Importance of Statistics

IMPORTANCE OF STATISTICS In today's world we are faced with situations everyday where statistics can be applied. Statistics can be used to determine the potential outcome of thousands of things where the human mind alone wouldn't be able to. Statistics benefits all of us because we are able to predict the future based on data we have previously gathered. Being able to predict the future not only changes our lifestyle but also helps us be more efficient and effective. Statistics is the science of collection, analysis, and presentation of data.Statisticians contribute to scientific enquiry by applying their knowledge to the design of surveys and experiments; the collection, processing, and analysis of data; and the interpretation of the results. Statisticians may apply their knowledge of statistical methods to a variety of subject areas, such as biology, economics, engineering, medicine, public health, psychology, marketing, education, and sports. Many economic, social, political, and military decisions cannot be made without statistical techniques, such as the design of experiments to gain federal approval of a newly manufactured drug.Statisticians provide crucial guidance in determining what information is reliable and which predictions can be trusted. They often help search for clues to the solution of a scientific mystery and sometimes keep investigators from being misled by false impressions Why do we need to study statistics? There are five major reasons to study statistics: * The first reason is to be able to effectively conduct research. Without the use of statistics it would be very difficult to make decisions based on the data collected from a research project.For example, in the study cited in Chapter One, is the difference in recorded absenteeism between psychiatric and obstetrics nurses large enough to conclude that there is meaningful difference in absenteeism between the two units? There are two possibilities: The first possibility is that the diff erence between the two groups is a result of chance factors. In reality, the two jobs have approximately the same amount of absenteeism. The second possibility is that there is a real difference between the two units with the psychiatric unit being more nurses missing work.Without statistics we have no way of making an educated decision between the two possibilities. Statistics, however, provides us with a tool to make an educated decision. We will be able to decide which of the two possibilities is more likely to be true. We will base this decision on our knowledge of probability and inferential statistics. A second point about research should be made. It is extremely important for a researcher to know what statistics they want to use before they collect their data. Otherwise data might be collected that is uninterruptable.Unfortunately, when this happens it results in a loss of data, time, and money. Now many a student may by saying to themselves: â€Å"But I never plan on doing any research. † While you may never plan to be involved in research, it may find its way into your life. Certainly, it you decide to continue your education and work on a masters or doctoral degree, involvement in research will result from that decision. Secondly, more and more work places are conducting internal research or are becoming part of broader research studies. Thus, you may find yourself assigned to one of these studies.Finally, many classes on the undergraduate level may require you to conduct research (for example, a research methods or experimental psychology course). In each of these instances, a knowledge of measurements and statistics will be invaluable. * The second reason to study statistics is to be able to read journals. Most technical journals you will read contain some form of statistics. Usually, you will find them in something called the results section. Without an understanding of statistics, the information contained in this section will be meaningle ss.An understanding of basic statistics will provide you with the fundamental skills necessary to read and evaluate most results sections. The ability to extract meaning from journal articles and the ability to critically evaluate research from a statistical perspective are fundamental skills that will enhance your knowledge and understanding in related coursework. * The third reason is to further develop critical and analytic thinking skills. Most students completing high school and introductory undergraduate coursework have at their disposal a variety of critical thinking and analytic skills.The study of statistics will serve to enhance and further develop these skills. To do well in statistics one must develop and use formal logical thinking abilities that are both high level and creative. * The fourth reason to study statistics is to be an informed consumer. Like any other tool, statistics can be used or misused. Yes, it is true that some individuals do actively lie and mislead with statistics. More often, however, well meaning individuals unintentionally report erroneous statistical conclusions. If you know some of the basic statistical concepts, you will be in a better position to evaluate the information you have been given. The fifth reason to have a working knowledge of statistics is to know when you need to hire a statistician. Most of us know enough about our cars to know when to take it into the shop. Usually, we don't attempt the repair ourselves because we don't want to cause any irreparable damage. Also, we try to know enough to be able to carry on an intelligible conversation with the mechanic (or we take someone with us who can) to insure that we don't get a whole new engine (big bucks) when all we need is a new fuel filter (a few bucks). We should be the same way about hiring a statistician.Conducting research is time consuming and expensive. If you are in over your statistical head, it does not make sense to risk an entire project by attempt ing to compute the data analyses yourself. It is very east to compute incomplete or inappropriate statistical analysis of one's data. As with the mechanic discussed above, it is also important to have enough statistical savvy to be able to discuss your project and the data analyses you want computed with the statistician you hire. In other words, you want to be able to make sure that your statistician is on the right track.To summarize, the five reasons to study statistics are to be able to effectively conduct research, to be able to read and evaluate journal articles, to further develop critical thinking and analytic skills, to act as an informed consumer, and to know when you need to hire outside statistical help. How statistics are used in business areas Statistics clearly has real world applications in all of the subjects you list. * Accounting – Random sampling is frequently used by accounting firms when accounts (like travel expenses) are relatively small and inconseque ntial.You can use a random sample to estimate the quality of the whole population of accounts. * Finance – Trend analysis and correlation are common when making economic forecasts. * Management – Sampling of opinion polls and data pertaining to personnel. These are often summarized with estimates of errors. * Marketing – Customer surveys, correlations between advertising outlays and increased revenues. Estimates of market sizes use sampling. Product quality is also a rich field for statistical analysis. Any time you want a quick answer, you can get a good estimate by using statistical sampling.For example, a stratified random sample of accounts can be used instead of an exact calculation when you have paper sales orders (or pending sales orders) that are not entered into the computer. Make sure to count all the big ones, and you can estimate the small ones. On the other hand following ways, statistics can be possible to use in the business area. In general a typ ical organization has three levels: Strategic, Managerial and Oper- ational. This classi? cation is somewhat general and arbitrary. However, this can help identify and emphasize di? rent tools to be directed at the di? erent levels. We envision Statistics to play important roles at all these levels. Strategic Level (Top of an Organization) At the strategic level the most emphasis should be on Statistical thinking which Have the following components: * Notion of a Process, * Notion of measurement and data based decisions, * Understanding and dealing with variation, * Statistical tools, and * Systematic approach. The notion of process thinking is fundamental to any organizational change. Every action has some inputs and outputs which need to be identi? d in every context. Decisions at the strategic level should be based on facts supported by appropriate data and this requires an understanding of variation (Deming 1986). Business and Industry have seen the arrival and demise of many pr ograms such as Total Quality Management. Embracing any program that comes along without ? rm commitment and understanding is doomed to failure. Managerial Level (Middle Level) This is the level at which systems are devised for implementation of the directions taken by upper management.In particular, systems for robust product and pro- cess design, process control and improvement, and training are the responsibility of middle management. Understanding of some statistical tools and statistical thinking are prerequisites for those who are designing these systems. Operational Level At this level the methods are implemented through the system built at the mana- gerial level. Understanding of statistical tools such as control charting, capability analysis, design of experiments, measurement system analysis, regression analysis etc are essential.Appropriate statistical tools need to be used by operational peo- ple as part of their daily work. People in some areas need to know the details o nly of certain statistical tools. For instance, an operator responsible for maintaining stability of a process by charting should know the workings of a control chart but need not know a lot about design of experiments. On the other hand an engineer responsible for process improvement should be knowledgeable in several aspects of statistical process control and design of experiments.How entrepreneur minimizes the business risk By using following tools, am entrepreneur can minimize the business risk. Those are: * Business forecasting * Risk return analysis in portfolio and project management * Probability concept in manufacturing area and others Statistics are used all over the world. They can be applied in almost any situation and can always help. They are used in explaining group behavior of organisms, marketing research, and the list goes on and on. A good example is how scientists observe the behavior of groups of animals.Scientists can record data from a group of elephants and d etermine that a certain percentage of elephant herds will defend themselves from predators while the other percentage may run away. This kind of data can help scientists predict the elephant's lifestyle and culture. Statistics affects our daily life every day. Researchers use statistics to advertise their products which in turn we the consumer purchase. The price of the products we buy are determined upon statistics which show the demand for the product at that point in time and because of these statistics, we the consumers pay a certain amount of money to buy the product.Another example of how statistics affect me is in school. Every year statistics are looked over and the curriculums for the classes I take are based on data collected in the past. The curriculums are modified and help the learning process. In conclusion, statistics are a major staple of our world today. They are used in practically any situation and help improve our overall lifestyle. Statistics change the way we t hink about tomorrow and the way we live today and without them.

Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods Essay

There are different research methods that have been guided by different philosophy of science that were developed by philosopher, researcher and sociologist at their time of era. The well-known research methods are quantitative research methods. Quantitative are numerical methods associated with deductive approaches. Quantitative research methods are usually guided by the principles of positivism as it takes on objective reality and accepts single reality. Quantitative methods are usually used to measure size, observe numerical change over time, audience segmentation, testing hypothesis, and, quantifying attitudes, behaviors and opinions. The main importance of quantitative research is on deductive reasoning which tends to move from the general to the specific. The validity of conclusions is shown to be dependent on one or more premises being valid. For example, All students who study MBA in Kathmandu University works in a bank. Seema studies in MBA in Kathmandu University. Based on the premises, we can say that Seema works in a bank. Premises used in deductive reasoning are important because faulty premises can lead to wrong conclusions. Another popular method is qualitative method, which are usually associated with inductive approaches. Qualitative research methods are used on subjective matter, as in-depth study to explore subject matter. Qualitative research methods are guided by philosophies as post-positivism, critical theory, and constructivism. Qualitative research methods offer different kinds of ways to investigate on research problems as interview methods, focused group discussions,case studies and many others to understand the certain circumstances or culture in the society. The approach adopted by qualitative researchers tends to be inductive which means that they develop a theory or look for a pattern of meaning on the basis of the data that they have collected. This involves a move from the specific to the general and is sometimes called a bottom-up approach. However, most research projects also involve a certain degree of deductive reasoning (Trochim, 2005). Quantitative Research is more about collecting numerical data to study about certain phenomena. For example, what percentage of Nepalese student who go to US for foreign degree complete graduate course in United States? Other examples may be what percentage of Nepalese students who are studying in TU have negative attitude towards TU administrations. One usually has to use quantitative research when one wants answer in numbers. However, one has to study about complex situations and go with in-depth studies then qualitative methods should be used. For example, researcher wants to know how people view politics in Nepal? Similarly, a researcher wants to do ethnographic study of the culture of Tharus of Nepal and lives with Tharu for some years, immerse himself/herself in that environment to discover the meanings, convention of behavior, and ways of thinking important in tharu cultures. Similarly, even though the selection of research methods are based upon the problem selected, resource available, the skills of researcher and audience of the research, both the methodologies are also used together in a research which is known as mixed methods. â€Å"Mixed methods often combine nomothetic and idiographic approaches in an attempt to serve the dual purposes of generalization and in-depth understanding—to gain an overview of social regularities from a larger sample while understanding the other through detailed study of a smaller sample. Full integration of these approaches is difficult, hence the predominance of component studies†(Pat Bazeley, 2004) References (Bazeley, 2004) Social Research Methods. (n.d.). Retrieved December 12, 2012, from www.socialresearchmethods. net: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/positivism (2005). In W. M. Trochium, Research Methods (2nd ed.).

Short Story Author Analysis - Isaac Babel Research Paper

Short Story Author Analysis - Isaac Babel - Research Paper Example However, it was his engagement with the truthful depiction of the heinous acts committed by those in high authority that landed him in trouble with Stalin that eventually led to his execution. In Babel’s life, the loss of life and tenderness of emotion went hand in hand. Most of his literary work carries an understated preoccupation with the theme of ‘death’ and since, this preoccupation formed an indispensable part of his growing years; detachment was an inevitable consequence. His collection of thirty five short stories, by the title ‘Red Cavalry’ is the epitome of violent depictions in his work through his career. This violence and morbid details of death and murder stem from first hand accounts after being a recruit in the 1st Cavalry Army. As he floated through war-affected times, in his personal life, his several marriages and extra-marital affairs began to tell a tale of disillusionment with permanence of any sort. The only permanence that there was, was that of the insecurities of an unstable and ‘always-at-risk’ life that stayed with him for the rest of his life. As Lionel Trilling remarks about Isaac Babel: â€Å"He was captivated by the vision of two ways of being, the way of violence and the way of peace, and he was torn between the two† (Trilling, 119) As a writer, Babel always remained in the eye of controversy. The stories from ‘Red Cavalry’ like Crossing the River Zbrucz, My first goose and Salt are all stories with diverse plots and yet are tied together with the element of death in some form. ‘Crossing the River Zbrucz’ or ‘Crossing into Poland’ begins on a morbid note, which casts its shadow over the rest of the narrative. The somber mood of the story is however offset intermittently with an odd Wordsworth-like description at times. â€Å"Faint-hearted poverty closed in over my couch. Silence overcame all.

Homer, Shakespeare and Sophocles Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Homer, Shakespeare and Sophocles - Essay Example Hospitality is a prominent concept throughout the story. In book four, Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca in secret and begins to look for allies among his former employees. The opening of book four shows that Eumaeus is an industrious person. It tells of how he has built up the pig-sties through his own work, and that he above all of Odysseus' servants takes the best care of his animals, even going so far as to sleep with the pigs at night. He is also shown to be hospitable after the Greek fashion because he always sends the best of the hogs for the suitors, even though he is most likely not happy about doing it. He shows hospitality to Odysseus in beggar form, showing that he is compassionate and not proud. Later he prepares a second meal from one of the fat hogs that are normally reserved for the suitors, and in this his fairness is perfect, as he divides the meat into exactly equal portions. At this second meal he also presents a sacrifice to the gods, showing that he is pious as well. In drawing a comparison between xenia, piety, and morality, it is shown that the Greeks placed very high importance on the concept of hospitality to strangers and friends alike. As with many Greek choruses, the chorus in Antigone provides insight on the characters and plot of the play, and provides important cues that signal how the audience should feel about and relate to events and characters. In Antigone the chorus appears at pivotal moments to comment on what has occurred. Choruses also add meaning to a play because they are usually composed of a specific type of Greek citizen - for example in Antigone the chorus is made up of Theban elders. This adds meaning to the play because the elders were important for maintaining order in Greek cities, and for the king, their support is crucial - in fact Creon actively tries to win their loyalty. Throughout the play the chorus is torn between remaining loyal to Creon and the necessity of supporting divine law. In Antigone the chorus of Theban elders supports Creon at the beginning. They are loyal to Creon, and pledge their support (but not their approval) of Creon's plans. However, the chorus begins to change their stance when Creon tells Haemon that he intends to have Antigone executed. The chorus warns that because he is separating two people in love, Creon's actions may offend "[s]he against whom none may battle, the goddess Aphrodite". The members of the chorus are also city officials, therefore they must be pious, and withdraw support from a king who is out of favor with the gods. Later, when Tiresias warns of the gods' punishment they urge Creon to take his warning and bury Polyneices. The chorus ceases supporting Creon because he is close to losing the blessing and support of the gods. They advise Creon to take the only action which will allow him to remain in the gods' favor, and rejoice when he finally takes their advice, however at the end of the play they still judge that his a ctions have gotten him what he deserved: "By far is having sense the first part of happiness. One must not act impiously toward what pertains to gods. Big words of boasting men, paid for by big blows." Othello Othello is a Venetian general, courageous, intelligent, and skilled in battle. However, he is also socially insecure. Even though he shares religion,

IF CURRENCY HEDGING IS SO BENEFICIAL, DO COMPANIES USE ALL HEDGING Essay

IF CURRENCY HEDGING IS SO BENEFICIAL, DO COMPANIES USE ALL HEDGING TECHNIQUES AVAILABLE - Essay Example cts of risks and portent losses in foreign exchange transactions, why has the ambit and scope of hedging not also been extended to other forms of speculative business, or even if it has, why is this that it has met only with a limited degree of success and accomplishment? The hedging strategy enables the investors/company to gain a clear understanding about the happening of the various events that may lead to loss of money for the investors. Foreign currency markets are considered to be very deep, relatively inexpensive and highly liquid where the fund managers are trying to manage their currency options in the foreign investment market. Currency hedging is the most frequently used approach used to manage the degree of risk that is involved in the foreign investment strategies. Research Hypothesis : Why degree of success of currency hedging cannot be derived from other types of non-currency losses or risks, given that in both cases, there is a great deal of monetary value involved in both speculative and currency transactions. That being said, it is necessary to first find out what are the relative advantages of using currency hedging during foreign exchange transactions. Currency hedging can be defined as â€Å"a particular  hedging  strategy  used to reduce  risks  in the foreign exchange market.†Ã‚   We shall consider for a brief moment that there is an importing company in Australia for wheat products, and similarly, there are exporters in London who are shipping the products to Australia. The Australian importing company is worried that if the value of GBP comes down, they would have to pay more for the purchase during future settlement. The current exchange rate is  £1 = AUS $ 1.7796. (Market rates, 2009). If the value of the GBP falls below 1.7796, he would have to pay more AUS $, and then incur losses. The currency exchange fluctuations may be minimal in the event of small transactions, but in the event the import business is for a few billion dollars,

The World Wide Consortatium Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

The World Wide Consortatium - Essay Example The web is the open mechanism for people to share information, communicate, to use of entertainment and for commerce.† Mr Jaff further adds W3C derives its authority (the driver of technical standards for the Web) from three main sources. The first source is the founder of the Web and the director of W3C Tim Berners-Lee, who created an open architecture, and asked the industry through W3C to continue to develop and enhance an open architecture. The second source of W4C’s authority is from the membership. Over 300 members (W3C has most of the key participants in the IT industry) in the web industry, participating in its numerous conversations. Companies like Access Co. Ltd., Adessis Netlife S.L., Adobe Systems Inc. Altove GmbH, AME Info, Ayuntamiento de Zaragosa, Bartemius – Accessibility, British Broadcasting Corporation, Business Directory UK, CWI, Deutsche Telecom AG, Ericsson, FinanzNachrichten.de, Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (Forth), Fraunhofer Gesselschaft, Fujitsu Limited, Fundacion CTIC, Fundacion ONCE, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) GmbH, Hitachi Ltd., IKM Internet Kaufmart GmbH, Infraware, Inc, Inventive Designers n.v., Mitre Corporation, Mitsue Links Co. Ltd etc are members of the W3C forum of various initiatives. The third source of authority is a track record of success. A recent Boston Globe article spoke about the 150 most important things that MIT has ever developed and mentioned W3C to be â€Å"the most important thing to have developed out of the 150 inventions.† The John Peddie Research on Electronic Devices, Service on a Chip, the market for computing devices in 2012 and the future market as well as future for chip manufacturing companies Qualcomm emerged as the big fish in the market of System on a Chip. It accounted for the most number of systems on a chip shipped to other client countries in a fast-growing market during the first half of 2012.This data has bee n provided by Jon Peddie Research’s new research report. In this context, the last shipments were up 69.4 % from all suppliers (John Peddie Research 2012). Samsung  saw the biggest increase in compound annual growth rate (CAGR) year-over-year, up 179%. CAGR happened for all of the top 5 vendors except for Texas Instruments which went down by 31 % from previous year (John Peddie Research).   MediaTek  had a record 966% growth year on year. It started from a very low base. Statistical graphic given below MediaTek is included in the other’s section. (John Peddie Research). Following are the other suppliers: Broadcom,  Freescale,  Intel,  Marvell,  Rockchip,  ST-Ericsson and  Wonder-Media. Most modern mobile â€Å"System on a Chip† (SoC) GPUs are being run on OpenGLES 3.0, released August 2012. (John Peddie Research). They are backward compatible and enable functions as powerful as PC GPUs and applications. The Report Summary says, â€Å"They have programmable shaders and can deliver amazing game play, UI and browser acceleration, and accelerate the new potentially killer app, augmented reality (AR)† (John Peddie Research). Quite different than their PC counterparts the mobile devices have GPUs that can have support image processing functions and can handle camera input directly. They are also capable of video processing and support 1080p High Definition TVs and can be interfaced with monitor via the HDMI port (John Peddie Research). According to the JPR, the four primary GPU Intellectual Property

Undertake a suitable critical environmental audit for a well known Essay - 2

Undertake a suitable critical environmental audit for a well known Western brand considering entering Saudi Arabia - Essay Example The macro environment refers to the factors in the nation within which the business seeks to operate. Henry (2008) states that macro environmental audit is mainly about the factors that affect entire population of the whole country within which the organisation operates. The main tool for this is PESTEL. Saudi Arabia is a monarchy ruled by a king. The current king, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz was enthroned in August 2005. Ever since he came into power, he has sought to make reforms to a nation that was mainly ran by the Royal family and the religious elite who ruled according to strict Islamic codes and systems (Ramady, 2010). There are reforms that are being made to enable people to take part in governance. Also, the reforms aim to cut down on government interference in the economy. However, due to the central and exemplary role that Saudi Arabia plays in the Arab and Muslim world, the reforms are being practiced at a very slow pace. Governance at all levels are controlled and affected by members of the Royal family (The House of Sauds) and their agents and representatives. Also, the religious elites are very powerful and they have a lot of say in the policies of the nation, which remains for strategic and international purposes, influenced mainly by Sharia. The Saudi economy is based on the export of crude oil. Saudi Arabia’s GDP stood at US$622.5 billion in 2010 (CIA World Factbook). The main authority in charge of the regulation of the financial sector is the Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency, which is the Central Bank. Taxes are collected by the Department of Zakat and Income Tax. Income tax is levied on non-Saudi individuals and entities. Saudi Arabian citizens and entities are normally exempt from taxation. Also, most non-Saudi individual salaries and employment benefits are tax-free (SaudiNet). It is only professional foreigners and foreign investment income that

(poverty)socio-political factors influencing the mental health of an Essay

(poverty)socio-political factors influencing the mental health of an individual - Essay Example Poverty has a significant influence on physical and mental health. This paper presents a critique of the impact of poverty on the mental health of an individual. Poverty is strongly associated with social inequalities in the society. According to Nettleton (2006), unequal distribution of income leads to the emergence of a gap between different income groups yet such groups require the same basic needs. The underprivileged group suffers psychosocial anxiety that contributes to weakening health and death in case of prolonged stress. Poor social and physical infrastructures result in poor community health and mortality especially among the lowest social economic groups in such communities. In spite of stress, poor communities suffer frustration and unstable families and often exhibit tendencies towards domestic violence, criminal activities such as theft, murder and rape. These antisocial behaviors are also experienced in higher income groups but at a lower rate (Dalton et al. 2007). In one of my clinical placements I met a client named John who’s came from a poor neighborhood. He was worried about insecurity and was stressed after his d aughter was sexually assaulted by three young men. Hearden (2008) argues that the poor are exposed to hazardous environments and even when in employment are engaged in stressful, unfulfilling and depersonalizing activities. For example, John worked as a casual laborer in a skin tanning firm which was the only alternative available after his shop run out of stock as a result of rising cost of living that made him use part of the goods to feed his family of six. Such people often have no access to the essentials and services of life and are also subjugated by the main stream social class that is better informed regarding mental health. The poor are among the minority groups whose mental health is at risk due to the tendency to

The Workplace Challenge Essay Example for Free

The Workplace Challenge Essay Unit 5 serves students ages 14-21. The program matches suitable jobs for every adolescent through evaluation of their interests and developing skills for future jobs. (Shafallah 2007) Aside from these major programs, the school also offers clinical and therapeutic services as well as school health and nutrition oversights. The Students The population of students in Shafallah is 426 who are between ages three to twenty-one years. The students are with mild, moderate, and severe learning challenges. These are children, adolescents, and young adults with Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy accompanied by intellectual or developmental disabilities, and autism spectrum disorders and they make up the majority of our student population. Class size ratio of teachers to students is 1:3 in all school programs except the Autism Unit, where the ratio is 1:2. The Teachers There are currently 125 employed by the school. These are all professionals with varied expertise. Due to the limited professionals who have specific expertise in the fields needed by the school, many, about 25% of the teaching force are foreign nationals from the United States, Canada and other European countries, to serve for at least two (2) years in the school. The remaining 75% are from the different provinces in Qatar. All teachers in the academic unit are degree holders, mostly with masters and doctorate diploma with corresponding licenses in the fields of education, medicine and psychology. The age range is wide, from 25 years to 60. This includes teachers who are at the same time in the management level. The Management Policies and legislations in the school are made by the school board headed by Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser Bin Abdullah Al-Missned, the Chairperson of the Supreme Council of Family Affairs. The executive functions are performed by the management team composed of 20 experienced professionals organized in the form of a Management Committee. The head is the Managing Director who is from the United States, followed by an Assistant Managing Director who is from Qatar. 75% or majority of the members of the ManCom are foreign nationals while 25% are from Qatar. The academic and service units are fully manned with leaders but it is noticeable though that in the backhouse, the school has not installed a department that will handle the concerns of human resource or a human resource department. In its absence, the public relations department handles the processing of teachers and other admin staff recruitment. On the surface, observing the transactions in the offices and the other facilities, the movements in the school campus, the school was seemingly operating normally. But as we dig deeper, we would find some areas of major concerns which should be cause for immediate and decisive actions by the school. The school has been experiencing high turnover of teachers for the past two years. Because resignations were frequent, recruitment which is done regularly by the Public Relations Department. The massive tasks in recruitment have eaten up much of the time of the PR staff, so that major functions of the department are de-prioritized. The ManCom with its American Managing Director concentrated on sourcing funds to augment to the schools facilities. The proceeds from the students’ tuition were not sufficient to finance the expansion programs and the upgrading of facilities of the school. The ManCom had to source for international funding agencies for additional support including the schools benefactor and strong advocate, Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser Bin Abdullah Al-Missned, the Chairperson of the Supreme Council of Family Affairs, who is also the Chairperson of the school board. In the first quarter of 2007, the ManCom’s attention was called by the school board to solve complaints by the parents and the community about the declining quality of services provided by the school. This resulted to the ManCom’s creation of an adhoc committee to investigate the facts, study the causes of the problems and recommend solutions to the findings. The adhoc committee reported the major findings of their investigation. The complaints of the parents and the community were due to overcrowding of students in classes, where instead of 1:3 ratio, there were 10 students already being handled by each teacher. This was due to the lack of teachers handling specific subjects.

Rizals life and works Essay Example for Free

Rizals life and works Essay Dr. Josà © Protacio Rizal Mercado y Alonzo Realonda (June 19, 1861- December 30, 1896) He was an award winning poet, and brilliant critic of the Spanish historical accounts of the societies in his native pre-colonial Philippines. Full of intelligence and humility, Rizal gained the respect and admiration of prominent men from around the world. Yet, more importantly, Rizal’s love for his nation and his fellow men led him to spark a revolution that uplifted the welfare of so many. An outstanding academic, he originally planned on studying land surveying, but when his mother began to go blind, he decided to study medicine. Unable to continue his education at Manila’s University of Santo Tomas due to discrimination because he was a native, Rizal traveled to Spain to study at the Universidad Central de Madrid. Before the age of 25, Rizal had traveled to Paris to earn a second doctorate, and then to Germany, where he completed his eye specialization and was inducted as a member of the Berlin Ethnological and Anthropological Societies. A master in 22 languages, Rizal used his intellectual and writing talents to write about the Spanish Colonial elite and the atrocities committed towards the natives by the Friars in the name of the Church. He translated and published his writings in many languages. However, this meant Rizal faced strong public opposition from elites in many countries who wanted to protect their interests in colonialism. Rizal returned to the Philippines in 1892 and formed a civic movement called â€Å"La Liga Filipina.† His goal was to unite Filipinos for protection from violence and injustice and to fight for change through peaceful and legal means. Rizal was declared an enemy of the state and his organization was disbanded by the Spanish governor. â€Å"†¦our liberty will (not) be secured at the sword’s point†¦we must secure it by making ourselves worthy of it. And when a people reaches that height God will provide a weapon, the idols will be shattered, tyranny will crumble like a house of cards and liberty will shine out like the first dawn† – Josà © Rizal Even when the infamous General Baleriano Weyler (who developed harsh tactics and cruel concentration camps for the natives in Cuba a few years earlier) was transferred to the Philippines to suppress the native organizing, Josà © Rizal continued speaking out and leading tenants against the injustices oppressing them, including ever-increasing rents, evictions, and the farm destruction ordered by the General. Recognized years later by Ghandi as a forefunner in the cause of freedom, Rizal never once  backed down from his beliefs that his people needed proper representation, strong education, better protection and a better government. Yet, his undaunted courage and determination to improve the welfare of Filipinos was feared by his enemies. They quickly deported him as a rebel. Where many would give up or become discouraged, Rizal used those four years of exile to build a school, a hospital and water dam and supply system that were considered engineering marvels. His sincerity and friendliness won the trust and confidence of everyone, even his prison guards. Shortly after his return, the Philippines began a full-blown revolution. In order to disassociate with the violent uprising, which he felt would not be enough to change the minds of the wealthy Filipinos, Rizal volunteered to go serve victims of yellow fever in Cuba. He was arrested en route to Cuba and sent to prison. A prime example of his character is seen in his return voyage. The guards refused to chain him or touch him because he was known for his honesty. Rizal never took advantage of opportunities to escape. Upon his return, Josà © Rizal was charged with sedition, conspiracy and rebellion and sentenced to death. Without a chance to challenge the charges, Rizal was executed by a firing squad, and buried secretly and without a casket in unholy ground. A monument now stands in the place where he was killed. The inscription reads, â€Å"I want to show to those who deprive people the right to love of country, that when we know how to sacrifice ourselves for our duties and convictions, death does not matter if one dies for those one loves – for his country and for others dear to him.† His life and death was a catalyst that sparked the revolution against Spain and six years later would change the long-held view of the U.S. government that the Filipinos were too barbaric to govern themselves. The U.S. passed a bill in support of a Democratic government in the Philippines after hearing one of his poems read in congress. â€Å"I die without seeing the dawn brighten over my native land. You who have it to see, welcome it and forget not those who have fallen during the night!† – Josà © Rizal

Branding in FMCG Goods in Changing Economic Conditions

Branding in FMCG Goods in Changing Economic Conditions An energetic person in field of marketing with knowledge base of B.E mechanical Post graduate Diploma in Business management played a very important role for my thesis. He has an experience of more than tow years in Sales and Marketing, at Excell elevators and currently working at IIPM Ahmedabad, as a Senior Research Associate. Perfection and proper direction are his two keys to achievement for any work. Without his best guidance for this thesis, it would have been possible to complete this thesis. Sir, also helped me out in solving my queries related to the thesis. His immense knowledge in marketing field has helped me to a great extent to complete my thesis. His humble approach towards every students, gives a great encouragement to work with him. As a thesis guide he helped me out in every possible way he could. I specially thank him for taking out his precious time for helping me out in completing my thesis. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: Research always start with a question or a problem. Its purpose is to question through the application of the scientific method. Its a systematic and intensive study directed towards a more completed knowledge of the subject studied.  · Primary Research: 1. Interaction with customers by filling up questionnaires 2. Interview with Marketing manager 3. Total sample size which is taken into consideration for research is 100 respondents  · Secondary Research: 1. Books 2. Internet 3. Articles and Magazines 4. Project Reports and News paper PREFACE Branding strategy : Every organization has a brand, whether they have consciously developed or not. A brand is an expectation or a promise of experience. Whether that expectation is trusting, authoritative, innovative, brands are the short hand for describing the way a business, organization, product, services, or a person relates to its stake holders. The way to build a strong to put their customers and their needs at the center of the every decision the organization makes. Overtime the customer centric action creates the differentiation in the marketplace and build an emotional connection with the customers. The process of managing brand as assets begins with the understanding the brand from the customers point of view. What image, reputation, perception does each customer and stake holder maintain that can be capitalized or corrected. Managing brand as assets also requires a considerable effort to measure and quantify the impact of the brand on customer, their decision, and the companies financial performance. BRAND STRATEGY: Brand strategy is the plan for the company how it is going to create the value for the customers by building its brands strength and addressing its weakness. Brand strategies manifest product innovation, graphic design, store layout, customer service and many other components of the brand experience. The strategy provides the foundation for development of brand building program and typically includes brand objective, consistent brand name and identity systems, target audience and positioning, key communication messages and prioritization of brand touch points. The recent global slow down as sent everyone in a tizzy. From financial institution to manufacturing industries, everyone has faced the heat of the slowdown. In this scenario I have taken up the matter of the Branding Strategy which is being applied in the FMCG sector. What kind of changes were applied or not and what were the strategies brought in to tackle the slowdown is the matter of study. Different companies have tried to tackle the situation by bringing in new changes in their branding strategy. Some organization may not have required to change their strategies in the market. It may be because of their strong market presence, brand loyalty or strong financial performance. Here some cases of the companies and their brand will be studied thoroughly. It will be seen that what kind of changes were made or no changes were made in the marketing strategy LITERATURE REVIEW A Brand is not a by-product, an ad-campaign, a logo, a spokesperson or a slogan. It is the differentiating identity and the most important reason for customers, employees, stake holders to do the business with you. In a real sense its a firms most important asset. The new era has come, where innovation is the only way to stay in the market. Whether be it a product, an ad-campaign or marketing strategy innovation is the tool to survive. But the recent recession gives us a thought, should the Branding strategy that is being applied remain the same? The answer can be found looking at different cases. It may be necessary to look after the branding strategy to be applied in a different manner even if the current branding strategy is alright and doing good to fetch the business in the market. Because sticking to the old branding strategy may not always be a big hit. As earlier said innovation is very much important. INTRODUCTION: Recession Marketing Success Requires Boldness Over the years hundreds of studies have been conducted to prove companies should maintain advertising during a recession. In the 1920s advertising executive Roland S. Vaile tracked 200 companies through the recession of 1923. He reported in the April 1927 issue of the Harvard Business Review that the biggest sales increases throughout the period were rung up by companies that advertised the most. After World War II, Buchen Advertising, Inc. decided to plot the sales of a large number of advertisers through successive recessions. In 1947, it began measuring the annual advertising expenditures of each company. When they correlated the s with sales and profit trends before, during and after the recessions of 1949, 1954, 1958 and 1961, they found that almost without exception sales and profits dropped off at companies that cut back on advertising The conclusion of six more recession studies by the group present formidable evidence that cutting advertising in times of economic downturns can result in both immediate and long-term negative effects on sales and profit levels. Meldrum Fewsmiths former Senior VP, J. Welsey Rosberg reports â€Å" I have yet to see any study that proves apprehension is the route to success. Studies consistently have proven that companies that have the intelligence and guts to maintain or enlarge their overall marketing and advertising efforts in times of business downturns will get the edge on their hesitant competitors. Their studies also discovered that after the recessions ended, those companies continued to insulate behind the ones that had maintained their advertising budgets. In 1979 another study by ABP/Meldrum Fewsmith, covering the recession of 1974-75 and post-recession years, showed similar findings. They found that â€Å"companies which did not slash advertising expenditures during the recession years (1974-1975), experienced higher sales and net income during those two years and the two years following than companies which cut ad budgets in either or both recession years.† In an economic downturn, there may be a inclination to give up on new thoughts and thinking, and just hunker down, until the worst is over. But, what if this is really our chance to observe new possibilities? If freaking out doesnt make your numbers improve (and at this point you can lead a consumer to your product, but you cant make her buy), what might happen when you use that brainwave space to identify and integrate consumer trends you never actually noticed before? Possibly amazing things. Take Reena Janas quick hit Businessweek article and video with David Rockwell, architect/branding expert/set designer, as an example. He commented on hotel design, which has been on my mind a bit lately too. One of Rockwells thoughts: what about holding cooking classes in hotel kitchens? Such design thinking is worth a little hotelier attention these days, given the convergence of trends in staying home, cooking more, and being with family. What else, physical space or otherwise, is primed for such â€Å"transformability,† as Rockwell called it? Cooking classes in a hotel kitchen could serve consumers and add value on so many levels but without this â€Å"what now† sense of doom we feel, such ideas might never surface. Given extreme limitations, creative thinking is forced to be that much more bold, even as the solutions become more streamlined. Heres another example of transformability, in my mind: Consider how Subaru is handling the current â€Å"discount† season, with their â€Å"Share The Love† philanthropic campaign. Rather than promoting money-back at loan signing or one of the other classic year-end strategies for a car dealer, they kept within the tight parameters, learned more about their consumers and thought quite in a different way. What their research found was that a generous donation would very much resound with the types of people whod be considering a Subaru buy right about now. Inspiring customers into a car purchase during a downturn, and doing good at the same time? Wow. A tried and true, established auto industry tradition turned on its ear transformed! Without an extreme impetus to fill a void of ideas in a difficult consumer environment, such a concept might never have surfaced. If design thinking and transformability emerges only when long-established industries with entrenched business practices and ethnicity get hit this hard maybe we have something to be thankful for after all? This overwhelming bad may have opened a few more of us up to a very clever, possibly unusual and thereby all the more noticeable leveraging of consumer development. Theres a great deal of pluck and drag about the loss of fizz at Pepsi and questionably at Coke, as well. Both companies face declining sales of their flagship brands and have used to greater or lesser success predictable ways to mask the elementary issue: Fewer people are buying less and less of these iconic brands. conservative wisdom says do two things at once: Buy up more trendy beverages, like waters, sports and energy drinks; and work really, really hard to strengthen the base brands. So, Pepsi hires Peter Arnell (of Tropicana Disaster fame), fires its long-time ad agency and creates a proposal that calls for marketing its wares at the real me. According to BusinessWeek, the challenge was to make Pepsi as culturally relevant as the iPod. Good luck with that, Peter. The temptation of course is honest: Wouldnt it be great if brown, sugary water could be as cool as the latest touch screen gadget? Gosh, it would be great. However, its not going to happen. So rather than sending marketing execs on cool hunts for design inspiration, heres a more daunting trek: Take a look at what other brands have done, what Coke and Pepsi have to do to each other. Grow share in a declining market. It would be so great to imagine that theres something to be done with either of these brands that could forge an entirely new category of experience and therefore consumer behaviors the way the iPod has. But the truth is theyd learn much more by taking a commuter flight to Winston-Salem, N.C. Its so very transgressive to even suggest it, but the only people who have spent time trying to wrestle for share in declining markets are the tobacco brands. (a) FMCG SECTOR (i) Global Perspective: The FMCG industry, or alternatively named CPG, abbreviation for Consumer Packaged Goods, deals mainly with the production, distribution as well as marketing of packaged goods for all consumers. The Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) has to do with those consumables which are regularly being consumed. Among the first activities of the FMCG industry there is selling, marketing, financing, purchasing, and so on. Recently this industry has also launched in operations, supply chain, production, general management, etc. The wide range of consumable goods provided by the FMCG industry turns over a large amount of money, while competition among FMCG manufacturing is become more and more fierce. Investors are putting more and more into the FMCG industry, especially in India, where the FMCG industry is the fourth largest sector, having a total market size of more than US$13.1 billion, and still estimated to double by 2010. In New Zealand as well, the FMCG industry accounts for 5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Some common FMCG product include food and dairy products, glassware, paper products, pharmaceuticals, electronics, plastic goods, printing goods, household products, photography, drinks etc, so here coffee, tea, greeting cards, gifts, detergents, soaps etc are all included. The factors that made the FMCG industry a highly competitive one are low operational cost, solid distribution networks, and emergence of new FMCG companies. In addition, the growth of the worlds population is another responsible factor for the huge success of this particular industry. Some of the leading FMCG companies all over the world are Sara Lee, Nestlà ©, Unilever, Procter Gamble, Coca-Cola, Carlsberg, Kleenex, General Mills, Mars etc. Not only does it provide the necessary goods for day to day life, but the FMCG industry has also created tremendous job opportunities and careers. It is a stable, varied, and highly profitable industry, and the jobs it provide range from sales, supply chain, finance, marketing, operations, human resources, development, general management, and so on. Recruitment has also grown together with the growth in the FMCG sector: * The working force within FMCG manufacturing in the UK accounts for 14% of the total workforce in UK; * Sales in the FMCG industry accounted for  £14.5 billion in 2000, spent on non-food UK products alone, in grocery retail sectors in UK; * In 2000 the non-food FMCG market in UK, raised to  £110 billon. Including sectors such as Food, Drink and Pharmaceutical the output registered by FMCG accounts for 19% of the UKs GDP i. Indian Perspective: The Indian FMCG sector is the fourth largest sector in the economy with a total market size in excess of dollar 13.1 billion. It has a strong MNC, presence and is characterized by a well established distribution network, intense competition between the organized and unorganized asegments and low operational cost. Availability of key raw materials, cheaper labor costs and presence across the entire value chain gives India a competitive advantage. The FMCG market is set to treble from $11.6 billion in 2003 to $ 33.4 billion in 2015. Penetration level as per capita consumption in most product categories like jams, toothpaste, skin care, hair wash etc in India is low indicating the untapped market potential. Burgeoning Indian population, particularly the middle class and the rural segments, presents an opportunity to makers of branded products to converts consumers to branded products. Growth is also likely to come from consumer upgrading in the matured product cat egories. With 200 million people expected to shift to processed and packaged food by 2010, India needs around $28 billion of investment in the food processing industry India has enacted policies aimed at attaining international competitiveness through lifting of the quantitative restrictions, reduced excise duties, automatic foreign investment and food laws resulting in an environment that fosters growth. Cent per cent export oriented units can be set up by government approval and use of foreign brand names is now freely permitted. Automatic investment approval including foreign technology agreements within specified norms, up to 100 per cent foreign equity or 100 per cent for NRI and overseas corporate bodies investment, is allowed for most the food processing sector except malted food, alcoholic beverages and those reserved for small scale industries. 24% foreign equity is permitted in the small scale sector. Temprorary approvals for imports for test marketing can also be obtained from the Director General of foreign Trade. The evolution of a more liberal FDI policy environment in India is clearly supported by the successful operation of some of the global majors like PepsiCo in India. The Indian government has abolished licensing for almost all food and agro-processing industries except for some items like alcohol, cane sugar, hydrogenated animal fats and oils etc. and items reserved for the exclusive manufacture in the SSI sector Quantitative restrictions were removed in 2001 and Union Budget 2004-05 further identified 85 items that would be taken out of the reserved list. This has resulted in a boom in the FMCG market through market expansion and greater product opportunities. TRENDS AND PLAYERS The Indian FMCG sector is the fourth largest sector in the economy and creates employment for three million people in downstream activities. Within the FMCG sector, the Indian food processing industry represented 6.3% of GDP and accounted for 13 per cent of the countrys exports in 2003-04. A distinct feature of the FMCG industry is the presence of most global players through their subsidiaries (HLL, PG, NESTLE) which ensures new product launches in the Indian market from the parents portfolio. Demand for FMCG products is set to boom by almost 60 per cent by 2010 and more than 100 per cent by 2015. This will be driven by the rise in share of middle class from 67% in 2003 to 88 percent in 2015 The boom in various consumer categories, further, indicates a latent demand for various product segments. For example, the upper end of very rich and a part of the consuming class indicate a small but rapidly growing segment for branded products. The middle segment, on the other hand, indicates a large market for the mass end products. The BRICs report indicates that Indias per capita disposable income, currently at $556 per annum will rise to $1150 by 2015-another FMCG demand driver. Spurt in the industrial and services sector growth is also likely to boos the urban consumption demand. HOUSEHOLD CARE The size of the fabric wash market is estimated to be $ 1 billion, household cleaners to be $ 239 million and the production of synthetic detergents at 2.6 million tones. The demand for detergents has been growing at an annual growth rate of 10 to 11 per cent during the past five years. The urban market prefers washing powder and detergents to bars. The regional and small un-organized players account for a major share of the total volume of the detergent market. PERSONAL CARE: The size of the personal wash products is estimated at $989 million: hair care products at $831 million and oral care products at $537 million. While the overall personal wash market is growing at one per cent, the premium and middle end soaps are growing at 10 per cent. The leading players in this market are HUL, NIRMA, Godrej and Reckitt Colman. The oral care market, especially toothpastes, remains under penetrated in with penetration below 45 per cent. The industry is very competitive both for organized and smaller regional players The Indian skin care and cosmetics market is valued at $274 million dominated by HUL, Colgate Palmolive, Gillete India and Godrej Soaps. The coconut oil market accounts for 7 per cent share in the hair oil market. In the branded coconut hair oil market, Marico and Dabur are the leading players. The market for branded coconut oil is valued at approximately $174 million FOOD AND BEVERAGES The size of the Indian food processing industry is around $65.6 billion, including $ 20.6 billion of value added products. Of this, the health beverage industry is valued at $ 230 million: bread and biscuits at $1.7 billion: chocolates at $73 million and ice creams at $188 million The size of the semi processed ready to eat food segment is over $1.1 billion. Large biscuits and confectionery units, soya processing units and starch glucose sorbitol producing units have also come up, cater to domestic and international markets. The three larges consumed categories of packaged foods are packd tea, biscuits and soft drinks. The Indian beverage industry faces over supply in segments like coffee and tea. However, more than half of this is available in unpacked or loose for. Indian hot beverage market is a tea dominant market. Consumer s in different parts of the coutry have erogenous taste. Dust tea is popular in southern India, while loose tea is preferred in western India. The urban rural split of the tea market was 51:49 in 2000. Coffee is largely consumed in southern states. The size of the toatla packaged coffee market is 19600 tonnes or $87 million. The total soft drink market is estimated at 284 million crates a year or $1 billion. The market is highly seasonal in nature with consumption varying from 25 million crates per month during peak season to 15 million during offseason. The market is predominantly urban with 25 per cent contribution from rural areas. Coca cola and Pepsi dominate the Indian soft drinks market. Mineral water market in India is a 65 million crates ($50 million) industry. On an average, the monthly consumption is estimated at 4.9 million crates, which increases to 5.2 million during peak season. RURAL MARKETS : SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL By the early nineties FMCG MARKETERS HAD D OUT TWO THINGS 1) Rural markets are vital for survival since the urban markets were getting saturated. 2) Rural markets are extremely price sensitive Thus, a number of companies followed the strategy of launching a wide range of package sized and prices to suit the purchasing preferences of Indias varied consumer segments. Hindustan Unilever a subsidiary of Unilever, coined the term nano marketing in the early nineties, when it introduced its products n small sachets. Small sachets were introduced in almost all the FMCG segments from oil, shampoo, and detergents to beverages Cola major, coke brought down the average price of its products from around twenty cents to ten cents bridging the gap between soft drinks and other local options like tea, butter milk or lemon juice. It also doubled the number of outlets in rural areas from 80,000 during 2005 to 160000 the next year almost doubling its market penetration from 13 per cent to 25 percent. This along with greater marketing, led to the rural market accounting for 80 per cent of new coke drinkers and 30 per cent of its total volumes. GLOBAL BRANDING: I. Introduction In this day and age, consumers automatically recount a product to the name of a particular brand. More specially, the status of the said brand tends to trigger signals of whether a product is cost-effective, superior in quality, or even connect to a particular social status. Numerous studies have maintained that brands have become powerful tools in modern marketing. It has become one of the major factors that consumers consider in their purchasing decisions. Any commercial organization knows this as a fact. That is why they are inclined to place their attention to brands and the demands of the consumers. It has become an requisite component of the marketing operations of the modern organization. For existing multinational companies, having a global brand name has been massively helpful in expanding their operations the world over. Presenting their products and services as the top alternative in the market nowadays is not enough to ensure the success. In this era where the consumer is independent, every company needs to build a brand that will be universally familiar in any market. Companies seek to establish a global brand with the ends of acquiring a bigger market share and a better position in the market. Though it is a common belief that having a global brand name equate to success in terms of business, there are still existing issues that comes with it. This paper will be considering the minutiae of establishing a global brand name. Similarly, the key reasons why this is being considered by most, if not all, companies will be taken into account along with the other alternatives that these companies have in marketing a global product. II. Marketing Under a Global Brand Name The term â€Å"global brand† is often interchanged with the term â€Å"global product.† However, there are studies that pointed out that the two are completely different terms. Basically, a global product connotes merchandise sold all over the world that share standardized attributes. This means that these products have a propensity to have a uniform set of characteristics and normally take on common brand names. On the other hand, a global brand tends to characterize the identity and image close to a specific product. More importantly, it is the blend of both tangible and intangible attributes that constitute a global brand. Recent studies of global branding designate that the said concept is subject to the view of the individual consumer. More specifically, the more recent views of international branding strategy tend to reflect the demands of the consumers. As puts it, these global brands are subjected to the global culture. In its simplest terms, global culture pertains to a set of consumer tastes and values. These tastes and values do not necessarily share the same standards and often show conflict with one another. Thus, global brands have to take on a certain level of flexibility in their operations. In its face value, this seems quite a daunting task for any company. However, this does not stop them from seeking to establish a global brand name and take on in global branding strategies. Why? The reason is that despite these complex concerns of the consumers, these brands have become embedded in their consciousness. The bottom-line is that, despite their best efforts, consumers cannot ignore global brands. The following parts will discuss the other advantages that companies enjoy in operating a global brand. A. Creation of Demand on Other Countries One of the advantages of having a global brand is the possibility of demand spillovers. This means that the marketing efforts held in a particular country could essentially multiply out to markets of other countries. Basically, the image of the global brands encapsulates this advantage. The concept of brand popularity and the country of starting point often establish this type of demand spillover. Share this suggestion of demand of global brands. Mainly, they call this element of global brands as the â€Å"global myth.† Simply put, demand of global brands tends to provide the consumers a feeling of having a â€Å"global identity† or having a feeling of being a â€Å"citizen of the world.† Studies on the effect of brand popularity on the company maintained that it has major implications on its market share. In the study of they pointed out that the company acquires benefits from brand popularity. One benefit is that having brand popularity provides the consumers more confidence in their purchasing decisions with particular reference to giving the implied assurance that a popular brand is better than the alternative. Another benefit of brand popularity is the association of assessment to the product. Coined this dimension of global brands as â€Å"quality signals.† Thus, issues of price of the product with a global brand are often regarded as â€Å"reasonable† because of its perceived high value among consumers. B. Strategic Appeal Another perceived reason why organizations seek to establish a global brand is because of its strategic appeal. Indicated in their study that global brands tend to have more opportunities than their equivalent in the local markets. This is supported by the earlier studies on the markets in the US, Japan, and EU.Noted that global brands offers companies an efficient way of exhausting its resources. More specifically, maintaining global brands tend to offer the possibility of lower costs and having the highest quality product. Aside from the earlier fact pointed out on the demand spillover, a consequent outcome of that phenomenon would be the demand for standardized products. This means that modifications to meet the local demands are significantly lessened as the demand replicate greater value with the unaltered global brands. In this regard, time and resources in the amendment processes is taken away which equates to cost reductions and further profit for the company. On the whole, the creation of global brands creates a much greater economies of scale and scope for companies. III. Brand Management in the Global Setting Recent marketing initiatives in the global setting have acknowledged the importance of bands in dealing with the dynamic business environment. Recent studies maintained that it is important for companies to treat their brand management initiatives as they treat their strategic management processes. ( 2001, 75) This means that the battle of brands in both their local and domestic counterparts have intensified throughout the years. This increase in the demands on the part of the organizations has given them the responsibility of making their brand management more systematic, scientific and a continuous process. The study of (2001, 75) basically maintained that companies should bake sure that their brand will be remembered constantly. Be it through logos or taste, the consumer has to readily recognize the brand right away. This is where brand management comes in to the picture. There are studies that maintain initially what their brand intends to represent. In doing so, the company is able to find a way to position its brand with reference to the other players in the market. ( 2001, 75) This is seen in the case of global brands like Nike and Coca-Cola. In the case of Nike, they have decided to package themselves as a brand associated with winning. On the other hand, the Coca-Cola brand tends to place value on their universal taste. ( 2003, 198) A case study of Procter Gamble maintained that a use of a brand portfolio would be able to help a company in managing its brand in the global setting. (2003) With such a tool at their disposal, PG is able to make sound decisions with regards to their brand management initiatives. In doing so, PG are able to position their products properly with reference to the other players like Unilever, Kimberly-Clark and Colgate-Palmolive. Studies pertaining to branding strategies and theories point out two important components organizations should consider in their brand management initiatives. These are brand equity and brand value. A. Value Creation in Branding Brand value is the perceived worth of the consumers on the brand. The most notable form of value creation in brands is through advertising. (2003, 53) There are three known approaches in the creation of value in brands: decoration, gluing, and mascot approach. The decoration approach basically shows a branding strategy displaying differentiation by connecting the brand to completely different cues presented by the other players in the market. ( 1999, 51) The gluing strategy of value creation associates their product to certain emotional cues of the consumer. These are seen in advertisements that attempt to stir the emotion of the possible buyers. (1992, 10) The mascot approach on the other hand indicates the use of a human-like entity that is believed to be able to establish a connection to the potential buyers. The use of charismatic non-human characters (Pillsbury Dough Boy) tends to reflect this type of value creation approach in branding. ( 2004, 188) Basically, these approaches of value creation tend to be influential for the buying decisions of the consumers. In the same regard, the use of brands could also be a way towards building this value to the company. B. Using Brand Equity The term brand equity denotes the net revenue of the brand which it is expected Branding in FMCG Goods in Changing Economic Conditions Branding in FMCG Goods in Changing Economic Conditions An energetic person in field of marketing with knowledge base of B.E mechanical Post graduate Diploma in Business management played a very important role for my thesis. He has an experience of more than tow years in Sales and Marketing, at Excell elevators and currently working at IIPM Ahmedabad, as a Senior Research Associate. Perfection and proper direction are his two keys to achievement for any work. Without his best guidance for this thesis, it would have been possible to complete this thesis. Sir, also helped me out in solving my queries related to the thesis. His immense knowledge in marketing field has helped me to a great extent to complete my thesis. His humble approach towards every students, gives a great encouragement to work with him. As a thesis guide he helped me out in every possible way he could. I specially thank him for taking out his precious time for helping me out in completing my thesis. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: Research always start with a question or a problem. Its purpose is to question through the application of the scientific method. Its a systematic and intensive study directed towards a more completed knowledge of the subject studied.  · Primary Research: 1. Interaction with customers by filling up questionnaires 2. Interview with Marketing manager 3. Total sample size which is taken into consideration for research is 100 respondents  · Secondary Research: 1. Books 2. Internet 3. Articles and Magazines 4. Project Reports and News paper PREFACE Branding strategy : Every organization has a brand, whether they have consciously developed or not. A brand is an expectation or a promise of experience. Whether that expectation is trusting, authoritative, innovative, brands are the short hand for describing the way a business, organization, product, services, or a person relates to its stake holders. The way to build a strong to put their customers and their needs at the center of the every decision the organization makes. Overtime the customer centric action creates the differentiation in the marketplace and build an emotional connection with the customers. The process of managing brand as assets begins with the understanding the brand from the customers point of view. What image, reputation, perception does each customer and stake holder maintain that can be capitalized or corrected. Managing brand as assets also requires a considerable effort to measure and quantify the impact of the brand on customer, their decision, and the companies financial performance. BRAND STRATEGY: Brand strategy is the plan for the company how it is going to create the value for the customers by building its brands strength and addressing its weakness. Brand strategies manifest product innovation, graphic design, store layout, customer service and many other components of the brand experience. The strategy provides the foundation for development of brand building program and typically includes brand objective, consistent brand name and identity systems, target audience and positioning, key communication messages and prioritization of brand touch points. The recent global slow down as sent everyone in a tizzy. From financial institution to manufacturing industries, everyone has faced the heat of the slowdown. In this scenario I have taken up the matter of the Branding Strategy which is being applied in the FMCG sector. What kind of changes were applied or not and what were the strategies brought in to tackle the slowdown is the matter of study. Different companies have tried to tackle the situation by bringing in new changes in their branding strategy. Some organization may not have required to change their strategies in the market. It may be because of their strong market presence, brand loyalty or strong financial performance. Here some cases of the companies and their brand will be studied thoroughly. It will be seen that what kind of changes were made or no changes were made in the marketing strategy LITERATURE REVIEW A Brand is not a by-product, an ad-campaign, a logo, a spokesperson or a slogan. It is the differentiating identity and the most important reason for customers, employees, stake holders to do the business with you. In a real sense its a firms most important asset. The new era has come, where innovation is the only way to stay in the market. Whether be it a product, an ad-campaign or marketing strategy innovation is the tool to survive. But the recent recession gives us a thought, should the Branding strategy that is being applied remain the same? The answer can be found looking at different cases. It may be necessary to look after the branding strategy to be applied in a different manner even if the current branding strategy is alright and doing good to fetch the business in the market. Because sticking to the old branding strategy may not always be a big hit. As earlier said innovation is very much important. INTRODUCTION: Recession Marketing Success Requires Boldness Over the years hundreds of studies have been conducted to prove companies should maintain advertising during a recession. In the 1920s advertising executive Roland S. Vaile tracked 200 companies through the recession of 1923. He reported in the April 1927 issue of the Harvard Business Review that the biggest sales increases throughout the period were rung up by companies that advertised the most. After World War II, Buchen Advertising, Inc. decided to plot the sales of a large number of advertisers through successive recessions. In 1947, it began measuring the annual advertising expenditures of each company. When they correlated the s with sales and profit trends before, during and after the recessions of 1949, 1954, 1958 and 1961, they found that almost without exception sales and profits dropped off at companies that cut back on advertising The conclusion of six more recession studies by the group present formidable evidence that cutting advertising in times of economic downturns can result in both immediate and long-term negative effects on sales and profit levels. Meldrum Fewsmiths former Senior VP, J. Welsey Rosberg reports â€Å" I have yet to see any study that proves apprehension is the route to success. Studies consistently have proven that companies that have the intelligence and guts to maintain or enlarge their overall marketing and advertising efforts in times of business downturns will get the edge on their hesitant competitors. Their studies also discovered that after the recessions ended, those companies continued to insulate behind the ones that had maintained their advertising budgets. In 1979 another study by ABP/Meldrum Fewsmith, covering the recession of 1974-75 and post-recession years, showed similar findings. They found that â€Å"companies which did not slash advertising expenditures during the recession years (1974-1975), experienced higher sales and net income during those two years and the two years following than companies which cut ad budgets in either or both recession years.† In an economic downturn, there may be a inclination to give up on new thoughts and thinking, and just hunker down, until the worst is over. But, what if this is really our chance to observe new possibilities? If freaking out doesnt make your numbers improve (and at this point you can lead a consumer to your product, but you cant make her buy), what might happen when you use that brainwave space to identify and integrate consumer trends you never actually noticed before? Possibly amazing things. Take Reena Janas quick hit Businessweek article and video with David Rockwell, architect/branding expert/set designer, as an example. He commented on hotel design, which has been on my mind a bit lately too. One of Rockwells thoughts: what about holding cooking classes in hotel kitchens? Such design thinking is worth a little hotelier attention these days, given the convergence of trends in staying home, cooking more, and being with family. What else, physical space or otherwise, is primed for such â€Å"transformability,† as Rockwell called it? Cooking classes in a hotel kitchen could serve consumers and add value on so many levels but without this â€Å"what now† sense of doom we feel, such ideas might never surface. Given extreme limitations, creative thinking is forced to be that much more bold, even as the solutions become more streamlined. Heres another example of transformability, in my mind: Consider how Subaru is handling the current â€Å"discount† season, with their â€Å"Share The Love† philanthropic campaign. Rather than promoting money-back at loan signing or one of the other classic year-end strategies for a car dealer, they kept within the tight parameters, learned more about their consumers and thought quite in a different way. What their research found was that a generous donation would very much resound with the types of people whod be considering a Subaru buy right about now. Inspiring customers into a car purchase during a downturn, and doing good at the same time? Wow. A tried and true, established auto industry tradition turned on its ear transformed! Without an extreme impetus to fill a void of ideas in a difficult consumer environment, such a concept might never have surfaced. If design thinking and transformability emerges only when long-established industries with entrenched business practices and ethnicity get hit this hard maybe we have something to be thankful for after all? This overwhelming bad may have opened a few more of us up to a very clever, possibly unusual and thereby all the more noticeable leveraging of consumer development. Theres a great deal of pluck and drag about the loss of fizz at Pepsi and questionably at Coke, as well. Both companies face declining sales of their flagship brands and have used to greater or lesser success predictable ways to mask the elementary issue: Fewer people are buying less and less of these iconic brands. conservative wisdom says do two things at once: Buy up more trendy beverages, like waters, sports and energy drinks; and work really, really hard to strengthen the base brands. So, Pepsi hires Peter Arnell (of Tropicana Disaster fame), fires its long-time ad agency and creates a proposal that calls for marketing its wares at the real me. According to BusinessWeek, the challenge was to make Pepsi as culturally relevant as the iPod. Good luck with that, Peter. The temptation of course is honest: Wouldnt it be great if brown, sugary water could be as cool as the latest touch screen gadget? Gosh, it would be great. However, its not going to happen. So rather than sending marketing execs on cool hunts for design inspiration, heres a more daunting trek: Take a look at what other brands have done, what Coke and Pepsi have to do to each other. Grow share in a declining market. It would be so great to imagine that theres something to be done with either of these brands that could forge an entirely new category of experience and therefore consumer behaviors the way the iPod has. But the truth is theyd learn much more by taking a commuter flight to Winston-Salem, N.C. Its so very transgressive to even suggest it, but the only people who have spent time trying to wrestle for share in declining markets are the tobacco brands. (a) FMCG SECTOR (i) Global Perspective: The FMCG industry, or alternatively named CPG, abbreviation for Consumer Packaged Goods, deals mainly with the production, distribution as well as marketing of packaged goods for all consumers. The Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) has to do with those consumables which are regularly being consumed. Among the first activities of the FMCG industry there is selling, marketing, financing, purchasing, and so on. Recently this industry has also launched in operations, supply chain, production, general management, etc. The wide range of consumable goods provided by the FMCG industry turns over a large amount of money, while competition among FMCG manufacturing is become more and more fierce. Investors are putting more and more into the FMCG industry, especially in India, where the FMCG industry is the fourth largest sector, having a total market size of more than US$13.1 billion, and still estimated to double by 2010. In New Zealand as well, the FMCG industry accounts for 5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Some common FMCG product include food and dairy products, glassware, paper products, pharmaceuticals, electronics, plastic goods, printing goods, household products, photography, drinks etc, so here coffee, tea, greeting cards, gifts, detergents, soaps etc are all included. The factors that made the FMCG industry a highly competitive one are low operational cost, solid distribution networks, and emergence of new FMCG companies. In addition, the growth of the worlds population is another responsible factor for the huge success of this particular industry. Some of the leading FMCG companies all over the world are Sara Lee, Nestlà ©, Unilever, Procter Gamble, Coca-Cola, Carlsberg, Kleenex, General Mills, Mars etc. Not only does it provide the necessary goods for day to day life, but the FMCG industry has also created tremendous job opportunities and careers. It is a stable, varied, and highly profitable industry, and the jobs it provide range from sales, supply chain, finance, marketing, operations, human resources, development, general management, and so on. Recruitment has also grown together with the growth in the FMCG sector: * The working force within FMCG manufacturing in the UK accounts for 14% of the total workforce in UK; * Sales in the FMCG industry accounted for  £14.5 billion in 2000, spent on non-food UK products alone, in grocery retail sectors in UK; * In 2000 the non-food FMCG market in UK, raised to  £110 billon. Including sectors such as Food, Drink and Pharmaceutical the output registered by FMCG accounts for 19% of the UKs GDP i. Indian Perspective: The Indian FMCG sector is the fourth largest sector in the economy with a total market size in excess of dollar 13.1 billion. It has a strong MNC, presence and is characterized by a well established distribution network, intense competition between the organized and unorganized asegments and low operational cost. Availability of key raw materials, cheaper labor costs and presence across the entire value chain gives India a competitive advantage. The FMCG market is set to treble from $11.6 billion in 2003 to $ 33.4 billion in 2015. Penetration level as per capita consumption in most product categories like jams, toothpaste, skin care, hair wash etc in India is low indicating the untapped market potential. Burgeoning Indian population, particularly the middle class and the rural segments, presents an opportunity to makers of branded products to converts consumers to branded products. Growth is also likely to come from consumer upgrading in the matured product cat egories. With 200 million people expected to shift to processed and packaged food by 2010, India needs around $28 billion of investment in the food processing industry India has enacted policies aimed at attaining international competitiveness through lifting of the quantitative restrictions, reduced excise duties, automatic foreign investment and food laws resulting in an environment that fosters growth. Cent per cent export oriented units can be set up by government approval and use of foreign brand names is now freely permitted. Automatic investment approval including foreign technology agreements within specified norms, up to 100 per cent foreign equity or 100 per cent for NRI and overseas corporate bodies investment, is allowed for most the food processing sector except malted food, alcoholic beverages and those reserved for small scale industries. 24% foreign equity is permitted in the small scale sector. Temprorary approvals for imports for test marketing can also be obtained from the Director General of foreign Trade. The evolution of a more liberal FDI policy environment in India is clearly supported by the successful operation of some of the global majors like PepsiCo in India. The Indian government has abolished licensing for almost all food and agro-processing industries except for some items like alcohol, cane sugar, hydrogenated animal fats and oils etc. and items reserved for the exclusive manufacture in the SSI sector Quantitative restrictions were removed in 2001 and Union Budget 2004-05 further identified 85 items that would be taken out of the reserved list. This has resulted in a boom in the FMCG market through market expansion and greater product opportunities. TRENDS AND PLAYERS The Indian FMCG sector is the fourth largest sector in the economy and creates employment for three million people in downstream activities. Within the FMCG sector, the Indian food processing industry represented 6.3% of GDP and accounted for 13 per cent of the countrys exports in 2003-04. A distinct feature of the FMCG industry is the presence of most global players through their subsidiaries (HLL, PG, NESTLE) which ensures new product launches in the Indian market from the parents portfolio. Demand for FMCG products is set to boom by almost 60 per cent by 2010 and more than 100 per cent by 2015. This will be driven by the rise in share of middle class from 67% in 2003 to 88 percent in 2015 The boom in various consumer categories, further, indicates a latent demand for various product segments. For example, the upper end of very rich and a part of the consuming class indicate a small but rapidly growing segment for branded products. The middle segment, on the other hand, indicates a large market for the mass end products. The BRICs report indicates that Indias per capita disposable income, currently at $556 per annum will rise to $1150 by 2015-another FMCG demand driver. Spurt in the industrial and services sector growth is also likely to boos the urban consumption demand. HOUSEHOLD CARE The size of the fabric wash market is estimated to be $ 1 billion, household cleaners to be $ 239 million and the production of synthetic detergents at 2.6 million tones. The demand for detergents has been growing at an annual growth rate of 10 to 11 per cent during the past five years. The urban market prefers washing powder and detergents to bars. The regional and small un-organized players account for a major share of the total volume of the detergent market. PERSONAL CARE: The size of the personal wash products is estimated at $989 million: hair care products at $831 million and oral care products at $537 million. While the overall personal wash market is growing at one per cent, the premium and middle end soaps are growing at 10 per cent. The leading players in this market are HUL, NIRMA, Godrej and Reckitt Colman. The oral care market, especially toothpastes, remains under penetrated in with penetration below 45 per cent. The industry is very competitive both for organized and smaller regional players The Indian skin care and cosmetics market is valued at $274 million dominated by HUL, Colgate Palmolive, Gillete India and Godrej Soaps. The coconut oil market accounts for 7 per cent share in the hair oil market. In the branded coconut hair oil market, Marico and Dabur are the leading players. The market for branded coconut oil is valued at approximately $174 million FOOD AND BEVERAGES The size of the Indian food processing industry is around $65.6 billion, including $ 20.6 billion of value added products. Of this, the health beverage industry is valued at $ 230 million: bread and biscuits at $1.7 billion: chocolates at $73 million and ice creams at $188 million The size of the semi processed ready to eat food segment is over $1.1 billion. Large biscuits and confectionery units, soya processing units and starch glucose sorbitol producing units have also come up, cater to domestic and international markets. The three larges consumed categories of packaged foods are packd tea, biscuits and soft drinks. The Indian beverage industry faces over supply in segments like coffee and tea. However, more than half of this is available in unpacked or loose for. Indian hot beverage market is a tea dominant market. Consumer s in different parts of the coutry have erogenous taste. Dust tea is popular in southern India, while loose tea is preferred in western India. The urban rural split of the tea market was 51:49 in 2000. Coffee is largely consumed in southern states. The size of the toatla packaged coffee market is 19600 tonnes or $87 million. The total soft drink market is estimated at 284 million crates a year or $1 billion. The market is highly seasonal in nature with consumption varying from 25 million crates per month during peak season to 15 million during offseason. The market is predominantly urban with 25 per cent contribution from rural areas. Coca cola and Pepsi dominate the Indian soft drinks market. Mineral water market in India is a 65 million crates ($50 million) industry. On an average, the monthly consumption is estimated at 4.9 million crates, which increases to 5.2 million during peak season. RURAL MARKETS : SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL By the early nineties FMCG MARKETERS HAD D OUT TWO THINGS 1) Rural markets are vital for survival since the urban markets were getting saturated. 2) Rural markets are extremely price sensitive Thus, a number of companies followed the strategy of launching a wide range of package sized and prices to suit the purchasing preferences of Indias varied consumer segments. Hindustan Unilever a subsidiary of Unilever, coined the term nano marketing in the early nineties, when it introduced its products n small sachets. Small sachets were introduced in almost all the FMCG segments from oil, shampoo, and detergents to beverages Cola major, coke brought down the average price of its products from around twenty cents to ten cents bridging the gap between soft drinks and other local options like tea, butter milk or lemon juice. It also doubled the number of outlets in rural areas from 80,000 during 2005 to 160000 the next year almost doubling its market penetration from 13 per cent to 25 percent. This along with greater marketing, led to the rural market accounting for 80 per cent of new coke drinkers and 30 per cent of its total volumes. GLOBAL BRANDING: I. Introduction In this day and age, consumers automatically recount a product to the name of a particular brand. More specially, the status of the said brand tends to trigger signals of whether a product is cost-effective, superior in quality, or even connect to a particular social status. Numerous studies have maintained that brands have become powerful tools in modern marketing. It has become one of the major factors that consumers consider in their purchasing decisions. Any commercial organization knows this as a fact. That is why they are inclined to place their attention to brands and the demands of the consumers. It has become an requisite component of the marketing operations of the modern organization. For existing multinational companies, having a global brand name has been massively helpful in expanding their operations the world over. Presenting their products and services as the top alternative in the market nowadays is not enough to ensure the success. In this era where the consumer is independent, every company needs to build a brand that will be universally familiar in any market. Companies seek to establish a global brand with the ends of acquiring a bigger market share and a better position in the market. Though it is a common belief that having a global brand name equate to success in terms of business, there are still existing issues that comes with it. This paper will be considering the minutiae of establishing a global brand name. Similarly, the key reasons why this is being considered by most, if not all, companies will be taken into account along with the other alternatives that these companies have in marketing a global product. II. Marketing Under a Global Brand Name The term â€Å"global brand† is often interchanged with the term â€Å"global product.† However, there are studies that pointed out that the two are completely different terms. Basically, a global product connotes merchandise sold all over the world that share standardized attributes. This means that these products have a propensity to have a uniform set of characteristics and normally take on common brand names. On the other hand, a global brand tends to characterize the identity and image close to a specific product. More importantly, it is the blend of both tangible and intangible attributes that constitute a global brand. Recent studies of global branding designate that the said concept is subject to the view of the individual consumer. More specifically, the more recent views of international branding strategy tend to reflect the demands of the consumers. As puts it, these global brands are subjected to the global culture. In its simplest terms, global culture pertains to a set of consumer tastes and values. These tastes and values do not necessarily share the same standards and often show conflict with one another. Thus, global brands have to take on a certain level of flexibility in their operations. In its face value, this seems quite a daunting task for any company. However, this does not stop them from seeking to establish a global brand name and take on in global branding strategies. Why? The reason is that despite these complex concerns of the consumers, these brands have become embedded in their consciousness. The bottom-line is that, despite their best efforts, consumers cannot ignore global brands. The following parts will discuss the other advantages that companies enjoy in operating a global brand. A. Creation of Demand on Other Countries One of the advantages of having a global brand is the possibility of demand spillovers. This means that the marketing efforts held in a particular country could essentially multiply out to markets of other countries. Basically, the image of the global brands encapsulates this advantage. The concept of brand popularity and the country of starting point often establish this type of demand spillover. Share this suggestion of demand of global brands. Mainly, they call this element of global brands as the â€Å"global myth.† Simply put, demand of global brands tends to provide the consumers a feeling of having a â€Å"global identity† or having a feeling of being a â€Å"citizen of the world.† Studies on the effect of brand popularity on the company maintained that it has major implications on its market share. In the study of they pointed out that the company acquires benefits from brand popularity. One benefit is that having brand popularity provides the consumers more confidence in their purchasing decisions with particular reference to giving the implied assurance that a popular brand is better than the alternative. Another benefit of brand popularity is the association of assessment to the product. Coined this dimension of global brands as â€Å"quality signals.† Thus, issues of price of the product with a global brand are often regarded as â€Å"reasonable† because of its perceived high value among consumers. B. Strategic Appeal Another perceived reason why organizations seek to establish a global brand is because of its strategic appeal. Indicated in their study that global brands tend to have more opportunities than their equivalent in the local markets. This is supported by the earlier studies on the markets in the US, Japan, and EU.Noted that global brands offers companies an efficient way of exhausting its resources. More specifically, maintaining global brands tend to offer the possibility of lower costs and having the highest quality product. Aside from the earlier fact pointed out on the demand spillover, a consequent outcome of that phenomenon would be the demand for standardized products. This means that modifications to meet the local demands are significantly lessened as the demand replicate greater value with the unaltered global brands. In this regard, time and resources in the amendment processes is taken away which equates to cost reductions and further profit for the company. On the whole, the creation of global brands creates a much greater economies of scale and scope for companies. III. Brand Management in the Global Setting Recent marketing initiatives in the global setting have acknowledged the importance of bands in dealing with the dynamic business environment. Recent studies maintained that it is important for companies to treat their brand management initiatives as they treat their strategic management processes. ( 2001, 75) This means that the battle of brands in both their local and domestic counterparts have intensified throughout the years. This increase in the demands on the part of the organizations has given them the responsibility of making their brand management more systematic, scientific and a continuous process. The study of (2001, 75) basically maintained that companies should bake sure that their brand will be remembered constantly. Be it through logos or taste, the consumer has to readily recognize the brand right away. This is where brand management comes in to the picture. There are studies that maintain initially what their brand intends to represent. In doing so, the company is able to find a way to position its brand with reference to the other players in the market. ( 2001, 75) This is seen in the case of global brands like Nike and Coca-Cola. In the case of Nike, they have decided to package themselves as a brand associated with winning. On the other hand, the Coca-Cola brand tends to place value on their universal taste. ( 2003, 198) A case study of Procter Gamble maintained that a use of a brand portfolio would be able to help a company in managing its brand in the global setting. (2003) With such a tool at their disposal, PG is able to make sound decisions with regards to their brand management initiatives. In doing so, PG are able to position their products properly with reference to the other players like Unilever, Kimberly-Clark and Colgate-Palmolive. Studies pertaining to branding strategies and theories point out two important components organizations should consider in their brand management initiatives. These are brand equity and brand value. A. Value Creation in Branding Brand value is the perceived worth of the consumers on the brand. The most notable form of value creation in brands is through advertising. (2003, 53) There are three known approaches in the creation of value in brands: decoration, gluing, and mascot approach. The decoration approach basically shows a branding strategy displaying differentiation by connecting the brand to completely different cues presented by the other players in the market. ( 1999, 51) The gluing strategy of value creation associates their product to certain emotional cues of the consumer. These are seen in advertisements that attempt to stir the emotion of the possible buyers. (1992, 10) The mascot approach on the other hand indicates the use of a human-like entity that is believed to be able to establish a connection to the potential buyers. The use of charismatic non-human characters (Pillsbury Dough Boy) tends to reflect this type of value creation approach in branding. ( 2004, 188) Basically, these approaches of value creation tend to be influential for the buying decisions of the consumers. In the same regard, the use of brands could also be a way towards building this value to the company. B. Using Brand Equity The term brand equity denotes the net revenue of the brand which it is expected