The story of an hour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The story of an hour - Essay Example It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.† The newly bereaved widow goes from deep despair to unspeakable joy while looking out a window. The writer/narrator does not appear to view marriage favorably, but as a self-limiting trap. Lives of â€Å"quiet desperation† (Henry David Thoreau) is also for women. Consider the following: The monstrous joy †¦She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death...But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely †¦ And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. She cared for her husband, she missed him, but â€Å"Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.† Mrs. Mallard looks forward to the future until a key turns in the lock, bringing about her own fatal heart attack. The irony is apparent. Did she die of shock at seeing the living apparition, or because of instant sadness of knowing he was still alive?

William Shakespeare also known as “The Bard” Essay Example for Free

William Shakespeare also known as â€Å"The Bard† Essay William Shakespeare was one of the best writers of his time, and has written stories that are still being read and talked about today. He was thought of to be an inspiration to many upcoming writers and has helped to shape literature into what is today. Shakespeare’s writing s give vivid and interesting details about the topic he is writing about. His writings also tend to make others enjoy reading more often. Even though Shakespeare has no birth records there are church records which indicate that a William Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. From that information they believed that he was born either on or near April 23, 1564. Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582. William was 18 and she was 26 and also pregnant. Shakespeare’s first child was a daughter born on May 26, 1583, they named her Susanna. Shakespeare was the third child of John Shakespeare who was a leather merchant and his mother Mary who was a local landed heiress. Shakespeare had two sisters Joan and Judith, and his three younger brothers Gilbert, Richard and Edmund. From roughly 1594 Shakespeare was an important member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men Company of theatrical players. It was said that â€Å"Shakespeare wrote plays that capture the complete range of human emotion and conflict. Shakespeare was also often called the English national poet and is to be considered the greatest dramatist of all time. Also there are little Cox 2 records of Shakespeare’s childhood and virtually none about his education, but scholars think Shakespeare attended King’s New School. Others often ponder on whether William Shakespeare really existed. By 1952 there was some evidence that Shakespeare was living as an actor and a playwright in London and may have had several plays produced. Around 1597 15 of Shakespeare’s 37 plays  had been published. By 1599 Shakespeare and his business partners built their own theater, which they later called the Globe. Shakespeare’s early plays were written in a conventional style of his time with complex metaphors and rhetorical phrases that didn’t always match with his plot or characters. Although Shakespeare was very modern, adapting to the customary style to his own motives and creating a freer flow of words. Shakespeare’s work and been a major influence on later theatre and literature. Throughout the 1590’s Shakespeare’s reputation continued to grow. From 1594 to 1608 he was fully involved in  the London theater world. During much of this period, Shakespeare was ranked as London’s most popular playwright, based on the number of times his plays were performed and published. By the late 1590’s Shakespeare had become an established writer and a prosperous. Cox 3 By 1612 Shakespeare had become England’s most successful playwright. It was said that he divided his time between Stratford and London. Shakespeare was a respected man of the dramatic arts who wrote plays and acted in the late 16th and early 17th century. Today his plays are highly popular and are persistently studied and reinterpreted in plays. The genius of Shakespeare’s plays will forever be performed and read. Furthermore William Shakespeare also known as â€Å"The Bard† was a man who changed the way we look at literature today. Also he was thought to be a literature genius making his plays different and extraordinary. Shakespeare is a man who others have looked at throughout the course of history to learn to be better writers. William Shakespeare was a legend and shows just how much reading and writing can take you. Cox 4 Citation Page www. biography. com – William Shakespeare www. worldbookonline. com – William Shakespeare.

Ethicals Dilemma Of A Working Mother Social Work Essay

Ethicals Dilemma Of A Working Mother Social Work Essay INTRODUCTION In every sphere of life it is proved that woman is getting in hand in hand with man. Therefore if man works to earn money, women can manage three careers at a time i.e. earn money, delegate work at home, and at the office as well. How beautifully a working woman juggles these three roles and still is not complaining. [Working Mothers, How Much working -2009] One could define a working mother as a women with a ability to combine a career with the added responsibility of raising a child[Jayita, Murali-2009,p.64] All the educated working mothers work because they tend to need a financial freedom while balancing a professional career. [Working mothers, How much Working- 2009] The ascending numbers of working mothers are seen in the last few decades. Both the partners have to work just because to maintain the financial status of the house. According to the 2003 US census bureau states that fifty percent professionals are the women workers. It is nearly 90% of the women are out of the house for the work delegates. All the women are blessed with various professional skills, if not professional then with the business skills. Though after facing various dilemmas in work place i personally feel that women are quite capable of facing the various challenges which occur in there ways. According to the 2000 US census states that single parent is no longer left behind in this race.[www.working mothers .com] I have chosen this case study because i am a professional woman where i tend to face various difficulties. How hard it is to manage both the delegates i.e. delegates at home and delegates at our work place. It is also to ponder on those aspects where women are going out of ways to manage these various delegates. Also to look at the different dilemmas women is facing while managing these dual career responsibilities. CONTEXT/ History In olden days all the women were aware of their boundaries and limitations. They rendered there whole span of their life for the care of their families, by dwelling in the four walls of the house. Later on a sudden thrust evolved into business sector and public affairs, which made them turn their backs towards thrive families. Those pioneering days are no more .The tie of Gordian has broken down and the feminine dilemma is over. The last two decades has proven that the right time to integrate into their dual career management at home and at the work place has arisen. In the present century the social status of women is trapped under different profound differences. First is the entry into the different hitherto masculine placements. The second is the endeavor of an increasing number of women who jointly balance the family and employment. [Womens two role-1956, reprint-2001] RIGHTS OF CHILD, RIGHTS OF WOMEN/ LEGISLATION RIGHTS OF CHILDREN Their various rights which are bestowed upon children due to U N convention. Children are protected by four P according to the child protection act. Four p are listed below. 1. PROVISION 2.PREVENTION 3.PROTECTION 4.PARTICIPATION. In the provision of rights, child is supposed to be provided with the basic necessity of food, shelter, and education .In the prevention of rights child should be protected from abuse given privacy and has the rights of legal representation. In the protection of rights child is supposed to be protected from sexual abuse, entitled to be protected during war times, conflicts and during the natural disaster causing bad effect on the child. Under the last participation child right act it says that child is entitled in decision making, has voice for his own opinion, and has his own freedom of conscience. According to the UN convention for childrens right they say that, Children should not be ignored, but heard for the better development and welfare of the child. All the courts must understand the grief and suffering the child must be undergoing and must have regards for their wishes. Children were heard and given relief form the courts. Advocacy groups were formed in order to provide help to the children in decision making. A very big BRATS CHARTER is formed where a child can divorce his parent if the child is not happy or dont want to carry on with their parents. Children has right of quality of life where the child has right to choose his own parents either.[UNCRN ACT- 1 WOMENS MATERNITY LEAVE EQUALITY PAY ACT 2010 All the women are given and supported with some of their womens rights. What so ever may be the worked out tenure women is entitled for the one year maternity leave form her office with full paid leave. This is applied only to those who are about to go on the maternity leave from April 2007. They also have increased maternity and adoption pay period from 26 weeks to 39 weeks. Law has also benefited women by scrapping old rule of work experience of six months to be entitled for the 26 weeks maternity leave. [News-2007] According to the equality act 2010 it states that when a woman is working with shoulder to shoulder with a man, then she is entitled for the same amount of benefits in terms of pay and other benefits. The act claims that gender equality has to be included into the contractual terms, considering women not less than a man. Woman should not be discriminated on the basis of her womanhood; on the contrary she should be looked upon with sense of figure of equality. [Equal pay the equality act 2010] The old 1970 equal pay act has replaced few good changes. The various changes which include men and women performing their duties towards their profession should be considered and rated at the same level, and should also be provided with equal standards of salaries for the work generated out of them. Every women is allowed to check across her equal share of pay and the bonus given to her.[ Equal pay act- 2010] WHAT IS ETHICS It is hard to define ethics, but somehow to understand ethics, ethics can be defined as what is correct and incorrect, moral and immoral. Generally ethical behavior is accepted in the society where the behavior is considered with the moral codes. According to the dictionary ethics means The study of standards of conduct and moral judgment and moral philosophy[Youngdictionary.com] Man has always worked hard to understand between correct and incorrect and between ethics and legality. As per dictionary again ethics can be defined as The study of the general nature of morals and of the specific moral choices to be made by the individuals in his relationship with others [Insightempire.com, p.1] Ethics deals with the study concerned with usually what is morally correct and incorrect. This study is also applied to any theory of moral deeds. Very often ethics refers to how one should live his life? Should he only aim at gathering knowledge or at happiness? If we happen to select happiness, should that happiness be meant only for ourselves or for the whole of the family? Should we live in opulence, should we break laws? What are our obligations when we are living with other human beings on this mother planet, and what examples we are setting for other generation? Ethics are surrounded with all the moral questions form all the corners of life. The main focus of the ethics covers the fundamental crisis of empirical decisions, which includes the practical costs and the levels by which human behavior can be justified. [Ethics by Peter Singh] Few working mothers work just because they are qualified and dont want to find themselves to be hanged around only with the domestic work. The main motive was to get employed was to give a good standard life to the family from different angles.[How working mothers manage-1970] All women are responding towards the pressure of inflationary economy, to achieve high level of education for their children and for self-satisfaction. But working mothers can manage both i.e childcare and home delegates. [Pediatrics vol 56 no-1975] ATTACHMENT THEORY- BOWLBY According to the Bowlbys theory, he ponders over the fact that early childhood is always in straight contact with mothers, or sometimes it is hardly very few steps away from the mother. Mother always tries to keep her child close to her chest i.e. under her feathers. But as soon as the child tends to grow old the closeness and the bonds tends to become lighter, the child seems to get involved with more worldly activities, but when time comes to rest at the night they prefer nobody else and they tend to search for their mothers. This attachment clearly speaks that how mother and Childs bonding is inbuilt bonding. Bowlby stresses on the facts that early age is the age where both child and the mother are very attached to each other and also very much strongly involved for each others feelings and togetherness.[Cyc-net.org] MAIN PARTICIPANTS In my case study i have involved various participants who face various dilemmas in connection with the working mothers while she is managing her dual careers. My first participant whom i would consider is the child. Sufficient evidences has proved that home delegate has a clear impact for women own life and family organization, but both are seems to be important for childrens upbringing.[Journal-Maternal education and early child care-2009] As an educated mother she can and supposed to be giving home achieving activities for her children, taking her child to brain storming events and cover their children in different learning ways , but the dilemma is that due to busy schedule she is unable to give enough time , where the child is neglected of his rights and face the dilemma.[journal maternal education and early child care-2009] It is true that children of working mothers are quite quick in all aspects of life .It is also true that children are more capable and strong towards the ups and downs in their life. Children face dilemmas when they are sick during the holidays when mothers are at work, their right to protection is overlooked and the child is under the dilemma.[How working mothers manage-1970] At early years of stages babies are considered to be going under stress of separation from their mothers when they are about to leave for their work. The dilemma faced by children to manage this rhythm of separation is very stressful.[Managing two careers-1989] Children of lone parents face high rate of emotional dilemmas, because mother is working for the bread butter and is unable to give sufficient and required time for her children.[How working mothers manage-1970] It is also considered that due to working parents specially the mother lack of care and supervision children are found in high number of school dropouts, drug abuse and juvenile delinquency.[Working mothers, how much working-2009] Also one of the important dilemma children face during their mothers are out for work are the invigilation of the various child-minders. If the child shifts from one minder to other, child has to get accustomed to all the various child-minders habits and discipline. Such circumstances confuse the child, to what exactly he or she has to adopt. According to the Lawree Tilton-Weaver-normal behavior controls guides and protects children to master over self-discipline and curtails the problems like disobeying parents, consuming alcohols. Drug abuse and robbery. She states that psychological management over children with more personal feelings breaks out into severe depression and anxiety. For instance if we choose their friends and clothing which turns to be interference with their decision makings, which ultimately falls into damaging there personal feelings. Which means that we are not caring for their personal feelings? Just when working mothers tends to lay down few regulations which children do not accept, and thus the dilemma occurs saying that interference with the feelings of children and adds as a negative impact on the minds of the children towards there working mothers.[ Workingmothers .com] Though various research bodies are working with the protection of the childcare and there progress- it is openly accepted that childrens education and there personal development can only develop childs confidence and peer relationships. However it is very difficult for those children who are under neglected or poor childcare. [Provisions of childcare for working mothers in wales. co.uk] My second participant is the mother herself. Generally mothers balance their identity around mothering and employment. Mothers foremost interest is always care giving to children and family, through there paid employment which upholds the financial status of her house.[I am so much more myself coming back to work-2008] According to Vincent and Ball the need to construct a morally adequate account of oneself, as mothers require of all classes to present their prioritization of their children need[I am so much more myself coming back to work-2006, p.72] Though full time working plays a vital role for upliftment of financial status of the house [managing two careers-1999, 2003] All the working mothers accepted that limited financial freedom will be stressful when staying with children at home. While socializing with other children, children behavior happens to be more worried. Although children of age 6 and 11 years need most attention, but unfortunately mothers find it stressful to commit and dedicate sufficient time for children specially when their children are affected with serious disabilities.[Influence on mothers employment when children have disabilities-2007] Every woman who is a mother can be called as working mother. But those who are with professional career deal with more challenges in balancing there career and family. It is a very difficult and pressurized task, where mother at the end finds that she is left with no time and no social togetherness in society. Few working mothers are quite and sound who are blessed with good encouraging and supportive male partner who gives her the strength to balance her dual career. The dilemma is observed in big ratio that very less percent co-operative male partners are matched. If the children are not co-operative again the working mothers are into big dilemma towards the childcare and upbringing of the child.[ Working mothers .com] Moreover working mothers are worried when child care factors occur. When no home support is provided by in-laws or other relatives to shoulder the children burden. Childcare providers are the last option where the working mother seeks help from. According to Lynne Hill, a policy director for children in wales says that there may not be sufficient options for parents to keep their children with the childcare providers. She says that it is a high task for mothers to balance her work and safety of her child. It matters more with the children with disabilities, where mothers are more specific with the choosing of the childcare options. If she fails to get the opted option she tends to face the dilemma for her child. Though job centers are providing with more jobs to women, but due to various dilemmas working mother are unable to reach the oriented professional goals.[ Wales online.co.uk] The working mothers activity plays a vital role both during the stages of prenatal and postnatal development of the child. At times working mothers has to place her child into the orphanage facility which strongly hampers the childs growth and the future destiny. [S.B.Khatskel- 2006] The is dilemma is that though working women balances both work and home delegates, but still she is not counted as a bread winner or given equal status by the society. She is shouldering the entire burden of the house, but is left unrewarded forever. My third participants would be the employer. As the growing economy tend to need the man power to control the workforce. Women with high pace of education are entering in to the market. Though all the working mothers are supported with the legislation they are finding it difficult to get the jobs. Most of the working mothers are out of job because the dilemmas most employers are facing. Most of the employers avoid child bearing women due to the implementation of the maternity leaves. Nearly 63% employers take these maternity laws as a serious threat to their industries. Many other employers face difficulties to hire mothers on work due to various variation occurring into the support of the working mothers.[Maternity laws hurting women job prospects, News-2007] My fourth participant would be Single Parent. All the working mothers undergo various difficulties. But when we judge and observe a single parent she has double difficulties. She has double difficulties that of emotional and financial balance of the home, for being the bread winner of the house. Single parents families are always under indefinite security, because they cannot predict about the future of their employment. More attention is required as you go at higher level and managerial level; ultimately the dilemma is less hours are dedicated towards the children. The biggest dilemma of the single parent is that every working mothers get holiday but an unsupported working mother is hanged on with day today difficulties throughout her life.[How working mothers manage-1970] Single parents find it difficult at times to choose an affordable childcare option at the proper time and at the right place, this is more effective to single parenting because of lack of support from there life partners, which is stated by- Kate research officer. Especially when mothers have to work for more hours to get more financial support for her family. It becomes more difficult when mothers get low wages to provide a good childcare for her child. [Walesonline.co.uk] The financial conditions of single parent and their children depends upon the group of support structure. Various structures which support the single parents are friends, neighbour, and communities. This shows a crystal clear picture that lone parents can very rarely be financially free. Histarically mothers were not accepted to be working. Nurturing children and also to become the breadwinner for the family is observed to be a drastic burden for the single parents, and disadvantages to their children. [Randy Albelda ,Susan Himmelweit -2004] My fifth participant would be the Husband. The important factor for the working mother would be the right and supporting husband. She may be linked with high position and status or a perfect employer, but if there is no positive signal from her husband towards her working, then she is sure of taking her marital relationship into risk. It is quite sure that it is the husband not the children who sacrifices most when mothers are working. Though culturally saying he understands that women place is inside the house. But still various dilemmas occur into the mind of husband stating that he was deprived of something which he actually expected out of marriage. His dilemma is marriage is not solemnized just for sake of having sex or reproduction of children, and their after looking after them alternatively. Both the partners should have sufficient and class time for each other especially the working mother who is unable to give time for her husband due to busy schedule time.[How working moth ers manage-1970] INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON This international comparison is done just to support my case study. In Asian countries especially in India it is always observed that whether it is a joint family or a neutral family working mother are always supported by their in laws and all the other nonworking members of the family. Support such as childcare, mothers health care, sometimes even the home delegates are fully taken care of. When we compare Britain with India there is a huge difference that of support to the working mother. In India working mothers are given all round support to perform her dual career managements. Grandparents take the place of all the nannies as a privilege to look after their grandchildren.[Working mothers; How much working, and where is the woomanhood-2009] SUGGESTIONS The modern womanhood is epitomized by the professional mothers. The working mothers need to be supported by the modern work providers and the employers, transforming its look from male dominance to gender neutrality. The nuclear family and the joint family unit both need to understand the need and the support a working mother is expecting out. There should be good quality and affordable childcare, where mothers are at peace at their work place. CONCLUSION To sum up it is quite easy to be a woman, mother, and an achiever. Many have achieved it through the back up of society, but many have fought through out there life to prove it. In todays competitive world it is the necessity for the mothers to be working, like their partners to support all angles of their house. As we are living in the advanced world, and still undergoing the male dominating society, should not acknowledge that working mothers are bad mothers. On the contrary should always support and consider working mothers as good mothers. While serving as a mother and also managing her flourishing professional career gives a credit to the working mothers as a sign of completeness of being a woman. The various dilemmas a working mother undergoes are lack of time, and a feeling of guilt for getting deprived of her parenting duties. Many rewards are showered on her, rewards such as personal status, improved economy, and up liftment of family standards .Women work when their spouse is incompetent, or earns inadequate money for the family. A second income adds as an a source of extra income which uplifts the standards and releases the stressful life of the whole family. Working mother should always keep reminding to her family members that she is not working for her leisure, but only and only for the betterment of her family. However it is quite possible for a mother to fight for her right to get her professional right in many different ways. A general person will accept her hard work by saying oh! She earns extra money, but women is never recognized for her hard work which she renders for the whole family. To achieve all the rewards, compromising balance is required at individual level and at work place, which helps the working mothers to satisfy the two careers of her life i.e. a professional career and the motherhood balance.

The Evolution of Human Skin Color Essay -- Human Evolution, 2015

According to Darwin and his theory on evolution, organisms are presented with nature’s challenge of environmental change. Those that possess the characteristics of adapting to such challenges are successful in leaving their genes behind and ensuring that their lineage will continue. It is natural selection, where nature can perform tiny to mass sporadic experiments on its organisms, and the results can be interesting from extinction to significant changes within a species. Human beings are no exception to biological evolution. Like other organisms around the world, humans have significantly changed overtime and have developed all sorts of diverse characteristics. One noticeable characteristic of human beings is the variation of skin color. Skin color has been used to identify, classify, and verify the variation that exists in the human population around the world. How did such a distinct variation arise and how did it play into adaptation? I’ve often heard that â€Å"humans came from monkeys,† or something similar. It is true that humans’ ancestors were primates, who first resided in warm and sunny Africa; they had similar features to today’s apes, such as a hairy body. The purpose of the vast amount of hair was to protect the body from the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays and to prevent overheating, mainly by acting as a barrier for the skin underneath the hair (Jablonski, 598). Some parts of the body such as palms were not covered with hair, but with sweat glands. Sweat glands allowed the body to cool off via evaporation at the surface of the skin; sweat glands were more efficient at thermoregulation. Overtime, early humans with a high amount of sweat glands were selected for since they had the best method at the time to keep themselves cool in warm environments (Kirchweger). This meant that overtime, humans lost most of their hair on their bodies, leaving their skin exposed. Sweat gland s were going to help the body to cool down, but they couldn’t protect the skin from harmful UV rays. This is where melanin worked its magic, and it’s the reason for the diversity in skin color today. Melanin helps reduce the absorption of wavelengths into the skin (Chaplin, Jablonski, 59). The more melanin in the skin, the greater the protection against harmful UV rays, and the amount of melanin in the skin correlates with the skin’s color (more melanin means darker skin).... ...m all over the world, with all hues of skin colors. With interracial dating and marriages and more â€Å"mixing† of skin colors, there are multiracial children with various skin colors. Genetically, it enhances variation within the individual, but what about variation within the species? I heard a joke once that eventually in the future, everyone will be beige. Will everyone mix together to an extent that there will be little to no variation anymore, at least skin deep? It’s an interesting concept to think of. At the moment, I believe that there is enough diversity within the human species that we don’t need to worry about the lack of variation in the near future. For now, we can appreciate the diversity of skin colors that has allowed our ancestors to adapt to their environments and survive. It has allowed them to create a lineage of who we are today. Works Cited: 1) Chaplin, G. Jablonski, N. â€Å"The Evolution of Human Skin Coloration.† Journal of Human Evolution 39 (2000) 57-106 2) Jablonski N. â€Å"The Evolution of Human Skin and Skin Color† Annual Reviews Anthropology 33 (2004) 585-623 3) Kirchweger G. â€Å"The Biology of†¦ Skin Color† Discover 22 (2001)

A Rose for Emily: the Characteristic of Miss Emily

Emily’s â€Å"Rose† The characteristic of Miss Emily’s house isa symbol for her appearance as she starts aging and deteriorating with time and neglect. â€Å"It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Then it became an â€Å"eyesore among eyesores†. Miss Emily changed the same ways as her house did and she too became an eyesore. She had once been â€Å"a slender figure in white† and later she becomes â€Å"bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water with eyes lost in the fatty ridges of her face†. During Miss Emily’s death she had been referred to as a â€Å"fallen monument†, which could mean she was once something beautiful and prosperous but with time she grew old and poor. These same changes from prosperity to poverty occurred in the South after the Civil War. (Faulkner 521-527) The mailbox is another symbol that leadsyou to believe Miss Emily is still living in her post bellum era when she was in her prime with her father. The mailbox is Emily’s refusal to move forward, it is a visual representation of the communication she has severed, for her time stands still. She will not allow the town to put a house number on her home for the free postal service. She also tells the tax collectors to talk to Colonel Sartoris (who has been dead for ten years) to resolve her problem that she doesn’t pay taxes. This shows Miss Emily’s, maybe even shows the South’s neglect of time and desire to live in the past. (SparkNotes Editors) The symbolism for the â€Å"rose† which in my opinion is the most intriguing symbol throughout the whole story is actually the symbol for the ending that includes Emily murdering her â€Å"sweetheart that went away†. Homer is Emily’s rose, roses are often acquainted with love, seeing that the rose was preserved we can take it to mean that Emily wanted to preserve the rose and thus also mean she would like to preserve her love. The â€Å"rose for Emily† was the room where she neatly placed the body of Homer Barron (her sweetheart), or possibly just Homer himself. The room was described as having â€Å"rose-shaded lights† and the curtains giving off a â€Å"faded rose color†. Knowing from having a girlfriend, many women like to dry out their roses in order to keep them forever, maybe in Emily’s distorted mind she wanted to keep Homer forever. (SparkNotes Editors) Faulkner uses crafty symbolism for the sake of the story itself, and also takes it a step further by using the changes of Emily Grierson as a symbol for the changes in the post-bellum south. Creatively Faulkner uses the unordered chronology to set the stage of the fallen south, which just wants to keep holding on the past when it reigned. Work Cited

Marketing Environment

| 2012/13| | Id: 1180654 Allan raisin | [Firms can do more than simply anticipating and responding to both macro and micro environment:-]| Market research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information | â€Å"Marketing environment includes all the forces that directly or indirectly influence marketing operations by affecting an organization acquisition of inputs/creation of outputs such as human, financial and natural resources and raw material, information, goods, services or ideas.Sometimes a distinction is more between macro and micro factors of environment† The Structure of the Marketing Environment The consumer occupies the core/central position of all business activities and hence occupies the Centre of the marketing environment. The organization with its resources and having a policy and structure surrounds the consumer with its particular market offering as do its competitors, suppliers and other intermediaries. This microenvironment of marketing is again affected by the macro environment, which consists of the government, technical, political, social, economic factors.This is graphically represented by below 1. The major external and uncontrollable factors that influence an organization's decision making, and affect its performance and strategies. These factors include the economic factors; demographics; legal, political, and social conditions; technological changes; and natural forces. 2. Specific examples of macro environment influences include competitors, changes in interest rates, changes in cultural tastes, disastrous weather, or government regulations. PESTLE – Macro Environmental Analysis PESTLEThe PESTLE Analysis is a framework used to scan the organization’s external macro environment. The  letters stand for Political, Economic  Socio-cultural, Technological, Legal and Environmental. Some approaches will add in extra factors, such as International, or remove some to reduce it to PEST. However, these are all merely variations on a theme. The important principle is identifying the key  factors from the wider, uncontrollable external environment that might affect the organization. The PESTLE Factors We start with the Political forces.First of all, political factors refer to the stability of the political  environment and the attitudes of political parties or movements. This may manifest in government  influence on tax policies, or government involvement in trading agreements. Political factors are  inevitably entwined with Legal factors such as national employment laws, international trade  regulations and restrictions, monopolies and mergers’ rules, and consumer protection. The difference  between Political and Legal factors is that Political refers to attitudes and approaches, whereas Legal  factors are those which have become law and regulations.Legal needs to be complied with whereas  Political may represent influences, restrictions or opportunities, but they are not mandatory. Economic factors represent the wider economy so may include economic growth rates, levels of  employment and unemployment, costs of raw materials such as energy, petrol and steel, interest rates  and monetary policies, exchange rates and inflation rates. These may also vary from one country to  another. Socio-cultural factors represent the culture of the society that an organization operates within.They  may include demographics, age distribution, population growth rates, level of education, distribution of  wealth and social classes, living conditions and lifestyle. Technological factors refer to the rate of new inventions and development, changes in information and  mobile technology, changes in internet and e-commerce or even mobile commerce, and government  spending on research. There is often a tendency to focus Technological developments on digital and internet-related areas, but it should also include ma terials development and new methods of  manufacture, distribution and logistics.Environmental impacts can include issues such as limited natural resources, waste disposal and recycling  procedures. Additional Considerations A newer force which is gaining in importance is ethics. These can be defined by the set of moral  principles and values that govern the actions and decisions of an individual or group. Ethics and morals  serve as guidelines on how to act rightly and justly when individuals are faced with moral dilemmas. This force could include corporate social responsibility, fair trade, affiliation between corporations and  charities.A particular problem may exist with how ethical factors relates to legal forces as they may be  at different stages in development. Something may be ethical but not protected by law, whereas other activities may not be ethical, but are legal. A PESTLE analysis should feed into a SWOT analysis as it helps to determine the threats and   opportunities represented by macro-environment forces that the organization usually cannot control. On an international basis, it is best to perform the analysis on a country-by-country basis because  factors can differ greatly between countries (or even regions).Marketing Environment – Micro Marketing Environment – Micro The micro marketing environment consists of certain forces that are part of an organizations marketing process, but remain external to the organization. This micro marketing environment that surrounds organizations can be complex by nature; however the company has an element of control over how it operates within this environment. Marketing helps you to manage and make sense of this complexity. The illustration above summarizes the order of the immediate external marketing environment that businesses operate in.Current and Potential Customers Your customers are vital to the growth and sustainability of your company. In order to grow you must locate customers, understand their needs and then satisfy those needs both efficiently and profitably. Competitors Your competitors however have the same remit as you when it comes to sourcing and satisfying the needs of the customer. They will make it difficult to liaise with customer groups, as by definition they are largely pursuing the same sets of customers as you.As a marketer, you must therefore not only monitor what competitors are doing in the external marketing environment today, but to also anticipate their likely response to your campaigns and to predict what they will do tomorrow. Intermediaries (Distributors/Wholesalers/Retailers) Your business may require a network of wholesalers, distributors and/or retailer. These ‘intermediaries’ provide an invaluable service in getting your products to the customer. You must therefore think carefully about how best to distribute your goods and build relationships.This area can be fierce in competition as not everyone can get access to the channels of distribution that they want. Suppliers One other important area to consider in the external marketing environment is your suppliers. A key supplier can be an important part of your business and may even attribute to your competitive advantage. Losing important suppliers can interrupt production flow or your competitive edge and prevent you from getting your product to your customers. Choice of suppliers, negotiation of terms and relationship building all become important tasks of the marketer.The wider marketing environment, discussed in a separate knowledge sheet, covers all other influences that might provide opportunities or threats to the organization. These include technological development, legal constraints, the economic environment and sociocultural changes. This brief overview of the world in which companies operate in demonstrates that there are many relationships that matter. These need to be managed if the company is to conduct its business suc cessfully. The main responsibility for managing these relationships lies within the marketing department.Using a SWOT SWOT is an important tool in auditing the external and internal environment of the organization. A SWOT Analysis should be more than a basic listing of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Most organizations have the same, common-sense type of threats, such as competitors, technological changes, regulation and deregulation, or weaknesses such as high price, but these are all very general, hard to control elements meaning the utility can be quite limited. As Cranfield’s Professor Malcolm McDonald puts it, real SWOTs should be more concise and specific.STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, AND THREATS Strengths, in the SWOT analysis, are a company's capabilities and resources that allow it to engage in activities to generate economic value and perhaps competitive advantage. A company's strengths may be in its ability to create unique products, to pr ovide high-level customer service, or to have a presence in multiple retail markets. Strengths may also be things such as the company's culture, its staffing and training, or the quality of its managers. Whatever capability a company has can be regarded as strength.A company's weaknesses are a lack of resources or capabilities that can prevent it from generating economic value or gaining a competitive advantage if used to enact the company's strategy. There are many examples of organizational weaknesses. For example, a firm may have a large, bureaucratic structure that limits its ability to compete with smaller, more dynamic companies. Another weakness may occur if a company has higher labor costs than a competitor who can have similar productivity from a lower labor cost.The characteristics of an organization that can be strength, as listed above, can also be a weakness if the company does not do them well. Opportunities provide the organization with a chance to improve its perform ance and its competitive advantage. Some opportunities may be anticipated, others arise unexpectedly. Opportunities may arise when there are niches for new products or services, or when these products and services can be offered at different times and in different locations. For instance, the increased use of the Internet has provided numerous opportunities for companies to expand their product sales.Threats can be an individual, group, or organization outside the company that aims to reduce the level of the company's performance. Every company faces threats in its environment. Often the more successful companies have stronger threats, because there is a desire on the part of other companies to take some of that success for their own. Threats may come from new products or services from other companies that aim to take away a company's competitive advantage. Threats may also come from government regulation or even consumer groups.A strong company strategy that shows how to gain compe titive advantage should address all four elements of the SWOT analysis. It should help the organization determine how to use its strengths to take advantage of opportunities and neutralize threats. Finally, a strong strategy should help an organization avoid or fix its weaknesses. If a company can develop a strategy that makes use of the information from SWOT analysis, it is more likely to have high levels of performance. Nearly every company can benefit from SWOT analysis.Larger organizations may have strategic-planning procedures in place that incorporate SWOT analysis, but smaller firms, particularly entrepreneurial firms may have to start the analysis from scratch. Additionally, depending on the size or the degree of diversification of the company, it may be necessary to conduct more than one SWOT analysis. If the company has a wide variety of products and services, particularly if it operates in different markets, one SWOT analysis will not capture all of the relevant strengths , weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that exist across the span of the company's operations.LIMITATIONS OF SWOT ANALYSIS One major problem with the SWOT analysis is that while it emphasizes the importance of the four elements associated with the organizational and environmental analysis, it does not address how the company can identify the elements for their own company. Many organizational executives may not be able to determine what these elements are, and the SWOT framework provides no guidance. For example, what if a strength identified by the company is not truly strength?While a company might believe its customer service is strong, they may be unaware of problems with employees or the capabilities of other companies to provide a higher level of customer service. Weaknesses are often easier to determine, but typically after it is too late to create a new strategy to offset them. A company may also have difficulty identifying opportunities. Depending on the organization, wha t may seem like an opportunity to some may appear to be a threat to others. Opportunities may be easy to overlook or may be identified long after they can be exploited.Similarly, a company may have difficulty anticipating possible threats in order to effectively avoid them. While the SWOT framework does not provide managers with the guidance to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it does tell managers what questions to ask during the strategy development process, even if it does not provide the answers. Managers know to ask and to determine a strategy that will take advantage of a company's strengths, minimize its weaknesses, exploit opportunities, or neutralize threats.Some experts argue that making strategic choices for the firm is less important than asking the right questions in choosing the strategy. A company may mistakenly solve a problem by providing the correct answer to the wrong question. USING SWOT ANALYSIS TO DEVELOP ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY SWOT analysis is just the first step in developing and implementing an effective organizational strategy. After a thorough SWOT analysis, the next step is to rank the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and to document the criteria for ranking.The company must then determine its strategic fit given its internal capabilities and external environment in a two-by-two grid (see Figure 1). This fit, as determined in the grid, will indicate what strategic changes need to be made. The quadrants in this grid are as follows: * Quadrant 1 —internal strengths matched with external opportunities; * Quadrant 2 —internal weaknesses relative to external opportunities; * Quadrant 3 —internal strengths matched with external threats; and * Quadrant 4 —internal weaknesses relative to external threats.Quadrant 1 lists the strategies associated with a match between the company's strengths and its perceived external opportunities. It represents the best fit between th e company's resources and the options available in the external market. A strategy from this quadrant would be to protect the company's strengths by shoring up resources and extending competitive advantage. If a strategy in this quadrant can additionally bolster weaknesses in other areas, such as in Quadrant 2, this would be advantageous. Quadrant 2 lists the strategies associated with a match between the company's weaknesses with external opportunities.Strategies in this quadrant would address the choice of either improving upon weaknesses to turn them into strengths, or allowing competitors to take advantage of opportunities in the marketplace. Quadrant 3 matches the company's strengths and external threats. Strategies in this quadrant may aim to transform external threats into opportunities by changing the company's competitive position through use of its resources or strengths. Another strategic option in this quadrant is for the company to maintain a defensive strategy to focus on more promising opportunities in other quadrants.Quadrant 4 matches a company's weaknesses and the threats in the environment. These are the worst possible scenarios for an organization. However, because of the competitive nature of the marketplace, any company is likely to have information in this quadrant. Strategies in this quadrant may involve using resources in other quadrants to exploit opportunities to the point that other threats are minimized. Additionally, some issues may be moved out of this quadrant by otherwise neutralizing the threat or by bolstering a perceived weakness.Once a strategy is decided on in each quadrant for the issues facing the company, these strategies require frequent monitoring and periodic updates. An organization is best served by proactively determining strategies to address issues before they become crises. An example of how a firm can develop strategies using these quadrants is as follows. Generic Corporation produces high-quality; high-priced specialty kitchen items in a catalog and in stores and is known for their excellent customer service. This strength has been able to offset its major weaknesses, which are having few stores and no current capabilities for Internet sales.Its major opportunities come from the explosion of Internet shopping, and its threats are other more high-profile competitors, operating primarily on the Internet, and the concerns of identity theft in Internet sales that many customers ha ve. Matching Generic's strengths to its opportunities (Quadrant 1), the firm may choose to enhance its Internet site to allow online purchases, still providing its excellent 24-hour telephone customer service. Ideally, this strategy will offset the weakness of not having an Internet presence, which addresses the concerns of Quadrant 2.Additionally, by bolstering the strength of excellent customer service by applying it to the online shopping site, the company may be able to alleviate customer concerns about identi ty theft (Quadrant 3). A strategy for Quadrant 4, which matches the company's weaknesses and threats, is that Generic may consider selling its online business to a competitor. Certainly, the Quadrant 4 strategy is the least preferred, but a proactive strategy that plans for managing such a situation is favored over a crisis situation in which the company is forced to sell with no planning.A SWOT analysis is a first, but critical, step in developing an organizational strategy. By examining the company's internal capabilities—its strengths and weaknesses and its external environment—opportunities and threats, it helps to create strategies that can proactively contend with organizational challenges. The changing and uncertain marketing environment deeply affects the organization, instead of changing slowly and predictably, the environment can produce major surprises and shocks, how many managers at â€Å"Heinz† foresaw that the baby-boom numbers would fall so rapid ly?How many were able to predict that the Internet will enable not only real-time personal communication but that will also provide a way for business process improvement and new industries would be formed. How many were able to predict that mobile phone SMS and MMS services would add significant value for the customers, some said ‘who would want to type text on the phone or even snap pictures , telephone are only for talking’To conclude I would say that Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information – these information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the information required to address these issues, designs the methods for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, an alyzes, and communicates the findings and their implications. † Marketing Environment | 2012/13| | Id: 1180654 Allan raisin | [Firms can do more than simply anticipating and responding to both macro and micro environment:-]| Market research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information | â€Å"Marketing environment includes all the forces that directly or indirectly influence marketing operations by affecting an organization acquisition of inputs/creation of outputs such as human, financial and natural resources and raw material, information, goods, services or ideas.Sometimes a distinction is more between macro and micro factors of environment† The Structure of the Marketing Environment The consumer occupies the core/central position of all business activities and hence occupies the Centre of the marketing environment. The organization with its resources and having a policy and structure surrounds the consumer with its particular market offering as do its competitors, suppliers and other intermediaries. This microenvironment of marketing is again affected by the macro environment, which consists of the government, technical, political, social, economic factors.This is graphically represented by below 1. The major external and uncontrollable factors that influence an organization's decision making, and affect its performance and strategies. These factors include the economic factors; demographics; legal, political, and social conditions; technological changes; and natural forces. 2. Specific examples of macro environment influences include competitors, changes in interest rates, changes in cultural tastes, disastrous weather, or government regulations. PESTLE – Macro Environmental Analysis PESTLEThe PESTLE Analysis is a framework used to scan the organization’s external macro environment. The  letters stand for Political, Economic  Socio-cultural, Technological, Legal and Environmental. Some approaches will add in extra factors, such as International, or remove some to reduce it to PEST. However, these are all merely variations on a theme. The important principle is identifying the key  factors from the wider, uncontrollable external environment that might affect the organization. The PESTLE Factors We start with the Political forces.First of all, political factors refer to the stability of the political  environment and the attitudes of political parties or movements. This may manifest in government  influence on tax policies, or government involvement in trading agreements. Political factors are  inevitably entwined with Legal factors such as national employment laws, international trade  regulations and restrictions, monopolies and mergers’ rules, and consumer protection. The difference  between Political and Legal factors is that Political refers to attitudes and approaches, whereas Legal  factors are those which have become law and regulations.Legal needs to be complied with whereas  Political may represent influences, restrictions or opportunities, but they are not mandatory. Economic factors represent the wider economy so may include economic growth rates, levels of  employment and unemployment, costs of raw materials such as energy, petrol and steel, interest rates  and monetary policies, exchange rates and inflation rates. These may also vary from one country to  another. Socio-cultural factors represent the culture of the society that an organization operates within.They  may include demographics, age distribution, population growth rates, level of education, distribution of  wealth and social classes, living conditions and lifestyle. Technological factors refer to the rate of new inventions and development, changes in information and  mobile technology, changes in internet and e-commerce or even mobile commerce, and government  spending on research. There is often a tendency to focus Technological developments on digital and internet-related areas, but it should also include ma terials development and new methods of  manufacture, distribution and logistics.Environmental impacts can include issues such as limited natural resources, waste disposal and recycling  procedures. Additional Considerations A newer force which is gaining in importance is ethics. These can be defined by the set of moral  principles and values that govern the actions and decisions of an individual or group. Ethics and morals  serve as guidelines on how to act rightly and justly when individuals are faced with moral dilemmas. This force could include corporate social responsibility, fair trade, affiliation between corporations and  charities.A particular problem may exist with how ethical factors relates to legal forces as they may be  at different stages in development. Something may be ethical but not protected by law, whereas other activities may not be ethical, but are legal. A PESTLE analysis should feed into a SWOT analysis as it helps to determine the threats and   opportunities represented by macro-environment forces that the organization usually cannot control. On an international basis, it is best to perform the analysis on a country-by-country basis because  factors can differ greatly between countries (or even regions).Marketing Environment – Micro Marketing Environment – Micro The micro marketing environment consists of certain forces that are part of an organizations marketing process, but remain external to the organization. This micro marketing environment that surrounds organizations can be complex by nature; however the company has an element of control over how it operates within this environment. Marketing helps you to manage and make sense of this complexity. The illustration above summarizes the order of the immediate external marketing environment that businesses operate in.Current and Potential Customers Your customers are vital to the growth and sustainability of your company. In order to grow you must locate customers, understand their needs and then satisfy those needs both efficiently and profitably. Competitors Your competitors however have the same remit as you when it comes to sourcing and satisfying the needs of the customer. They will make it difficult to liaise with customer groups, as by definition they are largely pursuing the same sets of customers as you.As a marketer, you must therefore not only monitor what competitors are doing in the external marketing environment today, but to also anticipate their likely response to your campaigns and to predict what they will do tomorrow. Intermediaries (Distributors/Wholesalers/Retailers) Your business may require a network of wholesalers, distributors and/or retailer. These ‘intermediaries’ provide an invaluable service in getting your products to the customer. You must therefore think carefully about how best to distribute your goods and build relationships.This area can be fierce in competition as not everyone can get access to the channels of distribution that they want. Suppliers One other important area to consider in the external marketing environment is your suppliers. A key supplier can be an important part of your business and may even attribute to your competitive advantage. Losing important suppliers can interrupt production flow or your competitive edge and prevent you from getting your product to your customers. Choice of suppliers, negotiation of terms and relationship building all become important tasks of the marketer.The wider marketing environment, discussed in a separate knowledge sheet, covers all other influences that might provide opportunities or threats to the organization. These include technological development, legal constraints, the economic environment and sociocultural changes. This brief overview of the world in which companies operate in demonstrates that there are many relationships that matter. These need to be managed if the company is to conduct its business suc cessfully. The main responsibility for managing these relationships lies within the marketing department.Using a SWOT SWOT is an important tool in auditing the external and internal environment of the organization. A SWOT Analysis should be more than a basic listing of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Most organizations have the same, common-sense type of threats, such as competitors, technological changes, regulation and deregulation, or weaknesses such as high price, but these are all very general, hard to control elements meaning the utility can be quite limited. As Cranfield’s Professor Malcolm McDonald puts it, real SWOTs should be more concise and specific.STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, AND THREATS Strengths, in the SWOT analysis, are a company's capabilities and resources that allow it to engage in activities to generate economic value and perhaps competitive advantage. A company's strengths may be in its ability to create unique products, to pr ovide high-level customer service, or to have a presence in multiple retail markets. Strengths may also be things such as the company's culture, its staffing and training, or the quality of its managers. Whatever capability a company has can be regarded as strength.A company's weaknesses are a lack of resources or capabilities that can prevent it from generating economic value or gaining a competitive advantage if used to enact the company's strategy. There are many examples of organizational weaknesses. For example, a firm may have a large, bureaucratic structure that limits its ability to compete with smaller, more dynamic companies. Another weakness may occur if a company has higher labor costs than a competitor who can have similar productivity from a lower labor cost.The characteristics of an organization that can be strength, as listed above, can also be a weakness if the company does not do them well. Opportunities provide the organization with a chance to improve its perform ance and its competitive advantage. Some opportunities may be anticipated, others arise unexpectedly. Opportunities may arise when there are niches for new products or services, or when these products and services can be offered at different times and in different locations. For instance, the increased use of the Internet has provided numerous opportunities for companies to expand their product sales.Threats can be an individual, group, or organization outside the company that aims to reduce the level of the company's performance. Every company faces threats in its environment. Often the more successful companies have stronger threats, because there is a desire on the part of other companies to take some of that success for their own. Threats may come from new products or services from other companies that aim to take away a company's competitive advantage. Threats may also come from government regulation or even consumer groups.A strong company strategy that shows how to gain compe titive advantage should address all four elements of the SWOT analysis. It should help the organization determine how to use its strengths to take advantage of opportunities and neutralize threats. Finally, a strong strategy should help an organization avoid or fix its weaknesses. If a company can develop a strategy that makes use of the information from SWOT analysis, it is more likely to have high levels of performance. Nearly every company can benefit from SWOT analysis.Larger organizations may have strategic-planning procedures in place that incorporate SWOT analysis, but smaller firms, particularly entrepreneurial firms may have to start the analysis from scratch. Additionally, depending on the size or the degree of diversification of the company, it may be necessary to conduct more than one SWOT analysis. If the company has a wide variety of products and services, particularly if it operates in different markets, one SWOT analysis will not capture all of the relevant strengths , weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that exist across the span of the company's operations.LIMITATIONS OF SWOT ANALYSIS One major problem with the SWOT analysis is that while it emphasizes the importance of the four elements associated with the organizational and environmental analysis, it does not address how the company can identify the elements for their own company. Many organizational executives may not be able to determine what these elements are, and the SWOT framework provides no guidance. For example, what if a strength identified by the company is not truly strength?While a company might believe its customer service is strong, they may be unaware of problems with employees or the capabilities of other companies to provide a higher level of customer service. Weaknesses are often easier to determine, but typically after it is too late to create a new strategy to offset them. A company may also have difficulty identifying opportunities. Depending on the organization, wha t may seem like an opportunity to some may appear to be a threat to others. Opportunities may be easy to overlook or may be identified long after they can be exploited.Similarly, a company may have difficulty anticipating possible threats in order to effectively avoid them. While the SWOT framework does not provide managers with the guidance to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it does tell managers what questions to ask during the strategy development process, even if it does not provide the answers. Managers know to ask and to determine a strategy that will take advantage of a company's strengths, minimize its weaknesses, exploit opportunities, or neutralize threats.Some experts argue that making strategic choices for the firm is less important than asking the right questions in choosing the strategy. A company may mistakenly solve a problem by providing the correct answer to the wrong question. USING SWOT ANALYSIS TO DEVELOP ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY SWOT analysis is just the first step in developing and implementing an effective organizational strategy. After a thorough SWOT analysis, the next step is to rank the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and to document the criteria for ranking.The company must then determine its strategic fit given its internal capabilities and external environment in a two-by-two grid (see Figure 1). This fit, as determined in the grid, will indicate what strategic changes need to be made. The quadrants in this grid are as follows: * Quadrant 1 —internal strengths matched with external opportunities; * Quadrant 2 —internal weaknesses relative to external opportunities; * Quadrant 3 —internal strengths matched with external threats; and * Quadrant 4 —internal weaknesses relative to external threats.Quadrant 1 lists the strategies associated with a match between the company's strengths and its perceived external opportunities. It represents the best fit between th e company's resources and the options available in the external market. A strategy from this quadrant would be to protect the company's strengths by shoring up resources and extending competitive advantage. If a strategy in this quadrant can additionally bolster weaknesses in other areas, such as in Quadrant 2, this would be advantageous. Quadrant 2 lists the strategies associated with a match between the company's weaknesses with external opportunities.Strategies in this quadrant would address the choice of either improving upon weaknesses to turn them into strengths, or allowing competitors to take advantage of opportunities in the marketplace. Quadrant 3 matches the company's strengths and external threats. Strategies in this quadrant may aim to transform external threats into opportunities by changing the company's competitive position through use of its resources or strengths. Another strategic option in this quadrant is for the company to maintain a defensive strategy to focus on more promising opportunities in other quadrants.Quadrant 4 matches a company's weaknesses and the threats in the environment. These are the worst possible scenarios for an organization. However, because of the competitive nature of the marketplace, any company is likely to have information in this quadrant. Strategies in this quadrant may involve using resources in other quadrants to exploit opportunities to the point that other threats are minimized. Additionally, some issues may be moved out of this quadrant by otherwise neutralizing the threat or by bolstering a perceived weakness.Once a strategy is decided on in each quadrant for the issues facing the company, these strategies require frequent monitoring and periodic updates. An organization is best served by proactively determining strategies to address issues before they become crises. An example of how a firm can develop strategies using these quadrants is as follows. Generic Corporation produces high-quality; high-priced specialty kitchen items in a catalog and in stores and is known for their excellent customer service. This strength has been able to offset its major weaknesses, which are having few stores and no current capabilities for Internet sales.Its major opportunities come from the explosion of Internet shopping, and its threats are other more high-profile competitors, operating primarily on the Internet, and the concerns of identity theft in Internet sales that many customers ha ve. Matching Generic's strengths to its opportunities (Quadrant 1), the firm may choose to enhance its Internet site to allow online purchases, still providing its excellent 24-hour telephone customer service. Ideally, this strategy will offset the weakness of not having an Internet presence, which addresses the concerns of Quadrant 2.Additionally, by bolstering the strength of excellent customer service by applying it to the online shopping site, the company may be able to alleviate customer concerns about identi ty theft (Quadrant 3). A strategy for Quadrant 4, which matches the company's weaknesses and threats, is that Generic may consider selling its online business to a competitor. Certainly, the Quadrant 4 strategy is the least preferred, but a proactive strategy that plans for managing such a situation is favored over a crisis situation in which the company is forced to sell with no planning.A SWOT analysis is a first, but critical, step in developing an organizational strategy. By examining the company's internal capabilities—its strengths and weaknesses and its external environment—opportunities and threats, it helps to create strategies that can proactively contend with organizational challenges. The changing and uncertain marketing environment deeply affects the organization, instead of changing slowly and predictably, the environment can produce major surprises and shocks, how many managers at â€Å"Heinz† foresaw that the baby-boom numbers would fall so rapid ly?How many were able to predict that the Internet will enable not only real-time personal communication but that will also provide a way for business process improvement and new industries would be formed. How many were able to predict that mobile phone SMS and MMS services would add significant value for the customers, some said ‘who would want to type text on the phone or even snap pictures , telephone are only for talking’To conclude I would say that Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information – these information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process. Marketing research specifies the information required to address these issues, designs the methods for collecting information, manages and implements the data collection process, an alyzes, and communicates the findings and their implications. †