Marketing Process free essay sample

Marketing involves identifying customer needs and requirements, and meeting these needs in a better way than competitors. In this way a company creates loyal customers. The starting point is to find out who potential customers are not everyone will want what Noraini’s has to offer. The people Noriani’s identifies as likely customers are known as key audiences. under the marketing concept, Noraini’s Cookies must find a way to discover unfulfilled costumer needs and bring to market product that satisfy those needs. The process of this concept is explained in below diagram; For Noraini’s cookies to still on the same ledger of competition with all the competitors and trends, they need to formulate this process and implying them in everyday business or before any business marketing decision is being made. First, let’s go through the first process of all, Situation Analysis. Noraini’s cookies should first define the situation of current trend and market. We will write a custom essay sample on Marketing Process or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page They should know how is the market behavior nowadays. They need to understand it completely from inside out. There have a lot of ways to run the situation analysis such as, 5C analysis (Company, Costumer, Competitors, collaborators, climate) or SWOT Analysis (Strength, weakness, opportunity and threat). If the situation analysis reveals gap between what consumer want and what is currently offered to them, then there may be opportunities to introduce products to better satisfy those costumer. Take for an example, this is the SWOT analysis of Cadbury’s which is written by Sunanda K. Chavan for ManagementParadise. com. SWOT analysis of Cadburys Strength 1. Cadbury is a company, which is reputed internationally as the topmost chocolate provider in the world. 2. The brand is well known to people they can easily identify it from others. 3. Cadbury the world leaders in chocolate, is a well-known force in marketing and distribution. 4. Users have a positive perception about the qualities of the brand. 5. Cadbury main strength is Dairy milk. Dairy milk is the most consumed chocolate in India. 6. By using popular models like Cyrus Brocha, Preety Zinta and others Cadburys has managed to portray a young and sporty image, which has resulted in converting buyers of other brands to become its staunch loyalists. 7. Cadbury has well adjusted itself to Indian custom. 8. It has properly repositioned itself in India whenever required i. e. from children to adults, togetherness bar to energizing bar for young ones etc. Weaknesses 1. There is lack of penetration in the rural market where people tend to dismiss it as a high end product. It is mainly found in urban and semi-urban areas. 2. It has been relatively high priced brand, which is turning the price conscious customer away. 3. People avoid having their chocolate thinking about the egg ingredients. Opportunities 1. The chocolate market has seen one of the greatest increases in the recent times (almost @ 30%) 2. There is a lot of potential for growth and a huge population who do not eat chocolates even today that can be converted as new users. Threat 1. There exists no brand loyalty in the chocolate market and consumers frequently shift their brands. 2. New brands are coming and existing brands are introducing new variants to add up to an already overcrowded market. http://www. managementparadise. com/forums/marketing-management-rm-im/201618-swot-analysis-cadbury. html From the situation analysis, we can come o our second process which is Marketing Strategy. There is four elements of market strategy. 1. Market segmentation. 2. Targeting 3. Positioning 4. Value proposition to the target market. Market segmentation can be defined as the identification of portions of the markets that are different from one another. Segmentation allows the firm to better satisfy the need of its potential costumers. (citation) Why did Noraini’s cookies need this segmentation ? here’s why, costumer are not all alike. They are different in every way. The place they stay, how they live, their race, religion, their family, their education, genders and even generation (example: Baby boomers, Generation Y, Generation X). so if Noraini’s cookies want to tackle the market, they have to learn this differentiation and segment their marketing based on this 1. Geography. 2. Demography. 3. Psychography. Geography is easy to identify. As for Malaysia market, Noraini’s cookies need to identify which product is to sell in which area. They have to know what is the consumer in that area really want. Take for example, they want to promote their frozen food. Noraini’s cookies should be more focusing on urban area. Area which people didn’t have enough time to prepare the food themselves. So the citizens need only buy the frozen food and cook it at home. For another example, let’s take KFC as our reference. They always try to come out with new ideas to keep costumer consuming their products. Thing is, they really taking this segmentation in sight. Why ? because, they always come out with the product which can fulfilled the need of their costumer in certain area. Example, KFC launch â€Å"Tom Yam† flavored fried chicken in Thailand because Thailand people love â€Å"Tom Yam† so much ! (citation needed) Let’s move on to demographical segmentation. This segmentation is tougher than geographical segmentation. Noraini’s cookies should take into account of a detailed statistic of what is actually the people wants. Each person needs is different from one another. Take for example, gender. One of Noraini’s cookies product is premixed spices. So, Noraini’s cookies should market the product to an appropriate gender. Market the product to women because mostly, only women who need the premixed spice product. For the better picture of demographical segmentation, let’s take another example. Say, Mercedes Benz. They made car for luxurious social class people. While proton in the other hand, make a car to try to fulfill the needs of not very luxurious social class people. Next is psychographic segmentation. Also called as behavioural segmentation. This type of segmentation divides the market into groups according to customers’ lifestyles. It considers a number of potential influences on buying behaviour, including the attitudes, expectations and activities of consumers. If these are known, then products and marketing campaigns by Noraini’s cookies can be customised so that they appeal more specifically to customer motivations. Let’s take one example. Let say Noraini’s cookies has studied on their consumer annual occasion which is what Noraini’s cookies always does on their cookies product, they can adjust the marketing campaign which suits the current occasion. If current occasion is deepavali, which is celebrated by Hindu, which consume a lot of premixed spice for curry and Dhal, this is the time for Noraini’s cookies to change the marketing campaign to premixed spice promotion. For another example, on psychographic segmentation, usage of consumer. It can be divided into heavy user, medium user and light user. Hotlink communication see this segment and market their internet plan based on this category. Hotlink communication offer a different internet plan for different user. Image below will show the correct example. If the user is light user, they can buy data plan for only RM30. While for heavy internet user, they can buy RM 68 worth of data plan. (citation needed) Target marketing tailors a marketing mix for one or more segments identified by market segmentation. Target marketing contrasts with mass marketing, which offer a single product to entire market. Noraini’s cookies should be looking into this aspect more. They should be more focus on one segment to market their product. For example when Noraini’s cookies want market their daily biscuits, and only biscuits, they need to focus on demographic segmentation. Separate the product based on age of consumer. Should have like biscuits for children, for student, teenager and also old citizen. Create a different flavor for each and every stage of consumer. Teenagers are more likely to be attracted to chocolate and strawberry, so, Noraini’s cookies should create a daily biscuits that based on this flavor. And the pricing should be suitable with the age. Mostly teenagers are still depending and parents money and it is limited for them. So, instead of marketing the biscuits with normal price which is quite pricy for them (RM12. 00 – RM16. 00), Noraini’s cookies should market the biscuits for like RM 4 – RM 5 depending on the cost of production. It maybe not only will attract teenagers to buy it, it might attract other stage of age to buy the product because of its price. (citation needed) Positioning is developing a product and brand image in the minds of consumers. It can also include improving a customers perception about the experience they will have if they choose to purchase your product or service. The business can positively influence the perceptions of its chosen customer base through strategic promotional activities and by carefully defining your business marketing mix. Effective positioning involves a good understanding of competing products and the benefits that are sought by your target market. It also requires you to identify a differential advantage with which it will deliver the required benefits to the market effectively against the competition. Business should aim to define themselves in the eyes of their customers in regards to their competition. For Noraini’s cookies brand to be remembered by costumer. Like when we say MCD, costumer already what is it stands for (MCDonald). They will automatically pictured the image of burger, the yellow suited clown, the M letter and many others which lead to the name of MCD. (citation needed) Marketing Mix Decisions What Noraini’s cookies should do is, implement the name of Noraini’s cookies to the costumer. Noraini’s cookies can tackle this aspect by focusing on the 4P’s. 1. product 2. price 3. promotion 4. place Product Noraini’s cookies should guarantee the quality of their product is much better than other completion. What is making Noraini’s cookies specials? What is the unique feature of their product? They should know this to conquer the costumer mind. Maybe if Noraini’s cookies have something that currently not offered by their competitor (or currently offered by their competitors but Noraini’s cookies can make something better) like the taste are much more delicious than the competitor or extra cream on the cookies, Noraini’s can successfully implement the greatness of their product which automatically live the name on consumer mind. The name of the product also playing an important role here. The name should be something catchy and easy to remember. Because the product will carry this name to consumer mind to remember. For example, Kiss cookies by Noraini’s. when people mention the name of kiss cookies, people will imagined the taste and the product itself. Kiss cookies is one of the name picking success by Noraini’s cookies. For example, why is MCDonald Big Mac burger is so popular? While Ramly burger not so much? Because, MCDonald has implement the idea of their product is so much better than the other burger because of their special recipe sauce and their patty is made from 100% meat. People will actually believe that and set their mind that MCDonald burger is much better than the Ramly because of the patty and the secret sauce. They offer something that Ramly as their competitor not currently offer. Price Pricing is one of the most important decisions made by any business organisation. Economists use the term market clearing price to identify a price at which sellers are prepared to sell because they feel they are getting a fair price, and buyers are prepared to buy because they feel they are getting value for money. If prices are too high or too low the market will fail to clear. Positioning Noraini’s cookies product via pricing is also effective. Noraini’s cookies has done a very good job on pricing which Noraini’s new lined product called â€Å"GoodKiss† was sold on internet for only RM2. 20 including other of their product. It available at Nilai Muslim Shop. (http://nilaimuslimshoppe. blogspot. com/2012/11/noraini-cookies. html) Noraini’s cookies should and need to successfully enter their costumer mind that they are giving a right price for a right product. Promotion Promotion covers all the tools and techniques by which an organisation markets its products and services. For example, this might include traditional methods such as advertising in papers, as well as the use of social media (like Facebook and Twitter), websites and online networks. Promotion is playing a big important role on positioning the product to the market. Noraini’s cookies has somehow kind of failed on doing so. Frankly said, we never see or heard about Noraini’s cookies neither on paper or television. In order to gain market share and attract new customers, Noraini’s cookies needs to be distinctive in the marketplace. It needs customers to think about its products in a particular way. This helps them distinguish its products from those of competitors. To look on Noraini’s cookies competitors example, Kraft Oreo, they didn’t sell much at the beginning of the product introduction era on 1912. But when they first (1923) commercialize their product through various way of advertising, the sales are going to the roof. They implement the idea â€Å"Twist it† on their costumer so whenever the costumer is told about â€Å"twist it†, costumer will automatically remember Oreo. In Malaysia, they used â€Å"Putar, Jilat, Celup†. Place This is the place where Noraini’s cookies first introduce their cookies. A very smart move indeed. Streets on bazaar ramadhan and raya festival. Jaya jusco taman Tun Dr Ismail (late 1980’s) Plaza angsana johor bahru (1998) Giant Uda ocean Pasaraya OTK Tesco Carefour (aeon Big) Seremban Parade. http://iksprofile. blogspot. com/2012/05/noraini-cookies-worldwide-sdn-bhd. html http://www. thestar. com. my/Business/SME/2013/07/22/The-taste-of-Raya-in-the-air-Ramadan-is-a-bumper-month-for-makers-of-traditional-treats. aspx http://halalmedia. net/from-cottage-to-global-the-story-of-norainis-cookies/ As you can see, Noraini’s cookies are marketing her product at place where got a lot of people visiting every day. It helps with mouth to mouth word spreading since the audience is big and changing every single day. Implementation and control Last but not least for the marketing process to run smoothly for Noraini’s cookies, they need to implement all the process I’ve stated above and control everything. They should be aware on trend changing. Example if raisins based product is not a trend anymore, they need to create a new product depending on what is going on around. Benefits and cost of Noraini’s marketing approach 1. Adaptability One of the major advantages of following Noraini’s cookies marketing approach is adaptability. An organization is more to costumer centric which is work and market their product based on what is costumer needs and wants. Adapting to the requirement of the market can give an easy pass to success. The businesses know what the costumer actually wanted and deliver it to them. 2. Eliminates doubts and gambling. Instead of gambling and forecasting what is costumer actually wanted, Noraini’s cookies actually look into what is costumer wants. With this marketing approach, you can lower the risk of bad stock. You actually deliver what market needs and following the trends also eliminate the risk of pointless advertising or out of date advert. 3. Strengthen product name in the market. Because of Noraini’s cookies focusing what the markets wants, they will be called â€Å"up to date†. Which is good for the business. Costumer will always think Noraini’s cookies as an Up to date company and left behind in promoting their product. Will not left behind with competitor because of the always on going research about market trends. 4. Building costumer value

Circus Elephant Training Abuse by Trainers

Circus Elephant Training Abuse by Trainers It is important to note that the elephant is highly endangered. There were once millions of African elephants who roamed the entire continent. Now their numbers are estimated at around 300,000 and mainly found in sub-Saharan Africa. The Asian elephant is even more critical. Its numbers are down to only about 30,000. There were at one time millions. Not only are some animal acts harming and killing elephants, but they are also doing this to a highly endangered species. In order to train an 8,000-11,000 pound animal – who can be very deadly to humans – to perform tricks seen in circuses such as headstands, tightrope walking, roller skating and the such, often it is believed that the fierce application of negative reinforcement is required. Physical punishment has often been a standard training method for animals in circuses. Elephants are sometimes beaten, shocked, and whipped in order for them to perform repeatedly the routines of circus performance. The Animal Welfare A ct (AWA) does not prohibit the use of bullhooks, whips, electrical shock prods, or other such training devices. The elephants are beaten by several people for up to fifteen minutes at a time with bull-hooks. Their skin being as sensitive as humans, one can understand the torture this entails. Beatings According to congressional testimony provided by former Beatty-Cole elephant keeper Tom Rider, [I]n White Plains, N.Y., when Pete did not perform her act properly, she was taken to the tent and laid down, and five trainers beat her with bull-hooks. Rider also told officials that [a]fter my three years working with elephants in the circus, I can tell you that they live in confinement and they are beaten all the time when they dont perform properly (Rider). To hide this from circus goers, lacerations from bull-hooks are often covered up with wonder dust, a type of theatrical pancake makeup (according to ​circuses.com). The public does not see the violence and abuse some of these elephants endure. Not all animal trainers are abusive; some do care deeply for the animals in their trust. Nonetheless, from the easily accessible literature on the web, it appears abuse does happen. Confinement Possibly even worse than the negative reinforcement, though, is the confinement performing elephants endure. Remember elephants sometimes walk up to 50 miles a day and they are often confined to spaces no bigger than a standard American one-bedroom apartment. In states which require chaining of elephants when not performing, elephants are chained in spaces the size of an average automobile by two legs for up to twenty hours a day. Circuses.com reports: During the off-season, animals used in circuses may be housed in traveling crates or barn stalls; some are even kept in trucks. Such unrelieved physical confinement can have harmful physical and psychological effects on animals. These effects are often indicated by unnatural behaviors such as repeated head bobbing, swaying, and pacing. (Epstein) A study of circuses conducted by Animal Defenders International in the United Kingdom found abnormal behaviors of this kind in all of the species observed. Investigators witnessed elephants that were chained for 70 percent of the day, horses that were confined for 23 hours per day, and large cats that were kept in cages up to 99 percent of the time (Creamer Phillips). Danger Other than the beatings and the chaining, another reason pop culture should consider not attending animal circuses is a human danger. Eventually, after years and sometimes decades of circus life, these large animals sometimes will go mad, rampage, and kill trainers, circus members, and audience members just as Tyke did in Hawaii. In a worst-case scenario situation, an elephant named Janet rampaged with children on her back during a performance of the Great American Circus in Palm Bay. The officer who finally killed her after shooting 47 rounds into the elephant who supposedly had been chained and beaten for years said, I think these elephants are trying to tell us that zoos and circuses are not what God created them for ... but we have not been listening...this is the kind of stuff people protest about (Sahagun, Louis. Elephants Pose Giant Dangers, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 11, 1994).

Boston Chicken Case

Boston Chicken implemented a franchising strategy that differed from most other franchising companies at the time. Boston Chicken focused its expansion through franchising the company through large regional developers rather than selling store franchises to a large number of small franchisees. In that, an established network of 22 regional franchises that targeted their operations in the 60 largest U.S. metropolitan markets and in order to do so, the franchisee would have been an independent experienced businessman with vast financial resources and would be responsible for opening 50 – 100 stored in the region. Boston Chicken focused on widespread continuous expansion of its operations to become to developed across the board food chain. Scouting for real estate assured the highest standards for developing properties and was critical to the company’s future success. To assist in future growth of the franchises, Boston Chicken implemented a communications infrastructure, which provided a supporting link for communication between its networks of stores. In addition in efforts to improve operating efficiency, the company locked in low rates from its suppliers and developed flagship stores, which did most of the initial food preparation which inadvertently reduced employee training costs. Many of these regional developers were given a revolving credit line to help support expansion. This type of financing came with credit risk while the franchises average revenue from operations were not sufficient enough to cover the expenses which raises doubt for the repayment of such loans. 2. The accounting policy of reporting the franchise fees from Boston Chicken’s area developers as revenue seemed most controversial. These franchise fees, which accounted for more than 50% of total revenue, did not represent revenues from operations. Also, the source of most of the ranchise fees came from the financing provided by Boston Chicken, the franchiser, where the money coming in was the same money that was going out. This overstated earnings of the company. Since the debentures can be converted into shares of common stock, most of the revenue from franchise fees should have been deferred. Reporting revenues that included these franchise fees his the fact the most of the franchised stores were operating at a loss, which provided a false impression to investors. While Boston Chicken, the franchiser reported a net income from operations of $24,611 in 1994, if they excluded the income provided by franchise fees, they company-operated stores would have been operating at a loss, which would have been a more accurate picture for the company’s operations and its question of having a profitable future. 3. Boston Chicken, the franchiser, reports revenue based on franchise fees (includes royalties, initial franchise development costs, interest income from area developer financing, lease income, software fees, and other related franchise fees), and company operated stores. The revenue reported on the income statement does not reflect the operating income or losses generated by the area developers, with most of these area developers operating at a loss. Since the franchiser provides financing to the area developers, it seems that consolidation of the financial statements would provide vital information to the users of the financial statements especially since the repayment of loans relies heavily on the profitability of the franchisees. Basically, Boston Chicken was not reporting the results of operations from its area developers because Boston Chicken did not have an equity position in these firms; rather their stake in these franchises was reported as debt financing. In doing so, Boston Chicken did not have to report the losses that were incurred in these operations. By manipulating the financial statements, the company gave a false impression on its future prospects of the company, allowing them to more freely raise capital through the issuance of common stock, and inadvertently inflating tock prices. 4. The balance of notes receivable from area developers as of December 25, 1994 was at $201,266. Of this amount there was no allowance for loan loss and as a result, revenues would be overstated. With the high probability of uncollectibility on notes receivable due to the majority of operating losses of the area developers, creating an allowance for loan losses would more accurately reflect the financial position of Boston Chicken. Even with just a 25% allowance for uncollectibility the company would be operating at a loss of $25,714. 5 7. In the financial information provided in the case for 1994, Boston Chicken’s Operating profit for the year was $24,611, and net earnings $0. 38 per share. In 1995 Operating Profit for the year increased to $67,238 and net earnings to $0. 66 per share. Boston chicken continued to recognize profits in 1996, but was forced to amend its reported profits in May of 1997 due to improperly stating revenues. In 1998 the company files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and was subsequently purchased by McDonalds Corporation in 2000. As seen in Table 1 on the following page, it seems that since around the 2nd Quarter in 1997 to mid 2004 the stock price of the plummeted from around $50 per share to under $1 per share. At the time the stock price dropped drastically to $0. 00010 per share. In 2007, the company was sold to Sun Capital and went private. 6. After the company filed for bankruptcy, the stock price took a huge hit. In 1999 the company searched for a buyer as its stock price continued to steadily decline. As you can see in Table 1, trading volume drastically fell during the 1999 – 2000 period, and showed an increase in 2000 when McDonalds Corp purchased the company.

Law Relating to Payment and Trade Finance Essay

Law Relating to Payment and Trade Finance - Essay Example Hitherto, investors and other traders who wanted to do cross border or international trading (import and export) had to go through stringent bureaucracies and processes that killed the enthusiasm of most of such investors and traders. Today, the situation is quite different as a lot more people are gaining the interest to go into international trading. The need to make cross border trade and commerce as flexible as possible not withstanding, there are certain basic regulations that remain unchanged and would perhaps remain unchanged for a very long time. One of such regulations is the mode of international trade financing and payment. Though the processes are not as stressful as before, international traders are still required to follow basic international trade financing systems that are governed by law. This write-up therefore seeks to examine the role of some of the most common international trade financing and payment methods in addressing the currency global credit crisis. What is international trade finance and payment? Organisation such as the International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organisation have devised laid down procedures and structures that need to be followed whenever trade and business transactions have to take place across borders. Such trade that take place across borders are referred to as international trade whereas the funding or financing of all forms of products, good and services that are involved in such international trades are referred to as international trade finance or simply put, trade finance. According to the Business Money (2011), â€Å"Trade Finance is the science that describes the management of money, banking, credit, investments and assets for international trade transactions.† This means that the financing of trade across borders is just more than giving out monies for goods that one wants to buy. Rather it reaches an extent where the entire process is described as management. Instead of just giving out money t o pay for goods and products, one has to device means and follow processes that ensure that the money is managed by taking the payment process through a couple of processes, involving institutions such as banks and insurance. It is therefore in the right direction that the Investopedia (2009) notes that â€Å"trade finance looks at banks, credit agencies, insurers, forfaiters, and any other person or institution who enables importers and exporters to trade across borders.† Discussion on the present Global Credit Crisis Closely related to the issue of international trade finance is the availability and access to flexible credit. This is because as mentioned already, trade finance goes beyond paying money in hand to a company to including the involvement of institutions such as banks and insurances. This means that issues on credit plays an important role on the success of world trade finance. However, it is common knowledge that the world has in times past suffered and even to day suffers from credit crisis that is not limited to any one country but the world as a whole. Broadly speaking, when a particular nation suffers a breakdown with its credit system, we say credit crisis has hit that country but when the situation expands to include almost all nations of the world – especially the giants like America, China and Germany, we say that there is a global credit crisis. Greewood (2011) explains that global credit cri

Ethics in the 21st Century Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ethics in the 21st Century - Research Paper Example ior shows ethics through the way a person performs in public, according to the Institute of Global Ethics in the article ‘Ethics and 21st century University’, it is stated that, ethical behavior requiresa person to be: Such are the basic ethics that each society teaches to every individual. Absence of such ethics and ethical behavior can result into problems. These ethics teaches an individual to behave in an appropriate way in the society. Ethics and its nature have been different in different time. Some of the basic social ethics have remained the same but with time as situations change the code of ethics also change. Ethics of 21st century is a result of such case. Ethics of 21st century has a lot of considerations. It is stated that in 21st century ethics is not an option but compulsion. Besides holding the characteristics of competence, experience and intelligence, people at every level need ethical values. Those values predict their future behavior and performance. Rushworth M. Kidder, (2001) states that the principle task of 21st century decade is the creation and nurturing of a value- based culture which means that the ethics of this century are morally strong and follow strict ethics, he was of the view that due to the large amount of time spends at work much of the nurturing takes place in the business environment. Today almost all the organizations are aware of the need for ethics. Organizations see ethics as a social responsibility which they follow as a social obligation. There is a need to follow ethics because it predicts their social and professional relations. In the article ‘Ethics for 21st century’ (UNESCO, 2001) this report is reported from the conference which was held in 2nd session discusses ethics and its role deeply. Ethics from different perspectives are discussed in the paper for example: These roles play a significant role for the analysis of ethics in different fields. It thus enhances the role of ethics in every field

Oppression in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou :: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Oppression in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou In the process of compiling the literary works I intended to include in this project, I began to notice a common thread that connected the works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry that I generally choose to read. That common tie that binds these books together is that they all seem to center, in one form or another, around the theme of oppression. Perhaps this is because I have some deep psychological need to diffuse the power struggles I experience within myself by gleaning insight from the pages of someone else’s experience. Or, perhaps it is merely because I have a predisposition to â€Å"root for the underdog†. Regardless of the reason, be it simple or complex, almost everything I read seems to engage a â€Å"David and Goliath† scenario. Take for example, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. There is no doubt in my mind that the mental institution that comprises the primary setting of the narrative is intended as a metaphor of societal oppression. This symbolic novel relays the story of an inmate standing up against the powerful forces that operate a psychiatric hospital, but it represents much more than just a classic case of â€Å"man versus the establishment†. The questions raised by Kesey are almost as chilling as his descriptive tales of inmate abuse. Kesey compelled me to ponder just how thin the line is that separates insanity from sanity, and treatment from control. Representing a heroic struggle of personality against an institution of mindless conformity, I found â€Å"One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest† to be one powerful piece of literature. Similarly, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, which I first read the summer after I graduated high school, is a tale of oppression that translates into a deeply moving novel chronicling the ups and downs of a black family in the 1930’s and 1940’s. A myriad of historical and social issues are addressed, including race relations in the pre-civil rights south, segregated schools, sexual abuse, patriotism and religion. Autobiographical in nature, this tumultuous story centers around Marguerite Johnson, affectionately called "Maya", and her coast-to-coast life experiences. From the simple, backwards town of Stamps, Arkansas to the high-energy city life of San Francisco and St. Louis, Maya is assaulted by prejudice in almost every nook and cranny of society, until she finally learns to overcome her insecurities and be proud of who she is.

Psychoanalysis, Popular Culture and Media Essay

Psychoanalysis is the science of the unconscious functions of the mind and personality. The theories originate from Austrian neurologist, Sigmund Freud. He discovered these as a treatment for health problems and also as a way to understanding more about your mind. In this essay I am going to discuss how these theories discovered many years ago have contributed to popular culture and media. Sigmund Freud divided the soul into the conscious and the unconscious. The conscious is the part of which we are mentally aware and in contrast the unconscious is where all are restrained wishes are stored. Freud stated that: â€Å"Each individual who makes a fresh entry into human society repeats this sacrifice of instinctual satisfaction for the benefit of the whole community†(Storey 2001:91). He also added: â€Å"Society believes that no greater threat to its civilization could arise than if the sexual instincts were to be liberated and returned to their original aims†(Storey 2001:91). What Freud is saying here is that we are born imperfect with many instinctual drives. From social to sexual drives, basically anything that are ID desires. He believes that these instinctual desires, especially sexual have to be restrained in the unconscious as they would have a detrimental act on society if they were to be followed through and would cause us to act in inappropriate manner to the views of our cultural society. This is where psychoanalysis demonstrates to us how it contributes to media and popular culture. It does this by teaching us certain ways to behave in order to fit in. There are right and wrong ways and psychoanalysis gives us an explanation to how our soul teaches us the appropriate mannerisms. Freud continued on with his discoveries and further divided the psyche into the ego, the ID and the superego. The ID is something we are born with and is totally unconscious. It is driven by the pleasure principle which means that it wants instant satisfaction for all its desires. Freud described the ID as the: â€Å"dark, inaccessible part of our personality†(Storey 2001:92) It is impossible to change our ID and are instinctual desires. The ego is the reality part of personality. It tries to satisfy the ID and its desires after weighing up the pros and cons and waiting until an appropriate time to do so. It develops as in becomes more in touch with culture, furthermore creating the superego. The superego is where we adopt qualities from people who have learnt how to cope in society, mainly are parents and other important figures in our lives at the time. By learning from other people and from what we hear and see on television etc we determine a sense of right and wrong. As a result, our superego helps to restrain the unacceptable urges of the ID, and tries to make the ego act in an appropriate manner that society expects and requires. Furthermore this psychoanalysis theory and breakdown of the psyche demonstrates to us how culture and media play a fundamental role on how we act in society. Its like a big circle, we learn how to act from elders and society and then people learn from us and so on. John Storey describes the superego as â€Å"the voice of culture† as it is what we learn from and Freud says that â€Å"our nature is governed by culture†(Storey 2001:92). He believes that human nature is in fact something that is not natural and controlled by the ever changing culture and media at that particular time. In my opinion, the ego of a person depends on the era they live, who they are surrounded by, the media and many other social and cultural factors. We learn from our contact with society and culture and that includes who we are with or what we here on TV, or see in the newspapers. Whether it be intentional or not, we consume all of that information and that forms are opinions on what is right and wrong etc and makes us who we are. We are in fact controlled by culture and what is going on around us, as this is the make up of our personality and determines the way we act in society. Furthermore, the superego keeps everything in balance. Without it we would be driven by our pleasure principle (ID) and not know how to express are opinions correctly or behave, essentially causing havoc. This results in their being a constant, ongoing conflict between the pleasure and reality principle. In conclusion, Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan have been greatly influential when it comes to culture and media. In my opinion the theory of psychoanalysis can be seen in everyday life when it comes to watching films etc as everything can be interpreted and has an effect on us. It had a large impact on how sound work in early childhood development and also in cinema. Psychoanalysis can be used to interpret different meanings, and what you get from it can vary from observer to observer. The cinema is full of hidden meanings and tempting us with desires. Slavoj Zizek states that: â€Å"The cinema doesn’t give you what you desire, it tells you how to desire† (Zizek:2007). When we are watching a film our instinctual drives are not fulfilled but it tells us how we should desire, and can be seen as a form of release. Many would argue that not every human desire has to be taught such as sleeping or drinking but many would argue they are not desires just basic needs. For an actual fact the desire is in the quantity of how much we want. The media affects are desires greatly by large and effective ad campaigns. Take for example McDonalds, the ad campaigns, the way they make the food look and its popularity entices us to desire it. If there wasn’t thousands of them an it wasn’t that popular I doubt we would desire it as much, however, it’s a big part of our fast-food culture. Psychoanalysis is very effective and demonstrates to us how our psyche works.