The Chrysanthemum Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Chrysanthemum - Essay Example What is revealed in most of the religious texts, and what is practiced by the society are mostly contradictory. A female child suffers victimization at every stage of life. When she grows, marries, begets children, her responsibilities multiply. Her private ambitions stand curtailed. Circumstances compel her to suppress her many fond feelings for the growth of her innate desires and latent personality. How can a woman be the legal and spiritual equal of man in the true sense? John Steinbeck in his story The Chrysanthemum highlights the limitations under which a married woman lives. He writes not to sympathize with women, not condemn the society—he just mentions the facts, for which there are no tangible solutions. Her plight is a sort of inevitable confinement. Elisa is one such woman. She is as if imprisoned in a fort, being attacked by the enemy from outside. The nature seems to move in tandem with her moods. The story opens: "The high gray-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world. On every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot." Every description by the author related to the life of Elisa is chiseled within the details of confinement. Her garden of flowers is surrounded by a wire fence. Flower and wire fence, create a picture, how her tender emotions are imprisoned. Through such enclosures, she watches the activities that are taking place in t he society. She has no conflict with her husband, everything apparently seems to go on well. Her dissatisfaction with her life has nothing to do with the attitudes of her husband and his disposition towards her. The story critically examines her psychology. The images of seasons, weather, plants and a animals—all work as natures agents to provided support to the happiness of her life. When a bright and energetic woman has to fall in

Remaining Competetive Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Remaining Competetive - Research Paper Example This requires a critical evaluation of the existing factors and how firm can actually improve them to achieve its cost reduction objectives. Further, it is also critical to consider whether the firm can improve upon its efforts of innovation and become more creative in designing its basic products and delivering them through successful marketing initiatives. Effectively delivering mass customization is also another consideration. (Lihra, Buehlmann, & Beauregard, 2008) In order to remain competitive within this industry, it is important to remain innovative and creative. Since the industry thrives upon how quickly and effectively a firm can actually develop consumer friendly designs therefore are important. Firm can easily compete in this industry because it has a dedicate team of designers which deliver excellent designs. In order to make them more innovative, it is important to impart more knowledge and training to the designers. Further, the firm access to technology which can help it to reduce the cost and improve its total output level. One of the key primary factors is the fact that the firm has been considered as one of the premium suppliers of the furniture in the market. Being featured in top magazines provides it one of the strongest brand images in the market and market acceptability at the global level. Further, it is also important to note that the firm has high quality designers which can continue to provide innovative products in the market. Effective presence in local communities as well as label of premium brand is two important things which are positive factors for the firm. Though the market may be shrinking and dependent on other factors however, the firm’s own position in the market which provides it an edge over others in the market. Community involvement is also the main factor which can improve the overall corporate social responsibility image of

Push and Pull Factors in the Tourism Industry Essay Example for Free

Push and Pull Factors in the Tourism Industry Essay Gogo (formerly known as Aircell), is an innovation company, becoming leaders in providing inflight connectivity. The company began in 1991, when they began creating telephone systems for aircrafts, they progressed from this and in 2006 began creating a broadband network for aircraft. In 2008, they launched this new system into commercial flights and since then they have been offering this service for various American airlines including US Airways, Virgin America and American Airlines (Gogo 2013). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the recent experience of using Gogo Wi-Fi on an American Airlines flight, and investigate the strategy of Gogo, with reference to the innovation dilemmas when creating this new service. The experience occurred on an American Airlines flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles, although the technology had been available for a few years, this was the first time the consumer had experienced Wi-Fi whilst flying. Although the consumer had no need for the Internet on their flight and only purchase it to update their Facebook status, they recognised the benefits of having the internet on long haul flights, this included people being able to check emails and stay in touch with people and it also provides people with the ability to download entertainment from online sources and no longer be limited to the selection provided by the airline. Due to the nature of the Airline industry, at the core level it can be viewed as a generic offering across the industry. This resulting in airlines often creating a differentiation strategy, in order to gain a competitive advantage as they seek to increase the value of the product/service on offer to the consumer (Hooley et al, 2012). The Gogo Company acknowledged that their innovation could provide a service to Airlines that will enable them to differentiate themselves. This can be identified on the Gogo website, as it states ‘By differentiating your airline and providing a memorable passenger experience, you stand to gain loyalty among your valued flyers†¦lets you custom wrap the video portal, so your brand is consistently comes forth whenever passengers are connected’ (Gogo 2013). In 2009, American Airlines announced it would be using Gogo services on their domestic flights, costing the airline $100 000 to install (Semuels, 2009). This therefore shows that American Airlines have recognised the benefits and the increase ticket sales and revenue they could receive by advertising Gogo Internet is now a part of inflight entertainment. When innovation occurs within a company, they must consider the following innovation dilemmas, whether the product or service is a technology push or market pull, product or process innovation, open or closed innovation and finally a technological or business-model innovation. Technology push is when innovation is pushed by technologist or scientist who pass this information onto the company, from there they will manage, promote and distribute this new innovation. This can be compared to market push, this is when companies create innovation based on what the ‘lead users’ are doing in that particular industry (Johnson et al, 2011). One aspect that has enable Gogo to overcome this dilemma, is by listening to what the market wants and ensuring they are up to date with the current market technological tends. Product Innovation is when emphasis on innovation is placed on the finally product, whereas in process innovation is when innovation is focused on the production and distribution (Johnson et al, 2011). At the beginning Gogo was focused on the product innovation, but as the company has grown, they have shifted to process innovation. This can be identified on the Gogo website stating that ‘1 in 4 people consider their laptop, tablet or IPad an essential carry on item’ (Gogo 2013), therefore Gogo has had to ensure its innovation is compatible across the multiple devices. Open innovation is when companies improve their innovation through gaining ideas through internal and external personnel. This can be compared to closed innovation, when innovation is based on internal personnel (Johnson et al, 2011). Gogo tend to go for closed innovation to ensure they remain leaders in the industry however ensuring they are receiving feedback from their clients to ensure they are meeting their needs. Technological or business-model innovation, technological innovation is when innovation is relied on new science or technology, whereas business-model innovation emphasises on creating new models that will bring stakeholders together in a new method (Johnson et al, 2011). Gogo began as a technological innovation, however has become a business-model innovation for companies using Gogo products and service, as it changes the way they sell and promote their airline company. Overall, Gogo are the market leaders and innovators in inflight communications services. And from reviewing the company’s current strategy, it can be recognised that will continue to be market leaders as they are aware of the demands from today’s consumers, and are constantly updating, innovating and meeting these demands. Although by company innovating new products or services, it dose propose the risk of innovation dilemmas, Gogo has proven that they can overcome these dilemmas and continue to lead and grow.

Unilever Multinational Company Analysis and Breakdown

Unilever Multinational Company Analysis and Breakdown Unilever is a multinational consumer product manufacturing giant operating in over hundred countries all around the globe. Unilever Bangladesh is the Bangladesh chapter of Unilever, where the company holds 60.75% share whereas the Government of Peoples Republic of Bangladesh holds 39.25% share. Unilevers one of the most popular brand is LUX. They segments LUX.s market according to geographical locations. It further differentiates these segments into Socio Economic Cluster (SEC) which takes into account the criteria of education and profession which ultimately measures the financial ability of consumers. The cluster is divided into five parts starting from A to E. Unilever targets the urban and sub urban upper middle class and middle class segment of the population, who falls under A to C of SEC. Tactical marketing tools, 4Ps, are extensively used by the company to market LUX. Though LUX is produced in Bangladesh, Unilever Bangladesh maintains the same standard all around the globe. The product is available in six different fragrances under three different sizes. Since the demand for beauty soap market is to a great extent oligopolistic, variations in price lead to price war which can eventually break down the companys market share. Thus Unilever cannot provide a better price than its competitors. But the price is affordable by most of the people. Unilever Bangladesh has outsourced its distribution channels to third party distributors which allow them to distribute LUX in massive bulks amounting to around ten million pieces. It undertakes the largest promotional activities in the beauty soap industry. The beauty soap industry has a few major producers of which Unilever holds market share of slightly less than 50%. Other competing brands like Tibbet, Aromatic and Keya have started to have a strong consumer base, but LUX.s product features distribution and promotional activities have created high brand loyalty for which it is still the market leader. Unilever, with the aid of its heavy promotional activities, has been able to penetrate the market. But the other producers in the industry are posing a threat towards Unilevers market share as they have moved towards the rural masses of the population. Therefore, Unilever Bangladesh should undertake further steps such as moving towards the rural and/or poorer segment; attract children (by making a special product for kids) and other innovative promotional activities to retain its command in the industry. 1. Introduction Unilever is one of the worlds largest and leading multinational companies; Unilever commenced their business activities on a larger scale by setting up their first factory in Netherlands, in the year of 1872. Operating in Bangladesh for over the last four decades the company is trying to significantly contribute towards the augmentation of the standard of living by bringing world class high quality products at the door step of their customers. The usage of Unilever products by over 90% of the people in Bangladesh stands a testimony to their successful operation. . Their array of products show that they produce household care, fabric cleaning, skin cleansing, skin care, oral care, hair care, personal grooming, and tea based beverage products under worldwide famous brand names Wheel, LUX, Lifebuoy, Fair Lovely, Ponds, Close Up, Sunsilk, Lipton, Lipton Taaza, Pepsodent, All Clear, Vim, Surf Excel, and Rexona. 2. Objective of this report: This report is an outcome of an analysis of marketing strategies used by Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. The main purpose of the report is to find what strategies the company uses to market its world famous beauty soap, LUX, in Bangladesh; the positive and negative aspects of those strategies. The report further analyzes the position of Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. in the toiletry industry in comparison to its competitors. The report discusses the process of using market segmentation, target marketing, the product, pricing, promotional and distribution strategies and a competitive analysis. 2.1 Methodology of this report: For accessibility and availability of information we have chosen to work on the strategies of Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. As the company operates in the market with a huge number of products in different industries, we have decided to focus on one of their world wide successful brands, LUX. Most of the information used in this report is from primary sources. The main source of information was the focus group discussion. In addition information was also collected from websites. 3. Product Category, Market Segmentation, Target Marketing and Positioning This chapter describes the category of the selected product. The chapter is organized into four sections. Section 1 states under which category the product falls. Section 2 describes how Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. differentiates the population and categorizes them into different segments. Section 3 analyzes which segment the company targets and why they target that specific segment. Finally section 4 describes the process through which the company tries to capture a place in the buyers mind i.e. the product positioning method. 3.1 Product Category: LUX falls under the category of toiletry product as a beauty soap. 3.2 Market Segmentation: The company claims that LUX is the highest selling beauty soap in Bangladesh. Moreover some survey reports also reveal the same result. Though LUX is the highest selling beauty soap in Bangladesh, it does not go for traditional mass marketing. Moreover as a beauty soap LUX does not even segment its market according to gender. Figure 2.1 (P-9) shows that Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. segments their market according to geographical areas. The population of the country is segmented into three parts which are urban, sub urban and rural area consumers. The company further differentiate the geographical segments according to Socio Economic Cluster (SEC) i.e. education and Income. The Table 2.1 (P-9) overleaf shows the Socio Economic Clusters the company uses. The SEC divides the population in five segments starting from A to E, where A categorizes the highly educated and high income earners holders, and sequentially in descending order E categorizes the opposite. 3.3Target Market: Figure 2.1 (P-9) shows that urban and sub urban middle class, and rural poor people are the largest part of Bangladesh population. A research carried out by Unilever Bangladesh reveals that urban rich people are more likely to buy imported and expensive products. Moreover rural poor people tend to buy cheap products even without evaluating its quality. However urban and sub urban upper middle and middle class people tend to buy affordable and quality products. LUX is not a highly expensive but an affordable product. That is why the company targets urban and sub urban upper middle and middle class people who are the second highest population of segment of the country. From the segmentation of customer according to SEC they target category A, B and C, because they are assumed to be financially well-off and can afford to buy LUX. 3.4 Product Positioning: Unilever Bangladesh Ltd obtained a good position in the buyers mind through better product attributes, price and quality, offering the product in a different way than the competitors do. The company offers improved quality of products in the industry at an affordable price with high branding, which ultimately helps to position the product in the buyers mind as the best quality beauty soap. The market share of the company in the beauty soap industry is somewhere around 43%.Since in the beauty soap industry all products are of same price Unilever cannot provide its consumers with better price but it is in a great position in reference with its packaging, fragrances and product designing. A positioning map of the company is shown Figure 2.2 (P-10) to describe LUXs position in the consumers mind on two dimensions, price and quality. Figure 2.2 (P-10) has been drawn with information gathered by conducting a consumer survey. It states that though in comparison to its competitors the pricing of LUX is same but consumers rate it as the product which gives them the highest quality. This positioning created a strong customer loyalty for LUX, for which it the market leader in the industry. 4. Using the Tactical Marketing Tools This chapter describes the way Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. use the tactical marketing tools for marketing LUX in Bangladesh. The chapter comprises of four sections. Section 3.1 discusses the product attributes of LUX. Section 3.2 visualizes the price of LUX according to different size. Section 3.3 conceptualizes the distribution channel of Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. This section includes a table that shows the location of the companys warehouses all around the country. Finally section 3.4 discusses the promotional activities that the company undertakes for LUX. 4.1 Product: LUX is an internationally renowned beauty soap brand of Unilever. Though manufactured in Bangladesh for the local market by Unilever Bangladesh Ltd, as an international brand, it maintains an international quality for the product. Formula given by Research and Development departments in foreign countries, LUX is produced in Bangladesh from imported raw materials like sodium soap, glycerol and different extracts according to flavors, coming from Unilever plants situated abroad. LUX is offered in Bangladesh in six different flavors which are: LUX Energizing Honey, LUX Golden Glow, LUX Nature Pure, LUX Orchid Touch, LUX Almond Delight and LUX Aqua Sparkle. Taking into account the convenience of its customers, the company manufactures all flavors of LUX in three different sizes, 40gm, 80gm and 120gm. 4.2 Price: Though Unilever Bangladesh gives its LUX customers a lot in terms of the product itself, it cannot provide a better pricing. This is due to some constraints in the beauty soap industry. Beauty soap is a product with a vulnerable demand in Bangladesh. A change in price has a high risk of creating price war among the rivals which will eventually cause a loss of profit. Its prices are almost equal to its competitor. Table 3.1 (p-10) compares Luxs price with its major competitor. Company carries out research on competitors price and brand loyalty when it feels extreme necessaity of chaging price. The brand loyalty test is an exploratory research which is known as Brand Health Check-Up (BHCU). 4.3 Place: Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. has a huge distribution channel for LUX all over the country as its sales reach more than 10 million pieces a year. The company has six huge warehouses, one in each division of Bangladesh, where the product goes after they are manufactured at Kalurghat factory. Table 3.2 (P-10) shows the location of its six warehouses in Bangladesh. The company does not use its own fleet of transport for distributing its product. However, it has outsourced its distribution process to various third party distributors, exclusively dedicated to Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. These distributors then supply the product all over Bangladesh to a huge number of retailers. Even though LUX targets the urban and sub urban middle and upper middle class people they are distributing their products all over Bangladesh because of a recent increase in demand of its product to all segments of the population. 4.4 Promotion: Unilever Bangladesh undertakes huge promotional activities to promote LUX which has topped the beauty soap industry of Bangladesh. It spends almost 20% to 25% of its Net Proceeds from Sales (NPC) of LUX for promotional activities for LUX 1 Its certain annual promotional campaigns like LUX Channel i Superstar and LUX Channel i Annual Cinema Awards has made the product a part of the glamour world. Since the 1930s, over 400 of the worlds most stunning and sensuous women have been proudly associated with Lux advertisements. They do not only promote LUX in Bangladesh for the beauty conscious females, it also promotes the brand for males and the company proved that, by including world famous male celebrity Shahrukh Khan for their advertising campaign. Unilever Bangladesh Ltd spends a huge amount of money for promoting LUX through TV commercials, newspaper advertisements and billboards. Moreover it also undertakes small promotional campaigns at different schools, colleges, universities and recreational parks with winners of its Zonal Beauty Contests. Till now promotional activities of LUX has always been successful which has made it a household common name and helped it reach almost one billion taka sale value in the year 2004 2. 5. Analyzing the Market for LUX For better comprehension of Unilever Bangladesh, its marketing strategy, product quality, positioning and placement, we present here a comparative analysis of its competitors. This part of the report illustrates the market share of different companies in the beauty soap industry. 5.1 Market Share: The beauty soap industry in Bangladesh consists of only seven major producers. Unilever Bangladesh Ltd is operating in the industry with its world famous brand LUX. Out of these giant companies Unilever Bangladesh Ltd is the market leader with a share of around 43%. Figure 4.1 (P-11) shows the market share of all the companies in the sector. Unilever Bangladesh Ltd is leading the market. The other competitors are very competitive among themselves but they cannot put a intense competition with Unilever Bangladesh Ltd, as they have market share much less than Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. Table 4.1 (P-11) overleaf shows a detailed description of the major competitors in the market, their operating brand, estimated annual sales revenue and market share. Other companies in the industry are not as big as Unilever Bangladesh Ltd but they are posing threat to the company by a tendency of a gradual increase in their market share. Kohinoor Chemicals which is operating with the brand name Tibet is an extremely famous brand to the rural segment of the population and possess a significant share in that segment which is the largest population group in Bangladesh. Moreover Keya Cosmetics Ltd operating with the brand name Keya and Marks Allys Ltd operating with the brand name Aromatic are also uprising brands to both the rural and sub urban segment of the population. Moreover a recent takeover of Aromatic by multinational consumer product giant MARICO who operates with famous brands in other industries like Parachute Coconut Oil is posing to be a threat to Unilever Bangladeshs market share. 6. Conclusion Recommendation The beauty soap industry of Bangladesh consists of a few producers in the industry. The demand for this product is very much vulnerable in terms of pricing. Unilever Bangladesh is providing LUX. at a price which is affordable to most of the people in the country. Beauty soap is an uprising product in Bangladesh as a greater portion of the population, both male and female, are now getting more beauty conscious. As a multinational company Unilever Bangladesh with heavy promotional activities, has been able to penetrate the market. With six different fragrances, three different sizes, international standard and high quality design, as a product, LUX has been highly successful over the years. Its distribution process is highly efficient. Its promotional activities, like the beauty contest has been a milestone in attracting a huge number of customers. Overall with its marketing activities LUX has been a successful brand. The only place where rival companies are progressing is in giving customers redemption offers. Research revealed that Bangladeshi customers are highly attracted to this sort of offers. These offers are not sustainable in the long run but still it takes away a considerable part of LUXs sale in the short run. In this chapter the team would suggest some recommendations to Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. to adopt more successful operation in Bangladesh. Since a huge portion of the rural poor people is demanding LUX in recent days, Unilever Bangladesh Ltd should expand their target market also towards the rural people. They should also conduct different promotional activities in rural fairs and socially responsible promotional activities to attract rural consumers and social awareness .Because Lux has different skin type soap so now if they provide different types of beauty soaps for male and female soapunder the same brand name i.e. LUX it might increase their sales. Lastly, as Bangladeshi culture children have a huge say in shopping so they should also promote the product to children like their another brand Dove. These are the recommendations suggested by teem members to Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. to adopt for a more successful operation in Bangladesh with large market share. 7. Appendices Urban Rich Urban and Sub Urban Upper Middle and Middle Class Rural Poor (Figur2.1): Market Segments 1. Socio Economic Clusters A B C D E Income High Income Upper Middle Level Income Mid Level Income Lower Middle Income Low Income Education High Level of Education Educated Slightly Less than Cluster A Educated Slightly Less than Cluster B Educated Slightly Less than Cluster C Very Low Level of Literacy (Table 2.1): Socio Economic Cluster Segmentation 1 (Figure 2.2): Positioning Map Brand Lux Aromatic keya Tibet (Table 3.1): Comparative scenario of soaps price Division Location of Warehouse Dhaka Dhaka City Chittagong Kalurghat Heavy I/A Sylhet Sylhet City Rajshahi Rajshahi City Khulna Khulna City Barisal Barisal City (Table 3.2): Location of Unilever Bangladesh Ltds Divisional Warehouses 1. (Figure 4.1): Market Share Sl. No. Company Brand Name Yearly Market Share on Toilet Soap 1 Unilever (BD). Ltd Lux International Beauty Soap Tk. 312 Core 43.33% 2 Square (Toiletries Division) Meril Beauty Soap 48 Core 6.66 3 Keya Cosmetics Ltd. Keya Beauty Soap 72 Core 10.00% 4 Aromatic Cosmetics Ltd. Aromatic Beauty Soap 48 Core 6.66% 5 Lily Cosmetics Ltd. Lily Beauty Soap 72 Core 10.00% 6 Kohinoor Chemical Co. Tibet Beauty Soap 72 Core 10.00% 7 Marks Allys Ltd. Camelia Beauty Soap 60 Core 8.35% 8 Others 36 Core 5.00% Total Market 720 Core 100% (Table 4.1): Estimated Annual Sales Revenue and Market Share .

Essay --

Keanu Jefferson Mrs. Smith English 10-Period 4th 10 February 2014 â€Å"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment† And The Affects It Has Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July fourth, eighteen o four in Salem, Massachusetts, to a family that had been prominent in the area for a long period of time. â€Å"Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment† was written in 1837 by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthorne was not always interested in education, but he went to Bowdoin College in 1821. He would be the only person in his family to ever to go to college. He was prepared by Dr. Benjamin Lynde Oliver for college and the college experience. He really did not care about school or interested in any type of particular type of profession, but still went to collage anyway. He studied most of the classics some including mathematics, philosophy, composition, and natural science. During his college years he met many people, including future president Franklin Pierce. Hawthorne's use of obsession, desire, and experience was established in the theme in the short story â€Å"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment†. In the early and mid ei ghteen thirty's everybody was taking about the fountain of youth and the affects to make you younger it has. The theme to this story was based on this fact. When Hawthorne was writing â€Å"Dr.. Heidegger's Experiment† he must have been thinking about the fountain of youth, desire, experience, and the obsession of life so it influenced this story to be the way he wrote it.. People often say â€Å"If I had my life to live over again. I would not be where I am at right now. I would use my experience that I have gotten to really better my life.† this story can make people think about having another shot and if they did have another shot at life how they would do everything d... ...esire something so bad that you will put effort into papers and try to pass test so you can get these things. If you desire these things then you would not mind putting a little effort into it. Nathaniel Hawthorne died on May nineteen,eighteen sixty four,. Hawthorne was a very active man and was very healthy. Hawthorne health started to fail him. He would not go see in doctors or anything to find out what was wrong with him. There is no details on the way he died . His death up to this day is still a mystery and no records to this day exist to find out the way he died. Some people say he died of cardiac arrest ,but there is no proof to this day about what happened to him. He went to New Hampshire hills a place that he loved to go to hoping to regain his health. He went there went his old friend Franklin Pierce. Nathaniel Hawthorne died on the second day of the trip.

Great Expectations: Pip’s Views of Expectations Essay -- Great Expectat

Great Expectations – Discuss Pip’s views of expectations and how they affect him. The novel Great Expectations is focused around the theme of a young male’s expectations and how they rule his life. It tells us the effects they have on people and the negative impact they have on Pip’s life. The Title to the novel â€Å"Great Expectations† totally contradicts the main theme in the book, as the expectations turn out to be not so great after all. The book is split up into 3 sections of Pip’s â€Å"Great Expectations†, all of these sections show us how Pip’s life has been affected by these expectations. Throughout the novel we see how expectations have left their mark on Pip’s life. Chapter one is were we are introduced to the main character Pip. Our first impression of Pip is that he is naà ¯ve, innocent and lonely young boy, the fact that Pip refers to his mother as â€Å"Georgina, wife of the above† tells us that he has received no guidance or teaching in his life and is unaware of his surroundings. Pip is then dramatically changed by his expectations when Pip first meets Mrs Havisham. He is introduced to a whole new view of life, and realises he is not as happy as he thinks he is. Pip in a way blames his upbringing as he says, â€Å"My sisters bringing up made me sensitive.† When introduced to Estella Pip is infatuated by her and when she says how â€Å"coarse† and â€Å"common† he is, he feels embarrassed and humiliated. This is the turning point of Pip’s life, his blinding obsession with Estella makes him determined to become the gentleman that she wants, guided by his expectations. Pip’s expectations are acted upon many different characters throughout the novel, and nearly most of the time they have a negative effect on othe... ...y aren’t all they what seem to be. Overall throughout this book expectations play a big role, we see how they rule Pip’s life and how they can affect others in many different ways. We see how Pip’s life ends up in a good way and that how expectations can blind others from reality. Money can change anybody and Pip was no exception. When Pip is poor he truly wants to be a gentlemen, he has great expectations for himself. Pip feels embarrassed that his family has no money. Pips pride corrupts him and blinds him from how he is treating Joe. Expectations are extremely significant throughout this novel and they show us what they can do if you are obsessed with them. In Victorian society it was an extremely sought after dream to be wealthy and well respected, Pip was a victim of this view and eventually realised that a gentleman is something more than riches.

Information Communication Technology Essay

Where ever you go you always see ICT whether it’s at the cinema or at a bank, it has become a necessity in modern life. This report I will be writing, will be on the way I do activities at home and at school using ICT (Information Communication Technology). It will also show what I am able to do on a daily basis, as a result of information technology products, such as my homework, socialising with my friends, playing games and much more. The three ICT technologies I will discussing are: * Mobile Phones * E-Mail * USB Mass Storage Systems (Pen Drive, Flash Memory Cards) The Mobile Phone A mobile phone was originally invented for long range communication through a portable, electronic device, but nowadays, as technology progressed the mobile phone, not allows me to make calls to people from long ranges, but it also allows me to use SMS (Short Messaging System) which means I can send messages to others without direct need for speech. I am also able to access a variety of files such as image, video and music. Mobile phones work by the use of a Subscriber Identity Module Card or SIM Card. It holds a microchip and is inserted into the handset allowing you access to a certain mobile phone network depending on who your provider is. This network is made up of a series of base stations that send signals used by mobile phones. The area covered by each of these base stations is called a cell and cells overlap to make up a coverage area. Advantages There are many advantages to having a mobile phone such as: * You are able to communicate with others through SMS, voice calls and even video calls for any reason and vice versa. * You are able to carry media files on your phone for entertainment purposes. * Nowadays many mobile phones allow you to access the Internet through WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), Wi-Fi (although a disadvantage to Wi-Fi is that you need to be within range of a wireless network connected to the Internet) * The mobile phone can be used almost anywhere without the need for landline cables etcetera Disadvantages Along with advantages there are also some disadvantages such as: * Firstly, it is much more expensive to use than a landline and charges vary when calling other networks. * Also, providers have different numbers of base stations meaning that some providers would a larger coverage area than others so you wouldn’t be able to use your phone everywhere. * Mobile phones aren’t able to get any reception in some buildings that have no direct access to the outdoors e.g. windows and also when you are underground. * Also when one base station has too many people connected to it, it can sometimes disconnect your call. Personal Needs When it comes to using my phone personally, I use it to make phone calls to my family to let them know where I am or when I will back home. It is a way that my parents can ensure that I am safe and it is also a connection if there is any emergency and they need to contact me. Also I am able to listen to music through the music player. How the technology meets my Personal Needs My personal needs are met by this technology; it allows me to communicate with my family while I am not around with them. I can call any of my contacts which are saved in my contact list, by accessing the database of contacts on my mobile phone. By pressing certain buttons (input) different menus come up, in this case my contact list (outcome). This is done by the phone’s CPU (Central Processing Unit), it starts to process the information received by pressing certain buttons and gives the outcome of whatever buttons I have pressed, for example by me opening my contact list and I can find relevant numbers that I can use to contact my family for example my mother’s contact details, it gives me the phone numbers available for me to contact her, from there I can choose the required number I want to call then the mobile phone starts to connect to it and will send a request to the other phone for my call to be accepted or rejected depending on the person. Also when I am going to and from school, doing homework, going out or any other reason, I am able to listen to music while I do the activity. It allows me to pass time more quickly if I am getting bored and sometimes helps me to concentrate while I do work. Evaluate Personal Needs I can use this technology very well to meet my personal needs as I am able to communicate with my family cheaply through the use of SMS and voice calls. But as you go on and need to use your phone more you find that it is too expensive to use the phone but those needs are met by the use of contracts where you receive various numbers of free texts and voice calls for a set price per month. This makes it not only cheaper but easier to contact family because I do not need to worry about having large bills to pay out. Social Needs I need to use my phone for social reasons so that I can communicate with my friends and organise certain activities such as parties. I also need to be able to send and receive SMS messages. How the technology meets my social needs I need to be able to contact my friends, on a regular basis and at short notice, while I am out and about. I am able to do this due to the services provided by a mobile phone, it lets you make calls and send SMSs. My friends would call me to ask if I am able to come to certain arrangements, just as I would call or use SMS to see whether or not they are allowed to come to some events. Even if, for any reason, I am unable to accept a voice/video call from my friends they are still able to contact me through voicemail where they can save a message that I can check later on and get back to them. Also with SMS if my phone is turned off I will still receive the SMS as soon as I turn my phone back on. I can, not only communicate, but I can also share files with my friends through the use of Bluetooth or Infrared. I am able to send them music, images, videos or games quickly and effectively, anywhere. Evaluate Social Needs The mobile phone technology is excellent at meeting my social needs because it allows me make and receive calls and text messages and also share files with my friends. To further meet my needs it could better itself in the way you have to share files, you are unable to send a group of files at one given time but instead you need to accept each file you would like to receive after the previous file has been sent. School Needs As it is against school rules to have a mobile phone with you during school hours, there would be only one need for a mobile phone at school, and that is to secretly send messages to other pupils about various things. How the technology meets my School Needs I need to be able to send messages to my friends during school hours discreetly and I am able to do this because of the different sound settings the phone has. You are able to put your phone on ‘vibrate’ or ‘silent’ so that the teacher cannot tell that I am using my phone. I can also use the mass storage system from inbuilt memories or external memory cards to save/ transfer files from home to school and vice versa. Evaluate School Needs Thanks to the ‘silent’/’vibrate’ settings I can send text messages without getting caught but the level of vibration is sometimes too much and can be heard and by putting it on silent you wouldn’t realise you received a text and you would have to keep on checking and that could potentially get you caught, so by being able to set the vibration intensity I would be able to be more discreet and attract less attention when I receive a text. E(lectronic) Mail E-mail is a system for sending and receiving messages electronically over a computer network, through modems using telephone lines, or, through wireless transmissions to anybody around the world who has access to a computer and has their own personal e-mail address. Examples of messengers are: yahoo messenger, windows live hotmail, g-mail. In an e-mail you can send notes, letters and most kinds of files – music, image video, word processing and others. To send e-mails you first need an email address this consists of five parts; * Firstly, the username (e.g. john_smith), this refers to the recipient’s mailbox. * Then there is a â€Å"@† sign. * Thirdly you have the host name (hotmail, yahoo etcetera) this refers to the mail server this is mainly the company name. * The host name is followed by a dot â€Å".† * It is then completed by the domain (com, co.uk, gov.uk etcetera) Advantages There are many advantages to e-mail such as: * You can use e-mail at any time of the day and it will be sent to the preferred destination. * It is much quicker than by post – snail mail and you can ensure that it doesn’t get lost because it doesn’t have to go through the process of sorting. * It’s free to use. * It can be sent to anyone around the world so long as they have an Internet connection. * You can send messages to large numbers of people Disadvantages Along with the advantages there are also disadvantages to e-mail such as: * You can’t ensure you will get an instant reply because the receiver might not check his mail until later * You are subject to getting spam * There is less security as third parties are able to retrieve your email address * Not always suitable for serious business documents or transactions requiring signatures. Personal Needs I need to be able to contact my family via e-mail at any time of the day as I have family abroad and it is a free way of communicating to them instead of wasting a lot of money in making international calls. Also I need to be able to send some files to myself if I ever need to. For example music files. How the technology meets my Personal Needs With e-mail I am able to contact my family abroad or if they are at work on a regular basis. E-mail is a free type of mail which can be network based or web based or on a certain computer. If an email address is based on the web then it can be accessed from any computer that has an Internet connection but an email that is based on a certain computer or network can only be accessed from that computer or any computer which is connected to the network. Using Email is much more efficient and easier for me because to be able to contact my family without the use of a telephone makes it cheaper to use because e-mail is free. Evaluate Personal Needs My personal needs are met very well by the use of e-mail due to me being able to contact my family anywhere in the world very quickly and at no extra cost this makes my life easier and also better in the sense I have more money, because I don’t need to spend money making international calls and instead use e-mail I am able to save money to get the same message across. Ways that e-mail can be made better are that it should automatically detect spam mailings and delete them and to make matters better for everyone who holds an e-mail address, hosts like hotmail and yahoo should not allow third parties to have access to our information. Social Needs I need to use e-mail to contact my friends when I am unable to call/text them. It is an alternate way for me communicate with my friends if I ever need to talk to them about certain matters. How the technology meets my Social Needs Instead of the phone to communicate I can use e-mail or the more instant version IM, Instant Messaging, which is absolutely free to use. IM is when I am able to communicate with friends and family through different chat rooms. Windows Live Messenger, for example allows me to talk to friends and family when, the person I wish to speak to, and I are online at the same time it is similar to using the phone but the main difference is you are not talking but instead you are typing. I can arrange to meet up with people to go to the cinema or Brent Cross whenever I please I can also just generally talk with my friends about things that are going on at school etcetera. It allows my friends to talk to me if ever the need anything. Many IM servers allow you to play games with your friends like tic-tac-toe or poker I take advantage of this feature and play the games with many of my friends. The use of e-mail and IM, socially, means hassles like friends arriving at place too early or late can be avoided because we can tell each quickly and simply through this technology. Evaluate Social Needs E-mail and IM meets my needs for social uses very well because I am able to converse with my friends and family and arrange events like going to the cinema with great ease. I don’t have to go through the process of phoning different people at different times and spending money on calls, I can just go on an IM server and talk to all the necessary people at the same time and in one conversation making it more like speaking to them in person. Ways it can be improved to meet my social needs are that it should be more easily accessed, you should be able to use these IM services on your mobile phone for free so you don’t need to be on a computer all the time. School Needs I can use e-mail to help me with my school work as I am able to send work-related files to myself and then access them at home and vice versa. How this technology meets me School Needs People who do not have their own external mass storage device, for any reason, can take advantage of using e-mail to send work. On many occasions I have forgotten to bring my USB Pen Drive to school but I that hasn’t stopped me from being able to take my work home with me. Thanks to e-mail I am able to send necessary files to myself so I can complete that work at home. Also my friends are able to send me files which can aid me in doing my homework via e-mail. I can also send my coursework files to relevant subject teachers for them to mark and give back, this means I do not have to waste time in trying to track down the teachers but they can receive it successfully without it being lost through e-mail. I have known people who have asked other teachers to give the coursework to their teacher and had it lost and others who have sent their work directly to the teacher’s e-mail address this is more efficient because that way you can be sure that it won’t get lost. Evaluate School Needs I am able to use e-mail to meet my school needs very well. I can send work to myself so I can continue to do the work at home. This is very good because a lot of the ICT syllabus requires doing work, not only at school, but a lot at home as well and people like me who, on a regular basis forget to bring their USB Pen Drive to school, can benefit the use of e-mail to send work home. Ways that it could be improved to meet my school needs are that it should allow you to send whole files at the same time, because currently it only allows me to send any number of files but it has to be done all separately, this is very time consuming as I have to upload each individual file into an attachment and then I have to download each file onto the computer when I get home . By allowing you to send a whole file at once it saves much more time and hassle. USB Pen Drive – Flash Memory USB Pen Drives are portable, external mass storage devices with a USB plug which can transfer files from one USB supporting machine to another. These are ideally suited to people who have a large number of documents that require frequent access in different places. The memory capacity of these devices has been increasing steadily over the last few years due to advances in technology. The first mass storage system started off only with a capacity of 32mb but nowadays we have USB Pen Drives ranging from 32 MB (megabytes) to 4 GB (gigabytes). USB (Universal Serial Bus) Pen Drives come in many different ways, you get the standard device which is used for storage only and then you get other devices which are mp3’s as well, so not only can you save important files on it you can also listen to music USB Flash Memory differs from hard drives because the Flash Memory stores the memory in a chip whereas hard drives store the memory in a disk Advantages There are advantages to having a USB Pen Drive such as: * They are supported by most operating systems, and can be directly attached to a hardware device. * It is portable and easy to transport as they are so small and compact. * You can transfer files from one computer/machine to another. * You can get different amount storage on them depending on the size and/or quantity of your files. * They can carry much more data than a floppy disk. * Nowadays they aren’t very expensive to buy. Disadvantages Just as there are advantages there are also disadvantages to USB Pen Drive such as: * You have a limited amount of storage – some files may be too big to hold in the USB Pen Drive or you may have too many files on it. * Files may get corrupted on the USB Pen Drive if it is faulty resulting in you losing your work * Due to the portability of it, it is very easy to lose track of it and you may find that you keep on misplacing it. * Some older technologies like old computers do not support USB ports meaning there is no use for the USB Pen Drive. Personal Needs I do not have much of a personal need for USB Pen Drives but sometimes I need to be able to transfer data from one place to another such as music files(mp3, wma), image files(jpg.), video files(wmv, mp4, mpeg). How the technology meets my Personal Needs With a USB Pen Drive I am able to move files to different destinations for example if one of my computers in the house is connected to the Internet and the other computer isn’t, I can download a file from the Internet and then transfer it to the other computer via USB. Evaluate Personal Needs USB Pen Drive meets my needs very well because I am able to transfer many files and folders at the same time to different systems that support USB Ports. Due to the large amounts of memory available to the ability to compress files you end up with a lot space for you to use. Social Needs Just as there are not many uses for USB Pen Drive personally, socially there are limited uses. The main social use for the USB Pen Drive is that you can share files with friends like music or images. How the technology meets my Social Needs If ever I need to go to my friend’s house and they need some files or I need to get some files from them, I am able to use a USB Pen Drive to transfer files. It is more efficient than using e-mail because you are able to transfer whole files and on e-mail you have limits to the size of the file you can send. Also I can access the files without the need of accessing the Internet. Evaluate Social Needs The USB Pen Drive meets my social needs very well because I can move files to any system at my friend’s house very easily. This is very helpful because some of my friends don’t have access to the Internet so I can use the USB Pen Drive to give them files. School Needs Unlike my social and personal needs there are many uses for the USB Pen Drive in school life. I am able to transfer files from school to my home and continue to do my work. How this technology meets my School Needs As an ICT GSCE student I need to be able to take coursework, data files and other various files to and from school, with a USB Pen Drive I can easily do that. With a 1GB flash memory drive I have no problem transferring files. Using a USB Pen Drive I don’t need to access the Internet, instead I can just plug it into the computer and it will detect the hardware and install the software to run the USB Pen Drive. When it has done that I can freely open up the USB Pen Drive files from ‘My Computer’ and ‘drag and drop’ necessary files. I can carry on doing work at home and complete it to give in to the teacher the next day it is better than having to wait until the next lesson to complete the work. Evaluate School Needs The USB Pen Drive meets my school needs extremely well; thanks to it I can send/transfer files to any computer I need to complete my school work. This is very useful because some computers may not have the program/software to support the necessary file so being able to move files via USB Pen Drive is helpful because then I can move it to a computer that does have the software. Ways to make the USB Pen Drive better in meeting my school needs are that you should be able to upgrade your USB Pen Drive to have a larger space for memory instead of having to buy a new one.