Ch 2 The Cost of Production Essay Example

Ch 2: The Cost of Production Paper The theory of production presented above showed how a firm may select inputs to produce a given output at minimum cost. In this section we will now refine this understanding of cost by clarifying what economic costs are, and their constituent components. This can help understand the short and long term dimensions of production decisions, the effects of learning and more clearly see how different industries’ cost structures can profoundly influence production decisions with different returns to scale. This is particularly relevant for understanding the nature of technological change within the neoclassical model as technology is conceived as operating by lowering costs. Underpinning the neoclassical analysis of the firm is that operational managers should take a forward looking view of costs and calculate how they can rearrange resources in the future to lower costs and improve profitability. In contrast to a retrospective view of simply the explicit costs of operations, such as wages, rent Figure 2.4 The production function and the cost of materials, an ‘economic’ perspective endeavours to focus attention on opportunity costs; or the costs foregone by not putting a firm’s resources to the highest value use (Pindyck and Rubinfeld, 1992:198). Explicit costs are still important as well, because they involve opportunity costs – for example, wages are the opportunity cost of labour inputs purchased in a competitive market. However, opportunity costs can also differ from such explicit costs. For example, consider a manager who runs her own business, but does not pay herself a salary. Although no monetary cost transaction has transpired, the firm nevertheless incurs an opportunity cost because the owner could have earned a competitive salary by working elsewhere. We will write a custom essay sample on Ch 2: The Cost of Production specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Ch 2: The Cost of Production specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Ch 2: The Cost of Production specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer This notion is also essential for investment banks – the so-called brains of the capitalist system – in how they allocate resources between different projects such as renewable energy versus fossil fuel projects. It is not so important that a project is able to earn a positive return for a given level of risk over and above what the bank can earn by borrowing at low rates from the central bank. Bankers, if they do their job properly, will scour the economy looking for projects which maximise this rate of return, seeking out the best projects, thereby allocating resources in the most effective way across the economy. A tension of course has arisen recently in the context of the financial crisis in how well bankers do this job – or whether in fact they are more focused on choosing the projects that maximise their own remuneration which many argue has become disconnected from them achieving their social function in allocating capital (Kay, 2012). Just as opportunity costs might not embody financial transfers but should be taken into account in economic decision making, sunk costs embody financial costs, but should not be taken into account. A sunk cost is an expenditure which has already been made but cannot be recovered. For example, if a piece of specialised plant or equipment has no alternative use, then its opportunity cost is zero and it should not be included in the firms’ current or future costs. While in general, capital costs include not just the upfront purchase and running the machinery but also the wear and tear to that asset which occurs over time – in theory, the sunk cost component of the investment should not affect current investment decisions. In practice, however, they often exert a strong influence over decisions and can contribute to path dependency – the tendency of some decisions once taken to make other similar decisions more likely. This has given rise to the concept of stranded a ssets and has especially been the focus of research related to decisions to extend the operating life of a nuclear power plants (De Bont and Makhija, 1987). This is another area where the common assumptions underpinning decision-making under the standard approach have been called into question. For instance, while it may be useful pedagogical tool to separate ‘explicit’ and ‘opportunity’ costs in textbooks, in practice, some economic practitioners may be just as backwards looking, especially as most economic forecasts are constructed on past performance. This has given rise to the counter movement of behavioural finance, in order to reinject a sense of realism back into financial and economic management. With this more detailed understanding of what is meant by ‘cost’ – we can now move onto describe its constituent components. The costs of the firm are typically separated out into short and long term elements. While the analysis in Figure 2.3 assumed perfect flexibility between factors of production, in practice, it is often impossible to vary some inputs and these costs must be paid irrespective of the level of production. These costs are called fixed costs (FC) and include items such as plant and expensive specialised equipment which can only be varied in the long run. Short-run costs can also be described as variable costs (VC) in that they vary with the level of output produced; for example, wages and materials such as water, electricity or components used in production. There are two types of variable cost. Firstly, marginal cost (MC) is the increase in cost that results from producing one extra unit of output. As it does not include fixed costs, it only represents the increase in variable costs that results from an extra unit of output. Because marginal cost tells us how much it costs to expand the firm’s output by one unit – it is also often considered analogous to the firm’s supply curve. The second category of variable cost is average total cost (AC or ATC) and average variable cost (AVC). Average total costs are the costs per unit of output including fixed costs, while average variable cost excludes these fixed costs. Figure 2.5 sets out these relationships graphically. Increasing returns means that for the early units of production (up to Qe), there is a high marginal product for variable cost inputs (such as labour). Up until this point, for every extra unit of production, average costs are falling. The slope of the variable cost curve at any point gives the marginal cost. Average variable costs are minimised when the ray from the origin in panel (a) touches the variable cost curve. This occurs at point a in panel (b) and the short-run variable costs exhibit constant returns (similarly for total costs at point e). When the marginal cost is below the average cost curves, average costs are falling, and when it is above the AVC and ATC curves, diminishing returns have set in with average costs are rising. Because fixed costs are constant, average fixed costs fall with increasing output. By comparing average total cost to the price of the product, or marginal revenue, it is possible to determine the economic profitability of the firm. In a perfectly competitive market it is assumed that firms are price takers – this means that any one firm does not have the ability to influence the market price for their output so the market price is also the firm’s marginal revenue curve (MR). Furthermore, at the point of equilibrium in perfect competition, all firms are required to be producing at zero economic profit. This requires equilibrium to occur at point e in Figure 2.5, where marginal revenue is Pe and equal to marginal cost at the minimum point of the ATC curve. Note that at this point an accounting profit is still possible, a return is being made on capital invested and salaries are being paid – it is just that resources cannot be allocated in a better way by this firm. If Pe is above this point then the firm would be operating at positive economic profit and if it was below it would be making a loss and eventually have to stop production. If a technological innovation occurs which enables the firm to lower the cost of production for any given level of output then the MC curve shifts downwards and to the right taking the average cost curves with it. If market prices remain constant at Pe this enables the firm to earn greater profit. It is this process that provides the engine for continual improvements in technology and management processes for if a firm can stay ahead of ‘t he market’ norm of technology excess profits will be able to be earned – above normal market rates. Figure 2.5 The components of cost: short run In the long-run, fixed costs are flexible (as in the model presented in Figure 2.3) and firms can alter the scale of production, for example, by adding new production facilities. Figure 2.6 The components of cost: long-run In this case, the short-run average total cost curves for the firm can be described by SRAC1, SRAC2 and SRAC3 in Figure 2.6. In Phase 1 the firm is initially producing at Q1 but understands that by increasing its fixed costs and expanding its plant size, it could produce at a lower average cost. Provided the price (marginal revenue) supports such a move, the firm will move to Phase 2 capital expansion. At this stage the firm still uses Plant 1 but at the reduced level of Q2 units with plant one and produces Q3 units with the medium sized Plant 2. Over the range z to y, the technologies which govern the expansion of output exhibit constant returns to scale. Any plant size (capital) along this output range will produce the product at the same average cost. However, after point y, decreasing returns to scale set in, and while a move to Phase 3 of capital expansion with a large plant size may still be profitable if average costs for the largest plant are below the market price at P0. With this industrial structure, the long run average cost curve is given by the emboldened sections of the short-run average cost curves, because this shows the minimum cost of production for any output level. Note that a small plant running at minimum cost is not as efficient as a large plant which can take advantage of increasing returns to scale to produce at a higher output level. The LRAC curve which envelopes this is the curve which traces the minimum SRAC curves if plants of any size could be built. A more formalised way to describe these economies of scale is through the elasticity of cost with respect to output. Recall that elasticity measures the change in one variable in response to a change in another variable. Hence we can define the elasticity of supply: (2.8) When ÃŽ µs is equal to one, costs increase proportionately with output (constant returns to scale); when ÃŽ µs is greater than one, costs increase more rapidly than output (decreasing returns to scale); and when it is less than one costs increase at a slower rate than output (increasing returns to scale). While increasing returns to scale mean that costs will fall up to a point: as described by the movement along the long-run AC curve (from point b to point e), perhaps the most profound driver of lowering average costs over time is learning and technological change. This is shown graphically in Figure 2.5 by the shift from AC1 to AC2 and from MC1 to MC2. There are several forces that can be behind this process, for example: Learning by doing and learning by watching: as workers perform the same job over and over, they gain experience, which means that they take less time to complete specific tasks. In addition, managers become more adept at scheduling the production process from the flow of materials to the organisation of the firm itself. Engineers also learn from experience and, over time, will improve the design and efficiency of machinery, create better and more specialised tools, faster computer chips and so on; Improvements in material inputs. Learning by doing and watching also affects businesses which supply the firm – so improvements are continually being made by the firm’s suppliers who may pass some of the benefits of this onto the firm in the form of more effective and cheaper material inputs; and New technological products. Advances in technology may create whole new products which can revolutionise the costs of production for certain industries. For example, the internet has resulted in a large productivity boost for many firms which have been able to change the way they interact with their customers. One such case is the airline business, where passengers now book their tickets directly on-line, rather than go through a travel agent. As a result average costs have come down substantially. Next Page   Ch 2: Cost Functions for Electric Power Previous Page   Ch 2: The Theory of Production, Cost and the Firm

Deadbeat Parents essays

Deadbeat Parents essays Parents who do not pay their child support are deadbeat parents. This creates a hardship for the case managers in the child support office, the legal staff in preparing documents and court appearances, but most importantly, the children who are the recipients of the child support. Child support enforcement exists to help ensure that every child receives the support that is required by law. This process begins through court ordered divorce, paternity genetic testing, or application made directly to the child support office. Through a court ordered divorce proceeding, the absent parent (the individual who is not awarded custody) is required to pay child support. Guidelines are established for determining the amount to be paid and an order is established. If an individual is in disagreement with an order a paternity genetic test can be given. A custodial parent can complete an application to submit to the local child support enforcement office. Once this is received, the application goes through several processes. First, an establishment case manager reviews the paperwork and has appointments with both parties involved. Once the order is established, through the case manager or child support court, the case goes to an enforcement case manager. This person is responsible for enforcing the child support order by maintaining contact with the absent parent, securing employment information, address, etc. If an individual fails to comply with the order, another process begins. The case is referred to the legal department for enforcement. Paperwork issued from the court is mailed to the individual requiring them to appear in court on a specific date and time. If they do appear, they are given an opportunity to explain why they are not meeting their order. If this is acceptable by the judge, they are given another opportunity to comply. In most cases, the absent parents do not show up for court and a contempt warrant is iss ...

External reference pricing in pharmaceutical industry Essay

External reference pricing in pharmaceutical industry - Essay Example 2013). Under competition, marketers tend to consider the price of other competing product/ service whilst setting the new price and this strategy is called external reference pricing. According to Trivedi (2002), the idea behind this pricing strategy is that the price should not be too high or low to the competing products/ services. In the pharmaceutical industry, external reference pricing, is commonly applied in order for the government to tame the prices of pharmaceutical products that are protected by intellectual property rights and even enable the pharmaceutical companies to benefit from a created monopoly arising from the patented drugs. This present study seeks to investigate the flaws of external reference pricing strategy in the pharmaceutical industry from the point of view of PainCeptor Pharma in Canada, and it will seek to provide a recommendation to the Canadian government on whether to continue using this strategy or not in the pricing of pharmaceutical products. ... On the other hand, the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB) is an independent quasi-judicial body that was established by the Canadian parliament in 1987. Therefore, the board regulates the company’s pricing strategy and it recommends the prices for prescription and non-prescription drugs that are sold within the borders of Canada (Ruggeri and Nolte, 2013). One of the principles of pharmaceutical pricing in Canada by the PMPRB is that if a price is found to be excessive, the Board will call for a public hearing against the company and then order it to reduce its prices or offset some of the excess revenue earned (Ruggeri and Nolte, 2013). According to Ruggeri and Nolte (2013), the board applies external referencing pricing when a new drug is regarded as a major breakthrough, or there is a significant or moderate improvement on an already existing drug. In such scenarios, the board applies the median international price comparison test. This test considers the prices o f other related patented drugs that have the same dosage and strengths that are being sold in seven specific countries that include the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Italy, France, and Switzerland. The median price calculated from these seven countries determines the maximum average potential price that the board will stipulate for the new or improved drug that has been manufactured by PainCeptor Pharma. If the drug is only in use in less than five countries, the international median price is calculated on an interim basis but it will be subject to a review after three years putting into consideration changes that have occurred on the consumer price index

Marketing Communications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Marketing Communications - Essay Example IMC campaigns became the business necessity to keep their customers loyal and committed to their products in global competitive environment. This paper deals with the brief case studies of three different organizations from the same industry, on use of IMC campaigns, their selected target markets, campaign ideas, tools, themes and comparison of the three companies. The whole essay clarifies the concept of integrated marketing communication tools and objectives of their use. With a clear concept and implementation success of Integrated Marketing Communication tools, certain recommendations are made for the better future use of integrated marketing campaigns. The whole paper also addressed the challenges of Integrated Marketing Communication approaches. Integrated marketing communication With the advent of globalization in business world, businesses need to survive by following a head to head competition, customer loyalty and retention. There came the concept of using all marketing too ls together to get maximum benefit and an edge over competitors. This marketing technique is known as integrated marketing communication. This is a management concept that puts all the marketing communications under one head. Integrated marketing communication works as a unified force to accomplish all the marketing management goals of organization. This concept creates a link among all the forms of marketing through synergistic effect it provides. Many marketplace trends gave emergence to integrated marketing communication. Customers attitude is changing with increase in number of advertisement messages, media fragmentation, audience fragmentation, mergers of marketing agencies, global marketing, follower products, competition of ad agencies; decrease in costs of database management and maintenance of customer relationship. (Thorson, Moore, 1996) Integrated marketing communication process is not a very old concept but getting popularity in the upcoming trends of business needs of m aintaining competitive edge. In today’s environment integrated marketing communication is leading old techniques of communicating with consumers and customers. In near future, IMC campaigns and tools will become the success factors of businesses and their business need. Different IMC approaches There are five different and common and frequently used tools of IMC; Advertising, Sales promotions, Public relations, direct marketing and Personal selling (Kym Gordon Moore, 2009) Sometimes organizations focus on some of them and integrate with each other to get better results in consistency with the organization’s campaign objectives and organization’s resources. Theses all tools are commonly used for marketing purposes. But under integrated marketing communication, these tools are used as a unified force with bigger impact. Selected IMC approaches case studies Integrated marketing communication is a simple but vast concept of management and communication. Three IMC ca mpaigns are selected for a detailed analysis of efficiency in use, similarities in objectives, difference in approaches, ideas,

Consumer Behaviour (case study milk) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Consumer Behaviour (case study milk) - Essay Example As a result, many buyers share a favorable attitude toward Australian milk. The new advertising campaign helps the milk industry appeal to new target audience. "It portrays milk drinkers as likely to have more stamina and to have a better time as beer drinkers" (Case study). In this case, behavior patterns of buyers are influence by quality decisions and unique qualities of the product. This behavior patterns represent how a product is associated with unique personal image and health-conscious appeal (Brock et al 1994). Another step is to reposition the product and change "the way people view milk as s beverage" (Case study). In a short period of time, success is due in part to the product's association with prestige and new lifestyle. The message is reinforced in advertising that urges new buyers to join this group. The milk industry uses the same characters, James and Tom, with sex appeal. Personal values are considered important consumer behavior elements because they serve as determinants of attitudes and have manifested themselves in the formation of buying motives and brand attitudes. Personal values are better predictors of activity preference than demographic variations. Factors comprising items related to cultural activities, outdoor activities, and roots such as visiting ancestral homelands and friends and relatives indicated that personal values were more useful than demographics. Both campaigns are targeted at male consumers. It is possible to say that values are learned and are respons ible for determining self-concept. These values extend to social, family life, entertainment, and other facets of life. New advertising campaign creates a new mode of conduct which the individual believes is either correct or incorrect, and increases number of branded products. Another campaign, "Milk-legendary Staff", is based on emotional and sex appeal. The role of this type of advertising is to change the style of life of consumers beyond economic factors and includes an increasing concern with a sense of well-being. Consumers behavior is influenced by factors mentioned above and reflected their feelings, states of happiness, and other behavioral measures are associated with their expectations. Generally, the style of life is equated with a sense of satisfaction. For milk producers, it is important to create a core of loyal supporters based on their behavior patterns. The advent of customer loyalty is a response to the need to meet heightened customer expectations and face intensified market competition. Customer loyalty can be defined as a commitment to continue to do business with a company on an ongoing basis. To deliver customers satisfaction milk producers consider several options for developing operations strategy. Having the option to choose, and options to choose from, is crucial to marketing dynamics (Brock et al 1994). Without option of choice, they be unable to create a selling proposition and to target their most promising opportunities; and customers would be unable to express their needs and purchase preferences, settling for something less-than-acceptable, or not at all (Wells et al 2005). In spite of positive changes in life style of people and increasing consumption of milk, both advertising campaigns exploit consumers. Advertising message has a great influence on buyers as it is often

Sms Banking Marketing Plan

Sms Banking Marketing Plan BankMuscat is I well known bank in Oman and consider the best financial organization and the winner of 8 in raw as Bank of the year (Times of Oman 2010). It provides large banking services which fulfills most country demands including consumers, businesses and government. The main divisions of the bank are retail banking and wholesale banking. Within these divisions there are E-channels which are call center, ATM, CDM, cards, Internet and mobile banking. The demand for electronic banking services is increasing since Oman strategic is to convert the conventional system to E-government (e.oman 2010). While these changes in country is ongoing, most of organizations adapting to go electronically in order to compete in the market. BankMuscat is one of the leaders to adapt new innovative technologies which make them step ahead from other banks. An opportunity exists for SMS banking for two reasons: None of other banks yet provided transactions over SMS while BankMuscat SMS banking existing system support this feature. Expand the language to Arabic in SMS banking to cover existing BankMuscat customer of non-users of SMS banking. All other banks local not offering this type of services and they only were providing informative SMS banking rather than interactive transaction (Ecommerce Journal 2009). Our new service in existing SMS banking will lead the market since BankMuscat has a large portion of market share of customers. The current stats show a large usage in electronic services and people become more technology aware. The stats shows also huge increase in the number of registered customers with SMS banking and comparing total registration in 2009 by 110,099 while in 2010 the total registration as of month of November is 134,926 (appendix 1,2). Moreover, the increase also occurs in the usage of the service comparing it by last years and also comparing it with monthly transactions, 1,118,826 request in 2009 and 1,430,399 requests in 2010 (appendix 1,2). With all this increase if we applied the new services like transactions over SMS and Arabic enabled interface we will lead the market for years. This also will increase our commission profit for each SMS sent by customer and will attract more service providers to use our SMS banking service as a channel for bill payment. Our target customers will be all type of customers capable of using mobile phones to send SMS. The rapid increase in cell phone market with cheap prices and good rates of service providers is our key of success. Also the growth in Oman and increase the percentage of roads traffic is changing the habit of customers of paying for their bills and prefer to do all this at their home at own suitable time. Situation Analysis In order to build good relationship with our all stake holders we have to understand our environment forces around all our relationships. In the next section I will describe BankMuscat Internal and external environments along with their analysis. External environment (Mic, Mac) As a bank its obvious other local banks are our competitors and the main force and we will analysis this with Porters Five forces analysis. Porters Five forces Competitive Rivalry: our rivalry banks are HSBC because its an international well known bank and locally NBO which the second successful bank in Oman. Both are very adaptive to the technology and always competing. Threat of entry: misuse of SMS banking services may raise law issues which interferes the service as what happened to the NAWARS tel. bill payment portal shutdown by force of law. Also there is threat of leaks this new service to our competitors before launching will make a bad image of BankMuscat is imitating others initiatives. The power of buyers: Our customer will intend to use the SMS banking service a lot because they are directly transfer amount from their account to utility bills which is easer from withdrawal money from bank and then visiting utility providers outlet to pay their bills. The power of suppliers: since our utility providers are a few companies so there is limited of suppliers which will offer to market for their utility payments exclusively to BankMuscat because of the huge number of customers dealing with. The Threat of substitutes: the major threat is using the other channel which internet banking since its become more popular because the government encourages this initiative by name of E-government. Since we analyzed the microenvironment by using Porters analysis we also require doing another analysis in macro environment by using PEST analysis. PEST analysis Political Factors: Telecommunication Regulatory Authority may set rules and standards in order to protect the users from fraud by which will make the process of using SMS banking more complicated for users. Economical Factors: after the recession which happened during end of 2008 the market growth increases again in 2009 recovery stage and in 2010 most of companies started to gain profits (Oman Observer 2010). This increased the salaries and buying power from customers. In other hand, BankMuscat makes good profit in the three quarters of 2010 by increase in 26% (Sharif 2010) which allowed increasing the budget for department for development. Social Factors: The resist of change is one of the culture factors that are facing the banking developments. Some of interior customers still prefer to pay their bills by visiting the utility providers. But the good thing is our Arabic based SMS banking will capture those who dont want to use other language to do their transactions. The go green campaign which sponsored by many environment organizations and with support of government is focusing in reduce papers in businesses and here comes SMS banking as free papers service which is widely accepted as eco-friendly. Technological Factors: SMS banking has good opportunity because the bank strategies are to change the attention from visiting branches to do banking services remotely (BankMuscat 2009). Most companies prefer to do their transactions without using papers and this good sign change customers behavior towards our new electronic services. The availability of mobile coverage and the range of choice with cheap prices all adding value for using SMS banking as first alternative. SWOT analysis After we captured the information for from external environment we will use it in our SWOT analysis as opportunities and threats. Strengths Current system already has the function for bill payments Current system is the latest in market Current system has the capability to add additional languages Management are very adaptive for new changes Low cost upgrade Weaknesses Limited IT staff for implementation Third party software needs support from vendor Other departments not support in marketing of other products Opportunities Fastest bills payment with one step from account to utility provider. Easy to capture more utility providers because of large base of customers in BankMuscat Gain the market of non-English users Government support and collaboration for new technologies Threats International banks are more advanced in technology Law enforce in case of misuse of this service by customers Internet banking may attract big portion of SMS banking customers Marketing Objective BankMuscat vision statement Over one million satisfied customers by 2010 through continuous enhancement of stakeholder value. In pursuit for customer satisfaction and comply with BankMuscat vision our new SMS banking system will fill the thirst of customers who deserve to get unique services at any time anywhere with no hassle of waiting. Target Market To get deep inside to our target market we will be using market segmentation process analysis. 1-Segmentation Variables Geographic: since SMS banking is mobile technology based service, so there is no limits because it depends on the coverage of mobile network operator even its support international rooming. The Arabic based SMS is targeting customers especially in rural areas which they are not able to deal with English language. Demographics: Targeted market customers with age range 18-65 years old both genders who are working in job or having business with all range of income with small level of knowledge in using mobile devices. Psychographic: Targeted market customers can be any lifestyle orientations with personality open minded Behavioral: Common variables of this segment are customers prefer easy and fast way of bill payment for medium usage in monthly rate and heavy usage for account enquiry. The user status can be ex-user, nonuser, potential user and existing user. 2- Market segment profile After analyzing the market variables we will now gather the common share of who, what and why to build segment profile. Our customer looks like any gender between 18-65 years old living anywhere having account in BankMuscat and using text messaging of our local mobile operators with sufficient knowledge in using mobile devices. Our customers appeals to do their bill payments at any time faster than any service with both local and English languages. Customers who want to make their bill payment easier and faster on monthly basis in case of bill payments and frequently in case of account quires. Our customer needs are to provide them with fastest one-click anytime and anywhere with free of charge bill payments service, also at their convenient language. 3-Targeting strategy Our marketing strategy will use a mix of undifferentiated and concentrated strategy. SMS Bill payment will satisfy any BankMuscat account holders who is having local mobile operator. But also our strategy will concentrate on special targeted customers who want to use SMS banking in Arabic version. 4-Evaluate of market segments Currently the total registered customers for year 2010 are 110099 by comparing to 2009 was 981120 which we estimate the increase by 25% because of the new service and additional language. There is no comparison with other banks because this is new service to market. The cost will only occur in implementation stage because of the system upgrade, Ads, brochures and banners. 5-Selecting target market Based on the overcome of the targeting strategy and along with BankMuscat vision we will use the mix of undifferentiated and concentrated marketing strategies to increase the usage between existing customers and to capture potential customers of our competitors to reach and exceeds the satisfactory levels. 6-Market positioning We are offering our new service to our main two segments, existing and new customers who will use their mobiles SMS for the first time to do transactions which no other banks in Oman provide such service for their customers. The second segment is to provide existing SMS banking service and SMS bill payment service in Arabic-based for remaining BankMuscat account holders. Like before this is new service which our customers will experience exclusively. 7-Developing marketing mix The next section we will be describing the marketing mix Marketing Strategies, 7Ps -Product: Our product is upgraded SMS banking service for account query and bill payments with both English and Arabic interface. -Place: SMS banking service can be accessed by any BankMuscat accounts holders using their mobile phones through our local mobile operators locally or international rooming. -Promotion: Ads will be announced in newspaper radio stations and BankMuscat web site before launching to keep the customer informed for the new service launching and after launching. Brochures and banners will be distributed to all branch channels and ATM/CDM. -Price: SMS banking will remain free of charge service and only customer cost is for SMS as normal cost rate of sending SMS from mobile phone to another. -Physical evidence: Customer will get confirmation SMS after the transaction with transaction code for reference. Customer can use their account statement as a record for their transactions. -Participants: Customers will get support by direct interaction with call center agents and branch staff. -Process: The service will be monitored by usual function in the bank core system with status of the customer. SMS banking team and billing team will have the access to daily reports of the transactions. Budget The budget for the project will divide into upgrading the system and marketing for the service. The system upgrade will cost OMR 55,000 including support from vendor. The second part is for publishing Ads through media newspapers and radio stations and this will cost OMR 13,000. Last part is for printing brochures and banners, which will cost around OMR 25,000. There will be yearly budget for the rewards of the best selling branch. Part of the budget we will get it after the approval from the management. We have good confidence in our management to support the new project as Sheik Abdul Malik Chairman of Bankmuscat described that BankMuscat is welcoming any opportunity to develop pioneered products and services meeting the market changes (Letha 2010). Implementation The action plan is represented in a timeline schedule in next page and will shows each activity time and assigned department with the managers of that activity Evaluation and recommendation Once we end with timeline of the project we will take deep insight view of how our new system is effectively meeting our goals. As we are providing a service we will have to depend on the reports of the system providing. The system will allow us to see for each branch how much registration they made in point of time. We will compare these reports by same month of the previous year to see the percentage of increase. Monthly we will extract reports of the number of bill payments starting from the launching moth of July and onward to see if the increase is happening from month to month. We will also check the payments of each of bill type and to see where the bill type is needs more attention to boost the sale of it. In case there is system failure easily our IT team are ready to switch the system maintenance mode which will stop any interaction with customers SMS and will send default replay as the system under maintenance please try again later. If the problem is persist in bill payme nt facility then we can disable this feature temporary and keep the normal account query facility working until we fix the problem. The bill payments complaint will be handled by bills team and to update any payments with utility provider. So the customer will not need to contact both the bank and the utility provider since we will do all the necessary actions to solve the customers issue. Reference: Times of Oman (2010) BankMuscat wins top Banker award. Times of Oman [online] 14 December 2010. Available from [23 December 2010]. ITA (2010) ITA Vision [online] available from [23 December 2010] Ecommerce Journal (2009) Electronic banking in the Sultanate of Oman Ecommerce Journal [online] available from [23 December 2010] Oman Observer (2009) Omans economic fundamentals remain strong. Oman Observer [online] 05 July 2010. available from [23 December 2010] Sharif,A. (2010) Bank Muscat Third-Quarter Net Income Increases 26% on Lending. Business Week [online] 14 October 2010. Available from [23 December 2010] BankMuscat (2009) BankMuscat widens reach of easy-to-use mobile banking service [online] available from [23 December 2010] Letha,J. (2010) True leader. Business Today [online] 01 Jun 2010. Available from [23 December 2010]

New Belgium Brewing Company Essay -- Business Analysis

Belgium is known for a culture of high-quality beer and this concept was formulated by an electrical engineer from Fort Collins, Colorado. The electrical engineer, Jeff Lebesch, was traveling through Belgium on his fat-tired mountain bike when he envisioned the same high-quality beer in Colorado. Lebesch acquired the special strain of yeast used in Belgium and took it back to his basement in Colorado and the experimentation process was initiated. His friends were the samplers and when they approved the beer it was marketed. In 1991, Lebesch opened the New Belgium Brewing Company (NBB) with his wife, Kim Jordan, as the marketing director. The first beer and continued bestseller, Fat Tire Amber Ale, was named after the bike ride in Belgium. The operation went from a basement to an old railroad depot and then expanded into a custom-built facility in 1995. The custom-built facility included an automatic brew house, quality-assurance labs and technological innovations. NBB offers p ermanent, seasonal and one-time only beers with a mission to be a lucrative brewery while making their love and talent visible. In the cases presented by the noted authors (Ferrell & Simpson, 2008), discusses the inception, marketing strategy, brand personality, ethics and social responsibility that New Belgium Brewing Company has demonstrated. The key facts with New Belgium Brewing Company are the marketing strategy, promotion, internal environment and social responsibility with the critical issues of the public, brand slogan, growth and competition. First, there was a key fact in the marketing strategy. In 1996, there was a turning point in the area of marketing for NBB when Greg Owsley was hired as the Director. Owsley developed a team tha... ...rase on every six-pack of beer that informs the public the product is a labor of love and have created something superior it to improve people’s lives. NBB has a brand identity of quality, responsible with a concern for society. NBB went from an operation in a basement to a custom built factory. The custom built factory has efficiencies that are cost effective and environmentally safe. NBB originally distributed to Colorado and has expanded to sixteen states. References Ferrell, O. C. (2008). â€Å"New Belgium Brewing Company(A)† in Ferrell, O. C., and Hartline, Michael D., Marketing Strategy, Fourth Edition, Mason, Ohio: Thompson Southwestern Publishing, pp. 463-470. Simpson, B. (2008). â€Å"New Belgium Brewing (B)† in Ferrell, O. C., and Hartline, Michael D., Marketing Strategy, Fourth Edition, Mason, Ohio: Thompson Southwestern Publishing, pp. 1-5. New Belgium Brewing Company Essay -- Business Analysis Belgium is known for a culture of high-quality beer and this concept was formulated by an electrical engineer from Fort Collins, Colorado. The electrical engineer, Jeff Lebesch, was traveling through Belgium on his fat-tired mountain bike when he envisioned the same high-quality beer in Colorado. Lebesch acquired the special strain of yeast used in Belgium and took it back to his basement in Colorado and the experimentation process was initiated. His friends were the samplers and when they approved the beer it was marketed. In 1991, Lebesch opened the New Belgium Brewing Company (NBB) with his wife, Kim Jordan, as the marketing director. The first beer and continued bestseller, Fat Tire Amber Ale, was named after the bike ride in Belgium. The operation went from a basement to an old railroad depot and then expanded into a custom-built facility in 1995. The custom-built facility included an automatic brew house, quality-assurance labs and technological innovations. NBB offers p ermanent, seasonal and one-time only beers with a mission to be a lucrative brewery while making their love and talent visible. In the cases presented by the noted authors (Ferrell & Simpson, 2008), discusses the inception, marketing strategy, brand personality, ethics and social responsibility that New Belgium Brewing Company has demonstrated. The key facts with New Belgium Brewing Company are the marketing strategy, promotion, internal environment and social responsibility with the critical issues of the public, brand slogan, growth and competition. First, there was a key fact in the marketing strategy. In 1996, there was a turning point in the area of marketing for NBB when Greg Owsley was hired as the Director. Owsley developed a team tha... ...rase on every six-pack of beer that informs the public the product is a labor of love and have created something superior it to improve people’s lives. NBB has a brand identity of quality, responsible with a concern for society. NBB went from an operation in a basement to a custom built factory. The custom built factory has efficiencies that are cost effective and environmentally safe. NBB originally distributed to Colorado and has expanded to sixteen states. References Ferrell, O. C. (2008). â€Å"New Belgium Brewing Company(A)† in Ferrell, O. C., and Hartline, Michael D., Marketing Strategy, Fourth Edition, Mason, Ohio: Thompson Southwestern Publishing, pp. 463-470. Simpson, B. (2008). â€Å"New Belgium Brewing (B)† in Ferrell, O. C., and Hartline, Michael D., Marketing Strategy, Fourth Edition, Mason, Ohio: Thompson Southwestern Publishing, pp. 1-5.

Development of a Communications Plan for a Corporate Website Launch

AWARDS CEREMONY FOR MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT AND PROVINCIAL LEGISLATORS AT UNISA on 18 November 2011 GOVERNANCE AND LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME DRAFT COMMUNICATIONS PLAN Background An awards ceremony will be held on 18 November 2011 in Pretoria for 158 Members of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures who have completed the Governance and Leadership Programme. The programme is offered under the auspices of the University of South Africa (UNISA). A total of 293 MPs and MPLs registered for the programme initially but some could not complete their studies on time. The Programme is supported by the South African Legislative Sector, under the guidance of the Speakers’ Forum and Public Administration Leadership Academy, PALAMA. Communication Objectives Parliament considers the role of public representatives to be central in exercising its role as the supreme law-making body in the country. As such, Members of Parliament and Provincial Legislatures need to acquire the requisite skills and competencies that will enable them to approach their work more judiciously and to participate more effectively in Parliamentary processes of law-making, oversight and public participation. Target audience Members of Parliament Members of Provincial Legislatures Speakers’ Forum SALSA General Public Key Messages †¢ The Capacity Building Development Programme enhances Members’ ability to execute their constitutional responsibilities more effectively †¢ Members are able to analyse policy, legislation, strategy more effectively †¢ The role of Parliament and Provincial legislatures is considerably enhanced in the public arena †¢ The South African public gains confidence in the ability of MPs and MPLs to execute their public duties in a responsible manner COMMUNICATION TOOLS Internal Newsletters (Parliament, Legislatures and PALAMA) (Responsibility: Michael Ralo, Gerbrecht van Heerden, PALAMA and provinces) †¢ Intranet and website (Parliament, Legislatures and PALAMA) (Responsibility: Michael Ralo, Gerbrecht van Heerden, PALAMA and provinces) External †¢ Media statement (Radio, TV and print) Action: Media statement drafted, waiting for approval Action: TV, radio and print interviews to be arranged from 14-18 November 2011 Speakers scheduled for interview include the following Members of the Reference Group on Training: Deputy Speaker: National Assembly, Ms NC Mfeketo Deputy Speaker: Free State Legislature, Ms MA Tsopo Speaker: Limpopo Legislature, Mr KA Phala Deputy Speaker: Eastern Cape Legislature, Ms N Moerane-Mamase Deputy Speaker: KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, Mr M Mthimkulu PRINT MEDIA The Star Citizen Beeld Sowetan Daily times City Press Sunday Times Sunday World RADIO & TV Jacaranda Kaya FM yfm SABC Radio News Metro FM Thobela Motswedi Ukhozi Umhlobo Wenene Mohlodi Ligwalagwala SABC TV News Radio 2000 Radio 702 (Responsibility: Michael Ralo, Abe Mokoka – Gauteng Legislature, Sanelisiwe Mbhele – PALAMA and provinces) †¢ Event (Graduation ceremony and gala dinner and photography) (Responsibility: Msimelelo Nyikana, Millie Daweti and Task Team) †¢ Sector-wide publications (Responsibility: Michael Ralo, Parliament) †¢ Sector Annual Report (Responsibility: LSS)

Comparing the Horse Dealers Daughter and a Rose for Emily essays

Comparing the Horse Dealers' Daughter and a Rose for Emily essays How death affects everyone differently, as seen through D.H. Lawrences The Horse Dealers Daughter and William Faulkners A Rose for Emily. Death is the end of life. Every living thing dies, but human beings are probably the only creatures that can imagine their own deaths. When someone dies the people closet to them are over come with sadness. Some people find comfort in death. They believe that when you die your suffering ends. People who go through the death of an important person in their life often feel like a part of them has also died. You can choose to let this experience alter and shape the rest of your life or you can overcome it and continue with your life. In A Rose for Emily and The Horse Dealer's Daughter , Mable and Emily experience the death of their father. In A Rose for Emily, the main character Emily experiences a hard coming change. After being the only man in her life Emily's father dies and she finds it hard to let go. It took three days for the doctors to be able to dispose of his body. She kept denying for three days that her father had died. The townspeople didnt think she was crazy for doing so. They believed she had to do that. They remembered all the young men who her father had chased away, and they knew that with nothing left she would have to cling to that which had robbed her. (Faulkner Pg.75) EMily's father didn't let her date. He took away any chance she had to meet a man. He felt that none of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily. (Faulkner Pg. 75) She spent her life taking care of him in that old house. She wasnt allowed to experience and enjoy the pleasure of being in the company of men. Emily was thirty when her father passed and was still single. (Faulkner Pg. 75) In a way her fathers death was liberation for her. She could begin to date and court men of her choice and liking. Her father couldnt chase them o...

Songwriting 101 Essays

Songwriting 101 Essays Songwriting 101 Paper Songwriting 101 Paper The world of literature consists of many different genres, and of those genres the most commonly overlooked is songwriting (Frey). To this day uncountable numbers of records have been sold. There have been countless awards given to the people who focus their entire lives upon this one section of literature.And to this day, there have been more people touched by a song than by any other genre or literature.It is skill that only few people take the time to learn and to understand, but the fans of great songwriting understand why they invested so much time into this art. Thefirst thing to understand about songwriting is simply this, what makes up a well-written song? There are three basic things you must include in a song to make it a masterpiece.First you must start out with a title. The title of the song is the backbone and reason for it being written in thefirst place.The title gives a song focus and gives it power.It also should intrigue the listener.Witho ut this the song is sure to fall apart. Next a song should include a focused chorus.A course is a repeated or closely repeated set of lyrics. Therefore is should give focus to the title.It should support and define the title so that the title has a reason.And the final thing a well-written song should include is a verse.A verse gives examples and new ideas to the title.It gives you the opportunity to speak your mind, or even tell a story around the title and the chorus (Fleece). After you have planned a song that includes a title, a chorus, and a diverse verse, what else should you include?This is called the arrangement or makeup of the song.The song needs to have rhythm, a tempo, a style and other clique things.These things have to fit with the music.You dont need a heavy metal tempo with a love ballad. A mixture of tempo and style will only lead to confusion in the song, or a lessening of the lyrical focus

The use of ultrasonography in the diagnosis, staging and therapy of Essay

The use of ultrasonography in the diagnosis, staging and therapy of hepatocellular carcinoma - Essay Example Also, the incidence of HCC worldwide varies according to the prevalence of hepatitis B and C infections. In the US, the incidence is 4 cases per 100,000. In areas such as Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the rates are as high as 120 cases per 100,000 (Stuart, 2006). It occurs more commonly in men than in women. The median age of diagnosis the United States and Europe  is 65 years. In the African and Asian countries where the incidence is high, the age of diagnosis can be even in the 4th and 5th decades. The median survival from the time of diagnosis is generally 6 months. Length of survival depends largely on the extent of cirrhosis in the liver. Cirrhotic patients have shorter survival times, and in cases of  portal vein occlusion, the prognosis is even worse (Stuart, 2006). Cure  through surgery  is possible in less than 5% of all patients. Due to the multifocality nature of the tumor and invasion of the tumor into portal vein, surgical resection can be performed only in 20% cases (Wu, 2005). Death in HCC occurs due to hepatic failure, cachexia, variceal bleeding or even due to tumor rupture and bleeding into the peritoneum. The patients generally present with symptoms related to cirrhosis like pruritus, jaundice, variceal bleeding, cachexia, pain in the hepatic region, increasing abdominal girth, splenomegaly and hepatic encephalopathy (Stuart, 2006). The etiology of cirrhosis could be alcohol induced, infections due to Hepatitis B or C, hemochromatosis, aflatoxin or even primary biliary cirrhosis, androgenic steroids, primary sclerosing cholangitis, 1-antitrypsin deficiency, Thorotrast radioactive contrast, oral contraceptives, and porphyria cutanea tarda (Stuart, 2006). In about 80% of cases, cirrhosis is the cause. However, 20% of cases are due to noncirrhotic, nonviral causes (Ulmer, 2000). Liver being the largest organ in the body varies considerably in size and configuration from

Effect of Stress on the Immune System Research Paper

Effect of Stress on the Immune System - Research Paper Example Increased stress could make the immune system weaker and could lead to death. Aging Immune System The immune system changes a lot during the aging process. The numbers of cells that are associated with the immune system reduce significantly. The remaining cells may not be able to handle all the immune related responsibilities leading to low immunity. The immune system is comprised of two systems; the Innate Immune system and the Acquired Immune system. Innate Immunity in Aging The innate or natural immune system is made by the bone marrow and the thymus. Scientists have consistently claimed that the size of the thymus reduces in size a person’s age. This is characterized by the loss of the thymus epithelia cells, which are important for the production of immune cells. This leads to a decrease in the number of T cells including the CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ and the B cells. There is an increase in production of the Natural Killer Cells (NK) with the comprehensive cytotoxic function. The decline in especially the CD8+ leads to the vulnerability of bacterial and viral infections. CD95 cells become exhausted as people age and the remaining virgin CD95 cells are replaced by large clonal expansions of the CD28 cells, which lead to less proliferative capacity. Inflammatory cytokines, which are produced by the persistent viral and bacterial infections increase during the aging process. They increase the cases of inflammatory pathogenesis. In fact, most of the elderly have inflammations at some parts of their body.i Acquired Immunity in Aging Acquired immunity is the responsibility of the spleen and the lymph nodes. The spleen produces the B cells which are associated with the production of the antibodies. Aging has been found to alter the expression of the system responsible for the production of these cells. One, there is a decrease in the number of cells produced. Secondly, there is impaired induction f E47 and activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) which are i mportant for class switch recombination (CSR) leading to defects in production of secondary isotopes of IgG1, IgG2a, IgG3, IgE antibodies. Aging has also been associated with the overproduction of the Id2 which regulates the E47 negatively.ii Another theory of acquired immunity change in aging points out that the B cells produce antibodies but they have low affinity. Usually, aging leads to change in isotypes related to production of the various antibodies. At the same time, there are few naive B cells in the elderly people meaning that there not many antibodies that can be produced. The already recruited B cells do not have good memory making it a challenge for them to detect previous pathogens detected in the past. Low affinity and low production of the antibodies cannot detect the pathogens effectively showing that the immune system is weak. The body is therefore unable to respond to infections accordingly. iii Effect of Nutrition on Immunity in Aging The elderly people, especial ly those above sixty years, do not take nutrition seriously. According to Gorczynski and Terzioglu (2008),iv most elderly people lack important nutrients. They claim that most of these people have deficiencies in zinc, iron, Vitamin E, Vitamin B12, Vitamin C, Ubiquinone and selenium. Zinc is important in the activation of the immune system; iron plays a role in oxidative reaction immunity, vitamins are important in the modulation of cytokines and Ubiquinone influences the