Monday, January 27, 2020

Management Essays Ikea Operations Management

Management Essays Ikea Operations Management How Does Ikea Approach Operations Management? Abstract The main purpose of this paper is to focus on the how IKEA Company approached its operation management. Particularly, it covers the following: how the company establish and manage customer requirements, secondly how does these customers requirements used for the company’s product and services, then, third covers the operational systems and processes it used in its operation, fourth consists of capacity planning, process layout, and product services/scheduling, inventory and projects were managed in the organization. And, lastly is on why and how monitoring and evaluation of operation were carried out by the company. This paper also provides empirical findings and application of relevant theories that will help readers to really understand how the company operates and what relevant theories it applies. Introduction In most companies these days whether it is local or multinational companies, they are always faced with big challenges. Challenges those are sometimes insurmountable to overcome like continuing to be innovative or problems related to cost. These are two of the most common challenges that company continuously faced, but these problems may also be overcome only if the company operates in a way that it focus mainly in its main strength and at the same time focusing on the right market, where they would know that they have the advantage. In this paper with IKEA Company as the main focus, it will give us exactly how typical multinational companies manage to operates. It will include such processes like customer requirements, operations management, monitoring projects and other theories and processes applied in actual operation. This paper also provides some important empirical findings that will help to support the theories and actual strategies applied by the company. Historical Background of IKEA Company It was not so long after the company founder INGVAR KAMPRAD born in 1926 and just 17 years later after that year, where at a very young age when INGVAR registered the first IKEA Company and this was in July 28, 1943. Actually, the name of the company IKEA stands for (Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd). Couple of years later, the company had its first advertisement through a local newspaper, and then through aggressiveness in the business, Ingvar launched its first fine and modern line of furniture in 1948. Followed by launching of IKEA’s catalogue and first furniture showroom in Sweden in 1951 and 1953 respectively. Four years later, the true concept of the company’s creation of well designed furniture at a very low price started in 1955 and three years later it was the world’s first IKEA store opened. From those early years the company started to grow and number of co-workers and that started to be seen by the company in 1958 and a year after that was the introduction of the company’s self assembly furniture. But, since the company want to make sure that they offered not only low price items, they started to find ways on how quality will be implemented. That is why by 1961, the company started to implement quality testing in all its products. Then the company sees opportunity to expand and by 1963, the company launched their first IKEA store outside Sweden and this is in Norway. Then from their on the company started to grow and stores outside increases and it was first penetrated in the European region. And by the company reaching the 90’s, the company became design oriented which is needed in order to compete, but still the main concept and vision of the company to lower the price and at the same time quality is not out of the plan and it continuously been the advantage of the company. Like in 1997 specifically was the year for children, where the company has developed numerous products for kids and still innovative design continuous to work for the company. And by 2003, through its donations has helped a Swedish hospital to build â€Å"The Kaprad House† which primarily facilitates for cancer patients.1 How does the organization establish customer requirements? Establishing customer requirements maybe is one of the most important factors for success for any company in the world and whether it is local or multinational business. The main reason is that it mainly focuses on how a company develops the right product. It may very simple to say that it may only be about how the company interviews or provide questionnaires or even conducting surveys just to know the important and appropriate requirement of the customers. 1 The IKEA Concept, 2007. But, actually it is more than that and it takes a lot of effort in performing such activity. That is also the problem with come companies, they would think that establishing customer requirement is easy as like asking them when they visit the shops, stores or even sometimes paying some formal visits does not answers all these and in fact there are customers that would only accomplish survey forms out of persistence by some crews or managers of the shops. And the problem started as when the company started to rely on these requirements and apply some strategies on it, seeing it as the real problem and from there irrelevant solutions were applied and that only adds problem or worsen the problem of the company. In theory, it is said that establishing customer needs or requirements are mainly the job of the marketing department of the company and these group also knows that requirements of customers may come from different aspects in the business. Like one of the aspect is that requirements may come from the attitude of the customer towards the product which is shaped by the experienced by the product itself, like take for instance a product that is known for ore than 2 decades and the customers are well used to it, this means that the attitude of the customers towards that product and the years of experience of the product itself plays a big factor in understanding the requirement of its customers. Secondly it can also be brought about by the opinions or claims of other customers, which is sometimes can also help the company in understanding the need of their customers, but this can only be applicable to products or services that were introduced positively at first, because there are some new or old products that are not well recognized and these products on the other hand are obviously hard to analyzed its customer needs. But there are some more aggressive ways on how to deal with customer requirements and this is through direct selling, these type of business has the greater advantage against the others most of the time. The reason is that they directly work with the customers and the business units are the ones asking what they need and from there, the direct seller provides what best fit to their needs. Lastly is that company relies on advertising, this happens when the company introduce new product to the market or sometimes before they introduce to the market by just letting them aware of the product that will be soon launched. From the result of public acceptance based from the popularity ratings of the advertisement, the company would then based it and later used it as a basis for customer requirement. But the latter is sometimes dangerous and drastic because sometimes the company maybe mislead on the popularity of the advertisement which sometimes does not reflect on the actual sales of the product. Other theory that needs to be well followed in order to accomplish better requirement gathering is that company must understand that there are three important factors that need to be considered in establishing requirement of customers and these are in the form of questions: Who buys the product? What they actually buy? And most importantly, how they buy? And these three questions can also directly address the important concern of customer satisfaction. Like in terms of who buys it, this pertains to the type of customer that would possibly and those who will definitely buy the product. For customers that will definitely buy the product, there should be a separate strategy that will be applied to them like may be giving them some small perks like through discounts maybe enough since these customers are considered the loyal ones. While for those customers that are potential and have the probability of buying the product, strategy may be more aggressive like giving them discounts or even focusing on designs or even giving additional perks for buyers may also be used to strategize new and potential customers. Secondly, focusing on what the customers actually buy is one question that companies must look into in establishing requirements. In this question, the main focus is on closely understanding what the customers really like; these can be brought about by latest trends or specific needs for specific type of customers. For most company’s the latter seems to be easily been addressed by companies as they can easily study such requirements, but what is hard for companies to anticipate are the trends that may come and for companies they only compete by who among them can be the first one to introduce that trend to the market. But sometimes these does not give any assurance on them, what makes it more lasting impact is on how the company the company provide not only just the trend but also quality and in terms of price in order for customers to really appreciate the product itself. Lastly in terms of how they buy, this pertains to how accessible and availability of the product t the customers. This is also been a big factor in establishing requirements because there are times that products have the best quality and the price is within the budget, but due to availability of stocks and availability to the customers, it became a driving force for customer not to buy the product and instead they would settle to change their preference and that becomes the problem of some companies. This means that consistencies is always a challenge as well, companies should always remember that if they offer such quality and sure to be a hit product for their customers, it does not stop there and the company itself should be prepared and be able to be up for the challenge to produce as many products as it can in order to address the demand for the product or services that they offer. That is why it is also important to address customer requirements because it also helps in underst anding its target customer.2 For IKEA, a company that in everyday they operate, understanding and establishing customer requirement is essential. 2 Establishing Customer needs, n.d. The reason mainly is that they provide products that should always look into the needs of their different types of customers. But, even though the needs may come differently and uniquely, depending either on designs, price or even space or combination of both or all of the products. As the main vision of the company mainly focuses on how to provide better life for its customers and this is through their two main company objective and that is to provide as much as possible wide variety of products to choose from and at the same time prices that are low that surely they can afford. As based from its main vision, it obviously follows that the company’s main concept is to really provide low prices home furnishing products. This concept started when INGVAR KAMPRAD an entrepreneur from Smaland province in southern part of Sweden had an innovative idea in mind. As an entrepreneur he found out that in order to be successful in the business, he saw that most people live simple and they live their life frugally and they really work hard. This only shows that people would only buy things that are important on them and majority of the people would consider buying not so luxurious and high price things. That is why from that observation, he made an impression that in order to satisfy these highly hard working customers to buy the products and be able to compete well in the market. That is why from that observation, he made an impression that in order to satisfy these highly hard working customers to buy the products and be able to compete well in the market. Then, what he did was an approach to find ways on how to provide not only quality products but also providing them with a lot of choices and most specially the price is low, which customers will surely find way to fit on their budget and that is until now the trademark of the company that is why they became popular anywhere they operate in the world. That is why with this technique or strategy that was applied by the company since the time when the company actually started. These were also the effective strategy that the company applied and has been a very effective way. This is true in fact even up to now that companies must understand that the need of the customer should still be satisfied and in order to do this there should be well consideration not only on the basic functionality of the product but also taking into consideration on the price and quality of the product.3 This only shows that the company from the beginning knows what it takes to be in the business and how they can actually address the concerns and requirements of their customers. And from this concept by its founder and entire workforce that are working for the company, it was easy for the company to just innovate and be flexible on the different needs of their customers since the foundation were well established. And since the company were jointly managed by group of owners around the world, they also kept in mind that the way they operates like specifically how they establish requirements must be in line with the global concept and practice of the company which is still starts with products that are not only quality but also sold in a very low price. That is why for any additional requirements like in terms of additional functionality designs and even in terms of price are mainly comes from the actual conversation and interaction by the customers themselves through the store co-work ers. Even the actual store arrangement and presentation becomes a focal point in establishing customer requirements. How are customer requirements translated into products/services? It is true that establishing customer requirement does not stop there and what the company needs to do is to translate these requirements into actual product or services. For most companies these has also become a major problem, maybe not just because of the problem that some companies may established the wrong requirements or it is just company’s translate the required products or services wrongfully. 3 The IKEA Concept, 2007. Most specially customers these days are very intelligent and they easily shift their preference and what makes it difficult these days is that there are a lot of products to choose from and one wrong move can give a lot of impact for the business and that is something that company’s must look into closely. There are actually many theories that can be applied in carefully and effectively translating customer requirements into products or services, But among the many theories, there is one important theory that focuses on how products are being planned before it actually delivers to the customers and this is what is being called as product planning framework. In this model or framework it shows that for companies to be successful in converting requirements into products or services. In this approach it also tackles the over-all company strategy that should also be included in the actual development of the product and not just the requirement alone. Because there are instances th at the company over-prioritize on the certain aspect in the product planning where in fact it does not only need to separately prioritize but also have to manage how the different factors relate to one another. Needs, 2004) In it shows that it is not only the detailed requirement alone is important, instead it should be well collaborated with the other factors or aspects of product planning. And it all starts with understanding first the company strategy; these should be the starting point and then it follows by three collaborative processes which include competitive business environment, which involves a careful understanding on how the company understand the way it should perform in order to be competitive and not just develop a product or service that only performs the basic requirement of the customers instead it should be developed to address competitiveness, secondly in the group of process after understanding the main corporate strategy is the market dynamics, at this point company’s must also look into the different trends and market situations which may also become a major factor in the business. Companies must look into the way market is moving and sensitivity towards these aspect gives a lot of leverage for the company even by the time of planning in the development of the product. Then, the third and last part of the three collaborative processes is development capabilities; this includes the identification of the company’s capabilities of developing the actual product. This situation also a big impact for some companies because there are companies that even though they already identified and studied the market dynamics and the competitive business environment, eventually they found out that they have no capability or capacity to do it, so what they need to do is to just focus on planning to develop some products that are within their capacity to developed. These three processes are also considered as market opportunity filter. Architecture and long –term roadmap come next, which focuses mainly on how the product can be developed product policy and goals whic h is very important in terms of establishing long-term success of the product. There are also other factors that it really focuses like corporate or division value added, core technology applied and other aspect that mainly focuses on the long-term success of the product. Detailed user requirements or product definition comes next, where at this point, these only includes the detailed understanding of users needs and all the information that it supports which includes the things that were presented above, like information regarding what customers wants, who actually buy the product and how they buy it. This information will then be used for establishing a business case which will mainly use in providing a study that will be use to support the feasibility of the product development and lastly is the process of execution, which involves the actual generation of the product or services. But this may be applicable and useful to some products or services that are well established in the industry or companies that already has its name and just continuous to explore for new opportunities. The reason is that there are many failures that may be encountered by companies who are introducing new product in the market. One of the most common reason is that since they don’t have establish customer awareness and their data are sometimes not reliable and just follows current market trends. It shows that there are also some important factors that need to be carefully addressed by new companies or companies introducing new product lines in the market. These also show that there are many cases that can contribute the ineffectiveness of translating customer requirements into product or service development.4 For IKEA, in terms of translating customer requirements into products and services, it has always been the main focus of the company and this is perform by the company through what the company called as IKEA’s Main Range. As most companies would also envy how the company operates and how they still provide low price products even though there are a lot of economic problems that are happening. But, the main reason why the company continues to survived and still keep up with quality and price is though its what they called as IKEA Range. IKEA range refers to the formula on how the business operates and it all starts with its main concept of producing low price products plus their effective production method that continuously been the priority which gives big boost for the company since it is the major cost centered activities of the company and lastly but definitely not the least is with the innovative ideas and minds of their people that up to now becomes a major concern driving force in the success of the company as well. But basically there are four basic factors how the IKEA range actually performs and translates customer requirements and these includes: profile, design, functionality and the strategy they do for lowering the price of its product. In terms of profile, the company continues to target the fundamental activities in every home such as eating, sleeping, storing items and socializing but the company always makes sure that their products based on these basic activities they always have to consider the l imited budget and space of most of its customers. In other words, the company always strives to provide a product that first satisfies 4 Driving Product Development with Customer Needs, 2004 the basic needs of their customers based on the standard activities in everyone’s homes and then consider the tight budget and limited space of homes of the customers. In terms of design, just like in the profile, designers of the company are always task to provide innovative ideas that comprises of new and innovative designs and at the same time address low cost production cost, which may result to low price for their customers. Even though this is a big challenge for designers, still they manage to produce products that are not only stylish but also at low cost to produced and sell. These are two of the main secret of the company, they always find better ways on how they can lower the production cost through better designs, because for them is they will still produce better design with low production cost, they can leverage against the competition and that gives both benefit for the company and most specially for their customers. In terms of functionality, the companies always look into beyond the basic functionality of its products. It constantly seeks value to its products, and with that it also implements strict quality assurance, in order for their customers not to say that their products are not just low price and style but also durable. This only shows that the functionality of products through quality is an essential part of IKEA’s business and this should not compromise cost. In terms of low price products, the company has implemented this strategy by providing a wide range of choices. With the many choices that they offered, there will definitely be a choice of the customers that is fit for their budget and not just a fit in the space they have in their homes. The company does not compete on a per item basis, they compete in terms of prices through selections and wide range of designs and functionality of products that they offered and this is an added advantage of the company. And as how the company perform its actual way of translating customer requirements into actual product development or services and as based on the concept that were presented earlier, it clearly stated that there are clear evidence that IKEA stick with its corporate strategy to offer products that are not only affordable but also has quality. This known requirements where further enhanced by innovative design by their designers that still carefully addresses the needs of the customers. What operational systems and processes are in place to satisfy the Product/service requirements of customers? It is true that there are different processes or systems that need to be implemented by company in order to institutionalize the way on how the company satisfies product or services requirements. Because there are times where other company apply different ways on how they manage requirements and these results to inconsistencies in the information that the company generates. And in order for these very essential requirements not going to waste, company’s should create a well defined process on how not only keep it but more importantly satisfy these requirements through implementation of the right processes and systems. For IKEA, the main idea for the company is to really see on how the store nationwide performs the business and these are again based from the company’s IKEA range. In the presented process by the company IKEA above, it uniquely showed that the company again mainly focuses on satisfying customer requirements through finding any possible ways on how they can offer only the best and well designed products which is mainly the start and end of its processes. The first one as being the standard designs of the products that were studied by the company and the last one as the added inspirational designs, which mainly focuses however on the innovative ideas that comes only from their senior designers, but what is important here is that these designers stills looks into the main global strategy of the company. While the one that separates the first and last activities in the process is with regards to finding the best production method that has also become the secret key for success of the company. This is because through these well designed production method, it gives the company enough leverage in applying cost for its products. And all these three main processes is equivalent to IKEAS Unique process in satisfying customer needs. In fact there is even some strategy that the company implemented in the design of its stores globally that also added to the company’s success globally. To add on their very unique and very effective concept in operating the business, the company stores around the world operates in a way that inspire all its customer on the real life look of the rooms and homes, this is in order for them to really see the real look of the products once it’s installed. With big space stores that the company offers from its customers, and actually encourage taking their time and letting them feel comfortable within the store. Letting the customers actually sit, lie down, open and close drawers in their products, it adds more value for their customers since they can actually feel, see and hold on the products. Added to that is the assigned workers that is always ready to assist the guest if they need additional information, most specially some technical details. With the 9,500 different designs and products to choose from, it definitely provides an excellent travel experience and that gives customers a big possibility that there is always a product that’s right for them, either in terms of budget or in terms of space.5 In fact there are also proofs that a show that these process has become an effective way on how the company continuously grows not only in terms of sales or revenues but also in terms of stores and visitors that visited every store it operates in the world. First, in terms of sales there was a consistent increase in sales from the time the company started up to 2007, which means that no matter what and how big economic issues that comes in the global economy, IKEA still manage to perform well and with its unique process in satisfying the needs of the customer, sales are always increasing. In terms of number of visitors that visited the stores worldwide, it also shows that number also increases which means that customer awareness is improving and this also improves the company’s global sales. And with its 200 stores around the world and more than 450 million visitors annually. This only shows that the company’s stores and its products are well recognized. And the company where very aggressive in expanding its business globally, in order to serve its clients better. With these figures that were presented, it only proves that the company with its unique process of satisfying the needs of their customers, it shows that they continually become very effective and most of their customers are really satisfied about the process and how they are being given the right attention by the company as a whole. Particularly in terms of the increasing number of visitors and the continuous huge increase in sales of the company. How are capacity planning, process layout, product/service scheduling, Inventory, and projects, managed in the organization? In order for any company performs not only based from the company’s current needs but also the future and included to those are some unexpected requirements, capacity planning is definitely important. Actually in theory there are three main steps for capacity planning, and these are: (1) company needs to determine service level requirements, (2) the company must analyze current capacity, and lastly, (3) company must plan for the future. For most cases that problem usually is in the second and third. It is because of the reason that most companies usually understand what are the things that they need to do, but the problem is that either they know that they are not capable of performing their assignments but keeps on getting some just for the greediness of getting some just to increase revenues or sometimes there are companies that really doesn’t know what their capacity are, and what happen is that when they actually perform the actual projects then they found out that they are short in resources. Also, there are issues that comes in the third step, where most companies both understand their projects and effectively knows their capacity but still failed due to lack of anticipations or not being ready to instant demand in the market and this eventually resulted to failure as well.6 In terms of process layout, process scheduling, inventory and managing project in the organization, there are only two ways that can mainly classified a company and these are either centralized or decentralized process. Centralized process arises when processes from the different branch or stores of one global company follows the same global process and actually performs the process consistently. While the decentralize process involves an autonomy for each branch to perform their own process, but still follows the top main process. This can also be 6 How to do Capacity Planning, 2007. known today as matrix type of organization. For IKEA it actually performs centralize and decentralize way of operation or the company called it as for-profit and non-profit way of operation. Even though it was originated in Sweden, the company operated in a very unique approach, since it’s main operation is subdivided into two parts: (1)non-profit, and (2) for profit operations, where the latter or the main INGKA Foundation is located in Leiden in the Netherlands. Or in other way of representing it, the company structure may be look into as two different parts and these are: mainly operations and the other one is franchising. Just to segregate the two, majority of the operations which covers management of the majority of its stores worldwide, design and production factories of furniture as well as the purchasing of supplies are done and centrally managed by the INGKA Holdings, which is among the 36 countries it operates it manages the 235 stores worldwide while around 30 remai ning stores are managed by the different franchises outside the INGKA Holdings. Also, the INGKA Holdings is not also owned by a single owner or company instead it is owned by Stitching INGKA Foundation which was established by its owner, Kamprad in 1982 and that started the strategy of the company to have applied the company for non-profit or

Sunday, January 19, 2020

Organizing in Coca cola company Essay

Managers in organizations have several functions and duties which they carry out to ensure that the organization is running well. Some of the duties and functions are planning, which is an ongoing process of developing the organizations mission and objectives as well as determining how the set mission and objectives can be accomplished. Directing involves influencing behavior of people by way of motivation, group dynamics, communication, discipline and leadership and controlling function where performance standards are established, (Erven, 2008). Another function is organizing where the internal organizational structure of the organization are established. It mostly focuses on coordination or resources, division and control of tasks as well as good information flow within the organization. Managers also ensure that all the departments and resources in them such as physical assets, finances, the human resource, technology and knowledge are doing the right duties and well organized. Organizing also involves the activities which are carried out in the process of configuring the organization resources in order to implement plans which will be highly effective and also efficient. It is one of the major functions of management where it deals with organizing the managers themselves, designing tasks, roles or jobs to people, organizing the organizations staff, organizing the groups and the general resources in the organization so that they achieve the goals and objectives set. Managers need to organize their human resources in the best way since it is the ground in which the companies depend on,. In organizing the human resource of the organization, the managers reviews the set plans, lists all the tasks that needs to be accomplished, divide the tasks into groups where each person is put into to a group where the person will be able to perform that certain task, this is referred to as division of labor. In division of labor, the related jobs are grouped together in and efficient and logical manner, the jobs are then assigned to individuals and the managers delegates authority so as to establish relationships between the groups of jobs and the jobs themselves. In organizations, the employees wants their work to go on in a manners which excites them and makes them have the commitment needed to accomplish the set goals. In organization such as Coca cola, the managers have ensured that the budgets are invested in people because human resource is the most important assets in an organization. The management has put in mind that when they are hiring the human resource in the organization, they are not just hiring their bodies or their time, rather, they are hiring their training, their experience in the work that they are delegated to do, their energy which they will put in the delegated duties, their creativity as well as their commitment which ensures that the job will be well done and will accomplish the expected or set results, (Warner, 1993). Managers in Coca cola have emphasized and provided the necessary tools for the employees so that they will be able to carry out their jobs well, they provide career counseling so that employees are able to know exactly what is expected of them. Employees are also be provided with professional development opportunities and training in educational design so that they have the required formal knowledge and education for their position. This entails knowledge such as computer knowledge or knowledge of using other technologies for production purposes. Good communication methods between the employees and the management have been provided so that the employees can be able to communicate any problems which they may be experiencing and requires the management intervention. Good communication is necessary between the employees at the same level of management so that can share knowledge pertaining the work that they are doing, help each other and also come up with new ideas of how to carry out their duties in a better manner. The staff in an organization needs to be provided with a chance to participate in the management and decision making processes which incorporates the common goals which needs to be achieved because the employees can contribute and come up with better ideas for managers. Team work and cooperation instead of segregation is also important as employees feel that they are part of the organization. The organization environment should also be risk free with a competition aspect so that the employees can do their best. When managing and organizing employees therefore, managers need to change their thinking style from the span of control to span of support for the employees. When they provide such an environment, the organization will be able to bring together people who have diverse backgrounds, experiences and ideas which will foster the emergence of creative ideas and approaches needed to run the organization. All these have been incorporated in organizing human resource of Coca cola and has yield good benefits. Technology influences an organizations functioning and performance and cannot be separated from expertise, jobs, structures or processes of the organization. Coca cola company has has combined the technology available with the features of the organization and in turn it has created new affordances which have impacted positively on the boundaries of the organization. Managers should know that organizing does not need to take place around a hierarchy and the collection, storage, and distribution of the information as it was the case in the past management which used command and control to run the organizations. The adaption of organizational practices and innovations in technology has made it possible for organizations such as Coca cola to organize around what can be done with information technology. When dealing with technology in an organization, managers should ensure that the technology is up to date so that it can be able to handle the processes being performed by the organization. The technologies should be arranged in such a manner that they are of benefit to the entire organization and that they are used in the right places. Coca cola has organized its technology in such as way that its processes are running well and therefore the company is efficient and effective in its production. It is able to produce the required amount of products on time and there are delay involved associated with with their processes. They ensure that their processes are up to date by using the most up to date technology which is associated with their kind of productions. The company has also harnessed and fueled many of its technological innovations in different arenas so as to stay ahead of other soft drink manufacturers and distribution. Due to its innovative use of technology and good organization, Coca cola has raced to the forefront of the beverage world. Technology has helped it to grow from its humble roots to become part of the larger system and it has also discovered new technologies and techniques of production. Organizing and use of innovative advertising techniques which is harnessed by good management of technology, creation of new technologies and redefinition of how the technologies are used has made Coca cola to achieve greatness which makes the future to be brighter for the company. In conclusion, optimization of organization resources by an organization help it to achieve its goals faster and therefore be more efficient and effective in the industry. Good organization of resources such as human resource and technology helps the organization to be in a better position compared to others and therefore have a competitive edge. Coca cola has been able to optimize these resources in an effective and efficient way which make it a leader in its industry. Its organization of the human resource has made the employees to be experts in their field and therefore carry their duties more efficiently. Management of their technology has also made their processes and procedures effective and efficient an therefore have become leaders in the global market.

Friday, January 10, 2020

Foreign Literature Essay

Youth marketing is a term used in the marketing and advertising industry to describe activities to communicate with young people, typically in the age range of 12 to 34. More specifically, there is the tween marketing, targeting people in the 8 to 12 year-old range, teen marketing, targeting people age 13 to 19, college marketing, targeting college-age consumers, typically ages 18 to 23, young adult marketing, targeting young professionals, typically ages 22 and above The youth market is critical because of the demographic’s buying power and its members’ influence on the spending of family members. In addition, teens and young adults often set trends that are adopted by other demographic groups. The youth market is viewed as a difficult group to connect with and sell to, based on the fragmented media landscape and young people’s keen ability to identify and reject marketing messages that lack credibility. Nonetheless, many brands market to youth by offering relevant products and services while communicating a brand message in an appropriate voice and tone. Successful brands marketing to youth have a foundation in or association with key interests and drivers among youth: music, sports, fashion, video gaming and technology, among others. While frowned upon for preteens and younger teens, another common way advertisers target the older youth market is through product placement. Product placement occurs when a brand name product appears in a medium not necessarily related to the product itself. Companies often pay for their products to be placed in a movie or on a television show. This act, while not an overt form of advertising, seeks to target youth in a subtle manner. Youth marketing strategies commonly include television advertising, magazine advertising and online marketing. Today young people expect to be able to learn about, interact and be entertained with brands or services targeting them online. Other common youth marketing tactics include entertainment marketing, music marketing, sports marketing, event marketing, viral marketing, school and college programs, product sampling and influencer marketing. Examples of brands embraced by youth and used as examples in marketing cases are: Vans Footwear, it used youth marketing tactics to grow from a niche sneaker brand to a successful international business and Mountain Dew, a well- known soft drink brand that expanded market share through youth marketing tactics in the 1990s. Consumer behavior and attitude towards youth marketing This section possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. (February 2012) Since the 1980s, the marketing industry has seen an increase in research as well as an increase in spending. The marketing industry’s budget in 1992 was $6 billion and by 2003 this figure had risen to an estimated[by whom?] $15 billion in marketing efforts. According to Tim Kasser of Knox College, there is little that is known about youth marketing opinion. He states that since the late 1990s there have only been two large-scale opinion surveys conducted. The first of these surveys was sponsored by Center for a New American Dream, which consisted of 400 random parents nationwide. The second was sponsored by power exchange and took its survey participants from people who make a living off of youth marketing. The purpose of this survey was to assess a participant’s attitude towards a variety of youth marketing issues. Respondents to the survey were asked a range of questions regarding the ethics of youth marketing. The public opinion on youth marketing ethics according to this survey was mostly negative. An overwhelming 78% of respondents agreed that the current practices used in youth marketing were harmful to children, whereas 3.7% believed that the current practices were fine the way they were, while the remaining 85.1% didn’t believe that youth marketing had any ethics. The results of this survey shed light on youth marketing’s pros and cons. But this survey has shown that respondents clearly view the current tactics being used as potentially harmful and in need of structure.[citation needed] By the end of this survey, Tim Kasser concluded that a large portion of respondents to his survey felt that youth marketing morals were unacceptable and that they contributed to a range of youth-oriented problems. Also he found that marketing that took place in public schools was unacceptable and that governmental regulations should be put in place to prevent marketing groups from advertising to eight-year-olds. Even though this is just the tip of the iceberg,[according to whom?] talks on youth marketing have been ongoing; there have been few changes to policy or law in regards to marketing to youth. The results of the survey done by Tim Kasser suggest that people are ready to change public policy and legal initiatives in regards to these issues.[2] Youth trends On the other end of the youth marketing spectrum, you[who?] could say that the traditional definition of â€Å"youth† doesn’t really exist. This assumption was based upon consumer behavior in a study done by Viacom Brand Solutions International called the â€Å"Golden Age of Youth†. This case study was designed to focus on adults from 18 to 34 years old who primarily delayed their adult responsibilities in favor of staying younger in all aspects of life. According to this study, 16- to 19-year-olds are considered to be going through the discovery period. As people grow older they usually phase out of the discovery period and into the experimentation period, when they hit the age range of 20 to 24 years old. Usually those that don’t fit into the groups above are part of the golden category, which consists of anyone 24 to 34. Some of the key results that were produced from this case study were that 24–34-year-olds usually don’t respond to the same marketing techniques as teens and those that think so are being fooled, whereas in reality only 8% in the study were actually true teenagers. It also showed that the golden youth were the happiest out of all the categories and drawn towards expensive brands compared to teens. Based on the categories provided by Viacom and the results of the case study, it goes to show that over 52% of adults from 25 to 34 still have a lot of growing up to do. Youth trends are part of an environment pertaining to information that we[who?] know as youth marketing and is rapidly evolving and is interconnected with the evolution of transmission systems and content quality.[citation needed] It is easy to give very little weight to these new trends that are evolving in this information environment, but these changes should not be taken lightly[according to whom?] because it will affect how youth communicate and absorb this information. These changes can easily be shown through various media such as smart phones or social networking sites like Facebook, allowing youth marketing to occur on a sensory level. Morals and education of marketers: Youth marketing is under increased scrutiny by many public-oriented establishments such as government agencies, academia, and the media.[citation needed] The increased inquiry into the marketing industry has occurred because of the increased commercialism towards kids and marketing in schools. These are just a few of the ideas that have become more saturated in mainstream society.[citation needed] Recently[when?] in youth marketing there has been much information and misinformation on this topic despite the issue of youth marketing. In regards to the public opinion of youth marketing, one side that has not been represented is that of the youth marketing industry. This point of view is crucial[according to whom?] to understanding the basics to making positive progress on issues related to youth marketing. John C. Geraci, who wrote the article â€Å"What do youth marketers think of selling to kids?†, gives an insight as to the mindset of those working in this industry by conducting an online polling. This polling consisted of 878 interviews each around 30 minutes. The interview covered topics such as educational background to ethics in youth marketing. According to the polling, those that work in youth-oriented careers are 92% more likely to have a four-year degree and less likely to have academic skills specifically for dealing with children. Most of these people also feel that the ethical standards are on par with other industries. But at the same time they feel that ethics can be a matter of intentions and not results. Usually companies will invest time in producing ad campaigns and products to make sure they are suitable for a youth-oriented market, which means that these ideas can easily be turned over because they are deemed not suitable. In addition, they usually spend large sums of money on market research to ensure products have some educational value for youth and are acceptable to those buying the products.[citation needed] Most ethical procedures in the youth marketing industry occur behind office walls and are usually not seen by the public, media, or politicians, which means that problems that arise with youth marketing don’t originate from the people creating the ads but are the result of multiple causes. For example, childhood obesity has not been caused by one ad or product brought out by a marketing company. But it is a health concern that has developed due to multiple factors, that influence how the public reacts to certain ads and products brought out by these companies. Youth consumer behavior The Internet has ushered in a new digital media culture that allows different forms of media to converge. What once used to be multiple separate devices such as a telephone, television, or computer are now able to converge as one form of technology. Smart phones are the perfect example[according to whom?] of this hybrid technology that the new digital media culture has ushered in. As early adopters of new technologies, the youth in many ways are the defining users of the digital media that are embracing this new culture. â€Å"The burgeoning digital marketplace has spawned a new generation of market research companies which are introducing an entire lexicon of marketing concepts (e.g., â€Å"viral marketing,† â€Å"discovery marketing†) to describe some of the unorthodox methods for influencing brand loyalty and purchasing decisions.† The research that is done on youth marketing quickly becomes outdated by the time it’s published as a result of the growth of digital media as educators and health professionals continue to get a grasp on the situation. Youth advertising is an important determinant of consumer behavior; it has been shown to have an influence on a youths’ product preference and purchase requests. There are some scientists[who?] that believe studying youth consumer behavior is a negative thing because it impacts their beliefs, values, and moral judgments. They argue this because they believe that youth are more influenced by advertising messages than adults are. Advertising impacts usually are conducted by focusing on three specific effects: cognitive, behavioral, and affective. Usually cognitive effect studies are more focused on children’s abilities to distinguish commercials from reality and their ability to understand the difference between the two. When cognitive studies are being done they will follow Piaget’s theory to track the concrete development of children. Piaget’s theory is divided into stages; these stages are known as the pre-operational and concrete operational stage. The first stage focuses on the age group of 2- to 7-year-olds whereas the second focuses on 7- to 12-year-olds. On the other hand, there are some scientists[who?] that believe youth marketing is a good thing because it helps to define who they are as a consumer. On that note, it has been proven that requests by youth for advertised products decrease as they mature (1,14,24,26). Youth-oriented audiences tend to become more critical about their purchases and less susceptible to media advertising as they grow up. Gender also tends to have a role in a youth’s thought process when requesting an advertised product. In most cases, boys are more persistent in their requests than girls. Other factors that may co-determine children’s consumer behavior include socioeconomic level of the family, frequency and kind of parent–child interaction, and involvement with peer groups. These are just a few of the issues regarding youth consumer behavior and it is not going on in just our country[clarification needed] but in other countries as well such as the Netherlands. The Netherlands is a perfect example[according to whom?] to show how youth marketing is viewed in another country. In the Netherlands youth advertising may not mislead about characteristics or the price of the product in addition to this products aimed at children cannot have too much authority or trust amongst children. But there are loopholes in the way the Netherlands protects children from direct youth marketing. These loopholes usually question concepts such as â€Å"misleading†, â€Å"authority†, and â€Å"trust†. Social responsibility and how it affects consumer behavior Studies of social adolescents in social marketing media are usually concerned with activities that have heavy consequences. For example things like smoking, violent entertainment, alcohol abuse, and fast food consumption are all things that are negatively going to affect a young consumer’s consumption behavior. Recently though the de-marketing of these harmful behaviors has started to occur slowly over the years, the focus of social and youth marketing has shifted from reinforcing positive behavior in favor of discouraging abusive behaviors. Since social and youth marketing are trying to head in this direction it indicates to the industry that youth marketing can be used for positive benefits. For example, rather than just a company associating itself with a non-profit or global aid organization is easy to understand. But youth more often than not want to actively get engaged in experiences that directly affect the world such as world hunger for example. Which indicates that companies should not just associate themselves with non-profit but actually offer their own non-profit experiences that young consumers can get involved with. Overall this idea and how it relates to youth marketing might seem a bit abstract[according to whom?] but it potentially links to a young consumer’s behavior. This idea of creating cause-related experiences is important for the industry to take note of when it comes to youth marketing. By influencing a young consumer view of a specific company as a well known supporter of a positive non-profit can create brand loyalty beyond traditional brand utilities. This loyalty to the brand in a sense makes the volunteer or youth-oriented customer are aiding in the production of more loyal customers to the brand. In the long run, these non-effort opportunities can become embedded in a generation and become self-producing for the company as long as they maintain the events that cause consumer loyalty. Real-world examples In order to understand the public’s opinion on youth marketing, one must be able to understand the experiences that each generation has been exposed to while growing up. Generation Y is very similar to the baby boomer generation especially at different points in life. So it is essential to see what experiences each generation has experienced while growing up. But different formative experiences affect each person of Generation Y. For example, the events that made the biggest impression on members of Generation Y who graduated from school in 2000 were Columbine, the war in Kosovo, and Princess Diana’s death.[8] Targeting the Demographic Social Status and Brand Loyalty Products and brands with Social Power encompass the notion that â€Å"Corporate cool hunters are searching for teens that have the respect, trust, and admiration of their friends.† The American Psychological Association said, â€Å"Advertisers understand the teen’s desire to be â€Å"cool,† and manipulate it to sell their wares, a concept that’s been offered to marketers by psychologists including James McNeal, PhD. Marketers assume a silent role as manipulators and the role they manage to play is not only in the purchases of teens but also in the social statuses of teens. A key aspect to youth marketing or any targeted demographic marketing is that these products are supposed to fulfill the needs or desires of the consumer. A large portion of sales promotion is dedicated to accomplishing this. However, according to Ainsworth Anthony Bailey of University of Toledo in â€Å"The Interplay of Social Influence and Nature of Fulfillment: Effects on Consumer Attitudes,† not much of this research has focused on non-fulfillment of promotional promises which in turn, breaks the trust of the consumer and hurts the entire image of the brand and its product. The role of brand loyalty and/or belonging to a brand becomes a primary act for the young consumers. Promotion is always positive; commodities are presented as the road to happiness. In short, advertising uses existing values and symbols rather than reflecting them. Child psychologist, Allen Kanner states that, â€Å"The problem, is that marketers manipulate that attraction, encouraging teens to use materialistic values to define who they are and aren’t.† It’s key that we acknowledge the need for teens to not only identify but to let the brand identify them. It’s what feeds into the notion that Marketing and Branding effects teen consumerism. Salancik & Pfeffer’s (1978) Social information processing theory addresses mechanisms by which peers influence individuals’ behavior and attitudes. According to this theory, social information consists of comments and observations made by people whose views an individual considers relevant. The literature on social influence suggests that this could impact consumers’ perceptions. Classroom According to the Media Awareness Network, a huge space where young adults can be targeted is in the setting of education or classroom. Whether it be through sponsored health educational assemblies, or as simple as the vending machines in the lunch room, or contests/incentive programs, and the companies that supply the schools with new technologies such as Mac computers. The academic setting becomes a prime marketing tool in reaching our youth because the classroom provides a captive audience for any product or brand to be modeled in front of. One example that the Media Awareness Network provides to explain how the academic environment can be used to silently speak and market to the youth is contests and incentive programs like the Pizza Hut reading incentives program in which children receive certificates for free pizza if they achieve a monthly reading goal. Similarly, Campbell’s Labels for Education project, in which Campbell provides educational resources for schools in exchange for soup labels collected by students. Internet According to the director of Saatchi & Saatchi Interactive, â€Å"This is a medium for advertisers that is unprecedented†¦ there’s probably no other product or service that we can think of that is like it in terms of capturing kids’ interest.† Advertisers reach the young demographic by eliciting personal information. It’s as easy as getting them to fill out quick, simple surveys prior to playing these games. They offer prizes such as T-shirts for filling in â€Å"lengthy profiles that ask for purchasing behavior, preferences and information on other family members.† Advertisers, then take the information they obtain from these polls and surveys to â€Å"craft individualized messages and ads† in order to draw and hook them into a world centered around a certain product or brand. The ads that surround the individual in these â€Å"cyber worlds† are meant to keep a firm grip on each individual. It provides the setting for them to be completely consumed by the advertisers messages, products, and brands around them. These games are not just games. They’re â€Å"advergames†, CBS News correspondent John Blackstone reports for â€Å"Gotta Have It: The Hard Sell To Kids.† Advergames allow for marketers to incorporate brands and products into a game-like setting where the child playing it, is exposed constantly to these brands and products. A 10-year old girl who was interviewed by CBS, says she can score with Skittles, race with Chips Ahoy or hang out with SpongeBob. â€Å"You think about that 30-second commercial, basically a lot of those games are pretty fun to play and kids really get engaged in them,† Ted Lempert, president of Children Now, a group that has successfully pushed for limits on TV advertising to kids, says. â€Å"So really it ends up becoming a 30-minute commercial.† Kids in an Adult World The influence that our youth have on purchases made in a household are extremely high, shockingly, even on high-end items such as what vehicle the family decides to purchase. For example, one study estimated that children influenced $9 billion worth of car sales in 1994. One car dealer explains: â€Å"Sometimes, the child literally is our customer. I have watched the child pick out the car.†[12] According to, James U. McNeal, author of â€Å"Kids as Customers: A Handbook of Marketing to Children,† car manufacturers cannot afford to ignore the children in their marketing. Nissan is one of many companies know to do this. They sponsor the American Youth Soccer Organization and a traveling geography exhibit in order to promote and get eyes on their brand name and logo in child-friendly settings. There’s analysis of the process of the development of a child and how it relates to how marketers know they can have a great deal of power in the field of persuasion on them at such young ages. At the age of five or six, children have trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality and make-believe from lying. They do not distinguish programs from ads, and may even prefer the ads. Between seven and ten years-old, children are most vulnerable to â€Å"televised manipulation†. At age seven, the child can usually distinguish reality from fantasy, and at nine, he or she might suspect deception. This could come from any personal experience where products have turned out not to be as advertised. However, they cannot fully decipher this logic and continue to have â€Å"high hopes† for future products produced by a particular brand. By the age of ten, the individual starts to have a cynical perception of ads, in that â€Å"ads always lie†. Around eleven or twelve, a toleration of adults lying in advertisements starts to develop. At this stage, it’s the true coming of the adolescent’s â€Å"enculturation† into a system of social hypocrisy. Product Placement Product placement, or embedded marketing, is a form of advertisement, where branded goods or services are placed in a context usually devoid of ads, such as movies, music videos, the story line of television shows, or news programs. The product placement is often not disclosed at the time that the good or service is featured. Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior Consumer behavior refers to the selection, purchase and consumption of goods and services for the satisfaction of their wants. There are different processes involved in the consumer behavior. Initially the consumer tries to find what commodities he would like to consume, then he selects only those commodities that promise greater utility. After selecting the commodities, the consumer makes an estimate of the available money which he can spend. Lastly, the consumer analyzes the prevailing prices of commodities and takes the decision about the commodities he should consume. Meanwhile, there are various other factors influencing the purchases of consumer such as social, cultural, personal and psychological. The explanation of these factors is given below. 1. Cultural Factors Consumer behavior is deeply influenced by cultural factors such as: buyer culture, subculture, and social class. Culture Basically, culture is the part of every society and is the important cause of person wants and behavior. The influence of culture on buying behavior varies from country to country therefore marketers have to be very careful in analyzing the culture of different groups, regions or even countries. Subculture Each culture contains different subcultures such as religions, nationalities, geographic regions, racial groups etc. Marketers can use these groups by segmenting the market into various small portions. For example marketers can design products according to the needs of a particular geographic group. Social Class Every society possesses some form of social class which is important to the marketers because the buying behavior of people in a given social class is similar. In this way marketing activities could be tailored according to different social classes. Here we should note that social class is not only determined by income but there are various other factors as well such as: wealth, education, occupation etc. 2. Social Factors Social factors also impact the buying behavior of consumers. The important social factors are: reference groups, family, role and status. Reference Groups Reference groups have potential in forming a person attitude or behavior. The impact of reference groups varies across products and brands. For example if the product is visible such as dress, shoes, car etc then the influence of reference groups will be high. Reference groups also include opinion leader (a person who influences other because of his special skill, knowledge or other characteristics). Family Buyer behavior is strongly influenced by the member of a family. Therefore marketers are trying to find the roles and influence of the husband, wife and children. If the buying decision of a particular product is influenced by wife then the marketers will try to target the women in their advertisement. Here we should note that buying roles change with change in consumer lifestyles. Roles and Status Each person possesses different roles and status in the society depending upon the groups, clubs, family, organization etc. to which he belongs. For example a woman is working in an organization as finance manager. Now she is playing two roles, one of finance manager and other of mother. Therefore her buying decisions will be influenced by her role and status. 3. Personal Factors Personal factors can also affect the consumer behavior. Some of the important personal factors that influence the buying behavior are: lifestyle, economic situation, occupation, age, personality and self concept. Age Age and life-cycle have potential impact on the consumer buying behavior. It is obvious that the consumers change the purchase of goods and services with the passage of time. Family life-cycle consists of different stages such young singles, married couples, unmarried couples etc which help marketers to develop appropriate products for each stage. Occupation The occupation of a person has significant impact on his buying behavior. For example a marketing manager of an organization will try to purchase business suits, whereas a low level worker in the same organization will purchase rugged work clothes. Economic Situation Consumer economic situation has great influence on his buying behavior. If the income and savings of a customer is high then he will purchase more expensive products. On the other hand, a person with low income and savings will purchase inexpensive products. Lifestyle Lifestyle of customers is another import factor affecting the consumer buying behavior. Lifestyle refers to the way a person lives in a society and is expressed by the things in his/her surroundings. It is determined by customer interests, opinions, activities etc and shapes his whole pattern of acting and interacting in the world. Personality Personality changes from person to person, time to time and place to place. Therefore it can greatly influence the buying behavior of customers. Actually, Personality is not what one wears; rather it is the totality of behavior of a man in different circumstances. It has different characteristics such as: dominance, aggressiveness, self-confidence etc which can be useful to determine the consumer behavior for particular product or service. 4. Psychological Factors There are four important psychological factors affecting the consumer buying behavior. These are: perception, motivation, learning, beliefs and attitudes. Motivation The level of motivation also affects the buying behavior of customers. Every person has different needs such as physiological needs, biological needs, social needs etc. The nature of the needs is that, some of them are most pressing while others are least pressing. Therefore a need becomes a motive when it is more pressing to direct the person to seek satisfaction. Perception Selecting, organizing and interpreting information in a way to produce a meaningful experience of the world is called perception. There are three different perceptual processes which are selective attention, selective distortion and selective retention. In case of selective attention, marketers try to attract the customer attention. Whereas, in case of selective distortion, customers try to interpret the information in a way that will support what the customers already believe. Similarly, in case of selective retention, marketers try to retain information that supports their beliefs. Beliefs and Attitudes Customer possesses specific belief and attitude towards various products. Since such beliefs and attitudes make up brand image and affect consumer buying behavior therefore marketers are interested in them. Marketers can change the beliefs and attitudes of customers by launching special campaigns in this regard. View as multi-pages

Thursday, January 2, 2020

The Color Purple by Alice Walker Summary, Main Idea,...

â€Å"The Color Purple† by Alice Walker is a series a letters by and to the main character, Celie. The book begins with fourteen year old Celie writing to God about her father raping her and taking away her children. After Celies mother dies, Celie focuses on protecting her sister, Nettie, from her fathers sexual advances and encourages her to run away. A widower called â€Å"Mr. __† wants to marry Nettie, but their father rejects him. Eventually Celie marries Mr. __, who later is called Albert, and her living conditions do not improve at all. Celie becomes infatuated with Shug Avery, a blues singer who is her husbands mistress. Years later, Celie helps nurse Shug back to health. Eventually, they fall in love with each other. Meanwhile, Nettie†¦show more content†¦The first example of this narrative, â€Å"You better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill you mammy† (1). This statement was obviously only spoken between the narrator and her abuse r. â€Å"I am fourteen years old. I have always been a good girl† (1), is a second example of the novel’s point of view. This type of narrative brings the reader close to the quality and rhythm of life that Celie experiences. It allows the reader to intimately get to know Celie. Through Celie’s dialect and poor grammar, the reader becomes personally engaged in Celie’s experiences and struggles. Almost like reading the unedited thoughts that go through a person’s mind. Though The Color Purple is a historical novel, it never refers to any factual events. Because of this, we presumably follow Celie through thirty or forty years of her life, from the age of fourteen up until her hair is gray. The setting of the novel is primarily rural Georgia in the early twentieth century. As a poor black woman in the rural south, Celie’s bad treatment is largely ignored which was the norm in this time period. Celie leaves Georgia to live in Memphis with Shug. There, Celie lives a life of luxury and empowerment. Living a poor, downtrodden life in the South, Celie had never stopped to consider her African heritage until Nettie sendsShow MoreRelatedStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesDecision Making 165 Motivation Concepts 201 Motivation: From Concepts to Applications 239 3 The Group 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Foundations of Group Behavior 271 Understanding Work Teams 307 Communication 335 Leadership 367 Power and Politics 411 Conflict and Negotiation 445 Foundations of Organization Structure 479 v vi BRIEF CONTENTS 4 The Organization System 16 Organizational Culture 511 17 Human Resource Policies and Practices 543 18 Organizational Change and Stress Management