An Analysis of the Culture of an Organisation

An Analysis of the Culture of an Organisation Organisational culture is a place or community and sometimes is called as workplace environment on which the growth of the employees or the people is relied that is important for the growth of the company itself. The culture should be encouraging and based on the organizational policies, values and set of business ethics as well so that the people working within the organizational working environment can find things to keep in ethical standards and also according to the way the business organization wants to keep. This will benefit both the business organization as well as the people working for the organization as well. This report is based on the title of An analysis of the culture of an organisation and for accomplishing the key objectives of this assignment, we are to use the case of Nestle. Nestle is a big global business organization and it has been serving the world food industry for the last 150 years of successful business operations as cited by (About us, 2016). The cultur e of Nestle is a big matter of discussion when the company is much health and safety as well as environment concern providing best food products to the people in more than 189 countries of the world. It employs more than 3, 35, 000 employees having operated more than 2, 000 brands of it in the international food market as highlighted by (At a glance, 2016). Nestle has a good culture practicing growth for its employees and improving their abilities and skills continuously within the organizational community through performance improvement and reward systems as well. The culture of Nestle is based on better performance that the employees are always encouraged to be better than the past as noted by (Performance culture, 2016). Organization and the culture of the organization is significant as evaluated by the employees or the people who work there. It is significant in the sense that if the organization cannot ensure and provide the culture or the minimum working environment to the employees where the employees will have the growth opportunities. If they cant get the opportunity to Put into their potentials in the company and the opportunity to prove themselves then, employees will not find interest for working there anymore. This report will cover the culture of Nestle and how it assists its employee to keep themselves align with its mission and objectives while giving them the opportunities and benefits for working better and nurturing the culture of it. In order to discuss the facts related to the evolution of the culture of Nestle, we will demonstrate how different theoretical framework or models can be applied to the case of nestle. Also, an analysis will take place on using and evaluating a particula r and relevant cultural theoretical model to the selected organization along with some evaluative recommendations for the company to better design the culture of it. This report will be prepared basing on the fact of equality of rights for both male and female employees and balancing gender in the workplace environment. Nestle is trying to enhance some systematic changes and trying to bring some improvements in the workplace environment in order to enhance as well as develop the culture of the organization throughout all of the offices of Nestle. Also, maintaining standards in all of the departments and offices throughout the word is another goal of Nestle through focusing on some key changes such as eliminating child labor, ensuring better safety in the workplace, improving supply chain, using environment friendly production and distribution system and many more issues as cited by (Creating Shared Value, 2016). So, we are to focus on the issue of balancing gender or, enhancing balance in gender in Nestle as this is one of the issues that is presently confronted and tried to be settled at Nestle. Culture of a business organization or company needs to be understood and evaluated by the managers or strategists of the particular business organization. The analysis on the culture of a particular business organization by its key planners or managerial personnel will provide the opportunity to enhance the productivity of the employees as well as the people working in the company through developing their skill within the standardize system of the culture set by the managers (Al Mehairi Zakaria, 2014). But, evaluating as well as understanding the workplace environmental characteristics or the elements of the culture to know about the nature of the culture of a particular organization needs to use some models or theories to analyze the key elements of the work environment or the culture of the company. Here, we are to discuss about two models of culture related to analyzing the culture of a business organization so that the issue that is currently facing by Nestle can be evaluated an d analyzed to oversee how the company is confronting and overcoming the challenges or the issue. Among various models of organizational culture, we are to discuss here on the Hofstedes model of culture and the Handys model of culture. In the following paragraphs these two model of organizational culture are to be discussed brief. Hofstedes model of culture Geert Hofstede is a psychologist who had provided with a model showing the variables or dimensions that a society or a culture of the society or culture of any organization as well as company might possess (Geert Hofstede, 2016). The model of cultural dimensions was provided by Geert Hofstede in the year of 1970 which was invented basing on a research project by Geert Hofstede (Hofstede, 2009). The research project was conducted on fifty different countries of the world involving the workers or people working in the IBM and he differentiated one culture from another as cited by (Research Geert Hofstede, 2016). Through conducting this research project, Geert Hofstede provided four dimensions and later on, he added two more dimensions of culture that are now used by the organizational researchers to understand differences among the culture of each country from other business organizations. Strategists or managerial personnel use this model of culture to analyze various differences in the culture of a particular business organization in order to settle the issues faced by the company to overcome cultural problems. Moreover, the model of cultural dimension by Hofstede is used for understanding cultural differences between or among societies or cultures of business organizations as well. Geert Hofstede suggested six dimensions of organizational or societal culture. According to (Hofstede, Pedersen, Hofstede, 2012), these six cultural dimensions of culture can place value within the organization if the variables or dimensions can be properly balanced and managed by the mangers. The six cultural dimensions by Hofstede are described below in brief. Power distance: Power distance index is a measurement of power distribution that shows how the power within a society or business organization or company is distributed to the people of the particular institution or company. This index consists two sides from which one is high power distance and another is low power distance. The two sides reflect two kinds of nature of a culture of a business organization along with the nature of the authority and management possessed by the managers of a particular business organization. The business organization which has people with high in power distance that means that people have more power than the people living without zero or very low power than the higher class people in the society or in the organization. The organization having high in power distance index follows an authoritarian management philosophy and the employees working there do not have the rights such as flexibility of work, right of making decisions or giving opinions etc. But , low power distance index of an organization has a balance in the power that people have in the working environment or company. Managers follow democratic leadership and managerial style involving others in making key organizational decisions as well as cited by (Organisational Culture Geert Hofstede, 2016). Individualistic vs collectivistic: Business organizations may also have the nature of individualism or collectivism in its organizational culture or working environment. Individualistic business organizational culture doesnt inspire people to work for the shared goals as prescribed by the business organization. But, collectivist organizational culture of a business organization promotes common values and goals as well of the organization to be achieved through group or team efforts by the people working within the organization. This dimension shows whether a business organization has a culture of community sharing common objectives or a culture having interest for achieving personal rather than organizational goals. High and low uncertainty avoidance: Companies that are high in the uncertainty avoidance have a culture involving systems, regulations, guidelines to follow without coping with the changes due to the change of the business environment, change in the economy or change in the other variables that might influence the decisions taken by the company. These organizations do not change over time and believe that changes might cause problems whether, the organizations in low uncertainty avoidance index update their systems and implement improvements in the strategies or plans as well to innovate and to increase the feasibility and validity of the organizational policies. Masculinity and femininity: This index shows the attitude that a culture of a business organization possess. The high in the index shows that the organization is such ambitious, competitive and there is more difference in gender beyond equality between male and female employees. The low index value shows femininity attitudes within the culture of an organization of high in gender balance and focusing on relationship building with others in the organization to provide greater value for the organization together. Short term and long term orientation: Organization may have an orientation of short term which involves the organization to rely upon traditional systems followed by the company and also having the view that future will be handled in future without having any planning at present. Taking any action in the business is not made basing on future. On the other hand, having the long term orientation companies implement long term plans taking the value of time and analyzing the past, they take actions at present to improve the organizational situation in the long term. Indulgence versus restraint: Organization focusing more on indulgence or having high score in the index of indulgence versus restraint has a culture of rewarding employees toward a happier personal as well as work life. But, low in the index represents the culture of a business organization to involve rigid and structured organizational framework with no optimism of wellbeing of the employees. Handys model of culture Charles Handy is an Irish Philosopher who is a specialist of culture of business organization (Charles Handy, 2009). Charles Handy provided his model of organizational culture which involves four types of culture that the business organization may follow. This model of culture identifying the four types of culture of a business organization will make someone understand why employee feel comfortable working in a particular business organization.   According to Charles Handy, the four types or classes of culture of the business organization are described in brief in the following paragraphs as highlighted by (CRAINER, 2010). The power culture: The business organization that involves the power culture follows the leadership style as well as the management style of autocracy. Business organization having such power culture centralizes all the power of the organization to some of the person in the high level of the organizational hierarchy or structure. Key decisions or any types of decisions taken within the organization are done by them without giving any right of opinion giving to the employees as cited by (Charles Handy Model of Organization Culture, 2016). So, Employees do not enjoy working in such type of organization and also this type of culture ensures nothing equal on any issue for the betterment of the people working under the autocratic managers. Task culture: The business organizations or companies having or following the culture of accomplishing tasks through making team efforts are more objectives achieving oriented. According to (Bailey, 2007), the task culture emphasizes on sharing common goals and business objectives. In this type of culture, the employees are motivated to work as teams. Person culture: The Company in which people working there do not bother about whether the objectives or purposes of the organization are met or not and primarily and only their personal desires are their focal points possesses a person culture. When there is nothing that the employees have to expect any kind of betterment working hard for the company, this type of culture takes place in the business organization. Employees just come to the company for their salary and accomplishing their personal interest. Role culture: Organization possessing this type of culture where the employees are given the right combination of duties and authority aligning with their job position in the organization and basing on their qualifications and experience as well (Management Theory of Charles Handy, 2011). Employees within this type of culture are empowered with the authority given to them for choosing their own ways to solve any issue or accomplishing any task as well. Comparison between Hofstedes and Handys models of culture The two models of organizational culture describe two issue relating to the culture of a particular work environment or company. The first one provides six types of dimensions on which the nature of culture is understood but the later one describes types of culture that a company might possess either of them. The objective of these two models are also different. For example, the Hofstedes model is used to understand the culture of a particular organization through analyzing six set of attributes discussed in the previous task. But, Handys model of culture is used for knowing why an employee is working within a particular business organization as highlighted by (Types of Organizational Culture, 2016). Also, according to Hofstede a culture can be measured positive or negative analyzing the score in the six indices accomplished by the particular business organization as cited by (Hofstede, Hofstede, Minkov, 2010). But, Handys model of culture analyzes which type of culture does the business organization specifically possessing at present. We have selected a single issue- enhancing gender balance in Nestle to apply any of the cultural model within the Organizational culture of Nestle to overcome the challenges of confronting the issue. The Hofstedes model of culture doesnt involve any dimension relating to gender equality in the workplace environment where the Handys model of culture presents the role culture types which only focuses on qualification and education of the employee beyond gender disparity. So, we will utilize the Handys model of culture and apply this on the issue facing by Nestle at present. According to Charles Handy, there are four types of cultures from which any one of these types of culture can be seen in a particular business organization. Among these four types of culture described in the previous part of this report such as power, role, task and person culture, we are to use the role culture in case of Nestle. Because, we are responding to the issue of enhancement of gender balance within Nestle and we will emphasize on this type of culture to give some recommendations that the company might follow to adopt in order to confront the issue as well. The role culture as provided by Handy is focused on the empowerment of the employees working in the business organization (NCSL Modular Curriculum, 2016). As Nestle is directed toward improving its working environment balancing the role and power of the workforce through enhancing the balance in gender. Male as well as female employees are to be given equal opportunities and this is to be ensured for balancing in gender in Nestle and in any organization as well. The main objective under the issue of enhancing gender balance in the company is to increase the number of female in the higher or managerial positions f he company. This needs to be given the female workers or employee equal opportunities to grow and also to encourage and motivate them to work closely with the male employees so that the synergic calculation of the effort by both genders equals to more than the sum of them. The role culture needs to be adopted by Nestle because, this culture imposes equal rights, responsibiti es, power to all the employees according to their qualification and skill as well ass according to their job position without considering which gender they possess. So, adopting such practices and the role culture in the business organization will support Nestle to accomplish its objective of enhancing balance in gender. Nestle should implement the role culture that will ensure the empowerment with right combination of authority and responsibility of all the employees and eliminating the gender disparity within the business organization. Organizational culture needs to be set up according to its shared objectives and values so that the employees can be managed within the controlled organizational environment toward organizational goals acheieving. Through implementing such a shared culture will improve business processes for enhancing of opportunities for the betterment of the employees as well company. References       About us. (2016). Nestle.com. Retrieved 9 August 2016, from http://www.nestle.com/aboutus Al Mehairi, H. Zakaria, N. (2014). Understanding Organizational Culture for Effective Knowledge Sharing Behaviors in the Workplace. Organizational Cultures: An International Journal, 13(3), 33-52. http://dx.doi.org/10.18848/2327-8013/cgp/v13i03/59257 At a glance. (2016). Nestle.com. Retrieved 9 August 2016, from http://www.nestle.com/aboutus/overview Bailey, J. (2007). Profile on Charles Handy. Engineering Management, 17(1), 44-46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1049/em:20070115 Charles Handy. (2009). The Economist. Retrieved 10 August 2016, from http://www.economist.com/node/13847396 Charles Handy Model of Organization Culture. (2016). Managementstudyguide.com. Retrieved 10 August 2016, from http://www.managementstudyguide.com/charles-handy-model.htm CRAINER, S. (2010). PROFILE: CHARLES HANDY. Business Strategy Review, 21(2), 86-88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8616.2010.00671.x Creating Shared Value. (2016). Nestle.com. Retrieved 10 August 2016, from http://www.nestle.com/csv Geert Hofstede. (2016). Geert-hofstede.com. Retrieved 10 August 2016, from https://www.geert-hofstede.com/ Hofstede, G. (2009). Organising for cultural diversity. European Management Journal, 7(4), 390-397. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0263-2373(89)90075-3 Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G., Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and organizations. New York: McGraw-Hill. Hofstede, G., Pedersen, P., Hofstede, G. (2012). Exploring culture. Yarmouth, Me.: Intercultural Press. Management Theory of Charles Handy. (2011). Business.com. Retrieved 10 August 2016, from http://www.business.com/management/management-theory-of-charles-handy/ NCSL Modular Curriculum. (2016). Nationalcollege.org.uk. Retrieved 10 August 2016, from https://www.nationalcollege.org.uk/transfer/open/dsbm-phase-4-module-2-leading-and-managing-change/culture-and-change/organisational-culture.html Organisational Culture Geert Hofstede. (2016). Geert-hofstede.com. Retrieved 10 August 2016, from https://www.geert-hofstede.com/organisational-culture.html Performance culture. (2016). Nestle.com. Retrieved 9 August 2016, from http://www.nestle.com/jobs/your-career-at-nestle/performance-culture Research Geert Hofstede. (2016). Geert-hofstede.com. Retrieved 10 August 2016, from https://www.geert-hofstede.com/research.html Types of Organizational Culture. (2016). Boundless. Retrieved from https://www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundless-management-textbook/organizational-culture-and-innovation-4/culture-33/types-of-organizational-culture-187-3936/   

The Day That Wal-Mart Dropped the Smiley Face

Case I The Day That Wal-Mart Dropped the Smiley Face Retail giant wal-mart annually spends close to a half billion dollars on advertising, so the company’s decision in the first month of 2005 to run full-page ads in more than 100 newspapers was not really surprising. What was surprising was the copy in those ads, which said nothing about low-priced toasters or new music CDs. Instead, the ads featured a photo of workers in their blue Wal-Mart smocks and a letter from Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott. Scott’s letter was blunt and to the point: â€Å"When special interest groups and critics spread misinformation about Wal-Mart, the public deserves to hear the truth. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions about our company, but they are not entitled to make up their facts. † Not the sort of message many would expect from a company whose television ads often feature a yellow â€Å"smiley-face† flying around a Wal-Mart store lowering prices. But it is a clear sign that Wal-Mart believes it can no longer afford to ignore several societal trends that threaten the company’s success and profitability. Wal-Mart is the largest and most successful retailer in the world. It employs more people than any other private company in the United States (almost 1. 2 million) and has world-wide sales of over a quarter trillion dollars, more than four times that of its nearest competitor. The foundation of this impressive record is the company’s ability to keep it promise of customer-friendly service and low prices. But with success comes attention and not all of it good. Several lawsuits claim Wal-Mart shorts overtime pay and one lawsuit claimed female employees face discrimination in pay and promotions. Wal-Mart’s expansion plans have also run into trouble, as some cities and states, citing concerns ranging from low wages, inadequate benefits, environmental damage, and harm to local economies, have passed laws to make it difficult or impossible for Wal-Mart to build its giant superstores. In response to past criticisms of its diversity policies, Wal-Mart created company-wide postings of promotional opportunities, created a new position for a director of diversity, and slashed the bonuses of managers who fail to achieve diversity hiring targets. Scott himself stands to lose $600,000 from his annual bonus if Wal-Mart does not meet diversity goals. Recent years have also seen the CEO spend more time meeting with investors, community groups and the media. But in recent years Wal-Mart has begun to use advertising as a way of addressing criticisms that the company is not a good employer. At first, much of this advertising was â€Å"soft-sell† emphasizing happy Wal-Mart employees. The new campaign is clearly more direct: The copy seeks to address misperceptions about employee wages and benefits, noting that full-time company employees are paid an average of $ 9. 8 – substantially higher than what is required by federal law (%5. 15). The copy also notes that a majority of Wal-Mart employees said benefits were important to them when they chose to take a job at the retailer. Complementing the ads is a PR campaign in select cities using employees and press conferences. In Tampa, Florida, for example, employee Michael Mar tin told reporters, â€Å"I’m making more after working four years at Wal-Mart than I did after nine years at Winn-Dixie. † Martin, a department manager, noted, â€Å"I left Winn-Dixie because I couldn’t get a promotion. Here I got one after six months. † Why is the company using a new approach? â€Å"For too long, others have had free rein to say things about our company that just are not true,† said lee Scott, president and chief executive office. â€Å" Our associates [Wal-Mart speak for employees] are tired of it and we’ve decided to draw our own line in the sand. † It is too soon to know if the campaign will succeed, although some are already skeptical. According to retail marketing consultant Jordan Zimmerman, aggressive mage campaigns like Wal-Mart’s are rare and costly. And ads that directly address the company’s critics will not likely replace the company’s regular advertising (including the smiley face), which is not scheduled to change any time soon. But the new ads do constitute a small change in the nature of the dialogue Wal-Mart has with consumers and society. Only tie will tell if they help Wal-Mart to stay on top. Questions: 1. What is Wal-Mart doing with its latest campaign? What are the difficulties involved in such an effort? 2. A recent Advertising Age article noted that Wal-mart customers are less likely to read newspapers and more likely to watch television than the population as a whole. Why, then did Wal-mart choose newspapers for its new campaign? 3. Analyze this Wal-Mart campaign and explain its purpose referring to the discussion in this chapter of the roles and functions of advertising. What is its primary purpose? Do you think it will be effective at accomplishing that purpose? Case II Toyota Goes after Tuners Young people with limited incomes often look for a great deal on a new car. One way to save money is to forgo options and upgrades, like a sunroof or a CD player. But when Toyota introduced its funky â€Å"Scion† brand, it considered offering a version without something most people assume comes standard: paint. Although they ultimately decided against the idea, at one point Toyota’s plan was to sell the brand with just gray primer. Toyota wasn’t really targeting people so cheap they wouldn’t spend money on paint. Just the opposite – the car company was going after a group with money to burn, called tuners. Tuners are young car buyers who live to customize hteir cars. The trend really began among young Asian Americans, who typically bough t inexpensive Asian import cars and then spent thousands of dollars customizing them. The hobby has spread to other young people, so that today Asian Americans are a minority of tuners. But Japanese brands remain the cars of choice among those dedicated to creating a work of art on wheels. Explaining the idea of a â€Å"no paint† option, Jim Farley, Scion general manager, says, â€Å"As much as possible, we want to give them [tuners] a black canvas. † What does a tuner do with his car? He (or she; women make up almost 20 percent of the tuner subculture) might take a basic Honda, add a large and loud exhaust system, paint the intake manifolds, and add ride-lowering springs. Other popular add-ons are technologies that increase vehicle speed, like turbochargers, superchargers, and nitrous kits. And there are some serious bucks involved. The Specialty Equipment Market Association estimates that auto after-market spending (spending on car accessories after the original car purchase) increased from $295 million in 1997 to 2. 3 $billion in 2002. The motivation? â€Å" You build a car for yourself,† says one day install on Acura RSX Type-S engine into his Honda Civic. â€Å" The satisfaction is in making it your own and knowing that nobody will ever have something that’s the same. † The amount of money tuners spend is reason enough to attract the attention of marketers. GM hoped to interest tuners in its Saturn Ion, Chevrolet Cavalier, and Pontiac Sunfire when it when it launched a â€Å" Tuner Tour† of 10 National Hot Rod Association races. GM allowed young car enthusiasts to play games and enter contests for prizes, as it in turn collected names and e-mail addresses. GM’s focus on relationship marketing makes sense because tuners don’t watch a lot of TV. Both Mitsubishi and Ford believe the best way to reach them is with product placements in movies (Mitsubishi bought air time in the popular for (â€Å"2 Fast 2 Furious†). But even companies selling products unrelated to cars are interested in the tuner lifestyle. Pepsi has hired tuners to customize some of its promotional vehicles. Which brings us full circle back to Scion, Toyota’s goal is to make the new car an immediate hit with tuners. So rather than spend a great deal of money on network television, Toyota decided to sponsor a 22-minute movie On the D. L. The movie is a comical docudrama that tells the story of a pair of musicians trying to obtain their first drivers licenses. The stars are musicians trying to obtain their first drivers licenses. The stars are musicians from youth-oriented bands: Ahmir â€Å"Questlove† Thompson, from the Roots, and DJ King Britt, who played for the Digable Planets. The film premiered at the Tribeca film festival, after which segments were shared on peer-to-peer networks such as Kaazaa. Toyota hopes that enthusiasts will download the segments and share them with friends. Questions: 1. Why are tuners so attractive to marketers, even after accounting for their spending power? 2. Evaluate Toyota’s strategy of targeting tuners with the Scion campaign. What are the difficulties for a large company in marketing effectively to a youth-oriented subculture? What techniques do you think companies like Toyota are using to try to understand their market? 3. Explain how â€Å"tuner† campaigns, such as those by GM and Toyota, work. Analyze these campaigns using the Facets Model to identify the effects they are designed to achieve. How would you determine if these campaigns are effective? Case III Starbucks Makes TV Less Intrusive Starbucks coffee is now sold in grocery stores but how many people realize it? To get that message out, the well known coffee house chain needed to reach its customers nationwide with that message. Television commercials would be the obvious way to reach those people, but Starbucks’ management knew that their customers are not big fans of television commercials and resent the interruption of their favorite program. That’s why starbucks has been such an infrequent advertiser on TV. Its on-air promotional activities have been limited primarily to radio and its only previous use of TV had been support announcements on public TV. That was the problem facing Starcom’s MediaVest group. The agency used a creative solution: It recommended a partnership with the Bravo cable network. Bravo would run four Independent Film Channel (IFC) movies on Friday nights for a month and Starbucks would buy all the commercial time surrounding the movie airings. The MediaVest team knew that Bravo’s â€Å"IFC Friday† night films would be a good way to reach the stakeholder audience because research had described that customer base as people who are up on the latest trends, like to attend live performances of the arts, are apt to see a movie during the weekend it opens, and generally are interested in cutting edge things. Mediavest calls this customer â€Å"the attuned explorer. † Even though Starbucks bought all the commercial time, the MediaVest team recommended letting the movies run uninterrupted. Starbucks’ advertising message was delivered in supporting Bravo promotions of the movies during each week leading up to the Friday night telecast. About 40 seconds of each 60-second preview spot showed scenes from the movie and 20 seconds promoted Starbucks s the movie sponsor. Other promotional activities were also used in support of the campaign. One month before the movies aired, a $1 off coupon for a bag of Starbucks Coffee was sent to 3 million targeted consumers around the country, along with a viewer guide introducing the Starbucks-sponsored independent movie festival. Starbucks billboards also appeared during the movie month coinciding with the independent film industry’s annual telecast, which aired on both Bravo and IC. The innovative Bravo partnership wound up not only increasing sales of Starbucks Coffee by 15 percent for the month the campaign ran, but also increased viewership on Bravo by 33 percent. These results led the campaign to be named a Media Plan of the year by Adweek magazine. Questions: 1. What was the problem Starbucks wanted to overcome in order to effectively advertise that its coffee brand was available in supermarkets? 2. How did the partnership work? Is there anything you could recommend that would extend the reach of this campaign? Case IV Wpp’s Owner-a British Knight with Every (Marketing) Weapon at His Disposal To the uniformed, nothing about Martin Sorrell or his company, the WPP group, may be quite what it seems. Although he was awarded a knighthood, Sir Martin is anything but a reserved aristocrat. And while WPP is one of the four largest agency holding companies in the world, the initials actually stand for Wire & Plastic products, the British company Sorrell used to gobble up some of the world’s most famous advertising agencies. The roster of agencies now under the WPP’s wing includes industry leaders Ogivly and Mother, Burson-Marsteller, Hill & knowlton, young & Rubicam, and J. Walter Thompson, to name just a few. Large conglomerates like WPP made frequent headlines in the 1990s, a period of great consolidation in the advertising industry. Faced with harsh economic and business realities, individual advertising agencies chose to give up independent existence in order to become parts of large communication companies that offered clients all the tools for an integrated campaign, including advertising, direct marketing, public relations, and sales promotion. In the new millennium, dealing with one (or several) of the four large holding companies, WPP Group (England), Interpublic(U. S), Publicis Groups (France), and Omnicom (U. S), is the way the world’s biggest advertisers do business. While each of the conglomerates is led by a charismatic and dynamic individual, none appears to have an edge on Sorrell, who was described in a recent Fortune article as â€Å"†¦confident, witty, and a tod arrogant, talking rapidly about the future of advertising and the challenges of keeping fractious clients and ad agencies happy. † Fortune also noted that â€Å"In an industry populated by shameless schmoozers, the 59-year-old Sorrell is in a league of his own. † These characteristics have served Sorrell well, In 2004 he squared off against rival Publicis Groups and its CEO, Maurice Levy, in pursuit of one of the last great independent agencies, Grey Advertising, New York. During the battle Advertising Age opined that Publicis had a big advantage because Levy and Grey chair Edward Meyer were friends and had spoken about merging in the past. In addition, both Grey and Publicis created ads for consumer giant procter & Gamble, while WPP agency Ogilvy & Mather counted P&G’s competitor Unilever among its most important clients. It is customary for agencies not to work for competing accounts. ) A Unilever spokesperson, asked for his thoughts about the possibility of working with an agency that created ads for his most important rival, suggested that â€Å"In the past, we’ve not seen it to be such a good idea. â€Å"But nobody familiar with Martin Sorrell was surprised when at the end of the day he convinced Grey to sign with WPP and persuaded Procter & Gamble to stay as well. Unlike many of his peers, Sorrell has never written a word of copy, nor has he ever penciled a print design or directed a broadcast commercial. Sorrell’s talents are organizational and strategic; although he is an expert in the world of finance, Sir Martin cautions, â€Å"I may be a bean counter, but I’m not an accountant. † To drive home the point he posed for WPP’s annual report surrounded by lima and pinto beans. So how does Martin Sorrell continue to win in the high-stakes agency world? His vision, developed years before most of his rivals caught on, that twenty-first-century clients would want a complete menu of marketing communication services, all of which work synergistically, is one important reason for his success. Tenacity, energy, focus, and a willingness to do whatever is needed to win are also traits that come to mind. All these are illustrated in the story of Sorrell’s drive to land Korean giant Samsung when the company put its advertising up for review in the spring of 2004. Samsung spends almost $400 million each year supporting its brands, which is reason enough for agencies to salivate for the account. Sorrell believes that the company holds even greater appeal because of his forecast that advertising growth in the twenty-first century will come disproportionately from Asia. So Sorrell did whatever he could to attract Samsung’s attention. Like any savvy agency head, he assigned his best people to generate creative ideas to pitch to Samsung executives. But unlike most agency heads, he didn’t stop there. After discovering that a Samsung-financed museum was having a grand opening in Seoul, Sorrell jumped on a plane and ended up being the only agency person there. Samsung executives found themselves receiving emails from Sorrell at all time of the day and night. Peter Stringham, marketing director of HSBC, a company that Sorrell landed after several years of trying, commented, â€Å"Martin can be quite persistent. He was there from the first meeting to the last. He’d pitched to us a couple of times before and not gotten the account, but he’d had his eye on it for years. † Needless to say, in the fall of 2004, Samsung announced it was awarding its account to WPP. In the new millennium, British knights may not wear armor, carry a crest, or rescue damsels in distress. But Sir Martin Sorrell knows how to triumph in the competitive world of advertising agencies. Questions 1. Why do large clients like Samsung wish to work with giant holding companies like WPP instead of with smaller agencies? 2. What qualities help Sorrell to be successful? Why are these qualities so important for his company’s success? 3. Explain how Martin Sorrell wins clients and builds positive agency-client relationships. How does he see the agency’s role in marketing? Case V Boycott This! A recent ad for a Nike hiking shoe used copy that was probably intended to be humorous. The copy suggested that Nike’s shoe could help the use avoid turning into â€Å"†¦a drooling, misshapen non-extreme-trail-running husk of my former self, forced to roam the earth in a motorized wheelchair with my name embossed on one of those cute little license plates you get at carnivals†¦. Marcie Roth, an advocacy director for the National Council on Independent Living, didn’t find it funny. â€Å"Nike is trying to be sensationalist, and they’re doing it on the backs of the disabled,† thundered Roth, adding, â€Å"We won’t tolerate it. † Nike apologized and immediately pulled the ad. But Roth announced that her group was interested in more than just an apology, because the disabled, in Roth’s words, had been â€Å"dissed. † Nike was asked to include disabled actors in its ads and hire a greater number of disabled workers. Otherwise, suggested Roth, Nike could expect a boycott. Boycotts are certainly one way for consumers to let advertisers know when they’ve gone too far. While some advertisers, notably Benetton, delight in creating controversy, that vast majority try to avoid the unwanted attention and possible loss of sales that a boycott might bring. Armed with this knowledge, consumers and interest groups regularly threaten boycotts and there are several Web sites that track the dozens of product boycotts that re occurring at any given time. Recently the Web site â€Å"Ethical Consumer† listed boycott of Adidas (for allegedly using kangaroo skin in the manufacture of some boots), Air France (for allegedly transporting primates), Bayer (for allegedly supporting policies favoring the use of genetically modified crops), and even entire nations (Israel, China, Morocco, and Turkey). Although Ethical Consumer’s rationales for supporting boycotts appear motivated by left-leaning or pr ogressive concerns, conservative groups use them too. The American Family Association, based in Tupelo, Mississippi, has sent tens of thousands of e-mails threatening boycotts to advertisers Geico, Best Buy, Foot Looker, and Finish Line. The AFA is not upset with the ads placed by these companies, but rather with the program in which the ads appear: South Park. The AFA claims its e-mail campaigns caused Lowe’s, Tyson, ConAgra, and Kellogg’s to stop placing ads in ABC’s surprise hit Desperate Housewives. Some companies resist boycott pressures. Proctor & Gamble ignored AFA pressure to stop its support for gay-friendly legislation in Cincinnati. Subway Vice President Chris Carroll said his company ignored threatened boycotts caused by the company’s decision to run ads in a documentary that was unflattering to Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. And then there’s Pepsi. In 2003 the brand signed hip-hop artist Ludacris to appear in a â€Å"fun-oriented† campaign, but outspoken cable show host Bill O’Reilly immediately ripped Pepsi and urged â€Å"†¦all responsible Americans to fight back and punish Pepsi for using a man who degrades women, who encourages substance abuse, and does all the things that hurt†¦the poor in our society. I’m calling for all Americans to say, ‘Hey, Pepsi, I’m not drinking your stuff. You want to hang around with Ludacris, you do that, I’m not hanging around with you. † A Pepsi representative appearing on O’Reilly’s show denied that the artist’s provocative lyrics (one album featured a song called â€Å"Move Bitch†) were relevant to the Pepsi campaign. But the following day Pepsi canceled the campaign. For viewers of a certain age, the entire affair was reminiscent of the controversy that erupted several years earlier when Pepsi canceled ads featuring Madonna after she appeared in a controversial music video. But Pepsi’s decision did not mark the end of the controversy. After the announcement, Ludacris and the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, an organization run by his producer, Russell Simmons, threatened their own boycott. Following several days of negotiations, the second boycott was called off. Ludacris would not be a spokesperson for Pepsi, but the soft-drink giant agreed to a deal to make a multi-million-dollar donation over several years to the rapper’s foundation. Questions: 1. What do you think about consumer boycotts? Are they unhealthy attempts to infringe on the speech rights of others? Or are they a healthy sign that consumers can take action against the ethical lapses of advertisers? 2. How should a company respond to the threat of a boycott? Consider the different responses of Nike, Subway, Lowe’s, Proctor & Gamble, and Pepsi. How well do you think each of these companies reacted to boycott pressure? Did any of the companies hurt their brand because of the way they reacted to boycotts? 3. How would you review advertising ideas that you suspect are controversial and might generate a backlash? Is it ever justified to â€Å"push the envelope† in the areas of good taste and social responsibility? How would you decide if such approaches are effective? Case VI How Advertising Works If It Walks Like the Aflac Duck You’ve probably never heard of the American Family life Assurance Co. , nor likely to be familiar with its primary service: supplemental workplace medical insurance, a type of insurance that is used by people to help cover the many loopholes and deductibles in their primary insurance coverage. Then again, if you are like 90 percent of U. S. onsumers, maybe you have heard of the company. In its advertising it calls itself â€Å"AFLAC. † The four-year AFLAC campaign is the work of Linda Kaplan Thaler, owner of the New York agency that bears her name. Thaler’s ads are not known for their subtlety. Among her credits are the Toy’s R Us jingle â€Å"I don’t want to grow up,† and the successful campaign for Clairol Herbal Esse nces, featuring on â€Å"orgasmic† hair-washing experience. The Herbal Essences ads strike some as funny, others as quite possibly offensive, but sales of the product have skyrocketed to almost $700 million a year. In many ways Thaler’s ads hearken back to the 1960s, when it was common to feature â€Å"sex, schmaltz, chirpy jingles and ‘talking’ babies and animals,† as the New York Time’s advertising columnist Stewart Elliott puts it. Industry insiders have been known to snipe at Thaler’s work, and few would describe her campaigns as â€Å"edgy. † But as Maurice Levy, CEO of the giant advertising company Publicis, observes, â€Å"There are people who do advertising for what I call the advertising for the consumer. She is doing advertising mush more for the consumer. Thaler herself notes, â€Å"We’re doing our job when we find ways to get people to buy things. † Thaler’s AFLAC ads, by almost any measure, are her best. Almost all feature a white duck desperately screaming â€Å"AFLAC† at people who need supplemental insurance. Unfortunately, the duck’s audience never quite seems to hear him. Most of the ads contai n a fair amount of slapstick, usually at the expense of the duck, whose exasperated-sounding voice originates with former Saturday Night Live cast member Gilbert Gottfried. He’s got the right answer but nobody is listening, and that’s a situation that resonates with people,† says Kathleen Spencer, director of AFLAC’s corporate communications. â€Å"There’s also just something inherently comical about a duck. † The campaign has been enormously successful. Since the ads first began running, brand name awareness has increased from 15 percent to 90 percent. Over the same period year-to-year sales increases have almost doubled. Dan Amos, CEO for AFLAC, believes that â€Å"our name recognition with our advertising campaign to truly help our company. In 2003 Ad Age named the commercial featuring the duck and the Amazing Kreskin (who hypnotizes a man into thinking he is a chicken) the most-recalled spot in America. But what makes the AFLAC campaign truly remarkable is how little it has cost the company. The duck has a higher Q score (a measure of a character’s familiarity and appeal) than both Ronald McDonald and the Energizer Bunny, but whereas Energizer has spent almost a billion dollars over 15 years on advertising, and McDonald’s spends almost $700 million every year, AFLAC’s ad budget is only $45 million a year. There is no denying that Thaler’s work for AFLAC is a triumph of both effectiveness and value. Questions: 1. Some viewers don’t like the AFLAC ads. Can an ad still accomplish its intended purposes if people find it annoying? 2. The AFLAC campaign is more than four years old. In your opinion, will the campaign stay effective for the foreseeable future? 3. What makes AFLAC ads so effective? Is it something more than their entertainment value? If so, what else contributes to their success?

Is punishment always the right solutions to stop crime? Essay

Punishments are meted out for three reasons – deterrence, retributivism, and incapacitation. The first, deterrence seeks to prevent future wrong doing. Retributivism is linked to notions of justice where crime must be met with an appropriate punishment. The last, incapacitation, seeks to protect society at large from criminals. This essay will examine whether punishment is always the right solution to stop crime, in light of the reasons for dishing out punishment to criminals. From the perspective of justice, punishment is the right solution to stop crime, as justice must be upheld in society. However, from a more pragmatic point of view, punishment may not always be the right way to stop crime as it is often ineffective. Instead of just meting out punishment, the right solutions should focus on educating and reforming the offenders as well as educating the general public for the sake of a better society in the future. Read more: Essays on crime Deterrence From a practical perspective, punishment is not always the right way to stop crime as its deterrence effect is limited. For the offenders, deterrence presents a threat of negative consequences to prevent offenders from engaging in criminal activity in the future; for the public, deterrence send a message to the general population to show that if one engages in criminal activity, there will be severe consequences. The assumption is that human beings are rational to weigh the benefits and loses of committing a crime. It might seem that the prospect of receiving a death sentence would deter murderers from committing such offences. However, many studies on deterrence and the death penalty do not support this idea. The deterrence theory is not always applicable to all the cases, especially for violent. This is because most of the time when the offenders commit violent crimes, their criminal intent overshadows their ability to think rationally of the consequences of their wrongful act. For instance, terrorists are willing to sacrifice their lives to commit the crime, so even the most severe punishment death penalty does not serve as a deterrence for them. Also, a recent study published in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology reported that 88% of the country’s top criminologists surveyed do not believe the death penalty acts  as a deterrent to homicide. These statistics all shows that the deterrence effect of the punishment cannot always erase people’s intent of committing crime. As long as offenders are willing to take the consequences, the deterrence effect does not work on them. In contrast, the alternative of civic education, can help erase people’s intent of committing the crime. Unlike the deterrence effect, it has an edifying effect. With implanting the right positive values, the potential offenders would learn how to find alternative methods to release their anger to someone or to distract themselves from committing the crime. In this way, their negative intent can be erased and result in stopping the crime. Therefore, in my opinion, the civic education is more effective than punishment and it should be right solutions to stop the crime. Retributivism While in many cases, punishment metes out the appropriate justices, this is not true in all the cases. Sometimes, punishment may be blind to the causes of the crime and the circumstances of the criminal. The result is that punishment is not always the right method to stop the crime. Retributivism is a form of justice, whereby when an offender breaks a law, they are required to forfeit something in return. It is based on the principle of lex talionis: â€Å"An eye for an eye, a life for a life†, which states that whatever crime carried out will be punished proportionally. Another purpose of retributivism is to bring the closure for the victims for a short term, however, this only brings short term benefits for victims. In the long run, the retributivism does not serve to solve the real problems of the offenders. There are many cases that criminals may be wrongfully accused and sentenced to death. Cases like Li Yan, a Chinese woman who killed her abusive husband after 4 months o f brutal domestic violence was sentenced to death. However, her action can be regarded as self-defense. Hence, Amnesty International East Asia has tried to call for a reversal of the sentence. The real problem behind this crime is the lack of protection of women from the domestic violence in China. However, the judgment only focused on how Li Yan should give her life for a life. The punishment actually fails to address the fundamental causes of crimes and fails to do true justice, given that the criminal has sympathetic circumstances. In many cases, offenders committing crimes may due to some reluctant difficulties or they need  survive in a harsh conditions. Therefore, instead of just meting out the punishment blindly, it is more important to ensure that true justice is done, such that criminals are not wrongfully convicted. This can be done by solving the social issues behind the crime and it is a more proper solution to stop the crime. Incapacitation Incarcerating dangerous people to get them off the street and remove them from society helps prevent future harm by these criminals. Imprisonment punishes people by removing their right to personal liberty. However, the incapacitation effect does not serve to educate and reform the offenders. Once the offenders are released from prison, they may easily commit the crime again. Jon Venables, 31, was released from jail just over 3 years ago, but was soon was sent back to prison for distributing child pornography. When he was ten years old, he served 8 years for killing two-year-old kid called James Bulger. James’s parents were furious with the decision to release such a danger person as they believe it is only a matter of time before he commits another crime against a child. There are many offenders like Jon Venables who always repeat the same crimes. This shows that incarcerating the offender is not able to reform him into a good person. Solutions should achieve the purpose of e ducating and reforming the offender on top of imposing a penalty for their wrong doings so as to stop him recommitting the crime. The incapacitation effect of the punishment clearly fails to serve this purpose. Many offenders start getting into their criminal habits since young. The lack of correction from their parents or school indulges their wrongfulness and results in the difficulties of reforming them after they are grown up. Therefore, punishment is not always the right solutions to stop crime as it does not change or reform offenders’ habits and concepts. Compare to civic education, it is clearly far more efficient for stop the crime as it help form the good habits and moral concepts in people. Moral education enlightens the general public’s sense of justice. Implanting positive values in youth is the best way to prevent crimes as foster the good characters and habits need to start cultivating from childhood. The punishment is essential for society to function. We sleep well at night because criminals are being locked up and punished, and victims feel that they have achieved redress for the wrong suffered. A  survey in 2005 shows that 95% of Singaporeans feel that death penalty should stay as it increases the sense of security. Hence, while it is true that sometimes criminals are wrongfully convicted, and that they may not be deterred or reformed, we do need a system of punishments in place due to our notion of justice. We cannot completely adopt an educational or rehabilitative approach. In conclusion, while punishments can be the right way to stop crimes (at least in terms of justice and how punishments are a reflection of the moral code of society), the effectiveness of punishments can be limited, hence perhaps it should be implemented in conjunction with other approaches.

An Introduction to Asian History