Creative Writing and High School Essay

Creativity is Everything: You can Make Writing Fun by being Creative If someone was to come up to me and ask me what kind of writer I am, I’d say that I someone who enjoys making up fairy tales along with reading and watching movies about fairy tales. I am a writer who likes to use their imagination, this is due to the kinds of books that I use to read. I wanted to be the next Dr. Seuss. Growing up, my imagination is all I really had. My family had to move a lot because my dad always had to switch jobs. We’d move to different states every couple of months, sometimes we’d stay for a year or two. I never really had anything stable. I couldn’t participate in any sports or extra-curricular activities. There was one thing that I did have though, I had my imagination. With my imagination, I drew the weirdest pictures and wrote from the most magical to the most gruesome stories I could. I always had myself occupied with my stories. I was never bored when we were on the road, I’d be writing random ideas for stories in my spiral notebook if we were on the road and read books like there was no tomorrow. I made writing and reading fun for myself and I enjoyed doing it. My Timeline with Reading As with all children, they being with their parents reading bedtime stories to them. I loved being read to at night. My favorite bedtime books were several Dr. Seuss books like One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and Green Eggs and Ham. As I got older I began to read poetry more than anything. My all time favorite author is Shel Silverstein; he is one of the most brilliant and talented poets. He has helped me improve in my reading, as well as my writing. Some of the books I could never put down was The Missing Piece, The Giving Tree, and Where the Sidewalk Ends. Throughout my elementary days to middle school and high school, I have read at least over one hundred books, written vigorious reports over the years and have changed my point of view towards reading and writing all together. 1984 by George Orwell did it for me, along with Lord of the Flies; I read these two books my senior year and they really made an impact on me. 1984 really freaked me out, it had me thinking, what if there really is a â€Å"Big Brother† in our world; Lord of the Flies made me realise that there are monsters in all of us, and only some of us are pure and innocent, like Simon was. Transforming from Doodle Writer to Competitive Writer In 2004, I was located in the Belleville/Canton area here in Michigan. I attended Henry Ford Elementary. My teacher’s name was Ms. Dixon. This wonderful woman was the one who really started to get me into writing a lot more . At Henry Ford, we had an annual fourth and fifth grade writing contest. No fourth grader ever wanted to enter it, but they still did to try to impress each other with their stories. Looking back, I felt skeptical about doing the writing contest. I had no idea what I should write about! I was having a writer’s block. No good ideas came to mind; I was stumped. A few students in my class chose to write about their pets or what they wanted to be when they grew up, but that just wasn’t my style. After a couple of days, something popped into my head. Halloween was around the corner shortly; I decided to try to come up with a nasty, disgusting story that formed around the Halloween theme. I started to brainstorm, then it hit me. The perfect idea for a story. It was gruesome, disturbing, creepy, and just nothing you’d think a fourth grader would write about. My very short, scary, story was about a two-headed baby who was found behind a dumpster on evening, the parents took the baby into their home. Come to find out the baby is a cold-blooded murder; one who slaughtered anything in its path (I told you that you wouldn’t think that a fourth grader would write about something like this). I ended up winning second place in the writing contest, that’s when my writing started to expand. Progressing throughout School with Writing and Reading As time went on, I was out of elementary school and into middle school. This was the time when book reports really made me not like writing. As much as I am a book reader over a writer, writing papers on books†¦ It was just wrong in my mind. I wrote book reports on Helen Keller, astronauts, Rosa Parks, the Holocaust, etc. I never really enjoyed the reports, they took the fun out of reading for me. Eighth grade came we started to write about who our heroes were; I wrote about my baby cousin that had died a year before. He was my rock. That was basically my main focus point for all my papers. After I left middle school, I started to attend the high school, Lincoln High School. This school has had me on a roller coaster since day one. We immediately began to read, How to Kill a Mockingbird, we had to analyze and write about the morals of the story. As time went on, I found out that I qualified for several AP English classes. Junior and senior year, I took AP British Literature, AP Issues in Fiction, and AP Creative Writing. The only class that I enjoyed going to was my creative writing class. In that class I was able to write about anything that I wanted. I wrote about fairy tales, I wrote a children’s book for the elementary kid, short stories, everything! I felt at home, comfortable with writing rather than I felt in my other two English classes. I am a creative writer, I write what comes out of my heart and mind. Everything I wrote just had an amazing flow, I never ever want to stop writing as long as I can make it fun for myself; and make it interesting for others to enjoy too! Where I am Today as a Reader and Writer I am in college now, so there is a lot that has changed. I’m still a very creative writer, there isn’t a class that I’ve came across yet that I can take where I can express my creativity in writing. I am hoping that down the road I’ll come across a class that is somewhat like my high school creative writing class. I still read regularly, I just finished the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy by E. L. James, and I’ve got to say, I never thought that I’d have so much interest in a book that has such a vulgar topic. I know deep down that I have room for improvement with my writing skills as well as my reading, and I’m hoping to improve myself better throughout the next four years that I’m going to be spending at Eastern.

Is the News a Reliable Source

Reliability of News Introduction Today the world has progressed rapidly. It is all thanks to the media that created the awareness among the individuals and the societies. Media highlights the aspects, which were not existent before. The world has become smaller and smaller and its advancements have been all thanks to the constant alarming of mass media. Despite the fact that news makes the international scenarios and us aware of the local it sometime, become a red devil itself. Discussion News is the source of gathering all the information needed to keep the people up to date with the latest trends and happenings. People now days get access to the news whenever they want. The main sources of tuning to the news include television, radio, newspapers, magazines and more of late the World Wide Web. Even the cellular services are not far behind as they keep people informed while one is away from the above mediums. Therefore, it is not necessary whether you are connected to these mediums or not, you can probably use your cell phone to get the latest updates. News and the media treat all people alike, as it has no personal contacts between the senders and receivers. Most of the times the news media can turn out to be the devil rather than an angel. It is better to say that media manipulates its role in such a way that people might be unable to understand their POV (Paul & Dennis, pp 2-4). Prime example being the terror attacks of 11 September 2001. Many news channels and other media officials highlighted in their own perspective and ways. According to them 9/11, relate with the understanding of current events (Tom, pp 6-7). Others do not even come close to the topic as they think it is useless to talk about what they do not know. The news media creates the doubt of the individuals specially those who suffered the wrath of 9/11 and other similar terrorist activities. Conclusion The days of living like unaware person are no way possible in the modern era. The mainstream media has totally affected the life of individuals by all leaps and bounds. Today no person can think of surviving while the news media is running the show. In the days when internet was not very popular, newspapers were considered as the ultimate source of information. The news is helpful in gaining access to the new and contemporary information regarding lifestyle, sports, entertainment etc. At the same time, they play a negative role towards the psyche of an individual. The news media must play the role both informative and responsible, as there are many who cannot bear the sight of bad news in form of terrorism or other similar news.

How a leader should react in certain situations Term Paper

How a leader should react in certain situations - Term Paper Example That is where effective leadership enters. The leaders tend to lead more efficiently and effectively if they were provided with a path of passion with regard to their work. This path of passion can be their true goals in life which would make the leader more determined towards achieving their task. In my life I have gone through many instances in which I have to effectively lead a certain team to success. To effectively lead a team I have been through many problems but I had to overcome them to lead my team to success (Cameron & Green, 2008). 8 In managing the team of my company I had to gain confidence of my team firstly so that they could view my goals and perspectives the way I wanted them to. To gain confidence I took advice of all my team members so that I could put in their views and set up the goals to prosper my company. Moreover, I set up my own values and was influenced by many other leaders like my boss who took my company to the position on which it is now. The pressures which came during this leadership process were effectively handled by me and my peers. Thus all this helped me to reduce the pressure being inflicted on me and my leadership went smooth. 8 Recommendations 8 Leadership is able to learn by anybody with the fundamentals. However a terrible group of leadership cannot be trained for the reason that leadership is a learner skill. About 80% of their expertise on the job Leaders can learn. They get experience from observing other leaders and try to follow their behavior and activities. They select paradigm and try to find out advisers. They inquire other leaders on the subject of how to control circumstances. Leaders can get better by receiving criticism and using it. The finest leaders look for criticism from their superior, their examiner and their sub standards. Then they adjust their behavior with the intention that they achieve improved consequences. Leaders can also get knowledge by struggling stuff out and then analyzing their recita l. The barely crash they know is the crash to learn from practice. Effective leaders can have power over their own progress. They search for preparation occasions that will create dissimilarity in their presentations (Popper, 2005). Effective leaders can also look for guidance plans that will help them grow particular talents that they can employ on the work. And then when they go back to job, they apply precise, purposeful endeavor in real life what they erudite in the preparation classes. 9 Conclusion It is not necessary to born as a leader, though every person born with exclusive powers that facilitates him in leadership jobs - they are among us, and with nearly all people, they live inside. The concept that leaders are born, and other as a result can never be leader, is irrational, miserable and seriously restraining to every person in the world. The thought recommends that the time when babies are born they have the heredity to become a leader, or they do not. This case prospec tively all right if the meaning of leadership, and leaders, had been stable for the past 60 years, but it is not. Certainly, more has been exposed about leadership and human activities in the last 30 years. Leadership is a talent and a behavior. Approximating the majority talents and behaviors, those get better with observing; turn out to be extra talented the habit conquests. Unworried regarding the

Studio Portraiture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5500 words

Studio Portraiture - Essay Example his or her appearance and mood rather than his or her environment. Portrait is far distinct from a snapshot for it shows someone in immobile state thus it can be termed as the best expression of a personality in photography. This explains why since the time immemorial, portraiture as an art ; painting, sculpture and photography, has been used in making impressions of great people such as kings , emperors and pharaohs among others. Moreover, it has been used in the same magnitude on important occasions like funerals weddings. Donnan (2004) claims that in political arenas, portraits are so important that it is deemed a symbol of national unity to have portraits of the head of state in important places. It is common that if a portrait of a certain personality is used too much it can lead to worship of that person either politically or in other ways like in the case of Stalin in Russia. Families have heightened demand on portraits to enjoy in commemoration of important events like weddin gs and birthdays among other various events. Portrait photography has developed since the time immemorial to become a vast and technologically sophisticated industry today. Studio portraiture has expanded creating many jobs and careers and the other hand developing talents. As technology advances so do the techniques of photography which makes the talents developed in studio portraiture to be taken far outside a housed studio (Donnan, 2004). Today's advancement in studio portraiture is solely due to digital formatting technology which is narrowed from electronic technology. Digital technology is the system controlled by digital circuits where electronic logic is transmitted discreetly using gates and flip-flops this is the opposite of analogue electronics whose systems continuously varies. Digital format is use of the said digital technology in a calculation or solving of a logical problem. Digital formatting has led to greater developments in photography techniques such as high key lighting. it has also led to development of digital cameras which are very efficient in studio portraiture. This study will be used to gauge by what ways change in studio portraiture to digital format has affected style and type of photography available today (Donnan, 2004). Problem Statement Gradual changes of portraiture brought about by technological advancement have been perceived to have brought about negative impacts to the society in terms of style as well as types of photography available today. Justification of the study. Since the discovery of portraiture as an art which through history, dates back several thousand years back, there has been a great revolution in the ways it is carried out and the outcome. The development in different techniques of portraiture has led to increased performance of portraiture as an art in satisfying the need of the user the drive of the artist. The emergence of portraiture industry has led to springing up of many studios in the recent times which have later developed as big film or photography companies; this implies large scale business which requires talents

Business Plan. Hotel le Bonheur Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business Plan. Hotel le Bonheur - Essay Example Despite emerging strong on both economic times, liberality has posed several challenges on its policies. One incidence was in the 60s when the cause of disagreement was based on unmarried couples sharing a room, which was not allowed before the challenge. Another challenge that has been faced by Hotel le Bonheur is on payment issues. The Hotel has had customers failing to pay for accommodation while others literally sneaking out of the hotel in the night. Such challenges affected operation hence making the Hotel to collapse in the 80’s. (Cesim n.d). However, that was not the end of Hotel le Bonheur. In the 90’s, the hotel was given out to Ronald Bump, a successful real estate developer. Ronald’s investment in restoring the hotel was successful though he did not run it for long before the wife took over after divorce. Mrs. Bump, the new owner of the business, does not appreciate unprofessional practices hence the reason why there is need for a business plan. Having a plan will allow the management team to be aware of the hotel objectives hence facilitating a smooth running of the business as they encounter the challenge of expanding the business. The Hotel targets to grow its capacity by 120 percent through establishing new operations abroad to be able to accommodate more clients. The hotel will not only go back to the days when it was called Happiness Hotel but will be able to offer the happiness required by clients to be able to come back for more services. (Cesim n.d). Contents Objectives 4 Mission 4 Keys to Success 4 Hotel summary 4 Products and Services 5 Market Analysis Summary 5 Target Market segment strategy 5 Service business analysis 6 Competition and buying patterns 6 Strategy and Implementation Summary 7 Competitive edge 7 Marketing Strategy 8 Sales Strategy 8 Sales forecast 8 Milestones 9 Management Summary 9 Personnel Plan 9 Financial Plan 10 Projected profit and loss 10 References 11 Objectives Hotel le Bonheur has the following objectives in the first three years of operations: 1. Renovate and upgrade the rooms through installing latest interior designs. 2. Increase the capacity of the facility by 120% by the third year. 3. Get a facility manager as a permanent employee to run the logistics of the revived business. 4. Increase the sales returns by provide quality services that will earn referral business on top of the acquired businesses. 5. Venture into international market through channel sales. Mission Hotel le Bonheur will work to ensure clients satisfaction in the most conducive and friendly most environment. Keys to Success 1. Managing and surpassing customer expectation 2. Considering customer’s preferences despite opinions from experts 3. Running everything professionally for customer satisfaction 4. Protecting the client’s welfare at all times Hotel le Bonheur upholds all the keys and will always uphold them in every service they offer both locally and abroad. Hotel summary Hotel le Bonheur is still a local Hotel serving both leisure and business travelers (Casapart 2013). Established in the 20’s, the hotel has had both its good moments and worst moments. The worst moments of all was majorly due to poor operation procedures that made clients fail to pay for services hence making the Hotel to collapse in the 80s. Mrs. Bump, a former wife to Mr. Ronald Bump, bought it out in the 90 owns the Hotel. The Hotel specializes in accommodation and catering. It has a base of permanently employ ees and the rest are temporary. Hotel le Bonheur shares are traded at a small over the counter market price. The business is planning to venture into the international market as well as increase its market shares through the new management team. Products and Serv

Wal-Mart Business Operations Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Wal-Mart Business Operations - Case Study Example The industry environment tools include: industry definition, industry life cycle, and Porter's five forces. The competitor environment can be analysed by the framework explained in chapter 2; comparison of critical success factors; and market commonality or resource similarity. A framework of competitor analysis takes into consideration the high or low level of market commonality, simultaneously with the high or low level of resource similarity. The portfolio of resources of two different firms are examined to find the degree of market commonality and resource similarity, and this is displayed graphically as shaded area. In question #2 we analyse the internal environment, which consists of: tangible resources, intangible resources, capabilities, core competencies, competitive advantage, and value chain analysis. We then summarise the main strengths and weaknesses that we have identified from the analysis of the internal environment. Question #2 is answered using the case study and tools such as SWOT matrix/SWOT analysis, Ansoff's matrix, Grand Strategy matrix, etc. These tools are used to identify strategic options available to Wal-Mart. We then critically assess these strategic options. The components of internal analysis leading to competitive advantage and strategic competitiveness include the inter... We then summarise the main strengths and weaknesses that we have identified from the analysis of the internal environment. Question #2 is answered using the case study and tools such as SWOT matrix/SWOT analysis, Ansoff's matrix, Grand Strategy matrix, etc. These tools are used to identify strategic options available to Wal-Mart. We then critically assess these strategic options. The components of internal analysis leading to competitive advantage and strategic competitiveness include the internal environment factors considered above. In addition, the category of discovering core competencies involves four criteria of sustainable advantages: valuable, rare, costly to imitate, and nonsubstitutable. Discovering core competencies also includes value chain analysis, that can be outsourced. In addition to competitive analysis is strategic competitive analysis. Tangible resources include financial resources, such as the ability to generate internal funds; organizational resources, which consist of the reporting, planning, controlling and coordinating systems; physical resources, such as access to raw materials; and technological resources, such as patents and trade secrets. Intangible resources include human resources, such as knowledge; innovation resources, such as ideas and capacity to innovate; and reputational resources, such as brand name. For a sustainable competitive analysis, McKinsey & Co. suggest a company strive for three to four core competencies. More than this number may cause a company to lose its focus. A value chain analysis is a tool that lets a company see where its value lies, and what elements of the company do not hold value. Value chain analysis is also used to understand the company's cost position. In a value chain,

Public Productivity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Public Productivity - Essay Example At such a time, this will only diminish the people’s trust on the government. Follow the money is a phrase that is used to refer to the corruption in government offices. This indicates that sometimes policy makers don’t put ahead the needs of the people but rather their personal interest. The â€Å"follow the money† phrase can be traced back to the Watergate scandal. This shows that sometimes people in offices of power are likely to make selfish decisions which are not helpful to the taxpayers but that will help them achieve their personal interests. Setting budgetary priorities for policy implementation is important in a number of ways. To begin with, it helps in making sure that decisions will be based on rational list of priorities and will not be based in other priorities. Secondly, it will also mean that the individuals will not put their interest before the interests of the public. Public funds are rarely at excess and there is always some part of the budget which will need to be denied in order to make sure that others are met. Therefore, it is important for priorities to be considered in the budget to make sure that the most pressing needs in the public expenditure are met first. The budget is the spine that holds up all government policy. It translates the government’s policy into decision making and is then the source of all the decisions such as how much revenue the government intends to raise. It also plays the central role in determining how the government will be able to actualize it promises and commitments to the people. Different situations require different decisions making strategies in order to reach the optimum decision. For the policy makers of a country to be able to reach the best decisions which will lead the best service to the public, they must be able to understand this and apply the

Human Resource Management in UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Human Resource Management in UK - Essay Example It would appear that the dynamic business environment at that time certainly had great influence, if in fact not actually being the catalyst towards an overall full scale adoption of HRM or at least the embracing of a number of elements of the concept. HRM is a good example of how the macro environment can influence change within an organisations micro environment. Essentially it is an organisations response to macro environment factors which will determine success. In the 1980's in the UK the macro environment produced a range of political, economic, social and technological factors which favoured a movement towards a HRM approach to people management and it is also true to say that the macro environment still has a very powerful influence over the extent to which HRM is practiced and types of HRM implemented today. The term 'human resource,' first emerged in the USA in the 1950's, coined by Peter Druker in one of his seminars and traces back to organisational development and human capital theory. HRM is controversial and debatable surrounded by great academic diversity. Confusion is caused because of the 'ambiguous pedigree' of the concept (Noon, 1992). There is a lack of clarity, the term can be viewed as being broad. HRM is a concept regarded as being enigmatic / obscure due to ideological, empirical and theoretical reasons and in many cases because of micro politics (Storey, 1992). Difficulties in defining HRM and the lack of a universally accepted definition implies that HRM is an innovation that takes on the meaning of whatever the person speaking at the time wants it to be (Torrington, 1989). Questions arise over the existence of HRM (Armstrong, 2000), over its meaning and status; is HRM a 'map,' 'model' or 'theory' (Noon, 1992) and of whether it is distinct from the traditional rhetoric of personnel and industrial relations management. Or is HRM simply old wine in a new bottle, a catch all term which basically re-labels the generic activities of personnel management (Torrington, 1989; Poole, 1990; Storey, 1995). Until the emergence of HRM, debatable as it is, the traditional approach to people management was personnel management. Personnel management is based on compliance, management control over employees, it was pluralist and concerned with adverse relations and thus operating via collective relationships (Trade Unions and employee representatives) and it is characteristic of a bureaucratic style of management. Personnel management tends to be reactive, tactical and concerned with short term objectives. Personnel management tends to have more pragmatic objectives, concerned greatly with cost effectiveness. In contrast HRM is proactive and strategic, it integrates personnel /industrial relation considerations with strategic decision making. HRM is based on commitment, it is unitarist with no conflict of interests thus focusing on an individual relationship between employee and line management. HRM concentrates on people as a vital resource and focus' upon greater utilisation of this asset through its policies so as to achieve organisational

Statement of purpose Personal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 12

Of purpose - Personal Statement Example I believe a meaningful life should be all about aiming high and working hard to reach that high. Purdue University is the best university that help one realize the full potential in health and human sciences. One of the unique qualities of Purdue University is that it has accreditation to offer programs in health and human sciences and guarantees a nationally recognized degree to any person undertaking a program in this university. Secondly, the university is committed to excellence though creating, disseminating and applying knowledge in the areas of the programs offered. Thirdly, the university opens its doors to the locals, national and international citizens through providing healthy and safe working and learning conditions to the students, teachers, workers and the community in general. The university has several interdisciplinary programs, which include radiology, occupational health science, environmental health science, environmental and occupational toxicology, and medical laboratory sciences. Purdue University has academic research and training facilities that will assist in pursuing my degree. Such facilities include state of the art programs that help in preparing students to become great leaders. In addition, there are research and development programs that aids in improving the understanding of the particular area of study. The faculty that interests me in Purdue University is the faculty of occupational and environmental toxicology. The program involves the study of the adverse effects of toxic substances on people, animals, and the ecosystem. The research projects in this faculty include the research on the environmental causes of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and tremors, research on cellular toxicities caused by radiation and research on fetal origin of adult diseases due to early exposure to chemicals such as pesticides. In

Impacts of toursim on locals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Impacts of toursim on locals - Essay Example The Social Exchange Theory (SET) seeks to explore the â€Å"exchange of resources between individual and groups in an interaction† where â€Å"actors supply one another with valued resources† (Ap 1992, p. 668, cited in Andriotis 2009, para. 3). The theory, an eclectic approach that includes psychology, sociology and economics, studies tourism under a social psychological and sociological lens (Yutyunyong 2009). An individual will engage in exchange when: a) there is value to the reward, b) it is perceived that the exchange will result to a valued reward, and c) the perceived cost is not more than the perceived reward (Skidmore 1975, cited in Jennings & Nickerson 2006). Under SET, inhabitants of a place tend to â€Å"have a positive attitude to tourism as long as the perceived benefits exceed the perceived costs† (Yutyunyong 2009, p. 2). SET purports that a person seeks reward and avoid punishment, thus, he acts with expectation of profit in mind (Yutyunyong 2009) . People participate in the exchange as it promises enhancement of economic life of the people (Yutyunyong 2009). Inhabitants uphold tourism in the area when the benefit they receive from tourism exceeds the negative effects (Yutyunyong 2009). Under this theory, relationship among individuals is formed with an underlying cost and benefit objective (Yutyunyong 2009). Thus, if an individual sees that the cost would be more than the perceived benefit, the individual will abandon the relationship (Yutyunyong 2009). The relationship is equitable when the cost is equal to the benefit (Yutyunyong 2009), the notion of equity which Emerson (1962, cited in Yutyunyong 2009) believes to be main concern of the theory. The theory seeks to understand the exchange of resources between individuals in the process of interaction wherein the object of the exchange possess a value that is measurable, with mutual transference of cost and benefit on both parties (Ap, 1992; Madrigal, 1995, cited in

Nurses floating to different specialized areas Essay Example for Free

Nurses floating to different specialized areas Essay Abstract: Floating is a staffing strategy that is seen as a solution to the general problem of nursing shortage. Floating involves utilizing nurses to work in different specialized units. Floating has its advantages in that it gives nurses an opportunity for overall professional development and relieves them from additional responsibilities such as delegating and staffing. Float nurses stick to patient care. However, as they have to work in units for which they are not sufficiently educated or trained, they find themselves inadequate in providing quality patient care. Moreover, it affects their overall sense of connectedness with their patients, their peers, and their specialty department. Thus, floating of nurses is considered by many as a threat to both nurses and patients. However, more recently, it has been found that the float nurse can be trained to meet varied needs of specialized units. This is made all the more easier when the float nurse undergoes training for a cluster of closely related specialty units. Resource teams are float pools where specialty of the nurse is recognized and training is provided as per needs by the management. Introduction: Nursing shortage is one of the major issues facing the healthcare sector of the United States. This is attributed mainly due to lack of enthusiasm amongst the youngsters today for pursuing nursing as a career option and secondly due to the rising population. To counter the increasing demands of nursing, the concept of floating has been introduced in many hospitals and clinical settings. Floating is a very recent phenomenon in nursing introduced mainly due to problems such as staffing shortages and fluctuating census (Dziuba-Ellis, 2006). Nurses are in general trained to work in particular specialties. But working in different specialized units requires them to undergo cross-training. This causes stress to the nurses and they lose their efficiency and confidence of attending to critically ill patients in specialized departments. In fact, when nurses are floated to different specialized units, both the nurses and the patients suffer. While the nurses find themselves inadequately trained to work in certain specialized units, patients face the danger of negligent or faulty treatment. Suitable analysis of issues involved in floating of nurses to different specialized units shows that this is highly risky both from the viewpoint of nurses and the viewpoint of patients. This problem is particularly relevant in today’s context as the concept of having a float pool of nurses is touted as a solution to the overwhelming national problem of nursing shortage. This paper focuses on the issue of floating of nurses to various specialized units in the United States – the reasons for floating, impact of such floating on nurses, impact of floating on patients and how to adapt this concept to the situation of nursing shortage. This paper will not cover alternate solutions to nursing shortage. The floating of professional nurses to unfamiliar practice settings should be avoided as it leads to unsafe practice situations and if at all floating is found to be totally essential, it must be ensured that it is allowed only in emergency situations when an increased demand for nurses with general basic skills is expected. Literature Review: The research report titled Nursing Resource Team: An Innovative Approach to Staffing by Baumann et al (June 2005) contrasts the traditional float pools with resource teams and after detailed analysis of the case study of the Nursing Resource Team at Hamilton Health Sciences from September 2002 until June 2004, concludes that resource teams as an innovative staffing strategy creates opportunities for full-time work, and provide nurses with opportunities for professional development. According to Baumann et al, floating is not a new practice. Nursing shortages that existed between 1974 and 1979 lead to innovative staffing solutions and floating was one of them. However, floating came to be known as resource team in 1981 when the term was first used in an article to describe the creation and organization of a float pool (Baumann et al, 2005). Earlier, float pools or resource teams were used across Canada and the US to save expenditure, counter the shortage of nurses, fluctuations in patient census, acuity, volume, and care demands. Baumann et al point out that use of float pools/resource teams is often viewed as a staffing strategy – one that facilitates flexible manipulation of staff. Today, float pools are more of a recruitment and retention strategy and this is proved by a study conducted by Crimlisk (Crimlisk et al, 2002). Contrary to this finding, however, experts in Canada suggest float staff do not serve retention purposes. According to Baumann et al, the NRT approach is different from the float pool in that it recognizes nursing expertise. In the case of float pools, a nurse is regarded as a generic worked who is able to work with different patient groups and utilize many skill sets. Further, the literature indicates that float nurses may be deployed as either assistive or replacement staff. According to a study by organizational development specialist Suzanne C. Luongo, titled â€Å"Connectedness as a Motivator for Nurse Retention at the Bedside† (2004). It has been found that floating is a disruption to connectedness to patients and families, connectedness to peers and connectedness to administration of the institution. This study was based on group interviews of staff nurses who have been at the bedside for a minimum of 5 years and have received high evaluations. While the first study focused on defining the concept of floating and explaining how it is applied in the nursing context, the second study raises the warning that float nurses may not enjoy their job because the job takes away the connection that a nurse needs to develop with the patients, the peers, and to the administration. When nurses are shifted through various specialized units, they cannot follow up on patients continuously; they cannot form stable friendships among other nurses and will not form any attachment to any specialized unit (Luongo, 2004). Crimlisk et al (2002) in their study titled â€Å"New graduate RNs in a float pool: An inner-city hospital experience† focus on the view of nurse managers and nurse educators that fresh graduate RNs cannot be included in a float pool. They prefer to have experienced nurses with multiple skills. However, the authors say that new graduate RNs are highly motivated, ready-to-learn, educationally prepared and intellectually stimulated though they do not have much clinical experience. The authors present a program for training new graduate RNs to practice nursing in a float pool. It has been proved that the program resulted in a 96% retention rate Boston Medical Center Nursing Division (Crimlisk et al, 2002). Moreover, the program offered the medical surgical units a strong clinical support float nurse, nursing managers a staffing solution in times of need, and the new graduate RN a broad range of clinical experiences making them more valuable members of the healthcare team. According to Crimlisk et al, this training model can be replicated in other institutions. Thus, this study gives a positive approach to the inevitable staffing solution of having a float pool of nurses. Crimlisk concludes that fresh graduate nurses who do not have the experience needed to become a float nurse should be trained specially to become more flexible and versatile (Crimlisk et al, 2002). Thus, this study holds that floating of nurses to specialized departments does not necessarily need only experienced nurses. With training, even newly graduated RNs can handle various specialized services in nursing. The article titled Full-Time or Part-Time Work in Nursing: Preferences, Tradeoffs and choices by Jennifer Blythe et al (2005), reviews historical trends in full-time and part time work in the general workforce and among nurses in particular. The study was conducted at three teaching hospitals in Ontario with more than 400 beds and included 10 focus groups of RNs and RPNs. Fourteen additional interviews were conducted with hospital administrators who were knowledgeable about nursing work arrangements. According to this paper human resources managers in all hospitals agreed that investment in full time staff saved â€Å"costs, provided better coverage, higher commitment, lower turnover and more continuity of car and more stable relationships in nursing and multidisciplinary teams† (Blythe et al, 2005). To increase full time jobs, the paper reports that one hospital offered a float pool of full time nurses in critical care, maternal-child and medical surgical areas. This float pool was part of a training strategy to help novice nurses to progress from medical surgical settings to specialist areas with shortages. However, it was found that these floating jobs appealed only to nurses with particular needs. The first study indicated that float nurses could be absorbed as assistive or replacement staff. According to the second study float nurses suffer due to lack of connectedness whereas the third study showed that float nurses could be trained to acquire new skills. But despite such training and absorption, this study takes a neutral stand that only some nurses can enjoy the experiences that come through float jobs depending on their needs. While the lack of connectedness and lack of training are cited to be discouraging factors in floating nurses, this study brings in a third angle – that of needs of nurses. Only nurses with particular needs would like floating to different specialized units. According to the study by Hugonnet et al (2004) titled â€Å"Nursing resources: a major determinant of nosocomial infection? † there is growing concern that changes in nurse workforce and hospital-restructuring interventions negatively impact on patient outcomes. The review focuses on the association between understaffing and health-care-associated infections. Previous studies have shown that overcrowding, understaffing or a misbalance between workload and resources are important determinants of nosocomial infections and cross-transmission of microorganisms. Importantly, not only the number of staff but also the level of their training affects outcomes. The evidence that cost-driven downsizing and changes in staffing patterns causes harm to patients cannot be ignored, and should not be considered as an inevitable outcome (Hugonnet et al, 2004). The fact that ‘level of training’ affects outcomes is a major finding as float nurses often suffer from inadequate skills. In this study it has been found that such inadequacy can lead to nosocomial infections and cross-transmission of microorganisms (Hugonnet, 2004). Thus it is indirectly implied that floating of nurses can lead to such infections and cross transmission of microorganisms. This study brings out a scientific drawback in the floating of nurses – one that could be detrimental physically to both nurses and the patients. This finding is further strengthened by the finding of Stone et al (2004) who point out that nursing shortage is managed by many health care facilities by expanded use of nonpermanent staff, such as float pool and agency nurses. Overwork and fatigue among these nurses have been associated with medication errors and falls, increased deaths, and spread of infection among patients and health care workers (Stone et al, 2004). Issue Analysis: RNs at many health care institutions have traditionally been required to float to other units as a solution to the issue of staffing shortage. Staffing practices, like floating, cross-training and the use of larger float pools are highly debated with focus on quality patient care and less stressful environment at work for nurses. Studies show that nurses naturally want to use the expertise theyve gained over the years on their own specialized units. But if they must work in a different area, or even if they choose to work on different units, they want the appropriate orientation to provide competent, safe care. According to Christine Kane-Urrabazo, MSN, RN, in Said another way: our obligation to float, floating is a viable solution to the issue of nursing shortage. She says that the though floating is opposed on the basis of many arguments, they are not justifiable when weighted against the consequences of not floating (Kane-Urrabazo, 2006). The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), requires all accredited organizations to ensure that â€Å"†¦all staff providing patient care and services on behalf of the organization are properly oriented to their jobs and the work environment before providing care, treatment, and services† (JCAHO, 2004, p. 5). This means, regardless of the settings, it is important for professional nurses to maintain clinical competence. According to the American Nurses Association (ANA, 2005), it is recommended that there should be a systematic plan for the cross-training of staff expected to float to ensure competence (2005). â€Å"The Psychological Stresses of Intensive Care Unit Nursing† by Hay and Oken focuses on floating in the ICU that provides complex nursing care (1972). The float nurse in the ICU is exposed to traumatic events such as death and dying, posing threats of object loss and personal failure. The nurse in the ICU needs to be familiar in handling many kinds of complex technical equipments and make correct measurements. The nurse in the ICU should be capable of making observations about her patients condition, to interpret subtle changes and use judgment to take appropriate action. Moreover, the nurse must maintain detailed records. Because of this and the nature of her tasks, temporarily floating in nurses from elsewhere when staff is short can be dangerous when the specialized unit concerned is the ICU (Hay and Oken, 1972). Kelly Herbig, RN-OCN, Rockford Memorial Hospital, Rockford, in her article titled â€Å"The highs of floating† in Nursing Spectrum says that she enjoys a lot of benefits as a float nurse. She points out that as a float nurse, she needs to focus only on patient care and need not deal with issues of staffing, delegating, and other charge-nurse responsibilities. Kelly Herbig says: â€Å"Floating to different departments and units affords me the chance to meet and work with a wide variety of staff and physicians†¦.. Talking to them about their experiences and viewpoints has helped me broaden my own views and given me a new perspective on nursing† (Herbig, 2004). Best of all she says that as a float staff, she is often viewed positively as â€Å"the help, the relief, the answer to the problem of short staffing†. On the contrary we have the case of Jackie. Badzek et al (1998) in her research article titled Administrative ethics and confidentiality privacy issues cites the case of Jackie. As a float nurse, Jackie found her work very stressful. She had to rotate between many units and patients. Each day she worked on a different unit with different co-workers. She developed few friendships or collegial relationships. She was often dispensing medications and treatments she found unfamiliar. When she attempted to ask questions, she found she approached gruff busy attending doctors and young uninformed house staff. Feeling trapped, Jackie began to divert narcotics (Badzek et al, 1998). This case highlights the plight of the float nurse without specific training and also offers a glimpse to the stress levels of an untrained float nurse. Many states have laws that indicate that it’s considered negligent or unprofessional for a nurse to offer or perform services for which she is not qualified by education, training, or experience. Therefore, accepting floating assignments for which the nurse is not qualified can jeopardize his or her career. There can be lawsuits and also disciplinary action by the state board of nursing. Disciplinary action can include license limitation, suspension, or revocation, and possibly mandatory continuing education (Gobis, 2001). In the study titled â€Å"When terror is routine: how Israeli nurses cope with multi-casualty terror†, authors Riba and Reches report on the case of Israeli nurses working in hospitals and looking after emergency care in times of terror attacks (Riba and Reches, 2002). Based on qualitative analysis of the data collected from focus group discussions involving 60 nurses and analysis of problems faced by them, the authors make a few recommendations in the context of floating. Riba and Riches recommend that post-basic courses in emergency medicine and trauma should be expanded to include emergency room logistics, stress management techniques, and debriefing strategies. Moreover, for nurses floating into emergency care from other departments, they suggest that an annual workshop should be held that includes drills for emergency care. They also suggest that the ER charge nurse should be provided training in leadership and group dynamics. Thus we find that the training that should be insisted for float nurses should be related to the specialized units for which they are chosen to work. This finding is also in accordance with the conclusion of the research report titled Nursing Resource Team: An Innovative Approach to Staffing by Baumann et al (June 2005). Indicators that can be used to measure success of these specially trained staff would be based on measuring retention in clinical settings where such trained float personnel are used. Susan Trossman, RN in her article titled â€Å"Staffing smart: A difficult proposition† says that cross-training to several units will make a nurse end up being an expert at little things and lose in-depth specialty advantage. Kim Armstrong, RNC, has worked at Tacoma General Hospital in Washington for 20 years. She agrees that cross-training gives RNs a greater range of skills. But, she says, It also dilutes skills. She clearly points out that floating nurses to various units and making them accept assignments for which they are educationally unprepared are putting their patients and their livelihood at risk. A nurse at the Elms College hearing illustrates this point. I was recently floated to Hematology/Oncology unit and had 8 patients. Six patients were on research protocols, each with 6 to 10 medications that I had to deliver. I didnt know any of these drugs. Many nurses do not even know their deficits (Nursing Report, 2001). In this context, it must be noted that there is a direct relationship to the skill of nurses and the number of nurses to patient outcomes (Nursing Report, 2001). All the above arguments indicate to only one clear solution. In a country that is facing nursing shortage, it would be unreasonable to say that floating should be totally banned. As numerous studies have shown, what is needed is adequate training of staff for various specialties. This argument is further stressed by Ruth Shumaker, RN, CNOR, and president of the Association of Operating Room Nurses, Inc. : The valuable nurse in the next millennium is the one who can do more who has the knowledge base to function as a specialist but also as a generalist working in multiple areas† (Trossman, 1999). Recommendations: While it is understood that float nurses need special training and education, one should remember that such skills imparted through short term programs tend to be forgotten if not used constantly. Hence they need regular scheduled workshops. Some recommendations to remember while choosing to have a float pool of nurses are (NYSNA, 2005): †¢ Nurses should not be floated to unfamiliar practice settings. †¢ If floating is deemed necessary, it should only be permitted in emergency situations that call for general nursing care. †¢ The RN should be able to self-evaluate and ask for further knowledge or training as her job needs. She should be granted the right to refuse assignments for which she is neither qualified nor trained. †¢ The charge nurse/supervisor should take the responsibility of allotting a particular float nurse to a particular specialized unit. If possible, she should assign a regular staff member of the specialized unit to guide and instruct the new float nurse. †¢ The healthcare facility should be able to perform needs assessment on a continuous process and provide inter department training as per needs. By monitoring trends in nursing indicators such as turnover, satisfaction, work-related illnesses and injury, overtime, etc. , they should also evaluate and maintain the quality of the nurse’s work life. Conclusion: Further research should be conducted as to the type of skills a float nurse is expected to perform in her various specialized units. It has been proved that resource teams that are an improvised float pool are ideal to counter the problem of nursing shortage. In resource teams, nurses work in their area of clinical expertise and preference, developing â€Å"in-depth knowledge of particular clinical populations. † Sometimes, nurses may be assigned as generalists and specialists from the float pool or resource team. It has been found that training is better possible when nurses are assigned to clinical clusters with certain patient populations. Examples of clustered units include critical care and emergency departments, adult medical-surgical, and pediatrics. However, nurses may also be sent to areas such as medical-surgical for which it is assumed only generic skills are required. The following general points should be remembered while implementing float pool nursing as a staffing strategy: Innovations should be introduced in a phased manner; it is important to have consistent leadership during the implementation phase; Orientation and interpretative sessions must be planned and roles of float nurses should be charted in detail; Evaluation should be done on a continual basis. With respect to the float pool of nurses, it must be ensured that their number is large enough so that there is no overtime. Care should be taken to ensure that clinical clusters include relatively narrow and related skill sets and areas of expertise. To make floating of nurses to different specialty units, a viable solution to the problems of nursing shortage and quality care, it is important that the top management, the nurse in charge and the float nurse all work in synchronization towards providing respect and support for development of float nurses as specialists with patient-specific expertise and experience. When individual nurses are deployed only to those areas for which they possess the requisite skills, there is mutual benefit for the nurses as well as for the patients to whom they offer their valuable services. Bibliography: American Nurses Association (2005). Utilization guide for the ANA â€Å"Principles for nurse staffing†. Silver Spring, MD: Author Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. (2004). Systems analysis. Ensure that your float staff and contracted staff are providing safe care. Joint Commission Perspectives on Patient Safety, 4(7), 5-6. New York State Nurses Association. (2005). NYSNA position statements, RN staffing effectiveness and nursing shortage. Latham, NY: Author. http://www. nysna. org/programs/nai/practice/positions/floating. htm Kane-Urrabazo, Christine (2006). Said Another Way: Our Obligation to Float. Nursing Forum. Volume 41, Issue 2, Page 95. April 2006. http://www. blackwell-synergy. com/doi/abs/10. 1111/j. 1744-6198. 2006. 00043. x Luongo et al (2004). Connectedness as a Motivator for Nurse Retention at the Bedside. July 24, 2004. Nurse Retention. http://stti. confex. com/stti/inrc15/techprogram/paper_17745. htm Hugonnet et al (2004). Nursing resources: a major determinant of nosocomial infection? Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases. 17(4):329-333, August 2004. Copyright Lippincott Williams Wilkins, Inc. http://www. co-infectiousdiseases. com/pt/re/coinfdis/abstract. 00001432-200408000-00009. htm;jsessionid=FDkbKKGyZ54nPbDSzyJwhhhBs1b8hS866nCYvc8Lxqp2qV1zHRp5! 2082300909! -949856145! 8091! -1 Crimlisk et al (2002). New graduate RNs in a float pool. An inner-city hospital experience. Journal of Nursing Administration. April 2002. 32(4):211-7. http://www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/entrez/query. fcgi? db=pubmedcmd=Retrievedopt=AbstractPluslist_uids=11984257itool=iconabstrquery_hl=6itool=pubmed_docsum Crimlisk et al (2002). New Graduate RNs in a Float Pool: An Inner-city Hospital Experience. Journal of Nursing Administration. 32(4):211-217, April 2002. http://www. jonajournal. com/pt/re/jona/abstract. 00005110-200204000-00010. htm;jsessionid=FDmP1gHbHHxZW8Rvmffskj9WcBrHyqH9WYdGTLq0ftDVdJyt8141! 2082300909! -949856145! 8091! -1 Dziuba-Ellis, Jennifer (2006). Float Pools and Resource Teams: A Review of the Literature. Journal of Nursing Care Quality. 21(4):352-359, October/December 2006. http://www. jncqjournal. com/pt/re/jncq/abstract. 00001786-200610000-00013. htm;jsessionid=FDmJkWq3P7J4btG4yWyy9L1CdkfnTw61myy60RB4WYG5RFRJ32wy! 2082300909! -949856145! 8091! -1 Badzek et al (1998). Administrative Ethics and Confidentiality Privacy Issues. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. December 31, 1998. Available at http://www. nursingworld. org/ojin/topic8/topic8_2. htm Stone et al (2004). Nurses working conditions: Implications for infectious disease. November 2004. Emerging Infectious Diseases 10(11), pp. 1984-1989. http://www. ahrq. gov/RESEARCH/dec04/1204RA4. htm Herbig, Kelly (2004). The Highs of Floating. Nursing Spectrum. http://nsweb. nursingspectrum. com/cfforms/GuestLecture/HighsOfFloating. cfm Gobis, Linda (2001). The Perils of Floating: When nurses are directed to work outside their areas of expertise. The American Journal of Nursing. September 2001. Volume 101, Issue 9. http://www. nursingworld. org/AJN/2001/sept/Wrights. htm Riba and Reches (2002). When terror is routine: how Israeli nurses cope with multi-casualty terror. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. Vol. #7 No. #3, Manuscript 5. Available: http://www. nursingworld. org/ojin/topic19/tpc19_5. htm Trossman, Susan (1999). Staffing smart: A difficult proposition. American Nurse. Nursing World. 1999. http://nursingworld. org/tan/99janfeb/float. htm. Nursing Report (2001). Report of the Legislative Special Commission on Nursing and Nursing Practice. May 2001. http://www. mass. gov/legis/reports/nursingreport. htm Blythe et al (2005). Full-Time or Part-Time Work in Nursing: Preferences, Tradeoffs and choices. Healthcare Quarterly Vol. 8 No. 3. 2005. Pages 69-77. www. nhsru. com/documents/Full-time%20or%20part-time%20work%20in%20nursing%202005. pdf Hay, Donald and Oken, Donald (1972). The Psychological Stresses of Intensive Care Unit Nursing. Psychosomatic Medicine. Volume 34, No. 2. March/April 1972. www. psychosomaticmedicine. org/cgi/reprint/34/2/109. pdf.

Integrated Marketing Communication Program for Jeans

Integrated Marketing Communication Program for Jeans Executive summary: Various jeans industry such as Denim, Levis, and Disney etc. design various integrated marketing program. Although common objective of all IMC program is increase brand awareness, sale and design a unique image in customers mind. In order to address and attract customer all jeans industry launch various campaign. To communicate with public and customers they advertise their campaign on TV, magazine, online and radio. Through their advertisement they want to design their brand image in customer mind. Besides advertisement, they also carried out promotion activity, public relation, direct marketing etc. Direct marketing is although time consuming but most effective tool for communication. Various jeans industry also organizes various events in order to communicate properly with customers, for example Aadharshila Brand solution was planning to launch an event called â€Å"JEAN JANOON† for their client â€Å"The HUB† a multi brand outlet for apparel. Main purpose of this event is to increase the sale of jeans. Before designing IMC program this company carried out market research in order to judge customers behaviors toward jeans. For research they design the strategy for â€Å"JEAN JANOON† event. During the event they decided to get feedback from customer who visits â€Å"The HUB† multiband retail outlet so that appropriate primary data can be collected for designing IMC strategy for â€Å"The HUB†. Before designing integrated marketing communication program it is necessary to judge consumers behavior toward jeans , it is necessary to known customers liking and disliking, these data provide various support during designing of IMC program. Although there are various media available for communicating but Printads in magazine and news paper is seen most effective medium followed by television. After Research survey done by various jeans company, it has been found that male respondents were less brand conscious than female. There is no particular fashion trend among males, but females are more conscious towards seasonal fashion trends. â€Å"Fitting† and â€Å"style† are the major attributes considered by customer while buying jeans. Marketing plan plan Situation Analysis: Every organization faces a lot of problem at present time so it became necessary for every organization that before setting any objective carried out situation analysis in order to recognize strength, weakness, opportunities and threat present in our organization. According to Sally and John, marketing plans are â€Å"the written document or blueprint for implementing and controlling an organizations marketing activities related to a particular marketing strategy† . A successful marketing plan is able to improve organizations profits and growth, uses in objective setting and monitors results. So to gain a successful market plan it is necessary to to understand the current situation comprehensively and trends affecting the future of the organization.There are two major reasons to explain why situation analysis plays a vital role in developing marketing plan. Firstly, dynamic marketing environment will lead to uncertainty, threats and opportunities for marketers. Marketing managers who success to know changes in environment through situation analysis can lead their companies to capitalize on opportunities and cope with threats created by changes. Then, systematically analyzing situational environments in order to identify our customers and understand their needs. There are certain opportunities in jeans industry, such as increase women wear collection, increase market and market share through integrated PR, and advertisement and promotional campaign. Besides opportunities there is a lot of threat that create barrier for entry in to jeans industry. These threats are as follow: Increasing competition in ethical fashion Ethical brand is not taken seriously by public High price and loyalty decrease loyalty toward brand Main objective behind situation analysis is to known analyze customer, competitor and there strategy. Marketing objective: After situation analysis we became able to known our organization strength, weakness, opportunities and threat present in environment. It provides a lot of support in setting of objective. There may be a lot of marketing objective, some are as follow: Increase market share To create new successful denim and clothing rang and expand it to convert not user in to user. Increase sale by 50% in 6 month from the launch of public campaign Create awareness among target audience. Use excessive advertising especially using media preferred by the target market. Create product belonging and position among buyers mind Marketing strategies: Toachieve these objective we implement various strategy. Target market: Urban personality: Affluent young professional Prosperous young professional Students and cosmopolitan Marketing Mix Strategies : Main aim of various jeans industry to produce high quality jeans in various qualities such as five packet jeans in various size. This is mostly done to capture youth attention. They produce jeans in various colour to capture more market share. Must of jeans brand such as levis, denim, dem lea diesel jeans jump in to Indian market by producing high quality of jeans Pricing range from 4.7 $ to 9.5$. Jeans do not need too much promotion. It is done mostly by fair, E – commerce and agent The distribution channels for jeans industry are as follows. MANUFACTURER (COMPANY) WHOLESELLER JEANS SEND TO RETAILER CUSTOMER Internal Process It is as follows. Sample Cutting Stitching Washing Pressing and labeling Finishing Dispatched to store Packing and containers Explanation The sample is first send by the buyer. Its called a gold seal sample. In cutting dept, one piece is placed on the other and in this way a bundle of 50 Jeans is made. Then the cutter cuts it. In the stitching dept, front end or the upper part is made. Then backend is made and they are assembled together in the assembly end. Then the belt is made. Washing can be done by simple garment wash or through the stone wash and chemicals. It is done according to the buyers request. In Pressing and labeling dept, the Jeans are pressed and then labeled for identification. In finishing dept, the quality of jeans is checked and mistakes are rectified. Then the Jeans dispatched to the store. Then packing is done. It is done according to the buyers request. Then they are sent to the containers. Samples of Product; Implementation tactics : Launch a blind ad campaign on billboards and magazines in all A class areas of major cities and magazine. Heavy advertising on TV, newspapers and magazines Set displays of jeans in showrooms and major dealer outlets in all cities. Reduce number of billboards, television and magazines advertisements. Continue Advertising Evaluation, Monitoring and Control: Goal of marketing plan is to achieve market objective that are established before implementation of marketing plan. We evaluate and control our strategic tactic by comparing our result with standard established before setting of plan, by measuring customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. If result is less than our standard than there any is default in implementation and monitoring. The people who are responsible for the monitoring and control of the marketing plan involves, the Marketing Executives, Sales Managers, Media Managers, Market Research Departments, and the Production Managers. Some activities must be carried out for precisely and closely evaluating the effectiveness of the strategies and tactics for example the gathering and structuring of data regarding market, product, consumers and the pricing trends, then the generation of daily sales report should be maintained and then in the end continuous reconfirming of the marketing budget and activities by the managers of different divisions. The Integrated Marketing Communication Plan Integrated Marketing Communications is a term used to describe a holistic approach to marketing communication. It aims to ensure consistency of message and the complementary use of media. The concept includes online and offline marketing channels. Online marketing channels include any e-marketing campaigns or programs, pay-per-click, affiliate, email, banner to latest web related channels for webinar, blog, micro-blogging, RSS, podcast, and Internet TV. Offline marketing channels are traditional print (newspaper, magazine), mail order, public relations, industry relations, billboard, radio, and television. A company develops its integrated marketing communication programme using all the elements of the marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion) So Integrated marketing communication is integration of all marketing tools, approaches, and resources within a company which maximizes impact on consumer mind and which results into maximum profit at minimum cost. Promotional activities include Advertising, sales promotion, and personal selling activities. It also includes internet marketing, sponsorship marketing, direct marketing, database marketing and public relations. And integration of all these promotional tools along with other components of marketing mix to gain edge over competitor is called Integrated Marketing Communication. Situational analysis: First of all we carried out we carried out situation analysis in order to unedrtood problem. In this we identify our compititors and their strategy for example Levi carried out compititor analysis and find out various strategy adopted by Tommy Hilfiger, JNCO, VF Corporation, Gap, Calvin Klein, Diesel and Paris Blues. After situation analysis Levy Strauss Company find out thattheCalifornia gold rush outfitter whose trademark blue jeans have been an American clothing staple for generations, had fallen on hard times by 2004 and needed a change in strategic direction.After seven consecutive years of falling sales, profits turned to losses in 2003. Management responded to the decline by moving its manufacturing plants offshore and by introducing a new line of discount jeans at Wal-Mart.It also considered selling off its Dockers casual pants unit in order to focus on its jeans business. Under situation analysis we also analyze financial position of company. IMC objective: There are various IMC objective set by jeans company after situation analysis in order to accomplish their goal. Some of objective are as follow: To Increase sale by 50% in six month To Increase brand awareness To Increase customer loyality To Increase desire of customer To Increase repeat purchase To measure customer satisfaction To create relationship with customer on personal level To control and observe public opinion To receive feedback from customer on regular basis Media objectivesstate the impact that you expect to have on an audience in terms of reach and frequency. Objectives must meet the following criteria: Measurability Quantifiability Realism time-specificity Budget determination: We need to establish what amount of money will be needed to achieve the IMC objectives.Although there is various methods present to determine what amount of money invest on IMC. These methods are as follow: Affordable Method Percentage of Sales Method Unit of Sales Method Zero Budgeting Method Inaffordable methodwe invest money on IMC as soon as we can afford. However inPercentage of Sales Methodamount of money invest on IMC tool depend on what amount of sale we expect to achieve during course of year. These percentages are mostly adhoc and sometime based on judgment. InUnit of Sales MethodCompany allocate a certain proportion of cost of product to promotion. Thus say if ex factory cost of the product is say Rs 100/ the company will allot Rs.10/- toward promotion cost. Hence if company expects sale 10,000 unit of the product, thus allocated IMC budget will be Rs.100.000/-. In Zero Budgeting Method, company determine what need to achieve in term of sale and then rework backward in term of what money will be needed to be allocate to deliver those customers. Thus if company believe that in order to achieve their sales, 10,000 customers need to purchase their jeans once during the planning period than it will work out what number of prospective customers will needed to be tar geted through ATL and BTL activity, in order to achieve that result. IMC Methodologies There are various component of integrated marketing communication that is as follow: Advertisement Advertisement is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas or products by an identified sponsor. Objective of any ads is to increase brand awareness. Objectives: There are mostly three objective of advertisement compaign, that are as follow: Inform Persuade Remind Inform: Informative advertising, seeks to tell the market about the jeans, explain the new quality added in jeans, provide information on pricing, and build awareness of both the jeans quality and the company. Such objectives are normally pursued at the launch of a new quality jeans, or re-launch / up-date of an existing jean. Persuade: Here objectives are to encourage the target audience to switch brands, make the purchase, and create a preference in the market for the jeans as opposed to its competition. Advertising of this nature is required in highly competitive markets, where a range of jeans design competes directly with each other. In such circumstances businesses often seek to differentiate their jeans through Comparison Advertising – either directly or indirectly comparing its jeans to that of its competitors. Remind: Reminder Advertising, is used to maintain interest and awareness of a well established jeans brand in the market, often in the latter stages of its product life cycle. It is often used at the Point-of-Purchase to remind consumers of the Brand. Advertisement budget: Having identified advertising objectives, the advertising budget must be set. Determining exactly how much a business should spend on advertising to achieve the desired level of sales. Commonly, the decision is based on past experience of expenditure on advertising, and the sales subsequently achieved. There are however a number of factors that can be considered in setting the advertising budget Factors influencing the setting of advertising Budgets: Product life cycle stage:New products in the Launch stage of their Product Life Cycle, will normally require greater expenditure on advertising to create product awareness, and encourage consumers to trial the product. Whilst products that have reached Maturity in their product life cycle, will often require smaller advertising budgets to achieve the level of sales required. Competition:The number of competitors in the market, and their expenditure on advertising competing products, will influence a business to spend to a similar or higher degree. Product Differentiation:A product very similar to other products on the market may require greater expenditure on advertising to differentiate it from its competitors. Advertising Strategy: Developing an Advertising Strategy to achieve the objectives of a campaign, requires that consideration be given to both the ‘Message which will be communicated and the ‘Media through which it will be sent Advertising Message An advertising campaign, no matter how much money is spent, no matter what media is used, will only be successful if the Message appeals to the target audience. Given the level of advertising which bombards the average consumer, a successful advertising message must stand out amongst the advertising clutter. Thus marketing professionals are required to be creative, imaginative and innovative in developing the advertising message, both in terms of what is said, and How it is said? What is said This is often referred to as the ‘Big Idea, and will normally address the key benefits sought by the target audience, motivating the audience to pay attention. Given the constant search for new ways to appeal to target audiences, it is difficult to categories the content of advertising messages which a business may send, below we include a couple of examples of actual message strategy. During delivery of advertisement massage in customer mind take the personality symbol, lifestyle and musical as consideration. In addition the tone of the advertisement will need to be established, which can be either positive or negative. The advert may therefore promote positive feelings of fun, contentment, and happiness or take on a more negative, somber, or even threatening tone. Selecting Advertising Media: In addition to deciding upon the content, style and tone of the advertising message, the media through which the message will be communicated to the target audience must also be selected. Mostly for jeans advertisement we select media such as magazine, newspaper and outdoor. TV rarely used for advertisement of jeans. In order to select the most appropriate media, consideration must should be given to various advantage and disadvantage of various media. Strengths and weakness of various media are as given below: Television : Strengths Dynamic attention getting media, combining visual, sound and animated stimulus. Strong potential Impact High market coverage Good at demonstrating products Weaknesses: Highly expensive Poor at communicating lengthy technical information Newspapers: Strengths: Targeting is possible through profiling readership Good level of market coverage Weaknesses: Static media, not suitable for product demonstration Potential for poor reproduction, sometimes limited to black and white print Short-life span, i.e. todays newspapers become tomorrows rubbish Magazines: Strengths: High quality reproduction, of color images Targeting is possible through specialist publications Good pass on readership Weaknesses: Static media, not suitable for product demonstration Lengthy lead-time between advert being placed and magazine being published Outdoor: Strengths: High repeat exposure to advert Relatively low cost Low levels of competition, in terms of advertising clutter Weaknesses: Limited audience selectivity / targeting possible Static media, not suitable for product demonstrations Difficult to monitor effectiveness â€Å"Make them your own† is the name of the campaign launched by Levis to boost the sale of Denim jeans. This is one of the most aggressive marketing and advertising strategy followed by Levis to move up the sales. The theme of this marketing campaign is narcissistic youth. It will feature youth who will check themselves out in Denim blue jeans. The advertising will target the age group of 18 – 24 years. Mostly levy also select TV, Magazine, and Newspaper as a media for delivering there massage about their product in customer mind. PRINT Ads: This ad focus on that even in bad time our company ABC produce good quality of product in comparison to our competitor. ABC Company compares their product with competitors in quality and design. Through this ads company want to show that our product is superior in quality and design. Sale promotion: Sale promotion is collection of various consumers and trade promotional tool such as rebate, discount, gift, contest, coupons, price deal, contest game, sampling etc. to increase sale of products. There are certain objectives of sale promotion. However main objective is to increase immediate sale because Sales Managers are under great pressure to produce results quickly. Objective: There are certain objectives of sale promotion that are as follow: To increase immediate customer sale To increase support among the marketers sales force. To gain the support of the trade in marketing the product Reasons for Growth of Sales Promotion: There are number of reason for growth of company in sale promotion some are as follow: Increasing Competition Due to increase in competition, companies are finding it increasingly difficult to compete on quality. They are therefore resorting to more innovative methods of sales promotion. In order to have a competitive advantage over its competitors like Levis, Pepe, Killer and others, Spykar Jeans, once a year has a grand sale of up to 50%. Customers Have Become More Price Sensitive: The increase price sensitivity is direct result of rampant inflation. Economic support this trend further, as a result customers and dealer became more sensitive toward price. If the customers get branded jeans at half the actual price, then they are definitely going to make huge purchases of Spykar Jeans because they want value for their money, as they are price sensitive. Sales Promotions Generally Create an Immediate Positive Impact on Sales: Advertising, personal selling and other methods of promotion produce slower impact on sales in compared to sales promotion. Sales promotions are mostly for short duration, for a specified period, leading to a sense of urgency in consumers to buy now. This creates an immediate positive impact on sales. Products have become more standardized: In many product categories there is proliferation of brand or line extension and me too many brands. Most of brand perceived by consumer varies little in price. Due to this it became very difficult for advertiser to reposition their product in customers mind. Due to which they focus on more and more on sale promotion to get immediate result. Advertising Has Become More Expensive and Less Effective: All the advertising media have become quite expensive. Audio-visual medium, which is considered as the most effective for short-duration ads, may cost in excess of Rs. 1 lakh for a 10 second exposure during prime time. In many cases, consumers have reached a point of boredom due to excessive advertising on TV. Firms with small budgets cannot compete with big companies, which spend huge sums of money on advertising. For these small budget firms, sales promotion is a more cost-effective promotion method to produce sales results. Trade Has Become More Powerful: At present time Retailers and wholesalers have became more powerful and demand extra facility from company to promote their product. Company has no other alternative. Besides these there are also various kind reason such as Excess Stocks, Impulse Buying Is Increasing, Sales Promotions Maximize Profits etc. Promotion Strategies: Promotional strategy is mostly run to change consumers behavior, to increase brand image, to increase profit, to increase sale of various good. There are mostly two kind of sale promotion, one is directed toward consumer and other one is directed toward trade such as dealer, supplier, retailer etc. Consumer sale promotion tool: There are a lot of promotional tool used to increase sale. Consumer sale promotion is directed toward consumer. It stimulate consumer to purchase their product rapidly. There are a lot of tool that are as follow: Price deal: Price deal is temporary reduction in price of product. There are two type of deal: cents-off deals and price-pack deals. Price deal is given at various times to stimulate purchase of jeans. Coupon: A coupon is typically a printed certificate giving the bearer a stated price reduction or special value on a specific product, generally for a specific period. Various company issue various kind of coupon that contain various discount price , customer get the advantage of this discount and purchase jeans at low price. Offer: There are various kind of gift is offer by various jeans industry. For example the branding magazine said that the Gap will be conducting a marketing campaign centered on the idea that your favorite songs and your favorite jeans, Gap jeans, make the perfect fit. Customers who try on a pair of the retailers new jeans will receive a free iTMS download. The campaign will be marketed with print and TV ads, and will feature TV commercials with musicians singing covers of their favorite song while wearing Gap jeans. The company will be offering those collected covers in a CD at retail Gap locations for customers who make a US$60 or more Gap purchase. Premium: Sometime various companies like Levy, Denim etc. offer some gift or at bargain price to encourage customer buying. Sampling: Some company like American eagles to known customer feedback provide free simple of various jeans according to their preference. Advertising Specialities: Advertising specialities also call a promotional product. It mostly given to our loyal customers. It includes various card like birthday card, New Year card. It is mostly done to retain old customer. Trade sale promotion tool: Objectives of Trade Sales Promotion: Gain/maintain distribution Influence resellers to promote product Influence resellers to offer price discount Increase reseller inventory Defend against competitors Avoid reduction of normal prices There are various sale promotion tools that stimulate trade to promote company product. There are a lot of trade sale promotion tools some are as discussed below: Trade Allowances: Trade allowancesare short-term special allowances, discounts, or deals granted to resellers to stimulate reseller to rapid purchase of their product. Point-of-Purchase Display: Point-of-purchase displays are generally used at the retail level to call customer attention to a featured product. In this company employees observe every retail shop and those retail shop that display more company product will be winner of special gift or prize Trade Shows: A trade show is periodic, semi periodic public event at which supplier displays their jeans product and provides information about jeans quality and price to potential buyer. After implementing these different techniques of sale promotion we monitor result and evaluate these by comparing with objective set before implementation of plan. Public relation Public relation is nothing but creating a favorable relation for organization and product which is done through used of various communication channel and tool. So public relation is mostly done to improve the image of company and build good image in customers mind. So public relation may be define as â€Å"Public Relations is a set of management, supervisory, and technical functions that foster an organizations ability to strategically listen to, appreciate, and respond to those persons whose mutually beneficial relationships with the organization are necessary if it is to achieve its missions and values. Objective: Like other aspect of marketing, public relation is also used to address several broad aspect of marketing like: Building Product Awareness–When introducing a new product or relaunching an existing product, marketers can use a PR element that generates consumer attention and awareness through media placements and special events. Creating Interest:Public Relation create public interest to used the product at least for once time. Providing Information:Through the Public relation we can provide a lot of information about company activity and their product feature and service provided by company. This information is delivered to public through newspaper, article website, collateral material; PR helps in delivering information that helps to public in understanding the product feature. Stimulating Demand:A positive article in a newspaper, on TV, news show or mentioned on the Internet, often results in a discernable increase in product sales. Reinforcing the Brand:In many companies like levy, denim jeans company the public relations function is also involved with brand reinforcement by maintaining positive relationships with key audiences, and thereby aiding in building a strong image. Direct Marketing Direct marketing is business of selling company product directly to customers through mail order, telephone, fax, e-mails, or web selling, rather than through retailers. Objective: There are mostly to objective for which direct marketing is carried out these are as follow: Convert not user to user. It is mostly done to obtain new client. The identification of new potential clients is very crucial when it comes to recruit new prospects and transformed them into your clients. The perpetual loyalty of customers. A loyal consumer cost less than new customers. Strategy: Various jeans industry like denim, Levi Strauss Co involved in direct marketing to get more market share. These companies sent a mail-order catalog to approximately prospective customers. 100-page catalog, developed in-house, targets both men and women and also contains 10 pages devoted to home products. There are various tools for direct marketing these are as :Direct response television marketing. Besides these jeans producing company also used various methods to promote their product. One method that Levis has recently taken is Path Breaking Strategy. Path breaking strategy by Levis: This strategy is mostly for those jeans whose cost above Rs.1400. We know a lot of thing about EMIs for house, car and other kind of white goods. But these EMIs is first time adopted by Levis for jeans.This idea has been conceptualized by Levis. Downturn market, cost cutting everywhere and empty pockets is the present situation; and here to curb all these hindrances, Levis is now, for the first time ever offering EMI facilities on its apparel wear in India. Simply shop for more than Rs. 1500 and you can avail this offer. This amount will be set off through your credit card in three equal installments. They have also tied up with ICICI Bank for the credit card settlement. There are certain objectives behind this strategy that are as follow: To increase the sales of premium jeans wear category that is worth more than Rs. 4000 per denim. To ensure sales throughout the year irrespective of seasonality:How will this objective be achie Integrated Marketing Communication Program for Jeans Integrated Marketing Communication Program for Jeans Executive summary: Various jeans industry such as Denim, Levis, and Disney etc. design various integrated marketing program. Although common objective of all IMC program is increase brand awareness, sale and design a unique image in customers mind. In order to address and attract customer all jeans industry launch various campaign. To communicate with public and customers they advertise their campaign on TV, magazine, online and radio. Through their advertisement they want to design their brand image in customer mind. Besides advertisement, they also carried out promotion activity, public relation, direct marketing etc. Direct marketing is although time consuming but most effective tool for communication. Various jeans industry also organizes various events in order to communicate properly with customers, for example Aadharshila Brand solution was planning to launch an event called â€Å"JEAN JANOON† for their client â€Å"The HUB† a multi brand outlet for apparel. Main purpose of this event is to increase the sale of jeans. Before designing IMC program this company carried out market research in order to judge customers behaviors toward jeans. For research they design the strategy for â€Å"JEAN JANOON† event. During the event they decided to get feedback from customer who visits â€Å"The HUB† multiband retail outlet so that appropriate primary data can be collected for designing IMC strategy for â€Å"The HUB†. Before designing integrated marketing communication program it is necessary to judge consumers behavior toward jeans , it is necessary to known customers liking and disliking, these data provide various support during designing of IMC program. Although there are various media available for communicating but Printads in magazine and news paper is seen most effective medium followed by television. After Research survey done by various jeans company, it has been found that male respondents were less brand conscious than female. There is no particular fashion trend among males, but females are more conscious towards seasonal fashion trends. â€Å"Fitting† and â€Å"style† are the major attributes considered by customer while buying jeans. Marketing plan plan Situation Analysis: Every organization faces a lot of problem at present time so it became necessary for every organization that before setting any objective carried out situation analysis in order to recognize strength, weakness, opportunities and threat present in our organization. According to Sally and John, marketing plans are â€Å"the written document or blueprint for implementing and controlling an organizations marketing activities related to a particular marketing strategy† . A successful marketing plan is able to improve organizations profits and growth, uses in objective setting and monitors results. So to gain a successful market plan it is necessary to to understand the current situation comprehensively and trends affecting the future of the organization.There are two major reasons to explain why situation analysis plays a vital role in developing marketing plan. Firstly, dynamic marketing environment will lead to uncertainty, threats and opportunities for marketers. Marketing managers who success to know changes in environment through situation analysis can lead their companies to capitalize on opportunities and cope with threats created by changes. Then, systematically analyzing situational environments in order to identify our customers and understand their needs. There are certain opportunities in jeans industry, such as increase women wear collection, increase market and market share through integrated PR, and advertisement and promotional campaign. Besides opportunities there is a lot of threat that create barrier for entry in to jeans industry. These threats are as follow: Increasing competition in ethical fashion Ethical brand is not taken seriously by public High price and loyalty decrease loyalty toward brand Main objective behind situation analysis is to known analyze customer, competitor and there strategy. Marketing objective: After situation analysis we became able to known our organization strength, weakness, opportunities and threat present in environment. It provides a lot of support in setting of objective. There may be a lot of marketing objective, some are as follow: Increase market share To create new successful denim and clothing rang and expand it to convert not user in to user. Increase sale by 50% in 6 month from the launch of public campaign Create awareness among target audience. Use excessive advertising especially using media preferred by the target market. Create product belonging and position among buyers mind Marketing strategies: Toachieve these objective we implement various strategy. Target market: Urban personality: Affluent young professional Prosperous young professional Students and cosmopolitan Marketing Mix Strategies : Main aim of various jeans industry to produce high quality jeans in various qualities such as five packet jeans in various size. This is mostly done to capture youth attention. They produce jeans in various colour to capture more market share. Must of jeans brand such as levis, denim, dem lea diesel jeans jump in to Indian market by producing high quality of jeans Pricing range from 4.7 $ to 9.5$. Jeans do not need too much promotion. It is done mostly by fair, E – commerce and agent The distribution channels for jeans industry are as follows. MANUFACTURER (COMPANY) WHOLESELLER JEANS SEND TO RETAILER CUSTOMER Internal Process It is as follows. Sample Cutting Stitching Washing Pressing and labeling Finishing Dispatched to store Packing and containers Explanation The sample is first send by the buyer. Its called a gold seal sample. In cutting dept, one piece is placed on the other and in this way a bundle of 50 Jeans is made. Then the cutter cuts it. In the stitching dept, front end or the upper part is made. Then backend is made and they are assembled together in the assembly end. Then the belt is made. Washing can be done by simple garment wash or through the stone wash and chemicals. It is done according to the buyers request. In Pressing and labeling dept, the Jeans are pressed and then labeled for identification. In finishing dept, the quality of jeans is checked and mistakes are rectified. Then the Jeans dispatched to the store. Then packing is done. It is done according to the buyers request. Then they are sent to the containers. Samples of Product; Implementation tactics : Launch a blind ad campaign on billboards and magazines in all A class areas of major cities and magazine. Heavy advertising on TV, newspapers and magazines Set displays of jeans in showrooms and major dealer outlets in all cities. Reduce number of billboards, television and magazines advertisements. Continue Advertising Evaluation, Monitoring and Control: Goal of marketing plan is to achieve market objective that are established before implementation of marketing plan. We evaluate and control our strategic tactic by comparing our result with standard established before setting of plan, by measuring customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. If result is less than our standard than there any is default in implementation and monitoring. The people who are responsible for the monitoring and control of the marketing plan involves, the Marketing Executives, Sales Managers, Media Managers, Market Research Departments, and the Production Managers. Some activities must be carried out for precisely and closely evaluating the effectiveness of the strategies and tactics for example the gathering and structuring of data regarding market, product, consumers and the pricing trends, then the generation of daily sales report should be maintained and then in the end continuous reconfirming of the marketing budget and activities by the managers of different divisions. The Integrated Marketing Communication Plan Integrated Marketing Communications is a term used to describe a holistic approach to marketing communication. It aims to ensure consistency of message and the complementary use of media. The concept includes online and offline marketing channels. Online marketing channels include any e-marketing campaigns or programs, pay-per-click, affiliate, email, banner to latest web related channels for webinar, blog, micro-blogging, RSS, podcast, and Internet TV. Offline marketing channels are traditional print (newspaper, magazine), mail order, public relations, industry relations, billboard, radio, and television. A company develops its integrated marketing communication programme using all the elements of the marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion) So Integrated marketing communication is integration of all marketing tools, approaches, and resources within a company which maximizes impact on consumer mind and which results into maximum profit at minimum cost. Promotional activities include Advertising, sales promotion, and personal selling activities. It also includes internet marketing, sponsorship marketing, direct marketing, database marketing and public relations. And integration of all these promotional tools along with other components of marketing mix to gain edge over competitor is called Integrated Marketing Communication. Situational analysis: First of all we carried out we carried out situation analysis in order to unedrtood problem. In this we identify our compititors and their strategy for example Levi carried out compititor analysis and find out various strategy adopted by Tommy Hilfiger, JNCO, VF Corporation, Gap, Calvin Klein, Diesel and Paris Blues. After situation analysis Levy Strauss Company find out thattheCalifornia gold rush outfitter whose trademark blue jeans have been an American clothing staple for generations, had fallen on hard times by 2004 and needed a change in strategic direction.After seven consecutive years of falling sales, profits turned to losses in 2003. Management responded to the decline by moving its manufacturing plants offshore and by introducing a new line of discount jeans at Wal-Mart.It also considered selling off its Dockers casual pants unit in order to focus on its jeans business. Under situation analysis we also analyze financial position of company. IMC objective: There are various IMC objective set by jeans company after situation analysis in order to accomplish their goal. Some of objective are as follow: To Increase sale by 50% in six month To Increase brand awareness To Increase customer loyality To Increase desire of customer To Increase repeat purchase To measure customer satisfaction To create relationship with customer on personal level To control and observe public opinion To receive feedback from customer on regular basis Media objectivesstate the impact that you expect to have on an audience in terms of reach and frequency. Objectives must meet the following criteria: Measurability Quantifiability Realism time-specificity Budget determination: We need to establish what amount of money will be needed to achieve the IMC objectives.Although there is various methods present to determine what amount of money invest on IMC. These methods are as follow: Affordable Method Percentage of Sales Method Unit of Sales Method Zero Budgeting Method Inaffordable methodwe invest money on IMC as soon as we can afford. However inPercentage of Sales Methodamount of money invest on IMC tool depend on what amount of sale we expect to achieve during course of year. These percentages are mostly adhoc and sometime based on judgment. InUnit of Sales MethodCompany allocate a certain proportion of cost of product to promotion. Thus say if ex factory cost of the product is say Rs 100/ the company will allot Rs.10/- toward promotion cost. Hence if company expects sale 10,000 unit of the product, thus allocated IMC budget will be Rs.100.000/-. In Zero Budgeting Method, company determine what need to achieve in term of sale and then rework backward in term of what money will be needed to be allocate to deliver those customers. Thus if company believe that in order to achieve their sales, 10,000 customers need to purchase their jeans once during the planning period than it will work out what number of prospective customers will needed to be tar geted through ATL and BTL activity, in order to achieve that result. IMC Methodologies There are various component of integrated marketing communication that is as follow: Advertisement Advertisement is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas or products by an identified sponsor. Objective of any ads is to increase brand awareness. Objectives: There are mostly three objective of advertisement compaign, that are as follow: Inform Persuade Remind Inform: Informative advertising, seeks to tell the market about the jeans, explain the new quality added in jeans, provide information on pricing, and build awareness of both the jeans quality and the company. Such objectives are normally pursued at the launch of a new quality jeans, or re-launch / up-date of an existing jean. Persuade: Here objectives are to encourage the target audience to switch brands, make the purchase, and create a preference in the market for the jeans as opposed to its competition. Advertising of this nature is required in highly competitive markets, where a range of jeans design competes directly with each other. In such circumstances businesses often seek to differentiate their jeans through Comparison Advertising – either directly or indirectly comparing its jeans to that of its competitors. Remind: Reminder Advertising, is used to maintain interest and awareness of a well established jeans brand in the market, often in the latter stages of its product life cycle. It is often used at the Point-of-Purchase to remind consumers of the Brand. Advertisement budget: Having identified advertising objectives, the advertising budget must be set. Determining exactly how much a business should spend on advertising to achieve the desired level of sales. Commonly, the decision is based on past experience of expenditure on advertising, and the sales subsequently achieved. There are however a number of factors that can be considered in setting the advertising budget Factors influencing the setting of advertising Budgets: Product life cycle stage:New products in the Launch stage of their Product Life Cycle, will normally require greater expenditure on advertising to create product awareness, and encourage consumers to trial the product. Whilst products that have reached Maturity in their product life cycle, will often require smaller advertising budgets to achieve the level of sales required. Competition:The number of competitors in the market, and their expenditure on advertising competing products, will influence a business to spend to a similar or higher degree. Product Differentiation:A product very similar to other products on the market may require greater expenditure on advertising to differentiate it from its competitors. Advertising Strategy: Developing an Advertising Strategy to achieve the objectives of a campaign, requires that consideration be given to both the ‘Message which will be communicated and the ‘Media through which it will be sent Advertising Message An advertising campaign, no matter how much money is spent, no matter what media is used, will only be successful if the Message appeals to the target audience. Given the level of advertising which bombards the average consumer, a successful advertising message must stand out amongst the advertising clutter. Thus marketing professionals are required to be creative, imaginative and innovative in developing the advertising message, both in terms of what is said, and How it is said? What is said This is often referred to as the ‘Big Idea, and will normally address the key benefits sought by the target audience, motivating the audience to pay attention. Given the constant search for new ways to appeal to target audiences, it is difficult to categories the content of advertising messages which a business may send, below we include a couple of examples of actual message strategy. During delivery of advertisement massage in customer mind take the personality symbol, lifestyle and musical as consideration. In addition the tone of the advertisement will need to be established, which can be either positive or negative. The advert may therefore promote positive feelings of fun, contentment, and happiness or take on a more negative, somber, or even threatening tone. Selecting Advertising Media: In addition to deciding upon the content, style and tone of the advertising message, the media through which the message will be communicated to the target audience must also be selected. Mostly for jeans advertisement we select media such as magazine, newspaper and outdoor. TV rarely used for advertisement of jeans. In order to select the most appropriate media, consideration must should be given to various advantage and disadvantage of various media. Strengths and weakness of various media are as given below: Television : Strengths Dynamic attention getting media, combining visual, sound and animated stimulus. Strong potential Impact High market coverage Good at demonstrating products Weaknesses: Highly expensive Poor at communicating lengthy technical information Newspapers: Strengths: Targeting is possible through profiling readership Good level of market coverage Weaknesses: Static media, not suitable for product demonstration Potential for poor reproduction, sometimes limited to black and white print Short-life span, i.e. todays newspapers become tomorrows rubbish Magazines: Strengths: High quality reproduction, of color images Targeting is possible through specialist publications Good pass on readership Weaknesses: Static media, not suitable for product demonstration Lengthy lead-time between advert being placed and magazine being published Outdoor: Strengths: High repeat exposure to advert Relatively low cost Low levels of competition, in terms of advertising clutter Weaknesses: Limited audience selectivity / targeting possible Static media, not suitable for product demonstrations Difficult to monitor effectiveness â€Å"Make them your own† is the name of the campaign launched by Levis to boost the sale of Denim jeans. This is one of the most aggressive marketing and advertising strategy followed by Levis to move up the sales. The theme of this marketing campaign is narcissistic youth. It will feature youth who will check themselves out in Denim blue jeans. The advertising will target the age group of 18 – 24 years. Mostly levy also select TV, Magazine, and Newspaper as a media for delivering there massage about their product in customer mind. PRINT Ads: This ad focus on that even in bad time our company ABC produce good quality of product in comparison to our competitor. ABC Company compares their product with competitors in quality and design. Through this ads company want to show that our product is superior in quality and design. Sale promotion: Sale promotion is collection of various consumers and trade promotional tool such as rebate, discount, gift, contest, coupons, price deal, contest game, sampling etc. to increase sale of products. There are certain objectives of sale promotion. However main objective is to increase immediate sale because Sales Managers are under great pressure to produce results quickly. Objective: There are certain objectives of sale promotion that are as follow: To increase immediate customer sale To increase support among the marketers sales force. To gain the support of the trade in marketing the product Reasons for Growth of Sales Promotion: There are number of reason for growth of company in sale promotion some are as follow: Increasing Competition Due to increase in competition, companies are finding it increasingly difficult to compete on quality. They are therefore resorting to more innovative methods of sales promotion. In order to have a competitive advantage over its competitors like Levis, Pepe, Killer and others, Spykar Jeans, once a year has a grand sale of up to 50%. Customers Have Become More Price Sensitive: The increase price sensitivity is direct result of rampant inflation. Economic support this trend further, as a result customers and dealer became more sensitive toward price. If the customers get branded jeans at half the actual price, then they are definitely going to make huge purchases of Spykar Jeans because they want value for their money, as they are price sensitive. Sales Promotions Generally Create an Immediate Positive Impact on Sales: Advertising, personal selling and other methods of promotion produce slower impact on sales in compared to sales promotion. Sales promotions are mostly for short duration, for a specified period, leading to a sense of urgency in consumers to buy now. This creates an immediate positive impact on sales. Products have become more standardized: In many product categories there is proliferation of brand or line extension and me too many brands. Most of brand perceived by consumer varies little in price. Due to this it became very difficult for advertiser to reposition their product in customers mind. Due to which they focus on more and more on sale promotion to get immediate result. Advertising Has Become More Expensive and Less Effective: All the advertising media have become quite expensive. Audio-visual medium, which is considered as the most effective for short-duration ads, may cost in excess of Rs. 1 lakh for a 10 second exposure during prime time. In many cases, consumers have reached a point of boredom due to excessive advertising on TV. Firms with small budgets cannot compete with big companies, which spend huge sums of money on advertising. For these small budget firms, sales promotion is a more cost-effective promotion method to produce sales results. Trade Has Become More Powerful: At present time Retailers and wholesalers have became more powerful and demand extra facility from company to promote their product. Company has no other alternative. Besides these there are also various kind reason such as Excess Stocks, Impulse Buying Is Increasing, Sales Promotions Maximize Profits etc. Promotion Strategies: Promotional strategy is mostly run to change consumers behavior, to increase brand image, to increase profit, to increase sale of various good. There are mostly two kind of sale promotion, one is directed toward consumer and other one is directed toward trade such as dealer, supplier, retailer etc. Consumer sale promotion tool: There are a lot of promotional tool used to increase sale. Consumer sale promotion is directed toward consumer. It stimulate consumer to purchase their product rapidly. There are a lot of tool that are as follow: Price deal: Price deal is temporary reduction in price of product. There are two type of deal: cents-off deals and price-pack deals. Price deal is given at various times to stimulate purchase of jeans. Coupon: A coupon is typically a printed certificate giving the bearer a stated price reduction or special value on a specific product, generally for a specific period. Various company issue various kind of coupon that contain various discount price , customer get the advantage of this discount and purchase jeans at low price. Offer: There are various kind of gift is offer by various jeans industry. For example the branding magazine said that the Gap will be conducting a marketing campaign centered on the idea that your favorite songs and your favorite jeans, Gap jeans, make the perfect fit. Customers who try on a pair of the retailers new jeans will receive a free iTMS download. The campaign will be marketed with print and TV ads, and will feature TV commercials with musicians singing covers of their favorite song while wearing Gap jeans. The company will be offering those collected covers in a CD at retail Gap locations for customers who make a US$60 or more Gap purchase. Premium: Sometime various companies like Levy, Denim etc. offer some gift or at bargain price to encourage customer buying. Sampling: Some company like American eagles to known customer feedback provide free simple of various jeans according to their preference. Advertising Specialities: Advertising specialities also call a promotional product. It mostly given to our loyal customers. It includes various card like birthday card, New Year card. It is mostly done to retain old customer. Trade sale promotion tool: Objectives of Trade Sales Promotion: Gain/maintain distribution Influence resellers to promote product Influence resellers to offer price discount Increase reseller inventory Defend against competitors Avoid reduction of normal prices There are various sale promotion tools that stimulate trade to promote company product. There are a lot of trade sale promotion tools some are as discussed below: Trade Allowances: Trade allowancesare short-term special allowances, discounts, or deals granted to resellers to stimulate reseller to rapid purchase of their product. Point-of-Purchase Display: Point-of-purchase displays are generally used at the retail level to call customer attention to a featured product. In this company employees observe every retail shop and those retail shop that display more company product will be winner of special gift or prize Trade Shows: A trade show is periodic, semi periodic public event at which supplier displays their jeans product and provides information about jeans quality and price to potential buyer. After implementing these different techniques of sale promotion we monitor result and evaluate these by comparing with objective set before implementation of plan. Public relation Public relation is nothing but creating a favorable relation for organization and product which is done through used of various communication channel and tool. So public relation is mostly done to improve the image of company and build good image in customers mind. So public relation may be define as â€Å"Public Relations is a set of management, supervisory, and technical functions that foster an organizations ability to strategically listen to, appreciate, and respond to those persons whose mutually beneficial relationships with the organization are necessary if it is to achieve its missions and values. Objective: Like other aspect of marketing, public relation is also used to address several broad aspect of marketing like: Building Product Awareness–When introducing a new product or relaunching an existing product, marketers can use a PR element that generates consumer attention and awareness through media placements and special events. Creating Interest:Public Relation create public interest to used the product at least for once time. Providing Information:Through the Public relation we can provide a lot of information about company activity and their product feature and service provided by company. This information is delivered to public through newspaper, article website, collateral material; PR helps in delivering information that helps to public in understanding the product feature. Stimulating Demand:A positive article in a newspaper, on TV, news show or mentioned on the Internet, often results in a discernable increase in product sales. Reinforcing the Brand:In many companies like levy, denim jeans company the public relations function is also involved with brand reinforcement by maintaining positive relationships with key audiences, and thereby aiding in building a strong image. Direct Marketing Direct marketing is business of selling company product directly to customers through mail order, telephone, fax, e-mails, or web selling, rather than through retailers. Objective: There are mostly to objective for which direct marketing is carried out these are as follow: Convert not user to user. It is mostly done to obtain new client. The identification of new potential clients is very crucial when it comes to recruit new prospects and transformed them into your clients. The perpetual loyalty of customers. A loyal consumer cost less than new customers. Strategy: Various jeans industry like denim, Levi Strauss Co involved in direct marketing to get more market share. These companies sent a mail-order catalog to approximately prospective customers. 100-page catalog, developed in-house, targets both men and women and also contains 10 pages devoted to home products. There are various tools for direct marketing these are as :Direct response television marketing. Besides these jeans producing company also used various methods to promote their product. One method that Levis has recently taken is Path Breaking Strategy. Path breaking strategy by Levis: This strategy is mostly for those jeans whose cost above Rs.1400. We know a lot of thing about EMIs for house, car and other kind of white goods. But these EMIs is first time adopted by Levis for jeans.This idea has been conceptualized by Levis. Downturn market, cost cutting everywhere and empty pockets is the present situation; and here to curb all these hindrances, Levis is now, for the first time ever offering EMI facilities on its apparel wear in India. Simply shop for more than Rs. 1500 and you can avail this offer. This amount will be set off through your credit card in three equal installments. They have also tied up with ICICI Bank for the credit card settlement. There are certain objectives behind this strategy that are as follow: To increase the sales of premium jeans wear category that is worth more than Rs. 4000 per denim. To ensure sales throughout the year irrespective of seasonality:How will this objective be achie