Peer Pressure

Peer pressure is when a person is forced or under strong influence from their friends to do something be it good or bad. Peer pressure can have both positive and negative effects. Hence this essay will discuss about the positive and negative effect of peer pressure. Firstly, a little peer pressure can be a tool to motivate students to achieving great heights. For instance, when a weak student is struggling with his studies, his classmates can help by encouraging him in every little improvement he makes. This will not only make the weak student feel motivated to study, but also to improve his friendship with his friends. Secondly, with peer pressure, students can help their friends who are addicted to smoking. They can constantly remind, nag and scold the classmate who is smoking to not smoke. This will pressure the student who is smoking to quit his bad habit as all his friends are against it. This is another positive effect of peer pressure. Lastly, peer pressure can help in situations when 2 students are fighting. Students can use peer pressure to strongly discourage the two parties from fighting and instead, help to mediate and let them talk things out. Thus resolving all conflicts. However, There are negative effects to peer pressure too Firstly, there are numerous students who smoke in schools. These students may go around forcing their wills onto other innocent students to smoke. Because they are in groups and are intimidating the innocent students maybe forced into smoking. There is a high chance that they will pick up the bad habit too. Secondly, peer pressure can cause students to be depressed. For instance, when a student is being picked on in class by a group of ‘popular’ students. He might feel that he is unwanted and that the class hates him. Sooner or later, he will be depressed and hate coming to school. This is damaging to the student’s mental health as he is constantly afraid of people attacking him verbally or even physically. To sum up, there are many effects of peer pressure, both positive and negative effects. Peer pressure can be used to motivate, inspire and build up relationship with one another. However, they can also be destructive as they can corrupt and destroy people’s lives. ï » ¿Peer Pressure Have you ever been forced to do anything ? Have u ever felt that you are in a tight corner because of someone's comment? We all could face situations like that; we all could have faced peer pressure. What is peer pressure? â€Å"Peer pressure is when someone or a group of people influences or encourages others to do things they do not want to do or tries to change people’s attitude, or behavior towards something or it is the feeling that someone of your own age is pushing you towards making a certain choice, good or bad†( http://www.thecoolspot.gov/pressures.asp). Peer pressure is mostly common among teens, they could accept to do something they don't want to do as their friends would make fun of them or everyone is just trying to fit in.Because when you act in a different way you are considered an outsider and not cool. The desire to fit in can go as far as doing things you have never imagined. We all are influenced by our peers, both negatively and positively. It help s us to define who we are. It is how we chose to react to peer pressure that defines who we are as individuals. Are we a leader or a follower? Both types of people are needed to make the world go round or just you may lose yourself and forget who you are just to satisfy your peers. Peers influence your life, even if you do not realize it, just by spending time with you.You learn from them, and they learn from you. It is only human nature to listen to and learn from other people in your age group. Peers can have a positive influence on each other. For example, a student in your science class taught you an easy way to remember something related to the subject. You might admire a friend who is always a good support for you and try to be like him, these are examples of how peers positively influence each other every day.Sometimes peers influence each other in negative ways. For example, some people in school might try to get you to cut class with them, or your friend might try to convin ce you to try to start smoking or taking drugs with him, or your friend in might want you to shoplift with  him. The causes of peer pressure are so many, One of the main reasons that can lead to peer pressure is lack of self-confidence, the feeling of being alone, not accepted by anyone or by society, everyone is making fun of you and the desire to fit in, these reasons can affect anyone easily and put him under this pressure.One of the causes also is changing the environment you are used to, like leaving high school and going to University, meeting new people with different characters and personalities. Or the big problem might be in the way parents bring up their children. This can affect society in good and bad ways. The effects of negative pressure can lead to the presence of cloning minds different people but have the same mentality, thinking in the same way and acting in an inappropriate way that is unacceptable by the society. A question that always comes up.Why do people g ive in to peer pressure? People give in to peer pressure because they want to be liked, may be Others go along because they are curious to try something new that others are doing. The idea that everybody is doing that thing can influence some people to leave their common sense behind and the way they judge things. How can people combat peer pressure? The normal way of just saying no does not work. Sure, it sounds good to say no but in reality, a person may want to say no, but just cannot as it is tough to be the only one who is facing this pressure, but on the other hand you can pay attention to your feelings and beliefs about the right and wrong things that can help you more self-confidence and having a strong pack up from parents, family even from your teachers can help you stand firm.One of the solutions that help you to run away from peer pressure is to have at least one friend, who is willing to say no too. This takes a lot of the power out of this pressure and makes it much ea sier to resist. Try to ask for advise from your teacher or your family and they will support you facing peer pressure, stay away from friends who use drugs, smoke cigarettes, or even lying. Also try to help a friend who is facing peer pressure or having troubles resisting it, it can be so powerful to one of them by joining the other in order not to  feel alone in this nightmare.To sum up peer pressure is like a nightmare chasing us all, so If you continued to face peer pressure and you are finding it difficult to handle, talk to someone you can trust and don't feel guilty if you have made mistakes. Stand up again and continue your way and prepare youself for the next time you face peer pressure.

Market research 4Ps Essay

In today’s multi-faceted business environment, it is generally agreed that a strong customer-driven marketing strategy can give one an edge over his competition. Designing it, however, did not prove to be so straightforward. It is therefore this reflection paper’s aim to ponder over the various aspects that I have found intriguing and glean insights from them. Firstly is the â€Å"Marketing Mix† aspect, specifically the 4 P’s framework – Product, Pricing, Placing & Promotion. The 4 P’s is one of the best known frameworks for a marketing plan, of which the aim is ultimately to fulfil a basic marketing purpose – Putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, and at the right time. Getting all aspects of this framework is of paramount importance. Miscalculating one could result in disastrous consequences, for example you could be promoting a revolutionary diet plan in a country hit by famine or publishing a textbook after school term has started. In the process of brainstorming for a product, some innovative ideas were eliminated due to the fact that they were deemed unsuitable for the Singapore market. One such example is the ostrich pillow1, a nifty headgear for people to catch a comfy nap anytime, anywhere. Due to its odd shape and Singapore’s conservative culture, we decided that the market might not open up to the idea. The Product itself was good, but the Promotional strategy would encounter difficulties. One of the other teams did their project on space-saving furniture. The end result was that one convertible table/couch would cost upwards of $2000. This is a potential mismatch between Product and Pricing strategies, as the average consumer who could afford such prices would unlikely be living in a house that requires space-saving technology. The Pricing aspect by itself also proved to be extremely interesting, as everyone’s project seemed to unanimously adopt a value-based pricing strategy. So then, what of cost-based pricing? Is it not an effective strategy? With this in mind, I began my research to find out more about it. The classic example cited in this debate is that of Steve Jobs vs Sam Walton, two of the greatest business leaders in history. An interview conducted by Fortune Magazine2 best highlighted the difference between these two extraordinary men and their methods. It is noted that Steve Jobs epitomized value-based pricing by focusing mainly on the product  instead of margins. He said, â€Å"If you keep your eye on the profit, you’re going to skimp on the product. But if you focus on making really great products, then the profits will follow.† Sam Walton, on the other hand, built Walmart around the concept of low margins and high volume, i.e. cost-based pricing. If the margins got above anything that was infinitesimal, he would get angry. Both have built extremely successful companies using entirely different pricing strategies. So why does a value-based pricing strategy seem so much more popular than a cost-based one? Perhaps it all boils down to prestige. Being the boss of a premium brand certainly holds more distinction than say, opening a dollar store. Or perhaps the road to building a company large enough for cost-based pricing to be effective is an arduous task that faces more obstacles in the form of existing industry giants. In any case, it is worth noting that cost-based pricing is in no way obsolete, but simply overshadowed by the recent successes of premium brands3. Another strategy that the class unanimously adopted is Promotional strategy, specifically in social media terms. Facebook appeared to be the prime choice of social media strategy for everyone, and rightly so. A survey conducted in 2011 showed that Singaporeans are the global leaders for the longest time spent on Facebook, clocking 38mins 46secs per session, putting us ahead of countries like US, UK, and Australia . Add that in to the capital limitations of start-up companies, Facebook becomes the logical choice for our promotional channels. A case study on Scoot’s4 wildly popular Facebook marketing campaign gave us further affirmation that this was the right way to go . As for the Placing aspect, the dilemma existed whereby in order to position ourselves as a high street fashion brand, a retail store had to be open at a prime location such as Ion. The rental for such locations, however, would strain our budget even further. To put it in perspective, the rental costs for an Ion level 1 space is $29 per square feet whereas the rental costs for Ang Mo Kio Hub is a mere $19 per square feet. That adds up to almost $40k difference per year for a store of 330 square feet, which is an extremely large sum for a start-up company. We eventually decided that it was worth the risk, but had to make careful budget adjustments to manage our finances. Next issue of interest is the importance of an action plan. Why is an action plan so important? Without an action plan, all we have is a broad strategic plan. Think of it  like making a resolution for a new year – you may state that you plan on losing weight, however you do not add in specific details as to how you are going to do it . A concrete action plan ensures that one stays focused and has a clear idea of what to do and when to do it by. The group that did the project â€Å"Fitting Reality† had an impressive action plan which was both detailed and tailored to account for contingencies. That way, should anything go wrong, there would still be plans to fall back onto instead of the whole project being thrown into disarray. Another particularly noteworthy issue is that seemingly all groups focused on customer acquisition, but few bothered to put effort into customer retention. This is puzzling for one main reason – It is a widely held belief that acquiring a new customer costs on average 5 times more than retaining an existing one. It is therefore wise to invest equally in customer retention alongside customer acquisition, or else it would be tantamount to taking one step forward and two steps back. Some recommended strategies of customer retention include loyalty discounts and membership privileges, as well as constant updates and active engagement with the customers . An area that I found intriguing was the fact that no other groups seemed to conduct a market survey in their marketing plans. To me, a market survey is extremely useful as it helps gauge the future demand of the product. A poor response would allow to us to pull the plug on the project before anything concrete is launched, thereby cutting our potential losses massively. Furthermore, based on the results of our market survey, we were able to effectively segment our consumers as it showed distinctly which group of customers were most interested in our product. Of course, a counter argument could be made that a well-crafted marketing strategy would amp up the hype over the product and turn initial consumer skepticism into enthusiasm. Both arguments are certainly valid, but it seems that market surveys are still very much recommended as an important requirement for initiating any successful business . One of the difficulties encountered by our group in the process of designing our marketing plan is the aspect of controls. We all know the importance of controls. It monitors the progress of our plan and makes adjustments when it deviates off course. So how then do we determine the key performance indicators (KPI) and at what level do we set it? Should we operate on the economist’s definition of bottom-line or the accountant’s  definition? These were all daunting questions that had to be answered. Ultimately, we chose to follow sales projections quoted in our financial plan as the main control. In hindsight, we could have adopted a market share analysis instead as sales figures may not give a wholly accurate representation. For example, if the footwear market faces a sharp downturn, we could be facing lower than expected sales figures but still capturing a large market share vis-à  -vis our competitors. A qualitative control method in the form of customer attitude tracking can also reveal to us what customers feel about our organisation, products and services, thus allowing us to make pre-emptive changes and preserve the brand reputation . The final topic of interest again lies with the marketing mix, but this time with respect to B2B commerce. Two of the groups came up with products that were targeted solely at businesses and within their marketing plan included the conventional 4 P’s. The 4 P’s has been a great framework that has served marketers well for over half a century. But the nature and evolution of B2B commerce as compared to B2C means that it might be time to rethink and reassess the framework for today’s B2B reality. According to a comprehensive study done by Harvard Business Review , the conventional 4 P’s model has been found to undercut B2B marketers in 3 major ways: 1 – It leads the marketing team to stress product technology and quality even though these are no longer differentiators but simply the cost of entry. 2 – It underemphasizes the need to build a robust case for their products’ superior value. 3 – It distracts companies from leveraging on their competitive advantages as a trusted source of expertise. Of course, it is also worth noting that this in no way renders the 4 P’s obsolete. Rather, they just require some tweaking to better suit the B2B industry, such as Motorola’s SAVE framework: moving the emphasis from Product to Solution, Placing to Access, Pricing to Value, and Promotion to Education . As the study so aptly cites, â€Å"B2B marketers who continue to embrace the 4 P’s mind-set risk getting locked into a repetitive and increasingly unproductive technological arms race.† And indeed, as trends change and industry evolves, so too must marketers and our strategies. Bibliography AsiaOne. (2011, September 27). AsiaOne News. Retrieved April 17, 2013, from Science and Tech: http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Science%2Band%2BTech/Story/A1Story20110927-301776.html Ettenson, R., Conrado, E., & Knowles, J. (2013, January). Rethinking the 4 P’s. Retrieved April 18, 2013, from Harvard Business Review: http://hbr.org/2013/01/rethinking-the-4-ps/ar/1 FAO, UN. (2012, Feburary 5). FAO Corporate Document Repository. Retrieved April 17, 2013, from Marketing Strategy, Planning and Control: http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/w3240e/W3240E03.htm Gandhi, R. (2012, July 2). Pitney Bowes. Retrieved April 17, 2013, from Keeping Your Customers with Email Marketing: http://www.pbsmartessentials.com/customer-satisfaction/keeping-your-customers-with-email-marketing/ Mind Tools Ltd. (2011, Dec 12). The Marketing Mix and 4 Ps. Retrieved April 15, 2013, from Mind Tools Website: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_94.htm Senic, N. (2013, Feburary 2). EFFECTIVE CONTENT STRATEGY GUIDED BY THE SAVE FRAMEWORK. Retrieved April 18, 2013, from Zemanta: http://www.zemanta.com/blog/content-strategy-guided-save-framework/ Serwer, A. (2012, December 3). Steve Jobs vs. Sam Walton : Tale of the Tape. Fortune, pp. 59-64. Tan, R. (2012, October 9). Flamingo Singapore. Retrieved April 17, 2013, from Facebook marketing: A case study on Scoot: http://flamingosingapore.com/2012/10/09/facebook-marketing-a-case-study-on-scoot/ UNESCO. (2011, March 10). UNESCO Bangkok. Retrieved April 17, 2013, from e-library publications: http://www2.unescobkk.org/elib/publications/clcneo/06market.pdf Woodward, R. (2011, October 1). Bright Hub PM. Retrieved April 17, 2013, from Project Planning: http://www.brighthubpm.com/project-planning/102438-why-are-action-plans-important-in-business/ Appendix A 1.1 Ostrich Pillow

Restriction of Liability Using the Floodgates Argument Essay

Restriction of Liability Using the Floodgates Argument - Essay Example For instance, Lord Atkin presented a neighbor principle. This principle defined that a duty of care should be addressed to neighbors, while the neighbors are the people that might suffer from our actions or errors. However, this description appeared to be too uncertain, and a number of cases where duty of care was regarded as to be owed, increased rapidly. Later, Lord Bridge added three elements that should be observed before making statement: This addition helped much in judges' experience, but the content of these three elements depends upon the kind of injury that was caused to the claimant. There are 3 kinds of injury: physical harm, psychological injury and economic loss. The situation with the laws in relation to psychological damage has significantly changed during last hundred years. At first, similar cases were rejected by the courts: "One of the earliest reported cases on "nervous shock", as it was then called, was that of Victorian Railway Commissioners v. Coultas. 3. As a result of the negligence of a level-crossing gatekeeper, a train narrowly missed hitting the plaintiff. This incident caused the plaintiff to suffer shock. The Privy Council rejected the claim stating, inter alia, that to allow recovery would result in " a wide field [being] opened for imaginary claims." (2) According to the law, before appealing with a complaint for nervous shock, the victim should prove the following items: 1. That he or she experienced a definite psychological illness. "Psychiatric injury can therefore include: clinical depression, personality changes and post-traumatic stress disorder (an illness in which shocking events cause symptoms such as sleeping difficulty, tension, horrifying flashbacks and severe depression)."(6) A definite diagnosis should prove the statement. In case the person is just disappointed or upset, the case won't be regarded as the case of psychological injury. 2. It is necessary to find out whether the injury is the result of defendant's omissions or actions. In this case the negligence of the defendant must be evident. It is also important to observe if it was possible to foresee the damage. If the above mentioned item is proved and it is established that the defendant didn't execute his duty of care towards the victim, then the usual laws that are related to the breach of duty can be implemented. 3. It is necessary to define whether the claimant is a primary or secondary victim As far as the cases of psychological injury are concerned, there are some questions that are to be solved. The

Issues about pedagogic design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Issues about pedagogic design - Essay Example Therefore, teacher is assumed to be the organizer rather than the main source of knowledge. After browsing Allwright and Hank (2009) â€Å"Method and the Learner†, I realized that my teaching style is similar to the teaching approach, design and procedure of socio-psychological approach to community language learning (CLL). CLL encourages the students to interact with one another to help them develop their ability to use a second language. Instead of leaving the leaving the learning and teaching process to the students, the second language teacher can also act as the teacher whereas the students are treated as learners. By showing the proper way of using a second language, teachers will be able to make the students apprehend the proper pronunciation of a word aside from making them learn the basic construction of grammar. My teaching style is closely related to Richards and Rodgers (2001) communicative language teaching in the sense that this approach and method in language te aching is focused on increasing the students’ communicative abilities. Increasing the students’ knowledge on second language is totally different from making them able to speak the language in public.

Consumers Telephone Bills Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Consumers Telephone Bills - Essay Example Therefore, the Kettles may be able to contest this bill. When a subscriber   is billed for calls that he or she did not make, then it is the telephone company (in this case DWI) that will have to absorb the cost of these calls.   However, there are also some aspects working in favor of DWI. The Wireless Telephone Protection Act has been signed into law on April 24, 1998 (Public Law 105-172) and the FCC has highlighted the losses to telephone companies arising out of cellular fraud (FCC Report, March 1999). In this instance, although the payments are being collected by DWI, it is actually due to a third party to which DWI has legal obligations by virtue of its contract with the business entity (the dating hotline). Therefore, this scenario also raises the prospect of further losses to DWI through its liability to the third party provider of services.   However, there are also certain obligations that are placed upon customers. (a) They can request the facility of â€Å"blocking † 900 calls from their telephone for a reasonable fee, which the Kettles did not do (b) Any discrepancies in the bill are to be notified to the telephone company within 60 days by the consumer, failing which the customer will be deemed to have accepted those bills. Therefore, in this case, since the account is already delinquent without the Kettles having indicated to DWI that they contest certain charges, the legal position will be that they have accepted those charges and will therefore be obliged to pay them

Referral propose an e-commerce strategy and architecture Assignment

Referral propose an e-commerce strategy and architecture - Assignment Example ep up with the new lifestyle that the global community is getting acquainted to in a massive rate of change, business and commerce is finding a niche that is centrally positioned within this culture. Thanks to the information age that has caught up with the corporate world like any other sector of the society, business has gone hi-tech to capture infinite opportunities at the global platform. Every industry is at the helm of its realignment within the spirit of these new trends of embracing the internet as a flexible promotional platform that captures every corner of the world. It is on such a window of opportunity that e-commerce has established in the world of business transactions to materially change commerce from order placement, delivery, tracking and bill clearance. One of such an industry is the apparels industry which contrary to earlier opportunities can now make such presence as the automobile industry or any other industry. Contained in this discourse is the e-commerce situation at the Khanga Apparel Corporation. The elements of e-commerce have been highlighted in the case study to disclose the said opportunity presented by the information communication and technolog y platform at the highest global level. Clothing and textile business presents one of the most customer demand and preference driven markets which rely on the physical shopping than any other arrangement. The nature of customer preferences attached to the physical needs makes the industry to be seemingly rigid and inflexible on the promotional front. According to TIA (n.d., p1), there are a number of attributes that distinctively characterize the apparel industry particularly on the influence they possess over the consumer decision making regarding purchasing. According to the report, findings on the consumer research conducted by the NPD Group in 2010, consumer behaviour is highly sensitive in this industry. As an arising observation, it is expected that the choice of approaches for

Experience of Illness and Disability Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Experience of Illness and Disability - Essay Example This study analyses Michael’s case, where interview reveals a number of social perspectives on his view regarding health. Through drawing from literature concepts and critically analysing the case study, specific aspects that will be covered are the lay health beliefs, illness behaviour, social support and practitioner-client interaction as they gradually progress in Michael’s illness narrative. The guiding thesis for this study is that a sociological viewpoint is pivotal in establishing the experience of illness and thus determining health outcomes. Studying lay health beliefs is critical to the healthcare industry due to a number of reasons; it helps understand practitioner-client relationships; it aids design of effective health education programs; most of healthcare work is carried out by lay people in terms of self-care or friend-family care (Nettleton 2006, pp. 35-36). Lay ideas and concepts about health are socially mediated and vary according to several considerations including time, social location, cultural contexts and socio-economic conditions. There appears to be points of divergences and convergences between expert knowledge and lay beliefs about explanations and definitions of health, health behaviour and the relationship between health maintenance and disease prevention (36). According to Gabe, Bury and Elston (2004, pp. 135-136), individual beliefs about illness, health and healthcare are vital in establishing illness behaviour such as non-compliance and the decision to visit a physician among others. Such belie fs are shaped by broader cultural and social factors that are also context dependent, influencing the actions taken by the individual for instance through the lay referral system where individuals consult family and friends about visiting a doctor (67). Besides, lay beliefs about health influence individual lifestyles and risks that have a bearing on such individuals’ health and