Marketing during Economic Depression

Marketing Under the Situation of Economic Depression The financial crisis originated in Wall Street of United States has spread all over the world rapidly. Because of the firmer and closer economic connections between countries, almost every country is beginning to experience somewhat economic depression. Considering the issue of marketing under the situation of economic depression is becoming necessary for many companies in any area of the world. Marketing is defined as a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others. A company wanting to have a successful marketing strategy should first understand the marketing environment around it. A company's marketing environment consists of the actors and forces outside marketing that affect marketing management's ability to develop and maintain successful transactions with its target customers. And the economic depression situation should be considered as part of the marketing environment study area. The ever changing microenvironment and macroenvironment offer both opportunities and threats to companies. If a company wants to be successful in any condition, it should know the vital importance of watching and adapting to the changing environment, so it can avoid the unfavorable conditions and grasp any opportunities. Economic environment is one of macro factors that influence a company’s marketing concerns. Theoretically, it consists of factors that affect consumer purchasing power and spending patterns. Under the situation of economic depression, both consumer purchasing power and spending patterns have, to some extent, changed. Therefore, a company must have a clear picture of what those changes are. As for the consumer buying power, depressed economic situation is always related with reduced consumer buying power. For example, during the 1997’s Asian economic crisis, country after country saw their currency depreciate as the crisis unfolded. The consumers of those Asian ‘tiger' economies became more financially cautious and they spent much less at that time. Considering the spending patterns, as Engle suggested, when family income rises, the percentage spent on food declines, the percentage spent on housing remains constant and both the percentage spent on other categories and that devoted to savings increase. The reduced income in the economic depression has a large impact on what a certain person buys, for instance, he may spend less on entertainment or clothes, and the percentage of income spending on food may increase. Therefore, we can see that the depressed economy is going to influence consumer buying behavior. For all the four cultural, social, personal, and psychological factors, they affect the consumer purchase strongly. Under depression, there are a few phenomena that are notable for companies. First, consumers prefer more relatively cheap goods and fewer luxuries. There is a statistic number for the 1997 Asian economic crisis, in Thailand, 58% people didn’t buy any designed clothes any more and 45% people didn’t drink whisky. While recent economic crisis in Vietnam made the sales of automobile plummet. According to a report of VAMA, 16 members of this automobile manufacturing association only sold 11500 cars in May 2008, 2000 fewer those sales of April. Also, consumers may turn to the brands whose brand image are associated with mass market and people buy less imported goods. Second, towards companies’ promotion and advertisement, consumers may react differently than before. Since the economic depression brings a lot of psychological pressure to people, they are not as interested as in the sales ads any more. They may buy goods that are in promotion, but most of them will buy less or buy smaller size packages. Third, as for the shopping place, people prefer the discounted stores that the expensive department store. During the 1973 oil crisis in America, the frequency of 79. % consumers shopping in the discounted stores or buying directly from wholesales increased a lot. Apart from the changes above, there is another point; that is, the consumption of necessities varies a little, since they have relatively inelastic demands. So what should a company do in face of the changing marketing environment? There are several responses as for the environment change. Companies react differently because some view the change is uncontrollable thus passively adap t, while others may try to influence the change and take a proactive approach. The depressed economy is generally viewed as an uncontrollable element, so companies should try to find methods to adapt in the existing situation. To begin with, companies must focus on their core competitive advantage and reduce the extended brands marketing that are not so competitive. In the depressed economy, it is not only the consumers that are influenced; companies also have fewer resources to use. Companies should withdraw from those less competitive markets and use its own limited resources (human resources, capital and marketing channels, etc. used to consolidate and strengthen the markets of products of core competitiveness. Then is the promotion and advertising strategy for the company. As noted before, consumers are not that easily to be influenced by those things. So companies should target the audience of ads accurately, and avoid the way to waste money on the advertising to those who rarely buy the goods. It is suggested that companies use less mass adverting methods , such as ads on newspaper and leaflets. Instead, companies should try to ensure that people who read the ads have a high probability to buy the goods. For example, a Targeting Mobilephone Magazine sends the sales information messages to 200,000 high-end subscribers. That method is of low cost, but it is far more effective than traditional ways. Furthermore is the price issue. People are more sensitive to the price and they want cheaper goods than before since their purchasing power is often reduced during the depression. People decrease their consumption on luxuries and other high quality high price goods. The more for less, the same for less and less for much less value proposition strategy are more likely to succeed in this situation. In addition, since customers are likely to turn to the local discounted stores, companies may change their distribution channels a bit. They can put more goods in the discounted stores and warehouse-style supermarkets. If the economic recession is just in the range of home country, companies can also increase the export. However, not all companies have to take a conservative approach in the economic downturn. For some of them, especially the big and strong companies, it is a good chance for them to expand their market share. Since depressed economy just makes some small competitors bankrupt, the strong companies can get the consumers of those companies, thus having a larger market share. If a company can establish an image that is reliable and indestructible at the time when customers have some psychological pressure, it is more likely to win the favor of customers even after the depression is over. There is a saying, the more serious the depression, the more opportunities in the market. And the CEO of Alibaba. om, Ma Yun, also said â€Å"the economic crisis will create new business civilization. † There are many reasons to believe that the depressed economy brings us both opportunities and challenges. In conclusion, if a company can understand the environment around it well, study the consumer buying behavior carefully, and develop a appropriate marketing strategy for itself, it can certainly have chance to avoid the unfavorable factors and maintain its competitiveness, thus winning under the sit uation of economic depression and any other conditions of the economy.

The Bombing of Hiroshima essays

The Bombing of Hiroshima essays There are many events in history that have affected many different people. To me, the Bombing of Hiroshima is most significant. This event has changed the lives of many people, the thoughts of people, and many feelings of people as well as countries. The atomic bomb and its destruction of Hiroshima changed the world. I will explain what occurred in World War II that led up to Hiroshima, the aftermath of Japan, and how the world changed after the bombing. We were involved in a war called, World War II. This war began in 1939, yet Japan and the United States were not at war with each other yet. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. This unacceptable act allowed the United States to declare war on Japan a day later. Three years later, on Feb. 19, 1945, we invaded the island of Iwo Gima. Later we also captured the island Okinawa, which was a crucial advantage for the United States. On, August 6th 1945, we dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. On the 14th of August, Japan accepted the unconditional surrender. I believe we utilized the atomic bomb because we lost over 1.5 million soldiers, while Japan had over 9 million soldiers. That means that if we were to invade Japan we would have to basically fight every soldier we had defeated before four times over! The enormous cost of Marines lives from Okinawa, was the deciding factor in plummeting the bomb. Which is why we reduced our losses by dropping the bombs. Losing was not an option. The effects on Japan were horrible. Once the bomb was dropped, instantly 70,000 died. During the bombing an equal amount was also injured. The blast itself was not the only thing that caused deaths. Radiation from the mushroom cloud was emitted causing thousand more to die during that year. Some, who survived, died from leukemia years later. Those who survived the radiation were scarred for life, for their family, friends, and objects we...

Homophones Pail and Pale

Homophones Pail and Pale The words pail and pale are  homophones: they sound alike but have different meanings. Definitions The noun pail refers to a bucket a container for holding and carrying something. The adjective pale means unusually light in color or weak. As a verb, pale means to become pale or to seem weaker or less important. As a noun, pale means a post, a fence, or a boundary (as in the expression beyond the pale). Usage Examples To wash his little red wagon, the boy brought a pail of water, a sponge, and some clean clothes.He was as black as coal, with a long, alert, intelligent, rakehell face. His eyes gleamed with mischief, and he held his head high. . . . Jupiter went where he pleased, ransacking wastebaskets, clotheslines, garbage pails, and shoe bags.(John Cheever, The Country Husband. The New Yorker, 1955)Marie walked along the path in the pale light of the dawn.Usually I spent the afternoons under the box  elder trees, or by the ditch behind the machine sheds, where dragonflies and pale blue moths circled just out of reach.(Grace Stone Coates, Wild Plums. Black Cherries, 1931)What passes for paella at most restaurants is a pale imitation of the real thing.I lit a cigar, and as I sat in my easy chair with the roses  beside me the light of the July  evening paled and paled till I sat alone in the darkness.(Bram Stoker, Bengal Roses, 1898) Idiom Alerts Beyond the Pale The idiom beyond the pale means socially or morally improper or unacceptable.The billionaire investor Peter Thiel, outed by the local arm of the Gawker media empire, secretly financed a lawsuit to destroy it. Silicon Valley did not rise en masse and say this was seriously beyond the pale.(David Streitfeld, What It Is Actually Like to Be in the Engine Room of the Start-Up Economy. The New York Times, July 5, 2016) Pale in Comparison The expression pale in comparison (with something) means to appear less important, serious, or worthwhile when compared to something else.[T]he financial benefits that come to men because of their greater investments in work early in life may  pale in comparison  to the sizable toll these investments have taken on mens relationships, especially with their children, by the time work careers subside or finish.(Victoria Hilkevitch Bedford and Barbara Formaniak Turner,  Men in Relationships. Springer,  2006) Practice Quiz (a) In the glare of the sun, Jennifers red hair seemed brighter than ever, emphasizing her _____ complexion.(b) The young woman carried a large _____ of milk on her head.(c) Colonel Kurtz was operating without any restraints, totally beyond the _____ of acceptable human conduct.(d) Pete weighed each _____  of oysters  on a scale and tallied the measures on a chalkboard next to each shuckers name.(Christopher White,  Skipjack.  Rowman   Littlefield,  2009)   Answers to Practice Exercises (a) pale(b) pail(c) pale(d) pail

Media Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Media - Assignment Example Through Braille, the quality of life of visually impaired individuals has improved considerably (Schement,2002). In my opinion, communication is an important aspect in my life. The frequency of the use of communication devices proves that I am capable of using even the most sophisticated and modern communication devices. From the statistics, the most used device is phone. This is because it is easier to use, portable and has an excellent internet connection. I use the phone frequently in social interactions through social media and texting friends. I use the phone minimally in games because there are very few attractive games that I can access through it. The secondly most used device is the laptop. My preference for laptop is based on the fact that is can be used in doing research as proven in my high frequency use in Google search. In addition, it is fast and can be used in searching for items that require a large display. Since I do not have a strong reading culture, I don’t use laptop to read

Case Study Discussion Paper (Organisational change & transformation) Research

Case Study Discussion (Organisational change & transformation) - Research Paper Example How was change managed at Simmons? One of the most effective methods of ensuring a lasting change within an organization is to engage different stakeholders including employees in the overall process of change. This would mean that all the stakeholders are taken on board before any decision to take on the new changes within the organization is implemented. (Ragsdell, 2000). What is also significant to understand that in order to manage change effectively, it has to be communicated well and thus requires a great deal of effective communication in order to ensure that the real message is trickled down to the employees. (Almaraz, 1994). Any change management process therefore faces the fact that different people react differently to the change due to the fact that everyone has different fundamental needs which need to be fulfilled and the overall process of change can threaten such needs. What is also significant to understand that changes often result into loss- losses such as jobs, lo ss of position and organizational power etc and in such a situation, it becomes often difficult to accept such change and become part of it. (Paton,& McCalman, 2008). In order to overcome such situations, it is therefore critical that the overall process of change is managed properly and within an acceptable norm where losses are minimized while at the same time, the overall objectives are achieved with ease.(Stanleigh, 2008). It is also important to note that change often creates fears and therefore it is important that the overall process of managing fear is also managed properly. Employees often believe that the overall process of change would result into their job losses or make them redundant and therefore they may not fully accept the change and provide the kind of information and input required to make change successful. Leaders therefore will have to ensure that the fears of the individuals are managed properly and that individuals know how this change is going to affect the m positively. (Saka, 2003) A closer look at the overall affairs at Simmons would suggest that it was undergoing tremendous competitive pressures not only due to the fact that its major customers were out of the business but its overall approach was not centered on the consumers. This lack of focus on consumers therefore was not only costing them presently but it was its future which was at the risk also. Apart from this, the overall organizational structure at the firm was such that it resulted into the direct competition between different plants rather than fostering an overall process of collaboration between them. This situation therefore demanded a complete process of change management to be initiated at the firm. The overall process of change was managed at Simmons in rather an unconventional manner where the top management of the firm was first introduced to the concept. The CEO of the firm first shared the need for change with one individual and than the process of change man agement was initiated in order to ensure that the top management of the firm is on one page in terms of proposed changes in the future. As such the overall approach was a top down approach wherein the changes were first introduced at the top and then they were subsequently trickled down to the lower level. Changes were introduced at the higher level first wherein the top managemen

Accountability, representation & control Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Accountability, representation & control - Essay Example Accounting is the means to measure performance and maintain control in the organization. All organizations and businesses utilize some form of accounting whether it is basic ledgers or management and cost accounting. Accounting is the means to identify elements of sales, expenditure and profit as well as budgets, inventory and forecasts. Thus it is a method of achieving accountability as it monitors and accounts for every financial transaction and thus keeps a check on fraud, embezzlement and suspicious acts within the firm. However, accounts focuses on quantitative rather than qualitative data. It does not measure qualitative performance data such as satisfaction, achievement of goals, job commitment and quality among others. Accounting does not take into account the environmental degradation, labor practices, work environment and safety rules and regulations. Thus the issue of whether accountability in an organization is best measured by accounting is a complex one. Accountability is the willingness to assume responsibility for one’s actions. In the organizational context, every employee is responsible for his actions at the workplace and thus he should be held accountable for them. In order to be effective in maintaining accountability within the organization, organizations need to be focused on setting goals that are measurable and train employees to feel accountable for their actions. Consequences of their actions should be predefined and communicated and the organization should implement the rules that it has set. (Building Organizational Accountability). Apart from internal accountability, the concept of the organization being accountable for its actions is extremely important. As organizations develop into powerful systems that affect the world and its citizens they need to be held accountable for their decisions and policies. Accountability in the financial context does control performance and finance; however it is not really effective in contr olling child labor and sweat shops. Is accounting the most effective means of achieving accountability in organizations? All organizations are involved in book keeping; they keep accounts of their costs and expenditure and their sales and revenues. This results in accountability of the actions of managers and employees. At a higher level for corporations, audits provide accountability for processes and procedures as well as transparency and accuracy of accounting records. Internal audits result in employees being accountable to the company for their actions and external audits result in the organization being accountable for its procedures and policies. The Enron case resulted in stricter guidelines for organizations regarding representation, transparency and control. The Sarbanes Oxley 302 and 404 focus on corporate governance and practices that better control the organization’s practices and prevent corruption. However, as accounting and auditing deal invariably with financ ial aspects and maximization of shareholder value, it is vital to establish the basics of accounting which is cost. The concept of cost is the fundamental of finance. However, in accounting cost is monetary cost associated with consumption of resources whereas in economics cost includes opportunity cost which is the cost of foregone alternatives. In actuality, consumption of a resource leads to many costs including the cost to society, cost to environment and other living things for example; an organization manufacturing furniture will only take into account the cost of labor, materials and processes but not the costs of deforestation and environmental degradation. Thus the concept of cost used in accounting is limited and hence every control or measure implemented by accounting methods is limited to that definition of cost that does not hold the organization for costs it imposes on others. (M. Chwastiak) This results in the

Kelley School of Business Essay Example for Free

Kelley School of Business Essay Business has had a captivation over my intellectual interests ever since my freshmen year of high school. I chose to be independent and wanted to make my own path in my field of my interests and hence chose finance. I wish to make an impact on the business world and also be a successful entrepreneur. I have started early and taken the steps to ensure my success in the field. I have always liked subjects like mathematics, accounting and management and this is why I chose to major in Business. This is my 2nd semester at Kelley and I started off with my intention to major in Finance. But after exploring more opportunities I plan to major in Accounting and Finance with a minor in Economics. I then plan to work in a financial institution for couple of years and prepare for GMAT simultaneously. I want to get into the best Business school for my MBA. Furthermore, I plan to work at a good position in a good institution and reach the top level management of that institution. My goal is to become a CFO of a company. I have always been involved in a lot of intra-collegiate and inter-collegiate festivals in high school. I have performed duties of a Division Representative, Contingent Leader, etc. and represented my high school/junior college in city-level festivals. I have managed to win one of Mumbai’s (India) biggest inter-collegiate festival. I am an active member of the International Club, Indian Students Advisory Council (ISAC), Indian Students Cultural Association (ISCA) and Student Activities Programming Board (SAPB) at IUPUI. I have performed a dance and walked the ramp for ISACs biggest festival here on campus. Additionally, I have volunteered to walk the ramp for International Clubs biggest event of the year, International Fashion and Cultural Show. I also plan on applying for the Advertising Officer position for International Club and Cultural Secretary position for ISAC. I love volunteering and I think its a really good way to serve the community. I have volunteered for 5 medical camps back in Mumbai and have also been a part of a NGO i.e., Once again green. We basically looked for the greenery in the city and planted new trees every weekend. At IUPUI I have volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club of Indianapolis which was my best experience so far. Also, I have volunteered for IUPUI Flag corps. Recently, I volunteered for MLK day of service and felt attached to the community. Furthermore, I have registered to volunteer for the Kelley Career Fair on Feb 12th, 2012. Well, I am taking 18 credit hours this semester. I do have a scholarship of $4,000 every semester but my dad still ends up paying $14,000. Being an International Student our fees is much more than the In-State students it becomes really expensive. My dad also pays for my rent and personal expense which comes to about $1000-1200 every month. Hence, I am applying for various scholarships and programs which can help me pay my tuition fee and reduce the burden on my dad. Furthermore, I am looking for more job opportunities to get hands on experience and get my personal expenses covered. I am a direct admit to the Kelley School of Business. I have also been awarded Deans Recognition Scholarship of $32,000 for 4 years. I successfully secured a GPA of 3.614 in my first semester of my freshman year and hence I was fortunate enough and gain recognition to be admitted to Kelley School of Business, Dean’s Honor List. In addition, I have been invited to be a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS). I have been dedicated to Kelley school throughout. I have also been asked by my Kelley Academic Advisor to be interviewed for a video and printed material to recruit other International students.