Shearwater adventures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Shearwater adventures - Essay Example Rival Sellers: Although Shearwater Adventure has differentiated itself from its rivals by offering a wide product range, the company still faces threats because the competition can either increase its product line or devise new adventures or copy those offered by Shearwater. and thus increase its sales and market share. The rivalry intensifies as new competition enters the market with low priced products and offering good deals compared to the existing ones. In addition to this, the competitors in the adventure industry are now trying to build strong dealer networks with the African local companies in order to increase their credibility, which is also a means of promotion and advertising. The practice of increase repeat bookings from the customers is spreading like fire among the competitors who try different tactics and methods to achieve this. New Entrants: Opening an adventure company in countries like South Africa, where Shearwater Adventure is currently operating, is very easy as compared to the setting up in United States due to high permit costs. In addition to this, the new entrants who focus on rafting trips have to endure a cost as low as $20,000 and if the company wants to offer all the services than the cost could be as high as $200,000. New companies would be encouraged to enter the market by seeing a double digit growth of few companies. Substitute Products: The companies in the industry are providing more or less the same the adventure products. Shearwater Adventure has tried to differentiate itself by providing more choices in the sports than any other company. Although at-least 40 extreme sports exist in the industry, it is difficult to provide them all depending on the location of the company. A company providing water sport activities will try to attract customers by positioning itself as better than land activities. In order to predict the future demand, the companies should link up

The integration of poland into the european union has been an Essay

The integration of poland into the european union has been an unqualified success.Discuss - Essay Example Much water has flowed under the bridge with in this period and Poland had undergone a sea change before it joined the EU bandwagon. If you go deeper into the past, it had travelled a long way from the former USSR controlled single-party communist political system to the much desired legislature democratic system found in many western European countries. Gone were the days of Communist repression by the Giereks, Kanias and Zarujelskis and Poland, now a blossoming democracy that has linked its destiny with the rest of the Europe, is presently looking ahead for a golden future. That Poland has gained admission into the EU indicates the political wisdom and maturity it has achieved and social transformation it has undergone over a period of time. Its much- awaited admission into the EU and integration with the west had just arrived as a climax that strengthened the already existing trade and cultural relationship between Poland and the rest of the Europe. The admission into EU of Poland had only therefore formalised and officially branded its existing relationship with the rest of the region. Like any other European country, Poland too had to meet certain stringent conditions laid down by the EU and prove its credentials in matters of political stability, commitment to human rights, democracy, protection to minorities and market economy. Cordell argues that the first post-communist Polish regime had basically accorded highest priority to the issue of integration with the West and the subsequent Governments had also adopted similar line strengthening the political sentiment in favour of EU membership (29 & 30). He suggests that all Polish Governments since 1990 had made it a point to toe the line of full integration with the military, political and economic organisations of the Western Europe that included the Council of Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the Western European Union (WEU) and the European Community/ European Union (24). For the people of Poland who were vexed with the Russian supported-communist regimes till then, the change in the perception and attitude of the post-communist Governments had arrived as fresh breath of air. The fact that Poland, like Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia and some other European countries, had partly or fully enjoyed 3 patterns of culture similar to that of Western Europe for a long time had further given oxygen to the process of integration. As Slomp elaborates, most people of Poland are traditional Catholics too (164). All these factors had strengthened the popular perception of the people and political parties for total integration with the Western Europe. According to Parzymies, an observer of Polish affairs, Poland undoubtedly exhibited much enthusiasm in obtaining membership of the EU ever since its associate membership came into force partly from March 1, 1992 and fully from February 1, 1994 through the European Treaty of 1991(Para 3).But what could obviously be the benefit to either Poland or the rest of the Europe through Poland's admission into the EU Parzymies answers this by explaining that admission of Poland and

Catalonia: History of Independence

Catalonia: History of Independence 1.0 Abstract Catalonia is a historically supressed region within Spain. After 1975, when the dictator Francisco Franco died it allowed for a new democratic Spain. This has resurfaced Catalan Nationalism. Most recently the Catalan region has called for a legal referendum in 2017, as the one held in 2014 was deemed illegal. Democracy takes priority within the region which has created increased tensions and potential for violence. The report showed there has been an increase in violence and that the governance and future threats are key concerns. The report highlights the grievances within the region, that have been accumulating. 2.0 Introduction   Europe is experiencing modern day separatism, with currently over 25 active separatist movements. Spain is the most divided ‘nation’ within Europe having experienced the most civil wars of any country. Catalonia is the most profitable region in the north west of Spain making around 20 billion a year (BBC news 2013). They have recently called for another referendum in 2017 after having achieved an attendance rate during the last referendum in 2014 from the population of 30% of the 7.5 million. The polls from 2014 gaged an opinion that is in favour of independence for the region. The poll was deemed illegal by the Spanish government, which resulted in Arthur mass, Catalonia’s president, being arrested and numerous other legal cases against the Catalan politicians (The Guardian 2016). The protests, so far, have been peaceful however it has been assumed that this may not continue as an emergence of separatism could continue as theorised based upon the past and become violent. Many other places such as Scotland, who are allied in methods with Catalonia, called for a referendum in 2014 with a concluding vote of no and to stay within the United Kingdom (The financial times 2014) Most recently with 2016 the United Kingdom parted with the European union, in an event termed Brexit. The votes for Brexit were broken up into regions, Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay within the European union which has resurfacing a call for a referendum from Scotland to be held in 2017. Within Northern Ireland the vote has caused talks around a united Ireland or for Northern Ireland to become independent. With the success of Brexit, the European union is not being presented in a positively. Within this report the tern nation is going to be examined within theoretical and historical contexts to better understand the separatist movement within Catalonia. A field based analysis was conducted to gather the opinions of the Catalan population on the notion of independence and whether they think it will be obtained peacefully. 3.0 Research context To understand the current situation within Catalonia its place within theories must be examined. Nationalism is defined as a political programme. It consists of groups of people who define as nations who form territorial states that have a single language (Hobshawm and Kertzer, 1992). Renan in (1882) said within his speech that a nation was â€Å"a group of people united by a mistaken view about the past and a hatred of their neighbours†. This nation joins biographies to have one common historical narrative (Calhoun 1993).   Nations and nationalism can be a complex definition with many theories on how it happens. Benedict Anderson (1983) differs in views with many scholars by seeing nationalism as an â€Å"imaginary political community†. He states that Communities are to be distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined Ernest Gellner (1983) said that â€Å"nationalism is primarily a political principle that holds the political and the national unit should be congruent†. Gellner believes that nationalism was something that the modern world needed sociologically and mainly focuses on modernisation and industrialisation. Anthony smith was a critic of Gellner saying that he had misread the relationship that is between industrialisation and nationalism (Smith 1989). Smith (1989) is quotes to say that â€Å"the modern world had become inconceivable and unintelligible without nations and nationalism† Bruielly (1982) shows more of an academic approach and states that when intellectuals or professionals miss out on important career opportunities this may lead to a rise in national ideology. Nationalism to him is portrayed through intellectuals as unsuccessful professionals. This is like Kedourie’s theory about indigenous intellectuals in colonial societies and how they too turned to nationalism. The abundance of intellectuals and inability for society to find them suitable roles may explain why they turn to nationalism. (Kedourie 1960)   Nairn (1977) however, approaches nationalism in a study from a Marxist perspective. He considers nationalism to be a bourgeois phenomenon which can be seen to be a product of the disparities within capitalism (Nairn 1977). The continuation of nationalism is linked with the interests of the bourgeois (Anderson 2006). Focusing on Europe, Woodrow Wilson’s had a large impact on the Versailles Peace Conference that began outside of Paris in 1919. He had a plan to divide Europe it into ethnic-linguistic territorial states. The project was impracticable as well as dangerous, the cost of this feat would have been mass expulsion and genocide (Hobshawm 1992). However, a nation cannot be born they’re made in response to international incentive and power policies (Fearon 2004). Nationalism has been the source of anxiety and conflict in European history (Coppieters 2010). Borgen (2010) states that there were currently twenty to twenty-five separatist movements across the continent. The movements may be based upon cultural and political issues and the majority are non-violent. Separatism is mainly linked to nationalism and their ideologies. There have been two consecutive waves of separatism. In the 1950’s the first separatist movement began with the decolonisation of the world, this questioned the legitimacy of boundaries that establish under colonialism. This was closely followed by the second which happened at the end of the cold war in the 1960s toward the beginning of democratisation in the 1980 and 1990’s. The second wave was surrounded by the suppression of people’s rights and liberties under the communist regimes (Schaeffer 1998, Agnew 2001). Recent separatist movements like that in Yugoslavia from 1991- 2001 were driven by the common notion of an economic disparity. This movement was against the state as they failed to deal with this, however there was also territorial divisions within the state that showed internal colonialism based upon ethnicity and nationality (Agnew 2001) Guibernau (2000) sees nation states as a cluster of institutions that are defined and governed by the state. Stateless nations can enjoy cultural or political autonomy based upon the state’s decision. In most cases within a region that is trying to be separate their nation, the political issues that have arisen are based upon previous governmental experiences of nation building. States and nations that are trying to establish are understood to be real communities with enduring collectivises. (Brubaker 1996) To establish social cohesion for a nation building project a common identity must be established, linguistic campaigns are a powerful tool in doing this. It allows for people to bring the communities fears together by reducing embarrassment about speaking a native language.   (Webber 1991; Trueta 2008) The Catalan region in the North West of Spain during the Franco regime (1939-1975) had languages and identities supressed along with other regions. This then meant that Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, had suffered neglect. His regime created tensions in the country’s political system. It believed that Spain consists of ethnically defined identities in several regions (Bylan 2014). When democracy was restored after 1975, there had been a shift towards expressing the regional identities. The Catalan region sees itself as an independent metropolis (Mellon,2008) In history by 1898, the nationalist movements of Catalonia and the Basque country had emerged in wanting their own identity, these sources of national identity threatened the hegemonic position of Spanish nationalism (Muro 2005; Pozo Andrà ©s and Braster 1999). Basque and Catalan nationalist movements however in more recent times within Spain have unified this Spanish nationalism again (Muro 2005).   Spain is not however a formal federation it is a unitary state that has given devolving power to seventeen autonomous communities and two autonomous cities in a system that is called the state of autonomies (Bylan 2014). This is consistent with the theory that contemporary separatism is the product of the rise in modern nationalism and that they are overcoming the previous nation building project. Today in Catalonia, the current project is to build true Catalan culture through language as this is the ultimate expression. (Illas, 2014). Catalonians also express this through rituals and festivities such as human towers (Castells) (Giner 1980). The separatist movement had been mainly led by linguistics and a traversed class with rallies in 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014 that have staged a transformation in separatism (Illas 2014). The modern-day disparities of the Catalan people are based upon their history. 4.0 Historical context To understand fully where Catalonia fits within the nation-building theories it is important to understand the common historical narrative within the state. Starting with the 14th century within Catalonia, there was political and economic decline, due to the successive waves of the great plague. By 1365 Catalonia has lost half a million people, and in the 15th century Barcelona had its lower ever population. (Giner 1980). During the 15th century the Catalan capital was gripped by the civil war. The maritime power that once existed there was starting to decline. (Giner 1980). Now, there was a transition from early medieval contractually to liberal societies who have more of an individualistic approach. Elliot (1963) mentions the revolt of the reappears between 1640- 1652, when the Catalan people united due to castile giving them harsh treatment. The war of succession in Spain happened between 1702 to 1714. Barcelona resisted unification and was besieged in march 1713 (Guibernau, 2000) Felipe V built a fort (the Ciutadella) so Barcelona could be watched. He banned writing and teaching in Catalan and distributed Catalonia’s possessions to great powers (Webber, 1991) This abolished Catalan rights and liberties and they were subject to regime occupation (Gibernau 2000; Gibernau 2014). The events that took place started the process of national integration and state-building within Catalonia (Moreno 1988) In the 18th century the Spanish economy was based around agriculture. The Napoleonic invasion devastated the country and lead to political instability (Patrick 2016). Catalonia made positive gains with the urban middle classes and created confidence. Barcelona was then transformed into the capital of a society that was industrialising and modernising (Webber 1991). Defeudalization was happening around this time. Spain was in the process of homogenisation under the bourbons. They forcibly generalised the Castilian law and the institutions, they were creating a modern centralised state and this was completed in 1812. (Giner,1980) The trade union movement after World War One was led by the Confederacià ³n Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) which had 80& of the cities workers. Between 1919 and 1920 there was a wave of strikes and union leaders were eliminated. Dictator General Miguel primo Rivera had conflicting views on the working-class radicalism (Giner 1980) Rivera’s repression ended in 1930, he did not successfully stop the unity in Catalonia. In 1931 the formation of a Spain’s republic this was driven by the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya. The leftist popular front in 1936 won genuine autonomy (Guibernau 2014; Illas 2014). The class system of the society at that time was a product of the successive waves of industrialisation and advances in urbanisation. (Giner 1980).   The genuine autonomy that was gained by the Catalonians was short lived as the result of the Spanish civil war between 1936-1939.After Francisco Franco’s Victory in the war he imposed a pro-fascist and militarised Spain, laying emphasize on Castile as the ‘ethnic core’ of the nation (Muro 2005). The Franco regime between 1939-1975 supressed the languages and identities of the Catalonian people (Webber 1991). During this time persecutions took place of Intellectuals and language speakers. The education system featured no Catalan and the street names were changed to Castilian Spanish (Marinzel 2014). Francoist propaganda changed the narrative of the civil war to be that of a crusade and associated leftists and anti-Spain figures as a ‘cancer’ of the nation that needed to be cured (Richards 1998) The Catalonian population increased with massive migrations from deprived areas in other parts of Spain during the 1960’s and 1970’s (Serrano 2013). During this time, Catalonian separatism was emerging again as a political opposition to the dictatorship. They rivalled in literature and the arts which moulded the Catalan identity (Muro 2005). After Franco’s death in 1975, a central part of the regional policy was to promote the Catalan language. In 1978 Catalonian was defined as a democratic state within the new Spanish constitution which had granted autonomy (Giberneau 2000). This allowed for the Catalan people to change the educational system and policies within the region. In 1975 online 60% of people in Catalonia spoke Catalan whereas in 2001, 76% of Catalonians spoke Catalan (Borgen 2010). Regional feelings for Catalan nationalism rose in the 1990s and early 2000s, with it being rated sixth amid Spanish autonomous communities (Moreno 2001). Patterns of similar relationships between identity and independence emerge (Muro 2005; Serreno 2013). 5.0 Discussion Nationalism changes all the rules; a nations existence is based upon the past experiences and it challenges historians to decide a nations existence. History however is not as clear as would believe and interpretations and narratives can be different (Marino 2002). Modern day nationalism may be overcoming the previous nation-building project. Catalonians hope to achieve this by assertion of their own culture (Illas 2014). The region has been suppression numerous times as mentioned and the clear territory and history that define it as a nation are evident (Smith 1998). In the fight for independence Catalonia is aware that that staying a part of the European union is important, as there are strong ties with Spain and the European single market. With the situation in Catalonia baring resemblance to that in Scotland and the Catalan foreign affairs minister recognises that it should too have the right to vote in a legal referendum as that would stay true to democracy and a constitution is a text that is written under certain circumstances, these circumstances can change. (The guardian 2016) Brexit in the UK isn’t good news as it questions the European project. An MP called Ciudadanos accused the separatist movement of removing the state out of the 21st century. Previously however other politicians such as Mr Fernandez would welcome an exit from the EU as he sees it as being ruled by capitalists. (The Independent 2015) The rise in separatism and the need for independence grows stronger as the Catalan government fight for responsibility for taxation and spending policy (Boylan 2015). Previous grievances have shaped Catalonia culture and the desire to return to being an autonomous region is still wanted. The Catalans may fall into Renan’s definition in 1882 of a nation â€Å"a group of people united by a mistaken view about the past and a hatred of their neighbours† as the public polls reflect a rise of opinion of violence in the region. Arthur Mas the former president hopes that his prosecution for the illegally deemed poll will also be a cry for the cause of independence from Spain (The Financial times 2017). 6.0 Field based analysis 6.1 Methodology   Ã‚  Ã‚   6.1.1 Day 1 Observational study of landscape Figure 1: The route that was taken on the first day during the streetscape observational exercise The streetscape of Barcelona needed to be understood. A transect of the area was carried out in small groups. These groups covered different areas all meeting back at the same point at the Sagrada Familia, the route can be seen in figure 1. The results of the small groups were combined to gain a large-scale view of the area. Along this route elements that are seen to represent the Catalan conflict were taken note of. The different types of flags, graffiti, street names and political posters and murals along with anything else that could be seen to potentially represent the conflict were recorded. Within a table format the route walked was recorded along with where the observation occurred and a small discussion was help to note the implications of what we had seen. The differences in areas we walked through was noted as the route lead to a tourist area however was through mainly residential streets. 6.1.2 Day 2 Historical Narrative A guided walk through the city was undertook to identify the monuments that may commemorate previous conflicts. Along the walk the date in which the monument was erected was taken down, along with what it was and what it is commemorating. The reason behind doing this was to analyse how culture and history is remembered within Barcelona. Certain aspects of the monuments were noted such as what way the history is shown and If the monument represents one side more. To gauge an idea of the historical narrative Barcelona was trying to perceive, 3 historical sites were visited. These were the Catalan museum, El Borne centre and memorial democratic. The sites were visited to understand the story they are telling. A similar study was undertaken by Breen et al (2016), and observations were noted such as, is there anything that is not present within the museum? Is there any important messages they are trying to highlight? Is there a main language? To see whether the people within the museum either working or visiting understood its role, a semi structured interview was carried out.   The questions asked recorded their understanding of the role, if heritage plays a role in Catalan separatism and whether any part of the centre was controversial. 6.1.3 Day 3- Semi- Structured Interviews A method of semi structured interviews was carried out to collect qualitative data on the publics perceptions of important issues with Catalonia whilst gathering information about the person in question. The questions that were asked were: Are you from this neighbourhood?What is your first language?Did you vote in the last referendum?Were you happy with the outcome?Do you think Catalonia will gain independence? Do you think this will be achieved peacefully? These questions were asked to gather information on, the nationality of the person, the language in which they see to be their language, their political participation, their views about the last referendum and views on future independence for the state along with how possible violence will be. Cohen and Crabtree (2006) have shown the benefits of using semi structured interviews as you will only get to speak with that person one time. They also highlight the importance of it being undertaken by small groups as they collect the same information to show the varied opinion over a large area. The results are comparable and the results are collated. With a large sample taken the results could be representative public opinion and could be compared with polls that have been previously taken. This will show how the opinions in the region have changed over time. The route that was taken can be seen in figure 2. Figure 2:   Route taken and main stops while conducting semi structured interviews. 6.1.4 Day 4- Quantitative Data A quantitative data collection in the form of a social vulnerability survey. Social vulnerability shows which elements of society are worrying the most. The survey had a scoring system included the value 1 meaning that they strongly agree with the statement and 5 representing strongly disagree. The statements represented the social, economic, environmental and political situations along with opinions on the future of Catalonia.   This type of survey was conducted in small groups again and allowed the results to be combined and numerically represented. The triangulation of multiple methods stated within Duffy’s (1987)’s papers shows that this method gives a complete collection approach. 7.2 Observations and Results 7.2.1 Street Observational Survey From the transect that was carried out general observations were made. The city has undergone times of suppression and conflict and from the observations generalities were made as things observed could be expressions of nation-hood. Hans Christian Andersen in 1862, commented on Barcelona by saying that the city was the â€Å"Paris of Spain†. The first notable feature was that of the layout of the streets, the city consists of grand octagonal blocks. Antoni Gaudi has a huge influence on the architecture of Barcelona, with many Catalan people they associate his work with a period called Renaixenà §a, which tried to show better times (Giner 1980). He has become a symbol of the city. The Flags that were on the residential buildings held much significance to how they stood politically. The flags that presented Catalonia were mainly flown on buildings that were residential with the souvenir shops that sold the flags only stocking Catalan related items. The flags within the residential area differed, from the slogan that was upon it to whether it had a star present. They can send a political message and are used in campaigns. It is a tool in which the Catalan people are not afraid to change, with a flag holding great significance to a group of people, they are willing to alter the flag to send a strong political message (Borgen, 2010). Alongside the Catalan flag EU flags were found, this says that the Catalan people are scared that with independence come an exit from the single market. This is a strong incentive to stay within the unified state of Spain (Patrick 2016). Scotland holds close parallels in situations with Catalonia. The British government has also driven nationalism in the last referendum with the fear of leaving the European Union. The Scottish flag was observed on the transect showing the close similarities. The Catalan flags declined in numbers when leaving the residential area heading towards the centre. The buildings in the centre had more Spanish flags as these were mainly political or service providing premises such as hotels (figure 3a). The Spanish flag should be flown on a Spanish building and if that place is not meant to have a political view, then both flags would be outside of the building. Both flags were observed on hotels and tourist areas.   In some areas both flags of region and state were also seen, this shows loyalty to an area. For example, a bacelonetta flag seen in figure 3b Figure 3: (A) Spanish flag being flown outside of the Military building in Las Ramblas. (B) Barcelonetta regional flag. The street names were in Catalan with many commemorating people who have been influences from Catalan (figure 4a). The Sagrada Familia has taken a century to complete, still not being finished. The architect of the building is Antoni Gaudi; it is a statement of the Catalan culture and is the most visited place within Spain.   Throughout the streetscape we encountered political graffiti that was around the city voiced the political opinions of people within the community who wanted that message to be shown (figure 4b). Figure 4: (A) street sign with dedication to a self-acclaimed Catalonian. (B) Graffiti that reads â€Å"Anti-Fascist Area†. 7.2.2 Monuments Monuments play an important role in who society idealises as symbols of culture. Barcelona has many monuments that were observed to understand their political message for an independent Catalonia. The plaza de Torro monumental is a bull fighting ring that existed in the 20th century. The building is influences by Islamic design replicating dà ©cor from the previous 8th century invasion from north Africa. The building today has been repurposed as a museum due to the recent ban from Catalonia in 2012 for bull fighting (The guardian 2011). This is extremely important as they had ended a 600-year-old tradition within Spain, stepping away from the culture. The Universal exhibition was held in Barcelona in 1888. The triomf was to symbolise victory and national pride. The Arc links Barcelona’s medieval past with its future. Beyond the arc lies the park, with the Catalan parliament building residing within the parks grounds. The park has a Zoo and an elaborate fountain which at the time was put in place to show how advanced the people of Barcelona were. Like many other cities have done in the past, such as Paris. The Main Cascada monument is a grand project that took place for the 1888 universal exposition and a small contributor to it was Antoni Gaudi. The grand waterfall features goddesses showing idealising women and sexism that existed at that time.   A band stand within the Cuitedella Park was dedicated in 1991 to a transgender teen who was killed. This emphasized the cities progressive attitudes to social problems. The Als Voluntaris Catalan statue in the Cuitedella park is dedicated to the volunteers of the first and second war. The monument was subject to violations during the Franco regime with its arms being cut off in 1952. The internal flame (Fossar de les Moreres) was observed within in gothic quarter and is a contested symbolism, as it is seen to be site of the graveyard for the fallen during the siege of Barcelona in 1714. This site for Catalonians is a reminder of the homage. On the 11th of September (ladeada) people gather to this space to remember the battle. The symbolism is contested but it is used to further the nation building project. 7.2.3 Museum overview To understand the historical narrative that was being projected upon the Catalan people, three institutions were visited to understand how they were representing the history of their culture. The first site visited was the Christopher Columbus statue. This statue was erected for the Universal expedition in Barcelona in 1888. Groups of anti-capitalist councillor in Barcelona however said that the city â€Å"should not be celebrating the explorers’ colonial legacy† (The Guardian 2016). The emphasises the Catalonians feelings toward colonialization and suppression. The second Museum that was visited was the Catalan museum, the levelled institution has 3 floors which displayed a different time within Catalan history, from the bottom floor up it contained the history from the roman times to the top flow having recent achievements from the 21st century. An observation made was the fact that within the Catalan museum the paint on the walls were red and black, the colours of the anarchists. This may not have been intentional but could be a subliminal message as within the museum the Catalan culture was celebrated. Franco is not liked within the museum. From the semi, structured interviews conducted a worker of the museum stated that Spanish people will say that the museum is a lie, however the intended audience is the Catalan people and the international community. A museum worker was quoted in saying that the museum â€Å"celebrated† his heritage and that it has influence in the separatist movement. Sympathetic language was used within the Catalan museum a phrase observed in the Franco dictatorship section said ‘the unmistakable aim of Francoism was to strip Catalonia of its nationhood’ strong language was focused upon within the museum. Descriptive words were mentioned in nearly every time that contained suppression of Catalonia’s identity. Another example of this read in the museum was â€Å"language was a slow and uneven process†. The Catalonian history is showing the notion of separatism by identifying themselves as different from the Spanish, A person at the museum was quoting in saying that the Spanish â€Å"believe that this is all made up† showing Spain’s undeniable unwillingness to accept Catalonia as a nation. Whereas museums are understood to be some of the key places that deliver the message of what a nation is (Ashworth et al 2007) The el born centre showcases the streetscape within Barcelona during the 18th century. This streetscape represents Barcelona in a time when they had independence from Spain, the archaeologists could have kept excavating and gotten to a roman street. They stopped on purpose to give a utopian image of a time of independence when it was a vibrant multicultural marketing town. This gave the visualisation that there were greenspaces with music and food in the once internationally trading town. This is a clear political message of culture and heritage used at the El Borne (Breen at al 2016) It has been argued that the visitor of a museum will connect to the personal account of the narrative that is being told (Fladmark 2015). People had been quoted in saying that the centre had been â€Å"controversial†. An exhibition was spoken about that featured Franco and his dictatorship, the Exhibition was meant to last for a couple of months however it took the Catalan 4 days from when it started to have it removed. The hostility and want to forget the dark period of Franco’s dictatorship is evident in their actions. The importance of these institutions is to promote culture. These centres could be understood to b a part of the nation-building narrative which are in line with the core set of grievances that are within Catalonia (Breen at al 2016) 7.2.4 Grievances Catalonia has a key set of grievances towards the Spanish state shown in Figure 5. A few of these issues are going to be discussed. Figure 5- grievance model visually showing the key set of grievances within Catalonia. A key issue in the region is how the money that the state produce is used. Economically Catalonian has had historical grievances with the state, first starting with the Catalan bourgeois and modern industrialisation in the 19th century. Spain believe that Catalonia are â€Å"financial parasites† that don’t provide enough for Spain. Catalonia today has a fiscal deficit of 9.76%, this is highest taxed region in Europe. The people of Catalonia feel exploited as they cannot control their own funding when new services are needed within the state. Barcelona is the most visited region within Spain. The media and television play a large part in left and right wing narratives. A nation state emphasize political views this way. Gellner stressed the importance of communication in societies, the power to control the media modifies culture and is necessary for the homogenisation of the state. (Gellner 1983) Sport is an important cultural event for Catalan people. The Barcelona football club during Francoism was a representation of the Catalan nationalism and resistance against the dictatorship (Giberneau 2000) Sport is a powerful means of expressing identity (Trueta 2008). At the 17th minute and 14th second, the crowd will stand and shout ‘Independence’ as this date is representative of the last year they were an autonomous state. Language is important when expressing culture and the use of a language can indicate your current feelings politically (Woolard 1984). The Catalan language as mentioned through the report has been supressed, driving the need for the language to be expressed and recognised internationally. 7.2.5 Survey results A qualitative survey method was undertaken to test the hypothesis of will Catalonia resort to violence to gain independence. The results of the surveys are below (Table 1) Table 1: Combined group results of qualitative survey. Table 1: Combined group results of qualitative survey. The results obtained from the combined groups matches those gathered from the Catalan government in their recent poll. With the representative sample size and closely comparable results the figures gathered are reliable. The survey was conducted in English however the fluency in Catalan and birthplace determined majorly their identity (Webber 1991) which would be closely linked with how they would feel about independence. The difference in percentage between the two opposing opinions (independence vs no independence) is not that high. The surprising figure is that of violence, with many key events happening in the last 12 months such as the arrest of Arthur Mas, change would be assumed. Triggers such as that would provoke a sense of undermining and this may increase the likely hood of violence. Historically within Catatonia has had such events. Figure 6 shows an ice berg model, which is a visual representation of some key events in Catalan history. From the results obtained the mediation stage was considered as the point of conflict Catalonia as both sides have not yet concluded what they want. Figure 6: Key moments in recent Catalan history that has led to a rise in separatism within the state, key events are symbolled.    5.2.6 Social Vulnerability Survey These results are those obtained from quantitative surveys (figure 7). The total number of respondents was 139. Figure 7: Social vulnerability pentagon, highlighting main worries. The closer the result is to the centre the more of an issue they feel as though it is. With the survey showing that people are worried about the governance, environment and future threats gives an idea of the key grievances today. The economy is not a worrying factor as there has been on the rise since 2008 after the recession. The social aspects of life are not worrying factors in society. In regards to the environment, water is not evenly dispersed across the region. The summer months also bring a lot of pollution as tourists leave litter, which was pointed out by a shop keeper during an interview. 5.3 Conclusion To conclude, Catalonia has been experiencing separatism for many generations. The conflict so far within the state has remaining non-violent however this figure could change. The rise in percentage of people who believe violence will start echoes the increasing political tensions however 15% is not enough to accept the hypothesis stated as 85% do not believe there will be a need to resort to violence. The politicians are becoming impatient waiting on a referendum when other democratic places such as Scotland have been allowed to do so, with them not being allowed it feels as though the Franco influences have not yet disappeared. This is reflected on the social vulnerability results with governance scoring low. 5.4 Recommendations The key recommendations for peace within the region are: Allowing the Catalan government, the ability to reinvest the budget which will help in improving infrastructure. The media needs to have an unbiased opinion. Fiscal deficit needs improved and there’s a lot of tension towards Spain and the uneven taxingGentrification of city centre, leaving the city centre inhabitable by people who would be working in the city. To allow for an official referendum. Bibliography Agnew, J., 2001. Regions in revolt. Progress in Human Geography, 25(1), pp.103–111. Anderson, B. 1983 Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism London: Verso. Anderson B (2006) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, revised edn. London: Verso Ashworth, G.J., Graham, B.J. and Tunbridge, J.E., 2007.  Pluralising pasts: heritage, identity and place in multicultural societies. London: Pluto Press. BBC News. Catalonia Profile. BBC News-Europe. 14 August 2013. npag. Web. 20 October 2013 . Breen, C. et al., 2016. Heritage and separatism in Barcelona: the case of El Born Cultural Centre. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 7258(April), pp.1–12. Boylan, B.M., 2015. In pursuit of independence: The political economy of Catalonia’s secessionist movement. Nations and Nationalism, 21(4), pp.761–785. Boylan, B.M., 2014. What drives ethnic terrorist campaigns? A view at the group level of analysis. Conflict Management and Peace Science, 33(3), pp.250–272. Borgen, C.J., 2010. From Kosovo to Catalonia : Separatism and Integration in Europe From Kosovo to Catalonia : Separatism and. Goettingen Journal of International Law, 2(3), pp.997–1033. Breuilly, J. (1982) Nationalism and the State. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Casassas, Brubaker, R. (1996). Nationalism reframed: nationhood and the national question in the New Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Calhoun, C., 1993. Nationalism and ethnicity.  Annual review of sociology,  19(1), pp.211-239. Coppieters, Secessionist Conflicts in Europe, in D. H. Doyle (ed.), Secession as an International Phenomenon: From Americas Civil War to Contemporary Separatist Movements (2010), 237, 247 Cohen, D. and Crabtree, B., 2006. Qualitative research guidelines project Duffy, M.E., 1987. Methodological triangulation: a vehicle for merging quantitative and qualitative research methods. Image: The Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 19(3), pp.130-133. Gellner, E. (1983). Nations and Nationalism. Oxford UK: Blackwell Fladmark, J.M., 2015.  Heritage and museums: Shaping national identity. Routledge.Woolward 1984 Fearon, J.D., 2004. Why do some civil wars last so much longer than others?.  Journal of Peace Research,  41(3), pp.275-301. Gellner, E. and Breuilly, J., 2008.  Nations and nationalism. Cornell University Press. Giner, S., 1980. The social structure of Catalonia. Occasional publications / Anglo-Catalan Society, 1, p.78. Guibernau, M., 2000. Nationalism and Intellectuals in Nations without States: the Catalan Case. Political Studies, 48(5), pp.989–1005. Guibernau, M., 2014. Prospects for an Independent Catalonia. International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 27(1), pp.5–23. Hobsbawm, E.J. & Kertzer, D.J., 1992. Ethnicity and Nationalism in Europe Today. Source: Anthropology Today, 8226112(1), pp.3–8. Illas, E., 2014. Is Catalan Separatism a Progressive Cause?.  Dissidences,  5(10), p.7. Kedourie, E., 1960. Nationalism, Hutchinson. Marinzel, A., 2014. Catalonia: The Quest for Independence from Spain. , p.6 Mellon, J. G. 2008. â€Å"Urbanism, Nationalism and the Politics of Place: Commemoration and Collective Memory.† Canadian Journal of Urban Research 17 (1): 1–13. Moreno, L., 1988. Scotland and Catalonia: the path to home rule.  The Scottish government yearbook, pp.166-181 Muro, D. & Quiroga, A., 2005. Spanish nationalism: Ethnic or civic? Ethnicities, 5(1), pp.9–29. Nairn, T. (1977) The Break-Up of Britain. London: NLB. Patrick, T.Y., 2016. the Zeitgeist of Secession Amidst the March Towards Unification : Future of the European Union Pozo Andrà ©s, M.M. del and J. Braster (1999) ‘The Rebirth of the â€Å"Spanish Race†: The State, Nationalism, and Education in Spain, 1875–1931’, European History Quarterly 29(1): 75–108. Renan, E., 1996. What is a Nation?.  Qu’est-ce qu’une nation. Richards, M. (1998) A Time of Silence: Civil War and the Culture of Repression in Franco’s Spain, 1936–1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Schaeffer, R. K. 1998: Separatism: rationality and irony. In Spencer, M., editor, Separatism: democracy and disintegration. Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 43–68 Serrano, I., 2013. Just a Matter of Identity? Support for Independence in Catalonia. Regional & Federal Studies, 23(5), pp.523–545. Smith, A.D., 1989. The origins of nations.  Ethnic and racial studies,  12(3), pp.340-367. The Guardian 2011, 2016 The financial times 2013 Webber, J. & Strubell i Trueta, M., 1991. The Catalan language: xprogress towards normalisation, Trueta, M.S., Bulls and donkeys. National identity and symbols in Catalonia and Spain. AQM: A Mechanism of Congestion Control in Networks AQM: A Mechanism of Congestion Control in Networks Saira Saeed, Bilal Shams, Abstract: Congestion in the network occurs when node or link carries so much data that its quality of service downgrade. Active queue management is the most well-known algorithm to control congestion in the network. This paper discussed some of the queue length based and load based algorithms in AQM, we also highlighted its pros and cons. Keyword: congestion, Active queue management 1. Introduction: Congestion can take place at sensors that receive more data than its maximum forwarding rate. These consequences in long delay in data delivery and wasting of resources due to lost or dropped packets. When congestion occurs in network the Quality of service will disturb which is an important feature in sending data from node to another. When buffer overflow the packet drops so it would increase the energy consumptions of a sensor as the packets need to be retransmitted. Higher packet drops will also reduce the throughput of the data. Some multimedia data such as voice and video are critical to time delay [1]. Thus, congestion needs to be controlled to ensure that the end-to-end delay is also minimized. 2. Active queue management (AQM) The role of Active Queue Management (AQM) in IP networks was to balance the work of end-system protocols such as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) in congestion control hence to enlarge network utilization, and limit packet loss and delay.[2] AQM is a scheme which shares bandwidth fairly and control congestion over the routers/internet. According to the congestion metric active queue management has classified in to queue length based, load based and queue length and load based. Fig.2. Classification of AQM scheme. [3] Congestion is observed by average queue length in queue based schemes, and the control aspires to stabilize the queue length. The downside of queue based scheme is that a backlog is inherently required. Load based schemes precisely predict the utilization of the link, and determine congestion and take actions based on the packet arrival rate. Rate-based schemes can grant Early feedback for congestion. The goals of the load based AQMs are to alleviate rate mismatch between enqueue and dequeue, and achieve low loss, low delay and high link utilization. The third AQM scheme is the combination of load based and queue length which measure congestion and get a tradeoff between queues stability and responsiveness. [3] In this paper we just discussed the queue length based and load based briefly. 3. AQMs Based On Queue Length Merit. 3.1. Random Early Detection (RED). The main objectives of RED is to minimize packet loss and queuing delay, avoid global synchronization of sources, maintain high link utilization, and remove biases against bursty flows. RED avoids congestion early and delivers congestion notification to the end source and allows them to reduce the transmission rate before overflow occurs. To reduce the delay of flows RED keeps the queue size full. RED maintains an exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) of the queue length which is used to detect incipient congestion. When average queue length greater than min threshold, packets are randomly dropped or marked with explicitly congestion notification (ECN). [4][5] When average queue length greater max threshold all packets are dropped or marked. Fig.3. RED algorithm [3] 3.2. FRED (Fair random early detection) FRED is modified version of RED therefore it reduces the unfairness of RED. Inside the internet route FRED maintains state information for every flow. When different types of traffic shares one link, RED allows unfair bandwidth sharing because RED does not take the bandwidth utilization of the flow into account when dropping packets. The author proposes FRED as solution. The main objective of fair random flow is to provide different strategies of dropping to different kind of flows. Flows that take more bandwidth shall be isolated where as low speed and bursty flows should be protected and safe from dropping. [survey2]FRED maintains queue size of per flow and drops packets conditionally comparing per flow queue size with average per flow queue. Fig.4. FRED Algorithm [4] 3.3. CHOKE (Choose and Keep for responsive flows, Choose and Kill for unresponsive flows) In the CHOKE algorithm a packet is drawn randomly from FIFO buffer whenever a new packet arrived at congestion router. This packet is compared with newly arriving packet. Both packets are dropped if it belongs to the same flow, otherwise the new incoming packet is confessed into the buffer with a probability that depends on the level of congestion and the randomly chosen packet is kept intact. CHOKE is simplest and stateless algorithm which does not provide any special data structure. However when the number of flows is large compared to the buffer space than this algorithm performance is not well. [6] Fig.5. CHOKE algorithm 4. AQM on load based. 4.1. BLUE: A New Class of Active Queue Management Algorithms. RED queue length gives very little information about the number of competing connections in a shared link. BLUE overcome the drawbacks of RED by using packet loss and link idle events for protecting TCP flows against non-responsive flows. [1] BLUE, basically is a different active queue management algorithm which uses packet loss and link utilization history to manage congestion. BLUE keep up a single probability, which it uses to mark or drop packets when they are queued. If the queue is frequently dropping packets due to buffer overflow, BLUE increments the marking probability, therefore increasing the rate at which it sends back congestion notification. On the other hand, if the queue becomes empty or if the link is idle, BLUE decreases its marking probability. The main purpose of using BLUE is that congestion control can be performed with a least amount of buffer size. Other algorithms like RED need a large buffer size to attain the same goal. [7] Fig.6. BLUE Algorithm. 4.2. SFED: Selective Fair Early Detection Selective fair early detection is an easy to implement rate control based AQM discipline which can be joined with any scheduling discipline. It maintains a token bucket for every flow or comprehensive flows. The token filling rates are in proportion to the allowable bandwidths. The tokens are removed from the corresponding bucket whenever a packet is enqueued. The decision to enqueue or drop a packet of any flow depends on the occupancy of its bucket at that time. A sending rate higher than the permitted bandwidth results in low bucket occupancy and so a larger drop probability thus indicating the onset of congestion at the gateway. This ensures the adaptive flow to attain a steady state and prevents it from getting penalized severely. However non-adaptive flows will continue to send at the same rate and thus will suffer more losses. The rate at which the tokens are removed from bucket of a flow is equal to the rate of incoming packets of that flow, but the rate of addition of tokens in a bucket depends on its permitted share of bandwidth and not on the rate at which packets of that particular flow are dequeued. In this way token bucket controls the bandwidth consumed by a flow.[8]. 4.3. FABA: Fair adaptive bandwidth allocation: FABA is the extension of SFED and can be coupled with any simplest scheduling discipline like FCFS first in first served). FABA has many objectives like It allocates fair bandwidth amongst flows. It can avoid congestion by early detection and notification, It has low implementation complexity. Easy extension to provide differentiated services. FABA deals with both adaptive and non-adaptive traffic while providing incentive for flows to incorporate end-to end congestion control. It uses a rate control based mechanism to achieve fairness amongst flows at a router. [9] As in random early detection (RED), congestion is detected early and notified to the source. Table.1. Strength and Weakness of AQM Algorisms. It had any scheduling discipline FABA Very high complexity, computation. 6. Conclusion: In this paper we have state the term AQM and its algorithms. We have highlighted some of queue length based and queue based algorithm with its strength and weakness. References: [1] husna zainol abidin , yuslinda wati mohamad yusof,saiful izwan suliman,† network using fairness bandwidth allocation. â€Å"october 2008. [2] richelle adams, â€Å"active queue management: a survey†, ieee communications surveys tutorials, vol. 15, no. 3, third quarter 2013 [3] c.dhivya1, e.george dharma prakash raj2,† survey on load based aqm algorithms†, vol.1.issue.2.;2013 [4],Ningning Hu, Liu Ren ([emailprotected]) Jichuan Chang, â€Å"Evaluation of Queue Management Algorithms†, Course Project Report for 15-744 Computer Networks [5] dive et al.. â€Å"Classification and Performance of AQM-Based Schemes for Congestion Avoidance† (IJCSIS) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security,Vol. 8, No. 1, 2010 [6] CHOKE,a statless queue management scheme for approximating bandwidth allocation. [7] BLUE: A New Class of Active Queue Management Algorithms, Shiny Department of EECS zNetwork Systems Department University of Michigan IBM T.J. Watson Research Center [8]Wu-chang Fengy Dilip D. Kandlurz Debanjan y Sahaz Kang G.†SFED: A Rate Control Based Active Queue Management†. IBM India Research Laboratory, New Delhi, India Block 1, Indian Institute of Technology, [9]Abhinav Kamra a,1, Huzur Saran a, Sandeep Sen a, Rajeev Shorey.† Fair adaptive bandwidth allocation: a rate control based active queue management discipline†. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India. July 2003

Malaysia and the original people :: essays research papers

Malaysia and the â€Å"Original People† Neglecting aboriginal groups has been a common theme in the past when considering the advancement of developing countries. The United States had little to no regard for the Native Americans when developing a new nation. And now as Malaysia is a quickly developing country, we can see the effects of this development on its natives. Some of the world’s leading anthropologists who have been studying the â€Å"original people† of Malaysia for twenty-five years, have successfully written an in-depth explanation of the political struggle involving the Malaysian government and the Orang Asli’s. The oppression of non-represented ethnicities is the main conflict in this case study of Malaysia, entitled Malaysia and the â€Å"Original People†. The authors have produced a work that not only examines the group itself but also the past, present, and future of all social classes that reside within the countries borders. The book exceeded all expectations in the quantity as well as quality of information pertaining to the Orang Asli’s. Although there was little expression of the opinions of the actual tribes, the book was affected little due to the outstanding structure and content of the book. The strongest feature this book is its structure. The authors have created a book whose structure and word use makes it easy for most readers to comprehend. From the beginning the reader will learn that the whole motivation behind this book was to educate people of the affects of development on indigenous peoples around the world. â€Å"†¦how development and government programs in a developing country can affect indigenous peoples.† (Dentan, Endicott, Gomes, Hooker, p. ix) The reader should already know from the Forward and the Preface that the authors’ platform leans in favor of the Orang Asli. â€Å"We hope that once fair-minded people -in Malaysia and elsewhere-know about Orang Asli and their problems, they will want to help them.† (Dentan, Endicott, Gomes, Hooker, p. x) These â€Å"introduction† sections are an example of how the superb structuring of the case study. These sections are essential in the reading and comprehending the arguments made by the authors. After a broad overview of the situation and people involved, the authors start to break down the effects of development on each specific tribe in the Orang Asli. Once again we see the strength of this book, structure, as the tribes are each given its own section. This is very effective in helping the reader gradually understand the struggle each tribe has encountered.

Identifying a Constituent of “Panacetin” Essay

The Consulting Chemists Institute has been asked to analyze the drug preparation of Aspirin to find out what percentages of aspirin, sucrose, and drug preparation. The purpose of this experiment was to determine the unknown component of panacetin. Panacetin contains aspirin, sucrose, and an unknown component. Dichloromate reacts with Panacetin to produce the sucrose as an insoluble solid. Aspirin is removed from the solution by reacting with sodium bicarbonate. The aqueous layer reacts with hydrochloric acid, the unknown component can then be isolated by evaporating the solvent from the dichloromethane solution. Observations and Data: Aspirin reacted with Sodium Bicarbonate to form salt, sodium acetylsalicylate. The reaction caused fizzing and gas. When hydrochloric acid was added to sodium acetylsalicylate the solution bubbled, sizzled, and gave off heat. All precipitates were white. Substance Mass Panacetin 3.00g Aspirin 0.849g Sucrose 0.212g (weighed wet) Unknown 1.995 (burned) Results and Discussion: The results I got were close to the expected results. During the Isolation of the Unknown component, water splashed on our sucrose sample before we could weigh it and we burned the unknown, skewing the masses. However, there could have been incomplete mixing with dichloromethane, incomplete extraction of precipitation of aspirin, incomplete drying of the recovered components, or  losses from transferring substances from one container to another. Calculations: % Recovery = sum of the masses of all components/mass of panacetin started with  0.212g+0.849g+1.995g/3.01g = 101% %Composition = (Amount of Component/Sum of the masses of all components)*100 %Composition of Sucrose = (0.212g/3.056g)*100  =6.9% %Composition of Aspirin = (0.849g/3.056g)*100  = 27.8% % Composition of Unknown = (1.995g/3.056g)*100  = 65.3% Experimental: 3.01g of Panacetin was dissolved in 50mL of dichloromethane. The mixture was put through gravity filtration. Sucrose was set aside. The filtrate was then put through a separatory funnel and put into two 30mL portions of 5% sodium bicarbonate. 11mL of 6M hydrochloric acid was slowly added to the mixture. The mixture was cooled for ten minutes and aspirin was collected via vacuum filtration. A filter flask attached to a trap and aspirator was used to evaporate the solvent from the dichloromethane solution. All precipitates were white and crystalized.

Marketing Mix Strategies for Maggi Essay

1.0 Introduction In year 1872, the factory job was created for women during the industrial revolution in Switzerland. Therefore, women were busy and have not enough time to prepare meals for their family. Julius Maggi, who took over his father’s mill, was requested to create a vegetable food product that would be quick to prepare and easy to digest. Maggi noodle was the first that contain protein rich legume meal to the market and followed by readymade soup based on legume meal in 1886. Maggi had merged with Nestle family in 1947 and launched in 1980 by Nestle group of companies. The nature of Maggi is Food Company. The products involve soups, sauces and instant noodles. The mission of Maggi is to become an inspiring growth partner that delivers creative, branded food and beverage solutions enabling operators to innovate, and delight consumers. Vision of Maggi is Nestle Norden’s aim, is to meet the various need of the consumer every day by marketing and selling food of a consistently hi gh quality. Three objectives of Maggi are good to know, which means factual information on nutrition content, good to remember, means that the tips for healthy lifestyle, cooking and diet, and good to talk, means consumer call to their consumer services teams or log on their website. The target customers of Maggi noodles are kids, youth and working women, but the biggest consumer is children. 2.0 The Marketing Mix Strategies 2.1 Product Strategy 2.1.1 Product Classification Maggi noodles is a consumer product that bought by final consumer for personal consumption. Nestle had positioned Maggi as a convenience food product. Consumers bought Maggi noodles frequently with lower price. There are many purchase locations for consumers to buy Maggi. For example is 7-eleven. 2.1.2 Product and Service Decisions Product Attribute Maggi noodles recognized the need of consumers with provide quality food and convenient at once. It is a â€Å"fast relief from hunger† product. Maggi noodles have settled at standard flavours such as curry, masala, tomato and chicken  and not much experimentation is required in the noodles market. Maggi noodles have launched many products like Maggi Vegetable Atta Noodles, Maggi Vegetable Multigrain Noodles. It added Maggi Dal Atta Noodles in its product portfolio targeting health conscious people. This was followed with the Rice Noodles. Maggi 2 Minute Noodles already associated with convenience and taste and is currently accepted as a valid filling snack between meals. Branding Maggi noodles are a brand of instant noodles manufactured by Nestle. The advantages of having branding to buyers are easier for them to identify. For sellers, branding provides legal protection for its company and help to segment market. After realizing its target group was young children and their mother, Maggi come up with tagline: â€Å"Mummy bhook lagi hai†, â€Å"Bus 2 minute†, â€Å"Fast to cook, good to eat† and â€Å"Health bhi taste bhi†. The brand of Maggi noodles is positioned as a health and convenience product. Packaging Nestle has developed a good package for Maggi noodles. They increase the thickness of the plastic sheets used in Maggi noodles packets to make the product more strength and allow easy and safe to open. To allow the packets to be stored easily, they provide a Zip-Seal facility along with the existing sealing. Labeling The labeling of Maggi noodles helps Maggi to promote the product through attractive graphics. The information labeled of Maggi noodles include logo, weight of each packages, ingredients of the product, expired date, cooking instructions, consumer services line, information of the manufacturer (address, telephone or fax number and others) and nutrition information of the product. Product Support Service Maggi introduced â€Å"money saver multi packs† in the form of 2-in-1 pack and 4-in-1 pack. There contain the service which let the consumers tried their products in order to get feedback of consumers of the products. They also give gifts to consumers who return on empty packets. 2.1.3 Major Brand Strategy Decision Brand Positioning Nestle tried to position Maggi noodles in the platform of convenience targeting the working women but the sales of Maggi was not picking up even though it had doing a lot of media advertising. After conducted a research, they realizes that children were the largest consumers of the product as children like the taste of Maggi noodles. So, they change their target from working women to children and their mother. They positioned the noodles as a ‘convenience product’ for children’s mother and a ‘fun product’ for children. Brand Name selection Nestle introduced the Maggi brand in India in 1982, with its launch of Maggi 2 Minute Noodles, an instant noodles product. In several countries, it also knows as â€Å"maggi mee†. The original company comes into existence in 1872 in Switzerland, when Julius Maggi took over his father’s mill. Maggi was the first to bring protein-rich legume meal to the market and followed by readymade soup based on legume meal in 1886. In 1863, Julius Maggi developed a formula to add taste to meal. Maggi had merged with Nestle family in 1947. Brand Sponsorship Maggi is under manufacturer’s brands that also called national brands which brand name owned by a manufacturer or other producer. Maggi brand name owned by a manufacturer, that is Nestle Company. Brand Development Nestle using the strategy of brand extension for attracting customers. They use the successful brand name to launch a new or modified product in a new category. Maggi has launched various products such as noodles, sauces, maggi pichko, soups healthy, maggi soup sanjivini, maggi bhuna masala and maggi magic cubes. Maggi extended their brands for attracting the families which are more health conscious. Nestle using brand extension to overcome the problem of declining the sale. 2.2 Pricing Strategy 2.2.1 Pricing Objectives Pricing strategy for the existing variants of Maggi noodles based on the  objective of â€Å"Maximizing Market Share†. These variants are competitively priced. As it is highly price sensitive, any price change initiates an instant price check reaction from the competitor. The effect of the downward revision in price can be offset by the increase in sales volume. Nestle tried to survive if they are plagued with intense competition. They tried to covers variable costs and some fixed costs in order to remain in the industry. Nestle believe that a higher sales volume will lead to lower unit’s costs and higher long run profit. For product quality, Maggi brand strive to be affordable luxuries products by high levels of perceived quality, tests and status with a price. The launch of Cup-O-Maggi is based on the objective of achieving â€Å"Product Quality Leadership†. Its segment is less-price sensitive so it will be premium priced to target the higher end customers. C reation of a premium brand gives the company an opportunity to provide a differential pricing and service offering to the customer thereby creating a key differentiator. 2.2.2 New Product Pricing Strategies Maggi is using market penetration in marketing Maggi noodles. Nestle introduce Maggi noodles to the market with low price in order to increase consumer incentives in the competitive market. For example, Nestle tend to charge almost the same price for the different flavor of Maggi 2 minute noodles when initially introduced it. Nestle hope to gain high sales volume which in turn would lower the costs. This strategy also makes the customers loyalty and attracts more new customers to Maggi noodles product as a result of low price. Maggi has successfully implied market penetration in the market as they have 80% market share in noodles market nowadays. 2.2.3 Product Mix Pricing Strategies Maggi set price steps between various items in a product line since there are a wide price differences among maggi stocks, soups, 2 minute noodles and ketchup. The mix and types of flavor of Maggi noodles sold will affect the average selling price of their products and have a substantial impact on their revenue and gross margin. For instance, Maggi 2 minute noodles and Cup-O-Maggi have differences of their selling prices. In addition, Maggi uses product bundle pricing when they are merge several products in the same  package such as five packages of Maggi noodles are packing together sell at once to the customer. 2.2.4 Price Adjustment Strategies Maggi adjusted price by using promotional pricing techniques. For example, Maggi offer Buy One Get One Free when the mega sales season. Furthermore, Nestle also imply segmented pricing. For the different location, the prices set of Maggi noodles is different. Maggi also set the price a bit different for their new flavor of Maggi noodles introduced. Psychological pricing also apply by Maggi noodles. Most of the price set by the retailer is â€Å"odd prices†. For example in Tesco, the price of a package Maggi noodles is RM3.89. It purposes to attract more customers to buy for it. 2.3 Distribution Strategy Maggi has a well established distribution network. Maggi has its own factory which means that it manufacture its own product in its factory. Maggi noodles will directly ship to Carry and Forward agencies (CFAs) that located in each state when the product is completely manufactured. Carry and Forward agencies means an organization that provides the facilities such as warehousing. Warehousing carried the meaning of holds goods for moderate to long periods in an attempt to balance supply and demand for producers and purchasers. After that, distributors will deal with wholesaler. Wholesaler is the one who takes title to the goods handles and then distributes these goods to retailers or business users, and sometime end consumers also. Maggi distributors will distribute the goods to wholesaler such as hypermarket, for example Tesco Extra. Maggi noodles will be shipped from Maggi warehouse to the wholesaler as per the order taken by the distributor sales men. Wholesaler will then distributes Maggi noodles to retailers or even direct to end consumers. A retailer owned and operated by someone other than the manufacturer of the products it sells. For example, Tesco Extra distributes Maggi noodles to the retailers such as supermarket and convenience stores. The examples for supermarket are Tesco, Giant and Carrefour, while the examples for convenience store are 7-eleven or mini market. An end consumer is the individual or business who uses products and services. End consumers will buy Maggi noodles from supermarket or convenience stores. 2.4 Promotional Strategy 2.4.1 Sales Promotion Sales promotion was used by Maggi noodles to attract customers and maintain the sales in off season. Dry sampling and wet sampling are some strategies we can often see in the super market. The promoters always distribute the Maggi noodles packet (dry sampling) and cooked Maggi (wet sampling) to the consumer. From Nestle webpage, the consumer can get the items that have promotion in the specified month. For example, customer can save RM0.30 for every purchase of Maggi 2 Minute Noodles Asam Laksa from 1st August 2011 to 31st August 2011. Besides that, a lot of contests were hold by Maggi noodles such as Win a Family Holiday with MAGGI 2 MINUTE NOODLES. The winner of this contest will have the chance travel to the Gold Coast. Moreover, Maggi noodles promote their product through a different way, which is attracting the children who is under 14 years old to become a member of Maggi Club. They distributed the club membership card to children and list of gifts has been provided in the fun programs. Some games and gifts (known as premium) are offered by Maggi Club such as Snap Safari Game, Disney Today Comic and Mask set. Children must send 5 wrappers as purchase proof in order to acquire these benefits. This has successfully attracted mothers who were being persuaded from their children to consume Maggi noodles because they would like to collect the gift. 2.4.2 Advertising For Maggi noodles, the advertisement can be widely spread to their potential buyers by the cheapest way. Hum Log, which is the first Soap Opera in Indian Television, was advertised the Maggi 2-Minute Noodle. This advertisement has an effective tag line which is â€Å"Bas do Minute† (only two minutes). This tag line was easy to remember and reinforce to the people who do not want to spend their time in kitchen. Maggi noodle has advertised their product based on different segment. For example, the new Dal-Atta noodles advertisement demonstrate a grandfather and father eating the noodles. Because of Dal-Atta noodles, which contain the Calcium and Protein components, they become a healthy family. For the product of â€Å"Mania†, the advertisement show the mom as a relax housewife. Besides that, Maggi noodles also advertise through  magazine and their respective webpage. In year 2003, Maggi introduced their product in various magazines to celebrate 20 years in India. Furth ermore, this brand has advertised their new atta noodles and rice noodles variants in some weekly magazines. For the Maggi webpage, they not only show the new product but also teach people how to use Maggi noodles to cook in various ways. 2.4.3 Public Relations Public relations also done by Maggi noodles through organize some innovative campaign. For illustration, the campaigns of â€Å"Remembering your good ol’ days with Maggi† and â€Å"MAIN AUR MERI MAGGI† campaign were hold by Maggi noodles to celebrate Maggi was completed in 25 years. Besides that, the campaign of â€Å"Me and Meri Maggi† was launched to celebrate the emotional relationship between Maggi and consumer. This campaign was given consumer an opportunity to speak out their unique experiences with Maggi and an overwhelming response has given by consumer. Apart of that, Maggi noodles also sponsor some primary school in India to organize the contest for student. The â€Å"Maggi Quiz Competition† which held at G.D Goenka Public School in year 2011 show cases the talents of student’s up to date knowledge in all fields. Moreover, Maggi is one of the sponsors of MasterChef. This show is a popular cooking reality programme which organized by Astro. 3.0 Market Opportunities In Malaysia, there has an increased affinity of Indians towards Chinese cuisine. It creates new market opportunity for Maggi to improve its taste further and capture larger market share. The creative nature of Malaysian food proprietors in Malaysia had made Maggi noodles evolved and now comes in several culinary forms. Among the most popular would be the Maggi Goreng (fried Maggi noodles) which adorns the table of mamak stalls across the country. The upward trend of convenience food consumption has also increase the potential consumer base of Maggi noodles. For example, the single working professionals and student population. The localization of Maggi noodles in Malaysia can boost its sales and earn more consumers purchases. Next, the market opportunity for Maggi noodle is their unexploited rural markets as so far they mainly targeted cities and developed areas. Maggi has  earned certain level of government appraisal and recognition for their product offering and operation. Besides, the government is currently encouraging the civil society and the private sector to help transform rural areas into a computer literate society. Thus, it is easier for Maggi to advertise and marketing their product into rural market. Maggi also being the market leader employs some of the most sophisticated technologies in their production unit to ensure they constantly meet up with the demand from customers. As technology is getting advanced, there has been introduction of new machineries helps Maggi come out with new product, product improvement and new marketing techniques which can fit to rural market. 4.0 Recommendations It is often to see Maggi noodles become one of the cuisines at the Indian restaurants. But, it is rare to see Maggi noodles used by Chinese restaurants. Therefore, we suggest that Maggi can do some research by adding some characteristic of Chinese cuisine inside the new product. Two characteristics of Chinese cuisine are the product must be distinctive color and aromatic flavor. Chinese food preparation has focus on the appearance. They believe that a pleased and harmonious color can increase in appetite. Another important element in Chinese food is aromatic flavor. Some aroma ingredient such as aniseed and cinnamon will cover the ingredient’s particular smells. Meanwhile, shallot, ginger, cooking wine and sesame oil are added to make the food fragrant in flavor. All of these aroma ingredients have their own function that will benefit our health. For example, aniseed can reducing our oiliness in the skin and improves the memory function. Therefore, Maggi noodles can try to cre ate new product in order to attract more Chinese and also other races. In order to promote Maggi noodles in the rural markets, Maggi can choose to give traditional form of advertising and marketing such as distributing pamphlets or advertising on radio. It helps to educate consumers about a never before used product in a more direct and engaging way. Maggi can also organize â€Å"Home-to-Home† campaigns and Van Campaigns. For instance, preparing Maggi noodles and serves to rural areas consumer in hot and cooked condition. Consumers will direct impacted by the campaign and feel special, so next time around, they will repeat purchase Maggi noodles for consuming. Besides,  Maggi can bring in new machines to produce more in lesser time as well as keeping its manufacturing quality precision at its best. Maggi should also continuously focuses its efforts to better understand the changing lifestyles and anticipates consumer needs in order to provide convenience, taste, nutrition, and wellness through Maggi noodles product. As the government is going to turn rural areas into technology society, Maggi can introduce the Internet and e-commerce to market their Maggi noodles in rural market. 5.0 Conclusion We had chosen Maggi noodles as our product. After doing this assignment, we know that Maggi are manufactured by Nestle Company. The brand of Maggi is positioned as a ‘convenience product’ for children’s mother and a ‘fun product’ for children with tagline ‘Fast to cook Good to eat’. Maggi has launched various products such as noodles, sauces, maggi pichko, soups healthy, maggi soup sanjivini, maggi bhuna masala and maggi magic cubes to extend its brand. The company tried to covers variable costs and some fixed costs in order to remain in the industry and make sure the customer will not move to competitor because Maggi has many substitute products. Maggi noodles introduced to market with a low price in order to increase consumer incentives in the competitive market. The company promoted Maggi noodles by using sales promotion, advertising and public relations. We can see the promoters distribute the Maggi noodles packet (dry sampling) and cooked Maggi (wet sampling) to consumers at the supermarket. Maggi noodles always selling at the convenient places which are the neighborhood places that can gather many consumers. It has been seen that a company need to do many things in order to come out a successful brand. It is not easy to make a brand successful. Before create a brand, company need to recognize the need satisfaction of consumers, target customers and set the mission to meet the need of consumers. Company need to develop marketing mix strategies (4Ps) after developed a product. The company also needs to find out the opportunities to improve their brand and overcome the threat. Marketers have to maintain the sales and earned the consumers loyalty.