Ethnicity in Sociology Essay Example for Free

Ethnicity in Sociology Essay -Much greater levels of police stop and search on young black African-Caribbean males, than whites. -After attack on World Trade Center in 2001 and London Underground bombings in 2005, a new discourse has emerged regarding Muslim Youths. -The new image of them is of being dangerous- a threat to British culture. Offending -There are 3 ways on gathering statistics on ethnicity and crime: official stats, victimization studies and self-report studies. -According to Home Office statistics, about 9. 5% of people arrested were recorded as ‘Black’ and 5. 3% ‘Asian’ (similar rating to white). This means that, relative to the population as a whole, black people are 3x more likely than whites to be arrested. -However, these stats could be seen as a comment on the actions of the police. – some sociologists argue there is institutional racism in police. -Offenders are most likely to be young males aged between 14 and 25. Any ethnic group with a high proportion of this age group within it will have relatively high arrest rates. The British black pop has high rates, and so it would be expected that they’d have high arrest rates too because of this. -Stats show that Black Youth are more likely to be unemployed or in low paid jobs. Victimizing studies -Victim-based studies (British Crime Survey) are gathered by asking victims of crime for their recollection of the ethnic identity of the offender. -According to the British Crime Survey, the majority of crime is intraracial, with 88% of white victims stating that white criminals were involved, 3% claiming offenders were black, 1%Asian, 5% mixed. -About 42% of crimes against Black victims were identified as black offenders and 19% of crime against Asian were Asians. -The figure of white crimes AGAINST ethnic minorities are much higher – 50% (though 90% of pop is white). -However only 20% of survey-recorded crimes are ‘peronal’ such as theft, where the victim may actually be able to identify the offender. Bowling and Phillips argue that victims are influenced by racial stereotypes and ‘culturally determined expectations’ as to who commits crime. Their research shows that where the offender is not known, White people are more likely to describe those of African-Caribbean background. Self-Report Studies- asked in anonymous questionnaires to see what offences people commit -Graham and Bowlings study for the Home Office of 14 to 25 year olds, found that the self-reported offending rates were more or less the same for the White, Black and Asian respondants. However, Blacks are 3. 6 x more likely to be arrested (Jones and Singer). Sentencing -After arrest, Affro-Carbs are slightly more likely to be held in custody and to be charged with more serious offences than Whites. But they are more likely to plead, and be found ‘not guilty’ -Bowling and Phillips state that these stats indicate that that both direct and indirect discrimination (types of charges laid, accsess to bail etc) against members of ethnic minorities do exist. -For example, Those of African-Caribbean backgrounds have a 17% higher chance of imprisonment than whites. Punishment -According to Jones and Singer the proportion of Black British background took 19% of total prison population. Racist Policing -Most sociologists ie Mayhew et al a rgue that most crime is committed by young males who come from a poor background. -The ‘canteen culture’ approach argues that police officers have developed distinctive working values as a result of their job. The core characteristics of this culture according to Reiner include a thirst for action, cynicism, macho values and racism becasude they often feel pressure/work long hours/face public scrutiny etc. -Studies by Smith and Gray (who himself was a policeman) showed racist views by the police force and they targeted blacks. Institutional Racism -After the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence, the Macpherson Report was set up to look at the circumstances of his death and handling of the situation by the police. Sir William Macpherson said ‘police had procedures, practices and a culture that tended to exclude or disadvantage non-white people’. Left-realist approach -Lea and Young accept that there are racist practices by the police but argue that despite this, the statistics do bear out a higher crime rate for street robberies and associated ‘personal crimes’ by youths of Affro-carb backgrounds. -They explain this by suggesting British society is racist and that young ethnic minorities are economically and socially marginalized (pushed out of society), with lesser chances of success than majority of population. Cultures of Resistance -Because minority groups have been discriminated against (colonialism etc) leaving them in a lower socioeconomic position compared to whites, a culture of resistance formed. -COF = organized resistance that has its origins from anticolonial struggles. Ie when young offenders commit crime they are doing it as a political art rather than a criminal act. -However Lea et al argues that this doesn’t account for the high proportion of Black on Black crime. -Fitzgerald et al = street crime is caused by deprivation, lack of community -Higher crime in lone-parent fams -Justifications among crime such as l=bad education, alienation from schools etc.

Using Data Wrangling and Gemms for Metadata Management

Using Data Wrangling and Gemms for Metadata Management Sharan Narke , Dr. Simon Caton AbstractData lakes are gestated as to be a unified data repository for an enterprise to store data without subjecting that data to any of the constraints while it is being dumped in to the repository. The main idea of this paper is to explain about the different processes involving curating of data in the data lake which facilitates and helps wide range of people other than IT staffs in an enterprise or organization Keywords- Data Lake ; Data Wrangling ; GEMMS I. INTRODUCTION In the current scenario, data is seen as a valuable asset for an enterprise or organization. Many of the organizations are now planning to provide with personalized or individual services to its customers and this strategy can achieved with the help of data lakes. Data wrangling refers to the process which starts right from data creation till its storage into the lakes. James Dixon, the originator of terminology explains the difference between data mart, datawarehouse and data lakes as, If data lake is assumed to be a large water body, where in the water can be used for any purpose then data mart is a store which has bottled drinking water and datawarehouse is marked as a single bottle of water (OLeary,2014). Even though data warehouses, data marts,databases are used for storing data, but data lakes provides with some additional features and even data lakes can work in accordance with all of the above ones. Data lakes address the daunting challenge : how to make an easy use of highly diverse data and provide knowledge? Huge quantity of data is available,but most of the times data is stored in information silos with or without connections between these data. If any clear insight is to be derived then data in t he silos is to be integrated.(Hai , et al. 2016) Instead of performing the traditional methods of data warehousing for data management likewise transforming ,cleaning and then storing into repository, here in the data is stored in original format and as required the data is processed in data lake. By implementing in such approach data integrity is achieved (Quix, et al.2016) As per the present situation in the big data world, evaluating large data sets with their quality cleaning them which are of various types has become a challenging task and data lakes can help in achieving them (Farid, et al. 2016) II. LITERATURE REVIEW For easing the process of data curating there are two methodologies namely Data wrangling and GEMMS which helps in achieving the curation process. A. Data Wrangling B. GEMMS A. Data Wrangling Data Curation is in use to mainly specify the required necessary steps in order to maintain and utilize data during its life cycle for future and current users Digital curation involves following steps The data is selected and appraised by archivists and creators of that data Evolving the provisions of intellectual access, storage which are redundant, transformation of data and then committing the specific data for long term usage Developing digital repositories which are trustworthy and durable Usage standard file formats and data encoding concepts Giving knowledge regarding the repositories to the individuals who are working with those repositories in order to make curation efforts successful(Terrizzano, et al.2015) Figure 1: Data Wrangling Process Overview(Terrizzano, et al.2015) In the above figure it represents a number of challenges inherent in creating, filling, maintaining, and governing a curated data lake, a set of processes that collectively define the actions of data wrangling Different steps involved in the data wrangling process are:   Ã‚   1. Procuring Data: It the first step of data wrangling process, Herein the required metadata and data is gathered so as it can be included into the data lakes(Terrizzano, et al.2015) 2. Vetting data for licensing and legal use: After the data procurement is done, then the terms and conditions are determined so as the data can be licensed (Terrizzano, et al.2015) 3. Obtaining and Describing Data: Once the licensing relating to the selected data is agreed upon, the next task is loading the data from source to data lake and the presence of data alone cannot serve the needs, data scientist working on that data should find out that data to be useful so that it can be used to derive useful information out of it. (Terrizzano, et al.2015) 4. Grooming and Provisioning Data: Data obtained in its raw form is often not suitable for direct use by analytics. We use the term data grooming to describe the step-by-step process through which raw data is made consumable by analytic applications. During Data Provisioning, we now focus on getting data into the data lake. We now turn to the means and policies by which consumers take data out of the data lake, a process we refer to as data provisioning (Terrizzano, et al.2015) 5. Preserving Data: This is the final step of the data curation process isManaging a data lake which requires attention to maintenance issues such as staleness, expiration, decommissions and renewals, as well as the logistical issues of the supporting technologies (assuring uptime access to data, sufficient storage space, etc.). (Terrizzano, et al.2015) B. GEMMS(Generic and Extensible Metadata Management System) Generic and Extensible Metadata Management System (GEMMS) which(i) extracts data and metadata from heterogeneous sources,(ii)stores the metadata in an extensible metamodel, (iii)enables the annotation of the metadata with semantic information, and (iv)provides basic querying support (Quix, et al.2016) We divide the functionalities of GEMMS into three parts: (i)metadata extraction,(ii) transformation of the metadata to the metadata model and (iii) metadata storage in a data store Figure 2: Overview of GEMMS system architecture (Quix, et al.2016) (i). The Metadata Manager invokes the functions of the other modules and controls the whole ingestion process. It is usually invoked at the arrival of new files, either explicitly by a user using the command-line interface or by a regularly scheduled job (ii). With the assistance of the Media Type Detector and the Parser Component, the Extractor Component extracts the metadata from files. Given an input file, the Media Type Detector detects its format, returns the information to the Extractor Component, which instantiates a corresponding Parser Component. (iii). The media type detector is based to a large degree on Apache Tika, a framework for the detection of file types and extraction of metadata and data for a large number of file types. Media type detection will first investigate the file extension, but as this might be too generic (iv). When the type of input file is known, the Parser Component can read the inner structure of the file and extract all the needed metadata (v). The Persistence Component accesses the data storage available for GEMMS. The Serialization Component performs the transformation between models and storage formats (Quix, et al.2016). Evaluation of GEMMS System: The goal of evaluation had two parts and GEMMS satisfies these to a major extent (i). GEMMS as a framework is actually useful, extensible, and flexible and that it reduces the effort for metadata management in data lakes (ii). GEMMS system can be applied to a system having large number of files (Quix, et al.2016) II. CONCLUSIONS Data lakes is getting hotter in enterprise IT architecture. However, the company should decide what kind of data lakes  they need based on the current data process systems. Data lakes have its own assumptions and maturity growing framework. The IT leader in large organization should pay attention to the data lakes and figure out their own way for implementing these new IT technologies in their organization (Fang,2015) In this paper, we discussed about Data wrangling , which helps in design, implementation and maintaining the data. Along side the metadata management aspects using GEMMS, which efficiently eases the process and giving the evaluation how GEMMS stays on top in the meta data management in the  data lakes which helps large organisation in managing the data if that organisation is implementing Data Lakes REFERENCES OLeary, D.E., 2014. Embedding AI and crowdsourcing in the big data lake. IEEE Intelligent Systems, 29(5), pp.70-73. Hai, R., Geisler, S. and Quix, C., 2016, June. Constance: An intelligent data lake system. In Proceedings of the 2016 International Conference on Management of Data (pp. 2097-2100). ACM. Quix, C., Hai, R. and Vatov, I., 2016. Gemms: A generic and extensible metadata management system for data lakes. In CAiSE forum. Farid, M., Roatis, A., Ilyas, I.F., Hoffmann, H.F. and Chu, X., 2016, June. CLAMS: bringing quality to data lakes. In Proceedings of the 2016 International Conference on Management of Data (pp. 2089-2092). ACM. Terrizzano, I., Schwarz, P.M., Roth, M. and Colino, J.E., 2015. Data Wrangling: The Challenging Yourney from the Wild to the Lake. In CIDR.

Marxist Theories of Punishment

Marxist Theories of Punishment The application of punishment is determined by the class system. Critically discuss this with reference to Marxist theories of Punishment. This essay is going to critically discuss with reference to Marxists theories of punishment whether the application of punishment is determined by the class system. In order to do this we first need an understanding of what Marxist theory is based on, how Marx differentiates the class system and how punishment fits in to his theory. At the time of Karl Marx’s work, he had witnessed many revolutions across Western Europe. Marxism tried to get people to understand the society they lived in and whilst he did only a minuscule amount of work on actual crime and criminals, he did acknowledge that there was conflict within society (History Learning Site, 2010). He recognised there was a split in society between the wealthiest and the poor. One of Marx’s main focus’ in his theory was the economy and he believed those who had wealth were the powerful and those who were poorer were the powerless. By the start of the industrial era Marx believed society to be split between two economic classes. The poorer end of society known as the ‘proletariat’ which is also known to be the working-class, and the ruling-class he described as being a more dominant class, called the ‘bourgeoisie’; these were owners of wealth that did not need to work. The control and owning of private property by the wealthiest (which was the start of Capitalism) and the exploitation of labour done by the working class was his main idea in his theory on the conflict of classes. â€Å"Marx saw conflict in society as being due to a scarcity of resources and a historical inequality in the distribution of those resources, notably power.† (Williams and McShane, 2010; 134). Marxists criminologists suggest that class struggle affects crime in three different positions. Firstly, they suggest that law is a tool used by the ruling class to control the working class. They believe that is why there is no law enforcement for the ruling class (Michalowski and Bohlander, 1976 cited in Williams and McShane, 1988: 135), they said that behaviour that is not placed under any law but instead placed under just administrative and governing laws can only be to protect themselves. Marxist think law is an abuse to general human rights and they also question the power of the law and it purpose in its application, if the working class are policing the working class (Schwendinger and Schwendinger, 1970, 1972, 1977; Platt, 1974 cited in Williams and McShane, 2010). Secondly, Marxist’s see all crime in a capitalist society as a product of class struggle. It causes the working class the need to chase to get ahead which can manifest itself it to criminal behaviour. The di vide between these two classes and the conflict, creates competition. Someone will want something and when they feel there is no other way of achieving this, criminal activity can take place (Bohm, 1982 as cited in Williams and McShane, 2010). This can be seen in Emilie Durkheim’s Anomie theory. There are other theories that also recognise a division in society. Emilie Durkheim’s anomie theory also recognised the division in society and in his book termed it as the division in labour. He studied Europe after the industrial revolution and Durkheim saw from forced industrialisation and commercialisation, a large economic crisis could define factors of causing a state of anomie. He described this as a breakdown of social norms for the working class. He stated without clear rules to guide the working class, individuals find it hard to find a place in society. He concludes that this in turn causes dissatisfaction, frustration, conflict and deviance. Durkheim’s anomie theory looks at social norms in society being broken while Merton’s Strain theory (1938) looks more at deviance who also refers to bureaucratic behaviour as well as criminal behaviour in his theory. In Merton’s theory he saw certain goals emphasised through society and used financial succe ss as an example. He said not everyone has equal access to these financial achievements or success and that some people may look for illegitimate ways to gain this success. Because of this social inequality and division in society between the working class and ruling class, he believes that certain goals are just not available for certain groups within society such as the lower social class. Merton’s anomie theory is often referred to as strain theory as this lower or working class feel a strain to achieve illegitimately ways to gain this success and those groups with the least access to achieve these goals have higher crime and deviance rates according to Merton. In his study of US societies that these higher rates of crime were amongst the lower classes (Williams and McShane, 1988: 79-83). These theories of anomie and strain theory all take the same direction as Marxist theory in that they believe there to be a division in society between working class and the ruling class. With the ruling class holding the most power and the working class trying to achieve this. The power held by the dominant class has also been termed ‘cultural capital’ (Giddens, ). Marxism influences cultural capital. Pierre Bourdieu another sociologist influenced by Marx argues that it is the education system, to blame for the failure of the working class, not the working class culture. He referred to the cultural capital as those who were in possession of the dominant culture and thought this could be translated in to wealth and power through the education system. He claimed that cultural capital in class structure was not evenly proportionate and he could see this in the class structure through the disparities in education attainment achieved by those of different classes. Bourdieu claims that middle class students succeed better than those of the working class as they are the dominant culture. He states that education attainment is directly related to those who possess the most cultural capital (Giddens – Sociology). Gramsci was a Marxist thinker in the 20th century whose work evaluated culture and political leadership. He believed that the bourgeoisie uphold control, that they developed a hegemonic culture which he saw transmitted its own set of norms and values that just became common sense values and norms of everyone. People from classes outside the ruling class acknowledged their own good with the good of the ruling class. Marxism always expected a revolution in capitalist societies but by early 20th century no revolution had occurred in such advanced countries. Gramsci’s theory suggested that capitalism maintained control not just through political and economic coercion, but also through ideology as well. (Perry Anderson, 1976. (The Antinomies of Antonio Gramsci. New Left Review). SENTENCE TO WRAP IT UP Marxism saw the creation of two different groups that were created through the rise of capitalism; the ruling class (bourgeoisie) and the working class (proletariat) and he claimed that these two classes offered nothing but â€Å"new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of old ones†. They saw that the labour of the working class needed to be exploited in order for the ruling class to gain more capital. Marxism referred to this as oppression and believed that the ruling class exercised their power over the working class in order to control them. Rusche (1980) took the same approach in his theory of punishment and social structure. He states that when wages go up because of the lack of labour that this in turn causes the ruling class to apply their power to supply the need for cheap labour. Rusche saw that the exploitation of prison labour began to be the preferred method over previous methods such as corporal and capital punishment. He claims that â€Å"When a labour surplus occurs, wages go down causing a mass unemployment resulting in extremely high penalties, such as corporal and capital punishment executed in a torturous fashion. This is thought to be needed in order to keep crime down† (Rusche, 1980:). During the industrial era the ruling class turned prisons in to workhouses which were named the house of correction. These were set up in a bid to help supply their need for cheap labour. The house of correction’s main aim and focus was there to make those that didn’t want to work and was unwilling to work, to make them work. Rusche and Kircheimer (1939) claimed that by being forced to work within this institution that the prisoners would pick up skills in the hope that they could take with them to the labour market on release. During period where labour was in excess, and the attitude changed toward the poor, it became unprofitable to force people to work and prisons became warehouses for people that he also claimed cost money. He also claimed that the attitudes towards punishment need to change when the living conditions of the working class began to get worst. In order to see that people were being punished according the conditions of the prison had to be worse than those of the prisoners conditions on the out side of prison. As Jenner (2014) stated â€Å"the conditions need to be markedly more unpleasant than the conditions of life experienced by those of the lowest strata living free in society†. This of course, had economic advantages, less food was needed and no medical assistance offered, but it came to be seen that the living conditions of the working class, did not ‘vary’ much, from those of the prison. This caused the conditions to deteriorate even worst in an attempt to deter the working class not to end up inside the prison (Rusche and Kirchiemer, 1939). Evidence to support these theories that prison is a way of controlling the working class by the ruling class can be seen in the inequalities of the prison population. According to a report by NACRO (1997a; 1997b) England and Wales have one of the highest prison populations in Western Europe which in 1997 was as high as 61,000. They reckoned this figure could rise by the year 2005 to 82,000. A national survey done by the Home Office carried out on prison population in 1991 showed that it was made up by uneducated young men, many whom had an ethnic minority background. His study found some interested figures in evidence of the theories that have been presented in this essay. This study found that 40% of the prison population to be under 25 but over 18 compared to 16% of the general population; this shows there is a huge over representation of young men between 18-25 years old, imprisoned. It found that 41% of prisoners either posed no skills or had very little, compared to 18% of the g eneral population; again a large over representation of unskilled labour force. This study also found that 15% of prisoners were from Black or Asian ethnic minorities yet these minorities only make up 5% of the general population. 40% of prisoners under the age of 25 had left school before they were supposed to, compared with only 11% of the general population. 38% of prisoners under 21 had experienced being in care whilst only 2% of the general population experience this and 13% said they did not have a place to live before they entered the prison system (Walmsley et al., 1992 cited in NACRO, 1997b). From these figures and our knowledge of Marxism with regards to class struggle and the segregation of the lower class, how the ruling class exert their power over the working class and how they use this power to control, we can see that the prison has been used in the same way. That it is a mere control of the bourgeoisie bid to control the working class. This can also be seen in the a pplication of law and how the bourgeoisie wrong doings do not fall under any law but as mentioned earlier fall under administrative and governing laws in order to protect their own. This could also be argued in the case of why white collar crime does not get much attention paid to it over criminal law. REFERENCES Anderson, P. (1976) The Antinomies of Antonio Gramsci. New Left Review. Bohm, R.M. (1982) Radical Criminology: An explanation. Criminology, 19, 565-589. Giddens – Sociology). History Learning Site (2010) Marxism and Crime [online] available at. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/marxism_crime.htm accessed on. (20th Feb 2014). Jenner, A. (2014) Assessment Workshop [SC6001 Justice, Punishment and Social Control]. 27th February, 2014. Maguire, M., Morgan, R. Reiner, R. (2007) The Oxford Handbook of Criminology (4th edt), University Press: Oxford. Merton, R. K. (1938) Social structure and anomie. American Sociological Review, 3, 672-682. Michalowski, R. J. Bohlander, E. W. (1976) Repression and criminal justice in capitalist America, Sociological Inquiry, 46, 95-106. NACRO (1997a) Information Bulletin, An occasional briefing compiled by NACROS Youth Crime Section, Issue 7, NACRO: London. NACRO (1997b) Criminal Justice Digest. No. 91, February, NACRO: London. Platt, T. (1974) Prospects for a radical criminology in the United States. Crime and Social Justice, 1, 2-6. Rusche, G. (1980) Labour Market and Penal Sanctions: Thoughts on the Sociology of Criminal Justice. In T. Platt, Takahi, P. (Edts.), Punishment and Penal Discipline (pp 10-16). Berkeley, CA: Crime and Social Justice Associates. Rusche, G. Kirchiemer, O. (1939). Punishment and Social Structure. New York: Russell Russell. Schwendinger H. Schwendinger, J. (1970) Defenders of order or guardians of human rights? Issues in Criminology, 5, 113-146. Schwendinger H. Schwendinger, J. (1972) The continuing debate on the legalistic approach to the definition of crime. Issues in Criminology, 7, 71-81. Schwendinger H. Schwendinger, J. (1977) Social class and the definition of crime. Crime and Social Justice, 7, 71-81. Walmsley, R., Howard, L and White, S. (1992) The National Prison Survey 1991 main findings. A Home Office Research and Planning Unit Report, HMSO: London. Williams, F. P. and McShane, M. D. (2010) Criminological Theory (5th edt), Pearson: London.

Cult Brands :: Business Marketing

Cult Brands Maslow's postulated that we humans have an ascending order of needs and used a hierarchal pyramid to prioritize them. At the bottom levels of the pyramid are our physiological needs, which include basic things like food, shelter, and clothing that we all need to survive. At progressively higher levels in Maslow's Hierarchy are the needs for safety and security, social interaction, and self-esteem. At the very top is self-actualization, a term Maslow coined to describe the ultimate human need to learn, grow, and reach one's full potential as a person. We all desire on some level to self-actualize, both to be at peace with ourselves and to try to be the best we can be. As humans, we are drawn to people, places, groups, causes, companies, and, ultimately, brands that we believe can help us towards our ultimate goal of self-actualization and total fulfillment. Higher level needs influence future human behavior much greater than lower level needs. It is the brands that can fulfill human needs on the higher levels of the hierarchy that become irreplaceable in the mind of the consumer. Brands sometimes like to think of themselves as religions. These are called cult brands (Holt) and organize their community of clients as a congregation, with a holy land or place, churches, rituals, etc. It has to be said that few of these brands actually evoke religious fervor in their subscribers. That's what customer loyalty is really all about. Being irreplaceable. True customer loyalty is not only about getting a customer to consistently choose your brand over another. It's for that same customer to always believe (and then go tell the world) that your company's brand has no equal! This is when the customers form a cult. You need not look much farther than a Harley-Davidson rally, a Star Trek convention, or a Jimmy Buffett concert to see the cult branding phenomenon at work: thousands of passionate, faithful fans spreading the good word and spending lots of money. Not all brands have the dash of edginess, the devoted fan base, or the niche positioning to be cult brands. But those that do tend to share similar characteristics that make them successful. Douglas Atkins' definition of "cult brand": "A brand for which a group of customers exhibit a great devotion or dedication. Its ideology is distinctive and it has a well-defined and committed community. It enjoys exclusive devotion (that is, not shared with another brand in the same category) and its members often become voluntary advocates. Cult Brands :: Business Marketing Cult Brands Maslow's postulated that we humans have an ascending order of needs and used a hierarchal pyramid to prioritize them. At the bottom levels of the pyramid are our physiological needs, which include basic things like food, shelter, and clothing that we all need to survive. At progressively higher levels in Maslow's Hierarchy are the needs for safety and security, social interaction, and self-esteem. At the very top is self-actualization, a term Maslow coined to describe the ultimate human need to learn, grow, and reach one's full potential as a person. We all desire on some level to self-actualize, both to be at peace with ourselves and to try to be the best we can be. As humans, we are drawn to people, places, groups, causes, companies, and, ultimately, brands that we believe can help us towards our ultimate goal of self-actualization and total fulfillment. Higher level needs influence future human behavior much greater than lower level needs. It is the brands that can fulfill human needs on the higher levels of the hierarchy that become irreplaceable in the mind of the consumer. Brands sometimes like to think of themselves as religions. These are called cult brands (Holt) and organize their community of clients as a congregation, with a holy land or place, churches, rituals, etc. It has to be said that few of these brands actually evoke religious fervor in their subscribers. That's what customer loyalty is really all about. Being irreplaceable. True customer loyalty is not only about getting a customer to consistently choose your brand over another. It's for that same customer to always believe (and then go tell the world) that your company's brand has no equal! This is when the customers form a cult. You need not look much farther than a Harley-Davidson rally, a Star Trek convention, or a Jimmy Buffett concert to see the cult branding phenomenon at work: thousands of passionate, faithful fans spreading the good word and spending lots of money. Not all brands have the dash of edginess, the devoted fan base, or the niche positioning to be cult brands. But those that do tend to share similar characteristics that make them successful. Douglas Atkins' definition of "cult brand": "A brand for which a group of customers exhibit a great devotion or dedication. Its ideology is distinctive and it has a well-defined and committed community. It enjoys exclusive devotion (that is, not shared with another brand in the same category) and its members often become voluntary advocates.

Analysis of two poems; Prayer Before Birth and Easter Monday Essay

Analysis of two poems; Prayer Before Birth and Easter Monday In this essay I will be analysing two poems. Both poems reflect upon the theme of war. I will be analysing them through their meanings, forms and show how the poets use language to express their ideas and feelings. I have decided to look at the poems Prayer Before Birth by Louis MacNeice and Easter Monday by Eleanor Farjeon. Louis MacNeice was born in 1907, he died in 1963. His mother died when he was young and her death got to him deeply. He studied at Oxford and was one of a group of poets here who became famous. He was intensely affected by the political events of the 1930’s and also by the Second World War. This poem is about an unborn child praying that it should be born into a good world. The only verse which provides images of this good world is verse number three and the images of goodness are linked to nature; water, grass, trees, sky and a white light to guide him. All the other verses are filled with images of a world of hostility, repression, distraction and many of them refer to things that ...

Evaluate the Effectiveness of Business Information Essay

PepsiCo Inc. is an American multinational food and beverage corporation headquartered in Purchase, New York, United States, with interests in the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of grain-based snack foods, beverages, and other products. PepsiCo was formed in 1965 with the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company and Frito-Lay, Inc. PepsiCo has since expanded from its namesake product Pepsi to a broader range of food and beverage brands, the largest of which include an acquisition of Tropicana in 1998 and a merger with Quaker Oats in 2001—which added the Gatorade brand to its portfolio. P5 DESCRIBE THE INFLUENCE OF TWO CONTRASTING ECONOMIC ENVIROMENTS ON BUSINESS ACTIVITIES WITHIN A SELECTED ORGANISATION. KENYA Kenya officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator. With the Indian to its south-east, it is bordered by Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, South Sudan to the north-west, Ethiopia to the north and Somalia to the north-east. Kenya has a land area of 580,000 km2 and a population of a little over 43 million residents. The country is named after Mount Kenya, a significant landmark and second among Africa’s highest mountain peaks. Its capital and largest city is Nairobi. INDIA India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;[d] China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Burma and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia. Economic factors affecting PepsiCo: Unemployment: Kenya recorded its ultimate high level of unemployment in 2011 reaching 40% unemployment. This would affect PepsiCo in the following ways: †¢ The demand of goods will decrease, because consumers will no longer have money to spend. †¢ Total revenue will decrease due to lack of purchases by a customers †¢ However government may decrease tax in order to encourage businesses to employ more. †¢ The public will be desperate for jobs and therefore will be willing to settle for a lower paying job †¢ The*re will be a lower chance of staff turnover. Unemployment rate has decreased significantly in the past year this could affect the business in the following ways: †¢ People will be willing to spend more on PepsiCo’s products thus increasing total revenue. †¢ There will be a rise in demand thus increasing profit. †¢ PepsiCo can now expand and will not have to worry about workforce †¢ However, staff may demand higher salaries as they see many other opportunities opening up †¢ There is a high chance of staff turnover. Inflation rate Inflation occurs when there is a general rise in the price of goods in the whole economy The inflation rate in Kenya was recorded at 3.25 percent in November of 2012. Inflation Rate in Kenya is reported by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics. Historically, from 2005 until 2012, Kenya Inflation Rate averaged 12.5 Percent reaching an all-time high of 31.5 Percent in May of 2008 and a record low of 3.2 Percent in October of 2010. In Kenya, the inflation rate measures a broad rise or fall in prices that consumers pay for a standard basket of goods. This means that: †¢ the capital Pepsi uses for buying raw materials is reducing due to a fall in prices †¢ Staff will no longer be too concerned about their real value of their income. †¢ Consumers will now be able to afford better established labels like Pepsi. †¢ However, because of the general decrease in prices, Pepsi may not be able to justify any price increase. The inflation rate in India was recorded at 7.45 percent in October of 2012. Inflation Rate in India is reported by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation. Historically, from 1969 until 2012, India Inflation Rate averaged 7.8 Percent reaching an all-time high of 34.7 Percent in September of 1974 and a record low of -11.3 Percent in May of 1976. In India, the inflation rate measures a broad rise or fall in prices that consumers pay for a standard basket of goods inflation rate in India is high this means that: †¢ Staff will become concerned about their real income high wage demands are likely and there could be an increase in industrial disputes. †¢ Consumers are likely to become more prices sensitive and look for bargains rather than big names causing revenue to decrease. †¢ The living standard will drop, therefore PepsiCo will have to reduce prices or risk losing their customers. †¢ However, consumers will make purchases faster fearing that prices will rise even more. Interest Rate The benchmark interest rate in India was last recorded at 8 percent. Interest Rate in India is reported by the Reserve Bank of India. Historically, from 2000 until 2012, India Interest Rate averaged 6.5 Percent reaching an all-time high of 14.5 Percent in August of 2000 and a record low of 4.3 Percent in April of 2009. This will affect pepsi in the following ways: †¢ Pepsi will be unable to borrow and therefore will have to cut down on cost thus producing less †¢ Pepsi will be unable to expand if they are not willing to pay 8%. †¢ However, if pepsi feels like the 8% is within their budget then they would probably be safe to borrow seing as the rates are stable. The benchmark interest rate in Kenya was last recorded at 11 percent. Interest Rate in Kenya is reported by the Central Bank of Kenya. Historically, from 1991 until 2012, Kenya Interest Rate averaged 15.1 Percent reaching an all-time high of 84.7 Percent in July of 1993 and a record low of 0.8 Percent in September of 2003. In Kenya, interest rates decisions are taken by The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Kenya. This will affect pepsi in the following ways: †¢ It will cause a fall in production. †¢ It will cause a faal in profits due to controlled spending. †¢ However interest rates are likely to fall as we can see from the gragh above. Comparison of the economy in both India and Kenya both the Kenyan and indian economy are recovering from an economic crunch. If you compare the inflation rates of Kenya and india with their respective interest rates they correspond. This is because when inflation is high, the government needs to control spending and to do this, they need to increase interest inorder to encourage spending

Research Methods in Psychology Essay

The purpose of the sections of a research article should start with a title, author, and contact information. The Abstract is next; this is a summary of the article. The summary provides an general idea of the article, which is helpful to establish if the article is significant to the reader’s investigation. An abstract will usually follow a regular format like APA or something that is similar. The author or authors in brief state why the research article is significant, the methodology, results, and concluding proclamation regarding the results. The Introduction would be how the authors explain the underlying principle for the study by illustrating what research has been completed in the past. A literature review supplies the reader with a outline of other research associated with the article topic, along with addressing questions that are unanswered or investigative need more research. Many questions are also introduced within the introduction, and hypotheses results are declared. Next are the Methods or methodology section. In this section the author or authors summarize how the research was performed. For example, sample, size, and a description of participants. This section will also show how participants were chosen for the study, what was measured and how, along with an explanation of how the data was evaluated. The next section consists of the results. The author or authors will show the research results along with any statistical analyses. Example can be tables, charts, and figures, along with a printed clarification. The Discussion section is the author or author’s explanation and understanding of the results in addition to an explanation of unforeseen results. Finally the conclusion and summary in many if not all articles will explain what the author or authors found and connect it back to the existing literature. Authors can recommend directions for potential research in the conclusion along with referencing back. The references is the last section of an article an lists the publications the authors have cited wthin the research article. References can help the reader critic the validity of the article and can learn more regarding the research topic (Cozby, 2009). What are the steps to critically evaluate research articles and how does the scientific method help you to do this? To critically evaluate research articles the research in the article must be clear in informing the reader of its aims. Terms should be clearly defined, even more so if they’re new or used in specific non-spread ways. You as a reader should pay particular attention should to errors in logic, especially those regarding causation, relationship or association. â€Å"A background in research methods will help to read these reports critically, evaluate the methods employed, and decide whether the conclusions are reasonable† (Cozby, 2009, p. 2). What is the importance of research in behavioral sciences? Today and in the past psychologists and many other professionals use observation to calculate human behavior to better understand psychological and biological processes, motivations, and individual personality traits. Human behavior may be understood through applied and academic science. Using the scientific method is necessary for statistical psychology. According to our text, the importance of research in behavioral science can be the description of the behavior, the prediction of behavior, determining causes of behavior, and understanding or explanation of behavior (Cozby, 2009, p. ). What is the relationship between applied research and basic research? Provide an example, from your selected studies, of how each contributes to the body of knowledge. Psychology became an actual science around the late 19th century, because of the interest of human behavior. Basic research attempts to answer essential inquires regarding the who what were when and why of behaviors. â€Å"phenomena such as cognition, emotion, motivation, learning, psychobiology, personality development, and social behavior† (Cozby, 2009, p. 0). An example article regarding a basic research article can be; â€Å"Artifactual seven-day cycles in spontaneous activity in wild rodents and squirrel monkeys† (Richter, 1976). This article determines the basic processes of activity in behavior and cognition of the mammals within the article. With applied research, this research is â€Å"conducted to address issues in which there are practical problems and potential solutions†(Cozby, 2009, p. 10). Applied research is any kinds of fact assembly assignment or ob that is performed with observing and applying the information found and will concentrate on a specific issue. Applied research can sometimes be simple and sometimes can be complex. An example of an applied research article can be as follows; Making things happen through challenging goals: Leader proactively, trust, and business-unit performance. This is considered an applied research article because it is focused on a specific issue or analogy which is; â€Å"proactive senior managers establish more challenging goals for their business† (Crossley, Cooper, & Wernsing, 2013, p. ). What ethical issues can you identify in the selected articles? How were the issues addressed or neglected? Both articles above did not have any ethical issues. Both did not harm anyone or any animals. Both articles above did not deceive anyone or any animal. Both had legal authority approval. However, as voluntariness, subjects within the wild rodent article could not volunteer because they do not have that option. The participants in the â€Å"Making things happen through challenging goals† article did have the volunteer option. Both articles did not comprise of plagiarism or misleading authorship. All data provided correct and up to date references and proper publication; this was provided at the end. Example of puplication: This publication is protected by US and international copyright laws and its content may not be copied without the copyright holders express written permission except for the print or download capabilities of the retrieval software used for access. This content is intended solely for the use of the individual user. Source: Journal of Applied Psychology. Vol. 98 (3) US : American Psychological Association pp. 540-549. Accession Number: 2013-03482-001 Digital Object Identifier: 10. 1037/a0031807 (Crossley, Cooper, & Wernsing, 2013). Identify three possible research topics that you might want to explore further as you go through this course.