Pekinese Dog Chinas Imperial Lion-Dog

The Pekingese dog, often affectionately called the Peke by western pet-owners, has a long and illustrious history in China. Nobody knows quite when the Chinese first began to breed the Pekingese, but they have been associated with the emperors of China since at least the 700s CE. According to an oft-repeated legend, long ago a lion fell in love with a marmoset. The disparity in their sizes made this an impossible love, so the heart-sore lion asked Ah Chu, the protector of animals, to shrink him down to the size of a marmoset so that the two animals could marry. Only his heart remained its original size. From this union, the Pekingese dog (or Fu Lin - Lion Dog) was born. This charming legend reflects the courage and fierce temperament of the little Pekingese dog. The fact that such a long ago, in the mists of time story exists about the breed also points to its antiquity. In fact, DNA studies reveal that Pekingese dogs are among the closest, genetically, to wolves. Although they do not physically resemble wolves, due to intense artificial selection by generations of human keepers, Pekingese are among the least changed breeds of dogs at the level of their DNA. This supports the idea that they are in fact a very ancient breed. Lion Dogs of the Han Court A more realistic theory on the origins of the Pekingese dog states that they were bred in the Chinese imperial court, perhaps as early as the Han Dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE) period. Stanley Coren advocates this early date in The Pawprints of History: Dogs and the Course of Human Events, and ties the development of the Peke to the introduction of Buddhism into China. Actual Asiatic lions once roamed parts of China, thousands of years ago, but they had been extinct for millennia by the time of the Han Dynasty. Lions are included in many Buddhist myths and stories  since they are present in India; Chinese listeners, however, had only highly stylized carvings of lions to guide them in picturing these beasts. In the end, the Chinese concept of a lion resembled a dog more than anything, and the Tibetan mastiff, the Lhasa Apso, and the Pekingese all were bred to resemble this re-imagined creature rather than authentic big cats. According to Coren, the Chinese emperors of the Han Dynasty wanted to replicate the Buddhas experience of taming a wild lion, which symbolized passion and aggression. Buddhas tame lion would follow at his heels like a faithful dog, according to the legend. In a somewhat circular story, then, the Han emperors bred a dog to make it look like a lion - a lion that acted like a dog. Coren reports, however, that the emperors had already created a small but fierce lap spaniel, the forerunner of the Pekingese, and that some courtier simply pointed out that the dogs looked like small lions. The perfect Lion Dog had a flattened face, large eyes, short and sometimes bowed legs, a relatively long body, a mane-like ruff of fur around the neck and a tufted tail. Despite its toy-like appearance, the Pekingese retains a rather wolf-like personality; these dogs were bred for their looks, and evidently, their imperial masters appreciated the Lion Dogs dominant behavior and made no effort to breed out that trait. The little dogs seem to have taken their honored position to heart, and many emperors delighted in their furry counterparts. Coren states that Emperor Lingdi of Han (ruled 168 - 189 CE) conferred a scholarly title on his favorite Lion Dog, making that dog a member of the nobility, and starting a centuries-long trend of honoring imperial dogs with noble rank. Tang Dynasty Imperial Dogs By the Tang Dynasty, this fascination with Lion Dogs was so great that Emperor Ming (c. 715 CE) even called his small white Lion Dog one of his wives - much to the irritation of his human courtiers. Certainly, by Tang Dynasty times (618 - 907 CE), the Pekingese dog was thoroughly aristocratic. Nobody outside of the imperial palace, then located in Changan (Xian) rather than Peking (Beijing), was allowed to own or breed the dog. If an ordinary person happened to cross paths with a Lion Dog, he or she had to bow, just as with human members of the court. During this era, the palace also began to breed tinier and tinier lion dogs. The smallest, perhaps only six pounds in weight, were called Sleeve Dogs, because their owners could carry the tiny creatures around concealed in the billowing sleeves of their silk robes. Dogs of the Yuan Dynasty When the Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty in China, he adopted a number of Chinese cultural practices. Evidently, the keeping of Lion Dogs was one of them. Artwork from the Yuan era portrays fairly realistic Lion Dogs in ink drawings and in figurines of bronze or clay. The Mongols were known for their love of horses, of course, but in order to rule China, the Yuan Emperors developed an appreciation for these tinier imperial creatures. Ethnic-Han Chinese rulers took the throne again in 1368 with the start of the Ming Dynasty. These changes did not diminish the Lion Dogs position at court, however. Indeed, Ming art also shows an appreciation for the imperial dogs, which could legitimately be called Pekingese after the Yongle Emperor permanently moved the capital to Peking (now Beijing). Pekingese Dogs During the Qing Era and After When the Manchu or Qing Dynasty overthrew the Ming in 1644, once more the Lion Dogs survived. Documentation on them is scarce for much of the era, until the time of the Empress Dowager Cixi (or Tzu Hsi). She was dotingly fond of Pekingese dogs, and during her rapprochement with westerners after the Boxer Rebellion, she gave Pekes as gifts to some European and American visitors. The empress herself had one particular favorite named Shadza, which means Fool. Under the Dowager Empresss rule, and perhaps long before, the Forbidden City had marble kennels lined with silk cushions for the Pekingese dogs to sleep in. The animals got the highest grade rice and meat for their meals  and had teams of eunuchs to look after and bathe them. When the Qing Dynasty fell in 1911, the emperors pampered dogs became targets of Chinese nationalist rage. Few survived the sacking of the Forbidden City. However, the breed lived on because of Cixis gifts to the westerners - as souvenirs of a vanished world, the Pekingese became a favorite lapdog and show-dog in both Great Britain and the United States in the early to mid-twentieth century. Today, you can occasionally spot a Pekingese dog in China. Of course, under Communist rule, they are no longer reserved for the imperial family - ordinary people are free to own them. The dogs themselves do not seem to realize that they have been demoted from imperial status, however. They still carry themselves with a pride and attitude that would be quite familiar, no doubt, to Emperor Lingdi of the Han Dynasty. Sources Cheang, Sarah. Women, Pets, and Imperialism: The British Pekingese Dog and Nostalgia for Old China, Journal of British Studies, Vol. 45, No. 2 (April 2006), pp. 359-387. Clutton-Brock, Juliet. A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Conway, D.J. Magickal, Mystical Creatures, Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn, 2001. Coren, Stanley. The Pawprints of History: Dogs and the Course of Human Events, New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003. Hale, Rachael. Dogs: 101 Adorable Breeds, New York: Andrews McMeel, 2008.

The Pros and Cons of School Choice Essay - 3533 Words

Benefits and Disadvantages of School Choice The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the benefits and drawbacks of school choice with respect to the impact on the students involved in the process. Over the years, school vouchers, school choice and charter schools have been grouped into one umbrella category known as school choice. The three types of school choice are very different yet very much the same and each topic will be discussed in depth and analyzed with examples and opinions from other authors. Overall, there have always been experts with both positive and negative remarks about the issues surrounding school choice. School Choice School choice is one subgroup under the umbrella heading School Choice;†¦show more content†¦Some arguments on the advantages of school choice were found on the website schoolchoiceinfo.org, which includes many stories about individual families who have benefited from school choice. The website also explains how in Cleveland, Florida and Milwaukee over 14,500 families have benefited from school choice programs. Making the parents more involved in the students’ education as well as feeling a higher level of satisfaction from the children’s education, the programs also provides less discrimination based on economic status, or racial background, as well as many other things. In Depth of School Choice One family story is found on the website, schoolchoiceinfo.org, in informational website about the benefits of school choice. The website describes how the Beauduy family of Florida benefited from being able to partake of the school choice program. Being able to chose to send one child to a magnet school out side the assigned school district, has shaped the family and made the entire family happier overall allowing the family to have saved enough money to live in a safer neighborhood. 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Motorcycles Are Dangerous Free Essays

English 101 3131 10 November 2012 Motorcycles Are Dangerous The road is filled with cars and motorcycles but what makes motorcycles seem dangerous, is it the motorcycle itself, is it the drivers who are driving side by side with motorcycles or is it the dare devils riding motorcycles? There is a saying for motorcycles, â€Å"Its not if one fall, its when one falls. † This is said because beginners are notorious for dropping their motorcycles. Motorcycles themselves are not dangerous. We will write a custom essay sample on Motorcycles Are Dangerous or any similar topic only for you Order Now It’s the non-experienced drivers and the drivers around them, that pose a threat to motorcycle riders all over the world. The thing with both motorcycles and cars, is if one were to take all the safety classes and course, they would then be less likely to come across accidents on the road. It’s also surprisingly important to know about the vehicle that you drive. Whether that be a car or a motorcycle, because if you know about the mechanics behind it, there is less of a chance that one would get into an accident caused by a mechanical error. Riders who peacock (the act of dressing in color, very noticeable) and wear proper gear are less likely to be in an accident or be hurt in one. Drinking and riding is a big no-no, on a motorcycle the rider need to have full control of the motorcycle and surroundings, drinking even the legal limit will impair a rider far more than in a car. The standard thought is motorcycles are dangerous, but the truth is they are as dangerous as drivers make them or can be even safer than cars if the driver takes the proper initiative and audited. A motorcycle is a tool of transportation, the way it is used determines whether it is dangerous or safe. If an inexperienced person gets on a motorcycle and expects to go on a ride, most likely that person will end up in an accident and in the hospital. It is important to learn to use the tool, what it can do and how knowing all the right steps to staying safe. Motorcycleminds. org recommends that every rider take the beginning rider education class and advanced education rider class to protect oneself and others on the road. These educational classes teach one everything from tire pressure to lane sharing properly. One of the acronyms taught in these classes that beginning to expert cyclist use every time they hop on a motorcycle is T-CLOCS and it stands for tires and wheels, controls, lights, oil, chassis, stands. T-CLOCS is a MSC (Motorcycle Safety Foundation) checklist to keep siders alert and safe. The full in depth checklist can be found on http://www. msf-usa. org/downloads/t-clocsinspectionchecklist. pdf . Without T-CLOCS riders might be going out on and unsafe motorcycle asking for an accident to happen. Knowing how a motorcycle works is just half the game, practice allows for one to perfect the technique of riding making safer and safer every day but still realizing that one always need to be in control but the same can be said for drivers of cars even pedestrians on bicycles. All a motorcycle is a tool and like any other tool it can be classified as dangerous only if miss used and abused. A nail gun can be very dangerous if used improperly but when used properly it can do a professional clean job without any accidents. Broken, worn out parts can be replaced, a human life can’t, safety is only as safe as the driver makes it motorcycles are not dangerous. Choosing proper riding gear will increase minimizing damage in an accident and will maximize how visible the rider is to others on the road. This is where Peacocking and safety should unite to minimize falling in blind spots of other drivers. Covering oneself in riding gear may not seem very stylish but it beats being cheese in a cheese grinder. When driving a car the people in it use seat belts and like to have airbags with outstanding crash ratings. To provide the same level of protection as a car, motorcycle riders should consider wearing proper DOT (Department Of Transportation) approved gear to ensure crash test ratings. When it comes to gear and its expenses it is important to think that the gear is the only thing between the rider and asphalt in an accident. Starting out from ground up with gear, proper boots that have ankle support and have close toes is very important. Having proper boots will prevent skin burns and many accidental rolled ankles. Depending on the kind of riding being done leg and knee pads can be bought but thick jeans or protective riding pants suffice in most cases. Hands that are not protected in an accident can be badly damaged but it is easy to prevent this by having sturdy gloves deigned for the type of riding going on. Jackets can be safe, flashy and fashionable, why not have all three working together? Most motorcycles jackets do, they will provide protective padding, materials that are comfortable but can handle road rash so that skin doesn’t, and while being fashionable usually they make riders more visible to others. As Basem Wasef Writer of Motorcycle Gear 101 on about. com said,â€Å"An old saying goes something like this: If you’ve got a $20 head, buy yourself a $20 helmet. † DOT approved helmets that provide three quarters to full face helmets are crucial in providing proper protections. Having all the appropriate riding gear makes falls that will happen, be less harsh and cuts the dangers of riding by a great deal. People wearing gear properly will be safe like a driver driving in a car with good crash ratings. Accidents happen in cars and motorcycles, being ready for them take many of the danger out of riding motorcycles. The most dangerous thing on a motorcycle is a fatal crash. Most people don’t realize is that a majority of fatal motorcycle accidents are caused by the misuse of motorcycle or riding under the influence. â€Å"One out of three motorcycle accidents involves a rider who is driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Thirty-five percent of fatal motorcycle accidents involve a speeding motorcycle rider. † Keller and Keller law firm. Sixty-eight percent that leaves about thirty-two percent for other fatalities to be cause by things cars, trucks and motorcycles fault accidents. Following the law will prevent most motorcycle accidents. All vehicles on the road can be dangerous, if misused, not just motorcycles. Falling on a motorcycle happens but riders keep their head held high just like a teen that crashes their first car. Remembering T-CLOCS can save a riders life and the life of the surrounding people. Dressing to what, a peacock-cock-cock peacock allows on to standout and stay safe on the road. Motorcycles are not dangerous vehicles used properly, skateboards and BMX bikes can be more dangerous. As a avid motorcycle rider of four years I strongly urge anyone interested in riding in MSF (Motorcycle Safety Foundation). Keep the roads safe for future generations. Works Cited http://www. msf-usa. org/downloads/t-clocsinspectionchecklist. pdf http://dsc. discovery. com/cars-bikes/top-10-ways-to-stay-safe-on-your-motorcycle-2. html http://motorcycleminds. org/? p=847 http://ridingsafely. com/ridingsafely1. html http://motorcycles. about. com/od/gearreviews/tp/Motorcycle-Safety-Gear-101. htm http://www. 2keller. com/library/motorcycle-accident-statistics-motorcycle-acci How to cite Motorcycles Are Dangerous, Essay examples

Philippine Prehistory free essay sample

Robert Fox and Wilhelm Solheim were both anthropologists who conceptualized distinctive peopling theories namely the Fox Theory and the Island Origin Theory. They both came up with the said theories through the use of archaeological discoveries and artifacts. According to Fox, the first men who came to the Philippines inhabited the archipelago since the Paleolithic era, which dates back 500,000 years ago. He believed that the Philippines was once connected to mainland Asia as Palawan’s form and geographical location suggested that it perfectly bridged the Philippine Islands and Borneo. He found traces of men in the Tabon Caves, which are located in the western part of Palawan. In there, he found skullcap remains of which he presumed to belonged to the Tabon Man. In addition, Fox discovered burial jars, ornaments, jewelries, stone tools, animal bones, and human fossils. Similarly, Solheim also made use of archaeological discoveries and artifacts. However, he hypothesized that the primitive Filipinos originated and dispersed from an island in Southeast Asia. We will write a custom essay sample on Philippine Prehistory or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The prehistoric men in the country are said to have spread northwards through the country and into Taiwan. By its very nature, Philippine prehistory is â€Å"the period of unrecorded history consisting of archeological discoveries, way of life, geographical and geological data in order to know our country’s origin and the roots of the original Filipino. † As such, it is important for Filipinos to learn about their heritage so as to establish their own national identity. Furthermore, studying Philippine prehistory urges Filipinos to not merely accept the information that is given to them. But rather, question and analyze the said information considering that the world is evolving and that times are changing. For instance, prehistory helps Filipinos discover what their strengths and weaknesses are as individuals through the upbringing and culture that they are accustomed to. Once they recognize these, they may be able to determine what they can do together as a people. As reflected in prehistory, the ‘original Filipinos’ were really resourceful and creative in nature, as they made their own jewelries and tools. At present, there are many emerging local industries that are thriving due to the innovativeness that they put into their work. These include Jacinto Lirio, Binalot Fiesta Foods, and Human Nature to mention a few. In this manner, Filipinos are given a sense of pride as they showcase to the world what they are capable of and what they are really all about. In essence, learning about â€Å"our Austronesian heritage† made me realize that the neighboring countries of the Philippines are all definitely closely related given that all the languages of the Austronesian countries stems from a single ancestral language. With this, I now understand why other nations implied the same meaning on certain words as well as applied similar grammatical rules. For this reason, bordering nations and the Philippines easily relate to one another as it retained a common framework for the concepts in its language itself despite each country being influenced by diverse foreign religion and culture.

The Great Gatsby Greed And Wealth Essay free essay sample

, Research Paper In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, we learn that every character, except Nick and George, uses wealth as a agency of felicity, which in bend, gets in the manner of their ain ethical motives to move as nice, respectable human existences. Nick Carraway, the chief character in the book, seems to be that nice, respectable human being. He is the voice of ground in the narrative. It is through his point of position that we can separate who is corrupt and who isn t. Nick even says he is an honorable adult male, which gives him some credibleness. He gives a graphic word picture of each character he meets over that summer, and every one of them except a low garage machinist, George Wilson, is claimed by greed and wealth in one signifier or another. For Tom Buchannan, his greed came in the signifier of another adult female. We will write a custom essay sample on The Great Gatsby Greed And Wealth Essay or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The married woman of George Wilson, Myrtle Wilson, is his kept woman. He is corrupt because he is being unpatriotic to his married woman Daisy and George Wilson. His wealthiness is a ground he is unpatriotic because he can utilize his money to acquire any adult female that he wants. Tom is hot tempered, ready to snarl at anyone who gets in his manner. He is besides a racialist, ever speaking about the White Race necessitating to suppress all. It s up to us who are the dominant race to watch out or these other races will hold control of things. Tom is the perfect illustration of the sort of amoral people described in the book. Greedy, ignorant and wealthy. Myrtle Wilson is merely the same. She is dishonorable towards her hubby and speaks extremely of herself. But she is one over Tom because she takes him for granted. He is the one purchasing all of her apparels and beauty accoutrements. He even went every bit far as to purchase her a Canis familiaris. This doesn T seem to trouble oneself Tom a spot though. At her party in New York, things turn a spot rancid though. Tom and Myrtle are contending about something when Myrtle brings the name Daisy into the statement. Hot tempered Tom gets upset with Myrtle and really interrupt her olfactory organ. Myrtle s sister Catherine gives Nick an Interesting piece of information. Neither of them can stand the individual their married to. These two people are likely the most penurious brace in the book. They love each other one minute and hatred eachother the following, being dishonest and disloyal to anything and everything around them. Daisy is closer to being less of a puritan than Myrtle, but she is still sneaky because of her matter with Gatsby. She has an hostel ocence about her, but as the narrative goes on, her immoral properties start to reflect through. In the terminal, Daisy didn t even name Gatsby, and she let him take the incrimination for the car accident that killed Myrtle. Well I tried to swing the wheel- He broke off, and all of a sudden I guessed at the truth. Was Daisy driving? Yes, he said after a minute. Even though Gatsby was willing to do the forfeit for Daisy, Daisy was nowhere to be found when Gatsby needed her most. Finally, Jay Gatsby, the adult male who gives his name to the book, has a different sort of selfishness to him than any of the others. All of his work, whatever it may be, all of his success and all of his parties, even though looking like a nice gesture to other people, were done for something that he wanted for himself. But what he wanted was for person to be happy with him. Ever since he fell in love with Daisy, he hasn t of all time forgotten about her. When Daisy didn t maintain her promise to wait for him, he was devastated, but he still didn t give her up. He went to great lengths to affect her and win her dorsum from Tom. He even kept newspaper cuttings of her. His attempts didn t travel to waste, nevertheless. Daisy did stop up holding a little matter with him. So Gatsby was amoral to Tom. Daisy, that s all over now, he said seriously. It doesn t affair any more. Just state him the truth-that you neer loved him-and it s all wiped out everlastingly. ( 139 ) . Gatsby s attempts to be with Daisy went a small overboard. He is seeking to state Daisy how she felt. Possibly he has fooled himself so much that he believes that they were already together. Throughout that full summer, Nick was capable to many Acts of the Apostless of selfish, dishonest, disloyal, puritan and avaricious behaviour. It s from these people s ignorance that made the terminal bend out how it did. From Gatsby s parties in his house to the slaying that took topographic point in his pool. From the get-togethers in Myrtle s flat to her tragic decease. The clip was every bit corrupt as the people that lived in it. There was neer truly any hope for the destinies that lied waiting for these characters during the summer of 1922. I believe Nick stated it best when he said ; They were careless people # 8230 ; .they smashed up things and animals and so retreated back into their money or their huge sloppiness or whatever it was that kept them together, and allow other people clean up the muss they had made # 8230 ; . ( 187 ) . They were careless people, careless in everything except themselves.

Agent Nouns

Agent Nouns Agent Nouns Agent Nouns By Mark Nichol Why singer, but actor? Why doctor, but dentist? Why customer, but client? There seems to be no logic to the variation in endings for agent nouns. An agent noun, a word that identifies a person’s occupation or profession, place of origin or residence, or other association, or a device that performs a task, generally signals its function with a suffix. However, various endings are possible, and though the spelling of such words, because of their ubiquity, is often obvious, no set of rules is always reliable. Some people posit that the -er ending is found in words derived from Germanic sources, while the -or ending denotes Latinate words, but that’s not always true. (For example, adapt is from Latin, but its agent noun is adapter, not adaptor.) Alternatively, the -or ending appears in words referring to figures of authority (director, governor, inspector), but employer, manager, and teacher are counterexamples. (Occasionally, an agent noun has more than one spelling, as with adviser and advisor. It’s common practice in such cases to always prefer, for consistency, the first option listed in the dictionary, although in this case, doing so means that a writer will write adviser yet will spell the adjectival form advisory.) Another ending for agent nouns, -ist, might at first seem to consistently correspond to a positive value judgment, in that we associate it with scientist and words for those in scientific specialties (biologist, physicist), as well as powerful people (industrialist, philanthropist), but note the neutral bicyclist and the negative bigamist. Likewise, notice the variable status of people identified by the terms cineast (also spelled cineaste), enthusiast, and pederast, as well as the tongue-in-cheek neologism ecdysiast. Some endings for agent nouns are often associated with pejoratives, though there are exceptions. For example, beggar, burglar, and the archaic pedlar end with -ar, but so do registrar, scholar, and vicar. Bastard, coward, and drunkard, but steward and wizard. Mongrel and wastrel, but colonel and sentinel. Less common endings that might be associated with positive or negative words are -ant (accountant, but vagrant) and -ent (client, as well as agent itself, but indigent). Other rare examples are -aster (poetaster), which originally neutrally denoted partial resemblance but came to be exclusively derogatory; -ista, which is employed in lightheartedly pejorative terms such as fashionista (there’s also barista, borrowed from Italian, which in turn borrowed bar from English); and -nik (beatnik, peacenik), which in Russian or Yiddish is neutral but acquired a negative connotation in American English during the Cold War. As mentioned in the definition of â€Å"agent noun† above, that term also refers to inanimate objects. However, no consistent classification is possible for this subgroup: Why washer and dryer, but refrigerator? As revealed in these examples and the many terms for human agents referred to above agent nouns follow no rules of etymology or connotation. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:10 Rules for Writing Numbers and Numerals50 Types of PropagandaShow, Don't Tell

Olympia Machine Company Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Olympia Machine Company - Case Study Example However, there are weaknesses in the current compensation plan. Regardless of the large volume of sales, there are high fixed selling expenses and also common measures that determine salary increases of the salespeople have not been established by the management. Some of the key issues that any new compensation plan must address include how to poise a balance between capital equipment and sales. A salesperson must be able to not just take any order that comes along but sell. Secondly, a weighted plan that allows a salesperson to assess what pays off and what does not should be addressed, in order for him or her to be more resourceful. Finally, there has to be a common standard where salary increases for all like employees should be known. This is of importance since the management is able to weigh how prolific a salesperson is. In the point system, together with a salary, a salesperson is given bonus points in relation to his or her performance in the sales activities. However, with this system, detailed reports about the performances of the salespeople are required thus increasing the organization’s overhead cost. In this plan, a salary, expenses and a commission on sales were taken into consideration. This way, the salespeople had security because they were assured of a salary and were still motivated due to the commission rates incurred on several products. However, this would mean that the commission plan with specifications would result to a cut in current salary base for most salespeople. The bonus plan involved giving the salespeople an opening to earn bonuses from their sales, without putting a boundary past a target. They also received the same salary as before. However, upholding a liable sales-expense-to-sales ratio would go against the Company’s philosophy of upholding such. I would therefore recommend the

Poverty in america Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Poverty in america - Essay Example Conservatives tend to focus on the poor, suggesting their behaviors are the cause of their poverty. Liberals, on the other hand, believe that poverty is created through social problems that cannot be solved by focusing on an individual. Poverty is a social issue and both liberals and conservatives have strong opinions on the topic. Liberal Point of View In their book on the welfare system and the aspects of social policies that have inadequately approached understanding the problem of poverty, Joel Handler and Yeheskel Hasenfeld suggest that the biggest problem with the system is that it is perpetually built upon a structure of myths that do not accurately represent the problem within the United States. The pervasive policy that causes the worst decision making is that through getting if the impoverished would just get a job, the impoverished state of a family would be improved. This policy does not take into consideration the low wages of most positions that are available without a college education, the cost of providing a roof, and most importantly, the lack of jobs and the impermanence of low paying jobs within the United States (Handler and Hasenfeld 4). This theory does not take into account that there are not enough jobs for the labor force. The liberal point of view embraces the idea that being poor is a state that comes from circumstance, many of which are out of the control of the individual. This point of view recognizes that poverty affects lives and that not having adequate shelter, food, or resources for health perpetuates a problem that may never be rectified even if those things are provided due to the economic state of the nation. Handler and Hasenfeld argue that one of the problems with defining poverty in the United States is the assumption that attaining a state above the federally defined poverty line means that a family is adequately supported through their own means. However, this is not often the case. The elements that go into to determ ining the concept of the poverty line are ’deeply flawed’, providing an inaccurate picture of the struggle of financial insecurity within the United States (Handler and Hasenfeld 5). In exploring the liberal point of view, there are many aspects to discuss, but the argument that Handler and Hasenfeld have made about the myths upon which public policy has been built appears to support the basic liberal viewpoint about poverty. People have needs, whether or not they can work. Hunger, according to FRAC (Food Research and Action Center) affects 50.2 million people who are living in food insecure households, with 23.2% of all children not eating on a regular basis. Social support is not about defrauding the taxpayer through welfare, but in trying to find a way to support the needs of people who are starving and in need of basic services for which the state of the economy cannot provide. Incidentally Conservative Point of View One of the stronger theories from the conservati ve point of view which emerged in the 1970s and 1980s on the poor is that of behavioral poverty. Behavioral poverty is based upon the concept that certain behaviors, primarily three behaviors, contribute to the state of poverty. The behaviors that lead to overcoming poverty are â€Å"completing high school, once an adult, get married and stay married (even if not on the first try), and stay employed, even at a wage and under conditions below their ultimate aims†

MG 1011 Task 2 Assignment - a Reflection of the work done Essay

MG 1011 Task 2 Assignment - a Reflection of the work done - Essay Example Team formation is a critical initial step that is necessary to create a team that will work effectively. A team or group is the union of two or more people working together to achieve a common goal (Schermerhorn & Hunt & Osborn, p.172). During the initial formation stage of the team the member have to communicate with each other in various brainstorming and socialization exercises in other to get to know each other to create a bond. During these session the team has to create a detail plan of action of the project the have to perform with a detail work break structure of the specific task each member will perform and various deadlines the work has to delivered. There is a need for leadership within the group. It is important for someone to take charge and become the team leader that can guide the other members of the team, while at the same listening to the opinion of others to integrate their ideas. According to Belbin’s team role theory the optimum size for a team is eight m embers (Fisher & Hunter & Macrosson, 2001). If a team is too small the members might get overworked, but a large team can create organizational problems which may result in inefficiencies. I have worked on various team scenarios some of which were good experiences, while others were horrible endeavors. During my first year in college I worked on a group project for college class. The team was made up to four members. It was disaster from day one. One member barely ever came to any of the team meetings. The other two kept arguing over irrelevant points and could not come to any agreements on how to proceed with the project. I tried to play the role of leader and intermediary between the members. Since I took the initiative I paid the price of being the member with the highest workload and ended up covering for two of the members who at the end were extremely irresponsible and disappeared on me and decided that their end of the bargain did not have to complied with. I did both

Marketing Analysis of Tesco

Marketing Analysis of Tesco 1.ORGANIZATIONS ORIENTATION An organization orientation depends upon the marketing concept and the market orientations, which are the foundations of strategic marketing. Marketing concept exists on the fusion of all marketing activities. When they are combined, the company can achieve higher profitability (Hooley 2008: 6, 7). Tesco has developed a strategic customer relationship management which builds and keeps a valued customer awareness and powerful brand engagement. Its position in UK is strengthened by overtaking Sainsbury in 1995 and by its online home grocery service (Jobber 2010:583). 2. MARKET SEGMENTATION, POSITIONING, TARGET MARKETING Market segmentation is the process of understanding the characteristics and demand of different individuals. Tesco gather customer information from the loyalty card scheme and identifies their purchasing habits and behaviour patterns, which are used for segmenting customers based on their needs. Customers are grouped based on their similarities. With this information, Tesco introduced different clubs like the kids club, the food club, the baby and toddler club, Healthy living Club. Market segments are chosen for targeting and a marketing mix strategy is selected for that target market (Jobber 2010:262,584).To develop an effective strategic marketing there should be an upstanding positioning of product and services in the market. Positioning is an iterative and vital process in retail marketing. The main goal of positioning is to develop and maintain a remarkable place in the market for the company and its product. Positioning starts with the product (Kalafatis 2000).Nevertheless, Tes co has a brand image and they are proud of its brand value ( Martenson 2007).Keys to successful positioning is clarity, consistency, competitiveness and credibility. Repositioning is carried out when customer needs or target market changes. Repositioning strategies include image repositioning, product repositioning, intangible repositioning, tangible repositioning (Jobber 2010:285,288). 3. MARKET ORIENTATION Marketing orientation is achieved by marketing concept (Blois 2000: 21). It is defined as all the departments working together to develop and understand customers current and future needs and to meet them to keep the customers satisfied (Hooley 2008: 8). The elements of market orientation include Customer orientation, Competitor orientation, and inter functional orientation. 4. CUSTOMER ORIENTATION Marketing oriented companies are primarily focused on customers. They get the needs and problems of their customers and find a better solution for them (Blois 2000: 22). Tesco strategy is based on loyalty card scheme and gets information about individual customers and their different needs. The club card helps the customers to save their money when they accumulate points in the card. Club card can be used at any Tescos partners (Jobber 2010:583). Tescos objectives and guidelines are aimed directly at customer satisfaction and it is assessed regularly (Hooley 2008: 11). Customer orientation depends on the employee performance. It results in positive outcomes of the company. It determines the relationship quality of the organization and relationship quality highly depends upon the company loyalty (Macintosh 2007). 5. COMPETITOR ORIENTATION The organization should identify the short-term and a long-term capability of the competitors. A deep understanding of the competition is needed. For Tesco the competitive positioning applies at the level of the companies. In UK the leading grocery retailing competitors include Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda (Hooley 2008: 208).We need to understand the competitors profit sources, position in the market, marketing strategies (Best 2004: 7).Tesco collects information about the activities and conduct regular benchmarking against the competitor offerings (Hooley 2008: 12). 6. LONG-TERM PROFIT FOCUS This is the ultimate objective of all the business. The main objectives of Tesco are to be a successful international retailer, to be strong in non-food as in the food business, to open more stores across the world. The International strategy of Tesco requires a long-term approach (Tesco PLC 2009).The decisions of Tesco are guided by long- term plans rather than short -term benefits (Hooley 2008: 12). 7. INTERFUNCTIONAL COORDINATION Interfunctional coordination concerns with the coordination of all company resources to create a value for target customers. To create an impenetrable competitive position, we have to rely on the coordinated efforts of various functions and people within the organizations. Cross-functional relationship plays a decisive role (Hooley 2008: 12). Tesco has a dedicated team approach to develop and deliver market-based customer solutions (Best 2004: 48).They work together and support each other to serve customer .The financial and management department work closely with the operators of the retailer world. Commercial departments make decisions to deliver best products at best possible prices. Corporate purchasing departments work with suppliers. The graduates in Tesco strive to generate revenue. Distribution team works to deliver products in the right time to different stores. The effective systems IT department improve online shopping for customers and they raise the contacts between vari ous business areas to streamline the entire processes. The marketing team of Tesco works with customers to understand their needs and current trends. The property and engineering department do all the support works of the stores (Hooley 2008: 12). 8. ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE Marketing orientation can be described as a variety of organizational culture that places the highest priority to establish and maintain the best customer value while considering the interests of stakeholders like investors, employees, suppliers (Blois 2000: 21). The core purpose of Tesco is to create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty (Tesco PLC 2009). All the staffs work like a team .They gives respect each other and treat customers in a way they feel satisfied. Face to face meetings, trips are conducted and Staffs are rewarded for their work they do. They offer discounts and benefits for the staffs also provide more salaries, training, flexible working hours and health and safety measures are observed as compared to other retailers. Tesco welcomes all people regardless of age, sex, ethnicity etc. Human rights policies are applied to all members (Tesco PLC 2009). Store Loyalty is the output of customer satisfaction and customers will visit the store regularly. All e mployees understand their responsibilities to create satisfied customers (Martenson 2007). 9. TESCO STRATEGIES Tesco has a well-established strategy for their business success. About 70% of the trading and profit is from UK. They are the market leaders in markets outside UK. They have four different store formats like Express, Metro, Superstore, Extra and one trial format Home plus, for non-food and clothing. As an international retailer, they mainly focus on the local customer needs and understand them. They make sure the board appeal. They have various own brands of superior quality to customers to compliment their style of living. Tesco looks after the people working with them (Tesco PLC 2009). Market Corporate responsibility is an opening for growth. The values are the no one tries harder for customers and treat people how they want to be treated (Tesco PLC 2009). The Tesco steering wheel represents performance and is a strategy-driving tool. (Tesco PLC 2009). A sale in non-food is a key part of the strategy. They provide with the best quality and price. Tescos non-food includes electrical, home entertainment, clothing, health and beauty, stationery, bookshop and soft furnishings, seasonal goods, opticians and pharmacies (Tesco PLC 2009). In retailing services, Tesco offers more to the customers. Tesco personal finance has products from credit cards to insurance. Online grocery shopping is made effortless with Tesco.com. Tesco Telecoms offers a wide range of services from mobile network, home phone service, internet access and an internet phone service (Tesco PLC 2009). The Success of Tesco depends on trust and satisfaction of the customers. Overall, Tesco has a strong marketing orientation and compelling marketing strategies which results in the customer satisfaction and the higher levels of profitability. Every Little Helps Tesco to be a market leader (Tesco PLC 2009). 10. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE As Armstrong (2005) defined, competitive advantage is the advantage over competitors obtained by providing better value to customer. It is important to company who wants to win the customers and establish a profitable relationship with them (Armstrong Kotler, 2005). Before the organisation is choosing the right competitive advantage on which to build up its competitive strategies it must analyze the industry environment normally by using the porters 5 forces analysis. 11. Porters Five Forces Analysis Introduced by Michael Porter in 1979, Porters 5 Forces is a powerful tool to analyse the attractiveness of an industry. This framework involves a relationship between competitors within an industry, potential competitors, suppliers, buyers. It helps management to understand both the strength of the current competitive position, and the strength of a position organization want to be. (Michael Porter, 2008) A diagram below shows the Porters 5 forces clearly. 12. Threat of New Entry: As porter said the ability of people who newly enter your market might affect your power. If the barrier to entry the market is low and your have little protection for current position, then the new competitors can easily enter the market and weaken your position. (Michael Porter, 2008). In terms of new entrants Tesco does not have much threat because of the high barriers for new comer to entry into the supermarket industry. According to the TNS (Taylor Nelson Sofres, the leading market research group) data Tesco occupies over one third of grocery market share in UK, and is along with Asda, Saintsburys, Morrisons become the big four which has hold over 68% of UK overall grocery market. This strong solid position makes Tesco the market leader and giant in UK supermarket industry. Due to the massive market share has been hold by the big four, the barriers for new entrants are obviously quite high. It is hard for new retailer to obtain the market share and challenge the existing powerfu l player such as Tesco. In addition, another high barrier for new entrants is the supermarket industry needs huge capital and personnel involved but needs long time to get the return. Therefore, there are high barrier for new retailers entry into the existing supermarket industry dominated by big four. Thus, if Tesco sustains its strong position in the market it will have less threat from new entrants. 13. The power of buyer: According to Porter the buyers have the power to drive price down. Small number of buyers and powerful buyers for a company can likely having greater power on driving the price (Michael Porter, 2008). Generally say, in supermarket industry there is little bargain power for buyers with supermarket because all the prices are fixed price. Moreover, the bigger number of consumers will reduce the power of buyers. Therefore, it is little power of buyers to Tesco due to huge number of customers and little bargain power of buyers in this industry. However, customers can still switch buying from one supermarket to another by many factors. First, the price is the primary factor determinates customers buying activities. In this respect, Tescos strategy is based on its cost advantages. The organization aims to be the best value retailer. Tesco stated its price has been cut by 17% between 2000 and 2006; even facing the higher energy price challenge during the recent recession Tescos price has bee n dropped down by 1.8% last year. Second, due to the differentiation of product is little in the supermarket industry; customers can switch buying easily, thus, to attract and keep customers is relying on their loyalty to the store. Tescos report claims it has the UK number one loyalty card scheme and it has over 13 millions active Clubcard holders. Overall, the power of buyer is little to Tesco and Tesco has big advantages on low price and customer loyalty. 14. Power of suppliers Porter said the suppliers also have power to drive up the price. The power of driven is determined by the number and the strength of suppliers. To the Britain biggest grocery supermarket Tesco, the power of supplier is very little because Tesco has vast numbers of supplier across overall markets. The overwhelming market power of Tesco makes suppliers have no bargain power to it; instead, some of suppliers rely on Tesco. As a buyer Tesco has huge demand and great power to the supplier. However, Tesco also relys on their suppliers to achieve its objectives, without those suppliers Tesco could not deliver best value goods to the customers. Therefore, Tesco has established the long term constructive partnership with suppliers. According to Tescos report, it has over 1,500 suppliers who have been working with Tesco for five years or more. Based on a survey taken in 2008 by Tesco, there were over 90% of UK suppliers thought Tesco was trustworthy. Moreover, Tesco also provide the opportunit ies to small producers and local suppliers. For example, Tesco has opened five new regional buying offices around Britain and hosted regional road shows to attract and increase the number of local suppliers for selling their goods through Tesco. As the result, the small suppliers get more business opportunities meanwhile they help Tesco getting hundreds of new lines into stores. In sum, Tesco has little threat from power of supplier and company achieved its objectives by establishing the trustable partnership with suppliers. 15. The Threat of substitutes Porter introduced this threat as the other industry or business has the ability to substitute you and attract your customers. Although Tesco has head position in the supermarket industry, somehow, the substitutes still exist. For example, eating-out is a substitute to buying food from supermarket. However, a recent survey by analyst Buckingham Research has found that 75% of British families will stay at home during the recession rather than eating out. Under recession, the threat of eating-out to supermarket is less than ever. Another substitute worth to be considered is the online shopping. Nowadays, as the technology growing fast the online shopping becomes easy and trendy. However, it can not completely substitute the real life shopping especially for the food purchase. The technical problem, delivery problem and communication problem may bother people to buy online. Moreover, the real life shopping is also a part of social life to most of people, which would be simply substitute by clicking screen. In sum, the threat of substitute to Tesco is higher than buyer, supplier and new entrant. 16. The Threat of Competitive Rivalry: This threat comes from the competitors and also is affected by the new entry, substitute, power of buyer and supplier. The threat of competitive rivalry to Tesco is high although it is the largest grocery supermarket in UK. Asda, Sainsburys and Morrison are the three main competitors of Tesco. These three companies also have big portion of market share and compete with Tesco through price, product and promotions. The competition between the main grocery supermarkets remains fierce. Tesco has been reported that the market share has been losing and dipping in UK market since 2009 by many main Medias such as Times, BBC news and Guardian. Reports said according to the last figures of 2009 Tescos market share dropped from 31.3% to 30.7% of UK grocery sales. Meanwhile, Asdas market share rose to 17 % from 16.7 % and Morrisons went up to 12.1% from 11.7 %. TNS reported against the UK grocery sales rise 6%, Tescos sales rose 4% which below the market growth. However, Morrisons and Asda were all found beyond the growth of the market, seeing sales rise 9.7% and 7.2%. Moreover, the discounter supermarkets Aldi and Lidl also compete with Tesco as consumer cut back on spending during the recession. In addition, TNS also claimed that Waitrose, the John Lewis-own supermarket as the up-market grocer is fast growing in grocery market. On the other hand, because Tesco also set foot in non-food industry there are so many competitors such as Shell, BP, Amazon, O2, etc. To sum up, Tesco has highly threat from many competitors in both food and non-food industry. Therefore, Tesco must take its competitive advantages to prevent from threats of competitors. 17. Competitive Advantage of Tesco Through the porters 5 forces analysis the competitive advantages of Tesco can be outlined. First, the significant market power is the big advantage of Tesco. The great market power makes Tesco is able to put up barrier to new entrants and weaken the power of buyer and supplier; it also gives Tesco ability to beat the competitors. Second, namely cost advantage, the big economic scale enables Tesco to reduce the cost at extremely low level and thereby providing the low price to customers. Third, diversification makes Tesco has a further advantage to win the market because Tesco expands the broad markets such as financing, telecom and retail service rather than just food market and spread its business worldwide. To sum up, if Tesco follows its competitive strategy by aware of the threats and competitive advantages, it will keep the strong position in the industry and beat its competitors. 18. MARKETING MIX Firstly, the term Marketing Mix was widely adopted after Neil H. Boren published his article The Concept of the Marketing Mix in 1964, where he described marketing managers as a mixer of ingredients. The ingredients in Borens marketing mix included product, planning, pricing, packaging, branding, distribution channels, personal selling, advertising, promotions, display, servicing, physical handling, fact finding and analysis. Which was later grouped into four categories by E. Jerome McCarthy, today know as the 4Ps of marketing, shown below However, some people argue that along with the Marketing Mix 4 Ps concept, we should add another 2 Ps, which are people and packaging. 19. PRODUCT It is rare to discuss price without the presence of a product and to enable us understand the link between Price and Product. Kotler Armstrong (2006) define a product as anything that can be presented to a consumer for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. They further define a consumer product as the product bought by the final consumer for personal consumption. According to Ferrell (2005), the product is the core of the marketing mix strategy in which retailers can offer consumers symbolic and experiential attributes to differentiate products from competitors. However, it is also concerned with what the product means to the consumer. Product is about quality, design, features, brand name and sizes (Borden, 1984). Wulf et.al. (2005) found that private label products could offer even better quality than national brands but at a lower price. The domestic competitor reacts to the intensifying price competition by engaging in selective price cha nges. A product is a physical good, service, idea, person, or place that is capable of offering tangible and intangible attributes that individuals or organizations regard as so necessary, worthwhile or satisfying that they are prepared to exchange money, patronage or some other unit of value to acquire it. (Blythe 2007) Core products: Core Products are the core benefit that is being sought by the consumer by buying the product, like the cheaper call rates and ease of recharge top up available to Tesco Mobile customers. Actual /Tangible products: Actual Products are all the tangible features/benefits that are associated with the core product such as its features or design, level of quality, packaging, size. There is no clear distinction between a pure tangible product and a service. The Tescos give away deals for the new 3G i-phone deal Augmented products: are the intangible features/benefits associated with the core actual product such as the branding, warrantees, delivery, guarantee, and after sales service. Tesco mobile, for example, is a tangible product, but it often comes with a warranty and software updates. A firmsproduct line refers to the variety of similar commodities that the firm holds, Tesco for example, makes a large range of inter-related goods, Many of Tesco stores stock over 40,000 product lines. Even a Tesco Express stores stock a choice of well over 2,000 lines. ProductDepthrefers to the variety of commodities offered within each product line. Tesco stores stock : Healthy Living products, Free From products for people with food allergies and intolerances, Special healthy Kids snacks and Organic product lines and the recent announcement by the Tescobank CEO Benny Higgins of plans to launch an assault on the mortgage market by the end of 2010, hoping to take advantage of the current problems in the sector. Targeted at providingTescocustomers with financial advice, car and home insurance credit cards, mortgages and current accounts.(MINTEL 2009). Products often go through alife cycle.Initially, at the introduction stage a product is launched. Since the product is not well known and is usually expensive (e.g. the , as). Eventually, many products reach agrowthphase where sales increases dramatically. More firms enter with their models of the product, sometimes with added innovations. Unfortunately, the product reaches amaturitystage where little growth is sighted. For example, in the UK, almost every household has at least one stereo sound system. Some products may also reach adeclinestage, usually because the product is swapped for something better. For example, CDplayers experienced declining sales as more consumers switched to MP3 players and i-pods. Ansoff Theory is a series of suggested growth strategies that set the direction for the business plan. illustrated below Market Penetration: here the business strategy focuses on selling existing products in existing markets.This strategy aims at four major objectives: Maintaining the market share of current products Securing growth market Dominance Drive out competitors with support of an aggressive promotional campaign and favorable price strategy Increase product usage by existing customers e.g. With the Tesco Loyalty Club card scheme. Market Development: here the business strategy seeks to sell its existing product into a new market. The various approaches to this include: New geographical markets e.g.- exporting Tesco UK products to the Express shops in Ireland and Malaysia New Product Dimension or Packaging New Distributional channel Implementing different pricing policies for different markets segments Product Development: refers to a growth strategy where new products are initiated in existing markets. This often requires development of new competencies in the case of Tesco Bank and its new job vacancies for competencies in the financial sector. Diversification points to the growth strategy where a business markets a new commodity in a new market. Unfortunately, for this strategy to be adopted a clear objective of its advantages should be explored and risk assessments carried out seeing as the business may have little or no experience in the new area. Roughly one quarter of Tescos sales, was own label. Many leading retailing companies have substantial grocery interests. Of the top 25 companies in 1978, 22 were involved in groceries retailing, of which 10 can be considered leading firms in the groceries sector [Akehurst, 1983: 169, Table 5] 20. Price : Price refers to the value assigned to something by the seller to something purchased, offered for sale, to a buyer as their willingness to pay for the product and services delivered (Gilbert 1999). Price is the only element in the marketing mix that is revenue generating- all of the others are costs. It should therefore, be used as an active instrument of strategy in the major areas of marketing decision making. Pricing in the international setting is more complicated than in the domestic market, because of factors such as government influence and additional costs (Becker and Thorelli 1980). The price of an item is an important influence on the value of sales made. In theory, price is really determined by the discovery of what customers perceive is the value of the item on sale. Recent research has shown that demand-based pricing is associated with higher retailer gross margins; whereas past price dependence is associated with, lower retailer gross margins (Nijs, Srinivasan, and Pau wels 2007). There are a number of pricing policies used by Tesco today, which include: 21. Market-led Pricing: also known as competitive pricing, this simply accepts the price which competitors are charging for a product and then price its product at the same level or slightly lower in order to gain some advantage over competitors. Significantly found in markets where there is close competitors. For a company like TESCO it is important to monitor other competitors and in order to maintain customer loyalty against discounters, the adoption of a more aggressive pricing strategy was launch by the advent of budget private label ranges and backed up by advertising focusing on price comparisons. Despite challenges due to rising energy prices, but with innovations such as the reusable plastic trays, which was introduced in the fresh food areas have helped make savings these savings are pass on to customers. According to the OFT this led to a fall in real food price between 2000-2005.as shown below 22. Cost-Based Pricing: also known as cost plus Pricing, involves working out the businesss total fixed and variable costs and then adding a percentage of profit. Here the business has to consider the total number of items that it plans to produce and sell. The big advantage of cost-based pricing for TESCO is that the company is guaranteed to make a profit on its sales since it has covered its costs. However, in operating cost-based pricing it is very important to be aware of competitors price. However, this poses a threat when businesses are unable to sell the expected quantity of the product, perhaps because competitors are offering the same goods at a lower price. 23. Price wars In a competitive market such as grocery market, businesses sometimes engage in price wars in which prices of some goods are slashed to a very low price in order to secure sales. Price wars swamped grocery retailers, as the switch to private labels from branded packaged food continued to gather pace. For instance, Tesco and ASDA propose freezing of tax on some products at 15% despite an increase in rates to 17.5%(MMR 2010) This is risky because advantages gained are short-lived and rival, businesses tend to respond by slashing prices even further. If pursued long enough, price wars would cut profits seriously and in the end, only customers benefits by the low prices. 24. PENETRATION PRICING 25. ECONOMY PRICING: Stores such as TESCO, which allegedly charge the lowest prices, attract many consumers based on this conception alone (Peter Donnely, 2007). Among retail stores, the pricing strategy has become the fundamental point, as they need to compete in terms of pricing to lure more customers. Berman (1996) added that among the pricing policies which are of major concern to retail store outlets are the High-Low Pricing and Every Day Low Pricing (EDLP) strategies. This is sighted in operators who have significant economies of scale and buying power (Gilbert 1999). 26. VALUE PRICING This ensues where external factors such as the recession or increased competition forces companies to provide VALUE product and services to retain sales, they are especially important to families on a budget and have made a significant contribution to making healthy food accessible to all. Tesco now has in store 95 fresh fruit and vegetable value lines, and are working with the Pre-School Learning Alliance to help parents and children in some of the UKs most deprived areas make healthier choices. Value pricing may have a negative impact on the profit margin of the company (tesco.com N.D). 27. GEOGRAPHICAL PRICING This is evident where there are variations in price and demand in different parts of the world. TESCOs prices are a little higher in some town centre and neighbourhood stores because of higher overhead costs (mainly rents and rates). These costs are spread over a smaller volume of sales, and can only be recovered by charging prices that are, on average, higher. Example was when Tesco first moved into Ireland the products it sold was more expensive than they were in their UK stores (Irish Times 1998). This was because the UK suppliers were charging the Ireland stores more than they were charging the UK stores. This triggered some conspiracies and allegiances between key stakeholders in the industry resulting in a widespread anti-Tesco campaign (Poole and Clark 2002). In Conclusion Pricing a product too high or too low could mean a loss of sales for the organization. Therefore, appropriate pricing strategies and policies should be put in place for the various market segments, to ensure 28. PROMOTION Significant P in Marketing Mix 4P (Product, Price, Promotion and Place). Although the 4P characterization has led to widespread use of the term promotion for describing communications with prospects and customers, the term marketing communications is preferred by most marketing practitioners as well as by many educators. Consider that we may want to use marketing communications to refer to the collection of advertising, sales promotions, public relations, event marketing, and other communication devices. Promotion is considered as Sales Promotion (Shimp 2007). Marketing Communication is used by organisations to communicate with customers with respect to their product offerings. In this sense, Marketing Communication is one side of the communication process with customers. Market research, in which suppliers seek to elicit information on consumer requirements from consumers, is the complementary component of the communication process. The following summarises this very simply: (Rowley 1998). According to Rowley (1998) producer should communicate to reach the customers and in turn should listen to the customers needs and requirements to enhance the product and service. Tesco proudly announced that one of the reasons to its Success is listening to their Customers and its suppliers. Tesco has adopted multiple qualitative research techniques to reach their customers such as focus groups, accompanied shops, home visits to collect the feedback and respond quickly with corrective measures. Modestly they say, Its simple we listen and respond, providing customers with Marketing Analysis of Tesco Marketing Analysis of Tesco 1.ORGANIZATIONS ORIENTATION An organization orientation depends upon the marketing concept and the market orientations, which are the foundations of strategic marketing. Marketing concept exists on the fusion of all marketing activities. When they are combined, the company can achieve higher profitability (Hooley 2008: 6, 7). Tesco has developed a strategic customer relationship management which builds and keeps a valued customer awareness and powerful brand engagement. Its position in UK is strengthened by overtaking Sainsbury in 1995 and by its online home grocery service (Jobber 2010:583). 2. MARKET SEGMENTATION, POSITIONING, TARGET MARKETING Market segmentation is the process of understanding the characteristics and demand of different individuals. Tesco gather customer information from the loyalty card scheme and identifies their purchasing habits and behaviour patterns, which are used for segmenting customers based on their needs. Customers are grouped based on their similarities. With this information, Tesco introduced different clubs like the kids club, the food club, the baby and toddler club, Healthy living Club. Market segments are chosen for targeting and a marketing mix strategy is selected for that target market (Jobber 2010:262,584).To develop an effective strategic marketing there should be an upstanding positioning of product and services in the market. Positioning is an iterative and vital process in retail marketing. The main goal of positioning is to develop and maintain a remarkable place in the market for the company and its product. Positioning starts with the product (Kalafatis 2000).Nevertheless, Tes co has a brand image and they are proud of its brand value ( Martenson 2007).Keys to successful positioning is clarity, consistency, competitiveness and credibility. Repositioning is carried out when customer needs or target market changes. Repositioning strategies include image repositioning, product repositioning, intangible repositioning, tangible repositioning (Jobber 2010:285,288). 3. MARKET ORIENTATION Marketing orientation is achieved by marketing concept (Blois 2000: 21). It is defined as all the departments working together to develop and understand customers current and future needs and to meet them to keep the customers satisfied (Hooley 2008: 8). The elements of market orientation include Customer orientation, Competitor orientation, and inter functional orientation. 4. CUSTOMER ORIENTATION Marketing oriented companies are primarily focused on customers. They get the needs and problems of their customers and find a better solution for them (Blois 2000: 22). Tesco strategy is based on loyalty card scheme and gets information about individual customers and their different needs. The club card helps the customers to save their money when they accumulate points in the card. Club card can be used at any Tescos partners (Jobber 2010:583). Tescos objectives and guidelines are aimed directly at customer satisfaction and it is assessed regularly (Hooley 2008: 11). Customer orientation depends on the employee performance. It results in positive outcomes of the company. It determines the relationship quality of the organization and relationship quality highly depends upon the company loyalty (Macintosh 2007). 5. COMPETITOR ORIENTATION The organization should identify the short-term and a long-term capability of the competitors. A deep understanding of the competition is needed. For Tesco the competitive positioning applies at the level of the companies. In UK the leading grocery retailing competitors include Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda (Hooley 2008: 208).We need to understand the competitors profit sources, position in the market, marketing strategies (Best 2004: 7).Tesco collects information about the activities and conduct regular benchmarking against the competitor offerings (Hooley 2008: 12). 6. LONG-TERM PROFIT FOCUS This is the ultimate objective of all the business. The main objectives of Tesco are to be a successful international retailer, to be strong in non-food as in the food business, to open more stores across the world. The International strategy of Tesco requires a long-term approach (Tesco PLC 2009).The decisions of Tesco are guided by long- term plans rather than short -term benefits (Hooley 2008: 12). 7. INTERFUNCTIONAL COORDINATION Interfunctional coordination concerns with the coordination of all company resources to create a value for target customers. To create an impenetrable competitive position, we have to rely on the coordinated efforts of various functions and people within the organizations. Cross-functional relationship plays a decisive role (Hooley 2008: 12). Tesco has a dedicated team approach to develop and deliver market-based customer solutions (Best 2004: 48).They work together and support each other to serve customer .The financial and management department work closely with the operators of the retailer world. Commercial departments make decisions to deliver best products at best possible prices. Corporate purchasing departments work with suppliers. The graduates in Tesco strive to generate revenue. Distribution team works to deliver products in the right time to different stores. The effective systems IT department improve online shopping for customers and they raise the contacts between vari ous business areas to streamline the entire processes. The marketing team of Tesco works with customers to understand their needs and current trends. The property and engineering department do all the support works of the stores (Hooley 2008: 12). 8. ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE Marketing orientation can be described as a variety of organizational culture that places the highest priority to establish and maintain the best customer value while considering the interests of stakeholders like investors, employees, suppliers (Blois 2000: 21). The core purpose of Tesco is to create value for customers to earn their lifetime loyalty (Tesco PLC 2009). All the staffs work like a team .They gives respect each other and treat customers in a way they feel satisfied. Face to face meetings, trips are conducted and Staffs are rewarded for their work they do. They offer discounts and benefits for the staffs also provide more salaries, training, flexible working hours and health and safety measures are observed as compared to other retailers. Tesco welcomes all people regardless of age, sex, ethnicity etc. Human rights policies are applied to all members (Tesco PLC 2009). Store Loyalty is the output of customer satisfaction and customers will visit the store regularly. All e mployees understand their responsibilities to create satisfied customers (Martenson 2007). 9. TESCO STRATEGIES Tesco has a well-established strategy for their business success. About 70% of the trading and profit is from UK. They are the market leaders in markets outside UK. They have four different store formats like Express, Metro, Superstore, Extra and one trial format Home plus, for non-food and clothing. As an international retailer, they mainly focus on the local customer needs and understand them. They make sure the board appeal. They have various own brands of superior quality to customers to compliment their style of living. Tesco looks after the people working with them (Tesco PLC 2009). Market Corporate responsibility is an opening for growth. The values are the no one tries harder for customers and treat people how they want to be treated (Tesco PLC 2009). The Tesco steering wheel represents performance and is a strategy-driving tool. (Tesco PLC 2009). A sale in non-food is a key part of the strategy. They provide with the best quality and price. Tescos non-food includes electrical, home entertainment, clothing, health and beauty, stationery, bookshop and soft furnishings, seasonal goods, opticians and pharmacies (Tesco PLC 2009). In retailing services, Tesco offers more to the customers. Tesco personal finance has products from credit cards to insurance. Online grocery shopping is made effortless with Tesco.com. Tesco Telecoms offers a wide range of services from mobile network, home phone service, internet access and an internet phone service (Tesco PLC 2009). The Success of Tesco depends on trust and satisfaction of the customers. Overall, Tesco has a strong marketing orientation and compelling marketing strategies which results in the customer satisfaction and the higher levels of profitability. Every Little Helps Tesco to be a market leader (Tesco PLC 2009). 10. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE As Armstrong (2005) defined, competitive advantage is the advantage over competitors obtained by providing better value to customer. It is important to company who wants to win the customers and establish a profitable relationship with them (Armstrong Kotler, 2005). Before the organisation is choosing the right competitive advantage on which to build up its competitive strategies it must analyze the industry environment normally by using the porters 5 forces analysis. 11. Porters Five Forces Analysis Introduced by Michael Porter in 1979, Porters 5 Forces is a powerful tool to analyse the attractiveness of an industry. This framework involves a relationship between competitors within an industry, potential competitors, suppliers, buyers. It helps management to understand both the strength of the current competitive position, and the strength of a position organization want to be. (Michael Porter, 2008) A diagram below shows the Porters 5 forces clearly. 12. Threat of New Entry: As porter said the ability of people who newly enter your market might affect your power. If the barrier to entry the market is low and your have little protection for current position, then the new competitors can easily enter the market and weaken your position. (Michael Porter, 2008). In terms of new entrants Tesco does not have much threat because of the high barriers for new comer to entry into the supermarket industry. According to the TNS (Taylor Nelson Sofres, the leading market research group) data Tesco occupies over one third of grocery market share in UK, and is along with Asda, Saintsburys, Morrisons become the big four which has hold over 68% of UK overall grocery market. This strong solid position makes Tesco the market leader and giant in UK supermarket industry. Due to the massive market share has been hold by the big four, the barriers for new entrants are obviously quite high. It is hard for new retailer to obtain the market share and challenge the existing powerfu l player such as Tesco. In addition, another high barrier for new entrants is the supermarket industry needs huge capital and personnel involved but needs long time to get the return. Therefore, there are high barrier for new retailers entry into the existing supermarket industry dominated by big four. Thus, if Tesco sustains its strong position in the market it will have less threat from new entrants. 13. The power of buyer: According to Porter the buyers have the power to drive price down. Small number of buyers and powerful buyers for a company can likely having greater power on driving the price (Michael Porter, 2008). Generally say, in supermarket industry there is little bargain power for buyers with supermarket because all the prices are fixed price. Moreover, the bigger number of consumers will reduce the power of buyers. Therefore, it is little power of buyers to Tesco due to huge number of customers and little bargain power of buyers in this industry. However, customers can still switch buying from one supermarket to another by many factors. First, the price is the primary factor determinates customers buying activities. In this respect, Tescos strategy is based on its cost advantages. The organization aims to be the best value retailer. Tesco stated its price has been cut by 17% between 2000 and 2006; even facing the higher energy price challenge during the recent recession Tescos price has bee n dropped down by 1.8% last year. Second, due to the differentiation of product is little in the supermarket industry; customers can switch buying easily, thus, to attract and keep customers is relying on their loyalty to the store. Tescos report claims it has the UK number one loyalty card scheme and it has over 13 millions active Clubcard holders. Overall, the power of buyer is little to Tesco and Tesco has big advantages on low price and customer loyalty. 14. Power of suppliers Porter said the suppliers also have power to drive up the price. The power of driven is determined by the number and the strength of suppliers. To the Britain biggest grocery supermarket Tesco, the power of supplier is very little because Tesco has vast numbers of supplier across overall markets. The overwhelming market power of Tesco makes suppliers have no bargain power to it; instead, some of suppliers rely on Tesco. As a buyer Tesco has huge demand and great power to the supplier. However, Tesco also relys on their suppliers to achieve its objectives, without those suppliers Tesco could not deliver best value goods to the customers. Therefore, Tesco has established the long term constructive partnership with suppliers. According to Tescos report, it has over 1,500 suppliers who have been working with Tesco for five years or more. Based on a survey taken in 2008 by Tesco, there were over 90% of UK suppliers thought Tesco was trustworthy. Moreover, Tesco also provide the opportunit ies to small producers and local suppliers. For example, Tesco has opened five new regional buying offices around Britain and hosted regional road shows to attract and increase the number of local suppliers for selling their goods through Tesco. As the result, the small suppliers get more business opportunities meanwhile they help Tesco getting hundreds of new lines into stores. In sum, Tesco has little threat from power of supplier and company achieved its objectives by establishing the trustable partnership with suppliers. 15. The Threat of substitutes Porter introduced this threat as the other industry or business has the ability to substitute you and attract your customers. Although Tesco has head position in the supermarket industry, somehow, the substitutes still exist. For example, eating-out is a substitute to buying food from supermarket. However, a recent survey by analyst Buckingham Research has found that 75% of British families will stay at home during the recession rather than eating out. Under recession, the threat of eating-out to supermarket is less than ever. Another substitute worth to be considered is the online shopping. Nowadays, as the technology growing fast the online shopping becomes easy and trendy. However, it can not completely substitute the real life shopping especially for the food purchase. The technical problem, delivery problem and communication problem may bother people to buy online. Moreover, the real life shopping is also a part of social life to most of people, which would be simply substitute by clicking screen. In sum, the threat of substitute to Tesco is higher than buyer, supplier and new entrant. 16. The Threat of Competitive Rivalry: This threat comes from the competitors and also is affected by the new entry, substitute, power of buyer and supplier. The threat of competitive rivalry to Tesco is high although it is the largest grocery supermarket in UK. Asda, Sainsburys and Morrison are the three main competitors of Tesco. These three companies also have big portion of market share and compete with Tesco through price, product and promotions. The competition between the main grocery supermarkets remains fierce. Tesco has been reported that the market share has been losing and dipping in UK market since 2009 by many main Medias such as Times, BBC news and Guardian. Reports said according to the last figures of 2009 Tescos market share dropped from 31.3% to 30.7% of UK grocery sales. Meanwhile, Asdas market share rose to 17 % from 16.7 % and Morrisons went up to 12.1% from 11.7 %. TNS reported against the UK grocery sales rise 6%, Tescos sales rose 4% which below the market growth. However, Morrisons and Asda were all found beyond the growth of the market, seeing sales rise 9.7% and 7.2%. Moreover, the discounter supermarkets Aldi and Lidl also compete with Tesco as consumer cut back on spending during the recession. In addition, TNS also claimed that Waitrose, the John Lewis-own supermarket as the up-market grocer is fast growing in grocery market. On the other hand, because Tesco also set foot in non-food industry there are so many competitors such as Shell, BP, Amazon, O2, etc. To sum up, Tesco has highly threat from many competitors in both food and non-food industry. Therefore, Tesco must take its competitive advantages to prevent from threats of competitors. 17. Competitive Advantage of Tesco Through the porters 5 forces analysis the competitive advantages of Tesco can be outlined. First, the significant market power is the big advantage of Tesco. The great market power makes Tesco is able to put up barrier to new entrants and weaken the power of buyer and supplier; it also gives Tesco ability to beat the competitors. Second, namely cost advantage, the big economic scale enables Tesco to reduce the cost at extremely low level and thereby providing the low price to customers. Third, diversification makes Tesco has a further advantage to win the market because Tesco expands the broad markets such as financing, telecom and retail service rather than just food market and spread its business worldwide. To sum up, if Tesco follows its competitive strategy by aware of the threats and competitive advantages, it will keep the strong position in the industry and beat its competitors. 18. MARKETING MIX Firstly, the term Marketing Mix was widely adopted after Neil H. Boren published his article The Concept of the Marketing Mix in 1964, where he described marketing managers as a mixer of ingredients. The ingredients in Borens marketing mix included product, planning, pricing, packaging, branding, distribution channels, personal selling, advertising, promotions, display, servicing, physical handling, fact finding and analysis. Which was later grouped into four categories by E. Jerome McCarthy, today know as the 4Ps of marketing, shown below However, some people argue that along with the Marketing Mix 4 Ps concept, we should add another 2 Ps, which are people and packaging. 19. PRODUCT It is rare to discuss price without the presence of a product and to enable us understand the link between Price and Product. Kotler Armstrong (2006) define a product as anything that can be presented to a consumer for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. They further define a consumer product as the product bought by the final consumer for personal consumption. According to Ferrell (2005), the product is the core of the marketing mix strategy in which retailers can offer consumers symbolic and experiential attributes to differentiate products from competitors. However, it is also concerned with what the product means to the consumer. Product is about quality, design, features, brand name and sizes (Borden, 1984). Wulf et.al. (2005) found that private label products could offer even better quality than national brands but at a lower price. The domestic competitor reacts to the intensifying price competition by engaging in selective price cha nges. A product is a physical good, service, idea, person, or place that is capable of offering tangible and intangible attributes that individuals or organizations regard as so necessary, worthwhile or satisfying that they are prepared to exchange money, patronage or some other unit of value to acquire it. (Blythe 2007) Core products: Core Products are the core benefit that is being sought by the consumer by buying the product, like the cheaper call rates and ease of recharge top up available to Tesco Mobile customers. Actual /Tangible products: Actual Products are all the tangible features/benefits that are associated with the core product such as its features or design, level of quality, packaging, size. There is no clear distinction between a pure tangible product and a service. The Tescos give away deals for the new 3G i-phone deal Augmented products: are the intangible features/benefits associated with the core actual product such as the branding, warrantees, delivery, guarantee, and after sales service. Tesco mobile, for example, is a tangible product, but it often comes with a warranty and software updates. A firmsproduct line refers to the variety of similar commodities that the firm holds, Tesco for example, makes a large range of inter-related goods, Many of Tesco stores stock over 40,000 product lines. Even a Tesco Express stores stock a choice of well over 2,000 lines. ProductDepthrefers to the variety of commodities offered within each product line. Tesco stores stock : Healthy Living products, Free From products for people with food allergies and intolerances, Special healthy Kids snacks and Organic product lines and the recent announcement by the Tescobank CEO Benny Higgins of plans to launch an assault on the mortgage market by the end of 2010, hoping to take advantage of the current problems in the sector. Targeted at providingTescocustomers with financial advice, car and home insurance credit cards, mortgages and current accounts.(MINTEL 2009). Products often go through alife cycle.Initially, at the introduction stage a product is launched. Since the product is not well known and is usually expensive (e.g. the , as). Eventually, many products reach agrowthphase where sales increases dramatically. More firms enter with their models of the product, sometimes with added innovations. Unfortunately, the product reaches amaturitystage where little growth is sighted. For example, in the UK, almost every household has at least one stereo sound system. Some products may also reach adeclinestage, usually because the product is swapped for something better. For example, CDplayers experienced declining sales as more consumers switched to MP3 players and i-pods. Ansoff Theory is a series of suggested growth strategies that set the direction for the business plan. illustrated below Market Penetration: here the business strategy focuses on selling existing products in existing markets.This strategy aims at four major objectives: Maintaining the market share of current products Securing growth market Dominance Drive out competitors with support of an aggressive promotional campaign and favorable price strategy Increase product usage by existing customers e.g. With the Tesco Loyalty Club card scheme. Market Development: here the business strategy seeks to sell its existing product into a new market. The various approaches to this include: New geographical markets e.g.- exporting Tesco UK products to the Express shops in Ireland and Malaysia New Product Dimension or Packaging New Distributional channel Implementing different pricing policies for different markets segments Product Development: refers to a growth strategy where new products are initiated in existing markets. This often requires development of new competencies in the case of Tesco Bank and its new job vacancies for competencies in the financial sector. Diversification points to the growth strategy where a business markets a new commodity in a new market. Unfortunately, for this strategy to be adopted a clear objective of its advantages should be explored and risk assessments carried out seeing as the business may have little or no experience in the new area. Roughly one quarter of Tescos sales, was own label. Many leading retailing companies have substantial grocery interests. Of the top 25 companies in 1978, 22 were involved in groceries retailing, of which 10 can be considered leading firms in the groceries sector [Akehurst, 1983: 169, Table 5] 20. Price : Price refers to the value assigned to something by the seller to something purchased, offered for sale, to a buyer as their willingness to pay for the product and services delivered (Gilbert 1999). Price is the only element in the marketing mix that is revenue generating- all of the others are costs. It should therefore, be used as an active instrument of strategy in the major areas of marketing decision making. Pricing in the international setting is more complicated than in the domestic market, because of factors such as government influence and additional costs (Becker and Thorelli 1980). The price of an item is an important influence on the value of sales made. In theory, price is really determined by the discovery of what customers perceive is the value of the item on sale. Recent research has shown that demand-based pricing is associated with higher retailer gross margins; whereas past price dependence is associated with, lower retailer gross margins (Nijs, Srinivasan, and Pau wels 2007). There are a number of pricing policies used by Tesco today, which include: 21. Market-led Pricing: also known as competitive pricing, this simply accepts the price which competitors are charging for a product and then price its product at the same level or slightly lower in order to gain some advantage over competitors. Significantly found in markets where there is close competitors. For a company like TESCO it is important to monitor other competitors and in order to maintain customer loyalty against discounters, the adoption of a more aggressive pricing strategy was launch by the advent of budget private label ranges and backed up by advertising focusing on price comparisons. Despite challenges due to rising energy prices, but with innovations such as the reusable plastic trays, which was introduced in the fresh food areas have helped make savings these savings are pass on to customers. According to the OFT this led to a fall in real food price between 2000-2005.as shown below 22. Cost-Based Pricing: also known as cost plus Pricing, involves working out the businesss total fixed and variable costs and then adding a percentage of profit. Here the business has to consider the total number of items that it plans to produce and sell. The big advantage of cost-based pricing for TESCO is that the company is guaranteed to make a profit on its sales since it has covered its costs. However, in operating cost-based pricing it is very important to be aware of competitors price. However, this poses a threat when businesses are unable to sell the expected quantity of the product, perhaps because competitors are offering the same goods at a lower price. 23. Price wars In a competitive market such as grocery market, businesses sometimes engage in price wars in which prices of some goods are slashed to a very low price in order to secure sales. Price wars swamped grocery retailers, as the switch to private labels from branded packaged food continued to gather pace. For instance, Tesco and ASDA propose freezing of tax on some products at 15% despite an increase in rates to 17.5%(MMR 2010) This is risky because advantages gained are short-lived and rival, businesses tend to respond by slashing prices even further. If pursued long enough, price wars would cut profits seriously and in the end, only customers benefits by the low prices. 24. PENETRATION PRICING 25. ECONOMY PRICING: Stores such as TESCO, which allegedly charge the lowest prices, attract many consumers based on this conception alone (Peter Donnely, 2007). Among retail stores, the pricing strategy has become the fundamental point, as they need to compete in terms of pricing to lure more customers. Berman (1996) added that among the pricing policies which are of major concern to retail store outlets are the High-Low Pricing and Every Day Low Pricing (EDLP) strategies. This is sighted in operators who have significant economies of scale and buying power (Gilbert 1999). 26. VALUE PRICING This ensues where external factors such as the recession or increased competition forces companies to provide VALUE product and services to retain sales, they are especially important to families on a budget and have made a significant contribution to making healthy food accessible to all. Tesco now has in store 95 fresh fruit and vegetable value lines, and are working with the Pre-School Learning Alliance to help parents and children in some of the UKs most deprived areas make healthier choices. Value pricing may have a negative impact on the profit margin of the company (tesco.com N.D). 27. GEOGRAPHICAL PRICING This is evident where there are variations in price and demand in different parts of the world. TESCOs prices are a little higher in some town centre and neighbourhood stores because of higher overhead costs (mainly rents and rates). These costs are spread over a smaller volume of sales, and can only be recovered by charging prices that are, on average, higher. Example was when Tesco first moved into Ireland the products it sold was more expensive than they were in their UK stores (Irish Times 1998). This was because the UK suppliers were charging the Ireland stores more than they were charging the UK stores. This triggered some conspiracies and allegiances between key stakeholders in the industry resulting in a widespread anti-Tesco campaign (Poole and Clark 2002). In Conclusion Pricing a product too high or too low could mean a loss of sales for the organization. Therefore, appropriate pricing strategies and policies should be put in place for the various market segments, to ensure 28. PROMOTION Significant P in Marketing Mix 4P (Product, Price, Promotion and Place). Although the 4P characterization has led to widespread use of the term promotion for describing communications with prospects and customers, the term marketing communications is preferred by most marketing practitioners as well as by many educators. Consider that we may want to use marketing communications to refer to the collection of advertising, sales promotions, public relations, event marketing, and other communication devices. Promotion is considered as Sales Promotion (Shimp 2007). Marketing Communication is used by organisations to communicate with customers with respect to their product offerings. In this sense, Marketing Communication is one side of the communication process with customers. Market research, in which suppliers seek to elicit information on consumer requirements from consumers, is the complementary component of the communication process. The following summarises this very simply: (Rowley 1998). According to Rowley (1998) producer should communicate to reach the customers and in turn should listen to the customers needs and requirements to enhance the product and service. Tesco proudly announced that one of the reasons to its Success is listening to their Customers and its suppliers. Tesco has adopted multiple qualitative research techniques to reach their customers such as focus groups, accompanied shops, home visits to collect the feedback and respond quickly with corrective measures. Modestly they say, Its simple we listen and respond, providing customers with