Contemporary issues in market strategy Assignment

Contemporary issues in market strategy - Assignment Example It is now universally accepted that the majority of consumers spend more time online than on other media channels such as television. Information is derived from an individual consumer’s online activities that include Facebook, twitter, tumbler and many more. The information of interest to marketing personnel relates to the consumer’s tastes and preferences as well as their wishes and expectations. Marketers are also interested in consumers’ opinions and perspectives on products (BOUTELLIER, GASSMANN & ZEDTWITZ 2008, pg33). The information gathered is then used to influence the individual consumer into consumption of a â€Å"personalized† product. Modern day consumer behavior forces companies to understand the individual consumers in addition to acquiring knowledge about the consumers. That is; these companies have shifted their strategy from production of goods for the consumers to creation of consumers who then form the demand part of their sales cycle. The shift from traditional marketing has led to the emergence of innovational marketing strategies which are discussed below. Digital marketing refers to the extensive employment of electronic media such as computers and software dependent devices, smartphones, cellphones, gaming devices, personal computers and tablets in the marketing of products and services (KASHANI & HOROVITZ 2005, pg44). The internet is regarded as the most effective and popular and digital marketing tool since it statistically agrees that most people spend more time online than on any other electronic channel. Digital media marketing also occurs through channels such as text messaging, instant mobile messaging, electronic billboards, digital radios and televisions, mobile applications and podcasts. Through digital marketing, companies can understand the tastes and preferences of their consumers, therefore, creating a special type of relationship

Managing and Working in a Virtual team Case Study

Managing and Working in a Virtual team - Case Study Example gain and maintain the trust of his or her charges, they must understand that trust depends on reliability, in virtual relations because there is usually limited personal interaction between members of a team. This eliminates chances of meeting and evaluating an individual’s potential or level of reliability. The only means to achieve this is to make sure that, as a team leader, you show team members that you are a reliable person by delivering on your responsibilities in time and in a competent manner, which serves as an example to the rest of the team. This will demonstrate to the members the level of quality of work expected of them, and this makes the team members respect and trust their virtual team leader (Lepsinger & DeRosa, 2010). Team leaders should establish guidelines in communication, which account for the differences in time zones, cultural and geographical variations between members. They can also specify the type of medium to be used when communicating to help av oid incompatibility and confusion when a meeting is about to begin. When considering how to enhance communication efficiency in a virtual team, a leader can consider creating team agreements on how and when to communicate across different time zones, team leader visits to the different members which helps establish engagements and trust by meeting the team leader face to face. A leader in a globally diversified team should formalize roles and duties of each team member starting with their own because this is the only way to ensure that the members have a clearly defined direction, which removes ambiguity in the roles that each member plays (Lepsinger & DeRosa, 2010). Staff changes on a virtual team can happen at any stage in the execution of a project, and how fast and effectively a new member is recruited and integrated into the team determines the successful completion of the project (Lepsinger & DeRosa, 2010). Integrating a new member, in the team, requires that the individual be

Ethical Issues Of Computer Hacking

Ethical Issues Of Computer Hacking This report deals in classifying and recognising the ethical issues in the case of Kevin Mitnick and his computer hacking history, also the matter that the accusations and the way FBI prosecuted his case was correct or wrong. Each and every issue raised would be discussed further by using the three theories of consequence-Based, Duty-Based and Character-Based. Along with these explanations the general role of a computer professional will also be described in term of their knowledge and expertise leading to hacking. Hence this report will be divided mainly in two parts; the first part will focus on the highlights of ethical issues while the second would deal the computer professional part. A detail sketch of Kevin Mitnicks history of hacking is cited in the case scenario which is the part of the report described later. Firstly short introduction of ethics and its three theories are going to be discussed which will lead a way easy to understand and fair well to implement it on the Kevin Mitnick case. ETHICS: Ethics has been described in many different ways by different people over the man history including some great Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Aristotle and many more. Greeks typically defined ethics as the study of what was good for the infidel and the society. The simplest way to explain ethics is to differ and reflect a human character in the terms of good or bad, right or wrong, fair or unfair, also responsible or irresponsible. On conclusion it will lead a human being moral character to be in good conduct. Ethics can also be referred as to what humans are supposed to do when they have to follow the prescribed standards of rights and wrongs, which normally would lead him in terms of rights, his benefits to the society he lives, his obligations and so on. Also ethics can be referred as studying of moral character of human being and developing it to an ethical standard. [1] Ethics begins when elements within a moral system conflict. [1] Ethics survives in many forms in branches, eras, traditions, literature etc. All of them follow the root hub of ethics but the form of ethics which is described and followed in this case study is called Cyberethics. Cyberethics: To understand the meaning of Cyberethics a good knowledge of Cybertechnology is essential. Modern eras devices which are used in cyberspace such as handheld devices, personal computers, mainframes, networks and the most important the internet can be termed as a part of Cybertechnology. Cybertechnology in terms refers to a broad spectrum of technologies that ranges from standalone computers to the clustered of networked computing, information and communication technologies. [2] Various definitions of Cyberethics are there which are mostly dealing with ethical issues with certain types of online activities like pornography, gambling. It can be signified as certain laws which are not monitored by the judicial or law governing bodies but for an individual himself going beyond his moral values which would be something different from cyber law. Cyberethics can be defined as the field of applied ethics that examines moral, legal and social issues in the development and use of Cybertechnology [2] Ethical Theories As this report has to follow certain type of ethical theories in order to identify the ethical issues a short description of each ethical theories are as below. Consequence-Based As by its name, consequence based theories responsible for producing the most desirable outcomes. The ultimate standards for consequence of actions against which the moral decisions evaluates is highlighted in this theory. The goodness or right identified by consequence would be something considered as Consequence-Based ethical theory which responsibly gives outcomes for someone, but who should be benefitted from this outcome? This argument has mostly been provided by different utilitarian thinkers such as Jeremy Bentham, Henry Sedgwick and John Stuart Mill. The argument provided by these thinkers follows the theory that an act of some individual or a whole social policy would be acceptable if it will provide benefits for majority of individuals which result in the effection with the given policy or from the provided act by specific individual. Jeremy Bentham states that People are driven by their interests and their fears, but their interests take precedence over their fears, and their interests are carried out in accordance with how people view the consequences that might be involved with their interests. [3] Consequence-based ethics mainly describes that whatever happens the final results should be in benefitted to large number of population rather than that of a certain minority. Moreover it should provide happiness to everyone rather than just a single individual. Duty-Based Duty based ethical theory gives perception of Deontology which is derived from the Greek word Deon means Duty. Deontology is the approach which defines goodness and right that would be achieved by studying the act of an individual or social policy rather than the consequence it leads too. Immanuel Kant is considered to be a great Deontological thinker who always criticized Utilitarian thinkers describing that morality must be defined as the duty of an individual to one another despite consequence produced normally when a certain individual performs a specific type of action. He further said that happiness is not something which should be concerned in term of morality, the motives and goals of a human being are the qualities which make him able to choose right and wrong rather than consequences. W.D Ross a deontological thinker states: Utilitarianism seems to simplify unduly our relations to our fellows. It says, in effect, that the only morally significant relation in whom my neighbours stand to me is that of being possible beneficiaries of my action. They do stand in this relation to me, and this relation is morally significant. But they may also stand to me in the relation of promise to promisor, of creditor to debtor, of wife to husband, of fellow countryman to fellow countryman, and the like; and each of these relations is the foundation of aduty'[4] So in short a Duty-Based approach gives a clear conclusion that morality of a human being would be carried out by the acts he performs able enough to justify being right or wrong. Honesty, Justice, Violence etc. should be the characteristics for which he will be regarded his moral duty rather than getting happy by telling a lie. Character-Based Character Based theory is something different which rejects the first two theories which were focusing on consequence and an act, despite this theory focuses on an individual character and is widely known as Virtue Ethics. The main concerns are the individuals moral character which does not rely on duties and consequences. It has very old history rages back to some great Greek philosophers like Aristotle and Plato who contended that each person has to obtain a right virtue as everyone will have a certain virtue in him which will be his strength and excellences leading toward good and bad moral character. Virtue ethics is also considered to be an agent oriented rather than the first two which are action oriented and rule oriented. It is only by mean of the idea of Virtue than any judgment done for a moral worth or its if its opposite possible, everything which are good and are not based on morally good disposition is simply nothing but pretence and glittering misery. [5] Background Our case study is about a person named Kevin Mitnick who is considered to be the first hacker in computer world to reach the FBI most wanted list. His arrest was taken place on 15 Feb 1995 by FBI in which he was accused of number of acts which included breaking into computer systems and networks all over the world and altering information which put damage to the company by investing more into new security measures and also for the charge of violations of his terms and conditions of his period of probation for his previous computer crimes. Mitnick was caught by the help of a Japanese computer security expert Tsutomu Shimomura whose system was hacked by Kevin Mitnick in San Diego Supercomputer centre which made him furious to track and help FBI. This was Mitnicks school days when for the first time he got fascinated with computers and start hacking. He was having strong passion of technology which made him learn quickly and he shortly managed to Hack LA public school districts computer. When Mitnick was just 17 he hacked into Pacific Bell and altered phone bills there, and in the same year he jumped into San Francisco Companys network where he got access to some information valued of $200,000. But he was caught and prosecuted which earned him a probation period of 6 months. He didnt sit idle in probation period and hacked into the telephone company again and disconnected the probation officers phone and accessed a credit service computer and altered the computerised record of the judge on his case. Interestingly police caught the fact that the system has been accessed from outside. During this time he also convicted of stealing software from a company in Santa Cruz, California. NORAD, a missiles monitoring company in states, was his next victim, which could have catastrophic effects as NORAD is a part of an early warning system and responsible for monitoring possible missile attacks directed toward United States. In 1988 he was accused of two more crimes, firstly accessing MCI network for long distance calls and secondly stealing some computer security system from a Digital Equipment Corporation causing a damage of $4 million in total. This time the judge decided to put Mitnick in jail without bail. During his bail attempts prosecutor presented evidence that he had penetrating a national security agency in Washington. He also planted a false story about a bank describing some heavy loss and where he was about to get job, the story was detected and Mitnick was accused responsible and denied for job. This was March 15 1989 when Mitnick pleaded guilty for the two crimes and sent to jail for one year with six months of psychological counselling and also with three years of probation. In 1992 FBI suspect Mitnick of hacking into Pacific Bell system again, his work place as searched, he disappeared and evidences were found later. While searches were carrying on for Pacific Bell more evidences were found that Mitnick hacked California Driver Licence records to set up a false identity for himself and also posed as a police officer to collect some information. Warrant of arrest was issued against him but each time he managed successfully to flee from police raid. Finally found and arrested in 1995 and was charged with various new crimes and violations of his parole. His bail was denied and it was ensured that no more computer equipment is handed to him in jail. His phone calls were closely monitored and in 1997 Mitnick was sentenced for 22 months after pleaded guilty. This sentence was followed by 3 years of probation period in which he was ordered to stay away from any Hi-Tech equipment. He was released in January 2000 and his probation was ended in January 2003. [6][7][8] Ethical issues: There are number of Ethical issues in the given case study, their discussion in the light of above theories. * Hacking into the networks of different companies by gaining access to unauthorized files or data. Was it ethical to access private files and data or even just breaking into a computer network? By applying the consequence based approach breaking in a computer network illegally and/or gain access to private files had benefited Mitnick only nor anybody else. Utilitarism states that the majority must gain happiness on the base of consequence but in the case of Mitnick he himself only gain happiness and not the majority, so it concluded that this act is going to be wrong for Mitnick that it is not ethical for him to gain or break into someone private computer network. The duty base approach and deontology theory would easily say this was wrong. Mitnicks act can be easily considered wrong to gain access to another computer networks. The ten commandments of ethics which was defined in 1992 states that all companies would have secure file and data and would not be breached by an unauthorized outsider. Hence this was completely wrong by Mitnick to do so. If the current study case would be judged through character based ethical approach so it would be obvious that Mitnick break into computer networks for his passion of technology and for the sake of fun. His thirst of knowledge forced him to continue in breaking into computer networks and gain more knowledge which was a great fun for him. But if considered morally this is completely wrong. By virtue ethics Mitnicks adopted path was not legitimate and he should have chosen the right path. * Kevin Mitnick never done hacking for any financial purpose instead his hacking was just for the sake of challenge or sometime taking revenge from people. Was it Ethical to hack for any reason and to take challenges and getting revenge from people? If this is to be dealt by consequence based theory , the answer would be definitely NO in this case totally because of the fact that extracting revenge from someone or going to win a challenge to prove his ability was beneficial for Mitnick only and majority of people would not be happy from this outcome. Duty based approach would state again NO as seeking revenge or damaging or doing any kind of unauthorized steps of which someone is not authorize to do. Mitnick was not supposed to do as this is not something an individual should act like. Character based or Virtue ethics justify in picking good habits of ones moral character and to leave the odd ones out to be a good human being for himself. In this case Mitnick has done good for himself by causing harm to others which isnt something good for an individual character. * Mitnick got access to his school computer network system and hacked Pacific Bell for altering phone bills. Was it ethically right for him to break into a computer of his school and Pacific Bell to alter phone bills while he was only 17 years old? Consequence ethical approach would again say NO as this is something he totally done for himself. This is something he for his own benefit for his own good and not for anybody else. The alteration in the phone bills will lead to create losses for the phone company which might turn up into large number as well. Thus this was something completely wrong to do so. Duty based ethical approach in this case would again lead to conclusion of NO as there is no actor policy which allow Mitnick to break into school system or into Phone Company to alter his phone bills. Based on the outcome his act was considered to be totally wrong. In the light of Character based approach, it leads to the fact that morally Mitnick knew that it was wrong in doing so but still he preferred to adopt his bad habit, which concludes that the outcome will be again NO. * Mitnick was in his probation period when got access to telephone company and disconnect his parole officers phone, he also altered the computer record of the judge of his case in a credit service computer. Was it ethical for Kevin to do such an act? Applying consequence based approach to this case will once again lead to NO because the result of what he done was bad for his parole officer and the judge. This is a kind of act which is considered as have done for his own satisfaction, being on probation he should have avoided such strong illegal moves but he didnt. Duty based approach would not go in favour of Mitnick in this issue. His act was definitely wrong as the judge would have very bad impact of him and as well parole office too must have been unhappy. While on probation one should be very careful about law and should not go against it but Mitnick do for his own feud. Character based ethical theory never permit someones moral character to take revenge and to hurt someone , in this case according to this law it will again go for NO. Thinking of revenge and hurting someone is considered to be very bad habit and also if an act leading to something which is not taken morally good with the assurance that law is not allowing such deeds, so a good moral character will never allow someone to go against law to hunt for his own happiness. * Mitnick found guilty in stealing software from a company in Santa Cruz California but at the same time there was not any convection record FBI database. Was it ethical to steal and alter record? Consequence based theory would not tolerate stealing or altering. Stealing is something really bad which is not allowed in any circumstances and even if assumed it does it would be something advantageous to majority, but in this case as it is obvious no beneficial for majority so the answer is NO. Duty based ethical approach strongly oppose act of stealing or altering which wont be considered good , so once again in comparisons of acts the answer is again NO. Character based believes that stealing is one of the bad habits of a human being and unauthorized alteration of records is also of the same category. Mitnick was convicted of such bad deeds so the answer will be again NO this time. * Convicted of breaking into North American Air Defence Command (NORAD) missiles defence system. Was it ethical for Mitnick to break into a defence system of a country? Judging the study case through Consequence based ethical approach, it would be a high dispute because getting access to such sensitive system could have catastrophic affects on millions of people. It would be extremely dangerous if such files to be changed or harmed. So the answer for this case will be NO The duty based ethical approach would not allow any such policy or rule for someone who want to have unauthorized access to such delicate system as the outcome can be extremely dangerous. So the answer is NO. The third approach of Character based would consider it to be worse habit of one moral character in doing so as the outcome can be something very harmful to large number of people. So its a NO. * Mitnick accessed MCI network for long distance calls and in another case he caused $4 million damage to Digital Equipment Corporation. Was it ethical to illegally access MCI and cause damage of worth $4 million to a company? The Consequence theory would say NO because again the minority gets benefit which is Mitnick and the majority faces damages which is the MCI network also the Digital Cop lost lots of money which is again the majority in damage. The Duty theory will again have no support for Mitnick as the case describes the huge losses for both the companies from what the Mitnick done with them. There is no such policy or act which can allow an individual to do so in any circumstances. So the answer is simply NO. Character based theory is again on its answer with NO and the reason for that is as stated above many times that alteration of records and damaging any private and confidential files cause harm to others which is considered a bad deed or bad habit. * In 1988 Judge denied him bail and ordered him to be held in jail. Was the judge ethical in doing so? This period lasted for eight months in solitary consignment for Mitnick. Now there is an additional act which is the Judge, Consequence based ethical theory has support with this act because Mitnick was responsible for causing harm to large majority of people but there is some conflict in the case as well, as Mitnick was put in jail for 8 months without bail and at that time it was not proved that these had been done by him, so this is a bit harsh on Mitnick, so here Mitnick get some support from Consequence theory. In duty base Judge gets support which is from the reason that Mitnick had caused harm to major companies and people but still the decision was too harh for him as he deserved at least a trail. As from Character based theory here the Judge lost his support as it was a fact that Mitnick was notorious but he deserved a trail and even if the Judge though he didnt, it was a wrong decision to put him in a solitary consignment. Mitnick would have come to good way by putting him in a normal jail as it was very harsh to put him in a solitary consignment. * While FBI was doing their most to catch Mitnick, he flee from the authorities on a number of occasions for two years by using fake identities to hide himself from the authorities. Was it ethical for him to do so? Mitnick at this point again done everything for his own good and during this period he caused damage to majority with his activities, so Consequence based theory would not support him on this issue. Using fake identities and staying on run for two years is not something good but a way to misguide law, which would not be supported by Duty based. Using fake identities by damaging other people identities to keep himself safe is something taking law in his own hands. It is not a good deed so according to Character based theory the answer will a definite NO. * Shimomura helped FBI to catch Mitnick, Was it ethically right for him to do so? All the three ethical theories Consequence, Duty and Character based would support Shimomura, as ethically he is right. It is duty of everyone to help the law to catch someone who has been causing harm to the community, and it is morally right for every individual to help to catch law breakers like Kevin Mitnick. * From 1995 till 1997 Mitnick was held in federal prison without bail and trail by FBI, was it ethically right to do so? Consequence based ethical theory in this case is going to support FBI as Mitnick was harm to many Firm companies and people but the support is going through only if Mitnick was charged after trial to stay in prison. As it has been described a number of times that law is superior than anything else, so in Mitnicks case again FBI should have run the case under law and should have allowed a fair trial to convict Mitnick, which has not been done, so this time the Duty base approach is supporting Mitnick and the answer is yes as FBI were ethically wrong in doing so. Character based would not support FBI as it is out of law to keep someone in prison for 2 years without fair trail and the chance for bail. At least he deserved fair trail and if found guilty then should have faced whatever he deserved. Role of a Professional A simple definition of a professional can be done like that, anyone who hold a degree in any particular field of education and then uses that knowledge in his relative field and making sure that professionalism follows the code of ethics including the terms Behaviour, society , confidentiality etc. At the time when a professional is hired, normally a contract or a bond is created between the two to follow certain defined acts and rules of policy and to keep high level of security by keeping the data safe and to avoid by missing any kind of data of the organization. Organization which is totally related to Information Technology or having an IT department also maintain a specified policy between its engineers and themselves. In this particular case the role of a software engineer, hardware engineer or an application engineer have to follow those rules and policies but also IEEE CODE OF ETHICS which is considered to be the main source of ethics code for any IT professional should be followed by any IT professional related to any field of Information Technology and in this case being software, application and hardware engineer. [9] Use of Knowledge for Hacking by a Professional It is quite disastrous when a computer professional use his knowledge for hacking. By taking each of different IT professionals individually and considering hardware engineer first to discuss, it is coming obvious that hard ware engineer can use his knowledge both in right way or the wrong way, as hardware devices manually build are quite useful in hacking mainly portable devices which is something like which Kevin Mitnick used for hacking. A question arises here that is it right to do so? The answer is quite simple NO because its against the code of ethics which exists in many forms of Cybertechnology. Same rules and principles applied for software engineer and application engineer as software and application level technical support is quite useful to build or modify codes of program and make its own custom made to be useful for something negative, which is not appreciated in society because of it harmful nature to many. A very technical question sometime being asked, Can all this knowledge be used in positive way? Can hacking be positive? The answer to these question is YES and is something called Ethical Hacker. Ethical Hacker vs. Hacker Hacker is someone who uses his knowledge on negative side and breaks in system, while an ethical hacker is someone who is doing hacking which is called penetration testing and hacks into different systems in order to identify security holes and then inform companies with or without solutions. Such kind of work is normally being done by security firms who is licensed to do so and has authorized to do so. An individual, who is not a part of a security firm and have no pre confirmed authorization, breaking into system would be consider a crime. Ethical hacker has the duty of catching hackers as well. In our case study Tsutomu Shirmomura is an ethical hacker who used his knowledge to catch a hacker Kevin Mitnick. Time has changed now, Kevin Mitnick is no more hacker, rather he is ethical hacker now who runs his own security company and does penetration testing for various organizations by accessing their systems, but this time the access is legal, authorized and paid. Conclusion Like many other technologies Information technology has also had good and bad impacts. Hacking is considered to be a negative act in the world of Cybertechnology. Kevin Mitnick curiosity for technology made him a Hacker, first started with a fun but then turned up quite disrupting. However if the case is studied with some realistic fact, it is seem to be very unfair when FBI holding him solitary confinement for 8 months without bail and trail. It unfair for a person like Kevin Mitnick calibre as from the case study its quite obvious that he was a genius. And for sure if a genius is treated like this way he is bound to go on run. This leads to a situation that if he is suspected in the future and he has not committed that crime, he would be afraid of facing the same thing happened with him by putting him in prison without bail and trail. In a documentary movie on the life of Kevin Mitnick Freedom Downtime Life of Kevin Mitnick the reports from psychologist stated that it was an event which every individual will want to run away and then his bad part took over him of which he evaded FBI for two years. Putting Mitnick in jail for 2 years between 1995 and 1997 with not access to bail is again something wrong. A fair trail is a right of every individual when one does something wrong then why not this applied on Mitnick. There are statements from Lawyers that even murderers get bail and trail then why Mitnick didnt? Whatever Mitnick had done he deserve to be punish for that as that were totally unethical with the time but if FBI would have used the law in sincere and fair way he wouldnt end up that way and he would have only been sentenced for the time period he deserved. One of the most interesting part of American Judiciary is that Kevin Mitnick is the longest held person in history without trial or bail which can be considered as to be totally unfair for him. Mitnick has changed his life after ending his 3 years of probation in 2003, Mitnick has started a securit y consulting company and now offering a role of ethical hacker and using penetration which test to check his client security flaws and using the code of ethics quite well. Kevin Mitnick is now using his professional skills toward his clients and himself which leads to the fact that his knowledge is now being used for positive way to secure his reputation and prove to the entire world that he is a genius.

Epic of Beowulf :: Poem Poet Beowulf Essays

Beowulf, the hero of the epic poem, is not an ordinary man; he is the epitome of a true hero. With the strength of thirty men in one arm, the courage to fight monsters, and the knowledge to respect and consider others' feelings, Beowulf defines the word "hero." As a thane of the Geats' king Hygelac, and later as king of the Geats, Beowulf uses his courage and wisdom to help him win many battles and competitions against humans and monsters. Beowulf's list of victories consists of his swimming contest with Breca, the slaying of sea monsters, the dismembering of the monster Grendel, decapitating Grendel (or Grendel's mother), and killing the dragon. However, his greatest achievement is not killing monsters, but not letting 'hubris' destroy him. As a good warrior and king, Beowulf always keeps his pledges/promises and obeys the laws of ''comitatus.'' Wiglaf Wiglaf, a thane of Beowulf's tribe, is another true hero in the poem. Despite the fact that he has never fought in a battle before, Wiglaf does not hide with the cowards while his lord, Beowulf, is attacked by the dragon. Remembering all the treasures and the trust Beowulf has given his men, Wiglaf bravely helps his lord who is in need: "Beloved Beowulf, do all well, for, long since in your youth, you said that you would not let your glory while you lived. Now, great-spirited noble, brave of deeds, you must protect your life with all your might. I shall help you." (Norton, 61) By helping Beowulf, Wiglaf also obeys the laws of comitatus and is greatly rewarded by Beowulf for his loyalty and love. Dragons They are often portrayed as evil and dangerous monsters, who eat people and burn homes. This view of the dragon is a direct result of the influence of Christianity and the Bible. In the Bible, the dragon is another name for the Devil, Satan himself, the archenemy of God and Jesus. Therefore, in a Western, Christian-based society, the dragon is viewed as an ally of the Devil and an enemy of God. Besides being seen as evil monsters, dragons were also believed to have treasures, such as gold or ancient artifacts in their lair. It is for one such treasure that the battle between Beowulf and the dragon starts. The Battle Beowulf, King of the Geats, who is now over seventy years old, fights his last battle.

Starting a Business: Musical Instrument Dealership

The Opportunity Music has power to attract almost all the people. In a country like Bangladesh historically people have practiced music for a long time. That implies that musical industry can get only bigger and bigger in the future which should increase the demand of the musical instruments. And with only a few competitors the opportunity in musical instrument dealership and selling musical instrument can be really huge. In our research we have observed that now day’s people are very brand conscious. Keeping that in mind we are introducing ESP Guitar for the first time in Bangladesh which is a very much renowned brand in the whole world. It is a Japanese brand who makes electronic guitars and basses. It is a very popular brand in many countries right now. ESP is well known for their stylist guitars and basses. Many popular rock and metal bands are using ESP recently and we believe it will be very popular in our country as well because there are number of rock and metal bands in our country now. We are introducing this new brand because according to our analysis it will give us a competitive advantage over our competitors and it will also differentiate our company from all the major players of the industry. Apart from launching ESP in Bangladesh we are also offering installment system which should attract more students who are the main target customers of our company. With the help of the technical and management team of EBS we are also offering free servicing of the musical instruments. Overall we can say that the opportunity in the music industry is huge. We believe we can capitalize this for our benefit. We intend to do that by our creative idea and meeting all the customers’ needs. Products and Services Tune and Play will sell new and used musical instruments and accessories. Our primary items will be electric and acoustic guitars, amplifiers and electronic keyboards, drams and some local instruments like harmonium, tobla and flute. In addition we will have a full service, on-site repair and customization department (band instruments, guitars and electronics). Tune and Play will offer several name brand instruments such as: †¢ Electric and acoustic guitars by ESP. †¢ Bass Guitar †¢ Keyboards †¢ Pianos †¢ Drums †¢ Amps †¢ Mixer †¢ Microphone †¢ Processor †¢ Sound-Card †¢ Foot-Pedal †¢ Violin †¢ Saxophone A very well stocked accessory department to support the above items. In addition to complete repair services for  our products, we will emphasize upgrades and customization items to develop other income streams our competitors have not considered. When carrying a brand name item conflicts with giving the customer the best all-around value, we will always pursue the product that best suits o ur client's interest. Marketing Analysis Target Market Our main target customers are musicians who are ready to pay anything for their desired instrument. However within that musician customer,  there are  different segments, ranging from professionals, to semi-professionals, to hobbyists and novices. We intend to target musical novices, hobbyists, and semi-professionals. These groups  include the largest percentage of musicians,  with the greatest amount of disposable income. These  market segments  can generally be approached with the same marketing techniques, and can be very loyal when treated properly. We are also targeting the students of those schools where ‘Music’ is offered as a mandatory course to them. Moreover there are many music school are present at Dhaka, and the numbers are in rise. Reasons for Buying our Product We are the only store in Dhaka who will offer ESP brand instruments for which musicians have a high demand. We will also offer the novice to semi-professional musician, the convenience of a wide selection, unique offers, experienced and reliable staff, and an educationally-focused community center; all in one location Again most musicians need support and service. The instruments that we sell can be difficult or impossible for end users to service. Potential clients tend to seek stores that can fulfill these services through word of mouth referrals or by using direct shopping experiences. These musicians come back time after time if they feel they are getting a fair deal. Therefore, we will ensure enough numbers of technicians for them always, so that they can find solution of their instrument’s problems any time. We will also provide one year warranty for the brand items. Analysis of Marketing Data: To know about the customer preferences and needs towards musical instrument, we conducted a market survey. After successfully completing the survey analysis, we had a more clear idea of what a potential buyer or musician desires from a music store. For our survey, we targeted people whose who are above 15 years old. We found that 53% people prefer rock music, 27% people prefer heavy metal and rest of the people like classical and pop music. 47% people like to buy Guitars from a music store, 27% 1ike to buy Keyboards, 13% like to buy Drums and others prefer to buy some local instruments like Harmonium, Flute etc. We found that people want both cash and installment payment available in the store. We found out, almost 40% people usually buy instruments for their learning purpose, 35% people buy because they are in band, and rest of the people buy by following their favorite artist. 80% people want lifetime free servicing if the instrument is not broken and rest of the people prefer stores should give year-end sales with 10%-15% discount. For people, Dhanmondi, Panthapath and Uttara as the most convenient place fir shopping. Industry Analysis Since the inception of Bangladesh, basic musical instruments were being manufactured by some local manufacturer. The department was being run by some minor players and import for marketing for international brands didn't exist at all. The market of musical instrument grew massively during late 70s and early 80s when many artists & bands were emerging. Demand of many international instruments like guitar, drums started to increase along with those regional instruments. From that time the need of importing instruments of various brand had became a lucrative opportunity for entrepreneurs. Further, with the technological advancement and immensely growing demand, more and more instrument seller were becoming available but there was not enough legal and economic support to install any authorized dealership or franchising for the provision of brand demand. Though 40 years back from now Melody & Co. , one of the musical instrument dealers, started their business in Old Town of Dhaka during the Pakistan era, they were just a dealer of regional instruments like harmonium, Tablas etc. Industry situation: Although enough growth has taken place in the musical instrument sector but most of it can be attributed to the random brand growth. Similarly Value Added Services have grown but are still a drop in the bucket. Now that the competition has been introduced in the instrument sector some very positive impact have been observed on the growth of the sector in a short span of time which is expected to continue to grow for at least next couple of years. Key Success Factors: †¢ Potentiality of music industry: As the music scenario in Bangladesh is improving and getting the touch of western influence, people are also getting interested in western instruments like electric guitars, drums etc. Emerging brand consciousness: Now days, musicians and artists are being more conscious about the brand. They now prefer brand over cost, as brand represent their image, style and quality. †¢ Globalization: Due to globalization the market in Bangladesh is also getting the attention of the rest of the world. MNC's from different side of the world also want to access this new market before any of their competitors. So internatio nal instruments brands will eagerly enter this market to diversify their risk. †¢ Economic stability: Though being a developing country, economic condition in Bangladesh is now days pretty much stable. So the buying power of Bangladeshi people is also healthy enough for these instrument businesses. Trends: Technological: Technologically Bangladesh is about a couple of years back dated from the developed countries. As a result of that technological advancement in musical instrument is not that significant for last few years. Due to lack of proper knowledge and equipments there is no authorized manufacturing sector for instruments, except those handmade instruments. Political: Politically Bangladesh is a very unstable country. But this specific business has no connection with politics at all. But considering the international DFI or Franchising, political assessment is necessary. Due to political corruptions and instability, Bangladesh is sometimes favorable or unfavorable country for MNCs depending on the situation. Considering the political aspect, this instrument business does not have much to care about. Societal: As this is related with culture and art, societal influence has tremendous impact over our business. Most societies of Bangladesh are conservative and they are attached with traditional Bangladeshi culture. These influence traditional Bangladeshi musical instruments like Harmonium, Tablas etc. But guitars & drums are more likely considered as western influence which is sometimes considered as a negative aspect by them. So to certain extent societal factors drive the industry. Assessment of Industry: By considering the five forces of an industry, we can assess our musical instrument industry from five different sides. Bargaining Power of Supplier: In this specific business sector, suppliers have enough power to dominate over instrument dealership business in country like ours. Because of the economic sloth advancement, the suppliers (the brands) do not usually that much care about authorizing dealership in our country. †¢ Also the brands that are more popular in Bangladesh will have a higher demand, any musical store will want to be a licensed dealer of them. †¢ Cost of selecting and switching suppliers is quite high. All these factors determine the supplier’s dominance over the industry. Bargaining Power of Buyers: †¢ Presence of a few numbers of stores and dealers. †¢ Cost of buying brand products from abroad is quite high and heavily taxable. These factors determine the buyer’s low power over the industry. Threat of new Entrant: †¢ High opportunity of profitable venture. †¢ The market is not saturated yet. †¢ Low burden of government rules and regulations So, the threats from new entrants are high in this industry. Threats of Substitute: †¢ Substitute products are limited and weak. †¢ Substitute products like other recreational products are not completely substitutable. So, threat of substitute products is quite low even do not exist at all. Rivalry among Competitors: †¢ A very few established stores and dealers are present. Most of the other stores are discrete and unstable, which usually sell those regional instruments like Harmoniums, Tablas. †¢ The cost of production is quite high. †¢ Products are rated at fixed price. †¢ Switching between products is costly. So rivalry among the existing competitors is moderate. It is not extreme because of less switching power of customers and fixed price, and also not much less because of the low number of dealers. Competition Analysis After doing some research we have come with some direct, indirect and also some future competitors of our music store. major ones are identified. 1. Existing huge music stores : In Dhaka city, there are 4-5 huge music stores which are OMNI, World music, Golden music and Music melody. They all have an approximate monthly sale of 10-15 lacs. Among our main competitor OMNI is our main concern. OMNI is the dealer of YAMAHA guitars and Pearl drums, which cost them a huge amount. Their initial investment was 2-3 crore, they business is mainly equity based, they didn’t take any loan because OMNI music store is a part of the huge business group. They reached their break even 4. 5 years. Demand for their music instrument is stable but on some special occasions their sales increase like on valentines day, pahela baishakh, independence day etc. Key success factor are commitment, honesty, right price quality and loyal customer. The other huge music stores mentioned earlier like golden music, music melody, world music whose business share is almost similar. They have a monthly sale of 10-12 lacs. They also bought many different brands that differentiate their music store. Music melody produce some local instruments but in a small scale. [pic] Competitors Position based on Sales 1. Existing small music stores: There are some small competitors in this market. They mainly get their product from the big competitors because investment costs need a huge amount of money to bring instruments. They also sale regionally produced instruments like harmonium, bahala etc. This kind of stores is also our concern because some of them may have the potential to grow as a huge competitor. 2. Future opening of music store: Music appeals everyone in the world. Music industry in Bangladesh is growing at a steady rate. Because now days Nokia, Benson & hedges etc are coming up with competition to bring out the talents from our country. This gives even small time musicians grow in confidence to buy some heavy instruments. Also music TV programs in all channels and music schools are establishing in Dhaka this also demand music instruments. So as demand for music instruments are growing, the more there will be openings of music store. Competitive advantage: In order to sustain and expand in this competitive marketplace we will take effective decision and implement them. Our store is providing the product of ESP. We will provide brand uniqueness. Also we will offer some after sale service to our customers who will buy expensive instruments costing more than 50,000tk. We are also providing some different service like: an exchange offer of your instrument with similar instrument but this would not be similar for everyone like we will check the instrument first that decide whether it will be profitable to exchange so that after repairing we can sell it again a good price also sometimes we may require some money with the instrument depending on the product. We will also repair different instruments in our store with a minimum charge of starting tk. 1000. Also we will provide customers with the service of customizing the instruments like color requirements, putting a tattoo or art, band logo on their guitar or other instruments charging differently depending on instrument. These services make our stores different from others. Marketing Plan Pricing Policy: For pricing, we divided our products in two segments. For ESP brand items, we are going to follow cost based pricing policy and for other products, we are going to follow competitor based pricing policy. These pricing strategies will help us sustain in the market, as well as make profit. Cost Based Pricing Policy: In this policy, we would consider all our expenses. These include transportation cost, utility cost, rental cost, promotional cost, storage cost etc. Once we find out all our expenses, we would divide it by the number of instruments kept in our store. This will give us expense per unit. After that, we would add the cost of the instrument itself with the expenses per unit. Then we will add 30% profit margin. An example is shown below: Selling price = Total Cost / ((100-margin) / 100) If Total Cost of a guitar is TK 70,000, then by applying this formula, we get: Selling price = 70, 000 / ((100 – 30) / 100) = TK 100,000 Competitor based pricing policy: This is a method where we will use prices of the competing products as a benchmark instead of considering own costs or the customer demand. This will be applicable for products that my competitors are offering as well. For example guitar accessories, amps, keyboard, piano, drums etc. The reason for selecting this strategy is because it would be really difficult to survive in price wars with my competitors. They have more experience and they are also in this business for a longer time. As a result they have already covered a lot of their investment. This means they can offer products at a lower price than us. Place: Our store will be located in Panthopath, Dhaka. It will be situated near Bashundhara City. Reasons for selecting this place are as follows: -some of my competitors are located here. This means customers will prefer this place, since they have many options. since our store will be outside Bashundhara City, we can operate at a comparatively lower rent. -Panthopath is lucrative place for conducting business. -as there is sufficient transportation facility, people can easily visit our store. -Since there are some jamming pads located near our store, people are likely to pay us a visit. After some years, we are planning to expand our business to some other locations. One of our priorities will be Uttara. This is because looking at the current market scenario, there are no musical stores in Uttara till now. Product: Our main focus is ESP guitars because ESP guitars are unique and are preferred by a lot of the younger generation. They like its exceptional designs. Some of the designs available are X-shaped, V-shaped etc. Besides that, the sound of ESP guitars is good for both riffs and lead guitar. For other guitars, it is tough to match the price of ESP, providing the same quality. Promotion Strategy Our  critical marketing program will be the grand opening, so we will place our initial advertising to give the greatest coverage. Our specific goal for the event is to create a big buzz for the local music community has ever seen regarding a new store. We will target our desired customer base using radio, newspapers, hand leaflet, banners and word of mouth. At present, radio is the easiest way to reach musicians for the simple reason that the love of music is what drives us to become musicians. Newsprint reaches a large portion of the public, letting them see what  we have to  offer before making a trip to the store. Large billboard and banners in different areas and hand leaflets are also very useful way to inform the people about our promotional activities. We will also have regular advertisement in different youth oriented magazines. Another promotional plan is to telecast our advertisements in different area based local cable channels. This is also a useful tool to inform people in economic way. Word of mouth is the one area we really hope to see develop, as a personal endorsement by a customer is worth more to us than what any advertisement can achieve. Distribution: We will follow the following strategies: 1. Direct purchases from manufacturers – generally the best price, but higher minimum orders. 2. Purchases from national distributors – large selections, good prices. 3. Purchases from regional distributors – small selection, average pricing. Management team We believe an efficient management team can increase the productivity of company. And a productive workforce can be an asset for a company and it can provide the company with a competitive advantage over the major players of the industry. We have started this business on the basis of partnership rules and regulation. There are seven partners and we all are the students of North South University. We know each other for a long period of time and we believe with our co operative effort we can make this company a very successful one. As we all are partners of the company and have contributed equally to the initial investment so all of us will be included in the decision making process. But for instant decision making we have prepared an organ gram. |Chairman |M. Riaz Mahmud | |CFO |M. Nahian Morshed | |Board of Directors |M. Faizur Rahman | |Board of Directors |Mustafa Waki Chodhury | |Board of Directors |Mohona Khan | |Board of Directors |M. Shahriar Firoz | |Board of Directors |Rizon Minhazur Rahman | We are hiring 5 sales executives, who will run our store. Our requirement is H. S. C. passed, fluent in English and have basic computer literacy knowledge. We will hire persons who are with good interpersonal skill and can convince the customers easily to buy instrument and behave well with the customer so that they remain loyal and happy with our service. Delivering Process Our business is an import oriented business. So, we’ll have to wholly depend on shipping for the delivery process and also container trucks will also be involved to deliver the instruments as the port is situated in Chittagong and we’ll have to transport the items to Dhaka. Customers will have the responsibility to transport their bought product to their favored destination. For payment to the parent company we will follow the Letter Of Credit (LC) system. In this system, we will get affiliated with an international bank which have subsidiary in Bangladesh. The international bank will have to be selected as the parent company might have trust issues and the international renowned bank will help us gain reliability. As soon as we receive the products, we will issue an LC. As our chosen company ESP is an established brand worldwide, they will take responsibility for the shipments. We had to get a license of ESP to get their permission of selling their product. The licensing took a great toll of our investment as we had to pay BDT. †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ to ESP. According to the license, we need to achieve some requirements which are their benchmarks. †¢ We had to show projected sales and their requirement was to achieve an average of BDT. 50 lakh mark yearly within 5 years. †¢ We had to show them our work on balance sheet, income statement and break even analysis as they were looking into our business’ feasibility. †¢ Also they checked the location of the store to find out if enough demand will be generated from the â€Å"place† factor of four P’s. We reached an agreement that we will to train our servicing employees according to their training methods to create the same environment and to comply with their customer service. †¢ We also had to show them an overview of the demand of their brand ESP in Bangladesh. Financial Projections Income Statement Our income statement is initiated with finding out the sales of first month and it is utterly based on our surveys. We first found out the total market value in terms of BDT. We went through our surveys and found out the competitors’ yearly sales and the total represents the presumable market size. As we are in the initiation stage we are assuming to get a hold of no more than three percent (3%) of the market size. We did a sales forecast for every month. For starters, we assumed a growth rate of 0. 5 percent for the first three months which gradually increased to 1 percent and later we ended the first year with a growth rate of 2% in the last three months. The increasing growth rate will be as a consequence of our extensive marketing policies. The first year’s growth rate being only 12. 65% percent, we had to incur losses in every month. The econd year, the yearly growth rate we have assumed will be 12. 68% owing to the steady growth rate every month. And third year we expect a growth rate of 16% approximately. For our cost of goods sold, we presumed forty percent (40%) of our sales and we counted our sales discount to be 2. 5%. Another variable cost is sales commission of one percent (1%) of sales which is categorized as selling expenses. Fixed costs include both selli ng and administrative expenses. Selling expenses include store salaries of BDT. 20,000 per month, rent of BDT. 50,000 per month, advertising expenses of BDT. 5,000 per month, utility of BDT. 5,000 per month and depreciation expenses of BDT. 250 per month. The administrative fixed costs consist of salaries which is monthly BDT. 10,000, utility monthly 2,000, insurance monthly BDT. 2,000 and depreciation expenses of BDT. 200 per month. We expect to reach the break even in 6. 62 years and we have shown income statements for 10 years just for getting an idea of the net income in following years. Sensitivity: We have shown sensitivity analysis changing the sales revenue by five percent in both directions. For worst case scenario with 5% downfall in sales, our net loss in first year will rise by more than BDT. 70,000. In the most likely case, we also incur a loss of BDT. 105,000 approximately and best case scenarios with 5% sales increment, net profit will be almost BDT. 33,000. For 2nd year, most likely case scenario will produce a profit of BDT. 342,566 and worst case scenario will produce profit of BDT. 155,858. But, the best case scenario will generate less net income than most likely case because of tax rules. The 3rd year most likely case will see us earn a net income of BDT. 04,398. We have also assumed the worst case and best cases and if that happens we will have net income of BDT 508,314 and BDT 700,483 respectively. Cash-Flow Statement Cash flow statement is the way of constructing the cash inflows and outflows according to type of activities such as operating, investing and financing activities. It gives us the idea about if the company will be profitable over the years by generating sufficient cash and if it will be able to pay off its debt. We have done cash flow statements for 8 years and those will be included in the appendices. For our cash flows, we followed direct method starting with the operating activities which includes inflow from sales revenue and outflows from different expenses like cash paid to suppliers, salaries expenses, rent expenses, sales commission, advertising expenses etc. in investing activities, outflows includes BDT. 10,000,000 of purchasing of assets, other investment of BDT. 1,000,000 and purchasing of contract of rent BDT. 1,000,000 and there are no inflows. Financing activities has inflows form loan and owners investment worth BDT. 8,000,000 and BDT. 7,000,000 respectively. Cash outflows from financing includes loan payment of BDT. 171,438 per month. The payment of installment continues till year 7 when we paid off our debt. Our total cash flow will be negative till year 4, first quarter and since then its uprising. But we maintained a cash balance from the beginning generated from loan which will see us through these periods. From first year, our cash balance is reduced to BDT. 2,004,607 from BDT. 2,910,411 which is the starting balance of the first month. Second year it is reduce to BDT. 1,398,301 and by the end of year three the cash balance will be BDT. 20,853. Sensitivity: The sensitivity analysis of every year attached to appendices will show how much the expected cash flows can differ when we consider worst possible and best possible cases. The first year’s best case is likely to reduce the outflows by about BDT. 120,000 but the worst scenario will increase outflows by about BDT. 117,000. the second and third years’ sensitivity anal ysis shows the same effect reducing or increasing the cash outflows in best and worst cases respectively. Balance Sheet Our balance sheet shows how much the venture capitalist can depend on our business. In the balance sheet we tried to figure out the total asset each year as the first objective of a business is to maximize the value of its assets. We also showed if the assets matched the liabilities. Our total assets included cash, inventories, receivables, other current assets categorized as current assets and long term assets consists of non current assets, accumulated depreciation etc. Current liabilities are payables, short term debt and others while non current liabilities are long term debt and others and these two makes up the liabilities part. Equity has only common equity invested by the owners. For most of these items, we tried to maintain a specific percentage of sales such as for inventories, we maintained 20. 69% of sales, 40. 14% of sales as short term debt etc because we know these items are vulnerable to the change of sales and move in the same direction. Our first year’s total assets are BDT. 17,350,008 while the next two years it went down to BDT. 16,912,962 and BDT. 16,623,039. This can be associated with the increment in negative cash flows or increase in outflows. But it’s uprising from then as we expect it to rise as high as BDT. 5,481,609 in eight years. A significant change occurs in year seven as we reach break even; our total assets rises from about 20 million to above 24. 5 million. This is because of the rise in cash balance that year after recuperating the total investment. Sensitivity: By changing the sales by 5% positively and negatively, we found out the best and worst case scenarios which can contribute to the change of our total assets. Again, as we are looking to maximize the value of our assets, we have to be conscious about what the best and worst situations can do to our business. For the first two years, the worst case scenario doesn’t do much damage as the reductions in total assets are by about BDT. 50,000 from the most likely scenarios; BDT. 17,292,408 in first year and BDT. 16,846,620 in second year. While the best case scenarios in the first two years see our total assets to rise to BDT. 17,407,482 and BDT. 16,979,158. The third year the change about BDT. 75,000 in both cases as the best case scenario puts our total assets to BDT. 16,698,871 and the worst case to BDT. 16,547,041. For al these time, the increases and decreases in total assets are backed by the retained earnings portion of owner’s equity. Breakeven: |Pay Back | | | | | | | |Initial Investment | -15,000,000. 00 | | |Year 1 | 1,061,866. 91 | -13,938,133. 09 | |Year 2 | 1,450,954. 8 | -12,487,178. 20 | |Year 3 | 1,739,046. 20 | -10,748,132. 00 | |Year 4 | 2,119,043. 11 | -8,629,088. 89 | |Year 5 | 2,667,444. 37 | -5,961,644. 52 | |Year 6 | 3,328,314. 32 | -2,633,330. 20 | |Year 7 | 4,203,767. 76 | ,570,437. 55 | |Year 8 | 4,366,613. 47 | 5,937,051. 02 | | | | | | | 11,517. 17 | | | |228. 6438216 | | | |0. 26421429 | | |Pay back in years |6. 626421429 | | Exit Strategy: Our ongoing business is Musical instrument dealership. Our exit strategy is a mixture of liquidation and our own strategy. First we will liquidate some percentage of our assets. We are planning to sell those underperforming assets at a lower price and we will also invest some additional capital to establish a diversified service line. This will be actually a recording studio as we are planning to seize the opportunity created by lack of recording studio in Bangladesh. We are planning to open a recording studio which will contribute to the uprising music scenario in Bangladesh. Due to lack of quality music studios, we believe our exit plan from musical instrument dealership to recording studio will shift our position from decay to a growing stage in company life cycle. It will be our long term plan because we do not want to loose the face value of the product. Initial Investment: Rent (4 months)= Tk. 200,000 Equipments (Estimated Average per unit) Electric Guitar(5*30,000) |150,000 | |Bass Guitar(5*30,000) |150,000 | |Acoustic Guitar(20*3000) |60,000 | |Piano(2*100,000) |200,000 | |Keyboard(10*20,000) |200,000 | |Drums(5*30,000) |150,000 | |Mixer(3*50,000) |150,000 | |Microphone(5*10,000) 50,000 | |Processor(5*20,000) |100,000 | |Accessories(Strings, Cables, Tuners etc) |90,0000 | |Other Equipments |100, 000 | |Total |1,400,000 | Estimated Initial Marketing Cost=300,000 Furniture=100,000 Reserve For Cash Requirements=3,000,000 Dealership Cost=10,000,000 Total Initial Investment=15,000,000 Conclusion We have worked on this business plan for the last three months and gathered all the related information about the music industry. After analyzing all the data we have came up with the idea investing in this business can be really challenging but profitable. If we can survive through the initial trouble we can diversify our business by investing in different regions of Bangladesh. In the era of communication people are very fond of the creative ideas and we believe our business is creative and unique enough to attract the potential customers. Reference: www. google. com www. yahoo. com acct. tamu. edu/smith/acctwebs. htm Haque, Akkas & Ashif (2008) ‘Three taxes of Bangladesh’

UK/Asian Response to Sexually Explicit Advertising

Writing this thesis has been extremely difficult, demanding, and extremely time consuming, but it has also provided insight into exactly how much of an impact, good or otherwise, sexually implicit advertising has on a predominantly sheltered society.   There are unfortunately a limited number of empirical studies that have been completed on this subject, and perhaps through the offering of this thesis can more advanced and concurrent data be exhumed and learned from.I would like to thank my professors and supervisors at the University that have helped me along the way in ensuring that I was kept on track during the entire process, for they have been instrumental in helping me through the more difficult times and the â€Å"rough spots† that I endured from time to time.It is anticipated that this thesis will only be the beginning forage into an unknown and provocative world of advertising and provide additional material to carry on with future students.The world of advertising has the inevitable task of having to cater to all factions of societies in which companies seek to capture a share of the consumer market. Advertisers must tailor its attempts at delivering brand messages depending on the target audience, be it members of Western or Eastern cultural groups.The reaction to sex in advertising can be viewed in a positive or negative fashion, depending on the values and perceptions of those who view the ads. The entire process of ensuring fluidity with public perception is entirely up to the advertisers themselves, and what is acceptable in the West is not always the case in the East.More specifically, Western cultures tend to have a much higher tolerance of sexual imagery, while Eastern cultures tend to generally be more offended by ads that exploit sexuality to promote consumer products.The same ads may generate vastly different responses when viewed by members of the two divergent cultural groups. The dramatic difference in the response the ads gene rate is due to cultural beliefs, practices, and ideals that promote varying attitudes toward sex among those who live in Western societies and those who live in Eastern societies.As one of the more provocative global advertisers, Benetton continually looks to engage the public in their form of sexually-driven advertising in an attempt to gauge the reaction of the public.Although Benetton is only one of the major Western advertisers that is making inroads in the eastern hemisphere, they have an interesting task of marketing to more conservative sectors of society, mainly the Asian people. The Asian community has a long-standing embedded value system that may or may not ever catch up to the impressionable Western culture group.Due to the cultural differences that exist in Asian culture, Western-based advertisers have a formidable task in figuring out how to deliver brand messages in ways that are both effective and culturally acceptable. This poses a significant challenge to advertise rs, because they must thoroughly research the ideals and beliefs of those to whom they seek to direct their brand messages.When looking at advertisements with sexual undertones, Western culture views this type of â€Å"shock† advertising as generally accepted and it is not really given a second glance as it is viewed as an acceptable part of societal values. But, in the eastern hemisphere, this type of culture â€Å"shock† may be acceptable with the younger generation, albeit not as gregariously as with their western counterparts, but with the older generation of Asian and UK families, attitudes toward   this type of sexually explicit advertising are not perhaps as accommodating. UK/Asian Response to Sexually Explicit Advertising Writing this thesis has been extremely hard, demanding and extremely time consuming, but has also provided insight into exactly how much of an impact, good or otherwise, sexually implicit advertising has on a predominantly sheltered society.There is unfortunately a limited number of empirical studies that have been completed on this subject and perhaps through the offering of this thesis can more advanced and concurrent data be exhumed and learned from.I would like to thank my professors and supervisors at the University that have helped me along the way in ensuring that I was kept on track during the entire process and has been instrumental in helping me through the more difficult times and the â€Å"rough spots† that I endured from time to time.It is anticipated that this thesis will only be the beginning forage into an unknown and provocative world of advertising and provide additional material to carry-on with future students.ABSTRACTThe world of advertising has the inevit able task of having to cater to all factions of society, be it western or eastern cultural groups, and the reaction to sex in advertising can be viewed in a positive or negative fashion. The entire process of ensuring fluidity with public perception is entirely up to the advertisers themselves and what is acceptable in the west is not always the case in the east.One of the more provocative global advertisers, Benetton, continually looks to engage the public in their form of sexually-driven advertising in an attempt to gauge the reaction of the public.Although Benetton is only one of the major western advertisers that is making inroads in the eastern hemisphere, they have an interesting task of marketing to a societal sector, mainly the Asian people, that have a long-standing embedded value system that may or may not ever catch up to the impressionable western culture group.When looking at advertisement with sexual undertones, western culture views this type of â€Å"shock† ad vertising as generally accepted and not really given a second glance as it is viewed as an acceptable part of societal values; but, in the eastern hemisphere, this type of culture â€Å"shock† may be acceptable with the younger generation albeit not as gregariously as with their western counterparts; but, with the older generation of Asian and UK families this type of sexually explicit advertising is not perhaps as accommodating.REFERENCES Albers-Miller, N. D. (1996). â€Å"Designing cross-cultural advertising research: a closer look at paired comparisons.† International Marketing Review 13(5): 59-75.Albers-Miller, N. D. and B. D. Gelb (1996). â€Å"Business Advertising Appeals as a Mirror Of Cultural Dimensions: A Study of Eleven Countries.† Journal of Advertising 25(4): 57-70.Alden, D. L., W. D. Hoyer, et al. (1993). â€Å"Identifying Global and Culture-Specific Dimensions in Humor in Advertising: A Multinational Analysis.† Journal of Marketing 57(2): 6 4-75.Andrews, J. C. and S. Durvasula (1994). â€Å"Testing the Cross-National Applicability of U.S. and RussianAdvertising Beliefs and Attitude Measure.† Journal of Advertising 23(1): 71-83.Belk, R. W. and W. J. Bryce (1986). â€Å"Materialism and Individual Determinism in U.S. and JapaneseTelevision Advertising.† Advances in Consumer Research 13: 568-672.Belk, R. W., W. J. Bryce, et al. (1985). Advertising Themes and Cultural Values: A Comparison of U.S. and AsiaCentre for Adolescents and Family Studies. 2003. Sex in Advertising.   http://education.indiana.edu/cas/tt/v1i3/advertising.html