Factors to be considered for market segmentation

Factors to be considered for market segmentation This section reviews the literature related to various key deliverables identified for this dissertation. The main deliverables of this projects are developing a growth strategy to expand in domestic as well as international market and identifying the potential location for a cross dock or a warehouse. This section is divided in six parts, first part gives idea about the grocery market, in second part key elements and approaches of strategic management are discussed, third part looks at factors to be considered for market segmentation and market attractiveness, in fourth section a survey conducted by Lawson Software on growth strategies adopted by distributors discussed , in fifth part export expansion strategies are reviewed and last part overviews warehouse/ depot location problem and approaches to identifying new depot. 2. 2 Grocery Market Overview Grocery market can be divided in two main categories one is grocery retailing and other is grocery wholesaling. Eden farm is a wholesale distributor supplying frozen food and ice cream to wholesalers as well as convenience store, hence understanding structure of both the market segment is important. 2.2.1 Grocery Retailing The UK grocery retail market is considered to be oligopolistic as there are so many players and competition is fierce to earn the market share and customer loyalty. The following diagram shows that the retail industry has grown consistently at 3 5% to the present value of  £ 146.3bn (IGD website, 2010). D:Business Projectfrozen food eden farmliterature reviewpaintmarket performance.JPG The retail market is dominated by superstores, supermarkets and hypermarkets operated by big retailers such as Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys and co ops, which enjoy more than 70% market share. Convenience retailing has c21% market share which is mainly dominated by symbol groups. The following diagram shows the overall structure of the retail market. D:Business Projectfrozen food eden farmliterature reviewpaintuk retail structure.JPG 2.2.2 Grocery Wholesaling Wholesalers supply goods to small retailers who cannot directly reach to the manufactures. Wholesalers also support retailers by offering other services like store design and management, delivery and distribution services. Grocery wholesaling is mainly divided in two groups, first is cash and carry service where the retailer visits the large warehouse and picks the items he needs and the second is delivered wholesale where the retailer orders the items over phone or on the internet and receives the order at his store. The total wholesale business is c £18.3bn (IGD website, 2010). The following chart shows the growth of cash carries and delivered wholesale in last ten years. D:Business Projectfrozen food eden farmliterature reviewpaintcash and carry.JPG A research conducted by Quinn and Sparks (2007) on evolution of grocery wholesaling and wholesalers since the 1930s in UK and Ireland observed that the research on grocery wholesaling is almost non-existent. 2.3 Strategy- what is it? Strategy word is used by many people day to day in different context and has become a catchall (Hambrick and Fredrickson, 2001). Carpenter and Sanders (2009) defines strategy in simple terms as Strategy is the coordinated means by which an organization pursues its goals and objectives (Carpenter and Sanders, 2009). This simple definition emphasizes on actions that are either taken or needs to be taken or planned to achieve the company objectives. Hambrick and Fredrickson (2001) supports above definition by mentioning that strategy should integrate internal and external orientation to achieve firm objectives. The following diagram clearly separates strategy from company mission and objectives. D:Business Projectfrozen food eden farmliterature reviewpaintstrategy.png Strategy should address how the firm will achieve the set objective. For Eden Farm the objective is to achieve profitable sales increase by  £20 million in next five years. 2.3.1 Strategic Analysis Michel Porter (1996) argues that strategy is not about achieving operational effectiveness (OE). Porter defines operational effectiveness as doing identical activities in a superior way than the competitor. The reason he says that OE cannot be a strategy is that rivals can easily copy the operational improvements and match the performance levels. He further mentions that operational effectiveness and strategy should go hand in hand to achieve the top performance which is the main goal of any firm. Doing benchmarking makes rivals look alike, so the heart of strategy lies in doing the activities in a way different than others. This highlights the importance of competitive advantage, which is defined by Carpenters and Saunders (2009) as A firms ability to create value in a way that its rivals cannot. Porter (1980) suggested that competitive advantage can be achieved by firms by either positioning itself in an attractive industry or devising strategies which can make the existing industr y more attractive. He suggested Five Forces framework to analyze the industry structure and identify the sources of competitive advantage among these forces and then positioning the firm to achieve an edge over rivals. Barney (1991) argues to achieve sustained competitive advantage firm should have resources and capabilities which are valuable, rare, inimitable, non substitutable and rare (VRINE), this school of thought is called resource based view (RBV). A third school of thought focuses dynamic conditions and argues that RBV has limitations in fast changing environment and competitive advantage is achieved by firms by continuously configuring its resources. Carpenter and Sanders(2009) clubs these three perspectives together as shown in the diagram below and suggests that competitive advantage is not long lasting and firm needs to continuously look back and analyze how they achieved this position and predict competitive landscape in future to influence it. D:Business Projectfrozen food eden farmliterature reviewpaintcompetitive advantage.png 2.3.1.1 External Analysis Industry Analysis using Porters Five Forces External analysis forms a very important part on strategic analysis. The external environment can be divided into two groups as macro and micro environment. To analyze macro environment PESTEL tool is used which is acronym for Political, Economical, Socio cultural, Technological, Environmental and Legal analysis. This analysis is more useful when companies plan to expand internationally and enter into new countries. For Eden Farm being a distributor of frozen food, PESTEL analysis is not more appropriate as the firm does not foresee it establishing a base in other country and is focusing direct export only. (Carpenter and Sanders, pp 133-135, 2009) Micro analysis focuses on analyzing industry structure using five forces model developed by Porter(1979). The model suggest that in any industry a strategic analysis should look at buyer and supplier power, competition among the players in the industry, analysis of threat posed by substitute products or services and understand the entry barriers for new entrants. Porter mentions that depending on the industry the power of each force varies, but it is the cumulative strength of these forces which drive the profitability of the particular industry. The following diagram shows the Porters five forces model. D:Business Projectfrozen food eden farmliterature reviewpaint5forces 1.JPG Above diagram shows in detail the factors contributing towards each market force, managers should give due attention to each point shown below to draw appropriate conclusion for developing the strategy. Porter argues if these forces are weak then companies can achieve very good performance and adds, it is the strongest force among these forces which decides the overall profit potential of the industry and managers needs to give due attention to this strong force while formulating the strategy. Carpenter and Sanders(2009) added complementors as the sixth force to the five forces model and argues that complementors are those factors which help to increase the sales of the firm and increase profits. When understanding the industry structure Porter (2008) emphasizes importance of defining the industry boundaries, defining boundaries too broadly loses the focus and managers become unable to see the real competition and defining industry boundaries narrowly misses the similarities in produ ct groups or potential markets which are crucial for competitive advantage. 2.3.1.2 Internal Analysis A Resource Based View (RBV) Jay Barney (1991) suggested that firms should focus on internal strengths to exploit the opportunities in the market and defuse the effect of external threats and mitigate the weaknesses. The diagram below splits the SWOT analysis in two parts, one is internal analysis which focuses on firms resources and the second is external analysis which classifies industry attractiveness. D:Business Projectfrozen food eden farmliterature reviewpaintbarney.png Barney (1991) argues that proponents of environmental model (Caves Porter 1977, Porter 1980, 1985) have assumed that in an industry firms possess similar resources and heterogeneity in the industry is cannot stay for longer as resources are same, however supporters of resource based model (Penrose, 1958; Rumelt 1984; Wernerfelt, 1984, 1989) believes that firms do possess heterogeneous resources of strategic importance and that this difference of resources can last longer. Barney (1991, 1995) states that to achieve the sustained competitive advantage firms need to employ value creating strategies in a way that no other firm can reproduce it and mentions that it can be possible when a firm have resources which are heterogeneous and immobile. To be the source of competitive advantage resources needs to fulfill criteria of being valuable, rare, inimitable and non substitutability. Valuable resources are those which enable companies to develop strategies which improve efficiencies and ef fectiveness to reduce the cost, resulting into exploiting opportunities and defusing threats (Barney 1991, 1995; Collins and Montgomery, 1995). Barney mentions that firms having resources which fulfill four criterias should be in a position to exploit them to achieve the sustained advantage. Wernerfelt (1984) highlights customer loyalty as a source of competitive advantage. Collins and Montgomery (1995) mention that inimitability of the firm resources can be because the firm has unique physical location, a strong brand image or casual ambiguity about the source of such advantage. 2.3.1.3 Dynamic Environment Analysis Despite its popularity resource based view (RBV) has been criticized by some authors because it does not explain how firms achieve relevant resources for dynamic markets. Mosakowski and Mckelvey (1997), Priem and Butler (2000) and Williamson (1990) argues that RBV is unclear and tautological and fails to explain the mechanism by which resources contributes towards achieving competitive advantage. Teece and Pisano (1994) coined a new terminology of dynamic capabilities; the word dynamic refers to the ability to reconfiguring competencies in this fast paced continuously changing world and the term capability focuses on strategic managements role in adapting, integrating and reconfiguring skills, resources and functional competences to fulfill requirements of a changing world (Teece and Pisano, 1994) . Eisenhardt and Martin (2000) observed that dynamic capabilities exhibit three main characteristics; firstly dynamic capabilities include certain value creating strategic processes which c an be influenced to create new strategies to win in the dynamic market. Second observation is that dynamic capabilities are the best practices in an industry supported by extensive empirical resources hence they are homogeneous in nature which is opposite of the RBVs assumptions. Third observation is that dynamic capabilities demonstrates different patterns in different market conditions, they are complicated and analytical in stable market conditions because the knowledge is established and detail analysis is required for getting new insights and in dynamic market conditions they are simple processes relying on quick execution as the knowledge is limited about specific situations and experiments needs to be done on a more frequent basis to keep the firm ahead of the competition. Eisenhardt and Martin (2000) states that dynamic capabilities are necessary to continuously reconfigure resources and the competitive advantage is achieved by newly configured resources. Dynamic capabilitie s are means to achieve the competitive advantage; they are not competitive advantage in themselves. A firms ability alliance, developing new products and strategic decision making are some of the examples of dynamic capabilities (Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000). 2.3.2 Strategy Formulation using Strategy Diamond Hambrick and Fredrickson (2001) states that there are various tools available to analyze internal and external environment but there is no guidance what the output of these analysis should be and how to formulate a strategy. Strategy should highlight how the company will achieve its goals by integrating internal and external analysis. A strategy diamond model is proposed by Hambrick and Fredrickson (2001) to help formulate a coherent strategy which contains five elements namely arena, vehicles, differentiators, staging and economic logic. The diamond is shown below. D:Business Projectfrozen food eden farmliterature reviewpaintDiamond.png Arenas is the first element of the strategy diamond which demands strategist to answer fundamental question about what are the areas the business will be focusing its attention and the amount of efforts put in these areas. Managers need to clearly define which products, channels, market segments and geographic location will be targeted. Vehicles are the means to enter the arenas chosen. Deciding appropriate vehicles is of strategic importance. A firm can decide to develop organically, may decide to form a joint venture or may acquire the business of existing player in the targeted arena. A firm can use one or combination of these different vehicles to penetrate arenas. Each vehicle has its positive and negative implications depending upon the market dynamics and manager should give due considerations to these implications. After deciding arenas and vehicles strategist should answer the question as how the company will win the customers in targeted markets. Knowing why customers chose the firm over its competitors can help strategist to identify differentiators. Differentiators can be company image, its ability to customize products, price and location advantage, quality and reliability of the service provided. Hambrick and Fredrickson (2001) state that to achieve a competitive advantage a firm does not need to have very special in one of the above mentioned dimension but having a combination of these dimensions which are mutually reinforcing can give the firm a strong position in the market. Creating differentiators is very important task top management should because without them a firm may lose its market position soon. Staging is the forth stage towards forming a good strategy and asks mangers to sequence the actions decided in the first three elements. Staging process depends on many factors such as resources required carrying out the task, sometimes business need to respond quickly to grab opportunities available, in such situations urgency in taking actio ns is critical, achieving credibility is very important for attracting resources and stakeholders and lastly wining early in the strategy implementation phase is important. All the above mentioned factors needs to be given due consideration. Finally managers should look at the economic logic before finalizing any strategy; the business should be able to achieve profit above its cost of capital. Hambrick and Fredrickson (2001) states that, the most successful strategies have a central economic logic that serves as the fulcrum for profit creation. Hambrick and Fredrickson (2001) emphasis that together with strategic analysis and addressing the five elements of the strategic diamond a firm can develop a sound strategy for achieving the competitive advantage. 2.4. Market segmentation and attractiveness Segmenting the market to identify the needs of the customer groups and accessing attractiveness is very important to develop a growth plan. Kotler (1993, p.263) defines Market segmentation is the act of dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers who might require separate products and/or marketing mix. Smith (1956) suggests that segmentation help companies to align product offering to different customer needs. Dibb (1995) suggested a matrix to help firms to identify which market segments to target, the matrix is called Segment Evaluation Matrix (SEM) which consist three step approach as defining segments, targeting and positioning. In the first stage, defining segments, many authors (Haley, 1968; McDonald and Goldman, 1979; Johnson and Flodhammer, 1980; Brow, Shivashankar and Brucker, 1989) have suggested a need for appropriate base. Segmentation of customers should be done considering homogeneous needs of the group by a suitable base. Targeting involves focusing resources on i dentified segments; this is achieved by considering market conditions, competition, availability of firms resources and customer needs. Positioning is the final stage which asks to develop marketing plans keeping 4Ps (product, price, promotion and place) in mind to attract the targeted customers. Porter (1996) proposes three types of positioning choices for a firm, first is variety- based positioning which focuses on products or services offered by the firm rather than segmenting customers, this is suitable for firms able to produce products or services using distinguishing sets of activities. Second type is need- based positioning which require grouping customers on the basis of needs. This is particularly suitable when each identified group has differing needs like different products, service level and supported needed. Third type is access based positioning which focuses on different modes to reach customers having similar needs like other customers. Geographic location or customer scales are two examples which require different set of activities to reach the customers. Wind and Cardoza (1974) observed that many companies formulate segments based on intuition, Doyle et. al (1986) supports above finding by stating that key decision makers misunderstand importance of segmentation process. Kotler (1991) offers guidelines for segmentation by stating that they should be measurable, substantial, accessible and accountable. Halvacek and Reddy (1986) have developed a three step market segmentation model consisting of identification, qualification and attractiveness which is the basis for Dibbs (1995) Segment Evaluation Matrix (SEM). Hlavacek and Reddy (1986) suggests guidelines for segment qualification which highlights segmentation based on common needs and measurable characteristics, identifying the competition, similar distribution channel for each segment and defined communication channel for each segment. Study conducted by Abratt ( 1993) identified segment attractiveness criteria as Ability to reach buyers in market Competitive position in market Size of market Compatibility of market with objectives/ resources; and Expected market growth ( Dibb, 1995) Dibb (1999) categories segment attractiveness in four major categories as market factors, economic and technical factors, competitive factors and environmental factors which are as shown below in the diagram. segment attractivness 1 Dibb (1995) suggests that for developing a marketing strategy analysis can be done on the basis of different markets, segments in the same market which can give lot of insights. Market segmentation encourage firms to do competitor and customer resulting into more focused approach in terms of offering products or services and improved responsiveness. As suggested by Dibb (1995) a matrix can be used to summarize the findings of the analysis as shown in the diagram. segment attractivness The matrix approach gives a holistic view of the portfolio of all segments and helps companies prioritize actions and develop strategy accordingly for each segment. 2.5 Growth Strategies for Wholesale Distribution Ansoff (1957) suggested a tool to help companies decide their product and market growth strategies. The matrix suggests four growth strategies as shown in the diagram below. D:Business Projectfrozen food eden farmliterature reviewpaintAnsoff.JPG For existing products Ansoff (1957) suggest market penetration and market development strategies. For new products product development and diversification strategy is suggested. Lawson software in 2007 conducted a survey of 1274 wholesale distributors operating in three regions North America, Europe and Australia and New Zealand to find out what strategies and tactics wholesale distributors in these regions will adopt to achieve targeted growth and find out similarities and differences in the strategic choices in different regions. The participants were picked from different industries such as industrial spare parts, consumer goods, building material and food service. 70% of the participant view existing customers as the main source of growth. Following diagram shows results for three regions. D:Business Projectfrozen food eden farmliterature reviewpaintlawson 1 current customers.png 2.5.1 Selling more to existing customers In Europe executives of food service distribution think that 41 % of the sales from current customer will come from selling existing products more, 46% sales would result from selling new products and offering fee based value adding services will improve 12% sales. The following diagram shows results from different industries in Europe and North America. Europe is more optimistic about charging customers for offering value adding services. D:Business Projectfrozen food eden farmliterature reviewpaintcurrent customers.png 2.5.2. Adding New Customers The survey found that majority of the distributors are focusing on current geographic locations to identify new customers, 78% foodservice distributors are focusing on new customers in the current geographic locations, only 22% sales expected from customers in new geographic locations . D:Business Projectfrozen food eden farmliterature reviewpaintNEW CUSTOMERS.png Targeting new customers in current geographic areas is challenging because they already have preferred suppliers and to win these customers distributors need to offer better service and performance. A good sales management is needed to avoid winning new customers with low gross margins than current customers. 2.5.3. Organic or Growth by Acquisition The survey tried to find growth strategies adopted by distributors. More than sixty percent respondent considers organic growth as the means to improve current operations. Sixteen percent in Europe consider acquisition as a growth strategy. The diagram below shows results of the three regions. D:Business Projectfrozen food eden farmliterature reviewpaintgrowth strategy.png All the above findings suggest that wholesale distributors are focusing market penetration and market development strategies as explained by Ansoffs growthmatrix. 2.6 Export Market Expansion Strategies When small and medium sized firms want to go in international market , exporting is the most popular route adopted to enter, penetrate and develop foreign market because it is less risky and impact on domestic operational resources are limited ( Katsikea et.al., 2005). Firms willingness and propensity and its actual capacity are the two main factors which determine a firms decision to initiate and maintain exporting determination. According to Cavusgil and Zou (1994) when a firm decides to engage in export activity the most critical decision they need to take is about market expansion strategy. The strategy includes identification, analyzing and selecting export markets and deciding number of markets to target. Lages and Montgomery (2004) conducted a survey of 400 export managers and found that export performance of a firm depends on firm commitment and the way strategy is formed. Designing an export strategy for a firm has attracted many researchers, contributing conceptually and empirically. Ayal and Zif (1979) and Lee and Yang (1990) suggested that export market expansion is considered as a firms strategic decision to expand export business by allocating firms marketing resources to identified markets. According to Katsikeas and Leonidou (1996) exporting literature has identified two main marketing strategies as market concentration and market spreading. Katsikeas and Leonidou (1996) defines market concentration as the firms strategic focus on and allocation of export operations in certain carefully selected export markets and market spreading as exporting to as many markets as possible with no particular focus on specific export markets. The main difference between these two strategies lies in the speed of expansion in export markets. Ayal and Zif (1979) argues that in long term both strategies end up serving almost same number of export markets. Studies conducted by many authors (e.g. BETRO Trust Committee, 1976; Tessler, 1977, Fenwick and Amine, 1979) between 1975 and 1985 suggest market concentration strategy should be adopted because by focusing small number of markets a firm can achieve high market share resulting in long term profitability. Studies conducted by Hammermesh et.al (1978), Hirsch and Lev (1973) and Lee and Yang (1990) support market spreading strategy as it can exploit limited market share in many markets while reducing market related risk and gain higher profits .A contingency approach has been suggested by authors like Ayal and Zif (1979), Fenwick and Amine (1979) and Piercy (1982) which says that export strategy depends on company products, targeted markets and factors specific to the firm. Following table shows clear difference in two strategies as suggested by Katsikeas et.al. (2005). D:Business Projectfrozen food eden farmliterature reviewpaintconcentration vs spreading.png Katsikeas and Leonidou (1996) identified certain characteristics of the exporting organization such as experience of exporting help management to minimize the perceived uncertainty associated with overseas market and operation. Marketing efforts and policy variables which include developing market entry and customer selection criteria (Samiee and Walters 1990; Bourandas and Halikias 1991), visiting customers frequently, conducting research of export market, play crucial role in shaping behavior of the firm. A meta-analysis carried by Leonidou et. al. (2002) to identify marketing strategy elements of export performance found that market concentration strategy has a strong positive relation with export performance. The study further observed that export market performance is positively related to market segmentation, product quality, pricing strategy and advertising. However, Katsikeas et.al. (2005) conducted a research on 1000 British small and medium size exporting manufacturers and concluded that market spreading strategy results in long term profitability and the firm achieves valuable knowledge and skills to deal with different markets and develops a very strong sales team. Leonidou (2003) suggests that export business should be considered as overseas customer relationship management which is a process of establishing, developing and sustaining relations in export markets and this process should be monitored for its effective implementation. 2.7 Determining Distribution Location One of the most important strategic decisions is to identify the location of depot for supplying the products to customer on time every time. When entering into new geographic location a company needs to design its complete distribution network. Companies need to improve efficiency of their logistic operations to optimize the flow of goods supplied to customers. When deciding location of distribution system a company need to give due attention to the cost of distribution system and offering a very good service to customers (Perl and Daskin, 1985). These decisions depend on number, size and location of the depot and deciding customers to be served from each depot. In distribution centre (DC) location problem two cost needs attention, one is warehousing cost and the other is distribution cost and the companies always want to find optimum balance between these two to keep costs low. Warehouse cost are divided into fixed and variable cost whereas trunking and delivery cost form transport ation costs. Generally in distribution delivery cost is higher and hence lot of research is carried to develop tools to reduce these costs. In supply chain the problem related to DC are more closely related to vehicle routing problem (VRP), Location routing problem (LRP) and warehouse location routing problem (WLRP). The diagram below shows three components of delivery operation namely stem distance, variable running distance and stop time. D:Business Projectfrozen food eden farmliterature reviewpaintrouting componet.png The stem distance is the total distance between depot and first customer plus the distance between last customer and the depot. The stem distance is depends on the depot location. The variable running distance depends on the number of customers being served and determines the cost of delivery. Both stem and variable running distance depends on vehicle routing. Perl and Daskin (1985) define warehouse location routing problem as the problem of solving DC location and vehicle routing problem. When solving the problem one needs to give attention to various constraints like warehouse and vehicle capacity, route lengths and durations and satisfying all customer requirements. The problem is solved by finding a optimal route to deliver the goods to customers at minimum delivery cost. Each customer is allocated to only one depot. Burns et.al. (1985) considers customer density, demand, value of items, inventory carrying cost and transportation cost per mile to solve the problem. They suggest designing optimal delivery regions to reduce the cost of delivery and then locate the depot. Bednar and Strogmeier (1979) , Nambiar et. al.(1981) and Barreto et.al.(2007) suggest to cluster customers together according to vehicle capacity and maximum distance constraint. Then locate the depot at a location from where all clusters can be served.

Adolphus Huxleys Hyperion to a Satyr :: Adolphus Huxley Hyperion Satyr Essays

Adolphus Huxley's "Hyperion to a Satyr" Throughout the ages, there have been many ways to identify a person's social standing. Possessions such as homes, cars, and others, help to establish a person's place insociety. There are other ways also. Education, and a person's speech patternsare other ways to do this. But in "Hyperion to a Satyr," Adolphus Huxleypresents his view that hygiene also played an integral part. Clearly, thisdoesn't hold as true in these times, but perhaps in an earlier era thiswas an accurate measurement of wealth. But what role did hygiene play tosegregate peoplethroughout history? This question will be analyzed byapplying the meaningof metaphors used by Huxley. This article contains Huxley's views on many controversial subjects and their relationship todirt. But the most prominent comparison was between the social classesand the level of hygiene associated with each one. Mr. Huxley goes on toillustrate this difference with a variety of metaphors. He talks abouthow this view changed throughout history, and how great people tried toinfluence social changewith implementation of their plans for widespreadequality in cleanliness. This paper willbegin analyzing the relationship between social classdistinctio n and hygiene using the metaphoric analysis method. Thiswill be done by first analyzing Huxley's piece as a whole, by analyzingboth text and metaphors. Hopefully this will reveal his true meaning ofthe piece. Next will be the identification of various metaphors that pertainto the research question. Then the metaphors will be broken down into thetenors and vehicles. After that, they will be analyzed and sorted by meaning.By doing this, hopefully the research question will be better explained,and the relationship between cleanliness and upper class will be clarified. Huxley's " Hyperion to a Satyr" is a piece that discusses the class separation system and how the concept of cleanliness and uncleanliness has helped to increase thegap between the different social classes. Huxley feels that, because therichwere able to afford the luxuries of living "clean" lives and the poorcouldnot, that this helped to further separate the classes. He uses manymetaphorsto prove this point and expound on the relationship between socialclassesand hygiene. Now, to understand Huxley’s view on the research question, we need to isolate the different metaphors used: bathing was a badgeof class distinction, the gulf between rulers and ruled, from the peakof their superior... cleanliness, they were creatures of an entirely differentspecies, it was only the blessed pigs, and a tithe of their populationto untouchability.

Suzanne Britts Sloppy People vs Neat People

â€Å"Neat People vs. Sloppy People† appears in Britt’s collection show and tell. Mingling humor with seriousness (as she often does), Britt has called the book a report on her journey into â€Å"the awful cave of self: You shout your name and voices come back in exultant response, telling you their names. † In this essay about curtain inescapable personality traits, you may recognize some aspects of your own self, awful or otherwise. For a different approach to a similar subject, see the next essay, by Dave Barry. I’ve finally figured out the difference between neat people and sloppy people. The distinction is, as always, moral. Neat people are lazier and meaner than sloppy people. Sloppy people, you see, are not really sloppy. Their sloppiness is merely the unfortunate consequence of their extreme moral rectitude. Sloppy people carry in their mind’s eye a heavenly vision, a precise plan, that is so stupendous, so perfect, it can’t be achieved in this world or the next. Sloppy people live in Never-Never land. Someday is their Metier. Someday they are planning to alphabetize all their books and set up home catalogs. Someday they will go through their wardrobes and mark curtain items for tentative mending and curtain items for passing on to relatives of similar shape ands size. Someday sloppy people will make family scrapbooks into which they will out newspaper clippings, postcards, lock of hair, and the dried corsage from their senior prom. Someday they will file everything on the surface of their decks, including the cash receipt from coffee purchases at the snack shack. Someday they will sit down and read all the back issues of The New Yorker. For all these noble reason and more, sloppy people never get neat. They aim to high and wide. They save everything, planning someday to file, order, and straighten out the world. But while these ambitious plans take clearer and clearer shape in there heads, the books spill from the shelves into the floor, the clothes pile up in the hamper and closet, the family mementos accumulate in every drawer, the surface of the desk is buried under mounds of people and the unread magazine threaten to reach the ceiling. Sloppy people can’t bear to part with anything. They give loving attention to every detail. When sloppy people say they’re going to tackle the surface of the desk, they really mean it. Not a paper will go unturned; not a rubber band will go unboxed. Four hours or two weeks into the excavation, the desk looks exactly the same, primarily because the sloppy person is meticulously creating new piles of paper with new headings and scrupulously stopping to read all the old book catalogs before he threw them away. A neat person would just bulldoze the desk. Neat people are bums and clods at heart. They have cavalier attitude toward possession, including the family heirlooms. Everything is just another dust catcher to them. If anything collects dust, it’s got to go and that’s that. Neat people will toy with the idea of throwing the children out of the house just to cut down on the clutter. Neat people don’t care about process. They like results. What they want to do is get the whole thing over with so they can sit down and watch the rasslin’ on TV. Neat people operate on two unvarying principles: Never handle any items twice, and throw everything away. The only thing messy in a neat persons house is the thrash can. The minute something comes to a neat person hand, he will look at it, try to decide if it has immediate use and, finding none, throw it in the trash. Neat people especially vicious with mail. They never go through there mail unless they are standing under a trashcan. If the trash can is besides the mailbox, even better. All adds, catalogs, pleas for charitable organization, church bulletins and money saving coupons go straight to the trashcan without being opened. All letters form home, postcards from Europe, bills and paychecks are opened, immediately responded to, then dropped into the trashcan. Neat people keep their receipt only for tax purposes. That’s it. No sentimental salvaging of birthday cards or the last letter a dying relative ever wrote. Into thrash it goes. Neat people place neatness above everything, even economics. They are incredibly wasteful. Neat people throw away several toys every time they walk through a den. I knew neat person once who threw away a perfectly good dish drainer because it had mold on it. The drainer was too much trouble to wash. And neat people sell their furniture when they move. They will sell a La-Z-Boy recliner while you are reclining in it. Neat people are no good to borrow from. Neat people buy everything in expensive little proportions. They get their flour and sugar and two-pound bags. They wouldn’t consider clipping coupons, saving a leftover, reusing plastic nondairy whipped cream container or rinsing off tin foil and draping it over the unmoldy dish drainer. You can never borrow a neat person’s newspaper to see what’s playing at the movies. Near people have the paper all wadded up and in the trash by 7:5 A. M. Neat people cut a clean swath through the organic as well as the inorganic world. People, animals, and things are all one with them. They are so insensitive. After they’ve finished with the pantry, the medicine cabinet, and the attic, they will throw out the red geranium (too many leaves), sell the dog (too many flies), and send the children off to boarding school (too many scuff-marks on the hardwood floor).

Cause of Spanish American War essays

Cause of Spanish American War essays The Spanish American War of 1898 was a turning point for United States foreign policy because it established us as a world power by becoming a Imperialistic nation. Although the United States had been debating about Imperialism for a period of time and had many rationales for it including Darwinism, Strategic reasons, and economical reasons, it kept an isolationism policy, except in trading and international affairs. We kept this policy until the mid 1890s when situations in Hawaii, Chile, Venezuela, and foremost Cuba sprung up. The Cuban Revolution, which eventually led to the Spanish American war, made us become a imperialistic nation and thus a world power. Long before the Cuban Revolution, intellectual leaders such as John Fisk took Social Darwinism and applied it to the United States. They believed the U.S. should compete with other nations for wealth and power in the world. They saw the territories, markets, and the raw materials Europe had gained by Imperialism, and concluded the U.S. had to do the same to prosper and develop as a nation. Using the beliefs of Darwinism we had a belief of Anglo-Saxon supremacy and it was out destiny to venture out into the world, which became to be known as our Manifest Destiny. To establish the Anglo-Saxon superiority we put on ourselves The white mans burden to establish our language, religion, politics, and customs in other countries. Other reasons for support of Imperialism included strategic reasons because we needed to protect ourselves from countries the could threaten our rule in the western Hemisphere. Alfred T. Mahan a Navy officer wrote a book called The Influence of Sea Power upo n History, to convince the nation to build up our navy. This was highly supported by the people because it gave protection of international trade and markets. If we expanded trade we would have larger markets and more jobs, and wouldnt have to worry about overproduc...

Alactraz essays

Alactraz essays Imagine yourself existing in a dirty, smelly, cold prison cell that has water dripping down the walls from the ceiling and hardly ever seeing daylight. If you were a guest at Alcatraz, that is exactly what you would experience. Alcatraz was a Federal Prison located in the San Francisco Bay. It was built on a twelve acre, solid rock island, one mile from the main land. There were no roads or bridges built to get there. The only access was by boat. The name Alcatraz means Pelican or strange bird. The reason it was named that was because when it was being built it had a lot of strange birds on it. It was built in 1933 as a federal maximum security prison. But prior to Alcatraz being built it had been a military prison and before that an Indian Reservation. There have been several famous inmates who served time at Alcatraz. A short list would include Al Capone, George "Machine Gun" Kelly and Robert "Birdman" Stroud. Al Capone was convicted of mass murder after ordering his gang of mobsters to gun down 9 members of a rival mobster family execution style. It was said to be the most brutal mass murder in history. He was held at Cook County Jail in Chicago until arrangements could be made for his transfer to Atlanta. On May 4, 1932 he started his prison sentence there. It was not until August of 1934 that he was transferred to Alcatraz. He spent 4 1/2 years there. It wasnt an easy time for "Big Al". He got in a fight with another prisoner and was put in isolation for eight days. He was also stabbed with a pair of shears while he was getting his hair cut. After being diagnosed with a terminal disease in 1938, he was transferred to Terminal Island Prison in Southern California to serve out the remainder of his sentence. He was released in November of 1939 and died in his Palm Beach Mansion on January 25, 1947. George "Machine Gun" Kelly got his name by waving around a machine gun, threatening to blow everybodys he ...

Examine, analyze and explain violent childrens programming from a Research Paper

Examine, analyze and explain violent childrens programming from a content analysis perspective as it relates to network shows su - Research Paper Example The extent of violence and the contexts in which it occurs has been consistently high over the years and has been rising. This essay examines, analyzes, and explains violent children programming from a content analysis perspective as it relates to network shows such as Nick, Disney, and Toon. Continuous watching of television may manipulate viewers' ideas of what the daily world is all about and even induce some violent behaviors in children by changing their general mindset about violence. The media's power to shape perceptions and attitudes is thus questionable. Certain scenes in children programming such as cartoons where animated characters are continuously run over or thrown from the higher grounds but remain dead for a while portrays death as temporary. At times, bullies and violent characters are viewed as heroes thus instilling the mindset in children (Leonard & Christy 78-82). The children’s cartoons are some of the highly violent TV programs that are frequently aired by most TV channels. Unfortunately, the innocence in children is more exposed to violence than the adults by frequent airing of violent scenes in children programs than adult’s programs. Interestingly, the violent acts in the children programs are usually portrayed in a way that authenticates violence by making the actions either funny or acceptable. When either a child or an adult views a violent act, there may be unpleasant effects that may either be long or short term on the viewer (Leonard & Christy 78-82). An exposure to media violence especially to a young child has tremendously strong impact on an individual that may make the child develop very aggressive and violent way of life when he grows up. It is therefore very risky to allow a child to be exposed to such kind of risky media content (Brocato et al. 99-102). The contentious issue is how does the TV violence affect our way of life, attitude and even behaviors yet it is just a matter of just watching a mere materia l. Many grownups are always glued to their TVs in the evening or over the weekends in the name of watching a favorite soap opera. Seemingly, TV programs are one of the worst addictions, which may even literally steal our time and most significantly totally change our mindset irrespective of our age or sex. Most people have postponed doing some very important tasks in the excuse of watching a favorite TV program. It is therefore true that what a person listens to and watches can suddenly change an individual’s style of leaving either regularly or occasionally (Facts for Families, n.p). During the stage of development, children should adopt a way of life that is moral and acceptable to the society by guiding them on what they should watch and listen. What is instilled on a child’s mind while growing can either strengthen or weaken after sometime. An activity or an organ changes its task to adopt to the function that is routinely used as explained in use and reuse theory in biology. This same theory applies to the content of a program watched and the attitude change of the individual because of the program’s content. It is therefore obvious that when children watch violent movies, they will eventually adopt violent behaviors. The ultimate behavior of the child is further strengthened by previous experiences and societal influences (Leonard & Christy 78-82). Disney Films Disney films are several movies released by the Walt

Anthropology of humor and laughter Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Anthropology of humor and laughter - Essay Example People belonging to different cultures consider something appropriate for laughter in accordance with their cultures. From a social perspective, humor is a positive emotion of an individual, which is elicited in different social contexts and is demonstrated by different vocal and facial behaviors of laughter. Canned jokes, funny utterances, funny expressions, and spontaneous witticisms are some of the main forms of humor (Martin 29). Psychological functions of humor bring various cognitive and social benefits for the humans. Some of the most significant benefits of humor include increased social interactions, help in relieving the tensions and stress, and help in regulating the emotions. In the past couple of decades, the overall concept regarding laughter has shifted from something being viewed as socially inappropriate to being perceived as socially desirable and healthy for the mind (Martin 29). The sense of humor acts as the main source of laughter for any individual. Although th e sense of humor has a number of psychological and social benefits, the mainstream psychology still needs to pay some more attention to this aspect of human behavior. Works Cited Martin, Rod. The Psychology of Humor: An Integrative Approach. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Academic Press, 2007.