Marketing Plan and Marketing Strategy Free Essays

Complete understanding of the marketplace and very careful planning are very important in developing a business strategy that will guarantee success. Successful businesses have certainly all stated with a very efficient and effective marketing plan. In running a business, marketing plays a very important role. We will write a custom essay sample on Marketing Plan and Marketing Strategy or any similar topic only for you Order Now The business owner must be knowledgeable with the business’ customers, with their competitors, their strengths and weaknesses. These elements along with others should be well-defined in order to develop a well-written marketing plan and should be carried out though effective marketing strategies. Marketing Plan and its Overall Purpose An excellent marketing plan will draw how the business can catch the attention and retain their customers, how it will content with identified competitors and the needed fund to achieve desirable results. The marketing plan should incorporate a thorough market research, location of the business, the targeted group of customers, competition, product or service to put in the market for sale and effective strategies for promotions and advertisements. A marketing plan assists the business to incorporate its total marketing effort. It makes sure of a logical and organized approach to products and services development in order to meet and satisfy the needs of the customers. (Paul, 2007) Conducting a market research is needed to start an effective marketing plan. Through market research, relevant data will be gathered in order to help the business to solve possible problems in marketing. Frequently, the most common way of conducting market research is though survey via direct mail, telephone survey or facilitating a focus group session. Derivative or secondary data is also important to a successful market plan. Studies and reports done by different sectors of the society, like the government, associations and other businesses within the industry can provide very significant data and statistics on the research area. Consumer behavior research as the scientific study of the processes consumers use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products and services that satisfy their needs is very important in market research. Consumer behavior unswervingly affects marketing strategy. This is because of the concept of marketing, the idea that firms are present to satisfy customer needs (Winer, 2000). In writing the marketing plan the business needs to be clear on its objectives and how they will achieve them. A good marketing plan makes realistic, measurable and very clear objectives, which includes deadlines, provides a budget and designates responsibilities. A marketing plan is comprised of an analysis of the current market of the business, the business’ objectives, the business’ key strategies, the business’ actions to attaining their objectives, their allocated budget and the effective timing of entering and positioning in the market Regardless of what type of market research a business will do, the focus should be on gathering sufficient information to find out who the potential customers are, if there is product or service demand for the business, if there are competitors in the scope of the business and how can the business be successful in the marketplace that they belong to. A comprehensive and a well-written marketing plan is very vital to all business undertakings because it illustrates how the business plan to attract and retain customers, how they will compete with their competitors, and what resources will they have available to attain the identified goals of the business. (Paul, 1997) Marketing Strategy and its Various Components In the present intense competition in the marketplace, a strategy that guarantees a coherent approach providing the business’ product or service in a way that it will outperform its competitors is very crucial. On the other hand, by defining the marketing strategy of the business, it is a must to have a well-written methodology for the everyday process of implementing it. There is little value to strategy when the business lacks the resources or the know-how in its implementation. The process of developing a marketing strategy involves the consideration of many factors. Out of those factors some are more important compared with the others. For the reason that each strategy must prioritize some distinct considerations, it is not rational to determine each important factor at a generic level. (Porter, 1998) In developing a marketing strategy, there are two major components, which are: How will the business address the competition in the market How will the business carry out and support their daily operations After selecting the direction which is the most ideal for the overall objectives of the business, the next step is to consider the following factors in order to select a strategy for the offering that will outsell in the market: (Porter, 1998) Pricing After determining the overall objective of the offering and selecting a generic strategy, the business should then decide on the range of closely associated operational strategies. One of these is how will the business price the offering. The pricing strategy is mostly influenced by the business’ necessity for net income and the objectives for stable market control. Promotion In order to sell an offering, the business should effectively promote and advertise it. Place of Distribution The business must choose the distribution channel and the method that will be utilized to get the offering into the close to the customer. Product/Service The business should be scrupulously familiar with the factors that launch products/services as strong contenders in the marketplace. Once the strategy is defined the must use the gathered information to determine whether this strategy will attain the objective of making the business competitive in the marketplace. Marketing Plan and a Marketing Strategy Fitting Together The marketing plan is how the business puts marketing strategy into practice. It is worth emphasizing the main points of the business’ strategy in the plan. The marketing plan functions as a detailed road map for the planning and supervision of all marketing undertakings for a given period. An effective marketing plan must be customized and it may be essential to change a range of sections to meet the changing needs of the business to which it applies. Effective marketing plans start by studying what is presently happening and what has happened in the past. It is unworkable to build up solid plans for the future if the present situation is misunderstood. The marketing plan can then be considered as the practical application of their marketing strategy. In effect, the business will not have a marketing plan without a marketing strategy. Then marketing strategies sets in by being delivered by the business’ detailed marketing plan. Conclusion Operating successful business is not an easy task; it involves a great deal of business knowledge. Marketing is simply all about letting people know about the product or service that a certain business offers, and influencing potential customers to buy or use it. And for effective marketing the business have to let people know about their product or service constantly and to do this, the business will to have to come up with both an appropriate and effective marketing strategy and a marketing plan. References: Paul, S. (2007). Why Need a Marketing Plan?, Legal Zoom Article Center. Porter, M. (1998). Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, Free Press. Winer, R.S. (2007). Marketing Management, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. How to cite Marketing Plan and Marketing Strategy, Essay examples

Uniform accounting standards free essay sample

In order to answer this question one must first identify what the phrases â€Å"accounting standards† and â€Å"financial reporting† refer to. Accounting standards refer to the accounting methods used in an accounting system like the IFRS. Financial reporting refers to the representation of financial information, in order to be uniform the financial reporting must be based on a fixed set of rules, invole complete objectivity and no bias. The IFRS (International financial reporting standards) has indeed helped the uniformity of financial reporting. However, in some cases due to subjectivity involved, created by human judgment, the financial information reported may not be uniform. Furthermore the various methods permitted by the IFRS for the valuation of assets, inventory, and other components, create non-uniform financial reports. Uniform accounting standards are vital for uniform financial reporting as they specify the accounting methods used to interpret business transactions, this in turn creates an agreement on how commercial transactions are to be accounted for thereby creating uniform financial reporting. For example, the IFRS states that assets are to be recorded at the lower of their historical cost or net realizable value on the statement of financial position as a result all assets are reported in a uniform way. There are many other cases that lead to uniform financial reporting, but the main point is the standard rules implemented by the IFRS lead to a uniform way of reporting certain financial information. However there are some aspects of uniform accounting standards that can lead to non-uniform financial reporting. In the case of the IFRS there are some aspects involved that rely heavily on human judgment. This subjective element can lead to varying financial reporting. For example the calculation of fair value is a highly subjective process. Especially for intangible assets like pension costs and share based payments, in both cases their respective fair values will be determined by hypothesizing what a market price would be if there were a market. Though these judgments are based on a large amount of quantitative data there is a large degree of human judgment involved. Similarly when it comes to depreciating an asset a firm has many options, which as will be discussed later pose other problem, under the IFRS an entity can be depreciated by several methods examples being the straight line and the reducing balance methods. The method chosen depends on the person’s perception of how the value of an asset depreciates over time thus creating a subjective aspect. It is worth mentioning however that this subjective component is crucial in capturing the realistic changes in value of an asset. If there were a rule stating that the only method allowed was the straight line though uniformity would be created across financial reporting a degree of realism would be removed for example a piece of agricultural land could degrade exponentially each year suggesting that an alternative method would be more accurate in capturing the value over time. Another problem associated with the IFRS, in relation to uniform financial reporting, is that there are many methods one can use to present financial information. For example under the IFRS companies can employ one of three cost formulas when reporting inventory expenses, specific identification, first in first out, or weighed average cost. Depending on what cost method is used inventory will be reported differently. Firms in many cases take advantage of this flexibility by employing the cost method that reports the cost of inventory at its lowest value thereby increasing profit. This flexibility hampers uniform financial reporting . However the IFRS has enforced other rules that counter the flexibility of others. In the case of costing inventory though the firm has three options to choose from under the IFRS (IAS 2. 26)†an entity must use the same cost formula for all inventories having a similar nature and use to the entity. That is, a multinational company must use a consistent inventory policy election for each class of inventory in all of its worldwide subsidiaries†. Furthermore other accounting systems like the US GAAP allow an additional method of costing inventory (last in last out), which creates even more flexibility and also do not provide any rules like IAS 2. 26 to counter such flexibility. Another important point is that certain firms may employ creative accounting to take advantage of the subjective component as well as the flexibility provided by the IFRS to manipulate certain financial information. This produces non uniform financial reporting, however the use of auditors can be used to hinder this aspect as auditors will present a non bias report of the financial data. In conclusion uniform accounting standards in the context of the IFRS do, to a certain extent, produce uniform financial reporting as they specify the accounting methods used to interpret business transactions, which lead to agreement on how commercial transactions are to be accounted. However in some cases these rules involve a subjective component, which can lead to non-uniformity because different people may have different perceptions of a certain accounting aspect like the fair value of an asset. In my opinion however in the context of the IFRS this subjective element does not lead to a great amount of non-uniformity due to the constant revaluations of components such as the fair value of assets. Furthermore the subjective decisions are based on large amounts of relevant data, which lead to fairly uniform reporting. In the case of the IFRS firms, which use creative accounting to manipulate their accounting information thereby creating non uniform reporting can be hindered by the use of auditors. Finally the various accounting methods permitted by the IFRS though lead to non-uniform financial reporting are opposed by other rules such as the IAS 2. 26. Once again firms that employ creative accounting to take advantage of the flexibility created by the IFRS are hindered through auditors. Therefore I believe that the IFRS does indeed produce uniform financial reporting.

Freedom of Speech Expression Should Be Curtailed free essay sample

This reveals the unfortunate fact that even though almost everyone claims to support freedom of speech, their definition of freedom of speech is quite restricted. This is of course something that not only Muslims do, but almost everyone. In this text I will define the framework to achieve what I like to call absolute freedom of speech. Even it will have a limited restriction, but only because of the current technological level of our society. I believe with sufficient technology absolute freedom of speech will be possible indeed. As far as I concern, there is not a single nation that does not guarantee â€Å"freedom of speech† in their constitution. It is included in pretty much any EU country, in the US, Malaysia, in China and even in North Korea. This shows that the word itself is pretty meaningless, since the custom is to claim to have freedom of speech and still have a widespread censorship system in place. We will write a custom essay sample on Freedom of Speech Expression Should Be Curtailed or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This applies to Western nations too, not only to countries like North Korea where the situation is abhorrent. By freedom of speech in this context I do not only mean speech, but information in any media, be it a sound recording, a picture or a video and also press. The whole point of freedom of speech is to allow even the crazy, disgusting information to be made available. Some people have the skewed view that freedom of speech should only allow the mutually agreed, fun beliefs, and not the disgusting and offending stuff. But such a view is against the whole idea of freedom. This doesnt mean that a support of freedom of speech should agree with beliefs like racism or Neo-Nazism. One has the whole right to fight against an idea or ideology, but the point is to not fight them by making thoughts illegal. The proper way to fight them is with the freedom of expression, rational discussion and debating. German has ironically banned Neo-Nazism, using the same tactics that Nazis used themselves. The restrictions in Western nations are widespread. However, as I said earlier, the information that is banned is often disgusting, but even such information should be allowed. For example, there is a community in the internet who like to collect and share pictures and videos of violent nature, often showing dead people and gory accidents. Even if this is indignant to some, it should be allowed. Some countries have naturally tried to ban it, like German. According to the prime minister of Finland, Matti Vanhanen, such information is illegal in Finland too. Violent materials, like violent video games or movies have often attracted supporters of censorship. Some games in German and Australia are banned when they were deemed too violent. Modifications like green blood are often applied in such countries to get past the censorship board. The reason for this censorship is usually that playing these games makes children violent. Although some studies seem to indicate a small correlation, this is a not proper argument for censorship. The human right for freedom of expression overrides this claim, as freedom as a concept often has a price. If a civilization starts to censorship all material that has a correlation with immoral behaviour, they would have to censor a large chunk of information available, everything from critically acclaimed books to heavy metal songs. Racism is something that also attracts hordes of politically correct censorship supporters. Although such speech is mostly secured in the U. S, if it does not directly call for violence against people, the situation is worse in the EU. An EU directive was recently passed that makes it illegal to incite hatred against a particular race among other things. This law can then be applied to sweep away racist websites and organisations, which already happens in a number of EU countries. Belgium banned a Flemish nationalist party, even when it had a popularity of 24%. The same EU directive also banned â€Å"grossly trivializing genocide†, effectively banning any historical research which might conclude something other than the official truth defined the by the state. Holocaust denial was already banned in many European countries before this law, and now will be illegal in all EU states. An acclaimed historian David Irving was prisoned in Austria for his thought crime of identifying with the Germany Nazi Party, although the real reason was writing a book with wrong conclusions regarding the Holocaust. Ive showed that censorship is widespread in Western nations, but I would like to show one more example of a disturbing information which should be allowed just like any other information you disagree with. For example, take the reasoning behind the banning of violent crimes: â€Å"Violent games should be banned because they create violence†. Now, let’s switch the words for the argument against another type of information: â€Å"Child pornography should be banned because they create child abuse. † Although child pornography is extremely disgusting, it is not to be excluded like a dogma from the freedom of expression. First of all, child rapists should be hunted like any other criminal for their crime of child abuse. This does not mean that the actual video tape of such act should be illegal. It is like saying that a video tape of a terrorist attack should be illegal. Even though it does not matter whether or not these films create child abuse, there is scientific study done that shows the link between pornography and rapes. It turns out that the more pornography is made available, the less rape is committed. Having widespread censorship system to fight child porn also makes it easier to ban other information. First it is child porn, then it is violent material, then it is racism and so forth, the list continues. Finally just offending or criticising someone is made illegal. This is of course called libel, where you cannot make so called wrong facts, and leaving it to the justice system to define the official truth. This is of course used to silence critics of movies, restaurants, religions or large corporations. It is more widespread in the EU than the US, since the constitution of US is based on the idea of freedom of speech. I define absolute freedom of speech to create any information available. A practical example of this would be an internet server, which would serve information to anyone who requests it. To define it this way, things like spamming and shouting in public are not covered by freedom of speech, since it forces people to receive information. The current technological level however creates one restriction. The only restriction that I believe can be accepted is information which ricks the destruction of the whole human civilization. There is no philosophical justification for this, only practical ones. If we want to survive the next 100 years, some information ought to be banned. These might include instructions to create extremely powerful weapons. However, it must be pointed out that this restriction only applies for now. When we will have advanced enough technology, this restriction can be removed, since anyone trying to create those weapons can be prevented using high technology. There are several practical objections made by people against absolute freedom of speech. One is that if freedom is absolute, people could just print fake money. However, I defined freedom of speech only to make information available, so it would be legal to post pictures of money on a website, not to print them and break a contract between the state and a person. Another concern is privacy. I support privacy, and agree that breaking into somebodys house should be illegal. If that does happen and the information leaks out, people should be able to share that information freely though. The breaking into the house is the real crime committed. In a similar objection, a bank worker breaks the law if he uploads private information to his web server, since he had signed a contract with the bank not do that. However, once the information is downloaded it can be freely shared. In practice, it is also impossible to destroy information once it has been leaked out. What then prevents somebody from creating a robot that reads an internet site and acts according to commands posted there? Well, the person controlling the robot through the website is not breaking any law, but whoever created the dangerous robot in the first place is. Some people also say that rich people can just post death threats with a price to his web server. If anyone follows such threats the killer is obviously responsible for the death. To prevent this kind of practice the proper solution is to have better technology to prevent and catch crime, not to restrict freedom of speech. Would it then legal to post a computer virus to a web server? Yes, it would. Whoever downloads the computer virus and activates it is responsible for any damage created by that computer. The real solution is again proper computer security, not restricting freedom of speech. Computer viruses and the source code to them are even now freely available in the net. Freedom of speech is something that most people claim to support, but they are actually supporters of censorship and thought crime. The first kinds of information to be censored are naturally the nasty and disgusting things, not things that the majority of people agree with. A small censorship law unfortunately creates a slippery slope leading to larger censorship, and the progress in the last few decades in Western nations is not something to be proud about. If censorship is not fought against it tends to always increase. Other than that, the right to freedom of expression is recognized as a human right under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognized in international human rights law n the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 19 of the ICCPR states that â€Å"everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference† and â€Å"everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice†. Article 19 goes on to say that the exercise of these rights carries â€Å"special duties and responsibilities† and may â€Å"therefore be subject to certain restrictions† when necessary â€Å"for respect of the rights or reputation of others† or â€Å"for the protection of national security or of public order, or of public health or moralsâ€Å". So what do we have in Malaysia? Article 10(1) of the Federal Constitution grants freedom of speech, the right to assemble peaceably and the right to form associations to every Malaysian citizen but such freedom and rights are not absolute: the Constitution itself, by Article 10 (2), (3) and (4), expressly permits Parliament by law to impose restrictions in the interest of the security of the Federation, friendly relations with other countries, public order, morality, to protect the privileges of Parliament, to provide against contempt of court, defamation, or incitement to any offence. I agree that Freedom of Speech is an unalienable right. I myself have been chastised for my outspoken views on certain injustices. But that is the point, isn’t it. That my speech, while it is my right, should also come with my personal responsibility. In conclusion, I would suggest that we craft a form of Freedom of Expression that takes into account our complex society that is unlike any other. We cannot copy wholesale the models of other parts of the World, as they are not perfect either, especially as there are elements of double standards in other nations as well. There is no such thing as absolute freedom. What we have is relative freedom i. e. freedom governed by law or defined in the context in which the society exists. Freedom of expression and information is very much dictated by the internal or national and to a certain extent the external dynamics of the nations. And it differs from nation to nation, depending whether the nation is homogenous or multiracial.

Kevorkian essays

Kevorkian essays People dont like the prospect of sitting in their apartments alone, brewing a lethal cup of tea, possibly vomiting everything up and never being found until they are totally deteriorated. If people had a choice of having a nice, kind doctor give them an injection and sit by their bedside until they die, wouldnt that be better? crudely stated Psychologist Faye Girsch in the book titled Doctor Death by Michael Betzold. Faye Grisch supports the extremely controversial acts of assisted suicide by the famous Dr. Jack Kevorkian (37). Dr. Kevorkian, the man known as Dr. Death, has helped many patients who wanted to end their terrible suffering by assisting them in suicide with the use of lethal gases and injections. With high tech medicine routinely prolonging the agony of unstoppable diseases, such as cancer, Aids, and many other terminal diseases does the sufferer not have the right to say enough with the pain and peacefully leave this world in a humane way? Dr. Kevorkian believes this and launched a major debate in the 1990s. On one side of the issue, the media and the public looked down on the services of the now famous doctor, claiming that he is not a doctor of medicine, but a murderer of the weak and ill. On the other side is the family and friends of the dying person who wish to spend the last days with this ill individual wanting to share love and memories while the sick leaves this world in peace with out pain and suffering. Dr. Kevorkians followers believe they have a small window of opportunity while the sick individuals is still coherent to make their own decisions and their choice of euthanasia (46). Many people are raised to believe that you would burn in the heated realm of Satan for all the eternity if you were to commit such an act as suicide. Many have studied Dr. Kevorkian and believe against their own religion that he is helping these people greatly. For in ...

The Observed Experience of Cultural Difference Essay

The Observed Experience of Cultural Difference - Essay Example They continuously imitated my gestures in my practices of agreements and bowing while I spoke to them. Because I was a Chinese, they never asked me about my views regarding the topic we were discussing and I realized it was in relation to the issues of power distance. When I asked them for an assistant during the discussions, they would tell me that it was easy to understand but no assistant. This is very different as compared to our Chinese culture whereby we are taught to assist anyone in need of our assistance (Tocqueville, 2009). The teaching style was very different from how we are taught back in China, as we are taught to follow instructions. Nevertheless, the American way, we were taught to be creative. However, I came to understand that it was not the Chinese culture that rooted in me, but my unwillingness to look outside my limitations and adapt to the American way. Regardless of the differences between the two cultures being challenging and overwhelming to overcome, it boosted my adaptive capability to change. Now I am able to observe from the vantage point; two unique, discrete cultures and embrace them. After all, we are different, yet very much the same.

Grant Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Grant Proposal - Essay Example Some children start using these drugs when they as young as thirteen years of age (Freeman, 2001). There has been extensive research on the substance abuse, such as alcohol and drugs, among the adolescent population segment. There are a number of generic factors that the substance abuse is blamed on. Also, there are numerous after effects and problems related to the substance abuse that adolescents have to combat in the aftermath of this abuse. Various reasons have been assumed to influence young people into misusing those substances. It is very important to understand the reasons why adolescents indulge in habit of abusing substances and the stage which they have attained so that we can be able to device means to assist them overcome their habits (Connors,et.al., 2001). Some of the causes may be more than mere curiosity hence may require emotional or material support so as to solve the real problem. Intervention is required both at local and state level to save young generation from deadly effects of abuse of substances. According to Deykin et al. (1987), most of the substances used for the abuse in question are depressants. Therefore, due to their continued abuse, they lead adolescent into a dark, depressive state from which it is very hard to emerge back into a happy healthy lifestyle. It has also been stated that adolescents and children who had been depressed to begin with, were far more likely to indulge in substance abuse as a result this depression. The linkage of depressive disorder and substance abuse in adolescent females was six times higher than it was in the male sample used for this study (Freeman, 2001). It was also found that the patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) were more likely to fall prey to alcohol abuse after the onset of the disorder. However, it may not always be the case with respect to the

Homeland Security Mod #3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Homeland Security Mod #3 - Essay Example Homeland security department has presented comprehensive safety measures that are central in safeguard America from terrorist. The department has set seven procedural ways such as investigating the raise of any problem, setting the goals that are vital in meeting better security objective, the department also has strived in designing security guiding policies (Stojkovic etl and, 2007). The policies set are essential in action planning toward the county security, implementing and monitoring follows the action plan. After implementation and monitoring are fulfilled evaluating the outcome is analyzed for better future decision-making. Finally, reevaluating and reviewing of the whole procedure is done to enhance assessing effectiveness and efficiency of the new programs and policies. The new programs and policies have to a large extent enabled homeland security to thwart terrorist occurrences within the US. In 2010, National security approach homeland security made a coordination among the federal, states and local government with the aim of preventing, protecting US against ant threat (Stojkovic etl and, 2007). Finally, homeland security in 2011 domestic approach for counterterrorism has enabled this security agency to develop defensive effort in ensuring a homeland that is safe, secure and strong in overcoming