The Scarlet Letter Book Report

The Scarlet Letter Book Report 1. What is the book about? This book is about a woman named Hester Prynne, who committed adultery with a successful clergyman named Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester Prynne was already married to an older doctor, who later called himself Roger Chillingworth. Hester and Reverend Dimmesdales daughter was the little Pearl. Hester Prynne was punished to stand on the scaffold with the scarlet letter AÂ on her bosom and tell everyone who the father of the baby was. Hester refused to say the name of the father and was mocked by everyone and was humiliated in public. Everyone viewed her as a terrible woman who had done unaccepted things and was supposed to be killed. Hester was not put to death however, but was imprisoned in a bad state. The baby girl was crying and the jailor called a doctor to come and examine them. The doctor that the jailor brought was Roger Chillingworth. He calmed the baby and her mother with pills and had a talk with Hester, his wife. Chillingworth told Hester that if she kept the secret t hat he is her husband, then he will not harm her or the baby. Hester agreed, but refused to tell him who the father of the baby was. Chillingworth was very upset and told her that he will find out who the father was and torture and punish him. After a while, Hester and her baby were set free, but Hester decided to stay in New England and wore the scarlet letter Aevery day and was isolated by the people there. Hester acted very nicely toward other people after she was let go. After seven years, Hester and Pearl, who had grown to be an intelligent young girl, met Mr. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. At that time, Mr. Dimmesdales health was very terrible and Chillingworth was his doctor. Hester found out that Mr. Dimmesdale was tortured by the guilt in his heart for the past seven years, while Hester lived a fairly good life with her daughter. Chillingworth and Dimmesdale were living together and were thought to be friends. Instead, Chillingworth was revenging against Dimmesdale everyday without noticed by Dimmesdale that he was the husband of Hester. One day when Dimmesdale and Hester met in a forest alone with the little Pearl, they talked about leaving everything behind and going to Europe, where no one knows them, and start a new life and Hester told him that Chillingworth is her husband, who lived with him every day and trying to take a revenge against him. On the Election Day, Dimmesdale gave a great sermon. After that, he went to the scaffold along with Hester and Pearl. He told the public that he was the father and died on there. 2. What was interesting about the plot and the characters? Hester Prynne committed adultery with the pastor, Dimmesdale, and when she was asked by Mr. Dimmesdale, who the father of the child was, she remained silent. Pearl, the child of Hester Prynne, always saw her mother with the scarlet letter Aon her bosom, and did not want to get closer to her mother when Hester without the scarlet letter called her in the forest. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale was a preacher and was thought by everyone that he was holy and honored by everyone, but actually, he was the one who committed adultery, which was not tolerated by the people and was supposed to be killed. Roger Chillingworth, Hesters husband, came to the prison and gave Hester a pill for the child and herself to calm them down and make them feel better, but she refused to take them at first and doubting that her husband was going to take revenge. Mr. Dimmesdale lived with Roger Chillingworth for so long and never knew that Chillingworth was taking revenge on him and torturing him everyday and thoug ht that Chillingworth was his friend. Hester and Chillingworth talked in the woods that they were going to leave New England and move to Europe, where no one knows them, but on the Election day, Chillingworth confessed his sin and died on the scaffold. 3. What insights might you get from the book? There is no secret that can be kept forever, especially when the secret is something that you did wrong and felt guilty about. You will be tortured everyday by the feeling of guilt and it would make you feel much better after you confess what you have done wrong. It was wrong to lie in order to reach success in your life. Revenge is very powerful; it can change a person completely. Revenge does you nothing but make other people and your lives miserable, but love can make everyone happy. A mistake you make in your life is not going to ruin your life unless you cant walk out of the shadow of your mistake. If you change the way you act, other people will feel it and have different opinions about you. Guilty feelings will eventually make you sick and have bad health. You cannot stay healthy with guilt in your heart. 4. Did you like the authors style of writing? No, I dont like the authors style of writing, because its too old English and I cannot really understand it fully. I have a hard time understanding the way sentences were written and it takes me a long time to get through a page. The dialogues were not present day speech, which makes it hard for me to get what they mean. We dont normally speak like that. They order of the words are sometimes rearranged, and I need to read it in the way that I may understand them. The author used too many words that I dont know. I dont like to read what I have a hard time understanding every sentence. I want to enjoy reading the book instead of trying to figure out what every sentence mean. I dont like the writing style of the author who uses English that I have trouble understand. I dont like how the scarlet letter was written. 5. Did you like the book? Why or why not? No, I dont like the book, because it takes me too long to finish the book and I dont actually understand what the story is about. The dialogues were so hard to understand and I am not familiar with the uses of the words in the book. The author uses too many words to describe a simple thing, person, or setting. The story is too wordy with too many unnecessary words. I have trouble understand more than ninety percent of the story. I dont get what the author trying to express most of the time. The words are very difficult for me to understand. The way of speaking is completely different from what I have learned. Even the words that the child spoke were so hard to understand. I felt like I am not educated enough to read and understand this thought provoking book. The more I read; the more confusion I get. I thought I am reading an English book, but I am like reading a foreign language book. I dont like this book.

How OR can Aid the complex problem of Management Decision Making :: GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

How OR can Aid the complex problem of Management Decision Making How OR can aid Management Decision Making Modern businesses have more need to predict future operations than those of the past do. Managers in large corporations have to summarise and analyse the various data available to them when making decisions. The U.K. OR Society defines the operational research decision-making techniques â€Å"as a scientific model of the system, incorporating measurements of factors such as chance and risk, with which to predict and compare the outcomes of alternative decisions, strategies/ controls.† The purpose of these techniques is to help management determine its policy and action scientifically. ‘The models of OR are symbolic or abstract representations of real life problems.’ Examples of techniques that can be used by managers for use in decision making are for example, forecasting. Statistical forecasting is to an extent, an extension of the prediction of a dependent variable. A reasonably accurate forecast can be extremely valuable for a marketing or production strategy. ‘Time series forecasting attempts to capture the past behaviour of the time series and uses this information to predict future values. No external predictors are considered.’ (Kvanli et al, chapter 17) The types of factors that determine the strengths of forecasting are the time horizon of the forecast; the stationarity of the data and the presence of trend, seasonality or cyclical activity. The accuracy of forecasting can be measured by calculating the MAD, MSE and the MAPE. These are useful for comparing the accuracy of a particular forecasting technique on two different time series. The advantage of forecasting is that there is no need to search for external predictors to explain the behaviour of dependent variables. The main disadvantage is that the observed values can be extremely complex and difficult to work out. Such methods are often hard to sell to managers who may not be able to understand the technique. However as mentioned earlier, if a technique is reasonably accurate, it is invaluable to managers. Networks are another decision-making technique that concerns the planning and the control of specific projects. The aim of networks is to complete the project in the shortest time, using the least resources with the minimum cost. Methods that can be used are CPA (critical path analysis) and PERT (Project Evaluation and Review Technique). The advantages of networks for management decision making are that ‘they provide a logical picture of the layout and sequence of a complex project.

Hegel and the Relation of Master and Servant Essay -- essays research

Relation of Master and Servant According to Hegel, â€Å"the self conscious is itself and for itself† meaning that it has to come outside of itself, so that it can do two things. One is to cancel out the other otherness. The second is to try to become recognized. This recognition process is called Master and Servant self-conscious. The conflict between master and servant is one in which the historical themes such as dependence and independence are introduced. It sets up the realization of the self conscious through the recognition of and by another, through mutual recognition. The relation between the self and the otherness is necessary to define human awareness and more importantly desire. This desire is part of the primordial human experience. The problem is that, the consciousness respond...

The Investiture Controversy

The Investiture Controversy is seen often times as a significant conflict between Church and State in medieval Europe. However, it was really a conflict over two radically different views of whether the secular authorities such as kings or dukes, had any legitimate role in appointments of spiritual offices such as bishoprics. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the control of appointments or investitures of church officials such as bishops and abbots became a conflict between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor.This reveals that medieval society had to decide which authority figure to support, either the secular or spiritual authority, because each one believed that the other was entitled to more authority than the other. The Investiture Controversy was significant in medieval history because though Henry IV and Gregory VII had very different opinions of what the spiritual and secular authorities duties were they both wished to preserve the Catholic faith against corr uption. The Middle Ages began after the fall of the Roman Empire.Significant changes began to occur in every part of the continent due to the lack of an absolute ruler, which was Rome. The churches around Rome looked to the Pope for guidance but seeing that their needs were not being met, nobles and especially kings assumed numerous Christian duties, including the protection and foundation of churches and abbeys. Although canon law, which is the body of laws and regulations made for the government of the Christian organization and its members, declared that bishops were to be elected by the clergy and the people but the rulers ignored it.Secular authority slowly started to become more dominant than spiritual authority being that weak church authorities were monitoring their powers. During the eighth and ninth centuries, the Roman aristocracy dominated the election of the papacy due to no Carolingian powers to control them. The aristocratic family with the most power would have the a bility to elect the pope or sell his office. Bishops and abbots were nominated and installed by rulers in a ceremony known since the second half of the eleventh century as investiture.This was a ceremony conducted by the king who granted the new bishop or abbots with a staff and, since the reign of Emperor Henry III (1039-1056), a ring signifying that they â€Å"receive the church†. By church it did not only mean the spiritual office but also the secular rights. In return to the king, an oath of fealty to the ruler was made that indicated homage to the king that the bishop or abbot would assist the ruler spiritually and materially, which would fulfill the requirement of â€Å"service to the king† including paying fees, distribution of fiefs to royal supporters, military support, and court attendance as an adviser and collaborator.A notable monarch who practiced investiture was Holy Roman Emperor, Henry III. Henry III wanted to be crowned emperor but currently there wer e three popes, Benedict IX, Sylvester III, and Gregory VI because of the domination of the Roman aristocracy. Henry III reached Rome in 1046 and imposed his secular authority over the situation and elected as the new pope a German, Suidger, bishop of Bamberg, who was inaugurated as Clement II.Control over the Roman Church passed into the hands of the German king. In succeeding years, Henry III used his secular authority to appoint a pope at three more occasions. The spiritual authority was in ruins and a need for reformation within the church was necessary. A man who began reforming the church was Bruno of Eguisheim-Dagsburg, who later became Pope Leo IX, was a German aristocrat and a powerful spiritual ruler of central Italy while pope.On the death of Pope Damasus II, Bruno was selected as his successor but as a condition of his acceptance for the papacy, he had to first proceed to Rome and be freely elected by the voice of the clergy and people of Rome. After receiving much suppor t of his election, Bruno formally became Leo IX. Favoring traditional morality in his reformation of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo IX publicly declared that he was against simony that had been occurring due to a weakened and corrupt papacy. Simony is the act of paying for sacraments and consequently for holy offices or for positions in the hierarchy of a church.Another type of reformation in church that had been occurred before the Investiture Controversy was the establishment of Cluny Abbey. Founded by William I, Duke of Aquitaine in 910 this Benedictine monastery was located in Cluny, France. William I nominated Berno as the first Abbot of Cluny who forced a strict enforcement to the Rule of St. Benedict. Though this was a demonstration of a secular authority appointing an abbot to a spiritual office, William I released the Cluny abbey from all future obligation to him and his family ther than prayer: Therefore be it known to all who live in unity of the faith and who await mercy of Christ, and to those who shall succeed them and who shall continue to exist until the end of the world, that, for the love of God and our Savior Jesus Christ, I hand over from my own rule to the holy apostles, Peter, namely, and Paul, the possessions over which I hold sway, the town of Cluny, namely, with the court and demesne manor, and the church in honor of St. Mary the mother of God and of St.Peter the prince of the apostles, together with all the things pertaining to it, the vills, indeed, the chapels, the serfs of both sexes, the vines, the fields, the meadows, the woods, the waters and their outlets, the mills, the incomes and revenues, what is cultivated and what is not, all in their entirety. This is an extremely significant declaration by a secular authority figure because not only did many other secular authorities follow William I’s example, monasteries across Europe began adopting the Rule of St.Benedict causing many leaders in the spiritual realm to rise agai nst the secular authority and start to divide the powers between the church and state. Before becoming the pope who would challenge secular authority over the topic of investiture, Hildebrand of Sovana was a cluniac monk who was deacon and papal administrator for the Leo IX. During the reign his reign, Nicholas II established a new election system for the papacy. The Papal Election Decree of Nicholas II was established in 1059.It declared that a College of Cardinals would convene, during a period of vacancy in the papal office to elect a Bishop of Rome who then becomes pope. However, Hildebrand did not become Pope Gregory VII by the College of Cardinals. He was elected in an informal fashion and the decree of Nicholas II was ignored, nevertheless Hildebrand did not encounter strong opposition and received sacerdotal ordination thus becoming pope Gregory VII. A reformer, Gregory VII’s main focus was to reform the church and by that he wanted to reduce the secular authority ove r the spiritual.He strongly believed that God alone founded the Church and that she is supreme over all human structures, especially the secular state. However, he did believe that there could be coexistence of church and state, but in no way were they two equals. The superiority of church was much greater than that of the state because God elected the church officials while men who could be corrupt selected the state officials. Henry III had retained a firm hold on the church and resolved a schism.However, after Henry III died at an early age, his son Henry IV believed that he had been appointed by God to become Emperor and spiritual authority figures like the pope were subordinate to him and his decisions. Known as the Milan Controversy, there were two candidates in the running for the position of archbishop. The people of Milan who were supported by the pope supported one of the candidates. However, Henry IV countered by having his own nominee demonstrating a secular authority at tempting to elect a candidate of a religious authority, referring to a king-committing investiture.Henry IV interfered in the situation to help resolve the issue rather than allowing the people of Milan with the support of Pope Gregory VII to achieve a resolution. Refusing to obey the spiritual authority, Henry IV received a letter from Pope Gregory VII warning him of an awful fate if he is to ignore the pope’s negotiations in regards to the investiture problem. Offended by this threat, Henry IV refused to obey the pope because of his belief that God had made him emperor. God alone was the only one who determined the wrongs of kings or emperors.Nevertheless, Pope Gregory VII replied by excommunicating Henry IV for refusing to accept that a king or emperor must obey the wishes of a spiritual authority and continue to interfere in church matters, thus the Investiture Controversy ensued. A series of letters by Gregory VII and Henry IV presented the positions of each side and the ir attempts to best their opponents in public opinion. Gregory VII wanted Henry IV’s acknowledgement that the spiritual authority triumphed over the secular authority.Pope Gregory VII demonstrates in many of his letters that though Henry IV was an emperor he is unfit to appoint bishops or abbots because God had elected church officials who are able to perform such actions. Hence, Henry IV should withdraw all his power from church matters just like William I had done for the Cluny Abbey. Establishing that royal powers were subordinate to the priesthood because secular authority figures continuously lusted for power, which in the eyes of the church lowers their spirituality for committing an act that is considered a sin.Henry IV retorted with the claim that Pope Gregory VII was never a pope due to the fact that he had been appointed by an invalid election and even attempted to gain the papal office while the current pope was alive. Again, when a synod was celebrated in the time of Pope Nicholas [II], in which one hundred twenty-five bishops sat together, it was decided and decreed under anathema that no one would ever become pope except by the election of the cardinals and the approbation of the people, and by the consent and authority of the king.In this statement, Henry IV agrees with the idea that cardinals have the right to elect a new pope but a person of extremely high authority, like himself, has the right to agree or disagree with the decision made by the College of Cardinals. Among other accusations that Henry IV made against Gregory VII, he deemed the pope as a â€Å"bad monk† who did not follow what he preached and had mistresses before and after he became pope. Henry IV finally indicated that God alone can judge the actions of the secular authority and that no spiritual authority, especially a corrupt one such as Gregory VII, could assert their authority over a king.The Investiture Controversy was between the church and state and the ma in issue was the rulers’ ability to continue to invest and install bishops and abbots with the symbols of their office. It soon quickly became an argument between Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor and Pope Gregory VII trying to determine which had more authority, spiritual or secular. Gregory VII saw the emperor’s disobedience to the papacy as an attack on the church, while Henry IV viewed it as the pope forcing his authority over an emperor.However, each saw that the other side was corrupt and unfit to make decisions within the church. Both wished to control the matters of the church since according to each side, God had elected him to his position of authority signifying more power than the other one. Nevertheless, their main goal was to keep the sacrifices of mass and the church untainted, with no influence of corrupt authority figures.Bibliography Geary, Patrick J. â€Å"Pope Gregory VII and King Henry IV†, in Readings in Medieval History , 562-586. Toronto: Univ ersity of Toronto Press Incorporated, 2010. Geary, Patrick J. â€Å"Cluniac Charters†, in Readings in Medieval History , 315-321. Toronto: University of Toronto Press Incorporated, 2010. Thompson, James Westfall. â€Å"Church and State in Medieval Germany. † The American Journal of Theology, 22, no. 4 (1918): 513-540, doi: 19, Feb. 2012. http://www. jstor. org/stable/3155326 ——————————————– [ 1 ]. Henry III was the son of Conrad II and Gisela of Swabia. His accession to the throne did not lead to civic unrest due to the fact that he was a descendent from the two sides that were causing civil war in the empire. [ 2 ]. The Rule of Saint Benedict is a book written by St. Benedict of Nurisa for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. [ 3 ]. Patrick J. Geary, â€Å"Cluniac Charters†, in Readings in Medieval History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press Incorporated, 2010), 316. [ 4 ]. Patrick J. Geary, â€Å"Pope Gregory VII and King Henry IV†, in Readings in Medieval History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press Incorporated, 2010), 580.

Respective societies Essay

How do the writers of Jane Eyre and Of Mice and Men show Crooks and Jane to be outsiders in their respective societies? Howard Jenkins 11R How do the writers of Jane Eyre and Of Mice and Men show Crooks and Jane to be outsiders in their respective societies? In the novels Jane Eyre and Of Mice and Men both novels are protesting about social injustices. These injustices lead to many of the characters being outsiders or they are outsiders because they don’t fit into accepted conventions. People are outsiders due to injustices and their differences. One of the techniques that both Charlotte Bronte and John Steinbeck use to show both Jane and Crooks as outsiders is by making them ranked lower socially compared to those around them. In Jane Eyre Jane is ranked lower than her Aunt and cousins as they are middle-class and she is someone from the lower class living in their house. This creates the impression on the reader that she is an outsider in their middle-class world very effectively. She is looked down on by her Aunt and cousins as if she does not deserve the respect that a servant would get as at least a servant works for their food and room. This attitude has been conveyed to the servants and Miss Abbott notes, â€Å"She is worse than a servant for she does nothing for her keep. † This technique works very effectively to show that Jane is an outsider. In Of Mice and Men Steinbeck uses a similar technique to portray Crooks as an outsider. Because Crooks is black he is seen as inferior to most of the men on the ranch due to the racist views at the time the book was written. As with Jane in Jane Eyre this portrays Crooks as an outsider on the ranch as he is not accepted by most of the other men. Crooks is only too aware of their attitudes and he tells Lennie, â€Å"They think I stink. † The language in the novels also helps to portray the characters of Jane and Crooks as outsiders. In Jane Eyre the story is narrated in the first person narrative. This engages the reader’s sympathy. The narration causes the reader to trust her as she is not liked by everyone and Jane quite openly admits this. Also the surroundings in Jane Eyre show Gateshead to be a miserable place for Jane. The rooms are places that, for Jane, are filled with cold and dread, even in the nursery where you would expect her to feel happy and play with toys is a miserable place. Jane cannot touch the doll’s house furniture, â€Å"for the tiny chairs and mirrors were Georgiana’s property,† This sort of writing shows the reader how hard a life Jane lives at Gateshead and how she is seen by those she lives with. She is not permitted to touch things that belong to those who are a higher social class than her and she is not even happy in the child’s nursery. By demonising the Reed family, Bronte ensures our sympathy for Jane. The harshness of the weather in the novel reinforces the harshness of Jane’s life with the Reeds. The weather is always cold with a winter wind and rain making any outdoor exercise and an escape from the walls of Gateshead quite impossible. Jane looks through the glass of the windows at the grounds â€Å"where all was still and petrified under the influence of a hard frost. † The harshness and cold of the weather reflect Jane’s lack of love at Gateshead. However Bronte allows Bessie to show her affection and Jane says, â€Å"even for me life had its gleams of sunshine† Bronte also uses symbolism elsewhere in the novel. For example the window separates known from unknown, inside from outside. The world outside the window offers Jane more happiness. It is apparent that Charlotte Bronte manipulated her use of language so that the setting and elements in this novel appear as objective reflections for the inner life. Steinbeck does not use symbolism as extensively as Bronte, but the bare, isolated harness room represents his alienation on the ranch. There are many similarities between the characters and situations of Jane Eyre and Crooks. Both of the characters are seeking independence. Jane shows this by always speaking her mind rebelliously and in doing so angering those around her, â€Å"If she were a nice, pretty child one might compassionate her forlornness but one really cannot care for such a little toad as that. † Similarly, Crooks keeps a defensive distance from the others and is described as a â€Å"proud aloof man. † This creates compassion for the characters by the reader. Another similarity between the characters is that they are both seeking for companionship. Jane is excluded form the Reeds and is unloved, but she does not enjoy this isolation, â€Å"If others don’t love me I would rather die than live. † Crooks is also lonely as he is excluded from the other men on the ranch because he is black, but he too feels that loneliness is destructive, â€Å"Books ain’t no good. A guy needs someone to be near him. † When Lennie is taliking about the ranch in Of Mice and Men Crooks is quick to offer his services on the new ranch hoping for some companionship, â€Å"If you guys would want a hand to work for nothing just his keep why I’d come and lend a hand. † Another similarity between the two characters is that they are both bullied by those around them. Jane is bullied by her cousins, especially John Reed, â€Å"He bullied and punished me, not two or three time in the week, nor once or twice in the day but continually. † Crooks has been bullied by other men on the ranch because he is black and different to them, but he is destroyed by Curley’s wife’s cruel taunts and threats and he withdraws into himself, â€Å"Crooks had reduced himself to nothing. There was no personality, no ego – nothing to arouse either like or dislike. † Both Jane and Crooks are physically isolated from the rest of those around them. Jane is banished by Mrs Reed to the kitchen and Crooks is excluded from the other men’s activities. Jane says, â€Å"From every enjoyment I was, of course, excluded† And Crooks tells Lennie, â€Å"They play cards in there, but I can’t play because I’m black. They say I stink. † Jane and crooks are very proud individuals. Jane tells her aunt that the Reed children, â€Å"are not fit to associate with me† and Crooks was a, â€Å"Proud, aloof man† Both writers make their characters more appealing by presenting them as feisty and courageous at times. A common attribute that both Steinbeck and Bronte use to portray Jane and Crooks as outsiders in the novel is that both characters read to escape from their own miserable, lonely existences. Jane says, â€Å"I soon possessed myself a volume, taking care that it should be one stored with pictures,† and, â€Å"With Bewick on my knee I was happy. † Crooks too withdraws into a world of books, â€Å"And he had books too a tattered dictionary and a mauled copy of the California civil code for 1905. † Books are the only things that these characters can communicate with and again their love of literature endears them to us. Overall the authors of Jane Eyre and Of Mice and Men use many similar techniques to make the characters Jane and Crooks appear as outsiders in the novels. The authorial purpose is obvious, the writers have sympathy with the underdog and through their characters they challenge the reader to question their consciences.

Tide Pods

My written assignment will focus on Proctor and Gambles most recent success in the market Tide Pods. The Pods current market situation turns out to be better than P&G could have dreamed of. Considering the trials and tribulations it endured before ever making it to market. In a recent online article written by Jack Neff, for adage. com it notes, â€Å"Pods came to market six months later than planned and without the originally scheduled retail promotions because of supply shortages. † (Neff, 2012). In addition, one of its competitors, Sun marketer of All Mighty Pacs, sued P&G for patent infringement.Perhaps most devastating, the Pods came under direct scrutiny from Senator Chuck Schumer, due to children accidentally eating them, which reportedly happened nearly 500 times according to The Center for Disease Control and Prevention. These things would likely be the death of a product, but P&G overcame adversity, persevered, and have since reaped the benefits. The Pods are expecte d to gross $500 million in first year sales. P&G predicts Tide Pods will account for 30% of the laundry market in the next 10 years. I would say the number in sales and the product demand speak volumes to the Pods potential.Customer interest seems to be high. In a recent report from http://www. consumernews. com(para. 3) Tide Pods were the only single use product that cleaned well enough to make their recommended list. The â€Å"SWOT ANALYSIS† for my product I kind of touched basis on in the beginning of my paper. I think the biggest strength is the reputable brand it is a part of. Tide has been a proven and trusted brand for many years. Consumers can depend on the quality and dependability of the Tide brand.Second to that is market share. P&G has claimed 68% market share in the laundry pods category, a growing segment representing 7. % of the $7 billion U. S. laundry market. Weaknesses I found were consumers not being familiar with the product, negative connotations due to s ome of the scrutiny it came under from the Pods being accidentally eaten by children, and lastly because of launch delays, many competitors were able to release their single use product before P&G. The threats I think are minimal for this product. I say that because most of the threats that had the potential to do harm have already been taken care of. Its innovative design has given it an edge over the competitor.The Pod has a whitening component that the other single use laundry products don’t have. The specific industry targeted for Tide Pods is the laundry industry. In Dan Monk’s recent CincyBizBlog (www. bizjournals. com) he writes, P&G hails it as its biggest laundry innovation in more than a decade according to (Monk, 2013) the article also notes P&G as saying, â€Å"many of its new customers switched from bargain brands†. After conducting some secondary market research on the Pods I found the targeted demographic market to be young people (i. e. , college students, young adults moving out on their own for the first time).I don’t think it is gender specific, men and women could appreciate the convenience and unique compact design of the product. I don’t think it is geared towards the single family home with multiple children either. The young person living in the apartment would be a better fit for the Pods. Lastly, the on the go, early adapter/innovator would also be the ideal consumer for the Pods. The consumer purchasing process for the Tide Pods starts with the Buyer Decision Process (Kotler & Armstrong, 2012) (pp152-156) need recognition. Every household in America needs laundry detergent to wash their clothes.The question is do they need the Pod instead of traditional liquid or powder laundry detergent. The next step in the process is information research. Once the need is there now you are aware and must search for information about the product you intend to purchase. How the Pod is compared to its competitor the All Mighty Pacs? Is more cost effective for me to use the pod as opposed to my regular powder detergent? The next step is evaluation of alternatives. Normally this step consists of comparing the alternative brand to see if it will give you the same result. Will my clothes get as white using the Mighty Pac as does with the Pods?The next step is the purchase decision. More often than not I and other consumers tend to buy the preferred or trending brand. Pods are a Tide brand. As previously stated this alone gives the Pod selling power and the advantage simply because of the reputation of the brand alone. The last stage of the process is post purchase behavior. This is the â€Å"did it me my expectations phase? † In this part of the process, the most important part of the process. The consumer determines if the Pod is worthy of leaving the other brand and continuing to use and purchase Tide Pods or it didn’t meet the expectations and I’ll never buy another Pod in life.In closing the Tide Pod has proven to be a great product launch for Proctor and Gamble. They were innovative, took a risk, invested a lot of money in this product, and it paid off. The two ways in which it could improve are safety development and design. The addition of fragrances would definitely be a plus, coupled with better packaging designs to safeguard against future accidental kid poisoning incidents. The expected growth, potential, earnings, and overall success for the Pods are endless.

Corporate Finance - Assignment 03 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Corporate Finance - 03 - Assignment Example The study will be conducted for five days from 23rd December 2014 to 27th December 2014. The equipment is needed in January 2015. The estimated transportation cost is AED 5 million. The company intends to spend the remaining AED 50 million towards the equipment purchase. The equipment is quoted to cost  £ 860,000 and â‚ ¬ 1,090,000 in pounds and Euros respectively. The study of the currency movement will aid the purchase at a lower price. Therefore, this assignment presents a five-day exchange rate in a table format showing the value of AED 50 million, for each day, in both the currencies (Pounds and Euros). For each of the five days, the cost of the purchase and the impact of the decision are presented. Last, a report that provides justifications that the decision made is favourable to the company also is provided. For the purpose of purchasing the equipment, the currency used for the transaction is the Euros. The table 3 below shows the cost of the equipment in AED based on the exchange rates observations presented in table 1 above. The equipment is quoted to cost â‚ ¬ 1,090,000. Therefore, after incorporating the exchange rates, the costs are below. From the table 3 above, the company will spend (1,090,000/0.223548) = AED 4,875,910 to purchase the equipment on the first day. â‚ ¬1,090,000 is the price quoted in Euros. In order to determine the cost of purchasing the equipment on day 1, the quote price is divided by the exchange rate (AED/ £) on that day. Recapture that AED 50 million was allocated for the expenditure. Therefore, by making the decision to purchase the equipment, the company will save (50,000,000 – 4,875,910) = AED 45,124,090 for the reason that the equipment will be worth less than the planned cost (XE Live Exchange Rates, 2014). The company’s capital expenditure will be significantly reduced, thereby increasing its financial flexibility (ability to pursue other profitable investments). The