International Marketing ..Rococo Chocolates Research Paper

International Marketing ..Rococo Chocolates - Research Paper Example However the island of Grenada being hit by a tremendous hurricane spell huge loss for the cocoa planters and farmers. Rococo chocolates helped the hurricane affected farmers and planters through the production and sale of a special variety of chocolates. The joint venture that took place between Rococo Chocolates and Grenada Chocolate Company helped in the formation of Grococo. The joint venture form focuses on the production of organically based products of chocolate, which bears the hallmark of quality and taste. Grenada Chocolate Company also looks forward to the betterment of the farmers working in cocoa plantations. Cocoa produced from these farms help in the production of chocolates. The company in this light operates as a cooperative firm that takes special endeavor to grant equal work and better opportunities for both the plantation and the factory workers (About Rococo, 2009). Marketing Environment of Rococo Chocolates The marketing or the business environment of a firm is d ivided along two sets of factors viz. internal and external. The directions and policy mechanisms of the company can control the internal set of factors. On the contrary the external set of factors are those, which cannot be controlled by the actions of the company. These factors belong to the external environment of a firm. ... Internal Factors of Rococo Chocolates Rococo chocolates through its marketing policies have taken a further step to expand its market share through the use of Internet marketing. The chocolate firm though operates on wide markets through big retail firms in a desire to increase customer traffic have started selling its products online through its websites. The company launches the Internet site during December 2009 to help enhance the idea of chocolates sold as gifts during Christmas (A new e-commerce platform for Rococo Chocolates, 2010). Further Rococo Chocolates has a huge product portfolio containing of gift boxes and hampers, confectionary products, art products of chocolates, gift bags and other chocolate products like bars and sweets to cater to the increasing needs of different customers (Products, 2009). The marketing policies for Rococo chocolates also reflect on the firm’s pricing strategies. Rococo Chocolates has devised products for different sets of customers by setting different prices, which ranges from below five pounds to more than fifty pounds. (Spend, 2009). External Factors for Rococo Chocolates With these internal factors in place, Rococo Chocolates aims to target a new market in United Arab Emirates. Thus the external marketing factors of the firm would be studied in that respect. The United Arab Emirates is presenting a widely encouraging market for the chocolate and confectionary producers. In times of economic unrest also the Middle East countries presented a demanding market for chocolate and confectionary products thus helping their manufacturers. During 2008 the market for such products in Arab Emirates increased

Cold Reality of Workhouses Depicted in Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist :: Oliver Twist Essays

Cold Reality of Workhouses Depicted in Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist   Ã‚  Imagine abruptly woken to the harsh sounds of demanding yelling and screaming only to find yourself still shivering from the lack of hole-filled sheets that they call blankets.   Feeling fatigued from another sleepless night and faintly from the malnutrition, you eagerly await your habitual serving of gruel for breakfast.   Extremely weak from the meager portion, the never-ending day begins as you are led to do various different chores throughout the day.   This is the life in a workhouse.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Workhouses â€Å"were places where poor homeless people worked and in return they were fed and housed.   In 1834 The Poor Law Amendment Act was introduced which wanted to make the workhouse more of a deterrent to idleness as it was believed that people were poor because they were idle and needed to be punished.   So people in workhouses were deliberately treated harshly and the workhouses were more like prisons† (Internet source – Charles Dickens 1812-1870).   Charles Dickens realistically portrayed the horrible conditions of the 19th century workhouses in his novel Oliver Twist.   Dickens attempted to improve the workhouse conditions and as a result, his novel helped influence changes in the problem.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Dickens’ novel shows people how things really were in the workhouses during the 19th century.   A child of the parish â€Å" had contrived to exist upon the smallest possible portion of the weakest possible food, it did perversely happen in eight and a half cases out of ten, either that it sickened from want and cold, or fell into the fire from neglect, or got half-smothered by accident; in any one of which cases, the miserable little being was usually summoned into another world† (Twist p.5).   Here Dickens shows how children were starved, neglected, inappropriately dressed, and mistreated.   His statement also claims that many of the times, the children died in a result to the poor environment.   The encyclopedia provides a more general explanation as it simply states that the â€Å"conditions in the workhouses were deliberately harsh and degrading† (The New Encyclopedia Britannica Vol.12 p.755).     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Another passage in the novel describes how one of the children of the parish was treated when not to their liking.   A boy named Oliver received â€Å"a tap on the head [from the cane of the parish beadle] to wake him up: and another on the back to make him lively† (Twist p.

Love and Memory in Deuteronomy Essay

Love and Memory in Deuteronomy, is the prompt for this weeks reflection paper. First, we must identify what each of those terms means to us in context to Deuteronomy and for me Love does not just mean love in the sense that we all know. Although you could easily write a reflection amount the many ways God displayed his love to his people, like when he parted the seas for them and crushed the Egyptians behind them, or when he was slow to anger when they chose to worship Baal while Moses was a top Mt. Sinai, but I choose to interpret love in Deuteronomy as God’s continued faithfullness to his people. â€Å"Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.† (Deuteronomy 7:9, English Standard Version) Here God is described as a faithful God, and one who will always love those that love him, and follow his word. This is such a powerful verse and really speaks to the faithfullness of God to his people, here it shows that God is obligated to us, that he must love those that love him. I think it also shows that he is bound to look out for us because he is our â€Å"faithful† creator, and that as the creator he is obligated to look out for us, to satisfy us, and provide for us, and ultimately look out for us enough so that we may seek him out and follow him with out Faith. That creation of the Covenant is the ultimate example of God’s faithfullness to us as it takes out all mystery and makes things most certain for us, and shows his commitment to us as a people, because of the covenant we know all the cornerstones of His divine government. The many ‘I wills’ in Deuteronomy cover everything that we as a people might need in both the past, present, and future. There is no avenue of life that we can venture to where we can not find God, and he has given us clear definition of His heart and intentions by his word and covenant. God’s love in Deuteronomy can best be described as his faithfullness to us, and as mentioned prior, there is no greater example of this than his Covenant, and new Covenant with us through Jesus Christ. â€Å"And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.† (Deuteronomy 8:2, English Standard Version) Memory plays a huge role in Deuteronomy as God is very clear in this verse, that the people are to remember, that all they have been through was a way for God to see what was in their heart, to see what kind of people they were. Memories, in general, throughout time are always a great way to see someone’s true heart. There were times the people worshipped false idols or cried out against the Lord, and in those moments peoples true natures were revealed, the memories of those times are a great reminder of where people stood, and as it says in that verse that is what it was all about, was for God to measure their true hearts. This principle is still the same today, we are often judged by our past deeds, and it is not because we do not believe people can not change or that people do not deserve new chances, but often times we are what we do, and again the memories of our past actions are a great way to measure who we are as people.

A Sociological Understanding of Moral Panic

A moral panic is a widespread fear, most often an irrational one, that someone or something is a threat to the values, safety, and interests of a community or society at large. Typically, a moral panic is perpetuated by the news media, fueled by politicians, and often results in the passage of new laws or policies that target the source of the panic. In this way, moral panic can foster increased social control. Moral panics are often centered around people who are marginalized in society due to their race or ethnicity, class, sexuality, nationality, or religion. As such, a moral panic often draws on known stereotypes and reinforces them. It can also exacerbate the real and perceived differences and divisions between groups of people. Moral panic is well known in the sociology of deviance and crime and is related to the labeling theory of deviance. Stanley Cohens Theory of Moral Panics The phrase moral panic and the development of the sociological concept is credited to the late South African sociologist Stanley Cohen (1942–2013). Cohen introduced the social theory of moral panic in his 1972 book titled Folk Devils and Moral Panics. In the book, Cohen describes how the British public reacted to the rivalry between the mod and rocker youth subcultures of the 1960s and 70s. Through his study of these youth and the media and public reaction to them, Cohen developed a theory of moral panic that outlines five stages of the process. The Five Stages and Key Players of Moral Panics First, something or someone is perceived and defined as a threat to social norms and the interests of the community or society at large. Second, the news media and community members depict the threat in simplistic, symbolic ways that quickly become recognizable to the greater public. Third, widespread public concern is aroused by the way news media portrays the symbolic representation of the threat. Fourth, the authorities and policymakers respond to the threat, be it real or perceived, with new laws or policies. In the final stage, the moral panic and the subsequent actions of those in power lead to social change in the community. Cohen suggested that there are five key sets of actors involved in the process of moral panic. They are the threat that incites the moral panic, which Cohen referred to as folk devils, and the enforcers of rules or laws, like institutional authority figures, police, or armed forces. The news media plays its role by breaking the news about the threat and continuing to report on it, thereby setting the agenda for how it is discussed and attaching visual symbolic images to it. Enter politicians, who respond to the threat and sometimes fan the flames of the panic, and the public, which develops a focused concern about the threat and demands action in response to it. The Beneficiaries of Social Outrage Many sociologists have observed that those in power ultimately benefit from moral panics, since they lead to increased control of the population and the reinforcement of the authority of those in charge. Others have commented that moral panics offer a mutually beneficial relationship between news media and the state. For the media, reporting on threats that become moral panics increases viewership and makes money for news organizations. For the state, the creation of a moral panic can give it cause to enact legislation and laws that would seem illegitimate without the perceived threat at the center of the moral panic. Examples of Moral Panics There have been many moral panics throughout history, some quite notable.  The Salem witch trials, which took place throughout colonial Massachusetts in 1692, are an oft-mentioned example of this phenomenon. Women who were social outcasts faced accusations of witchcraft after local girls were afflicted with unexplained fits. Following the initial arrests, accusations spread to other women in the community who expressed doubt about the claims or who responded to them in ways deemed improper or inappropriate. This particular moral panic served to reinforce and strengthen the social authority of local religious leaders, since witchcraft was perceived to be a threat to Christian values, laws, and order. More recently, some sociologists have framed the War on Drugs of the 1980s and 90s as an outcome of moral panic. News media attention to drug use, particularly use of crack cocaine among the urban black underclass, focused public attention on drug use and its relationship to delinquency and crime. The public concern generated through news reporting on this topic, including a feature in which then-First Lady Nancy Reagan participated in a drug raid, shored up voter support for drug laws that penalized the poor and working classes while ignoring drug use among the middle and upper classes. Many sociologists attribute the policies, laws, and sentencing guidelines connected to the War on Drugs with increased policing of poor urban neighborhoods and incarceration rates of residents of those communities. Additional moral panics include public attention to welfare queens, the notion that poor black women are abusing the social services system while enjoying lives of luxury. In reality, welfare fraud is not very common, and no one racial group is more likely to commit it. There is also moral panic around a so-called gay agenda that threatens the American way of life when members of the LGBTQ community simply want equal rights. Lastly, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Islamophobia, surveillance laws, and racial and religious profiling grew from the fear that all Muslims, Arabs, or brown people overall are dangerous because the terrorists who targeted the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had that background. In fact, many acts of domestic terrorism have been committed by non-Muslims. Updated by Nicki Lisa Cole, Ph.D.