Siemens case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Siemens - Case Study Example It is the commitment of companies, especially those that have a significant influence on the international market that ensures that efficiency is maintained. Efficiency is integral not only when it comes to using minimum resources to fulfill maximum needs, but is also pivotal when it comes to allocation of resources and their eventual distribution. In other words, the basic economic problem is seen to have its solutions within the confines of efficiency, and it is advantageous for the members of the world of commerce to ensure that the equilibrium of efficiency is maintained, both locally and internationally. Multinationals companies are seen as increasingly responsible for maintaining the equilibrium that would benefit all since their increased market share gives them greater influence in the arena of buying and selling. This is one reason why the use of bribes is heavily frowned upon by the international markets, especially when large multinational firms are involved. The use of br ibes is an act that disturbs the equilibrium of free trade, since they influence the decision power of individuals, prejudicing it to fall in the favor of the one offering bribes. Siemens, being one such multinational firm that possessed significant share of the global market was caught in the hurricane of media attention, international scrutiny and internal ratification policies when fraudulent actions were seen to be prevalent within the company. The Siemens executives were accused of paying six million Euros to another company in order to achieve the gas turbine contract in Italy. The accusation involved that the executives used the company funds to influence the decision of others. This accusation attracted the attention of the international media since it involved the transaction of such a large amount of money. Moreover, the reputation of one of the world’s largest companies was at stake. As a company that complies and abides by the restrictions and regulations of the f ree market, the bribe was seen as an act that harms the spirit of competition and free trade in the global market. Thus, Siemens was seen as the perpetual deviant of the global market. Subsequently, the fact that a multinational company such as Siemens is involved in financial embezzling had a negative impact on the brand. The executives accused of the embezzling were Andreas Kley and Horst Vigener. While they agreed that the transfer of six million Euros from Siemens to Enel did occur under their authorization, they defended their actions. These former managers said that their actions cannot be classified as an act of fraud since the financial transaction between Siemens and Enel was made solely and purely for the benefit of Siemens the company. They claimed that a bribe is an act that ensures personal gain, and signifies corruption that is intended to harm the company. However, their decision to transfer the amount to Enel was not for their own gain. Siemens would have gained imme nsely if the contract for the gas turbine had been awarded to them, and the managers were aware of this. The company hoped to earn 90 million Euros in addition to a firm footage in the Italian market. Thus, Siemens’ funds were not used to benefit anyone else, except Siemens the entity itself. Since neither employee benefitted personally from the funds transferred, both Kley and Vigener testified that they were innocent. The defenses they presented were to an extent

Technical entrepreneurs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Technical entrepreneurs - Essay Example Rated by Forbes Magazine as the 2005 wealthiest person in the world for the twelfth consecutive year, Bill Gates estimated wealth amounts to $27.38 billion based on Microsoft's current stock price (Marcus, 2006). Bill Gates is the co-founder, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation, the world's largest software company. He is also the founder of a digital image archiving company that goes by the name of Corbis, which is one of the world's most promising resources of visual information - a broad digital archive of art and photography from public and private collections worldwide. He is one of the best known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution and is widely respected and also widely criticised as having built his business through unfair, illegal, or anti-competitive business practices, and this was recently demonstrated by the US government taking Microsoft to court, an action which was repeated in Europe as well (Didion, 2004). Despite his vast wea lth, Bill Gates has donated approximately 51% of his total fortune to various charitable organisations and scientific research programmes. Bill Gates was born on the 28th of October 1955 in Seattle, Washington to William Gates Senior and Mary Maxwell Gates (McSheriff, 2002). His family was wealthy, and had a strong tradition of education and professionalism. His father was a prominent lawyer, his mother was the first woman regent of the University of Washington and his maternal grandfather was a national bank president (McSheriff, 2002). It is safe to say that Bill Gates came from a privileged background. Bill Gates also has two younger sisters, Kristanne and Libby Gates. Bill Gates was educated at some of the most prestigious schools in the state, and he particularly excelled in elementary school in mathematics and sciences (McSheriff, 2002). Bill Gates went to Seattle's most exclusive preparatory school, Lakeside School where tuition in 1967 was $5 000, more than that at Harvard which was $1 760 (McSheriff, 2002). It was at this school that Bill Gates got introduced to computers as the school rented time on a server, which allowed Bill Gates to pursue an interest in computers at a time when they were not commercially available. He was also a member of the Boy Scouts of America, even attaining the rank of Life Scout during his membership (Peerman, 1999). When he was at high school, he founded a company which sold traffic flow data systems to state governments with Paul Allen. He also helped to create a payroll system in COBOL for a company in Portland, Oregon (Peerman, 1999). In 1973 he enrolled in Harvard University for a pre-law programme where he met his future business partner Steve Ballmer. During his second year, together with Paul Allen and Monte Davidoff, he co-wrote Altair BASIC for the Altair 8800, and dropped out of Harvard during his third year to pursue a career in software development (Murdock, 1998). Despite his success, Bill Gates was briefly jailed in Albuquerque for racing his Porsche 911 in the New Mexico desert. Bill Gates first recognized an opportunity in 1975 after reading an issue of the Popular Electronics that demonstrated the Altair 8800. Bill Gates contacted the creators of the new microcomputer to inform them that he and others had developed a version of the

Challenges for HRM in Internationalized SMEs

Challenges for HRM in Internationalized SMEs 1. Introduction The international SMEs have some problem in human resource management structure, the mobility of personnel is fast, the salary compensation is weak, the employee education, training and teamwork management is not enough. In the international market, these problem need to be solved as soon as possible, therefore, some international SMEs have to make a revolution in its management structure, as some international SMEs often focus some process that can profitability immediately, and dont care about the future benefit, and their management structure is overstaffed and complex. So the international SMEs have to develop the new management structure to adapt the competitive in the international market, decentralization is the trend, which can motivate the employee and managers active and responsible, decentralization firstly requires the manager who have good knowledge and skill in management. The motivation system can raise the employees motivation, the equalitarianism is not appropriate, so the international SMEs need a change in their management structure. 2. The variation in the organization structure Most international SMEs have the problem in organization structure, the variation is quite big. Usually, the organization structure is line, the result of which can cause the overstaffed, bureaucracy, and the low efficiency. Therefore, the organization structure has to simplify the organization structure, reduce the hierarchy. A flatten of an organization is one of the solution, but not the only one, and it could not be enlarged forever. The purpose of the flatten is to reduce the cost of the management, more communication between up layer and down layer, it is necessary in the international SMEs, the company originally has the problem in the management, so this method of management can increase the efficiency, it is convenient to the top manager. 3. The globalization of HRM In term of the element of the law and policy, the international SEMs should make a completed investigation on the policy environment, including the characteristic of the labor organization, and it is necessary to make a survey in the law and regular of the employment. If it does not do like these, it will suffer from the criminal charge upon the labor discrimination and the right of the labor, and the labor dispute also need to pay more litigation cost, which damages the reputation of the company in labor market. In the part of culture, the international SMEs have to integrate in the business process, due to the different cultures in the different countries, the international SMEs have to adapt the cultureà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s differentiation, except respect their culture, it also need to understand and study the local custom and culture. This is the long à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½term program, the conflict will happen in the future, but the company should pay more attention on the culture, and base on it, creating its own corporate culture in the globalization market. In the aspect of economic, the achievement of the international SMEs depends on the labor cost, the fluctuation of the currency. In the international market, the corporate need to consider which countryà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s employees should be employed, the home national, the local people or the expatriate, and the benefit of the company and the labor cost balanced. 4. Government intervention in the HRM As the international company, no matter the size of the enterprise is big or small, when the market has some movements or the policy changed. The international SMEs should adapt the different situation and then make a right decision at the right time, but this process is quite hard for them. Because the government in order to protect the right of the labor, which sets a lot of policy or regular to limit the behavior of the corporate. The government intervention in HRM will increase the cost of transaction between the employee and the employer, at the same time, in order to cut the cost, the international SMEs need to recruit the professional personal who studies the governmentà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ labor policies and labor law as the law consultant to manage the HR. if the company can react the government policy as soon as possible, it will achieve the great successful. 5. The reputation of the company in the HR marketing In the HR marketing, many candidates want to find a company which has good reputation in the market, and it has comfortable work environment, high salary, excellent management experiences and future development opportunity. But all of the above, the Small-Medium enterprises cannot afford to the employees. Because of it is lack of enough capital, and successful human resource management experience and the capability of the executive. Without enough capital, the SMEs just only can employed the candidates who are lack of the professional skill and professional knowledge, as they have no money, so they also donà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½t want to waste more money on training these employees, or the opportunity for training is not regular. And then the employees who have not accepted the opportunity of training, they will lose working motivation, so the work efficient will be down. And the other hand, the employees who have more experiences want to leave the company, because the company cannot provide excellent working treatment. So the SMEs are easier to lose their good human resource. The successful human resource management experience and the capability of the executive are very important to the enterprise. But the Small-Medium Enterprises are weak in these, their management experience is quite limited and obsolete, most of that is traditional management approach. As we know, the excellent leader can change the life of the company, so the executive capability is the standard of measuring a good or bad leader. If the good leader will set up the strategy objective, during the process of the strategy, he or she will lead his or her company go in the right direction and make a right decision immediately according to the different changes, which can attract their employees, and work hard for the company.

Henry Ford :: essays research papers

The Success of a Man   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  To say that Henry Ford dilly-dallied around before finally establishing a serious car company would be invalid. The 40 year old man had been acquiring valuable knowledge regarding business, engines, management, and most importantly cars. Now it was time to take a leap of faith.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1903 the Ford Motor Company came to be. Ford, along with other investors including John and Horace Dodge raised $28,000 and in the first 15 months produced 1700 Model A cars. These cars were known for their reliability, yet were still too expensive for the average American. Over the next five years Ford and his engineers produced models with the letters B through S, the most successful of which was the Model N (priced at $500) , and the least successful was the Model K (priced at $2500). It was obvious from the Model N that the key to the companies success lay in inexpensive cars for a mass market. The answer that Ford and the American consumer were looking for was the Model T.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Model T, a small, sturdy four-cylinder car with an attractive design and a top speed of 45 mph, hit the market in 1908. It’s success came from it’s attractive price, at $850, and more than 10,000 were sold in the first year alone. It was easy to operate, maintain, handle on rough roads, and immediately became a success. Along with success came expansion, and in 1910 he established another assembly plant in Highland Park, Michigan. Through interchangeable parts, standard manufacturing, and a division labor, the demand greatly increased for the Model T. It was at this time in 1913 that Ford introduced the assembly line and forever changed our economy, our industry, and our culture.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ford’s concept of an assembly line sprang from the thought that a car could be produced much quicker if each person did one, single task. He applied this in his Highland Park plant, and cut down production time of one Model T to a fraction on the time. The carefully timed pace of a conveyer belt moving the parts along further speeded the process. With these new tactics, a factory could produce 40%-60% more cars per month. By late 1913 he had established assembly plants in Canada, Europe, Australia, South America, and Japan. At this point, the Ford Motor Company was the largest manufacturer of cars in the world.

Detergent Powder

Introduction Detergent is a material intended to assist cleaning. The term is sometimes used to differentiate between soap and other surfactants used for cleaning. The term detergent by itself is sometimes used to refer specifically to clothing detergent, as opposed to hand soap or other types of cleaning agents. Bangladesh has a detergent market of about 8. 8 billion taka of which Unilever occupies a share of 48% making it the market leader. The major competitor brands in the detergent market for RIN are Keya, Chaka and Jet, Surf Excel.To fight this steep competition the above mentioned companies constantly run consumer promotion in hope to sell more than the respective competitors. Although this strategy worked well at first but with the passage of time, the intense consumer promotions have done little to prevent Unilever from loosing shares to its competitors. In 2004, Wheel (which is now RIN), Unilever’s largest detergent brand ran about nine consumer promotions where as i n 2005 it ran no consumer promotions at all. Consumer promotion over all is a very expensive affair.Unilever has the largest brands of detergent and so the cost of providing a consumer promotion offers is also large by the same proportion. Besides the competitor brands are known to involve in some unfair practices. They pay a very low wage rate to their labors so overhead costs are low, they under invoice their imported raw materials so that they can evade import taxes and other duties, so they save a lot of money in the process. They can then utilize this money for consumer promotion and other competitive activities that can earn them a higher share of the market.Therefore it is imperative that consumer promotions and other dependant elements have to be studied, to make sure that if a consumer promotion activity is implemented it is a highly effective one. This way, precious monetary resources have the minimum chances of being wasted. To understand the competition in the detergent market better price perceptions and product quality perceptions about the brands of detergent on promotion are also considered being worth studying. To look at market share issues, the brand loyalty element should also be explored. 1. 1 Brief Overview about the Detergent MarketThe use of washing powder started rising from late nineties after Unilever Bangladesh entered the market with its ‘Wheel' brand washing powder. Local brand Jet was the lone player in the washing power segment prior to Unilever's entry. Wheel Washing Powder (WWP) was launched in August of 1997 by leveraging the equity of the Wheel laundry soap. Wheel laundry soap was considered the best soap and stood for quality and care. The brand was initially launched and replaced the NSD powder brands of Unilever. WWP was launched with two stock keeping units (SKUs), 500g and 1 KG and achieved a volume of 2,280 tons in 5 months.Despite a price increase from beginning of the following year the brand showed a strong gr owth achieving the total annual volume of 12,700 tons; a third SKU of 40g was added to the brand during the year. 1999 a second price increase was taken for the larger two SKUs but the brand continued to show good growth, ending the year with a volume of 22,800 tons. A major re-launch was rolled out in beginning of 2000 for the brand, during the re-launch the packaging was significantly improved, the perfume was also improved and the proposition changed from lemon to Powerons.The innovation was a response to the launch of the competition Aromatic Washing powder. Prior to the re-launch, the competition was aggressively blocked with continuous promotion behind the brand. After the re-launch the brand grew and countered the competition in 2000, achieving a volume of 29,500 tons. In order to get an even faster growth in 2001 vs. 2000; the brand was aggressively promoted- which yielded in a growth of 43%; ending the year with a volume of 42,200 tons. With the explosive growth of WWP in 2 001, it attracted competition like Chaka and Keya, both of which entered the segment in beginning 2002.In order to contain competition and continue the growth of 2001, WWP maintained the high degree of promotions (free volume promotions) it failed to deliver any considerable growth as expected, however the volume sales increased to 46,500 tons. During the year WWP was re-staged with the ingredients changing from â€Å"Powerons† to â€Å"Powerfoam†. In 2003, WWP promotions were predominately cross-brand promos, with the cost born by the other brand. This resulted in good growth for WWP in 2003, ending the year with 48,000 tons.During the period of 2002 onward, the brand has been losing shares to competition and in order to differentiate the brand further a relaunch was planned in 2004 Q1. The RL involved incorporation of coloured granules to the powder and increase in incorporation of perfume by 25%. However there was no change in the formulation of the powder. Post the re-launch the share decline has not stopped, despite heavy support behind the brand. Unilever is now the leader in the market controlling half of the total washing powder market, the size of which was nearly Tk 450 crore in 2007, up from about Tk 360 a year ago. 1. 2 Market trendsToday’s consumer-oriented marketplace is characterized by a countless number of products and brands. Globalization causes increased competition, national borders disappear, consumers demand more and more, and the pressure on producers to efficiently and effectively live up to consumer’s expectations keeps increasing. For companies to survive these difficult circumstances and to secure their growth and market share figures, proper marketing techniques are of utmost importance. Besides printed and non-printed advertising techniques (such as TV and radio commercials, public relations and sponsorships), sales promotions try to attract consumers.Sales promotions can take many different forms and a distinction can be made between price and non-price sales promotions. 1. 3 Background Sales promotions have been studied very extensively over the past decades. The research findings from Blattberg, Briesch and Fox (1995) provide a perfect base to a short overview of promotional topics and generalizations regarding sales promotions. Nine generalizations regarding sales promotions are made that summarize sales promotion literature so far: – â€Å"Price promotions significantly increase sales – Brands with higher market share are less deal elastic Consumers’ reference prices are influenced by the frequency of deals – The more often a promotion occurs; the lower is the respective sales increase – Cross-promotional effects are asymmetric – The pass-through rate of retailers to consumers is less than 100% – Support promotions like displays and advertising that accompany a price promotion have a great impact on sales – Advertised p romotion can increase store traffic – Promotions affect sales in complementary and competitive categories† (Blattberg, Briesch ; Fox, 1995) Statement of the ProblemThere are many companies that are operating to serve the detergent markets; as a result the competition has heightened. Consumer promotions are being heavily used in the detergent markets to increase sales of each available brand. Consumer promotions, when implemented use up a lot monetary resources. Failure to implement the consumer promotion activity effectively may result in major loss of money. Purpose of the Study The purpose of this research is to explore the relationship between consumer promotions, price perceptions with product quality perceptions and brand loyalty in the detergent market of Bangladesh. LimitationsThere are vast amounts of information and write-ups relating to the topics of this research that are present in the internet and various other sources, but it were not possible to gain acce ss to many such information. So missing out some important aspect of the discussed topics can be a possibility. There is a major time constraint in doing the research work and preparing the report, a much larger pool of information could have been dealt with if there was more time to analyze them. A minimal sample size will be used for this research; if a larger sample was taken into consideration the research would have been more accurate.The survey will be conducted in Dhaka city which could be a possible reason for the people’s mind set to be similar and survey results not being very different from each other, the results could be different if people from outside metropolitan cities were brought under consideration. Literature Review Consumer Promotion Consumer promotion is thought to be a tool that helps manufacturers and retailers to achieve their objectives of generating sales (Alvarez and Casielles, 2004). Consumer promotion (e. g. oupons, samples, contests, sweepstake s, and price packs) is a part of sales promotion that is targeted towards the final buyers of consumer products (Kotler and Armstrong, 2002). There can be various types of consumer sales promotion some are incentive based while others are communicative in nature (Kotler et al. , 1999; Tellis, 1998). The incentive based promotions can be price – oriented promotion or non price-oriented promotion. According to Britannica (article 21279) advertising presents a reason to buy a product but consumer promotion offers a short-term incentive to purchase.Consumer promotions often attract brand switchers (those who are not loyal to a specific brand) who are looking primarily for low price and good value. Abraham and Lodish (1987) stated that many consumer goods categories sold 90% of their volume on special deals which is a result of consumer promotion. They also stated that the influence of sales promotions on the consumer will also depend on the consumer’s characteristics. Prom otions Price PromotionNon-price Promotion Promotion Packs Sampling POS Advertising Loyalty Discount Premiums DisplaysCoupons Sweeptakes Promotion Packaging Rebates Events Others From Sales Promotion by Gedenk; K. Neilson, Page- 34. Consumer benefits of sales promotions Benefits of sales promotions to consumers are numerous. Chandon, Wansink and Laurent (2000) for example distinguish six different types of consumer benefits regarding sales promotions: monetary savings, quality, convenience, value expression, exploration and entertainment. The first and most obvious benefit a consumer might encounter from a sales promotion is the monetary saving they provide.Second, consumers consider normally unaffordable products now to be in their choice set and therefore encounter the quality benefit. The convenience benefit, thirdly, is achieved by reduced search and decision efforts since sales promotions’ promotional status is advertised. Fourth, â€Å"sales promotions can enhance consu mers' self-perception of being smart or good shoppers and provide an opportunity to reaffirm their personal values† (Chandon, Wansink & Laurent, 2000) which is translated into the value expression benefit.The exploration benefit is achieved by the ever-changing shopping environment that provides stimulation for consumers’ information need. Last but not least, the sixth benefit consumers might encounter from sales promotions is the entertainment benefit. Sales promotions are often simply fun to see or to participate in (Chandon et al. ). Interesting to see is that consumers experience (either conscious or unconscious) more benefits from sales promotions than are often thought of. Price Perceptions According to Schiffman and Kanuk (2004) price perception is about how customers see a product’s price, as high, low or fair.They also stated that perception of price unfairness affect consumers’ perceptions of value and ultimately their willingness to buy a produc t. According to Moore et al. (2003) years of research concerned with price show both positive and negative perceptions serve as marketplace cues. Several studies have also portrayed the role of price perceptions as an attribute to success (Jiang and Rosenbloom, 2004). When the price perceptions are high this is a sign of positive quality, prestige and status (Moore et al. , 2003). The concept of reference price is related to price perceptions.Schiffman and Kanuk (2004) stated that reference price is the price the consumers use as a basis for comparison in judging another price. It is through reference price that the price perception of a brand of product is formed. When the consumer plans to buy a product, he or she will judge prices comparatively with the reference prices in order to determine whether the price is acceptable or not (Alvarez and Casielles, 2004). They also stated that, a result of consumers’ comparison between the prices and the reference price, potential los ses and gains emerge.The consumer perceives a gain when the reference price is higher than the observed price. If the observed price is higher than the reference price, the consumer experiences a loss. Product Quality Perceptions Product quality perceptions represent consumer judgment about the superiority of a product, which the user-based approaches think is essential in describing quality (Forker et al. , 1996). Bundles of attributes together represent a certain level of quality, which therefore provide utility to the customer (Snoj et al. 2004). The benefits are measured through a perceived level of quality (level of working superiority), a bundle of attributes in comparison with the consumer’s expectations. Schiffman and Kanuk (2004) stated consumers often judge the quality of a product on the basis of a variety of informational cues that they associate with the product. They also stated that the cues can either be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic cues are related to th e physical characteristics of the product itself, like size, colour, flavour, aroma etc.The extrinsic cues on the other hand are related to elements that are put together with the actual product like packaging, pricing, advertising etc. The perceived quality of products and services is central to the theory that strong brands add value to consumers' purchase evaluations (Low and Lamb, 2000). Brand Loyalty Brand loyalty is the ultimate desired outcome of consumer learning (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004). According to Rawly and Dawes (1999) brand loyalty is the likelihood of positive attitudes and behaviors of consumers towards a particular brand, this could amount to repeat purchase and positive word of mouth.They also stated that a loyal customer base is an asset for a company and it reduces the need for seeking new customers. It is also a known fact that retaining current customers requires less money and effort than getting new ones. The strongest measure of brand value is the loyalty a company produces among customers (Aaker, 1996). Rowley and Dawes (1999) stated that to understand brand loyalty better the following components of attitude model should be considered: 1. Cognitive component – associated with a â€Å"rational† decision making based on informational determinants. 2.Affective component – associated with emotions and feelings about the product or service. 3. Co native components – associated with a behavioral disposition. Research Questions The following questions have to be addressed for the study: 1. Is there any significant relationship between consumer promotion and product quality perception in the detergent market of Bangladesh? 2. Is there any significant relationship between price perception and product quality perception in the detergent market of Bangladesh? 3. Is there any significant relationship between consumer promotion and brand loyalty in the detergent market of Bangladesh? . Is there any significant relat ionship between price perception and brand loyalty in the detergent market of Bangladesh? 5. Is there any significant relationship between product quality perception and brand loyalty in the detergent market of Bangladesh? Hypothesis The hypothesis that can be derived from the research questions are: 1. There is significant relationship between consumer promotion and product quality perception in the detergent market of Bangladesh. 2. There is significant relationship between price perception and product quality perception in the detergent market of Bangladesh. . There is significant relationship between consumer promotion and brand loyalty in the detergent market of Bangladesh. 4. There is significant relationship between price perception and brand loyalty in the detergent market of Bangladesh. 5. There is significant relationship between product quality perception and brand loyalty in the detergent market of Bangladesh. Development of Conceptual Framework * Consumer Promotion * Pr ice perception Product Quality Perception Figure 1: Conceptual Framework of research variables * Consumer Promotion * Price Perception Product Quality Perception Brand Loyalty Figure 2: Conceptual Framework of research variables Methodology Research design The illustrations of the conceptual framework Figure 1 and 2 above give a visual idea of the relationship and structure that exists among the study variables. The main purpose of the research is to assess the existing correlation among the variables. This research is about exploring and understanding the relationship that exists between consumer promotion, price perception with product quality perceptions and brand loyalty in the detergent market.Here in the figure 1the independent variables are assigned to be consumer promotions and price perceptions. The dependant variable on the other hand is product quality perception. In the second figure 2 the independent variables are consumer promotions, price perceptions and product quali ty perceptions, in this case the dependant variable is brand loyalty. So the researcher is attempting to find out, if any changes in the independent variable have a changing effect on the dependant ones as well, thereby proving that a relationship exists.The researcher also tried to find out the degree to which a change in the dependant variables has an impact on the independent ones, in other words the degree of relation is also explored here. Therefore the correlation study was chosen for this research. Sampling method The required data for this research was collected from the regular customers of detergents. There was no particular sample frame available for this research so convenience sampling was used, as it is also the cheapest and the easiest methods of sampling.The sample frame for this research consisted of shoppers (mainly house wives) at different shopping centers and stores etc, and also the parents of school children were included. In the shopping centers the researche r surveyed the people who seemed to be the most appropriate respondent for this kind of survey. The parents of kindergarten students, who spend time waiting for their kids outside the schools, were also surveyed, because they usually have a lot of time to spare and can give valuable inputs. Due to time constraints the survey was conducted in Dhaka city only. Over all there were about a 240 people who participated in the survey.Survey instrument A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The questionnaire consists of different parts to gather information on the different variables under considerations. With questionnaires, no responses of the respondents can be missed out. It gives more time to the respondents to think and then give the answers. And it is a quicker and cheaper way to conduct the survey. Questionnaires can be conducted in any environment, with minimum influence of the outside environment. Questionnaires also have the advantage of keeping the personal details of the respondents confidential.MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS In which respondents have to choose one answer from many options. These questions gives a wide choice to the respondents so that they can give the most accurate and reliable answer. LIKERT SCALE Where the respondents are provided with a scale that has a number or brief description associated with each category. This scale is useful as respondents readily understand how to use the scale, making it suitable for almost all kind of surveys. Data Collection The data collection was done through both primary and secondary sources.The primary data was collected through questionnaire surveys and the secondary data was collected from the available archives of Unilever Bangladesh Ltd, for addressing the research questions. Data Analysis This is a study of relationship of various variables. So after the data collection a correlation analysis was performed using the acquired data, to ascertain if relationship between the variables exist or not. For doing the data analysis SPSS 12 was used, because it is a very systematic computer program that can deal with a large amount of data and can give out accurate results.

Internet activities 5.2 and 6.2 Essay

Exercise 5. 2 1: 1 Based on the website of Ford Motor Company the following is its SWOT analysis. Strengths: The company is a well-recognised name in the automobile business. Since it is a well-established company with premium priced products, the consumer don’t really have to go through its website to confirm of its high quality but to know more about its upgraded features. They know it is one of the best. Its brand name is very strong and that is why the website attracts immediate attention. Weakness: The price of the cars is its weakness, though people believe in its quality, they look out for other alternatives. Since this company spends a lot on manufacturing, distribution, advertising and sales, it has to price it high to make an acceptable profit. The consumers have lots of option today and they turn to products, which fulfil the same need in low price. Opportunities: The increase in purchasing power of the consumers and the growing international market. Threats: Since a lot of companies that promise same benefits and product features at lower prices, the competition has become tougher. So the company needs to pay attention on its opportunities and threats in order to excel in its future marketing strategies and combat its competitors. 2:2 In order to create competitive advantages it should do its positioning in the minds of the consumers in such a way that they start seeing it not as a luxury but a necessity. If a brand achieves the status of a necessity, the consumers might make some comprises in their budget, especially when their purchasing power has increased due to high paid jobs and double income families. Since Ford is recognised internationally, the international market should be explored more vigorously. Exercise 6. 2 1:1 It is evident from the websites of Amazon and Barnes and Noble that both have different target markets. Amazon caters to more young and techno savvy target audience who are in search of a variety of lifestyle products while Barnes and Noble caters to book lovers. But both cater to a target market that is willing to pay for a good product sitting at the comfort of their homes. The marketing mix of Amazon is a little more complex than that of Barnes and Noble. This can be attributed to different target audience that they cater to. Since Barnes and Noble sells books and related products the different P’s of the marketing mix are positioned accordingly. Whereas the P’s of the marketing mix of Amazon are positioned differently because it sells different kinds of products. There is always a feeling with Barnes and Noble that in case of any problem with the product, a nearby bookstore can be contacted for clarifications. Amazon lacks this touch of comfort. The price of the same product varies in both the websites. It takes more time to understand the marketing mix of Amazon when compared to Barnes and Noble. 2. 2 Both these companies have used their websites to do the positioning of their products in such a way that the product attributes, packaging, shipping information and the time required to get the purchased item is clearly engraved in the consumers minds. They have designed the websites well so that the consumers are able to easily access the product information. The bright colors appeal to the senses and make the search more interesting. Barnes and Noble has indulged in company and product differentiation by focussing on the time of delivery and the author profiles that promises best quality products in lesser time while Amazon has focussed on how fast the products are selling out and what are the hot choices of its consumers in order to influence the prospective buyers. References Arens, W. F. and Bovee, C. L. (5 Ed. ). (1994). Contemporary Advertising. USA: IRWIN.