Jacob Marley Essay Example for Free

Jacob Marley Essay This year the Citizens Theatre, which is a professional theatre, performed the well known pantomime Scrooge. I have been to the Citizens Theatre many times previous to seeing Scrooge. The Citizens Theatre is internationally recognized theatre with a proscenium arch stage and shows a variety of different plays, some very traditional and some very contemporary. As a child I was always amazed by the set and costumes used in the Citzs pantomimes, it seamed that no corners were cut. So with this in mind I expected, not so much of a panto, but more of a theatrical performance with great visuals and I would say I was correct to say this. I am fairly familiar with the pantomime Scrooge adapted from the Charles Dickens book A Christmas Carol as I have seen it in other theatres prior to this year at the Citz. The Citzs, I thought was maybe not as traditional as the other versions but it was equally, if not more so, entertaining. I went to the pantomime twice whilst it was on, first with my peers and then with young children. IT was very interesting to see how they both reacted. The Story of Scrooge is about a man called Ebenezer Scrooge, a wealthy business man full of greed counting every penny entering and parting his pocket. On Christmas Eve he is visited by the ghost of his deceased business partner Jacob Marley, who has come to warn Scrooge of what awaits him if he carries on with his greediness. That evening Scrooge is to be visited by the three ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. Firstly the ghost of Christmas past comes to show him of the happy times before his self-inflicted loneliness caused by his greed, as a child and as a young man. Then the ghost Christmas present shows Scrooge the Cratchit family. The Cratchit family is very poor and consists of Bob Cratchit, Scrooges employee, his wife and their four children including their son Tiny Tim who is extremely ill. Scrooge is forced to realize that all the people around his fine it difficult to speak well of him. The ghost of Christmas future tells scrooge nothing but shows him of his death burdening all the people around him with the greed he left behind as they celebrate his death. Seeing this awful future that he himself could be creating, Scrooge decides to change for the better, rewarding workers with a pay rise and giving money to charity he had previously changed and donating a rich Christmas feast to the Cratchit family. The quality of the set was amazing as it was very grand and the size of the stage meant that the set could be quite big without being pretentious. All around the stage is painted Scrooges favorite phrase Bah Humbug in italic writing. At first there was just an office set up with a window through which you could see all the Characters entering the scene, I thought that this made the action more realistic and was quite interesting. The window was also used for carol singers and the audience could just faintly hear then which made it feel like you were actually in the office. When Scrooge goes home the office wall is raised to reveal a whole new set which is even more spectacular. A set of stone stairs lead up to Scrooges bedroom, luxuriously decorated compared to his office that is on a 15 foot tall platform. The most exciting part of the set was when Christmas present arrives with his set, a whole new room painted red into which he is camouflaged, just rolling on moving Scrooges room away. This room is decorated with lots of Christmas decorations. The one prop used by Scrooge a lot was a light bulb which showed how grudging he was because he would remove it with such care whenever leaving the room. Obviously the main character in the play was Ebenezer scrooge. He was an old, selfish, grumpy, bitter old man. We could tell this by his facial expressions that were always very twisted. Although dressed in a suite his long scraggly hair and unshaven face showed that he wasnt all that concerned with his appearance. This rugged look indicated his age as well as his movement which was hunched over and slow. At the end however we see a very different scrooge that stands up tall with his head in the air to show his confidence has been gained and he is proud of his changes. I think this couldve been shown by making a greater contrast as I didnt think the change in Scrooge was very dramatic. At the end of the play we are made aware that Scrooge does care about the people around him. He may have realized in a selfish manner, but he changed before it was too late which is what matters, leaving us with a fairy tale ending. I think one of the most dramatic characters in the play has to have been Jacob Marley, Scrooges deceased business partner. He appears from the floor when Scrooges light suddenly cuts out. His costume is amazing with a death gown shredded with blood smeared across it to signify that he is dead and has been tortured for his sinful life. Although impressive, Jacob Marleys entrance was quite alarming and younger children found it quite scary, especially along with the chains on his wrists and ankles acting as the chains binding him to hell. Compared the quietness of the room before, this huge explosion of noise is very effective. He comes to warn scrooge and is desperate to get the message to him, we can tell this by the way in which he attempts to get closer to him but the chains stop him, there is also wind blowing against him stopping him making contact with Scrooge.

Strategic approach to entering a new international market

Strategic approach to entering a new international market It is an international marketing planning assignment where I am supposed to launch a product in the foreign market and I have selected UK as my market and Dabur Real juice is my product which I will be introducing in UK. INTERNATIONAL MARKETING PLANNING According to the American Marketing Association (AMA) international marketing is the multinational process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives THE ANALYSIS: Dabur is the fourth Fast Moving Consumer Goods company in India. Dabur was established in 1884. This Company is giving an excellent performance since 125 years. Dabur has more than 300 products.( www.dabur.com) but the main product of this company is Dabur- Ayurvedic health care products, Vatika-premium hair care, Hajmola-tastey digestives, Real fruit juices and beverages, Fam-fairness bleaches skin care products. It has expended their products in various countries that includes Middle East, North West Africa, EU and the US with its brands Dabur Vatika. had a turnover of approximately US$ 750 Million Market Capitalisation of over US$ 3.5 Billion with brands like Dabur Amla, Dabur Chyawanparas, Vatika, Hajmola and . The company has kept an eye on new generations of consumers with arrange of products that cater to a modern life style while managing no to alienate earlier generation of loyal costumers the companies growth rate rose from 10% to 40%. The expected growth rate for two years was to fold. Dabur foods a subsidiary of Dabur India is expecting to grow at 25%. Its brands of juices namely and active together make it a market leader in fruit juice category. (The Economic Times, www. Dabur.com) According to the above data the market of fruit juice and juice drinks in UK is still has vast market after recession , the sales of fruit juice was 1189 m litres in 2005 but after gradually declining, sales was 1159 m litres in 2009, which is also a good quantity. There is a good chance for Dabur real juice for success in this market. The fruit juice and juice drink market is valued at Pound 3.1 billion in 2009 and while both volumes and value have grown in recent years. (oxygen .mintel.com) Britain now consumes 2.2 billion litres of juice drinks a year around 36 litres for every man, woman and child.(news.bbc.co.uk). This figure shows the future growth of product one it make the goodwill after establishment. UK food market is one of the highly regulated food markets in the world and it is hard for any company to launch a new food product in the UK market. On top of that the existing intense competition by leading corporations selling juice products such as Pepsi Co and Coca Cola made it hard for other brands to enter into UK juice-consumer market. Tropicana is the no.1juice in UK. Tropicana makes the juices and smoothies from the highest quality of fruit, expertly blended. It contain 100% juice no added water.(www.pepsico.co.uk) On the other hand, it represents a unique opportunity for a multinational company to enter such market with a differentiated product attracting a specific customer-base which is spread all over United Kingdom. Dabur, the multi-national company, based in India is one of the oldest Fast Moving Consumer Good company selling range of products to its customers since 1885. It operates in 8 countries worldwide including United Kingdom but selling only limited number of products outside India. Due to its multinational nature and have number of years experience in international trading, it puts the company in the unique place to launch its juice products in the United Kingdom. There are many competitors in the market for new products which has mentioned in above data, in which PepsiCo, princes, Del monte has strong hold over the market.The organisation already sells some of its health products in Britain so already possess UK consumer experience. The UK juice market is competitive in its nature with leading brands established such as Tropicana and Copella. But there is a huge market potential to attract those customers who have some kind of connection with Indian sub-continent and are loyal to the products originated from that continent. TARGET MARKET The target market of my product would be south of London because the majority of Indian people are living there and they already know about the brand, there is a possibility to sale product among the Indian origin people, afterward we will launch the product in all over London. The number of residents in UK according to office of national statistics exceeds 3 million which are spread all over the country hence making an ideal position for a leading company like Dabur to launch its juice brand . According to Dabur.com, It has been the preferred choice of consumers when it comes to packaged fruit juices, which is what makes Indias No. 1 Fruit juice brand. It further clarifies the status of that, has been awarded Indias Most Trusted Brand status for four years in a row. This reflects the unique quality of this juice product which after number of years of hard work has not only get to the top place in the massive retail market of India but also retained the top position for four years. To expand internationally, British market offers best opportunity for this Indian brand targeting initially those customers who has some kind of connection with Indian sub-continent. Its unique entry point into the UK market typically based on the Core quality aspects of the ranges of the juices under brand available together with its augmented services such as the theme of Indian-culture with the core product. UK juice market currently worth at $6602.5 million which includes a 10.9% increase in 2009 according to the datamonitor report on UK juice industry profile. With that it is set to increase by 53% to the total value of $10,118.5 million by year 2014 since 2009.(www.lowpriceshopper.co.uk) The leading competitors include Pepsi INC., Del Monte Foods Company and GSK but do not include any of the Asian brands. UK market represents the 26.2% of EU juice market value (www.fdf.org.uk) hence representing an ideal place for Dabur to launch its juice products in this new market and to have access to EU market. Although the existing competitors face intense competition among selling juices but such rivalry tend to reduce due to the international comparisons and differential market shares in other markets. The juice market typically consists of the following juice types: 100% fruit juice from concentrate 100% fruit juice not from concentrate Nectar 30%-99% juice Fruit drink Vegetable juice The best selling type from the above is the 100% fruit juice not from concentrate. Dabur focuses on producing 100% juice not from concentrate and its juice ranges up to 12 covering almost all types of fruits. There is no single competitor in UK who is covering that many types of 100% juice not from concentrate thus making it ideal for this global FMCG to enter and survive the intense UK juice market and establish its juice brand . Its suitability for growth opportunity depends on the penetration of the brand into the market where there is a high concentration of residents of Indian-subcontinent. Its unique selling point is the existing quality which is on top of range of already established juice brands in UK market plus the comprehensive range of juices and the fact that it has been originated in India from a company which is in existence for more than 125 years. UK market is also considered an ideal market for Dabur due to high disposable incomes, and high health consciousness of UK residents couple with the desire of convenience of having quality products at the doorstep. The brand initially fits the criteria of becoming a successful juice brand in UK market but on top of that it ca n also launch similar juice products such as smoothies to compete with other major competitors such as Innocent. High product awareness means that Dabur can emphasize on the core qualities of its juices which circle around the healthy lifestyles. The biggest obstacle of a foreign market is the language barrier which can end up in high promotional cost. But Dabur already promotes its products in English in India and have large number of employees who are already skilled in English language. Thus entering the UK market will not going to increase its product-development or employee-training cost in anyway. There is also high rates of tourism every year which currently takes place in both countries thus there is already a huge sense of collaboration and exchange of cultural values in place. A big Asian community in UK means that Dabur only need to use different pricing strategies for products rather than starting from the scratch point of heavy promotion of its juices. (Economicstimes. indiatimes.com,www.dabur.com) MODE OF ENTRY BY DABUR REAL JUICE Export (Direct or Indirect) Joint Venture Direct Development Figure: International Market Entry Options Looking at the options above, company on the first instance can use the option of exporting its juice products because of low risk it carries but it will prove unsustainable for the company due to its traditional selling techniques which do not include exporting the products or having a joint venture. Company can make best use of Direct Development option by using its current product and customer base at a little extra cost. It gives company the maximum benefits of ultimate control but comes with the maximum cost without sharing it with any partners. This strategy fits best with Dabur international expansion motives which come with long term commitment in the international market. Direct Development also gives Dabur full control of marketing mix. There are number of marketing options available for Dabur to expand its product base in UK to include its popular brand and it does have number of options. Looking at generic strategies it can enter the UK market through Niche plays by having its brand on display in small corner and town shops present in multi-cultural areas of England such as London, Birmingham and Manchester. Due to the limited number of products offered by Dabur at this stage, it suggests that it has high excess capacity available by looking at the range of products it offers in Indian market. On top of that, the work it has done before on the development of brand in UK, it can be proved very successful for the launch of brand. This international expansion also suggests a good strategy to spread the corporate risk. Assignment 2. You are planning to enter this market as a market challenger. Examine your strategic attack options. To challenge existing competitors, further market analysis is being carried out as given below with discussion on strategic attack options: MARKET SEGMENTATION: First steps towards developing a strategic attach option on the competitors is the market segmentation. As a result of market segmentation company will be in a clear position on how to enter the market and reach the customers. Market Segmentation is the process of identifying different group of users within the market. (Croft, 1994). Dabur will need to use following product distribution networks to reach wider customer audience which is also covered by the competitors thus creating a challenging environment for them. WHOLESALERS: When the market for juice are distributed in UK then these one that is wholesalers falls under a category which deals the juice directly or indirectly with customers. DISTRIBUTERS: They are specialized in the task and well known about the local preferences so its easy to get localized feedback, and they again major consumer of juice. AGENTS: Agent has the all information about the local contractors, distributors and retailers etc. So they can enhance the dealing among the retailers. Agents will help to increase the network. RETAILERS: Retailer is the ultimate person who is directly dealing with customers or direct sales the product, he directly interact the buyers and delivered the information to customer about product due to which buyer buy the product there are a lot of dabur retailers are available in London which are already selling different product of Dabur. TARGETING Targeting is the second stage of the Segmentation Targeting and Positioning (STP) process. After the market has been separated into its segments, the marketer will select a segment or series of segments and target it/them. The task of marketing manager is to plan and execute programs that will assure an elite competitive advantage for any organization. According to Czinkota and Ronkainen (1990), this task has two integral part. They are (1) the determining of of specific target markets and (2) marketing management that consists of certain marketing mix elements. Option 1 THINK GLOBAL ACT LOCAL To target its customer base, company initially needs to take into account the habits of its potential customers such as there cultural and attitude needs and which types of products such customers values. Dabur will have competitive advantage here against any other international FMCG who wish to target similar customer base as it is already aware of the cultural needs of the target customer base. However it needs to act very sensitively to attract and retain customers of Indian origin due to intense rivalry and availability of alternative products. Such customer base can be act as a source of promotion within UK market and outside UK market due to large movement of people globally which is turning world in a single market. Option 2 Decentralisation Theodore Levitt has already commented on international movement in 1983 which was published in Harvard Business Review, Ancient differences in national tastes or modes of doing business disappear, the commodity of preferences leads inescapably to the standardisation of products, manufacturing, and the institutions of trade and commercesuccess in world competition turns on efficiencies of production, distribution, marketing and management. To integrate above, company need to ensure some de-centralisation within its organisation. Although it does have its subsidiaries in 7 other countries including UK, but specifically for the launch of product in UK decentralisation of marketing strategy from its Indian based business will be proved very beneficial. The decentralisation of marketing strategy will bring the benefits to Dabur UK such as addressing local needs more effectively but there will be issues in overall brand protection and strategic continuity of the overall business. Option 3 Using web Looking at high internet access, Dabur should also use the web as the major marketing strategy to attract the customer to its product but it will need to ensure that it tries to use same strategic principles in marketing its Product in UK as it does in India to keep the similarities in communication channels. Communication strategy forms the part of promotional aspects of the Dabur Company which alongside other Ps of the market strategy are discussed in the implementation section of this report in further detail. Assessing the options: How the product differs from others? The Dabur Real juice would be different from other juice products of UK. It contain more nutrient and Ayurvedic substances which will make this product differ from others, ayurvedic substances will give much more energy as compared to others. it will target the customers age group between 10 to 35 but its also attract the customers above 35 due to its nutrition and more energetic factors. To further develop strategic attach options, marketing mix analysis is carried out. The marketing mix is the term which is use to explain the compounding maneuver used by businessman for accomplishment of goal through its products and services. Usually its work on particular target group. It refers all 4 Ps which are few of the vital factors which implies the implementation of the product. Product Price Promotion Place Product : We are going to launch fruit juice it comes in different flavour. fruit juice is the core product. The company will launch its 14 variants in two divisions the first division will include the launch of seven variants and critically analysing the success. The company will launch its next seven variants after a period of 6 months. the juice will appeal to the people of all age group as health is no consider as wealth and juice is capable of nourishing people health of different age group. juice contains some added fleavors which will attract the age group of six to ten. Every product has a life cycle. Which start from Introduction than Growth afterward Maturity than after Declining and ultimately withdrawal last time of product. With the help of this product we can forecast the life of our product Real fruit juice. PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE Price : fruit juice is the natural flavoured juice which consists of various nutrients and vitamins. Based on the investment and quality, we fix a good price for selling. The company has launch its products by CREAMING price technique. Price will also help to show the brand and quality which attract the customers. We are using the direct development of the product strategy to launch this product, so we need to recover the cost of production and also good profit margin. Profit is directly related to price of product in any organization. Price is important as it generates revenue. juice price margin will be excellent due to its brand name. Sometimes customer make general perception that low price means low quality. So we cant ignore the customers like or dislike. Customer think negative about the very low price. They think that is inferior good and in case of too high price customer think product is very expensive. Until and unless company calculate the exact cost of goods and services, then c ompany afford more loss on more sale. Place : Initially we target the Indian dominated place in UK. UK is the highly multi cultural country, where we can find the people from every part of the world. Inside the UK London is the highly multi cultural location, south and west London would be most preferable place for launching the product fruit juice. Apart from London, we will also provide the easy accessibility of fruit juice in Birmingham, Manchester etc. We will try to cover all those places where the transport is very economic. Product would be available in many physical stores as well as on virtual stores over the internet. Promotion : Promotion of any product is a vital process of an organization. We should be very careful about the promotion of fruit juice. Now a days we are living in the modern era, it is easy to provide the information about our product inside and outside of the door. Promotion has 4 vital elements: advertising, personal selling, public relation and sales promotion. Advertising is a channel of communication which influences the listeners, viewers and readers directly or indirectly. With the help of advertisement we will make our product fruit juice among the customers. At this time we advertise fruit juice in various ways through television, radios, electronics, print media, banners and template also. We will distribute the free samples among the people. At the time of launching product in the market, we ned to spend a certain amount of money on advertisement. we can show the quality of product through advertising in electronic as well as print media. News papers and magazines contain the advertisement for a long period. It is one of the effective modes of promotion of goods. Free sample distribution and cash discount enhance the awareness of product in the market with the help of this process people will know about the taste and quality of a product, if they like product, they will start buying regularly. Cash discount always attracts the consu mers attention to buy product. We will also promote our fruit juice by good public relation. Daubur already have good image in the eye of Indian customers, so we will try to maintain this brand level in UK. We will also use the technique of individual sale to promote our fruit juice. Middleman in Distribution: We may reach out consumers either directly that is without help of distribution channel, or may be by using more than two distribution channel. Manufacturer to customer: with the help of direct marketing we can sell juice to buyers by personal selling, direct mail, telephone selling and internet etc. To distribute our fruit Juice we make available our product in to the multiplex, malls and give franchise and open new shop in local market. We will deal with agent, wholesaler and retailer to easy accessibility of our fruit juice to customers. Effective channel of distribution boost the sales of product. Critical Reflection Dabur juice is all set to launch itself in highly competitive juice market and ready to compete with well establish firms of juice market that include Pepsi co, Tesco, Tropicana.with Tropicana sharing the largest market share , Dabur juice can face some tough challenges. As discussed earlier the company using the creaming price technique it could go against the success of the juice in UK as some well established juice companies are charging much more nominal price and offering the similar quality. The company is the new entrant in UK juice market and Direct Development can go against the company which has just now moved their step forward by launching itself in UK market. Direct Development has advantage of getting maximum profits but on the other hand there are certain disadvantages as it is too costly for investment and it bears a lot of risk with it. The company will take much time for recovering its cost as the amount for investment is very high.The company will have to invest a huge amount in promotional activities as it has been mention earlier that in order to promote the juice the company will adopt a policy of distribution of free samples among the prospective consumers that could increase the cost and effect the profit of the company in long run. With the presence of well establish firms there is a perfect competition amongst the rivals, which could effect the success of the business in longer period of a time. Lack of Monopoly Market and presence of perfect competation the company will have to develop some unique strategy to tackle the problem of fierce rivalry in juice market. Although the company Dabur already launched in UK, the product of dabur that is juice is first amongst its categories it is a general perception of people that hesitate on shifting to a new product and juice been a new product could face this kind of difficulties. The company has a strategy of targeting the people of Indian origin it may happen that people of Indian origin may be use to local products so the company is in a great risk of failure in UK market. The company has adopted a direct development technique which involves a huge investment that includes setting ups the industries marketing which include a huge cost and in turn increases the profit earning capacity but at the same time the company has to go through high risk of not recovering it costs due to large investment and using direct development technique. BIBLOGRAPHY The Economics Times, 5 Dec, 2010, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/cons-products/fmcg/Dabur-rebrands-Real-juice-eyes-Rs-700-cr-from-food-div/articleshow/7046665.cms The complete directory of BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/a-z/ Food and Drink Federation, first half 2010 updated, access from, http://www.fdf.org.uk/publicgeneral/Food_and_drink_exports_firsthalf_2010.pdf Low price shopper, access from, http://www.lowpriceshopper.co.uk/vitamins_nutritionalsupplements/products__keyworduk+juice.html Times of India, access from, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/search.cms Mintel, http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/my_reports/display/id=479966anchor=atom/displaytables/id=479966#section_554384 The Economic Times, 5 Dec, 2010, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/7046665.cms?prtpage=1 http://www.pepsico.co.uk/brands/tropicana Diet Blog, http://www.diet-blog.com/07/the_10_top_selling_brands_in_the_uk.php IBIS World, http://www.ibisworld.co.uk/industry/default.aspx?indid=495 Oxygen.mintel.com, http://oxygen.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen/display/id=467867/display/id=479966 Oxygen.mintel.com, http://oxygen.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen/display/id=467867/display/id=479966/display/id=227778 Adcock, D et al (2001), Marketing Principles Practices, 4th edition, Harlow, Pearson Education Limited, p. 120. Czinkota and Ronkainen, International Marketing 5th ed, (the Dryden Press, 1990) pp 17-19 Burca, Fletcher and Brown, International Marketing: An SME Perspective, (Prentice Hall, 2004) pp 476-78 www.Dabur.com Figures has been taken from Data monitor www.marketingteacher.com Doole I and Lowe R, (2001), International Marketing Stretegy, London, Thomson Learning. Gilligan, C and Wilson, M.S. (2003), Strategic Marketing Planning, Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann. McDonald M, (2003), Marketing Plans how to prepare them, how to use them, Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann. Croft, Market Segmentation, 2nd ed, Thomas learning 1994,pg 22-33 Wright, Business to Business Marketing, 1st edition, Prentice Hall 2003,pg 10-22 Kotler Keller, Marketing Management, 13th ed, Prentice Hall 2009, pg 696 Hollensen 2007 Global Marketing 4th ed, pg 481 Keegan, J. W. and Mark C. G, (2003), Global Marketing, New Jersey, Pearson Education Inc. Kotlar, P.C. et al, (2001), Principles of Marketing, 3rd edition, Harlow, Pearson Education Limited, p. 76. Kotler P. C, (2003), Marketing Management, New Jersey, Pearson Education. McDonald M, (2003), Marketing Plans how to prepare them, how to use them, Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann. Micklethwait, J and Wooldridge, A (2000), Future Perfect: The Challenge and Hidden Promise of Globalisation, New York, Crown Business, p.131. www.siakhenn.trepod.com/capita.html

Hindustan petroleum corporation limited

Hindustan petroleum corporation limited Chapter-1 1.1Introduction to Hindustan Petroleum HPCL (Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited), a Navratna PSU of the Government of India, is a Fortune 500 company of India listed at number 311 in the global 500 rankings, with an annual turnover of over Rs. 1,16,428 Crores and sales/income from operations of Rs 1,31,802 Crores (US$ 25,618 Millions) during financial year 2008-09, about 20% Marketing share in India and a strong market infrastructure. Corresponding figures for financial year 2007-08 are: Turnover- Rs 1,03,837 crores, and sales/income from Operations- Rs. 1,12,098 Crores (US$ 25,142 Million). HPCL operates 2 major refineries producing a wide variety of petroleum fuels specialties, one in Mumbai (West Coast) of 5.5 Million Metric Tonnes Per Annum (MMTPA) capacity and the other in Vishakapatnam, (East Coast) with a capacity of 7.5 MMTPA. HPCL holds an equity stake of 16.95% in Mangalore Refinery Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL), a state-of-the-art refinery at Mangalore with a capacity of 9 MMTPA. Another Refinery of 9 MMTPA is under construction in Bathinda, Punjab by HMEL, a Joint Venture with Mittal Energy Investments Pte.Ltd. HPCL also owns and operates the largest Lube Refinery in India producing Lube Base Oils of international standards. With a capacity of 335 TMT. This Lube Refinery accounts for over 40% of the Indias total Lube Base Oil production. Presently HPCL produces over 300+ grades of Lubes, Specialities and Greases. The marketing network of HPCL consists of 13 Zonal offices in major cities and 90 Regional offices facilitated by a Supply Distribution infrastructure comprising Terminals, Aviation Service Facilities, LPG Bottling Plants, Lube filling plants, Inland Relay Depots, Retail Outlets (Petrol Pumps) and LPG Lube Distributorships. HPCL has, over the years, moved from strength to strength on all fronts. The refining capacity steadily increased from 5.5 million metric tonnes in 1984/85 to 13.00 million metric tonnes (MMT) now. On the financial front, the turnover grew from Rs. 2687 crores in 1984-85 to Rs 1,31,802 Crores in Financial year 2008-09. 1.2History of Hindustan Petroleum Ltd. 1952 The Company was incorporated in the name of Standard Vacuum Refining Company of India Limited on July 5, 1952 under the Indian Companies Act, VII of 1913. 1962 On 31st March the name was changed to ESSO Standard Refining Company of India Limited. 1976 With the nationalization of Caltex Undertakings in India the same were also taken over by the Government of India and subsequently merged with HPCL. 1979 The undertakings of Kosangas Company Ltd. were merged with HPCL. As part of the disinvestment in PSUs, shares of HPCL were sold by the Government to Financial Institutions, Mutual Funds and Banks. Presently the Government holding in HPCL is 60.31%. The balance is being held by Financial Institutions, Mutual Funds, Banks, Foreign Institutional Investors, Employees and Individual Shareholders. It has co-promoted several joint ventures like Mangalore Refinery Petrochemicals (MRPL), Hindustan Colas, Petronet India, Punjab Refinery Project, Visakh Power Project, Prize Petroleum Co South Asia LPG Co. 1983 The capacity of lube plant was increased by an additional 74,000 tonnes per annum of high viscosity index lube base stocks. 1985 The crude unit and related off-sites were commissioned in January and fluid catalytic cracking unit was commissioned in August. During the year corporation embarked upon a project to expand the crude distillation capacity at Mumbai by 2 million tonnes per annum at an estimated cost of Rs.45 crores. This project was commissioned in April. 1988 Mangalore Refineries Petrochemicals Ltd., is the first joint sector refinery being set up in the country after the Government has allowed entry of the private sector in the petroleum refining industry. 1989 During the year corporation installed the latest C-generations concept 3*10 MW gas turbines to meet the power requirement at Bombay Refinery with facilities to generate steam simultaneously. 1991 During September 3*10 MW gas turbine generators and heat recovery steam generators were commissioned at a cost of Rs.79.22 crores at Mumbai. 1993 During March an MOU was entered into between Govt. of India and Govt. of Sultanate of Oman, HPCL and Oman Oil Co., Ltd., for setting up 6 million TPA refinery on the West Coast of India through a joint venture company called Hindustan Oman Petroleum Co. Ltd. 1995 During February, the company issued 173,50,000 equity shares of Rs.10 each with detachable warrants of Rs.380 each as follows. a. On firm allotment basis: i) 34,70,000 equity shares with warrants to Indian Financial institutions ii) 3,35,000 shares with warrants to Indian Mutual Funds. b. Preferencial allotment basis: i) 17,35,000 shares with warrants to share to employees ii) 17,75,000 shares with warrants to shareholders of the company, iii) 34,70,000 shares with warrants to NRIs, balance 66,05,000 shares were issued to the public. 1996 During the year March a joint venture with Colas S.A of France, the company commenced its first State-of-the-art Bitumen emulsion Plant of 20,000 TPA capacity at Vashi, named Hindustan Coalas Ltd. 1999 American Express and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for card acceptance at various gas stations. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) have entered into an agreement for setting up a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) pipeline and infrastructure from Visakhapatnam to Secunderabad via Rajamundry and Vijayawada. The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has allowed the joint venture of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) and Total of France, to set up LNG terminals and venture into downstream activities such as marketing of petro-products, etc. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) is celebrating its silver jubilee year with Shakti Utsavs in major Indian cities. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. has introduced its smart card in Bangalore for the first time in the country. 2004 HPCL Marketing Initiatives in Sri Lanka Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) has formed a 50:50 joint venture with Total Gas and Power India (TGPI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Total France, to develop the biggest underground Cavern LPG Storage project at Visakhapatnam Gets award for industrial safety by National Safety Council, Kerala Chapter in chemical industries sector Inks pact with Shell India Private Ltd for product and infrastructure sharing between the two companies Signs agreement with US Pizza, a pizza outlet, which would be opening over 500 delivery units at HPCLs outlets around the country. The understanding is aimed at making the partnership the largest food chain in the country Mr S. Roy Choudhary has been appointed as Director-Marketing in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL), effective May 10 Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd on June 26 signed a memorandum of understanding with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd Birla Power Solutions, a Yash Birla Group company, has tied up with Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) to produce electricity generators, which run on LPG HPCL launches unique smart card Hindustan Petroleum Corporation signs MoU Confidentiality agreement with Chevron Texaco 2005 HPCL signs MoU with RCF (Rashtriya Chemicals Fertilisers Ltd ) HPCL ropes in Sania Mirza to endorse retail brands Pizza Corner forges alliance with HPCL Amex, HPCL unveils co-branded credit card HPCL opens new LPG bunk in Visakhapatnam HPCL partners with MSFCL for bio-diesel venture HPCL signed an agreement with BP plc (formerly known as British Petroleum) to form 50:50 strategic joint venture partnership HPCL signs MoU with Gail on November 16, 2005 2006 HPCL, MyTVS unveils MyTVS Club HP Smart1 cards HPCL signs MoU with SINOPEC HPCL join hands with Malbro Appliances to market LPG stoves Kamat Group joins hand with HPCL for food joints Nirlep Appliances Ltd, manufacturer of cookware, has entered into a marketing pack with HPCL for marketing non-stick cookware, regular inner and outer lid pressure cookers and gas stoves. 2007 Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) has informed that Shri. Arun Balakrishnan earlier Director (HR) has taken charge as Chairman Managing Director of the Company effective April 01, 2007 (AM). Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and ONGC have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), covering Product Sale Purchase, Infrastructure Services and Co-operation in Energy related fields. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) has informed that Shri. P V Rajaraman, retired IAS Officer and former Chairman of Tamilnadu Industrial Investment Corporation has been co-opted as part-time Non-officio Director on the Board of the Company. Mr V. Vizia Saradhi assumed charge as the Director, Human Resources, of the HPCL on Aug 3. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) has informed that Shri. V Viziasaradhi has been appointed as Director Human Resources on the Board of the Company effective August 03, 2007 (PM). 2008 Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) has informed that Shri. L N Gupta, Joint Secretary Refineries, Ministry of Petroleum Natural Gas (MOPNG) has been co-opted as part-time ex-officio Director on the Board of HPCL at the Board Meeting held on June 25, 2008 (PM). 2009 Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) has appointed following firms as statutory / Branch Auditors for the Financial year 2009-10. V. Sankar Aiyar Co. : Joint Statutory Auditors Om Agarwal Co. : Joint Statutory Auditors Gandhy Co. : Branch Auditors for Visakh Refinery. 1.3Products Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. a diverse range of products, from petrochemicals and solvents to aircraft fuel and speciality lubricants and markets them through its wide network of Petrol Stations, Kerosene Dealers, LPG Distributors, Lube Shoppes, besides supplying fuel directly to hundreds of industries, and several international and domestic airlines. Unaudited Financial Result for 2nd Quarter 2009-2010 28th Oct. 2009: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited has registered a turnover of Rs. 25,868 crores for the period July September, 2009 as against Rs. 32,691 crores in the corresponding previous period largely due to the decline in the international prices of crude oil and products. The sales of petroleum products (including exports) have increased to 6.26 million tonnes registering a growth of above 4% over the second quarter of the previous year. The growth in domestic sales during April September, 2009 was 6.4%, the highest growth among oil marketing PSUs. The refineries at Mumbai and Visakh processed 8.12 million tonnes of crude during April September, 2009 as against 7.55 million tonnes during April September, 2008. The combined GRM recorded for April September, 2009 was US $ 3.79 /bbl. On the financial front, the loss for the period July-September, 2009 was Rs.137 crores as against a loss of Rs 3,219 crores for July-September, 2008. However for the period April September, 2009, HPCL reported a profit after tax of Rs 512 crores as against a loss of Rs 4,107 crores during April September, 2008. The interest cost for July-September, 2009 was lower at Rs 249 crores, as compared to Rs 527 crores during the same period of previous year. The decrease in interest cost was due to lower levels of borrowings as also lower rates of interest. The net under recovery on sale of sensitive petroleum products during the second quarter also came down to Rs 1,453 crores from Rs 1,818 crores during corresponding previous period. During the quarter, the foreign exchange gain was Rs 92 crores as against loss of Rs 245 crores in the corresponding quarter of last year. The facilities for Euro III petrol production at Mumbai Refinery and at Visakh Refinery have been commissioned during this quarter. The new JV Refinery at Bathinda, viz. HPCL Mittal Energy Ltd. (HMEL) is progressing as per schedule. About 50% physical completion has already been achieved. The Project is progressing ahead of schedule and mechanical completion is expected by March, 2011. Chapter-2 Review of literature 2.1Review of Literature Hydro Oil Energy increases annual production growth rate to 8%(2002) NORDIC BUSINESS REPORT-12 June 2002-Hydro Oil Energy increases annual production growth rate to 8% (C)1994-2002 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD http://www.m2.com The Norwegian company Norsk Hydro ASA said today that it had revised upward the production profile and average annual production growth rate of its Hydro Oil Energy business. Staying Power(2004) The North Sea oil industry is a quintessentially Scottish business, with its operational hub in Aberdeen. Aberdeen has built a reputation for excellence in supporting the UK oil and gas industry. With oil and gas production amounting to about 3.7m barrels of oil equivalent a day (boe/d), Scotland remains a significant hydrocarbons producer in world terms. And a considerable amount of hydrocarbons remains to be produced up to 30bn boe, the UK Offshore Operators Association claims. But while the North Sea offers growth opportunities for niche operators, Aberdeen must reach out to other regions and new business areas. To remain an active source of oilfield services, a focus on research and development and innovative thinking will be needed, as well as timely government help. Oil wealth offers new opportunity(2004) With international banks set to enter Saudi Arabias previously guarded markets, as the long-awaited capital market law comes into effect, the threat of increased competition is looming on the horizon for the countrys banks. At the same time, one of Saudi banks main sources of income the issuance of government paper is slowly drying up. Despite this, Saudi institutions can look forward to a bright future of growing lending opportunities and robust profitability. As consumers embark on an oil-driven spending spree, the local market is as buoyant as it has been for many years. Consumer lending shows no signs of abating and margins remain fat enough to compensate for a tailing off in the issuance of government debt. With Saudi Arabia pumping out more than nine million barrels of crude at oil prices above $35 per barrel, the government is overflowing with liquidity. QATAR: Gas-based development delivers growth(2004) Qatari and international oil companies plan to spend more than 55 billion dollars in the next decade on hydrocarbons projects, according to an oil official in Doha this week. SIGNIFICANCE: Qatar has developed a strategy to reduce dependence on oil and maximize its other hydrocarbons resources, and has undertaken significant economic and political reforms. The vigor with which it has pursued these could provide a model for other Gulf states. Reforms fuel growth boom(2005) North Africa is a good place to do business. North African companies dominate the top companies rankings, be they the oil and gas companies of Algeria and Egypt; tourism companies in Tunisia and Morocco or construction, telecoms and IT businesses throughout the sub-region. Egypts foreign reserves broke the $17 billion level to record $17.32 billion last February, compared to $16.6 billion in January. The formal economy is still dominated by the oil and gas sector, with Sonatrach accounting over 40% of GDP and 95% of exports. The telecoms sector has also posted strong growth. In the year September 2004, Orascom Algeria, through its subsidiary Djezzy, saw its revenues increase five-fold since 2002, from $107 million to $523 million. Algeria, through Sonatrach, is now the second largest supplier of gas to Europe after US: mixed blessings(2006) Its a great time to be in the US petroleum storage business. With imports of crude oil and gasoline reaching record levels and domestic refineries churning out products at an almost unprecedented pace, utilization rates have continued to climb at the tank farms that serve the energy industry. In many parts of the country, terminals are operating at or near capacity. In response to these favorable market conditions, the industry has experienced some expansion, with master limited partnerships (MLPs), such as Valero, leading the way. Magellan Midstream Partners (MMP) recently added 0.6 million barrels of capacity to its refined-products terminals in Corpus Christi, TX, and Marrero, LA. Because of the long lead time required, the decision to add tankage is not one firms take lightly. Some terminal companies are opting instead to expand capacity through acquisition, continuing the trend towards industry consolidation. Growth rate in India may dip due to oil prices, inflation (2006 ) New Delhi, Sep 3 Indias scorching economic growth rate, the second fastest in the world after China for the last three years, is expected to slow down this fiscal due to high international oil prices and fear of high inflation. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is sticking to its June projection of India clocking around eight percent growth in 2006-07, less than the economic growth of 8.4 percent last fiscal. The estimate of lower growth, the leading industry lobby states in its latest State of the Economy (SOE) report, is based on expectations of higher inflationary pressures strives, some problems, and oil industry earnings growth is slowing down(2007) The giant oil company, formed by the merger of HPCL. and Amoco Corp. in 1998, has set the bar high with production growth targets that exceed those of its competitors. Oil Gas(2009 ) The oil and gas industry has been instrumental in fuelling the rapid growth of the Indian economy. The petroleum and natural gas sector which includes transportation, refining and marketing of petroleum products and gas constitutes over 15 per cent of the GDP.Petroleum exports have also emerged as the single largest foreign exchange earner, accounting for 17.24 per cent of the total exports in 2007-08. Growth continued in 2008-09 with the export of petroleum products touching US$ 23.63 billion during April-December 2008.In November 2008, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs awarded 44 oil and gas exploration blocks under the seventh round of auction of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (Nelp-VII). The overall number of blocks brought under exploration now exceeds 200.The allocation is likely to bring in investments worth US$ 1.5 billion. The eighth round of auction is going to be later this year. Govt may hike petrol price by Rs2 a litre, diesel by Re1 (2009) The government has been mulling decontrolling petrol and diesel prices for couple of months now but may be fast losing the window as the move would now result in steep rise in fuel prices Oil India plans IPO to raise as much as $570 mln( 2009) NEW DELHI, Aug 25 (Reuters) Explorer Oil India Ltd plans to raise as much as 27.8 billion rupees ($570 million) through an IPO next month, a senior official said, making it the second state-run firm to offer new shares to the public this year.Oil India, which deferred an IPO last year amid the global financial crisis, has set a price band of 950 rupees to 1,050 rupees a share, Director for Finance T. K. Ananth Kumar said by phone on Tuesday.We have set an exploration and production programmed for the next two years where we will use the IPO proceeds, he said.Oil India, which is tasked with scouting for oil and gas along with larger state-run rival Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC.BO), has planned to invest 45 billion rupees in exploration and production over the next two years, he said. Some alternate fuels show growth rate(2009) A lot has been written lately about natural-gas powered vehicles. A story appeared Feb. 16 in the Oil Gas Journal by Sam Fletcher that pointed out that natural gas has been around as a transportation fuel since World War II.Natural gas vehicles have increased dramatically in recent years from 1.7 million vehicles worldwide in 2001 to more than 7 million today. NGVs have increased rapidly in Europe and South America primarily because of environmental concerns and rising prices for crude oil, gasoline and diesel. The International Association for Natural Gas Vehicles predicts a growth rate of 18 percent, which represents about 65 million NGVs by 2020. Chapter-3 3.1Objectives of Study The objective of the research is to study the growth rate of Hindustan Petroleum. It includes following:- Growth of Hindustan Petroleum as compare to the other petroleum companies. To study the brand image of the Hindustan Petroleum. To analyze the satisfaction level of the customers for the services of Hindustan Petroleum. The objective of the model is also to predict the behavior of a customer, regarding consumption of Hindustan Petroleum . Over all study of marketing process . Chapter-4 Research Methodology 4.1Sampling Plan:- Universe: The area of study is Jalandhar and nearby areas. Sampling Procedure: In this study, the respondents were chosen through convenience sampling was undertaken where all the accessible persons were contacted by tracing them from the records. Contact Method: The respondents were contacted personally and information was derived and questionnaires were filled. Sample Size: 100 Sampling Technique: A non-probability sampling technique i.e. convenience sampling is used. 4.2Research Design:- Research design is simply the framework or plan for a study used as a guide in collecting and analyzing the data. It is the blue print that is following in completing a study. The research design must be accordingly. Formulating objective of the study. Designing the method of data collection. Collection of data Suggestions and recommendations. Conclusion and interpretations. Research includes questionnaires, observations and facts used to find enquiries of different kind. Questionnaires for customers and retailers are framed out to get to know the main problems of both customers and retailers. 4.3 Source of Data Collection:- PRIMERY DATA- It is the data which is collected initially for the first time. It helps in the validation of secondary data from secondary sources. The main sources of primary data are questionnaires, observations, personal interactions, interviews. SECONDARY DATA- Secondary data is the details that are available in the form of facts and figures. The sources of secondary data are; Magazines, journals, websites, books. In this research both primary and secondary data is used to get the accurate information. 4.4Research instruments or tools used:- Research instruments or tools used for collection of information are questionnaires, study of market, information collected from website. Through questionnaires customers and tell about the services provided by Hindustan Petroleum. They also give details about their problems. They give their suggestions for the improvement in the services. Their answers and information collected through websites, magazines and newspaper tell about the market position of Hindustan Petroleum. These tools help in analyzing and interpreting the result of the research. Analytical Design:- Mathematical tools like mean score; percentage, chi square test and Z- test etc were used. Limitations:- I do think that there were some limitations in collecting the data from both primary and secondary sources. The main boundaries were: Some customer may not have given the actual information because of lack of time. The results found are bound to change with every introduction of new schemes by any of the brands. Some people manning the outlet did not share the required information with the research investigators. Data collection error may be there to wrong response from respondent as some time they are not right person who takes actual decision. As per knowledge data was collected and analyzed, error may be there Chapter-5 Interpretation The above data is showing the growth of Hindustan Petroleum. The table is showing the growth in sales of Hindustan Petroleum in terms of cost of goods sold, EBITDA, IBECC, and Sales per employee. Now first of all we will study the sales of Hindustan Petroleum, the above data is showing the figures from the year 2003 to 2009. In 2003 the sales was -2.1% which is showing the lose of Hindustan Petroleum. It is showing the declining situation of the company, but if we will see the figures of 2004 then we will come to know that there is a quick rise in the sales of Hindustan Petroleum from -2.1% to 6.0%, which is very good for the growth of the company. Like this only if we will see the data of 2005 then there is a shocking growth in the sales of Hindustan Petroleum from 6.0% to 13.9%. But if we will look on the sales of 2006 the growth then there is a slow down in the sales of Hindustan Petroleum. If we will see the sales from 2007 to 2009 then we will come to know then the sales of Hind ustan Petroleum is continues rise in sales. Same is the condition of cost of goods sold and EBITDA there is a continues rise in sales. If we will talk about the sales per employee then we will come to know that there is increase in sales per employee because the numbers of employees are also increasing. So we can say that if the number of employees will increase then the sale per employee will also be increase. So the overall table is showing the growth of sales of Hindustan Petroleum. Analysis of the Respondent of Customers The questionnaire (given in the end of the report) was used to gather information on the following areas: Where does Tata Hindustan Petroleum stand in the market against the other petroleum players? Problems of the customers regarding the service provided by Hindustan Petroleum. Suggestions and recommendations taken from customers. Sample Size: 100 Sampling Area: Jalandhar Analysis has been done with the help of software named SPSS i.e. Software of Processing of Social Sciences. Main methods used for the analysis are Factor Analysis, Z-test, and Mean Ranking as per the necessity of the question. It helps in determining the results on the basis of the answers given by customers who are using the service of Hindustan Petroleum primarily and secondarily. This software is very beneficial for getting the results. It is not time consuming and easy to operate. We just have to fill the answers in the SPSS sheet we get the required outcome in fractions of seconds. Chapter-6 Summary, Conclusions Recommendations 6.1Summary This term paper is about the growth rate of Hindustan Petroleum. The survey has been done in Jalandhar and nearby places. This research also helps in gaining lots of practical knowledge which is different from mere theoretical knowledge. The term paper contains the introduction of the Hindustan Petroleum. We are here in technological age. In the market which are providing different products and services to their customers so that they can sustain in this era of tough competition. Now, India is coming up with new concepts to become a developed country in the world and also trying its best to provide all the available resources to its people. In this project both primary and secondary data is collected to analyze the market properly. After collecting the data from primary and secondary sources, analysis has been done with the help of SPSS. Through this survey we come to know that growth rate of Hindustan Petroleum is increasing day by day . 6.2Conclusions The survey has been done to take certain parameters which are essential for good petroleum service parameters. This survey has done in Jalandhar and nearby areas. The main conclusions that I have figure out are following: Hp has a good brand image in the market. Due to which customers buy their product. Advertisement play very effective role in promoting products. HP is able to provide the information of new schemes and products to the costumer on time. HP is successful to solve the problems of costumer on time. 6.3Recommendations After doing the analysis of study we come across the number of conclusions. Hindustan Petroleum is facing number of problems in the market due to other companies. But as India has a huge market for business so there is a scope for those who really want to do something for themselves as well as for people. The main recommendations for Hindustan Petroleum are given below which can help it to improve and pick up its position. HP should work on its marketing strategies so that it can gain the attention of more and more people. More and more advertisement should be given . Seriously deals with the problems of customers. This may forces the customers to be loyal toward this brand. It should provide information about new schemes to its customer on time . References Reference to a book: Kothari, C.R. Research Methodology, 4th edition. New Delhi: Kalyani publishers,2007 Kotler, Philip, (2006), Marketing Management: Planning, Analysis, Implementation and Control, New Delhi, Pearson Education, Inc. Naresh K. Malhotra., (2005), Marketing Research, New Delhi: Pearson Education, Inc. Reference for an article: http://www.livemint.com/Articles/keywords.aspx?kw=Hindustan%20Petroleum http://www.ibef.org/industry/oilandgas.aspx http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=0did=824057411SrchMode=1sid=3Fmt=4VInst=PRODVType=PQDRQT=309VName=PQDTS=1256141933clientId=129893 http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=7did=982527671SrchMode=1sid=2Fmt=3VInst=PRODVType=PQDRQT=309VName=PQDTS=1256141881clientId=129893 http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=10did=783954681SrchMode=1sid=2Fmt=2VInst=PRODVType=PQDRQT=309VName=PQDTS=1256142461clientId=129893 http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=11did=676362041SrchMode=1sid=2Fmt=2VInst=PRODVType=PQDRQT=309VName=PQDTS=1256142461clientId=129893 http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?i

Thorpe Parks Customer Service Essay -- Consumerism Businesses Essays

Thorpe Park's Customer Service Effectual customer service is or should be a fundamental aspect of any organisation that has an objective of success. It is through this process that an organisation can fully understand its customers and ensuring that it is responding correctly to customer needs and demands which are vital if the organisation is to gain competitive advantage. In 1991, freematle quotes: â€Å"Customer service is the final test. You can get everything else right in terms of product, price and marketing but unless you complete the process with incredibly good customer service, you run the risk of loosing business or even going out of business†. Therefore customer service is defined as the course of action whereby businesses endeavour to fully understand the needs of their customers and to respond to those needs effectively and efficiently. It is important that an organisation’s customer service is done effectively and efficiently because business activities carry costs therefore sluggishness will be at the expense of the organisation. Excellent customer service achieves a high level of customers’ satisfaction and encourages customer to return and to recommend the organisation to others. I will be investigating into Thorpe Park, which is in the leisure and recreation industry and how it carries out its customer service. The leisure and recreation industry is a diverse part of the UK economy, spanning the public, private and voluntary sectors, and made up of a number of interrelated components including sport & physical recreation, arts & entertainment, outdoor activities etc. The leisure and recreation industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of the UK economy. Introduction to Thorpe Park In 1970, the site was an active gravel pit owned by Ready Mix Concrete and in 1971 work was granted for the construction of a 500-acre Water Park. Thunder River and its surrounding area were developed in 1987, and 1988 saw the opening of the 630 seats Palladium Theatre. In 1989 Canada Creek, incorporating Logger’s Leap, was developed. Since 1991 many attractions have been added. In 1996, X:/No Way Out, the world’s first pitch dark, backward roller coaster was introduced and for two years running, in 1996 and 1997, Thorpe Park was voted the most Parent-Friendly leisure in the UK. Pearsons, who owned the Tussa... ...de above regarding surveys and questionnaires are relevant here. The cost of postal surveys tends to be lower, especially as there is no need to employ an interviewer, but the response rate is also generally low, and organizations will often include some kind of incentive, such as free gifts or entry to prize draws, to encourage participation employees Surveys – increasingly, firms are gathering data on customer service by placing interactive questionnaires on their websites and encouraging customers to use them by offering incentives such as free gifts and prize draws. This is a relatively cheap method of research, given that it is normally relatively easy to add questionnaires onto an already established website. Internal surveys – these are surveys that are conducted amongst the organization’s own Comments/suggestion boxes – these are commonly used by organizations to gather basic information and are typically left on restaurant tables, in hotel rooms and near to tills for customers to fill in while they wait. They act like mini-questionnaires - usually made up of a small number of closed-ended questions, in order to encourage a higher completion rate.

Interesting Facts :: essays research papers

Interesting Facts Got this from one of my daily joke emails. Thought it was interesting enough to share : 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple. Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them use to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired." Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village". There are two credit cards for every person in the United States. Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later. "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language. The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards." The most common name in the world is Mohammed. The word "samba" means "to rub navels together." The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher. Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots. Until 1965, driving was done on the left-hand side on roads in Sweden. The conversion to right-hand was done on a weekday at 5pm. All traffic stopped as people switched sides. This time and day were chosen to prevent accidents where drivers would have gotten up in the morning and been too sleepy to realize that *this* was the day of the changeover. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo. Dr. Seuss pronounced "Seuss" such that it rhymed with "rejoice." In Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam." Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson." More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes. The term, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" is from Ancient Rome.

Gay Olympics :: essays research papers

I had always enjoyed the summer Olympics and the way the athletes strive to be their best, but after watching the winter Olympics I couldn’t help but ask, are these really sports. I have no doubt that the races are sport. There is a definite outcome and no dispute over who won. Then you have these other â€Å"sports† like figure skating and ice dancing. Somehow I cannot take any point of view that would support these two as sports. First you have figure skating that requires agility, endurance, stamina, and coordination yet the winner is purely based on the opinion of another. How is that a sport?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Then you have ice dancing†¦ common ice dancing! Through all the rejects that couldn’t make the figure skating squad, lower expectations, and †¦ you know what, just call them ice fairies. That is really what it is. They might as well play Fantasia over and over then judge how well the different animals attempt their aerials. After watching the Apolo Ohno get ripped off in the speed skating, I was treated to the wonderful world of tippy toeing on ice. What kind of transition was that?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Then you have curling, an event that could only have come from the British Isles home of haggis, minced meat pie, and other culinary delights. How does a sport like this even get started? Curling is a combination of shuffle board and sweeping. This is a new addition to the Olympics, one that could have been done without. Tug of War used to be on the program, why didn’t they keep that at least it has a definite outcome. If you haven’t noticed by now, I have ended every paragraph with a question because I really have one question on my mind, are the winter Olympics geared towards women. I would hope that no man alive is sitting at home in anticipation of the ice dancers’ next amazing move. During highlights of figure skating and ice dancing, I look in the audience in amazement of how many proud fathers there are in the audience. I say fathers because that is the only guy I could ever forgive for actually putting any interest into these sports.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This is a shallow view on sports but I have always thought that sports should be determined by a definite outcome, not another’s opinion.

Promoting and Protecting Public Health

– Evaluate the effectiveness of promoting and protecting public health . Lung Cancer [pic] One of the campaigns is lung cancer campaign ‘got a cough, get a check! ’ it shows the symptoms of lung cancer, saying that if you are coughing a lot or if you cough up blood, neck pain and shortness of breath to see your doctor. This will mean that people can be checked earlier than leaving it for it to just get worse.Lung cancer is the most common cause of death ‘’it is known that smokers and ex-smokers have a particularly high risk of developing the disease: although most lung cancers are related to smoking, 10% of people with lung cancer have never smoked. ’’ (http://lungcancercampaign. org/patient-information/). Which links to the smoking campaigns, in 2013 the department of health launches new anti-smoking campaign which highlights cancer risks. ‘’ The campaign has been developed on the back of research which shoes that more than a third of smokers still believe that the health risks associated with smoking are â€Å"greatly exaggerated†. ’ (http://www. guardian. co. uk/media/2012/dec/28/new-year-anti-smoking-campaign-cancer-risks). This campaign will be advertised on the TV and also on billboards; I think that this campaign unlike other will be a lot more effective as the images I feel are disturbing. The campaign advert shows that when you smoke the chemicals you inhale cause mutations in your body, a mutation are how cancer starts. Every 15 cigarettes you smoke will cause a mutation. If you could see the damage you’d stop! [pic]After the advert it shows you were to go to quit smoking, by getting help and get the quit packages. Which is free from the NHS (one of the socio economic factors), the national no smoking day proves that ‘’helping over 1. 5 million smokers quit for good since 1984. And around three quarters of a million people make a quit attempt each No Smoking Day’’(http://www. nosmokingday. org. uk). Which shows that smoking campaigns are working as more people are trying to quit and lot of them are succeeding.Quitting smoking will be a big help on the amount of people who are being diagnosed with lung cancer. Another lung cancer campaign is the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, they have a website which shows people about lung cancer and then how to get in contact for help; they have supporting group to find out how to cope and understanding lung cancer will help the individual find what they need. They have many fundraising and events to help raise money for treatments and to make more campaigns on risks of lung cancer and symptoms of lung cancer.The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation have many campaigns, one of them being supporting the plain packs on cigarettes as ‘’every year, another 340 000 children in the UK are tempted to try smoking’’ (http://www. roycastle. org/news-and-campaigning). [p ic] ‘November is lung cancer awareness month’ and ‘Women against lung cancer’ is some of the campaigns that they run. They also have a campaign aimed at young people who smoke which is known as the Anti-Tobacco Youth Campaign, it is a campaign to make younger people stop smoking at a younger age as the longer a person smokes the higher the risk of cancer is.It aims at making youngsters feel strong enough not be influenced to smoke by social factors. This foundation also wrote to the prime minister, to explain the statistics that they have found about the amount of people dying each year due to lung cancer and smoking. It also says what they want the government to take action on – continue to support work raising awareness of lung cancer signs and symptoms, protect lung cancer clinical nurse specialist posts, ensure continuation of national lung cancer audit and continue to support investment in stop smoking service provision.This is the link to the l etter they send to the prime minister —- http://www. roycastle. org/news-and-campaigning/Campaigns/Open-Letter-to-the-Prime-Minister. [pic] The graph above shows that the amount of deaths from lung cancer related to smoking is dropping after in 1964 it was at its highest rates, but the rate for women dying from smoking related deaths/lung cancer is increasing whereas for men it is decreasing. For lung cancer I feel like there is a lot of campaigns that are helping to minimise cancer for example the national none smoking day ‘’ helping over 1. million smokers quit for good since 1984. And around three quarters of a million people make a quit attempt each No Smoking Day’’. (http://www. nosmokingday. org. uk/). However although all these campaigns and advertising are helping, what happens if people don’t watch the TV much as they are working most of the day then have children, they don’t pay attention to the adverts and also don’t have time to go to different events like the national no smoking day holds.Therefore I think for the future the government should have more advertising on the risks of smoking around the public for example on the windows of the local shops, so when people go in to buy their packs of cigarettes they notice the warning. Also the price of cigarettes should continue to go up, with less jobs these days if people are having to pull out more and more money they may realise cigarettes are too much and they need to spend the money on supporting their family. Sexually Transmitted DiseasesUnfortunately there are not many campaigns for sexually transmitted diseases; one of the most popular ones that people know about is about chlamydia. The chlamydia campaign is the chlamydia screening campaign; it is encouraging people the age of 16-24 to get tested for chlamydia as there are no obvious symptoms for this STI. [pic] There is also a TV advert, from the health protection agency saying that how ma ny people do you need to sleep with before you get chlamydia. I think this campaign is affective as it is confidential, all you need to do it test a number to get a test send out then you post it in – no one needs to know hat you have taken one. Because it is confidential I think more and more people will feel confident to take the test after having sex with someone. However, because this is only for 16-24 year olds this is the bad point that if you are over 24 then you cannot take the test? So what happens if someone is over the age of 24 and think they have chlamydia, how do they get tested and treated? And the age of woman who are catching STIs are rising as there are more divorces these days, so this means they are finding more sexual partners. pic] ‘’Data from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) indicates a worrying increase in sexually transmitted infections with sexual health clinics reporting 482,700 new cases in 2009, which is an increase of around 12,000 on the previous year’’ (http://www. guardian. co. uk/society/2010/aug/25/sexually-transmitted-infections-hit-record-high). The government issuing C cards which is free condoms to attempt to address STI’s. However there are competencies around this, in this case it is called Gillick competencies i. e. he person needs to be assessed as capable and knowledgeable etc. Gillick competence is a term from the law to indicate if a child under the age of 16 is able to consent their own medical treatment. Relating to contraception the Gillick came up with the decision that the prescription of contraception was a matter for the doctor's discretion, and that they could be prescribed to under sixteen’s without parental consent. This is good as many sixteen year olds or under who are sexually active, don’t want to inform their mam or dad that they are having sex.So if they can go and get contraception without parental consent they it will be proven that more kid s are having protected sex. [pic] The chart above shows that over the 4 years from 2006 to 2010 rates aren’t decreasing; in fact there are more people now with chlamydia. There also was a huge increase in those affected with syphilis; although it did decrease a little it isn’t totally decreased. This makes me believe that what the government is doing to prevent STIS and make more people have safe sex isn’t working. They need a different or bigger approach to it!There aren’t enough campaigns on sexually transmitted infections the only one that people know of is the one on chlamydia, which is not linking with gonorrhoea as the test now covers both. I think that the government need to advertise more campaigns on the TV, as there isn’t many that is scaring people of what sleeping with many sexual partners is doing to them. I think it should be more disturbing, not just the symptoms advertised there should be adverts that show what it is doing to the bo dy especially in the long run if the infection is not treated. Reference ttp://lungcancercampaign. org/patient-information/ (accessed 8. 3. 13) http://www. guardian. co. uk/media/2012/dec/28/new-year-anti-smoking-campaign-cancer-risks (accessed 8. 3. 13) http://www. nosmokingday. org. uk (accessed 8. 3. 13) http://www. roycastle. org/news-and-campaigning (accessed 8. 3. 13) http://www. roycastle. org/news-and-campaigning/Campaigns/Open-Letter-to-the-Prime-Minister (accessed 8. 3. 13) http://www. guardian. co. uk/society/2010/aug/25/sexually-transmitted-infections-hit-record-high (accessed 8. 3. 13) http://www. nosmokingday. org. uk/ (accessed 27. 3. 13)