Budgeting db5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Budgeting db5 - Essay Example The company would have budgeted unwisely making the budget deficits occur due to poor budget plan. Poor budget plans are source to monetary crisis. The foundation need to assess the risk and re-strategize on the important issues that will assure the children’s summer takes place. The strategy should focus on the strengths of the company, which will help sustain the company in the crisis. Another way to go about the debacle is to share the expense of the evenly in the company endeavors so that every department has little to go around and finding the balance in the budget. The budget restructuring will make economic sense when the company has in place a strategic direction in the crisis period. The company must accept the crisis to move on quicker through tightening the use of money in the company. The expenditure needs to be trimmed to a sizable amount in order to make the company survive the hit. More caution on the use of funds should be placed with scrutiny monetary utility

Leadership & Ethics for Managers Research Paper

Leadership & Ethics for Managers - Research Paper Example Often organizations go through processes that redefine the way a company operates. The CEO of the company has the vision and the strategic plan to transform the organization. Companies in the 21st century do not longer seek individualism in the actions of its employees. Teamwork and cooperation have become a hot trend in the business world. The current approach and strategy of the CEO of the organization is to move to a team environment and to push many of the decisions to the lowest possible levels in order to achieve a team based empowered organization. The most valuable resource of any organization is its people because of the ability of humans to think, communicate and use judgment (Feinberg, 2012). The CEO is facing some resistance to change from the rest of the managerial staff of the organization. It is the duty of the leader to find a resolution to the problem. The first step towards finding an alternative solution to the dilemma is to open the lines of communication between the workers and the managers of the firm. The new plan that the CEO of the company wants to implement should be assessed by the entire organization. The managers should listen to the input of the workers about the proposed plan. Two concepts that many people visualize as similar, but in reality differ a lot are leading and managing. One of the purposes and visions of leaders is to inspire groups of people in organizations to aspire to achieve common goals (Entrepreneur, 2002). Leading involves motivating others to achieve a higher level of performance. Leadership can come from any person in an organization which implies that leadership abilities are not limited or exclusive of a managerial position. Sometimes companies gain the benefit of having strong leaders among the floor employees. Good leaders have excellent communication skills and are active listeners. Being an active listener can help an employee enhance his productivity and it improves a person’s ability to influenc e, persuade, and negotiate (Mindtools, 2012). One of the key differences between leading and managing is that managing entails complying with the basic managerial functions. Some of the basic managerial functions are planning, staffing, organizing, and controlling. Another difference between the two concepts is that managers are responsible for the actions of their subordinates. The CEO is trying to manage instead of leading this change initiative. Evidence that the CEO is using a managing approach is that the leader created a plan and provided a layout of the work structure that he expects the employees to follow. The managerial mandate of the CEO is to implement a team based work structure. One of the mistakes made is relying too much on managing instead of leading change. To lead change the corporate executive must convince others of the benefits of the change instead of imposing his will and vision on others and making unilateral decisions. The managers of the organization at fi rst glance did not like the plan of the CEO. It is highly possible that the managers felt threatened by the change management initiative because they felt their power and control would be diminished by the move. The CEO of the firm has to start a direct dialogue and negotiation process with the managerial staff. The use of formal meetings is a method that can be used to interchange ideas and opinions

Management of Advertising Program

Management of Advertising Program ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT Advertising is any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor. Five major decisions involve the mission, money, message, media and measurement Advertising—the use of paid media by a seller to communicate persuasive information about its products, services, or organization—is a potent promotional tool. Advertising takes on many forms (national, regional, local, consumer, industrial, retail, product, brand, institutional, etc.) designed to achieve a variety of objectives (awareness, interest, preference, brand recognition, brand insistence). Advertising decision-making consists of objectives setting, budget decision, message decision, media decision, and ad effectiveness evaluation. Advertisers should establish clear goals as to whether the advertising is supposed to inform, persuade, or remind buyers. The factors to consider when setting the advertising budget are: stage in the product life cycle, market share, competition and clutter, needed frequency, and product substitutability. The advertising budget can be established based on what is affordable, as a percentage budget of sales, based on competitors expenditures, or based on objectives and tasks, and based on more advanced decision models that are available. The message decision calls for generating messages, evaluating and selecting between them, and executing them effectively and responsibly. The media decision calls for defining the reach, frequency, and impact goals; choosing among major media types; selecting specific media vehicles; deciding on media timing; geographical allocation of media. Finally, campaign evaluation calls for evaluating the communication and sales effects of advertising, before, during, and after the advertising. Developing and managing an advertising program (An overview) Setting the advertising objectives—according to whether the aim is to inform, remind, or persuade Deciding on the advertising budget—five factors to consider include stage in the product life cycle, market share and consumer base, competition and clutter, advertising frequency, and product substitutability Choosing the advertising message—creative stage Message generation—utilizing an inductive versus deductive framework Message evaluation and selection—focus on one core selling proposition and aim for desirability, exclusiveness and believability. Message execution—impact depends not only on what is said but how it is said (positioning). Creative people must also find a style, tone, and format for executing the message Social responsibility review—make sure the creative advertising does not overstep social and legal norms Deciding on media and measuring effectiveness Deciding on reach (number of people exposed at least once), frequency (total number of times they are reached) and impact (qualitative value) The relationship between reach, frequency and impact, specific media, media timing, geographical allocation a) Media selection: target audience, media habits, product, message, and cost Determining the most cost-effective media to deliver the desired number and type of exposures to the target audience Choosing among major media types b) Target audience media habits c) Product characteristics d) Message characteristics e) Cost (based on cost-per-thousand exposures criterion) New media—rethinking the options f) Commercial clutter, advertorials, infomercials g) Result is coming death of traditional mass media, as we know it—more direct and consumer control coming Allocating the budget—increasingly spent attracting attention than on the product itself Selecting specific vehicles—measures include: h) Circulation, audience, effective audience, effective ad-exposed audience i) CPM adjustments based on audience quality, audience-attention probability, editorial quality and ad placement policies Deciding on the media timing j) Macro-scheduling (according to seasonal or business trends) k) Micro-scheduling (allocating advertising expenditures within a short period to obtain the maximum impact) l) Models for media timing: Kuehn (if no carryover and habitual behavior then percent of sales justified) Deciding on the geographical allocation a) National versus international b) Spot buying (ADIs and DMAs) Evaluating advertising effectiveness a) Communication-effect research—copy testing, consumer feedback, portfolio tests, laboratory tests b) Sales-effect research—share of voice and share of market, historical approach, experimental design c) Advertising effectiveness: a summary of current research Benefits of Advertising Enormous human and material resources are devoted to advertising. Advertising is everywhere in todays world .People are exposed to various forms of advertising through various advertising messages, media, billboards and techniques of every sort. The General benefits of advertising are as follows. a) Economic Benefits of Advertising Advertising can play an important role in the process by which an economic system that is guided by ethical. It is a necessary part of the functioning of modern market economies, which today either exist or are emerging in many parts of the world. Advertising can be a useful tool for sustaining ethical competition that contributes to economic growth. It can help people by informing them about the availability of desirable new products and services and improvements in existing ones, helping them to stay informed, prudent consumer decisions, contributing to efficiency and the lowering of prices, and stimulating economic progress through the expansion of business and trade. b) Benefits of Political Advertising Political advertising can make a contribution economic situation in a market system. As free and responsible media in a democratic system help to counteract tendencies toward the monopolies, so political advertising can make its contribution by informing people about the ideas and policy proposals of parties and candidates, including new candidates not previously known to the public. c) Cultural Benefits of Advertising Because of the impact advertising has on media that depend on it for revenue, advertisers have an opportunity to exert a positive influence on decisions about media content. This they do by supporting material of excellent aesthetics and moral quality, and particularly by encouraging and making possible media presentations which are oriented to minorities whose needs might otherwise go unserved. Moreover, advertising can itself contribute to the betterment of society by uplifting and inspiring people and motivating them to act in ways that benefit themselves and others. Advertising can brighten lives simply by being witty and entertaining. d) Moral Benefits of Advertising In many cases social institutions use advertising to communicate their messages messages of moral values ,ethics ,patriotism, responsibilities toward the needy, messages concerning health and education, constructive and helpful messages that educate and motivate people in a variety of beneficial ways. Benefits of advertising from companys view point: 1. Provides information Consumer needs information about various products. The lack of information may make a consumer buy an inferior product, pay high price etc. 2. Improves brand image: Advertisement helps improve brand image. Images are mental pictures of brands. The images projected are geared to match the needs and expectations of target audience. Favorable image help in generating brand loyalty and disposition to buy that brand. 3. Helps in Innovation: Advertising is seen to perform this task effectively for new products. It reduces the risk of innovation. The cost of innovation can be more than recovered by the sales which advertising may generate and this encourages manufacturers to undertake research and development. 4. New Product Launch Various strategies including advertising is used to make potential buyers of new products. Advertising can be used to promote new products and to inform changes in old products. 5. Growth of Media: Advertising enhances the potential for raising advertising revenues. This helps in launching new publications and expanding the media. Role of advertising 1. Communication with Consumers: Advertising is a major way of establishing communication between manufacturers and other organizations providing services or trying to put across ideas and concepts, on the one hand, and customers, buyers and potential acceptors, on the other. 2. Persuasion: Advertising attempts to persuade prospective buyers to buy a product/service. In modern markets, the producer who is content with the advertising that merely identifies or informs may soon find himself in a vulnerable position. 3. Contribution to Economic Growth: Advertising contributes to economic growth by helping to expand the market, particularly for new products, and by helping to develop new market segments. 4. Catalyst for change: Creativity inherent in advertising leads to the discovery of new relationships that can change the perception of a prospect. Functions of Advertising 1. Primary Functions Helps to increase sales Helps to reduce overall cost of sales Provides information about the product Persuasion of customers or dealers Receptiveness of new product Stimulates distribution of products Insurance for manufacturing business Confidence in quality To eliminate seasonal fluctuation To generate awareness and revenue Builds value, brand loyalty and preference 2. Secondary Functions  · To encourage salesmen and lend them moral support  · To furnish information  · To impress executives  · To impress factory workers  · To secure better employees  · To capture market  · To have an extra edge over the market * Feeling of security Advertising is a social waste * Because its time consuming * It does focus on specific group only. * Waste of resources. * Consumers are deceived by advertising. * Misleading information to the public. * It affects the health by having alcohols and cigarettes advertising. * Consumers are paying for those advertisements because fess will be added into the price of the product. * People are lured to buy products which is not needed and not within their reach. (propensity to consume) Some critics view advertising as a waste of time, talent and money —In their view, not only does advertising have no value of its own, but its influence is entirely harmful and corrupting for individuals and society. Sometimes advertisements depict false assertions which create a false impact in individuals and society. a) Economic Harms of Advertising Advertising can betray its role as a source of information by misrepresentation and by withholding relevant facts. Sometimes the information function of media can be subverted by advertisers pressure More often, advertising is used not simply to inform but to persuade and motivate to convince people to act in certain ways, buy certain products or services This is where particular abuses can occur. Brand advertising can raise serious problems. Often there are only negligible differences among similar products of different brands, and advertising may attempt to move people to act on the basis of irrational motives like brand loyalty, status, fashion, instead of presenting differences in product quality and price as bases for rational choice. b) Harms of Political Advertising Political advertising can support and assist the working of the democratic system, but it also can obstruct it. This happens when the costs of advertising limit political competition to wealthy candidates or groups Political advertising seeks to distort the views and records of opponents and unjustly attacks their reputations. It happens when advertising appeals more to peoples emotions and base instincts — to selfishness, bias and hostility toward others, to racial and ethnic prejudice and the like — rather than to a reasoned sense of justice and the good of all. c) Cultural Harms of Advertising Advertising also can have a corrupting influence upon culture and cultural values.. In the competition to attract ever larger audiences and deliver them to advertisers, communicators can find themselves tempted — in fact pressured, subtly or not so subtly — to set aside high artistic and moral standards and lapse into superficiality Communicators also can find themselves tempted to ignore the educational and social needs of certain segments of the audience — the very young, the very old, the poor — who do not match the demographic patterns (age, education, income, habits of buying and consuming, etc.) of the kinds of audiences advertisers want to reach. d) Moral and Religious Harms of Advertising Advertising sometimes is used to promote products and inculcate attitudes and forms of behavior contrary to moral norms. Characteristics of advertising 1. Advertising is paid form of communication. 2. Advertising is non personal communication. 3. Advertising has an identified sponsor. 4. Advertising can be controlled. Advertising Agency An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising (and sometimes other forms of promotion) for their clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the clients products or services. An agency can also handle overall marketing and branding strategies and sales promotions for its clients. An advertising agency acts in the fist place as a consultant to its client, the advertiser in formulating the advertising plans and translating them into advertising campians. The other role of ad agency, namely placing the advertisment, articles from its traditional association with the media. Typical ad agency clients include businesses and corporations, non-profit organizations and government agencies. Agencies may be hired to produce single ads or, more commonly, ongoing series of related ads, called an advertising campaign. Ad agencies come in all sizes, from small one- or two-person shops to large multi-national, multi-agency conglomerates such as Omnicom Group or WPP Group. Some agencies specialize in particular types of advertising, such as print ads or television commercials. Other agencies, especially larger ones, produce work for many types of media (creating integrated marketing communications, or through-the-line (TTL) advertising). The line, in this case, is the traditional marker between media that pay a (traditionally 15%) commission to the agency (mainly broadcast media) and the media that do not. Role / Functions of an advertising agency 1. Planning the advertisement campaign 2. Creation of the advertisement 3. Execution or placing the advertisement in various media vehicles. 4. Marketing and advertising Research 5. Sales promotion 6. Public relations STRUCTURE OF ADVERTISING AGENCIES An agency, depending on its size, will likely have different departments which work on the separate aspects of an account. An account manager or the account planning department will coordinate the work of these departments to insure that all the clients needs are met. The departments within a full-service agency will typically include: RESEARCH The research department will be able to provide clients with some details about the prospective audience of the final advertising campaign, as well as information about the market for the product being advertised. This should include specific market research which leads to a very focused ad campaign, with advertising directed to the ideal target audience. CREATIVE SERVICES Advertising agencies employ experts in many creative fields that provide quality, professional services that conform to the standards of the industry. Copywriters provide the text for print ads, and the scripts for television or radio advertising. Graphic designers are responsible for the presentation of print ads, and the art department is responsible for providing the necessary images for whatever format advertisement is decided upon. Some agencies have in-house photographers and printers, while others regularly employ the services of contractors. The individuals involved in creative services are responsible for developing the advertising platform, which sets the theme and tone of the ad campaign. The advertising platform should draw upon specific, positive features of the product advertised and extrapolate the benefits the consumer could expect to receive as a result of using the product. The campaign, through the development of this platform, should prove to be eye-catching, memorable, and in some way unique. The advertising that is remembered by consumers is that which stands out from the rest; it is the advertising agencys (and specifically the creative services departments) responsibility to provide this quality for their clients. The final advertising provided by an agency should be fully developed and polished. Television commercials should be produced with professionalism; print ads should be attractive, informational, and attention-getting; radio spots should be focused and of high audio quality. MEDIA BUYING One of the services provided by advertising agencies is the careful placement of finished advertisements in various media, with an eye toward maximizing the potential audience. The research search conducted by the agency will inform any media-buying decisions. An agency will be able to negotiate the terms of any contracts made for placing ads in any of various media. A full-service agency will deal confidently with television, radio, newspapers, and magazines. Some agencies are also branching into direct mail marketing and point of purchase incentives; some agencies have expanded into Internet advertising; and some agencies will also place an ad in the local yellow pages, or utilize outdoor advertising or one of the more creative avenues of incidental advertising, such as commercial signs on public buses or subways or on billboards. The media-buying staff of an advertising agency will draw on specific research done for the client, as well as on past experience with different media. Through this research and careful consideration, the agency will develop a media plan: this should be a fully realized plan of attack for getting out the clients message. Some factors to be considered in the development of the media plan include: Cost Per Thousand: This refers to the cost of an advertisement per one thousand potential customers it reaches. Media-buyers use this method to compare the various media avenues they must choose between. For example, television ads are considerably more expensive than newspaper ads, but they also reach many more people. Cost per thousand is a straightforward way to evaluate how to best spend advertising dollars: if a newspaper ad costs $100 and potentially reaches 2,000 customers, the cost per thousand is $50. If a television ad costs $1000 to produce and place in suitable television spots, and reaches a potential of 40,000 viewers, the cost per thousand is only $25. Reach: This term is used when discussing the scope of an advertisement. The reach of an ad is the number of households which can safely be assumed will be affected by the clients message. This is usually expressed as a percentage of total households. For example, if there are 1,000 households in a town, and 200 of those households receive the daily paper, the reach of a well-placed newspaper ad could be expressed as 20 percent: one-fifth of the households in the community can be expected to see the advertisement. Frequency: The frequency of a message refers to how often a household can be expected to be exposed to the clients message. Frequency differs widely between media, and even within the same medium. Newspapers, for example, are read less often on Saturdays, and by many more households (and more thoroughly) on Sundays. Fluctuation like this occurs in all media. Continuity: The media-buyer will also need to consider the timing of advertisements. Depending on the clients product, the ads can be evenly spread out over the course of a day (for radio or television advertisements), a week (for radio, television, or print advertisements), or a month (radio, television, print, or other media). Of course, seasonal realities influence the placement of advertisements as well. Clothing retailers may need to run more advertisements as a new school year approaches, or when new summer merchandise appears. Hardware stores may want to emphasize their wares in the weeks preceding the Christmas holiday. Grocery stores or pharmacies, however, might benefit from more evenly distributed advertising, such as weekly advertisements that emphasize the year-round needs of consumers. DAGMAR APPROACH HIERARCHY OF EFFECTS MODEL Russell H Colley (1961) prepared a report for the association of national advertisers titled defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results (DAGMAR). He developed a model for setting advertising objectives and measuring the results of an ad campaign. According to this model, communications effect is the logical basis for setting advertising objective and goals against which results should be measured. In Colleys words â€Å"Advertising job purely and simply is to communicate to a defined audience information and a frame of mind that stimulate action. Advertising succeed or fails depending on how well it communi-cate the desired information and attitude to the right time and at the right cost.† Awareness Comprehension Conviction Action There are no significant differences between Colleys proposed model and other important hierarchy of effects models. One important contribution of DAGMAR was its ability to clarify what continuous a good objective. According to Colley, the objective should have the following features: Stated in term of concrete and measurable communication tasks. Specify a target audience. Indicate a benchmark or standard starting point. Specify a time period for accomplishing the objective or objectives. Concrete measurable tasks The DAGMAR approach requires that the measurement procedure should also be specified. There must be a way to determine whether the intended ad message has been communicated properly to the target audience. If the ad message communicates that brand X is the best on Q attribute, then a questionnaire may include the request, â€Å"rank the following brands on best Q attribute.† The responses could be quantified to mean percentage of audience who rated brand X as the best on Q attribute. Target audience Another important feature of good objectives is the specification of a well-defined target audience. Though the primary target audience for a companys product or service is describe in situation analysis, yet it may need some refining. For example, user of a product may be further categorized as heavy, medium or light users. Benchmark and degree of change sought It is important to know the target audiences present status with respect to responses variable and then determine the degree of change desired by the advertising campaign. Assessment and criticism of DAGMAR approach The DAGMAR approach has had an enormous influence on the advertising planning process and objective setting. It has focused the advertisers attention on the important and value of using communication-based objectives as against sales based objectives to measure the impact and success of an ad campaign. The approach has not been totally accepted by everyone in the advertising field. A number of questions have been raised concerning its value as an advertising planning tool. Problems with responses hierarchy Sales as the advertising goal Practicality and costs Inhibits creativity Hierarchy-of-Effects Models Among advertising theories, the hierarchy-of-effects model is predominant. It shows clear steps of how advertising works, even though it has been criticized on some points, such as that people do not exactly follow these sequences. There are various versions of hierarchy-of-effects model. AIDA model is initiatory and simplest. Awareness à   Interest à   Desire à   Action AIDA model was presented by Elmo Lewis to explain how personal selling works. It shows a set of stair-step stages which describe the process leading a potential customer to purchase. The stages, Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action, form a linear hierarchy. It demonstrates that consumers must be aware of a products existence, be interested enough to pay attention to the products features/benefits, and have a desire to benefit from the products offerings. Action, the fourth stage, would come as a natural result of movement through the first three stages. Although this idea was rudimentary, it led to the later emerging field of consumer behavior research. Hierarchy-of-effects models have many variant models. DAGMAR (Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results) model suggests similar but different steps. Awareness à   Comprehension à   Conviction à   Action DAGMAR model suggests that the ultimate objective of advertising must carry a consumer through four levels of understanding: from unawareness to Awareness—the consumer must first be aware of a brand or company; Comprehension—he or she must have a comprehension of what the product is and its benefits; Conviction—he or she must arrive at the mental disposition or conviction to buys the brand; Action—finally, he or she actually buy that product. Determining the Advertising Budget An important goal in determining the size of an advertising budget is to maximize profits. To achieve this goal, even approximately, is a very complex problem. Many procedures or rules have been adopted to provide what appears to be a reasonable answer from one point of view or another, but which, most people in the business would agree, are very crude at best. Hence, such approaches as â€Å"percentage-of-sales,† â€Å"all-you-can-afford,† â€Å"objective-and-task† and â€Å"competitive-parity,† are used because â€Å"scientific† approached either dont exist, or have not been able to prove their superiority. The difficulties of devising a scientific approach are fairly well know. The multitude of factors involved and the scarcity of relevant and accurate data are only two of many which could be listed. Marginal Analysis The theoretical underpinning of an advertising-budget decision is based on marginal analysis and is easily expressed. A firm would continue to add to the advertising budget as long as the incremental expenditures are exceeded by the marginal revenue they generate. Budgeting Decision Rules There are several decision rules on which many firms dray in making budget decisions. Four such rules will be described. The rules are basically justified by arguing that budgets based on them are unlikely to be far from the actual optimal budget if a marginal analysis could be performed. In some cases, the rules are used in combination, the net budget being a compromise among several. * Percentage of Sales One rule of thumb used in setting advertising budgets is the percentage of sales. Past sales or a forecast of future sales can be used as the base. A brand may have devoted 5% of its budget to advertising in the past. Thus, if the plan calls for doing $40 million worth of business next year, a $2 million advertising budget might be proposed. A similar decision could be based upon market share. For example, a brand could allocate $1 million for every share point it holds. The percentage-of-sales guide is the most common approach to setting advertising budgets. If a firm or brand has been successfully over several years using the percentage-of-sales approach, it might be assumed that the decision rule yielded budgets reasonably close to the optimal, so there is little incentive to change to another approach in setting budgets. The rule does tend to make explicit the marketing-mix decision, the allocation of the budget to the various elements of the marketing program. Furthermore, it provides comfort to a prudent financial executive who likes to know that her or his firm can afford the advertising. Finally, if competitors also use such a rule, it leads to a certain stability of advertising within the industry, which may be useful. If there is a ceiling on the size of the market, it is wise to avoid precipitating a war over advertising expenditure. * All You Can Afford Firms with limited resources may decide to spend all that they can reasonably allocate to advertising after other unavoidable expenditures have been allocated. This rule usually ensures that they are not advertising too heavily, that advertising moneys are not being wasted. It thus does have some logic. Of course, if the value of more advertising could be demonstrated, extra money could usually be raised, so the limitation may be somewhat artificial. * Competitive Parity Another guide is to adjust the advertising budge so that it is comparable to those of competitors. The logic is that the collective minds of the firms in the industry will probably generate advertising budgets that are somewhat close to the optimal. Everyone could not be too far from the optimal. Furthermore, any departure from the industry norms could precipitate a spending war. * Objective and Task Objective and task, more an approach to budgeting than a simple decision rule, is used by two-thirds of the largest advertisers. An advertising objective is first established in specific terms. For example, a firm may decide to attempt to increase the awareness of its brand in a certain population segment to 50 percent. The tasks that are requited to accomplish this objective are then detailed. They might involve the development of a particular advertising campaign exposing the relevant audience an average of the five times. The cost of obtaining these exposures then becomes the advertising budget. This approach assumes that there is a causal flow from advertising to sales. In effect, it represents an effort to introduce intervening variables such as awareness or attitude, which will presumable be indicators of future sales as well as immediate sales. Steps: 1. Task Definition: The objective of the advertising programme, are to be defined. The objectives may be to Close an immediate sale Increase sales Create awareness Building company goodwill and corporate image. 2. Determining the type of strategy, media, and amount of exposu Management of Advertising Program Management of Advertising Program ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT Advertising is any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor. Five major decisions involve the mission, money, message, media and measurement Advertising—the use of paid media by a seller to communicate persuasive information about its products, services, or organization—is a potent promotional tool. Advertising takes on many forms (national, regional, local, consumer, industrial, retail, product, brand, institutional, etc.) designed to achieve a variety of objectives (awareness, interest, preference, brand recognition, brand insistence). Advertising decision-making consists of objectives setting, budget decision, message decision, media decision, and ad effectiveness evaluation. Advertisers should establish clear goals as to whether the advertising is supposed to inform, persuade, or remind buyers. The factors to consider when setting the advertising budget are: stage in the product life cycle, market share, competition and clutter, needed frequency, and product substitutability. The advertising budget can be established based on what is affordable, as a percentage budget of sales, based on competitors expenditures, or based on objectives and tasks, and based on more advanced decision models that are available. The message decision calls for generating messages, evaluating and selecting between them, and executing them effectively and responsibly. The media decision calls for defining the reach, frequency, and impact goals; choosing among major media types; selecting specific media vehicles; deciding on media timing; geographical allocation of media. Finally, campaign evaluation calls for evaluating the communication and sales effects of advertising, before, during, and after the advertising. Developing and managing an advertising program (An overview) Setting the advertising objectives—according to whether the aim is to inform, remind, or persuade Deciding on the advertising budget—five factors to consider include stage in the product life cycle, market share and consumer base, competition and clutter, advertising frequency, and product substitutability Choosing the advertising message—creative stage Message generation—utilizing an inductive versus deductive framework Message evaluation and selection—focus on one core selling proposition and aim for desirability, exclusiveness and believability. Message execution—impact depends not only on what is said but how it is said (positioning). Creative people must also find a style, tone, and format for executing the message Social responsibility review—make sure the creative advertising does not overstep social and legal norms Deciding on media and measuring effectiveness Deciding on reach (number of people exposed at least once), frequency (total number of times they are reached) and impact (qualitative value) The relationship between reach, frequency and impact, specific media, media timing, geographical allocation a) Media selection: target audience, media habits, product, message, and cost Determining the most cost-effective media to deliver the desired number and type of exposures to the target audience Choosing among major media types b) Target audience media habits c) Product characteristics d) Message characteristics e) Cost (based on cost-per-thousand exposures criterion) New media—rethinking the options f) Commercial clutter, advertorials, infomercials g) Result is coming death of traditional mass media, as we know it—more direct and consumer control coming Allocating the budget—increasingly spent attracting attention than on the product itself Selecting specific vehicles—measures include: h) Circulation, audience, effective audience, effective ad-exposed audience i) CPM adjustments based on audience quality, audience-attention probability, editorial quality and ad placement policies Deciding on the media timing j) Macro-scheduling (according to seasonal or business trends) k) Micro-scheduling (allocating advertising expenditures within a short period to obtain the maximum impact) l) Models for media timing: Kuehn (if no carryover and habitual behavior then percent of sales justified) Deciding on the geographical allocation a) National versus international b) Spot buying (ADIs and DMAs) Evaluating advertising effectiveness a) Communication-effect research—copy testing, consumer feedback, portfolio tests, laboratory tests b) Sales-effect research—share of voice and share of market, historical approach, experimental design c) Advertising effectiveness: a summary of current research Benefits of Advertising Enormous human and material resources are devoted to advertising. Advertising is everywhere in todays world .People are exposed to various forms of advertising through various advertising messages, media, billboards and techniques of every sort. The General benefits of advertising are as follows. a) Economic Benefits of Advertising Advertising can play an important role in the process by which an economic system that is guided by ethical. It is a necessary part of the functioning of modern market economies, which today either exist or are emerging in many parts of the world. Advertising can be a useful tool for sustaining ethical competition that contributes to economic growth. It can help people by informing them about the availability of desirable new products and services and improvements in existing ones, helping them to stay informed, prudent consumer decisions, contributing to efficiency and the lowering of prices, and stimulating economic progress through the expansion of business and trade. b) Benefits of Political Advertising Political advertising can make a contribution economic situation in a market system. As free and responsible media in a democratic system help to counteract tendencies toward the monopolies, so political advertising can make its contribution by informing people about the ideas and policy proposals of parties and candidates, including new candidates not previously known to the public. c) Cultural Benefits of Advertising Because of the impact advertising has on media that depend on it for revenue, advertisers have an opportunity to exert a positive influence on decisions about media content. This they do by supporting material of excellent aesthetics and moral quality, and particularly by encouraging and making possible media presentations which are oriented to minorities whose needs might otherwise go unserved. Moreover, advertising can itself contribute to the betterment of society by uplifting and inspiring people and motivating them to act in ways that benefit themselves and others. Advertising can brighten lives simply by being witty and entertaining. d) Moral Benefits of Advertising In many cases social institutions use advertising to communicate their messages messages of moral values ,ethics ,patriotism, responsibilities toward the needy, messages concerning health and education, constructive and helpful messages that educate and motivate people in a variety of beneficial ways. Benefits of advertising from companys view point: 1. Provides information Consumer needs information about various products. The lack of information may make a consumer buy an inferior product, pay high price etc. 2. Improves brand image: Advertisement helps improve brand image. Images are mental pictures of brands. The images projected are geared to match the needs and expectations of target audience. Favorable image help in generating brand loyalty and disposition to buy that brand. 3. Helps in Innovation: Advertising is seen to perform this task effectively for new products. It reduces the risk of innovation. The cost of innovation can be more than recovered by the sales which advertising may generate and this encourages manufacturers to undertake research and development. 4. New Product Launch Various strategies including advertising is used to make potential buyers of new products. Advertising can be used to promote new products and to inform changes in old products. 5. Growth of Media: Advertising enhances the potential for raising advertising revenues. This helps in launching new publications and expanding the media. Role of advertising 1. Communication with Consumers: Advertising is a major way of establishing communication between manufacturers and other organizations providing services or trying to put across ideas and concepts, on the one hand, and customers, buyers and potential acceptors, on the other. 2. Persuasion: Advertising attempts to persuade prospective buyers to buy a product/service. In modern markets, the producer who is content with the advertising that merely identifies or informs may soon find himself in a vulnerable position. 3. Contribution to Economic Growth: Advertising contributes to economic growth by helping to expand the market, particularly for new products, and by helping to develop new market segments. 4. Catalyst for change: Creativity inherent in advertising leads to the discovery of new relationships that can change the perception of a prospect. Functions of Advertising 1. Primary Functions Helps to increase sales Helps to reduce overall cost of sales Provides information about the product Persuasion of customers or dealers Receptiveness of new product Stimulates distribution of products Insurance for manufacturing business Confidence in quality To eliminate seasonal fluctuation To generate awareness and revenue Builds value, brand loyalty and preference 2. Secondary Functions  · To encourage salesmen and lend them moral support  · To furnish information  · To impress executives  · To impress factory workers  · To secure better employees  · To capture market  · To have an extra edge over the market * Feeling of security Advertising is a social waste * Because its time consuming * It does focus on specific group only. * Waste of resources. * Consumers are deceived by advertising. * Misleading information to the public. * It affects the health by having alcohols and cigarettes advertising. * Consumers are paying for those advertisements because fess will be added into the price of the product. * People are lured to buy products which is not needed and not within their reach. (propensity to consume) Some critics view advertising as a waste of time, talent and money —In their view, not only does advertising have no value of its own, but its influence is entirely harmful and corrupting for individuals and society. Sometimes advertisements depict false assertions which create a false impact in individuals and society. a) Economic Harms of Advertising Advertising can betray its role as a source of information by misrepresentation and by withholding relevant facts. Sometimes the information function of media can be subverted by advertisers pressure More often, advertising is used not simply to inform but to persuade and motivate to convince people to act in certain ways, buy certain products or services This is where particular abuses can occur. Brand advertising can raise serious problems. Often there are only negligible differences among similar products of different brands, and advertising may attempt to move people to act on the basis of irrational motives like brand loyalty, status, fashion, instead of presenting differences in product quality and price as bases for rational choice. b) Harms of Political Advertising Political advertising can support and assist the working of the democratic system, but it also can obstruct it. This happens when the costs of advertising limit political competition to wealthy candidates or groups Political advertising seeks to distort the views and records of opponents and unjustly attacks their reputations. It happens when advertising appeals more to peoples emotions and base instincts — to selfishness, bias and hostility toward others, to racial and ethnic prejudice and the like — rather than to a reasoned sense of justice and the good of all. c) Cultural Harms of Advertising Advertising also can have a corrupting influence upon culture and cultural values.. In the competition to attract ever larger audiences and deliver them to advertisers, communicators can find themselves tempted — in fact pressured, subtly or not so subtly — to set aside high artistic and moral standards and lapse into superficiality Communicators also can find themselves tempted to ignore the educational and social needs of certain segments of the audience — the very young, the very old, the poor — who do not match the demographic patterns (age, education, income, habits of buying and consuming, etc.) of the kinds of audiences advertisers want to reach. d) Moral and Religious Harms of Advertising Advertising sometimes is used to promote products and inculcate attitudes and forms of behavior contrary to moral norms. Characteristics of advertising 1. Advertising is paid form of communication. 2. Advertising is non personal communication. 3. Advertising has an identified sponsor. 4. Advertising can be controlled. Advertising Agency An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising (and sometimes other forms of promotion) for their clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the clients products or services. An agency can also handle overall marketing and branding strategies and sales promotions for its clients. An advertising agency acts in the fist place as a consultant to its client, the advertiser in formulating the advertising plans and translating them into advertising campians. The other role of ad agency, namely placing the advertisment, articles from its traditional association with the media. Typical ad agency clients include businesses and corporations, non-profit organizations and government agencies. Agencies may be hired to produce single ads or, more commonly, ongoing series of related ads, called an advertising campaign. Ad agencies come in all sizes, from small one- or two-person shops to large multi-national, multi-agency conglomerates such as Omnicom Group or WPP Group. Some agencies specialize in particular types of advertising, such as print ads or television commercials. Other agencies, especially larger ones, produce work for many types of media (creating integrated marketing communications, or through-the-line (TTL) advertising). The line, in this case, is the traditional marker between media that pay a (traditionally 15%) commission to the agency (mainly broadcast media) and the media that do not. Role / Functions of an advertising agency 1. Planning the advertisement campaign 2. Creation of the advertisement 3. Execution or placing the advertisement in various media vehicles. 4. Marketing and advertising Research 5. Sales promotion 6. Public relations STRUCTURE OF ADVERTISING AGENCIES An agency, depending on its size, will likely have different departments which work on the separate aspects of an account. An account manager or the account planning department will coordinate the work of these departments to insure that all the clients needs are met. The departments within a full-service agency will typically include: RESEARCH The research department will be able to provide clients with some details about the prospective audience of the final advertising campaign, as well as information about the market for the product being advertised. This should include specific market research which leads to a very focused ad campaign, with advertising directed to the ideal target audience. CREATIVE SERVICES Advertising agencies employ experts in many creative fields that provide quality, professional services that conform to the standards of the industry. Copywriters provide the text for print ads, and the scripts for television or radio advertising. Graphic designers are responsible for the presentation of print ads, and the art department is responsible for providing the necessary images for whatever format advertisement is decided upon. Some agencies have in-house photographers and printers, while others regularly employ the services of contractors. The individuals involved in creative services are responsible for developing the advertising platform, which sets the theme and tone of the ad campaign. The advertising platform should draw upon specific, positive features of the product advertised and extrapolate the benefits the consumer could expect to receive as a result of using the product. The campaign, through the development of this platform, should prove to be eye-catching, memorable, and in some way unique. The advertising that is remembered by consumers is that which stands out from the rest; it is the advertising agencys (and specifically the creative services departments) responsibility to provide this quality for their clients. The final advertising provided by an agency should be fully developed and polished. Television commercials should be produced with professionalism; print ads should be attractive, informational, and attention-getting; radio spots should be focused and of high audio quality. MEDIA BUYING One of the services provided by advertising agencies is the careful placement of finished advertisements in various media, with an eye toward maximizing the potential audience. The research search conducted by the agency will inform any media-buying decisions. An agency will be able to negotiate the terms of any contracts made for placing ads in any of various media. A full-service agency will deal confidently with television, radio, newspapers, and magazines. Some agencies are also branching into direct mail marketing and point of purchase incentives; some agencies have expanded into Internet advertising; and some agencies will also place an ad in the local yellow pages, or utilize outdoor advertising or one of the more creative avenues of incidental advertising, such as commercial signs on public buses or subways or on billboards. The media-buying staff of an advertising agency will draw on specific research done for the client, as well as on past experience with different media. Through this research and careful consideration, the agency will develop a media plan: this should be a fully realized plan of attack for getting out the clients message. Some factors to be considered in the development of the media plan include: Cost Per Thousand: This refers to the cost of an advertisement per one thousand potential customers it reaches. Media-buyers use this method to compare the various media avenues they must choose between. For example, television ads are considerably more expensive than newspaper ads, but they also reach many more people. Cost per thousand is a straightforward way to evaluate how to best spend advertising dollars: if a newspaper ad costs $100 and potentially reaches 2,000 customers, the cost per thousand is $50. If a television ad costs $1000 to produce and place in suitable television spots, and reaches a potential of 40,000 viewers, the cost per thousand is only $25. Reach: This term is used when discussing the scope of an advertisement. The reach of an ad is the number of households which can safely be assumed will be affected by the clients message. This is usually expressed as a percentage of total households. For example, if there are 1,000 households in a town, and 200 of those households receive the daily paper, the reach of a well-placed newspaper ad could be expressed as 20 percent: one-fifth of the households in the community can be expected to see the advertisement. Frequency: The frequency of a message refers to how often a household can be expected to be exposed to the clients message. Frequency differs widely between media, and even within the same medium. Newspapers, for example, are read less often on Saturdays, and by many more households (and more thoroughly) on Sundays. Fluctuation like this occurs in all media. Continuity: The media-buyer will also need to consider the timing of advertisements. Depending on the clients product, the ads can be evenly spread out over the course of a day (for radio or television advertisements), a week (for radio, television, or print advertisements), or a month (radio, television, print, or other media). Of course, seasonal realities influence the placement of advertisements as well. Clothing retailers may need to run more advertisements as a new school year approaches, or when new summer merchandise appears. Hardware stores may want to emphasize their wares in the weeks preceding the Christmas holiday. Grocery stores or pharmacies, however, might benefit from more evenly distributed advertising, such as weekly advertisements that emphasize the year-round needs of consumers. DAGMAR APPROACH HIERARCHY OF EFFECTS MODEL Russell H Colley (1961) prepared a report for the association of national advertisers titled defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results (DAGMAR). He developed a model for setting advertising objectives and measuring the results of an ad campaign. According to this model, communications effect is the logical basis for setting advertising objective and goals against which results should be measured. In Colleys words â€Å"Advertising job purely and simply is to communicate to a defined audience information and a frame of mind that stimulate action. Advertising succeed or fails depending on how well it communi-cate the desired information and attitude to the right time and at the right cost.† Awareness Comprehension Conviction Action There are no significant differences between Colleys proposed model and other important hierarchy of effects models. One important contribution of DAGMAR was its ability to clarify what continuous a good objective. According to Colley, the objective should have the following features: Stated in term of concrete and measurable communication tasks. Specify a target audience. Indicate a benchmark or standard starting point. Specify a time period for accomplishing the objective or objectives. Concrete measurable tasks The DAGMAR approach requires that the measurement procedure should also be specified. There must be a way to determine whether the intended ad message has been communicated properly to the target audience. If the ad message communicates that brand X is the best on Q attribute, then a questionnaire may include the request, â€Å"rank the following brands on best Q attribute.† The responses could be quantified to mean percentage of audience who rated brand X as the best on Q attribute. Target audience Another important feature of good objectives is the specification of a well-defined target audience. Though the primary target audience for a companys product or service is describe in situation analysis, yet it may need some refining. For example, user of a product may be further categorized as heavy, medium or light users. Benchmark and degree of change sought It is important to know the target audiences present status with respect to responses variable and then determine the degree of change desired by the advertising campaign. Assessment and criticism of DAGMAR approach The DAGMAR approach has had an enormous influence on the advertising planning process and objective setting. It has focused the advertisers attention on the important and value of using communication-based objectives as against sales based objectives to measure the impact and success of an ad campaign. The approach has not been totally accepted by everyone in the advertising field. A number of questions have been raised concerning its value as an advertising planning tool. Problems with responses hierarchy Sales as the advertising goal Practicality and costs Inhibits creativity Hierarchy-of-Effects Models Among advertising theories, the hierarchy-of-effects model is predominant. It shows clear steps of how advertising works, even though it has been criticized on some points, such as that people do not exactly follow these sequences. There are various versions of hierarchy-of-effects model. AIDA model is initiatory and simplest. Awareness à   Interest à   Desire à   Action AIDA model was presented by Elmo Lewis to explain how personal selling works. It shows a set of stair-step stages which describe the process leading a potential customer to purchase. The stages, Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action, form a linear hierarchy. It demonstrates that consumers must be aware of a products existence, be interested enough to pay attention to the products features/benefits, and have a desire to benefit from the products offerings. Action, the fourth stage, would come as a natural result of movement through the first three stages. Although this idea was rudimentary, it led to the later emerging field of consumer behavior research. Hierarchy-of-effects models have many variant models. DAGMAR (Defining Advertising Goals for Measured Advertising Results) model suggests similar but different steps. Awareness à   Comprehension à   Conviction à   Action DAGMAR model suggests that the ultimate objective of advertising must carry a consumer through four levels of understanding: from unawareness to Awareness—the consumer must first be aware of a brand or company; Comprehension—he or she must have a comprehension of what the product is and its benefits; Conviction—he or she must arrive at the mental disposition or conviction to buys the brand; Action—finally, he or she actually buy that product. Determining the Advertising Budget An important goal in determining the size of an advertising budget is to maximize profits. To achieve this goal, even approximately, is a very complex problem. Many procedures or rules have been adopted to provide what appears to be a reasonable answer from one point of view or another, but which, most people in the business would agree, are very crude at best. Hence, such approaches as â€Å"percentage-of-sales,† â€Å"all-you-can-afford,† â€Å"objective-and-task† and â€Å"competitive-parity,† are used because â€Å"scientific† approached either dont exist, or have not been able to prove their superiority. The difficulties of devising a scientific approach are fairly well know. The multitude of factors involved and the scarcity of relevant and accurate data are only two of many which could be listed. Marginal Analysis The theoretical underpinning of an advertising-budget decision is based on marginal analysis and is easily expressed. A firm would continue to add to the advertising budget as long as the incremental expenditures are exceeded by the marginal revenue they generate. Budgeting Decision Rules There are several decision rules on which many firms dray in making budget decisions. Four such rules will be described. The rules are basically justified by arguing that budgets based on them are unlikely to be far from the actual optimal budget if a marginal analysis could be performed. In some cases, the rules are used in combination, the net budget being a compromise among several. * Percentage of Sales One rule of thumb used in setting advertising budgets is the percentage of sales. Past sales or a forecast of future sales can be used as the base. A brand may have devoted 5% of its budget to advertising in the past. Thus, if the plan calls for doing $40 million worth of business next year, a $2 million advertising budget might be proposed. A similar decision could be based upon market share. For example, a brand could allocate $1 million for every share point it holds. The percentage-of-sales guide is the most common approach to setting advertising budgets. If a firm or brand has been successfully over several years using the percentage-of-sales approach, it might be assumed that the decision rule yielded budgets reasonably close to the optimal, so there is little incentive to change to another approach in setting budgets. The rule does tend to make explicit the marketing-mix decision, the allocation of the budget to the various elements of the marketing program. Furthermore, it provides comfort to a prudent financial executive who likes to know that her or his firm can afford the advertising. Finally, if competitors also use such a rule, it leads to a certain stability of advertising within the industry, which may be useful. If there is a ceiling on the size of the market, it is wise to avoid precipitating a war over advertising expenditure. * All You Can Afford Firms with limited resources may decide to spend all that they can reasonably allocate to advertising after other unavoidable expenditures have been allocated. This rule usually ensures that they are not advertising too heavily, that advertising moneys are not being wasted. It thus does have some logic. Of course, if the value of more advertising could be demonstrated, extra money could usually be raised, so the limitation may be somewhat artificial. * Competitive Parity Another guide is to adjust the advertising budge so that it is comparable to those of competitors. The logic is that the collective minds of the firms in the industry will probably generate advertising budgets that are somewhat close to the optimal. Everyone could not be too far from the optimal. Furthermore, any departure from the industry norms could precipitate a spending war. * Objective and Task Objective and task, more an approach to budgeting than a simple decision rule, is used by two-thirds of the largest advertisers. An advertising objective is first established in specific terms. For example, a firm may decide to attempt to increase the awareness of its brand in a certain population segment to 50 percent. The tasks that are requited to accomplish this objective are then detailed. They might involve the development of a particular advertising campaign exposing the relevant audience an average of the five times. The cost of obtaining these exposures then becomes the advertising budget. This approach assumes that there is a causal flow from advertising to sales. In effect, it represents an effort to introduce intervening variables such as awareness or attitude, which will presumable be indicators of future sales as well as immediate sales. Steps: 1. Task Definition: The objective of the advertising programme, are to be defined. The objectives may be to Close an immediate sale Increase sales Create awareness Building company goodwill and corporate image. 2. Determining the type of strategy, media, and amount of exposu

Essay --

No, not again! I cannot be hungry, I just got finish with my dinner. Food is my best friend, it helps me get through my days and always make me happy. My Mother think’s I have no idea where she put the snack pantry keys, but I do. Once everyone is asleep in my house, I will sneak to get my favorite midnight snack Little Debbie double fudge chocolate chip brownies and a glass of chocolate milk. This is an example of twelve year old Ivy Michelle. She has been obese since a toddler. Her parents will give her anything she wants to prevent her from crying. Ivy now attends middle school and she experiences name calling from her peers, which has made her very unsocial with the kids around her. During physical education Ivy never gets called to play team sports because the kids would tease that â€Å"she’s too fat†, or â€Å"she would make them lose because her weight would make her tired†. This treatment has made Ivy have very low self-esteem about herself and makes her feel like an outcast. Weight plays an important role in everyone’s lives adult or child, it also plays a major role with our society and health issues. Eating habits and lifestyles have changed tremendously over the last decade which is leading the U.S. into a bigger obesity epidemic. Childhood obesity could because of genetics, improper eating habits with lack of or no exercise. Mothers and Fathers who are working more than they have time to tend to their children, trying to build a suitable life for their growing families never really have enough time to make sure their child(ren) is getting the proper amount of exercise and a nutritious meal daily. This is an issue that is going on all across America. This issue is contributing to our childhood obesity epidemic. According to Ce... ...ising they think of the old ways of exercising like jumping jacks or running. So, it is imperative to make exercising fun that way children could stay interested. Try things like kickball, dance, football, basketball, or soccer. It is also important for you to follow a healthy diet and exercise regime because children often follow the footsteps of parents and their peers. Make healthy eating and exercise a family fun project. Living the same lifestyle as your child could be the thing to get the job done and keeping them on a healthy lifestyle for life. Childhood obesity has grown over the last decade,children need to find ways to cope with obesity, and they need support from the all the people around them. Our job as a nation and parents is to protect, teach, love and guide children. Doing this things will help them overcome obesity and take control of their weight.

Corporate governance Essay

Introduction Corporate governance refers to a system of mostly rules, practices as well as procedures that direct as well as control a company. In most cases it involves the balancing of all the stakeholders that have an interest in the company including the management, shareholders, government, the community to mention but a few depending on the company. Essentially, corporate governance provides a framework that if followed will help the company attain its objective in an all round manner. Though a relatively new phenomenon, this concept has been able to take the world by storm with countries that have embraced it turning in a lot of development that their counterparts. The embracing as well as the internalization of corporate governance by different countries has been able to foster growth and development while creating a business friendly environment in which companies can co-exist with the state as well as the communities in which they operate (Fernando, 2009, p.23). Case study: the United States As recent as 2002, the United States enacted the Sarbanes-Oxley bill into law making it an act. This was ushered in to restore the public’s confidence in companies and markets. Prior to this act, there had been a string of bankrupted high profile companies that had been brought down by internal accounting fraud. This left a twist that ensured that the companies would essentially be governed by state laws and therefore failure due to breach of such laws would be answerable to the government. This ensures that not only are the interests of the company shareholders protected but that then community that usually benefits from activities such as employment are also taken care off. Thus, the country has over years adopted different legislations both at the federal as well as state level that ensure that corporate governance is fully realized in the state. Therefore, from the United States, the UK can learn to enact strong legislations that would act as a guidelines to both state as well as the companies and any other stakeholders of the importance of embracing corporate governance. This would also serve the purpose of regulating corporations that will then have to acknowledge the fact that rules have been put in place and therefore have to be followed and that failure of compliance would lead to outlined penalties (Chew & Gillan, 2009, p. 3). Case study: India India, unlike the United States, has created a committee that deals with corporate governance know as the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The board that in most cases takes on a trustee role for all the companies in India was created through the adoption of SEBI Act, 1992. The act gives the body statutory powers to be able to carry out its duties and functions. These approach adopted in India is believed to have been adopted from the Ghanaian principle of trusteeship and that it is a directive of the Indian constitution with a little twist in between. The preamble of the body is to among other functions â€Å"†¦to protect the interests of investors in securities and to promote the growth (Das, 2008, p. 7). Reference Chew, D. H., & Gillan, S. L. 2009. U.S. corporate governance. New York, N.Y., Columbia   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   University Press. Das, S. C. 2008. Corporate governance in India: an evaluation. New Delhi, Prentice-Hall of   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   India. Fernando, A. C. 2009. Corporate governance: principles, policies and practices. New Delhi,   Ã‚  Ã‚   Pearson Education.   

American Sniper Essay

Once the lights dim, the screen expands, and the audience becomes silent, the greatest true story to be told is about to begin.   Chris Kyle, â€Å"Legend,† grew up in a small town in Texas with an aspiration to be a cowboy. He then realized he needed something different, more rewarding, which is when he decided to utilize his special talent by becoming a sniper in the navy SEALs. While in Iraq, Chris ventures out to protect his country from a villainous Iraqi warrior, â€Å"the Butcher.† Extremely difficult obstacles came about while in combat, but this did not stop him from reaching a record-breaking160 snipes. Kyle possessed an incredible skill set that caused his fellow soldiers to have an extreme level of respect toward him, and the nickname â€Å"Legend† was created due to their admiration. He even found himself in situations that he had to choose between protecting his country and doing what is morally correct. Almost every decision made by Chris, was one that benefited America in the greatest way. But his closest friends, small children, and even his enemies dying right in front of his eyes caused his mental state to be extremely damaged. Kyle then had to live the rest of his post-military life trying to cope with his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Not only was this movie and story an inspiration to millions, but also very informative of the reality of war now. Clint Eastwood did a great job recreating and honoring the incredible life of Chris Kyle. Although this movie is based on a true story, all of the components in this film were put together extremely well. American Sniper is indeed a war movie, but many of the aspects in it cause it to be so much more than just action-packed battles and gory blood baths. This film is hands down one of the best creations Eastwood has ever put forth. He portrayed the story in such a way that the audience felt inspired and moved by it. Creative twists and artistic choices he decided to make for this movie truly paid off. Bradley Cooper, a well-renowned actor, plays the main role of Chris Kyle and does an astounding job. He excellently captures his true character, and allows the audience to connect on a very deep level. Cooper remains extremely suave and allows his confidence to shine through while portraying this American hero. This role entailed strenuous amounts of training, and pushing ones body to a limit it has never reached before. He was required to gain weight, become a true â€Å"Texan† with an accent, and ultimately become an inspirational hero by being extraordinarily determined and brave. Bradley did an exceptional job at taking it on. This movie was set in a sandy, run-down village in Iraq; the setting had a great impact on the story as a whole. The Iraqi village members, members of the Taliban, and the terrorists that lived in or in the surrounding area made the movie to be very suspenseful and action-packed. The sand storm that occurred at the end of the movie brought on a huge turn of events for the soldier, leading most viewers to believe he wouldn’t make it out alive. Constantly changing scenes from the peaceful home in Texas where Chris’ wife and kids lived, to the treacherous overseas battlefield, caused the movie to remain very spontaneous. The constant snipes, battles, and hardships occurring throughout the movie kept the audience very intrigued by the story. The director did an excellent job capturing the true essence of how one should feel if they were ever put in the same heart-wrenching situation. The final scenes, as well as the credits, were the most impactful. They intelligently put actual footage of events that happened after Chris’ death. This allowed the audience to truly capture the amount of respect this one man gained from thousands of people. Many people gathered in honor of this hero. After watching the movie and learning more in-depth about his story, caused others to know why. Complete silence surrounds the theater once the movie came to an end. Everyone couldn’t help but to have a moment of silence, commemorating this great hero. After a movie, at a public theater, one will never see a reaction, from almost everyone there, of this sort. The atmosphere in the theater was one of sorrow and admiration. Emotions stirred through each individual in the audience, and most had a hard time holding them in. This aspiring story  touched millions of people’s lives. The movies runtime is approximately 134 minutes, which is quite long for most people. The content of the movie was so well spread out, that the amount of the time the movie ran did not seem nearly as long as it actually is. Eastwood did such a good job entertaining his audience, that the length of the movie was not much of a factor when one watched the film. This movie received a rating of â€Å"R† due to war violence, and vulgar language. Although a large amount of people were unable to view this film because of it’s rating, it was definitely necessary for it to be included. The gory aspects and the tasteless choice of vocabulary only furthered the impact this film had on its audience. The soundtrack used in this movie was very well picked. â€Å"The Funeral†, which is the song used for the credits, is one that really impacted most people. The track is perfectly suitable for the slideshow that is shown at the credits of the film; it caused hundreds of thousands of people to shed a tear because of how emotionally impactful the song is. American Sniper received a well-deserved rating of four stars from the credible source IMDb. Another source, Roger Ebert, rated the film at four and a half stars. These well-known movie critics giving this movie such a good review, proves how successful Clint Eastwood was in the making of American Sniper. The well-done acting, special effects, script, scenery, and storyline all had a positive impact on the high rating this movie received. A lot of comparison of American Sniper and Lone Survivor has occurred. They are both about the incredible stories of an average man going on tour while apart of the military. Both men had to experience events a typical person would never want to experience. Debatably, American Sniper is a better version of Lone Survivor. Although, both brilliant, insightful stories, American Sniper was more impressive according to several audiences. American Sniper is definitely a movie to be remembered and recommended for generations on end. It is one of the greatest stories of all time, and the movie does an incredible job at portraying it. This film does Chris and his  story much justice; the theme and overall point of the film came across almost perfectly. Not one person should go without seeing this film, and miss out on the amazing story it withholds.