Saturday, October 5, 2019

Inter-generational equity demands that no current expenditure be Essay

Inter-generational equity demands that no current expenditure be financed by loan and that all capital expenditure be financed by loan. Explain and assess thi - Essay Example In other words those generations that take benefit from public spending should also bear the cost of such benefit. The rule of fairness matches the cost and benefits of public spending between generations. In 1997 a golden rule of public finance, that over the cycle, government borrowings should not exceed net government capital formation and hence current spending should be financed by current receipts, was adopted by the government. Application of this golden rule draws a distinction between Capital and current spending. It is clearly understood that the benefit of ‘Capital’ spending may spread over the generations, whereas ‘Current’ spending is for current consumption to be benefited only by current generation. Therefore the current consumption or expenditure must be controlled tightly so that its financial burden does not spread to next generation. This principle works only in approximation as certain overflows are not ruled out. Not all but some benefits of expenditure on infrastructural, institutional and cultural capital investments will pass on to next generation. The ‘benefiter-pays’ rationale of inter-generational equity requires that each generation should pay for the resources it uses. The principal of fairness coupled with ‘benefiter pays’ rule suggests that the entire capital expenditure should not be financed through borrowings, as some benefits of capital expenditure are also being derived by current generation. Accordingly some burden of capital expenditure should be shared by current generation in order to meet the objectives of ‘inter-generational equity’. While defining ‘Inter-generational equity’, Earth & Peace Educational Associates International (EPE) has observed that, ‘each generation has the right to inherit the same diversity in natural and cultural resources as enjoyed by previous

Friday, October 4, 2019

Ontario's Recod on Electing Women Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Ontario's Recod on Electing Women - Essay Example Women only won the right to vote gradually in Canada and remain underrepresented in Parliament as well as in provincial legislatures. The first federal election in which women were able to vote and run as candidates was 1921. In that election, four women ran for office and Agnes Campbell MacPhail (1890-1954) made history as the first woman elected to the Canadian House of Commons. Between 1921 and 2006, 3402 women candidates stood in the 39 general elections and won on 426 occasions. (http://www.worldmayor.com/manifestos05/mississauga_05.html) Hazel McCallion was first elected to the office of Mayor of Mississauga, Ontario in November, 1978, and she is the longest serving Mayor in the city's history. On the 11th of November 2003, Hazel McCallion started her 10th term as Mayor of Mississauga, Ontario. She was acclaimed in 1980, re-elected in 1982 and 1985, acclaimed again in 1988 and re-elected in 1991, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006. The Mayor was runner-up in World Mayor 2005. Mayor McCallion was born in Port Daniel on the Gaspe Coast of Quebec, and educated in Quebec City and Montreal. She then began a career with Canadian Kellogg, and remained with the company for 19 years. In 1967 she decided to leave the corporate world and devote her career to politics. She was elected Chairman of the Streetsville Planning Board that year, and again in 1968. Later that same year, she became Deputy Reeve of Streetsville. She was later appointed Reeve, and then elected Mayor of Streetsville in 1970, serving until December, 1973. When the Region of Peel was established in 1974, Ms McCallion was elected to the Mississauga and Peel Regional Councils. She served two terms as a Councillor prior to her mayoral campaign in 1978. By the time she was elected Mayor, she had sat on virtually every com mittee at the Region of Peel and the City of Mississauga. She has also served on the executive of many federal and provincial committees and associations. (http://www.worldmayor.com/manifestos05/mississauga_05.html) Nellie McClung (1873-1951) was an outstanding activist who was in the forefront for the fight for women's rights including the right to vote and be voted for, made some remarkable statements in 1929. She said, "We may live to see the day when women will no longer be news!" this hope has been realized in recent years - there is no questioning of women in politics today, and they have been voted for in every political arena. The Election Act of the Dominion stated that "no women, idiot, lunatic, or child" could vote. Nellie McClung happens to be one of the numerous women who fought for women's rights in politics, and other professions. She was a member of an early feminist movement variously called Maternal, Moral, or Social Feminism. Their agitations were not just on the equality of life of women in all areas of society as "equality feminism" later proved to be. It was boarded on better health care, removal of restrictions, women's institutions, cultural activities etc. These activities

Thursday, October 3, 2019

Simons Stigmata In Lord of the Flies Essay Example for Free

Simons Stigmata In Lord of the Flies Essay In William Goldings novel, Lord of the Flies, the character Simon portrays many characteristics similar to those demonstrated by Jesus in the bible. He is shown to have all the qualities that Jesus has: determination, intelligence and resilience. Even his physical appearance portrays Christ since he is skinny and not much of a tough person. Simon was very calm and caring for others, especially with the little children and enjoyed being alone when he could. Simon embodies a pure spiritual human goodness that is deeply connected with nature and people around him as Jesus did with his disciples. Both Jesus and Simon had prophecies about things to come, and they were both persecuted and were ridiculed of for sharing those prophecies. Whereas Ralph and Jack stand at opposite ends of the scale between civilization and savagery, Simon stands on an entirely different plane from all the other boys. Unlike all the other boys on the island, Simon acts with kindness and purity because he believes in the inherent value of morality. He behaves kindly toward the younger children, and he is the first to realize the problem posed by the beast, that the monster on the island is not real or something that can be hunted down and killed. It isnt physical but rather a savagery that lurks within each human being. In Golding’s view, the human impulse toward civilization is not as deeply entrenched as the human impulse toward savagery. Despite the fact that Simon is one of the smallest biguns he never follows the others way of thinking, nor backs down when it comes to speaking up for himself. One such occasion where he shows his defiance of the others beliefs is when he says to everyone, I think we ought to climb the mountain. (page 128) This shows that he knows the beast isnt real and he shows no fear of the unknown. Jesus called people to do things they thought would be simply impossible just as Simon did, and the fact that not even the stronger boys had the courage to do it shows how assured Simon is to his morals. Simon was sacrificed during the ritual dance so that the other boys could live. Simon was killed by all the boys in an excruciating way and claimed that it wasnt really him. Everyone but Ralph thought that Simon was the beast, and didn’t think twice before attacking him. Ralph knew it was Simon they killed, and he realized how everyone was acting like wild creatures. Also the way Simon was shown in the movie after he died showed him as a Christ-figure in the story; Simon dies on water that is calm and peaceful, as the light reflected off the water it gave a kind of feeling of holiness. Simon’s body was carried out by the waves and the way he was floating with his arms stretched out, replicates the way that Jesus died on the cross. Throughout the story, Simon is shown to have a very strong connection with Jesus by his actions of kindness. He displayed as a person with divine ties with Christ and a reminder that purity is everywhere, even when all hopes seem to be gone. The many occurrences Simon gains the courage to speak up and show how smart, intelligent he really is makes a huge impact on everyone. Simon, like Christ, was never evil and always helped others out with what he could. Simon symbolizes and demonstrates a sort a purity that goes beyond human goodness. However, his brutal murder at the hands of the other boys designates the lack of that goodness in people against an overwhelming abundance of evil that lies deep within each and everyone one of us.

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Understanding Development Theory And Practice In Third World Politics Essay

Understanding Development Theory And Practice In Third World Politics Essay This book is a good synthesis and critique on the theory of development after Second World War. It takes historical perspective on analyzing development theory and its practice and tries to find the context-specific result of those development theories and policies in the third world. In doing so, Rapley has tried to be unaffected by any ideological orthodoxy but his left-alignment is clearly visible. John Rapley, who is a political scientist involved in the Department of Government, University of West Indies (Mora), has successfully captured the essence of development theories being applied in the third world after World War II, in this book. The book is lucidly written, well organized, and easy to understand. It includes elaborate endnotes, good index, and thoroughly assembled and categorized bibliography in accordance with their dominant theoretical fervor. The analytical approach of the book has been to follow historical comparison of mainstream development theory and practice, with related criticisms on them. For doing this he has measured the dominant debate between left critics and mainstream theorists from the perspective of dominant paradigms. He has presented the ebb and flow of neo-classical theory, and has done counter-criticism on neo-Marxists and developmental state theories. Though his arguments are balanced and analytical, people with capitalist mentality may find his argument on reemergence of neo-classical ideology immature and left-centered, while those with leftist gloss will find his insights illuminating and worthy. Nevertheless, his analysis of this wide area of development history is worthy read to students, practitioners and scholars. The book is organized into nine chapters. The first chapter, The Progress of Development, is an introduction to the argument presented in the book. The chapter two summarizes the dominant theoretical trend of immediate post-war period namely rise of Keynesianism and emergence of third world, followed by modernist, dependency and state centered theories. Rapley meticulously presents the influence of Keynesian thought on post war period of state centered development. Birth of third world and development economics as a separate sub-discipline were influenced by recognition of third world as a separate entity which demands different development policy design as opposed to the IBRD policy measures adopted for reconstructing Europe and other countries of First and Second World. Then, the book describes development economists of structuralist school who designed import substitution industrialization for the third world. This school of thought believed that international trade favours indus trialized North at the expense of developing South. But, soon the problems of structuralist schools were to be found in development world. Chapter 3 reflects on the performance of state-led development. The performance of state-led development in third world showed dismal performance. Import substitution industries were proved bad performer, license system of government increased corruption and bad governance, semi-public institutions increased the debt burden of state, and many SOEs were going bankrupt. All this led to poor export performance, inefficiency, underemployment, and poor agricultural performance. Although the central planning of statist model proved successful to increase output it couldnt ensure quality and efficiency in its performance which led to overall unproductive utilization of available means thus causing systemic failure. All these policy failures and theoretical disenchantment of state-led development model led to the clear decline of state socialism by 1980s enforcing many countries of Latin America and Africa to follow the conditionalities of their creditors with whom they have had large debt overdue. But, exception to these problems were the East Asian economies, who were able to overcome these problems by appropriately combining the effort of state with the efficiency of market competition and thus were able to catch up with the pace of international market competition. In chapter 4 and 5, basically talks about the neoclassical response to the failure of state-oriented development model of earlier period and its recommendation for reform. The neoclassical proponents reviewed the failure of import substitution and state-supported industrial policies by saying that there would be losers along with gainersà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ this was not necessarily bad (p. 83) and earlier development model did wrong by helping out the losers who were the main cause of inefficiency. They now advocated for promoting winners by focusing on creating environment for export industries, smaller firms, and export crop farmers. Policies for creating such environment were recommended under the framework of Washington Consensus which included: fiscal austerity, privatization of state owned enterprises (SOEs), trade liberalization, currency devaluation, and abolition of marketing boards, financial and labour market deregulation, and export promotion. Defined under an umbrella term of Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), these neo-classical prescriptions were openly supported and promoted by Bretton Woods Institutions which consequently were reflected in almost all of the third world countries where these institutions were working. Moreover, after some experience of reform initiatives and collapse of socialist economy led to the addition of accountability and transparency in governments operations as required variables for neoclassical development model thus both political and economic reform became elements of its reform agenda. The subsequent critique on the performance of neo-classical SAP framework is elaborately explained in chapter 5. Here, Rapley depicts the limitations of structural adjustment and emphasizes on how its application became successful by not due to its internal theoretical strength but due to seemingly no counter-force due to the fall of left because of long stagnation of socialism during early 1980s, historical exhaustion of dependency theory with no clear output, and loss of the Marxist self-confidence. Rapley writes: some evidence suggests that there is no reason to assume that less government leads to faster growthà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. if there is any relationship between the two, it may even be that in the aggregate, more government leads to more growth (p.119). His evaluation of the case of privatization, domestic market liberalization, retrenchment, financial and labour market deregulation demonstrates that there are flaws on the theoretical assumptions and practicalities of structural adjustment program. Its assumption of human beings as rational and self-interested actors is not supported. Many sociologist and anthropologists view human action as a part of collective action and some views like Jean Francois Bayart content that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ just as we cannot expect other peoples to behave the way we do, we cannot apply the same principles to judge their behavior. Similarly, differences between first and third world discredited the apparently same principle of development propounded by structural adjustment program; flaws were seen in new political economy ideology of neo-classical writers. Moreover, the neoclassical logic of accepting the material inequality has been criticized by leftists on moral grounds, even if assuming material inequality to be morally neutral leftist theorists would still condemn it for its economic drawbacks (p.116) to poorer ones. Rapley has given emphasis on the birth of possible challenge to neoclassical theory. He clearly seems to be on the side of the left but is cautious enough to predict that the new paradigm wont be too much influenced by classical left or postmodernist hangover. In chapter 6, he asks for the new paradigm of development to be able to work with market and capitalism, while simultaneously opting for greater role for the state than allowed by structural adjustment program. The neo-institutionalist idea that market does not emerge spontaneously and that different cultural background require the creation of different types of institutions led to the reemergence of the need of state involvement in creating and developing economic institutions. The highly interventionist states of East Asia had selectively protected some strategic industries through tariffs and quota at the same time helped them grow through export subsidies and subsidized credit. They promoted firms towards new forms of produ ction and compelled them to increase their competitiveness. These successful policy measures of East Asian countries have been influential theoretical strands for the reemergence of the developmental state paradigm. Ultimately, in chapter 7 Rapley has returned to the Sub Saharan Africa to show that there are many challenges to follow state-supported development as seen in its successful version of East Asian case. The reasons allotted in the book are internal limitations of Africa (especially the weakness of African state) and international obstacles brought forwarded by international balance of power. His reasons for the seemingly low applicability of Asian developmental model in Africa are more political rather than economic. Some causal factors leading to the crisis of state in Africa like: authoritarianism in the third world, state capacity, concentration of power, class politics, etc. proves for Rapley that Africa is against the tide. Furthermore, he also sees obstacle in international systems to follow the strict state-led growth as enjoyed by East Asian countries in 60s through 80s. Rapley argues, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ it is not only Africa that the emerging practice of development is running i n a direction contrary to that of the theory. The crisis of the state which sees fiscal constraints forcing public authorities to renounce many of their functions, is international in its scope (p.176). Meanwhile retrenchment of state during SAP implementation led to the development of many non-state actors like NGOs, private sector and other groups working as a state within state leading to the weakening of state functions. The chapter 8, entitled as The end of development or a new beginning? is focused on the idea of post-development thought. This thought challenges us to rethink the entire way we conceive development, and to consider the possibility of a paradigm shift (p.177). Presently the world is facing contested political order where there is resurgence of populist movements against globalization to restore control over space/country; while another strand which is closer to postmodern idea is shifting the focus from national to global level through some works like: UN MDGs or WTOs Doha Development Agenda negotiations. Rapley admits: A discipline that emerged in the early post-World War II periodà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ development studies always took for granted the existence of national economies and nation states. Much has changed since. Accordingly, those who take an interest in development are being challenged to conceive new strategies of development. Post-development challenged us to rethink development altogether. (p.200). The recent trend of giving focus on people after the publication of Development As Freedom written by Prof. Amartya Sen has shifted attention of Bretton Woods institutions and other scholars to the fact that development that doesnt improve the lives of the poor people will only provoke resistance and crisis (p.200). Rapley wraps-up the eighth chapter by arguing that the intellectual resistance from post-development ideas and political campaigns of anti-globalization forces has put the agenda of development in the centre stage which is awaiting for good implementation. Finally, in chapter 9 Rapley concludes main arguments presented in the book and also poses some relevant questions demanding serious consideration for leading the future of development. Some of his questions are thought provoking: can development models be universalized? What roles will environmental issues play in development theory? Is there a population time bomb, and how will it affect the third world? What will the new balance between state and society be? At last he has wrapped up his argument by discussing on all these questions in brief. Reviewing the whole book one can easily find that this book is highly comprehensive piece on development theory and practice spending fairly little space or pages. It is praiseworthy to say that this updated volume includes issues of latest debate of 21st century development studies. But, still it has some loopholes. While criticizing on the neoliberal ideas, he has overlooked at its overall performance in countries like India, China, and other high performer countries of 1990s and early 2000s. Similarly, his analysis of third world with high emphasis on African and Latin American countries has ignored poor blocks of South Asian countries and thus has left a large area of development experiment of these years untouched. The number of poor population in South Asian region doesnt justify writers neglect of the region as appropriate. Unlike previous editions of this book, the reviewed third edition has added more to the analysis of future of development. Its analysis of the latest thought of development, viz. post-development, is convincing enough to indicate on the future of development by working together with the questions raised in the concluding chapter. Reading this, readers can guess thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. Notwithstanding these criticisms, Rapleys work is able to present a comprehensive and succinct treatise on the history of development thoughts and practice in third world. His way of presenting the mainstream argument along with the main criticism propounded by left and others on each of these development theories is interesting and useful. This book is can be recommended as a must read for upper level undergraduate students, useful guide for graduate level students, and a common discourse with new insights for the scholars. Readers will not regret about their time and money spent for the book after completing the last sentence.

William Faulkners A Rose for Emily and Barn Burning Essay -- essays r

Symbolism in William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily and Barn Burning If we compare William Faulkner's two short stories, 'A Rose for Emily' and 'Barn Burning', he structures the plots of these two stories differently. However, both of the stories note the effect of a father ¡Ã‚ ¦s teaching, and in both the protagonists Miss Emily and Sarty make their own decisions about their lives. The stories present major idea through symbolism that includes strong metaphorical meaning. Both stories affect my thinking of life. Both  ¡Ã‚ §A Rose for Emily ¡Ã‚ ¨ and  ¡Ã‚ §Barn Burning ¡Ã‚ ¨ address the influence of a father, and the protagonists of both stories make their own decisions. Miss Emily lives with her father who prevents her from dating with any young man until she is thirty. Her father ¡Ã‚ ¦s deed enhances her thirst for love and security. After her father died, she finally has the freedom of love. When she meets Homer Barron and thinks that she has found her true love. But opposite of what she wants, Homer is a homosexual:  ¡Ã‚ §Ã‚ ¡Khe liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks ¡Ã‚ ¦ Club --- that he was not a marrying man ¡Ã‚ ¨ ( ¡Ã‚ §A Rose for Emily ¡Ã‚ ¨, 126). To keep him with her forever, Miss Emily chooses to murder Homer.  ¡Ã‚ §Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and learning forward, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair ¡Ã‚ ¨ ( ¡Ã‚ §A Rose for Emily ¡Ã‚ ¨, 130), Faulkner implies that Miss Emily actually sleeps with the corpse. She must love Homer deeply, to endure the rotten smell and appearance of the dead body. She even enjoys being with it.  ¡Ã‚ §The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace ¡Ã‚ ¨ ( ¡Ã‚ §A Rose for Emily ¡Ã‚ ¨, 130). Although she picks the most ridiculous way to express love, her courage to choose her own way of life compels admiration. In  ¡Ã‚ §Barn Burning ¡Ã‚ ¨, Sarty ¡Ã‚ ¦s father enjoys setting fires to burn down others ¡Ã‚ ¦ properties. Sarty faces the problem between loyalty and honesty. On one hand, he wants to be loyal to his father; on the other hand, he does not endorse his father ¡Ã‚ ¦s behavior. His father teaches him:  ¡Ã‚ §You ¡Ã‚ ¦re getting to be a man. You got to learn. You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain ¡Ã‚ ¦t going to have any blood to stick to you ¡Ã‚ ¨ ( ¡Ã‚ §Barn Burning ¡Ã‚ ¨, 8). His father wa... ... sets fire to burn down the barn that belongs to the house, he thoroughly despairs of his father. He not only destroys the barn, but also shatters Sarty ¡Ã‚ ¦s hope. Sarty decides to leave his family and find his own way of life. The metaphorical meanings of  ¡Ã‚ §A Rose for Emily ¡Ã‚ ¨ and  ¡Ã‚ §Barn Burning ¡Ã‚ ¨ teaches me to view life in a different way. I do not agree with Miss Emily ¡Ã‚ ¦s deed, but admire her inflexible love. She reminds me to be careful when choose a beloved. It is important to find someone who suits me. The other protagonist, Sarty shows strong self-awareness. He is young, but he is able to determine right and wrong. He knows that if he continuing stay with his father, he will not be able to live his own life, or do right things. It is pretty courageous that he decide to leave his family. When I make a decision, I should have the same courage. Both stories ¡Ã‚ ¦ plots themselves are odd, but the meanings stimulate deep thought. Works Cited Faulkner, William.  ¡Ã‚ §Barn Burning. ¡Ã‚ ¨ Collected Stories of William Faulkner. New York:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Random House, 1939. 3-25. Faulkner, William.  ¡Ã‚ §A Rose for Emily. ¡Ã‚ ¨ Collected Stories of William Faulkner. New   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  York: Random House, 1939. 119-30.

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Holden Caufield from The Catcher In the Rye :: essays papers

Holden Caufield from The Catcher In the Rye A family can be classified as one of many things. It can be a group of people living under one roof; a group of people of common ancestry; or even a unit of a crime syndicate like the Mafia (Merriam Webster). But to Holden Caulfield, the main character of J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher In The Rye, his family was what we as a society normally think of when that word is spoken. There are always variations on a theme, but a typical family consists of two parents and at least one child. During the 1950’s when the novel is set, adoption was virtually unheard of and divorce could be considered a sin where as today these are common practices. But one thing about family that has prevailed through the decades is the family’s affect on a person’s existence. The way a person interacts with their family can affect them for the rest of their lives. And the way a family interacts with a specific person can affect that person for the rest of their life. It is a two way relationship which is often complicated and confusing, especially to Holden. Holden’s family is obviously very important to him. The novel opens with talking about his parents and his brother. Holden negatively criticizes them to hide the fact that he truly loves them. But, one would ask, how can you love those you never see? Holden is constantly being shipped from one boarding school to another. This absence between him and his parents intensifies his general alienation from everyone. Holden’s only real love in the family is for his sister Phoebe. The bond and respect between brother and sister can not be broken no matter how far the distance between them. When Holden arrives back in New York, he immediately wanted to call someone; his sister Phoebe. "She wouldn’t’ve cared if I’d woke her up†¦" (Salinger 59) Many people her age would not appreciate being woken up that late at night, especially by their brother, but there is a mutual respect between Phoebe and Holden that would allow for this event to occur. Throu gh out the whole novel, this relationship continues because she is his little sister and he would never hurt her. In today’s world, this type of relationship is next to impossible.

Analyze an organization’s media communication activities Essay

The objective of this project is to analyze an organization’s media communication activities. The work must use concepts, models, and theories to support and critical the company’s website. It should be critically assess + evaluate and use strategy to analyze. The author should review it as a marketing professional specialist and knows how, when, and where the organization use digital media to communicate with its audience, customer, stakeholder, and public. Executive Summary: P&O Cruises uses a maturity website to distribute and communicate (Fill, 2002). It is a fabulous website that uses a lot of tools from personal communications (PCs) to support their offline marketing (Hartley, 1999). Once customers surf its website, they could get information they need easily. The website becomes a distributed channel for the business. It is in the highest level of scenario 4 (Doren, 2000). Information on website is variety and useful that helps offline media and lures more customers to join the P&O Cruises with rational exchange (Fill, 2002). P&O Cruises – Background P&O Cruises is one of the cruises belonging to Carnival Corporation & PLC. There are 13 distinct brands of cruises all over the world are operating by Carnival Corporation & PLC; P&O is one of them. P&O is not as same as its name belongs to the P&O group (Peninsula and Oriental steam Navigation Company); for it was demerged into Carnival public limited company on 23 October 2000, and has changed its name to Carnival Public limited company on 17 April 2003. P&O Cruises now is the largest premium cruise brand in the United Kingdom. See the list as below. Carnival Corporation Princess Cruises & Carnival plc P&O Cruises were belong to Ocean Village P&O Princess. Swan Hellenic Cruises plc AIDA P&O Cruises Australia Carnival Cruise Lines Holland America Line Windstar Cruises Seabourn Cruise Line Costa Cruises Cunard Line A’ROSA Main Report: Marketing mix†¦ Product P&O Cruises currently owns four types of ships – Aurora, Oriana, Oceana and Adonia. Each of them gives different atmosphere and personality to customers. They are service, facility and quality oriented. Mostly, customers who are attracted to join P&O Cruises are through travel agencies to get tickets no matter a set of schedule or connections with flights or another cruise. If customers who are interested in P&O Cruises, P&O Cruises also use different brochures to introduce its â€Å"products† to them. P&O Cruises builds a marvelous introduction of its products on the website. There is a column of their ships in directories of its website introducing each of ships’ details by clicking any icon of them (Chaffey, 2000). There are also other links connecting to these four ships that makes customers easily check to P&O Cruises’ ships (main products) whenever they want. The website builds a good cognitive environment to customers who are like ship, boat, cruise, and adventure. Most fantastically, customers could find what each deck looks like by 360i panoramic tour. After customers â€Å"learn† about these ships, they enable to feel more about these ships by â€Å"fun stuff† sector, which involved games, videos, and pictures (screensaver and wallpapers) to addict customers affective (Fill, 2002). Promotion P&O Cruises is not a company which uses all of the marketing communication tools to communicate with its target audience, but it uses its promotion tools well to achieve its customer needs and to explore its market opportunities (Chaffey, 2000). 5 main elements of the promotional or communications mix of P&O Cruises are analyzed as below (Fill, 2002): 1. Advertising (Off-line) P&O Cruises has TV advertising displaying during summer time or the beginning of the year. Customers who haven’t seen the advertisement on TV could also enjoy the advertisement on P&O Cruises’ website; to the â€Å"Fun Stuff-Videos† to view the version of its â€Å"Sh-boom† advertisement. It’s an advertisement with affective (Fill, 2002). Besides TV advertising, P&O Cruises posts its advertising on newspaper as well. (On-line). There are many agencies selling P&O Cruises’ tickets on line; they help P&O Cruises build a perfect advertisement system. If someone who is interested in cruises, they will easily find out the name of P&O Cruises on many websites building by travel agencies. Customers are able to easily book a cruise through any ABTA travel agent; there are about 16 agent’s linking to P&O Cruises and helping customers to book tickets in different areas. Although many websites all connecting to the name of P&O Cruises, it is difficult for people who want to buy the ticket right through P&O Cruises’ website. 2. Sales promotion (Off-line) (On-line) P&O Cruises’ is targeted. It divides into consumers and the sales forces of both P&O Cruises’ and its agents (Fill, 2002). The sales promotion P&O Cruises uses is by the timing when customer book for their tickets. The earlier they book for cruises, the more discount they will have. It uses the method of price reductions to motive its sales in the early stage (Fill, 2002). P&O Cruises also sets up the Portunus Club for customers who re-join to the P&O Cruises. There are Ruby, Sapphire, and Gold tiers for different types of customers. Customers could get points for their discounts when they had joined the cruises and also discounts to any other consumption on the ship. The method builds customer royalty; it is referred to as a ‘points accrual programme’ that helps the company keep customers loyalty for preventing them from moving to P&O Cruises’ competitor (Fill, 2002). The Portunus Club has not only increased the amount of customers, but also maintained those current customers well (Raaij, 1998). 3. personal selling (Off-line) P&O Cruises’ tickets are sold through personal selling or other travel agencies. Customers buying tickets can either from agencies or directly make a phone call to the P&O Cruises as the telemarketing. It is a good method for the company itself uses lots of personal selling on promotes their ticket, for it is a method always interactive to customer and company. And â€Å"Consumers may talk to and obtain answers from ‘real’ persons or from machine interaction† that helps P&O Cruises directly being aware of what customers wants and what they need (Raaij, 1998). (On-line) On the website, customers who are interested in any trip and willing to join the tour could book on line by leaving the messages to the reservation team. Besides, it’s very easy for customers to find the ticket selling on website from different agencies in different areas, and then buy the ticket based on customer needs. 4. public relations (Off-line) The means of PR of P&O Cruises is announcing news on newspapers. It mostly tells people about its schedules, timetables and its new ship or company information on travel pages or events column. P&O Cruises owns a press center to run for its news. (On-line) Customers could also find out their news through news websites, travel agents or the websites connect to sailings, such as, â€Å"what you need to about† or â€Å"scoop agents† (two website names). Moreover, there are numbers of news P&O Cruises showed to the public and listed on its own website. It is â€Å"press centre† in â€Å"the company† section. For people who are interested in to P&O Cruises and want to know more about its reputation, besides company introduction, they could attain more information on this section. 5. direct marketing (Off-line) (On-line) P&O Cruises uses direct marketing through ABTA agents and many other travel agencies where they sell cruises’ tickets. It connects to personal selling to use different types of tools to achieve the needs of customers. It uses e-mail (member confirm) and through post-mail (brochure sending) to directly send the information to customers.   Place P&O Cruises, the Britain’s leading cruise operator, customer aboard its shipping at Southampton, UK or fly on a scheduled or P&O Cruises’ charter flight to any of its 25 destinations all over the world. All ships cruise Europe in the summer, and in winter Aurora and Adonia embark on round the world cruises while Oceana and Oriana tour the Caribbean. Places are stabile in different places by annual schedules; depended on where customers plan to go abroad. The headquarters is in Southampton, but usually people usually book tickets at agencies instead of heading for P&O Cruises’ office. If people who would like to book tickets online, they could go to www. pocruises. com or through links on any ABTA agents to buy tickets. Agents are viewed as the P&O Cruises’ retailers. This method helps P&O Cruises reach its sale targets by selling tickets to many other segments in different areas and places. The channel of its distribution is producer –> retailers–> consumers (Blythe, 1998). Price P&O Cruises sets its price at the moment when customers buy tickets. The company uses different brochures to attract customer to join its cruises business. Customers could save as much as money if they book earlier according to the timetable set up by P&O Cruises. Customers could save up to 5%~45% discounts for early booking, depending on availability, and its reward for those who book early. P&O Cruises named it as â€Å"pricebreakers†. Besides, price differs from different cabin type and grade that customers choose. It is very easy for customers to find the price on the website or by the brochure which customers could also easily get by request online. * DRIP – P&O Cruises (model by Fill, 2002). P&O Cruises’ communications have need to: â€Å"Differentiates† itself by it is one of the oldest cruises company which form of British to attract customers who enjoy in English style. â€Å"Remind and reassure† its customers by telling them that the leisure cruising business was started by P&O in 1844. The step helps the company acquire trust from customers Oldest = standard = traditional (British) ? â€Å"Inform† the consumers by educating them that P&O Cruises is the company with offering high quality but middle-low price to customers â€Å"Persuade† to the consumers that althouthg P&O Cruises is the oldest company, it has most modern fleet of ships in the UK. Scenarios In order to know how a company created a website on line to present its own products through the internet, the company needs to define the level of commitment it wants to reach (Doren, 2000). There are 4 possible scenarios for promoting on the internet. P&O Cruises is belonging to the highest level 4, because it offers on-line ordering of products and services. The product P&O Cruises supplies to customer is not the tangible things that customers could touch but services and facilities on cruises. So the company tries to present its product through the website. P&O Cruises uses web cam, lots of 360i panoramic tour and many of pictures on its website to interact with users. Moreover, there are images, screensavers and wallpapers of its 4 ships for customers to download. The usages of multimedia presentations also reach facilitation as a web promotion; it enables a more personal, one-on-one approach with the internet user (Doren, 2000). According to the four possible scenarios lists, P&O Cruises does make a high extensive interaction with its customers through its website. The web site of P&O Cruises may be high costs, but it could attract more customers order on line.