What is positioning?

Introduction Positioning is one of the major steps in target marketing, the other two being market segmentation and targeting. Effective positioning is a must for clothing retailers to distinguish themselves from other competitors and to appeal to potential customers as well as maintaining brand loyalty, especially in the fashion industry where branding and perception of a company in the eyes of consumers calls the shots. This essay will explain what is positioning, followed by an overview of how positioning is applied in the high street fashion industry, using the example of international top market leader in high street clothing, Topshop. What is positioning? Positioning is the process of creating a certain perception, image, reputation, messages and offers of a company in the mind of customers or user groups (Gabbot, et.al., 2004). Consumers hold a set of feelings and impressions about a product and compare them with competing products (Kotter, et. al., 2007). These perceptions play a strong influence in the buyer decision-making process and have a direct impact on the companies involved. For example, consumers who are brand and image-conscious will avoid a store if they perceive it to only cater to the lower-end market. Therefore, marketers should ensure that the right marketing positioning strategies are applied to set a desirable image of the company in the minds of

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Customer service at Thorpe Park visitor attraction.

Policies & producers Having gained an insight into the fact that Thorpe Park has different customer's types with different needs, the park has to ensure that theses needs are being met in a fair and consistent manner. To this end the park (as with many other organizations) has an established set of polices and produces. * Policy- what the organization sets out to achieve i.e. make the park accessible for the disabled. * Procedure-how is it going to set about achieving the policy Issues that Thorpe Park has to confront In other words, what kind of things do customers complain about: * Queues * Cleanliness * Rides being available * Lost children * Behaviors of other guest * Behaviors of the employees towards guest * Thorpe Park complaint procedures Queues Car Park The first queue that customers to The Park will come across is at the car park. This is when the stewards direct traffic in an orderly manner so that there are no accidents. They do this by directing all the cars in one direction and single file. This could also be to fill every bay as the stewards also fill the bays in a regimented manner. This is helping the customers as it will allow the cars to be all moving in one direction and therefore also no causing crashes. Ticket Booth This is where the customers are expected to create an organized

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Stating your assumptions carefully, outline the likely impact of an increase in taxation on the interest rate.

Stating your assumptions carefully, outline the likely impact of an increase in taxation on the interest rate. Before discussing the effects of increased taxation on the interest rate, it is important to distinguish what type of taxation is being increased. Taxation is defined as any compulsory payment from an individual or institution to central or local government. There are two main types of tax - direct and indirect taxes. Direct taxes are taxes on income (a percentage of a worker's wage), profits (a percentage of a firm's profits) and wealth (for example a percentage of somebody's inheritance). Indirect taxes are taxes on consumption, for example Value Added Tax, which is a percentage of the price of a good sold. An increase in the rate of any of these taxes will have a similar effect on the economy as a whole. However the government can use taxation to target certain parts of the economy for taxation revenue. For example to reduce investment spending it could increase corporation tax. If the government were to increase income tax, the effect on the economy would be that the level of aggregate demand would fall, assuming that all other factors remained constant (ceteris parabus). This has the effect of reducing the economy's expenditure. This would have the effect of shifting the IS curve inwards, to the left, reducing the level of income and output in the economy. If

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Tesco is currently the number 1 supermarket to keep their standards high and not fall down they will have to meet all their objectives; we will look at how they will do this.

Linking Objectives Tesco is currently the number 1 supermarket to keep their standards high and not fall down they will have to meet all their objectives; we will look at how they will do this. All businesses have objectives. Objectives are what businesses are trying to achieve over a period of time. Tescos has a large number of objectives and will use a range of activities to help achieve these objectives. One of Tescos key objectives is to increase its market share. This means that it wants to sell more than its rivals such as ASDA and Sainsbury and to attract more regular customers. It will do this by opening more stores across the country even outside the UK. They will need to open longer hours, as some customers will be working during the day. To attract all kinds of customers they will need to have a wider range of goods. Internet shopping has also been introduced and is expanding gradually; soon it will be a regular thing. They have three different types of Tesco stores- Tesco Express; this store is attached to garages and is very convenient to those customers who prefer not to go into the main store, as they are not buying much. Tesco Extra; this store is open 24 hours and suits customers who work in the day and prefer to shop at night. Tesco Metro; this store is located in town centres and attracts customers who prefer to do all their shopping in the town centre.

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Advertisement Analysis

) The advertisement uses a few methods to attract people to the job. In the add it is mentioned that they are looking for "keen young school leavers", as there are many school graduates who are looking for a job, especially a job where the "starting pay is BD 5,000 rising to BD 9,000". In the ad it is also mentioned that "opportunities for promotion are available". 2) A flexible candidate would be needed to fill the job in Awali hospital as well as any hospital, because constant attention is needed so that the patients can receive the best treatment possible. the technician would be needed to 'hook up' or fix medical and other types of equipment, like x-ray machines or even light bulbs. 3) We had in mind many options for publishing the ad. We thought about putting the ad in certain jobs magazines but after conducting a small questionnaire sometime in the past we found that the Gulf Daily News was the most read newspaper, and was read by many students which was the target audience. 4) We asked the applicants to write an application form as well as sending a supporting letter to show how much the applicant actually wants the job and also to analyse the applicant's English ability and standard. 5) A formal interview s not sufficient to test all the wanted information, that's why we chose to test the applicants, we can also design the test to test them on anything we feel

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organisational structure

Organisational Structure In this section I will explore the organisational structure of Sainsbury's, and look at how the chain of command, span of control works within the organisation. Moreover, I will look at how communication is passed down effectively through the hierarchy. Firstly I will actually look at the organisation chart for Sainsbury's PLC a whole then my local Sainsbury's Ilford's organisational chart. Sainsbury's Plc - Has a tall structure a they have more authority over each other. Sainsbury's Ilford - Has a flat structure as there are more subordinates to have control over due to the store workers. An organisation structure is a formal systematic way a business is organised. It is usually presented as a diagram and it shows the department functions and who is answerable to whom. The organisation structure is very important to all whom are applied to it. This is because important information has to be passed down. For it to be passed down there has to be a link of communication to the senders and receivers. This is achieved by the communication flowing up or down the hierarchy. An organisation chart makes this easier as it clearly shows the hierarchy within the organisation, so that communication can be made more effective as their will be less chance of confusion to where you will send information to your sender. Moreover, if the business is well

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marketing mix

The Marketing Mix A Market is the coming together of buyers and sellers exchanging their goods for money. For innocent the buyers would be the customers and the sellers would be the workers at the shops or supermarkets. In innocents case the goods would be mainly refreshments like smoothies, but also others such as veg pots, thickies etc. Marketing is where companies try to maximise their sales and profits by satisfying the consumers' needs and wants and turning them into profit. The marketing mix is also known as the 4 P's. These are: Product Price Place Promotion. Product Market segmentation Market segmentation can be split up in many ways, for example Age and Sex, Geographical area and Occupation and Income. Here is an example of this; Classification Who is included A Higher Management, administrative and professional B Middle management, administrative or professional C1 Supervisory or clerical, junior management C2 /skilled manual workers D Semi-skilled and Unskilled manual workers E State pensioners, students, casual workers, Unemployment For supermarkets the market segmentation is the way in which the market is split up into smaller markets where the customers have the same needs. This can be many different segments, for example the basics such as bottle sizes, food (veg pots), but also others like business makers, sellers etc. Price To set a

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Market Segmentation

Market Segmentation Market segmentation is all about deciding what products to make and sell by finding out who the likely customers are going to be (e.g. aiming at young or old people.) By knowing this businesses are most likely to be making bigger profits rather than businesses that don't know the market network inside out. In order to target certain customers, businesses break down the market for certain products into different groups. This is known as Market Segmentation. Businesses can segment their market in different groups such as AGE, GENDER, INCOME, and AREA. There are other ways of segmenting such as: Repeat Customers Impulse Buying Planned Buying Brand Loyalty There are numerous reasons why businesses should attempt to segment their markets carefully. Firstly, it's to match the customers' needs. Another big reason is to make enhanced profits for the business itself. Also, there are better opportunities for growth. Lastly, it is to retain more customers. Gain share of the market segment Unless a business has a strong or leading share of a market, it is unlikely to expand its profitability. Minor brands suffer from lack of scale economies in production and marketing, pressures from distributors and limited space on the shelves. Through careful segmentation and targeting, businesses can often achieve competitive production and marketing costs and become the

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How important are staff/management relations?

A good relationship between staff and management is one in which each party respects and trusts one another, communicates with and understands one another and understands clearly what is expected of each other. Each party must make a fair contribution towards satisfying the interests of the other party. Demands placed on each other must be reasonable. Compromise and co-operation both play important roles in safeguarding the interests of the business while also satisfying the conflicting interests of it's workforce. It is imperative to build and maintain healthy staff/management relations for the following reasons. Good relations help to prevent disputes and if conflict does arise it can be better resolved between staff and management who have already developed a good working relationship which helps to ensure as little disruption to normal operations as possible. Good staff/management relations lead to high morale amongst a workforce. A happy workforce is a more productive one. The employer will also find it easier to retain its employees. Poor relations can lead to an unhappy workforce and dissatisfied management which is likely to result in reduced productivity and the overall failure of the business. The interests of a company and the interests of it's workforce are often in conflict with each other. A number of practices must be in place in order to simultaneously

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Price Discrimination Essay

Price Discrimination is the practice of charging different consumers a different price for the identical good or service for example charging children, university students and old aged pensioners lower prices than other cinemagoers. There are three types of price discrimination, first degree, second degree and third degree price discrimination. The first price degree discrimination, involves charging each consumer the price they are individually prepared to pay. In first degree discrimination the seller or the firm would have captured the entire consumer surplus and this will now be producer surplus, thus a firm or seller earns a higher level of profit than simply charging a single price to all of its consumers. Second degree price discrimination involves charging different prices for different amounts consumed. Third degree price discrimination involves charging different prices to different groups of people such as charging students, children and the elderly different prices. The firm of a market where this type of discrimination occurs is capable of differentiating between consumers, such as student or senior discounts. A student or senior consumer will have a different willingness to pay than an average consumer. Thus the firm sets a lower price for that consumer because that consumer has a more elastic price elasticity of demand. In third degree price discrimination

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