Amazon Experimentation & Testing Strategy †Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Amazon Experimentation Testing Strategy? Answer: Introducation Amazon.com, Inc. was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. The company is located in Seattle, Washington and is a market leader in the e-commerce industry (Ernest, 2015). Amazon had about $ 136 billion in net revenue in 2016 (Landrecht Zhang, 2016). The company commenced its operations in 1995 when it opened its virtual doors for customers on the web. Further, it was incorporated in 1994 in Washington and also constituted as a legal corporation in Delaware in 1996 (Landrecht Zhang, 2016). The company is listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market and uses the symbol AMZN. Amazon is the number one retail company in the world and provides technological infrastructure for businesses that have different business focus and range in size (Dages, et al., 2016). The company offers services to four types of customers that include enterprises, sellers, final consumers, and content creators. Amazon.com retail website is consumer friendly as it provides a wide range of selection, low prices, and the we bsite is easy to use. The internet site also provides convenience as all needs of consumers can be met in one online store. It is important to note that Amazon equally provides a platform for products from different sellers. The platform enables them to access a larger market for their products because of the strength of the Amazon brand (Ernest, 2015). As of 2016, the company employed 341,000 part-time and full-time employees (Lang, et al., 2016). The increase in the number of employees can be attributed to the expansion of operations by Amazon. Amazon.com also makes use of temporary personnel and independent contractors as a supplement to their workforce (Lang, et al., 2016). The number of customers has continued to grow. For instance, almost 50 percent of households in the United States are now subscribed to Amazon Prime, a membership program (Ernest, 2015). Also, 50 percent of all online searches begin directly on Amazon, and the company captures almost one in every 2 dollars spent by Americans online (Ernest, 2015). The market power of Amazon now rivals and exceeds that of Walmart. This can be attributed to the strategies that Amazon has been employing as will be discussed later. The company also has high growth prospects in the next 5years because 20 percent of the United States 3.6 trillion dollars retail market will have mov ed online, and Amazon.com is likely to attract about two-thirds of that market share (Zhu Liu, 2016). Some people have begun to say that Amazon is the Walmart of online retail (Zhu Liu, 2016). The company has become the giant of internet retail because of the strategies it has employed over the years. There are also challenges that like any other business, Amazon will possibly face in the future. But whether the company is well placed to overcome these challenges will determine whether or not the company will sustain its remarkable success. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to critically analyze Amazons strategies, suggest possible challenges that the company may face in future, and come up with potential strategies that Amazon can use to overcome these obstacles. Amazon.Com Strategy Analysis Business activities and strategies play a critical role in the future growth and development of organizations. These business strategies become more essential in case of companies such as Amazon that are doing e-business (Dimar, et al., 2016). Every business entity employs different strategies so as to remain in operation and make profits. Some use strategies that are aimed at maximizing profits while others use customer-centric strategies (Dimar, et al., 2016). An organization may also use more than one strategy to achieve its goals. The objective of this report is to analyze the business strategies of Amazon. The company has employed various strategies since opening its doors and lately Amazon has been focusing on making profits (Ernest, 2015). When Amazon.com was founded in 1994, it was mostly marketed as an online bookstore (Landrecht Zhang, 2016). The companys growth was initially slow, and it did not turn any profit until about seven years after it opened its virtual doors. Amazon started being profitable mainly due to the dot-com bubble and its change of business strategies. The company successfully transformed its corporate-level strategy into acquisitions, mergers, and partnerships (Landrecht Zhang, 2016). Amazon has a marketing strategy that can be attributed to its success as well. The company is customer centric and maintains that the most crucial component of the business are customers. Amazon has been labeled as the most customer-centric company by both its followers and customers (Landrecht Zhang, 2016). Partnership strategy As Amazon flourished, the share price of the company grew and enabled it to partner with and acquire various enterprises that operated in different sectors. For instance, Amazon has partnered with 2nd Watch, 8kMiles, Arcus Global, Drugstore.com, Living.com, Wineshopper.com, Kozmo.com, and Homegrocer.com among others (Klaus, 2015). In most of these partnerships, Amazon bought an equity stake to share in the prosperity of its business partners. Amazon also charges fees for placements on its website. The company equally demanded that publishers pay specific fees for advantageous position to boost books sales on its website (Klaus, 2015). Many of the online companies that Amazon initially partnered with failed between 1999 and 2000, but Amazon was not pulled down by its failing partners because it covered growth potential (Klaus, 2015). Amazon has also been able to strengthen its grip in various sectors by partnering with other companies. It has equally consolidated its strength in vario us sectors by using technology to accelerate the promotion of products and distribution through these partners. Other retailers can sell their products through the internet using Amazons infrastructure and user interface via what the company refers to as Syndicated Stores program (Voigt, et al., 2016). For instance, in the United Kingdom, Waterstones, the largest classic bookstore found competition with online stores challenging and expensive. Waterstones eventually formed a partnership with Amazon where the online retail giant distributes and markets its books for a commission online. Similarly, in the US, Borders makes use of the Amazon merchant platform to distribute its products (Voigt, et al., 2016). Amazon has the same arrangement with Toys R Us, a toy retailer. These partnerships are beneficial to Amazon because it enables the company to expand its customer base into the customers of other suppliers. Also, customers who purchase in one category like books are also attracted i nto buying into categories such as electronics and clothing (Dages, et al., 2016). Amazon Marketplace also enables other retailers and Amazon customers to sell their used and new books as well as other goods apart from the regular categories. Another partnership strategy is the Amazon Merchant program. This program allows third parties that are bigger than the companies that sell through the Amazon Marketplace to distribute their products through Amazon. Amazon, in turn earns sales commissions per unit or fixed fees (Ernest, 2015). This kind of partnership can also enable customers to have a wide variety of products to choose from and conveniently buy them through one checkout process. Amazon has equally formed partnerships with smaller companies via its affiliates program which was launched in 1996 (Ernest, 2015). Experimentation and testing strategy Amazon terms the philosophy of testing and experimentation as Data beats intuition. The company uses automation and experimentations that are real time to personalize its content (Weniger, et al., 2015). This is for the reason that actual behavior of the consumers is the effective way to decide on tactics. The company has an experiments culture of which A/B tests are crucial elements. For instance, Amazon uses A/B tests when deciding on new home page design, different algorithms for recommendations, moving features around the page, as well as changing search relevance rankings (Weniger, et al., 2015). The company usually tests new treatments against prior control treatments for a week or a few days. The system will then randomly indicate treatments to visitors and measure ranging variables like revenue and units by category, length of session, session time among other parameters. The new features are then launched if the metrics that are desired are substantially better statistically (Weniger, et al., 2015). However, tests that are statistical pose a challenge because distributions are not always normal. Another challenge is that since A/B tests are run every day, they may conflict because of overlapping. Also, there are long term effects where some features have positive impacts for the first few weeks and opposite effects where shifting navigations can temporarily degrade performance. The company also finds that the online experience of their users evolve and their online actions change. This implies that Amazon.com has to test its features and evolve continuously. This is also in line with the companys customer-centric strategy (Weniger, et al., 2015). Technology The experimentation and testing strategy as discussed above must be easily supported by technology which can be hard to achieve when management of content is standardized (Mosca, et al., 2015). Amazon has been able to stay competitive by developing the technology it uses internally and with an investment that is significant which in many instances not available for other companies that do not have the needed focus on the online channels (Mosca, et al., 2015). In using their own proprietary technologies, and technologies that are licensed from third parties, the company has implemented many functionalities and features that improve and simplify the experience of customer shopping. It also becomes easy for third parties to sell their products on the Amazons platform, as well as facilitate the companys fulfillment and customer service (Mosca, et al., 2015). Amazons strategy is to place more emphasis on the development efforts and constant innovations by enhancing and creating specialized and unique proprietary technology and to acquire or license technology that is commercially developed for other applications where appropriate and available (Mosca, et al., 2015). The company regularly invests in many technology areas, including the seller platform. For example, A9.com is a subsidiary that is wholly owned by Amazon and is focused on search technology A9.com, as well as other Amazon sites, digital initiatives, and web services. According to (Mosca, et al., 2015), Amazons technology approach can be said to be distributed development and deployment. For instance, the home page Amazon has some content slots or pods that call web services for features. This makes it easy to make changes to the contents in the pods and also where the pods are located on the screen (Mosca, et al., 2015). Amazons website contrary to many sites makes use of flowable page design which allows it to benefit from the real-estate on screen. The company also uses technology that can support many e-retails that are standard. Amazon makes use of application sets for validating and accepting orders made by customers, tracking and placing orders with suppliers, assigning and managing inventory to customer orders, and making certain that products are properly shipped to customers. Amazons transactions processing systems can also handle many different status inquiries, millions of item, requests about wrapping of gifts, and multiple methods of shipment. The systems enable customers to decide whether to receive single or several shipments that are based on availability and to track how each order that has been placed is progressing. Besides, the applications authorize processes such as charging and accepting the credit cards of customers (Mosca, et al., 2015). Future Challenges The internet has made inroads into many facets of our everyday lives. Apart from business information, a lot of personal information is also digitized now and stored in computers that have internet connections. Systems that are internet connected stand a higher risk of destruction or tampering by cyber criminals. Because of the threat of cyber-attacks, internet users are predisposed to privacy threats as marketers use invasive and aggressive tools to collect customer information. Also, with more people embracing internet purchasing, e-retailers will likely face tax challenges too in future. Cyber-attack challenges Online and mobile channels will continue to evolve. It will carve out new markets and bring many opportunities for established organizations like Amazon and new companies (Veroef, 2016). Unfortunately, there will likely be significant disruption to e-commerce payment systems and processes. The anonymous, interconnected, and instantaneous nature of these channels has led to the development of malicious threats that target retail services companies and e-commerce and their customers (Veroef, 2016). Digital fraud and cyber-crime will continue to rapidly evolve with criminals using techniques that are increasingly sophisticated to target vulnerable people, technologies, and processes. If the cyber-crime threats are realized successfully, they have the potential to undermine important digital services, cause severe damage to the image of a brand, and lead to significant operational and financial pain for companies and their customers. The challenges of cyber-crime can also imply that thes e criminals can deface websites and steal data that is valuable from the systems (Veroef, 2016). Taxation Challenges E-commerce has become the new normal because services and goods have shifted to a digital platform from a physical one. Services and commodities have also become digital as they are transacted online. The current laws of taxations could present serious challenges in e-commerce in future, especially transactions that are international in nature (Owen, 2015). Conclusion Online trading has grown, will continue to exist, and will be used extensively in future. E-commerce will likely evolve in future and companies will need to change their strategies if they want to remain competitive. Also, competition in E-commerce is likely to increase in the future because many traditional retail stores will have online platforms. Leading online retailers like Amazon will need to find ways of retaining profitability and sustainable development that is long term. Even though there are challenges in e-commerce, Amazon will overcome these challenges and stay competitive in future because of the innovativeness of the company. Recommendations To prevent cyber-attacks and achieve security objectives, it is imperative to recognize that it is essential to protect customer data and services. Therefore, it is important to have a company-wide security model to protect customers. Consumers also need to be educated on cybersecurity and protection of their personal data and privacy. With regards to taxation challenges, Amazon should collaborate with governments to come up with tax laws that will accurately recognize and deal with e-commerce. References Dages, J., Li, M. Moore, C., 2016. Walmart V. Amazon. The Economist Case Competition, II(6), pp. 12-25. Dimar, K., Kuchar, R. A. Ragas, M. W., 2016. Book Battles: A Strategic Communication Analysis of Amazon.coms Dispute with Hachette Book Group and Authors United. Corporate Strategy, III(7), pp. 12-20. Ernest, J., 2015. Critical Evaluation of how well placed Amazon is to Sustain its Historical Online Retailing. British Journal of Marketing Studies, III(6), pp. 31-42. Klaus, P., 2015. The case of Amazon.com: Toward a conceptual framework of online customer service experience. Journal of Services Marketing, I(8), pp. 16-36. Landrecht, T. Zhang, J., 2016. Amazon.com. Business Strategy, IV(4), pp. 23-45. Lang, S., Tinder, L., Zimmerman, J. Harrison, J. S., 2016. Amazon.com: Offering Everything from A to Z. Journal of Business, I(5), pp. 23-30. Mosca, P., Zhang, Y., Xiao, Z. Wang, Y., 2015. Cloud Security: Services, Risks, and a Case Study on Amazon Cloud Services. Int. J. Communications, Network and System Sciences, IV(16), pp. 7-13. Owen, R., 2015. The Amazon Tax Issue: Washing Away the Requirement of Physical Presence for Sales Tax Jurisdiction over Internt Business. Journal of Law, Technology, and Policy, VII(8), pp. 29-38. Veroef, P. C., 2016. Challenges and Solutions for Marketing in the Digital Era. European Management Journal, II(2), pp. 23-47. Voigt, K.-I., Buliga, O. Michl, K., 2016. Business Model Pioneers: How Innovators Successfully Implement New Business Models. 2nd ed. New York: Springer. Weniger, S., Weiss, T. Loebbecke, C., 2015. Innovating for the Mobile End-User Market: Amazons Kindle 2 Strategy as Emerging Business Model. Corporate Strategy, V(4), pp. 3-16. Zhu, F. Liu, Q., 2016. Competing with Complementors: An Empirical Look at Amazon.com. Journal of International Journals, IV(10), pp. 34-40

John Dos Passos Essays - John Dos Passos, Old Right,

John Dos Passos Almost every one writer can say that they are influenced by their childhood and past. Memories flood back to them as they encounter a similar experience or similar situation in their earlier years. No doubt a significant factor in their writing, the past from a specific writer's life usually adds more depth and complexity to their works. Because these previous experiences are from the author's actual life, the scenes and subjects related to the theme are more accurate and realistic, and may even be more appealing to read. These past voices may appear either consciously through the author's works, or sometimes unconsciously, guided maybe by some early childhood memory. Well, whatever the case, John Dos Passos was such a man that appeared to have been significantly influenced by his past. Born un-rooted to any plot of land, his life was a mission to search for new ground on which to grow, which can be seen as an major theme throughout all his works. Dos Passos grew up to a turbulent childhood, being unconventionally born on January 14, 1896. His father, John Randalph Dos Passos, was a prominent attorney and his mother, Lucy Addison Sprigg, a housewife and an excellent mother. Because his parents were not officially married until in 1910, he was considered "illegitimate" for about 14 years; this theme of alienation is found in many of his writings. Most of the time spent during his childhood was with his mother, who travelled abundantly, and this was the time where he grew closer to his mother and started to drift away from the man he called "dad". His travels with his mom led him to places such as Mexico, Belgium, and England. Dos Passos's association with France began when he was very young, and his knowledge of the language was quite thorough. Much of his French expertise is showed off in his works, including Manhattan Transfer. Dos Passos first attended school in the District of Colombia. As he grew up, he spent some of his childhood in Tidewater Virginia. He began attending Choate School where his first published writings were articles for the Choate School News. Upon completing Choate School at the age of fifteen, he entered Harvard University in 1912. At Harvard, he continued his journalism by joining the Harvard Monthly. While at Harvard, he developed a close, long-lasting friendship with E.E. Cummings. During this time at Harvard, the spirit of idealism swept the country. Dos Passos was stirred by ideas of idealism and began to write short autobiographical tales for the Harvard Monthly, which showed vague idealism. He later graduated in June of 1916. Out of college now, Dos Passos choose to volunteer for ambulance duty overseas but his father rejected his idea. So instead, he decided to make his first long visit to Spain, a country which held fascination for him all his life, to study architecture. With the death of his father lather in 1917, he joined the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Group and sailed for France. During his tour of duty as an ambulance driver, he collaborated with a friend, Robert Hillyer, on alternate chapters of a novel, and after several revisions, it became One Man's Initiation - 1917. This book was based largely on his own wartime experiences in France and Italy. His second novel, Three Soldiers, was published in 1920. In 1915, Harper published Manhattan Transfer, a city novel in which Dos Passos first began to use the experimental techniques he would develop more fully in his major contributions to American fiction. The themes of this novel are typical of Dos Passos's work: alienation, loneliness, frustration, and loss of individuality but Manhattan Transfer " was his first success at creating a 'collective novel' where a unifying theme is conveyed through multiple facets of character and situation." (Wrenn,32) He borrowed styles from Flaubert, Zola, Balzac, James Joyce, and T.S. Eliot and found many technical and artistic ideas in early twentieth century French literature. Taking segments of his life, Dos Passos intermingled it with his imagination to make Manhattan Transfer what it is. The autobiography is placed almost entirely within the life of a single fictional character, Jimmy Herf, a young newspaper reporter with ambitions to become a writer. The role of Herf was not simple to bring the author's experience into the novel, but probably instead to show him as being like a rebel, overcoming obstacles that success command, and finding values that counter what society feels important. But also representing Dos Passos, was Armand Duval, "Congo Jake", an anarchist and bootlegger who learns how to ridicule the law and get away with it. He illustrates

Essay Sample With Citations - Tips to Help You Write the Best Essay For Your College

Essay Sample With Citations - Tips to Help You Write the Best Essay For Your CollegeA good essay sample with citations is very important for the college student. It gives you an idea of what the college student's college grade will be based on the content of the essay and not just based on the number of words in the essay.When writing essays, it is important to know that when you are writing essays that they must be checked and reviewed by an editor. The best way to do this is to get a copy of the completed essay and make sure that it is free from any grammatical errors and plagiarism. Make sure that the essay contains all of the requirements for your college, including the required topic choices.Many college students have to write a research paper or work on their paper that they had to do for their class. There are many college writing samples that can help you know what to include in the written work. It is also important to know what to expect when the paper is being read by the professor. You must create a great first impression for your professor, so it is important to know what the best way to do this is.Writing a research paper is the same as writing a business or government writing sample. It is important to know what the college grading system is so you can create a grade for your writing sample with citations. This essay sample with citations has to be the best essay for your professor because the professor will be reading it.The best way to make sure that your grade is based on the topic and not just the length of the essay is to make sure that the content is good. The reason for this is that if you cannot get a high grade on the topic of the essay then it is hard to know how your writing will turn out. The College Board has a guide to essay topics that shows what topics are used for each section of the course. It is very important to use this guide because it gives you a guideline of what topics are used for which sections of the essay.This guide c an also be used to determine if a topic is too general for your assignment. If you need help figuring out what you can do to make sure that your essay is for the type of college you are going to be attending, contact a counselor at the college that you are attending.If you need help with essay writing for your college or if you are unsure about the topic you want to write, it is always a good idea to contact a professional writing company. It is a good idea to get help with writing an essay for your college.If you would like to write a good essay for college, it is best to find a professional. Most essay writing services are geared toward writing essay samples with citations. You can get help from a writer for your college by using one of the sample essays they have.

Credible Words

Credible Words Credible Words Credible Words By Maeve Maddox Latin credere means â€Å"to trust† Used with the dative, it means â€Å"to believe, to give credence to a person or thing.† Several English words come from this word. Credo with a capital refers to the Christian Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed. Lowercase credo means any statement of the aims or principles which guide a person’s conduct. Creed is used more often than credo for this declaration of guiding principles. For example, â€Å"The Declaration of Independence contains the clearest, most concise, and most eloquent articulation of the American creed.† The noun credit came into English from Middle French with the meaning â€Å"belief, faith, trust.† It came to be associated with money lent or borrowed with an agreement for repayment. A customer’s â€Å"credit† is the confidence a lender has in the customer’s ability to repay. Credit is also used as a verb in the general sense of accepting something as true or truthful. For example, â€Å"He found it hard to credit his own eyes; the lion was lying down beside the lamb.† Schools are â€Å"accredited† by outside regulating boards. They have received credentials stating that they can be trusted to meet certain standards. Article IV, Section 1 of the United States Constitution is known as the Full Faith and Credit Clause: Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. The adjective credulous came into the language with the specific meaning â€Å"believing in God.† The negative incredulous meant â€Å"not believing in God.† The meaning shifted as time went on. Shakespeare used credulous in the sense of credible, but modern usage assigns distinct meaning to the two words. Credulous has the connotation of being too ready to believe. It’s a synonym for gullible. For example, confidence tricksters prey upon credulous people who are quick to believe in get-rich-quick schemes. Credible means â€Å"able to be believed.† A credible witness is one who can be trusted to speak the truth. The negative forms, incredible and incredulous, are sometimes confused. For example, here’s a headline from a site selling a sweatshirt that bears a message about not touching the wearer: incredulous dont [sic] touch me pullover sweatshirt Like awesome, incredible is often used as a throwaway word to convey enthusiasm. Sweatshirts are incredible. Singers are incredible. Movies are incredible. Generally speaking, incredible usually applies to things that are hard to believe, while credulous describes people who believe things too easily. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:The Meaning of "To a T"Excited ABOUT, not "for" Narrative, Plot, and Story

A Way Of Thinking By Entrepreneurs Business Essay

A Way Of Thinking By Entrepreneurs Business Essay Successful companies are driven by visionary people in an effective and efficient way, those people are called entrepreneurs. The Oxford Dictionary provides the entrepreneur concept as â€Å"a person who undertakes an enterprise or business with probability of gain or loss, a contractor who acts as an intermediary, a person who assumes effective control of a business venture. It comes from the French word Entreprende or undertake†. Glancey and Mc Quaid (2000) define them as the protagonists of the process of entrepreneurship The entrepreneur is a leader, who sees opportunities where others see nothing, or only see difficulties. The entrepreneur makes a commitment that leads him to develop an unknown practice to solve a variance in small or large scale, A Entrepreneur will achieve recognition by pleading responsible to solve the problem and meet people who have similar interests. One aspect that should be present in an entrepreneur is: Believe in their own abilities, knowledge and skills, evaluate them, and be consistent with them at all times, these aspects provide confidence in themselves and in what the entrepreneur exposes as business idea These definitions are pointing to the entrepreneur as a person who seeks a reward assuming some risk (potential loss). Basically, the entrepreneur senses a need and then meets of the manpower, materials and capital needed to meet that need. In essence, an entrepreneur creates an organization as a means to offer something new to customers, employees or other stakeholders. Some entrepreneurs use information available to everyone, to produce something new. According to Timmons (1970) the creation and success of a company is not only necessary to administer and manage. The current business generation needs to be led, so organizations need to rethink their culture and practices. Direct them to seek dynamic processes, aimed at the opportunity, where there is the presence of a leader and business team: creative, careful a nd moderate resources, integrative and holistic vision, in order to establish a balance between all the driving forces The entrepreneur is the main engine of capitalist economic development. According to Schumpeter the benefit of the employer is justified by being an innovative ability to create wealth. If the economic system is in equilibrium, all factors of production are paid according to their marginal productivity (Schumpeter,  1934) Characteristics of an Entrepreneur à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Entrepreneurship. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Vision and imagination creative and innovative. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Need for achievement. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Perseverance and dedication. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Teamwork. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Comprehensive view of market needs. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢leadership For example we can mention a current entrepreneur who gained a great market space: Andrew Mason, 29 years, is the creator of Groupon, the web coupons, which became successful with a simple innovative idea .One of the fastest growing compa nies in history, according to Forbes. After saying no to Google, which offered U.S. $6,000millions, they now have a value of U.S. $950 million.Its creator explains why the success of the company very simply: â€Å"We won a commission, customers pay less for the product and associated companies get a return on a large scale for their products and services.†(gruopon.com) Effectuation – Tool of Entrepreneurs

Starbucks Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Starbucks - Essay Example The next portion of the essay will describe theoretical background of marketing concepts. Marketing Concepts Research scholars such as Burrow (2011), Sandhusen (2000), and Mercer (1996) have stated that organizations need to decide marketing strategy in terms of marketing mix, segmentation and target market, in order to become successful in competitive business environment. Kotler et al (2009) have pointed out that organizations need to change marketing mix such as product, price, place and promotion in accordance with the situational perspective, in order to achieve competitive advantage. Kotler et al (2009) have tried to establish link between implanting right marketing strategy and competitive advantage model proposed by Michael Porter (1980, 1985, and 1991). Elements of marketing mix can be explained in the following manner: Product Companies manufacture new products in order to match steps with the ever-changing nature of consumer demand. Organizations develop products through m ultiple stages like generating idea about new products by using primary and secondary research; selecting the potential idea through idea screening, testing the concept of product development with the help of feedback of customers, analyzing the business aspect of the product development such as market volume, price estimation, market size calculation etc., launching the product in small market segment in order to test acceptance of the product, manufacturing the product on commercial basis after achieving success in test marketing phase and finally commercializing the product. Ansoff matrix can be used in order to understand the significance of product concept in marketing. (Source: Stone, 2001, p. 51) According to Ansoff matrix, companies develop product strategy due to four reasons, 1- increasing market penetration by existing products in existing markets with an intention to decrease risk factors associated with entering new market, 2- developing new products for the existing ma rket in order to achieve competitive advantage over competitors, 3- launching an existing product in new markets in order achieve business growth in foreign shore without investing huge amounts of capital in new product development, and 4- launching new products in new markets in order to create brand awareness among customers. Mintzberg et al (2003) have stated that companies need to decide the product portfolio in accordance with the demographic and societal trends of a particular country. Price Companies decide the price of products in accordance with macro environmental characteristics of market and in some cases organizations decide the price of products in order to enhance brand image. For example, Apple use premier pricing policy or assigning high price on products in order to show class and aristocracy, while Wal-Mart uses cost orientation strategy in order to offer everyday merchandises at everyday low price (EDLP) to customers. Adopting EDLP model has helped Wal-Mart to ac hieve price competitiveness over their competitors. Place Companies decide distribution strategy in order to distribute products to customers. Organizations design distribution channel backed by retailers, wholesalers, online sales channel, c&f agents, company sales executives etc., in order to

Art History (Michelangelo) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Art History (Michelangelo) - Essay Example The placing of David outside of the Florentine government created a symbol for freedom and protection for the residents of the city. Instead of portraying King David from the Scriptures after defeating Goliath, Michelangelo decided to show David before the great battle with Goliath. The slingshot hanging casually over his back show David’s fearlessness fulfilling Catholicism theory that David had God on his side. The muscle toned young man Michelangelo depicted was another portrayal of the heroic nude. The heroic nude of David could be considered as the strength of God through a human in this instance. Although a famous sculpture, David does have a flaw. The most noticeable flaw is the fact that David is uncircumcised. Michelangelo learned to draw nudes from the morgue of Florence, but probably never seen an unclothed Jewish man. Even if he did see an circumcised male, the questions of placing a circumcised male in view of the public would have been too controversial. David fulfilled a prideful purpose for the city of Florence. A strong looking Italian David stood guard over the government. The calmness in the statue’s face shows no fear in the face of an enemy. David reassured the Florentines no matter the other