Religion in China: Chinese Buddhism

As of July 2008, the population of the People’s Republic of China has reached 1,330,044,544 which has always been governed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since October 1, 1949 (Central Intelligence Agency). Though PRC is under very strict communist control, the country has already opened itself up to the rest of the world after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. Deng Xiaoping turned the country into a market-driven economy issuing the Open Door Policy and engaging into foreign relations with countries like the United States of America.Aside from rejoining the world affairs, the people also experienced independence after being inhibited by the Cultural Revolution which suppressed all forms of freedom. One kind of freedom that the people have experienced is religious freedom (Central Intelligence Agency). PRC is a multi-religious country; hence, the country has diverse religious practices and beliefs (Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America) .The major religions, though, in the country are Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism and Protestantism; however, there are still Chinese who practice traditional folk religions. In 1997, there are already more that 100 million Chinese who devote themselves to the religions mentioned above. Moreover, there are 85,000 locations dedicated to religious activities, 300,000 clergies, more than 3,000 religious organization, 74 schools and colleges managed by religious organizations (Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America).This paper, though, will center on Chinese Buddhism and attempts to prove that is the country’s true religion. According to Travel China Guide, the most important religion in China is Buddhism. About 102 million Chinese practice Chinese Buddhism, making China the country which has the most number of Buddhists in the year 2007 (Buddhist-Tourism). In 1997, there are already about 13,000 Buddhist temples and 200,000 monks and nuns. In addi tion, there is also a Buddhist Association of China (Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America).Gautama Buddha and His Teachings In general, Buddhism was formed through a Nepal prince, Siddharta Gautama, of the Shakya family. Ever since he was born in the 6th century BC, he was not aware of suffering of the people outside the palace; however, when he did become aware of this, he got upset and decided to leave the life of royalty. After leaving the life he used to live in the palace, Gautama resolved to practice asceticism for seven years only to find out that an ascetic lifestyle is not sufficient to take away suffering (Theobald).He then added meditation with asceticism and through meditation he was able to formulate inferences which turned him into a Buddha or an â€Å"Enlightened Man. † Afterwards, he went on and spread his teachings called the â€Å"Wheel of Teaching† – where the â€Å"wheel† stood as a symbol of Buddhi sm – and died at Kusinara (Theobald). Gautama Buddha formulated the Four Noble Truths which can be summed up as life is suffering due to the continuous yearning for survival and sensual pleasures (Theobald). Thus, Buddha devised the Eightfold Path that would restrain suffering.This Eightfold Path consists of (1) right views, (2) right intentions, (3) right speech, (4) right action, (5) right livelihood, (6) right effort, (7) right mindfulness and (8) right concentration which can be attained by conforming to a strict moral discipline, avoiding evil actions, doing good, cleansing the mind through mental discipline and mending it through the important aspects of doing good (Theobald). The Buddhist religion has what they call the Three Jewels which consists of the Buddha, the teachings and the community; moreover, the center of any Buddhist world is called Mount Sumeru that has its own Buddha (Theobald).Arrival of Buddhism in China Centuries after Gautama Buddha passed away, Bud dhism was finally able to enter China and began to co-exist with Confucianism and Taoism (Theobald). The Chinese Empire was able to gain contact with Buddhism in the Silk Road where there was a constant movement of traders and missionary. Chinese people were able to mingle with Buddhists from Central Asia – this was made possible due to the spread of Han Dynasty (25 AD – 220 AD) to the Central Asia during the 1st century AD in which increased the interaction of China and Central Asia through trading (BDEA Inc.& BuddhaNet). The Emperor Ming Ti of the Han Dynasty who ruled from 57 AD to 75 AD is said to have been a huge follower of Buddhism and Taoism (International Dunhuang Project). It was said that the Emperor dreamt of a foreign god – this triggered his sudden decision to sent messengers in India to look for Buddhist texts and teachers (Edkins, 88-89). Buddhists from India went to China along with the messengers that the Emperor sent as there is already a dema nd to translate Buddhist texts to Chinese. Buddhist monks like Lokashema, Kaspaya, Dharmaraksha, Kashiammadanga, Anshigao, etc.translated various Buddhist texts like the Shravakanaya texts, the Mahayana texts done by Lokashema, the Sutra of Forty-Two Sections done by Kashiapmadanga (who was said to have died in Lo-yang), Kasyapa and Dharmaraksha, etc. (BDEA Inc. & BuddhaNet; Edkins, 89; International Dunhuang Project). Along with other Buddhist texts being translated, Buddhism was spread more in China leading to the formation of a Chinese monastic order. In addition, there were already monks that are of Chinese decent – the first of them is said to be Anshigao’s disciple (BDEA Inc.& BuddhaNet). However, the Chinese were not able to comprehend the teachings of Buddhism at once for the translators used Taoist terms in order to translate the Buddhist terms; they encountered difficulty in finding the appropriate Chinese words to translate Buddhist concepts (BDEA Inc. & Bud dhaNet). Hence, the Chinese associated Buddhism to Taoism. Buddhism continued to grow despite the fall of the Han Dynasty in the early 3rd century. Translated Buddhist texts kept on going around and monasteries are being put up (BDEA Inc. & BuddhaNet).Chinese monks, like Dao-an, who is considered to be the most excellent Chinese monks of the 4th century, continued to invite translators like Kumarajiva from Kucha, who translated more important Buddhist texts and also revised the early translated Buddhist books (BDEA Inc. & BuddhaNet). Development of Chinese Buddhism In Travel Guide China, the development of Buddhism in China is divided into four periods. The first period is Buddhism in Han Dynasty which was already discussed earlier, it was also in this period where the White Horse Temple was put up which is said to be the first Buddhist monastery in China (Theobald).The second period was in Jin during the 265 AD to 420 AD – at the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties (385 AD – 589 AD). At the period of Jin, more Buddhist texts were translated, written and spread out, Buddhism became even more popular all over China and there was a growth in number of Chinese Buddhists (Travel China Guide). The third period was from the Sui Dynasty (581 AD – 618 AD) to the Tang Dynasty (618 AD – 907 AD). During these two dynasties, Buddhism reached its peak and its development had been exceptional.This unparalleled development of Buddhism during this period was because the Sui emperors are Buddhists and the Tang emperors accepted the growth of other religions despite being strict Taoists (Travel China Guide). During the Tang Dynasty, Buddhism became a part of Chinese Art, Chinese Literature, Chinese Sculpture, Chinese Architecture and Chinese Philosophy (BDEA Inc. & BuddhaNet). The development was, however, halted during the late feudal society due to the heightening of social unrest in the country (Travel China Guide).The slumped developmen t of Buddhism occurred on the dying period of the Manchu Dynasty when the country got involved in wars against the Great Britain and series of peasant uprisings (ie. Boxer Rebellion) where China got striped off of its land and was divided among western countries and Japan in what was called the Spheres of Influence. The foreign occupation was followed by the fall of the Manchu Dynasty which was caused by the rise of the Nationalists, followed by the rise of the Communists which again triggered another civil revolution in the country which was briefly cut short due to World War II.Nonetheless, Buddhism was able to recover after the establishment of the PRC and even more after the reign of Mao Zedong. In addition, Buddhism has progressed into three different forms, namely, Han Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhism and Southern Buddhism (Travel China Guide). Schools of Chinese Buddhism There were different schools of Chinese Buddhism which emerged during the Tang Dynasty. It was said that these s chools were derived from old forms of Buddhism that came to China, however, modern scholars stated that the said connections are most like tampered and flawed.Nonetheless, there are four main Chinese Buddhism schools that surfaced during the 7th century, namely, (1) T’ien-t’ai, (2) Hua-yen, (3) Ch’an, and (4) Pure Land (Lusthaus). T’ien-t’ai School This school was founded by Zhiyi (Lusthaus). He led Chinese Buddhism to a direction different from the path that various Buddhist theories and practices are leading it into. Zhiyi recommended a comprehensive synthesis. The whole T’ien-t’ai school was rooted on the Lotus Sutra – in this school, they view the Lotus Sutra as the carrier of salvation based on practice (China Views).This school is portrayed as principled and meditation- and philosophy-centered. It served as the connector of the developing Buddhism in Northern China as both religion of faith and discipline, and the intelle ctual tradition in Southern China (China Views). Hua-yen School While T’ien-t’ai School was based on the Lotus Sutra, the Hua-yen School has the Avatamsaka Sutra as their root (Lusthaus). The leading belief of Hua-yen School is â€Å"dharmadatu† or the â€Å"universal causation of the realm of the law† (China Views).The said realm refers to the whole of the universe including all of its dimensions while the universal causation is a philosophical development that is purely Chinese. The universal causation is an extension of Buddha’s teachings regarding â€Å"dependant origination† (China Views). Ch’an School The Ch’an School is the result of the reaction that rose against the T’ien-t’ai School and Hua-yen School (Lusthaus). The Ch’an School viewed the two other schools as an impediment towards enlightenment due to their capacious and complicated literatures. This school centers on meditation.Ch’an Sch ool was founded by an Indian monk from Southern India named Bodhidharma who arrived in China around the 5th and 6th century. He taught according to the Lankavatara Sutra and also practiced a tremendously simple mediation (China Views). Pure Land School Unlike the other three schools of Chinese Buddhism which center on devotional elements and rituals, the Pure Land School which focuses on the very fundamentals of devotionalism (Lusthaus). In addition, compared to the other schools, the founder or the origin of Pure Land is not known. However, there are contributors named Tanluan, Dao Chuo and Shandao.Aside from centering on devotionalism, the school also stresses the faith in Amitabha Buddha (China Views). The devotion will be centered on Amitabha in order for him to grant them salvation which is in the form of being born again the in the west pure land. Furthermore, this school has also ignored the need for self-development through the teachings of Buddha regarding the way of salvat ion (China Views). The scriptures that the Pure Land School use are the Larger and Smaller Sukhavati Sutras and the Guan Wuliangshuofo Jing (Lusthaus). Chinese Buddhist Temple and DeitiesThe temples of Chinese Buddhism are built according to the palaces of their imperial family and are definitely unlike the temples of Buddhism from other Buddhist countries like India. It is established facing south and have three cluster of buildings divided by courtyards (BDEA Inc. & BuddhaNet). The first cluster is the front hall where the four massive images of the Four Heavenly Kings (Devas) greet anyone who enters (BDEA Inc. & BuddhaNet). The Devas are the Guardians of the Four Directions and two of each are placed on the right and left. Thus, the hall is called â€Å"Si-Tien Wang Tien† – a name derived from the Four Heavenly Kings (BDEA Inc.& BuddhaNet). Visitors are mostly greeted by the soon-to-be Buddha called Maitreya Buddha, commonly known as the â€Å"Laughing Buddha† or â€Å"Ta-pao Mi-Lei-Fwo. † This particular Buddha is usually the one with a fat paunch. Precisely at the back of the Maitreya Buddha is the Projector of Buddhist Temples and Faith, the great King, Wei-to (BDEA Inc. & BuddhaNet). He appears to be dressed in his full armor and is either holding a staff or a weapon in a shape of scepter. Aside from being the Projector of Buddhist Temples and Faith, Wei-to is also called the Protector of Buddhist Books (BDEA Inc.& BuddhaNet). Wei-to is always built facing the Great Hall or â€Å"Ta-Hung-Pau-Tien† – the second cluster which is separated away from the front hall by either a wall or a courtyard (BDEA Inc. & BuddhaNet). The main altar of the temple is found in this hall, the image of the altar being Sakyamuni Buddha and his two chief students, Mahakasyapa and Ananda, if not, the place of the two students can be replaced by other Buddhas from the past. Even the image of the main altar can be different; temples of Pu re Land Schools will have the image of Amitabha Buddha.Nonetheless, on the both left and right side of the main altar are the two Great Bodhisattvas, Manjusri or Wen-Shu-Shih-Li and Samantabhadra or Pu-Hsien, however, this too can vary (BDEA Inc. & BuddhaNet). The east and west halls of this hall have the assembled figures of the Eighteen Arhats. These Arhats or Lohas are said to be in control of different supernatural powers (BDEA Inc. & BuddhaNet). On the north wall is the images of Dipankara or Jan-teng Fwo and other popular and non-popular Bodhisattvas. There are also instances when the image of the Protector of Buddhism, Kuan Ti, is also found in this hall.The Great Hall serves as the place where the dedicated Buddhists pray and offer flowers, fruits, etc. in the main altar (BDEA Inc. & BuddhaNet). The last cluster is the back hall which is, most of the time, split into smaller halls or smaller rooms. In the center of this hall is usually an altar of a Buddha or a Bodhisattva ( BDEA Inc. & BuddhaNet). The right is usually the funerary tablet of the founder of the temple while the left is usually a hall for either teaching or meditating. Finally, there are living quarters, dining area and kitchen that are located either on the side of the three clusters or at their back (BDEA Inc. & BuddhaNet).Chinese Buddhism in Modern China The Chinese people realized the need for Chinese Buddhism to modernize as early as the 20th century. There were efforts to modernize Chinese Buddhism and these efforts began during the Manchu Dynasty led by Yang Wen-hui by republishing and redispersing Buddhist texts (Lancashire, 220). He also tried to learn the significance of Chinese Buddhism in the modern world as a whole. Through his examinations, he was able to construe that Buddhims goes well with modern science, and, also, Chinese Buddhists have a role to serve – to introduce Buddhism to the outside world particularly in the West (Lancashire, 220).Hence, he encouraged the Chinese Buddhists to recognize the value of modern science and the existing connection between it and Buddhism, and also helped the Chinese Buddhist to prepare for the missionary tasks they have to fulfill in introducing the religion to the west (Lancashire, 221). It continued until the Chinese Buddhist Association was also established in 1929. Membership for the association was divided between the laity and the clergy with the latter having more dominance (Lancashire, 222).During the early stages of the association, it was able to saw of the two most politcally active monks of that period, namely, T’ai-hsii and Yuan-ying. T’ai-shii was said to be the leader of the progressives while Yuan-ying was the major head of the much contemporary ideas (Lancashire, 222). Personal Interest: Marriage Buddhist weddings are usually characterized as worldly and materialistic, however, the couples who are about to be wed always make sure that they will be able to receive the blessing of the monks from local Buddhist temples exactly right after accomplishing the civil registration procedures (BDEA Inc.& BuddhaNet). Chinese Buddhists strictly abide to their religion that even if two people are already married in a civil ceremony, they still need to have a Buddhist wedding in order to be considered as rightfully married (Urban Dharma). Choosing for the wedding day is usually relied on fortune tellers, however, the couple or the their parents could now have the right to choose for the appropriate wedding day (Urban Dharma). Before the wedding, as early as 5:30 AM, the family of the man will go to the house of the woman with trays that they will give to the woman (Walsh and Poremba).Each tray has its own corresponding purpose and may contain things like wine, fruit, traditional and western cake, tea, meat, trau cau and jewelry. One tray will have a pair of candles that will be lit up by the fathers of the soon-to-be groom and bride to represent the union of the two families, in addition, there will also be a tray that will have the traditional gown that the bride will wear for the wedding (Walsh and Poremba).A roasted pig will also be given to the family of the bride; this roasted pork will be cut into three, the family of the woman will keep the middle part while the rest will be given back to the family of the man (Urban Dharma). Afterwards, a tea ceremony will be conducted in which the couple will serve the elders of the woman’s family with tea and, in return, they will give them red packets with money or jewelry inside. The tea ceremony will also be repeated in the house of the man (Urban Dharma).The wedding ceremony will come after, in Buddhist weddings, the groom and the bride will be the ones who will administer the wedding ceremony (Walsh and Poremba). Just as how early the groom and his family went to the bride’s house for the gifts and ceremonies, they groom will again go to the house of the bride, or wherever she is st aying, early in the morning with his groomsmen. Before the groom could enter the house, the friends of the bride will ask him questions that are difficult enough to test if he is suitable for the bride.In addition, another test will be on the financial aspect where the groom will give the bridesmaid red packets with money or jewelry (Urban Dharma). Afterwards, the bride will bid farewell to her family and will pay respects to her ancestors in the their family’s spirit house, the groom will also follow suit, offering a bowl of trau cau to them with him (Walsh and Poremba). The couple along with the bridesmaids and groomsmen will then go to the house of the groom. The mother of the bride and the mother-in-law will put earrings on the bride to signify her virginity (Walsh and Poremba). Respects will again be paid to the ancestors of the groom.Again, a tea ceremony will be held where the groom and the bride will serve their parents. The tea ceremony will symbolize that the couple is married, it is also this ceremony which makes the bride a part of the groom’s family (Urban Dharma; Walsh and Poremba). Professional Interest: Interacting with Chinese Investors The essential beliefs and values of the Chinese are deeply rooted from philosophies and teachings of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism (Miroslawski, 46). Hence, even the holistic configuration of the Chinese society has its origin in the three major philosophies and religions in the country.Thus, in order to fully comprehend the Chinese culture, one must understand the different philosophies that the Chinese believe in and how these philosophies affect their way of life. In his study, Miroslawski (2008) compared and contrasted China and Germany using the cultural dimensions formulated by Geert Hofstede. In the comparison, it was learned that the organizational model of the Chinese emphasized on the necessity of a single supervisor at the top who will give those below instructions that should be fo llowed.This model is due to the Chinese inclination towards extensive power distance and the necessity for them to have an apparent and influential type of leadership (Miroslawski, 46-47). The Chinese are also collective in nature, hence, they always put the welfare of their group over their personal interests (Miroslawski, 47). Chinese have the tendency to not to speak out from the group just so they could maintain their good relationship with one another – this is also the case by not choosing to speak out towards their superiors.Aside from Hofstede’s explanation that if there is a high power distance, there is also high collectivism in the society, the organization model can also be attributed to China’s extended family and patriarchal society. Moreover, it is also due to Confucius’ teachings about filial piety (Miroslawski, 48). It is also because of the fact that Chinese are collectivists that their communication vary from those who are inside their group and those who are outside. This is also due to the huge amount of loyalty that the Chinese put on one another (Miroslawski, 48).Another finding was that China has a very high-context culture, hence, the value on face-saving is high and tremenduously important (Miroslawski, 48). Face-saving refers to instituing, sustaining and intensifying status. Despite being collectivists, the Chinese still give themselves value by having a significant status in the group, still, this reflects only within the group as every group tries to contain all their knowledge within them. In order to comprehend Chinese more easily, then, they must be from a high-context culture as well or at least attempt to study their ways (Miroslawski, 48).Conclusion Chinese Buddhists range from 50% to 80% of the Chinese population, their infrastructures are more than 10,000 in numbers while there are hundreds of thousands Chinese Buddhist monks, nuns, lamas and Buddhas (Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America; Vipassana Foundation). The Chinese have, indeed, welcomed and nourished the Buddhist religion ever since it arrived in China during the Han Dynasty. Emperors were open enough to accept its unstoppable growth and even allow it continue its development.Despite the turmoils that the country experienced during its fall at the period of the Manchu, the Chinese people still resurrected and modernized the religion in order to make it still fitting with the changing times. It can be said that the Chinese Buddhists are very loyal to their religion that when it comes to marriage, the couple should still be wed in a Buddhist ceremony in order to be considered married. Though the Chinese are no longer particular about having their child marrying another Chinese, they would still want the couple to undergo a Buddhist wedding ceremony.The rituals, the ceremonies and the traditions are still being strictly followed. However, there are practices that were no longer co nstantly done, like parents arranging the marriage of their children, going to the matchmakers, and consultation with forture tellers. Chinese are now allowing their children to chose who they want to marry irregardless of nationality and the couple are also free to choose what day they would like their wedding to be held. Perhaps the most difficult matter where other people from other countries to get along with the Chinese is regarding business.Chinese tends not to share what they know with others even with their fellow Chinese. Moreover, they also wanted to play a big role in a certain agreement. In addition, engaging a business with Chinese might take a lot of time as they will always consult their group regarding the business at hand. These qualities of the Chinese is attributable to their high power distance, collectivism and context culture (Miroslawski, 46-48). Chinese prefer having a someone above them who are capable of leading them irregardless of the circumstances.They w ill always put the best interests of the group their their own and they do not share anything to anyone easily for they find it hard to trust other people, however, they gave their utmost loyalty to their group. This is due to their philosophies and religion – Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism (Miroslawski, 46). Works Cited BDEA Inc. & BuddhaNet. â€Å"Buddhist Studies: Chinese Buddhist Temple. † 2008. Buddhist Studies: Buddha Dharma Education Association & BuddhaNet. 13 October 2008 . BDEA Inc. & BuddhaNet.â€Å"Buddhist Studies: Mahayana Buddhism: Chinese. † 2004. Buddhist Studies: Buddha Dharma Education & BuddhaNet. 13 October 2008 . BDEA Inc. & BuddhaNet. â€Å"Buddhist Studies: Personal Ceremonies in Buddhism: Marriage. † 2008. Buddhist Studies: Buddha Dharma Education Association & BuddhaNet. 15 October 2008 . BDEA Inc. & BuddhaNet. â€Å"Timeline of Major Events in Chinese Buddhism. † 2008. Buddhist Studies: Buddha Dharma Education Associat ion & BuddhaNet.13 October 2008 . Buddhist-Tourism. â€Å"Statistics on Buddhism, Statistics on Buddhist Religion, Buddhist World Statistics Description. † 2007. Buddist-Tourism. 14 October 2008 . Central Intelligence Agency. â€Å"CIA – The World Factbook — China. † 9 October 2008. Central Intelligence Agency. 14 October 2008 . China Views. â€Å"Chinese Mahayana Buddhism – A Complete History.† 2007. China Views. 13 October 2008 . Edkins, Joseph. Chinese Buddhism: A Volume of Sketches, Historical, Descriptive and Critical. New Jersey: Gorgias Press LLC, 2003. Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America. â€Å"White Paper–Freedom of Religious Belief in China. † October 1997. Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America. 14 October 2008 . International Dunhuang Project. â€Å"Chinese Buddhism on the Silk Road.† n. d. International Dunhuang Project. 13 October 2008 . Lancashire, Douglas. â€Å"Buddhism in Modern China. † Religion in Communist Lands (1977, 5 (4)): 220-228. Lusthaus, Dan. â€Å"Buddhist philosophy, Chinese: Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online. † 1998. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 13 October 2008 . Lusthaus, Dan. â€Å"Buddhist philosophy, Chinese: Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online. † 1998. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.13 October 2008 . Lusthaus, Dan. â€Å"Buddhist philosophy, Chinese: Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online. † 1998. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 13 October 2008 . Lusthaus, Dan. â€Å"Buddhist philosophy, Chinese: Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online. † 1998. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 13 October 2008 . Lusthaus, Dan. â€Å"Buddhist Philosophy, Chinese: Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online.† 1998. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 13 October 2008 . Miroslawski, Gregor. â€Å"International Expan sion & Market Entry of Mainland Chinese Businesses in Germany within the Context of Culture. † China Media Research (2008, 4 (2)): 46-59. Theobald, Ulrich. â€Å"Religions in China, Chinese Religions – Buddhism ( ). † 2000. ChinaKnowledge – a universal guide for China studies. 13 October 2008 . Travel China Guide. â€Å"China Buddhism. † 14 October 2008.Travel China Guide. 13 October 2008 . Urban Dharma. â€Å"Newsletter – 2/10/04. † 10 February 2004. Urbad Dharma. 15 October 2008 . Vipassana Foundation. â€Å"Buddhists in the World. † July 2008. The Dhamma. 15 October 2008 . Walsh, Richard T. and Barbara Poremba. â€Å"Buddhist Wedding Ceremony. † 1998. Salem State College. 15 October 2008 .

Oxford and tourism

Oxford is a small city located in the south East of England with a population of 135 000 people. It is the home to the oldest English university, Oxford University. This is made up by 40 colleges that house 30 000 students. In addition, five park and rides run to the city centre. These are situated at pear tree, Water Eaton, Thornhill, Redbridge and Seacourt. Oxford's main source of income is in the tourist industry. Oxford is an all year round tourist attraction with over 2 million tourists visiting each year. There are a number of tourist attractions many belonging to the university and colleges. Bodleian library and the Radcliffe camera. In addition, oxford contains many museums and gallerias for instance Britain's oldest museum the Ashmolean and the museum of modern art. Lastly, tourists can enjoy punting on the river Thames that is called the river Isis in Oxford. The definition of a tourist is â€Å"A traveller who visits places, for more than one day, for pleasure, work or visiting friends or family†. However, this can cause many disadvantages to the local residents. A disadvantage means something that makes a situation worse, This could be stuff such as crowding and crime. Nevertheless, tourism may bring benefits to the local community. The definition for benefit is â€Å"something that has a good effect†, This could be stuff such as jobs and money. The purpose of the investigation is: â€Å"Does tourism bring more benefits or disadvantages to Oxford?† To answer the question I will look at three main areas. The social benefits are: Tourism provides many job opportunities such as jobs in hotels and city tours. The disadvantage is, these types of jobs are low paid and provide few career opportunities. Tourism has given Oxford world-renowned fame and as a result, Oxford has been used as a location in many films including: three of the Harry Potters and The Oxford Murders. However, this has meant streets and buildings have to close down during filming. The second area that I will look at is the economic industry. The benefit is tourists spend a lot of money. Nevertheless, locals believe there are too many tourist shops for instance Covered Market is targeted at tourists. I know this because there have been complainants to the local council. The effect of this is increased tension between tourists and residents. The third area that I will look at is the environment. The environmental advantage is the city council gets a lot of parking revenue to subsidise the transport industry, but the buses and tourist coaches create a lot of pollution. I will investigate other social, economic and environmental issues to answer the research question: â€Å"Does tourism bring more benefits or disadvantages to oxford?† This is the list of things I did on the field trip and the order I did them in to answer the research questions was: 1. Residents answered questionnaires 2. Tourists answered questionnaires 3. Did a bi-polar pedestrian count 4. Did a pedestrian density survey 5. Collected oxford city tourism leaflets P.B. Graphs Graph 1: How long have you lived in Oxford? This graph shows me that 80% of the residents that completed the questionnaire have lived in Oxford for more than five years. This implies that I will have more trust in the data because the residents have experience with tourists; therefore, I can rely on this data. In addition, it shows that 16% have lived in Oxford for 2-5 years and 4% have lived less than a year. This data is not as reliable as the residents who have lived for over five years but it may be useful to have a fresher opinion. Graph 2: How often do you come into Oxford city centre? Graph 2 shows me how often people go into the city centre. This question was asked so we can have more trust in the data because the investigation is predominately set in the city centre. It states that 33% of the residents interviewed go into town at least once a week. This implies they will have even greater experience with tourists of which 12% go everyday. Therefore, we can trust the data even more. However, it also shows 32% only go into town every two weeks. Further more 35% go less often than two weeks. This means the residents interviewed would have had few encounters with tourists. This suggests 67% have little experience with tourist. Therefore, I must be careful when writing my evaluation and conclusion. Graph 3: At which time of the year do you think there are more tourists? * Winter * Spring *Summer *Autumn * Always busy This graph shows at what time tourism is at is peak according to the residents surveyed. Firstly only 12 residents thought tourism was at is peak in the spring autumn and winter months. 51% reckon tourism is at is peak during summer. However, 37% feel tourism is high all year round. This could be because Oxford does not rely on seasons like a seaside town for tourism; Oxford is an all year tourist attraction. Graph 4: Have you ever experienced problems with tourists? This question was asked to see if tourists cause any trouble to local residents. The graph shows only 7% of residents have experienced problems with tourists. However, six of the seven people who had problems with tourists were whilst they were at work. Further more 81% of the residents that were interviewed have never encountered problems with tourists. This suggests tourists are well behaved and respect the local community. In addition, tourism does not create any social disadvantages for residents. Graph 5: Do you come into direct contact with tourists? IE at work This question was asked to see how many people come into contact with tourists so they may have better and more accurate answers to the questions. However, only eight people come into direct contact with tourists. However, as graph 1 shows 80% of the residents interviewed have lived in Oxford for five years or more, this balances out the lack of regular contact or direct with tourists. Graph 6: What do you think are the benefits of tourism in Oxford? This is one of the most important questions because it directly answers part of the research question. The graph shows that 66% of the residents asked believe that the biggest benefit is the money brought in by tourists. This suggests tourists are improving the economy of Oxford because they are spending their money in Oxford. However work is only 19%. This could mean very few jobs are being created by tourism. This could be because the only jobs that involve tourists are a city tour jobs or shop work. In addition only 15% reckon reputation of Oxford is increasing therefore the city may stop appealing to tourists. Graph 7: What do you think are the disadvantages of tourism in Oxford? This shows me that residents believe tourists cause a variety of problems. The biggest problem residents belie is road congestion. This is a state of overcrowding in a street or on the road, making movement slow or difficult. The second biggest is litter with 29%. This suggests residents think tourists are making Oxford dirty by throwing waste packaging. Thirdly noise pollution with 22%. This usually happens when their is a group of tourists talking. Lastly 14% of residents believe pollution is big problem. This could be due extra buses needed and tourist coaches. However only 2% thought crime was occurred so this implies tourists do not behave badly or cause problem to the community. Graph 8: Do you think there is enough for tourists to do in Oxford? This graph shows whether residents believe tourists have enough to do in Oxford. It shows that 77 people believe there is plenty for tourists to do in Oxford. However 23 people do not believe there is enough for tourists to do. This could be because they don't go to the city centre regularly or it is there general opinion. Graph 9: Do you think the number of tourists is†¦? This graph shows that many people have a negative attitude to tourism because 62% believe their are too many tourists. In contrast only 4% think the amount of tourists is to few. Further more 34% reckon the number of tourists is just about right. But with the likely hood of an increases in tourists their view will be quickly changed too. This implies the residents would like tourist sizes to decrease. Graph 10: Do you think tourism contributes to city centre pollution? This graph shows whether residents believe tourism causes city centre pollution. This graph shows that 89% of the residents interviewed believe tourism does contribute to city centre pollution. This pollution could be fumes from tourist coaches and buses or litter and noise pollution.

Many topics you can chose from Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Many topics you can chose from - Essay Example Ground water can also lead to formation of wetlands or oases. There are ways in which ground water can be extracted from the earth’s surface for a score of uses. It can be used for home purposes, industrial usage, in addition to agricultural use for activities like irrigation. This can be possible by construction of extraction wells that draws water underneath the surface of the earth. Ground water has been distributed differently under the surface of the earth. In addition, underground water undergoes movement under the earth’s ground. Study of ground water motions, plus distribution is known as hydrogeology. It is also called ground water hydrology. Ground water can also include soil moisture, immobile water that is found in bedrocks that have very low permeability, and oil formation water that is found very deep in the earth’s surface. Ground water is thought to act as lubricants that cause movement of faults. The points under the surface of the earth where ground water originates are identified as aquifers. An aquifer has layers of porous materials that contain and transmit water. When aquifer is not confined, water can move freely between the earth’s surface and the saturated zone of an aquifer. Since gravity causes water to move downwards, deeper zones of the aquifer are further saturated as compared to the upper parts. Water table refers to the upper zone of the saturated layer of an unconfined aquifer. Below the water table, all spore spaces are saturated with water. This zone is known as phreatic zone. There is a substrate that slight porosity and allows little transmission of ground water. This substrate is called an aquitard. Aquifers have diverse features depending on the geology, and the structure of the substrate as well as the topography in which they happen. Aquifers that contain a high amount of water are situated in sedimentary geologic formations. Crystalline rocks that are weathered and fractured produce a

Female Objectification in Contemporary Films from Different Origins Research Paper

Female Objectification in Contemporary Films from Different Origins - Research Paper Example This is due to the fact that individuals are physical beings and thus present themselves to others as objects via their behavior and dressing (Caterina 709). Objectification is an issue because of its frequency among women especially as portrayed by the media. Contemporary examples of women objectification as sexual beings are reflected through various films. This research paper uses the feminist theory of gender equality to give critical discussion of women objectification as portrayed in three contemporary films. The research is based on different film productions to achieve sufficient analysis and discussion of female objectification within contemporary films that emanate from different social cultural origins. The research is specifically an investigation into the roles and objectification that is revealed by female characters within the films. The way female characters in the films are labeled is used to discuss the influence it has on the manner men treat women in relationships . A qualitative research methodology is employed in the research. The presentation of research findings will specifically apply psychoanalysis, semiotics, ideological analysis and historical and rhetorical models. The movie Pretty Woman was directed by Garry Marshall and became one of the most successful romantic comedies in the history of cinematic production (Hulse 23). The movie depicts implausible romantic relationship between Edward and Vivian. The disparity between the two is presented by the fact that while Edward is a multimillionaire in the wheeler-dealing business, Vivian is a Hollywood prostitute (Hulse 23). The film How Much Do You Love Me on the other hand is a French production which also has same thematic as Pretty Woman. In the film How Much Do You Love Me, the themes of love, money and desire are presented through a relationship between Francois and Daniela (Clark 15). Daniela is an Italian prostitute while Francois is portrayed as a regular who earns just enough fo r expenses and rent. The Movie Moulin Rouge is British production directed by Baz Luhrmann. On the other hand, the movie Moulin Rouge is about Christian, a British poet who meets a seductive courtesan called Satine in a night club and falls in love with her (Business Wire 1). The three films have a commonality in themes and the fact that female objectification is apparent as they unfold. The feminist theory as postulated by feminist scholars argues that female objectification emanates from the disregard of intellectual abilities of women. This leads to labeling women as instruments of physical pleasure through sexual encounters with men (Felicia 178). The movie Pretty Woman rankle feminists. This is due to the fact that Vivian objectifies herself by presenting herself as a commodity (Turner B1). Feminists are most likely disappointed by the manner in which Vivian dehumanizes herself. Vivian is also portrayed as yearning for a knight who would rescue her. The objectification that is represented by the manner Vivian is dressed, behaves and talks is a requirement for her line of work is not definitely acceptable by the proponents of feminism. It is evident that women are labeled as sexual objects within the movie Pretty Woman especially in its early scenes. Pre-feminists are represented by a historical view of the role of women within the society. Pre-feminists stand against labeling a woman as a mother who stayed at home and acted as submissive wife (Fredrickson and Tomi-Ann 173). Watching the

Human Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 7

Human Resource Management - Essay Example Human resource intranets are one of the fastest growing technologies in the market place. This offers a compatible and user friendly solutions which can be customized and offered according to the organizational needs. This helps in connecting various departments and branches of any organization to share information and communicate effectively. The first part of the paper deals with the human resource management. It describes various human resource management functions that are required for any organization. The second part deals with the intranet and its benefits and drawbacks. The last section of the paper describes the HR intranets and the activities it can handle. Challenges faced by the organizations in the research and the various factors of the environment influence development of their operations. The heterogeneity is present in the culture, political legal set up, social set up, availability of investors and funding parties for that particular area, work force, management att itude and perception about the host country. These all factors influence most of the industries and organizations in the strategic decision making process. There are number of activities within any organization that are very important like marketing and sales, human resource management, production and manufacturing, operations, information technologies which functions together for the organizational goal and profitability.

Rosewood Incident Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Rosewood Incident - Essay Example It just served as the immediate cause for the incident. To venture a little further, it was a pretext for the manifestation of malice and fury that were already in store. That the grand jury’s investigation ended up finding insufficient evidence to prosecute the persecutors adds insult to injury and establishes a clear case of racial chauvinism shamelessly creeping into the system of criminal justice. Had the crusade of people like Ida B Wells and Dyer for anti-lynching legislations been successful, probably the Rosewood tragedy could have been averted. It was less than a decade ago, in 2005, that the US Senate could approve a resolution of apology to lynching victims and survivors2 and, like a posthumous award, it poorly reflects on the commitment of previous federal governments towards the fundamental rights of its own citizens. It exposes the true historical legacy of a society and a nation that claim to have been conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that a ll men are created equal. ____________ 1Ron Olson. US History (1865 – Present) From Reconstruction through the Dawn of the 21st Century (Franklin Lakes (NJ): The Career Press, 2007), 89. 2James D Unnever et al. A Theory of African American Offending Race, Racism and Crime (New York: Routledge, 2011), 43. With over 300 African Americans being brutally murdered, a whole community having become extinct and an entire town having been reduced to charred remains by appalling atrocities spread over a week’s time, the bone-chilling Rosewood pogrom continues to be an indelible stain on humanity. It had not been very long ago that the assistance of about a third of a million black men3 (who, however, were deemed unqualified for full citizenship) as soldiers was found acceptable in a so-called fight against the fascist powers, World War I. The alleged charge of the white woman’s rape was a dubious one because there was a version that attributed the root cause of the charge to an extra-marital affair. It goes on only to prove that the motive of the attacks had more to do with a xenophobic attitude and irrational animosity (towards blacks who were perceived as their tormentors) prevailing in the white community, which in turn were propagated by media propaganda and white supremacist doctrines. The incident deserves to be condemned in the strongest terms because it took for granted the truthfulness of a white woman’s statement by default, jut as it did in the case of Victoria Price and Ruby Bates versus nine black-youths4 in 1931. The people involved in the atrocities as well as the jury men were too quick to believe and too prejudiced to try to view facts objectively. It was a damage beyond compensation and reparation. Going by the dictum that justice delayed is justice denied, the $2.1 million compensation package5 announced by Florida state in 1994 to Rosewood survivors evokes no good feelings. Justice in the sense of bringing culprits to book alone can expiate a crime but not restitution. ____________ 3Walter C Rucker et al. Encyclopedia of American Race Riots (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2007), 1. 4Sr. William A James. The Skin Color Syndrome (Lincoln: iUniverse, 2003), 121. 5â€Å"Rosewood Tells Story†. Jet Magazine, 24 March 1997, 59. It must be viewed with concern that it took sixty years6 for the Rosewood horror to capture the nation’s attention fortuitously, thanks to Gary Moore’s initiative, and seventy years for a legislation to be made.

International relations Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

International relations - Assignment Example For instance, in 1990, China maintained a fledgling securities market as a result of Chinese government influence and control over domestic businesses. However, with more incentives being offered to foreign companies for foreign direct investment in China, now the securities market is valued at over one trillion RMB (Liang & Useem, 2009). Advances in Chinese industry (and other developing nations) have improved their gross domestic product and enhanced government economic strength. This has given other nations, other than the hegemonic United States, more authority in military development and economic strength which alters diplomatic and other political strategies rather than having a dominant U.S. dictate international policy. Furthermore, with the development of the World Trade Organization, the interests of free trade between nations (which contributes to economic health of foreign states) have created more multilateral agreements that are of benefit to all member nations. This, too, challenges the dominance of the United States as a global hegemonic authority. As more foreign nations begin to recognize the advantages of adopting neoliberal policies directed at supporting a more capitalistic system, the economic advantages and military advantages once held by the United States are challenged by more stable governments and economic systems in foreign states. Religion is a factor that challenges success in all aspects of globalization. Islam, as one example, maintains a mass following in many Middle Eastern nations. Religion, however, can challenge the power of the state through membership volume and restricting foreign direct investment by many businesses looking for new market entry as a result of conflict over product and service philosophy. This reduces economic security of hegemonic states by slowing FDI that brings substantial government

Behavioral theory development Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Behavioral theory development - Research Paper Example Unlike Erikson, Freud’s theories were based upon studies of neurotic patients; Erikson’s theories were based upon studies of normal childhood. Keoke and Porterfield (2001) explain the beginning of Erikson’s observation of normal childhood development as follows: in 1902, Erickson was born in Germany to a well-off family who immigrated to Germany from Denmark; at the age of 25 years, Erickson moved to Vienna, Austria where he established a school and was fortunate to become one of Sigmund Freud’s students and colleagues. During the Hitler reign of terror, Erikson migrated to the United States where he worked with prominent anthropologists and studied two American Indian tribes called the Sioux and Yukon. Erickson’s anthropology study turned into the first empirical study on normal childhood development. The focus of the study was the early childhood development of the Sioux and Yukon children in their home and school environment compared to White Ame rican children. After a longitudinal scientific investigation focused upon the childhood development of the Sioux, Yukon, and White American cultures, including the American Welfare system, Erikson knew that it was time to establish his own theory of development which was in direct conflict to his teacher and colleague namely Freud (Keoke & Porterfield, 2001). Santrock (1997) describes Erikson’s famous eight developmental stages as follows: (a) Trust vs. Mistrust is focused upon the fetal years through the first year and ideally the child learns to get physical and emotional needs fulfilled of which must be achieved before the child will learn how to trust; (b) Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt initiate around the second year of the child’s life in which independence and the assertion of the child’s will is observed through the behavior of doing things and exploring. Erikson observed that if

Strategic Alternatives for Marvel Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Strategic Alternatives for Marvel - Case Study Example This aims at increasing the marketplace share for the Marvel enterprise. Filming, for example, is one such practice where competition is paramount. Therefore, Marvel ensures that it keeps producing new films that are of high quality. Improving quality of movies ensures that Marvel stands competition from the opponents. The other means in which Marvel diversifies its competition is through the making of toys. These are toys used in the field of entertainment and comedy. The competition strategy also ensures is that Marvel ensures that there are no conflicts concerning originality of products. Marvel thus ensures that its productions are original. The other strategy deployed by Marvel Entertainment is that of marketing. Marketing strategy ensures that its products serve a wide market. Therefore, Marvel ensures that its distribution chains operate well. Marvel also ensures that it increases its marketing by doing extensive advertising of its supplies. These efforts ensure that my customers get aware of products offered. Knowledge of new products ensures that there is increased purchase. The marketing also ensures that the changes made in their productions become clear. The marketing strategy is the determiner of the proliferation of the productions of the company. This is because if more productions become sold, then the production speed would be elevated. The other strategy is that of management. Marvel ensures that it deploys this strategy to ensure that its operations are up to standard. This is because management is a sensitive segment that requires accurate handling. Therefore, Marvel ensures that operations of its segments are up to standard. Marvel ensures that accountability in management becomes vocal. Management approach also ensures that everything runs well. There is also a licensing strategy for Marvel (Beamish, 250).  

Sustainability Challenge of Food Waste Management Research Paper - 1

Sustainability Challenge of Food Waste Management - Research Paper Example According to the research findings, Hong Kong as a city gets involved in practices that aim at creating awareness of the environment as well as nutrition issues that are brought forth by food wastage. To see this come to pass, the city of Hong Kong is in the sustainability challenge will ultimately manage food that is wasted in the city and its surroundings. Particularly, this report considers Hong Kong’s Langham Hotel and their attempt to manage food wastage with the aim of providing a sustainable answer to the city dwellers. For this reason, reducing food wastage requires strategies that revolve around improving the bottom line, giving support to the community ad reduction of greenhouse facility emissions. Currently, Hong Kong experiences a problem in its food waste management. Presently, it disposes of it wasted food as well as other municipal solid wastes (MSW) at distinct landfills. As a result, numerous tones of municipal solid waste and food waste are disposed of. Much of the wasted food emanate from commercial industries that include marketplaces, restaurants and food production and processing industries among others in Hong Kong. The practice regarding disposing biodegradable wastes at landfills in Hong Kong is not a better one. This is because it undesirably reduces and depletes limited space at the landfills. It comes with other disadvantages that include generation of bad odor, leaches, and landfill gases. All these need further action to mitigate their negative impact on the environment. Hong Kong’s Langham Hotel will provide a good base for discussing sustainability challenges associated with food waste management.

American Literature Essay Example for Free

American Literature Essay On learning that his gay lover â€Å"Prior Walter† was infected with AIDS, Louis Ironson being unable to cope quits the relationship. Joe is offered a good promotion by fellow homosexual and lawyer â€Å"Roy Cohn†, unknowing to Joe, Roy has AIDS, which he contacted from Prior. Angels and ghosts visited Prior and told him he was a prophet, Joe struggles to reconcile his religion with his sexuality; Louis blames himself for leaving Prior and begins a relationship with Joe. Harper who was mentally derailed due to her addiction to taking pills regularly and had her problems worsened as she realizes that her husband ‘Joe’ is gay. She is very sensitive and weak, but loves her husband and wants to keep her home. Joe’s mother, Hannah moves to New York to attempt to take care of Harper and meets Prior. Harper separates from Joe and Roy is hospitalized. Tony Kushner shows some heavy Biblical references and references to American society, as well as some fantastical scenes including voyages to Antarctica and Heaven, as well as key events happening in San Francisco and at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park. I think Kushner wants to show how unhappy people could be and have lots of secret and can’t trust themselves in the modern life.

Marketing Promotes Product Awareness To The Public Marketing Essay

Marketing Promotes Product Awareness To The Public Marketing Essay Managers face an endless challenge to create unique strategies that will enable them provide positional advantage in an effort to achieve superior financial or customer performance. A companys pecuniary success largely depends upon prudent marketing efforts along with financial, operational, accounting and other business functions. Piercy (1992) identi ¬Ã‚ es marketing as focusing on strategies concerning the critical decision of market de ¬Ã‚ nition and market segmentation as well as the identi ¬Ã‚ cation of potential bases for differentiation. Sometimes, people ask why marketing is important in the financial success of a company. The answer to this question is, assume you have a product to offer with excellent features, best quality and amazing packaging but no one knows about your product? There will be no demand in the market for your it, the company will make no sale and eventually no profit. Here comes the importance of marketing. The most important function of marketing, along with others, is to create awareness about products/services and make loyal customers. Through marketing customers get an opportunity to know what you are offering them and you get the opportunity to convince them to buy your products/services. The overall marketing umbrella covers advertising, public relations, promotions and sales. Marketing is a process by which a product or service is introduced and promoted to potential customers. Without marketing, your business may offer the best products or services in your industry, but none of your potential customers would know about it. Without marketing, sales may crash and companies may have to close. Production and distribution depend largely on marketing. Many people think that sales and marketing are basically the same. These two concepts are different in many aspects. Marketing covers advertising, promotions, public relations, and sales. It is the process of introducing and promoting the product or service into the market and encourages sales from the buying public. Sales refer to the act of buying or the actual transaction of customers purchasing the product or service. Some important reasons why marketing is important include: Getting the Word Out For a business to succeed, the product or service it provides must be known to potential buyers. Unless your business is known in the community and communication with your customers is readily available, you have to use marketing strategies to create product or service awareness. Without marketing, your potential customers may never be aware of your business offerings and your business may not be given the opportunity to progress and succeed. Using marketing to promote your product, service and company provides your business with a chance of being discovered by prospective customers. Higher Sales Once your product, service or company gets on the radar screen of your prospects, it increases your chances that consumers will make a purchase. As awareness becomes a reality, it is also the point where new customers start to spread the word, telling friends and family about this amazing new product they discovered. Your sales will steadily increase as the word spreads. Without employing marketing strategies, these sales may not have ever happened; without sales, a company cannot succeed. Company Reputation The success of a company often rests on a solid reputation. Marketing builds brand name recognition or product recall with a company. When a company reaches the high expectations of the public, its reputation stands on firmer ground. As your reputation grows, the business expands and sales increase. The reputation of your company is built through active participation in community programs, effective communication (externally and internally) and quality products or services, which are created or supported by marketing efforts. Healthy Competition Marketing also fosters an environment in the marketplace for healthy competition. Marketing efforts increases awareness and gets the word out on pricing of products and services, which not only reaches the intended consumers, but also reaches other companies competing for the consumers business. As opposed to companies that have a monopoly on products and services that can charge almost any price, marketing helps keep pricing competitive for a business to try to win over consumers before its competition does. Without competition, well known companies would continue to sell while lesser known companies or new companies would stand little chance of ever becoming successful. Marketing facilitates the healthy competition that allows small businesses and new businesses to be successful, enter and grow in the marketplace. As there is high competition in the market and you are not the only one to offer that product, certain issues need to be considered, issues like; how is this product diff erent from that of competitors? What do I have better to offer than my competitor? And why should a customer buy my product rather than my competitors? All this is achieved through intelligent marketing campaign and is self-evident of the significance of marketing. It enables an organization to capture maximum market share, make a big brand name, make loyal customers and retain them. Marketing Promotes Product Awareness to the Public It has already been mentioned in the previous paragraph that getting the product or service recognized by the market is the primary goal of marketing. No business possibly ever thought of just letting the people find out about the business themselves, unless you have already established a reputation in the industry. But if you are a start-out or an average company, the only means to be made known is to advertise and promote. Your business may be spending quite a lot on advertising and promotional  programs but the important thing at the end of the day is that product and company information is disseminated to the buying public, they get interested and purchase it and as a result increasing sales and revenue for the company. Various types of marketing approaches can be utilized by an organization. All forms of marketing promotes product awareness to the market at large. Offline and online marketing make it possible for the people to be educated with the various products and services that they can take advantage of. A company must invest in marketing so as not to miss the opportunity of being discovered by potential consumers. If expense is to be considered, there are cost-effective marketing techniques a company can embark on such as pay-per-click ads and blogging. Marketing Helps Boost Product Sales Apart from public awareness about a companys products and services, marketing helps boost sales and revenue growth. Whatever your business is selling, it will generate sales once the public learns about your product through TV advertisements, radio commercials, newspaper ads, online ads, and other forms of marketing. The more people hear and see more of your product, the more likely it would be for them to want to try it. Its this basic principle that makes firms spend millions on marketing activities. If your company aims to increase the sales percentage and double the production, the marketing department must be able to come up with effective and strategic marketing plans. Marketing Builds Company Reputation In order to conquer the general market, marketers aim to create a brand name recognition or product recall. This is a technique for the consumers to easily associate the brand name with the images, logo, or caption that they hear and see in the advertisements. For example, McDonalds is known for its arch design which attracts people and identifies the image as McDonalds. For some companies, building a reputation to the public may take time but there are those who easily attract the people. With an established name in the industry, a business continues to grow and expand because more and more customers will purchase the products or take advantage of the services from a reputable company. Advertising Marketing plays a very essential role in the success of a company. It educates people on the latest market trends, helps boost a companys sales and profit, and develops company reputation. But marketers must be creative and wise enough to promote their products with the proper marketing tactics. Although marketing is important, if it is not conducted and researched well, the company might just be wasting on expenses and time on a failed marketing approach. Hobb (2012) stated that; for entrepreneurs who aim to bring new and innovative products to market, the acquisition of customer and competitor information is an early activity that could bring about future opportunities. Hence, it could lead to a more effective organization of the founding process and, therefore to a higher probability of success. Therefore, through marketing, a can manager discover new opportunities for business expansion and growth. The successful execution of such new opportunities brought to light through marketing depends essentially on the acquisition of information. Collecting information from customers and/or about potential competitors is necessary to derive practicable contingencies or strategic planning and to revise and adapt marketing plans. Hobb (journal of strategic marketing ) quoting Gruber (2007) further points out the value of marketing planning for new venture development and highlights the role of information sources in developing marketing plans. As a result of information from customers, managers are able to revise previous plans and create a yardstick for new projects. Accurate information is neededto tailor the marketing mix to other potential customers. When information is collected through marketing, managers and executives are more able to fully realize the potential of the corresponding marketing activities. Acquiring customer and competitor information could in ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡uence a new business adaptability and subsequently give more room to maneuver and adjust to the particular market environment. One aspect of marketing that is indispensable in any firm and can assist managers with tools on how to better position their brand, out do competitors, improve productivity and increase profits / sales is market orientation. Kohli and Jaworski (1990) defined market orientation as  the organization-wide generation of market intelligence, dissemination of the intelligence across departments and organization-wide responsiveness to it   Wikipedia explained further by stating that, the marketing concept is a business philosophy, whereas the term market orientation refers to the actual implementation of the marketing concept. They added that a market orientation appears to provide a unifying focus for the efforts and projects of individuals and departments within the organization. Furthermore, Cass, Vada, Ngo and Sharvti (jounal of strategic marketing) said Market orientation has the ability to enhance a  ¬Ã‚ rms success. They further quoted Slater and Narver (1998) saying that at its core, market orientation places signi ¬Ã‚ cant emphasis on the pro ¬Ã‚ table creation and maintenance of superior customer value, and those supporting its impact endorse it as the conduit for staying close to customers as well as for its ability to enhance  ¬Ã‚ rm performance. Market orientation is a culture rather than an individual process. Its the norms, mindsets, values and behaviours of employers; alongside the structure, systems and control of the organization. Marketing oriented businesses define their activities as service activities carried out towards the satisfaction of their customers. In other words they define their operation as a service business with customer service being the most important activity. They are driven by customer needs which are identified in their objectives. For instance, a car company might say well make your car in whatever colour you choose. A marketing orientated approach means a business reacts to what customers want. The decisions taken are based around information about customers needs and wants, rather than what the business thinks is right for the customer. Most successful businesses take a market-orientated approach. Most markets are moving towards a more market-orientated approach because customers have become more knowledgeable and require more variety and better quality. To compete, businesses need to be more sensitive to their customers needs; otherwise they will lose sales to competitors. When to use it?  Use market orientations when you want to understand, anticipate and satisfy your customer needs. You may already be operating somewhere in-between orientations. Companies can be anywhere on the spectrum as well as having different products at different orientations.   What does it achieve? à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ A sense of what customers want à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Links customers needs to company capabilities à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Builds relationships à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Creates vision à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Greater internal marketing and communications à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Tracking and information systems for further research and evaluation   OCass, Ngo, and Siahtiri (2012) designed an empirical study to collect data from manufacturing  ¬Ã‚ rms in Australia to show that market orientation improves productivity and market capability. According to them, Australia has been ranked 20th overall in the worlds most competitive economies according to the Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012 (Sala-i-Martin, 2011). In2011 Australia recorded a GDP of US$925 billion and GDP per capita of US$66.984.SMEs contribute signi ¬Ã‚ cantly to economic growth, national development, innovation and employment in Australia (ONAO Audit Report, 2011). There are around 175,000 SMEs inAustralia, which operate in a broad range of industries, including the construction,  ¬Ã‚ nance, insurance, wholesale and retail trade industries, and employ 28% of Australias workforce. In the course the study, 300 responses from 500 Australian  ¬Ã‚ rms, which constituted a 60% response rate in Australia were received. All participants who reported their positions indicated that they held the most senior marketing positions within their respective  ¬Ã‚ rms. In the survey, 85% of the respondents agreed that general information about market participants (customers, competitors and suppliers) is of paramount importance to them. Since market orientation gets this job done, this proves its importance to an organization. Considerations With so many messages bombarding the consumer in the marketplace today, it is now more difficult than ever to get your product noticed, so marketers have learned to be creative. Knowing what your clients expectations are, exceeding them, and building a reputation based on that is the key to success. Pay attention to your customers, and they will come back time and time again. Ignore them, and they will disappear faster than you can spend your marketing budget to try to bring them back. There is the belief that the marketing staff is a burden on the company and they do not justify the money spent on them. However, the fact is that sincere marketing efforts never goes to waste. When you invest in good marketing related activities, you are sure to reap benefits. Well run marketing campaigns can help you earn good profits. Some people have misconceptions about the term marketing, they feel that it is an easy task and anyone can do it. They couldnt be more wrong. As a manager, you have to get rid of this view point and employ professional marketers who will device your marketing strategy and help you execute it as well. Although marketing is really important for the success of a business, the reality is that it can also be very expensive. A marketing budget can reach as much as 30 percent (sometimes more) of the annual sales. As a result of the huge expenditure marketing/marketing programs incur, it is paramount that it is done right. The tools and campaigns used to improve the success of a brand or re-position it must be researched into deeply, tried and tested to ensure that they would get the job done. A marketing program that gives a company the best chance in a market environment that is as competitive as it is today is a healthy mix of different forms of marketing, such as website development, public relations, print and broadcast advertising, design and printing for all print materials, trade shows and other special events. PART 2: THE PERSUASIVE PAPER Brief: The manager of Pico fruit juice (hypothetical name) company has decided to rebrand the drink (Pico juice) by changing the packaging because he feels the old packaging is not flashy or attractive enough. He believes it is a little bland. However, the product seems to be doing very well in the market and has achieved a lot of recognition. I think re-packaging the brand might spell disaster and it is therefore my job as a marketing consultant to warn him against it. Muzellec and Lambkin (2006) defined rebranding as a change in an organizations self-identity and/or an attempt to change perceptions of the image among external stakeholders. Rebrand is a company image revision and it can assist a company in updating its message, appealing to new audiences or even signaling a complete change in direction. The reasons behind identity change are usually bad press, new target market, new product, merger, or aspiration to gain a competitive edge. However, these reasons do not apply to Pico fruit juice, When considering rebranding, we should ask ourselves the crucial question- why? If we are not changing what the company stands for, if our customers like what we stand for now, and if they associate our current packaging with what the company stands for, then why should we rebrand? Why waste the time, money and the priceless brand equity we have tried to build up? We would be much better served creating some really effective marketing campaigns to increase the strength of our brand and increase its consumer base. According to consumer surveys done, our customers already like our product the way it is, therefore rebranding can change their preconceived perception of the product thereby making them lose interest. Rebranding could cause confusion among current customers, potential customers and other key players in the industry. This could lead to a loss in client base. They (consumers) could also see it as being inconsistent and an inconsistent brand is an untrustworthy brand. Our packaging, colours,  company name, and everything else that represents us should not be changed without an extremely good reason. Product rebrands are perceived to be a good way of invigorating a brand, but they sometimes end in failure. According to Datamonitor (2009), in the past three decades, there have been many examples of brands attempting to rebrand themselves, either through a new logo, labeling/packaging, formulation or other means of re-identification. While some have been successful and others less so, the companies behind these brands all have one aim: to re-ignite a passion in consumers for a brand which has lost some of its magic. Examples of companies/brands that tried to rebrand include: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ A recent rebranding effort that caused controversy was Krafts Australian savory spread brand Vegemite, which undertook a brand extension in 2009. The original name of the extension, Vegemite iSnack 2.0, was designed to appeal to younger consumers but caused widespread derision, so much so that it was almost immediately withdrawn and renamed Cheesybite instead. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Tropicana packaging was completely overhauled in 2009 and the picture of an orange with a straw in it, which had featured on its label for decades, was removed and replaced with a picture of a glass of orange. After consumers derided the new packaging for looking too generic, the old style was brought back. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Cadbury introduced Dairy Milk as a megabrand across many of its chocolate bars in 2003 as a way of implementing unity and brand strength. However, it has gradually lost its potency over the past two years. In 2007, Cadbury reintroduced the Wispa brand to market after it had been dropped in 2003 in favor of Dairy Milk Bubbly, while the packaging of Cadburys Dairy Milk Caramel, known as Cadbury Caramel before 2003, has changed so that it resembles more its old style of imagery. The decision to rebrand is very serious and it is much more than just a change of package or name. Although rebranding sometimes seems as a reasonable step it should not be taken without due consideration. Changing a product name or package is seemed sometimes as an easy task, but to make it work to the business advantage is a difficult one. A decision to rebrand a product is wrong if done just for the sake of doing it or because competitors did so. Rebranding should always have a clear purpose and should not be taken lightly, as it is a massive overhaul of brand images and identity. No rebrand is possible without adequate research, repositioning the image without studying consumer demographics and psychographics is dangerous and I dont believe all these have been done yet, therefore, there is no reason to rush into a decision to change the package of Pico fruit drink. It should be noted that change for the sake of change is risky, especially if the results of the transformation are uncertain as in this case. Therefore we should be trying to consider long-term strategies and aims, and then updating brand identity to fit the changing goals if and if only it is absolutely necessary. A change of identity which includes package should always be considered and well-planned. And it is also important to think about the end result of the change, including negative elements. Rapid and extensive changes are harmful in most of circumstances. Therefore the most effective and safe strategy is to evolve slowly by updating the current image to modernize an existing, well-trusted brand, in order to keep the established customer base A change in name will not turn a company around, neither will it revitalize a dying product and as much as a rebranding can seem exciting at the time, there is a real risk that it is a waste of money and time. A brand is the sum total of an organizations reputation. When building your brand, the look of the product (package) does matter. It is most times what captivates a costumer and makes him or her reach for your product on the shelf. Once they become used to the look of a particular product or brand, changing it can confuse or even make them lose interest thereby spelling disaster for the product. However, you should rebrand if: Your target customer has changed. Your product has changed. Your competition has changed. Or if you cannot answer these questions: Do people no longer understand what you can offer Do people understand what makes you different? What is your client engagement? Do they spread your message and continue coming back for more? Do people trust what you say, your products and your services? Is there constant decrease in sales Can your employees/clients articulate what your brand stands for Are you are embarrassed to give away your business card  either due to unattractiveness or to the fact that its rather plain compared to that of competitors? Are all your communications are not consistent and in sync with the brand message and brand voice? If we have doubts about the answers to the above questions, then we would need to rebrand urgently. However, these cases do not apply to Pico fruit drink, so I see no reason for us to spend so much time and money doing something that may very well backfire in the long run. A reason we do not need to rebrand Pico fruit drink is because it has all the qualities of a good brand which according to Uche (2012) Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review (OMAN Chapter) Vol. 2, No.3; Oct. 2012 are: 1. Confirms Credibility: A good brand is a signature of credibility, a symbol of trust, an image of consistency. It must therefore always espouse and exhibit a credible personality, which strengthens and compensates its clienteles/consumers for their sustained loyalty (brand equity). So far, consumers seem to like Pico fruit drink. They seem to like its personality, its quality and what it stands for which is trust and responsibility. Responsibility to the environment by producing safe recyclable packages, responsibility to our customers by producing delicious, healthy and hygienic fruit drink and responsibility to the brand by ensuring it never falls below standard. 2. Attracts Potential opportunities: Any brand that lacks a sustained ability to attract and exploit potential opportunities is not a good one. Not just opportunities in terms of brand extension, but opportunities in terms of innovative marketing strategies and advertising mix like exploiting the social media to create buzz which Pico has done in the past and is still doing to attract attention, organizing promotional offers, giving discounts and so on. The existing clientele base of a brand must not only be maintained, but also expanded, through the exploitation of whatever opportunities are present in the market, especially in a competitive environment, where the life and continued existence of the entity or product, is dependent on its ability to maintain and expand its clientele base. 3. Delivers clear and precise information: The message delivered by a brand must at all times be concise, consistent, and clear, and must not be packaged in such a way that it confuses consumers. Pico as a brand has tried to avoid ambiguity in all its messages and promotion materials in order not to cause confusion among customers thereby damaging the brand. Since a brand is a statement or commitment to quality, improved value and service delivery, advertisements, jingles, and other interfaces with which a product or entity connects with clients and prospective clients should be consistent, concise, and must be coherent with the actual performance of the brand, if the brand is to be defined as good. Otherwise, the brands identity, franchise, awareness, equity, image, and recognition will be adversely affected. In this view also, there should be strong brand differentiation, to enable customers correctly identify their choice of brand, and this means that the logo, image, mark, and ot her items affiliated with a brand should be distinct, to dissuade confusions that sometimes arise from inability of customers to distinguish one brands image or logo (identity) from another. Failure in this regard can lead to a brands untimely demise. 4. Ability of the Brand to Procure, Protract, and Preserve a Relationships and a Titanic Clientele base: Following a pragmatic viewpoint, a good brand should be able to foster a cordial, mutual, and self-sustaining relationship with its clienteles, which is continually expanding. For a brand to be classified as being good it must exhibit an inherent aptitude and propensity to secure and conserve existing relationships, while striving to build new ones, through its commitment to connect and establish workable and healthy relationships with old clients from whom fresh and prospective clients are fetched, to swell the clientele base of the brand. EXCELLENT BRAND MANAGEMENT PRCATICES EVERY BRAND SHOULD FOLLOW Building a brand that enjoys patronage and respect requires the establishment of a scheme, which ensures longevity of the brand in the market. Simple guidelines like the ones below which are in no way exhaustive, should be initiated: 1. We should always make sure that at no point in the lifespan of a product/brand should we introduce ideas and market strategies that alter the name, logo, symbol, or other aspects of a brand that makes it unique and different from other brands in the same product category, unless there is an extremely good reason for doing this. The name, package or distinct logo of a brand is a symbol that is universal and understandable by consumers, who not only attach sentiments to the package or logo, but are quick to employ it as a reference point of satisfaction and quality. While positive changes in other aspects of a brand are recommended, even during mergers, utmost care must be taken to preserve the distinctive identity of a brand, as this is the brain behind successful brands like Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Mobil, which have introduced various products, but still employ or affiliate their names to such products, to retain its clienteles. 2. In successfully managing a brand, a manager should always strive to generate and establish an indelible and positive impression of the brand in the mind of its consumers, especially where the market is characterized by competition. The brand equity of a product must be on the positive side, and this is attainable only when positive and indelible images of a brand is created in the mind of its patrons or customers; this is an undeniable formula for success in a competitive market, where consumers taste and choice varies. 3. Fulfilling the brand promise or contract is one practice that should never be neglected by a brand manager or owner, if a brand is to prosper and be sustained in any competitive market. A subconscious contract exists between a producer and the clients, to the effect that the brand must meet and surpass a mark of quality that is appreciable to its consumers, if the loyalty and patronage of the consumers is to be sustained. To this extent, if managers fail to meet or surpass the standard of quality that is obtainable and attained by competing brands in a market, especially when it fails to meet the expectation of consumers, a negative brand experience ensues, which could lead to the decline and possible death of the brand. 4. Giving adequate protection to a brand is an option that should be given adequate attention to by a manager and his team, if they want their product to do well in the market. A brand and its unique identity should not only be given legal protection in the form of copyright and patent cataloguing, which prevents dubious replication by fraudsters and even competition but should also be protected by maintaining an appreciable standard and quality, which should be jealously guarded and should never be compromised, immersed in scandal, or be allowed to tread the paths of deficient and mediocre products and brands. 5. In many cases, brand managers make the tragic mistake of rating and quantifying their brands and the charge of sustaining it as cost, rather than assets, and the outcome is unpleasant and detrimental to the development and sustainability of the brand. A brand is among the most prized asset of any entity, product, or producer; whatever is thus spent in advertising and marketing a brand should be treated as an investment, rather than as cost. Trying to quantify the effects of investing (advertising and marketing) in a brand may not be visible in the balance sheet, but in the long run, evaluation of state of affairs in the market will reveal the enviable function that the investments in the brand is yielding. Thus, investments made in the development, advertising, and marketing of a brand is not wasted, and should not be treated as cost, but as a high-yielding investment by brand managers. 6. Treating customers and other stakeholders with esteem is one practice that should not be neglected by brand managers, if the desire to establish a viable brand is to be achieved. In a corporate environment, good corporate governance should be observed, if the yearnings and aspirations of customers, patrons, and shareholders are to be met. This cannot be achieved in the absence of a workforce that is not ade

International strategy of Coca-Cola Company

International strategy of Coca-Cola Company In this essay we are going to study about the international strategy of Coca-Cola Company using the IR framework for the Indian market. Coca-Cola Company is world known organisation. The growing market around the world mostly depends upon the technologies, knowledge and integration of market, it clearly demonstrates the flow of knowledge, services, goods and capital through different nations and in which creating the competition on a world-wide basis creating an integrated global space is called globalization (Porter, 1986; Albrow, 1997; Friedman, 1999; Gupta et al, 1999). Its a very challenging task for any organisation to move from domestic market or home market to international market, especially for those organisations which are facing saturated market in their home country (Yip, 2003). The process of globalization is interdependence and integration of countries exchanging different trade, culture, outsourcing, capital investment and the growth of the nations relationship. Busine ss systems, knowledge and unification of culture have led to globalization (Daniels and Krug, 2007). Coca-Cola was invented in 1886 by Dr. John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta, Georgia (Palazzini, 1989). The main reasons for the global venture are cheap labour, distribution and transportation, communication and information technology, cultural convergence, increasing disposable of the global middle class, extension of IP rights, reduced trade barriers, privatization programs and development of international standards (Stonehouse et al., 2000;Denton and Al-Shamali, 2000). India was rated the top international investment opportunity among 30 emerging markets for mass merchant and food retailers looking to expand globally (Business Credit, 2006).. After losing the Indian market previously the company re-entered in the Indian market in 1993 and now have 7000 distributors and more than 1.3 million retailers in Indian market. Today the Coca-Cola Company is the leading non-alcoholic beverage company with ten different products. Coca-Cola Company is now the largest distributor, manufacturer, mar keter of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrup which operate in around 200 countries (coca-cola, 2010). If its international venture is successful then the brand name and the brand value increases for the company. Literature review: A Company operating internationally faces two forces of pressure of local responsiveness and pressure of global integration (Daniels et al, 2009). In 1987 Prahlad and Doz came with a IR framework on internationalization, their IR framework created a big platform for the study on global business which helps to form an international strategy that has multi dimensional contextual setting. IR framework has limitations for the global industrial competition specified only for the first stage, vagueness in the concept that defines the bond between industry forces and finally lack of proof for supporting the framework (Rugman et al, 2006). Bartlett and Ghoshal (2008) further studied and came with some additions in IR framework and came up with 4 strategies that are international, global, transitional and multi-domestic approaches to the foreign market. The Global Strategy adopted by Coca-Cola can be critically analyzed using the IR (Integration/ Responsive) framework proposed by Bartlett, Gh oshal and Beamish (2008) and Hill(2009). The global standardization products and services focus on huge profit, but they compromise on their products price. The marketing research, production and research are done in precise regions with some certain standard and it is sold globally. So those type of products face a huge pressure in reducing the price according to the place where it is sold for example Intel, a chip company (Hill, 2009). According to Bartlett and Ghoshal (2002), a solution for the cross border business is Transnational, which is considered as the important approach for the international market. The transnational strategy gives a lot of pressure to the company for cost reduction and local responsiveness. This could be achieved by transferring the precise skills and expectations of the company from the home country to the needs of the foreign country, where they compete with the local market with reduced price for example Caterpillar (Hill, 2009). Entry Modes: Every organisation looks for the opportunity to expand their business across borders, and finding the appropriate entry mode is an intricate task for international business. Different organisation chose different entry modes, to control foreign operation with strategic decision making and which are compatible with the laws of government and culture of the country. There are various modes for entering in the international market like exporting, licensing, franchising, joint ventures with the host country firm, acquisition, and wholly owned new subsidiary in the foreign Country (Hill, 2009). Joint Venture: it is one of the method of entering and sharing of ownership between two or more firms. The percentage of the ownership varies according to the organisations. The firms holding majority of share will have a tight control on the strategy (Hill, 2009). International joint venture benefits the firm from the use of local market knowledge of the host country, culture, competitiveness, legal and political system and development. From International Joint Venture the risk can also be shared with the local partner. Joint Venture has disadvantages also when a firm enters into a joint venture it risk giving control of the technology to its partners. Another disadvantage is if the share of joint venture is not that high or 50-50% then it does not give a firm the tight control over subsidiaries that it might need to realize experience curve or location economies (Hill, 2009). Used by PepsiCo to enter in the Indian Market. Acquisition: it is another method of entering into the international market by acquiring or buying and combination of different companies that can aid, finance, or help a company in a given industry without creating a new business entity (Hill. 2009). Used by Coca-Cola to enter Indian market. It is important for the organisation to consider factors such as the nations long run profit potential, the economic benefits of that country, the market size, and purchasing power of consumers and customers which is linked to the economic growth rate when entering in the market (Hill, 2009). Global Strategy of COCA-COLA: (Zhang, 2010) Indian market is one of the major developing economies in the world. The Indian economy is one of the worlds fastest growing, with gross domestic product (GDP) expanding at an average annual rate of about 7.5 percent for the past three years (Choi, 2006; The Economist, 2006) and the retail market expanding 10 percent on average (Business Credit, 2006) (anon). The Indian retail market, an estimated $250 billion annually, is the worlds eighth largest market and is projected to grow by more than 7 percent annually (Embassy of India, 2007-Cited in Halepete, 2008). The Coca-Cola Company is mentioned as a global company with global products and global activities. In 1980 the company was moving towards centralised control. At that time the motive of the company are to be global in order to expand geographical wise into many of the countries in which the company does business today. In 1990 the world began to start smaller and smaller as a town for the global companies. Globalisation forced changes to appear so fast that many countries could hardly manage the new global environment. As a result, the very forces that were making the world more connected and homogeneous were simultaneously triggering and preservation of unique culture identity. The world is demanding greater flexibility, responsiveness, local sensitivity, nimbleness, speed, transparency and local sensitivity had become essential to success (Draft, 2000). Coca-Cola Company sees itself not as a global organization, but as a multi-local enterprise (Svensson, 2001). Coca-Cola Company historical strength came from operating as a multi-local business that for a very long time relies mostly on the insight of local bottling partners. Thats why the global strategy of coca-cola allows its business in more than 200 countries to act according for local laws, local culture, and local needs and so on. Coca-Cola pursues an assumed global strategy, allowing for differences in packaging, distribution, and media that are important to a particular country or geographical area. Hence, the global strategy is localized through a specific geographic marketing plan. Instead of applying a global strategy, it is likely to be a strategy of thinking globally, but acting locally. The global success of Coca-Cola is the direct result of people drinking it one bottle at the time in their own local communities. So we are placing responsibility and accountability in the hands of our colleagues who are closest to those billions of individual sales (Draft, 2000). This signifie s that if their local colleagues develop an idea or a strategy that is the right thing to do locally, and it fits within fundamental values, policies, and standards of integrity and quality of the Coca-Cola Company, then they have the authority and responsibility to do so. At the same time, they will be accountable for the outcomes of the idea or strategy. It is apparent that a company such as the Coca-Cola Company has realized the weaknesses and the deficiencies of applying a genuine or true global strategy approach in their worldwide business activities. To be in high favour of local ultimate consumer adaptations is emphasized as crucial for their business activities to be prosperous. Therefore, their multi-local strategy approach is still going strong and adequately for the companys worldwide business activities. In addition Gould (1995) states that coca-cola has become a part of peoples daily meal, a price at which anyone can buy and it is available to people in any part of the world. The IR framework has been used to critically analyse the global strategy of Coca-Cola. COCA-COLA COMPANY saw that there is an opportunity in Asian market and their home market situation is saturated. COCA-COLA COMPANY decided to re-enter in the Indian market in 1993. Indian government plays a major role in every international company and had a law that any international company have to become a partner in Indian market with an Indian company. To overcome this problem COCA-COLA COMPANY acquisition of local Indian popular brands including the THUMS UP (the most trusted brand in India), Mazza, Gold Sport, Citra and Limca providing a good base not only in bottling, manufacturing and di stribution assets but also very good strong consumer preference(Kaul, 2003). From this acquisition the leading Indian brands join the family of global brand and its products like coca-cola, diet coke and others. From this acquisition Coca-Cola enables to exploit the benefits global branding and global trends in taste while also tapping in other domestic markets (Lane, 1998). Coca-Cola adopted the standardisation strategy to produce and sell its standardised products globally (Rodrigues, 2009). Coca-Cola Company do franchise with the local manufacturing bottling companies through which they have a local response and local touch. In India COCA-COLA COMPANY have 46 bottling plants from which 22 are company own and rest are the franchise operated plant (Coca-Cola, 2010). After re-entering the Indian market in 1993 the COCA-COLA COMPANY operations grown rapidly through a model that supports local business which includes over 1.3 million retailers and over 7000 distributors across the country. Coca-cola has been successful in the global market as well as Indian market because it follows the local strategies and is able to deliver as per the needs of the local people by manufacturing and distribution by the local company (Hill, 2009). In manufacturing the product the water which is used is local from which the customers get the local taste. The company have an approach where in, their business does not get influenced by the area of sales. Rodrigues (2009), states that Coca-Cola pursues the global strategy of producing diverse products as per the local culture. For instance in India people prefer sweeter coke. Also Coca-Cola launched Georgia, a canned coffee specially intended for Indian market which captured 40% of the market soon after its launch (Hill, 2009). According to Cokecce.com (2007), Coca-Cola trains their managers in their management school, to make them aware of the global perspective of their operations. This picture is to explain the process from the production and manufacturing to the consumers. Marketing is one of the back bones of any global industry in any country. As to stay in the market ahead from the competitors, marketing plays the major role in Indian market for soft drinks. The post- liberalization period in India saw the comeback of Cola but Pepsi(one of the major competitor India) had already beaten Coca-Cola to the punch, creatively entering the market in the 1980s in advance of the liberalization by the way of joint venture. Coca-Cola Company benefited from Pepsi creating demand and developing the market for soft drinks. (Kaul, 2004) Coca-Cola Company marketing strategy is based on 3 As that are Availability, Affordability and Acceptability. The first A is for availability of the product to the customers. The second A is for affordability is for pricing and the third A is for acceptability which stands convincing the customer to buy the product. In 2001 Coca-Cola CEO Douglas Daft set the new direction for next generation of success for global brand with a Think global, act local mantra. Recognizing that a single global strategy or single global campaign wouldnt work, locally relevant executions became an increasingly important element of supporting Cokes global brand strategy. Coca-Cola Company re-examined its approach in an attempt to gain leadership in the Indian market and capitalize on significant growth potential in the rural markets. The foundation the new strategy grounded brand positioning and marketing communications in consumer insight, acknowledging that urban versus rural India were two distinct markets on a variety of important dimensions. (Kaul, 2004) In rural market, where both the soft drink category and individual brands were undeveloped, the task was to broaden the brand positioning while in urban markets, with higher category and brand development, the task was to broaden the brand positioning while in urb an markets, with higher category and brand development, the task to narrow the brand positioning focusing on differentiation through offering unique and compelling value. (Kaul, 2004) Coca-Cola used two different marketing strategies for each urban and rural market. The first marketing life ho to aisi means life as it should be for urban market and the other was thanda matlab coca cola which means cool or cold is coca cola which hit the rural target very highly and gain the market very efficiently because the 96% of the population are in rural and developing cities. Coca-Cola Company reduced its rate for the rural market by providing 200ml bottle so that those customers and consumers whose wages are not so high can also have it. (Kaul, 2004) At the same time, Coke invested in distribution infrastructure to effectively serve a disbursed population and doubled the number of retail outlets in rural areas from 80,000 in 2001 to 160,000 in 2003, increasing market penetration from 13 to 25%. As a result of the marketing campaign, Coca-Cola won Advertiser of the year and Campaign of the year 2003. (Kaul, 2004) Swot analysis of Coca-Cola Company: Strengths: The brand image of coca-cola is very strong around the world and have a strong brand portfolio. Cola-cola brand value was increased by 2% from 2007 to 2008 and it is $66,667 million. Coca-Cola owned top five brands of soft drinks market around the world. Strong brand image allows the company to introduce new flavours in the market like vanilla coke, cherry coke and coke with lemon. The companys strong brand image facilitates customers recall and allows company to penetrate new markets while holding the old ones. Coca-cola Company offers more than 3000 products across the world. Coca-cola Company is running business in more than 200 countries in the world which provide it a strong global image. Due to the strong business model across the world company is able to generate significant cash flows up to $50 million a day. (Data Monitors, 2009) Weakness: Pension assets effect the company liquidity position of the company due to financial market volatility. Coca-cola Company is very mature having significantly more pensioners than active participating members. (Data Monitors, 2009) Opportunity: Globally the non alcoholic ready to drink market is increasing by 6% every year for the next 12 years. (Data monitors, 2009). This project growth is due to the increase in middle-class consumers and fast growing urban societies expected to form in the future. The company can capture this growth with innovative new products with old products. (Data Monitors, 2009) Threats: Coca-Cola Company is largely dependent on the bottling partners across the world. Approximately 78% of its worldwide production was produced and distributed by its bolting partners in 2008. Due to independent bottling partner companies make their own business decision that may not always align with Cola-Cola Company interest. Many of its bottling partners have a right to manufacture or distribute certain products of other beverage companies. In soft drink market there is intense competition and one of the major global competitors of Coca-Cola Company is PepsiCo. Competitive factors impacting companys business include advertising, product innovation, sales promotion programs, brand and trademark development and pricing. Decline in the market share of the home country which means the consumers have started to look for greater variety in their drinks and are becoming health conscious. Other major threat for the soft drink companies is reducing level of water for which the government and WHO is forcing the companies to reduce the level of water used in manufacturing the products. (Data Monitors, 2009) Competitor Analysis: The one of the major competitor in India and in global market is Pepsi. Pepsi entered in the India market in 1980s through joint venture. As early as 1985, Pepsi tried to gain entry into India and finally succeeded with Pepsi foods limited project in 1988 as a joint venture of PepsiCo, Punjab government owned Punjab agro industrial corporation (PAIC) and Voltas India limited (Singh, 1997). Pepsi was marketed and sold to Lehar Pepsi until 1991 when the use of foreign brands was allowed under the new economic policy and Pepsi ultimately bought out its partners becoming a fully owned subsidiary and ending the joint venture relationship in 1994. While the joint venture was only marginally successful in its own right, it allowed Pepsi to gain precious early experience with the Indian market and also served as an introduction of the Pepsi brand to the Indian market and also served as an introduction of the Pepsi brand to the Indian consumer such that it was well poised to reap the benefits when liberalization came (Kaul, 2004). SWOT analysis of PEPSICO: Strengths: The PepsiCo brand is figured at the 27th position in the top 100 global brand rankings of Business Week. The brand value of PepsiCo is $13,249 million in 2008. PepsiCo owns 18 mega brands which are recognise globally and generate annual sales of $1 billion each. In some countries PepsiCo is allowed to manufacture, sell and distribute soft drink products other than PepsiCo, including Dr Pepper and Squirt. PepsiCo have a strong manufacturing and distribution channel having 591 facilities till the end of 2008 and half of it is in USA and Canada. (Data Monitors, 2008) Weakness: The company operates 74.4% of its revenue from its home country USA and the USA market for soft drinks is decreasing. The net profit margin of the company is reduced by 3.9% as compare for the last year. The weak operational growth of the company will affect its future growth plan and can affect the investor confidence. (Data Monitors, 2008) Opportunities: Bottled water is one the fastest growing market globally. PepsiCo has the leading manufacturer and distributor in this market and can capture more market by developing new brands and making better the existing ones. PepsiCo made significant acquisition including two of the other Pepsi bottlers in which one is the eight largest Pepsi bottler in the Pepsi Bottling Group from which they are reducing the partners power slowly. (Data Monitors, 2008) Threats: PepsiCo is facing problem in the home country from where the company is generating the maximum revenue. The consumers are becoming more health conscious. The company is facing intense competition from its competitors mainly the Coca-Cola Company which is one of the major competitors globally. Competitive factors impacting companys business include advertising, product innovation, sales promotion programs, brand and trademark development and pricing. There are new laws from government and World Health Organisation(WHO) to reduce the usage for water in the manufacturing and for labelling, employment, and recycling and product safety. Conclusion: By using the IR framework tool it is evident that Coca-Cola is a global company and doing business in more than 200 countries with a global strategy and a local response. It entered in Indian market due to saturation in the home country market and the growing economies of India. Coca-Cola Company entered the Indian market by acquisition entry method by acquiring Local soft drinks brand like Thumsup, Limca from which gain knowledge about the country soft drink market. The company captured the Indian market majorly through marketing and targeting the rural market which contains the 96% of the population. The company use three A strategy to be to gain more market share. In Indian market Coca-Cola have 46 bottling plants some of them is owned and others are in partnership from which they share the risk, 1.3 million retailers and over 7000 distributors which gives the company a strong base. 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