Mary Cassatt Art Style: An Overview

Mary Cassatt Art Style: An Overview Cassatt is perhaps best-known for her paintings of mothers and children, works which also reflect a surprisingly modern sensibility. Traditional assumptions concerning childhood, child-rearing, and the place of children in society were facing challenges during the last part of the 19th century and women too were reconsidering and redefining their place in modern culture. Cassatt was sensitive to a more progressive attitude toward women and children and displayed it in her art as well as in her private comments. She recognized the moral strength that women and children derived from their essential and elemental bond, a unity Cassatt would never tire of representing. The many paintings, pastels, and prints in which Cassatt depicted children being bathed, dressed, read to, held, or nursed reflect the most advanced 19th-century ideas about raising children. After 1870, French scientists and physicians encouraged mothers (instead of wet-nurses and nannies) to care for their children and suggested modern approaches to health and personal hygiene, including regular bathing. In the face of several cholera epidemics in the mid-1880s, bathing was encouraged not only as a remedy for body odors but as a preventative measure against disease. Shortly after her triumphs with the Impressionists, Cassatts style evolved, and she moved away from impressionism to a simpler, more straightforward approach. By 1886, she no longer identified herself with any art movement and experimented with a variety of techniques. A series of rigorously drawn, tenderly observed, yet largely unsentimental paintings on the mother and child theme form the basis of her popular work. In 1891, she exhibited a series of highly original colored lithograph prints, including Woman Bathing and The Coiffure, inspired by the Japanese masters shown in Paris the year before. Her decision to become a professional artist must have seemed beyond the pale, given that serious painting was largely the domain of men in the 19th century. Despite the concerns of her parents, Cassatt chose career over marriage Jansons History of Art, Seventh Edition p. 879-880 This text gives us a little insight into the life of Mary Cassatt (1844-1926). She was an American who was born into a wealthy family and raised in Pittsburgh; also influenced by Renaissance art, she approached Impressionism from a womans perspective, mainly as a figure painter. As a female, she was often restricted as far as going places unattended where men could go. Her subject matter was attributed to these restrictions. Many of her themes included women reading, visiting, taking tea, and bathing an infant. The Childs Bath is not only a picture about health, but about intense emotional and physical involvement. Paul case: Cathers understanding of the tacit limits governing the representation of sexuality, and the way they were linked to genre, explains why she chose the mode of indirection in writing her 1905 story of a homosexual teenager, Pauls Case. Recent developments in sexology enabled Cather to characterize Paul as a homosexual without naming his condition. Through background information and physical description, Cathers narrator discreetly invokes degeneracy theory to explain her protagonist, aligning him with the subjects of recent case studies. After experimenting with the persona of the fairy, Paul uses stolen money to transform himself into a cultured, sophisticated queer, but neither persona proves permanently satisfactory. Through its references to Pauls sexuality, the story analyzes one particular product of late-nineteenth-century consumer capitalism: the middle-class, urban gay man. How to write it ? Write your climax first; it will aid you to gauge properly the view-point of your story. The climax is the plot in brief: here is a hint as to plot finding. Take a situation: it may be humorous, pathetic, full of mystery, or dramatic; but it must be striking. Life abounds in many such, and he who goes about with his eyes open can not fail to set aside an ample store. The conclusion should follow closely on the heels of the climax. Its office is to ring down effectively the curtain on the scene. Often it dovetails in the climax so that we can not tell where one begins and the other ends When you conceived your climax, doubtless some one thing stood out in bolder relief than all the rest. It may have been humor, it may have been pathos, it may have been grim tragedy. Whatever it was, it is the point of the tale, the centre of gravity of your story. You wisely gave it a setting in keeping, and in the conclusion let it dwell like a lingering note to be a haunting memory for many a day. It is the essence of your conception, and in the introduction you held it up before your readers eyes as the game to be pursued. This we will call the theme of the composition. The subtle power of the French school lies in the art of innuendo. It is what is left unsaid rather than what is said that causes the greatest thrill. But the inference must be plain: the readers imagination should not be left to construct the tale which you set out to tell. Often a story will be saved from boredom to fascination by the power of suggestion alone. This is particularly true of love scenes, deaths, and the like, such as only a masters hand at description can hope to handle effectively. Rosebud: One of the key cruxes of the film is the question of what exactly Rosebud means. We ask this question even though we know that Welles Co. were in part trying to show that you cannot reduce a mans mysteries to one thing. On the other hand, there is a solution to the problem. It is actually found in Welless next film, The Magnificent Ambersons. Throughout Welless radio career, his most moving shows, such as his adaptation of The Apple Tree, were about loss loss of a bucolic past, of a domestic happiness, of a quiet life. This theme doesnt seem to have anything to do with Welless real life. Its just something he liked, though perhaps based on the loss of his mother at an early age. The Magnificent Ambersons is his most poignant realization of this theme in his work. Rosebud leads up to that film. Rosebud is The Magnificent Ambersons. The small-town values and mothers love that the snow-ball evoke which reminds Kane of his childhood home, and the sled called Rosebud are all explored in much more detail and presented with an additional dollop of aching loss, in Welless second film. Rosebud is not a gimmick. As a narrative device, it is the holy grail of the film, the engine that drives the reporter Thompson to solve the mystery of Kane, and along the way we learn as much about Kane as the characters (and the undermining overvoice of the film itself) can tell us. But when we learn, from our privileged position as viewers of the film, what Rosebud actually is, even as it is being destroyed, we also learn that it is not a hoax, nor is it hokey. As Bernard Herrmanns beautiful music rises in the background, we feel both the unsealing of the envelope and the closing of a life. Its a beautiful moment, one of the most expressive in all cinema. And you know what? In a way, a mans life can be reduced to one thing, if that thing is the rich cluster of images and ideas that Rosebud contains. The gay subtext in Citizen Kane Who wrote Kane? The answer is in the aspect of the film that everyone is afraid to mention, the gay subtext that appears in Kane and in many of Welless other films. Im not talking about his private life, in which, according to Simon Callow, Welles had a knack for attracting the support of older gay men such as Houseman, who were smitten with the youths vivacity. Welles, a heavy drinker, was married three times and, like Marlon Brando and Warren Beatty after him, had ostentatious affairs with many women, among them Dolores Del Rio. None of this seemed to find its way into his films. Women dont figure that heavily in most of Welless films, and rarely does sex truly enter. Love and passion are there, but often presented discreetly. Kane offers up something of a Madonna/whore contrast, while his next film shows dedicated woman in a soap-operaish oleo of unrequited, often even unexpressed, love. Although the aborted Its All True celebrated the passionate life of Latin America, Welles was really interested in the politics of the time. Subsequent films dealt with great men and their political lives. Welles played Othello as if he were really married to Iago. There is the suggested rape of a newlywed in Touch of Evil, and a nymphomaniac in The Trial. Its a shock to see footage from the unfinished The Other Side of the Wind in which actual lust is realized in the back seat of a car. But the combination of sex and women is not what we carry away from many of these films. Male friendship and its betrayals interested Welles, from one film to another, starting with Kane and lasting all the way to The Big Brass Ring, a screenplay credited to Welles but finally filmed by someone else. As in many films with a gay subtext, parts of Kane dont make sense unless you view them from a gay perspective. Why, exactly does Jed Leland feel so betrayed by Kane? It cant just be because Kanes political folly put back the cause of reform 20 years. When Leland, the stooge friend, first learns of the political disgrace, he walks into a bar to drown feelings of what? Leland, who elsewhere says he took ballet lessons with Kanes first wife and was very graceful, has no female companions in the film, and his reaction to Kanes political betrayal far exceeds its actual weight. Theres a love here that dare not speak its name. This gay subtext provides another indication of Welless hand in the Kane screenplay. Welless other great movie, Touch of Evil, has a similar relationship between a powerful man and a stooge, in which the powerful man is the love of the stooges life: Welless Quinlan and Joseph Calleias Pete Menzies; only here, both men betray each other. And the totality of The Trial only makes sense if the film is viewed as really about the persecution of a gay man in a straight society. The gay subtext of Kane only adds to its mysteries and makes it a richer film. Understanding themes:D1 Personal identity is shaped by ones culture, by groups, and by institutional influences. Examination of various forms of human behavior enhances understanding of the relationship between social norms and emerging personal identities, the relationships between social processes that influence identity formation, and the ethical principles underlying individual action.

Organisation Behaviour Essay

Using the concepts that you have read in the book, describe what would be according to your personality the ideal job for you ? (Sessions 1 and 2) With noadays’ global and competitive environment, Organisation Behaviour look further in workforce diversity. It seeks to include different personnalities in an organisation to improve performances and increase organisation values. Personality is about determining a person’s reactions and interactions with others. Though a part of this fact is determined by heredity, it is also a process of change related to psychological growth and personal development. Finding a job that ideally corresponds to my personality is not as easy as it seems.  According to OB experts, a good job fit refers to  « the degree to which a person’s cognitive abilities, interests and personality dynamics fit those required by the job  » (Chuck Russell – Right Person Right Job, Guess or Know). So job fit is not only about matching technical skills, but it is also about matching my inner passion and talent with the job and with the organisation. It has been proven that a good job fit increases performances and attracts talent. On the other hand, a bad job fit can have a negative impact ; that’s why it is critical to success. To find my ideal job, there are many different tools based on personality traits to describe an individual’s behaviour and distinguish differences, but I have chosen two of them to analyse myself : †¢ Firstly, the MYERS-BRIGGS compares four type indicators : Extroverted vs Introverted, Sensing vs Intuitive, Thinking vs Feeling, Judging vs Perceiving. Personally, I think that I used to be an ESFJ person (called the Guardian Provider), but that I changed with time into an ESTJ person. (called the Gardian Supervisor). This change is maybe caused by my personal evolvment. Secondly, OB has also focused on big five factors related to job outcomes : Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional stability, and Openness to experience. To have an outer opinion about my own personality, I have taken a test online (www.personalitytest.org.uk) by answering questions reflecting these five factors. My results were : ââ€" ¦ Extroversion : preference to social situations ââ€" ¦ Agreeableness : tendency to be trusting friendly and cooperative ââ€" ¦ Conscientiousness : methodical, well organized and dutiful ââ€" ¦ Neuroticism : tendency to feel insecurity and emotional distress ââ€" ¦ Openness : interest in creativity, culture and educational experiences After my self discovery through this analysis, and regarding the relationship between personality and performances, I cannot say that there’s a unique ideal job for me. But taking into consideration my personal preferences, I would like to work as a Marketing Brand Manager.. I think this job would fit me like a glove because : †¢ it requires a lot of organisational skills by planning the marketing process, and co-ordinating all the elements related to promotion and sales. †¢ It requires group work management, with open-minded and regular interactions and communication with the employees. †¢ it is also connected to creativity that adds value to the organisation, not only in advertising but in all the marketing process. †¢ It demand an ability to adapt myself to different situations through innovation †¢ It gives me satisfaction to have concrete results of my work that can have an impact on the company’s performance. These elements of the Marketing Brand Manager’s job fits well with my personality because they reflect what I am good at. There is no good or bad personality, because every person is different from the other, and so every person has its place in an organisation. Therefore, finding the best job fit is not only related to what we know, but it is more about what we are today and how we interact.

Business Accounting Essay - 1615 Words

Introduction Financial statements What carries out the accounting and financial forecasting of any type of company is financial statement. As for financial statement, it is a financial report or record compiled usually on a quarterly and annual basis which quantitatively provides the indication of an individual’s, an organization’s, or business’s financial status. There are, according to belief of most experts, generally three financial statements such as: an income statement (Pro Forma Profit and Loss), a balance sheet and a cash flow statement. Although these three financial statements differ by different functions each of them performs, they closely depend on one another. For instance, an income statement hinges upon a balance†¦show more content†¦It always puts Assets on the left side or on the top, with capital and liabilities on the right side or the bottom. Balance sheet must always comply with the formula below: Assets = Liabilities + Capital Income statement Income statement is also called Profit and Loss. While it has some influence on Assets, Liabilities, and Capital, it only includes Sales, Costs, Expenses, and Profit. Income statement shows the information on the flow of transactions over some specified period of time like a month, a quarter, a year, or even several years. In other words, income statement provides information regarding the revenue earned by the company within a specified period of time. To be more forward, income statement demonstrates inflows and outflows of assets, where inflows are revenues and outflows are expenses. An excess of inflows over outflows is net income, whereas an excess of outflows over inflows is named as net loss. 3 Sales – Cost of Sales (or COGS, Cost of Goods Sold, or Direct Costs) = Gross Margin Gross margin – Expenses = Profits 3 2 http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-financial-statements.htm 3 http://planasyougo.com/the-three-main-statements 4http://www.fool.com/investing/beginning/how-to-value-stocks-how-to-read-a-balance-sheet.aspx Cash Flow What isShow MoreRelatedAccounting Is The Language Of Business1286 Words   |  6 PagesAccounting is a major that teaches the language of business, it opens doors to the business world all over the globe, the possibilities with a accounting major is endless in the business field. Whether you want to run your own business or become a certified public accountant majoring in accounting gives you the establishment. A major plus in having a career in business is the flexibility it offers. 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Biography of the Scots Explorer Mungo Park

Mungo Park--a Scottish surgeon and explorer--was sent out by the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior of Africa to discover the course of the River Niger. Having achieved a degree of fame from his first trip, carried out alone and on foot, he returned to Africa with a party of 40 Europeans, all of whom lost their lives in the adventure. Born: 1771, Foulshiels, Selkirk, ScotlandDied: 1806, Bussa Rapids, (now under the Kainji Reservoir, Nigeria) Early Life Mungo Park was born in 1771, near Selkirk in Scotland, the seventh child of a well-to-do farmer. He was apprenticed to a local surgeon and undertook medical studies in Edinburgh. With a medical diploma and a desire for fame and fortune, Park set off for London, and through his brother-in-law, William Dickson, a Covent Garden seedsman, he got his opportunity. An introduction to Sir Joseph Banks, a famed English botanist, and explorer who had circumnavigated the world with Captain James Cook. The Allure of Africa The Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa, of which Banks was treasurer and unofficial director, had previously funded (for a pittance) the exploration of an Irish soldier, Major Daniel Houghton, based at Goree on the West African coast. Two important questions dominated discussions about the interior of West Africa in the drawing-room of the African Association: the exact site of the semi-mythical city of Timbuktu, and the course of the River Niger. Exploring the River Niger In 1795 the Association appointed Mungo Park to explore the course of the River Niger--until Houghton had reported that the Niger flowed from West to East, it was believed that the Niger was a tributary of either the river Senegal or Gambia. The Association wanted proof of the rivers course and to know where it finally emerged. Three current theories were: that it emptied into Lake Chad, that it curved round in a large arc to join the Zaire, or that it reached the coast at the Oil Rivers. Mungo Park set off from the River Gambia, with the aid of the Associations West African contact, Dr. Laidley who provided equipment, a guide, and acted as a postal service. Park started his journey dressed in European clothes, with an umbrella and a tall hat (where he kept his notes safe throughout the journey). He was accompanied by an ex-slave called Johnson who had returned from the West Indies, and a slave called Demba, who had been promised his freedom on completion of the journey. Parks Captivity Park knew little Arabic--he had with him two books, Richardsons Arabic Grammar and a copy of Houghtons journal. Houghtons journal, which he had read on the voyage to Africa served him well, and he was forewarned to hide his most valuable gear from the local tribesmen. At his first stop with the Bondou, Park was forced to give up his umbrella and his best blue coat. Shortly after, in his first encounter with the local Muslims, Park was taken prisoner. Parks Escape Demba was taken away and sold, Johnson was considered too old to be of value. After four months, and with Johnsons aid, Park finally managed to escape. He had a few belongings other than his hat and compass but refused to give up the expedition, even when Johnson refused to travel further. Relying on the kindness of African villagers, Park continued on his way to the Niger, reaching the river on 20 July 1796. Park traveled as far as Segu (Sà ©gou) before returning to the coast. and then to England. Success Back in Britain Park was an instant success, and the first edition of his book Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa sold out rapidly. His  £1000 royalties allowed him to settle in Selkirk and set up a medical practice (marrying Alice Anderson, the daughter of the surgeon to whom he had been apprenticed). Settled life soon bored him, however, and he looked for a new adventure--but only under the right conditions. Banks was offended when Park demanded a large sum to explore Australia for the Royal Society.​ Tragic Return to Africa Eventually in 1805 Banks and Park came to an arrangement--Park was to lead an expedition to follow the Niger to its end. His part consisted of 30 soldiers from the Royal Africa Corps garrisoned at Goree (they were offered extra pay and the promise of a discharge on return), plus officers including his brother-in-law Alexander Anderson, who agreed to join the trip) and four boat builders from Portsmouth who would construct a forty-foot boat when they reached the river. In all 40 Europeans traveled with Park. Against logic and advice, Mungo Park set off from the Gambia in the rainy season – within ten days his men were falling to dysentery. After five weeks one man was dead, seven mules lost and the expeditions baggage mostly destroyed by fire. Parks letters back to London made no mention of his problems. By the time the expedition reached Sandsanding on the Niger only eleven of the original 40 Europeans were still alive. The party rested for two months but the deaths continued. By November 19 only five of them remained alive (even Alexander Anderson was dead). Sending the native guide, Isaaco, back to Laidley with his journals, Park was determined to continue. Park, Lieutenant Martyn (who had become an alcoholic on native beer) and three soldiers set off downstream from Segu in a converted canoe, christened the HMS Joliba. Each man had fifteen muskets but little in the way of other supplies. When Isaaco reached Laidley in the Gambia news had already reached the coast of Parks death – coming under fire at the Bussa Rapids, after a journey of over 1 000 miles on the river, Park and his small party were drowned. Isaaco was sent back to discover the truth, but the only remains to be discovered was Mungo Parks munitions belt. The irony was that having avoided contact with local Muslims by keeping to the center of the river, they were in turn mistaken for Muslim raiders and shot at.

Political and Cultural Significance of the Flavian...

Assess the political and cultural significance of the construction and initial use of the Colosseum. Throughout the history of Ancient Rome, the construction of public buildings was used as a political tool, to manipulate the views of the people and to demonstrate the power of the State. The very first emperor of Rome, Augustus, initiated social reform through the construction of buildings from 27 BC onwards. Emperor Vespasian in 69 AD used a similar initiative, and throughout Rome’s history it can be seen that times of civil unrest are often followed by a flourish in architecture and the arts. An example of this can be seen in one of Vespasian’s major building projects, the Colosseum, officially the Flavian Amphitheatre, which had†¦show more content†¦In 79 AD Vespasian came to his final days, dying before the construction of the Colosseum was complete. His son, Titus, was to take over his role as emperor. Titus, new in his role, knew that he too must impress the people as his father had done, and so he announced the opening of the Colosseum would occur one y ear later. This seemed like an impossible goal for the constructers, and Titus had planned an extravagant opening to ensure that none would think he was less visionary than his father. Upon the opening of the great amphitheatre there were one hundred days of fighting. These one hundred days involved the slaughter of an unfathomable number of animals and men; one source tells us that five thousand animals were killed in the first day. The writer Cassius Dio tells us just how extravagant the opening may have been; â€Å"Titus suddenly filled this same theatre with water and brought in horses and bulls and some other domesticated animals that had been taught to behave in the liquid element just as on land. He also brought in people on ships, who engaged in a sea-fight there, impersonating the Corcyreans and Corinthians.† This suggests that Titus had the Colosseum flooded in order to stage a naval battle; however several historians question the technicalities of this, despite the multiple

EA Games Free Essays

string(57) " seriously to the point they will do a complete rewrite\." Change is part of organizational growth and survival in our modern global economy. If an organization is going to grow and survive, it needs more than traditional strategic business plans. One of the principal drivers of competition is technological advancements. We will write a custom essay sample on EA Games or any similar topic only for you Order Now Company’s can develop a strong competitive advantage through the strategic use of information technology. This white paper will discuss information technology (IT) concepts that have successfully been utilized by other organizations. The purpose is to benchmark how other companies have successfully implemented information technology and how SaveWithUS can conceptualize these strategies. The focus of IT is not just on the internal applications or computer systems that reside on the network; rather the focus is the strategic approach that information systems can have to support the business plans, goals, and objectives of the organization. Ultimately, a strategic approach to information technology should improve a company’s competitive advantage, business intelligence, reduce costs, increase margin, streamline business processes speed, accuracy, and reliability, communication, data based decision making, and increase overall customer value (Mickler, 2008). Many start-up companies develop a business plan but rely heavily on their own experience when it comes to business decision making rather than facts that an existing company would use. As the company grows, mistakes become more costly, they will rely more and more in information to base sound decisions. SaveWithUS is at the juncture where business decisions need to be based on facts not guesses. To remain competitive and profitable, SaveWithUS needs to reduce costs of merchandise manufactured and products purchased for resale. Technology has changed the way information is captured, stored, processed, analyzed, distributed, communicated; and the organizational infrastructure which is used to reduce costs, increase profits, and gain a competitive advantage. The effective use of information technology requires an organization and cultural change. The most important component in the change equation is making the decision to change. If resistance to change permeates, this will lead to the breakdown and irrelevancy of what was once a strong organization (CTU Online, 2008). Change is forever part of business sustainability. Understanding the external business environment can improve the strategic approach that an organization should adopt in a competitive market. A highly competitive environment includes multiple firms targeting he same market to win the same business. The external environment has forces which business must contend with for survival. Michal Porter has devised a five forces model that focus on these external pressures. The five pressures are 1) rivalry among existing competition, 2) threats of substitute products, 3) bargaining power of suppliers, 4) bargaining power of channels and end users, 5) barriers to entry. This model can be very helpful to think of competition in its broadest sense which suggests areas for competitive posture. Porter’s five-force’s model provides the framework to judge an organizations position and analyze a business level strategy which will describe how an organization competes in the marketplace (Frenzel Frenzel, 2004). These are just a few reasons why information technology is the critical infrastructure of any organization. The case study referenced herein is Electronic Arts (EA), the leading independent video game publishing company, producing popular titles such as The Sims, Madden NFL, and Medal of Honor. They also publish games based on Hollywood franchises such as the Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and The Godfather. Nestled in Silicon Valley, Electronic Arts is a very successful organization with more than 50 best-sellers that sold more than a million copies each. Many people would believe that Electronic Art’s is a video game development company which base its success from the rich talent pool of creative people, artists, animators, programmers, and technicians. This is a highly competitive industry and getting more competitive every year with a fickle customer base. EA has competitors such as Activision, Take-Two, and Vivendi Games which all sell strong in the marketplace. It would be reasonable to assume they also have a highly talented staff of developers and creative artists. EA is successful because they are the model of a stellar management company. According to EA president and COO John Riccitiello, â€Å"EA pulls it off by honing the way that it develops and markets games: by thinking of its products as emotional, cinematic experiences, not toys. † Electronic Arts is in the business of delivering a total entertainment experience. The company built its creativity on a foundation of management discipline (Salter, 2007). EA understands the completive landscape and performs extensive due diligence. Riccitiello has stated, â€Å"We often know more about the feature set of our competition’s products than our competition does. † Electronic Arts recognizes that gaining a competitive advantage will not materialize because of slicker graphics, audio, or better storylines than the competition; consumers expect these features to improve over time and that is part of the gaming industry. EA knows that the high-tech imagery features they develop today will only be copied tomorrow which will not provide long-term advantage. EA has strong competitive intelligence, forecasting, budgeting, timing, and methodical project management disciplines. EA uses information technology to store financial data, sales data, important customer data, competitive data, and offer access to share this information across business units. EA has the discipline of sharing best practices and technologies using intranet libraries. This enables data to become more accurate and to be shared or broadcast faster through a more reliable means (Mickler, 2008). An e-business strategy can be defined as the electronic means of internal and external communications for an organization. Internally, employees can use a private intranet to share information, facilitate knowledge dissemination, management reporting, collaborate with business partners, sales promotions, and competitive intelligence, all of these features and more can be used with the development of an intranet. EA is diligent to understand their customers. They know that what is real to their consumers is what is on TV. Electronic Arts believes in gaining better understanding of their audience through the use of focus groups. These are non-EA groups of gamers and EA takes their recommendations seriously to the point they will do a complete rewrite. You read "EA Games" in category "Essay examples" Traditionally, the gaming industry is male dominated. Industry demographics suggest the target audience is male between the ages of 16 and 24. EA wants to expand their market beyond the typical gaming demographics. However, EA proceeds with caution not to lose current customers that do not want to see dumbed down products. When making complex decisions on marketing strategies and tactics, it is important look at hard data to in decision making. Information technology can provide the means of using marketing intelligence, trends, economic data, competitive market data, technological, demographics, government sources, and cultural and social information to provide a solid foundation upon from which to draw (Salter, 2007). Using e-business strategies such as customer relationship management (CRM) tools can identify important customer data to develop products and service specific to their needs, wants, and desires. The result of their data was a game titled the SIMS which attracts customers of all ages, thus developing new markets with different set of wants, needs, and desires. In addition, e-business is a means to reduce customer and supplier expenses, meet customer and supplier needs in a defect-free manner, and improve the speed in which these functions can take place. Knowledge management tools are processes the organization will employ to collect, store, analyze, and distribute information. Information technology offers data mining technique which are the convergence of technologies that provide computations to make sense of all the information stored (Frenzel Frenzel, 2004). The maturity of an information system in an organization can have a direct effect on the speed, accuracy, and reliability of its data processing. Information technology can eliminate the manual logging of paperwork, eradicate human error and increase speed, accuracy and reliability of the information stored (Mickler, 2008). Some of the mundane tasks can become completely automated through bar code scanners and other technology which will reduce labor costs, increase accuracy of data, and induce inventory cost controls (Mickler, 2008). I addition, information technology can improve the manufacturing process while meeting customer demands and reduce costs. In an effort to accurately control inventory costs, SaveWithUS should consider Just-In-Time (JIT) manufacturing and including technology to help reduce costs. JIT does not use the conventional ways of producing products with large batch sizes at high volumes. The JIT philosophy is where machine operators produce only the items needed, when it is requested, and on time. Information technology also plays a vital role in measuring the return on investment for these new processes (Frenzel Frenzel, 2004). Computer inventory management systems can control and coordinate delivery of raw materials or components from suppliers with production schedule, thereby minimizing inventory carrying costs. It is absurd to realize management can not track the percentage of repeat business, the accuracy of the expense of manufacturing costs, and sales goods of sold (CTU Online, 2008). The objective of SaveWithUS needs to be the development of a realistic business strategy that has full support of top management, established clear goals, development of long-term customer relationships, and provides maximum value. Bringing quality value to the customer is vital in the competitive and global business world. A competitive advantage is achieved when an organization has integrated information technology in the business activities with the value chain more cost-effectively than the competition. The goal of a business is to sell their products and services and keep customers buying in the future by means of adding value. Customers exchange something of value, such as money, for the products and services an organization produces. Strategic planning allows an organization to recognize how the customer sees the value of a company’s product or service and helps better position their goods in the market to make a profit (Frenzel Frenzel, 2004). Strategic plans will use resources of people, money, facilities, and technical capabilities that are required in order to achieve the goals and objectives. The goal of information technology is to support these efforts and add value of speed, accuracy, and reliability (Mickler, 2008). In the games industry, success, novelty, and great innovative designs do not automatically mean that a company will enjoy long-term success. In fact, the annals of the gaming publishing industry is eroded with once triumphant companies that currently are no longer existence. It takes a distinct mixture of success and business savvy to stay afloat and competitive. This review is hypothetical, created solely to fulfill course task requirements. The review of and title of an article depicts Electronic Arts (from now EA) as â€Å"Playing to Win†, the fact is that they are indeed playing the business game to win. EA is one of the world’s foremost reliant interactive software developing and publishing company. Since its inception, EA has garnered more than 700 awards for outstanding software in the U. S. and Europe. According to their own on-line career opportunity web site EA(2010) they say that EA markets its products worldwide under four brand logos and has over 33 product franchises that have reached more than a million unit sales worldwide. We will discuss more about their target market audiences in the next two sections. EA see themselves as a company that provides a product to it’s target market that appeals in the sense of interactive cinematic gaming experience. According to Salter (2002) Computer and video games are a bigger business than the movies, and the biggest force in games is Electronic Arts a company whose blockbuster titles dazzle millions of customers and generate billions of dollars in sales. As the world leaders in interactive entertainment we can say that EA’s most important competitive advantage is the fact they have lasted 20 years in the business and has gathered enough experience to leverage heritage into the entertainment gaming industry. Their other advantage is that they allow their 12 developing studios innovation freedom while impressing the discipline to meet deadlines. This means that it’s not all about gaming but also about planning, and management having a good business plan in place and a good vision is certainly a good competitive advantage. This is corroborated by Rabin (2010) when he says that the business plan developed was visionary and had three key elements: first, that the creative talent at the company would be treated like artists, involved in the marketing, and generally revered more than at other companies in the industry; second, that they would develop proprietary tools and technology that would enable them to quickly develop their titles cross-platform; and third, that they would handle the distribution to stores. Their primary target market (audience) is the users of advanced entertainment systems. The customary gamers are males in between the ages 16-through 24 year of ages. EA has continue to expand and move their traditional demographics As the market expands, their enthusiasts is to figure out how to publish products for people who are not the within the traditional demographic model. The fact is that EA’s present their content to a wide general audience appealing to all key demographic market segments by logically brainstorming their products as an emotional experience, How do they create an emotional experience? The emotional experience is created through offering their target markets a highly targeted campaign contributing the opportunity for the user to interact with the game. It’s a simple but very radical idea in which the users is part of the cinematic experience, therefore the user does not see the game as a toy but as an appealing realistic experience. Currently, their specific target market audience comprises a wide general range of users utilizing advance game consoles, personal computer system, video game consoles such as Nintendo, Play Station, Play Stations, and numerous others. Let’s clarify one thing about game publishing companies. They are exactly just that â€Å"Publishers† , they don’t consider themselves to be developers. The game entertainment publishing arena is quite busy and extremely competitive. Beside having fun and playing games it takes discipline to be creativity and code award winning games. This is a fact that is corroborated by Salter (2010) when he writes that it takes a tough company to make entertaining games. Salter quotes the president and COO of â€Å"The forgotten aspect of creativity is discipline,† beside discipline it takes a good development team and a good project manager with a sense of scheduling, creating buzz about the product through a hard core marketing campaign. Everything centers around information technology especially the discipline of methodically managing their projects, their information technology systems play a large aspect of their success through regimented collaborative best practices across their an intranet library. In closing in my opinion what makes Electronic Arts a potential winner is their ability to take ingenious people who are highly motivated and talented and create excessive amounts of value. Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world’s leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTSâ„ ¢, EAâ„ ¢, EA SPORTS Freestyle â„ ¢ and POGOâ„ ¢. In fiscal 2008, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3. 67 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. We were tasked to improve the functionality of the site, both technically and visually. The technical aspects of keeping up with ncreased user demands and features and facilities offered by the site were all dealt with to everyone’s satisfaction. It was felt that the site architecture and the user experience still left room for improvement, and we have lots to offer to fill this need. It was also important to ensure that the CRM and frontend complimented one another visually. Above all, we wanted the access site to offer an equivalent experience to the Flash site, rather than an alternative one. Our reputation as designers with flair for translating a company’s brand onto their website and for creating great user experiences got us this project. We were given the responsibility of revamping the entire site to reflect the brand of the company. Creating a site that was easily scalable and low on maintenance was also one of the primary requirements. We made the site made very light and the download speeds were reduced substantially. Only a few colors were used through most of the site, and two other colours were used where some differentiation was needed. Style sheets were created to keep the vast amount of content consistent visually. A clean, slightly serious and professional look was given to the entire site. How to cite EA Games, Essay examples

Marketing Strategy of Honest Company-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Markting Strategy of Honest Company. Answer: Introduction The Honest Company is an American organization cofounded by Hollywood actress Jessica Alba, Brian Lee, Sean Jane and Christopher Gavigan in the year of 2011. The organization sells consumer goods which are better in quality than any of their rival organizations in the market of United States and Canada. After the birth of Jessica Albas first child she was enthusiastic in establishing an organization that would sell baby products of good quality and she thought in todays market it would be beneficial for the babies. Her idea was materialized when she found that her baby child caught up a welt outbreak caused by a baby laundry. In the year of 2012 she launched seventeen products with the help of her business partners. Currently the organization have assets over 1.7 billion U.S dollars and earned a reputation in the markets of United States and Canada. The report deals with the background of the organization, various business strategies the organization have accepted, a S.W.O.T and P.E. S.T analysis of their business structure along with a full detailed discussion regarding how they operate their business in the market of United States and Canada. Top five business plans of The Honest Company In a conference in San Francisco actress turned entrepreneur talked about various ways she and her cofounders follow to increase the reputation of their organization in the market of United States and Canada. Filling a gap in the market Alba, after giving birth to her first child back in 2008 realized that the majority of the baby products sold in the market are not free from harmful petrochemicals and synthetic fragrances, so to provide her child with safe products she had to order goods online or had to import them from other companies and thus realized the necessity of these products and decided to open a business in the market where the demand is pretty high. She said that she always wanted to create a brand where people would shop without hesitating bout the qualitative factors of the products and can get the best products for them and their newborns (Nikolaos, Evangelia, 2012). Embracing digital platform From the year of 2011, the organization opted for an online platform to sell their goods as they realized that e-commerce is the future and they should consider that factor. By the year 2012 they made it sure that all the consumers can easily order goods online and get the delivery at home, this idea back in 2012 gained huge popularity and that generated huge revenue for the organization. They made a solid base on a digital platform and then opened many outlets in the market of United States initially and later they expanded their business in Canada (Zikmund, et al., 2013). Positioning the ideas To leverage technology to build a reputation and a brand value Alba had to find suitable business partners and that took almost three years to materialize. They initially launched a monthly subscription model. Lee the cofounder of the organization initially launched a monthly subscription model and Alba stated that to create a subscription model for the organization she understood the necessity of the man whose brainchild is the model itself. Alba said that if an organization faces more than twenty questions that the organization cannot answer then there must be a lot of work pending for the members of the organization. This is how it can be seen that there was a massive urge among the cofounders to make this organization stable in the market of United States and Canada (Helm, Gritsch, 2014). Listening to and leveraging social media Cofounder of the organization Jessica Alba stated that, she was excited to see people using the products of their brand by ordering it online or by buying directly from the outlets and using them and giving positive reviews for the products. There came a satisfaction that cannot be compared with any other form of satisfaction. Embracing gender diversity According to the cofounders of the organization The Honest Company, they said that they always have a tendency towards retaining more technologically savvy women as it would be beneficial for the organization, as end of the day the organization operates thinking about the benefits of todays women after all (Madu, 2013). S.W.O.T analysis of the organization S.W.O.T analysis can be very helpful to determine an organizations future success or the challenges the organization might have to face, so a detailed analysis is given below. Strengths: There are two main advantages of The Honest Company to operate their business in the market of Canada and United States and those are huge brand value and loyalty of the customers. It is a well known fact that as the organization is majorly backed up by Jessica Alba, a veteran Hollywood actress, so the brand value of the organization would touch the highest limit, and that is what happened in reality (Spender, 2014). The brand value of the organization reached a height within a few couple of years and that something to envy for the other business personals n todays market with high competitions. Another plus point for the organization is they mostly sell products for babies and other cosmetic products and they ensure that their products are of higher quality, so they are blessed with an immense loyalty of the customers (Hitt, Ireland Hoskisson, 2012). Weaknesses: The main weak point of the organization is a weak cost structure. That means the liable costs of the organization is very high in comparison to the other rival organizations in the market. Apart from this issue recently some negative remarks about some products of the company are seen and those are mainly regarding qualitative issues (Alsmadi, Alnawas, 2012). These issues must be resolved quickly to ensure the profitability of the organization must not be dropped. Opportunities: The main opportunities of the organization are the products they are offering are of higher quality than most of the available products in the market of United States and Canada. Apart from that, the organization operates in a new market where products of higher quality than their goods are not easy to find. So they are lucky enough to be able to operate in a market where they could be the possible giant organization (Goksoy, Ozsoy Vayvay, 2012). Threats: The main threats of the organization are severe rivalries in the market and other substitute products availability in the market where The Honest Company operates. To deal with these companies the company needs to update their business policies and they should stress on innovating new ideas to make their products of higher quality to defeat the substitute products in the market. Not only that the organization should stress on various marketing strategies to outcast the rival organizations from the market (Eccles, Perkins Serafeim, 2012). To analyze the current situation of the organization in todays market a P.E.S.T analysis in also given below. P.E.S.T analysis Political: The Honest Company has no such political problems regarding their operations in United States and Canada as in both the nations; Jessica Alba is a well known name so no such political issues were seen (Verbeke, 2013). Economic: In recent times the organization is facing little challenges regarding cost management as the company liabilities of The Honest Company is much higher than any of their rival organizations operating in the market. It is a fact that, they should stress on the factors of cost management to annihilate the oddities they is facing currently (Child, Hsieh, 2014). Social: The Honest Company operates in the market of United States and Canada where people are mostly well to do so they would invest more for the benefits of their babies, but the organization needs to understand that there might be some people who lives in the rural areas with comparatively lower financial stability, so they should try to reach them in order to get a solid platform to earn a huge reputation (Connor, Lande, 2012). Technological: The organization operates in the market of Canada and United States where industry is technologically pretty sound so they are able to maintain the quality of their products than any other organizations in the same industry. Conclusion Thus to conclude, it can be said that the organization is a well reputed company in the market of United States as well as Canada and may be recently they are some minor issues regarding some negative reviews from some consumers and due to weak cost management system, but an organization with so higher reputation and so many strong attributes would easily overcome these oddities as any established company can thrive in challenges, rather they should. References Alsmadi, S. A., Alnawas, I. (2012). Consumer Rights Today: Are They in Business or Out of Business?.International Journal of Marketing Studies,4(1), 159. Child, J., Hsieh, L. H. (2014). Decision mode, information and network attachment in the internationalization of SMEs: A configurational and contingency analysis.Journal of world Business,49(4), 598-610. Connor, J. M., Lande, R. H. (2012). Cartels as rational business strategy: crime pays. Eccles, R. G., Perkins, K. M., Serafeim, G. (2012). How to become a sustainable company.MIT Sloan Management Review,53(4), 43. Goksoy, A., Ozsoy, B., Vayvay, O. (2012). Business process reengineering: strategic tool for managing organizational change an application in a multinational company.International Journal of Business and Management,7(2), 89. Helm, R., Gritsch, S. (2014). Examining the influence of uncertainty on marketing mix strategy elements in emerging business to business export-markets.International Business Review,23(2), 418-428. Hitt, M. A., Ireland, R. D., Hoskisson, R. E. (2012).Strategic management cases: competitiveness and globalization. Cengage Learning. Madu, B. C. (2013). Vision: The relationship between a firm's strategy and business model.Journal of behavioral studies in business,6, 1. Nikolaos, T., Evangelia, F. (2012). Competitive intelligence: concept, context and a case of its application.Science Journal of Business Management,2012. Spender, J. C. (2014).Business strategy: Managing uncertainty, opportunity, and enterprise. OUP Oxford. Verbeke, A. (2013).International business strategy. Cambridge University Press. Zikmund, W. G., Babin, B. J., Carr, J. C., Griffin, M. (2013).Business research methods. Cengage Learning.