much cash as possible,† said Fred Goodwin, chief executive of RBS, at a press conference. He said the banks were able to offer more cash after performing limited due diligence on ABN Amro. Throwing in more cash heightened the pressure on ABN to back the consortium's offer.Shareholders accepted a 71bn euro ($98. 5bn; ? 49bn) offer to clinch Europe's biggest ever banking takeover and Barcalays withdrew its bidding. Breaking down the costs Under the plan, RBS w ould pay 27. 2 billion euros to get ABN's North American, Asian, Latin American (except Brazil), investment and corporate banking arms. Fortis would pay 24 billion euros to get ABN's Dutch, private-client and asset-management businesses, and Santander would fork over 19. 9 billion euros for ABN's Brazilian and Italian presence.The three banks would share other assets, such as ABN's head office and its private-equity portfolio. They'd sell the stake in Capitalia , the Italian bank that's recently agreed to be bought by UniCredit . The break-up of ABN will involve 4,500 branches across 53 countries and unravelling businesses ranging from cash management operations in Asia to retail banking in Brazil. RBS is expected to take its wholesale and investment banking business and its Asian operations while Santander will get ABN's Italian and Brazilian units, and Fortis its Dutch business and wealth and asset management operations.Royal Bank of Scotland acquired the business most affected by the market turbulence of the sub-prime crisis. Objective: The banks saw a 4. 23 billion euros in cost savings by the end of 2010, and said their profit will be boosted by an additional 1. 22 billion euros of revenue. They said the deal is expected to increase Fortis's earnings per share by 4% by the end of 2010, lift RBS' EPS by 7% and improve Santander's EPS bsy 5%.

Bianca & skill

Although after three months of total immersion of a language, most people should show significant progress, Bianca’s lack of progress does not necessarily mean she has a learning disability. There are a number of possible causes for her lack of progress and a learning disability is only one of them. In Bianca’s specific case, her history should be considered. She was orphaned due to a tragic event and traumatized.This life event at the age of five, the time when reading often begins, could significantly affect her rate of developing reading skills without factoring in the second language. An additional social factor that could affect Bianca’s language and reading acquisition skills could be her recent adoption and move to a new country and environment. Anyone would have some difficulty adjusting to a new family, home, culture and language at the same time.It would undoubtedly be more difficult for a traumatized eight-year-old to adapt to and thrive in a short amo unt of time. The adoptive parents have legitimate concerns about how extensive testing for a specific learning disability during her adjustment to her new life could cause additional trauma. If, however, Bianca does have a learning disability, it would be important to find this out and treat her accordingly. The teacher could do some basic observations in order to get an idea about possible learning disabilities.It would be important to observe her development in other areas such as motor, social, and cognitive. If she is delayed in other developmental areas, the problem could easily be due to her trauma and adjustment. In spite of the school total immersion policy, a few age-level books should be acquired for her in her native language. By listening to her read in her native language a teacher could determine if she struggled in the language she understood as well as she did in English.The teacher could recognize a struggling reader even if she is not familiar with the language. If Bianca reads well in her native language the problem is probably not a learning disability, and the best assistance in her development would be time and attention dedicated to her. If Bianca is discovered to have significant difficulty in her native language, it would warrant the need for additional testing to determine if the problems are due to a learning disability and if a way can be found to help her overcome it.If she does have an actual learning disability, the earlier intervention can be found, the better her chances of effectively developing new language and reading skills. Bianca is a unique child, who should not be caught up in a standard school policy of total immersion. She might require some special attention due to her traumatic past and extensive changes. Some of this special attention could involve some translation and allowing her to do some of her work in her native language in order to help her catch up to her grade level.

Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson Comparison Essay

Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson Comparison Essay Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson Comparison Essay Compare And Contrast The Life And Poetry Of Edgar Allan Poe And Emily Dickinson Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson are both famous writers whose lives greatly contributed to their style of poetry writing. Edgar Poe lost his parents at a tender age of three. Later in life he struggled with alcoholism and depression due to loneliness, which formed the basis of her poetry themes. Emily Dickinson was alone writer who rarely left his home and had no visitors. Poe’s poems are characterized by a common theme of horror because he focused on bringing out the poetic effect of structure and style. Dickinson’s poems were based on the theme of loneliness, domestic lifestyle and sentimentalism. Her poems were characterized by her upbringing lifestyle and the England seventeenth century the metaphysical poems. The two poets works were similar because their poems reflected upon their lifestyle, however, they contrasted whereby Poes poems were based on the theme of horror while Dickinson’s poems reflected about the traditional lifestyle that existed at the time. Emily Dickinson’s poems characterized by at least one or more themes such as death, nature, religion, eternity or love. Dickinson’s poems have varied themes combination or unique poetic voices. Her poems have a great sense of meditation such as There’s a certain Slant of Ligh.. I know that He exists is a poem whose main theme is skeptism. I’m Nobody! Who are you? And Papa above are characterized by embarrassing poetic appeal (Pollack 30). Dickinson’s poetic style was unique that all of her poems exhibit no form of linear development and liner punctuation hence her earlier poems are equally excellent as her later poems (MacNeil614). Dickinson is writing style is characterized by lack of punctual at the end of the line hence creating enjambments that form full stanzas. Her love for dashes a creates hiatus at end or midline (Juhasz 50) Some critics perceive that Dickinson’s works defy convention because they were written during the 19th century when most of the works by women lacked themes and form. Edgar Allan Poe was a reserved poet who wrote gothic poems using a supernatural style that enhanced the melodramatic within his works (Meyer 78). Poe’s poems are characterized by a musical effect of words to the reader’s emotion as in the poem The Raven. Poe’s poems are characterized by a gloomy and threading tone. His poems lean towards tradition while maintaining gothic aspects with melodramatic, strange or evil happenings (Lovercraft 46). Poe’s horror and lack of love themes are believed to have been his personal reflection according to the lonely life that he lived. The theme of death is attributed to his sorrows after he lost his parents at a very tender age of three. Poe and Dickinson’s pomes were characterized by traditional writing styles and they all reflected upon the poet’s lonely lives. Both poets exhibited good poetic writing styles with a theme of death and lack of love. The pomes’ excellent writing style resulted in emotional poems. On the contrary, Poe was an excellent gothic poet whose poems are characterized by death, horror and uncertainty. Dickson’s poems are characterized by themes such as death, nature, religion, eternity or love although they were emotional but not horrific. Do you need quality compare and contrast essay help from academic writers? Just contact our custom writing service and get a custom comparison paper written from scratch!

Discover More About Polyplacophora

Discover More About Polyplacophora The term Polyplacophora refers to a class of marine life that are part of the mollusk family. The tongue-twisting word is Latin for many plates. The animals in this class are commonly known as chitons  and they have eight overlapping plates, or valves, on their flat, elongated shells. About 800 species of chitons have been described. Most of these animals live in the intertidal zone. Chitons may be from 0.3 to 12 inches long. Under their shell plates, chitons have a mantle, bordered by a girdle or skirt. They may also have spines or hairs. The shell allows the creature to protect itself, but the overlapping design also lets it flex in an upwards motion and move. Chitons can also curl up into a ball.  Because of this, the shell provides protection at the same time as permitting the chiton to flex upward when it needs to move. How Polyplacophora Reproduce There are male and female chitons, and they reproduce by releasing sperm and eggs into the water. The eggs may be fertilized in the water or the female may retain the eggs, which are then fertilized by sperm that enters along with water as the female respires. Once the eggs are fertilized, they become free-swimming larvae and then turn into a juvenile chiton. Here are a few more facts that we know about Polyplacophora: The word is pronounced  poly-plac-o-for-a.Chitons are  also referred to as  sea cradles  or coat-of-mail shells. Other names they are recognized by include loricates,  polyplacophorans and  polyplacophores.These creatures are not commonly seen by beach-goers, as they live in rock crevices or under rocks. They can also live on rocks.Polyplacophora are found in cold waters and in tropical waters. Some live in tidal zones and can hold up to air exposure for periods of time. Others can live as deep as 20,000 feet under the surface of the water.They are only found in salt water.  They like to stay close to home and exhibit homing, which means they travel to feed and then return to the same spot.  People eat these sea creatures. They are commonly served throughout the Caribbean islands in places such as Tobago, Aruba, Barbados, Bermuda, and Trinidad. People in North and South America also eat them, as well as those in the Philippines.Similar to a mussel, they have a muscula r foot that allows them to move. Also like a mussel, they have strong adhesion powers and can cling quite powerfully to rocks in the ocean. There are both male and female chitons, and they reproduce externally.They eat everything from algae and diatoms to barnacles and bacteria. References: Campbell, A. and D. Fautin. 2001. ​Polyplacophora (Online), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed August 23, 2010.The Polyplacophora (Online). Man and Mollusc. Accessed August 23, 2010.Martinez, Andrew J. 2003. Marine Life of the North Atlantic. Aqua Quest Publications, Inc., New YorkUniversity of California Museum of Paleontology. The Polyplacophora (Online). Accessed August 23, 2010.