Brief History of Computer by Ajiboye Daud

LITERATURE REVIEW OF COMPUTER HARDWARE Computers have evolved from the fundamental principles of mathematical calculation and language processing. The computing systems of today are an outcome of the efforts and intellect of mathematicians, logicians, linguists and technologists from all over the world. Computer history comprises the evolutionary journey of computing systems, the timeline of operating systems as well as the history behind the development of a wide variety of computer software and hardware. Bellow is the computer history in brief and the evolution of computers. How did the different types of computers evolve? Here is a brief overview of the progress of computing technology from calculators of the 18th century right up to the modern-day digital portable computers. Year| Technology Used| Before 1801| Calculators were the earliest computing devices. They were the only computation tools for long years before the creation of computers. | 1801| The years that followed were dominated by the use of punched cards for computing. The users used to submit programming assignments to a computer centre using stacks of cards. The programs used to be queued for processing and execution. | 1930 – 1960| Desktop mechanical calculators were built during the 1930s. During the 1950s and the '60s, electronic desktop calculators came up. Analog computational technologies predominated this period. | 1940 – 1960| This span of time witnessed the emergence of the digital computing technology. Zuse Z3, ENIAC and EDSAC were some of the early digital computers. * First-generation computers were based on the von Neumann architecture. * The second generation computers were characterized by the replacement of vacuum tube by bipolar transistors. They were composed of printed circuit boards. | After 1960| These years witnessed the development of the third generation computers. They were based on integrated circuits. Computer systems of this period had large storage capacities and high processing powers. Multi-core CPUs became available in the 21st century. Laptops, palmtops, handheld PCs, notebook computers and tablet PCs are popular today. Computer development still continues. | Let us now look at the history and timeline of computing systems. Before moving ahead, it will be interesting to know when was the first computer made! Year| Event| 2400 BC| Abacus, the first known calculator was invented in Babylonia. It was a major step towards the era of computing that was to follow. 500 BC| Panini, an ancient Indian Sanskrit grammarian came up with the predecessor of the modern formal language theory. | 300 BC| Pingala invented the binary number system that serves as the foundation of computing systems the world over. | 1614| John Napier designed the system of movable rods, which used algorithms to perform the basic mathematical operations. | 1622| William Oug htred invented slide rules. | 1822| Charles Babbage devised the first mechanical computer. | 1937| John V. Atanasoff devised the first digital electronic computer| 1939| Atanasoff and Clifford Berry came up with the ABC prototype. 1941| The electromechanical Z machines by Konrad Zuse proved being an important step in the evolution of computers. | 1943| Colossus, which was able to decode German messages, was designed at Bletchley Park in Britain. | 1944| Harvard Mark I, a computer with lesser programmability was designed. | 1945| John von Neumann described a stored program architecture, for the first time ever. This architecture was the heart of the computer systems developed thereafter. This architecture, which came to be known as the von Neumann architecture is a part of every computer till today. 1946| The Ballistics Research Laboratory of the United States came up with the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC). It was the first general purpose electronic computer; but had an inflexible architecture. | 1950| The US National Bureau of Standards came up with the Standards Electronic/Eastern Automatic Computer (SEAC). It was the first computer using diodes for handling logic. | 1951| Lynos Electronic Office (LEO), the first business computer was developed by John Simmons and T. Raymond Thompson. UNIVAC I, the first commercial computer was designed in the United States by John Presper Eckert and John W. Mauchly. EDVAC, the electronic discrete variable automatic computer was introduced. | 1955| Bell Labs introduced its first transistor computer. Transistors made computers energy-efficient. | 1958| Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was formed. This year also witnessed the making of the first silicon chip by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce. | 1968| DEC launched the first mini computer known as PDP-8| 1969| The US Department of Defense founded the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET). It was established with intent to develop a computer network and is the predecessor of the Internet. 1971| Microcomputers came up with microprocessors and Ted Hoff at Intel, introduced 4-bit 4004. | 1972| This year witnessed the creation of 8080 microprocessors by Intel. | 1973| A minicomputer that was called Xerox Alto was developed during this year. It was an important milestone in the development of personal computers. | 1974| Researchers at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center came up with Alto, which was the first workstation with an inbuilt mouse. It had a fair amount of storage capacity and offered menus and icons. It could also connect to a network. 1975| Altair came up with the first portable computer. The foundation of the present-day relationship between portability and computing was laid way back in 1975! Tandem computers, the first computers with online transaction processing capacities were born during this period. | 1979| By 1979, more than half a million computers were in use in the United States. This number crossed 10 million by 1983. | 1981| The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) was founded. It was during the same year that the first 32-bit chip was introduced by Hewlett-Packard. | 1982| Intel announced the 80286 processor. 1983| In this year, the Time magazine nominated personal computer for the title ‘machine of the year'. | 1985| Intel introduced the 80386 processor that consists of a 16MHz processor. | 1990| The World Wide Web was born. Tim Berners-Lee, a researcher at CERN, developed HTML. He came up with specifications such as URL and HTTP. He based the World Wide Web on enquiry-based system that used hypertext and enabled people to collaborate over a network. His first web server and browser became available to the public. | Till date| The development of newer versions of computer systems continues. | An operating system is that software component of a computer system, which deals with the management of the different computer processes and the sharing of computer resources. It hosts computer applications and handles computer hardware. Take a look at the major events in the history of operating systems. Before going ahead, you might like to take a quick look at the different types of operating systems. Year| Event| 1954| MIT came up with their operating system for UNIVAC 1103. | 1964| Dartmouth timesharing operating system was developed. | 1965| Multics was announced. However, it was opened for paying customers in October 1969. 1966| DOS/360 of IBM came up. | 1969| This year witnessed the development of the Unix operating system by AT;T. | 1976| CP/M was developed during this year. | 1980| OS-9 came up in 1980. | 1981| This year can be considered fortunate to have witnessed the development of MS-DOS. IBM had hired Paul Allen and Bill Gates to create an operating system in 1980. The y used the operating system manufactured by the Seattle Computer Products as a template to develop DOS. | 1984| Macintosh operating system came up in this year. | 1987| It was during this year that MINIX, BSD2000 and OS/2 were developed. 1988| RISC iX, LynxOS and Macintosh OS (System 6) came up during this year. | 1989| This was the time when the RISC operating system was developed. | 1991| It was in 1991 that Linux came up. It is a Unix-like operating system, which is a free software. It was during this year that Minix 1. 5 was developed and Macintosh came up with System 7. | 1992| Solaris, the successor of Sun OS 4. X came up during this year. | 1993| Plan 9, FreeBSD, NetBSD and Windows NT 3. 1 came up during 1993. | 1995| OpenBSD and Microsoft Windows 95 came up during 1995 | 1996| Windows NT 4. 0 hit the computing market in 1996. | 998| 1998 witnessed the release of Windows 98 as well of Solaris 7. | 2000| Windows 2000, which hit the markets in 2000, was the first Windows server operating system to drop the ‘NT' suffixed to its name. Windows ME, which was sold during this year, was the last operating system in the Windows 9x line. Red Hat Linux 6. 2E also came up during 2000. | 2001| Windows XP was launched and soon gained a wide popularity. Windows XP 64-bit edition followed in 2002. | 2002| Windows XP Service Pack 1 was released in 2002. | 2003| 2003 witnessed the launch of the Windows 2003 Server as also the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3. 2004| Windows XP Service Pack 2 was released in 2004. | 2006| Windows Vista hit the markets| 2008| Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 came up in 2008. It was also during this very year that Windows XP Service Pack 3 was released. | Computers have always been the most efficient computational devices. They have high processing powers and are able to run and execute large programs. Programming languages serve as the means to write programs on computer systems. Thus, it is important to look at the timeline of the development of some of the major programming languages. Following is an overview of the important events in the history of computer languages. Year| Programming Language Developed| Before 1950| The ENIAC coding system was primarily used in computing| 1954-54| Fortran â€Å"0† was designed by a team at IBM. Fortran Implementation was developed by John Backus at IBM in 1957. | 1956-58| John McCarthy came up with the concept of LISP. | 1959| COBOL concept came up followed by its implementation that was developed by the Codasyl Committee in 1960. The LISP implementation was developed in 1959. LISP's successor, Common LISP, came up later in 1984. 1964| IBM came up with PL/I concept. PL/M followed years later in 1972. 1964 also saw the development of BASIC by Kemeny and Kurtz. | 1969| Ken Thompson developed the B language. | 1970| This was when Pascal was developed. | 1972| It was during 1972 that Smalltalk and Prolog were developed. One of the most important events in the history of computing was the development of C language. It was de veloped by Dennis Ritchie in 1972. | 1975| Scheme, the successor of LISP came up in 1975 as also Modula, the successor of Pascal. | 1978| SQL was developed at IBM in 1978. | 1979| REXX and AWK came up in 1979. 1980-83| C with classes was developed in 1980. Objective-C came up in 1982. 1983 witnessed the development of C++, one of the very popular languages till date. | 1985| PostScript and Object Pascal belong to 1985. | 1987| Perl that derives some of its features from C, as also from AWK, sed and sh evolved in 1987. | 1991| Van Rossum came up with Python. Visual Basic, developed by Alan Cooper, came up in the same year. | 1993| Ruby, which is considered a successor of Smalltalk and Perl, came up in 1993. | 1994| PHP was born in 1994. | 1995| ColdFusion belongs to 1995. It was during this year that James Gosling at Sun Microsystems came up with Java. | 1996| Javascript was born in this year. ECMAScript, its successor came up in 1997. | 1999| XSLT, a language based on XML by the W3C and the Game Maker Language by Mark Overmars were born in 1999. | 2000| The D language and C# came up in 2000. | 2006| The development of Windows PowerShell by Microsoft was one of the significant events in computing that took place in 2006. | Looking at the speedily advancing computing technology, we can surely say that the future of computers is going to be as glorious as their history.

Critical appreciation of T. Roethke’s ‘The Geranium’ Essay

What themes are brought out in the Szirtes’ poem and how are they expressed through the poet’s choice of diction, imagery, style and symbolizes? Like many other poems Like a black bird has a mix of different ideas that are conveyed through the various themes portrayed in the poem. Each theme is brought out by the use of a variety of literary techniques that make the poem so meaningful and enjoyable to read. A theme that is quite obvious to the reader even by the reading of the first line alone is Nature. From the beginning of the poem to the end it is revealed as a strong, fierce storm that perhaps implies the difficult times in which the characters of the poem lived in. The poet often makes use of the contrast of the colours black and white such as in the line â€Å"Like a black bird against snow† and the contrast of warmth and cold as shown in the line â€Å"For its fierceness, hoping to grow warm†. By using this contrast and also the element of personification it expresses how nature or the characters’ surrounding is out of their hands and out of control but at the same time trying to embrace itself in the situation. It is trying to convey to the feeling of warmth and security of what is happening in the poem as if by using its untamable cold to try and give warmth to the characters by becoming one with them as seen in the lines â€Å"The winter seemed to drape / Itself about him as if to apologize†. Another theme that is brought out in poem is the theme of relationships. The reader gets the impression of a close bond between the main characters of the poem being the children and their long awaited father. The poem’s slow pace, which is demonstrated by the many caesuras, symbolizes the long wait and increasing suspense the children are feeling as the father draws closer. As the poem advances a sense of security and love is displayed by the poet’s choice of words that show the children’s deep anticipation such as in the line â€Å"His face was in shadow, but we’d see it soon†. Another aspect that contributes to this feeling is the rhyme scheme of the poem. It is grouped in sets of a b a as if the first line and the last line are enclosing the middle one. This may symbolizes the children’s desire to be embraced by their father and also the father’s want to hold them once again after a long separation. Memory is also a theme that is quite important in the poem. While reading the poem the reader gets the impression that this is all just a flashback of the narrator as he remembers his childhood and this particular day. This is shown more clearly in the last two lines â€Å"And life was then in quite another form, / When there were blacker days and thicker snow†. Even the way the poem is written creates the idea of thought. Many of the caesuras used in the poem are commas as if showing a list. This portrays how thoughts and memories are linked to each other. Another aspect of the poem that shows how memories are connected is how the stanzas continue from one another. â€Å"In the cold wind, as if he had trapped The whole sky in it.† Two themes that are connected with the previous one of memory is the passage of time and nostalgia. Through out the whole poem a dark and cold atmosphere is exposed to the reader. We can image the narrator as he recalls these difficult times of his life and also get a sense of though they were hard he wishes for them to return. Maybe not the situation itself but the love and care of a family and childhood. The passage of time is also displays in the style of the poem itself. Even though there are a lot of pauses which symbolize how slow time passes when you are anxiously waiting for someone it also has many run on lines. These portray how time moves fast in the sense of years. How that memory seems so long ago and quickly time passed from that day or childhood to the time the narrator finds himself in now. Each theme shows different aspects and interpretations of the poem but combined together they form a marvelous piece of literary work full of depth and feeling.

Approaches to Physical Education in Schools Essay

Physical activity is a broad term to describe movement of the body that uses energy. Unless otherwise stated, taking part in Sport and physical activity is defined as â€Å"All forms of physical activities which, through casual or organised participation, aim at expressing or improving physical fitness and mental well-being, forming social relationships or obtaining results in competition at all levels. † Physical inactivity is regarded a serious, nationwide problem. Its extent poses as a public health challenge for reducing the national burden of unnecessary illness and premature death. Starting activity from an early age and throughout childhood helps an important input to healthy growth and development. There is strong and growing evidence that regular physical activity reduces the risk of suffering from various common disorders. Evidence shows regular physical activity in childhood and adolescence improves strength and endurance, helps build healthy bones and muscles, helps control weight, reduces anxiety and stress, increases self-esteem, and may improve blood pressure and cholesterol levels. There are also many psychosocial aspects of physical activity, such as having the opportunity for social interaction and support (Hughes, Casal, Leon 1986), experiencing increased feelings of self-efficacy (Simons et al. 1985; Hughes, Casal, Leon 1986), and experiencing relief from daily stressors (Bahrke and Morgan 1978), may help improve mental health status in some people. http://www. cdc. gov/nccdphp/sgr/pdf/chap4. pdf If a child has positive experiences with physical activity at a young age it may help set the foundations for being regularly active throughout life. This would mean not just about teaching children how to play sports, there is the wider proposal in terms of their lives, like giving them aspirations, something to aim for and how they can achieve their goals. Parents and carers are important social influencers upon children and young peoples’ lifestyle choices. Hendry, Shucksmith, Love and Glendinning (1993, pg. 59) state that â€Å"Two major elements appear to be dirctly related to attraction towards and avoidance of sport participation: parents as role models and parental encouragement, expectations and support†. Physical activity promotion is a high component of many government policy statements and commitments in the UK. These include those produced by the Department of Health and other departments such as the Department or Transport, the Department of Culture. The Department of Health’s ‘Saving Lives: Our Healthier Nation’ is an action plan for tackling poor health and improving the health of everyone in England. The Government has recognised the negative economic and social consequences of physical inactivity. In December 2002, the Government published ‘Game Plan’, a strategy for delivering its sport and physical activity objectives. Game Plan’ set a national agenda: to increase and widen the base of participation in sport, to target success in international sport and to promote any reform necessary for the strategy to be delivered. ‘Game Plan’ sets the target of 70% of the population to be reasonably active 5 x 30 minutes per week by 2020. (http://www. sportengland. org/national-framework-for-sport. pdf) The White Paper also agrees that physical activity is a key aid to good health and an important factor in preventing heart disease, stroke and other chronic disease. This document is the 2004 Government Public Health White Paper published by the department of health. It forms the foundation [2004] of public health policy. The White Paper sets out the key principles for supporting the public to make healthier lifestylechoices.   Physical activity is one of six priorities identified in the white paper and actions to promote physical activity are xamined in several chapters; (‘Health in the consumer society’, ‘Children and young people, ‘Local communities leading for health’, ‘Work and health’, and ‘Health promoting NHS’). Everybody knows that Government and individuals alone cannot make progress on healthier choices. Progress depends on effective partnerships across communities, including local government, the NHS, business, advertisers, retailers, the voluntary sector, communities, and the media. The NHS Plan was produced and set out plans for investment in and reform of the NHS. It included the commitment to develop ‘local action to tackle obesity and physical activity, informed by advice from the Health Development Agency on what works’ (Department of Health,2001 The effectiveness of public health interventions for increasing physical activity among adults: a review of reviews) The Department of Culture media and sport (DCMS) encourages greater sport participation. Its strategy ‘A Sporting Future for All’ recognises sport as a â€Å"powerful tool for social, educational and physical wellbeing†. Published in 2000, this document sets out New Labour’s vision for sport including; sport in education, sport in the community, sporting excellence and the modernisation of sporting organisations. The Department for Transport, Local Government and Regions DTLR, formerly the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, DETR, aims to make it easier and safer for people to walk and cycle, therefore reducing the amount of cars. The Department of Culture Media and Sport Department for Education and Skills (DfES, formerly the Department for Education and Employment, DfEE) launched a joint ‘National Healthy Schools Standard’ in 1999 with DH which consists of ten central themes; physical activity is one of these. Source: adapted from NAO, Tackling Obesity in England (Health benefits of physical activity,2001) One of the government main concerns and well known agendas is to control the raising levels of child obesity. Rates of obesity have dramatically increased in England over the last decade. If no action is taken, one-in-five children aged 2-15 in England will be obese by 2010. (Obesity guidance for healthy schools coordinators and their partners) There is a need for the departments to involve other partners at national and local levels to help develop and implement solid strategies for prevention, which include adults as well as young people. At national levels, this is taking place already, and departments should develop joint objectives and performance targets relating o aspects of physical activity and diet to ensure that this progress is combined. At the local level, health authorities are well located to start these activities by developing Health. They could provide more Improvement Programmes that involve a wide range of other partners in schemes to increase cycling, walking and physical recreation and to improve diet, such as increased consumption of fruit and vegetables, and the knowl edge for a healthy diet. Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said: ‘Higher levels of physical activity among children and young people, together with much healthier eating patterns, are the key to averting the potential catastrophic effects of the obesity epidemic which is beginning to emerge. ‘ (Stars back school sports bid to fight obesity 2004) There is a substantial amount of cross-department work in the areas that are central to addressing the rising levels of obesity. Much of this is targeted at schoolchildren. This addresses a section of the population for which obesity is becoming an increasing problem. The NHS aims to halt the rise in obesity among children in the region by 2010. National and regional activities and programmes are already in place to help tackle obesity such as the ‘five a day scheme’, regulation on food promotion and advertising to children, national weight loss guidance and physical activity programmes and work with the food industry on portion size and labelling. Other Government departments have an influence through school education and the promotion of healthy eating. Many schools now provide a healthy eating plan, abolishing foods such as chocolate and crisps on sale in the canteen. The focus of such strategies should be to make it easier for the public to make healthy choices. Such strategies require funding for implementation, but should ultimately lead to a reduction in the costs to the NHS from obesity related ill health. (http://www. iotf. org/childhood/) Schools are seen as being in the front line in the battle against what has been called â€Å"the biggest public health threat of the 21st century† – obesity. (http://news. bbc. co. k/1/hi/education/3751305. stm) The potential of Physical Education to help contribute to health enhancing behaviour has been long acknowledged. Schools have a key role and are in a significant position in helping pupils to reach the recommended daily level of physical activity, both by providing them with suitable activity opportunities and also by helping them to acquire the skills, understanding a nd confidence to pursue activity outside of the school. PE and school sport is an entitlement for all pupils whatever their own particular needs, preference or circumstance. The national curriculum for PE is not prescriptive and provides flexibility that schools can exercise when providing activities so that the needs of all pupils can be catered for. A key role of physical education is to ‘maintain, and if possible improve the health and physique of the children’ (Issues in Physical Education 2000) Three government departments – DH, DfEE (now DfES) and DETR (now DTLR) have set up the School Travel Advisory Group in 1998 as a forum for debate and coordination. They published guidance for local authorities on building a safe environment to encourage more children to walk or cycle to school. To help the promotion of sport and physical activity in schools the National Healthy Schools Target developed by DH/DfEE sets an ‘expectation’ that pupils should have at least 2 hours physical activity each week. A recent poll that Sport England undertook shows that only 1 in 5 primary schools currently meet the 2 hours target. The national PE, School Sport and Club Links strategy was launched by the Prime Minister in October 2002. Its overall objective is to enhance the take-up of sporting opportunities by 5 to 16-year-olds. The PESSCL strategy has set targets to increase the amount of Physical Education and sport young people do. â€Å"The ambitious target is to increase the percentage of schoolchildren who spend a minimum of two hours a week on high-quality PE and school sport within and beyond the curriculum to 75 per cent by 2006 and 85 per cent by 2008. (childhood obesity 2003) It is also trying to bridge the gaps between school and community sport, opening up schools out of hours to provide additional sports opportunities for all children. A recent campaign that Gordon Brown has proposed is that he wants all school children to get the chance to do five hours of sport a week. Currently children under 16 are required to do two hours a week within the national curriculum.

Medical Innovation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7500 words

Medical Innovation - Essay Example Let us see how they differ. The word 'Technology' can be defined as - "The application of knowledge to meet the goals, goods, and services desired by people [3]. The word "Innovation' can be defined as - "The introduction of new ideas, goods, services, and practices which are intended to be useful. The main driver for innovation is often the courage and energy to better the world. An essential element for innovation is its application in a commercially successful way [4]." To be clearer, Technology introduces useful goods, services etc., by making use of existing techniques whereas innovation is actually bringing out something which is entirely new. The field of healthcare and medicine is rapidly evolving. Lots of developments are taking place in this field on an every day basis. Innovation in the field comprises of introducing new ideas, methods of treatment, drugs, and medical devices, keeping in view the overall people's health status and the different kinds of disease that are also cropping up competitively with the technology improvement. In today's rapidly developing and advanced world, innovation in the field of health care and medicine has taken a completely new and faster pace. Simultaneously, the number of diseases, primarily 'lifestyle-related diseases' such as diabetics, hypertension etc are also becoming very serious problems. Myocardial infection, cerebral apoplexy etc, are certain crucial illnesses that are the results of these life-style related diseases. For such illnesses to be tackled in a better way or even to be prevented, daily healthcare has got a very crucial part to play. Daily healthcare can be attribu ted to exercise, proper and balanced diet, stress etc. Though there is a lot of technology development and innovation happening in this field, certain kinds of diseases like diabetics etc. do not have specific care etc for their treatment. General care like diet care and regular exercising

Naloxone's Drug Profile Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Naloxone's Drug Profile - Essay Example Many greater doses are needed when using oral administration for any pharmacologic effect. Naloxone is absorbed in the liver, mainly through glucuronide conjugation, and eventually excreted from the body system in urine. Part Three Because of the penetrating biotransformation in the liver, Naloxone is ineffectual when taken orally, and because of this, it is dispensed exclusively for parenteral use (Robertson et al 512-5). Section 2 Part One Naloxone is available in both parenteral and oral formulations. In Australia, Naloxone comes as a sterilized solution for intramuscular, intravenous, and subcutaneous administration in three strengths (1milligram, 0.4milligram, and 0.02milligram) for every milliliter in the sterilized solution. Every milliliter of the one-milligram strength has 8.35 milligrams of NaCl. In Australia, Naloxone may be referred to by different brand names such as TARGIN or buprenorphine. They are offered in four strengths, which are 5/2.5 milligrams, 10/5 milligrams, 20/10milligrams 40/20 milligrams, and TARGIN tablets that come in boxes that have blister packs of 20 to 28 tablets. Packs of 20 tablets are only available until current stocks deplete (Kelly and Koutsogiannis 375) Part Two A Naloxone hydrochloride is injected either intravenously, intramuscularly, subcutaneously, or orally. Intravenous administration has proved to work faster than all the other forms of administration, hence its recommendation for use in emergency cases. As such, it is preferred in emergency circumstances. In intravenous infusion Naloxone, hydrochloride may be diluted in dextrose injection 5 per cent or sodium chloride injection 0.9 per cent (O’Malley-Dafner and Davies 212). Products from parenteral drugs ought to be examined visually for any complication such as discoloration prior to administration. Naloxone hydrochloride dose should not be mixed with any alkaline solution, preparations containing bisulfite, high-molecular-weight anions, metabisulfite, an d long-chain. There should be no addition of chemical agents or drugs to this solution unless one knows its outcome on the solution’s chemical and physical and stability. Section 3 Part One After a parenteral administration, Naloxone quickly disperses in the body system, freely crossing the placenta. The binding of plasma protein follows, but has been reported to be rather weak. Although the principal binding component is plasma albumin, plasma constituents also undergo naloxone binding. Part Two The drug’s distribution volume in plasma, which is 3litres per kilogram (this is more or less equal to 210 litres for a 70kilogram person versus five to six liters of blood in the same person, which would seem rather large). However, to get transported, the drug is usually bound to plasma proteins for transport (Martin 415). Naloxone is 61.5 per cent in fetal plasma and 54 per cent protein bound in adults. Part Three The usual adult dose is 0.4 to 2 milligram per dose of intra venous, and intramuscular, or subcutaneously administration and it may sometimes be repeated at two or three-minute intervals. Therapy is done if there is no response after accumulative dose of 10 milligrams. Naloxone is given intracisternally in loading doses. 0.1 milligram/kg/dose is given to children and infants who are less than or equal to five years or less than or equa

National australian bank Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

National australian bank - Essay Example In the community and media section, all the current and archived media news, reports and presentations are described. Through the website, there are opportunities for charitable contributions also like giving donations for Ovarian Cancer Research foundation. Usability: From the website, the intended audience can be easily understood. Since there are two sections for personal and business, it clearly conveys the message that the intended audience are the common middle classed men and the business executives. The language used throughout the website is familiar and comfortable to the readers. The only disadvantage is that Javascript needs to be enabled in the browser for proper reading of the website.In addition to English, four other language options for the website are also available to make it usable to readers. In addition to all these, there is a separate section called using the site which gives all information regarding all the contents in website, security, accessibility, technical requirements and submitting feedback. Navigation: The site uses standards link colours and the links are clear in their intent and destination. The section called using the site provides a convenient and clear way to maneuver among related pages and different sections. Access: The load time is reasonable even in slow dial connections. For people with physical impairments also the website is accessible. To communicate with the administrator, there is a special section called website assistance through which the users can submit their feedback or complaints about the website to the administration. Other Company Owned Sites: The website provides link to national Australian bank group site which provides all information on the bank like annual reports, corporate governance details, financial results, etc. This site also provides the links for other banks like MLC, JB Werre, UBank, Yorkshire bank etc, The social factors include

Letter Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Letter - Assignment Example The first speech I would like to share with you is a commencement speech that was presented at Kenyon University (Wallace, 2005). This speech calls for the understanding of education from a broader sense, which goes beyond taking classes, passing exams, and looking for a job. The second speech is a New York Times’ article, which explores the author’s experiences in a technology-driven society (Foer, 2013). The connection between the two speeches is critical. You and I enrolled in different colleges, but we have maintained our close friendship through technological platforms. Voice calls, texting, emailing, and instant social media messaging has kept us close yet so far. As we strive to achieve our career goals, it is difficult to maintain long-distance friendships. However, the use of technology has proved vital in this case. Moreover, I have continuously shared my academic experiences with you from time to time, an aspect that promotes learning from one another. Following these observations, I am sure you will find the two speeches worth to read because their connection resonates with our friendship. Even though communication technology has not worked the same way for everybody, I contend that it has maintained the liveliness of our friendship as we pursue our respective academic and career

Essay+week journal Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Essay+week journal - Assignment Example The responsibilities of individuals, organizations, and government entail proposing informed principles related to the dilemma of climate change in China. United States will come in to address the process because of the economic benefits of China. There are firms in United States that have outsourced their work to China to save on cost and increase the volume of production. The White House acknowledges climate change to have direct impact on innovation, economic growth and the sustainable development of both China and United States. Snre.umich.edu evaluates climate change in China by addressing the viewpoints, roles, and efforts of United States and China. Climate Change in China calls for the commitment of all the countries with high emissions to put in measures on reducing the release. A bilateral agreement between United States and China was instituted in 2014 to encourage safe industrial production through governmental commitment. However, a multilateral agreement on climate change in China would have boosted the efforts but it was impossible to seek global commitment. United States and China are involved in bilateral agreements because they are the leading countries with highest carbon emissions. China should be optimistic about the challenge of climate change because of the possible dangers that it poses to other countries. The People’s Republic of China has envisioned a platform where the energy goals are met but with reduced emissions. An investment in the energy innovation would come in handy to help address emissions. The method can utilize the efforts of enterprises, regions and countries instead of restricting the efforts to china alone. The next ten or twenty years in China might offset the yield and infrastructure in the country (npr.org). The huge impacts of climate change call for bilateral agreements with the leading countries in carbon emissions. However, China should play an integral role in the noble cause of fighting climate change to

Calcium as Second Messengers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Calcium as Second Messengers - Essay Example Calcium ions are also important intracellular messengers. In fact, calcium ions are probably the most widely used intracellular messengers (Kimball, 2006). Calcium plays a fundamental role in a variety of cellular functions. It is involved in contraction, secretion, endocytosis, transport across membranes and in more general processes such as cell motility, cell growth and cell division (De Robertis & De Robertis, 1987). Calcium is one of the most important second messenger molecules, with a diverse array of effectors. The intracellular Ca2+ plays a role as the second messenger in the hypotonic stress-induced Na+ transport by stimulating the transcription of SGK1 and ENaC subunits (Taruno, Niisato, Marunaka, 2007). Calcium directly moderates electrical activity, on a relatively fast time scale, through its control of calcium-dependent potassium channels. Long term effects are mediated by various kinases and phosphatases. Calcium is one of the activators of protein kinase C, which pla ys a role in synaptic plasticity. In a complex with calmodulin56, calcium is an activator or regulator of several enzymes, including calcium-calmodulin dependent protein kinase, which plays a role in synaptic plasticity, and adenylate cyclase, which produces cAMP, another important second messenger. ... Once Ca2+ was recognized as a carrier of signals, it became important to understand how its concentration within cells was regulated. Reversible complexation to specific ligands soon emerged as the only reasonable means to perform the task. A number of small cell ligands bind Ca2+ with low affinity, but the process needed complex ligands able to complex Ca2+ with the specificity and affinity demanded by the intracellular ambient. A breakthrough in this direction was the solution of the crystal structure of parvalbumin by Kretsinger in 1972. This still functionally mysterious Ca2+ binding protein was to become the progenitor of a family of proteins known as EF hand proteins, which has now grown to nearly 600 members. EF hand proteins do buffer Ca2+ but also play another important role: They decode the information carried by Ca2+ and pass it on to targets. They do so by changing conformation after binding Ca2+ and after interacting with targets. Essentially, EF hand proteins become mor e hydrophobic on the surface after complexing Ca2+, approach the target, and collapse around its binding domain. Thus, these proteins are better defined as Ca2+ modulated proteins, or Ca2+ sensors (Carafoli, 2002). Second messenger pathways, and some mechanisms controlling calcium concentration, are modeled as a series of bimolecular reactions, enzymatic reactions, and diffusion. These processes occur both in compartments where the number of molecules are large enough to describe reactions deterministically (e.g. cell body), and in compartments where the number of molecules is small enough that reactions occur stochastically (e.g. spines). Thus, to model and simulate second messenger pathways in neurons requires algorithms for both diffusion and reactions, both

Marketing Fundamentals assignment (referral) 2 Essay

Marketing Fundamentals assignment (referral) 2 - Essay Example Hutchison Whampoa Limited is an international corporation having many diversified businesses including port operations, retail, property development and infrastructure, technology, and telecommunication operations. 3G Mobile Services is a mobile media company that operates from United Kingdom. The main businesses include communications, media and entertainment and information services (Hutchison 3G UK Limited, 2008). It is critical that target market for company's products and services is identified and analyzed. The target market where the company will operate and the customers to target pose significant insights into the demographics, market structure and other parameters. A proper research can provide credible results that can then be used to develop positioning and targeting strategies. Companies can access the market and capitalise on the endless opportunities only if these companies can understand the exact requirements of the target customers and modify their products and services accordingly. In addition to product and services development, the companies need to decide on the pricing of their products and services. The right price may spur the sales but too high or too low a price will definitely affect the company negatively. Pricing is a critical decision and hence can only be taken if exact market information is available. This decision has far reaching effects. Market is se Market is segmented based upon demographic factors like age, preferences, gender, and other factors related to potential customers; geographic factors like location, climate, population, etc; psychographic factors like attitude, lifestyle and values; and/ or behavioral factors like usage rate, brand loyalty, etc (Eztel Walker Stanton, 2003). Market Segmentation for 3G 3G has chosen United Kingdom as its primary target market based on its specific geographic factors like high population density, and relatively better law and order conditions, etc. This is also because of 3G's expertise and experience to operate in this region and the huge inroads that the company is able to create inside the big UK market for mobile communications. Being a mobile media company, it is critical for 3G to develop its products and services with specific focus on the UK's customer requirements. Based on the analysis carried out by 3G, the company identified various segments of mobile phone service market in UK. Some of these market segments that 3G identified during their market segmentation research are discussed in the following sections. With the advent of modern technology, only a small segment in the target market wants to use mobile phones for making and receiving phone calls only. They prefer various other features with their mobile phones. These factors are all based on the demographic, behavioral and psychographic factors that were considered by 3G during the research for market segmentation: Video Calls Many users (especially in the 15 - 40

Strategic Information System Essay Example for Free

Strategic Information System Essay 1. Introduction Given the rise of competition in the modern business industry, it is essential for firms to apply strategic use of information system (IS) to achieve competitive advantage (CA). In the recent years, top management of firms have little interest in the relationship between IS functions and corporate strategy leading to many problems because of failure in achieving strategies. According to Holsapple (2000), modern organizations are increasingly seen as knowledge-based enterprises in which proactive knowledge management is important for competitiveness. One of the major factors in competitive environment is knowledge management and companies for achieving the competitive advantage should concentrate in its IS. IS plays an important role in business operations as well as financial and non-financial aspects of the firm such as decision making as a big role of management. There has a growing realization to make ISs of strategic importance to an organization in the 80’s and 90’s. Systems that shape or support business unit’s competitive strategy are known as Strategic IS (Callon 1996, an Neumann 1994). According to Turban et al (2006), SIS is the ability to significantly change the manner in which business is conducted in order to give the firm strategic advantage. Porter (1996) believes that competitive advantage is at the core of a firm success or failure, such advantage seeks lead to control the market and to larger-than-average profits. This research paper provides information on how organizations apply strategic use of IS/It to achieve competitive advantage over its competitors. This paper pays particular attention to factors influencing the success or failure of organization attempts at gaining or enhancing competitive advantages, and how competitive advantages can be sustained. 1.1Background IS is a set of interrelated elements that collect (input), manipulate (process), store, and disseminate (output) data and information and provide a reaction (feedback mechanism) to meet an objective (refer to Figure 1). Figure 1.1: The Components of an Information System IS is a combination of people’s activities and information technologies that supports organisation’s operation and decisions making and strategies for competitive advantage. IS plays a vital role in business operation and financial and non-financial aspect such as decision-making. IS are classified either operations or management information systems. They are being grouped this way to identify the major roles each plays in the operations and managements of a business. An Information System consists of five basic resources: i) People Resources (end users and IS specialist) ii) Software Resources (programs and procedures) iii) Hardware Resources (machines and medias) iv) Data Resources (data and knowledge bases) v) Network Resources (communications media and network support) SISs are systems used to supports or shape a business unit’s competitive strategy (Callon, 1996, and Nerumann, 1944). It is characterised by its ability significantly revamp the way in which a business is conducted in order to provide the firm strategic advantage. SIS is classified by its ability to change the manner a business is conducted, in order to achieve strategic advantage for the firm (Turban et al, 2006). SISs play strategic roles helping firm to gain competitive advantage or reduces competitive disadvantage by changing goals, products or processes through information systems. A competitive strategy is a broad-based formula for how a business is going to compete, what its goals should be, and what plans and policies will be required to carry out those goals (Porter, 1985). Through its competitive strategy, firms seek a competitive advantage in the industry advantage over competitors in measures such as cost, quality, or speed. The success or failure of a firm fully depends on its competitive advantage against its competitors (Porter and Millar, 1985, and Porter, 1996), such advantage seeks to lead to control of the marker and to larger-than-average profits. Through contribution to strategic goals of an organization and ability to increase performance and productivity, SIS aids an organization gain a competitive advantage over its competitors. SISs enable firms to gain competitive advantage and benefit greatly at the expense of those subjected to competitive disadvantage (Turban et al, 2006). SIS focus on improving the firm’s competitive position through increasing employees’ productivity, streamlining business processes and making better decisions (Turban et al, 2006). An organization can survive and succeed in the long run as long as it have effectively develops strategies to go up against the five competitive forces that shape the structure of competition in its industry. The Porter five competitive forces are: Businesses can counter the threat of competitive forces in which they face by implementing one or more of the five basic competitive strategies. The five basic competitive strategies are: i) Cost Leadership Strategy ii) Differentiation Strategy iii) Innovation Strategy iv) Growth Strategies v) Alliance Strategy An organization can counter the forces of competition from its competitors by implementing one, some or all the strategies in different degrees. 2.Companies using IS/IT to gain competitive advantages 2.1Cigna HealthCare CRM System In 1999, Cigna HealthCare decided to upgrade its outdated and almost extinct CRM system to improve the efficiency of business operations and then improving customer satisfaction. Cigna was operating nearly two-decade-old CRM systems to handle its daily operation needs. It had multiple units for different roles such as membership enrollment, processing medical claims and verifying customer eligibility and they were not interconnected. Furthermore, Cigna received numerous complaints from doctors as the old and disintegrating processing systems delayed their medical benefits claim payment and was heftily slapped with a US$ 300,000 fine on 29th January 2001. Cigna’s Chief Information Officer (CIO), Andrea Anania planned to combine the information from the different information systems and develops a new integrated systems to handle all the process. Anania goal was for the CRM system to act like a â€Å"one-stop† portal, thus improving efficiency. Cigna awarded a budget of US$ 1 billion to develop the CRM system, which aims to reduce human intervention while speeding up the processing time of medical claims. During the implementation of the CRM, Cigna had a net loss of US$ 398 million for fiscal year 2002. This project had already exceeded the original budget of US$1 billion and had done substantial financial damaged to Cigna. 2.2Bank of America – MasterNet System Bank of America (BoA) developed Master Net trust accounting system in 1982 with a plan completion date of 31 December 1984. MasterNet consist of a large trust accounting system, TrustPlus, and eight smaller systems that augmented the core system. In 1986, migration process was greatly affected by technical problems such as poor response time and day long system crashes. In 1988, BoA announced that its trust business was being given to a subsidiary as it could no longer handle the operation requirements after a $78 million loss in the MasterNet project . 2.3 American Airlines – Knowledge Management System American Airlines understand the needs to analyze data collected through their computer reservation system, SABRE, an automated system with the ability to check flight and seats availability and making a reservation for customer developed in 1960s with IBM. In 1990, AA developed a knowledge management system, SMARTSTM (Sales Management and Report Tracking System) as a tool to leverage CRS reservation data and AA internal historical data on performance and bookings. SMARTS is able to run analysis for AA to develop finely tailored scheme based on AA’s market shares. The combination of SABRE and SMARTS creates the expertise exploitation capability for AA whose impact can be systematically assessed against the access to reservation system, which has become market-standard for competitive parity. 2.4 Wal-Mart – Point-of-Sale System Successful implementations of IS into daily practices have aided Wal-Mart in their quest to maintain the position of low cost leader (Thomas Wailgum, 2007). Wal-Mart had adopted the â€Å"point-of-sale† system; a computerized system which identifies sales of individual items, updates information into its server and modifies the on-hand quantity automatically. The system also analyzed data mined from the universal bar code and effectively transformed data collected from bar codes to useful information such as keeping track of sales trends for individual items as they are identified as an individual entity. 2.5Lesson Learned and Success Factors The author believed that the failure of Cigna CRM system was due to poor leadership and communication skills of Cigna’s CIO. Anania did not consulted professional to design the IT systems architecture required for transformation, instead she pooled 1400 employees from Cigna’s IT department and formed a team, made up of experienced project managers and new hires. Anania made an unethical decision to migrate 3.5 million customer’s data at one go instead of 10,000 per group to the new platform with out testing the integrity of the system due to pressing date lines leading to serious customer service problems surfacing immediately. As Cigna had lay off majority of its service center employee, believing that the new CRM will improved its productivity with lesser human input therefore leading to a shortage of experience staffs. Feedbacks and input from stakeholders was ignored by the managements during the development of the system, thus leading to the down fall of the CRM system and hitting Cigna with substantial financial damaged. The author feels if Cigna’s management culture had led to the failure of the IS. MasterNet have a leader who have a vision of technology but was not well versed technically and was too involve in other problems to focus on the project. BoA made two critical mistakes in handling of MasterNet. Firstly, BoA did not understand the difficulty involved and scope of MasterNet and sufficiently assess it risks when it was proposed. Secondly, BoA failed to take necessary fire-fighting actions when the project rolled out of control to minimize damage. The management only took notice of MasterNet when it performed so badly that it merited $23 million loss. Many mistakes made with respect to MasterNet were not specifically related to IS. The combinations of SMARTS and SABRE have assisted AA to become a market-standard for competitive parity. SMARTS is a system with ability to organize data by city, zone and territory of sales representative with analytical and presentation capabilities. SMARTS was design to provide reliable detailed information to sales representatives to influence travel agencies behavior strategically. Previously, sales representatives doesn’t have complete information about market shares and performance data of travel agencies in his territory and the job consisted mainly preserving a good working relationship with the travel agent. With the aid of SMARTS, the sales representatives are able to analyse market trends in detail and could easily identify opportunities than before, thus maximising productivity. Through the use of SMARTS system, AA’s intangible sales knowledge is enhanced as it is able to interpret movements in share and market. Aside to that, SMARTS help representatives highlight weak markets to the travel agency mangers to focus on. According to Mr. Jack Williams, Senior Vice-President of AA, SMARTS have introduced a huge culture change in their sales-force associated with the leveraging of the expertise as a result of the information in the system thus bringing an enormous advantage to AA, not easily copied by their competitors. The introduction of the barcode system have help Wal-Mart to maintain its low cost leadership. This system helped Wal-Mart to speed up its checkout cashier efficiency and eliminate problems of cashier keying in the wrong price for a product by scanning the barcode as previously the cashier have to manually key in the prices of all the goods according to the price tag. Aside to that, Wal-Mart was able to track its stock level and placed order when required. The system also has the ability to identify slow running products and prevents Wal-Mart from overstocking them. Through improving its information system, Wal-Mart has created a high barrier of entry for any company who wishes to enter the chain hyper-market industry. 3.Discussion Factors influencing organization to use IS as it business strategy are relatively dependent on internal and external forces of the business surrounding environment (Bob William, 2009). Internal forces that require considered and looked into are the current financial position of the firm. Budget required for IS implementation are considerably high, management allocating the funds for investment must be ensured minimal or perfect deployment of the IS. On top of that, employees capabilities also plays an important role during IS implementation. Firm needs to ensure that employees are at least computer literate and will have no problem operating or accessing the new system, else additional cost may be bared by the firm for training. The firm also needs to access the efficiency and effectiveness of its existing system and whether there is a need to upgrade or revise the current system to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors. Changes in consumer tastes, preference and purchasing pattern are external factors driving organization to implement IS. Consumers are becoming more IT savvy and surveys have shown customer swaying their purchasing pattern to electronic purchase due to convenient and time saving (James D. Gwartney, 2006). Companies need to understand and study consumer expectation and needs in order to analyse and implement business strategies to ensure business growth. Therefore, both internal and external factors are important consideration for implementation of IS to gain a competitive advantage as they complement each other. From the above examples, correct implementation of IS will give the firm a competitive advantage over its competition. Firms must understand their position from Porter’s five competitive forces and develop strategies and counter it to maintain competitive. As Howard et al, (1999) believed that competitive advantage could be gained if strategy development and ISs design are addressed simultaneously. Porter’s model identifies five competitive forces that affect competitive advantage in the market place. In order to establish a profitable and sustainable position, company needs to develop strategies of performing activities differently from its competitors to overcome these five forces. Strategy| Definition| Example| Strategic use of IS| Business Benefits| Cost Leadership| Produce products and/or services at the lowest cost in the industry| Dell Computer| Online build to order| Lowest-cost producer| Differentiation| Offer different products, services, or product features| Moen Inc| Online customer design| Increase in market share| Innovation| Introduce new products and services, put new features into existing products and services, or develop new ways to produce them| American Airlines| Analyse data| Market Leadership| Growth| Increase market share, acquire more customers, or sell more products| Wal-Mart| Merchandise ordering by global satellite network| Market Leadership| Alliance| Work with business partners in partnerships, alliances, joint ventures, or virtual companies| Wal-Mart/ Procter Gamble| Auto inventory replenishment by supplier| Reduced inventory cost/increased sales| Information systems can be used to help firms gain competitive advantage with the help of Porter’s competitive forces model for analyzing competitiveness and proper implementation of IS. According to Michael Porter, the main types of competitive advantage are low cost provider, differentiation and focus. Companies have use porter’s model to increase competitive edge and also demonstrated how IS can enhance competitiveness of corporation (Turban et al. 2006). Finally, firms need to sustain competitive advantages gained from the implementation of IS. In the real world, competitive advantage doesn’t normally last very long and is generally not sustainable over the long term (O’Brien 2011). When a firm gains competitive advantage over its competitors through innovation, competitors figure out how it was done through organizational learning. To neutralize the effect, competitors adopt the same or similar innovation and what was once a competitive advantage is now a competitive necessity. When these occur, firm needs to figure out new innovation to gain a competitive edge and the cycle starts. 4.Conclusion Technologies have changed the way business operates today. Manual processes in the past are now being automated and electronic communications have been heavily introduced in today’s business world. IS have evolved over the years and offer new possibilities to gain competitive advantage. Many businesses today have realized the important of technology and power it possess, but fail to understand the possible benefit achievable. The author learned that through proper planning and implementation of IS will lead to a competitive advantage gain for the organization. With the aid of IS, it will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of staff in the organization which in turn will save labor and consumable cost. 5.Reference Ahlemann Frederik. (2009). Towards a conceptual reference model for project management information system. International Journal of Project Management, Vol. 27, No.1, pp. 19-30 Ankit Bhatnagar. (2006). Strategic Information System Planning: Alignment of ‘IS/IT’ Planning and Business Planning, Unitee New Zealand. Amber S., Brooke W., Cheri E., Ismael M. Wesley B. (2011). Wal-Mart Information System Benjamin, R.I., D.W. Long, and M.S. Moron (1990). Electronic Data Interchange: How Much Competitive Advantage?. Long Range Planning, 23:1, pp. 29-40. Bruns, W,J, and F,W, McFarlan (1987). Information Technology Puts Power in Control Systems, Harvard Business Review, Sep-Oct, pp. 89-94 Callon, J. D., (1996). Competitive Advantage through Information Technology. New York: McGraw Hill, USA. Christiaanse, Ellen., Venkatraman, N. (2002). Beyand Sabre: An empricial test of expertise exploitation in electronic channels. MIS Quarterly, Vol. 26, No.1, pp. 15.38. Davenport, T.H., M. Hammer, and T.J. Metisto (1989). How Executives Can Shape Their Company’s Information Systems, Harvard Business Review. H. Russell Johnston and Michael R. Vitale (1988). Creating Competitive Advantage With Inter-organizational Information Systems. MIS Quartely, Jun 1988, pp. 153-165. Ives B., and G. P. Learmouth (1984). The Information System as a Competitive Weapon. Communication of the ACM Jeffery. G. Szilagyi. Bank of America’s Masternet System: A Case study in Risk Assessment Jeremy A. (2011). Supply Chain Management at Wal-Mart Johnston, H.R. and Carrico, S. R. (1988). Developing Capabilities to use Information Strategically. MIS Quarterly, pp. 37-48. Mahmood Hemmatfar (2010). Competitive Advantages and Strategic Information System. International Journal of Business and Management, Vol. 5, No 7, pp 158-169 M. Vinaya Kumar (2007). CRM Implementation Failure at Cigna Corporation, ICFAI Center for Management Research. Porter, M. E. (1996). What is a Strategy? Harvard Business Review, November – December 1996, pp 45-59. Porter, M. E. (2001). Strategic and the Internet. Harvard Business Review, Vol. 79, No. 3, pp 62-74. Porter, M.E., and V. E. Millar (1985). How information gives you competitive advantage. Harvard Business Review, Vol. 62, No. 4, pp. 149-158. Ross, J. W. et al. (1996). Develop Long-Term Competitiveness through IT Assets. Sloan Management Review, Vol. 60, No 4, pp. 132-148. Teo, T. S. H. (2000). Using the Internet for Competitve Intelligence in Singapore. Competitive Intelligence Review, Vol. 8 Issue 2, pp. 16-23.

Research on Baroda dairy product Essay Example for Free

Research on Baroda dairy product Essay Executive Summary This project has been undertaken in order to understand the Customer Perception and liking towards Baroda Dairy Products. The task is to know and measure its effectiveness in terms of Price , Quality , Quantity , Packaging , Product availability, Product delivery, Product maintenance (storage), merits and demerits of the existing distribution chain, areas and scope of improvement and finding ways to make the Product more user friendly and Available. There are various ways to carry out this project and reach desired objectives for e. g. , Expert Opinion, In-depth interview with Customers, primary data collection and analysis etc. but out of all these options available for data collection, the method chosen was primary data collection and analysis i. e. questionnaire based data collection and analysis. The reasons for choosing this technique for project are as under: This method gives the opportunity to directly interact with the Customers and helps in knowing what they actually think of the Baroda Dairy Products. The most reliable source of information from all the other mentioned above. Gives a better insight of Customer perception as compared to other technique. This technique will yield an Unbiased, To the Point and Reliable result. It is best to know from the Customers as to what they think about the Existing Product and Satisfaction Level. From this project I came to know about co-operative sector, dairy industry, distribution and handling of highly perishable product like milk. I also came to know what Customers think of current Products and Services of Baroda Dairy. Customer loyalty to Baroda Dairy and its products. I got to know various merits of the existing distribution channel. I also discovered some areas of distribution channel which if worked upon can yield more profitable gains and can also increase the availability of Products. I critically analyzed the answers that were provided by Customers. In order to get quality information, I used questionnaire as a tool which helped me in this project. After collection of the desired data, the data has been critically analyzed to draw conclusion out of mathematical data. The collected data has been categorized and presented in to the meaningful diagrammatic presentations following its proper classification. All these analytical information is subjected to the conclusions following justified interpretation of the results drawn from the statistical tools. Introduction Dairy industry is one of the growing sectors in the Indian Food Processing Industry. This sector Grew at CAGR of 3. 7 % in the last decade. An everyday useful industry which was into rags during 1940s is now one of the most performing industry in the country, courtesy – White Revolution. But still the market is dominated by unorganized sector which contributes about 80% of the total milk marketing in the country. Thus lies a very large scope for the organized sector to enter in this industry. Dairy contributes to 16% of consumer spend on food – 18% in Urban areas of the country and 15% in rural areas. It is one of the most important and exceptionally well performing industries. Each and every state has its own Federation that governs various co-operatives in each state which are into processing of milk and other milk products and the Governing body for these state federations is National Dairy Development Board. One of the main reasons for the progress of dairy industry in India was the white revolution and the Co-operative movement. Also what has added to its development is the linkage it has created between producers and consumers which has eliminated the middle man. Also strengthening of production, procurement, infrastructure and technology has made dairy farming India’s largest self-sustainable rural employment generator. Also it is notable that dairy sector has gained prominence over the years as it delivers one of the most important food product i. e. Milk and its by-products without which it is really very difficult to live. Thus looking at the current scenario, following things can be analyzed: On the production side: Slow growth in productivity likely to increase demand- supply gap There is a need to promote interventions that would increase production efficiencies. Need to secure availability of fodder and high quality breeds. Promoting entrepreneurship in large herd dairy farming – through PPP. There is increasing interest in Intensive dairy farming – increasing demand farm gate price. On the demand side: Indian dairy market offers diverse opportunities to tap into. Unique nature of the market requires entrepreneurs to study it carefully before entry. India has the credit of being the largest producer as well as the biggest consumer of milk in the world. It also has the world’s largest dairy herd (comprised of cows and buffalos). In 2010-11, livestock generated output worth INR 2,075 billion (at 2004-05 prices) which comprised 4% of the GDP and 26% of the agricultural GDP. India’s milk production accounts for 16% of total global output. The dairy industry is expected to grow 4-5% per annum. A budgetary outlay of INR 31, 560 Crores is recommended by the working group for 12th Five Year Plan of Planning commission of India for animal husbandry and dairy sector to achieve growth rate of 6%. In the past 20 years, milk production in India has doubled and has reached the 116. 2 million tonnes a year thus becoming India’s No. 1 farm commodity. The current market size of the dairy industry is INR 2. 6 trillion and is estimated to grow up to INR 3. 7 trillion by 2015. The matters relating to livestock production, preservation, protection and improvement of livestock dairy development comes under Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture, GoI. Value-added products like Whole milk powder, Skimmed milk powder, Condensed milk, Ice cream, Butter and Ghee have immense potential for export. As per the latest statistics of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), the dairy cooperative network in the country includes 177 milk unions covering 346 districts and over 1, 33,000 village-level societies with a total membership of nearly 14 million farmers. All the statistics given above are indicators of a flourishing dairy sector in India providing suitable opportunities to the industries engaged in the dairy business. India: Milk’s New Horizon A growing population and increased incomes from an economic boom are the driving forces behind a surge in dairy product demand in India. One key to the success of recent consumption trends has been an American standby: the refrigerator. Dairy Demand in an Emerging Economy A new study reports that the demand for milk in India will rise by a compound annual growth rate of about 4% over the next few years (RNCOS, 2012). Research shows that as incomes increase consumption of animal products, specifically milk and dairy products, intensifies (Wenge Fu et al. , 2012). In fact, India’s upturn in demand for dairy products far outweighs the growth in demand for animal products such as meat and eggs. India owes this large demand for milk to its largely vegetarian population. Dairy product demand in India has increased dramatically in both rural and urban sectors. However, as a larger population is emigrating from rural areas to cities an even greater demand may be placed on dairy products. Between 1980 and 2010, India’s level of urbanization increased from 23 to 30 percent of the population. The second largest country in the world, India is projected to grow from 1. 2 billion people in 2010 to just under 1. 7 billion by 2050 with 55% of that population being urban. This increase in buying power allows consumers to purchase durable goods such as refrigerators that enable larger consumption of dairy products than ever before. Moreover, a more urban population also offers the increased opportunity for cultural exchange, leading to increased consumption of meat and dairy products not only in India but across Asia. All of these factors coupled together lead to growing international market opportunities for milk and dairy products in India previously unnoticed in the global dairy industry. India is the world’s largest producer of milk. However, the majority of that milk is buffalo, followed by cow and goat milk as shown in Table 1 (FAOSTAT, 2013). Since 2005, 53% of the fluid milk produced in India has come from buffalo, 43% from cows and 4% from goats. In 2011, India produced 34% more milk than the U. S. up from 19% more in 2005 (Table 2). For dairy cow production, the United States produced 70% more milk in 2011 than India. One study by the OECD-FAO in 2011 suggests that India will have sufficient production to meet demand for milk and its products (excluding butter) through 2020. Nevertheless, as Wenge Fu et al. note, the rapid increase in population and changes in consumption patterns make such estimations difficult. Fluid milk demand is projected to grow at 10. 2% per year, while production is projected to grow by 3. 7% based on 1994 to 2004 growth rates. Competition for land to produce grains and feed products for animal production may limit agricultural growth in all sectors. This pressure on natural resources and its effect on production could lead to a greater reliance on imported dairy products. In the short run, India’s dairy sector is well positioned to accommodate the rapid growth in dairy product consumption. An increasingly urbanized population with a greater disposable income will drive demand leading to opportunities from the global milk market to supply this new generation of Indian consumers. Table 1. India’s Milk Production by Species from 2005 to 2011 in Tonnes (FAOSTAT, 2013) Year Item 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Avg Buffalo Milk (whole, fresh) Production in Tonnes 52,070,000 54,382,000 56,630,000 57,132,000 59,201,000 62,350,000 62,350,000 % of total production 54% 55% 54% 53% 53% 53% 52% 53% Cow Milk (whole, fresh) Production in Tonnes 39,759,000 41,148,000 44,601,000 47,006,000 47,825,000 49,960,000 52,500,000 % of total production 42% 41% 42% 43% 43% 43% 44% 43% Goat Milk (whole, fresh) Production in Tonnes 3,790,000 3,818,000 4,481,000 4,478,000 4,467,000 4,594,000 4,594,000 % of total production 4% 4% 4% 4% 4% 4% 4% 4% Total Production in Tonnes 95,619,000 99,348,000 105,712,000 108,616,000 111,493,000 116,904,000 119,444,000 Table 2. Milk Production in India and the United States from 2005 to 2011 (FAOSTAT, 2013) Year Country 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 All Milk Production in Tonnes India 95,619,000 99,348,000 105,712,000 108,616,000 111,493,000 116,904,000 119,444,000 USA 80,254,500 82,463,000 84,189,100 86,177,400 85,880,500 87,474,400 89,015,200 % Difference between India and U. S. 19% 20% 26% 26% 30% 34% 34% Cow Milk Production in Tonnes India 39,759,000 41,148,000 44,601,000 47,006,000 47,825,000 49,960,000 52,500,000 USA 80,254,500 82,463,000 84,189,100 86,177,400 85,880,500 87,474,400 89,015,200 % Difference between U. S. and India 102% 100% 89% 83% 80% 75% 70% As we have already seen how the production of milk and its consumption have increased over the past decade thus the problem of it distribution and availability also arises. This brings the problem of Effective distribution channel into light. For the same purpose the study has been undertaken in order to Measure the Effectiveness of the Distribution System of Baroda Dairy. Introduction to Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. The GCMMF is the largest food products marketing organisation of India. It is the apex organisation of the Dairy Cooperatives of Gujarat. Over the last five and a half decades, Dairy Cooperatives in Gujarat have created an economic network that links more than 3. 1 million village milk producers with millions of consumers in India. The cooperatives collect on an average 9. 4 million litres of milk per day from their producer members, more than 70% of whom are small, marginal farmers and landless labourers and include a sizeable population of tribal folk and people belonging to the scheduled castes. The turnover of GCMMF (AMUL) during 2010–11 was 97. 74 billion (US$1. 7 billion). It markets the products, produced by the district milk unions in 30 dairy plants. The farmers of Gujarat own the largest state of the art dairy plant in Asia – Mother Dairy, Gandhinagar, Gujarat – which can handle 3. 0 million litres of milk per day and process 160 MTs of milk powder daily. GCMMF is a unique organization which is created by farmers, managed by competent professionals serving a very competitive and challenging consumer market. It is a true testimony of synergistic national development through the practice of modern management methods. GCMMF Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF), is Indias largest food product marketing organisation with annual turnover (2012-13) US$ 2. 54 billion. Its daily milk procurement is approx 13 million lit per day from 16914 village milk cooperative societies, 17 member unions covering 24 districts, and 3. 18 million milk producer members. It is the Apex organisation of the Dairy Cooperatives of Gujarat, popularly known as AMUL, which aims to provide remunerative returns to the farmers and also serve the interest of consumers by providing quality products which are good value for money. Its success has not only been emulated in India but serves as a model for rest of the World. It is exclusive marketing organisation of Amul and Sagar branded products. It operates through 48 Sales Offices and has a dealer network of 5000 dealers and 10 lakh retailers, one of the largest such networks in India. Its product range comprises milk, milk powder, health beverages, ghee, butter, cheese, Pizza cheese, Ice-cream, Paneer, chocolates, and traditional Indian sweets, etc. GCMMF is Indias largest exporter of Dairy Products. It has been accorded a Trading House status. Many of our products are available in USA, Gulf Countries, Singapore, The Philippines, Japan, China and Australia. GCMMF has received the APEDA Award from Government of India for Excellence in Dairy Product Exports for the last 13 years. For the year 2009-10, GCMMF has been awarded Golden Trophy for its outstanding export performance and contribution in dairy products sector by APEDA. For its consistent adherence to quality, customer focus and dependability, GCMMF has received numerous awards and accolades over the years. It received the Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award in1999 in Best of All Category. In 2002 GCMMF bagged Indias Most Respected Company Award instituted by Business World. In 2003, it was awarded the The IMC Ramkrishna Bajaj National Quality Award 2003 for adopting noteworthy quality management practices for logistics and procurement. GCMMF is the first and only Indian organisation to win topmost International Dairy Federation Marketing Award for probiotic ice cream launch in 2007. The Amul brand is not only a product, but also a movement. It is in one way, the representation of the economic freedom of farmers. It has given farmers the courage to dream. To hope. To live. GCMMF An Overview

Consumer Analysis On Chocolate Consumption Marketing Essay

Consumer Analysis On Chocolate Consumption Marketing Essay The objective of this project is to investigate patterns of chocolate consumption experience. The project will look into different age groups and their consumption habits. The main purpose of this research is to find evidence between age and consumption patterns. And also inspect the extent of chocolate consumptions impact on health. Introduction: The tale of chocolate began at the age of Maya and stretched to the modern world. The Spanish were the first to introduce cacao in Europe and after that it become one of the most celebrated drink of the elite society in Europe until it was mass produced with the help of modern technology. There are different varieties of chocolate available in the market from different companies such as dark chocolate, white chocolate, milk chocolate, sweet chocolate, candy etc. In this project will examine inclination of the consumers towards chocolate consumption (in special context of Nestle, Cadbury Mars chocolates are chosen in the study). The buying behavior is a fascinating study of human psychology. Consumers were generally thought to act rationally, according to neo-classical economics theory ( Howard and sheth 1969) individually maximizing satisfaction of their needs. By contrast, in the modern world, people are more likely to indulge into socio-psychological or emotional or irrational buying motives (Holbrook, and Hirschman 1982). These motives come from the social or psychological interpretation of the product. There are several arguments and also psychological aspects of why a consumer makes a particular choice. According to Freud, persons buying decisions are affected by subconscious motives that even the buyer may not fully understand. The most celebrated work on human motivation is done by Abraham Maslow (1943). He suggested a hierarchical order of human needs. According to Maslow, we seek to satisfy our lower order physiological needs first, before our safety needs, before our belongingness needs, our esteem needs, and finally our need for self actualization. This project will try to find link between human behavior and chocolate consumption. There are past chocolate consumption study which has to some extent examined consumer view, attitudes, and motivations towards chocolate and chocolate consumption as a representative (Belk and Costa, 1998) and social experience (Cova and Pace, 2006). Chocolate consumption can be also related to health problems as many scientific investigations have pointed out. This project will also try to ask questions on common perception on chocolate consumption and its impact on health. Chapter 1: Research aim: This study aims to investigate in the area of chocolate consumption, by exploring how consumers experience chocolate consumption in various circumstances and contexts. It also will try to examine common perceptions of health associated factors related to chocolate consumption. Research objective: The objective of this research is to gain insight in the consumer behavior related to chocolate consumption. This project will try to study existing literature and secondary data and investigate links between consumer behavior theories and the existing data. The further objective is find out perceptions on chocolate consumption and health. As many of the findings and research would suggest close link between them. Chapter 2: History of Chocolate: The story of chocolate begun about 2000 years back in the ancient civilization of Mayan when they discovered the cacao tree ( kah KOW) in the tropical rain forests of South-America. By 1400, the Aztec empire dominated a sizable section of Mesoamerica. They traded with Maya and other people for cacao and sometime traded with cacao seed a form of Aztec money. The ancient Aztecs believed chocolate to be the Food of the god. The history of chocolate in Europe began after the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1521. It is believed that Christopher Columbus first European who discovered existence of cacao tree. It is also believed that It was him who brought back some cacao trees from Spain. (http://www.sfu.ca/geog351fall03/groups-webpages/gp8/history/history.html) The Spaniards quickly recognized the value attached to cacao and observed Aztec custom of drinking chocolate. Soon after Spanish started to ship back the cacao seeds and started to sweeten the cacao with cinnamon, sugar and other sweeteners. Xocolatl! or Chocolat or Chocolate as it became known was introduced to Europe by Cortez, later as the time progressed Europeans were able to make the drink more palatable for European taste thus changing the Aztec style of drinking. The first chocolate factories opened in Spain and by the early 17th century chocolate powder from which the European version of the drink was made and exported to different parts of Europe. Spanish managed to keep their drink secret for almost 100 years before rest of the Europe find out about the drink. The Spanish kept the source of the drink the beans a secret for many years, so successfully in fact, that when English buccaneers boarded what they thought was a Spanish Treasure Galleon in 1579, only to find it loaded with what appeared to be dried sheeps droppings, and burnt the whole ship in frustration, if only they had known the value of chocolate. Within a few years, the Cocoa beverage made from the powder produced in Spain had become popular throughout Europe, in the Spanish Netherlands, Italy, France, and Germany and in about 1520 it arrived in England. The first Chocolate House in England opened in London in 1657 followed rapidly by many others. Like the already well established coffee houses, they were used as clubs where the wealthy and business community met to smoke a clay pipe of tobacco, conduct business and socialize over a cup of chocolate. For centuries, chocolate was eaten by the societys upper crust. But by the 19th century mass production of chocolate helped it reach much wider portion of society. First European chocolate factory was set up France 1761 in the town of Bayonne. As demand increased most of the European countries started producing cacao in their colonies in Caribbean, Africa and parts of South East Asia. (Simmons, 1976; Baker, 1891) 1828 marked the modern ear of chocolate making when Dutch Chocolate maker Conrad J. van Houten patented an inexpensive method for pressing making cacao powder. Many chocolate companies of today were formed as a family run businesses such as Europe such as Van Houten in the Netherlands in 1815, Menier in France in 1824, Cadbury and Rowntree in England; and Suchard, Nestlà ©, Lindt and Kohler in Switzerland. (http://www.chocolate-source.co.uk/history_of_chocolate.htm) http://www.sfu.ca/geog351fall03/groups-webpages/gp8/history/timeline.jpg http://www.sfu.ca/geog351fall03/groups-webpages/gp8/history/history.html This figure shows the evolution of chocolate from being produced in form of cacao in South America and then eventually in Europe. In 1894, English chocolate maker Joseph Storrs Fry produced what was arguably the worlds first eating chocolate (Brenner, 1999; Spadaccini, 23rd online edition). Some of Englands most successful entrepreneurs during the Industrial Revolution belonged to a group of people known as The Society of Friends, or more commonly, the Quakers. Due to their radical beliefs, the Quakers were alienated from many of the mainstream professions of the time including politics, law and medicine. Many of the large Quaker families channeled their energy into business and commerce, and one of the most progressive commodities at the time to invest in was cocoa. A one man business opened in 1824 by a young Quaker, John Cadbury, in Bull Street Birmingham was to be the foundation of Cadbury Limited, now one of the worlds largest producers of chocolate. In 1831 the business was transformed from grocery shop and John Cadbury was manufacturing drinking chocolate and cocoa. This was the start Cadburys business as it is known today which was later joined by John Cadburys brother Benjamin and the business become Cadbury brothers in 1847 in Birmingham where they rented their first factory. This partnership dissolved in 1860 and a year later John Cadbury retired leaving his sons Richard and George, the second Cadbury brothers, to continue the business. 1866 saw a turning point for the company with the introduction of a process for pressing the cocoa butter from the cocoa beans. This not only enabled Cadbury Brothers to produce pure cocoa essence, but the plentiful supply of cocoa butter remaining was also used to make new kinds of eating chocolate. Business prospered from this time and Cadbury Brothers outgrew the Bridge Street factory, moving in 1879 to a greenfield site some miles from the centre of Birmingham which came to be called Bournville. The opening of the Cadbury factory in a garden also heralded a new era in industrial relations and employee welfare with joint consultation being just one of the initiatives introduced by the pioneering Cadbury brothers. In 1899 the business became a private limited company Cadbury Brothers Limited. Progress since the start of the century through the inter-war years onwards has been rapid. Chocolate has moved from being a luxury item to being well within the financial reach of everyone. The story behind many of todays chocolate manufacturers begins with a Quaker family the Cadburys, the Frys, the Rowntrees and the Terrys all chose cocoa as the basis for their family businesses. Their aim was to persuade the poor to give up alcohol in favor of the healthier chocolate drink. Because of the persecution the Quakers faced in England thousands migrated to America and settled in the colony of Pennsylvania founded in 1682 by William Penn. By 1864 seven thousand Quakers had settled their including one Milton Hershey and by 1900 the Hershey chocolate factory was up and running. ( www.cadbury.co.uk) The UK confectionary market: This project took help from published Mintel UK confectionary market, 2011 report as it is one of the most reliable sources of information. Mars Background Mars UK is a division of Mars Incorporated, a family-owned US based business with annual revenue of over $30 billion. The company acquired Wm Wrigley Jr in 2008, extending its food and drink portfolio in the UK to cover chocolate and sugar confectionery and gum, ice cream and petcare.( www.mars.co.uk) The companys key brands in the UK chocolate confectionary market are Galaxy, Maltesers, Mars, Snickers, and Twix. Kraft Foods UK Background Kraft Foods is a US-based multinational confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate which supplies biscuits, cheese, grocery, chocolate, coffee, gum and candy. It has its presence over 50 countries worldwide. The company strengthened its leading position in the chocolate confectionery market when it acquired Cadbury Plc in January 2010 for  £11.5 billion and in doing so, acquiring the likes of Dairy Milk, Roses and Twirl, as well as inheriting the premium organic brand, Green Blacks. In March 2012, the company announced its plans to remain at the forefront of NPD by investing  £17 million into research and development in the UK. Kraft also launched Green Blacks an exclusive chocolate bar in support of Breast Cancer alertness month. The new Raisin Hazelnut bar in a pink package came with the Breast Cancer ribbon and the charity organisations logo. The company unveiled the limited edition bar in October 2011 and contributed  £20,000 to help Breakthrough Breast Cancer in its research work. (www.greenandblacks.com), (www.cadbury.co.uk), (www.kraftfoodscompany.com) Nestlà © Background Nestle UK Ltd is a division of the Swiss nutrition, health and wellness company Nestlà © SA. The UK business operates 15 manufacturing units and has three major subdivisions food and beverage, confectionery, and Nestlà © Nutrition. The brand claims that it is planning to invest  £500 million into the UK market from 2012-14. The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products in various markets such as Pure Life (bottled water), Cheerios (breakfast cereals), KitKat (chocolate confectionery), Nescafà © (coffee), Herta Maggi (family meals), Carnation (evaporated condensed milk) and Nesquik (flavoured milk).( www.nestle.co.uk) Market Share of Different companies and future: According to the Manufacturers shares in the UK chocolate confectionery market, by value, 2011 Kraft, Mars and Nestlà © hold three quarters of the market share (Source: Mintel) These are top three companies which hold account for 76% of sales via their wide portfolio of brands. This market is considerably more dependent on the fortunes of its top three companies than the sugar equivalent. ( Mintels Sugar Confectionery UK, November 2011 report). According to the same report Cadbury Dairy milk and Mars Galaxy is reckoned to be the two most popular brands in UK market. Both of them occupying almost 20 percent of the market share (Appendix: Table ) although there is a significant percent of change in Dairy Milks fortune. UK Leading brands purchased in the UK chocolate market, 2008-10, Chocolate Confectionery UK April 2011 Market Share According to Euro-monitor Chocolate is still the UK market leader with accounting 31% of the value sale.. Euromonitor International (2011) Chocolate confectionery data spreadsheet (Euromonitor International Limited, London) 2010 data for total size of global retail chocolate confectionery market, using fixed 2010 exchange rates, in current prices 2009 data for company share of global market Reports from Mintel also suggests that despite Dairy Milk being the only brand in top ten its presence is felt through in the chocolate confectionery market through a strong promotion and this brand which is comfortably the market leader, with 12% of total chocolate confectionery sales. Krafts takeover of Cadbury in 2010 significantly boosted the companys presence in the UK chocolate confectionery market, up from around 5% to its current status as leader with a third of the total market share. (Mintel Chocolate Confectionary Report 2011) According this report Mars is the second largest company in the chocolate confectionery market having a market share of 27%. The company achieved reasonably strong sales growth of 7% in 2011, despite this its largest brand, Galaxy, and flagship Mars bar brand both saw sales fall in 2011. Galaxys performance is mostly surprising as the brand has in fact carried out many activities which should promote growth such as a significant advertising spending, however Galaxy sales dipped by 3% although it is worth noting that this comes on the back of a particularly strong performance in 2010. It also states that Nestlà © holds a prominent share in the market as the third company which has a notable existence in the chocolate confectionery market. and holds a 16% share through a portfolio of well-established brands such as KitKat, Aero and Quality Street. Although the company has four brands inside the top 15 in the market, it currently lacks a marquee chocolate brand of same level as Cadbury Dairy Milk or Mars Galaxy. According to the Mintel report since 2006, the chocolate confectionery market has grown by 21%, with stable growth of 4-6%. The UKs fondness for chocolate has meant that it has been largely unaffected by the post-recession landscape, with sales reaching  £3.98 billion in 2011. The growth has increased on the back of inflation, with rising retail prices helping to drive value sales but suppressing volume sales, despite regular promotions. However rising prices pose a possible threat, leading to 49% of consumers claiming that they may slash back in this scenario. But considerable support for brands such as Kraft and Mars is likely to keep users engaged with the market, while the own-labels are now making concerted efforts to grow their small share (7%) of sales. The market is forecast to continue rising at between 5% and 6% in the coming years, reaching  £5.25 billion by 2016. The chocolate confectionery market continues to achieve steady growth. UK retail value sales of chocolate confectionery at current and constant prices, 2006-16  £m Annual % change Index  £m at 2011 prices Annual % change Index 2006 3,133 Na 79 4,123 na 104 2007 3,274 +4.5 82 4,119 -0.1 104 2008 3,419 +4.4 86 3,938 -4.4 99 2009 3,575 +4.6 90 3,910 -0.7 98 2010 3,772 +5.5 95 4,000 +2.3 101 2011 (est) 3,976 +5.4 100 3,976 -0.6 100 2012 (fore) 4,205 +5.8 106 4,075 +2.5 115 2013 (fore) 4,451 +5.9 112 4,123 +1.2 123 2014 (fore) 4,711 +5.8 118 4,200 +1.9 128 2015 (fore) 4,968 +5.5 125 4,248 +1.1 135 2016 (fore) 5,245 +5.6 132 4,309 +1.4 141 Source: Mintel Mintel has confirmed that the chocolate confectionery market has established itself to be one of the small numbers of recession-proof food and drink markets with consumer not cutting chocolate out of their diets despite stress on many household budgets. In recent years, yearly growth in the market has lingered at around the 5% mark, a trend expected to continue in the years up to 2016. In 2011, the market reached  £3,976 billion, a 21% increase over a five-year period. Apart from 2012 which may benefit from a halo effect around the London Olympics and European Championships growth is predicted to only be around 1% at 2011 prices, highlighting the continued impact of inflation. This report also forecasted that the market is expected to continue benefiting from its desirable position as a standard and inexpensive treat eaten by nine in ten (89%) of the UKs population, with four in five (81%) weekly users. However, there is a danger that rising prices with static or decreasing bar sizes will deter users, with 49% admitting that they would cut back if prices kept on rising. The increasing cost of the bars also cover the fact that, in terms of volume sales, the market size in fact declined somewhat in 2011, despite the frequency of a soaring number of promotions. In fact, growing prices are inescapable for chocolate manufacturers as they have to deal with rising commodity prices in recent years. However, a positive harvest in 2011 perhaps opens the door for companies to shine their value credentials by tackling rising prices head on, something which there is a strong consumer demand to see. MIntel report has mentioned a word of caution for the big three brands (Kraft (Cadbury), Mars and Nestlà ©) which account for three quarters of sales, a growing number of niche brands, particularly at the premium tier, and a fight back from own-label options, look set to increase competition in the coming years. Forecast Forecast of UK retail value sales of chocolate confectionery, 2006-16 ( Mintel ) Source: MIntel Forecast methodology: Mintel has created this estimate based on an sophisticated statistical technique known as multivariate time series auto-regression using the statistical software package SPSS. The model, based on past market size data taken from Mintels own market size database and complemented by macro- and socio-economic data sourced from trustworthy organisations (eg Office for National Statistics, HM Treasury, Bank of England), searches for relationships between actual market sizes and a selection of key economic and demographic factors (independent variables) in order to recognize those determinants having the most influence on the market. Chapter 3: Literature review Introduction: In this section of the project buying behavior will be explored with the help of theory and examples. Many of free market economists and policy makers believe of customer centric approach who will purchase according to their choice. (Consumer behavior, Ray Wright, Thompson Learning 2006). Chocolate is a very popular consumer product bought for many different occasions and reason. There is thus some truth in a popular remark like, Nine out of 10 people like chocolate. The tenth person always lies, or Chocolate makes everyone smile-even bankers (Doherty and Tranchell, 2007). Buying behavior of consumers: The consumer decision-making process is significant in determining buying behavior. In order to offer an efficient service, it is important to categorize consumer segments, taking into account the benefits which the consumer seeks. Consumers seek benefits or solutions, not products (Rowley, 1997). The main reason behind consumers search is indecision. Consumer information search has been the focus of many articles studying consumer behavior during the last 30 years (Bettman, 1979). Perceptions of food quality and safety are likely to be influenced by psychological and cultural factors rather than physiological product experiences alone. Many quantitative and qualitative researches have attended to issues connected with cultural determinants of food choice (Shepherd and Raats, 2007). It is quite evident from such studies that while analyzing factors that influence food choice, it is important to consider consumers cultural background (Overby et al., 2004; and Hoogland et al., 2005). It is believed that people from different cultural backgrounds have different perceptions and experiences related to food (Lennernas et al., 1997). Hence it can be noticed that some consumers are more oriented towards food quality, whereas for others food safety is a concern. Consumer behavior is also affected by the socioeconomic conditions of the markets namely, income, mobility, media access (Tse et al., 1989). It has been observed that per capita income and disposable income indicates the amount of resources consumers allocate to consumer goods (Johansson and Moinpour, 1977). According to Maslow, we seek to satisfy our lower order physiological needs first, before our safety needs, before our belongingness needs, our esteem needs, and finally our need for self actualization. The hierarchy is shown in the figure below: Let us simplify the pyramid of need a little bit more: physical, social and self. The physical needs relates to the basic and psychological needs of person. Basic need means a person buys food when he is hungry, buys house for his shelter and so on. Buying house is also falls into safety needs. Psychologically a person feels comfortable, when he/she has a house, of his/her own. What is a social need? Social need is driven by persons status, self-esteem, prestige, family belongingness. From luxury items to particular brands, the decision to purchase a particular product is frequently based on deeper psychological influences, oftentimes influencing brand loyalty according to psycho-social interpretation of product value (Fine, L.M. : Business Horizons 2010). It is very difficult to generalize the need motivation theory, because geographically people are different from each other. For example, as the heroes of Hollywood movies amply show the typical Anglo-Saxon cultural values, which pu ts individuality and self-actualization above all else, but that is not universally so. In Japan and German speaking countries people are mostly highly motivated by need for personal security and conformity, while in France, Portugal, Spain, other Latin American and Asian countries people mostly motivated by the need of security.( Gert Hofstede, Cultural Consequences ( London: Sage 1984)) The theory of planned behavior ( Azjen, 1991) argues that our intentional behavior is not always similar as our actual behavior, and sometimes how our attitude towards the behavior, subjective norm and perception about the behavior control our actual behavior. For example, alcohol consumption is different in different countries, depending up on the psychological perception about alcohol drinking. Here we also consider others opinion and the impact of drinking alcohol on our family and children. Consumers can act on beliefs. Belief can be defined as quick response; we will give about a matter. They are held with limited conviction and do not support the facts most of the times. Attitudes in comparison are held with greater degree of conviction for longer period; it is much likely to influence buying behavior. For example, when we see new advertisement about a product, say new shoe from Adidas. We believe that shoe would to good and comfortable to wear. Beliefs are based on more of emotional aspects on the contrary to attitudes. Attitude evaluates the product, based on the usage of the product. Now the attitude towards the Adidas can be positive or negative. May be there is no change in design or maybe it is not that comfortable to wear. So here attitude would be negative. Value is another very important factor influencing behavior. Peoples value grows from the childhood. The social and regional atmosphere, ethnicity, culture and sub-culture, religion all contribute to value creation in a person. Consumers often are influenced by their parents and friends. It may have a positive or negative influence on the buying. For example, a young man loves sports bike, well his father and uncle used ride one, and his friends also do. But after a serious accident of his uncle riding a sports bike made his father against him buying a one for himself. But he may or may not buy a sports bike after all. He may feel that his freedom is blocked, partially or fully and motivated to go against it. Social grade, status or lifestyle is based mainly on the income of a household. It can influence buying pattern. For example, champagne is more of a high cost drink. It was found in a survey that large proportions (44%) of champagne drinkers are professional and managerial class. By contrast, 22% working class people and only 14% who are unemployed drinks champagne. So there is a marked decrease in champagne consumption as we move down the socio-economic scale. (Source; Mintel 2008b) How customers buy: From companys prospective any communicating massage, while at the time of purchase or other point can have direct impact on consumer behavior. For example, most of the food commercials are shown at the time of our breakfast or dinner. So marketers are giving specific massage at a particular point. Although there are variety of models of consumer buying behavior, the consumer product proposition acquisition model is perhaps the simplest to understand, stressing how the consumer goes through six key stages in product acquisition process including motive development, information gathering, product evaluation, product selection, acquisition and re-evaluation.( Baines, Fill, Page pg 113) The consumer proposition acquisition process or buying process consists of six stages. Explained in the figure below: Motive Development Information Gathering Proposition Evaluation Proposition Selection Acquisition/Purchase Re-evaluation The consumer proposition acquisition process (Baines, Fill, Page pg 83) Motive development: the model begins with when we decide to purchase or we need to acquire the product. It begins with our understanding that some problem needs to be solved. For example, a young male consumer decides to gift a box of chocolate to his wife. He might have bought Cadbury dairy milk or he might opt for premium brands such as Throntons or Godiva. Information gathering: the next stage of process will require us to look for alternative ways to solve our problem. Our search for a solution to solve problem may be active or passive, in other words, we are open to ways of solving our problem but we are not actively looking for information to help us (Howard and Sheth, 1969) Search for the information may be internal; when we think we already know the problem and identified the products that will solve them. Or, external where we dont know enough about our problem and seek supplementary information to help us to decide. Now buyer access to information, feedback, and peer reviews has increased; this has increased through social networking sites and internet. With so much to choose from, customers have increasing become intolerant about products or services. The consumer has the right to choose and this continues to impact buying behavior and consumer loyalty. So by the right communication about the product with its added features, co mpanies can build a sustainable relationship with the consumer. Proposition evaluation: once we feel that we have sufficient information and we now can make a decision, we evaluate the proposition. These evaluations can be rational (e.g. based on cost) or irrational (e.g. based on emotional desire). For example, the young man buying a box of chocolate exemplifies his emotional desire to please his partner. Proposition selection: in major cases, the proposition we eventually select is the one we believe is fitting our needs best beforehand. However we might change on a particular proposition from where we buy it. For example, the man buying the box of chocolate may have been checked the stock online for a particular retailer but when he turned up at the retail shop, the brand he wants to buy is not there, so he then and there decides an alternative. The person may go to another retail shop or he may buy another similar kind of product from the shop, because what he wants to buy is not available. This is why proposition selection and evaluation are different stages of buying process. Acquisition/purchase: Once selection has taken place, different approaches are there for proposition acquisition. For example, there is always an emotional aspect attached when we are making an infrequent purchase. Family as a whole can act as a single most influencing factor, where wifes and childrens influence most of the buying decisions. Re-evaluation: The theory of cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957) suggest that we are motivated to revaluate our beliefs, attitudes, opinions, or values if the position we hold on them at one point of time is not same as we held an earlier point, due different actions, circumstances and intervening events. Experience can clash with expectation which can create buyer remorse. People may feel angry, guilty, surprise or embarrassment. People are biased to think that they have made right choices despite the contrary evidence which gives dissonance theory new light on otherwise puzzling behavior The consumption experience can be described as an emergent property that results from a complex system of mutually overlapping interrelationships in constant reciprocal interaction with personal, environmental, and situational inputs (Hirschman and Holbrook, 1986, p. 219). It depends when food