Representation of the Self in Social Media - 1862 Words

REPRESENTATION OF THE SELF IN SOCIAL MEDIA The aim of the essay is to discuss modern socio-cultural phenomenon self- representation by ‘ordinary people’ across a range of sites, while most illustration will be directed at Facebook (considering that research has shown that Facebook is one of the most popular social network that college students use on line (Ellison, N., Steinfield, C., Lampe, C. (2007). When social media rose, it paved way for new spaces and ways for virtual identities to be constructed, visually presented and narrated, in the view of this, Baym and Boyd (2012:321) said, ‘to the extend they could and people have always used media to create public identities for themselves, others, and groups’. This identities constructions start off with ‘an invitation rite’, that is the act of creating and maintaining profile on the social media communities and in constructing these identities people consider how they will be received by their intimate public and also how the public telling of their stories might affect their love ones, as with one person who chose to use photographs of kittens rather than relatives in order to protect families from possible future stigma. It has become a phenomenal practice that one group of people or another, professional creative practitioners, such as fine artists and documentarists as well as amateurs who produce representations of themselves as ordinary contribute to the genre (Renov, 2004 cited in Thumin, 2012:1). VirtuallyShow MoreRelatedEffect Of Gender And Gender Representation On Media1735 Words   |  7 PagesThe effect of gender and gender representation in media has been widely researched in various academic disciplines, including anthropology and communication studies. Similar gender role expectations are not just restricted to Western culture either. A study on gender representation in East Asian advertising by Michael Prieler is a demonstration of the influence of gendered communication. The research examines the male and female representation in the advertising of East Asian countries like HongRead MoreMedia s Influence On Perceptions Of Self1563 Words   |  7 Pages The media plays a significant r ole in influencing and shaping individuals’ perceptions of self in American society. Additionally, the media plays a key role in how it portrays people of color (POC) and, therefore, in how it affects their perceptions of self and others. It is the way the predominantly white media interacts with POC that reinforces racial stereotypes and systematic oppression that affect their daily lives. In the past two decades, research on media has supported the â€Å"media’s ideologicalRead MoreThe Reality Of The Media1479 Words   |  6 Pagesselves and uniqueness, then this could fix the representation of the media. If one person could just step ahead of others and take charge of the wrong that’s going on with the media, then it’ll encourage everyone to do so. Everybody should be able to express their inner self because if everyone went by a â€Å"mirror† of what they were, would it really be true? There are so many fake people these days that itâ€⠄¢s hard to pick out the real ones. The fakes of the media do whatever they can do to be accepted byRead MoreVisual And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders990 Words   |  4 Pageswith a smart phone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website (Augarde, 1981). Its not you its me: The Science Behind the Selfie is a recent news article that came out addressing the complexity behind what a selfie represents and what people are really trying to convey or masque. Throughout the past five years the word selfie has been added to the dictionary, added to the vocabulary of children and adults, and infecting the world of social media. Moreover, this article illuminates the multifacetedRead MoreThe Effects Of Advertising On Our Young Girls And Women1363 Words   |  6 Pagesand enmity. The mental, emotional, and social impact ofthese advertisements may be adversely affecting our young girls and women of today. The effects of advertising have gone beyond persuading women to just buy p roducts. â€Å"These media messages link thinness with love and happiness, often solely in terms of having the right body to attract the opposite sex† (Hesse-Biber 770). Women and girls of all ages are buying into an idea that is detrimental to their self worth, personal identity, and physicalRead MoreSocial Networking And Social Media1301 Words   |  6 PagesSocial networking sites create an unspoken competition between users which will cause them to experience low self-esteem. For instance, people compete for social capital: relationships with people among a society. Jacob Silverman stated, â€Å"If I don’t get ten faves in the first three minutes after tweeting something, I’ll probably just delete it, an amateur comedian told the wall street journal†¦What the comedian really fears is the loss of followers and social capital† (Silverman 25). When people postRead MoreAnalysis Of Dana Mastros Article Why The Medias Role On Issues Of Race And Ethni city1045 Words   |  5 PagesEthnicity Should be in the Spotlight’ makes an important contribution to our understanding of the media’s role in the construction of perceptions of racial and ethnic groups and how these perceptions effect the social position of the people that they are about .This is largely because the media plays a huge role in an individual’s daily lives and it is very difficult to avoid its influence, at least partly, due to its frequency at which it is consumed. Moreover it provides a very good overview of manyRead MoreThe Power Of The Image Within The Realm Of Media And The Digital World1310 Words   |  6 Pages Most media scholars assert that contemporary culture is dominated by images. Furthermore, it is widely understood that images articulate ways of seeing the world. Given that the average American is confronted with up to 5,000 advertisements a day, it is difficult to refute the legitimacy and impact of these claims. Advertising, film, print media, and the digital world all rely on the visual to transmit potent messages to the public. These images are rarely just aesthetic displays. Each visual putRead MoreThe Most Critical Area Of Learning Needs For Students With Autism787 Words   |  4 PagesThe most critical area of learning needs for students with autism are communication, self-care and daily living skills, social skills, basic academic skills (literacy and numeracy), self regulation and self direction, independent functioning in the community and employability. (Westwood 2007, p. 25) Contemporary literacy learning for students with autism therefore needs to reflect the seven ar eas, however, students will not be motivated to learn if their point of entry is not coupled with studentRead MoreHow Does The Media Portray Happiness?1197 Words   |  5 PagesHow does the media portray happiness? How subjective is happiness? Statistics The media creates a false representation of happiness. It teaches us that in order to be happy, rather than valuing what really matters such as family, we are taught that valuing material goods will make us happy. People want to be happy but they don’t know how to achieve this so they turn to the media to guide them. Being exposed to media influences our perspective of who we are, who we want to be and what we should buy

Rolex Watches Advertisement For Luxury Goods - 1097 Words

Trist Brower Writing 101 Goldberg August 31, 2017 Luxury Ad Analysis Rolex Watches Advertisements for luxury goods sell a vision of hope for the life that one could have and an object that most can only dream to acquire. That dream becomes tangible when one reaches a status of wealth that they can grasp a dream they have had since their childhood. Rolex is one of those companies that most young men dream of having when they grow up. This exquisite watch is in many blockbuster movies such as the James Bond movies, the Godfather trilogy, and the Titanic, to just name a few. Throughout Rolex’s company history, the company’s advertising team has targeted consumers that are interested in being perceived by others as being successful. Just as†¦show more content†¦It is as though the advertisement is communicating to the consumer that having this Rolex watch will change and make your life. A â€Å"timeless† watch can do that. This advertisement is smart to add the word â€Å"Timeless†. Rolex has been one of the highest end watches for generations. For that reason, it is timeless, and if one were to get this watch, they are buying a watch that even future generations will admire. The other text also reads, â€Å"The Power of Precision.† It then goes on to explain the intricate details of the watch that make it so complex and precise but yet simple and timeless. It reads, â€Å"With a triplock winding crown and a unidirectional rotatable bezel, the Rolex Submariner is a timeless timepiece 1,000 feet above or below sea level†. These carefully chosen words sends many very targeted messages to consumers. First of all, the phrase, â€Å"Power of Precision† sends the message that this businessman or any man who buys this watch will be so on point, precise and calculated. Your watch will be precise in reading time, but your business dealings will be as well. Just as a businessman’s precision and class is important to them as an individual, so too should their watch. The â€Å"triplock winding crown and unidirectional rotatable bezel† sounds intricate. It sends a message to consumers that only someone who understands what that is and values that in a piece of jewelry can wear this watch.Show MoreRelatedAd Targeting of Two Watches, Rolex and Citizen Essay1666 Words   |  7 Pagesattracted to Rolex watches because he understands that a Rolex is not just any wristwatch. He asks to see the finest Rolex watch and is impressed by the way it looks and how well-crafted it is. The jeweler then offers the man to see a Citizen’s Watch – one that cost less, tells times just as well, and does not need a battery. He rejects the man proposal because he wants the Rolex credibility and its history. Although many people believe the Rolex Watch Company just makes an overpriced luxury watch forRead MoreConsumer And Consumer Self Identity1441 Words   |  6 Pagestheir sense of self (Sirgy, 1982). Consumption is not only a tool to obtain the value of goods and display social status, but also is closely related to self-identity. In the consumer culture, customers no longer just shop because of their needs. The desire of individuals self-development and self-taught continue to stimulate the consumption. People change themselves as much as possible by buying new goods. In answer to the problem what kind of person he is, people not only judge other peopleRead MoreLuxury Watches Essay3029 Words   |  13 PagesJewelry Industry – Luxury Watches Section 2 – Group Number 7 Group Members: 250556161 250517768 250572192 250568255 250582064 Executive Summary Rolex is currently facing a problem in their brand positioning in the U.S. luxury watch market. In the years following the 2008 recession, Rolex’s competitors Breitling and Omega have outpaced them in market share growth. This report aims to analyze the reasons behind this decline and to provide a recommendation for Rolex to reaffirm positionRead MoreMass Media And Its Influence On Consumer Culture1497 Words   |  6 Pagestheir sense of self (Sirgy, 1982). Consumption is not only a tool to obtain the value of goods and display social status, but also is closely related to self-identity. In the consumer culture, customers no longer just shop because of their needs. The desire of individual s self-development and self-taught continue to stimulate the consumption. People change themselves as much as possible by buying new goods. In answer to the problem what kind of person he is, people not only judge other peopleRead MoreRolex Profile Of Rolex Watches1701 Words   |  7 Pag eswell-known and recognizable as a Rolex watch. The creators of Rolex have made a watch that bring joy to their consumers as well as a fashion forward approach. Some of the top names in the Rolex brand include the date adjust, Deep sea, Yatch-master and the brand new one the Sky dweller. The Rolex Company only makes about 500,000 watches per year, even though that number is far smaller than the large demand. Rolex keeps its image up by having famous people wear them as advertisement, such as Ian Flemings JamesRead MoreA Report On The Swiss Watch Company2392 Words   |  10 PagesRolex, the esteemed timepiece manufacturer, known globally as a statement of success, quality, and prestige, is regarded in the watch market as part of the highest tier of timepieces. The Swiss watch company was founded in 1905 by Hans Wilsdorf and his brother-in-law William Davis in London, with the vision of making quality timepieces more popular. They chose Rolex as the name because they believed that th e sound a watch made while being wound sounded like the word while also being short enoughRead MoreTAG Heuer Asia Strategic Marketing Plan1360 Words   |  6 Pagesdesires high-quality, stylish goods, but want the watch to represent both success and individual achievements from competitiveness. It is TAG HeuerHong Kongs intention to gain market share in the Hong Kong upscale watch market. The immediate goal is to build brand image and brand equity through marketing. To accomplish this, TAG Heuer will allocate majority of its budget to advertising and public relations activities. The initial product lines will be modern, simple watches, targeting both male andRead MoreThe Consumer Decision Making Process1706 Words   |  7 Pagesproduct to be bought is a low-involvement item, the information search tends to be limited to internal only. However, when we talk about high-involvement products, like a luxury watch, we often also depend on ‘external search’. External Search is where the information is obtained and assembled from market experts, advertisements, references, ratings, friends or other external sources. This is where the marketers of the brands have a very effective role to play, in making the information about theirRead MoreConsumer Bebaviour on Wrist Watch with Respect to College Students4039 Words   |  17 PagesCONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR OF WRIST WATCHES WITH RESPECT TO COLLEGE STUDENTS CHAPTER: 1 1.0 INTRODUCTION: Wrist watches form an integral part of the personality of individuals in the present era. Earlier seen as a luxury item, they are now witnessing a fundamental change in perception, and are now gaining respect as an essential utility item. For the watch industry, time seems in its favour what with the liberalization of the Indian market coupled with the rising purchasing power of the youngRead MoreA Study on Consumer Behaviour on High End (Luxury) Brand Product Market in India.2440 Words   |  10 Pages1. Introduction Luxury can be defined as an indulgence rather than a necessity. It comes with a heavy price and only the up-market population can afford to enjoy it. This does not make the market any smaller or short of demand. The luxury goods market include- fashion, fragrances, watches, automobiles, drinks etc. The size of the market was US$ 175bn and grew at 7.9% in 2000 and faced its first recession in 6 yrs in 2009 where the growth went down to about 3% in 2008, due to the financial crisis

Description of Grace Free Essays

string(291) " observed that this grace is a prove of God’s love for man when he said to the people of Lystra â€Å"Nevertheless he \(God\) left not Himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filing our heart with food and gladness† \(Acts 14:17\)\." A DESCRIPTION OF GRACE By Emmanuel O. Obiorah Jos, Plateau State 27th March, 2013 GRACE INTRODUCTION The word ‘Grace’ is not a new word to most religious circles. Among Christians, such adjectives like amazing, extravagant, divine and awesome have been used to qualify the word grace with each depicting its importance to the Christian faith. We will write a custom essay sample on Description of Grace or any similar topic only for you Order Now Our concern in this work is to describe and analyze this word- Grace for a better, richer and more fulfilling understanding of its meaning. We hope that this would be of immense blessing as we consider this word which made us what we are today- Christians. Definition of the word In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for Grace is Chen ( ). Strong’s Concordance defined this word as â€Å"favor, grace or charm†¦the moral quality of kindness, displaying a favorable disposition†. Chen was translated as â€Å"grace† thirty –eight times in the King James translation. It was also translated â€Å"favour† twenty-six times, twice as â€Å"gracious†, once as â€Å"pleasant†, and once as â€Å"precious†. The Greek word charis ( ) was used for Grace in the New Testament. Strong’s Concordance defined charis as; â€Å"the state of kindness and favor towards someone, often with a focus on a benefit given to the object. Another Greek word that is related to charis is charisma (khar’-is-mah- gracious gift) both of which originated from the Greek word chairo (to rejoice, be glad, delighted) (Olowe 2011a). According to Olowe (2011b), Grace can be simply defined as an unmerited gift of God to assist and to equip man. This means that Grace comes in form of assistance, potential or resource. It is â€Å"a favour with which one receives without any merit of his own, the gift of divine grace, the gift of faith, knowledge, holiness, virtue†. The economy of divine grace is that through it â€Å"the pardon of sin and eternal salvation is appointed to sinners in consideration of the merits of Christ laid hold on by faith†. Grace or gifts (as it is sometimes referred to) also denotes extraordinary powers that distinguish certain Christians by enabling them to serve the church of Christ. Grace motivates Christians to exercise all the Christian virtues â€Å"the reception of which is due to the power of divine grace operating on their souls by the Holy Spirit† (Olowe 2011b). The Catholics on the other hand defined Grace (gratia, Charis) generally as â€Å"supernatural gift of God to intellectual creatures (men, angels) for their eternal salvation, whether the latter be furthered and attained through salutary acts or a state of holiness† (Knight 2012). Having considered the various definitions, this writer believes that Grace is a divine enablement or favourable disposition towards an undeserving person to do or become what such a person would not have been or done without such enablement. Genre of the word: Grace Grace is a theological term which is present in and among many religious groups other than Christianity. However, there are significant differences between the ways these other religions use the word grace. Even within Christianity, there are differing conceptions of grace. Infact the differences in the view of Grace including the so-called controversies of grace which space may not allow us to discuss in this work made Bill Gothard describe grace as â€Å"the watershed that divides Catholicism from Protestantism, Calvinism from Arminianism, and modern liberalism from conservatism†(Olowe 2011a). One of the differences in the views of the concept of Grace is that while the Protestants believe that special grace can only be received through the Spirit of God, the Catholic doctrine teaches that God uses the sacraments to facilitate the reception of this grace (Knight 2012). Protestants on the other hand generally held the view that even without the sacraments; divine grace has been imparted by God to humanity. Theological discussion of the word- Grace Gift and Grace are sometimes used interchangeably because Grace manifests as a gift from God. God’s grace is upon all humanity. Even though salvation is the greatest gift God has given to all mankind, it is not the only gift man receives from God. Olowe (2011b) pointed out that the Grace of God is unlimited and are in five forms. These are: Material Universal Grace (Gifts of Matter and Time), Spiritual Universal Grace (Gifts of the Soul and the human Spirit), Spiritual Special Grace (Gifts of Supernatural (divine) Spirits), Divine Universal Grace (Gifts of Favor and Restraint) and Divine Special Grace (Gift of Salvation). Two forms of this grace come from special grace and three from universal grace (Olowe 2011b). Universal Grace is to be seen as the grace that God bestows on all mankind whether believers or unbelievers as resources to implement good works. On the other hand the atonement of sins by the blood of Jesus is the source of the Special Grace of God. The above five forms of grace are classified under three categories: – Divine Grace, Material Grace and Spiritual Grace. Divine grace Divine Grace whether universal or special generally involves God’s direct intervention in human lives. Divine universal grace and divine special grace are not resources for implementing good works. Their general purpose is to provide assistance to man in reaching God and in faithfully implementing stewardship. Divine grace gives meaning and purpose to life. The major difference between divine universal grace and divine special grace is their manifestations. Divine special grace (gift of salvation) manifests in the salvation of the sinner and it is a long term grace that can last for ever if no apostasy occurs whereas divine universal grace manifests in making possible the other forms of grace and it can be an instantaneous or a short term grace. Material grace Material Grace is the only category of grace that is totally universal and not special in nature. Material Grace is for both believers and unbelievers and is gifts of matter and time. This gift include the universe, the earth, and all other resources including, the air, the sea, animals, minerals, plants, sun, moon, rain, snow, and so on. These things are available to both believers and unbelievers and were graciously given to all men by God. Paul observed that this grace is a prove of God’s love for man when he said to the people of Lystra â€Å"Nevertheless he (God) left not Himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filing our heart with food and gladness† (Acts 14:17). You read "Description of Grace" in category "Papers" This was in agreement to the words of Jesus that God â€Å"maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust† (Matthew 5:445). This grace is for all. The essence of this grace is for man to use these gifts to get provisions and to implement good works. Spiritual grace Spiritual Grace whether universal or special is the only resourceful grace that resides in man. Spiritual grace determines the ability of each man. No two persons may have exactly the same spiritual gifts as the scripture puts it â€Å"but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he wills† (1 Cor. 12:11) . It is a gift that enables man to relate to God and this gift is received by believers only (special). Spiritual universal grace on the other hand is the gift of the soul that enable man to relate to his fellow man and to his environment and also of the human spirit. It is that inner longing in man to relate to God or to other spirit beings (gods) (Olowe 2012). The Grace of God expresses itself as a combination of many attributes of God, especially mercy, goodness, compassion, and love. In many verses in the Bible, these attributes are interrelated and a combination of two or more stresses the Grace of God (Eph 2: 4-5; Ps 145:8; Exo 33:19). Unlike the above view, the Catholics distinguished between only two forms of grace which are the â€Å"transient help to act† (actual grace) and the â€Å"permanent state of grace† (sanctifying or justifying grace). The former (actual grace) has a fourfold meaning. In a subjective sense, it signifies good will or benevolence and in its objective sense it refers to every favour proceeding from this benevolence (good will) and thus every gratuitous gift. The latter (sanctifying grace) â€Å"is the gratuitous gift of his life that God makes to us; it is infused by the Holy Spirit into the soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it† (Grace and justification 2012). Charles Wesley calls this sanctifying grace the â€Å"sustaining grace† that leads believers towards perfection (sanctifying grace 2012). A closer look into the Catholic concept of actual grace would reveal the literary value of the word grace. Actual grace describes grace further as â€Å"seemingly effortless beauty or charm of movement, form, or proportion† or â€Å"a characteristic or quality pleasing for its charm or refinement†. This grace is also seen as â€Å"a sense of fitness or propriety† or â€Å"a temporary immunity or exemption; a reprieve having the notion of mercy; clemency† (Grace 2012). It is believed to be that admiration or charm as hen the bible said that â€Å"Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us† (Psalms 90:17). This is because beauty or charm attracts benevolent love and prompts the bestowal of benefactions (blessings). This goes to explain why grace is also used in literary or secular circles for either clemency in the court and manner of behavior or poise. This grace also means the expression of gratitude from a person who has received blessing or fav our by giving of thanks. This is where blessing of meals comes to play. The word gratiae (plural of gratia) also stands for thanksgiving. Kevin Knight (2012) connected this beautifully when he said that: Universality of grace does not conflict with its gratuity, if God, in virtue of his will to save all men, distributes with sovereign liberty his graces to all adults without exception†¦ if the universality of grace is only a result of the Divine will to save all mankind, we must first turn our attention to the latter as the basis of the former. This goes to say that the universal grace that God gave to all human is to the effect that they be drawn closer to God by the salvation of their soul on the merit of Christ’s blood. Thus according to Knight, universal grace (actual grace) is the basis or foundation for special grace (sanctifying grace). One question that most theologians often ask about the matter of grace is the question of man’s free will. The bible said that â€Å"it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure† (Phil. 2:13). The question therefore is if man needs grace to act or decide then where is his free-will to make choices on his own? Knight (2012) responded to this by observing that there is â€Å"a grace which precedes the free determination of the will and another which follows this determination and co-operates with the will†. He is of the opinion that grace does not destroy man’s free will but co-operates with it. This grace helps the believer to make decisions that would glorify God and for the unbeliever, gives him an option to choose the right. The ultimate will of God for this grace is â€Å"not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance† (2 Peter 3:9) and to remain in the faith. Knight puts it well when he opined that this grace is a way of God protecting the believer â€Å"against fall into sin and with the final experience of a happy death† (Knight 2012). Scripture text and its interpretation. Most times the particular meaning of Grace could be understood from the context in the passage in which the word is found. For instance, in Romans 5:1-2 â€Å"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand†¦ Grace in this context is something that is God-given and is made possible only through Jesus Christ. This is God’s gift of salvation granted to sinners for their salvation. This is the divine grace or as in the Catholic parlance the justifying grace. It is that unmerited mercy (favor) that God gave by sending his son to die on a cross and thus delivering eternal salvation to humanity. Another example is to be found in Luke 2:40 â₠¬Å"And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. In this example when using the definition of grace to mean unmerited favour it does not make sense. The reason is that the sinless Christ would not need the unmerited or undeserved favour of salvation. Thus grace in this context literally means â€Å"favour or attractiveness†. It could also mean divine enablement which does not necessarily bring one to salvation but as Olowe (2012b) puts it this grace is the â€Å"resources to implement good works† Also in Galatians 5:4 which reads â€Å"Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. It would not make any sense to interpret grace in that context as â€Å"unmerited favour† for how can one fall short of grace through pride or attract grace through meekness (James 4:6; Galatians 5:4) if it is unmerited? Grace in this context is â€Å"†¦the emp owering Presence of God enabling you to be who He created you to be, and the power that God gives us to do his will†(Olowe 2011a). This suggests that the empowering is subject to being connected to the source (God). This then holds that sin could make one fall away from such empowerment. Any form of disobedience is rebelling against the will of God and thus a fall from grace (divine empowering). CONCLUSION John Newton’s â€Å"Amazing Grace† remains the greatest hymn of all times. This song was written by a man who described himself as â€Å"once an infidel and Libertine, a servant of slavers in Africa†. He testified that it was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that he was preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he once long labored to destroy. This story of God’s amazing grace shows the power of God in transforming lives. It is the story of hope for all men, sinners and saints alike. Hope that the sinner can still return to God and be accepted by Him. Hope that the saint need not depend on his strength for victory over sin. Hope that we could be co-opted into the service of God and function effectively because grace is available. The challenge before the church therefore is not just to sing about this grace, but to be so motivated by its power that we would carry this message of God’s grace to the unsaved neighbours and friends around us. May this be our passion and mission! REFERENCE Abi Olowe (2011). Grace of God. Houston: Omega Publishers. http://www. graceti. com/books. asp? bkid=7. Abi Olowe (2011). The Five Forms of Grace. Houston: Omega Publishers. http://www. graceti. com/books. asp? bkid=1 www. scborromeo. org/ccc/p3s1c3a2. htm†¦. â€Å"Grace and justification†- St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church. www. olrl. org/Lessons/Lessons8. shtml†¦ Lesson 8 â€Å"sanctifying grace†. www. gbgm-umc. org/umw/Wesley/walk. stm. ‘Grace’ Easton Bible Dictionary version 2. 0. 0 Vintech Systems (accessed 03 October, 2012) http://www. illumina. com/encyclopedia/hymns/amazing_Grace How to cite Description of Grace, Papers

Analyzes Incident Of A Security Breach †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Analyzes Incident Of A Security Breach Ransomware Attack. Answer: Introduction Information Security is one of the most critical aspects for the organizations in the current times. The information that is associated with the users and the business organizations may fall into different information categories such as sensitive, private, public and so on. All the information categories must be protected and it shall be ensured that there are no security risks and attacks that may take place on the information sets. In spite of several efforts and mechanisms, there have been cases of information security breaches and attacks that have been recorded. The report covers the details of a recent incident of a security breach and also analyzes the May, 2017 ransomware attack. Computer Security Breach OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is a Government agency of United States in the department of labor. There is a lot of sensitive and critical health information of the patients that is associated with OSHA. With the transformations in the field of technology, OSHA decided to migrate all of its information in the electronic form. A massive security breach took place in OSHA in August, 2017, which led to the shutting down of the electronic reporting application. OSHA had implemented a system which comprised of a web-based form in order to allow the employees to submit the injury and illness information because of a security breach. OSHA had launched an application on August 1, 2017, to keep a track of the injuries that were reported. However, it was reported that some of the pages were not available to be accessed. As a result, an emailed statement was sent to the agency by United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team in the Department of Homeland Security. The security of the data that was present in the injury tracking application was adversely impacted due to the security breach that took place (Gonzalez, 2017). There were a number of entities that were affected because of the security breach at OSHA. The first and the foremost were the employees and the patients that were associated with the agency. There private and sensitive information was exposed in front of the attackers and malevolent entities. OSHA, as an agency was also affected by the security breach. It is because of the reason that such occurrences lead to deterioration of the customer trust and also has a bad impact on the brand reputation and brand value in the market (Tornone, 2017). The customers do not feel secure to form a connection with any of the organizations that have experienced some form of a security attack or a security breach. The attack that took place in OSHA was in the form of a security breach that took place because of a weak access point. The injury tracking application that was launched by OSHA had numerous access points to allow the end-users to access the same with ease and convenience. However, since such an application was being implemented for the first time in the agency, there were certain security loopholes that were observed. These security loopholes allowed the attackers to take advantage of the security vulnerabilities and led to the occurrence of the security breach in the agency (Golla, 2017). There are many solutions that could have been used in the injury tracking application at OSHA. Security attacks are a common occurrence in the present times. However, there are countermeasures to the same that have been created to make sure that such occurrences do not take place on a repeated basis. There are many automated network security tools and applications that have been created and are available easily in the market. These tools and applications should have been used and implemented in the tracking application to keep a view of all the activities being executed in the networks associated with the application (Bertino, 2015). There are many advanced network based intrusion detection systems that have been developed which should have been used to make sure that the security breach was avoided. The attackers might have monitored the activity on the network through network eavesdropping and man in the middle attacks. These attacks would have been avoided with the use of the netw ork based security tools. Access control is one of the prime reasons that are involved in the security breach that took place at OSHA. There are various advancements that have been done in the area of access control to make sure that only the authorized users get the access to the application. In case of OSHA, the developers and the implementation team should have used role-based access control. It would have prevented the security breach from taking place in the internal as well as the external networks. There are also enhancements that have been done in the field of authentication and authorization. Two-fold authentication system along with the use of biometrics should have been done to grant the access to the authenticated users only (Wangen, 2017). There are many anti-malware and anti-denial tools that have also been developed by the technocrats. There are a number of malicious codes that are launched on the web to look for potential security vulnerabilities which often results in a security attack. However, anti-malware tools keep a track of such attempts and report them immediately to allow the security team to take a required action. Injury tracking application and the other web-based applications at OSHA should have been protected with the same. It is also necessary to ensure that in-depth planning and analysis is involved in all of the activities. OSHA is a Government agency and it is certain that the launch of the application must have been done after completion of all of the project activities. However, steps such as planning, reviews and inspections are often missed out by the business units which lead to the occurrence of a security event. All of the project phases and stages must have been covered at OSHA in order to avoid and prevent the security breach that took place. Ransomware Attack May 2017 There have been many security breaches and attacks that have taken place in the past. However, there are certain security attacks that lead to a lot of devastation and damage to the parties affected. One such attack that took place in May, 2017, was the ransomware attack which was termed as WannaCry. Ransomware attacks are defined as the attacks in which the attackers block the access to a particular system or an application and a ransom is demanded from the user to allow the access again. WannaCry was a worldwide ransomware attack that impacted over one hundred fifty countries and made use of ransomware cryptoworm to block the access of the users on the Microsoft Windows platform. The attackers executed the task of the encryption of the data present in the systems and demanded the payments in the form of Bitcoin cryptocurrency as ransom (Wong Solon, 2017). The security attack began on Friday, May 12, 2017 when National Health Staff (NHS) in UK reported of the shutting down of the systems on a gradual basis. The unlocking of the files was possible only after the payment of $300 (230) as ransom. Soon after, a number of other European countries also reported of the same incident. In Russia, there were a number of business units and organizations that were impacted. There are certain reports that have been published which state that Russia was the worst hit. There were domestic bank, health ministries and organization, the railway department along with the mobile phone companies that were impacted in the ransomware attack that took place (Hern Gibbs, 2017). Similar cases were also witnessed in other countries such as Spain, Germany, Italy, Egypt, Taiwan, France, Sweden, Portugal, Singapore, India and many others. There are many malicious codes and software that have been created to cause damage to the data and information that is present in the computer systems and on the web. One such code is a worm that is a malware and it spreads on its own in the computer systems. The other malicious codes require human intervention for triggering; however, worms are the only malevolent codes that have the ability to be launched without any human involvement (Bbc, 2017). WannaCry is a ransomware that was launched as a worm to look for the security vulnerabilities that were present in the Microsoft Windows based computer systems and had the ability to launch and multiply itself. There was a security vulnerability that was identified in association with the Microsoft systems and it was termed as EternalBlue. The cyber-security experts stated that the malware was for real and the required security patches were released to avoid any of the security breaches and attacks. The group of attackers called The Shadow Brokers made used of the same and made it publically available in April, 2017. It was being assumed as a protest to current US president, Donald Trump. However, the similar vulnerability was used to give rise to WannaCry. WannaCry gained entry to the NHS systems and other system due to the security vulnerabilities that were present. These vulnerabilities were identified a long back and some of these were not fixed. It should have been made sure that the security fixes were implemented in all the systems which would have prevented the attackers from making use of the security vulnerability for the execution of the ransomware (Palmer, 2017). Microsoft should have released emails and authentic public releases to inform the users regarding the security vulnerability and the potential security attacks that may have taken place. The users would have ensured that they took proper measures such as backing up of the information along with the encryption of the data and information so that the attacks could have been avoided and the damage control was done with ease (Erlich Zviran, 2010). Malware can spread rapidly from one system to the other. Once there are a lot many systems and applications that are impacted by a malware of any category, then it becomes extremely challenging to prevent the damage. Also, the spreading of these codes continues till a long period of time which may impact numerous systems and services. The same event occurred in case of WannaCry as the malware spread across hundreds of countries. There are many anti-malware and anti-denial tools that have also been developed by the technocrats. There are a number of malicious codes that are launched on the web to look for potential security vulnerabilities which often results in a security attack. However, anti-malware tools keep a track of such attempts and report them immediately to allow the security team to take a required action (Al-Hamdani, 2009). It is necessary to promote user awareness in association with the security risks and attacks. Many of the users are not aware of the basic security practices that they must follow to avoid the web-based attacks. The attackers take advantage of such users and cause occurrence of security breach. The similar case took place with the release of WannaCry as it could easily spread to the systems and applications. The users should, therefore, have been aware of the advancements that have been done for the prevention, detection and control of the security attacks. Conclusion Security breaches and attacks are common in the present times. It is necessary for the organizations and the end-users to make sure that they follow the correct security policies and protocols to avoid the security attacks and breaches. It must also be ensured that the security attacks that have already taken place must be made known to the users in terms of the information regarding the type of the attacks, causes, prevention measures and likewise. References Al-Hamdani, W. (2009). Three Models to Measure Information Security Compliance. International Journal Of Information Security And Privacy, 3(4), 43-67. https://dx.doi.org/10.4018/jisp.2009100104 Bbc. (2017). Massive ransomware infection hits computers in 99 countries - BBC News. BBC News. Retrieved 22 August 2017, from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39901382 Bertino, E. (2015). Security and privacy of electronic health information systems. International Journal Of Information Security, 14(6), 485-486. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10207-015-0303-z Erlich, Z., Zviran, M. (2010). Goals and Practices in Maintaining Information Systems Security. International Journal Of Information Security And Privacy, 4(3), 40-50. https://dx.doi.org/10.4018/jisp.2010070103 Gollan, J. (2017). Labor Department blames data breach for injury reporting sites shutdown. Reveal. Retrieved 22 August 2017, from https://www.revealnews.org/blog/labor-department-blames-data-breach-for-shutdown-of-employee-injury-reporting-site/ Gonzalez, G. (2017). Security breach shuts down OSHA electronic reporting application - Business Insurance. Business Insurance. Retrieved 22 August 2017, from https://www.businessinsurance.com/article/20170816/NEWS08/912315224/Security-breach-shuts-down-OSHA-electronic-reporting-application Hern, A., Gibbs, S. (2017). What is WannaCry ransomware and why is it attacking global computers?. the Guardian. Retrieved 22 August 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/12/nhs-ransomware-cyber-attack-what-is-wanacrypt0r-20 Palmer, D. (2017). Your failure to apply critical cybersecurity updates is putting your company at risk from the next WannaCry or Petya | ZDNet. ZDNet. Retrieved 22 August 2017, from https://www.zdnet.com/article/your-failure-to-apply-critical-cyber-security-updates-puts-your-company-at-risk-from-the-next/ Tornone, K. (2017). OSHA halts new online reporting following security breach. HR Dive. Retrieved 22 August 2017, from https://www.hrdive.com/news/osha-halts-new-online-reporting-following-security-breach/449551/ Wangen, G. (2017). A framework for estimating information security risk assessment method completeness. International Journal Of Information Security. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10207-017-0382-0 Wong, J., Solon, O. (2017). Massive ransomware cyber-attack hits nearly 100 countries around the world. the Guardian. Retrieved 22 August 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/12/global-cyber-attack-ransomware-nsa-uk-nhs

Analyzes Incident Of A Security Breach †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Analyzes Incident Of A Security Breach Ransomware Attack. Answer: Introduction Information Security is one of the most critical aspects for the organizations in the current times. The information that is associated with the users and the business organizations may fall into different information categories such as sensitive, private, public and so on. All the information categories must be protected and it shall be ensured that there are no security risks and attacks that may take place on the information sets. In spite of several efforts and mechanisms, there have been cases of information security breaches and attacks that have been recorded. The report covers the details of a recent incident of a security breach and also analyzes the May, 2017 ransomware attack. Computer Security Breach OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is a Government agency of United States in the department of labor. There is a lot of sensitive and critical health information of the patients that is associated with OSHA. With the transformations in the field of technology, OSHA decided to migrate all of its information in the electronic form. A massive security breach took place in OSHA in August, 2017, which led to the shutting down of the electronic reporting application. OSHA had implemented a system which comprised of a web-based form in order to allow the employees to submit the injury and illness information because of a security breach. OSHA had launched an application on August 1, 2017, to keep a track of the injuries that were reported. However, it was reported that some of the pages were not available to be accessed. As a result, an emailed statement was sent to the agency by United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team in the Department of Homeland Security. The security of the data that was present in the injury tracking application was adversely impacted due to the security breach that took place (Gonzalez, 2017). There were a number of entities that were affected because of the security breach at OSHA. The first and the foremost were the employees and the patients that were associated with the agency. There private and sensitive information was exposed in front of the attackers and malevolent entities. OSHA, as an agency was also affected by the security breach. It is because of the reason that such occurrences lead to deterioration of the customer trust and also has a bad impact on the brand reputation and brand value in the market (Tornone, 2017). The customers do not feel secure to form a connection with any of the organizations that have experienced some form of a security attack or a security breach. The attack that took place in OSHA was in the form of a security breach that took place because of a weak access point. The injury tracking application that was launched by OSHA had numerous access points to allow the end-users to access the same with ease and convenience. However, since such an application was being implemented for the first time in the agency, there were certain security loopholes that were observed. These security loopholes allowed the attackers to take advantage of the security vulnerabilities and led to the occurrence of the security breach in the agency (Golla, 2017). There are many solutions that could have been used in the injury tracking application at OSHA. Security attacks are a common occurrence in the present times. However, there are countermeasures to the same that have been created to make sure that such occurrences do not take place on a repeated basis. There are many automated network security tools and applications that have been created and are available easily in the market. These tools and applications should have been used and implemented in the tracking application to keep a view of all the activities being executed in the networks associated with the application (Bertino, 2015). There are many advanced network based intrusion detection systems that have been developed which should have been used to make sure that the security breach was avoided. The attackers might have monitored the activity on the network through network eavesdropping and man in the middle attacks. These attacks would have been avoided with the use of the netw ork based security tools. Access control is one of the prime reasons that are involved in the security breach that took place at OSHA. There are various advancements that have been done in the area of access control to make sure that only the authorized users get the access to the application. In case of OSHA, the developers and the implementation team should have used role-based access control. It would have prevented the security breach from taking place in the internal as well as the external networks. There are also enhancements that have been done in the field of authentication and authorization. Two-fold authentication system along with the use of biometrics should have been done to grant the access to the authenticated users only (Wangen, 2017). There are many anti-malware and anti-denial tools that have also been developed by the technocrats. There are a number of malicious codes that are launched on the web to look for potential security vulnerabilities which often results in a security attack. However, anti-malware tools keep a track of such attempts and report them immediately to allow the security team to take a required action. Injury tracking application and the other web-based applications at OSHA should have been protected with the same. It is also necessary to ensure that in-depth planning and analysis is involved in all of the activities. OSHA is a Government agency and it is certain that the launch of the application must have been done after completion of all of the project activities. However, steps such as planning, reviews and inspections are often missed out by the business units which lead to the occurrence of a security event. All of the project phases and stages must have been covered at OSHA in order to avoid and prevent the security breach that took place. Ransomware Attack May 2017 There have been many security breaches and attacks that have taken place in the past. However, there are certain security attacks that lead to a lot of devastation and damage to the parties affected. One such attack that took place in May, 2017, was the ransomware attack which was termed as WannaCry. Ransomware attacks are defined as the attacks in which the attackers block the access to a particular system or an application and a ransom is demanded from the user to allow the access again. WannaCry was a worldwide ransomware attack that impacted over one hundred fifty countries and made use of ransomware cryptoworm to block the access of the users on the Microsoft Windows platform. The attackers executed the task of the encryption of the data present in the systems and demanded the payments in the form of Bitcoin cryptocurrency as ransom (Wong Solon, 2017). The security attack began on Friday, May 12, 2017 when National Health Staff (NHS) in UK reported of the shutting down of the systems on a gradual basis. The unlocking of the files was possible only after the payment of $300 (230) as ransom. Soon after, a number of other European countries also reported of the same incident. In Russia, there were a number of business units and organizations that were impacted. There are certain reports that have been published which state that Russia was the worst hit. There were domestic bank, health ministries and organization, the railway department along with the mobile phone companies that were impacted in the ransomware attack that took place (Hern Gibbs, 2017). Similar cases were also witnessed in other countries such as Spain, Germany, Italy, Egypt, Taiwan, France, Sweden, Portugal, Singapore, India and many others. There are many malicious codes and software that have been created to cause damage to the data and information that is present in the computer systems and on the web. One such code is a worm that is a malware and it spreads on its own in the computer systems. The other malicious codes require human intervention for triggering; however, worms are the only malevolent codes that have the ability to be launched without any human involvement (Bbc, 2017). WannaCry is a ransomware that was launched as a worm to look for the security vulnerabilities that were present in the Microsoft Windows based computer systems and had the ability to launch and multiply itself. There was a security vulnerability that was identified in association with the Microsoft systems and it was termed as EternalBlue. The cyber-security experts stated that the malware was for real and the required security patches were released to avoid any of the security breaches and attacks. The group of attackers called The Shadow Brokers made used of the same and made it publically available in April, 2017. It was being assumed as a protest to current US president, Donald Trump. However, the similar vulnerability was used to give rise to WannaCry. WannaCry gained entry to the NHS systems and other system due to the security vulnerabilities that were present. These vulnerabilities were identified a long back and some of these were not fixed. It should have been made sure that the security fixes were implemented in all the systems which would have prevented the attackers from making use of the security vulnerability for the execution of the ransomware (Palmer, 2017). Microsoft should have released emails and authentic public releases to inform the users regarding the security vulnerability and the potential security attacks that may have taken place. The users would have ensured that they took proper measures such as backing up of the information along with the encryption of the data and information so that the attacks could have been avoided and the damage control was done with ease (Erlich Zviran, 2010). Malware can spread rapidly from one system to the other. Once there are a lot many systems and applications that are impacted by a malware of any category, then it becomes extremely challenging to prevent the damage. Also, the spreading of these codes continues till a long period of time which may impact numerous systems and services. The same event occurred in case of WannaCry as the malware spread across hundreds of countries. There are many anti-malware and anti-denial tools that have also been developed by the technocrats. There are a number of malicious codes that are launched on the web to look for potential security vulnerabilities which often results in a security attack. However, anti-malware tools keep a track of such attempts and report them immediately to allow the security team to take a required action (Al-Hamdani, 2009). It is necessary to promote user awareness in association with the security risks and attacks. Many of the users are not aware of the basic security practices that they must follow to avoid the web-based attacks. The attackers take advantage of such users and cause occurrence of security breach. The similar case took place with the release of WannaCry as it could easily spread to the systems and applications. The users should, therefore, have been aware of the advancements that have been done for the prevention, detection and control of the security attacks. Conclusion Security breaches and attacks are common in the present times. It is necessary for the organizations and the end-users to make sure that they follow the correct security policies and protocols to avoid the security attacks and breaches. It must also be ensured that the security attacks that have already taken place must be made known to the users in terms of the information regarding the type of the attacks, causes, prevention measures and likewise. References Al-Hamdani, W. (2009). Three Models to Measure Information Security Compliance. International Journal Of Information Security And Privacy, 3(4), 43-67. https://dx.doi.org/10.4018/jisp.2009100104 Bbc. (2017). Massive ransomware infection hits computers in 99 countries - BBC News. BBC News. Retrieved 22 August 2017, from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39901382 Bertino, E. (2015). Security and privacy of electronic health information systems. International Journal Of Information Security, 14(6), 485-486. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10207-015-0303-z Erlich, Z., Zviran, M. (2010). Goals and Practices in Maintaining Information Systems Security. International Journal Of Information Security And Privacy, 4(3), 40-50. https://dx.doi.org/10.4018/jisp.2010070103 Gollan, J. (2017). Labor Department blames data breach for injury reporting sites shutdown. Reveal. Retrieved 22 August 2017, from https://www.revealnews.org/blog/labor-department-blames-data-breach-for-shutdown-of-employee-injury-reporting-site/ Gonzalez, G. (2017). Security breach shuts down OSHA electronic reporting application - Business Insurance. Business Insurance. Retrieved 22 August 2017, from https://www.businessinsurance.com/article/20170816/NEWS08/912315224/Security-breach-shuts-down-OSHA-electronic-reporting-application Hern, A., Gibbs, S. (2017). What is WannaCry ransomware and why is it attacking global computers?. the Guardian. Retrieved 22 August 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/12/nhs-ransomware-cyber-attack-what-is-wanacrypt0r-20 Palmer, D. (2017). Your failure to apply critical cybersecurity updates is putting your company at risk from the next WannaCry or Petya | ZDNet. ZDNet. Retrieved 22 August 2017, from https://www.zdnet.com/article/your-failure-to-apply-critical-cyber-security-updates-puts-your-company-at-risk-from-the-next/ Tornone, K. (2017). OSHA halts new online reporting following security breach. HR Dive. Retrieved 22 August 2017, from https://www.hrdive.com/news/osha-halts-new-online-reporting-following-security-breach/449551/ Wangen, G. (2017). A framework for estimating information security risk assessment method completeness. International Journal Of Information Security. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10207-017-0382-0 Wong, J., Solon, O. (2017). Massive ransomware cyber-attack hits nearly 100 countries around the world. the Guardian. Retrieved 22 August 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/12/global-cyber-attack-ransomware-nsa-uk-nhs

Sex Education Essays (590 words) - Sex Education, Fertility

Sex Education What is comprehensive, reality-based sexuality education? True comprehensive, reality-based sexuality education seeks to assist young people in understanding a positive view of sexuality, provide them with information and skills about taking care of their sexual health, and help them acquire skills to make decisions now and in the future. Ideally, sexuality education is taught in ways that are age- and experience-appropriate in kindergarten through 12th grade. It is taught by trained teachers who teach about: sexual development, reproductive health, interpersonal relationships, affection, intimacy, body image, and gender roles. The goal is to help young people grow into sexually healthy adults. Being sexually healthy includes preventing the negative consequences of sexual intercourse, and also includes a broad range of life-enhancing skills, such as assertiveness, effective communication, critical thinking, decision-making, and the capacity to build relationships. Comprehensive sexuality education doesn't happen in one place -- it involves parents, educators, and other adults in the community. Planned Parenthood urges parents to be involved in monitoring their children's school programs, and advocating for curricula they want to have in their children's schools. We help parents to discuss sexuality appropriately and accurately with their children in community-based programs for families. We can't expect children to become sexually responsible if the adults in their lives are uninformed about sex or uncomfortable talking about it. What are the values of comprehensive sexuality education? Among the values inherent in reality-based sexuality education are personal responsibility, respect for oneself and others, and the value of emotionally supportive relationships. The following list of values concerning sexuality was developed by the National Guidelines Task Force: Sexuality is a natural and healthy part of living. All persons are sexual. Every person has dignity and self worth. Individuals express their sexuality in varied ways. In a pluralistic society like the United States, people should respect and accept the diversity of values and beliefs about sexuality that exist in a community. Sexual relationships should never be coercive or exploitative. All children should be loved and cared for. All sexual decisions have effects or consequences. All persons have the right and the obligation to make responsible sexual choices. Individuals and society benefit when children are able to discuss sexuality with their parents and/or other trusted adults. Young people explore their sexuality as a natural process of achieving sexual maturity. Premature involvement in sexual behaviors poses risks. Abstaining from sexual intercourse is the most effective method of preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Young people who are involved in sexual relationships need access to information about health care services. [Guidelines for Comprehensive Sexuality Education, National Guidelines Task Force, SIECUS, 1991.] Why should schools be involved in sexuality education? While more families are talking openly about sexuality, most parents still avoid the issue -- or unintentionally hand down harmful myths and fear. Keeping children ignorant endangers their lives -- especially for the millions of teens who have already begun having sex -- 61% of male high school students and 48% of female high school students. (CDC, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, SEXUAL BEHAVIOR AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS - UNITED STATES, 1990. MMWR 1992; 40; 885-888.) Schools can give young people the facts and the relationship skills they need to become responsible adults, and can break the cycle of ignorance, denial, and shame that often passes from one generation to the next. Most parents say they want their children to receive sexuality education in school. One poll found that 89% of American adults support sexuality education in schools, and 73% want schools to make contraceptives available to students. (Louis Harris and Associates, PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARD TEENAGE PREGNANCY, SEX EDUCATION, AND BIRTH CONTROL. May 1988.) Human Sexuality

Britain and the EU Essay Example

Britain and the EU Essay Example Britain and the EU Essay Britain and the EU Essay Assignment 1: 1. In 1957 the EU was fashioned to elevate the living standards of its members by encouraging peace, democracy and equality for the countries that had joined the partnership. Its aims were to end war and repair the division of the European continent. It has become a unique economic and political partnership consisting of 27 European countries with around 500 million inhabitants (see figure 1 in appendix). This map shows the 27 (coloured) EU countries (Grey countries are candidates) It was not until 1973, the EU’s first enlargement, that the UK became involved on account of the then Prime Minister, Edward Heath. The UK did not join the EU from the start as it chose to stay with a rival group called the European Free Trade Area. It wasn’t until the 1950’s that it became apparent the living standards of France and Germany surpassed those of the British and their Government (under Macmillan). Additionally, French president Charles De Gaulle vetoed their first application (1963) considering the UK as inappropriate candidates – not a good asset and a liability to the union. Despite the assistance it provided other countries during the war and its eventual success, Britain suffered post-World War II with stunted economic growth, high inflation and poor industrial relations; her position in the hierarchy of the world had dropped and it was a difficult matter to cope with. The empire was falling and so was its trade. Also, the US encouraged the UK to join, due to fears of France trying to take control of Europe, in attempt to balance out the power struggle. It was Edward Heath’s opinion that due to its economic and political ills Britain would benefit from joining the EU; economically to increase trade and politically to form unity and stability for the failing empire. British membership was sealed by a referendum in its favour held in 1975. The general advantages of its membership include Free movement of goods and capital with other EU countries, without boundaries or border controls. A circuit of diverse and new goods (through international trade) and equipment, skills, services and workforce/people – more workers results in a boost in tax revenue. If more jobs are available people will be contributing in taxes rather than extracting with benefits. Ease in the exportation of goods leading to a more competitive market and reduced prices for consumers. An increase in population helps domestic demands – more products bought, more services needed. Disadvantages of joining EU UK cannot afford increase in populati on – heavy demand on schools, NHS and benefits. Influx of immigrants leads to high competition for jobs, fewer jobs for British, more people requiring benefits, impact on UK residents – squeezing funds. Tax increases to fund extra services needed. Exchange rates can influence the balance of payments negatively. Free movement of labour could weaken the economy. Loss of independence. Draining of resources. Since joining the EU the UK’s trading market has suffered a deficit. Overall trade post-1984 has been substandard. Benefits of international trade not shared equally. Outsourcing. Workers and services bought overseas for lower cost meaning UK suffers/loses trade. The balance of payments is the record and measurement of payments and transactions between one country and the rest of the world. It includes imports and exports of goods (visibles) and services (invisibles), tracks the flow and balance of finances ranging from dividends and interest to investment, loans, transfers and trade credit, and the transactions and transfer of capital. These are categorised into three accounts: current, capital and financial. The UK’s gross domestic product rose by 0. 5% in 2011, a rise following two consecutive quarters of negative GDP said to be the oot of the recession. Surplus is when the production of goods or services exceeds the consumption or when goods are in excess of their requirement. A deficit is a deficiency in amount, for example when a company, government or individual’s spending exceeds its income. Long-term deficits stack up huge debts that will have to be paid off eventually causing problems for future generations. Debts must be paid off ideally money would be earned from exportation however sometimes this is not possible and the country will have to borrow or invest to reach repayments. A good example of the result of a long-term deficit is Greece – currently have no advantage in trade of visible goods, their advantage in tourism is not enough to cover their arrears so at first money can be borrowed to make up the difference but then as the loans escalate Greece has to default on its loans knowing they can never repay the money. A rescue plan is now being debated. The largest surpluses in UK trade 2004 were with USA at ? 17. 1 billion. The largest deficit recorded was Germany at ? 12. 3 billion and France (explored later) at ? 3. 2 billion. A country’s wealth is affected by international trade, which is important because of an introduction of new resources, greater efficiency due to competition, greater choice for consumers, greater output through comparative or absolute advantage, specialisation and division of labour. An absolute advantage is when a country is superior at producing a good or service and can make equal or more goods at a lower cost or with fewer resources. Alternatively, a country may have the absolute disadvantage and be totally inefficient at producing anything in comparison to its trading partners. A comparative advantage is when a country specialises in a good or service that it is least inefficient at when compared with producing other goods or services. UK’s absolute advantage is in financial services with a 70% growth it is the UK’s biggest area of exports. International trade is necessary as a business will eventually ‘hit the ceiling’ and simply cannot expand any further in one country. The gains, and sometimes losses, distributed to trading countries are indicated by the terms of trade. It can be defined as a ratio of the country’s average price of exports to the country’s average price of imports. Ideally the price of exports would be greater than the price of its imports, this is known as movement in a ‘favourable direction’. The terms of trade depend upon the global demand and supply of goods. A fall in the price of a product exported by a country can cause a balance of payment deficit, especially when the foreign exchange earned in its exports is used to pay for its imports. Generally over the past 20 years the UK’s terms of trade have been improving, meaning export prices have risen relative to import prices. This is partly due to the fact globalisation has had less impact on export prices of UK invisibles compared to the price of its visible imports. The exchange rate, or rate one currency can be converted into another is constantly changing due to many factors including interest and inflation and the political and economic state of the country in question. A business will want payment in the currency of its country so if the value of the pound falls (meaning less euro for every pound) the UK importer will end up paying more a negative impact on the UK’s finances. The British pound to euro exchange rate on 31/12/09 was 1 GBP = 1. 2 EURO. As of 3/11/11 it stands at 1 GBP = 1. 16 Euro the increase signifies a current benefit to the UK (exchangerates. org. uk). China currently keeps its exchange rate low to have a positive effect on its balance of payments. Generally since 1990 the UK has suffered with a deficit in its balance of visible trade. The figures from The Pink Book show th at in 2004 the UK’s deficit increased to a record ? 58. 6 billion due to a rise of 1 ? % in the value of exports compared to a rise of 5 ? % in the value of imports compounded by a higher ratio of imports to exports. The whole world suffered, with a 2? % increase in exports and a 9? increase in imports in non- EU countries so although the UK had a deficit it was sheltered from extreme rises experienced outside the EU, â€Å"The deficit with non-EU countries widened from ? 22. 0 billion in 2003 to a record ? 29. 5 billion in 2004, the deficit with EU countries widened from ? 25. 8 billion in 2003 to a record ? 29. 2 billion in 2004. † The deficit on goods is far bigger than the surplus on services resulting in an overall decrease on the current trade. The fall of the value of exports in the EU was partly caused by the crackdown on MTIC fraud (businesses wrongfully buying goods VAT free) by UK Revenue and customs. Overall between 1981–2001 export volumes increased. However a decline in economic activity abroad caused the growth in exports to slow during 1991- 1993. By 2004, import volumes had risen significantly more than export volume. A 50% increase in the price of crude oil in 1999, which elevated to 70% in 2000 (The Pink Book 2005 p39) had a huge impact on the UK with both imports and exports due to its ongoing effect on the price of manufacture and distribution of goods. Until 1996 there had been a surplus in the export of crude oil. By 1998, following problems in the North Sea reducing production levels; the surplus had been reduced by ? 5. 0 billion. The figures yo-yoed for the following several years and although there was still a surplus it was significantly reduced with drops in the export of crude oil and an increase on imports. Looking at trade in goods other than oil during 1992 and 1999 there was a steady surplus but there has been a considerable deficit thereafter. In the past decade trade in motor-cars, and other consumer and intermediate goods has been in deficit even though from 1994 – 2004 import in motor- cars has risen; this is visible trade. Figure 2. 6 in the pink book illustrates that the balance of imports (visible trade) were considerably higher than exports (invisible trade), both of which are rising, imports more rapidly than exports, creating an overall growing deficit. As indicated by preceding figures it seems the EU has protected the UK. The deficit in this country has not been as bad as that outside the EU even though trade has worsened since 1984 and our deficit is due to joining the EU. The UK’s absolute disadvantage lies in travel and tourism as people go out of the UK for a holiday. The idea of having one common currency, the Euro, was to evade exchange, interest and trading tariff rates, to have shared monetary policies (including costs of goods and wage rates) and to ease trading in general. With several different currencies things were too intricate and complicated; one currency would eliminate these problems. The UK opted out of joining the euro from the beginning and although the subject is still under debate it looks unlikely that the UK will adopt the Euro. The UK would have to answer to the European Central Bank and lose any monetary control. It is the opinion of some that this would create further economic crises. Greece with its current financial issues blames the Euro and wishes to return to the drachma. 2. The EU has increased from 15 countries to 27. 17 of which have adopted the euro. Currently there are talks about further enlargement of the EU. There is no evidence that the enlargement has helped Britain however we have benefited from cheap labour and great opportunities to UK business and consumers. However this has also been a drawback to UK residents during the recession as jobs were lost as it was much cheaper to take the labour abroad. One of the benefits is foreign direct investment; an example of this is Toyota. Once the company had broken through and cracked the EU market it became the world’s most profitable and second largest manufacturer of automobiles. Examples of businesses that have successfully expanded to France include; BP, ICI, Zeneca, Glaxo-Wellcome, Barclays, RMC, Abbey National and The Woolwich. Some say the EU is ill equipped to deal with its rapid growth being unable to offer sufficient jobs subsequently giving too much away regarding healthcare and benefits. The diversity of the EU in regards to economies, cultures, languages and demographics will get too complicated and global powers will clash. The EU has been accused of being greedy, focusing on size rather than economy, allowing weak states with low GDP growth to become members. The UK has lost most of its manufacturing industry, a recent example is Bombardier who cut more than 1,400 jobs as the last train manufacturing plant in Derby failed to secure a deal which was won by Germany. The UK is not competitive in the industrial market, which is not good for the British economy. The contributions to the EU from the UK are high and some feel it is unbalanced. Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher fought to reduce inflation and increase the amount the UK received by the EU in comparison to its contributions. An enlargement could mean that more countries are going to have to be subsidised by the UK. Advantages of an enlargement lie strongly in unification of states. Being more than a redistribution of wealth, it is a politically, economically and culturally diverse union. Intended to be equal and balanced with an understanding of common good it is a strong way to fight terrorism, in addition to the increased availability of goods to trade freely. Word count: 2,243 3. The Steeple analysis (see appendix figure 2) identifies the current business environment in France. 4. My action plan (see appendix figure 3) examines ways in which a business, using the example of Marks and Spencer, needs to adapt to be successful in France. Appendix Figure 1. Member States of the EU (year of entry) [pic]Austria (1995) |[pic]Latvia (2004) | |[pic]Belgium (1952) |[pic]Lithuania (2004) | |[pic]Bulgaria (2007) |[pic]Luxembourg (1952) | |[pic]Cyprus (2004) |[pic]Malta (2004) | |[pic]Czech Republic (2004) |[pic]Netherlands (1952) | |[pic]Denmark (1973) |[pic]Poland (2004) | |[pic]Estonia (2004) |[pic]Portugal (1986) | |[pic]Finland (1995) |[pic]Romania (2007) | |[pic]France (1952) |[pic]Slovakia (2004) | |[pic]Germany (1952) |[pic]Slovenia (2004) | |[pic]Greece (1981) |[pic]S pain (1986) | |[pic]Hungary (2004) |[pic]Sweden (1995) | |[pic]Ireland (1973) |[pic]United Kingdom (1973) | |[pic]Italy (1952) | | Figure 2. Steeple analysis effecting business in France Social / Demographic |Current population at 2011 stands at 62, 448, 977 | | |20th most populous country in the world in 2003 the natural birth rate of France was responsible for almost all the population| | |growth in the EU. Exploredia. France Population (2011) [online] http://exploredia. com/france-population-2011/ [accessed 3 | | |November 2011] | | | Continuous population growth – 12. 29 births/1,000 population compared to 8. 76 deaths/1,000 population | | |64. 7% of population according to the CIA world fact book (2011) is ranged between 15-64 slightly more males than females 18. 5%| | |are aged 0 – 14 years old again more males than females. 16. % of population is 65 years old + and is the only age range that | | |has more females than males | | |Unemployment stands at 9. 814% Economy Watch Content (2010) France Economy. [online] | | | economywatch. com/world_economy/france/ [accessed 3 November 2011] | | |Employment percentages rank highest in services (71. 8%), industry (24. 3%) then agriculture (3. 8%) | | |Low migration levels 1. 6 migrants/1,000 population | | |Welcomes at least 75 million foreign tourists with Paris as the world’s number one tourist destination. | | |Etiquette and approach to business is more formal than that in the UK however it is important to be polite and welcoming, UK | | |retail staff are more standoffish than those in France. | | |French companies are committed to keeping French culture, or la Patrimoine, taking pride in the products and services they | | |produce and turning over a profit for their shareholders. | |Attitudes to work are more laid back than in the UK, they are more for living life, working only what is necessary, According | | |to the French book, Bonjour Paresse (Hello Laziness), | | |a company can fire you at anytime, you dont owe them any more than the bare minimum in terms of work and devotion. They are | | |nonchalant about time keeping and punctuality. How to understand French culture. EHow contributor. [online] | | | ehow. com/how_2085611_understand-french-attitudes-towards-work. tml#ixzz1cfGP4jjJ [accessed 3 November 2011] | | |Abides by EU standards in terms of minimum wage, qualifications, product testing | | |Language barriers- the French are very proud of their culture and language signs information etc tends to be in French. Often | | |English films and cinema is dubbed. | |Technological |France is a leading exporter in nuclear technology Encylopedia of the nations. (2008) France – Science and Technology [online]| | | nationsencyclopedia. com/Europe/France-SCIENCE-AND-TECHNOLOGY. html [accessed 3 November 2011] | | | Pioneers in the development of high speed transportation systems such as the Concorde and the TGV high speed train | | |Industry includes electronic and automobile products. | |Agriculture made up 2. 1 percent of GDP, while industries contributed 19 percent, 78. 9 percent came from the service sector. | | |(economy watch) | | |High tax subsidy rate to businesses for research and development | | |Large share of research and development expenditure on defence France – center for local development (2011) France. [online] | | | cgdev. rg/section/initiatives/_active/cdi/_country/france [accessed 3 November 2011] | | |Second most developed market for logistics outsourcing in Europe | | |Channel tunnel links UK to France which is high speed and convenient for logistical purposes. | |Economical |France economy is found to be one among the top ten economies over the world in terms of its value of Gross Domestic Product | | |at $2. 555 trillion in 2010. | | |Hosts more than 22,000 forei gn companies. | | |Paris home to a large number of multinational HQs | | |Free market economy with a tendency for state intervention (capitalism). | |Elected officials key to business in country providing funding, state aid and infrastructure to attract businesses | | |The Global Competitive Index 2009-2010 reports favourably on France’s infrastructure as third best globally | | |The Global Competitive Index 2009-2010 reports adversely on labour market flexibility | | |GDP grew by 0. 3% in 2008 and contracted by about 2. 2% in 2009 compared to 4. 8% for UK | | |GDP per capita $33, 100 (2010 est. | | |Grants for industry and services are distributed by the DIACT | | |EU funding programmes include European Social Funding which is aimed at improving social and economical unity and equality by | | |concentrating on improving less-developed areas. Its aims are to increase job availability, quality of jobs and inclusiveness | | |of the labour market. 10% of the EUs spending is used on this type of funding. The Common Agriculture Policy grants payment | | |for crops and land. Its aims are to give farmers a good standard of living and ensure quality of food and fair prices to | | |consumers. Currently 48% of the EUs budget is used on this type of funding. | | |Taxes and other revenues are 48. 8% of GDP (2010 est. ) | | |France inflation rate in 2010 was 1. 64% but declined in 2011 to 1. 61%. | | |The EU is supplied by France for 25% of the total of agricultural products In 2010 France was the 6th largest exporter and 5th| | |largest importer of manufactured goods Economy Watch Content (2010) France Trade Imports and Exports [online] | | | economywatch. om/world_economy/france/export-import. html [accessed 3 November 2011] | | |High levels of FDI types of business, rose by 22 per cent last year, making it the most successful European country at | | |attracting overseas companies. Integrated Financial Services (2011) (FDI) in France [online] | | | ifs. ie/news-articles-and-information-archive/38-fdi-in-france. html [accessed 3 November 2011] | | |The UK sterling to euro foreign exchange rate is currently (GBP/EUR) 1. 6 | |Environmental |An introduction of carbon tax to sup port environment agendas | | |High oil prices and inadequacy of domestic supply creates a current high trade deficit | | |Weather – cool winters and mild summers, hot summers more predominant on the Mediterranean coast | | |Natural hazards; flooding, avalanches, midwinter windstorms, drought, forest fires in south near the Mediterranean | | |Some forest damage from acid rain; air pollution from industrial and vehicle emissions; water pollution from urban wastes, | | |agricultural runoff | | |Low greenhouse gas emissions per capita | |Political |Nicolas Sarkozy elected on a reform agenda – tasked to free French government from its admin burden | | |Aims to increase medium-term growth rate from 2% 3% | | | Aims to achieve full employment by 2012 (with an unemployment rate of 5% at 2010 it was 9. % ongoing affects of the | | |recession) | | |For the sale of goods, or the provision of furnished lettings, a Micro-BIC (Benefices Industriels et Commerciaux) applies, | | |whereby if gross income is less than â‚ ¬81,500 a flat 71% of income is deducted leaving only 29% to be taxed. Angloinfo. (2011) | | |French Income Tax [online] http://riviera. angloinfo. com/countries/france/intax. asp [accessed 3 November 2011] | | |The government also renounced some of its reform efforts, which ultimately led to a reduction of the GDP by 0. 7% | | |France still has one of the highest tax systems in all of Europe. |Legal |Reforms in labour laws such as Sunday trading – emergency services and police and stores selling perishable goods are | | |authorized to open Sundays otherwise regarded as a day of rest, working hours extending the 35 hour week allowing employees to| | |work overtime, business tax and research and development tax credit. | |Ethical |Faith, ethnicity, sexual orientation and religion must not influence companies or institutions. | Figure 3. A business plan to be successful in France |Aims |Action |Results | |â€Å"Make what we sell† approach |This will be achieved by employing a French agent or distributor who will know and |High tourism figures would | | |understand the culture and attitudes towards retail and services. Advice regarding |mean that UK travellers would | |Have to appeal to the French |attitudes to staff and the appropriateness of self-service checkouts – may not be |feel comfortable shopping | |market – this includes French |favourable here as the French are more formal (steeple analysis). Fully serviced changing |abroad. Eventually MS would | |cuisine and fashion. Perhaps |rooms, which were not a priority originally. Stores should consider French signage and |become a worldwide-recognised | |introducing an equivalent to |labelling (steeple analysis). Taking all this into account franchising would be a route to|brand. | |the UK’s â€Å"Per Una† range, |take. | | |which fulfils

Final Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Final Project - Essay Example It is clear that the risk factors associated with the Coca Cola Company are either external, or internal. External factors related to Coca Cola mostly depend on the decisions made by other beverage companies, but internal factors arise from the poor strategies, as well as actions, that Coca Cola company implements. Some of these factors include market rates, government regulations, credit, liquidity and cash flows (Adams, 2005). Market rate is the leading financial risk with regards to Coca Cola. The market changes depending on customer interests, demand, supply and new technology, as well. When these factors reduce, it becomes intricate for Coca Cola Company to acquire loans or credit. This might affect them financially. Government regulation is yet another vital financial risk for the Coca Cola Company. It is, however, an external risk. Governments frequently change existing tariffs, and this put new financial regulations in place. Some modifications are beneficial, but it might ta ke a while before companies adapt to the changes. In addition, this creates a financial risk to Coca Cola (Adams, 2005). Techniques that Coca Cola has incorporated to overcome these factors include improving technology, imposing techniques of attracting customers and increasing their supplies (Adams, 2005). The two-year pro-forma financial statement that this paper looked into suggests that the world is totally dollarized (Academic & Students Affairs, 2012). According to the statement, the world is turning into a free market economy with low inflation. The world is mainly anchored on the service industry, heavily weighted on commerce and tourism (Academic & Students Affairs, 2012). According to the pro-forma statement, the world today is founded mainly on a well-developed service sector, which accounts for roughly 80% of the worlds businesses. According to the statement, the output of products, in an

External Analysis of Shin Shin Training Center Assignment - 1

External Analysis of Shin Shin Training Center - Assignment Example This professional’s help the training institute in ensuring the required skills are laid out for the trainees. It also ensures that the proper staff is hired who are professionals in the services that they provide. There can be new markets that have better yields and may attract new firms. This creates a new platform for new entrants that decrease the profitability for all companies in the industry. There are factors that may affect new entrance that include barriers to entry like rights and patents. The Shin Shin firm has experienced new entries in the market that have their services for data analysis. The company should ensure that they identify the new ways other companies are using and introduce them in their company that will attract new customers. However, since the feedback of services at the center it has remained intact because its proper placed. Products that are outside the common product may increase the customer’s propensity in having alternatives. This creates potential factors of buyer switching costs, price performance, and buyer substitution. Other effects may be a depreciation of products and creating substandard products. Shin Shin company has a variety of courses, and the students can choose from, that are of quality. Their courses are not expensive which attract new customers due to price performance. This refers to the market of outputs where customers put the firm under pressure in terms of price changes. Companies can have the power to reduce buyer power using loyalty program. This means that when a buyer has many alternatives then their buyer power increases (Porter, 2008). The students who apply to the center for training usually compare prices with other firms. However, the Shin Shin Company has seen its loyalty programs remain intact since the value it gives students is high. Suppliers bargaining power is described as the market inputs where they can be a source of power in the firm when

Chicano Movement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Chicano Movement - Essay Example Luis Valdez was a Mexican American who hailed from a family of migrant farm workers. Valdez’s parents, Francisco and Armida Valdez, moved from farm to farm as hired hands where Valdez was also expected to help out in order the support to the big family of 10 children that his parents had. Even though Valdez was expected to both work and read and his schools kept changing, Valdez attained a strong position for himself as a student excelling in performing arts (Meier, 230). Luis Valdez is the father of Chicano Theatre. This is because he formed the El Teatro Campesino which served as the first platform for performing arts for the Chicano Movement. Valdez’s love for the performing arts began when his school teacher introduced him to puppet art. Later during his college and university days, Valdez pursued the love and created his own theatre group. The purpose of this theatre group was to bring the plight of the Mexican Americans to the forefront. Valdez began working in theatre during his college days at San Jose State College. In 1963, he introduced his first play. The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa was one play that Valdez directed and wrote during his time in San Jose State College. After leaving college, Valdez went on to join a Mime Troupe based in San Francisco. It was from here that Valdez learned the method of using theatre as a platform for expressing his own pent up anger. It was on the basis of this work that Valdez formed his theatre group in 1965. This was a group that toured different cities and enacted short one-act plays, also known as an actor.

Company Background And Market Analysis Of Mcdonalds

Company Background And Market Analysis Of Mcdonalds McDonalds is the leading global foodservice retailer and the worlds largest chain of hamburgers fast food restaurant. It is founded in year 1955 by Ray Kroc. McDonalds serves more than  60 million people with more than 32,000 local restaurants in 117 countries each day. It employs more than 1.5 million people. More than 75% of McDonalds restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent local men and women. Source From the table above, since year 2004 until year 2008, even until now, McDonalds is still the number choice of customers when come to fast food follow by Burger King and Wendys. In year 2008, Subway took over Wendys place and ranked at number three. Besides that, The Star Online stated that McDonalds is ranked in the top 10 most valuable brands in 2010 and it is placed at number six. Top 10 most Valuable Brands in 2010 Rank Brand Value ($bn) 1 Coca-cola 70.45 2 IBM 64.73 3 Microsoft 60.90 4 Google 43.56 5 GE 42.81 6 McDonalds 33.58 7 Intel 32.02 8 Nokia 29.5 9 Disney 28.73 10 HP 26.87 Source: Company Situation Mission Statement: McDonalds vision is to be the worlds best quick service restaurant experience.   Being the best means providing outstanding quality, service, cleanliness, and value, so that we make every customer in every restaurant smile. Values: We place the customer experience at the core of all we do. We are committed to our people. We believe in the McDonalds system. We operate out business ethically. We give back to our communities. We grow our business profitably. We strive continually to improve. Management Overview McDonalds management is very successful as it exports its brands throughout the globe. The company operates McDonalds restaurants as well as franchises. There are 32,478 restaurants in 117 countries at year-end 2009, and there are 26,216 were operated by franchisees and 6,262 were operated by the Company. Under franchise arrangement, a portion of the capital have to be provided by franchisees to invest in their restaurant businesses for the equipment, signs, seating and decorations, reinvesting in the business is needed from time to time. Financial Situation Revenues by geographic Segment: McDonalds largest geographical market is Europe, accounted for 41% of the total revenues in the year 2009 which is mainly driven by France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Revenues are generated through other geographic segments: United States (US),  Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMEA) and other countries and corporate are 35%, 19% and 5% respectively. From McDonalds 2009 annual report, we can see that its total revenues from the US reached $7,944 millions in year 2009, a decrease of 1.7% over year 2008. Revenues from Europe were $9,274 million in year 2009, a decrease of 6.5% compared to year 2008. While revenues from APMEA reached $4,337 million in year 2008, an increase of 2.4% compared with year 2008. Revenues from other countries and corporate reached $1,190 millions in year 2009, a decrease of 7.8% over year 2008. The total operating income and assets in US shows favourable results where the figures keep increasing since year 2007 to year 2009. Total capital expenses in US show improvement as well where the expenditure is lesser in year 2009 compared to year 2008. Market Share: According to Jim Muehlhausen, McDonalds had occupied 19% of the total market share in the fast food industry. While its closest competitors: Burger King and Wendys accounted 2% individually. Pie Chart below shows the market share of the major players in the fast food industry. Source: Market Situation Sector Trends The land size of United Statess is at 3.79 million square miles, according to U.S. Bureau of Census, with the total population of 307,006,500 in July 2009, it is the third largest both by land area and population. The table on the left shows the population in United States in July 2009 according to states. Segmentation The market is segmented by demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioural. Targeting McDonalds target market is people who love fast food. The demand of fast food is increasing nowadays as everyone is practicing faster paced lifestyles. Macdonalds target market is: children, students, working adults and families who are from five to seventy years old. Students tend to spend their time to socialize with their friends in fast food restaurants compare to other restaurants as it offers affordable prices and trendy ambiences. Besides that, due to the hectic schedule, fast food restaurant is always the number one choice for working adults to have their meals as it offers quick services. Kids simply love fast food, hence, the parents will bring their children to fast food restaurants to have family meals. Positioning McDonalds outlets are located mostly in high population states such as: Florida, New York, Texas, Illinois and Ohio. They were built near office buildings, schools, in shopping malls, etc., which are high visibility, traffic volume and ease of access areas. State July 2009 population Alabama 4,708,708 Alaska 698,473 Arizona 6,595,778 Arkansas 2,889,450 California 36,961,664 Colorado 5,024,748 Connecticut 3,518,288 Delaware 885,122 DC 599,657 Florida 18,537,969 Georgia 9,829,211 Hawaii 1,295,178 Idaho 1,545,801 Illinois 12,910,409 Indiana 6,423,113 Iowa 3,007,856 Kansas 2,818,747 Kentucky 4,314,113 Louisiana 4,492,076 Maine 1,318,301 Maryland 5,699,478 Massachusetts 6,593,587 Michigan 9,969,727 Minnesota 5,266,214 Mississippi 2,951,996 Missouri 5,987,580 Montana 974,989 Nebraska 1,796,619 Nevada 2,643,085 New Hampshire 1,324,575 New Jersey 8,707,739 New Mexico 2,009,671 New York 19,541,453 North Carolina 9,380,884 North Dakota 646,844 Ohio 11,542,645 Oklahoma 3,687,050 Oregon 3,825,657 Pennsylvania 12,604,767 Rhode Island 1,053,209 South Carolina 4,561,242 South Dakota 812,383 Tennessee 6,296,254 Texas 24,782,302 Utah 2,784,572 Vermont 621,760 Virginia 7,882,590 Washington 6,664,195 West Virginia 1,819,777 Wisconsin 5,654,774 Wyoming 544,270 Total 307,006,550 McDonalds target market and its market segmentation: Children Youth Adults Elderly Demographic Age 5 to 12 13 to 25 26-54 55-70 Occupation Students Students/Part-timers Part-timer/Full-timer/Self-employed Retired Income 1000 to 2500 >2500 Pensions and savings Geographic Within United States Psychographic Interests Entertainment Entertainment, leisure Entertainment, leisure Enjoyment Lifestyle Dependent Aggressive Aggressive Slow and steady Behavioural Occasions Birthday party Birthday party, gathering Gathering, anniversary Anniversary McDonalds SWOT analysis Strengths Strong global presence with its nearest domestic competitor being only half of its size. The market leader in both domestic and international markets. Strong brand recognition Ranked number one in Fortune Magazines 2008 list of most admired food service companies Having more than 32,000 local restaurants in 117 countries. First to come out with nutrition facts information on its products. Weaknesses Lack of product innovation. High cost for employee training due to high employee turnover. Opportunities Its outlets are located in high visibility, traffic volume and ease of access areas. International market Advances in technology Threats Saturated food industries. Price competition between competitors. More health conscious customers and fast food is categorized as unhealthy food. PESTLE implications Political According McDonalds 2009 annual report, foreign currency translation had a negative impact on McDonalds consolidated operating results in year 2009 which is driven by the Euro, Russian Ruble, British Pound, Canadian Dollar and Australian Dollar. While in year 2008 and 2007, the foreign translation had positive impact on its consolidated operating results. The table below shows how the foreign currency translation affect McDonalds consolidated operating results. Economical With its franchises in US, McDonalds provide a lot of job opportunities to the US people to reduce the unemployment level in that country. McDonalds is hiring up to 600 part-timers to work in its outlets throughout the Las Vegas area which is with 14.2% of unemployment level. Social Fast foods lead to obesity problems in America as they are high in fats, calories, sugar and salt. Rates of obesity in America are keep increasing obesity will leads to other diseases like heart diseases, diabetes, etc. The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) said that a person will gain an average weight of 10 pounds if he or she ate fast food two or more times in a week. Pew Research Centre reported that almost 20% of Americans eat fast food at least twice a week after the survey is conducted. As the health concern is increased among the Americans, they tend not take less fast food as it have been seen as unhealthy food. To conquer the problems, McDonalds comes out with nutrition facts charts on selected packaging and menu information for customers to have guidelines for the food intake and meet their nutrition desires. Sample nutrition facts are shown in the pictures below. Technology With the technology, McDonalds serves burgers and fries to the customers in minutes time, McDonalds was the first to have touch-screen computers at the front counter and drive-thru to serve customers faster and easier when they ordering food. There are also touch screen self-ordering kiosks for customers to order food by themselves. Besides that, McDonalds uses Wayport for high speed connectivity to the internet. Legal McDonalds has been involved in legal cases which most of them are trademark disputes where many food businesses are using Mc or Mac because of McDonalds strong brand recognition. Environmental To reduce the impacts on environment, McDonalds uses 3Rs approaches: reduce, reuse and recycle. There is 82% of McDonald packaging are made from renewable materials at the moment. Besides that, cooking oil is recycled to be reused in variety products such as environmentally friendly biodiesel. Competitors situation and SWOT McDonalds closest competitors are Burger King Corporation and Wendys International Incorporation. Burger King Burger King is founded in year 1954 by McLamore and Edgerton. It has more than 12,200 outlets in 73 countries, however, 66% of its outlets are located in United States and 90% of them are privately owned and operated. It is having more than 38,800 employees serving about 11.4 million customers in daily basis. Strengths Second largest fast food hamburger restaurant Strong brand equity Weaknesses Heavily concentrated in US market Relies heavily on its franchises Opportunities International market Advances in technology Threats Changing consumer habits towards healthier food choices Intense competition with the competitors Increasing labour costs Wendys Wendys is founded in year 1969 by Dave Thomas. It is an international fast food chain restaurant which ranked as the worlds third largest hamburger fast food chain. In year 2009, there are 6,541 restaurants worldwide where 1,391 are company restaurant and 5,150 are franchise restaurants, majority of them 77 are located at North America. Wendys employs 46,000 people worldwide. Strengths Third largest hamburger fast food chain restaurant Global brand Strong supply chain Weaknesses Concentrated in North America market Having management problems Relies on franchises Opportunities International market Advances in technology Threats Strong competitors Increase in beef prices Fast food have been seen as unhealthy food Objectives and Assumptions Assumptions During the preparation of a marketing plan, there are few assumptions being made upon it where there will be no large fluctuation particularly on Foreign Exchange variance. Besides that, it is crucial to take variances such as economy crisis, natural disasters that will have impacts on McDonalds business into consideration during the preparation of a marketing plan. Objectives These marketing objectives are what McDonalds is trying to achieve on the three following years of its operations by using SMART criteria which are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely: Marketing: Specific To increase market share. To increase new product awareness. Measurable To increase the market share by 5%. To have an increase of 18% on new product awareness. Achievable Advertisements on the new product to grab customers attention. More franchisees to open new franchises. Realistic Fast-paced lifestyle leads to higher demand as more customers prefer fast food nowadays. Timely To increase market share by 5% yearly start from 2010. To have an increase in product awareness by 18% start from 2010. Financial: Specific To increase overall sales revenue. To reduce cost of sales. Measurable Increase sales revenue by 8%. Reduce the cost of sales by 5%. Achievable Higher demand for fast food. Realistic McDonalds order raw materials in bulk to get cheaper prices and reduce cost. Advertising stimulate customers appetite and increase sales. Timely Sales revenue increases by 8% annually start from year 2010. Cost of sales reduces by 5% yearly start from 2010. Societal: Specific Provide healthier fast food. To make product more environmental friendly. Reduce electric and water consumption and wastage. Measurable RD at 8% of sales on healthier food recipe in year 2010. Reduce energy consumption and wastage by 3%. Achievable Reduce in fats, calories, sugar and salt in the products. Electric and water consumption is reduced by using them wisely Realistic 82% of McDonald packaging are made from renewable materials Timely Electric and water consumption and wastage is to be reduced by 3% monthly start from January 2010. Strategy Marketing Mix Marketing mix is all about putting the right product in the right place, at the right price and at the right time to boost sales and hence generate higher profit. Product McDonalds primarily sells hamburgers, chicken products, cheeseburgers, breakfast items, lunch items, french fries, soft drinks, shakes and also desserts. McDonalds should innovates its products continuously as people tend to change their preference and tastes from time to time. Without product innovations, customer will get bored to eat the same food over and over again. With its strong brand recognition, McDonalds serves its customers within minutes from ordering until they get their food with world class food quality by using fresh ingredients and excellent product features. Its staffs are trained to provide fast and excellent services to the customers. McDonalds product packaging is environmental friendly and 100% recyclable to reduce the negative impacts on the environment. Questionnaires have to be prepared from time to time to get feedbacks from the customers so that McDonalds have an idea to improve on its products and environments by following customers preferences. As people starts to practice healthy lifestyles, McDonalds includes salads, wraps and fruit into its menu. Besides that, McDonalds comes out with nutrition facts table and charts for people to have guidelines for their food intake and to meet their nutrition desires. The sample nutrition facts table for McDonalds USA is shown below. Source: Price McDonalds uses value-based pricing and psychological pricing on its products. One example for psychological pricing is $3.59 instead of $3.60 and $4.99 instead of $5. In customers perception of saving, they look at the items with prices ending with  £0.95 or  £0.99 more favourable as compare to  £1.00 as example although there are only  £0.05 and  £0.01 difference. The prices are set where they are reasonable and affordable by the customers. It uses value pricing strategies  on some of its products where they are cheaper to buy in a set compared to ala carte such as: happy meal, combo meal,  family meal, breakfast and lunch sets to increase overall sales volumes. Discounts coupons should be given out from time to time to attract new customers and to boost sales in those particular periods. Place McDonalds outlets are located in high visibility, traffic volume and ease of access areas. Most of its outlets consist of the distribution channels. It is important so that the product is available to the customer all the time. In United States, there are nearly 50% of McDonalds outlets can be reached by driving within three minutes. McDonalds gives certain level of satisfaction, fun as well as happiness each time they dine at McDonalds as it offers better ambience, hygienic environment and also great services. Free Wi-Fi with high speed connectivity to internet is provided to customers for them to access to internet to do business and entertainment when they are dining. Besides that, children will not easily get bored when they just sit and eat as they can have fun at the playgrounds in the restaurants while their parents have some time to spend together. Every McDonalds outlets have Drive-Thru to make customers who want to take away more convenient and fast. Besides that, quick del ivery to households is provided with a little charge. Promotion McDonalds uses various promotion channels to effectively communicate the product information to the customers as it has clear understanding of the customer value that helps to decide whether the promotion cost is worth spending or not. McDonalds three main advertising objectives are to make people aware of its product, having position perception about it and remember it. It does its advertising promotions through televisions, radios, hoardings and also bus shelters. Printed ads in newspapers and magazines and television programmes are one of its important marketing medium too to stimulate customers appetite. Besides that, McDonalds is doing sales promotion too. Customers can enjoy McDonalds breakfast and lunch sets in cheaper price in a certain period of the day. Besides that, discount coupons will be given to customers from time to time for them to enjoy McDonalds foods in cheaper prices. Kids simply love to celebrate their birthday parties in McDonalds. Hence, McDonalds can give special discounts and gifts to the birthday kids so that they will come back next year and tell it to their friends. Forecast and implications McDonalds three years forecasts and budgets (Dollars in millions) 2009 2010 2011 2012 Objective comment Sales 7944 8580 9266 10007 Improve by 8% yearly Cost 659 626 595 565 Reduce by 5% annually Profit 7285 7954 8671 9442 Increases by around 8% yearly It is forecasted that McDonalds in United States will meet its financial objective where its sales increase steadily by 8% yearly start from year 2010 while its cost reduces by 5% annually. Hence, the profit will be increasing by around 8% yearly start from 2010. Metrics McDonalds is using metric strategy in order to measure whether it can achieve its objectives or not. Marketing metric: Objectives Metrics To increase market share Measure by number of new franchises opening yearly Increase product awareness among target audiences Calculated by the sales of the particular product after advertising promotion is done Financial metric: Objectives Metrics Increase sales revenue Product sales is measured by dollars annually Reduce cost of sales Cost of sales is measured by dollars yearly Societal metric: Objectives Metrics Provide healthier fast food Measure by the percentage of fats, calories, sugar and salt in the products Reduce electrical and water consumption and wastage Calculate by the electric and water bills monthly More environmental friendly Measure by the percentage of its packaging that using recyclable materials Conclusion As the conclusion, although McDonalds is number one in fast food industry, it should keep improving its business in term of marketing, financial and social to be better in the future. McDonalds can get feedback from the customers to know what they prefer, how they want McDonalds to change so that McDonalds know what action it should takes to improve itself. With new product innovations and healthier fast food, McDonalds will be more successful. Word Count: 2275 words