Services Marketing Essay Example

Services Marketing Essay Australasian Marketing Journal 18 (2010) 41–47 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Australasian Marketing Journal journal homepage: www. elsevier. com/locate/amj How the local competition defeated a global brand: The case of Starbucks Paul G. Patterson *, Jane Scott, Mark D. Uncles School of Marketing, Australian School of Business, University of NSW, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Americanised the coffee tradition. Keywords: Service brands Service quality Global branding International business Starbucks Coffee The astounding growth and expansion of Starbucks is outlined, both on a global scale and within Australia. The focus then shifts to the abrupt closure of three-quarters of the Australian stores in mid 2008. Several reasons for these closures are described and examined, including that: Starbucks overestimated their points of differentiation and the perceived value of their supplementary services; their service standards declined; they ignored some golden rules of international marketing; they expanded too quickly and forced themselves upon an unwilling public; they entered late into a highly competitive market; they failed to communicate the brand; and their business model was unsustainable. Key lessons that may go beyond the speci? cs of the Starbucks case are the importance of: undertaking market research and taking note of it; thinking globally but acting locally; establishing a differential advantage and then striving to sustain it; not losing sight of what makes a brand successful in the ? rst place; and the necessity of having a sustainable business model. O 2009 Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction ‘‘Shunned Starbucks in Aussie exit† (BBC News, 4 August 2008) then shifts focus to describe the extent of the store closures in Australia, before offering several reasons for the failure and lessons that others might learn from the case. 2. We will write a custom essay sample on Services Marketing specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Services Marketing specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Services Marketing specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Background ‘‘Weak coffee and large debt stir Starbucks’ troubles in Australia† (The Australian, 19 August 2008) ‘‘Memo Starbucks: next time try selling ice to Eskimos† (The Age, 3 August 2008) ‘‘Taste of defeat for the mugs from Starbucks† (Sydney Morning Herald, 31 July 2008) ‘‘Coffee culture grinds Starbucks’ Australian operation† (Yahoo News, 3 August 2008) When the announcement was made in mid 2008 that Starbucks would be closing nearly three-quarters of its 84 Australian stores there was mixed reaction. Some people were shocked, others were triumphant. Journalists used every pun in the book to create a sensational headline, and it seemed everyone had a theory as to what went wrong. This case outlines the astounding growth and expansion of the Starbucks brand worldwide, including to Australia. It * Corresponding author. Tel. : +61 2 9385 1105. E-mail addresses: p. [emailprotected] edu. au (P. G. Patterson), [emailprotected] com. au (J. Scott), m. [emailprotected] edu. au (M. D. Uncles). Founded in 1971, Starbucks’ ? rst store was in Seattle’s Pike Place Market. By the time it went public in 1992, it had 140 stores and was expanding at a breakneck pace, with a growing store count of an extra 40–60% a year. Whilst former CEO Jim Donald claimed that ‘‘we don’t want to take over the world†, during the 1990s and early 2000s, Starbucks were opening on average at least one store a day (Palmer, 2008). In 2008 it was claimed to be opening seven stores a day worldwide. Not surprisingly, Starbucks is now the largest coffee chain operator in the world, with more than 15,000 stores in 44 countries, and in 2007, accounted for 39% of the world’s total specialist offee house sales (Euromonitor, 2008a). In North America alone, it serves 50 million people a week, and is now an indelible part of the urban landscape. But just how did Starbucks become such a phenomenon? Firstly, it successfully Americanised the European coffee tradition – something no other coffee house had done previously. Before Starbucks, coffee in its current form (latte, frappacino, mocha, etc. ) was alien to most US consumers. Secondly, Starbucks did not just sell coffee – it sold an experience. As founding CEO Howard Schultz explained, ‘‘We are not in the coffee business serving people, we’re in the people business serving coffee† (Schultz and Yang, 1997). This epitomised the emphasis on customer service such as making eye contact and greeting each customer within 5 seconds, 1441-3582/$ see front matter O 2009 Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10. 1016/j. ausmj. 2009. 10. 001 42 P. G. Patterson et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal 18 (2010) 41–47 leaning tables promptly and remembering the names of regular customers. From inception, Starbucks’ purpose was to reinvent a commodity with a sense of romance, atmosphere, sophistication and sense of community (Schultz and Yang, 1997). Next, Starbucks created a ‘third place’ in people’s lives – somewhere between home and work where they could sit and relax. This was a novelty in the US where in many small towns cafe culture consisted of ? lter coffee on a hot plate. In this way, Starbucks positioned itself to not only sell coffee, but also offer an experience. It was conceived as a lifestyle cafe. The establishment of the cafe as a social hub, with comfortable chairs and music has been just as important a part of the Starbucks brand as its coffee. All this came with a premium price. While people were aware that the beverages at Starbucks were more expensive than at many cafes, they still frequented the outlets as it was a place ‘to see and be seen’. In this way, the brand was widely accepted and became, to an extent, a symbol of status, and everyone’s must-have accessory on their way to work. So, not only did Starbucks revolutionise how Americans drank coffee, it also revolutionised how much people were prepared to pay. Consistency of product across stores, and even national boundaries, has been a hallmark of Starbucks. Like McDonald’s, Starbucks claims that a customer should be able to visit a store anywhere in the world and buy a coffee exactly to speci? cation. This sentiment is echoed by Mark Ring, CEO of Starbucks Australia who stated ‘‘consistency is really important to our customers . . . a consistency in the product . . . the overall experience when you walk into a cafe . . the music . . . the lighting . . . the furniture . . . the person who is working the bar†. So, whilst there might be slight differences between Starbucks in different countries, they all generally look the same and offer the same product assortment. One way this is ensured is by insisting that all managers and partners (employees) undergo 13 weeks of training – not just to learn how to make a coffee, but to understand the nuances of the Starbucks brand (Karolefski, 2002) and how to deliver on its promise of a service experience. The Starbucks formula also depends on location and convenience. Starbucks have worked under the assumption that people are not going to visit unless it’s convenient, and it is this assumption that underlies their highly concentrated store coverage in many cities. Typically, clusters of outlets are opened, which has the effect of saturating a neighbourhood with the Starbucks brand. Interestingly, until recently, they have not engaged in traditional advertising, believing their large store presence and word-ofmouth to be all the advertising and promotion they need. Starbucks’ management believed that a distinctive and memorable brand, a product that made people ‘feel good’ and an enjoyable delivery channel would create repeat business and customer loyalty. Faced with near-saturation conditions in the US – by 2007 it commanded 62% of the specialist coffee shop market in North America (Table 1) – the company has increasingly looked overseas for growth opportunities. As part of this strategy, Starbucks opened its ? rst Australian store in Sydney in 2000, before expanding elsewhere within New South Wales and then nationwide (albeit with 0% of stores concentrated in just three states: NSW, Victoria and Queensland). By the end of 2007 Starbucks had 87 stores, enabling it to control 7% of the specialist coffee shop market in Australasia (Table 1). By 2008, consumer awareness of Starbucks in Australia was 90% (Shoebridge, 2008), with each outlet selling, on average, double the number of coffees (270 a day) than the res t of Australia’s coffee shops (Lindhe, 2008). 3. Expansion into Asia Starbucks currently operates in 44 markets and even has a small presence in Paris – birthplace and stronghold of European cafe culture. Beyond North America, it has a very signi? ant share of the specialist coffee shop market in Western Europe, Asia Paci? c and Latin America (Table 1) and these regions make strong revenue contributions (Table 2). It is in Asia that they see the most potential for growth as they face increasing competitive pressure in their more traditional markets. Half the international stores Starbucks plans to operate in the next decade will be in Asia (Euromonitor, 2006; Browning, 2008). Indeed, Starbucks has done well in international markets where there has not traditionally been a coffee drinking culture, namely Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and China. In effect it has been responsible for growing the category in these markets. The ? rst Starbucks outside the US opened in Tokyo in 1996, and since then, Starbucks’ Japanese stores have become twice as profitable as the US stores. Unsurprisingly then, Japan is Starbucks’ best performing overseas market outside North America. More than 100 new stores open each year in Japan, and coffee is now more popular than tea in terms of both volume and value (Lee, 2003; see also Uncles, 2008). As opposed to their entry into the Australian market, Starbucks made small changes to its formula for the Japanese market; for example, the invention of a green tea frappucino, and the provision of smaller drinks and pastries to conform to local tastes. Starbucks arrived in China in 1998 and by 2002 had 50 outlets, and 165 outlets by 2006 (BBC News, 2006), quickly becoming the nation’s leading coffee chain. Starbucks now sees China as its key growth market due to the size and preferences of the emerging middle class. In the Asia–Paci? region, Starbucks command of the specialist coffee shop market grew from 15% in 2002 to 19% in 2007 (refer to Table 2). The total market for cafes in China grew by over 135% between 1999 and 2004 to reach US$2. 6 billion. It is projected to grow another 144% by 2008 to reach US$6. 4 billion in sales. More specialty coffee shops are opening across China as a middle class with strong purchasing power emerges, although this rise in coffee con sumption is highly concentrated in large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Starbucks has said that it xpects China to become its biggest market after the US and the plan is to open 100 stores a year (Euromonitor, 2006). Signi? cantly, certain Western brands are valued by Chinese consumers and Starbucks appears to be one of them. A growing number of China’s 500 million urbanites favour Starbucks for its ambience, which is seen as an important signal of service quality, Table 2 Starbucks’ regional sales performance by outlets and value 2006. Region North America Asia Paci? c Western Europe Australasia World % of company sales (outlets) 79. 0 13. 6. 7 1. 1 100. 0 % of company sales (revenue in $US) 80. 5 10. 8 7. 7 1. 0 100. 0 Table 1 Starbucks’ share of the specialist coffee shop market in each major region. Region North America Western Europe Asia Paci? c Australasia Latin America Source: Euromonitor (2008b). 2002 (%) 44 17 15 6 0 2007 (%) 62 21 19 7 18 Source: Percentage of company sales in each region is calculated from retail sales within this market in 2006, with sales data drawn from Euromonitor (2007). P. G. Patterson et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal 18 (2010) 41–47 43 nd Starbucks’ design concept rests easily with China’s consumers, who tend to lounge with friends while sipping coffee. Its outlets in China frequently maintain larger seating areas than average outlets in other countries, and plush chairs and davenports are provided to accommodate crowds that linger. However, success for Starbucks in China is not a given, and they will face several challenges in the coming years. China’s accession to the WTO has led to the gradual relaxation of the policy governing foreign-owned retail outlets, and this will lead to more foreign investment and thereby competition (Lee, 2004). Several multinationals are engaged in selling coffee (including KFC, McDonald’s, Yoshinoya, and Manabe), and a number of local brands have recently emerged, some even imitating Starbucks’ distinctive green and white logo and its in-store ambience (notably Xingbake in Shanghai). Furthermore, the reduction of import tariffs on coffee will also encourage foreign investment in coffee. 4. The Australian retail coffee industry Australia’s taste for coffee is a by-product of the waves of immigrants arriving on the country’s shores following World War II. European migrants, predominantly Greeks and Italians, were the ? st to establish the coffee culture, which was later embraced more widely in the 1980s. For decades Australians enjoyed a variation of the ‘lifestyle coffee experience’ that Starbucks created from scratch in the US. Australians did not need to be introduced to the concept of coffee as many other countries did. Savouring a morning cup of coffee was already a ritual for many consumers. It is fair to describe Australia’s coffee culture as mature and sophisticated, so when Starbucks entered Australia in 2000, a thriving urban cafe culture was already in place. This established culture saw Australians typically patronise smaller boutique style coffee shops, with people willing to travel out of their way for a favoured cup of coffee, especially in Melbourne where coffee has developed an almost cult-like following. For Australians, coffee is as much about relationships as it is about the product, suggesting that an impersonal, global chain experience would have trouble replicating the intimacy, personalisation and familiarity of a suburban boutique cafe. Furthermore, through years of coffee drinking, many Australians, unlike American or Asian consumers, have developed a sophisticated palate, enjoying their coffee straighter and stronger, and without the need to disguise the taste with ? avoured, syrupy shots. This love of coffee is easily quanti? ed. The Australian market is worth $3 billion, of which $1. 8 billion relates to the coffee retailing market. For every cup of coffee consumed out of home, two cups are consumed at home (AustralAsian Specialty Coffee Association, 2006). Per capita consumption is now estimated at 2. kg-twice as much as 30 years ago. Whilst Australians are among the highest consumers of instant coffee in the world, they are increasingly buying coffee out of the home (Euromonitor, 2008c). More than 1 billion cups of coffee are consumed in cafes, restaurants and other outlets each year, representing an increase of 65% over the last 10 years. Even between 2000 and 2005, trade sales of coffee have increased about 18%. In 2007, the growth in popularity of the cafe culture resulted in trade volume sales growing at an annual rate of 5%. Some 31% of the coffee sold through foodservice is takeaway, and it is thought that ‘fast coffee’ will be a growth area in future years (Euromonitor, 2008d). There is also a trend towards larger takeaway sizes, with 400 ml cups increasing in popularity (Euromonitor, 2008d). One might argue that Starbucks drove these trends, especially in regards to larger sizes. There are almost 14,000 cafes and restaurants serving a variety of coffee types in Australia, and during 2006/07, they generated $9. 7 billion in income (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008). However, despite these statistics, the coffee business does not guarantee success. As Paul Irvine, co-founder of Gloria Jean’s notes, ‘‘Australia is a tough retail market and coffee retailing is particularly tough†. According to of? cial statistics, the cafe business is not always pro? table, with the net pro? tability of cafes falling to about 4%. For a cafe to be successful, it has to offer marginally better coffee than local competitors, and do so consistently. Coffee drinkers in Australia are discerning, and they will go out of their way to purchase a good cup of coffee. They are not as easily persuaded as people from other countries simply to visit their nearest cafe. Secondly, for a cafe to make a pro? t, it needs to turn over 15 kg of coffee a week. The national average is 11 kg, so a cafe has to be above average to begin with to even make a pro? t. Any newcomer needs to understand this before entering the market. The other signi? cant constraint on pro? tability is the cost of hiring baristas, with a good one costing between $1000 and $1500 a week (Charles, 2007). However, it seems that this is a necessary cost in order to deliver a superior product. The question that then begs to be asked is: How well did Starbucks understand this existing coffee culture? Did they under-estimate the relational aspect of coffee purchasing in Australia, as well as the importance of the quality of ingredients and the skills of the person making each cup? Did they overestimate the value consumers attach to the in-store experience and the ‘third place’ concept? Or did they just look at the statistics regarding coffee consumption and think that operating in Australia was a license to print money? Did they simply see Australia as the next logical step to global domination? Starbucks has 87% of the US specialty coffee shop market, and only now is it beginning to feel pressure from non-traditional competitors such as Dunkin Donut, 7 Eleven, McCafe and Krispy Kreme (Burritt, 2007). However, in Australia, the competitive landscape is different. Gloria Jean’s dominates the high-street part of the coffee retailing market and McCafe dominates the convenience end (Shoebridge, 2008). Other signi? cant competitors include The Coffee Club and Wild Bean Cafe (an add-on to BP petrol stations) and Hudson’s Coffee (see Table 3). All offer a similar in-store experience to Starbucks, with McCafe from 2007 onwards refurbishing many McDonald’s stores to imitate the Starbucks’ experience, albeit at the economy end of the market. 5. Growth grinds to a halt . . . store closures In recent times however things have started to go wrong for Starbucks. Internationally, company earnings declined as cashstrapped consumers faced record petrol prices and rising interest rates meaning they have had to pull back on gourmet coffee and other luxuries. Sales fell 50% in the last 2 years, the US share price fell more than 40% over the past year and pro? s dropped 28% (Bawden, 2008; Coleman-Lochner and Stanford, 2008; Mintz, 2008). Consequently, Howard Schultz, the founder and chairman of Starbucks, resumed the position of CEO in 2008 with the aim of revitalising the business. He slowed the pace at which stores were opened (and in fact closed more stores than he will open in the coming year), introduced key performan ce targets (KPTs) and an employee rewards system in the US, and simultaneously shut down every store in America for three and a half hours of staff training (Muthukumar and Jain, 2008). Customer-oriented initiatives have included the addition of more food, the launch of the Starbucks card and Starbucks express, and the provision of highspeed wi-? internet access (Hota, 2008). Notably, Schultz acknowledges that the company’s focus has been more on expansion than on customer service – the very thing that was at the heart of its unique value proposition. 44 P. G. Patterson et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal 18 (2010) 41–47 Table 3 Competition in the Australian specialty coffee chain market (chains arranged in order of the number of stores operating in Australia). Number of stores in Australia Gloria Jean’s 500 Year established in Australia 1996 Business model Price of an espresso coffee (e. g. , ? at white, cappuccino) Regular $3. 25 Small $3. 25 Standard $3. 40 Regular $3. 40 Small $3. 10 Tall $3. 60 Performance highlights and lowlights Franchise Overall Winner, 2005 Franchisor of the Year Sales rose 18% to an estimated $240 m for 07/08 driven by new stores and growth from existing stores The fastest growing cafe brand in Australia and NZ Number of stores up from 60 in 2002 Winner, 2008 Food Franchisor of the Year The number of stores reported here includes NZ Plans to open more sites McCafe Coffee Club Wild Bean Cafe 488 220 105 1993 1989 2004 Some store-owned, some franchise Franchise Part of a franchise with Wild Bean Cafe (BP) Connect Franchise Store-owned Hudson’s Starbucks 45 23 1998 2000 Plans to expand store numbers by 20–30% 08/09 Prior to closures in August 2008 there were 84 stores had a perceived lower quality product Sources: Various company reports as at the end of 2008. However, it seems that these measures were too late for the Australian operation. On 29th July 2008, Starbucks announced that it would be closing 61 of its 84 Australian stores (i. . , 73%) by August 2008, resulting in a loss of 685 jobs. All of these stores had been under-performing (8 were in SA, ACT and Tasmania, 28 in NSW, 17 in Victoria and 8 in Queensland). This decline of Starbucks in Australia was not as sudden as many would have us believe and in fact some reports (Edwards and Sainsbury, 2008; Shoebridge, 2008) indicated that by late 2007 Starbucks already had: accumulated losses of $143 million; a loss of $36 million for that ? nancial year; lost $27. 6 million the previous ? nancial year; loans of $72. million from Starbucks in the US; was only surviving because of its US parent’s support. Whilst the troubled economy might seem an easy scapegoat, with people tightening their belts and eating out less, it is unlikely that this was the core problem as evidenced by the continuing growth of their competitors. Indeed, coffee is no longer considered a luxury item by many Australians, but rather an affordable part of their daily routine. Instead, there is substantial evidence to suggest a number of factors combined to bring about Starbucks’ demise. . 1. Starbucks overestimated their points of differentiation and customer perceived value of their supplementary services ‘‘I just think the whole system, the way they serve, just didn’t appeal to the culture we have here† Andrew Mackay, VP of the Australian Coffee Traders Association, in Martin (2008) Whilst there was initial curiosity and hype about Starbucks, after trying it, many Australians quickly found that it failed to offer a particularly unique experience that was not offered by other chains or cafes. Given the strong established coffee culture and discerning palates of Australians, the core product – coffee – was not seen as particularly different from, say, a latte or short black from a good suburban barista, Gloria Jean’s or Coffee Club. Its point of difference in Australia, where a coffee culture already existed, had to be in its supplementary or value-adding services – i. e. , its unique servicescape, engaging customer service, brand image and so on (Lovelock et al. , 2007). But was this worth a premium price, especially as the competition began replicating Starbucks in-store experience? Starbucks has since been harshly criticised by Australian consumers and the media. Their coffee has been variously described as ‘a watered down product’, ‘gimmicky’, and consisting of ‘buckets of milk’. These are not the labels you would choose to describe a coffee that aspires to be seen as a ‘gourmet’ product. It has also been criticised for its uncompetitive pricing, even being described as ‘‘one of the most over-priced products the world has ever seen† (Martin, 2008). Even the idea of the third place has come under criticism – ‘‘why would you want to sit around a pretend lounge room drinking a weak and expensive coffee when you can go around the corner and have the real thing? † (Wailes, 2008). It seems that Starbucks’ rapid expansion, its omnipresence, somewhat standardised store design and recent insistence on staff achieving various sales KPTs (key performance targets) such as serving ‘x’ customers per hour, all combined to diminish the instore experience. The introduction of sales targets for front-line These closures saw 23 stores kept open in prime locations in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. But this begs the question: can a 23-store chain be viable for the brand in the long-term? Based on the approximate numbers in Table 3, Starbucks had a 6% share of stores in Australia before the closures; this has now fallen to a share below 2%. Even before the closures, Australasia represented only 1% of company sales (Table 2) and now the ? gure is expected to be much lower. This may not make much commercial sense as it will be dif? cult to achieve economies of scale in terms of marketing and purchasing, and such small numbers are totally out of step with the clustering strategy adopted in its strongest markets – the US, Japan and China. However, it could also be argued that with Starbucks’ strategy of global domination, it is unlikely that it will ever close its Australian business entirely. Whilst Starbucks’ management have been keen to suggest that ‘‘this decision represents business challenges unique to the Australian market and in no way re? ects the state of the Starbucks business in countries outside of the United States†, the US market has also suffered. By September 2008, 600 stores had closed (or were due for closure), with about 12,000 workers, or 7% of Starbucks’ global workforce affected (Mintz, 2008). It should be noted that the situation in the US has only worsened as a result of the global ? nancial crisis. 6. So what went wrong? Opinions abound as to why Starbucks failed in Australia. Our research suggests there is some truth to many of these opinions. P. G. Patterson et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal 18 (2010) 41–47 45 employees, for example, meant staff and baristas had less time to engage with customers. It began to stray too far from its roots and the very values upon which the brand was built. Some of these actions were forced upon Starbucks by emerging competitors seeking to imitate the brand, and thus gain a slice of the ever growing lifestyle coffee market. Starbucks’ points of differentiation were systematically being eroded and, in a sense, the brand that taught the world that coffee is not a commodity was itself becoming one. 6. 2. Declining service quality The brand has also come under ? re for declining customer service as it continued to expand. For example, the quality of baristas is said to have declined as Starbucks widened its pool of applicants in order to meet demand at new stores. Can a 17 year old high school student really compete with a boutique trained barista with a passion for coffee? By not offering a better experience and product than emerging direct competitors, Starbucks found itself undermined by countless high street cafes and other chains that were selling stronger brews at lower prices and often offering better or equal hospitality. Whilst they may have pioneered the idea of a ‘third place’, it was an easy idea to copy, and even easier to better by offering superior coffee, ambience and service. Now, with so many coffee chains around, Starbucks have little point of differentiation, even wi-? internet access has become commonplace across all types of cafe. Furthermore, while customers were offered promotional rewards for returning to Starbucks, the card-based scheme is no more sophisticated than equivalent me-too cards at Gloria Jean’s, Coffee Club, Hudson’s and many independent cafes. And as noted earlier, one of the things that set Starbucks apart from the competition – i. e. , acknowledging customers (often by name for regulars) within a few seconds of entering the store and eriously engaging with them, began to unravel when Starbucks imposed both customer service and sales targets for its cafes. The imposition of these targets plus an ever widening range and complexity of coffees to remember and make to perfection, meant staff morale and inevitably customer service levels declined. In fact in the USA some staff were so disillusioned with the impositio n of sales targets (because it meant they simply didn’t have time to engage with customers) they posted blogs openly stating that Starbucks had lost its way. Finally, it appears that Starbucks were not even delivering on their core promise of serving superior coffee in comfortable surroundings, thus justifying its premium price. By switching to vacuum packaged coffee, consumers are denied the store-? lling aroma of the coffee beans. The switching of traditional coffee machines to automated espresso machines (which can make coffees 40% faster and move customers through the lines more quickly), has also resulted in a loss of ‘theatre’ (Grove et al. , 2000) for people wanting to see their coffee made that way and has also had implications for taste. In-store, it has been noted that there are fewer soft chairs and less carpeting, and Starbucks recently lost ground in the ‘service and surroundings’ category of the Brand Keys 2007 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index (Cebrzynski, 2008). It seems that Starbucks is now less about the quality of the coffee, and is more about the convenience of faster service and being on every corner – whilst still charging a premium. 6. 3. Starbucks ignored some golden rules of international marketing Ironically, it seems that the very thing that made Starbucks successful in the ? st place, its ability to adjust the original (European) business model and coffee tradition to local (US) conditions, is the thing that let it down. Whilst Starbucks has made minor changes to its menu in countries such as Japan and Saudi Arabia, it generally offers the same products all around the world. When the company came to Australia, it brought its ‘American’ offering, simply bringing wha t worked in the US and applying it here, without really understanding the local market. But with more than 235 ethnicities speaking more than 270 languages and dialects, companies wanting to get ahead in Australia need to be aware that they are not dealing with one homogeneous market. Unfortunately what worked in the US was ‘‘bitter, weak coffee augmented by huge quantities of milk and sweet ? avoured syrups. Not so much coffee, as hot coffee-based smoothies†. For the Australian consumer raised on a diet of real espresso, this was always going to be a tough sell (Mescall, 2008) As McDonald’s Australia chief executive Peter Bush noted, US retailers that have had trouble making it work in Australia (e. . , Starbucks, Denny’s, Arby’s, Taco Bell) are those that have ‘‘introduced formulae developed for US palates and for the US way of doing business . . . These formulae have, at best, modest relevance in Australia†. Peter Irvine, co-founder of Gloria Jean’s, also noted that ‘‘US retailers often arriv e in Australia thinking the size of their overseas chains and the strength of their brands in other markets will make it easy for them to crack the local market. Their focus is on global domination rather than the needs of the local consumers†. Further, there is a strong sense in Australia of buying local, supporting the community, having relationships with the people you buy from, and supporting ethically-minded businesses. Starbucks clashed completely with that, whereas local stores can differentiate themselves as being local and non-corporate. Furthermore, some would argue that Starbucks has become a caricature of the American way of life and many Australians reject that iconography. Many are simply not interested in the ‘super-size’ culture of the extra-large cups, nor want to be associated with a product that is constantly in the hands of movie stars. . 4. Expanding too quickly and forcing themselves upon an unwilling public In the US, Starbucks started in Seattle as a single store. In a nation bereft of a genuine cafe culture, that single store captured people’s imagination, and soon became a second store, quickly followed by a third. Before long, Starbucks had become a demand-driven phenomenon, wi th everyone wanting a Starbucks in their local area. McDonald’s grew exactly the same way in Australia, opening just one or two stores in each city – nowhere near enough to meet demand – thus creating an almost arti? ial scarcity, which created huge buzz around the brand experience. Krispy Kreme did the same. But when Starbucks opened in Australia, they immediately tried to impose themselves with multiple store openings in every city – adopting the US-model of expansion through store clusters. Australians were not given a chance to ‘discover’ it. As Mescall (2008) points out ‘‘they took key sites, hung huge signs, made us order coffee in sizes and gave the coffees weird names. Starbucks said to us – ‘that’s not how you drink coffee. This s how you drink coffee’†. They took the Coca-Cola strategy of being available wherever people looked, but this quickly led to market saturation. Their expansion di d not hurt their competitors so much as themselves, and they found themselves cannibalising their own stores. Furthermore, by becoming too common, the company violated the economic principles of cultural scarcity and the novelty wore off. By having too many outlets, becoming too commercial and too widely used, it began to lose its initial appeal of status and exclusivity. It began to have a mass brand feel, certainly not the warm feeling of a neighbourhood cafe. Furthermore, they became more reliant 46 P. G. Patterson et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal 18 (2010) 41–47 on less af? uent consumers who now, with a worsening economy, are spending less, making Starbucks more vulnerable to economic ? uctuations. 6. 5. Entering late into a highly competitive market ‘‘In America, Starbucks is a state of mind. In Australia, it was simply another player. † Barry Urquhart, quoted in Delaney (2008) From Day 1, Starbucks got off on the back foot. They lacked the ? rst-mover advantage they had in the US and Asia, ? nding themselves the late entrant in an already very developed, sophisticated and competitive market. Indeed, the competitive landscape in the Australian retail coffee market is very different to that of other countries. Here, Starbucks found themselves competing with hundreds of independent cafes and speciality coffee chains (see Table 3), where the coffee was generally better and the staff knew their customers by name. Signi? cantly, they were also the last of the major chains to gain a presence in Australia. 6. 6. Failing to communicate the brand Worldwide, Starbucks rarely employs above-the-line promotion, and this was also the case in Australia. Instead, they maintained that their stores are the core of the business and that they do not need to build the brand through advertising or promotion. Howard Shultz often preached, ‘‘Build the (Starbucks’) brand one cup at a time,† that is, rely on the customer experience to generate word-of-mouth, loyalty and new business. But in a market as competitive as Australia, with a consumer whose palate is discerning and whose loyalty often lies with a speci? barista, advertising and promotion was essential to communicate the Starbucks message. The issue is not so much about building awareness – which, at 90%, is high – but to communicate what the brand means and to give consumers reasons for patronising Starbucks. Their lack of advertising made this branding issue even worse, with many people unable to articulate why they should be loyal to Starbucks. At the same time, competitors were communicating their messages very effectively – McDonald’s, for instance, is a heavy spending, award-winning, advertiser in the Australian market. Added to which, more subversive counter-messages were coming from those who saw in Starbucks a ‘brand bully’ riding rough shod over the nuanced tastes and preferences of local cultures (Klein, 2000; Clark, 2008). In other words, a range of strong contrary messages were undermining Starbucks’ own very limited communications. 6. 7. Unsustainable business model Starbucks’ product line is limited primarily to coffee. Sometimes a new product idea will be developed, such as the Frappucino, but these tend to have limited product life cycles and/or are seasonal. For example, the Frappucino has traditionally made up 15% of (summer) sales, but recently sales have been down, suggesting that customers are already bored with it (Kiviat, 2008). Furthermore, in the instance where other products were offered, people failed to purchase them as they only really associate Starbucks with coffee and generally seek food elsewhere. This is a very different model to The Coffee Club which has much more of a cafe feel to it, or McDonald’s which has a full range of breakfast and lunch/dinner items that can be complemented by a McCafe latte. Hence the average transaction value at Starbucks is lower than its competitors, and therefore more customers must pass through its doors to reach the sales and pro? t levels of its competitors. It also creates con? ict with the Starbucks ethos of the third place (and allowing people to sit around for 30 minutes sipping lattes and reading, talking or sur? ng) versus the need to get people in and out quickly and not take up valuable ‘real estate’ (which in itself means that the average Starbucks store needs to be much bigger than the average cafe). Unlike most of the other retail coffee chains, Starbucks does not use a franchise model, preferring to lease and ? t-out its own outlets. This means more cash is being spent upfront, and in Starbucks’ case, more debt accrued. But adopting a franchise model would have numerous other advantages than just minimising this. It would mean that local investors, with a good sense of the local market, put their own money into the business and take an active role in running it and shaping its direction. 7. What are the main lessons from this case study? Several key lessons emerge that should be of interest to both domestic and international marketers. 7. 1. Crossing international borders is risky and clearly Starbucks did not do their homework, or ignored their homework Well conceived market research involving both primary and secondary data, including qualitative and quantitative approaches, would have uncovered the extent of the ‘coffee culture’ that existed in 2000 when Starbucks entered the Australian market. It seems inconceivable that Starbucks management, or at least its Australian representatives, were not suf? iently apprised of the extent to which many consumers were already well acculturated in terms of buying and consuming European styles of coffees such as short black, lattes and cappuccinos, nor the extent to which many customers were in fact loyal to their suburban cafe or competitive brands such as Gloria Jean’s. As a late market entrant, Starbucks clearly failed to do thorough homework on the mar ket before entry – this is a failure in terms of due diligence. Alternatively, they chose to ignore the messages that were coming from any due diligence that they had undertaken. This may or may not have been due to some arrogance on the part of Starbucks, or due to the fact that they considered they had a strong global brand which would meet with universal acceptance. An example of where Starbucks did do its homework, and act on it, was in France when it entered that market in 2006, establishing a cafe in the middle of Paris. Research had clearly shown the American way of consuming and socialising over a coffee was an anathema to many French, so Starbucks held back from entering the French market and when they ? ally entered it was with great trepidation, expanding at a very slow pace and testing the market at every step. 7. 2. ‘‘Think global but act local† This familiar maxim in international marketing should be well understood. While Starbucks had brand awareness as a major global brand, it failed to adapt the product and the customer experience to many mature coffee drinkers in Australia. As noted earlier, all the evidence suggests that it simply tried to transplant the American experience into the Australian market without any adaptation. In particular, it failed to adapt either its core product or its supplementary services to create the intimacy, personalisation and familiarity that is associated with established boutique cafes in Australia. 7. 3. Establish a differential advantage and then strive to sustain it A question of strategy that Starbucks perhaps failed to address was, ‘‘Is our product differentiation sustainable in the long term P. G. Patterson et al. / Australasian Marketing Journal 18 (2010) 41–47 47 and does it continue to justify a price premium? As noted earlier, it can be argued that the core product in this case, that is the coffee itself, is essentially a commodity, and that Starbucks’ coffee, according to many consumers, was no different to the competition, and in some cases inferior. Then Starbucks’ points of difference clearly revolved around its brand image and supplementary services. It was these supplementary services, such as its unique servicescape and exce llent customer service, that they used to justify a premium price. However, as competitors (e. g. , The Coffee Club) quickly imitated the ‘Starbucks experience’ (i. . , their supplementary services, ambiance, etc. ), by providing premium coffee and an intimate casual experience, Starbucks’ value proposition began to fade. In other words, their key points of difference could be easily imitated and were not sustainable. Faced with this scenario, the onus was on management to re-fresh and evolve any lingering differential advantage that Starbucks might have had or, at the very least, give customers reasons to continue patronising Starbucks through its communications. 7. 4. Don’t lose sight of what made you successful in the ? st place As more and more competitors emerged, both individual cafes and chains such as Gloria Jean’s and The Coffee Club, competitive pressures forced Starbucks to impose rigid sales targets on their frontline staff including bar istas to increase store productivity. However, the imposition of these KPTs and the pressure to serve more customers more quickly meant that Starbucks forgot the very thing that made it unique in the early days, namely, to provide a customer experience in an intimate casual setting that set it aside from competitors. As more pressure was placed on staff to have higher throughput, this meant that baristas and other employees had little time to engage with customers. In other words, Starbucks forgot about the very things that made it unique in the ? rst place. This is akin to the Wheel of Retailing hypothesis (Hollander, 1960) where a no-frills retailer gradually moves upmarket in terms of variety of product, price and more services and within several years ? nds itself competing with the more established premium supermarkets that were the very competitors that they tried to distance themselves from in the ? st place. The only difference with Starbucks is that it reversed the direction of the Wheel – by gradually moving downmarket it brought itself into direct competition with cheaper operators and lost sight of what made it successful in the ? rst place. 7. 5. Consider the viability of the business model It has to be questioned whether the Starbucks’ business model is viable in the l ong term, or even the medium term. A business model that uses a premium price to justify the excessive ? or space and elaborate servicescape, and allows customers to sit in this environment for an hour sipping one latte, has to be questioned. Given that Starbucks do not have the array of products that, say, a McDonald’s might have and, as documented earlier in this case, therefore do not generate the same sales volumes and revenues, it is hard to see how the Starbucks’ model is ? nancially viable. 8. Conclusion In summary, it appears on all the evidence that Starbucks not only misjudged the Australian coffee culture but also misjudged the extent of the competition, and failed to adapt its offering to the local market. Furthermore, with the advent of high quality barista training, the availability of premium coffee beans and the technology to produce a high quality cup of coffee (at a modest cost), sole operators who knew their customers by name, were able to set up business as viable competitors. Starbucks may have been responsible for growing the premium coffee category, but the emergence of Gloria Jean’s and the Coffee Club (and McCafe, a premium coffee shop embedded in McDonald’s restaurants) turned out to be serious competitors. Finally, questions have to be raised about Starbucks fundamental business model in a market where many small niche players can easily replicate the ‘Starbucks Experience’. References AustralAsian Specialty Coffee Association, 2006. Australian Coffee Market: Key Facts for 2006. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008. Cafes, Restaurants and Catering Services, Australia, Report 8655. 0 for 2006–07. Bawden, T. , 2008. Starbucks reports ? rst loss in 16 years. Times Online, 31 July. (accessed 15. 08. 08. ). BBC News, 2006. China central to Starbucks growth. BBC News, 14 February. (accessed 29. 08. 08. ). Browning, E. 2008. Starbucks hopes growth abroad will save its bottom line. ABC News, 31 July. (accessed 29. 08. 08. ). Burritt, C. , 2007. McDonald’s challenges Starbucks with cheaper lattes. Bloomberg, 11 September. (accessed 29. 08. 08. ). Cebrzynski, G. , 2008. Starbucks-dominated category wakes up and smells McD’s espresso rollout. Nation’s Res taurant News 42 (3), 1–6. Charles, E. , 2007. In the trenches: Coffee. In the Black, May, 28–31. Clark, N. , 2008. Starbucks: The brand we love to hate. Marketing, 2 April. Coleman-Lochner, L. , Stanford, D. D. , 2008. Starbucks reports ? rst loss since 1992, predicts slower growth. Bloomberg, 30 July. (accessed 29. 08. 08. ). Delaney, B. , 2008. Starbucks to go. Guardian, 30 July. (accessed 29. 08. 08. ). Edwards, V. , Sainsbury, M. , 2008. Weak coffee and large debt stir Starbucks’ troubles in Australia. The Australian, 31 July. Euromonitor, 2006. Starbucks Ups Expansion Plans. Euromonitor International. Euromonitor, 2007. Starbucks Corp – Consumer Foodservice – World. Euromonitor International. Euromonitor, 2008a. On-trade Watch: Identifying Key Growth Markets to 2012. Euromonitor International. Euromonitor, 2008b. Company Watch: Starbucks Wakes Up and Smells the Coffee. Euromonitor International. Euromonitor, 2008c. Coffee – Australia. Euromonitor International. Euromonitor, 2008d. Impulse Food and Drink Channels – Coffee – Australia. Euromonitor International. Grove, S. , Fisk, R. , John, J. , 2000. Services as theater. In: Swartz, T. , Iacobucci, D. (Eds. ), Handbook of Services Marketing and Management. Sage Publications, CA, pp. 21–35. Hollander, S. , 1960. The wheel of retailing. Journal of Marketing 25 (1), 37–42. Hota, M. , 2008. Starbucks: brewing more than just coffee. European Case Clearing House (ECCC), 508-025-1. Karolefski, J. , 2002. Conquering new grounds. BrandChannel, 11 February. (accessed 29. 08. 08. ). Kiviat, B. , 2008. Wake up and sell the coffee. Time South Paci? c (Australia/New Zealand edition) 7 (13), 52–56. Klein, N. , 2000. No Logo. Flamingo, London. Lee, H. , 2003. Japan: a nation of coffee lovers. Euromonitor International. Lee, H. , 2004. Coffee brews a future in China? Euromonitor International. Lindhe, J. , 2008. One skinny cap to go. Business Review Weekly, 7 August. (accessed 15. 08. 08. ). Lovelock, C. , Patterson, P. G. , Walker, R. , 2007. Services Marketing: An Asia Paci? c and Australian Perspective. Pearson Education, Singapore. Martin, S. , 2008. Starbucks: a study in liberal failure, Part II. Conservatism Today, 29 July. (accessed 29. 08. 08. ). Mescall, J. , 2008. Starbucks in Australia: where did it go wrong? Unleashed, 7 August. (accessed 29. 08. 08. ). Mintz, J. , 2008. Starbucks closing 600 stores in the US. International Business Times, 1 July. (accessed 14. 09. 08. ). Muthukumar, R. , Jain, S. , 2008. Starbucks suffers: Schultz returns. European Case Clearing House (ECCC), 308-152-1. Palmer, D. , 2008. Starbucks: what went wrong? AFN Thought for Food, 31 July. (accessed 29. 08. 08. ). Schultz, H. , Yang, D. J. , 1997. Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Build a Company One Cup at a Time. Hyperia Publishing, New York. Shoebridge, N. , 2008. Local palate bucks another US retailer. The Australian Financial Review, 4 August. (accessed 15. 08. 08. ). Uncles, M. D. , 2008. Aroma Australia Pty Ltd goes to Japan. In: Schiffman, L. , Bednall, D. , O’Cass, A. , Paladino, A. , Ward, S. , Kanuk, L. (Eds. ), Consumer Behaviour, fourth ed. Pearson Education Australia, Australia, pp. 584–588. Wailes, N. , 2008. Taste of defeat for the mugs from Starbucks. Sydney Morning Herald 31 (July).

Pamela Ruiz Essay 2

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Mediation paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Mediation paper - Essay Example emerge from two sources, either as of emerging from the light or as of going into the light.† Photography with photographs are instruments which allow us go into light as well as come out of light. Susan Sontag says that In Plato’s Cave, â€Å"photographs furnish evidence,† therefore, in that manner, they serve as evidence that somebody has moved out there and observed the planet. Pictures cannot get captured devoid of considering the planet, whether by means of your vision or by camera lens. Nevertheless, simultaneously, photography takes as away from an occasion, prevents us from actually getting into conduct with it, and furthermore thus turning the images into â€Å"shadows of each other.† Sontag suggests that â€Å"a camera’s representation of realism should at all times conceal too much than it reveals,† every person takes their own distinctive viewpoint into the understanding of any painting. Photographs frequently uphold a vacuum of anonymity if they are not followed by narration. Hence, intention of the photographer can get lost inside the predetermined viewpoints that each spectator puts into consideration if understanding an image. Additionally, rigid photographers may attempt to reveal actuality; each minute choice they create twists the snap in their understanding of the earth. According to Sontag, â€Å"photographs are to a great extent world interpretations like works of art and drawings† (Sontag 6). Within one such snap, with both its preconceptions along with my exceptional elucidation of it, a youngster is starting at a police officer in the company of a smiling face. The police officer leans down, possibly to structure for the disparity in tallness involving them. Also, they create a kind of quasi encircle, standing separately from the remaining crowd, creating their small planet at that time. The mass is composed of nearly completely of grownups standing the footways as well they are both facing in the similar direction. Similarly, heads

Court Procedures 4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Court Procedures 4 - Essay Example Self-presentation ensures that no lawsuits of defamation or false witnessing will ensure once the trial is completed. The most important point in this chapter regards the right to a counsel to represent the defendant. This is important to understand because the work of the counsel is to offer guidance to the defendant from the time he or she is arrested until the end of the trial leading to a dismissal or conviction. Chapter eight has the case of Premo v. Moore 131 S. CT. 733 (U. S. 2011) where the defendant filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus under the Sixth Amendment stating that his counsel offered ineffective assistance to him. The District Court denied the writ but the court of appeal reversed the decision. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to the inmate but ruled that the habeas could not be granted because there was no proof of the attorney being prejudiced or showing deficient performance which are the requirements of granting this writ against the attorney. The inmate before conviction and confession to the police confessed to two witnesses about committing the crime (Robertson and Wallace, 2013). The rules are established on the evidence being presented to the judge or jury to provide a fair hearing as well as prevent prejudicial decisions being made by the jury. The rules also prevent errors being made during the ruling which may affect the outcome. Some of the rules of evidence include the jury not being present for the presentation of the evidence in some states while in others the prosecution and defense are encouraged to object any evidence being provided if it will to the jury making prejudicial ruling. The rules in these cases ensure not only a fair hearing but also ensure that no innocent individual will be wrongly convicted due to the evidence provided. Chapter 10 has the most important point as being that of hearsay which should not be considered in some cases but still is. It is important to

Protecting Human Research Participants Coursework

Protecting Human Research Participants - Coursework Example Within these research areas, there is a robust Research Ethics Review Board (ERB). The team is tasked with approving research proposals in line with National Institute of Health (NIH) requirement (NIH Office of Extramural Reserach, 2010). It is a multi-disciplinary body made up of four members including a doctor, pharmacist, nurse, and case manager. Together, they review aspect of the proposal and ensure that they provide minimum protection under the ethical principles laid down in Belmont Report. In line with ERBs requirements, this body meet the minimum requirements as stipulated in the NIH provisions. Three aspects of their ethics works prove that they are in line with requirements. Firstly, these members are from medical professionals, thus knowledgeable in health and health research. They also meet twice every week to review proposals; the frequent meeting is an important part of work that all ERBs should meet. Lastly, this ERB has members with a myriad experience in health research.

Blade Runner And Fifth Element Cityscapes Film Studies Essay

Blade Runner And Fifth Element Cityscapes Film Studies Essay Blade runner greets the viewer with a fascinating opening scene where the camera hovers over a vast industrial mega polis called Hades. The year is 2020 and overpopulated Hades is trying to reinforce itself. The place is filled with corroded skyscrapers which shoot flame and gases into the environment creating a sense of hazy and polluted atmosphere. Also, in this shot and in subsequent shots flying cars, called spinners, are seen moving around the cityscape. The entire Hades cityscape was a forced perspective miniature set with larger miniature elements in the foreground which get smaller and smaller as we approach the horizon. Special photographic effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull and his crew constructed the whole set on a plywood table which was about 20 feet wide at the back and 5 feet wide in the front. The actual horizon on the screen is just 15 feet away from the camera. They designed the table according the focal length of the camera, which provided them the base in accordance to field of view of the camera. This sort of careful planning enabled them to build the miniatures just inside the field of view without wasting valuable production time and money. Chief model maker Mark Stetson relied primarily on etched brass cutouts as elements to create buildings in the shot. But because these cutouts were two-dimensional, they had to stack a number of them together and stagger them across randomly to create depth in the whole shot. states that by using this technique Trumbull was soon posed with a problem: But as we got into putting the thing together, we realized quickly that the etched metal stuff would have given away the trick if wed use it too close to the foreground. They overcame this by building foam cast models and put them in the foreground. Those models were highly detailed and separately mounted using C-Stands. They were positioned carefully so that the camera could fly right in between creating depth. Another hurdle was creating the atmospherics in the cityscape. Director Ridley Scott wanted smoke and haze in the distant background to add to the drama of the whole scene. Douglas Trumbull created this effect using studio fans and smoke detectors. He first contained the set using black cloth all around it and set up the smoke detectors to trigger the fans. So when they fed smoke into the contained set, fans powered up and pushed the smoke around creating a natural progression of smoke in the environment. Describing his perception of the Hades cityscape, Mark Stetson states: I just had this scheme, I just wanted to do it as a series of silhouette and smoke. I wanted the smoke to really be the light and the light to light it up. Everything about that miniature had to be lights. The way light was used in this shot to create volumetric effects and reflections played a major role making it look real and credible. About 20,000 fiber optic cables (about 7 miles long) were used to light the Hades cityscape. The light cables were threaded up from beneath the plexi glass, on which the brass etched cutouts were mounted. They also mixed and experimented with a lot of interactive lights like axial, blinking, etc which created variety and helped improve the overall aesthetics of the shot. The flying cars (spinners) were a central impression throughout Blade Runner. Model maker Gene Winfield made four scale versions of the spinners, ranging from an inch to a gigantic forty-four inch long model, for different shots. Each model had its own light rig which could be tweaked to match the lighting of the shot. In order to integrate the cars into the shot, they had to shoot them as separate elements in four different passes and later on put them in using optical methods. Flying car model moves were created by Baker and McHugh using a Universal Hartland motion control unit. It is a hybrid method where they program simple motions like track and tilt and later on manually chart other controls such as pan, pitch, roll, etc. This enabled them to have a greater control over the placement and path of the move. For every spinner movement a corresponding matte was created to help composite it onto the environment. They created the mattes using front lit technique where the spinners were photographed as white shapes on a black background instead of vice versa. They shifted to the alternate in order to avoid the streaks caused by the motion control rig while shooting the mattes. discusses about the insertion of the spinners against the Hades cityscape: One of the most challenging aspects of the optical involvement was the insertion of spinners and other miniature elements into appropriately smoke-laden background plates-without having them come out looking like cutouts After great deal of testing and experimentation special photographic effects supervisor David Dryer got around this issue by generating a balance between the holdout and cover mattes. They are then lined up separately using the EEG system and fit onto the spinners onto the backplanes. In an establishing shot of New York cityscape in Fifth Element, female lead Milla Jovovich who was reconstructed from an alien DNA escapes from the lab and exits onto a narrow window ledge hundreds of floors above the ground. In consecutive shot, New York City in the year 2259 is portrayed as a towering urbanscape with huge buildings and heavy flying traffic. The lanes are parallel as if they were on a grid with old mid-fifties architecture all along and they extended until the horizon. states that Director Luc Besson vision was to show the 23rd century New York City in full detail and broad daylight unlike Blade Runner which is more dark. To produce this effect Special visual effects supervisor Mark Stetson used model photographs in conjunction with 2-D Matte paintings. Explaining about why they opted to not use computer generated imagery for the cityscape states that Mark Stetson states : We could have done it entirely in the computer but as large as Digital Domain is, with its several terabytes of disk space and hundreds of CPUs, there was still a practical limit. A totally CG New York would have been prohibitive in terms of time, storage space and processing power. For that reason, we chose to construct a big set of models. Stetson now made use of the advancement in technology which was missing back then when he was working on Blade Runner. He used computer pre-visualization and prepared models in different levels of details based on the camera lens, motion path, proximity of the miniature to the camera, etc. For the cityscape shot, about twenty-five buildings 25 feet high and above were built. Several CAD and town planning artists were invited to make plans for the layout of the city and the miniatures were placed accordingly. This helped them make the illusion of the vast mega polis more real and believable. To create a more natural look of sunlight hitting the vast cityscape, Supervising director of photography , Bill Neil developed a new technique called Fractured Sunlight which is a hybrid of direct and indirect illumination. They used a strong light source from one direction to mimic the sunlight which caused a lot of shadows on the other side. To minimize the effect, they had to use reflectors and spotlights to create an illusion of light bouncing back on the darker areas on the buildings. In order to add depth in the shot, they separated the cityscape into different parts with their respective mattes and then added atmospheric effects and made changes to the overall lighting. Also, they relied heavily on 2-D matte paintings to mix and create the effect of endless row of buildings which ultimately imposed depth in the shot. Flying cars were the crucial element in cityscape shot which left viewers in awe. Stetson initially planned to use miniatures for the effect. But due to development of technology, an effective CG pipeline was generated which allowed them to move to computer generated imagery. They first created primitive models of cars and rough patterns of the traffic flow to pre-visualize the shot. In order to distinguish between the traffic at various levels of the city, Digital effects supervisor Karen E. Goulekas created a weave pattern where traffic would travel in different directions at different levels. In order to create variation among the pattern of traffic flow, they keyed the cars to move at different speeds and stop at random points. Also variation of color and nature of the cars was accomplished by using special Renderman shaders. These programmed shaders allowed the artists to quickly tweak and create new variations of models easily. Once the traffic flow and detailing of the vehicles is completed, they would then run a script which replaced all the dummy models with fully detailed ones which they would then send for final rendering. Compositing supervisors Jonathan Egstad and Bryan Grill then carefully planned the allocation of resources which finally enabled them to generate the effects work in time. They used compositing packages (mainly Nuke, Flame, etc) to put together all the elements. Finally, color corrections and grading was done to complete generating the final imagery for the shot.

Management Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Hayakawa family had a son named Mark, who was diagnosed with Down’s syndrome. The family wanted to keep the child but were discouraged and advised not to by doctors. They felt differently about the situation. They felt their child lived on love, which was something they knew they could provide a great deal of. The family was not confident in the experts’ views because they seemed to have a lack of knowledge on the subject and it seemed as though they cared less then they knew about the illness.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The family decided to keep mark at home with them, not institutionalized. He had the freedom to grow and the personal care that is necessary to develop in a healthy situation. The Hayakawas felt that keeping Mark home was a good idea. He not only brightened their lives but their children’s lives as well. Mark could find joy in simple things, which can often reflect onto others. Mark was capable of accepting things as they were more so than most people of â€Å"normal† intelligence. The entire family benefited from the experience of living with Mark by learning to take situations in stride. The family learned patience and tolerance through helping Mark get through each day. Their readiness to deal with Mark carried over into a general method of dealing with people. Mark made them feel special.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The family benefited from not following the directions given to them by the experts. They felt as thou... Management Essay -- essays research papers   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Hayakawa family had a son named Mark, who was diagnosed with Down’s syndrome. The family wanted to keep the child but were discouraged and advised not to by doctors. They felt differently about the situation. They felt their child lived on love, which was something they knew they could provide a great deal of. The family was not confident in the experts’ views because they seemed to have a lack of knowledge on the subject and it seemed as though they cared less then they knew about the illness.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The family decided to keep mark at home with them, not institutionalized. He had the freedom to grow and the personal care that is necessary to develop in a healthy situation. The Hayakawas felt that keeping Mark home was a good idea. He not only brightened their lives but their children’s lives as well. Mark could find joy in simple things, which can often reflect onto others. Mark was capable of accepting things as they were more so than most people of â€Å"normal† intelligence. The entire family benefited from the experience of living with Mark by learning to take situations in stride. The family learned patience and tolerance through helping Mark get through each day. Their readiness to deal with Mark carried over into a general method of dealing with people. Mark made them feel special.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The family benefited from not following the directions given to them by the experts. They felt as thou...

Systhesis of Dulcin

Synthesis of Dulcin Objective: The main objective of this lab is to gain experience at a typical synthesis and semi-microscale recrystallization. Discussion Questions: 1) How fast should the temperature be raised when determining a melting point? When can the temperature be raised more quickly? 2) If there is an Impurity present in a sample, what is the effect on the melting point? 3) Explain why a) salt, spread on roads in the winter, helps prevent icing in, for instance, southern Ontario, and b) salt is useless on the much colder roads of Manitoba. ) You would have to slowly raise the temperature up when determining the melting point due to the sensitivity of the dulcin being able to change from solid to liquid at any point. If the temperature is set to high to fast it is possible to miss the change of state and not be able to record the time which is why it should originally be set pretty slow. If set high too fast it will melt faster causing the melting point to be inaccurate. As soon as you get the general idea of when change in state will occur, that is when you can probably raise the temperature more quickly. ) If there are impurities present in the sample it can cause many problems, it can lower or raise the boiling point due to it having an effect on the dulcin itself. Basically it will increase the range of the boiling and melting points, which will give an inaccurate reading. If the dulcin were to be fully pure the range would have a difference of maybe 1 to 2, having an impurity would make a huge difference. 3) Salt is sprinkled on the streets so that when it mixes with the moisture and the water it creates a saline mixture.This mixture has a lower freezing point then normal water does so that means it would only freeze at lower temperatures. This basically prolongs the icing process and basically can fully prevent ice from forming on the roads. On older colder roads of Manitoba it reaches the colder temperatures necessary to freeze over the saline mixture which ends up making it useless to do. Conclusion: Yield: To calculate you must take the amount of crude dulcin you started with and have it divided by the pure dulcin then multiply it by 100 to get a %. Pure Dulcin: 0. 6168g Crude Dulcin: 1. 2356g Melting point of crude: 167-171Melting point of pure: 174-176 The recrystallization process is one that has been tested multiple times and been proven effective in many experiments. In our experiment I would have to say that it was a very effective process due to the melting points that we were able to get with our products. The melting point for the crude substance was between 167 and 171 . This shows that the crude definitely had some impurities in it keeping it a bit away form the theoretical melting point. The melting point of our pure substance was between 174and 176 which is actually extremely close to the theoretical melting point.This shows us that the recrystallization process does an extremely good job, even though it ta kes a lot of time and effort to do it. There way be some flaws with it and some error that can come about with how the apparatus is set up or how the students take care of the products. In the end it is a great process and if the technique is done properly and precisely the effectiveness off this process is very high and produces great results. Reference: â€Å"University of Winnipeg CHEM-2202/3 Organic Chemistry I Lab Manual Fall 2012†

Stop Cluttering Up the Classroom Walls

Stop Cluttering Up the Classroom Walls Despite a teachers best intentions, a cluttered classroom environment could be distracting students from learning. Too much visual stimulation in the classroom can be distracting, the layout may be unwelcoming, or the classroom wall color may have a negative impact on mood. These elements of  classroom environment  can have a negative or positive effect on student academic performance. This general statement is supported by a growing  body of research on the critical impact that light, space, and room layout have on a students well-being, physically and emotionally. The Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture has collected information on this impact: Features of any architectural environment can  have an influence certain brain processes such as those involved in stress, emotion and memory (Edelstein 2009).   While it may be difficult to control all factors, the choice of materials on a classroom wall is the easiest to manage for a teacher.  The  Princeton University Neuroscience Institute  published the results of a study,â€Å"Interactions of Top-Down and Bottom-Up Mechanisms in Human Visual Cortex,†Ã‚  they conducted that discusses how the brain sorts out competing stimuli. One heading in the research notes: Multiple stimuli present in the visual field at the same time compete for neural representation...   In other words, the more stimulation in an environment, the more competition for attention from the part of a students  brain needed to focus. Michael Hubenthal and Thomas O’Brien reached the same conclusion in their research  Revisiting Your Classroom’s Walls: The Pedagogical Power of Posters  (2009). They found that a students  working  memory uses  different components that process visual and  verbal information . They agreed that too many posters, regulations, or information sources could have the  potential of overwhelming a students  working memory:   The  visual complexity caused by an  abundance of text and small images  can set  up an  overwhelming  visual/verbal  competition between  text and  graphics for which students must gain control in order to  give meaning to information. From Early Years to High School For many students, the  text and graphic-rich classroom environments begin in their early education (Pre-K and elementary) classrooms. These classrooms may be decorated to an extreme.   Too often,  clutter passes for quality, a  sentiment expressed by  Erika Christakis in her book  The Importance of Being Little: What Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups  (2016).  In  Chapter 2 (Goldilocks Goes to Daycare) Christakis describes the average preschool the following way: First well bombard you with what educators call a print-rich environment, every wall and surface festooned with a vertiginous array of labels, vocabulary list, calendars, graphs, classroom rules, alphabet lists, number charts, and inspirational platitudes - few of those symbols you will be able to decode, a favorite buzzword for what used to be known as reading(33). Christakis also list the other distractions that are also  hanging in plain sight:  the number of  mandated rules and regulations alongside decorations including hand washing instructions, allergy procedures, and emergency exit diagrams. She writes: In one study, researchers manipulated the amount of clutter on the walls of a laboratory classroom where kindergarteners were taught a series of science lessons. As the visual distraction increased, the childrens ability to focus, stay on task, and learn new information decreased (33). Researchers from The Holistic Evidence and Design (HEAD) support Christakiss position. They assessed  hundred fifty-three U.K. classrooms to study the link of classroom environment to the learning of almost four thousand students  (ages 5-11).  Researchers  Peter Barrett, Fay Davies, Yufan Zhang, and Lucinda Barrett published their findings in  The Holistic Impact of Classroom Spaces on Learning in Specific Subjects  (2016).  They reviewed the impact of different factors, including color, on student learning, by looking at measures of progress in reading, writing, and math.  They found that reading and writing performances are particularly affected by levels of  stimulation. They also noted that math received  the most positive impact from a classroom design that is student-centered and personalized spaces. Environment Element: Color in the Classroom The color of the classroom can also stimulate or overstimulate students. This environmental element may not always be under the teachers control, but there are some recommendations teachers might be able to make. For example, the colors  red and orange are associated with negative impact on students, making them feel nervous and unsettled. In contrast, blue and green colors are calming colors.   The color  of an environment also affects children differently according to age. Younger children below five may be more productive with bright colors such as yellow. Older students, specifically high school students, work better in rooms painted in light shades of blue and green which are less stressful and distracting.  Ã‚  Warm yellows or pale yellows are also older student appropriate. The scientific research into color is extensive and color can affect children’s moods, mental clarity, and energy levels,  (Englebrecht, 2003).   According to the International Association of Color Consultants - North America (IACC-NA), a school’s physical environment has a  powerful psycho-physiological impact on its students:   â€Å"Appropriate color design is important in protecting eyesight, in creating surroundings that are conducive to studying, and in promoting physical and mental health.† The IACC has noted that poor color choices can lead to irritability, premature fatigue, lack of interest and behavioral problems.   Alternatively,  walls with no color can also be a problem. Colorless and poorly lit classrooms are often considered boring or lifeless, and a  boring classroom maybe likely to cause  students to become disengaged and uninterested in learning. â€Å"For budget reasons, a lot of schools don’t seek out good information on color,† says Bonnie Krims, of IACC. She notes that in the past, there was a common belief that the more colorful the classroom, the better for the students. Recent research disputes past practice, and that too much color, or colors that are too bright, can lead to overstimulation. An accent wall of bright color in a classroom may be offset by muted shades on the other walls.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The goal is to find a balance,† Krims concludes.   Natural Light Dark colors are equally problematic. Any color that lessens or filters  natural sunlight out of a room can even make people feel drowsy and listless (Hathaway, 1987).  There are multiple studies that point to the  beneficial effects of natural light  on health and mood. One medical study found that patients who had access to a scenic view of nature had shorter hospital stays and required lower amounts of pain medication than those patients who had windows that faced a brick building. The official  blog of the U.S. Department of Education posted a  2003 study  (in  California)  that  found that classrooms with the most (natural light)  daylighting had a 20 percent better learning rate in math, and a 26 percent improved rate in reading, compared to classrooms with little or no daylighting. The study also noted that in some cases,  teachers  needed only  to reposition furniture or move  storage to  take advantage of the available natural light in their classrooms.  Ã‚   Overstimulation and Special Needs Students Overstimulation is an issue with students who may have Autistic Spectrum Disorder  (ASD).  The Indiana Resource Center for Autism  recommends that teachers try to limit  auditory and visual distractions so that students can  focus on the concepts that are being taught instead of details that may not be relevant, and reduces competing distractions. Their  recommendation is to limit these distractions: Often when students with ASD are presented with too much stimulus (visual or auditory), processing may slow down, or if overloaded, processing may stop completely.   This approach may prove  beneficial for other students as well.  While  a  classroom rich in materials may support learning,  a cluttered classroom that overstimulates  may be too distracting to many students whether they special needs or not. Color also matters for special needs students. Trish Buscemi, the owner of  Colors Matter, has experience in advising clients what color palette to use with special needs populations.  Buscemi has found that blues, greens, and muted brown tones tend to be appropriate choices for students with ADD and ADHD, and she writes on her blog  that: The brain remembers color first! Let the Students Decide At the secondary level,  teachers could have  students make contributions to help shape a learning space. Giving students a voice in designing their space along will help develop student ownership in the classroom.  The  Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture  agrees, and notes  the importance of being able to have spaces that students can call their own. Their literature explains, Feelings of comfort and welcome in a shared space are vital to the level in which we feel invited to take part.  Students are more likely to  take pride in the space, and they are more likely to support each others efforts to contribute ideas and maintain organization.   Also, teachers should be encouraged to feature student work, maybe original pieces of art, displayed to elicit trust and student worth.   What Decorations to Choose? To reduce classroom clutter, teachers could ask themselves the following questions before putting that velcro or removable tape onto the classroom wall: What purpose does this  poster, sign or display serve?Do  these  posters, signs, or items celebrate or support student learning?Are the  posters, signs, or displays  current with what is being learned in the classroom?Can the display  be made interactive?Is there  white space in between wall displays to help the  eye distinguish what is in the display?Can students contribute to decorating the classroom (ask â€Å"What do you think could go inside that space?†) As the school year begins, teachers should keep in mind opportunities to limit distractions and reduce classroom clutter for better academic performance.

What Are the Strength and Weakness of Classical School Essays

What Are the Strength and Weakness of Classical School Essays What Are the Strength and Weakness of Classical School Paper What Are the Strength and Weakness of Classical School Paper As Oliver Wendel Holmes quoted, â€Å"When we want to know what is going on today or want to make sure what will happen tomorrow, I will look back the past. † We can find out the process of development from this sphere to nowadays in a deep-going way by reviewing organizational behavior history which has gone through Classical School of Management, Behavioral School of Management and Human Relations School of Management. Organizations can be viewed as two or more people coordinate and combine in use of their knowledge as well as technique for the purpose of accomplishing common objectives that transform resources into goods and service which are needed by consumers. Organizational behavior refers to the systematic study that primarily access influence of individuals, groups and structure on interior organizational conducts in order that organizational effectiveness can be improved and perceived. The Classical School of Management was effectively the first coherent set of theoretical perspectives about organization and management covering Scientific Management, Administrative Management and structuralized Management. As we know, F W Taylor, Henri Faylor, and Max Weber are outstanding contributors of Classical School of management thought who made great contribution and laid a foundation for contemporary management. F W Taylor Taylor is the founding father of Classical School of management thought, who advocates scientific management and attached importance to heighten effectiveness of workers through greatly improving workers’ productivity leading to maximized benefit of workers and employers caused due to scientific management. His works named â€Å"The Principles of Scientific Management† was published in the early 1900s. In the initial stage, Taylor was being affected by some moral principles; therefore, he had a profound respect for the following principles, Brought up scientific working methods for basic formative section of each staff’s job Scientifically selected, trained, fostered and cultivated the workers. Cooperated with staffs enthusiastically so that ensuring jobs done are suitable to scientific theory which has been set forth. Basically actualized equal division of labor between jobs and responsibilities of the managements and the workers. All work processes should be systematically analyzed and broke down into specialized discrete tasks. Payment depended on piecework basis which taken as an incentive to maximize productivity and produce high wages for the workers. At the same time, his insufficient understanding towards organizational behavior gave rise to the following situations, Changed worker’s role into that was required to strictly abide by methods and procedures of affairs on which they had no discretions. Fragmentation of work due to its emphasis on the analysis and organization of individual tasks and operation,. His thought over payment that was mainly reliance on output performance rather than giving remuneration to workers in accordance with overall performance of the workers’. His inclination to consider planning and control of workforce activities which were only in the managements’ hands rather than allowing staffs to involve. Every job which was measured, timed, and rated. Occurrence of boredom stemmed from repetitive jobs and tight management control. Poor understanding between grass-roots workers and managements. Henri Fayol Fayol is the representative of Classical School of management thought. Administrative management is the managerial mode he stood for where it applied essential points to administrative management principles of controllers. His famous works, â€Å" Industrial management and common managementâ€Å", divided management into five segments. Therefore, it denoted controllers were to carry out the five segments, i. e. to forecast , to organize, to command, to coordinate, to control. By now, these five segments are still the functional basis and basic process by which controllers research into management. According to his thought over management, therefore, 14 â€Å"principles of organization† came into being. 4 universal principals of the organization Division of work Professionally increased output through improving effectiveness of the workers. Authority The managers were required to be good at giving commands as authority conferred them right to do so but responsibility were accompanying authority. Discipline The workers must adhere to and respect organizational rules and regulations. The managers and workers must have clear understanding towards organizational rules and regulations. Organization must enforce effective sanction upon those workers who broke organizational rules and regulations. Interests of the individual should subordinate to interests of the collective Interests of Any individuals or groups should not exceed organizational interest as the collective. Remuneration It was required to improve the workers’jobs and offer equal wages treatment. Concentration of power It refers the level of the workers’ involvement in decision-making. Scalar chain. The establishment of a â€Å" line of authority† by which communication must comply with the chain by levels of authority from the seniors to the subordinate. Order. The workers and substance should be on the corresponding position at appropriate time. Equality. Managers ought to keep kindness and equality for the workers. Stability of employees’ terms of office as high mobile labor would lead to low effectiveness and efficiency. Initiative When being allowed to participate in formulation and enforcement of planning, employees would complete works with their great efforts. Stability of employees’ terms of office. High mobile labor would lead to low effectiveness. The managers should formulate plans of human affairs in order as to find the right substitute as positions appeared vacant. Espirt de corps. It publicized that esprit de corps would be established and unified harmoniously. There is no doubt that Fayol did have misunderstanding towards the organizational behavior. This can be discerned from which he hypothesized universal principles that were applicable to all organizational situations; only acknowledged the formal organization and focused on the structure of organizations; took management as critical paternalistic; his ideas was stiff to desires and needs of both individuals and groups; his rational and deterministic approach lacked suitability towards structures and behaviors of people as individuals and groups; the 14 universal principles set forth by him were not will fit into an organic organization; Max Weber Weber, as a matter of fact, tended to be an academic with an interest in authority structure. His works, â€Å" Theory of Social and Economic Organization†, coined the term â€Å" bureaucracy†, which can be viewed as an attempt to build up a reasonable and legal basis for the authority and an arrangement for the purpose of selecting people and undertaking various sorts of activities. Bureaucratic type of organizational structure defined by Weber is be of the following characteristics, Works of specialization It decomposed works into different kinds of simple, daily, and detailed tasks. Hierarchy of authority. Responsibilities and positions were organized by hierarchy. Each low-grade position was monitored and controlled by the high-grade position. Formal selection. All organizational members were selected on the basis of qualification of technique, which certified by training, education, formal examinations. Impersonality When applying rules and regulations, it was required to avoid involvement of character and personal preference. Orientation of occupation. Managers were professional leaders. They worked for steady salary and developed their careers within the organization. However, Weber did not fully understand organization behavior as he inherited much common ground of Taylor’s scientific management and Fayol’s administrative management. Since it is so, his works is relatively regulated and prescribed leading to little sphere left for autonomy and originality; Individuals were constrained in the act of impersonal and rational ways after determining affairs demonstrated in the stressful world; He emphasized organizational efficiency but which would produce expense of flexibility at the request of rapid change; Impersonality might cause inequality of treatment and unfairness in the non-standard case, which reduces personal interaction; he allowed no mechanism for challenging the bureaucracy; rules became constraints to employees rather than an aid to organizational effectiveness and performance. Taylor, Fayol and Weber, anyhow, are considered to omit one point which insists on that people are core of organization. However, theories of Taylor, Fayol, and Weber had disseminated seeks for organizational behaviors. Their thought has great impact on development and demarcation of organizational behavior.

Language Intervention Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Language Intervention - Research Paper Example An analysis of past historical literature and texts gives clear answers to the gender differences in language use. Some may tend to argue that relying on previous researches of other researchers may tend to lead to prejudice and preconception hence inaccurate information. Such claims are just unfounded comments of lay people. The subordinate role women play in the society started many years ago. From the history, literacy among women in the nineteenth century was only among the middle class and above. Women were limited to only being able to write and read, and they were denied opportunities to get a higher education. There were those who believed women’s importance of acquiring education in the society and tried to champion for women’s rights. Individuals have different ways of speech which are determined by their age, ethnic group, social class, and gender. Regardless of the gender, man or woman it’s prudent to assert that the person adjusts him or herself so as to ‘blend in’. That is; our speech is influenced by many factors. It is the belief to some that the noted differences in languages have no relation to the sex of the speaker.It is due to the lack of an agreeable analysis method of language use. However, others are entirely convinced of differences that exist between the speech of men and women. A lot of researchers tend to associate women with words revolving around topics of psychological and social processes while men to impersonal topics and object properties. That is.

The Various Aspects of Contract and Tort Law Essay - 11

The Various Aspects of Contract and Tort Law - Essay Example This research will begin with the essential elements for the formation of the contract in the UK and â€Å"invitation to treat†. Some common elements that are included in the formation of contract signify various features incorporated in a contract and its legal clauses. The valid contract that needs to be developed in case of the corporate sector should first focus on the situation for which the contract is being made. Although the basic elements of the contract remain same in most of the cases, the nature and duty of the contract change on the basis of the requirements. Some of the common elements required for formation of a basic contract have been evaluated below. Offer: Offer is the first and one of the two primary elements of a contract. Offer is formed on the basis of a consideration which enables the parties to the contract to develop a proposal. The offer must have clarity regarding the consideration involved and should have a specific timeframe for its acceptance. Th e advertisement of James for selling the printing press for  £50000 is an open offer. The offer for selling office computer Ann was also an offer. Acceptance: Acceptance is the second primary element of a contract and is done in response to the offer. The acceptance is based on the consideration provided by the offeree. The acceptance is also limited by the time frame and should be clearly mentioned. The reply on the part of Jenny in regard to the offer of James shows the acceptance of an offer. However, as Jenny had stated in new terms in her acceptance it can also be treated as a counteroffer. The counteroffer was made when Jenny offered an amount of  £40000 which nullified the previous offer. However, silence on the part of Jenny cannot be considered as acceptance.