E-business †Selling shoes in United States Essay Example for Free

E-business – Selling shoes in United States Essay Online shop attracts certain class of customers thus any company operating in goods and services on online shop must have a strategy of implementing their online shop. The designing of the website must be considered a critical factor of success of online shops. There fore, the company should acquire a variety of brand of shoes which attracts a specific class of customers that is the customers who are busy with extra disposable income to expand. They should also expand their product base which gives a customer a wide variety of shoes. An online store should reduce their costs by outsourcing labor from Asia and Africa to keep their products affordable to many. The company in online shop should enter into strategic alliances with other companies who have other products so that the online shop will be made use of apart from men shoe. Women shoes and make ups should be part of the shop to ensure that the site becomes popular to many. They should also include advertisements of other popular products to ensure the differentiation strategy works well. To implement the online shop is one of the best project t be implemented and this project will require the consent of the management. Competitive edge The most established competitors of online shop for shoes for men are companies which have stores where people walk in and out. Big stores like Walmart and Home Deport have stores selling shoes becoming competitors. However, an online shop for shoes will have a competitive edge over the other companies because their products will be sold online to all busy members of the society now that the majority of Americans have online or are intending to have online services into their homes. The company operating physical stores have achieved their goals and what they are doing now is competing for the existing market but a market for online shoppers is not yet developed thus the company with such a service will have a high competitive edge to other companies. The future looks bright for a company marketing and selling products online and most companies are selling to satisfy their customers through the introduction of online shops and their focus is now to offer unique and high quality shoes to busy members of the society in online shop. This will maintain customers and they will be there for many years to come. Marketing strategy When selling shoes online in the United States a number of factors are considered. Among the factors consider are who are the potential customers, what promotional strategies and the pricing strategies used. If you consider those facts, marketing of shoes in the United States online will be easier. The potential customers for online shop of men shoes in the united states is urban retired pensioners and young business executives who does not have time to do shopping for themselves and for their sons and grandsons. This category own internets broadband in their houses and whenever they need a product, they will browse an online shop, put their credit number and carry out the transaction. They will expect you to deliver the products to their offices or houses. They range from the age of twenty to the age of ninety and this market is expected to grow as more people are becoming wealthier and busy as compared to the past years. Men naturally tend to be busy and they are pushed into making purchases of shoes by their wives and women and online shop will be a great benefit to them. Women will be another target for selling of shoes of men online in the United States because ladies will wish to make purchases for their husbands or man friends. The market for this type of shopping is increasing and it’s becoming greater than it is expected. Selling shoes online will provide affordable and high quality shoes to busy men in the society who have no time to go out to do shopping for shoes. The online shop will provide a guide and inform men of the variety of shoes available in the main company’s store. This will increase the marketing strategy of the company. The aim of the shop will be to provide high quality and affordable shoes to the busy members of the community. An online shop will position the company to the point of offering high quality shoes which can be ordered form where one is situated. It will also act as a promotional centre for the company since the products of the company will be displayed on online. The customers will be informed of the variety without using any other media in advertising. This will help the company in product differentiation which is essential to positioning. This means the products sold online are positioned and they stand apart from competitive products offered by other companies. This combination of product differentiation and competitive offerings through online gives the company important attributes. The company website and online shop will be based in the United States ensuring that the products are marketed far worldwide but based in the United States. Pricing strategy Selling shoes online in the United States especially men’s shoes is one of the best method of selling products in the United States. The pricing strategy of shoes normally varies from plant to plant and is usually set to merge the prices of competitors. This is normally because most competitors operate in the same environment without any competitor having a competitive edge against others. It is essential that better quality plants of shoes to have the same price as competitors. However, price setting is aimed at ensuring profitability of the firm in business. The cost of purchase, distribution and maintenance of the website should be taken care of when setting the prices of shoes online. The price indicated should show the value of the shoes and the delivery amount. This is because the firm in business includes capital requirement and associated gains that covers the expenses of the organization. Always the profit is considered when setting price which is equals to the price net cost while capital gains is equivalent to the current assets and fixed asset running costs. In choosing the target market for shoes online, it is important before setting up online shop. Online shopping attracts some class of customers. Take for example most city and environ dwellers as compared to people in rural and interior areas where broadband have not reached. Statistics in the united states indicate that almost 50% of households in the united states have broadband in their houses meaning before any shopping is done, customers will check the online store to see the price, compare the value of money paid and time wasted to go to the store to buy one. If the value is higher, then the customer will enter a purchase agreement with an online shop. In the United States, there is an increase of aging population with an extra disposable income who does not have time to go out to do shopping. They will rather do online shopping paying an extra fee for delivery of goods and services. Therefore, the pricing strategy in the sales of shoes online should consider the cost of delivery and the capital gains of the company Sales strategy Online shop will sell their products through online transactions where the customers enquires about the product real time. If the product is in store, the customer is requested his credit card number, then the transaction is completed upon the supply of the credit card number. The goods are then organized for dispatch to the customers’ office. Again the company will operate a walk in walk out store where members of the public will patronize the store for the purpose of purchasing goods and taking them away. The online store will target geographical areas which are easily accessible by the transport system that will deliver goods to the customers. Sales will be offered at prices affordable to many within a geographical area. The markets will be segmented for the purpose of the sales team to know which area one is found for the purpose of setting the prices. Sales forecast Being the new product in the market, the company will carry out aggressive marketing which will increase the sales on a continuous or constant trend. At the beginning, the company estimates to make annual sales of 15 million. Thereafter, the sales will increase at the rate of 10% which will eventually consist of 2% of the market for men shoes. This ambitious plan will be possible through controlled and aggressive sales and marketing plan keeping in touch with the company’s objectives. The company’s objective could be updated on annual basis so as to ensure that the projected sales are adjusted accordingly. Our sales team will carry out survey to determine the current satisfaction and future needs of our customers. As regards to sales, a trend in sales is analyzed with professionals to ascertain the likelihood in changing the sales forecasted.

History of Percussion Instruments Essay -- Music

History of Percussion Instruments There are few certainties about the percussion family. No one can say how many instruments it contains; few have agreed on playing techniques; and few could name one orchestral piece specifically written with percussion in mind. However, one thing is certain, percussion has been shown over time that it is not merely a matter of beating out rhythm (â€Å" History of Percussion† 1). The family of percussion instruments is the first musical instrumentation introduced to the world. To this date there are countless percussion instruments. Each group of instruments has a different ethnic origin and history in different societies. From the shallow drums of fourth century B. C. to the giant cot rattles of the fifteenth century, percussion instruments have had a unique history. Percussion instruments have had an extensive background on many factors of their sound, and playing style. All percussion instruments fall into two main categories, idiophones and membranophones. Idiophones produce their sound from vibrations without the use of a stretched membrane. This could include castanets, rattles, and mallet instruments. Membranophones are those that produce a sound from the vibrations of a stretched membrane. These include any type of drum hit with a stick. Both of these instruments are tunable in many different ways and forms; therefore, these instruments can be used as melodic instruments (â€Å" Percussion† 653). Basic idiophones (also refereed to as concussion instruments) are struck together. This includes clappers, cymbals, stones, and castanets. Percussive idiophones are hit by nonsonorous strikers. These types of instruments include gongs, triangles, and xylophones. Shaken idiophones were usually cups or shells that contained rattles or pellets, the shaking of the shells and cups produced a sound. There are many other idiophones including scraped, split, and plucked kinds. (â€Å"Percussion† 653). These certain instruments are very important in the percussive arts field. Membranophones are commonly referred to as just drums. They fall into many categories such as kettledrums, bowl shaped drums, tubular drums, friction drums, and mirlitons. Kettledrums and tubular drums are sometimes tunable drums that can be played with hands or beaters. Friction drums are rubbed togethe... ...drum became a major advantage. It was believed that the Muslims invented the kettledrums (â€Å"Percussion† 659). Around the dawn of the seventh century, the use of drumsticks became a vital role in playing drums in Asia (â€Å"Percussion† 658). China and Japan invented a thunder drum, which is a drum that resembles the sounds of rolling thunder. These drums were used during large ceremonies and were played by many men at once. Drums played a vital role in Chinese and Korean orchestras. Some orchestras were just percussion orchestras. Around the twelfth century the first friction drums were used in Spain and Western Europe. The history of percussion is very unique and impressive. The origins of different percussion instruments are interesting to the mind. Many other musical instruments have a long history but the history of percussion is very unparagoned and compelling. Today, percussion instruments are widely used in orchestras and symphonies around the world, these instruments of the past have taken many different forms. The future of percussion instruments holds new innovative musical ideas, and an increase for the music appreciation endeavor.

Examine the techniques Iago employs to achieve his aims in the play Othello

In traditional Shakespearean tragedies the protagonist is destroyed through their own fatal flaw. The play Othello is different because there is a villain which is unusual for a Shakespearean tragedy. In the play Macbeth, the tragic events occur because of Macbeths own fatal flaw of ambition. However in the play Othello; Iago, one of the main characters manipulates Othello's fatal flaw of jealously which leads to the tragic ending of the play. He says how he is using Othello by â€Å"following him I follow but myself†; he is pretending to be loyal to Othello but is really doing it for his own benefit. Iago plans revenge on Othello when he gives Cassio the job of lieutenant instead of to him; he describes himself as â€Å"worth no worse a place† and is showing that he thinks highly of himself. Even after he manages to get Cassio dismissed and replaces him as lieutenant, he still continues to carry out his plan of destruction. This reveals that the reason of Iagos plans are merely just for fun. Iago deceives everyone even Roderigo who supports him, not knowing everything about Iago's plans, he even questions why he â€Å"ever made a fool my purse† which shows he is only using Roderigo for his own benefit. No-one in the play seems to know what Iago is really like. He manipulates everyone in the play to gain their trust although he only uses them. Cassio praises Iago by saying that he had sung â€Å"an excellent song†, this is because he doesn't know that it was actually because of Iago that he was dismissed from the job of lieutenant. Iago is seen as a manipulative and evil character, he betrays Othello by telling Brabantio that Desdemona is married to Othello; â€Å"you're robbed†¦ an old black ram is tupping your white ewe†, he uses crude, sexual imagery to make their marriage seem worse than it is to make Brabantio angry because his daughter got married without his consent. He constantly makes racist comments about Othello; by referring to him as â€Å"thick-lips† and tries to make him seem like a bad character, because in Shakespearean times it was seen as wrong for a white woman to marry a black man. Iago tries to convince himself that Othello has had an affair with is wife; â€Å"I hate the Moor, And it is thought abroad that ‘twixt my sheets He's done my office. † Iago is jealous even though he is not completely sure that Othello has had an affair with his wife. He treats Emilia badly he tells her to â€Å"be not acknown on't† he makes her do what he wants and tell her to pretend she does not know anything about Desdemona's handkerchief. He also makes general bad comments about women; â€Å"she give you so much of her lips as of her tongue† he is saying that Emilia talks too much, something which she shouldn't do. Iago has a general dislike for women and stabs Emilia when she realises what he has done he also causes Othello to hit Desdemona in public and makes him call her a â€Å"whore† to her face. To make Othello jealous he makes out that Desdemona is having an affair but he only hints, â€Å"Lie – † this makes Othello jump to conclusions and finish off the sentences himself; â€Å"Lie with her? Lie on her? † Iago does not try to correct him â€Å"With her, on her, what you will† he just agrees with what Othello is saying. Sometimes when talking to Othello he says something and immediately takes it back to get Othello curious. Othello gave Desdemona a handkerchief which had been passed through his family, Iago tells Emilia to steal it for him and plants it in Cassio's bedchamber. He tries to wind up Othello by discretely reminding Othello that Desdemona did not have the handkerchief anymore: â€Å"But if I give my wife a handkerchief†, he is tormenting him with the thought that Desdemona is not acting truly loyal to Othello, like Emilia would to Iago. Shakespeare uses asides and soliloquies throughout the play as a dramatic technique. While talking to Othello, Iago says â€Å"O, you are well turned now! But I'll set down the pegs that make this music, As honest as I am† it reminds us of Iago's evil nature, and shows how he is planning Othello's destruction. Soliloquies are similar to asides in what they do in the play. They remind us of what Iago is planning and also show us what he thinks about what he has achieved so far.

Chatelperronian Transition to Upper Paleolithic

The Chà ¢telperronian period refers to one of five stone tool industries identified within the Upper Paleolithic period of Europe (ca 45,000-20,000 years ago). Once thought the earliest of the five industries, the Chà ¢telperronian is today recognized as roughly coeval with or perhaps somewhat later than the Aurignacian period: both are associated with the Middle Paleolithic to Upper Paleolithic transition, ca. 45,000-33,000 years ago. During that transition, the last Neanderthals in Europe died out, the result of a not-necessarily-peaceful cultural transition of European ownership from the long-established Neanderthal residents to the new influx of early modern humans from Africa. When first described and defined in the early twentieth century, the Chà ¢telperronian was believed to be the work of early modern humans (then called Cro Magnon), who, it was thought had descended directly from Neanderthals. The split between Middle and Upper Paleolithic is a distinct one, with great advances in the range of stone tool types and also with raw materials--the Upper Paleolithic period has tools and objects made of bone, teeth, ivory and antler, none of which was seen in the Middle Paleolithic. The change is technology is today associated with the entrance of early modern humans from Africa into Europe. The discovery of Neanderthals at Saint Cesaire (aka La Roche a Pierrot) and Grotte du Renne (aka Arcy-sur-Cure) in direct association with Chà ¢telperronian artifacts, led to the original debates: who made the Chà ¢telperronian tools? Chà ¢telperronian Toolkit Chà ¢telperronian stone industries are a blend of earlier tool types from the Middle Paleolithic Mousterian and Upper Paleolithic Aurignacian style tool types. These include denticulates, distinctive side scrapers (called racloir chà ¢telperronien) and endscrapers. One characteristic stone tool found on Chà ¢telperronian sites are backed blades, tools made on flint chips which have been shaped with abrupt retouch. Chà ¢telperronian blades were made from a large, thick flake or block that were prepared in advance, in distinct comparison to later Aurignacian stone tool kits which were based on more extensively worked prismatic cores. Although the lithic materials at Chà ¢telperronian sites often include stone tools similar to the earlier Mousterian occupations, in some sites, an extensive collection of tools were produced on ivory, shell, and bone: these types of tools are not found in Mousterian sites at all. Important bone collections have been found at three sites in France: Grotte du Renne at Arcy sur-Cure, Saint Cesaire and Quinà §ay. At Grotte du Renne, the bone tools included awls, bi-conical points, tubes made of bird bones and pendants, and sawed ungulate antlers and picks. Some personal ornaments have been found at these sites, some of which are stained with red ochre: all of these are evidence of what archaeologists call modern human behaviors or behavioral complexity.​ The stone tools led to the assumption of cultural continuity, with some scholars well into the 1990s arguing that humans in Europe had evolved from Neanderthals. Subsequent archaeological and DNA research has overwhelmingly indicated that early modern humans in fact evolved in Africa, and then migrated into Europe and mixed with the Neanderthal natives. The parallel discoveries of bone tools and other behavioral modernity at Chatelperronian and Aurignacian sites, not to mention radiocarbon dating evidence has led to a realignment of the early Upper Paleolithic sequence. How They Learned That The major mystery of the Chà ¢telperronian--assuming that it does indeed represent Neanderthals, and there certainly seems to be ample proof of that--is how did they acquire new technologies just at the point when the new African immigrants arrived in Europe? When and how that happened--when the African emigrants turned up in Europe and when and how the Europeans learned to make bone tools and backed scrapers--is a matter for some debate. Did the Neanderthals imitate or learn from or borrow from the Africans when they began using sophisticated stone and bone tools; or were they innovators, who happened to learn the technique about the same time? Archaeological evidence at sites such as Kostenki in Russia and Grotta del Cavallo in Italy has pushed back the arrival of early modern humans to about 45,000 years ago. They used a sophisticated tool kit, complete with bone and antler tools and personal decorative objects, called collectively Aurignacian. Evidence is also strong that Neanderthals first appeared in Europe about 800,000 years ago, and they relied on primarily stone tools; but about 40,000 years ago, they may have adopted or invented bone and antler tools and personal decorative items. Whether that was separate invention or borrowing remains to be determined. Sources Bar-Yosef O, and Bordes J-G. 2010. Who were the makers of the Chà ¢telperronian culture? Journal of Human Evolution 59(5):586-593.Coolidge FL, and Wynn T. 2004. A cognitive and neurophysical perspective on the Chatelperronian. Journal of Archaeological Research 60(4):55-73.Discamps E, Jaubert J, and Bachellerie F. 2011. Human choices and environmental constraints: deciphering the variability of large game procurement from Mousterian to Aurignacian times (MIS 5-3) in southwestern France. Quaternary Science Reviews 30(19-20):2755-2775.