Forensic Psychology An Introduction - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 1 Words: 353 Downloads: 6 Date added: 2019/08/05 Category Psychology Essay Level High school Tags: Forensic Psychology Essay Did you like this example? Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind (The Oxford New Desk Dictionary and Thesaurus, 2009). The subfield of psychology that I am interested in investigating further is forensic psychology. The reason I am interested in this subfield is because it applies to all areas of the law and the management of crime and criminals, through professional practices, based on the scientific and clinical study of human behavior patterns and experience (Canter, 2010). Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Forensic Psychology: An Introduction" essay for you Create order Since psychology is the scientific study of the human mind, forensic psychology ties into the larger field by narrowing the study to behavior patterns that, for one, allow law enforcement and other investigative agencies to narrow down a list of criminal suspects. Psychology became a recognized field of study in Germany in the mid nineteenth century amid much controversy (Fuchs Milar, 2003, p.1). Watson (2005) suggested that psychology move away from being defined as a science of the mind and consciousness and redefine itself as a science of behavior. The American Psychology-Law Society was founded in 1969 and when a group of members expressed the desire to create a means for certifying clinical forensic psychologists, they garnered financial support from the organization for development of a separate organization, the American Board of Forensic Psychology (Brigham Grisso, 2005, p.398). Forensic psychology is used to help law enforcement agencies determine if a crime has been committed; if so, what crime; create the criminal profile; get an affidavit for arrest warrant; and to finally arrest the subject (Boylan, 2011). I believe that the model put forth by Boylan can be modified by political scientists to help Congress pass legislation that would make the Electoral College more effective. One topic I will cover in my investigation is the ways that political scientists can modify the model put forth by Boylan to help reform the Electoral College. Another topic I will cover is why the Electoral College needs reforming. I will also discuss why it is better to reform the Electoral College versus eliminating it and just going by the popular vote. I hope to develop a method of reform of the Electoral College, through research, that will benefit American voters.

A Brief Note On The Health Care System - 1080 Words

The U.S Health Care System is very complex industries that are filling with lots of challenges that will need to be fixing and restructure before comparing themselves with other develop countries. Health Care system is referred when it have various features, components and services, the U.S Health Care delivery system it’s not a true system unfortunately, the reason is the delivered system continuously it’s undergoing with periodic changes regarding concerns with cost, access and quality. Their principal aim is to provide affordable health care to every man, woman and child in America. Unfortunately it’s not going to happen any time soon due to expansion in the healthcare access while the costs and maintaining expected levels of quality is a huge challenge. Multitudes of government agencies are involved with the finances of health care, medical and health services research and regulatory oversight in various aspects of the health care delivery system (National Center for Health Statistics, 2006). The mixture between the public and private involvement in the delivery of the health care gave the following results: A. The large multiplicity of financial arrangements that had enables individuals to pay for health care services. B. Numerous insurance agencies employing varied mechanisms for insuring against risk C. Multiple payers that make their own determinations regarding how much to pay for each type of services D. A large array of settings where medical services areShow MoreRelatedA Brief Note On The Health Care System904 Words   |  4 Pagesphysicians. 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Gardenia Marketing Target Strategy Free Essays

string(44) " baking techniques and product development\." COLLEGE OF BUSINESS SECOND SEMESTER 2009/2010 SESSION BPMM 2023 MARKETING MANAGEMENT MARKETING PLAN : Gardenia Bakeries (KL) Sdn. Bhd. PREPARED FOR : DR. We will write a custom essay sample on Gardenia Marketing Target Strategy or any similar topic only for you Order Now NURSIHA ALIAS PREPARED BY : KONG PEI LING126800 CHEAH KAH WAI128794 NG LAY HONG128803 LIM PEI SIAN128807 SUBMISSION DATE: 15th MARCH 2010 1. Executive Summary 4 2. Situation Analysis 7 2. 1 Market Summary 7   Target Markets 2. 1. 1   Market Demographics Demographics Environment Economic Environment Natural Environment Technological Environment Political Environment 2. 1. 2 Market Needs Price Quality 2. 1. 3 Market Trends 12 2. 1. 4 Market Growth 13 2. 2 SWOT Analysis 14 2. 2. 1 Strengths 14 2. . 2 Weaknessess 15 2. 2. 3 Opportunities 16 2. 2. 4 Threats 18 2. 3 Competition 19 2. 4 Product Offering 22 2. 5 Keys to Success 23 2. 6 Critical Issues 23 3. 0 Marketing Strategy 24 3. Mission 25 3. 2 Marketing Objectives 25 3. 3 Financial Objectives 25 3. 4 Target Markets 26 3. Positioning 26 3. 6 Strategies 27 3. 7 Marketing Mix 28 3. 7. 1 Product 28 3. 7. 2 Pricing 30 3. 7. 3 Promotion 31 3. 7. 4 Place 33 3. 8 Marketing Research 35 4. Financials 35 4. 1 Break-Even Analysis 36 4. 2 Sales Forecast 38 4. 3 Expenses Forecast 40 5. Marketing Control 41 5. 1 Contingency Plan 43 5. 2 Recommendation 44 5. 3 Conclusion 45 5. Appendix and References 46 1. Executive Summary Gardenia is a strong brand in Malaysia. Gardenia has produced a lot of kinds of breads such as the latest one-Butterscotch, Breakthru, Delicia, Twiggies and many others. In order to satisfied different level of customer, every Gardenia product has its own special features. For example, Gardenia Breakthru breads is not only bread, but consumers have the perception that it is a healthy food. It contains 38% less carbohydrates, 7. 3x more dietary fibre, 15% less calories, 59% more proteins, low gylcaemic index (42), low gylcaemic load (6. 5), prebiotic properties, low fat, no trans fat and no added sugar. The price of Gardenia breads is low and almost the same as others competitors. In fact, the pricing of Gardenia bread is controlled by the government. This is because of the ingredient of the bread, flour, which is one of the products that are under the control of the government in Malaysia. Gardenia makes widespread distribution either in urban or rural area to make sure everyone can have their breads. As all of us know, Gardenia baked products are well known by everyone. Gardenia has over 20000 outlets throughout Peninsular Malaysia. Their wide varieties of products are available in almost all hypermarkets, supermarkets and even neighbourhoods stores. Here, Gardenia seeks for market share through intensive distribution, a strategy in which they stock their products in as many outlets as possible. Their breads and cakes can be conveniently obtained by consumers wherever and whenever consumers want them. Gardenia implements mass promotions. For instance, it uses mass media such as television to promote its products and to introduce new products to the customers while ensuring customers to remember about their existing products. Gardenia has used advertising strategies to promote its products. Among the various alternatives media, television advertising and newspaper are mostly used by Gardenia. In short, major advertisement of Gardenia’s bread have established Gardenia slogans as part of its popular culture, such as â€Å"It’s fresh! It’s good! So good†¦you can even eat it on its own! †. Brief History In 1969, an American named Horatio Sye Slocumm was sent by International Executive Service Corporation (IESC) to East Malaysia to start a bakery. Mr. Slocumm brought with him 35 years of baking experience with one of America’s leading chain of bakeries. Gardenia was born. Gardenia Bakeries (KL) Sdn Bhd rolled the first loaf of bread off its line in 1986. Within a short period of four years, it became the bread market leader with an astounding 99 percent brand recall rate and 80 percent top-of-mind recall. Gardenia’s range of products grew and evolved through the years, becoming better and better with each step. Leveraging on its brand strength, Gardenia produces variety of baked products to satisfy consumer’s demands. Gardenia has four factories which locate at Shah Alam, Subang, Puchong and another one. The factory at Puchong is specified in producing new products. Gardenia has over 20,000 outlets throughout Malaysia, excluding Sabah and Sarawak. It does not have any outlets at Sabah and Sarawak. In addition, Gardenia owns more than 500 delivery vans in Peninsular Malaysia. Lastly, these are the details for Gardenia Bakeries. †¢ Toll-free line: 1800-88-3228. †¢ Address: Lot 3, Jalan Pelabur 23/1, 40300 Shah Alam, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia. †¢ Phone number: 03-55423228 †¢ Fax number: 03-55423213 †¢ Email address: customer_service@gardenia. com. my †¢ Website: http://www. gardenia. com. y/ Achievement 2001: Best supplier 2001 (Category: Bread), Dairy Farm Giant Retail 2002: Quality Management Systems ISO 9001, SIRIM QAS International Sdn Bhd 2002, 2003/2004, 2005: Superbrands Awards for 3 consecutive terms, Superbrands Malaysia 2006: Superbrands Consumers’Choice Award, Superbrands Malaysia 2004: National Award for Creativity and Innovative, Malaysian design Technology centre 2005: MS 1480: 1999- Food Safe ty according to Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) System, SIRIM QAS International Sdn Bhd 2005: Universal Integrated System- ISI2020, Research Institute of Standards in Islam 2006, 2007: Low Glycaemic Diabetic-Friendly, Diet friendly Seal, Glycemic Research Institute, Washington D. C. 2007: Highly Commended Product Award, Malaysian Institute of Food Technology (MIFT) 2. 0 Situation Analysis Gardenia Bakeries (KL) Sdn. Bhd rolled the first loaf of bread off its line in 1986. Within four short year, it become the bread market leader. Gardenia has for many years been at the forefront of producing fresh, tasty and yet nutritious bread. Gardenia’s flagship bread has improved through the years, becoming better and better each step of the way. Today ,it is known as Original Classic and is enriched with 14 vitamins and minerals. To meet the changing expectation of today’s customers, Gardenia is constantly adopting industry innovations, new baking techniques and product development. You read "Gardenia Marketing Target Strategy" in category "Essay examples" 2.1 Market Summary Gardenia possesses good information about the market and knows a great deal about the common attributes of the most prized customer. This information will be leveraged to better understand who is served, what is their specific needs are, and how Gardenia can better communicate with them. Target Market The target markets of Gardenia Bakeries Sdn. Bhd are customer market, reseller market, and also government market. The customer market consists of individual and household while reseller market consists of retailer, supermarket (Carrefour Tesco), and convenience stores (7-Eleven and stores at petrol station) and finally the government market which includes the hospitals. 2.1.1 Market Demographics The profile of the typical Gardenia customer consists of the following : demographic environment, economic environment, natural environment, technological environment, political environment. Demographics Environment Demography is the study of human populations in terms of age, density, gender, location, occupation, race, size and other statistics. Basically, demographic environment has major implications for business. This is because the demographic environment involves people, who play an important role in making up the markets. Generally, populations are becoming more educated. The rising number of educated people will increase the demand for quality products especially when health is highly concerned nowadays. Therefore, Gardenia has come out with Gardenia Breakthru, a health-conscious product. Gardenia Breakthru is formulated with beta-glucan that can help to lower cholesterol levels and stabilize blood glucose levels. Economic Environment The economic environment consists of factors that affect consumer purchasing power and spending patterns. Consumers at different income levels will have different spending patterns. For upper-class and middle-class consumers, they have a better standard of living. They are willing to go for the good quality products. Consequently, although food, such as bread, is just daily basic needs, they tend to select more sophisticated products. For instance, consumers with higher income will choose more expensive bread with special features such as Toastem. On the other hand, the underclass consumers usually make further consideration before buying to reduce their expenses when purchasing. So, they may possibly buy normal white bread as their daily meal. Thus, the economic forces will also affect a company’s marketing plans. Natural Environment The natural environment involves the natural resources that are needed as inputs by marketers or that are affected by marketing activities. Nowadays, the world environmental pollutions have reached an alarming level. Hence, marketers should be aware of several trends in the natural environment especially the deteriorating pollution. For example, manufacturing company like Gardenia commonly produce toxics gases and chemical wastes during their daily production. They also use non-biodegradable plastic bags as packaging materials. All activities leads to the pollution of the environment. So, to be environmentally responsible, the company should develop better solutions to reduce pollutions. However, it needs vast fund to do so causing the company to face financial burdens and indirectly posing threat to the company. Technological Environment Technological environment consists of the forces that create new technologies, new products and marketing opportunities. The recent technology boom has created a new digital age. For example, the explosive growth in computer, telecommunications and information has had a major impact on the ways companies deliver value to their customers. For Gardenia, they apply computer systems to manage its operation such as tracking inventories, recording accounting transactions, and storing customer’s profiles. The usage of information technology has smoothened and fastens the process of the commercial activities. This enables the company to become more competitive as well. Thus, in this contemporary, if manufacturing company such as Gardenia ignores latest technologies, their business may decline. Political Environment The political environment composed of laws, government agencies, and pressure groups that influence or limit various organizations and individuals in a given society. Basically, marketing decisions are strongly affected by the developments in the political and legal environment. The increasing emphasis on ethics and socially responsible actions encourages for-profit organizations to implement their social obligations. For instance, Gardenia has made positive response and they take this responsibility by supplying bread free of charge to old folk homes, disabled people centres and other charitable organizations. By doing so, a better public image of the company can be built. Indirectly, this also help the company to gain exposure to more marketing opportunities. . 1. 2 Market Needs Gardenia has produced a lot of kinds of breads such as the latest one-Butterscotch, Breakthru, Delicia, Twiggies and many others. Every product has its own special features. Price The price of Gardenia breads is low and almost the same as others competitors. One of the examples is the white breads of Gardenia (jumbo size) which have more slices but at a cheaper price. Qu ality For the company’s designing marketing plans, marketing management takes other company groups into account. For example, Gardenia Bakeries Sdn. Bhd makes Research and Development to be the top of Malaysia’s favourite bread, and also innovators. Gardenia invests heavily in RD. Its latest product, Gardenia Breakthru, demonstrates its commitment to giving only the very best to their customers. Gardenia Breakthru passed extensive clinical tests at the Glycemic Research Institute in Washington D. C. and are certified Diabetic-Friendly and Diet-Friendly. This latest result reaffirms Gardenia Breakthru’s extraordinary qualities. 2.1.3 Market Trends Nowadays consumers are generally health conscious and prefer bread with nutrients and less sweet. Gardenia Malaysian believes strongly in ensuring that our consumers enjoy the finest quality and freshest bread daily. We take our Gardenia Assurance very seriously and consumers of Gardenia products are aware of our commitment to the highest quality, food safety and freshness. To cater to Malaysians’ changing demands and lifestyle needs, Gardenia’s marketing and RD teams are constantly researching and exploring new product innovations. For example, we were the first in Malaysia to identify an unmet demand in the market for low glycemic index bread to meet the special dietary needs of diabetics as well as for weight management. Even though awareness of glycemic index and its correlation to our blood sugar level (low glycemic index foods result in slow release of sugar in the blood and is hence diabetic-friendly) is still in the infancy and as such, low glycemic products are still considered a niche market, figures show that diabetes in Singapore is unfortunately on the upward trend and this is a group of people whose needs are not sufficiently addressed. For example, for Gardenia Breakthru breads, it is not only a bread, but consumers have the perception that it is a healthy food. It is consists with Beta Glucan which helps to lower cholesterol, this has been clinically tested and certified Diet Friendly by the Gylcemic Research Institute, Washington D. C because it has Low Adipose Tissue Fat-Storing Capacity and will assist our body in having better control over obesity. It is also certified as Diabetic Friendly which helps to maintain stable blood sugar level that typically follows a meal. It is also have 38% less carbohydrates, 7. 3x more dietary fibre, 15% less calories, 59% more proteins, low gylcaemic index (42), low gylcaemic load (6. ), prebiotic properties, low fat, no trans fat and no added sugar too. The market trend are showing continued growth in all direction of healthy lifestyle. 2.1.4 Market Growth The increases in the cost of raw materials and energy have been remarkable this year. What strategy did Gardenia International utilize to reduce the impacts of these costs on profitability? How successful have you been in implementing such measures? Have you had to increase the prices of your products this year? Over the past two years, there have been continual upward price pressures especially for flour and fuel, which we have tried to absorb initially. This has led to a great increase in the costs of operations and therefore a review of the pricing of the products. As the market leader in the bread category however, Gardenia is mindful of the fact that many Malaysian depend on us for their daily bread and as such, we have tried to contain the price increase to so as to minimize the impact of the rising inflationary costs amongst our fellow Malaysian. 2.2 SWOT Analysis The following SWOT analysis captures the key strengths and weaknesses within the company and describes the opportunities and threats facing Gardenia. 2.2.1 Strengths The strengths of Gardenia in Malaysia are that it has brand strength in marketing. Gardenia has built up a very strong brand in Malaysia, it almost generic to the product categories. Since Malaysian is mind-set, when they think about bread, they think about Gardenia. As we can seen its product is being sell in whole Malaysia, which is nationwide. Everyone can get it easily from grocery shop, minimarket, supermarket and hypermarket. Besides that, Gardenia also has the strength in product innovation, as we can seen that it continuously introducing new product and keep bringing more choices to the customers. Moreover, Gardenia, in their move to develop health bread has teamed up with a group of a researchers attached to a medical faculty from a local university, to formulate bread using special functional ingredients. On the other hand, Gardenia is involved in social work. Every day, it deliver complimentary fresh bread to over 45 charitable organizations like old folks home, orphanages and centers for the disabled, eight of which have been on Gardenia’s delivering list since 1991. To continue maintain this strength, Gardenia should do more promotion through media such as newspaper, radio and television. The advertisement should contain creative and funny element so it could easily attract more customer. To make the product fully nationwide, Gardenia should increase more and more retailer in the future in order to reach its product to every Malaysian. 2.2.2 Weaknesses The weakness of Gardenia is about its packing. Until now, the baked products that produce by Gardenia are still weak in its packing, which is not enough attractive. Conversely, the packing of High 5 Bread is more attractive if compare with Gardenia. Here are some sample and comparison between Gardenia and High 5 according to the packing. By looking to the pictures above, it is obviously that the packing of High 5 are more attractive than Gardenia. The packing of High 5 is more attractive with its colorful plastic bag and the vivid design. To overcome this problem, Gardenia should put more effort on the packing. For example, Gardenia can distribute survey form to the public by asking them what kind of packing could more attractive. After that, Gardenia could hire some designer to design the packing that they desired. Why packing is so important? It is because for first buyers who never know about the product, they will buy the product based on the packing. That is why Gardenia should improve its packing in order to gain competitive advantage. 2.2.3 Opportunities Increase awareness of health and fitness Nowadays, the number of Malaysian suffer from diabetes are increasing day by day. Gardenia is working closely with the National Diabetes Institute (NADI) on the â€Å"Fight Against Diabetes† programme, a major educational drive to bring public awareness on the prevention and management of diabetes. And now Malaysian has more knowledge in nutrient and they are emphasize the nutrient contains in food and the calories of food. Before they going to buy the food in package they will look at the label of contains nutrient in the package to help them choose food which is more wisely. They will watch for these key terms and know what they mean. †¢ â€Å"Free† has the least amount of a nutrient. †¢ â€Å"Very Low† and â€Å"Low† have a little more. †¢ â€Å"Reduced† or â€Å"Less† always means the food has 25 percent  less of that nutrient than the reference (or standard) version of the food. Malaysian people are more concern to the calories, fat, cholesterol and so forth they taking in the food daily. For example, they try to eat food less salt, sugar and oil to keep them healthy. Thus, Gardenia will keep working hard to produce more healthy bread in order to fulfill consumer’s need. Increase number of working youth Increasing numbers of working youth in Malaysia cause an increasing demand in convenience for everything for life. For example incensement for demand for fast-food (KFC, Pizza Hut and Mc Donald) instant drink( soft drink, Milo, Soya and so on), online shopping and so on. This is because they are too busy in working. For this reason, Gardenia hopes to bring a convenient and healthy meal for these busy groups. No matter how busy is the life, craving for healthy food is a need. While busy with life, Gardenia is always standby to provide a convenient and healthy meal. 2.2.4 Threats Threats that facing by Gardenia is: Future / potential competition from an already established market participant There are few bakeries companies which compete with each other in Malaysia. Besides the strong competitor, High 5, Gardenia is compete with some smaller bakeries which is family owned, structured and are usually started as a single shop before extending to more outlets. These family bakeries however, do not only emphasize on the bread products, but also produce higher margin delicacies such as cakes and cookies. These bakeries operate in the city where the flow of people is high and most importantly, where the more affordable working group is. Among the few local confectionary retail chain shops are the King’s Confectionary, which started in 1973 in Kuala Lumpur and now with 49 retail outlets, the Season’s Confectionary and Bakery, the Angel Cake House etc.. Threat matrix Probability of occurrence Competitors develop superior new product line. |Decrease Malaysian people eating bread. | |Major prolonged economic depression. | | |Higher cost |Legislation to reduce foreign product. | HighLow 2.3 Competition Strong Competition Two national local bakeries, which cater to various regions, namely Gardenia and Stanson Bakeris, were dominated the Malaysian bread industry at present. These two companies hold approximately 76% of the retail market in 2002. They compete between themselves through prices, product characteristic, distribution choices, and even communication. Investment in advertising in incredibly high and the market segmentation never ended. †¢ Stanson Bakeries (High 5 Bread) Stanson Bakeries and its marketing unit are subsidiary companies of the Stanson Group under the Silver Bird Group Bhd. The Stanson Bakeries manufactures the European variety of breads, namely High 5. The group, which started in 1999, is currently contributing about RM46 million, close to 90% of Silver Bird’s turnover in year 2004. The Stanson Bakeries, has 250 trucks plying the peninsula’s North-South expressway 24hours a day, to reach their outlets overnight, on a daily basis. Their strong distribution network has enabled the company to supply more than 8000 retail outlets throughout the country in the year 2004. High 5 breads are made from the finest selected ingredients and baked to a unique European recipe, High 5 has the balance of 5 main nutrients with no artificial preservatives that our body needs that give us the energy, growth and good health to live a full life. Wholesome, well-balanced and nutritious, that’s the secret recipe of High 5 bread. High 5 bread is freshly baked everyday from state-of-the-art single largest stand-alone bakery line in ASEAN using a unique European Recipe that makes your favorite bread softer, tastier and healthier. It contains all of the five essential nutrients from each of the five important nutritional groups – carbohydrates, protein, calcium, vitamins and irons. It also has folic acid, which is recommended for vitality and growth of our body, especially for expecting mothers and babies; and is cholesterol and bromated free for good health. The High 5 Promise – Soft Tasty high quality bread which emphasizes good health and nutrition. High 5 bread is produced by integrating state-of-the-art food processing technologies with professional management techniques. High 5 cares to give you the best in bread, beginning with our Unique European Recipe, so from taste to texture, consumer can tell the difference in every bite. That’s why every High 5 bread has essential nutrients that contribute to a healthy, well-balanced and nutritious diet for the whole family A bread museum called the High 5 Bread Town is built by The Silver Group in their RM100 million new plant premises. It present the history of bread making that spans more than 500 years ago, from Ancient Egypt, through the Iron Age, the Roman and Viking periods, right through the industrial revolution of the present day. It uses colorful murals and interactive displays with sound to give lively hands-on experience to visitors. It is claimed to be is the first of its kind in the world. It even portrays bread in futuristic years, in the form of pallets and pills to be taken during a spaceship expedition. It is fascinating with ideas being so well transformed for educational purposes. In October 2004, Stanson Bakeries announced their official acquisition of licensee for the manufacture and distribution of Roman Meal breads from The Roman Meal Company in the US (best known globally for their nutritional and health bread over the century). The following is the list of the product by Stanson Bakeries :   High 5 Cream Roll (flavors : chocolate, vanilla and corn)   High 5 Double Cream Roll ( flavors : chocolate vanilla, espresso cream, Blueberry cream, apple cream)   High 5 Fruit Roll (flavors : raisin cherry, raisin,apricot walnut). High 5 Filled Bun ( flavors : ikan bilis, spicy tuna, classic sardine, coconut, red bean, kaya and chocolate) High 5 High Grain   High 5 Roti Kok 2.4 Product offering The first loaf of bread was rolled by Gardenia in 1986. Through the years, Gardenia leveraged on its product strength and until now, it produces a variety of baked products to satisfy customer’s demand. The following are the products that produce by Gardenia: Gardenia Twiggies (flavors : cream dream and choc-a-lot) Gardenia Toast’em (flavors : raisin oatmeal and apricot raisin wheatgrain) Gardenia Summerset Cottage Wholegrain Fibremeal Gardenia Squiggles (flavors : funky strawberry and choco-malto) Gardenia Quick Bites (flavors : double chocolate and banana) Gardenia Classic and Classic Jumbo Gardenia Muffin Cip Coklat Gardenia Frankfurter Rolls Gardenia Delicia Soft Roll (flavors: milky chocolate, coffee cinnamon, butter toffee and black sesame) Gardenia Delicia Sambal Bilis Gardenia Delicia Pandan Butterscotch Bread Gardenia Delicia Hazelnut Choco Spread Gardenia Delicia Cream Roll (flavors: vanilla, kaya,jagung and chocolate) Gardenia Delicia Coffee Caramel Bread Gardenia Delicia Chocolate Spread Gardenia Delicia Choco chip Raisin Gardenia Delicia Butterscotch Gardenia Breakthru Formula Mutliwholegrain Fibremeal Gardenia Bonanza Big Saver Big Value 2.5 Keys to Success â€Å"So good you can even eat it on its own.† The phrase is synonymous with Gardenia. Gardenia moved with their demands as consumers getting more conscious about nutrition over the years. It started manufacturing loaves with no trans fat, no cholesterol and chockfull of vitamins. More than that, they make that extra healthy choice plan to see on its nutrition labels. As an understanding manufacturer, Gardenia is continuously to fulfill customer’s need. . 6 Critical Issues In year 2008, there was a critical issue that rose between QAF Limited and LB (Lian Bee) Confectionery Sdn. Bhd. , pursuant to section 45 and 46 of the Trade Marks Act 1976 for an order that the Trade Mark Registration No: 01005742 for â€Å"Squiggles† in Class 30 in the name of QAF Limited be expunged and removed from the Register of Trade Marks Malaysia would be success or not. Before this, QAF Limited and Gardenia entered into a Licensing Agreement dated 12. 9. 1996 whereby QAF Ltd granted G ardenia Bakeries the right to use trade marks on bread and bakery products produced using the Gardenia Bakery System. This includes the registered trade mark â€Å"Squiggles†. In this case, the court held that LB (Lian Bee) Confectionery Sdn. Bhd. is dismissed with costs and the application by the company is failed. As a conclusion, the trade mark â€Å"Squiggles† is still belonging with Gardenia Bakeries. 3. Marketing Strategy The key to the marketing strategy of Gardenia is focus on satisfied consumers’ demand by introducing the different kinds of product, eating healthy life style and also the Halal status of Gardenia in Malaysia. Gardenia’s range of products grew and evolved through the years, becoming better and better with each step. Leveraging on its brand strength, Gardenia now produces a variety of baked products to satisfy consumers’ demands. Gardenia also stress about the eating healthy life style by introducing the Gardenia Breakthru bread with the statement– eat well and stay well with Gardenia Breakthru, the diabetic-friendly bread that’s better for you. While for the Halal status of Gardenia bread, a special Halal Committee is formed to scrutinise every aspect of the Halal regulations and to ensure that all requirements are stringently adhered to. As an added measure to control and safeguard of Halal status, Gardenia has appointed an independent consultant whom Gardenia could refer to in ‘syariah’ related matters. 3.1 Mission Gardenia as a food company that manufactures a wide variety of breads has the mission of becoming â€Å"The Premier Company in the Baking Industry. † Being a consumer-focused and branded food company, Gardenia is singularly driven and aligned behind delivering superior consumer value through providing consumers with superior brands. The main objective is to project that Gardenia trademark means value and it is respected all over Asia. By delivering uncompromising excellence in product quality and service, Gardenia consistently drive the market forward, setting standards for the industry to follow. At Gardenia, the science of baking an art is made. 3.2 Marketing Objectives First, to ensure the aroma and taste of the bread are consistently being maintained on the shelf. Second, while exploring new market, current customer loyalty is retained. Third, within four short years, Gardenia became the bread market leader with an astounding 99 percent brand recall rate and 80 percent top-of-mind recall. 3.3 Financial Objectives First, maintain a significant research and development budget to spur future product development. Secondly, continue heavy promotion to further increase the company’s profit margins. 3.4 Target Markets The target markets of Gardenia Bakeries Sdn. Bhd are customer market and reseller market. The customer market consists of individual and household. Usually the customer market will buy only in small quantity but with a large number of customers, a great sell could be achieved. While for the reseller market consists of retailer, supermarket (Carrefour Tesco), and convenience stores (7-Eleven and stores at petrol station). The reseller market usually characterise as an assist to the customer market. They help to distributed product and make it available anytime anyway. 3.5 Positioning Competitors are those who serve the target market with similar products and services against whom a company must gain strategic advantage. Now, Gardenia Bakeries Sdn. Bhd. has 70% share market in the bread’s industrial and it is a leader in this industry. This is because Gardenia has positioned their offerings strongly against competitor’s offerings in the minds of the consumers. For example, it has its own song to make consumers remember its bread which is â€Å"So good†¦ You can even eat it on its own†. As we know, the demographic environment involves people, who play an important role in making up the markets. Generally, populations are becoming more educated. The rising number of educated people will increase the demand for quality products especially when health is highly concerned nowadays. Therefore, Gardenia also comes out with Gardenia Breakthru, a health-conscious product that strongly positioned in the markets. Gardenia Breakthru is formulated with beta-glucan that can help to lower cholesterol levels and stabilize blood glucose levels. 3.6 Strategies There are a few strategies that have been use by Gardenia to penetrating its own bread market. Generally, Gardenia focuses on three aspects to delivery its product value to the customer where as marketing intermediaries, suppliers and public. Marketing intermediaries help the company to promote, sell, and distribute its goods to final buyers. There are a lot of marketing intermediaries like reseller, the physical distribution firms and the marketing service agencies. Gardenia uses intermediaries’ distributions and also direct selling method to offer its product to the final buyers. The company uses the resellers to distribute its products in order to make sure that their products can be delivered to the customers. Its start its bread delivering operation at 4 a. m. every working day so that customers are able to get its breads early in the morning. The customer can get the products easily in any retails without going to the main warehouse. Gardenia also uses the physical distribution firms to help them to stock and move goods from their main warehouse to final buyers, wholesalers and retailers. For supplier’s aspect, Gardenia knows that suppliers form an important link in the company’s overall customer value delivery system. They provide the resources required by the company to produce its goods and services. So that Gardenia put an important insight to the supplied resources. For example, due to the short-lasting validity of flour, Gardenia prefers to purchase its resources from the local suppliers to ensure that the resources received are fresh. While for publics, a public is any group of people that has an actual or potential interest in or impact on an organization’s ability to achieve its objective. In order to achieve its objective, Gardenia is using different public media for different motive. For example it uses television to promote and also to ensure consumers remember about Gardenia’s products, be it new products or existing products. Gardenia also encourage to having a factory visit where Gardenia called it ‘Bread Time Story Tour’. The free factory visit has attracted over 25,000 visitors annually since 1991. More specifically, Gardenia even owns a theme song that we familiar heard from the broadcasting of advertisement. 3.7 Marketing Mix Gardenia marketing mix consists of the following approaches to product, pricing, distribution, and promotion. 3.7.1 Product Product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need while service is any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Products that are marketed are divided into two, which are consumer products (convenience product, shopping product, specialty product and unsought product) and industrial products (materials and parts, capital items and supplies and services). Gardenia has produced a lot of kinds of breads such as the latest one-Butterscotch, Breakthru, Delicia, Twiggies and many others. Every product has its own special features. This is because of the customer buying behaviour; customers who make frequent purchase, little planning, little comparison and low shopping effort before make purchasing. Price; the price of Gardenia breads is low and almost the same as others competitors. One of the examples is the white breads of Gardenia (jumbo size) which have more slices but at a cheaper price. Distribution; Gardenia make widespread distribution either in urban or rural area to make sure everyone can have their breads, and also promotions; Gardenia implements mass promotions. For instance, it uses Mass Media such as television to promote its products and to introduce new products to the customers while ensuring customers to remember about their existing products by using radios.. Referring to the product level, the core benefit represents what the buyer is really buying. The core benefit provided by Gardenia Bakeries is to make their consumers have the feeling that what they are consuming is not only bread, but the experience. For example, for Gardenia Breakthru breads, it is not only a bread, but consumers have the perception that it is a healthy food. It is consists with Beta Glucan which helps to lower cholesterol, this has been clinically tested and certified Diet Friendly by the Gylcemic Research Institute, Washington D. C because it has Low Adipose Tissue Fat-Storing Capacity and will assist our body in having better control over obesity. It is also certified as Diabetic Friendly which helps to maintain stable blood sugar level that typically follows a meal. It is also have 38% less carbohydrates, 7. 3x more dietary fibre, 15% less calories, 59% more proteins, low gylcaemic index (42), low gylcaemic load (6. 5), prebiotic properties, low fat, no trans fat and no added sugar too. The actual product represents the design, brand name, and packaging that deliver the core benefit to the customer. For this company, the actual products are all kinds of Gardenia breads. 3.7.2 Pricing Price refers to the amount of money charge for a product or service. It is the sum of all the value that consumers give in order to gain the benefits of having or using the product and services. Price has been the major factor that influences buyer choice and it remains as one of the most important element that determine a firm’s market share and profitability. Besides, price is the only element in the marketing mix that produces revenue and it is also a part of a company’s overall proposition. More importantly, it plays a key role in creating customer value and building customer relationships. Theoretically, price competition is the number one problem faced by many marketing executives. Yet, we get to know in our interview that Gardenia did not compete by using their price, they make customer feel worth by providing bread with high quality. It also focused on the product differentiation, such as creating new products in order to attract customers. In fact, the pricing of Gardenia bread is controlled by the government. This is because of the ingredient of the bread, flour, which is one of the products that are under the control of the government in Malaysia. The producers are unable to change the price as they like and they must follow the price fixed by government. Despite of this limitation, Gardenia will also consider several major aspects when setting the price. The first aspect that is taken into consideration is the product cost. They will ensure that the price set is able to give profit to the company and at the same time, maximizing customer satisfaction. Gardenia will also consider about the overall marketing strategy and market demand. The price for Gardenia bread must be reasonable and affordable by everyone and it must also the same regardless of what location the bread is sold in Malaysia. 3.7.3 Promotion Promotion is one of the four key aspects of the marketing mix. Gardenia realizes that a good promotion is vitally important to create growth for the company. In the early years, a lot of efforts have been put into the promotion of the bread, but once consumers have accepted it they will be loyalty to the product. Promotion includes advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, publicity and public relation. Advertising consists of paid personal communication through various media with the purpose of promoting the products and is used by marketers to reach target markets with messages designed to appeal to business firms, profit organizations, or ultimate consumers. Gardenia has used advertising strategies to promote its products. Among the various alternatives media, radio commercial, television and newspaper are mostly used by Gardenia. Radio is the most common medium used to remind existing customers about Gardenia products while television advertising is usually used to promote new products. The advantage of television advertising is that marketers are able to reach local and national markets. Television advertising offers the advantages of mass coverage, powerful impact on viewers, repetition of messages, flexibility and prestige. That is all the reason why Gardenia chooses television to advertise their products. Newspapers act as an effective way to countdown new product for Gardenia because it can reach specific target market. In short, major advertisement of Gardenia’s bread have established Gardenia slogans as part of its popular culture, such as â€Å"It’s fresh! It’s good!† Besides that, sales promotion is one of the ways Gardenia use in promotion. In October 2003, a marketing drive was launched to promote an existing product of Gardenia. Consumers were required to collect four empty packaging of the Gardenia bread to redeem one free loaf Gardenia bread. The campaigns were successful in recreating awareness for these products and have l ead to significantly increased sales. In addition, Gardenia is also using publicity and public relation. It has been actively involved in charitable causes. For example, Gardenia delivers complimentary fresh bread to over 45 charitable organizations like old folk’s homes, orphanages and centres for the disabled each day and these charitable organizations have been on Gardenia’s delivery list since 1991 while the Twiggies Wagon has been dispensing free Twiggies to schoolchildren during special events and functions since 2002. Moreover, as a responsible corporate citizen, Gardenia also helps in fighting the obesity epidemic in Malaysia. It is working closely with the National Diabetes Institute (NADI) on the â€Å"Fight Against Diabetes† programme, a major educational drive to ring public awareness on the prevention and management of diabetes. Another example is that Gardenia has opened their factory doors to the public in order for them to share their journey, aspirations and progress with customers since 1991. Now, they welcome over 25,000 visitors annually and take them on a personal tour of Gardenia bread factory a bsolutely free of charge. The visitors will be given free sample of bread during the factory tour. 3.7.4 Place Currently, Gardenia Bakeries (KL) Sdn Bhd has covered the domestic markets all around the Peninsular Malaysia. However, Gardenia’s baked products are only available in Peninsular Malaysia. This is because the delivering process to East Malaysia is time-consuming and the products are no longer fresh. Hence, East Malaysia which includes Sabah and Sarawak are not within Gardenia Bakeries’ distributed areas. As all of us know, Gardenia baked products are well known by everyone. Gardenia has over 20000 outlets throughout Peninsular Malaysia. Their wide varieties of products are available in almost all hypermarkets, supermarkets and even neighborhood stores. Here, as we can notice, Gardenia seeks for market share through intensive distribution, a strategy in which they stock their products in as many outlets as possible. Their breads and cakes can be conveniently obtained by consumers wherever and whenever consumers want them. Actually, their success in manufacturing products and making them available to final customers requires building and managing a continuously evolving value delivery network. What is value delivery network? It is a network that made up of the company, suppliers, distributors, and ultimately customers who collaborate with each other to improve the performance of the entire system. This network consists of both ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’ partners. Upstream partners are the set of firms that supply the raw materials, components, parts, information, finances, and expertise in order to create a product. On the other hand, the downstream marketing channels or distribution channels partners are made up of such as wholesalers and retailers. For Gardenia Bakeries, they work closely with their upstream partners such as flour suppliers to avoid problem of shortage of raw materials, which will critically affect their daily production. Normally, to maintain good relationship, a win-win situation must be created. For instance, Gardenia will always make payments to their suppliers on time. Besides that, Gardenia also forges marketing channels, especially retailers, such as hypermarkets, supermarkets and convenience stores, to act as intermediaries to help distributing their baked products available for consumption by the final consumers. In a final word, all firms are unable to deliver value to customers by themselves. Instead, they must cooperate with other firms in a larger value delivery network. Of course, by doing so, they will be able to attain the goal of creating superior customer value. 3.8 Marketing Research Gardenia prides itself in being the leader in its field by introducing several firsts in the bread industry. Gardenia is the first in the country to use a unique automated G-lock on the packaging to seal its bread products and retain freshness. This plastic clip is placed on the â€Å"neck† of the bread package with the â€Å"Best Before† date and retail price printed on it. Gardenia breads also packed in colourful and informative packaging displayed in an upright fashion unlike the conventional flat display. With this new marketing research, Gardenia will achieve the market penetrating status. In addition, adhering to the international policy of keeping only fresh stocks on the store shelves, Gardenia deliver freshly-baked breads to the stores on the same day they are produced. With an extensive distribution network, Gardenia delivers everyday, seven days a week. For the unsold breads, it will be pulled out from store shelves and replaced with only newly baked ones during every day of delivery. 4.0 Financials This section will offer the financial overview of Gardenia Company related to marketing activities. Gardenia will address break-even analysis, sales forecasts, expanse forecast, and indicates how these activities link to the marketing strategy. The marketing plan is built in these truths: 1. The marketing budget is based on a percentage of sales value, currently the value is set at 25%. 2. Building a strong brand and brand loyalty is a critical to the success of Gardenia Company. 3. The understanding of the need for strong branding and emphasis on marketing gives us a competitive edge over others bread market. 4.1 Break-Even Analysis Year |2006 |2007 |2008 |Average | |Revenue (RM) |330,662,232 |383,411,553 |472,896,480 |395,656,755 | |Variable Cost(RM) |218,680,453 |257,605,123 |324,577,200 |266,954,259 | |Fixed Cost(RM) |46,803,668 |50,615,867 |60,134,777 |52,518,104 | |Total Cost(RM) |265,484,121 |308,220,990 |384,711,977 |319,472,363 | We use the three years average consideration to estimate the Gardenia break-even point: [pic] [pic] [pic] = 161,445,140 Assumed that Gardenia Company has average 100 million of unit sales, [pic] = RM1. 29 per unit [pic] = 40,711,709 Table: Break-even Analysis ————————————————————————————————– Break-even Analysis: Average Yearly Units Break-even 40,711,709 Average Yearly Revenue Break-evenRM161,445,140 Assumption: — Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€- Average Per-Unit Revenue RM 3. 96 Average Per-Unit Variable CostRM2. 67 Estimated Monthly Fixed Cost RM 52,518,104 [pic] Gardenia Company is capable of supporting high gross margins. Variable costs in relationship to per-unit revenues are low. Fixed costs to produce Gardenia products equal almost RM52, 518,104. Fixed cost include payment of debt, facilities lease cost, and other costs that Gardenia must maintain on a monthly basis. These costs are fixed and aren’t impacted by an increase or a decrease in sales. Based on the graph above, we can notice that the break-even analysis for these three years indicates that RM161, 445,140 with 40,711,709 unit sales will be required in yearly sales revenue to reach the break-even point. Gardenia will make profit if the company reach above the break-even point or loss money when below the break-even point. Such break-even analysis helps Gardenia by showing the unit volume needed to cover the costs. If production capacity cannot attain this level of output, then Gardenia should not launch this product. However, the unit break-even volume is well within Gardenia’s capacity. 4.2 Sales Forecast Gardenia feels that the sales forecast figures are conservative. Based on the past trend views, the revenue of sales had almost 16% growth rate from RM331 million to RM383 million in year 2007. It continues increase by 23. 34% to RM473 million in year 2008. We have an idea sales will growth from year to year. Thus, we can predict a growth rate of 25% in sales for the next four years which is year 2012. It will steadily increase sales if the advertising budget allows. [pic] Based on the Gardenia’s income statement from year 2006 to 2008, the overall performance of Gardenia Company is quiet good that shows the increases of the net income especially in year 2008 which had increased by 28. 23% compare with the year 2007. Cost of goods sold was increasing within years 2006 to 2008 which increased by 17. 8% in year 2007 and 26% in year 2008. As a result, the gross profit of Gardenia was declining based on its sales of each year that gives 33.87% in year 2006 to 31. 36% in year 2008 but the company still having the increasing of gross profit. The gross profit was increasing in year 2007 by 12. 35% and 17. 89% in year 2008. Operating profit was increasing by 15. 41% in year 2007 and 28. 09% in year 2008. However, the company should more concern about the proportion of the net income gained by its sales which had declined from 7. 77% to 7. 21%. It may be caused by the increases of marketing and distribution expense in these three years that had contributed the largest percentage in company expenses especially in year 2007 which is almost 24% of the its sales. Therefore, Gardenia should control the expenses of the company to earn more profit for the future years, 2012. 4.3 Expenses Forecast Based on the Gardenia’s income statement from year 2006 to 2008, the total expenses are shown as below: |   |2006 |2007 |2008 |2006-2007 (%) |2007-2008 (%) | | | | | | | | |Administrative expense | 7,438,655 | 8,142,244 | 9,944,788 |9. 6 |22. 14 | |Marketing and distribution expenses | 82,335,562 | 91,234,568 | 104,093,079 |10. 81 |14. 09 | |Other expenses | 666,333 | 736,678 | 887,934 |10. 56 |20. 53 | |Total expenses | 90,440,550 | 100,113,490 | 114,925,801 |10. 70 |14. 80 | | | | | | | | |Revenue 330,662,232 |383,411,553 |472,896,480 | |Total expenses on sales (%) |27 |26 |24 | |Marketing and distribution expenses on |25 |24 |22 | |sales (%) | | | | Gardenia had contributed their expanses wisely which had shown the decreased in the proportion of total expenses from 27% to 24% based on the sales each year. According from year 2006 to 2007, total expenses had increased by 10. 7% and continue increased by 14. 8% in year 2008. The marketing budget will consistently approximat ely around 25% of sales. One of the strongest strengths is marketing and brand building capabilities, and the aggressive marketing budget is a reflection of the importance to attribute in marketing activities. 5.0 Marketing control We must evaluate Gardenia marketing efforts continually to ensure its performance is on track against Gardenia’s objectives. Objective 1: Produce high quality products Gardenia tends to produce the best quality products for their customer. They will maintain their quality through: i. JAKIM Certification All Gardenia products are certified Halal by JAKIM. Regular factory inspections are conducted by officers from JAKIM to monitor and ensure that the overall operations are following the guidelines set by them. ii. PPIM Gardenia works closely with Persatuan Pengguna Islam Malaysia (PPIM) for the interest of Muslim consumers. PPIM determines Gardenia’s status as a Muslim Friendly Organization(MFO). iii. ISI 2020 Gardenia’s close collaboration with PPIM has also resulted in significant accolades like the ISI 2020 certification by the Research Institute of Standards in Islam (RISIS). This certification acknowledges Gardenia’s corporate and management philosophies, principles, cultures and practices that reflect the Islamic principles which are universally accepted and profoundly outlined by RISIS in the system. Objective 2: To build loyal customer Produce good quality products to customer and Gardenia are require a more personal relationship with customer. Every relationship takes on additional significance as the sales potential of each customer increase. Satisfied customer needs will make them rebuy Gardenia product when they are familiar with the product. Objective 3: Fulfill customers satisfaction Gardenia should always alert the latest the changes of the product in the market. After determine the kind of the products, they should update their product according to the market trend to attract a large number of customers. 5.1 Contingency plan 1. Decrease in Sales If the sales number decline, Gardenia must take the step send an offer product that is related to what they bought. Offer a discount for them who purchase in a big amount. 2. Ineffectiveness of promotion strategic If the promotion strategic fail to attract more customers and increase sales performance, the way that Gardenia can use is arrange all the promotion strategic. They can send out the brochures to the masses about their product. This will encourage them to buy our product. 3. Retaining customers Customers evaluate every aspect of the product. This includes time of purchase, product disposition, the purchase experience and so on. This results in the consumer’s satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the product and purchase decision. They must do researches about customer’s taste to get feedback from customers and putting the feedback into action. 5.2 RECOMMENDATION Promotion Gardenia should continue their heavy promotion to further increase the company’s profit margins. It is suggested that Gardenia perform online marketing and publish their advertisement through online networking. Due to a very high demand of bread by the students in the universities, Gardenia can take this opportunity to increase its volume of sales by conducting a campaign on its products and implementing Gardenia Campus Plan. This is an innovative idea to attract more business and support from the students and staffs by entitling the holders to special discount on purchase. Besides that, Gardenia can introduce a new bonus-link system where every purchase are recorded into the purchasers’ account using member cards and frequent purchasers are given varieties sample of breads and other baked products for free. This encourages bread consumers to purchase Gardenia products and indirectly promote the new products of Gardenia. Place For place, it is recommended that Gardenia expands their baked products’ markets to more places. For instance, they can consider distributing their breads and cakes to East Malaysia. To do so, Gardenia can expand their business to Sabah and Sarawak by setting up their own manufacturing factory over there. Thus, not only residents from West Malaysia but that of East Malaysia will also have the opportunities to purchase fresh baked products daily. 5.3 CONCLUSION After investigate from Gardenia Company, we discovered that this small medium company, Gardenia, has been obtaining the excellent respond from its customers in the Gardenia’s products. With the help of a variety of promotion sales and effective pricing strategies, Gardenia is able to have its own market of its products in Peninsular Malaysia. Furthermore, Gardenia has a strong team work in carrying out all the activities and tasks to achieve these satisfying results. In the past few years, Gardenia has been Read also: Reed Supermarkets: a New Wave of Competitors How to cite Gardenia Marketing Target Strategy, Essay examples

Plessy v Ferguson Essay Example For Students

Plessy v Ferguson Essay The moment the first slave was brought to America a ball was set in motion that one day somewhere and somehow a distinction between races had to be dealt with. The Civil War helped to make a stand against enslavement. A few years later in Plessy v. Ferguson another step was taken to give blacks equal but separate treatment and access to public facilities. After taking a giant leap into the future, fifty-eight years, we have another landmark case. In Brown v. Board of Education, the separate but equal law was revised to bring the races together in the same public facilities with access to the same public resources. The decision of Brown released congress from the restraints that they had been under with the previous decisions made by the Supreme Court. Congress was now able to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibited discrimination on the basis of race. Quotas were instituted to minimize the discrimination that had been taking place. With quotas comes reverse discrimination. In Bakke v. Regents of the University of California came the dismissal of quotas in schools. Bakke challenged the University for letting black students into school with lower qualifications. Quotas are an unfortunate necessity to help incorporate blacks into the mainstream workforce. The decisions in Plessy and Brown are similar because of how the decisions affect the group instead of the individuals. The Court is continually ruling in regard to race instead of the individual. If the Constitution is truly color blind, then we would not have these distinctions between classes when the rulings are made. Each ruling by the Court should be done on an individual basis and by the merits of that particular individual instead of the color of ones skin. The only reason the court rules in favor of Brown is because the implications go beyond just the individual affected, the ruling will affect the entire black race. The effects of the Brown case go a lot further than the immediate case. During the sixties the civil rights movement encouraged the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This Act was already in the works due to the decision in Brown. Brown released the flood gates which held back blacks from equal opportunities. Before this decision blacks were in a psychological caste syst em. Even though they had the â€Å"same opportunities† as whites the mere fact that they were forced into separate quarters only thirty years after the release of their enslavement made them feel as if they were in a lower class. A lot of people say that if the blacks feel that way, then that is their own fault. The same people forget that the Constitution is color blind and would not understand why we have to have separate quarters in the first place. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964, case after case was brought before different courts throughout the land to test the limits of the law. In 1972, Moose Lodge No.107 v. Irvis was brought before the Supreme Court. Irvis felt that he should be allowed to join a private club because the liquor licence was in limited supply in the city based on per capita, and the licence is supplied by the state. The government can not sanction racism and, according to Irvis, would be doing so by issuing a liquor licence to Moose Lodge No. 107. The right of a private club to choose its own members is one of the main reasons behind having a private club to begin with. To allow the government to invade the private sectors through an insignificant means was denied and the Supreme Court put their foot down and set some boundaries for civil rights activists. .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1 , .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1 .postImageUrl , .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1 , .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1:hover , .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1:visited , .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1:active { border:0!important; } .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1:active , .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1 .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uc3f992e58186e88a1dccbd8de3e540a1:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Tuesdays With Morrie EssayAgain in 1984 in Palmore v. Sidoti, we have a case where the Civil Rights Act of 1964 will attempt to set some boundaries with bi-racial relationships and the placement of kids affected in the process. The welfare of the child has always been the courts number one priority when kids are involved. When Linda Sidoti moved in with a Negro, Anthony Sidoti sought custody of their child based on the child’s best interest. The question that was brought before the Supreme Court was if the child living with a Negro might inflict private biases from the child’s peers. This is one of the few cases that the child’s best interest is not wh at the Court was considering. According to the Fourteenth Amendment, government is to do away with classifying people according to their race. If we classify someone according to their race it will do more harm in the long and short run than the private biases the child in question will inflict. Both of these cases have followed suit to Plessy and Brown in the fact that even though it seems that the rulings are having a direct effect on the people involved in the case, each case is addressing an entire group of people and establishes standards and boundaries. In Bakke v Regents of the University of California, we have a landmark reverse discrimination case that influenced education as a whole. Bakke was rejected from graduate school even though he had superior scores than many of the African-American applicants who were admitted. Bakke challenged the University of California and overturned the quota system that had been established in public universities across the nation. The University of California held on to the belief that black people should have access to black doctors. However, if the University were to go on a sole merit system then the number of special admittees would diminish along with the aforementioned belief. This belief was quickly altered by the Supreme Court with their decision against the University. The Court’s understand group rights and they address the individual rights through these group rights. Unfortunately the Supreme Court feels a necessity to answer individual questions by addressing entire groups. Everybody has needs and wants however, it is almost impossible to take each individual and create different criteria for them because the situation is a little different then situations that preceded it. Brown was addressed to a group to answer questions to a whole nation. Each case is the same in that every outcome has addressed an audience that fits the general mold that has been created in that particular case. The opinion of the Supreme Court has established an outline that serves as a guideline for lower courts. The opinion is recognized as the law of the land. That is the reason that the opinion of the Court must be directed towards a group when deciding a case. The case will be referred upon as actual law and must fit a broad group of people. When Brown was decided Pandora’s Box was opened. Many trials have taken place that would not have if that case had been decided differently.With Plessy the opinion of the Court was very clear, you could almost say it was black and white. After Brown was decided, many questions were yet to be answered. Many random questions about the limits of the opinion were going to be exasperated. With every decision by the Supreme Court, Pandora’s box begins to close a little more each time. Bibliography:

Eugenicscybernetic Improvement Of Human Essay Research Paper free essay sample

Eugenics/cybernetic Improvement Of Human Essay, Research Paper The article OBuilding a Better HumanO in USA TodayOs June 1990 issue discusses the tendency in medical specialty towards mechanical implants. This is merely one of the many ways in which worlds have used civilization to get the better of biological inadequacies. The article is really brief and superficial ; it raises many inquiries and offers few replies. Two phrases used in the article that are of peculiar involvement are Ocreate a # 8230 ; new speciesO and Ogo beyond our familial biologyO. Both of these statements contain elements of truth and misinformation. To state that computerized or mechanised devices used extra- or endosomatically would make a new species is, biologically specking, farcical. A human being will still hold 23 braces of chromosomes incorporating the familial codification for a two-footed archpriest with a extremely advanced cardinal nervous system regardless of any replacing or augmentation of his or her variety meats. We will write a custom essay sample on Eugenicscybernetic Improvement Of Human Essay Research Paper or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It is non likely that this what the writer intended. His abuse of the word OspeciesO, nevertheless, alludes to an interesting possibility. Tool usage has been a factor in human development since H.habilis and rather likely much longer. The ability to make, usage, and innovate tools is a trait that has been selected for in hominian populations. The gradual addition in hominian cranial capacity and specialised manus construction are illustrations of morphological alterations partially due to this fact. It could be said so that new species ( Internet Explorer. H. Erectus, H. Sapiens ) were OcreatedO in portion by the usage of tools. With the coming of controlled fire usage and rock tools to interrupt down tough nutrients, the big dentitions of H.habilis and H.erectus were no longer selected for. An illustration of the biological tendency of Oif you donOt utilize it, you lose itO or more competently Oif it is non selected for, you can reproduced without itO. If mechanical or transplanted variety meats were used to widen OunfitO humansO life-spans through generative age, systematically and for an highly long period of clip ( 1000s of old ages at least ) , it is imaginable that the replaced or augmented variety meats would diminish in size and/or efficiency. These important alterations in the human cistron pool could perchance ensue in a different species from modern H.sapiens. It should be noted that in the clip required for this to happen a important alteration in the human genome could originate through infinite other factors. The statement that mechanized implants will let worlds to Ogo beyond our familial biologyO is true merely in that all cultural inventions allow us to make so. The split antler Osun glassesO of the Inuit, Victorian ear horns, Ocontact lenses with rapid climb vision, illumination scattergun hearing aidsO, and revolving telescopes all allow us to comprehend the universe more clearly than with our eyes and ears entirely. It could besides be argued that none of those are beyond our biological science because it is the human cardinal nervous system that allows for all of our civilization and engineering. The article seems to hold a really naif optimism about this tendency. This is non untypical ; people normally prefer short term solutions to jobs and engineering is about ever seen as the best manner to work out human jobs. There are, nevertheless, built-in jobs in this or any effort to OimproveO humanity. Possibly the greatest job involved is the instead narrow and volatile position that people have of what constitutes human betterment. The ideal homo in the American head of 1994 would probably be physically fit ( ie. 4-8 % organic structure fat ) , somewhat above norm in intelligence, and independent but capable of organizing strong emotional bonds with every populating thing on Earth. Compare this with the rotund rational OubermenschO of 19th century Europe or the wholly inactive OsageO of Chinese Taoist thought. Most civilizations would hold a great disagreement between the ideal adult male and ideal adult female. One could conceive of a modern research worker seeking for a computerized implant or familial technology technique that produces OsensitivityO for work forces and another that produces OindependenceO for adult females. Our attitudes and perceptual experiences are excessively influenced by our cultural values to be of much usage in such an enterprise. Historically, efforts to better humanity have ranged from the amusing to the tragic. The eugenics motion of the early twentieth century is a good illustration. Charles Davenport, a outstanding American eugenicist Opro vedO that the features of indigence, criminalism, and the ability to be a naval officer are all familial traits ( Hogan p.130 ) . Eugenicists successfully lobbied 20 provinces to authorise sterilisation of people in prisons and mental infirmaries ( Ibid. ) . The tallness of the motion for Ogood birthO in Nazi Germany was the Ogood deathsO in the concentration cantonments. The basic defect in most eugenic steps is that they attempt to diminish the variableness of the human genome. It is that variableness that best insures the endurance of any species. A point could be made to boot that any cultural device which enables the endurance of people through generative age who otherwise would be selected against will decrease the viability of the human genome. Taken to the extreme, this position would connote that basic rock tools and perchance linguistic communication are sabotaging human kindOs fittingness ; they allow for the endurance of those who could non last without them. Culture has been tied to human development for 1000000s of old ages and is clearly an of import factor in human- kindOs success. This does non, nevertheless, dismiss the possibility that we are sabotaging our biological viability through our cultural inventions. It is interesting that by this standards Whites would be OinferiorO as they have had better medical specialty for a longer clip than most of the remainder of the universe. Medawar ( p.108 ) states that this position Oseems to contemplate the quandary of modern adult male in crude milieus without ( modern medical specialty and engineering ) ; but it is non clear why such an exercising should be supposed to be informative.O This is a valid point but it would be highly naif to presume that the degree of engineering in our society can non diminish. Modern human society is going progressively more complex and interdependent on a planetary graduated table. It is trusting on decreasing dodo and atomic fuels, rapidly going over-populated, and confronting a assortment of other societal and environmental jobs. It is non alarmist or even a great mental spring to presume that there is a important opportunity of a societal dislocation or prostration within the following century ; possibly widespread plenty to badly restrict the usage of engineering. In such a circumstance those people who were trusting on implants or similar engineering would decease perchance by the 1000000s. To this Medawar would probably reply that in that instance, the cistron pool would unbend itself out at that clip, and he would likely be right. Dobzhanksky summed the job up good when he stated OIf we enable the weak and the deformed to populate and propagate their sort, we face the chance of a familial dusk. But if we let them decease or endure when we can salvage or assist them we face the certainty of a moral twilight.O Finally, the issue should be addressed as to who will command these implants. Constantly, as with much of human resources, the reply is private industry. Large corporations seldom have the involvements of humanity as their main motive. For illustration, the widely used wheat and maize strains devised by private industry can non turn without crude oil based fertilzer and can non viably reproduce for more than three coevalss. Quite likely anyone with a mechanical implant would be entirely dependent on private specializers for care or fixs, perchance for his or her very life. Given the long term disadvantages and short term advantages of mechanised implants, I believe that their usage would be contraindicated for the human species. This is non to state that they should be outlawed or any such extremist steps as 1 must swear that the bulk of humanity would see them every bit desirable as the writer seems to. Beginnings Curtis, Richard K. 1982 Development or Extinction: The Choice Before Us Pergamon Press Inc. Elmsford, NY Leakey, Richard E. 1977 Origins Rainbird Publishing Group Ltd. London Medawar, P.B. 1959 The Future of Man Shenval Press, London Richardson, W. Norman and Thomas H. Stubbs 1976 Evolution, Human Ecology, and Society Macmillan Publishing Co. , Inc. New York Dobzhansky, Thodosisius OMan into Superman. The Promise and Peril of the New GeneticsO Time April 19, 1971 Hogan, John OEugenics RevisitedO Scientific American June, 1993

Caudipteryx - Facts and Figures

Caudipteryx - Facts and Figures Name: Caudipteryx (Greek for tail feather); pronounced cow-DIP-ter-ix Habitat: Lakesides and riverbeds of Asia Historical Period: Early Cretaceous (120-130 million years ago) Size and Weight: About three feet long and 20 pounds Diet: Plants Distinguishing Characteristics: Primitive feathers; birdlike beak and feet About Caudipteryx If any single creature has conclusively settled the debate about the relationship between birds and dinosaurs, its Caudipteryx. The fossils of this turkey-sized dinosaur reveal startlingly birdlike characteristics, including feathers, a short, beaked head, and distinctly avian feet. For all its resemblance to birds, though, paleontologists agree that Caudipteryx was unable to flymaking it an intermediate species between land-bound dinosaurs and flying birds. However, not all scientists think that Caudipteryx proves that birds descended from dinosaurs. One school of thought maintains that this creature evolved from a species of bird that gradually lost the ability to fly (the same way penguins gradually evolved from flying ancestors). As with all dinosaurs reconstructed from fossils, its impossible to know (at least based on the evidence we now have) exactly where Caudipteryx stood on the dinosaur/bird spectrum.

Identify the federal law that governs Protected Health Information Term Paper

Identify the federal law that governs Protected Health Information (PHI) and briefly discuss the elements of compliance. Describ - Term Paper Example In all, there are 18 identifiers that must be followed implicitly in order to avoid a breach of confidentiality. (Jones, 2009) Under HIPAA patients have the right to be educated regarding their health information and a clear definition of what will be done with that information, who has access to it; how it is stored, communicated, and distributed. They also have access to their health information with the right to amend it, obtain copies of it, and know the history of to whom it has been distributed. Before health care information can be released from the provider, the patient must sign an informed consent stating where the information will be distributed. This release must be specific and timely; health information requested for non-routine uses requires a separate consent to be signed by the patient. This authorized consent may not be forced or coerced; complaints with regards to breach of confidentiality can be filed with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Servic es. (Senior Health Forum, 2011) One of the largest claims filed to date involves a Seattle firm, Providence Health System.

Argumentive Thesis Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Argumentive - Thesis Example The object of this thesis is to diecuss the statement "global warming is not a threat to planet earth†, by a study of both sides of the picture. Thesis: Global Warming Is Not A Threat To Planet Earth Though the proponents of the theory of global warming consider it a threat to the very existence of planet Earth and all its inhabitants, and the same is being propogated by governements and non government organisation; private and public associations; media and politicians; there is another group of scientists strictly adhering to the theory of â€Å"global warming: a natural phenomenon†, The scientists insist that global warming has been a continuous phenomenon irrespective of human activities. Moreover, they refute the global warming threat on the basis of lack of credibility of the techniques routinely used in the science of climatology; which they stress are ill equipped to study and understand the intricacies of weather. One of the major evidences in favour of global w arming being a natural phenomenon is that it has been in existence much before the start of industrial revolution. The concept of hot and cold being relative, if the planet is hot today, there has to be a point of reference; i.e. in comparison to what or when. If we compare the earth temperature to that of 1970s, or to the period spanning 1200 A.D. to the end of 19th century (commonly known as little ice age); yes the planet is warmer (Bradley & Jones, 1993). But in comparison to 1000 A. D. or to more recent 1930s, it is cooler. Infact, since the end of last ice age, 10,700 years ago, there have been seven major phases, four warming and three cooling; one of which is, present warming phase. The melting of glaciers often reported as evidences to global warming threats too can be accounted for by this warm phase or the interglacial phase. The rise in temperature in this phase; 1.5.F is same as that in 1850. Next, greenhouse gases contribute to the phenomenon of global warming in a ver y small measure: 0.2-0.3%, the bigger factors being astronomic, atmospheric and tectonic. The evidence for this comes from the fact that of the CO2 being produced in the atmosphere only a small fraction 3% is manmade. Same holds true for the rest of the green house gases as well; only 18% of methane, 5% of nitrous oxides are manmade (Wallington et al., 2004). So even the most vigorous of human activities can in no way significantly intensify global warming, nor can a complete cessation of activity inhibit it. While its true that a slight warming has been occurring for the past 50 years, but this warming has been mostly noted for night time and winter temperatures. Moreover the warming trend has been more effcetive in the Northern cooler latitudes. This warming like the phase preeceding the little ice age (1000 A.D.) is proving to be beneficial (Bradley & Jones, 1993). On one hand it is levelling the temperatures by making colder regions warmer, on the other hand, it is responsible f or providing longer days, longer seasons and higher CO2 levels for plant growth. This can easily be translated as higher productivity in general, and more agricultural productivity in particular. In light of the above arguments

Health Administarion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Health Administarion - Essay Example The lowest level of the hierarchy, physiological needs, should be the first to be met by an individual. An organization should ensure that employees have access to adequate shelter, food, and clothing. When the physiological needs have been adequately satisfied, safety of individuals will be the next on the priorities. In the case where an individual is residing within the organization’s premises, the management should ensure that they are secure, both financial and physically. Financial security will imply management undertaking strategic measures to ensure they invest in activities that will secure their future financial obligations (Miller and McBrewster 86). The need for belonging is an interpersonal need. Individuals need to be loved and have a cordial relationship with their families and friends. The organization should provide their employees time to intermingle with their family members. Human beings need to feel a sense of acceptance and belonging in the society. The fourth need is self esteem. Individuals need to have s stable self-esteem and self-respect in the society. As such, the management should issue measures that will necessitate competency, mastery, freedom and independence, and self-confidence. Instigating these measures to its employees, the management will ensure that self-esteem needs are realized. Finally, the topmost level in the hierarchy is self-actualization. Individuals strive to achieve these needs. This level will be achieved when the other needs such as physiological, safety, belonging, and self esteem are

The Zero Based Budgeting Accounting Essay

The Zero Based Budgeting Accounting Essay Zero-based budgeting avails a better approach to dealing with the drawbacks associated with incremental budgeting. Unlike in incremental budgeting, zero-based approach does not necessarily start from the previous years budget level; instead, the existing operations are evaluated and continuance of the operation or activity ought to be justified on the basis of its utility and its need to the company. Zero-based budgeting pursues to justify resource allocation within individual budget scheme, irrespective of prior period budgets. The budget in this case is initially allocated as zero unless the manager responsible makes the case for resource allocation. Every plan in this case is justified as per the total cost and the total benefits and past performance is not in any way referred as a building block. The goal of zero-based budgeting is to re-evaluate and re-examine all programs and expenditures for each budgeting cycle by computing workload and effectiveness appraisals so as to verif y substitute levels of financing for each program or expenditure. Zero-based budgeting approach avails some distinctive advantages compared to traditional incremental budgeting such as: it allocates financial resources based on planning requirements and results; and, in order to attain efficiency, zero-based approach encourages managers to search for alternative operation plans. However, despite the outlined advantages, zero-based approach also manifest some disadvantages; first, since the budgeting process is sophisticated, the process can consume a lot of managerial time and may appear to be too drastic a solution for the task at hand; second, short-term benefits may take precedence and obscure long-term planning as the latter is less dominant within the planning process; and, third, since the new budget is launched every year, there may be annual conflicts over budget allocation. In order to circumvent these drawbacks, especially concerning the managerial time required, one alternative may be to conduct a rolling budget every year and carry out zero-based budgeting perhaps three to five years, or in cases where a considerable modification that occurs within operations. This compromise may aid to weed out waste and inefficiency, especially within a period of intense competition and reengineering that is characteristic of the mobile phone industry. Indeed, zero-based budgeting is an effective means of controlling for unnecessary costs since the departments and divisions in Pear Ltd do not automatically receive a distinctive sum every year, each amount of money apportioned to each unit bear a purpose, which keeps waste and discretionary spending to a minimum. Zero-based budgeting minimizes the entitlement mentality with respect to cost increases, and bears the potential to render budget discussions to be more meaningful. Activity Based Budgeting Activity-based budgeting awards financial resources to activities that see the highest return in the form of enhanced revenues for the company. Thus, the organization can be able to translate its vision into a strategy with definable objectives so as to create value. The benefit of adoption of activity-based budgeting is that Pear Ltd can be to accurately link revenues to strategic objectives, which, in turn, may enhance revenue moving forward. Nevertheless, the implementation of an activity-based model demands investment of substantial time and resources, which may not be immediately feasible for Pear Ltd. The most effective performance budgets manifest how the invested resources fund day-to-day tasks and activities, and how the activities are anticipated to generate certain outputs and the outcomes that should be the result. If Pear Ltd adopts a performance-based budget, the company will have a good idea of how money is anticipated to translate into results. One of the drawbacks to this approach is that the budget process must incorporate the review of performance measures and time for discussions of performance against expectations. Performance-based budgeting Performance-based budgeting (PBB) process is a continuum that incorporates the accessibility and utilization of performance grounded in information at each of the varied phases of the budget process. Performance budgets mainly seek to contain information of a number of elements, namely: inputs, outputs, efficiency, and effectiveness. PBB mainly start at begin policy level in which the organization develop goals and explicit policy objectives. Decisions are mainly taken to link budget allocations to the set goals, objectives, and measures. Priority-based budgeting This approach represents an adjustment of zero-based budgeting method whose focal point centers on highlighting corporate priorities and apportioning growth accordingly. This demands a thorough ongoing review of departmental services. Based on the analysis for every unit the elements of spending could be classified as highly desirable or beneficial. Such decisions are supplied to the decision makers. Priority-driven-budgeting is a powerful tool that aids entities to: better manage the expectations of constituents; address present or anticipated fiscal constraints; highlight on the revenues at hand and utilize them in the most productive ways possible; spend within the entities means; and, attain the best results for the invested resources. Flexible budgeting can be employed by Pear Ltd management in planning by indicating what costs will be at diverse levels of activity. In so doing, flexible budgeting can be employed to solve the problem that emanate from employing static budgets for performance evaluation. Whereas the traditional incremental budgeting may not be necessarily flawed, the adoption of flexible budgets can award managers some feel for the impact of both fixed and variable costs. Pear Ltds management could shift from traditional incremental budgeting to zero-based budgeting. The adoption of zero-based budgeting suits the Pear Ltd, especially since in the mobile phone industry competition is rife. This is informed by the fact that it allows every managerial activity to be properly identified and then assessed by analyzing alternative levels of operation for a particular activity. The highlighted alternatives may be ranked and relative priorities laid for attaining effectiveness and efficiency. Alternatives to traditional incremental budgeting offer Pear Ltds management the most ideal characteristics of a budgeting system such as flexibility, responsiveness, and coordination. A move towards a decentralized structure can be critical to easing the drawbacks associated with traditional budgeting process. Critically evaluate alternative methods of product costing and the role of such methods in supporting such areas as the evaluation of strategy and cost control. Costing systems differ along three dimensions, namely: the components being measured; what is included in product cost; and, the manner in which the cost are accumulated. The differences in costs emanate from the urge to incorporate or exclude certain forms of information in product costs. The differentials manifested between the approaches stem from the timing of the cost recognition whereby the core issue centres on when the fixed production costs become expenses. Eventually, both methods produce the same merged appraisal of total profit; nevertheless, there may be differences in short-term phase profit measures and stock valuations. Basic approach to product costing normally incorporates assigning direct costs to products and allocating manufacturing overhead costs to products. The core product costing methods in this category include job costing and process costing. Job costing encompasses the transfer of outlays to a certain manufacturing job and may include contract costing and batch costing. Overhead is allocated to jobs and the approach is utilized when individual lots of products are distinctive, especially when the entities are billed directly to customers. Process costing infers the accumulation of labor, material, and overheads outlays across whole divisions or entities whereby the entire production cost being allocated to individual units. Process costing incorporates aspects such as operation costing, unit costing/output costing, service costing, and multiple/composite costing. Alternative Product Costing There is an overall concurrence as to the accounting treatment of key aspects such as product costs and of period costs; however, there is constantly a debate centering on what item costs should be billed as product costs. This is largely a case of designation of absorption costing (AC) and variable costing (VC)/ marginal costing) that embodies diverse approaches to product cost description and dimension, and consequently profit measurement. Absorption costing embodies the traditional approach that deems all production costs to be product costs. The accounting treatment of fixed production costs varies as per each approach. Hence, all the approaches deliver varied periodic stock valuation whereby in absorption costing, stocks remain valued at full cost of production while under VC; the stocks remain valued at variable production cost. Similarly, the methods may also yield to diverse periodic profit measurements. Variable costing system incorporate direct material, direct labour, and the variable constituent of overhead within product cost. Fixed overhead, in this case, is treated as a period cost. Absorption costing system incorporates direct material, direct labour, and both the inconsistent and rigid elements of overhead in product cost. Factory overhead, in this case, is absorbed into the product cost. Job order costing Job order costing explores and establishes the outlay of individual jobs/batches. The direct material employed and the direct labour hours are accumulated for each job whereby manufacturing overhead is mainly applied as per the direct labour hours. One of the advantages of employing this approach is that the outlays of every job can be independently analyzed. If the actual cost was extremely high, the manager is at liberty of reviewing the actual material and labour costs to establish the reason for the surge. While job order costing can be an effective tool for some companies, it can create additional work tracking costs that may not necessarily add value. Activity-based costing Activity-based costing represents a managerial accounting method that approximates the outlay of products and services by apportioning overhead costs to direct costs. Activity based costing system represents a modified absorption costing system whereby the indirect outlays are outlined to their cost pools to reflect resource exploitation of indirect reserves by the cost object. Activity-based costing (ABC) represents a two-stage product costing method that first allocates costs to activities and then allots them to products based on the products consumption of activities. Activity-based costing mainly incorporates four steps: first, identifying the activities that consume resources and assign cost to them; second, outlining the cost drivers connected with every action; third, computing a cost rate per cost driver unit/transaction (each activity should possess multiple cost drivers); fourth, establishment of output metrics and conveying outlays to products in multiplying the outlay dr iver fee by the quantity of outlay driver units registered in the manufacturing of the product. Since product mix has grown more diverse, activity based costing has evolved to become a useful tool. Activity-based costing allows managers to arrive at decisions by employing product outlay constituent that only covers those actions that add to the manufacturing of the product. Nevertheless, ABC demands more detailed analysis of the activities within the plant that require additional resources from the company. The key benefit of this approach is the potential to approximate the outlay of entity products and services precisely. ABC helps to underline wasteful or non-profitable ventures that impact on the productivity of the production processes. Marginal costing Marginal costing is an approach that employs variable costs. Variable costs, in this case, embody those outlays that stay the identical per unit, but vary in sum as per the overall quantity of units manufactured. Fixed costs essentially remain the same in total irrespective of the number of units produced. Since variable costs are mainly controlled costs, marginal costing enables mangers to make decisions devoid of being swayed by uninhibited statistics such as fixed outlays. Marginal costing also embodies a valuable device to utilize when the entity business environment is extremely competitive. The product pricing can be engineered to recover the changeable outlays of the products. However, disregarding fixed outlays may modify the proceeds to recover overall outlays of the business. The Role of Alternative Methods of Product Costing in Supporting Evaluation of Strategy and Cost Control Alternative methods of product costing are critical to the evaluation of company strategy and overall cost control. In the contemporary competitive business environment accurate product costing is essential to a business survival. Such methods are critical in supporting such areas as the evaluation of strategy and cost control. The approaches are critical in shaping precise divisional and product outlays as a foundation for estimating the cost effectiveness of divisions and the productivity of diverse products. Cost allocation plays a strategic role in shaping competitiveness, especially in informing the effectiveness of the decision-making. Alternative methods of transfer pricing The rapid advances in technology, communication, and transportation have yielded to a large number of multinational enterprises that bear the flexibility to place their enterprises and activities anywhere in the world. The main rationale of transfer pricing is to render most favourable decision making within a decentralized organization so as to maximize the profit of the organization. A transfer price integrates the cost one sub-entity of a corporation charges for a given product or service supplied to the next sub-entity within the same corporation. The sub-entities may be profit centres, cost centres, or investment centres. Pear Ltd central managements adoption of alternative transfer prices may possess significant impact on aspects such as motivation, performance indication and autonomy across the range of Pear Ltds responsibility centres. Motivation in this case combines goal congruence and effort and includes the aspiration to achieve a given goal outlined by the management merged with the search of those goals. Ideally, alternative transfer prices should possess properties such as promoting goal congruence, motivating management effort, useful in evaluating subunit performance, and preserving an enhanced level of subunit autonomy in decision making. The advantages of transfer pricing across Pear Ltds range of responsibility centres include better, timely decisions owing to the managers proximity to local conditions; the managers are not diverted by regular, restricted decision difficulties; managers motivation increases since they have better control over results; and enhanced decision making that avails better training for mangers for enhanced level positions within the future. Some of the disadvantages that can be cited include lack of goal congruence among mangers within diverse parts of the organization; inadequate information available to top management; and, lack of coordination among managers in diverse parts of the organization. Alternative methods of transfer pricing Market-based transfer pricing Market-based transfer pricing details when the outside market for the product is well-defined, competitive, and stable, organizations frequently tend to institute the market price as a benchmark for the transfer price. This approach, however, attracts some concerns, especially when the outside company is neither competitive nor stable. This may distort internal decision making for relying on market-based transfer prices that mirror distress prices or a variety of special pricing strategies. Market-based pricing overall leads to finest decisions, especially when: a) the marketplace is perfectly competitive; b) there is low interdependencies of sub-divisions; and, c) there is lack of extra costs or gains to the association in its entirety from buying or selling within the external market rather than transacting internally. Using market prices for transfers in certain conditions leads to goal congruence. Division managers will be acting in their own best interests to arrive at decisions that may be within the best interests of the organization as a whole. Nevertheless, one can argue that computing transfer prices grounded in cost will most probably make Pear Ltd to pay little attention to mitigating outlays since all expenditures incurred amid production will be recovered. Negotiated transfer pricing This approach features a firm identifying regulations for the computation of transfer prices. Divisional managers, in this case, are persuaded to settle or jointly agreeable transfer prices. The exact transfer price in this case hinges on the negotiating powers of the divisions. The bargained transfer price manifests a number of properties: attainment of goal congruence; critical for evaluating division performance since the transfer derives from express bargaining between the set divisions; motivating administration endeavour given that once bargained, the transfer price is autonomous of real costs of the subunit (the subunits in this case manifest every reason to direct the organization resourcefully to increase profits; and, safeguarding subunit independence since the transfer pricing flows from express negotiations between the two subunits. Cost-based transfer pricing In the lack of perfectly developed market-price, majority of the companies base their pricing on the manufacturing cost of the supplying sub-entity. The most prominent methods employed include: full cost, cost-plus, variable cost plus lump sum charge, dual transfer prices, variable cost plus opportunity cost. One possible restraint of full-cost-based transfer prices derives from the fact that they can yield to suboptimal conclusions for the organization as a whole. Transferring products internally at incremental cost possess the following properties: attains goal congruence; not useful for evaluating subunit performance since transfer price fails to exceed full costs. Transferring products internally at incremental cost fails to preserve subunit autonomy since it is rule-based and some divisions have no say in and, thus, no capability to set the transfer price. However, transferring products internally at incremental cost will motivate management effort if based on budgeted costs (actual costs are comparable to budgeted costs). If, however, the transfers are grounded are based on actual costs, Pear Ltd possess little incentive to control costs. Although, neither approach can be cited to be perfect, negotiated transfer pricing possesses more favourable properties compared to the cost-based transfer pricing. Both transfer-pricing approaches attain goal congruence; however, bargained transfer pricing assists in the estimation of subunit performance, stimulates management action, and conserves subunit autonomy, while the transfer price remain based on incremental costs fails to attain these objectives. The benefits of utilization of alternative methods of transfer pricing between responsibility centres is that the operating managers possess the incentives to closely weigh and conduct cost-benefit analysis prior to requesting groups services or products. Similarly, the operating managers possess an inducement to pursue the job and the development undertaken by the responsibility centres. Decentralization would encourage plant managers to enhance output so as to achieve the highest profitability, and inspire plant managers to track cost cutting measures that would increase margins. Manufacturing managers would be equally motivated to design their operations as per the criteria that satisfy the marketing managers approval, hence enhancing cooperation between the responsibility centres. The problem that emanate from adoption of alternative transfer pricing by Pear Ltds central management is that the contract may necessitate extensive internal negotiations with regard to cost, time, and technical specification. Similarly, Pear Ltds divisions need to consistently sell their services or products to the operating division and this could possibly result in loss of morale. To the degree that the focal point of the responsibility centres is on short-term schemes stipulated by the operating divisions, the current arrangement would lead to goal congruence and motivation. Goal congruence is attained since both the central management (operating divisions) and the responsibility centres are motivated to work the organizational goals such as enhancing the environment. The operating divisions would be highly motivated to utilize the services of the responsibility centres so as to attain the objectives outlined for them by the administration.