India Unity Essay Example for Free

India Unity Essay India is land of variety. There is great variety in variety of aspects. The languages, lifestyles, religions, habits, geography, climates, cultures might be different but still they unite us into an invisible frame, the frame of Indianism. Diversity is there in every aspect of India, a land that encloses 1,222,559 sq. meters of land and is home to more than one billion people. As such stats imply, there ought to be diversity, but this does not always imply that there are differences. Rather, India is a land where in spite of so much of diversity, there is still unity. Be it the joining of hands for a mission or against it, Indians have always shows great unity. There have also been instances where people have fought against each other for some reason or the other but such cases do break out in all countries, so India being a niche of such diversity can be excused for once! India wont be India if not for this diversity. If India means Kanchivaram sadi then India also means Pashmina shawl. If India means extreme hot climate of the south India, then India also means the snow covered mountains of the north India. If India means the desert of Rajasthan then India also means the highest rainfall grounds of Assam! Such diversity is also found in the school of minds, where one stands for the motion, another stands against it. This means an added advantage, because while one is looking at the positive aspects of a side, other is hunting for the counterpart negatives. The diversity of India has a great edge over the plain unanimously joint countries! It might be speculated that is just another starry eyed optimist opinion, but then if we didnt differ wouldnt we be non-Indians

Teenage Purchasing Decisions for Cosmetics

Teenage Purchasing Decisions for Cosmetics Chapter 1: Introduction This introductory chapter is divided into five subsections. Firstly, a brief background of the research will be presented. Thereafter, the problem discussion will be provided, which in turn will lead to the purpose and objectives of the research. Finally, the delimitations and summary of the dissertation will be set. 1.1 Research Background According to Kotler (2008), consumer behavior is the study of how people buy, what they buy, when they buy and why they buy. It is a subcategory of marketing that blends elements from psychology, sociology, socio psychology, anthropology and economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision-making process, both individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics, psychographics, and behavioral variables in an attempt to understand people needs. He also stated that it also tries to assess influences on the consumer from group such as family friends, reference groups, and society in general for example while consumers purchase the shoe, then they go for family decision, comfort, satisfaction, price and quality (Kotler, 2008). According to Baker (2002), consumers are not aware of the products and usage but constantly they are choosing among the various products. They are intentionally procuring the various new brands without any knowledge about the new products. Additionally if new company enters into the market, for every consumer it is very complicated to understand the features of the news products and this makes confusion among the consumers to obtain the information. For example: If one local company enters into the market then to increase the knowledge about the features of the new product, it will take long time for the consumers to recognise. Baker (2004) stated that the consumer will respond according to the product quality and reliability, the fundamental understanding of products is necessary to understand the product features, products reliability and product benefits. The consumer is the end user for the product; consumers buy the products in market; in order to execute flourishing sales operations in the market an efficient distribution channel and networks are required for the organisations. He also stated that advertisement, distribution channels and networks play an important role in the consumer goods industry. Manufacturing companies, retailer and suppliers do not have an idea about the consumer behaviour in the local market. Thomas (2004) suggested that direct marketing activities should be left to the local market leaders, because the local market leaders have best idea of local market and local consumer behaviour. In the current literature, there are two major approaches to studying consumer decision-making involving screening and choice. One approach is to extend the single-stage choice models by adding an explicit choice set from which the final choice is made (Swait Adamowicz, 2001). Another approach studies the process of screening prior to choice (Teder, 2000). Understanding consumer decision-making is important. From a practical perspective, marketing managers are increasingly concerned that their products/brands may not be considered or chosen over those of their competitors. From a research perspective, a more representative model of the staged decision process may significantly improve our ability to predict consumer choices (Roberts Lattin, 1991). Recently, the growth of cosmetic industry in the global beauty market represents a slight slowdown due to a weakened economic state in the most developed markets and declining penetration of emerging markets. However, among the gloomy picture of the worlds cosmetic industry, the Asian market emerges as the brightest star as according to the Euromonitors report (2009), the Asia Pacific markets value is up to more than US$70 billion which is the second highest after the Western European market. Among the European markets, UK is the fastest growing market with the compound growth rate of fourteen percent over the period of 2000 to 2005. The economic growth of more than seven percent a year since 1990 could be the reason why the UKs cosmetic market has attracted a lot of the worlds cosmetic leaders like Unilever, LOreal, Johnson Johnson and PG. These cosmetic companies activities in UK help creating an exciting and competitive cosmetic market (Euromonitor, 2009). Consumers unique shopping patterns are developed and affected by socialization agents, which include family, peers, and the media. According to Lachance et. al (2003), these socialisation agents may often impact whether or not the adolescents will buy certain products or brands.. However Miller et.al (2003) claims that celebrity endorsements do not influence consumers purchasing behaviour. In contrast Boyd and Shank (2004) maintain that consumers, particularly teenagers, are likely to select products or brands that are endorsed by celebrities. Moreover, peers are likely to exert normative and informative influence. Lachance et. al, 2003 identified that they may influence the teenagers brand and product choices. Additionally, an individual is likely to conform to a group if he or she shares beliefs and norms with the group (Arnould et.al, 2004). Also, a group is likely to effectively exert influence on an individual if the individual is highly committed to the group (Hawkins et al, 2004). 1.2 Reason Behind Choose the Topic The main reason behind chosen this topic is previous studies have not precisely conducted a focused investigation into the influence of peers and celebrities on fifteen to eighteen year-old females purchasing behaviour in cosmetic products. Most researches on peer influence were conducted on general consumers with general products (Elliott and Leonard, 2004). Moreover, As for researcher, she always felt that â€Å"Consumer Buying Behaviour† is one of the most interesting subjects for her and as a female she thought to do a dissertation on the influence of celebrities endorsement on female teenagers would suitable for her to work on. Researcher did previous semester in LSC and she took a course on Research and Methodology (RM) which helped her to know the format of the research paper. Moreover her supervisor Dr.Fahads motivation and encouragement had helped researcher to select this topic. Researcher have studied out many articles of Consumer Buying Behaviour and annual reports of different cosmetic company and tried to sort out a topic, which is going to be suitable for her dissertation according to supervisors suggestion. This dissertation will help cosmetics firms and retail stores develop a precise marketing strategy to appeal to teenage consumers and to understand their purchasing behaviour. 1.3 Research Problem According to the website of BHB (2009), beauty and cosmetics are not innovations of the 20th century. It is known from reports of old Egypt and the Roman Empire that people have ever since attached importance to a cultivated appearance. Numerous up to date studies prove that today more than 60 per cent of women really care much about beauty, cosmetics, skin and body care. Even men show an increasing interest and demand in products such as skin care cosmetics, creams or anti aging lotions. To place and keep a cosmetic product successfully in the market, it is vital for companies active in manufacturing and selling cosmetics to have extensive scientific pharmaceutical and market research done. It is crucial for manufacturers of natural cosmetics or make up to know about consumer behaviour, trends and demands in the sector. Consumers might decide for a product because of its characteristics, its care factor, its sensitivity or its branding and attractive packaging. Cosmetics companies use the desires, senses and images consumers have or want to experience. More and more often, companies let celebrities and super models act as testimonials for fragrances, organic cosmetics or anti aging make up cosmetics. Colourful and exciting advertisements on TV, the internet or in print media tremendously influence consumer purchasing behaviour and desires. Packaging and the design of, for example, perfume bottles, let a cosmetics product appear even more desirable and trendy. This di ssertation will focus on beauty products in order to help cosmetics industry and retail stores develop a precise marketing strategy to appeal to female teenagers and to understand their purchasing behaviour. Previous studies have not precisely conducted a focused investigation into the influence of peers and endorsers on fifteen to eighteen year-old males purchasing behaviour in cosmetic products. Most researches on peer influence were conducted on general consumers with general products (Cited in Escalas and Bettman, 2003). However, some research has investigated this influence among children (Piacentini and Mailer, 2004). According to Klein (2001), teenagers are mostly influenced by friends and may not necessarily be influenced by celebrities. Additionally, no research has been conducted on symbolic consumption in relation to beauty products among the above-mentioned age groups. The researches were conducted on general consumers with general products (Piacentini and Mailer, 2004). 1.4 Research Aim and Objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate internal and external influences on teenagers purchasing decisions on cosmetic products in London. This research also investigates that how celebrities influence the brand choice of teenagers buying behaviour towards cosmetics in London market. The key objectives of this study are outlined as follows: To investigate how consumer buying behaviour factors influence female teenagers when purchasing cosmetic products. To explore the role of peers and celebrities and their influence on female teenagers purchasing decisions of cosmetic product. To analyse how celebrities influence the brand choice of youth females buying behaviour towards cosmetic products in London market. To give recommendation and conclusion. 1.5 Research Limitations The delimitations of a research study indicate its parameters; that is what the study will include and not include (Creswell, 2003). The scope of the study was limited to female consumers aged fifteen to eighteen living in the UK, specifically London city. This was due to time and budget constraints. In addition, the study only examines beauty products as opposed to general products. Further, the focus of the research was on symbolic consumption, peer groups and aspiration groups including beauty products endorsements rather than all internal and external influences. 1.6 Structure of the Dissertation Chapter 1: In this chapter mainly it talks about introduction of this dissertation, which also includes brief introduction of the topic, research background, rationale behind choose the topic, problem statement, aim and objectives and limitations of this research. Chapter 2: The second chapter is the literature review of this dissertation concerned about, the works of various authors and scholars who have highlighted and discussed about the theories of consumer behaviour and celebrities endorsement from different dimension. Chapter 3: This chapter will analyse the overall market overview of cosmetics products in UK Chapter 4: This third chapter will discuss the research method used in this research paper. Research method allows the researcher to plan and design the whole research in a proper way and shows the right direction to achieve an outcome. So the chapter explains the reasons behind the use of selected research method and the advantages by using the specified research approach. Chapter 5: This chapter discusses and analyses the market information and survey for the sake of the research. It also shows the data those have been gathered through interviews of customers, sales representative, and analyse the data to provide a fruitful meaning of the research finding. Chapter 6: This chapter has been discussed the research recommendations, limitations, further research on this topic and also describe how managers can get benefit or managerial implications of this paper. Chapter 2: Literature Review This chapter is the theoretical foundations that underpin this research study. In this chapter the theoretical framework relevant to dissertation purpose and questions will be presented. The chapter starts with a presentation of the brief discussion on consumer buying behavior, followed by purchase decision process and teenagers learning process and thereafter theories regarding factors influencing the purchase decision will be discussed. The following chapter presents the theoretical foundation of this research. The framework of the literature review is outlined. 2.1 Consumer behavior Consumer behavior is the study of consumers as they exchange something of value for a product or service that satisfies their needs (Well Prensky, 2003, p.5). The study of consumer behavior focuses on how individuals make decisions to spend their available resources (time, money, effort) on consumption related items (Schiffman Kanuk, 2004, p.5). In short, the company should study and create the marketing campaign for their target group. But in the product life cycle, due to the consumer behavior the image, target audience or function of this product can be in change. This group of consumers have a diversity of needs, such as a need for belonging, independence, approval, and responsibility, as well as having the need for experimentation (Solomon et al. 2004). Teenagers are increasingly given the task of buying products for the family. They not only have more spare time but also enjoy shopping more than their parents do. For this reason, marketers are targeting their ads mainly at te enagers. To gain teenagers attention more effectively, advertising campaigns must be honest, have clear messages, and used with humour. Moreover, teenagers tend to be inconsistent and are likely to switch brand preference quicker than any other age group, as they have a high need to be accepted by their friends (Blackwell et al. 2001). Finally, teenagers are â€Å"easier targets, because they have grown up in a culture of pure consumerism. Because of this, they are way more tuned into media because there is so much more media to be tuned into† (Bush et al. 2004, p. 109). Teenagers enjoy advertisements; a McCann survey shows that 75% of a sample of mixed 15-25 year olds felt that advertising was entertaining and 68% said that they found it a useful source of ideas about what to buy (Piper, 1998). When youths needs and desires are understood, marketers can show young consumers how products improve their lives. Harris Interactive, a Rochester, New York-based market research firm, estimates that teens spend on average $94.7 billion yearly ($3,309 per capita), while young adults between ages 20 and 21 spend $61.3 billion yearly ($7,389 per capita) (Schadelbauer, 2006). He also stated that interestingly, 69% of the U.S. youth respondents of one survey said that their parents pay their bills and they have little or no idea of who provides their telecommunications services or how much they cost. In the databases mentioned above, there are studies about ethical aspects of marketing to youth, whether regarding clothing, soft-drinks, cosmetics, technology, movi es, records, food, and tapes exchange. Some companies use â€Å"cool† appeal in their advertisements. The young people distinguish themselves among social classes to the detriment of their â€Å"natural† behavior by purchasing â€Å"cool† products. Misleading advertisements change the behavior of young people and can affect them when they grow up. In the 1980s, Nike and Calvin Klein brands began to focus on brand capital rather than on products themselves. Now, the brand names become the objective of the purchase in itself (Bergadaa, 2007). In particular, cigarette and alcohol producers are criticized by those who say that they are marketing to immature consumers (Schadelbauer, 2006). According to the Keynote UK marketing report (2008), respondents were asked if they had used any so-called ‘celebrity fragrances, as industry comment has been made on the popularity of such brands. Those who used fragrances endorsed by celebrities, who tended to be in the you ngest age group, were most likely to have chosen Britney Spearss fragrance; others of popularity included the Beckhambranded fragrances, and the Jennifer Lopez and Kylie Minogue fragrances The report also stated that the retail chain The Perfume Shop names Stunning by Katie Price (the glamour model formerly known as Jordan) as its most popular female fragrance of 2007, with Shh by Jade Goody in second position and Coleen by Coleen McLoughlin (the celebrity girlfriend of Manchester United football superstar Wayne Rooney) in fourth place. The Fragrance Shop, meanwhile, lists Coleen, Curious (Britney Spears) and Kate (Kate Moss) among its ten bestselling womens brands in 2007. 2.2 Consumer Decision making theories Acoording to Shao (2006), the decision literature can be classified into three broad categories: 1) normative 2) behavioural, and 3) naturalistic. In this section the differences between the three different approaches to studying consumer decision behaviour is identified. 2.2.1 Normative decision theory Normative Decision Theory originated in the economic discipline. According to Shao (2006), earliest researchers viewed decision-making as gambles and decision makers as â€Å"economic† men striving to maximise payoffs. The word ‘normative describes how decision makers should behave in order to obtain maximum payoffs. Examples of Normative Decision Theory include Expected Utility Theory adapted by Neumann Morgenstern (1947) and Subjective Expected Utility Theory adapted by Savage (1954) (Cited in Shao, 2006). An important addition of the Expected Utility Theory is the Subjective Expected Utility Theory proposed by Savage (1954). The main difference between the two is that the former uses objective probabilities, while the final uses subjective probabilities. By substituting subjective probabilities for objective probabilities, Subjective Expected Utility Theory proposes that the decision maker may be uncertain about whether the various outcomes (payoffs) will actually occur if the option is chosen (Beach, 1997). On the other hand according to Schoemaker (1982), Normative Decision Theory is actually a family of theories and at their core is a rational decision maker. The implied decision process is a single-stage process of consistent calculations of the options utilities. He also stated that consumer decision-making is a complex process. However, the normative assumptions are imposing an order on the complexity of decision-making (Beach, 1997). Over time, there has been growing discontent with the normative approach to studying consumer decision-making because the observed decision behaviour often violate the underlying assumptions of Normative Decision Theory. 2.2.2 Behavioural decision theory Behavioural Decision Theory emerged when decision researchers observed that decision makers seldom make explicit tradeoffs, let alone explicit use of probability and their preferences are constructed, not invariant (Bettman et al., 1998). The rational decision maker depicted by Normative Decision Theory was challenged by Simon (1955) who argued that decision makers have only bounded rationality and is seeking to satisfy. He also argued that Normative Decision Theory put â€Å"severe demands upon the choosing organism and those consumers do not necessarily search for all available alternatives, but choose the first feasible alternative that exceeds a given amount of payoffs. However he also proposed classic Satisfying strategy that was employed on decision makers in complex choice situations† (Cited in Shao, 2006) 2.2.3 Naturalistic decision theory Naturalistic Decision Theory originated from the discipline of organisational behaviour. According to Shao (2006), many researchers have developed various naturalistic decision models based on their observations of how decisions are made by individuals in natural environments. For example, a decision maker such as a fire ground commander will first recognize the fire situation, generate a few potential plans of actions, use cognitive imagination to assess the appropriateness of each plan to controlling the fire, and then act on the plan that he believes is the most appropriate (Cited in Orasanu Connolly, 2009). 2.3 The Buying Decision Process The consumer decision making process consists of mainly five steps according to most researchers within the field (Peter and Olson 2005, p.169). They also stated that the steps included in the model are; need or problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase and the post-purchase process. However, not all purchased require every step. Consumer can skip the evaluation of alternatives when considering low involvement products (Peter Olson 2005, p.168). According to Hawkins et al. (2001, pp.26-27) there are more aspects than only decision making process that affect consumer behavior which are external and internal influences. 2.3.1 Problem recognition The consumer decision making process generally begins when the consumer identifies a consumption problem that needs to be solved (Hoyer MacInnis, 2007, p. 195). Problem recognition is the perceived difference between an ideal and actual state. Ideal state is the way consumers would like a situation to be or the way they want to feel or be at the present time. An actual state is the way individuals perceive their feelings and situation to be at the present time (Hawkins et al., 2001, p.508). It can be said that consumer encounter the dissatisfaction or inconvenience situation and they would like to move to other preferable ones, problem is therefore recognized (Hawkins et al., 2001, p.508). 2.3.2 Information search Once the problem is recognized, relevant information from the past experience or long term memory is used to determine if a satisfactory solution is known, this is called internal search (Hawkins et al., 2001, p.528) and if the solution cannot be found in internal search then the external information relevant to the problem will be sought. Normally after problem recognition has been stimulated, the consumer will usually begin the decision process to solve the problem, typically from internal search because each consumer has store in memory a variety of information, feelings and past experiences that can be recalled when making a decision (Hoyer MacInnis, 2007, p.195). However, the stored memory can be decayed overtime, then they will be uncertain about their recalled information they will be engaged in external search, acquiring information from outside sources. According to Hoyer and MacInnis (2007, p.205), consumers can acquire information from five major categories of external so urces such as from retailers, media, other people and independent sources, and by experiencing the product. After searching for appropriate evaluation criteria, the consumers would probable seek appropriate alternatives-in this case brands, or possibly stores. They also identified that brands are affected in internal search and external search. In the internal search, consumers recall the sets of brands from their memory wherever the problem recognition occurred. Normally two to eight brands are tended to recall at a time and if they cannot recall brands from memory, the set of external factors such as availability on the shelf or suggestion from salesperson will then affected consumers purchasing. Additionally, well-known brands are more easily recalled during internal search than unfamiliar brands because the memory links associated with these brands tend to be stronger (Hoyer MacInnis, 2007, pp. 203-204). 2.3.3 Evaluation of alternatives The next step in the process is an evaluation of the alternatives which consumer compares the available options and information that has been gather through the searching process (McCall et. al., 2002) and seem most likely to solve the problem. There are two methods that consumers use when evaluating alternatives, which are attribute-based choice, this choice requires the knowledge of the consumers to compare the attribute of each available alternative and tends to exploit more effort and time, thus to be rational in the evaluation. And the other method applied is attitude-based choice, this method occur when consumers use their emotion, such as attitude and impression, in their evaluation (Hawkins et al., 2001, pp.560-562). 2.3.4 Purchase decision Consumers evaluate the stores image such as merchandise, service, physical facilities, convenience, promotion, store atmosphere, institution and post-transaction factors and make a selection to purchase at that specific outlet. On the other aspect, amount of the purchase, it is common that the consumers enter to one outlet with an intention to buy a particular brand but leave the store with a different brand or additional items. This shows the influences operating in the store effect consumers purchasing decision (Hawkins et al., 2001, pp.609-618). 2.3.5 Post purchase behavior After purchase, the customers evaluate their level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the product. Buyer satisfaction is determined by how close the products performance came to meet the buyers product expectations (Hoyer MacInnis, 2007). They also stated that consumers can experience dissonance (anxiety over whether the correct decision was made) or regret after a purchase (pp.272-273). One way of reducing dissonance is to search for additional information from sources such as experts and magazines. With searching for information to support and make the chosen alternative more attractive and the reject ones less attractive, thereby reducing dissonance (Hoyer MacInnis, 2007, p.272). Additionally, information that supports the consumers choice acts to bolster confidence in the correctness of the purchase decision (Hawkins et al., 2001, p.628). 2.4 Consumer Learning Process Learning is a progression by which consumers systematize their knowledge and it evolved over time. Consumers attitude and their future purchasing activities can be influenced by the learning process constantly. For gathering information from the stimuli in their environment consumers use their perceptual processes. According to Ganassali et.al (2009), consumer behaviour is approached by researchers adopting a variety of interpretative models and with a wide array of multidisciplinary frames, from economy to sociology, psychology and anthropology. According to East (1997), a shared perspective the different approaches to the understanding of consumer purchase decisions can be grouped. 2.4.1 Cognitive approach According to Ganassali et.al, (2009), this one is deeply rooted in the economic science and assumes a sensible behaviour of the decision maker, based on the price of the goods and on its attitude to respond to functional needs. The critical variable under this approach is the availability of sufficient information about purchase alternatives (price, product functionalities) to support the decisional process. So, from this approach, a main block of determinants concerning product characteristics drives the buying process. 2.4.2 External conditioning approach According to Foxall, 1990 cited in Ganassali et.al, (2009), this approach, the purchase decision is a response to external stimuli .The significant variable under this approach is which kind of external stimuli can influence purchase decision. From this second approach, a group of external determinants can influence the buying process, for example parents opinions or ads exposure. 2.4.3 Experience social interaction approach According to this approach, the present consumer decision aims at the construction of personal identity (Ganassali et.al, 2009). Following this idea, two main streams have been developed. One focuses on individual consumption decisions based on â€Å"emotional† explanation of consumer behaviour (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982). Ganassali et.al, (2009) also stated that the other stream concentrates on consumption as a means of social interaction, building on the pioneer sociological contribution of Veblen (1899 cited in Ganassali et.al, 2009). From both streams, the idea is that each prospective consumer has an individual internal value schema (based on internal emotions and external social interaction) that manipulates what he/she buys. 2.5 Teenage Learning Process for Shopping According to Solomon et al. (2004), teenagers are group of consumers that has a variety of needs. Such as, need for belonging, independence, approval, and responsibility, as well as having the need for experimentation. He also states that teenagers are increasingly given the task of buying products for the family. Since they not only have more spare time but also enjoy shopping more than their parents do. Therefore, marketers are targeting their ads primarily at teenagers. In order to gain teenagers attention more effectively, advertising campaigns must be honest, have clear messages, and humorous. Moreover, teenagers tend to be fickle and are likely to switch brand preference quicker than any other age group, as they have a high need to be received by their friends (Blackwell et al. 2001). According to Moschis and Moore (2001), as people grow up from childhood to adulthood, they obtain the skills, knowledge and attitude relevant to form purchase behaviour. The conceptual model of consumer socialisation presented in figure 2.5 demonstrates this. It claims that an individual learns from a socialisation agent through interaction and that changes his or her cognitive organisation with age. The socialisation agent (Churchill and Moschis, 1979), can be a family member, peers, teachers, the media, and media personalities like athletes, movies stars, and rock stars (Mowen and Minor, 1998). They can exert strong influences on the individual due to frequent interactions, superiority or control over rewards and punishments. The individual is influenced by the agent during the process of learning. However, this depends on the individuals cognitive development or life stage and structural variables, like status, sex, age, social class and religious background. Additionally, the ind ividual will develop cognitions and behaviour, learning properties, which will form his or her consumer behaviour (Moschis and Moore, 2001). In Moschis and Moore study on teenagers decision-making (2001), it was found that for low involvement products young people depend largely on the mass media for information. The results of the study imply that socialisation agents may affect the consumers decision-making cognitions. The study also found that low-involvement products are bought with peers rather than parents (Moschis and Moore, 2001). Furthermore, teenagers are more likely to stand on their evaluation on the brand name and the sale price in their buying decisions. Males are more motivated by social consumption and characterised by materialistic attitudes than females. This may be because status, power and respect are important among the peers (Churchill and Moschis, 1979). 2.6 Influencing Factors of Purchase Decision 2.6.1 Advertisement Advertising informs consumers about the existence and benefits of products and services, and tries to persuade consumers to buy them (MacKenzie, 2004). Moreover, Kotler et al. (2005), claim that advertising aims at attaining target consumers to either think or respond to the product or brand. As a method of achieving advertisement goals, advertisements as well as their contents play an essential role in the process of commercial Teenage Purchasing Decisions for Cosmetics Teenage Purchasing Decisions for Cosmetics Chapter 1: Introduction This introductory chapter is divided into five subsections. Firstly, a brief background of the research will be presented. Thereafter, the problem discussion will be provided, which in turn will lead to the purpose and objectives of the research. Finally, the delimitations and summary of the dissertation will be set. 1.1 Research Background According to Kotler (2008), consumer behavior is the study of how people buy, what they buy, when they buy and why they buy. It is a subcategory of marketing that blends elements from psychology, sociology, socio psychology, anthropology and economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision-making process, both individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics, psychographics, and behavioral variables in an attempt to understand people needs. He also stated that it also tries to assess influences on the consumer from group such as family friends, reference groups, and society in general for example while consumers purchase the shoe, then they go for family decision, comfort, satisfaction, price and quality (Kotler, 2008). According to Baker (2002), consumers are not aware of the products and usage but constantly they are choosing among the various products. They are intentionally procuring the various new brands without any knowledge about the new products. Additionally if new company enters into the market, for every consumer it is very complicated to understand the features of the news products and this makes confusion among the consumers to obtain the information. For example: If one local company enters into the market then to increase the knowledge about the features of the new product, it will take long time for the consumers to recognise. Baker (2004) stated that the consumer will respond according to the product quality and reliability, the fundamental understanding of products is necessary to understand the product features, products reliability and product benefits. The consumer is the end user for the product; consumers buy the products in market; in order to execute flourishing sales operations in the market an efficient distribution channel and networks are required for the organisations. He also stated that advertisement, distribution channels and networks play an important role in the consumer goods industry. Manufacturing companies, retailer and suppliers do not have an idea about the consumer behaviour in the local market. Thomas (2004) suggested that direct marketing activities should be left to the local market leaders, because the local market leaders have best idea of local market and local consumer behaviour. In the current literature, there are two major approaches to studying consumer decision-making involving screening and choice. One approach is to extend the single-stage choice models by adding an explicit choice set from which the final choice is made (Swait Adamowicz, 2001). Another approach studies the process of screening prior to choice (Teder, 2000). Understanding consumer decision-making is important. From a practical perspective, marketing managers are increasingly concerned that their products/brands may not be considered or chosen over those of their competitors. From a research perspective, a more representative model of the staged decision process may significantly improve our ability to predict consumer choices (Roberts Lattin, 1991). Recently, the growth of cosmetic industry in the global beauty market represents a slight slowdown due to a weakened economic state in the most developed markets and declining penetration of emerging markets. However, among the gloomy picture of the worlds cosmetic industry, the Asian market emerges as the brightest star as according to the Euromonitors report (2009), the Asia Pacific markets value is up to more than US$70 billion which is the second highest after the Western European market. Among the European markets, UK is the fastest growing market with the compound growth rate of fourteen percent over the period of 2000 to 2005. The economic growth of more than seven percent a year since 1990 could be the reason why the UKs cosmetic market has attracted a lot of the worlds cosmetic leaders like Unilever, LOreal, Johnson Johnson and PG. These cosmetic companies activities in UK help creating an exciting and competitive cosmetic market (Euromonitor, 2009). Consumers unique shopping patterns are developed and affected by socialization agents, which include family, peers, and the media. According to Lachance et. al (2003), these socialisation agents may often impact whether or not the adolescents will buy certain products or brands.. However Miller et.al (2003) claims that celebrity endorsements do not influence consumers purchasing behaviour. In contrast Boyd and Shank (2004) maintain that consumers, particularly teenagers, are likely to select products or brands that are endorsed by celebrities. Moreover, peers are likely to exert normative and informative influence. Lachance et. al, 2003 identified that they may influence the teenagers brand and product choices. Additionally, an individual is likely to conform to a group if he or she shares beliefs and norms with the group (Arnould et.al, 2004). Also, a group is likely to effectively exert influence on an individual if the individual is highly committed to the group (Hawkins et al, 2004). 1.2 Reason Behind Choose the Topic The main reason behind chosen this topic is previous studies have not precisely conducted a focused investigation into the influence of peers and celebrities on fifteen to eighteen year-old females purchasing behaviour in cosmetic products. Most researches on peer influence were conducted on general consumers with general products (Elliott and Leonard, 2004). Moreover, As for researcher, she always felt that â€Å"Consumer Buying Behaviour† is one of the most interesting subjects for her and as a female she thought to do a dissertation on the influence of celebrities endorsement on female teenagers would suitable for her to work on. Researcher did previous semester in LSC and she took a course on Research and Methodology (RM) which helped her to know the format of the research paper. Moreover her supervisor Dr.Fahads motivation and encouragement had helped researcher to select this topic. Researcher have studied out many articles of Consumer Buying Behaviour and annual reports of different cosmetic company and tried to sort out a topic, which is going to be suitable for her dissertation according to supervisors suggestion. This dissertation will help cosmetics firms and retail stores develop a precise marketing strategy to appeal to teenage consumers and to understand their purchasing behaviour. 1.3 Research Problem According to the website of BHB (2009), beauty and cosmetics are not innovations of the 20th century. It is known from reports of old Egypt and the Roman Empire that people have ever since attached importance to a cultivated appearance. Numerous up to date studies prove that today more than 60 per cent of women really care much about beauty, cosmetics, skin and body care. Even men show an increasing interest and demand in products such as skin care cosmetics, creams or anti aging lotions. To place and keep a cosmetic product successfully in the market, it is vital for companies active in manufacturing and selling cosmetics to have extensive scientific pharmaceutical and market research done. It is crucial for manufacturers of natural cosmetics or make up to know about consumer behaviour, trends and demands in the sector. Consumers might decide for a product because of its characteristics, its care factor, its sensitivity or its branding and attractive packaging. Cosmetics companies use the desires, senses and images consumers have or want to experience. More and more often, companies let celebrities and super models act as testimonials for fragrances, organic cosmetics or anti aging make up cosmetics. Colourful and exciting advertisements on TV, the internet or in print media tremendously influence consumer purchasing behaviour and desires. Packaging and the design of, for example, perfume bottles, let a cosmetics product appear even more desirable and trendy. This di ssertation will focus on beauty products in order to help cosmetics industry and retail stores develop a precise marketing strategy to appeal to female teenagers and to understand their purchasing behaviour. Previous studies have not precisely conducted a focused investigation into the influence of peers and endorsers on fifteen to eighteen year-old males purchasing behaviour in cosmetic products. Most researches on peer influence were conducted on general consumers with general products (Cited in Escalas and Bettman, 2003). However, some research has investigated this influence among children (Piacentini and Mailer, 2004). According to Klein (2001), teenagers are mostly influenced by friends and may not necessarily be influenced by celebrities. Additionally, no research has been conducted on symbolic consumption in relation to beauty products among the above-mentioned age groups. The researches were conducted on general consumers with general products (Piacentini and Mailer, 2004). 1.4 Research Aim and Objectives The purpose of this study is to investigate internal and external influences on teenagers purchasing decisions on cosmetic products in London. This research also investigates that how celebrities influence the brand choice of teenagers buying behaviour towards cosmetics in London market. The key objectives of this study are outlined as follows: To investigate how consumer buying behaviour factors influence female teenagers when purchasing cosmetic products. To explore the role of peers and celebrities and their influence on female teenagers purchasing decisions of cosmetic product. To analyse how celebrities influence the brand choice of youth females buying behaviour towards cosmetic products in London market. To give recommendation and conclusion. 1.5 Research Limitations The delimitations of a research study indicate its parameters; that is what the study will include and not include (Creswell, 2003). The scope of the study was limited to female consumers aged fifteen to eighteen living in the UK, specifically London city. This was due to time and budget constraints. In addition, the study only examines beauty products as opposed to general products. Further, the focus of the research was on symbolic consumption, peer groups and aspiration groups including beauty products endorsements rather than all internal and external influences. 1.6 Structure of the Dissertation Chapter 1: In this chapter mainly it talks about introduction of this dissertation, which also includes brief introduction of the topic, research background, rationale behind choose the topic, problem statement, aim and objectives and limitations of this research. Chapter 2: The second chapter is the literature review of this dissertation concerned about, the works of various authors and scholars who have highlighted and discussed about the theories of consumer behaviour and celebrities endorsement from different dimension. Chapter 3: This chapter will analyse the overall market overview of cosmetics products in UK Chapter 4: This third chapter will discuss the research method used in this research paper. Research method allows the researcher to plan and design the whole research in a proper way and shows the right direction to achieve an outcome. So the chapter explains the reasons behind the use of selected research method and the advantages by using the specified research approach. Chapter 5: This chapter discusses and analyses the market information and survey for the sake of the research. It also shows the data those have been gathered through interviews of customers, sales representative, and analyse the data to provide a fruitful meaning of the research finding. Chapter 6: This chapter has been discussed the research recommendations, limitations, further research on this topic and also describe how managers can get benefit or managerial implications of this paper. Chapter 2: Literature Review This chapter is the theoretical foundations that underpin this research study. In this chapter the theoretical framework relevant to dissertation purpose and questions will be presented. The chapter starts with a presentation of the brief discussion on consumer buying behavior, followed by purchase decision process and teenagers learning process and thereafter theories regarding factors influencing the purchase decision will be discussed. The following chapter presents the theoretical foundation of this research. The framework of the literature review is outlined. 2.1 Consumer behavior Consumer behavior is the study of consumers as they exchange something of value for a product or service that satisfies their needs (Well Prensky, 2003, p.5). The study of consumer behavior focuses on how individuals make decisions to spend their available resources (time, money, effort) on consumption related items (Schiffman Kanuk, 2004, p.5). In short, the company should study and create the marketing campaign for their target group. But in the product life cycle, due to the consumer behavior the image, target audience or function of this product can be in change. This group of consumers have a diversity of needs, such as a need for belonging, independence, approval, and responsibility, as well as having the need for experimentation (Solomon et al. 2004). Teenagers are increasingly given the task of buying products for the family. They not only have more spare time but also enjoy shopping more than their parents do. For this reason, marketers are targeting their ads mainly at te enagers. To gain teenagers attention more effectively, advertising campaigns must be honest, have clear messages, and used with humour. Moreover, teenagers tend to be inconsistent and are likely to switch brand preference quicker than any other age group, as they have a high need to be accepted by their friends (Blackwell et al. 2001). Finally, teenagers are â€Å"easier targets, because they have grown up in a culture of pure consumerism. Because of this, they are way more tuned into media because there is so much more media to be tuned into† (Bush et al. 2004, p. 109). Teenagers enjoy advertisements; a McCann survey shows that 75% of a sample of mixed 15-25 year olds felt that advertising was entertaining and 68% said that they found it a useful source of ideas about what to buy (Piper, 1998). When youths needs and desires are understood, marketers can show young consumers how products improve their lives. Harris Interactive, a Rochester, New York-based market research firm, estimates that teens spend on average $94.7 billion yearly ($3,309 per capita), while young adults between ages 20 and 21 spend $61.3 billion yearly ($7,389 per capita) (Schadelbauer, 2006). He also stated that interestingly, 69% of the U.S. youth respondents of one survey said that their parents pay their bills and they have little or no idea of who provides their telecommunications services or how much they cost. In the databases mentioned above, there are studies about ethical aspects of marketing to youth, whether regarding clothing, soft-drinks, cosmetics, technology, movi es, records, food, and tapes exchange. Some companies use â€Å"cool† appeal in their advertisements. The young people distinguish themselves among social classes to the detriment of their â€Å"natural† behavior by purchasing â€Å"cool† products. Misleading advertisements change the behavior of young people and can affect them when they grow up. In the 1980s, Nike and Calvin Klein brands began to focus on brand capital rather than on products themselves. Now, the brand names become the objective of the purchase in itself (Bergadaa, 2007). In particular, cigarette and alcohol producers are criticized by those who say that they are marketing to immature consumers (Schadelbauer, 2006). According to the Keynote UK marketing report (2008), respondents were asked if they had used any so-called ‘celebrity fragrances, as industry comment has been made on the popularity of such brands. Those who used fragrances endorsed by celebrities, who tended to be in the you ngest age group, were most likely to have chosen Britney Spearss fragrance; others of popularity included the Beckhambranded fragrances, and the Jennifer Lopez and Kylie Minogue fragrances The report also stated that the retail chain The Perfume Shop names Stunning by Katie Price (the glamour model formerly known as Jordan) as its most popular female fragrance of 2007, with Shh by Jade Goody in second position and Coleen by Coleen McLoughlin (the celebrity girlfriend of Manchester United football superstar Wayne Rooney) in fourth place. The Fragrance Shop, meanwhile, lists Coleen, Curious (Britney Spears) and Kate (Kate Moss) among its ten bestselling womens brands in 2007. 2.2 Consumer Decision making theories Acoording to Shao (2006), the decision literature can be classified into three broad categories: 1) normative 2) behavioural, and 3) naturalistic. In this section the differences between the three different approaches to studying consumer decision behaviour is identified. 2.2.1 Normative decision theory Normative Decision Theory originated in the economic discipline. According to Shao (2006), earliest researchers viewed decision-making as gambles and decision makers as â€Å"economic† men striving to maximise payoffs. The word ‘normative describes how decision makers should behave in order to obtain maximum payoffs. Examples of Normative Decision Theory include Expected Utility Theory adapted by Neumann Morgenstern (1947) and Subjective Expected Utility Theory adapted by Savage (1954) (Cited in Shao, 2006). An important addition of the Expected Utility Theory is the Subjective Expected Utility Theory proposed by Savage (1954). The main difference between the two is that the former uses objective probabilities, while the final uses subjective probabilities. By substituting subjective probabilities for objective probabilities, Subjective Expected Utility Theory proposes that the decision maker may be uncertain about whether the various outcomes (payoffs) will actually occur if the option is chosen (Beach, 1997). On the other hand according to Schoemaker (1982), Normative Decision Theory is actually a family of theories and at their core is a rational decision maker. The implied decision process is a single-stage process of consistent calculations of the options utilities. He also stated that consumer decision-making is a complex process. However, the normative assumptions are imposing an order on the complexity of decision-making (Beach, 1997). Over time, there has been growing discontent with the normative approach to studying consumer decision-making because the observed decision behaviour often violate the underlying assumptions of Normative Decision Theory. 2.2.2 Behavioural decision theory Behavioural Decision Theory emerged when decision researchers observed that decision makers seldom make explicit tradeoffs, let alone explicit use of probability and their preferences are constructed, not invariant (Bettman et al., 1998). The rational decision maker depicted by Normative Decision Theory was challenged by Simon (1955) who argued that decision makers have only bounded rationality and is seeking to satisfy. He also argued that Normative Decision Theory put â€Å"severe demands upon the choosing organism and those consumers do not necessarily search for all available alternatives, but choose the first feasible alternative that exceeds a given amount of payoffs. However he also proposed classic Satisfying strategy that was employed on decision makers in complex choice situations† (Cited in Shao, 2006) 2.2.3 Naturalistic decision theory Naturalistic Decision Theory originated from the discipline of organisational behaviour. According to Shao (2006), many researchers have developed various naturalistic decision models based on their observations of how decisions are made by individuals in natural environments. For example, a decision maker such as a fire ground commander will first recognize the fire situation, generate a few potential plans of actions, use cognitive imagination to assess the appropriateness of each plan to controlling the fire, and then act on the plan that he believes is the most appropriate (Cited in Orasanu Connolly, 2009). 2.3 The Buying Decision Process The consumer decision making process consists of mainly five steps according to most researchers within the field (Peter and Olson 2005, p.169). They also stated that the steps included in the model are; need or problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase and the post-purchase process. However, not all purchased require every step. Consumer can skip the evaluation of alternatives when considering low involvement products (Peter Olson 2005, p.168). According to Hawkins et al. (2001, pp.26-27) there are more aspects than only decision making process that affect consumer behavior which are external and internal influences. 2.3.1 Problem recognition The consumer decision making process generally begins when the consumer identifies a consumption problem that needs to be solved (Hoyer MacInnis, 2007, p. 195). Problem recognition is the perceived difference between an ideal and actual state. Ideal state is the way consumers would like a situation to be or the way they want to feel or be at the present time. An actual state is the way individuals perceive their feelings and situation to be at the present time (Hawkins et al., 2001, p.508). It can be said that consumer encounter the dissatisfaction or inconvenience situation and they would like to move to other preferable ones, problem is therefore recognized (Hawkins et al., 2001, p.508). 2.3.2 Information search Once the problem is recognized, relevant information from the past experience or long term memory is used to determine if a satisfactory solution is known, this is called internal search (Hawkins et al., 2001, p.528) and if the solution cannot be found in internal search then the external information relevant to the problem will be sought. Normally after problem recognition has been stimulated, the consumer will usually begin the decision process to solve the problem, typically from internal search because each consumer has store in memory a variety of information, feelings and past experiences that can be recalled when making a decision (Hoyer MacInnis, 2007, p.195). However, the stored memory can be decayed overtime, then they will be uncertain about their recalled information they will be engaged in external search, acquiring information from outside sources. According to Hoyer and MacInnis (2007, p.205), consumers can acquire information from five major categories of external so urces such as from retailers, media, other people and independent sources, and by experiencing the product. After searching for appropriate evaluation criteria, the consumers would probable seek appropriate alternatives-in this case brands, or possibly stores. They also identified that brands are affected in internal search and external search. In the internal search, consumers recall the sets of brands from their memory wherever the problem recognition occurred. Normally two to eight brands are tended to recall at a time and if they cannot recall brands from memory, the set of external factors such as availability on the shelf or suggestion from salesperson will then affected consumers purchasing. Additionally, well-known brands are more easily recalled during internal search than unfamiliar brands because the memory links associated with these brands tend to be stronger (Hoyer MacInnis, 2007, pp. 203-204). 2.3.3 Evaluation of alternatives The next step in the process is an evaluation of the alternatives which consumer compares the available options and information that has been gather through the searching process (McCall et. al., 2002) and seem most likely to solve the problem. There are two methods that consumers use when evaluating alternatives, which are attribute-based choice, this choice requires the knowledge of the consumers to compare the attribute of each available alternative and tends to exploit more effort and time, thus to be rational in the evaluation. And the other method applied is attitude-based choice, this method occur when consumers use their emotion, such as attitude and impression, in their evaluation (Hawkins et al., 2001, pp.560-562). 2.3.4 Purchase decision Consumers evaluate the stores image such as merchandise, service, physical facilities, convenience, promotion, store atmosphere, institution and post-transaction factors and make a selection to purchase at that specific outlet. On the other aspect, amount of the purchase, it is common that the consumers enter to one outlet with an intention to buy a particular brand but leave the store with a different brand or additional items. This shows the influences operating in the store effect consumers purchasing decision (Hawkins et al., 2001, pp.609-618). 2.3.5 Post purchase behavior After purchase, the customers evaluate their level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the product. Buyer satisfaction is determined by how close the products performance came to meet the buyers product expectations (Hoyer MacInnis, 2007). They also stated that consumers can experience dissonance (anxiety over whether the correct decision was made) or regret after a purchase (pp.272-273). One way of reducing dissonance is to search for additional information from sources such as experts and magazines. With searching for information to support and make the chosen alternative more attractive and the reject ones less attractive, thereby reducing dissonance (Hoyer MacInnis, 2007, p.272). Additionally, information that supports the consumers choice acts to bolster confidence in the correctness of the purchase decision (Hawkins et al., 2001, p.628). 2.4 Consumer Learning Process Learning is a progression by which consumers systematize their knowledge and it evolved over time. Consumers attitude and their future purchasing activities can be influenced by the learning process constantly. For gathering information from the stimuli in their environment consumers use their perceptual processes. According to Ganassali et.al (2009), consumer behaviour is approached by researchers adopting a variety of interpretative models and with a wide array of multidisciplinary frames, from economy to sociology, psychology and anthropology. According to East (1997), a shared perspective the different approaches to the understanding of consumer purchase decisions can be grouped. 2.4.1 Cognitive approach According to Ganassali et.al, (2009), this one is deeply rooted in the economic science and assumes a sensible behaviour of the decision maker, based on the price of the goods and on its attitude to respond to functional needs. The critical variable under this approach is the availability of sufficient information about purchase alternatives (price, product functionalities) to support the decisional process. So, from this approach, a main block of determinants concerning product characteristics drives the buying process. 2.4.2 External conditioning approach According to Foxall, 1990 cited in Ganassali et.al, (2009), this approach, the purchase decision is a response to external stimuli .The significant variable under this approach is which kind of external stimuli can influence purchase decision. From this second approach, a group of external determinants can influence the buying process, for example parents opinions or ads exposure. 2.4.3 Experience social interaction approach According to this approach, the present consumer decision aims at the construction of personal identity (Ganassali et.al, 2009). Following this idea, two main streams have been developed. One focuses on individual consumption decisions based on â€Å"emotional† explanation of consumer behaviour (Holbrook and Hirschman, 1982). Ganassali et.al, (2009) also stated that the other stream concentrates on consumption as a means of social interaction, building on the pioneer sociological contribution of Veblen (1899 cited in Ganassali et.al, 2009). From both streams, the idea is that each prospective consumer has an individual internal value schema (based on internal emotions and external social interaction) that manipulates what he/she buys. 2.5 Teenage Learning Process for Shopping According to Solomon et al. (2004), teenagers are group of consumers that has a variety of needs. Such as, need for belonging, independence, approval, and responsibility, as well as having the need for experimentation. He also states that teenagers are increasingly given the task of buying products for the family. Since they not only have more spare time but also enjoy shopping more than their parents do. Therefore, marketers are targeting their ads primarily at teenagers. In order to gain teenagers attention more effectively, advertising campaigns must be honest, have clear messages, and humorous. Moreover, teenagers tend to be fickle and are likely to switch brand preference quicker than any other age group, as they have a high need to be received by their friends (Blackwell et al. 2001). According to Moschis and Moore (2001), as people grow up from childhood to adulthood, they obtain the skills, knowledge and attitude relevant to form purchase behaviour. The conceptual model of consumer socialisation presented in figure 2.5 demonstrates this. It claims that an individual learns from a socialisation agent through interaction and that changes his or her cognitive organisation with age. The socialisation agent (Churchill and Moschis, 1979), can be a family member, peers, teachers, the media, and media personalities like athletes, movies stars, and rock stars (Mowen and Minor, 1998). They can exert strong influences on the individual due to frequent interactions, superiority or control over rewards and punishments. The individual is influenced by the agent during the process of learning. However, this depends on the individuals cognitive development or life stage and structural variables, like status, sex, age, social class and religious background. Additionally, the ind ividual will develop cognitions and behaviour, learning properties, which will form his or her consumer behaviour (Moschis and Moore, 2001). In Moschis and Moore study on teenagers decision-making (2001), it was found that for low involvement products young people depend largely on the mass media for information. The results of the study imply that socialisation agents may affect the consumers decision-making cognitions. The study also found that low-involvement products are bought with peers rather than parents (Moschis and Moore, 2001). Furthermore, teenagers are more likely to stand on their evaluation on the brand name and the sale price in their buying decisions. Males are more motivated by social consumption and characterised by materialistic attitudes than females. This may be because status, power and respect are important among the peers (Churchill and Moschis, 1979). 2.6 Influencing Factors of Purchase Decision 2.6.1 Advertisement Advertising informs consumers about the existence and benefits of products and services, and tries to persuade consumers to buy them (MacKenzie, 2004). Moreover, Kotler et al. (2005), claim that advertising aims at attaining target consumers to either think or respond to the product or brand. As a method of achieving advertisement goals, advertisements as well as their contents play an essential role in the process of commercial

Poetry Essay: Dulce Et Decorum Est :: English Literature

Poetry Essay: Dulce Et Decorum Est Draft Copy The title of Wilfred Owen's famous World War I poem, 'Dulce Et Decorum Est', are the first words of a Latin saying which means, 'It is sweet and Right'. The full saying, which ends the poem, 'Dulce et decorum est // Pro patria mori', means it is sweet and right to die for one's country. This was the saying that was commonly understood and used widely in the propaganda at the beginning of the War. It made war out to be honourable and heroic. Owen shows in this poem, by depicting the horror and cruelty of the War, how far the common belief that war was proud and honourable, was from the truth. In the first stanza we are introduced to the setting of the poem as well as to a few of the horrors of the war. The men are leaving the battlefield and are moving to a place of rest when they are hit by gas filled artillery shells. It gives a description of how fatigued and weary the men were and how badly injured many of them were after spending time in the trenches of the front lines. The image of tiredness and sleep is introduced in the first stanza phrases such as 'Bent-double' (line 1), 'distant rest' (line 4) and 'Men marched asleep' (line 5). The men are so tired they turn their backs on the flares that are sent up to show the bombardiers where to shoot their shells. Another image that Owen uses that appears in the first stanza and is seen through out the poem is how there is a lack of co-ordination and sense. This can be seen by 'Knock-kneed' (line 3), 'limped', 'lame' and 'blind' (line 6) and 'drunk' and 'deaf' (line7). Owen shows how these men's senses had been numbed by the ghastly occurrences in the trenches and how these numbed senses cause the men to not realise they are under attack until it is almost too late. The second stanza describes the dramatic reaction the men have when they realise they have been attacked by gas. The ecstasy of fumbling - shows how desperate the men where to find the odd fitting gas masks, how a mask was the difference between a cruel death and life. Owen compares the unlucky man to someone who has fallen in a fire or pile of lime and is being engulfed by the pain. He is compared to a drowning man; he is drowning in the gas, in the pain of death. The gas is so thick that it takes on a liquid appearance. Poetry Essay: Dulce Et Decorum Est :: English Literature Poetry Essay: Dulce Et Decorum Est Draft Copy The title of Wilfred Owen's famous World War I poem, 'Dulce Et Decorum Est', are the first words of a Latin saying which means, 'It is sweet and Right'. The full saying, which ends the poem, 'Dulce et decorum est // Pro patria mori', means it is sweet and right to die for one's country. This was the saying that was commonly understood and used widely in the propaganda at the beginning of the War. It made war out to be honourable and heroic. Owen shows in this poem, by depicting the horror and cruelty of the War, how far the common belief that war was proud and honourable, was from the truth. In the first stanza we are introduced to the setting of the poem as well as to a few of the horrors of the war. The men are leaving the battlefield and are moving to a place of rest when they are hit by gas filled artillery shells. It gives a description of how fatigued and weary the men were and how badly injured many of them were after spending time in the trenches of the front lines. The image of tiredness and sleep is introduced in the first stanza phrases such as 'Bent-double' (line 1), 'distant rest' (line 4) and 'Men marched asleep' (line 5). The men are so tired they turn their backs on the flares that are sent up to show the bombardiers where to shoot their shells. Another image that Owen uses that appears in the first stanza and is seen through out the poem is how there is a lack of co-ordination and sense. This can be seen by 'Knock-kneed' (line 3), 'limped', 'lame' and 'blind' (line 6) and 'drunk' and 'deaf' (line7). Owen shows how these men's senses had been numbed by the ghastly occurrences in the trenches and how these numbed senses cause the men to not realise they are under attack until it is almost too late. The second stanza describes the dramatic reaction the men have when they realise they have been attacked by gas. The ecstasy of fumbling - shows how desperate the men where to find the odd fitting gas masks, how a mask was the difference between a cruel death and life. Owen compares the unlucky man to someone who has fallen in a fire or pile of lime and is being engulfed by the pain. He is compared to a drowning man; he is drowning in the gas, in the pain of death. The gas is so thick that it takes on a liquid appearance.

The Rape of Women in Draupadi, by Mahasweta Devi, and Open It,”by Saad

The Rape of Women in â€Å"Draupadi,† by Mahasweta Devi, and â€Å"Open It,† by Saadat Hasan Manto Where there is war, there is the rape and abuse of women. From the Trojan War to the Middle East conflict, rape has been a tactic of war. Rape is commonly viewed by society as a symbol of female degradation, female submission, and the stripping of honor and humanity. In the stories â€Å"Draupadi,† by Mahasweta Devi, and â€Å"Open It,† by Saadat Hasan Manto, the rape of women is a common theme. In Manto’s â€Å"Open It,† a young girl, Sakina, is raped by young men of her community, while in Devi’s â€Å"Draupadi,† a tribal rebel is raped by authorities of the state. While the storylines of these pieces are rather similar, the portrayal of the rape and the reactions of the young women are exceedingly different. Both authors use the disrobing of garments to create a dramatic climax. However, the respective climaxes convey contrasting ideas about the rape and degradation of women. In â€Å"Draupadi,† the unveiling of garments reveals im mense female power. In â€Å"Open It,† the disrobing of garments reveals helpless female submission. Despite these differences, however, both acts of disrobing result in a striking male reaction and symbolize the remarkable survival of these battered and abused women. The circumstances of the rape and the personalities of the rape victims are very different in â€Å"Open It† and â€Å"Draupadi.† In Manto’s story, a father is desperately looking for his daughter, Sakina, in the midst of the chaos and disorder of Partition. He asks self appointed social workers of the community to help him find Sakina. When Sakina is approached by these men, her initial reaction is one of fright: â€Å"The moment she heard the truck, she began to run† (Manto 360). ... ...r remarkable survival. Although society will always have preconceptions of rape and how a woman should and will react to being raped, it is apparent through â€Å"Draupadi† and â€Å"Open It† that being raped is a very personal experience. It is an experience unique to women that can yield very different reactions. Rape can make a woman, like it did Dopdi, or it can break a woman like it did Sakina. Because being raped is such a personal experience, a woman’s reaction to such a trauma should not and can not be judged. Whether a woman is strengthened or weakened through rape, it does not matter. What matters is that she survives. Works Cited Devi, Mahasweta. â€Å"Draupadi.† In Other Worlds. Ed. Chakravorty Spriak. New York and London: Routledge, 1987. Manto Hasan, Saadat. â€Å"Open It.† Stories about the Partition of India. Ed. Alok Bhalla. New Delhi: Harper Collins, 1999.

Teacher’s Paychecks Should Reflect their Importance Essay -- Argumenta

Teacher’s Paychecks Should Reflect their Importance The public education system in the United States is a very important institution for our nation's youth. In most states, children are required by law to attend public school, unless they are home-schooled, until the age of sixteen. At the age of sixteen, students are entitled, though certainly not encouraged, to leave the public school system if they wish. Public school teachers are asked to account for and educate all of these students, and teachers are professionals who are constantly in demand. In fact, the demand is so great that in several cities semi-qualified professionals who lack the proper credentials are being asked to teach. One possible explanation for this phenomenon is the poor salaries which teachers are being paid. Both national and state governments ought to consider a pay increase for public school teachers in order to ensure the best education possible for the youth of the United States. Physicians and attorneys both work in careers that financially reward professionals for their many years of study at colleges and universities. Anyone who has been involved in any sort of litigation can attest to the outrageous fees charged by attorneys, and hospitals are also institutions that charge handsomely for their services. It is true that physicians and attorneys are asked to spend many years studying in school, but teachers are paid very poorly in comparison to these professions. Subsequently, teachers are also asked to study for four and often at least five years at colleges and universities. Public school teachers are also asked to take exams in order to certify them in their professions. These exams are similar to bar exams and medical boards. What is eve... ...in level of education. Furthermore, there are several professions that require less education than teaching but supply a more generous salary and benefits package. At the same time, teachers are often asked to pay for re-certification costs out of their own shallow pockets because their employment packages do not offer the funds for this constant training. Teachers have four months without students, and this time is often viewed as "vacation time" by the general public; however, public school teachers have stringent schedules that often require them to surrender their summers. Public school teachers are important professionals in our communities, and it is time for their paychecks to reflect their importance. Politicians on both the state and national levels ought to consider designing more appropriate salary and benefit packages for their public school teachers.

Histogram

Aim: To study histogram, its processing and thresholding using histogram Theory: The histogram of an image with intensity levels in the range O to L-1, where L-1 is the last intensity value in an image(e. g. 255 in gray scale image) is a discrete function h(rk)=nk where rk is the kth intensity value and nk is the number of pixels in the image with intensity rk. It is common practice to normalize a histogram by dividing each of its components by the total number of pixels in the image, denoted by the product MN, where M and N are the row and column dimensions of the image. Thus normalized histogram is given by p(rk)=nk/M*N, for .P(rk) is nothing but probability of occurrence of intensity level rk in the image. The sum of all components of a normalized histogram is equal to 1 . Histogram processing: Global Processing: Histogram Equalization: Image enhancement techniques are used to improve an image, where â€Å"improve† is sometimes defined objectively (e. g. , increase the sign al-to-noise ratio), and sometimes subjectively (e. g. , make certain features easier to see by modifying the colors or intensities). Intensity adjustment is an image enhancement technique hat maps an image's intensity values to a new range.You can adjust the intensity values in an image using the imadJust function, where you specify the range of intensity values in the output image. this code increases the contrast in a low- contrast grayscale image by remapping the data values to fill the entire intensity range [0255 in case of grayscale image]. The process of adjusting intensity values can be done automatically by the histeq function. histeq performs histogram equalization, which involves transforming the intensity values so that the histogram of the output image approximately matches a specified histogram.By default, histeq tries to match a flat histogram with 64 bins, but you can specify a different histogram instead. In, general if r is original variable and s is transformed va riable, Let pr(r) and PS(s) denote PDFS of r and s and subscripts on p indictes that pr and ps are different functions in general. A fundamental result from basic probability theory is that if pr(r) and T(r) is known and T(r) is continuous and differential over the range of values of interest, then the PDF of the transformed variable s can be obtained using the simple formula Ps(s)=pr(r)mod(dr/ds).Local Processing: There are cases in which it is necessary to enhance details over small areas in an image. The solution is to devise transformation functions based on the intensity distributions in a neighborhood of every pixel in the image. The procedure is to define a neighborhood and move its center from pixel to pixel. At each location, the histogram of the points in the neighborhood is computed and either a histogram equalization or histogram specification transformation is obtained. This function is then used to map the intensity of the pixel centered in the neighborhood.The center ot the neighborh egion is procedure is repeated. Histogram Thresholding: then m to an ad Jacent pixel location and t Image segmentation can be done using histogram thresholding. It involves partitioning an image into regions that are similar according to a predefined criterion. Suppose that the gray-level histogram corresponds to an image, f(x,y), composed of dark objects in a light background, in such a way that object and background pixels have gray levels grouped into two dominant modes. One obvious way to extract the objects from the background is to select a threshold T that separates these modes.Then any point (x,y) for which ; T is called an object point, otherwise, the point is called a background point. If two dominant modes characterize the image histogram, it is called a bimodal histogram. Only one threshold is enough for partitioning the image. If an image is composed of two types of light objects on a dark background, three or more dominant modes characterize the image histogram. In such a case the histogram has to be partitioned by multiple thresholds. Multilevel thresholding classifies a point (x,y) as belonging to one object class and to the background if T and G2 consisting of pixels with values

Corporate Reputation Essay

The respondents also recognize the internet as the best avenue for making one’s corporate social responsibility known to the public. Ninety five percent of the respondents (95%) believe that the internet is the best avenue for making one’s corporate responsibility known whilst only five percent believe that there are other communication strategies that could be used in making one’s corporate social responsibility known. Although the respondents’ answer vary when asked why corporate social responsibility is important, they all believe in the fact that this is important for a certain organization, thus one hundred percent (100%) of the respondents believe that this should be inherent in most organizations. They also believe in the importance of public practices in order to make the public aware of corporate social responsibility, which could be essential to the success of their businesses. One hundred percent of the respondents also show that based on their experience, public relations played a very important role in changing the image of their company that significantly affects the profit they receive. Public relations, after all tremendously alter businesses. People tend to get impressed when an image of a certain company is positively shown which then significantly affects sale of products and or services. ? As seen in this study, corporate social responsibility is essential in increasing the profits of most corporations. The concept of corporate reputation has been extensively investigated in the fields of economics (Shapiro, 1983; Wilson, 1985; Kreps & Wilson, 1982; Milgrom & Roberts, 1982, 1986) and corporate strategy (Weigelt & Carnerer, 1988; Fombrum, & Shanley, 1990; Shamsie, 2003). Herbig and Milewicz (1995, p. 18) have defined reputation as â€Å"an estimation of the consistency over time of an attribute of an entity†, and emphasize the fact that an organization can have several reputations, one for each attribute such as price, product quality, innovativeness, management quality – or a global reputation. The development of reputation research is based on the vision of imperfect information in which actors depend on proxies and signals to make logical assumptions about the intentions and future behaviors of other actors (Fombrum & Shanley, 1990). Thus, reputation models presume a strong coupling between past actions and future expectations, and organizational attributes and the assessment of firms (Weigelt & Camerer, 1988). The importance of corporate reputation in the management field is dependent on the fact that corporate audiences routinely rely on the reputations of organizations in making investment decisions, career decisions and product choices (Dowling, 1986). In addition, reputational advantages that are borne out of informational asymmetries can provide firms with a valuable resource that they can use against their rivals for a relatively long period of time (Shamsie, 2003). The intangible nature of reputation, its rarity and social complexity, makes it hard to trade and copy; therefore, reputation can contribute significantly to performance differences among organizations (Barney, 1991; Peteraf, 1993). Corporate Trustworthiness The importance of the concept of trustworthiness is closely linked to the development of trust and trusting behavior literature. Trusting behavior suggests permitting oneself to be in a potentially vulnerable position relative to another, while possessing some knowledge of the other that inspires trust in his goodwill i. e. in his good intentions (Blomqvist, 1997). Thus, risk and some information about the potentially trusted person or situation are seen as necessary conditions for trust to exist (Lewis & Weiger, 1985; Oakes, 1990). This information about the potentially trusted person can be used to deduct the future behavior of the person. Along the same line, Good (1988) indicated that trust is based on expectations of how another person will behave, based on that person’s present and past implicit and explicit claims. In a similar position, Mayer, Davis & Schoorman (1995), in their comprehensive research, determined more than ten different individual and organizational traits that lead to trust, resuming these concepts into three constructs: ability, benevolence and integrity. In a similar setting, Blomqvist (1997) identified two main dimensions of trustworthiness, named competence and goodwill. Competence encompasses technical capabilities, skills and know-how, while goodwill suggests moral responsibility and positive intentions towards the others. Nonetheless, these organizational traits are hard to observe directly, making difficult the evaluations of corporate trustworthiness (Barney & Hansen, 1994). These concepts can be very essential to companies who would want to increase their profits. It is because of this that this study gives importance to public relations in making corporate social responsibility known to the general public. Public relations, after all tremendously alter businesses. People tend to get impressed when an image of a certain company is positively shown which then significantly affects sale of products and or services. Findings For majority of the companies who served as samples for this study, the issues related to CSR are of great importance. This is evident as most of the company websites examined have devoted a section dedicated to corporate social responsibility/corporate citizenship/sustainable development issues and that these sections are usually found in the most relevant levels of their websites, majority can be found in the home page. Obviously, the presence of this section shows the explicit recognition of the said issues. In the same manner, this serves as the companies’ recognition of the importance of corporate social responsibility on their corporate websites. They also place them between the second and third hierarchical levels which again reveal their importance. However, it is also obvious enough that these corporations have not maximized their use of communication strategies in making their social responsibility known. Recommendations For future researchers on the said topic, the author of this study recommends a case study focusing on the patrons of the aforementioned companies instead of the representatives of each organization. Through this, future research could give importance to the perception of the public on the said topic. It is also through this that one could prove that corporate social responsibility, displayed in the websites, truly provide a legitimating activity for the organization in the society. In the same manner, the public could also share their opinions and views on corporate responsibility, how important it is for them and how it affects their loyalty to a certain organization. The author of this study also recommends a case study of two different companies with different backgrounds on corporate social responsibility. In doing so, future researchers would look at how profits were affected because of publishing their CSR over the internet. It is also recommended that future researchers look into the disadvantages being faced by companies (if there are any) who do not publish their corporate social responsibility over the World Wide Web. For another research that shall look into public relations, it is recommended to look into the other communication strategies that companies use in making their consumers aware of their corporate social responsibility. Lastly, the author also recommends a study that would look into the best way of transmitting social responsibility messages to the public. A case study of such could help companies in making their businesses better. This could also help companies in devising strategies that would be beneficial to their businesses, ensuring that the money they reserve for public relations and corporate social responsibility shall be maximized and in the same way; that their programs would be advantageous to their businesses. References Becker, B. E. & Huselid, M. A. 1998. Human resources strategies, complementarities and firm performance. Paper presented to the Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA, July. Berle, A. Jr and Means, G. C. 1968. The Modern Corporation and Private Property, Macmillan, New York, NY. https://www.bsr.org/