5 Essays - World Wide Web, Social Media, Computing, Free Essays

5 Essays - World Wide Web, Social Media, Computing, Free Essays Historical development of twitter Student's name Institution affiliation Instructor's name Course Date of submission Introduction In recent times social media has dramatically developed across the world. One of the social media that has seen adverse developments is twitter. Twitter has significantly improved to become one of the largest social media platforms across the globe. Twitter has become one of the most popular social networks used in the modern world, but it started as a micro-blogging platform ( Zappavigna, 2017 ) . The history twitter dates back to the year 2006 when its initiator jack Dorsey gave birth to this knowledge . It was initially used to platform for sending mess ages that people used to keep tabs with one another. Its initial name was Twttr , a name that was suggested by Noah Glass who at the time was specialized in software development. Twitter has gone through numerous changes thus making it one of the most leadin g social media across the world. In 2006 it was the principal founder of twitter Mr. Jack was able to send the first tweet. At the time Twitter was developing its users were supposed to spend hundreds of dollars to pay for service charges for sending SMS using their phones ( Gruber, etal, 2015 ) . During this time twitter faced a significant challenge due to the release Apple platform which essentially killed ideas business idea, this called for the owner's efforts to buy their company from the investors. At this time Twitter was facing a lot of challenges and controversies, this affected one of the critical founder Noah Glass who was left out of the new company. At the time Twitter has developed i t had a limit of 140 characters, this was because its founders had developed a platform for exchanging messages and during the inv ention period to carry characters . However, this has seen dramatic changes in the past years to overcome this challenge. By the year 2017 Twitter has developed and increased the number of characters to 28 0 giving its users more opportunity to pass out their message. In the few years since its invention, Twitter has significantly grown thus becoming one of the primary social media platform used across the globe (Mei, etal, 2017) . It has offered businesspeople and other persons a chance to grow their business to achieve their objectives in the world market. An increasing number of characters greatly helped users in reducing time wasted in sending various tweets thus condensing their thoughts. In 2007 twitter saw significant developments in its growth during the southwest interactive conference. Users of Twitter exploded broadly thus becoming one of the fastest growing social networks. More than 60,000 tweets were sent per day durin g this event. As Twitter users started, growing users were able to create new jargons and various ways to use the service. According to, Carpenter, (2015) in the beginning users could not reply to one another on Twitter. This called for more innovations to be made concerning responding tweets thus leading to use of hashtags before identifying another user on a tweet. This was a significant step in the development of Twitter. By the end of 2018 twitter had achieved more than 300 million users globally. In conclusion, the introduction of Twitter in the social media platform played a critical role in bringing people close. People were able to communicate more efficiently using Twitter; this also saw rapid development in business. Rapid changes in technology played a vital role in the invention of Twitter , which has currently become one of the most leading social platforms. Even though it was faced with various challenges, its founders were able to overcome all these odds and thus to make it one of the most successful media platforms. References Carpenter, J. (2015). Preservice teachers' microblogging: Professional development via Twitter. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education , 15 (2), 209-234. Gruber, D. A., Smerek, R. E., Thomas-Hunt, M. C., James, E. H. (2015). The real-time power of Twitter: Crisis management and leadership in an age of social media. Business Horizons , 58 (2), 163-172. Mei, Y., Zhao, W., Yang, J. (2017, June). Maximizing the Effectiveness

Comparisson of Artist Using of the Human Figure Essay Example

Comparisson of Artist Using of the Human Figure Essay Example Comparisson of Artist Using of the Human Figure Essay Comparisson of Artist Using of the Human Figure Essay The three artworks created by the well-known artists; Michelangelo Buonarroti, Henri Matisse, and Cindy Sherman all convey different ideas and expression in their pieces. Each artist has used various materials and techniques to portray their figures in ways to represent their own emotions, ideas and values. The artworks David, Blue Nude (Icarus) and the Untitled Film Still, reveal the common use of the human figure to portray different artworks that carry strong and imperative messages to the viewers. Cindy Sherman is well-known for her artwork in observing human activity and weaknesses. She is an American photographer that incorporates herself wearing various disguises and prosthetic parts in her images. Different from her usually colourful and disturbing productions, Cindy Sherman created a series of black and white pictures starting in 1977 called Untitled Film Stills. David by Michelangelo took three years to complete, 1501-1504. This colossal 4. 34 metre tall sculpture illustrates the hero in the story from the Old Testament, David and Goliath. His extremely detailed artwork relates back to the idea of perfection and the religious ethics valued in this time. French artist, Henri Matisse uses colour and form to convey emotional expression in his artworks. He was the leader of the Fauvist movement where he changed the concept of colour in modern art and focused on reflecting images of peace and idealised places, ignoring the oppressing world around him. Creating a series of black and white film stills, Sherman uses Untitled Film Still No. 14 produced in 1979 to capture a portrait of a vulnerable, suburban housewife. In the image, Sherman stars as a stereotypical woman, using herself, props, furniture and sets to illustrate the low social class of women she portrayed in her series. Matisse, while using a distorted representation of a human figure, the Blue Nude made in 1952, captured his beliefs on the importance of intuition. He focused on the joy of art, expressing the form first and anatomy second using various intense colours and shapes. While Michelangelo on the other hand, portrayed his statue David as a muscular, divine man of youth representing the patriotic figure as a religious icon from the bible. He has based the piece on presenting the human form as detailed as possible and used marble to show the defined body creating an idealised figure. The artists have each used different techniques of expressing their figures. Sherman has used the media, film photos to lead the viewers into a drama of exaggerated stereotypes and cliches foregrounding the dominant discourse of gender equality. Typically for Matisse to use his bold colour in paint, in his bedridden days Matisse created a new medium called drawing with scissors which involved cutting shapes from pre-painted paper to create various shapes and images. Michelangelo used carrara marble to design his famous artwork doing intricate detail on the body to create an emotional intensity that fore grounded religious values during this period. Brought up in different eras, each artist has lived through some of the most significant political events and historical time periods the world has ever seen. Sherman, Matisse and Michelangelo all portray their views to their time in different ways using their love of the human figure to represent their own values and beliefs during these time periods. Cindy Sherman used her artworks to reveal her strong beliefs on marginalised voices of women. She had a strong political view on the dominant discourse of gender discrimination and portrayed her views through many of her photographic images. Conversely, Henri Matisse while living through many different and important conflicts of his time struggled to find a reason to incorporate his expressions of political opinion in his work. He focused on combining his ideas of joy and intuition with dramatic and intense colour to create a poetic energy from his art. Michelangelo Buonarroti had strong beliefs like the others but not of political interest he focused on portraying religious ideas into his art as religion was greatly valued in his society during this time. The ideas behind each figure are driven by different emotions, beliefs and values of the artist. The wine glass and coat seen in Sherman’s untitled film still 14 create the idea of empowerment from a man in the household. Her back seen in the mirror implies she is vulnerable and exposed to the dangers around her, possibly the leading man in the house. Her face is worried and fearful creating an unsettling eeriness along with the black and white of the image. These techniques have allowed Cindy Sherman to portray her ideas on the vulnerable woman defenceless against men. Matisse’s distorted figure is bold and captivating showing an immediate focus point in contrast with the background which is soft. The movement of the body figure is free and rhythmical with the red circle representing the heart, burning with fiery desire to be liberated. Not having an exact face but a blank canvas gives the impression that one and everyone desires to be free. The patriotic icon David is followed with such finer, complex detail with the figure representing superior power like that of Adam, the first human being from the bible. The beautifully portrayed hero is made in the image before David went to battle showing the strong concentration in his facial expression. Although from an unaware observer’s perspective of the statue, Michelangelo has in fact made the sculpture incredibly out of proportion. Having exceptionally long arms for his body, different length legs, and huge hands, Michelangelo has made it seem unnoticeable to the naked eye also concentrating on his much finer details takes away from the large faults. All Henri Matisse, Cindy Sherman and Michelangelo Buonarroti have used different techniques of expressing their figures and their messages. They each convey different ideas behind the image but all use the human figure to represent their values in different ways. Blue Nude, Untitled Film Still no. 4 and David by the well-known artists are portrayed using art to extend the artist’s messages across to the world. They have revolutionized the way modern art is perceived and will continue to inspire people to express their own opinions through art. Bibliography www. ibiblio. org/wm/paint/auth/matisse/ www. artchive. com/artchive/M/matisse. html www. abcgallery. com/M/matisse/matisse. html www. artcyclopedia. com/artists/matisse_henri. html www. artelino. com/arti cles/henri_matisse. asp www. cdc. gov/ncidod/Eid/vol9no5/aboutcover. htm arthistory. about. com/cs/namesmm/p/matisse. htm ww. cindysherman. com/ www. artcyclopedia. com/artists/sherman_cindy. html www. guggenheimcollection. org/site/artist_bio_146F. html csw. art. pl/new/98/shermeg. html www. metropicturesgallery. com/index. php? mode=artistsobject_id=4 moma. org/exhibitions/1997/sherman/index. html webexhibits. org/colorart/sherman. html www. michelangelo. com/buon/bio-index2. html www. michelangelo. com/buonarroti. html www. britannica. com/eb/article-9108722/Michelangelo www. hlla. com/reference/mb-bio. html vlsi. colorado. edu/~rbloem/david. html www. bluffton. edu/~sullivanm/micheldavid/david. html

The last financial crisis 2007-2009 has many implication on different Research Paper

The last financial crisis 2007-2009 has many implication on different markets , however there are some arguments that the gulf a - Research Paper Example Therefore, the overall coursework of the research incorporates a qualitative research approach through analyzing different scholarly based articles, peer-reviewed journals and governmental reports in order to evidently justify the impact of financial crisis in Qatar and other GCC countries. The findings of the research identifies that the financial performance of Qatar and other GCC countries were significantly affected. The real estate and construction industries belonging to most of the GCC countries were highly affected by the US financial recession 2007-2009. However, the conventional investment system along with the lower exposure to sub-prime assets has helped the GCC nations to avert financial risks from the crisis. Table of Contents Abstract 2 2 1. Introduction-Background 4 2. Literature Review 4 3. Research Objectives and Research Questions 7 4. Research Design 9 5. Data Collection and Analysis 10 5.1 Data Collection 10 5.2 Analysis 10 6. Ethical Consideration 11 7. Analysis 12 8. Conclusion 15 References 16 1. Introduction-Background The invasion of the last financial crisis 2007-2009 has been ever considered to impose considerable impact on the economic conditions of global nations. The crisis that took during the period 2007 to 2009 had considerably affected the global economy and made dramatic changes to the financial conditions throughout diverse regions of the globe. The global financial turmoil had radically impacted most numbers of the developed countries across different regions of the world. During the financial turmoil period, the countries associated within Golf Council Corporation (GCC) have also been experienced to get affected in terms of real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate along with annual consumer inflation rate (Nanto & et.al, 2008). With reference to the major consequences that experienced by the GCC nations, the research report tends to critically assess the major factors affecting the financial condition and analyze thei r radical implications that devastated the economic position of the GCC countries. The report also tends to conduct literature analysis through highlighting major economic theories, historical influences and assumptions relating to the invasion of the economic crisis during the period 2007 to 2009. 2. Literature Review In relation to determine the severe impact of the last financial crisis 2007-2009, numerous researches and analyses have been made concerning the identification and assessing the consequences of the influencing factors that led towards the last financial crisis 2007-2009. Various literatures depict number of issues that significantly define the root cause of financial crisis along with their potential implications that further led the GCC countries to experience radical changes in their respective economic conditions. Therefore, the literature review section would be incorporated with analyzing various scholarly based articles, reports and internet related sources alo ng with their findings in order to evaluate the major impact of financial crisis on the GCC regions. According to the observation of Cozzi (2009), the aspects including low household saving rates along

Research paper politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Research paper politics - Essay Example It soon became evident that the American colonies of the New World were more interested in slaves than gold, and the slave trade quickly overshadowed the gold trade. Dutch, English, Danish, and Swedish competitors weakened Portuguese control and in 1642, the Portuguese left the Gold Coast permanently although their influence continues to this day. Various European powers attempted to dominate the profitable slave trade. The Dutch West India Company operated throughout most of the eighteenth century, and the British African Company of Merchants, founded in 1750, was successor to several earlier organizations and became the dominant European power on the Gold Coast (Buah 2004). Portugal's control of West Africa was gone by the seventeenth century, and Angola was the only major area left under Portuguese control. Angola, independent at present, is strongly influenced by Portuguese culture and its official language is Portuguese. It is especially distinctive because of South African infl uence and white settler communities, as well as the harsh colonial style of the Portuguese. The area therefore has become unique in Africa. As in most Portuguese colonies, mixed race children hold a different status (Angola 2007). In addition, Angola became divided into three factions-capitalists, independent, and the dominant party at present, the Population Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). Violence, hunger and poverty marked the end of the twentieth century in Angola with peace being achieved in 2002. Even though they have gained their independence, "class, cultural, and linguistic divisions still haunt the country" (Birmingham 2006). Although France traveled to West Africa as early as 1483 and the first West African settlement was founded in the mid-seventeenth century in Senegal, it was not until the mid-nineteenth century that the French were firmly established in Cte d'Ivoire. Cte d'Ivoire, like the rest of West Africa, was subject to European influences, but absence of sheltered harbors made the area less appealing. The slave trade had little impact on the peoples of Cte d'Ivoire. Its profits were in ivory, but a decline in elephants closed down the trade by the beginning of the eighteenth century. In 1904, French West Africa consisted of Cte d'Ivoire, Dahoney (present-day Benin), Guinea, Niger, French Sudan (present-day Mali), Senegal, Upper Volta and Mauritania, ruled by the governor of Senegal, who became governor general. Most of the inhabitants of the colonies were subjects of France with no political rights (Handloff 1988). Handloff continues his history of the Ivory Coast noting that until 1958, gover nors appointed in Paris administered the colony of Cte d'Ivoire using direct, centralized administration that left little room for Ivoirian participation in policy making. The French colonial administration adopted divide-and-rule policies, applying ideas of assimilation only to the educated elite. These elite were inclined to take on the culture of the colonizers, moving away from their African heritage, and the influence of French culture continues to this day. The French-educated elites, or evolues, embodied the "African

Effect of RAS Polymorphism on Essential Blood Pressure

Effect of RAS Polymorphism on Essential Blood Pressure Pharmacogenetic Association of RAS Polymorphism on Essential Blood Pressure in Relation to Enalapril/Lisinopril among Malay male newly diagnosed hypertensives Abstract Objective: It has been suggested that genetic backgrounds, which have an association with essential hypertension, may also determine the responsiveness to ACE inhibitor. We determined the association of angiotensin-converting enzyme (I/D, G2350A), angiotensinogen (M235T, T174M and A-6G) and renin (Bg/I and Mbo/I) gene polymorphisms with essential hypertension and the relationship between genetic variant of interest and high blood pressure response to ACE inhibitor (enalapril, lisinopril) in patients with essential hypertension subjects from Seremban, Malaysia. Methods: A newly hypertensive Malay male population (n=142) was recruited for a mono-trophy[ah1] pharmacogenetic study. Hypertensive patients were treated with ACEI drugs, particularly enalapril or lisinopril alone. We differentiated between those who controlled their HT with those who did not. Each group’s characteristics were compared to determine the risk of non-controlled HT associated with RAS polymorphisms by adjusting for different variables. Results: Statistically significant associations of I, G, T and M alleles were observed with essential hypertension in I/D, G2350A, M235T, and T175M. The decrease in systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure after 24 weeks of treatment of the patients carrying II, GG, and TT genotypes was greater than the groups carrying DD, AA, MM and MM genotypes. In contrast, no significant difference was shown between renin gene polymorphisms (Bg/I and MboI). Conclusions: Although this study shows a possible association of polymorphisms of RAAS genes[ah2] with the risk of non-controlled HT in ACEI-treated patients and indicates the importance of all components in this system in regulating HT, it needs to be replicated in other data sources. Keywords: Essential hypertension; renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system; single-nucleotide polymorphism; ACE inhibitors; pharmacogenetic INTRODUCTION Essential hypertension (EH) is an increasingly important medical and public health issue [1]. In Malaysia, the National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2013 has shown that the prevalence of hypertension in adults ≠¥18 years increased from 33.2% in 2006 to 35.7% in 2013 [2]. Furthermore, the prevalence increased from 42.6% to 43.5% for those >30 years old. Unfortunately, 60.6% of total hypertensives were â€Å"undiagnosed† [3]. These poor rates of high blood pressure (BP) control are not explained by the lack of treatment, as one study estimated approximately 30% of treated hypertensive patients take one antihypertensive drug, 40% take two antihypertensive drugs and 30% take three or more antihypertensive drugs [4]. These data suggest that the present trial and error approach for high blood pressure management is suboptimal, and alternative approaches for identifying the optimal antihypertensive regimen in a specific patient are needed. Using genetic make-up of an indiv idual along with the association between single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors for hypertensive response offers a new preventive approach to lower adverse drug interaction risk. A renin-angiotensin system (RAS) is an important component of blood pressure regulation, and it has been suspected to be involved in hypertension [5]. Moreover, the major active peptide of the RAS is angiotensin II. Produced from the precursor molecule, angiotensinogen (AGT), via an enzyme cascade involving ACE enzyme, angiotensin II exerts numerous effects on the homeostatic regulation of blood pressure, the vast majority of which are mediated via the angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1R) [6]. The presence of polymorphisms in the ACE, AGT and renin (REN) genes of the RAS has been associated with adverse EH changes in several studies [7,8,9]. For example, the insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphisms of the ACE gene have been associated with increased blood pressure, urinary albumin excretion (UAE) and target-organ damage in hypertensive patients [10]. Moreover, ACE G2350A gene polymorphisms in exon 17 were reported as a remarkable genetic variant mostly associated through hypertension with an average increase of 3.2 mmHg in SBP by having the G allele [11]. It has been reported that the presence of A-6G polymorphism of AGT gene among Chinese hypertensives increased body weight gain in hypertensive patients [12]. The Mb/I and Bg/I polymorphisms of the REN gene have been associated with hypertension, left ventricular hypertrophy, aortic stiffness and exaggerated vasoconstriction; additionally, the Bg/I polymorphism in the same gene appears to confer protection against the development of microalbuminuria in patients with hypertension [13]. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the impact of four RAS gene polymorphisms on the antihypertensive response in newly detected hypertensives receiving two ACEIs (enalapril and lisinopril). The polymorphisms investigated were A-6G, the A for G substitution of the AGT gene 6 nucleotides upstream from the start site; the ACE I/D polymorphism corresponding to an insertion or deletion of a 287bp alu repeat; and two polymorphisms of the REN gene, Bg/I and MboI and both in the coding area of intron 9. There are compelling reasons hypothesizing that variations in genes of the system may be predictive of variations in BP response. Therefore, genetic variation of the RAS has been investigated in relation to antihypertensive response to ACE inhibitors in various population and dosage (Table 1) as the most common lowering BP agent in Malaysia [14]; however, previously publications have had somewhat conflicting results elsewhere [15-19]. We hypothesized those genetic polymorphisms in RAS genes, including ACE I/D, G2350A, AGT M235T, T174M, A-6G along with REN MboI and Bg/I were associated with the incidence of EHT. Therefore, the aim of this pharmacogenetic study was to investigate the association between seven RAS gene polymorphisms of interest among 142 newly diagnosed Malay male hypertensives that never took BP medications. They were treated once daily for 24 weeks with 20 mg of enalapril or lisinopril. MATERIAL AND METHODS Patient Populations Malay male patients >18 years of age with three-generation Malay family who were newly diagnosed with essential mild-to-moderate hypertension were collected from clinics for non-communicable disease Seremban, Malaysia. The information includes age (25-60 years old), onset (25-60 years old), systolic BP > 140 mmHg and a diastolic BP > 90 mmHg on 2 consecutive visits for those untreated, absence of secondary forms of hypertension. Subjects with a history of diabetes mellitus, renal failure and major infectious disease were excluded. They had no metabolic or endocrine disorder, as well as any acute illness. They were not on any antihypertensive treatment and were drug-naive patients. Written informed consent was obtained from each patient before being included in the clinical trial, and patient’s identity was kept strictly confidential. A specific consent form was requested for genetic testing permission. BLOOD PRESSURE REDUCTION PATTERN Lifestyle Modification For patients, lifestyle modification for a period of three months was advised. The patients were seen three times during this period to assess the efficacy of the non-pharmacological management including weight loss, regular exercise, and ingestion of a high-fiber, low-fat, and low-salt diet. Follow-up Mon-trophy[ah3] Management Dispensed ACEIs (lisinopril or enalapril) on the same date for individuals have recorded. Each patient received lisinopril or enalapril (20 mg, once daily) for 24 weeks on a regular basis. Patients’ BP was measured using the same device and protocol; follow-up visits were made 12 times (once per two weeks). Of the 152 patients, 10 lost to the follow-up along monitoring due to relocation, travelling and/or change of medication. Eventually 142 hypertensives (92.6%) completed the study. This subsample was divided into two groups; individuals whose HT was not controlled as the non-responded (n=35), and individuals whose HT was under control as the responded (n=107). Figure 1 presents how responded and non-responded HT groups are categorized. Fig. 1. The flowchart of sample collection. Genotyping procedures A blood sample was taken in two separate tubes; one was used for colorimetric analysis of total cholesterol (TC), high density lipid profile (HDL), low density lipid profile (LDL), triacylglycerol (TG) and fasting glucose (FBG) using Diays Commercial Kits (Diagnostic System, GmBH, D66559 Holzheim, Germany), and the other test tube contained venous blood samples collected on EDTA was subjected to DNA extraction, which was obtained from individuals in the morning after a minimum of 8 hours fasting at the time of randomization. Eventually, the samples were stored at -20 °C for further molecular and biochemical analysis. DNAs were extracted from 5 mL blood samples as explained elsewhere [20]. ACE I/D polymorphism was genotyped using DNA amplification with oligonucleotides as described elsewhere [21]. For ACE G2350A, DNA amplification followed the approach by Zhu et al. [22]. Reactions were conducted using DNA amplification in a final volume of 25 mL containing 20 pmol of each primer, 0.4 mmol/L of each deoxynucleotide triphosphate (dNTP), 2 mmol/L of MgCl2, 1XTaq buffer and one unit of NEB Taq DNA polymerase (New England Biolabs, Beverly, MA, USA). The PCR cycling conditions were carried out in an iCycler machine (BioRad Laboratories, Hercules, CA, USA). Were chosen[ah4] for genotyping using the polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) approach, and the details are presented in Table 2. Eventually, DNA fragments were stained in ethidium bromide and visualized by Alpha Imager (Alpha Innotech, San Leandro, CA, USA) under ultraviolet (UV) light. Statistical Analysis SPSS 20 statistical package (SPSS, Chicago, USA) was used for analysis. Allele frequencies were calculated from the genotypes of all subjects. Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) was assessed by χ2 analysis. Continuous data are presented as mean  ± SD. Differences between groups were tested by an χ2 test for qualitative parameters and by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). All tests were two-tailed and the values of p

Easyjet Casestudy

The elements of marketing process is referred to â€Å"As a set of controllable tools that the firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target market, so it consists of everything the firm can do to influence the demand for its product†( Kotler and Armstrong, Principles of Marketing 2004, Tenth Edition, New Jersey Pearson Education Inc. ). The Elements of Marketing or Marketing mix which is famously known as the â€Å"4P’s of Marketing†( stated by McCarthy in 1960) which include Product, Price, Placement or Place and Promotion. When these elements of marketing are analysed with the Easyjet case study, it gives a good example as how the 4P’s help an organization scale to new heights with increased sales and customer base. They are; Product:- In the respective case study as Easyjet is a airline industry, its main fleet consists of Airbus A320-200, Airbus A319 and Boeing 737-700. Easyjet is a budget airliner and intended to attract business customers and leisure travelers spending lesser time travelling between destinations. The company does not provide complimentary meals or refreshments on board to reduce costs and increase space to accommodate more customers, whereas customers can buy items on board by using Easyjet Bistro (buy on board programme). The onboard programme also helped the airliner to increase its revenue. Easyjet has also got other value added services like Eastcars, Eastjet holidays and Easyjet Hotels. With these services Easyjet can provide one stop shop for its customers, both Business customers as well as travelers on holiday. Price: In generally it is a conception that if a company lowers the price of its product, the organization would have expanded sales. Practically it is an invalid argument as the customers do not decide on price; they do look for other components such as quality, cost effectiveness, time, easy accessibility and value added services with also keeping in mind the customer relation management of a firm. The element â€Å"Price† of marketing mix could be divided into two categories, such as price determination and price administration respectively. Easyjet whose business model is similar to the Southeast airlines of US has kept its prices lower than that of other airlines. Easyjet reduced its prices to accommodate more passengers and to fill out empty seats on the flight. The reduced prices by cost cutting in various areas such as airport charges, direct sales to the customer and also reducing their advertisement costs. The per seat cost was cut down by 16% by increasing the seating density and no business class. Easyjet saved 64% of cost per seat by these strategies, which helped them to reduce their overall prices to the customer. Figure 1. (Referred www. corporate. easyjet. com) Placement/Place: â€Å"Placement or Place under marketing mix involves all company activities that make the product available to targeted customers†(Kotler and Armstrong, 2004). The Easyjet strategy has to serve all big continental European destinations such as Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, London and many more cities. They are also targeting the Asia Pacific market as there is a potential to grow business. Figure 1. b Promotion: Promotion is nothing but the means in which a company communicates to its customers about their product, values and benefits of a product. Easyjet used various strategies to communicate to their customers. They are: The company has mentioned its website address where ever it can. They have literally put the address on its Boeing 737’s. Easyjet also runs internet promotions on newspapers. Its first promotion was in â€Å"The Times† in February 1999. The result of this promotion ended up with Easyjet selling 20,000 out of its 50,000 seats in the first day and all other seats were sold in next 3 days. Using this strategy the company was able to cut down 250 jobs and saved money. Easyjet also follows first come first serve basis, the following table gives a clear indication. Figure 1. c The website was also used as a tool instead of paying the PR companies. Captions such as â€Å"The web’s favourite airline†, â€Å"Battle with Swissair† and the latest â€Å"come let’s fly†. Easyjet became a house hold name in the United Kingdom as it was listed in a Airline TV series which was aired on TV during 1999 to 2007. (b) Evaluate benefits and costs of marketing orientation for the case organization. Marketing Orientation means how a company develops new product considering the two approaches of orientation, which are product oriented and marketing oriented. Product Orientated† approach means a firm develops product based on its choice or what the company is good at delivering to the customer rather than keeping the customer in mind. This approach is not appreciated in competitive markets and may often lead to unsuccessful venture. â€Å"Marketing Orientated†, in this the businesses analyses the needs and wants of t he customer in developing a product. The product revolves round the information and data provided by research on the customer’s needs and wants and developing a right product. This type of orientation often leads to successful business. Easyjet uses marketing orientated strategy towards its customers into its business. The have researched and came to a conclusion that a business customer or a leisure customer do not like to spend more time in traveling and waiting at the airports. They also used the cost cutting strategy to reduce its cost and their cost expenditure per customer is about 15? per person whereas other competitors spend about 25? on each passenger. This strategy is very successful in the airline industry as there is another example of a similar airliner that operates in the US, called as the South West Airlines. The company is making a gross profit of 15 to 20% annually. The achieve this, they have hollowed various strategies. No refreshments served onboard except for snacks for which the customer has to pay. The above mentioned concept leads towards fewer cabin crews. Business class seats were removed to accommodate more passengers onboard Regional airports were used to reduce airport charges. Direct marketing, use of the internet, and saving commission by selling the tickets directly to the customer. 2. (A) Describe macro and micro environmental factors which influence marketing decisions. The â€Å"Micro Environment†, in these factors influences the business directly. This factor includes suppliers, employers, caterers, Financers and any other stake holders who directly influence the business. The Micro Environmental factors are relationship between the driving forces and the business that controls the above mentioned relationship. The management of the firm controls the relationship between the stake holders and the business. When Easyjet is taken into consideration, the micro environmental factors that influence its business are: Assets: Easyjet owns all of its planes and has complete control over it. They do not take any property or asset on rental basis. They go for 100% ownership. Hence complete control over assets. Employees: Easyjet has fewer staff due to no-flinch strategy onboard. Agents and vendors: Easyjet uses direct selling strategy and does not out source its ticketing or customer service to any other organization which means they have control over marketing and customer relation management. The â€Å"Macro-Environment†, these factors that indirectly influence the business and the company do not have a direct control over these factors. The company need to resolve round these as the company should be in a position to adapt to these factors. The factors include such as Political, environmental, social and technological factors. Easyjet has adapted to these macro factors. By keeping themselves advanced enough in technological factor by consistently upgrading there planes. They also use the internet technology to sell there products to the end users. When it comes to environmental factor, they have adapted a new process called the â€Å"Ecojet† in which they are using new engines which are environmental friendly which would be introduced in 2015. They are well ahead of there competitors like the BA and Ryanair. 2. (B) Propose Segmentation criteria to be used products in different markets. Marketing segmentation is nothing but to target specific customers in the market who give more value to the business. In business market segmentation there are 3 types: Geographic: Includes customer orientation, regional growth rate and macro economic factors. Demographic: â€Å"Includes age, gender, ethnicity, education, occupation, income and family status†. Psychographic: includes values, attitudes, factors such as loyalty and order size. According to the owner of the Easyjet who says that he wants only 6 million customers in a year rather than targeting all 56 million people in Europe to keep his airline seats occupied. Easy marketing segmentation is targeted towards business customer and leisure travelers in Europe. Easyjet flies to all major tourist and business destinations in Europe. Easyjet has segmented or concentrated more on business customer who’s tickets are normally paid by the companies and leisure travelers who fly to major European destinations with travel packages, which include easycar and easyhotel value added services. . (c) Choose and explain targeting strategy for the product/service in the case organization. Targeting strategy may be influenced with the following factors: Maturity of the market. Buyer’s needs and choices. Competition. Number of sales required for profit. In the case study of Easyjet, if you use the above template: When Easyjet entered market it was quiet mature as t hey had stiff competition with Biritish Airways and Ryanair but Easyjet understood the users needs and wants by research. In which they came to a conclusion which notes that business customers prefer cheaper flights for shorter destinations and value added services if customer is looking for leisure travel. Competition was stiff from Ryanair and British Airways, to a get better of these competitors Easyjet user various promotional campaigns using the internet and newspapers. They also used direct selling strategy to have control over there sales and eventually improved the sales. They worked towards having there airline seats filled up on any given day and ensured they pay as less a charge in the airports. 2. D) Demonstrate how buyer behaviour affects marketing activities in different buying situation. Consumer or End user buying behaviour is influenced by the following factors: Social factors. Psychological Factors. Personal factors. Social factors: These are the factors wherein a customer is influenced by other people in the market or other social factors that influence on the customer to accept or de cline the product. In the above case study, Easyjet used some of the captions like â€Å"Battle with Swissair† or â€Å"Low fares needn’t BA con! † on their website. This influenced lot of customer’s visiting Easyjet website. The more customers visited the website the more Easyjet became an household name. Psychological Factor: This factor depends on the individual customer who is influenced by motives, perception, learning, personality and attitude. When Easyjet had majority of users coming to their website, they introduced trivia’s, luck dips and questionnaires on their website which influenced the customer and made kept the users visiting back to the site. In 2002, Five thousand customers won 2000? each using the Easyjet website, but the company had sales over 2 million pounds from the customers who visited during this period. Personal Factors: This factor includes situational, life style and demographic factors. Easyjet entered the market as a low budget airline, which means its main target will be business customers by providing customers with good quality, affordable and quick service. They successfully achieved the above motive. 2. (E) Propose New market positioning for a selected product/service. Easyjet has started its venture in Asia-pacific market. There is a lot of potential in North America and in India. As Business customer in these mentioned countries are frequent flyers and use airways a median of transport for short destinations. Easyjet also has sister companies such as Easycar and Easyhotels which it can utilize in the new markets to stabilize its hold and attract new customers. They could also start a new venture for road transport or have a Joint venture with road transport and railway companies to offer a complete package to both its business and leisure customers. (A) Explain how products are developed to sustain competitive advantage. When a company sets standards and bench marks in a particular business over its competitors, is known as competitive advantage. All the companies work towards having a competitive advantage in the market. According to Michael Porter there are two types of competitive advantage, cost advantage and differentiation advantage. Cost Advantage: This advantage is gained by a company when it delivers similar products or services as their rivals at a lower cost. Easyjet attained this advantage by flying to the same destinations but at a lower cost as it is a budget airliner when compared with other airlines such as British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France. Differentiation Advantage: When a company provides value added services and a better overall package to the end users at the same price as provided by the competitors in the market. Easyjet has always aimed at providing value for money for its customers by punctual flights and flexibility to the customers. Easyjet and Ryanair have similar price tags on their tickets but Easyjet flies to major European destinations whereas Ryanair lands at airports of smaller cities. (B) Explain how distribution is arranged to provide customer service. Distribution is a important part of marketing strategy. Distribution is the channel in which the company supplies or provides its products or services to its customers. The main functions of Distribution are Information (Market planning), Promotion (Spreading information and offers about the product), Contact (Communicating with buyers), Matching (Adjusting offers to fit customers’ needs and wants), Negotiation, Physical distribution (transportation) and financing. Easyjet uses a distribution channel called â€Å"Direct marketing†, as the company wants to reduce its costs by avoiding resellers and distribution partners. This approach of Easyjet has ensured that their ticket selling price to the customers is reduced and they also have a direct control over sales. The company also handles its own customer service. 3. (c) Explain how prices are set to reflect an organisation’s objectives and market conditions. Easyjet follows penetrating price strategy, wherein they have reduced the price towards the customers needs and wants. Here leaser the price the more demand for the product or service. Easy jet have also reduced their costs to gain more profits, hence lesser they spend the more profit they have. 3. (d) Illustrate how promotional activity is integrated to achieve marketing objectives. There are two main kinds of promotional strategy named a push strategy and pull strategy. Push strategy is a form of promotional activity wherein the company promotes the products to wholesalers and retailers. Whereas in pull strategy the company promotes the products or services directly to the customers. Easyjet is a service industry and also believed in direct marketing uses the pull strategy to communicate with its customers. The various forms of communications they followed were: The company has mentioned its website address and phone number where ever it can. They have literally put the address on its Boeing 737’s. Easyjet also runs internet promotions on newspapers. Its first promotion was in â€Å"The Times† in February 1999. The result of this promotion ended up with Easyjet selling 20,000 out of its 50,000 seats in the first day and all other seats were sold in next 3 days. Using this strategy the company was able to cut down 250 jobs and saved money. Easyjet also follows first come first serve basis, the following table gives a clear indication. The website was also used as a tool instead of paying the PR companies. Captions such as â€Å"The web’s favourite airline†, â€Å"Battle with Swissair† and the latest â€Å"come let’s fly†. Easyjet became a house hold name in the United Kingdom as it was listed in an Airline TV series which was aired on TV during 1999 to 2007.

Unemployment in UAE

United Arab Emirates is one of GCC members which suffer unemployment increase since the early country development time of the 70th of the past century. According to the (C. I. A The World Factbook, n. d. ) the unemployment rate for the United Arab Emirates is 2. 1%; with roughly 32. 6% of Emirati men and 47. 7% of women out of work. This is based on a study conducted in 2006 from a poll of 4,800 U. A. E nationals of working age. To break it down even further, 73. 8% among those aged between 18-29 were unemployed. 18. 6% of individuals aged between 30-39 were unemployed. 30. % of individuals with a University degree were unemployed. Those of who are educated at the secondary school level constituted a 35. 8% unemployment. This paper addresses and discusses the topic through several resources emerging the situation of unemployment in UAE based on statistics gathered since 2001 till 2010. Furthermore this paper spots and focuses on the associated reasons which are considered as root cause and the effective solution. (Muawia E. Ibrahim, 2004) wrote about the fluctuation of the unemployment among UAE nationals despite of the attractive offers in both public and private sector. Till 2002, 29900 nationals were registered as unemployed in addition to 12600 in 2003. In 2001& 2002, 7124 national was graduated from university; this increment in the number of university graduates influenced the phenomena of the unemployment in UAE to score 35% of the total number 29900. According to the planning ministry statistics only 9% of the total workforce was occupied by UAE nationals in 2003 and this situation referred to the incompatibility of academic training and market requirements. The increase of the theoretical than practical academic isciplines graduates is one reason behind this phenomenon; however the market demands the technological and professional field. The gap between the academic institution and the employment institution caused students to wrongly select their studying major which is not required by the market. Because of the deterioration in the standards of students in mathematics, English and Arabic, also lacking basic study skills, research ideas and personal abilities made the university and the higher colleges of technology to spend money on training newly admitted student in order for them to become educated with new academic life requirements. Accordingly, recommendation raised to the concerned institutions to cooperate in prescribing syllabus so that students are well prepared and capable of carrying on with their studies in higher education institution. Also, recommended strong and closer coordination between higher education institutions to design academic programmes that are aligned with the labour market demand. Ultimately the concept of the training students during college period is important to improve the employment relationships. Elsa Baxter, 2009) clearly emphasis on unemployment among UAE nationals at its highest level since the country was founded 38 years ago, with more than 40,000 Emiratis out of work. According to the National human Resources Development and Recruitment (Tanmia) the UAE was suffering unemployment crisis, which will continue to rise unless action is taken. While the local unemployment rate on an influx of expatriate labour and the failure of plans to create more jobs for locals. The UAE society like other Gulf societies is suffering from an article published by the Abu Dhabi based Emirates centre for Strategic Studies and research. Further, the unemployment rate among UAE nationals peaked at 13 percent at the end of 2008. The same rate for expatriates was just 2. 6 percent. Despite of the numerous efforts by the UAE government to tackle the unemployment problem they had little effect. Overall, this problem started to convince us that there is a sort of imbalanced or legal gap, it could also be a lack of coordination among those institutions. UAE unemployment rises to 4%, 2009) unemployment in the UAE jumped to 4 percent in 2008, from 3. 45 percent in 2007, according to figure from the Ministry of Economy. Considering the fact of expatriates have left the country since the global financial crises. Which means the jobless rate among expatriates will not increase sharply. The rate among UAE nationals records a higher increase given the rapid growth in their num ber. However, this is not basically for economic reasons but due to the reluctance of nationals to join the private sector and their preference for the public sector. Anees Dayoub & Ben Flanagan, 2006), The high rate of unemployment among UAE nationals was revealed today in a study that found that 32. 6% of Emirati men, and 47. 7% of women, are not in work. Nepotism and the preference for imported labour were seen as being the two main factors behind this. The study by Sharjah University polled a random selection of 4,800 UAE nationals of working age. The unemployment rate among those aged 18-29 was 73. 8%, the newspaper said. In the 30-39 bracket 18. % of those polled were unemployed. Those with a university degree – representing 30. 1% of the total unemployed – are actually less likely to be in work than those with a diploma (21. 1% of the total). Those only educated to secondary school level constitute 35. 8% of people not in work. The predominate reason behind the high figures was nepotism – where jobs are awarded to family members of management – with 74. 3 per cent citing this as a cause. Competition from expatriates was a factor for 30. 9% of those surveyed. Nadim Kawach, 2004), All Arab League countries are suffering from such a problem but joblessness has remained under control in some members, including the UAE, on the grounds their development spending is still high and their economy has been growing fast enough in some years. While unemployment in some member states is as high as 20 per cent, it has remained as low as 1. 8 per cent over the past seven years in the UAE and Kuwait. Unemployment among UAE nationals is higher, standing at around six per cent, given the relatively low numbers of local manpower, according to official figures. But the reasons for unemployment among nationals in the UAE have nothing to do with economic performance but with completely different factors. They include a sharp increase in native graduates, their preference for working in the public sector and the reluctance of the private sector to recruit nationals on the grounds they are costlier. Figures revealed by Matar Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, showed around 13,000 known nationals are looking for jobs, accounting for nearly six per cent of the total native workforce of around 200,000 at the end of last year. More than 3,000 nationals are graduating from universities and institutes in the UAE every year and the rate is expected to continue until 2015†¦this requires serious measures to accommodate all those graduates in the labour market,† the Minister told the monthly bulletin of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry. UAE has a wealth of oil and is distinct from the rest of the Gulf populat ion density low is supposed to not face many of the problems faced by countries with densely populated, but it turned out, through reports from parties interested in internal and external different that the UAE suffer from the problem of unemployment . The problem has emerged since the early years of statehood movement development. Results of some of these reports prove the existence of the problem of unemployment in the UAE, which is high from the perspective of reality where the UAE Emiratis ratio of two percent of the total workforce, including the state and the rate of thirty-five percent of the UAE based unemployed are university graduates. Reports in this regard indicate that the unemployment rate continues to increase since the year two thousand and six months, until today, although observers show concern about this problem and its future if it remained the case as it is without any progress to solve the problem of unemployment. The truth is that reports attributed the occurrence of the problem of unemployment to many reasons, and of the most prominent and most powerful and realistic is the absence of the comprehensive educational plan and also the absence of co-ordination between state institutions concerned. One of the reasons that have contributed to exacerbate this problem economic boom between the year two thousand and three to the year two thousand and seven, this rapid change and non-measured by the state institutions to create a large gap between the requirements of the labor market and the qualifications of citizens of study process are available, and then came the setback of the global economic to receive its consequences on the State and increase the complexity of the problem. Incurred higher education institutions and universities to pay huge ums in order to bridge this gap for the rehabilitation of citizens and provide them with the skills and science that correspond with the requirements of the labor market, as a temporary solution. On the other hand it is also the reasons is the lack of awareness and poor performance of the individual citizen and not to highlight the seriousness with full opportunity for the development of educational qualifications and scientific capabiliti es to be able to bear the burden of the labor market. There are also other reasons contribute to the survival problem of unemployment in the State, such as nepotism and cronyism, which leads to giving opportunities and positions of responsibility that need to be hard work experience to people who are incompetent and unable to bear the burden required and thus the failure and a waste of time and money at the expense of other citizens. One of the reasons also bring foreign workers without statistical studies and conscious to preserve the rights of citizens in the percentage of jobs available in the state. Through the above discussion of the problem and the reasons for their formation can be ascertained that the fundamental solution is to work on studies and statistics include all the emirates and the development of a future plan, taking into account the current situation and how to deal with him, and directing all state institutions, public and private cooperation and coordination to develop appropriate solutions. Distribution of roles between the emirates to make progress on the economic level in terms of geographic scope and manner of economic activity and also to reduce to bring foreign workers would help alleviate the problem relatively. It is also clear to the country's lack of national cadres and high-value intellectual and global experience a significant impact on the incidence and the continuing problem of unemployment and others.