Buddhism in Thailand free essay sample

Nowadays, Buddhism is practiced by a large amount of people, especially in Asia but also in Europe and America. Thailand counts 95% of Buddhists in the country. This strong presence of Buddhism there does certainly influence the business communication. It is actually the 4th biggest religion in the world and the total amount of Buddhists in the world is around 500 millions. The focus of Buddhism is on practice rather than on belief. Buddhism is based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha also known as the Buddha. Buddhism has spread through two main branches which are the Theravada which extended south and east from its origins and now has a widespread following in Southeast Asia and the Mahayana which diffused from its origins west, north and east throughout East Asia. Main concepts of Buddhism: -Karma -Rebirth -Four Noble Truths ? Noble Eightfold Path -The cycle of Sa? sara -Nirvana -Bodhisattvas Buddhism in Thailand Thailand is a stronghold of Buddhism. We will write a custom essay sample on Buddhism in Thailand or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This religion first appeared in Thailand in the third century before Christ, making it a very old religion and well anchored in the Thais culture. According to Thailand’s constitution the king is obliged to be a Buddhist. Thailand is perhaps the only country in the world where the king is constitutionally stipulated to be a Buddhist and the upholder of the Faith. ‘The Land of Yellow Robes’ is a surname given to Thailand by many foreigners for yellow robes are what the Buddhists Monks wears and they are seen everywhere on the streets. In Thailand there is a special form of greeting which is the Wai. There is no shaking of hands, or things like that, in Thailand and the Wai is the way by which people greets each other. Buddhism impacts on Thailand in several different ways. First of all Buddhism makes it easier to communicate as mostly everyone shares the same culture and comes from the same background. Usually communication is done very calmly, even if something annoys one of the communicators, due to the fact that Buddhists believe that showing anger openly might attract the wrath of the spirits, which in turn could cause violence and tragedy. Then the Thais pay a lot of respect towards their elders and to people higher in the hierarchy. A disadvantage to business communication is that the government allows people to take three months leave, on full pay, to do their ‘monk-hood’. The Buddhism is a very deep religion with lots of concepts and practices. Thailand, being a region 95% populated by Buddhists is really influenced by this religion. To conclude, the impact of Buddhism on the business communication is very important. People tend to behave in a calm way at work and respect their colleagues admirably.

The successful implementation of social networks for fashion marketing

The successful implementation of social networks for fashion marketing Abstract Fashion marketing is a dynamic process that requires dynamic creation of the available opportunities in order for any fashion to stay afloat. The use of social networking sites has become the in thing in the realm of advertising. People and companies are taking advantage of the rate at which the social networking sites are visited in order to market their products.Advertising We will write a custom dissertation sample on The successful implementation of social networks for fashion marketing specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This paper seeks to establish the way the social networking sites can be used by various people and organizations in the establishment of the right markets for the fashion products. Introduction The current day proliferation in the use of the internet in the world has really transformed the way people can interact. The internet has been able to compress the world into one digital village where interaction w ith the rest of the world does not require one to leave the comfort of their sitting room or the desk at their workplaces. One of the factors and tools that have made this a reality is social networking. Social networking sites have become the code of the day. There are various sites which offer social interaction capabilities such that people can communicate with their friends and families situated in diverse localities throughout the world and update them on their day to day activities as and when they happen. Some of the sites in use today are facebook, twitter, friendstar, MySpace, flicker, zanga, Slashdot, dodgeball, bibo, blogger and so many others. Twitter and facebook comprise of the most visited and the most famous social networking sites. Fashion marketing includes the analysis, development and marketing of current fashion trends into the sales department for the invention of the right sales strategies. Marketers in the fashion industry are involved in researching about th e current trends in the fashion world, the industries and the people concerned and also the reason as to why the trends are so popular. The simply are focused on the people who are interested in their products. Fashion marketing is a very dynamic process. This is mainly due to the spontaneous changes that are visible in the fashion industry. The competition is very stiff and requires the necessary stakeholders to be always on their toes or else they will find themselves trailing behind the rest in the fashion market (Gunasekaran, et al, 2002).Advertising Looking for dissertation on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Integration of social networking sites and fashion marketing therefore tends to be one of the most attractive decisions that a fashion marketer can take. Today, social networking sites are recording the highest number of visits in an hour. This entails that once a product is advertised t hrough the sites, there is a very high probability that so many people will be able to know about the product. This paper looks at fashion marketing and seeks to garner more knowledge on the use of social networking sites in this industry. The paper will begin with a background and a review of the topic. This will be closely followed by the objectives of the study and the methods that will be used to gather information in the research project. A conclusion will wind up the paper stating some of the important lessons learnt in the paper. Literature review In this section the paper seeks to describe how the popular internet social connection platforms can be used to market fashion. Bohdanowicz Clamp (1994) state that â€Å"marketing plays a vital role in the fashion industry†, since social networks can be an effective marketing tool, this paper discusses how the fashion industry can use these networks to leverage its marketing strategies. Social networks are a meeting point fo r people. Networks like Facebook, Twitter, provide a means for people to link up with new people or old friends. They are also used by professionals to enhance their odds of career development. Social networks provide the opportunity to upload or download photos and videos. This ascertains their genuineness in a particular social circle, industry or just keeps them in touch with their contacts. Business establishments have noticed the impact that social networks are having on the way people communicate, connect are meet. As a result social networking has become a platform where people can be introduced to products and services (Elliott, 1991). This has resulted in the development of relationships between the sellers and buyers of products and services (Marzo-Navarro, Pedraja-Iglesias, Rivera-Torres, 2004,p 420-423) How social networks can be an effective marketing tool Since businesses discovered that social networks can be used as an effective marketing tool, marketers have been o verlooking the real purpose of why social networks were setup in the first place. Some networks, like Twitter and Facebook were setup to connect friends. Others like LinkedIn were setup to connect people of the same professions. People want to belong to groups with other people of similar interests and backgrounds. Social networks fulfill this need and they have now redefined the use of the internet and it is now being used to connect people more than ever before regardless of the geographical constraints.Advertising We will write a custom dissertation sample on The successful implementation of social networks for fashion marketing specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Social networks have enabled fashion marketing to be easier and more effective because they provide a marketing latency that can be used to greatly enhance any fashion marketing campaign. The internet has, however, been a fashion marketing tool for businesses, the main depa rture from tradition is that increasing competition in the global marketplace has forced businesses to look for new ways of maintaining customer loyalty and increasing market-share in increasingly saturated markets (Marzo-Navarro, Pedraja-Iglesias, Rivera-Torres, 2004, p434). Businesses now use less of the traditional methods of directing internet traffic to their websites by optimizing the process of link building. They now employ social networks to communicate their message. Social networks are an effective tool for marketing because thousands potential customers are communicated to whenever they visit the firms social page (Kotler Eduardo, 1989). Traditionally, the use of search engines for marketing called for the creation of content that contained a lot of the keywords that the site creators aim to call attention to, which would then be supported by the getting as much links as possible to be directed to your page with the keywords as the anchor links. Social networks introdu ced a new approach that forces you to use the traffic that you get from the internet and facilitating them to discuss about the targeted topics that the marketer would like to be the key points. Social networks can provide thousands of simultaneous connections whenever friends share or discuss any particular topic. Over time, casual mentions and discussions of a product can lead to full product endorsements (Hines, 2007). The established product endorsements can easily reach new connections exponentially as more people are made aware by their friends and contacts. Traditionally, internet-search-engine based marketing techniques relied on directing traffic to your site through links, nowadays social networks have made this more effective by having people direct each other while in their discussions, which is the equivalent of people being directed to your product site based on the opinion of their friends.Advertising Looking for dissertation on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Attributes of marketers that make them use social networks effectively Social networks mirror the way people get connected to each in real life relationships. The social theory of connection: â€Å"Six Degrees of Separation† states that anyone can meet anyone else by being connected to the eventual contact by five intermediary contacts. This theory is illustrated by the way social networks facilitate connections that can be used to create marketing opportunities (Moore Fairhurst, 2003, 385). In terms of the connection theory, marketing can be carried by people who facilitate connections under three categories, namely: Connectors Mavens Salespeople Connectors. When a marketer is running a campaign, there are people who are already connected to her, and the marketer is able to connect to many more others (McKee, 1992), because her major goal is to reach out to as many people as possible. The marketer will therefore act as the connector between people from diverse cultures a nd backgrounds. (Bohdanowicz Clamp, 1994)If a product can be considered as germ, then the marketer acts as the vector of the germ, because they come across many people than others do. Mavens. Marketers, who employ the tactic of spreading the word about a good thing, fall under this category. They have the skills to initiate a buzz about a good thing. Once a widespread interest has been sparked, the connectors spread it even further. Salespeople. These are the type of people that easily persuade others about the marketing message of a particular campaign (Bohdanowicz Clamp, 1994). They convince those that are hesitant about the message that they deduce from a particular marketing call. How Social Networks Can Increase the Return of Investment of the Fashion Industry In this section, the paper discusses how social networks have contributed to the returns on the investments of the fashion industry by describing how they have been used to make fashion marketing more efficient and far reaching. According to Easey (2009), the fashion industry has always relied on classic methods of doing business, which generally shun the extensive integration of technology into its practices. The industry is more people oriented, most of the production process relies on the physical input of people, as an illustration, the design process is usually done by hand. In the recent past, however, the fashion firms have been increasingly employing technology to increase the production efficiency and source material quality assurance. Fashion marketers have until recently relied on the information provided by the retailers of fashion products to determine those products that might do well in the market. Even recorded sales data could not be used to accurately determine which products would generate good sales in the future. Social networks could be however be used to measure the response of the consumers to a particular design, which would lead to better projections of the fashion sales . This gives the producers the advantage of manufacturing quantities that they are sure of selling instead of releasing products that would produce a glut in the market (Selden, 1996). Fashion retailers have been facing a problem of having to deal with the huge quantities of returned merchandize. Products get returned when they do not fit the customer appropriately, the material that made the product is of a quality that the customer did not expect or the customer is just not satisfied with product. Fashion social sites like MyShape have solved this problem by enabling people to create their profiles which enables the fashion producers to be creating products that are accurately tailored to the needs of the customers. According to Andersson, et al, (2004) marketing should be carried out so as to have the maximum possible impact on the intended consumers; this is what social networks are achieving by increasingly turning window shoppers into actual fashion buyers. An analysis of the preferences of the connected customers enables the fashion retailers to offer what would is in demand, thus fulfilling the actual fashion needs of the customers. Retailers can post images of what they offer and according to the comments of the members of that network; they can fine tune their offers accordingly (p 110). While some social networks are providing data about the preferences, purchase power and emerging trends, other technology firms have integrated this data to provide even more personalized data services. The social-trends monitoring technology firm Novitaz has a system that communicates with a fashion consumer by using their mobile phones to track their locations so that they can provide information about the nearest fashion outlet and broadcast news about the latest trends that are suitable for that particular consumer. While a firm known as ShopKick employs the same technology to enable the fashion retailer to send personalized promotional news to the consumer. The promotions could include gifts that are linked to other social sites, for example Facebook Currency. Though social networks have become now increasingly become a means of marketing fashion merchandise, albeit the traditional methods of reaching the fashion consumer are still influential (Andreasen, 1995), thus the fashion retailer now needs to track all the marketing media to gauge the effect of a product campaign. A firm called Fashion GPS specializes in tracking all the media that a fashion retailer may use to market her products and integrates all this into common consumer data. Implications of this research In this section, this paper shows how marketing through social media is here to stay, but the way in which it is carried out will have to adapt to changing times, as Bohdanowicz Clamp (1994) say: â€Å"the transient nature of fashion means that marketers must constantly operate within time constraints†. The marketers of fashion should therefore be careful to disregard the fundamentals of marketing, even when they use novel marketing media like social networks. The goals of the marketing campaign are carefully regarded to ensure that the correct messages are passed, since social media can transmit any kind of message, good or bad, at the same rate (Tomes, 1994,p160). Although marketing has been proposed to be carried out aggressively, when the marketer is at a personal level with a potential consumer (Andersson, Hedelin, Nilsson, Welander, 2004, p 112), keen attention is required when social media marketing is used because it easily leads to unintended results. Research objectives The main objectives of this study will be as follows: To investigate the way fashion marketers establish their foundations using their current and existing systems To investigate both the advantages and the disadvantages of using social networking sites as a fashion marketing tool To get and distinguish the challenges involved in using the social networking sites in t he fashion industry as a tool for fashion marketing To establish the factors that outline the direct effects and also the indirect effects of using the social networking sites as tool to market the current trends in the fashion industry To establish the impacts of using the social networking sites and other opportunities that can help in fashion marketing from the social networking sites. Research methodology This research will use the philosophy of realism as the core part of the research. This will assist in ensuring that the data collected trough the methods that will be discussed later will portray the real situation as it is and also the expectations for the future. The necessity of applying such a stance is due to the seriousness in the way style impacts lives of people directly. Fashion is used to depict someone and is the outward voice that explains who a person is (Weikum and Vossen, 2002). The study will seek to build theories and answers which will be based on the collec ted information. According to Creswell (1994), the information which is required at any one circumstance during a certain process, is concerned with both the nature of the situation and also the status of the situation. This is because of the longitudinal pattern of its existence. The practices and also the existing relationships have the capability of being explored to the last inch through this process. In addition to the existing practices, say in the fashion industry, the continuing beliefs and subsequent processes that influence the changes in the fashion industry also fall in. the combination of this facts and maybe figures can lead to possible prediction of future trends in the industry (Best, 1970). From such an analysis, the research will have been able to establish the most important aspect of the fashion industry; being in line with the current trends and the psychic abilities of predicting the next hit in the fashion industry. With the right prediction, consequent advert isements can follow suit (Joshi, 2005). In the first stages of the research, it will incorporate a qualitative approach through the distribution of survey questionnaires. The questionnaires will be sent to two broadly based groups of people located in a local university for ease of collection and convenience in data entry. The first group will comprise of students pursuing various degrees in fashion designing and other fashion oriented courses. The second group will consist of students found in the internet cafes and various internet hot spots within the chosen campuses. The essence of this distribution is to incorporate knowledge about fashion and the use of internet. Though the questionnaires will be the same, it will be simple to note out about the trends that are going on with respect to the way that the students will answer the relevant questions. In the questionnaires, the instrument of choice will be both structured questions and open ended questions. The questions will be de mographic and some other answers will be direct and associated with the topic under discussion. The topic will be generalized to come up with the right statistics that will be used to determine the right graphical trend for the job. Another form of research that will be employed in this research project will be a detailed media analysis. In the media analysis, focus will be concentrated on topics and articles in the media that focus on the research. Pints will be taken and analyzed at the end of the data collection period. The findings will be incorporated to the previous findings so as to get some concrete information (Joshi, 2005). Contribution of the study This study will help market researchers in establishing the right track in their internet marketing. Due to the proliferation that is found today in the field of internet marketing, most people lack the proper idea on how to go about marketing. This research will thus be an eye opener to all the stakeholders involved in fashion marketing on the riches found in social networking sites in terms of information outsourcing and delivery. Research ethics This research has been done in a very ethical way in that there is no involvement of financial inducements, deception or any form of unethical behavior that might in any way compromise the standards that have been duly set in the university code of ethics. Time scale and resources This research will take two three months. Data collection will take the first one month. This will be followed by an analysis and compilation of the data. After this has been done, the data will be compared with previous researches to check for consistency after which the final report shall be written. References Andersson, S., Hedelin, A., Nilsson, A., Welander, C. (2004) Violent advertising in fashion marketing. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management , 8 (1), 96 112. Andreasen, A. R. (1995) Marketing Social Change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Best, J.W. (1970) Rese arch in Education, 2nd Ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, Inc. Bohdanowicz, J., Clamp, L. (1994) Fashion Marketing. New York: Routledge. Creswell, J.W. (1994) Research design. Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage. Easey, M. (2009) Fashion Marketing (3rd Edition ed.). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing. Elliott, B. J. (1991) A Re-Examination of the Social Marketing Concept. University of New South Wales. Sydney: Unpublished Master’s Thesis. Gunasekaran, A., Khalil, O. Rahman, S. M. (2002) Knowledge and Information Technology Management: Human and Social Perspectives. Idea Group Inc. Hines, T. B. (2007) Fashion marketing: contemporary issues. Oxford: Elsevier Ltd. Joshi, R., (2005) International Marketing, New York: Oxford University Press. Kotler, P., Eduardo, R. L. (1989) Social Marketing. New York: The Free Press. Marzo-Navarro, M., Pedraja-Iglesias, M., Rivera-Torres, M. P. (2004) The benefits of relationship marketing for the c onsumer and for the fashion retailers. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management , 8 (4), 425 436. McKee, N. (1992) Social Mobilization and Social Marketing in Developing Communities. Panang, Malaysia: Southbound. Moore, M., Fairhurst, A. (2003) Marketing capabilities and firm performance in fashion retailing. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management , 7 (4), 386 397. Selden, P. (1996) Sales Process Engineering: A Personal Workshop. Milwaukee, WI: ASQC Quality Press. Tomes, K. (1994) Marketing and the Mass Media: Theory and Myth. Health Education Research , 165-169. Weikum, G. Vossen, G. (2002) Transactional information Systems: Theory, Algorithms and the Practice of Concurrency Control and Recovery. Morgan Kaufmann.

Discuss the motives underlining M&A and compare the outcomes of the Essay

Discuss the motives underlining M&A and compare the outcomes of the different methodologies used to analyse M&A - Essay Example There are two types of acquisitions; â€Å"private and â€Å"public†. This depends on whether the company acquiring is or is not listed on a public stock market. The difference between Merger and Acquisition is that Merger deals with two companies joining to become one while Acquisition has one company, which is doing the buying (Sherman and Hart, 20016:11). The work that follows discusses the motives underlying M&A, and compares the outcomes of the different methodologies used to analyze M&A. All companies that engage in any business are under one rule: grow or die. Those companies that plan to grow take away market share from their competitors look for the creation of economic profits and provide returns to shareholders (Sherman and Hart, 2006: 1). Those that lack plans on growth are stagnant, do not plan any growth strategies, they end up losing customers and market share and lose shareholder value. Mergers and Acquisitions contribute a lot to these two conditions. It help s the stronger company to grow faster than the competition and ensures quick swallowing of the weaker companies or them making irrelevant through exclusion (Sherman and Hart, 2006:1). Motives underlying M&A Different business enterprises and companies have used Mergers and Acquisitions as a means of growth strategies. ... The three differ according to the ideas behind them (Schmidt, 2010: 67) Economic motives Different authors have devised different theories to explain economic motives that encourage people to engage in Merges and Acquisitions; Efficiency theory This theory presents the motive of benefiting shareholders and managers of the acquiring company (Farschtschian, 2012:18). According to this theory, companies plan and execute Mergers and Acquisitions to achieve financial, operational and managerial synergies (Faulkner, Teerikangas and Joseph, 2012). The shareholders with this motive aim to benefit from net gains through synergy. Monopoly theory Under this theory, companies engage in Mergers and Acquisition with the motive of achieving market power. Mergers and Acquisitions under this motive may allow companies to cross-subsidize products, at the same time limit competitions in more than one market, and discourage potential entrants from the market. All of this result to monopoly power for the company. The shareholders under this motive aim at the wealth transfers from customers. Managerial Motives Theories that explain managerial motives include; Empire/Agency building theory This theory shows the motive aimed at benefiting managers. In this motive, managers plan for Mergers and Acquisitions aiming at maximizing their own utility instead of shareholders’ value (Karenfort, 2011: 9). The managers, according to this theory, plan to engage the company in mergers and Acquisition aiming at benefiting or creating their own reputation. Another motive is the need to transform to a corporate identity or recognition. This is where companies merge to gain popularity (Sherman and Hart, 2006:13). Financial motives The following theories explain the

W6DQ Follow Up Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

W6DQ Follow Up - Assignment Example Segil, L (2002) However, in any social setting, there are obstacles that are encountered such as conflicts, maintaining team work as well as managing and appreciating the diversity meaning different skills among the members. Therefore, to solve or prevent these negative issues within a team, an effective leader is required to to lead the team in the most efficient, authoritative and just way to prevent discriminating views. A leader is an individual who guides and influences a group of people in accomplishing the set tasks and objectives. Leading an effective team calls a true leader. An effective team works in handy to fulfill the given mandates in solidarity and respecting every individual’s perspective relating the set agenda. Thus a leader of an effective team calls for transparency in decision making and observes and acknowledges the diversity within the team. This enhances or creates a warm friendly environment within the team and in return it creates a conducive working environment for the team. Lena Zander and Audra I. Mockaitis (2012) In certain situations, some pressing and delicate issues regarding a given mandate almost lead to the collapse of a given team due to conflicting views. Therefore, for an efficient decision to take place, a wise leader calms down the situation and makes a firm decision on the same. For one to lead an effective team, one should possess knowledge from observing past mistakes and failures. After recognizing these negative attributes, it becomes easier to develop effective strategies and adequate counter measures to overcome future obstacles. Lastly, leading an effective team advocates for teamwork. Debbie Zmorenski (2011) Teamwork creates efficiency through the understanding every individuals strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, it works as a guideline in making correct and informed decisions. When a leader maintains teamwork, definitely the team is bound for success, more contracts and lastly enjoying success toget her respecting the leader. References Lena Zander, Audra I. Mockaitis., 2012. Christina L. Butler Leading global teams Original Research Article: Journal of World Business, 47 (4), Pp. 592-603 Segil, L 2002, Dynamic leader adaptive organization: ten essential traits for managers, John Wiley & Sons. The New York Debbie Zmorenski (2011), How to create and lead high-performing teams http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/27377/Creating-leading-high-performing-teams Response 2 Leading an effective team revolves around good leadership skills. The said leader should make sure that every team member should live accountable with the resolutions made and should make sure that each member foresees the implementation of the decisions made. I response every member feels the weight of the resolutions thus creating a situation where every team member is keen in observing goals. Miles, J. (2012) In other terms the leadership position is fulfilled by every member but final decisions are left for the tru e leader. An effective team is demanding in how it is led hence a call for a strong leader comes in place. This leader should evaluate the performance of the team. When keen measurement is thoroughly taken, for the team to be effective the leader should maintain the following characteristics. Communication in an effective team is crystal clear and transparent through decency and honesty. This drives the team to success in achieving the laid

Ebola disease Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Ebola disease - Research Paper Example It is no secret that the most recent West African outbreaks of Ebola that managed to reach the borders of United States in more than one locale (Bausch, & Schwarz, 2014). This is no small problem and people need to be aware of the truth about Ebola and how best to prevent and infection in the first place. In the end, understanding what Ebola is and where it comes from, as well as, how it manifests and how to address break-outs of such a threatening disease is essential. Ebola Virus Disease was originally discovered in Africa, specifically the Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo, in 1976. Over the course of the last 35 years fears of outbreaks have remained a major concern for agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The name Ebola was assigned the virus for the Ebola River, near the first initial outbreak. However, other subcategories of the Ebola virus have been indentified in places like, Zaire, Reston, and the Tai Forest (Nall, 2014). At least 4 of the most deadly strains are specifically found in Africa. Ebola is a from a family of diseases called Filoviridae and can manifest a number of symptoms that can be mistaken for less lethal or contagious diseases, like a common influenza (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). The Ebola virus invades the body and will remain unnoticed during the incubation period, which can be between 2 and 21 days. Ebola manifests as a s evere, hemorrhagic fever, fatigue, muscle aches and pains, damages liver and kidneys, and impedes normal function, and severe vomiting. However, it is the bleeding that is often, both, internal and external, and can be seen exuding from the gums or in their stool samples that is unique to the virus (World Health Organization, 2014). Again, because many of the symptoms of Ebola its presence it is often mistaken for a less virulent, more common, virus. That said Ebola may go misdiagnosed until the outbreak

Childhood Consumerism And Consumption Media Essay

Childhood Consumerism And Consumption Media Essay During the rise of consumer culture in the nineteenth century, children and childhood were called on to fulfill a range of important roles. In addition to being consumers themselves, the young functioned as both goods to be used and consumed by adults and as proof that middle-class materialist ventures were assisting in the formation of a more ethical society. Children also provided necessary labor and raw material for industry. However, in todays corporate world, youth culture is largely the creation of marketers, corporations and those interested in getting rich off youth through popular culture. The young people have been targeted by the big business and the advertising industry to bolster their revenue. Although primarily discussing the American situation, the globalization of youth culture means the findings are relevant to most of the world. Indeed, given the global reach of such icons of American popular culture as MTV, McDonalds and Coke, almost no culture is immune from its effect. Unlike in the past centuries, presently children and teens are growing up in a world made up of advertisers, marketers and corporate giants who are doing all they can to drain every last dollar out of the lucrative youth market. And they are succeeding. Douglas Rushkoff media critic said; For todays teens, a walk in the street may as well be a stroll through the mall. Anywhere they rest their eyes; theyll be exposed to a marketing message. A typical American teenager will process over 3,000 discrete advertisements in a single day, and 10 million by the time theyre 18. Kids are also consuming massive quantities of entertainment media. Its a blizzard of brands, all competing for the same kids. To win teens loyalty, marketers believe, they have to speak their language the best. So they study them carefully, as an anthropologist would an exotic native culture, (Mooks and Midriffs, 2006). They spend their days browsing through reams of market research data. They conduct endless surveys and focus groups. They comb the streets, the schools, and the malls, hot on the trail of the next big thing, which will attract the attention of their prey, a market segment worth an estimated $150 billion a year. Businesses are creating and selling popular culture which has made teenagers the hottest consumer demographic in America. They simply not reflecting teen desires, rather they are manufacturing those desires in a bid to secure this lucrative market. Not only are they selling the goods but they are also dictating the market and consumer behavior. Like Mark Crispin Miller said, advertising has always sold anxiety, and it certainly sells anxiety to the young people. Its always telling them theyre losers unless theyre cool (Merchants of cool, 2000). Corporations invest a lot of money just to research what is cool and what is not. The problem is, cool keeps changing, simply because kids keep changing. And the corporations struggle to keep up with the rapid changes in cool. The corporate world deals with this problem not by just mapping cool, but to create cool. This in fact has become much of the strategy of the businesses to create cool, while claiming to simply be reflecting cool. Thus they are no longer selling a product, they are selling a lifestyle. This process is done in part by doing market research into what teens like, then repackaging and re-selling it back to them. Marketers extensively interview young people to see what they wear, what they eat, what they buy, what they listen to, and so on, then repackage the results into a sellable commodity. Robert McChesney explained: The entertainment companies, which are a handful of massive conglomerates that own four of the five music companies that sell 90 percent of the music in the United States-those same companies also own all the film studios, all the major TV networks, all the TV stations pretty much in the 10 largest markets. They own all or part of every single commercial cable channel. They look at the teen market as part of this massive empire that theyre colonizing. . . . Teens are like Africa . . . that theyre going to take over, and their weaponry are films, music, books, CDs, Internet access, clothing, amusement parks, sports teams. Thats all this weaponry they have to make money off of this market. Everything on MTV is a commercial. . . . Sometimes its an explicit advertisement paid for by a company to sell a product. Sometimes its going to be a video for a music company there to sell music. Sometimes its going to be the set thats filled with trendy clothes and stuff there to sell a look that will include products on that set. Sometimes it will be a show about an upcoming movie paid for by the studio, though you dont know it, to hype a movie thats coming out from Hollywood. But everythings an infomercial. There is no non-commercial part of MTV, (Cultural Manipulation, 2004). Young peoples incomes continue to grow, as does their influence over their food and drink intake and personal care use. The youths market is evolving, making stereotypical views of children outdated. According to Global Issues; On average children watch 25,000 to 40,000 television commercials annually. Businesses spend about $15-17 billion advertising to children in the US. $160 billion is spent annually by teens. Children (under 12) spend almost $18 billion a year. 8-12 year olds this category has more influence on the market spend more than $30 billion a year. The young people influence parental spending over $130-670 billion a year, (Anup Shah, 2008) Mark Crispin Miller said: Teenagers suffer from acute self-consciousness to begin with. Their bodies are changing and they feel awkward and they often are awkward. So thats already a kind of psychological problem, a burden for most kids. This system comes along and heightens that anxiety by constantly confronting every kid with a kind of mirror in which youre supposed to look at yourself and like what you see or not like what you see, depending on whether youve bought the stuff that theyre selling, (interview: Mark Crispin Miller). This is due mainly to the companys advertising strategies suggesting sexuality; beauty for girls and for boys there is an emphasis to portray them as tough. Seeing that this has become a huge world problem some countries have taken an initiative to control commercials targeting young people. For example in Sweden banned commercials during childrens prime time. The European Union is deliberating issues related to advertising targeting the young people, whether they should be a European wide ban or a regulation. There is an international biannual conference that is organized with aim of dealing with topics such as: childhood consumption practices, childrens roles in the consumer decision-making process, media, consumption and youth culture, public policy and media regulation. Contrary to what is happening Europe in the US business is business. Since the constitution recognizes children to have their rights it is hard for parents to fully deal with the situation without governments support. The best way to deal with this is for the concerned parties, especially the government, teachers and parents join hands into educating the better ways on spending and how these so called corporate friends are manipulating them into spending. And since consumerism among the youth has become a culture it is better to approach the subject with respect if the message is to be effective.

Essay example --

In literature there are many parts to a successful story. What appears to be the main themes within a specific text may in fact be completely different, or interpreted in another way. As with many successful works what happens in the background may be more interesting or noteworthy than that of which happens in the foreground. Those happenings may also control the outcome, or even the whole of the tale. In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Such a circumstance may be in effect. Unlike in various other texts of that time, many of the females portrayed in the poem are unlike how they were supposed to be in that era. Through their actions, it is the women that control the story and thus guide it from its rocky start to its wild conclusion. This is shown through Lady Bertilak’s actions towards Sir Gawain, Morgan’s overall hand in the charade, and the symbols and actions of the main men within the text. Perhaps the most relevant point to make is Morgan’s hand in the plot. At the end of the poem the readers learn from the Green Knight that the entire situation is set up by Morgan. Essentially, the entire story rides on the fact that Morgan dislikes Guinevere and wishes to both scare her (Possibly to death) and humiliate Arthur and his knights. Without this malice towards Guinevere, there would be no poem to begin with. Morgan sets up the conflict by enchanting Lord Bertilak and ordering him to do as she bids, going to Arthur and his knights and posing the challenge to them. This proves the power Morgan holds over the men, as she is the one in control. This may be combatted with the assumption that she plays the part of the evil witch and thus plays into one of the many stereotypes of women in that time. Dr. Shadi Neimneh and associates ... ...t necessarily the ones holding the reins. Throughout the poem Morgan and Lady Bertilak transform the two main men at their will, Morgan turning Lord Bertilak into The Green Knight, and Lady Bertilak stealing Sir Gawains masculinity. They control everything from the beginning scene in which the Green Knight entices King Arthurs court, to Sir Gawains presence in Lord Bertilak’s estate, all the way to the very end when their deeds are revealed and they send Sir Gawain back to Arthur with the humiliating girdle tied firmly around him. Morgan may not have fully achieved her desire to mock King Arthur and falsify his knights, but with the combined efforts of Lady Bertilak and Lord Bertilak, she is able to shame Sir Gawain and teach him humility that he spreads throughout the kingdom. In the end, it is the women who earn the greatest importance in the quest, and the poem.