Thorr Motorcycles Inc. Perceptual maps marketing simulation Essay

Thorr Motorcycles Inc. Perceptual maps marketing simulation - Essay Example The using perceptual maps marketing simulation was a great experienced for me. The simulation taught me the importance of product differentiation and positioning. The company showcased in the simulation was called Thorr Motorcycles Inc.The company is dedicated to manufacturing motorcycles. The company holds a market share of 40% in an oligopoly marketplace. Perceptual maps are used in the simulation to develop a positioning strategy. A perceptual map is the visual representation of the customer’s perception of a brand. In the simulation I served the role of marketing manager. In the first round of the simulation I had to choose four marketing parameters to develop the positioning strategy. The first parameter I choose is price. Customers in all industries always pay close attention to the price of the product or service. The second parameter chosen was lifestyle image. A lot of customers in the motorcycle industry purchase motorcycles because of the image it represents. The th ird parameter I choose was service offering. A survey showed that customers perceive the service of Thorr Motorcycles to be poor. The final parameter I choose was quality engineering. Along with price quality is a very important attribute that all customers evaluate when making a purchase. The four parameters I choose were the optimal solution for the company. The second round of the simulation involved making some strategic decisions. I had to create a marketing plan that will reposition the CruiserThorr or launch a new motorcycle. The marketing budget for the plan was $13 million. One of the tools that were provided in the simulation in order to help me make a decision was a SWOT analysis. The four elements of a SWOT analysis are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. One of the threats discussed in the SWOT is that fact that rising unemployment will decrease the expenditure in lifestyle products. The company’s competitors have low-cost motorcycles that are all geared to attract the younger customers. The CruiserThorr has penetrated the market well, but the product has reached the maturity stage of its product lifecycle. I decided against repositioning the CruiserThorr. My solution was introducing the RRoth model. The second step of round two was deciding the marketing mix of the company among the following four variables: price, place, services, and promotion. The marketing mix of a product can be used to implement a differentiation strategy. The price I chose was in the $13,000 to $15,000 range. At that price range the company will achieve maximum customer reach. The places I choose to sell the RRoth were distributors, dealers, and the internet. Young customers in the United States are using the internet more everyday to make purchases. In 2010 e-commerce sales in the US reached $153 billion. The services I decided to offer were training to dealers, customization options, and financial services. The promotion alternatives I decided to im plement were sponsor events such as Daytona, offer insurance and protection plans, hire celebrities for endorsement, and publicize through Hollywood films. The total costs of my marketing plan were $12,385,000. I achieved savings for the company of $615,000. In the third round of the simulation I had to create and rate the perceptual maps of both motorcycle products. The four attributes of the perceptual map of the CruiserThorr were lifestyle image, price, service offering, and quality engineering. My ratings on a scale of 1 to 10 for lifestyle image, price, service offering, and quality engineering were 10,7,6,9 respectively. The four variables I choose for the perceptual map of the RRoth were price, cool, service offerings and lifestyle image. The rating for price, cool service offering, and lifestyle image were 10,9,8,8. The simulation indicated that I should have added the parameter of quality engineering in the RRoth. A differentiation strategy is used to create a unique produc t that that has different attributes than the competition. A positioning strategy is different

Wk6 Forum INTL304 HUMINT Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Wk6 Forum INTL304 HUMINT - Coursework Example Hungarian refugees were a good intelligence target since they were young and educated. The article notes that processing, resettlement procedures, and the federal government’s views on intelligence exploitation defined the methods of collecting information in this case (Coriden 2011, 1). Apparently, some refugees were willing to give intelligence to western powers in exchange of better treatment and to manifest their patriotism. In this context, the intelligence community depicted a high degree of dedication (Coriden 2011, 1). Nevertheless, the intelligence community encountered the challenge of exploiting the Hungarians despite establishing that most Hungarians crossed the border to seek refuge in the Free World (Coriden 2011, 1). The article notes that the ability of the intelligence community to collate and digest loads of information helped in filling major gaps in intelligence information (Coriden 2011, 1). From the article, I learn that intelligence agents or officers must understand the characteristics of human nature that include emotions, intentions and motivations of people. I also learnt that a young and educated population is a good intelligence target. Additionally, the intelligence community should work as a team since human intelligence can help in developing and maintaining foreign and national security. I learnt about the need for effective methods of collecting information. Dedication and professionalism are important aspects in human intelligence. Moreover, the intelligence community should aim gathering the information at a minimum cost and with utmost respect for the rules of human conduct. Coriden, Guy. 2011. Report On Hungarian Refugees. Central Intelligence Agency, Aug 03. https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol2no1/html/v02i1a07p_0001.htm (accessed February 12,

Personal Development Plan And Evaluation Of Skills

Personal Development Plan And Evaluation Of Skills In this assignment Im going to discuss my personal development plan n how I will develop my personal skills which will help me in my current situation and also for my feature roles and my responsibilities and I am also going to check what will I be the needs to develop my self and how will I learn to improve my self and I am also going to identify my target dates for review and I will explain how these needs will be met. Lets have a brief introduction about personal development plan and also its importance. DEFINATION OF (PDP) Personal development planning is a structure which is made by an individual to improve his learning style and performance and made a planning how to develop there educational and personal carrier and how to achieve n the goals and objective in feature. IMPORTANCE OF (PDP) It helps to increase the ability of person to understand and learn and to set there goals and objectives and gives the proper way to make a progress by leaps and bounds. We discuss the importance of personal development planning. Now I am going to extend my personal development plan. Here I gave some introduction and important of personal development plan now I m going to extend my personal development plan and I also review my self which skills I have required in my current and feature roles and responsibilities. CURRENT SKILLS Fallowing are some of my current personal and professional skills. Time management Time management is very important skill for any human being who wants to be a successful in his life and want to get something in feature because now a days we are living in globalized world so you have to be able to manage your time in any circumstances to meet with the demands of this modern world so this is one of my very important skill and Im very sufficient to manage my time but I still think that I have to learn more to improve my time management skill. LEADERSHIP SKILL Leadership skill is ability to motivate and inspire the group of people or a member of your organization towards the goals and objectives which you are looking to achieve. This skill helps the leader to give inspiration to his followers and get a more results to achieve the aims and objectives of an organization. Leaders can see the problems in any organization which needs to be fixed and he can set the goals that needs to be achieved it may be something that no any other person can see or on the other hand no else want to tackle whatever it is, it is the focus of leader attention and they come up with is single minded determination so this is the most important thing in leadership skill. This is one of the very important skill which I have and play a vital role in my life to make progress by leaps and bounds but whatever skill I have but as a human being I always try to learn and improve my personal development. COMMUNICATION SKILL Communication means to communicate with other people and that is a very important thing for any person who wants to be a successful because now a days we all are living in globalized world and we have to meet with the people from different part of world with a different languages so in this case you have to be able to communicate with others this is also one of my very important skill which helps me to make progress but I still want to improve my this skill for my current and as well as my feature roles and responsibilities.so because of its importance I want to improve myself in this skill to achieve my aim and objectives of life. DECISION MAKING SKILL Decision making skill is a vital skill for any human being. A person who is able to make a quick decision in any type of situation will get success. Decision making skill is very important in your professional life as compare to personal life because in professional life some time you have to make very hard decision for the betterment of your organization and only this skill will helps you to make a decision. This skill helps me allot in my professional and personal life and I always try to improve my decision making power. SELF MANAGEMENT SKILL Self-management means to manage our self-reactions and emotions against the challenges in any circumstances and also understand the challenges and responsibilities in personal and also in professional life .self-management play an important role to be successful in any field of life and provide you a sufficient chance to get full control on your emotions. This is also an important skill of my life and I really want to improve my skill because I need this skill for my feature roles and responsibilities. SKILLS REQUIRED FOR FUTURE Following are some skills which I need in my future roles and responsibilities. LEADING AND CHEARING MEATINGS Leading and cheering meetings is also an important skill for any leader or any person who is leading any organization or a group of certain People. Leading and cheering meeting means to lead and arrange meetings after certain time to check how the organization is working and where the organization is week and where organization needs any kind of improvement in simple words to make check and balance of organization this is a very important skill but I fell myself that I do not have this skill In my professional life so I need to learn this skill for my personal development. DELIVERING EFFECTIVE PRESENTATIONS As we all knows that it is very important to deliver effective presentation it means the way you convey your message to your followers or your subordinates in a proper way which will be easily understandable for them and this thing give a boost for the development of any organization this skill also help you in your personal life so I fell myself that I am not good in delivering effective presentation so I really have to learn this skill for my future roles and responsibilities. PLANNING Planning means to make a proper way towards your goals and objectives.it also means to plan that when , where and how you are going to achieve your goals and objectives. Planning is not only the skill which only helps you in your professional life it is also a skill which helps you even more in your personal life. By making a proper planinig in your life you will always be successful in your personal and professional life. This is also an important skill which I need in my future roles and responsibilities. SELF MANAGEMENT A person who is able to manage a personal reaction to challenges and also the responsibilities in personal and professional life is called self-management. In self-management you should be able manage a time and also change your self-according to the current situation and circumstances. Following are some factors of self-management. PLANNING You should make a feature planning towards your goals and objective and how you will achieve. SELF AWARENESS You must have exact awareness about your current situation and circumstances TIME MANAGEMENT You should be able to complete your work with in the time that is very important in self-management. MONITORING You must have ability to monitor all the things which are happening around you wither it is your personal life are professional. These are some of the skills which I need in my future roles and responsibilities and while discussing my current skills and skills which I need in my future roles and responsibilities and know I am going discuss my learning and development needs. IDENTIFYING LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT NEEDS Know I am going to discuss my learning and development needs. LEARNING Learning is a very important process for achieving the business aims and objectives and it also play a vital role in personal development and it is also very essential to improving the organizational performance. LEARNING NEEDS FROM MY POINT OF VIEW From my point of view learning needs is to make people able to add the stock of personal competences and also gave them a boost to develop their potential. Learning needs means a gape in between the current and required performance of the person. Learning is also very important from business point of view because in business you always have to learn a lot of things so it is also very essential in business to learn. Learning is important more than the training because in training you just train yourself for a appropriate work but when you start learn something you learn a lot of things around yourself and it helps you to improve your personal development and you will make success day by day Learning is what happens after the person received the training and is much more self-directed Learning cans only effects when the person has ability to apply the knowledge and skill on his work place which he learns. Here I discuss what is learning and I also identify what is learning needs and what its importance now I am going to discuss my learning and development needs for my personal development plan MY LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT NEEDS As I gave you introduction about learning and I also tell you the importance of this and know I am going to reflect my personal and professional learning and development needs which will helps me to extend my personal development plan. By doing this I will make progress in my personal and professional life by leaps and bounds. As I discuss all my current skills and also I discuss all those skills which I need in my feature so to meet these skills I need to learn a lot because I am not too much strong in my these skills so I need to improve myself so I can improve my learning by using my preferred learning style. My preferred learning style is reflectors because: Reflectors can learn best when they have time to think about these activities and also have time to think before doing anything. They take some time to check and revive what they have to learn. Learn least from being forced to give instant reactions without planning time or are force into the limelight. Now I am going to discuss how I increase my current skills and those skills which are required in my future roles and responsibilities and I am also going to identify the target dates for review by using my preferred learning style I will explain this by showing you the tables. TARGET DATES FOR PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN TIME MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES SUCCESS CRITERIA ACTION TIME DURATION I want to be a better in management. To manage my time in any situation I will study books management related I will complete it buy doing 6 moths study In time management my objectives are to be able to manage my time and I will fell myself successful when I manage my time in any situation and any circumstances to achieve this I will study books because thats the best way I think to improve my time management skill and it will take about six months to achieve my this aim. COMMUNICATION SKILLS OBJECTIVES SUCCESS CRITERIA ACTION TIME DURATION To communicate with any level of people with confident When people start well understanding when I communicate with them Try to communicate with the people of my upper level and also increasing the communication There is no time duration in this skill improvement because I will learn more as much I communicate with people In order to improve this skill my objective is to easily and confidently communicate with any level of people and my success criteria will be when I built up my confidence and people start understanding me easily to achieve this objective I will try to increase the communication and also I will try to communicate with the people of my upper level there is no time duration in this skill because it depends the way I learn. SELF MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES SUCCESS CRITERIA ACTION TIME DURATION To manage personal reaction in any circumstances When fell myself relax in any type of situation Try to involving myself in different and difficult situations and by working with my seniors If I keep working it will take 1 year to improve my skill. In this skill my objective is to manage my personal reaction in any circumstances my success criteria will be the situation when I fell myself relax and I can handle any type of situation without any problem I will improve it by involving myself in different type of difficult situations and also try to work with my seniors according to my observation it will take 1 year time to improve my this skill. PLANNING OBJECTIVES To make proper planning towards my goals and objectives SUCCESS CRITERIA When I get success by my planning ACTION By getting a knowledge how to do proper planning TIME DURATION It can be done within 3 months My objective is to increase this skill to make a proper planning towards the goals and objectives my success criteria will when I get success by my planning I will improve this skill by getting knowledge to that how I will do proper planning and it will take three months to improve my self iin this skill DECISION MAKING SKILL OBJECTIVES SUCCESS CRITERIA ACTION TIME DURATION LEADING AND CHEARING MEATINGS OBJECTIVES SUCCESS CRITERIA ACTION TIME DURATION DELIVERING EFFECTIVE PRESENTATIONS OBJECTIVES SUCCESS CRITERIA ACTION TIME DURATION

Occupational Stress Essay -- Work Related Stress, Job Stress

Job stress has proven to be a difficult issue to tackle. Unlike physical or chemical hazards, there is not an obvious tangible hazardous agent. This issue has also been preempted by corporate stress management, health promotion, or employee assistance programs, which explain stress as a purely personal reaction, and often treat the symptoms, not the causes, of job stress. The occupational stress field also has been plagued by a variety of definitions and difficulties in measurement of stress.(Buunk,De-Jong,Y-Bemas&De wolff,1998) In addition, changes in job design or work organization are often inherently more "systems challenging" and require more radical restructuring of workplaces than reducing levels of exposure to toxic substances or ergonomic hazards. According to Mclean (1979) stress affect everyone in the workplace whether blue collar or white collar workers. Hughes (1971, p342) supported Mclean by stating that† the essential problems of men at work are the same whether they do their work in some famous laboratory or in the messiest vat room of a pickle factory† So this essay will review the major explanations that have been given for the higher rates of stress amongst working women’s based of the interview conducted on south African female worker. Part one of this paper will discuss how the factors such as Gender’s, race, marital status can cause stress among workers. In the second part work related factors such as heavy workload demand, control over work ,rewards and poor social relationship will be discussed. Lastly changes facing South African workplaces shall be discussed. The issue of stress is complicated because there is no single definitions that allows one to defines it .According to Buunk at al (1998) psychol... ...(1978). Stress at work: Chichester .J-Wiley Eckenrode J, & Gore ,S (1990). Stress between work and family: New York .Plenum press. Frankenhaeuser ,M ,Landberg U, & Chesney ,M. (1991).Women work and health :Stress opportunities .New York :Plenum press Friesen ,D & Sarros ,J (1989). Sources of burnout among educators :Journal of organizational behaviour,10 p.p 179-188 Gale group(2004). Bad relationship affect women more . Retrieved 14 march 2005 from http://www.findaeticle.com./mobsc/18-10/62085373/p1/article. Karasek RA. Control in the workplace and its health-related aspects. In Job Control and Worker Health, eds. SL Sauter, JJ Hurrell, CL Cooper. New York: Wiley, 1989; 129-159. Philips,D.L.& Segal .B.E (1969). Sexual status and psychiatric symptoms. American sociological review,34,58-7Shostaka,B(1980).Blue-collar stress :London .Addison –wesley.

Taylor Swift and Feminism

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the goal of feminism to be empowered to do whatever you want? To establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment? To control your own life and make it into a success in a male dominated society? Taylor Swift Isn't hurting feminism, the only thing being detrimental to fearfulness Is your own backwards ass Interpretation of feminism. I'd you hadn't notice I have miserable luck with relationships. Actually luck isn't Even a factor, thieve all been miserable failures.So what's got me in a huff now? See I met this girl at a friends birthday party and we hit it off beautifully. Others thought we were really cut together and we Just clicked. For probably the first time I actually experienced someone who was legitimately interested in me even if It was Just a tiny sliver of interest. So she asked my friend about me and suddenly she has no interest In me. Why? Because I'm only 22. What the tuck. That has to be the stupidest reason I've enc ountered.What the bloody hell does my age have to do with anything? There is absolutely no reason age should make any difference unless its something dramatic like I was still in high school. Age is of no importance or an indication of anything, anyone can grow old all you have to do is live long enough. I was born at a very early age are you going to hold that against me? Jokes aside, its backward ass thinking like this that makes me shake my head in confusion at people. This excuse has been used twice before and I had to laugh at one use of It.One girl put forward that I was to old for her, which is funny because he still lives at home with her mom, her room basically resembles a 10 year olds with a bunch of Sailor Moon crap and she has no education or ambitions. I on the other hand have an education, am self-supportive (mostly) and have a job that gives Age isn't a factor anyone can control if you like a person you like a person end of story. It'd be like me refusing to date any girls who's name is Amy. My reasoning is backwards and stupid and its a factor that the other party can't control. It's not like one of us is underage or there's like a fifty year age difference.Yet when I told some of my friends they defended this girl saying she was right. â€Å"Sorry but she's right, it's weird for a girl to be the older person in a relationship. † Oh that's logical, way to stand up for your gender. I have no use for pathetic outdated thinking, and anyone that subscribes to this limited world view needs to rethink what it means to have freedom of choice. Makes me cringe that I have a better grasp of this than most, or that I'm the one who doesn't get things because I don't see rules in he same narrow world view that is considered the norm.You can't date someone younger than you? Or some stupid preconceived notion prevents your brain from choosing on your own. Hopefully someday more people will be able to unlock their mind forgo manacles and think for thems elves but until then I have to wonder why anyone thinks this is something. Maybe I am being ostracize and demanding a bit but I stand by this. If you meet someone and hit it off shouldn't that be what you look for in a relationship? Or some sort of statistic.

Most Influential Books on Leadership Essay

Leadership is an issue which has been in the limelight in every aspect of human governance. Human development has been linked with management and directions which are part of leadership. Various characteristics of leadership have therefore been identified from various areas in life. This paper aims at identifying three different types of books on leadership which are recognized to be the most influential. The first choice is the book â€Å"Talent Is Never Enough: Discover the Choices That Will Take You beyond Your Talent† by John C. Maxwell . The author holds that talent is never enough in leadership. There are many different people in the whole world , thus showing that talent will never end. Nevertheless if acquiring that talent were just enough for everybody, then we would all be at a higher level and being full of potentials. There are therefore other things that need to be included in our talents so as to be able to discover those opportunities especially when it comes to business. People need to come up with other discoveries which would take them more steps beyond the talents they have. In businesses today, most leaders mostly concentrate more on the talents they have alone. The writer of this book, who in this case is a known expert in leadership – John C. Maxwell – argues that this is not the right way to achieving success. In his discourse, he describes how highly talented people who are globally known would be very successful if talent was the only contingency for that matter . That is not however the case. The book goes on to place more emphasis and support the writer’s decision by highlighting the fact that society is full of people who could have been great men and women if only they used other ideas apart from what they call talent. The author talks of prominent people like Jefferson, Nameth, Churchill, Bono, Oprah, and Dickens whom, apart from their talents, went steps ahead to the next level of increasing their talents and maximizing it to improve the world. They employed more efforts to what they discovered as their talent to capture other opportunities in life. That is why they are the talk of the world. According to Max, talent should therefore be present. It should however be followed by other measures that improve it. With different examples given of those people who maximized their talents, there are a few who did not. The author thus goes ahead to encourage the reader to support the author’s views and improve their lives by giving thirteen key choices one can adopt to become a person with advanced and maximized talent (Maxwell J. C(2009). The second selection of the most influential leadership books that I would recommend is â€Å"The Skinny of the Art of Persuasion† by Jim Randel. In leadership, persuasion is one of the most important skills that a leader should posses. This book provides sound and detailed information on persuasion in leadership. Moreover, it offers other important recommendations on persuasion from various prominent leaders. The book advices on persuasion thanks to the fact that the author is an attorney besides being well experienced in the field. Further, apart from his experience Randel quotes people like Kevin Hogan, James Speakman, Dave Lakhani, Dale Carnegie, Robert Cialdini, Tom Hopkins, Malcolm Gladwell, and others in his discussion on persuasion in leadership. This approach puts more emphasis on the author’s concept. He states that persuasion basically involves integrity. To add to his topic, Randell gives his personal life stories regarding leadership which still bothers him till then. To understand and get acquainted with what he is insinuating, his book finalizes with tips which are easy to understand about a good persuader in leadership (Alegre M. 2010). The third influential book on leadership is John Ferling’s new book on â€Å"The Ascent of George Washington. † It talks about the relationship between leadership and education. It is very important -especially in the current world – to link leadership with the educational backgrounds of those aspiring to be leaders in future. George Washington was an educated man in leadership. He had focus in his politics due to the great boost from his education. This is an ideal model of how leaders should learn to lead others. The author in this book goes ahead to reveal Washington as a political genius due to the fact that he was politically focused, ambitious, and was driven to succeed. Although described by the author as the most untactful and indecisive in times of crises, Washington was the only right person to lead Americans to independence. His character, boldness, judgment, industriousness, determination, and skillful political thinking were remarkable. It is a book that explains how one does not need to be perfect to achieve greatness (Alegre M. 010). Therefore, these books cover some of the most important aspects of leadership which most people fail to identify while leading others. Since most of us are leaders in one way or another, it is equally important to consider reviewing such influential leadership books to acquire various tips of leadership and also – as stated by Maxwell – to improve our talents in leadership. This strategy will not only boost our leadership qualities, but will also enable us to identify new opportunities in life and be able to pursue only the best of them.