Tom Sawyer Essay -- essays research papers

AN IMAGINATIVE AND MISCHIEVOUS BOY named Tom Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother, Sid, in the Mississippi River town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. After playing hooky from school on Friday and dirtying his clothes in a fight, Tom is made to whitewash the fence as punishment on Saturday. At first, Tom is disappointed by having to forfeit his day off. However, he soon cleverly persuades his friends to trade him small treasures for the privilege of doing his work. He trades these treasures for tickets given out in Sunday school for memorizing Bible verses and uses the tickets to claim a Bible as a prize. He loses much of his glory, however, when, in response to a question to show off his knowledge, he incorrectly answers that the first two disciples were David and Goliath. Tom falls in love with Becky Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades her to get â€Å"engaged† to him. Their romance collapses when she learns that Tom has been engaged before—to a girl named Amy Lawrence. Shortly after being shunned by Becky, Tom accompanies Huckleberry Finn, the son of the town drunk, to the graveyard at night to try out a â€Å"cure† for warts. At the graveyard, they witness the murder of young Dr. Robinson by the Native American â€Å"half-breed† Injun Joe. Scared, Tom and Huck run away and swear a blood oath not to tell anyone what they have seen. Injun Joe blames his companion, Muff Potter, a hapless drunk, for the crime. Potter is wrongfully arrested, and Tom’s anxiety and guilt...

Linking promotional activity to the product life cycle Products Essay

BIC was founded in 1950 by Marcel Bich with the introduction of the first high quality ballpoint pen at an affordable price. In 1975 BIC launched the first one-piece shaver and become a market leader within that sector too. In the early days, BIC concentrated on a core range of products which mainly included: BIC Cristal ® and Orange Ball Pen and the Classic Shaver. In the 1990s the company realised it needed to develop its product range to meet changing consumer needs and to compete with new competitors entering the writing and shaver categories. BIC has therefore set about re-shaping itself. It has looked to add value to its products (e.g. by moving from a single blade to a twin blade, then to a triple blade razor) and to develop a range of new products. BIC’s introduction of the Classic one-piece shaver, rebranded as BIC 1, illustrates this process. The re-branding was intended to enhance the brand’s simplicity whilst still maintaining the highly recognisable, orange packaging. BIC has further enhanced this re-branding by launching BIC 2, which satisfies consumers looking for a functional twin blade at an affordable price. Through the launch of BIC 1 & BIC 2, BIC has created a branding synergy. In the twin blade sector, BIC has launched premium products such as Comfort Twin and Twin Lady. These products target consumers demanding enhanced features and benefits while still offering excellent value for money. In 2003, BIC launched its first triple blade shaver for men BIC Comfort 3 and one year later BIC Soleil Lady for women. Both of these products offer greater innovation and technologically enhanced features and benefits at attractive prices. The Boston matrix and BIC products Multi-product businesses like BIC are aware of how products in their entire portfolio contribute to the overall growth of the business. Established profitable lines make a vital contribution that enables a company to invest in the development and promotion of new lines. The Boston Consulting Group developed ‘The Boston box’ or BCG matrix. This relates closely to product life cycles and identifies four classes of  products in an organisation’s portfolio. Problem children – These are newly-launched products. This name is appropriate because many products fail to move beyond this phase. Such products are also referred to as ‘Question Marks’ or ‘Wild-cats’. In order to grow, they require large amounts of investment and promotional support. Wise firms monitor each product’s progress and recognise whether or not on-going support is justified. Stars – These are products that have successfully reached the growth stage in the life cycle. Although they need on-going promotional support, they are already providing high cash returns. They present good future prospects. Cash cows – These products have reached the maturity stage and are now ‘yielders’. They have a high market share in markets that are no longer rapidly expanding. However, they will need on-going marketing support and will need ‘freshening up’ from time to time. Dogs – These are products in decline. These have a low market share in a low-growing or declining market. Because they generate a negative cash flow, they will usually be disposed of. The Boston matrix can be applied to BIC products: The Cristal Ball Pen and Classic Shaver are popular and well established products with very high unit sales. BIC produces them on a large scale. These cash cows provide excellent cash profits for the company. The Cristal Grip and Cristal Gel Pens, and Twin Lady shavers are stars with well-established growth patterns. For example, the Twin Lady filled the gap in the market for shavers for women. Problem Children that have recently entered their respective markets include Cristal Colours and Cristal Pocket Scents in the pen market, and Comfort 3 and Soleil in the shavers market. Currently BIC is investing in these products. Over the next two or three years the company will decide whether these products have succeeded (moved into the star category) and warrant continued support. Products such as Soleil (a shaver for women) are rapidly moving into the star category. Of course, some products fail to take off sufficiently and/or go into decline. The ‘Tough Beard’ shaver has no t warranted further development and BIC has taken it out of production. Developing the product range The Cristal range of pens demonstrates how to inject new life into a product range: BIC’s Cristal Ball pen was launched in 1951. It has over 30% market  share and is the UK’s best-selling ball pen. In 1964 BIC launched BIC Orange. This is a fine-point version of the Cristal pen, easily recognised by its orange barrel. In the 1990s, as the Cristal and Orange Ball pens became more mature and encountered fierce competition from lower priced brands, BIC invested in developing the Cristal range to attract new users and to differentiate itself from the competition. This led to the launch of a range of new products: Cristal Grip, for more comfort Cristal Colours, for fashionable colours Cristal Pocket, for a more convenient size Cristal Pockets Scents, for fun and fruity inks Cristal Gel, for smoother writing. By continually adding to the range, BIC manages to inject new life into the product life cycle of the overall range. BIC now offers a full range of Cristal pens using both ball point and gel ink technology. The range’s development has also helped to support the enhancements of the core brand, and each year sales of Cristal pens increase. The product life cycle and promotional activity BIC analyses its products, and promotes and supports these in line with their stage in the product life cycle. For example, BIC Cristal and the Classic shaver have a long life cycle and although they have had technological improvements over the years and are produced using more advanced manufacturing techniques, the style and design of these products have not changed. They are still recognisable worldwide. Initially, when these products were launched, promotional activity would have focused on generating awareness and encouraging consumers to trial the products. Now that these products have become well established icons, the promotional emphasis is on rewarding loyal customers who continue to buy these products. The illustration shows the way in which promotional activity is tailored to stages in the product life cycle. When BIC launched the Comfort 3 razor, it chose Martin Johnson to represent the brand. BIC invested heavily in outdoor  media such as billboards and conducted national press advertising to raise awareness. With Cristal Gel, BIC carried out a large amount of below the line activity. To build awareness of the new product, BIC supplied existing Cristal Ball pen users with Cristal Gel samples through special promotional packs and other sampling campaigns to office users. This was supported by advertising and direct marketing. During a product’s growth period, BIC continues to use market research data to help it better understand market developments and consumer requirements. It also continues to support the product so that more and more consumers try it out and are converted into regular users. At this stage, advertising and special offers encourage new users to try the product. As a product moves towards maturity, BIC’s marketing experts need to identify ways of injecting new life into it. They must also identify new product developments that can meet similar consumer needs. This explains why, for example, BIC has developed extensions to the Cristal range. Once a product has saturated a market, sales will stagnate. However, it is important to continue to support cash cows because they play a vital role in injecting profits that sustain new product development. Once a product has moved into decline, a company like BIC will look to replace it with new products that meet existing and evolving consumer needs. For example, the razor ‘Tough Beard’ was taken out of the product portfolio because other new BIC razors were better able to meet the needs of customers with ‘tough beards’! Conclusion Businesses that understand the Boston Box and product life cycles are able to target appropriate promotional activities to support the various products in their portfolio. Well established products such as BIC Cristal and Classic shaver are the cash cows that enable BIC to thrive by developing its stars and some of its question marks in line with market needs. BIC is an innovative organisation that uses its technical and marketing expertise to supply consumers with the products they want and need. Questions 1. Using the Barksdale and Harris model that combines the BCG matrix and the product life cycle, consider how useful this might be to BIC when analysing  their product portfolios. 2. Consider the work of Booz, Allen and Hamilton Consultants in relation to the decay curve of new product ideas, and suggest how this might be applied by BIC when bringing new product ideas to the market place. 3. The GE/McKinsey matrix has nine boxes as opposed to the BCG matrix that has four boxes. Consider how it might or might not have been better for BIC to apply the GE/McKinsey matrix on the basis that it might be more accurate? 4. Consider the work of Everett Rogers in relation to product adopter categories. Using his idea, how might BIC adapt their promotional strategy in relation to targeting different adopter categories?

Biography of Grigori Rasputin

Rasputin was a self-proclaimed ‘Mystic’ who gained great influence over the Russian royal family because they believed he could cure their son’s hemophilia. He caused chaos in the government and was murdered by conservatives seeking an end to his humiliations. His actions played a small part in the onset of the Russian Revolution. Early Years Grigori Rasputin was born into a peasant family in Siberian Russia in the late 1860s, although the date of his birth is uncertain, as is the number of siblings, even those who survived. Rasputin told stories and kept his facts confused. He claimed he developed mystical skills at age 12. He went to a school but failed to become academic, and after adolescence earned the name ‘Rasputin’ for his actions drinking, seducing and engaging in crime (violence, theft, and rape). It derives from the Russian for ‘dissolute’ (although supporters claim it derives from the Russian word for crossroads, as his village and his reputation is unwarranted).Around the age of 18, he married and had three surviving children. He may have experienced some sort of religious epiphany and traveled to a monastery, or (more likely) he was sent as a punishment by the authorities, although he didn’t actually become a monk. Here he encountered a sect of masochistic religious extremist s and developed the belief that you became closest to God when you had overcome your earthly passions and the best way to achieve this was through sexual exhaustion. Siberia had a strong tradition of extreme mysticism which Grigori fell straight into. Rasputin had a vision (again, possibly) and then left the monastery, married, and began to travel around Eastern Europe working as a mystic who claimed prophecy and healing while living off donations before returning to Siberia. Relationship with the Tsar Around 1903 Rasputin arrived in St. Petersburg, near a Russian court that was deeply interested in the esoteric and the occult. Rasputin, who combined a dirty, scruffy appearance with piercing eyes and evident charisma, and who proclaimed himself a wandering mystic, was introduced to court by members of the church and the aristocracy, who were looking for holy men of common stock who would appeal to the court, and who would thus boost their own importance. Rasputin was perfect for this, and was first introduced to the Tsar and Tsarina in 1905. The Tsar’s court had a long tradition of holy men, mystics and other esoteric people, and Nicholas II and his wife were heavily involved in the occult revival: a succession of con people and failures went through, and Nicholas thought he was in contact with his dead father.1908 saw arguably the crucial event of Rasputin’s life: he was called to the royal palace while the Tsar’s son was experiencing hemophiliac bleeding. Whe n Rasputin appeared to have aided the boy, he informed the royals that he believed the future of both the boy and the ruling Romanov dynasty were deeply connected to him. The royals, desperate on behalf of their son, felt desperately indebted to Rasputin and allowed him permanent contact. However, it was in 1912 when his position became unassailable, due to a very lucky coincidence: the Tsarina’s son fell almost fatally ill during an accident and then a coach ride and experienced a sudden recovery from a near-fatal tumor, but not before Rasputin was able to telephone through some prayers and claims to have interceded with god.During the next few years, Rasputin lived something of a double life, acting as a humble peasant while around the immediate royal family, but outside living a debauched lifestyle, humiliating and seducing noble women, as well as drinking heavily and consorting with prostitutes. The Tsar rejected complaints leveled against the mystic, even exiling some of his accusers. Compromising photographs were hushed up. However, in 1911 the dissent became so great Prime Minister Stolypin issued the Tsar with a report on Rasputin’s actions, which prompted the Tsar to bury the facts.  The Tsarina remained both desperate for aid for her son and in Rasputin’s thrall. The Tsar, also afraid for his son, and pleased that the Tsarina was placated, now ignored all complaints.   Rasputin also pleased the Tsar: Russia’s ruler saw in him the sort of simple peasant rusticity they hoped would support them in leading a return to a more old fashioned autocracy. The royal family felt increasingly isolated and welcomed what they thought was an honest peasant friend. Hundreds would come to see him. Even his blackened fingernail clippings were taken as relics. They wanted his magical powers for their ills and his powers over the Tsarina for more earthly issues. He was a legend across Russia, and they bought him many gifts. They were the Rasputinki. He was a huge fan of the phone, and could almost always be reached for advice. He lived with his daughters. Rasputin runs Russia When in 1914 World War I began, Rasputin was in the hospital after he’d been stabbed by an assassin, and he was against the war until he did a U-turn having realized the Tsar was going ahead anyway. But Rasputin began to have doubts about his abilities, he felt he was losing them. In 1915 Tsar Nicholas personally took over the military operations to try and halt Russia’s failings, replacing a man Rasputin had arranged to have replaced. He traveled to the front, leaving Alexandria in charge of internal affairs.Rasputin’s influence was now so great he was more than simply the Tsarina’s advisor, and he began to appoint and fire people to and from positions of power, including the cabinet. The result was a carousel which depended entirely on Rasputin’s whims than any merit or status, and a swift succession of ministers who were sacked before they could learn the job. This created massive opposition to Rasputin and undermined the entire ruling Romanov re gime Murder There were several attempts on Rasputin’s life, including a stabbing and soldiers with swords, but they failed until 1916, when supporters of the autocracy—including a Prince, a Grand Duke and a member of the Duma—joined forces to kill the mystic and save the government from any further embarrassment, and stop calls to replace the Tsar. Also crucial to the plot was a personal matter: the ringleader may have been a self-hating gay man who had asked Rasputin to ‘cure’ him, but who became involved in an unusual relationship with him. Rasputin was invited to Prince Yusupov’s house, where he was given a poisoned meal, but as he failed to die immediately he was shot. Although injured Rasputin tried to flee, where he was shot again. Then the group bound Rasputin and threw him into the Neva River. He was twice buried and dug up, before being cremated by a roadside.Kerensky, a man who led the provisional government in 1917 after the revolution replaced the Tsar, and who knew a thing or two about failing to govern the divided nation, said that without Rasputin there would have been no Lenin. This was among the other causes of the Russian Revolution. The Romanov rulers werent just deposed, but executed by the Bolsheviks falling as Rasputin predicted.