An Investigation on the Role of Fashion Marketers in Brand Management in the UK Research Proposal

Fashion Marketing Proposal

An Investigation on the Role of Fashion Marketers in Brand Management in the UK

 

Introduction

This paper presents a proposal on how fashion marketers perceive their roles in brand management in the United Kingdom. Brand management basically concerns branding and various ways by which brands acquire and sustain value in the marketplace. Fashion is key industry in the UK economy with approximately 110, 000 people employed within the industry. The demand for fashion people that are equipped with business knowledge is constantly growing as well specifically that the shift was apparent toward marketing, marketing communications and distribution and supply chain relationships. The functions and responsibilities of fashion marketers are extended to include contemporary understanding of fashion marketing that is matched with the requirements of the sector. There is therefore the necessity to understand in-depth the diverse roles of fashion marketers in accordance with the requirements of the industry.

 

Background and Context

Fashion marketing combines various elements of advertising, business administration, ergonomics, graphic design and interior decoration for the purpose of taking clothing lines into public’s attention. Fashion marketers are expected to be competent in their field specially in having a good sense of popular culture on what would and could be stylish in the future. Rickman and Cosenza (2007) contend that fashion forecasting and fashion trending is necessary to keep pace with the changing dynamics of the marketplace. Fashion marketers also act as visionaries whom not only recognize the fit between fashion brands on which consumer group but also on knowing how to market these brands to the target groups.  As such, fashion marketers connect designers and the public.

Lea-Greenwood (1997) maintains that fashion marketing communication in the UK domestic arena heavily relied upon the combination of public relations, press office activity and a widespread presence or distribution strategy. Fashion retail brands are challenged with increasing saturation and government regulations hence expansion opportunities were seized. However, UK fashion brands experienced another challenge which is brand awareness of consumers other than the Britons. Newman and Patel (2004) also assert that aside from the brand image, adoption of quality marketing orientations is an important endeavor in fashion marketing. Satisfying the target market through effective marketing strategies is equals to displaying high levels of confidence in the merchandise proposition. Sustainable positioning is an element of fashion marketing that is critical for fashion marketers as this will determine the range of marketing activities that are aligned with fashion consumers.  

Convincing power must be inherent to fashion marketers in order that people should be persuaded to what they think are trendy and fashionable. Goldsmith et al (1999) assert that fashion innovativeness among fashion marketers is based on self-concept. Fashion innovators and their self-image could be a fruitful way to appeal to important consumers. How fashion marketers could effectively manage the brand in compliance the expectations and requirements of both the designers and the public must be explored. For instance, fashion marketers should be experts in the changes that are currently happening and will happen in the UK fashion sector in the future. Moore and Murphy (2000) relate that adoption of products and brands of new target market segments which have been traditionally for other market segments. Fashion marketers must develop an understanding of the motivations which led this specific segment to adopt products and brands or broadly market extension and development.

Saren (2006, p. 221) claims that brands are important to fashion marketers – it is what they create, manage, nurture, love, protect and make huge amounts of money.” With this said, it is the responsibility of the fashion marketers to construct strategic brand management objectives aside from other tasks of creating advertising campaigns that have public appeal and trend-setting. Moore (1995) emphasizes that the reformulation of image and buying strategies require that branding strategies should set apart a brand in an environment with little generic differentiation. Fashion own-branding has emerged as the cornerstone of the marketing strategies of the major retail companies. Seeking to identify the mechanisms by which own-brands are created and maintained is significant for fashion marketers.   

Lifetime customer value is also critical in fashion marketing hence delivering the proposition that will create and capture customer share or simply customers’ spending power is also a must for fashion marketers. According to Hines and Bruce (2007), effective retail design that combines and uses different design concepts to conceptualize and construct a retail space is a key to successful fashion marketing (p. 121). The retail design contributes to the total retail experience hence it is necessary that the needs and desires of the shoppers must be met as this will implicate satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Either of the two, this will reflect the expertise of fashion marketers when it comes to retail designing. Fashion provision and shopping environments are two important components that fashion marketers must be well-informed of (Otieno et al, 2005).

Visual merchandising which combines product, environment and space is created to stimulate and engage display to encourage sale of the products (Easey, 2008, p. 232). Lea-Greenwood (1998) claims that renaming of display as visual merchandising has led to the centralization and professionalism of the function. Visual merchandising benefits the brand through communicating a cohesive brand image, differentiating the offer from the competition, integrating promotional effort across the brand and increasing availability of technology to facilitate the process. However, fashion marketers do not necessarily regard visual merchandising as a strategic process hence neglected within the literature.    

As such, fashion marketers also act as brand managers, however, in what ways and to what extent do fashion marketers identify themselves as brand managers is not known. Specifically, the functions and other responsibilities of fashion marketers when it comes to retail design and visual merchandising are also unknown.

Aim and Objectives

The main aim of this study is to investigate the various roles as well as functions and responsibilities of fashion marketers in brand management particularly in retail designing and visual merchandising. Likewise, another key objective which is to determine how fashion marketers create value through effective brand management will be addressed. In lieu with this, specific objectives that will be addressed are:

1)    Analyze how fashion marketers implements brands

2)    Evaluate what shapes the brand decisions of fashion marketers

3)    Explore challenges faced by fashion marketers when managing the brands

Methodology

            Primary and secondary research will be conducted in the study. In the primary research, the study will survey 25 fashion marketers about how they manage brands. A structured questionnaire will be developed which will be divided into four parts: demographic, brand management, retail designing and visual merchandising. It is planned that the questionnaire will have a 5-point Likert scale and ranking questions.

Aside from the survey, a secondary research will also be performed. Literature review will be built from the insights from journal and book contents. Sometimes, secondary research is required in the preliminary stages of the research to determine what is known already about the topic and what new data are required, or to inform research design. Interpretation will be conducted which can account as qualitative in nature.

Limitations and Risk Assessment

            One of the potential limitations of the study is the number of samples. The target number of samples is small considering the total number of fashion marketers in the UK. However, this may be also valid because the number of sample is adequate to produce the general idea of the roles of fashion marketers in brand management. To compensate, a recommendation for future study will be provided so as to promote the continuous investigation on the issue.

Another limitation is the availability of related literatures about the roles of fashion marketers in effective management of brands in particular retail designing and visual merchandising. An initial research on the internet was already conducted prior to this proposal and it was found that resources that exactly relates with the topic are scarce. However, a good contingency for this is by reviewing literatures on specific variables related to the study topic.

There is an inherent risk for fashion marketers as the respondents of the study and that is the risk of exposing fashion marketing intelligence. Because the study will involve informations about branding and its management, commercial confidentiality of any information obtained will be treated with utmost respect. I will establish with the fashion marketers to be surveyed the use of my data and will ask their permission in case of publishing data.

Time Frame

        TASK

Weeks

1st

2nd

3rd

4th 

5th

6th

7th  

8th

9th

10th

11th 

12th

Read Literature

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finalize Objectives

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Draft Literature Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Devise Research Approach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review Secondary Data

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Organize Survey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Develop Survey Questions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conduct Survey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Analyze secondary & primary data

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evaluate data

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Draft Findings Chapter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Complete remaining chapters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Submit to tutor and await feedback

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Revise draft and format for submission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Print, Bind

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Submit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Easey, M 2008, Fashion Marketing, John Wiley and Sons, New York.

Hines, T & Bruce, M 2007, Fashion marketing: contemporary issues, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, UK.

Goldsmith, R E, Moore, M A & Beaudoin, P 1999, ‘Fashion innovativeness and self-image: a replication,’ Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 7-18.

Lea-Greenwood, G 1997, ‘Marketing communications in the internationalisation of UK fashion brands,’ Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 357-358. 

Lea-Greenwood, G 1998, ‘Visual merchandising: a neglected area in UK fashion marketing,’ International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, vol. 26, no. 8, pp. 324-329.

Moore, C M 1995, ‘From rags to riches – creating and benefiting from the fashion own-brand,’ International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, vol. 23, no. 9, pp. 19-27.

Moore, C & Murphy, R 2000, ‘The strategic exploitation of new market opportunities by British fashion companies,’ Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 15-25.

Newman, A J & Patel, D 2004, ‘The marketing directions of two fashion retailers,’ European Journal of Marketing, vol. 38, no. 7, pp. 770-789.

Otieno, R, Harrow, C & Lea-Greenwood, G 2005, ‘The unhappy shopper, a retail experience: exploring fashion, fit and affordability,’ International Journal of Retail& Distribution Management, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 298-309.

Rickman, T A & Cosenza, R M 2007, ‘The changing digital dynamics of multichannel marketing: the feasibility of the weblog and text mining approach for fast fashion trending,’ Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 604-621.

Saren, M 2006, Marketing graffiti: the view from the street, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, UK. 

 

PROBLEMS USING STANDARD COSTING TECHNIQUE

PROBLEMS USING STANDARD COSTING TECHNIQUE

 

Introduction

Standard costing is widely used by manufacturing companies (1993).  It is a system that absorbs direct materials, direct labor and factory overhead into the production costs.  These three main costs are classified as standard costs which have close relationship with budgeted costs.  Under the condition of normality in operations, it guides corporate managers to identify overall costs of production (2007). 

 

First Problem: Lean production does not fit standard costing

For private firms that aspire to achieve economies of scale to minimize production costs, standard costing can be used when they are under mass production environment (2003).  However, under lean strategy, using standard costing technique may be less functional and even destructive.  As lean production reduces volumes produced as inventories are consumed only after determining amounts of quantity demanded, negative volume variance can ensue.  At this phase, the production process is operating under less than full capacity.  Lower volumes also caused higher per unit overhead costs allocations while lower profits results to negative variances.  Sales team generates low volume of sales with high costs and manufacturing managers cannot justify the budget process due to discrepancies in volume variances.

 

The reason behind the incompatibility of lean production to standard costing is that use of evaluating the latter technique under the traditional costing that is designed to support mass production advantages not lean mechanisms ( 2003).  Under lean production, the company is made profitable by having greater flow of production volumes on the same resources.  In addition, standard cost measurements are labor efficiency, machine utilization, cost variances versus standard, earned value and departmental budget focus.  In the contrary, lean measurements are throughput, cycle time, first time quality, inventory turns and value stream focus.  As a result, standard costing principle is to manufacture more, keep more, utilize at maximum, optimize, track and allocate costs while lean principle is more or less the opposite.  It is suggested that standard cost approach to be replaced by lean approach because the former does not account for available capacity due to the assumption that the company is operating under full capacity already.  In effect, expansion in both geographical, product market and financial market sense would not be a lucrative engagement and growth of such companies is not considered.                              

 

Problem Two: Standard cost is too optimistic

Ideal cost is a type of standard cost which suggests the exclusion of any waste, scrap, inefficiency, delays and other hindrances to achieve full capacity (2000).  However, these events hardly happen in real production process, and even through they merely serve as motivational guides to cost reduction, a profit-oriented company would readily incorporate it in their production principles as way as to discipline workers.  In effect, creativity and self-esteem of employees are undermined.  Physical assets and machineries cannot resist corporate goals to maximum productivity and efficiency which is opposite of humans.  In earlier days of Ford supply chain, workers basically became “non-thinking laborers” due to too much formality and specialized day-to-day tasks aggravated by the introduction of conveyor belts and “man high” line wherein movements became unnecessary and timing was very crucial (2006).  Such drowsy and unchallenging environment was the primary cause of high turnover in 1913 and the company needed to increase spending in retention projects just for the sake of supplier independence on top of production efficiency.

 

The classic example of Ford showed the inability of stand cost technique to focus on employee needs and exploit entrepreneurial skills to achieve profitable strategies.  Budgeted targets used to specify the everyday cost level which is a source of managerial myopia.  As a result, standard costing is dubbed as a technique that leads to inappropriate future decisions (2000).  The main problem is that the technique does not provide enough information to control overheads and other indirect costs like those related to employee turnover or human resource benefits just to hold the current production policy.  In addition, when production overheads multiplier is expressed as additional percentage of product indirect cost, the value would be calculated recursively allowing ever-increasing overheads for a new product.  In effect, the same problems in non-support of direct costing to diversification and expansion are noticed. 

 

Problem Three: Overly-focused on statistical applications

Predetermined cost is composed of standard cost and estimated cost (2000).  Standard cost depends on statistical data and approach used as an index for cost management.  On the other hand, estimated costs are highly subjective and depend of manager’s experience and intuition.  As a result, there can be a conflicting boundary between standard cost and estimated cost which policy implementers may found difficult to address.  For example, having a fixed overhead budget may lead to running a production line in its full capacity even if unnecessary.  In effect, although the budget is obtained, holding costs for sizeable stocks rise which is an alternative disruption to the effectiveness of a budget system.  This scenario is in accordance to (1995) that traditional systems transform managers to act in suboptimal manner.  Further, over-emphasized with statistical variances lead to conclusions of  (2000) on the inability of the management to select a more company-wide strategy rather local ones.  Such admonition is in the case of managerial myopia to prefer static product base to prevent substantial product mix variances even if the market indicated market saturation for the current product lines.

 

 

 

Conclusion

For private sector, direct costing technique would not be applied simply because there are successful companies such as Dell Corporation that uses lean production.  As Dell attributes its supply chain achievement to the Internet and networking capabilities, the continuously growing businesses will continue to use new technologies to be competitive.  However, loopholes in direct costing principle may hinder such gain competitive advantage in this fast changing environment.

 

For the public sector, direct costing technique would be undermined because of the greater influence of leaders in decision-making.  In effect, political aims will prevent internal control to use over optimistic and formal approach in success evaluation of governance.  Projects and public investments will be allocated in areas that have been promised by elected candidates rather than allocating them in highly efficient industries or sectors that can give efficiency advantages and economies of scale.           

 

 

Motor Car Industry – BMW Case Study

Motor Car Industry – BMW 

Introduction

This particular case study is focused on motor car industry from gathering of analysis points of BMW. Choosing of Ford business as the focus for motor car manufacturing business upon gathering of relevant knowledge that links positively to PESTLE and Porter’s five forces model allowing to integrate such detailed analysis from understanding the business environment and recognize issues into realizing awareness to BMW’s competitive environment

Discussion

The paper will be focusing on two business environment analysis for BMW business as one motor car manufacturer and that the analysis does pertain to PESTLE analysis and Five Forces Model Analysis as created by Michael Porter, as it is imperative tool for determining in success and failures of BMW’s business operations and management mostly when it comes to car manufacturing industry.  There has been the need to amiably evaluate the development of corporate level strategy and the corresponding business units and operational strategies from within ways of dealing with changes in the business macro as well as micro business environment and within BMW, it is useful to work with certain analytical tools. To be able to evaluate the strategic position of BMW, it is essential to analyze the relevant environment and it can start with BMW’s macro-environment which refers to the broader influential factors for other business organizations. Henceforth, PESTEL analysis will be used to examine political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, environmental and legal forces (Johnson and Scholes, 2002). The next step is to look at Ford as one example of motor  car manufacturing industry. Thus, Porter’s Five Forces (Porter, 1980) are going to be used to evaluate competitive forces within this industry as there helps to analyze and understand Ford’s business environment (Johnson and Scholes, 2002).

 

PESTLE Analysis

There is a need to execute PESTLE analysis for BMW  in lieu to identifying the external factors in favor of their car business environment as well as business centered operations. The business environment of BMW consists of all the external influences that affect its decisions and performance, starting point is some framework for organizing information. Though systematic, continuous scanning of the whole range of external influences might seem desirable, such extensive environmental analysis is unlikely to be cost effective and creates information overload. The prerequisite for effective environmental analysis is to distinguish the vital from the merely important. For BMW to make profit it must create value for customers, BMW must understand its customers, in creating value, the BMW acquires goods and services from suppliers, how to form BMW business relationships with them. Thus, the core of BMW’s business environment is formed by its relationships with three sets of players: customers, suppliers, and competitors, the industry environment. For BMW producers, the automobile manufacturers need to trace its implications for their industry environment

Political and Legal Factor

There is presence of political and legal factors that has influence towards BMW car manufacturer as there entail to automobile policies from within government’s interference as important as possible. There was declaring of automotive industry as one pillar industry as BMW have adopted the big three – small three plan by concentrating the company’s efforts on motor car manufacturers that BMW is aware of. The BMW have succeeded in speeding up their research and development as well as other operations that linked them to follow car manufacturing policies (Govind, 2006). The BMW wanted to protect its car business from competition and encouraged technology transfer by changing the laws on some foreign investments and joint ventures as the situation is supported by the government where BMW is based from, required to transfer technical knowledge to other business partners and establishing of joint car centers for BMW workers (Govind, 2006). The open door policy and entrance of global competition are to force BMW out of the market, to increase in car exports within high technology motor car parts as expected to have an impact on quality made BMW cars. Considering the distribution in the automotive industry, BMW car producers do not carry out the distribution of their products by themselves but they organize it through a dense network of authorized dealers whose function is to resell the products to the final consumer.

Economical

The motor car manufacturing industry is rapidly growing in terms of sales as BMW sales increased by 62 percent reaching 1.23 million of manufactured cars and it can be that sales of other BMW cars increased by 22 percent in the year 2004 up to 2008 while sales of other services have maintained and German car industry can lead the car business industry in the near future as in the production of BMW hot cars, sports cars for the world market Europe leads with a share of 39 percent of BMW car production followed by some other manufacturers.    

 Social

The German class is growing from an outracing pace, 10.5 percent is actual growth according to BMW annual report of 2005, there can be rising issue involving social awareness at BMW such as the social awareness of pollution which leads to people to cater to BMW services and supported by German government policies, as well as consumer behavior is being affected negatively by some unstable issues of motor car manufacturing industry such as placed in due to high technology demand and the presence of globalization trends that BMW customers might be looking for upon purchase or buying BMW cars.

Technological

There was global financial crisis, affecting mostly on the technology processes and advances which is of major function stake at BMW as well as global oil production that peak and demand outstrip BMW car production as BMW and the rest of the car makers are researching in alternative fuels and there hope for an efficient technology stability in terms of energy reserves to keep in quality products and services at all times as there can be utilization of hydro fuel cells for BMW motor cars as possible. 

Environmental

BMW manufacturers and management have agreed to focus on emission and pollution issues found in the car manufacturing industry and to create formal emission standards of services and car quality assurance for a green and safe environment and BMW adopted to innovative rules regarding emission and pollution control levels as passed by the German government, BMW to take new regulations into consideration when marketing models and refit for new environment standards, closing emission and pollution standard gap is critical for the BMW business that wanted to approach success towards car manufacturing market stature.

 

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis

The competition in BMW car industry is very stiff, especially in companies known as the “BIG FIVE”. Since car manufacturing business target effective market segments, these industries must be able to be more competitive in the market place than the other through the use of an effective and efficient marketing strategy. Accordingly, the ability of the BMW business to meet the needs of their target market is an important aspect of marketing strategy and their marketing function to remain competitive in global market. Obtaining customer satisfaction encourages clients to patronize the products or services of BMW motor cars produced by BMW,  even recommend them to others. While Porter’s model is essential, BMW must be able to implement unique and distinctive marketing and business strategy to maintain competitive position in the car manufacturing market. Porter’s Five Forces model shows the relations between the potential competitors, competitors within the industry, buyers, suppliers and alternative solutions. This is actually used in order to assess the value or attractiveness of an industry or business to be able to know which marketing strategy should be implemented in BMW business.  Rivalry is considered to be the strongest and most important force in Porter’s model. It represents the presence and number of firms competing for each other’s economic profits. The level of rivalry in BMW can be described as low or high. This is mainly due to the presence of several car manufacturing competing companies. Moreover, rivalry level increases because of product and service differentiation inadequacy. For instance, the competitors of BMW can be noted as very aggressive in making fresh moves so as to increase sales and market share. Aside from this situation, BMW manufacturers are targeting similar market segments, making the level of rivalry even higher.

 

The threat on entrants is highly dependent on the presence of factors known as barriers of entry. Basically, barriers to entry could increase or decrease the chances of BMW business offering products that could rival those produced by some car companies. Naturally, if the barriers are high, the threat on entrants will be low due to risks of decreased market share potential. There are several examples of barriers to entry. These includes German government regulations, trade restriction and inaccessibility of major distribution channels. For BMW, the entrant factor can be considered as fair due to some reasons. One of which is the fact that BMW operations assume tough business demand in a considerable BMW car manufacturing capital. A great deal of capital will not only be necessary for putting up BMW business but also in acquiring the best professionals and technology for BMW product development as well as BMW marketing. Moreover, time is necessary for BMW to flourish in car business as various manufacturers  have spend many years of business operation before BMW became successful car manufacturer, aside from capital and time, entering the car industry and competing with existing car business can be difficult due to customer loyalty and strong BMW service factors.

Another aspect of Porter’s five forces pertains to the power of the buyers over BMW car manufacturer. In the case of BMW industry, the buyer power is high. This assessment is based on the nature of buyer power sources surrounding the company. In particular, the demand for the products produced by the company is reduced due to a number of economic factors, these factors are difficult to predict, the demand can then decrease at any point. This in turn increases the level of buyer power. Aside from this, the presence of several substitutes also heightens buyer power. In addition, due to several competitors, products and services offered to consumers are undifferentiated. The power of the suppliers with BMW is fair. This is because supplier concentration for the car business industry need can be low  as the BMW industry can deal with other suppliers for its car production. Considering that BMW industry is leading car company recognized for providing quality products, other suppliers will be very willing to supply goods in other ways. However, BMW car industry should note that healthy relation with suppliers is as important as dealing to potential car buyers and customers, it is imperative for BMW to refrain from changing one supplier to the next.  The consumers then have several product options to choose from, making the level of substitutes high for other car industries (Henderson and Mihas, 2000). Using the Porter’s Five Forces Model, the competition for BMW industry will depend on the manufacturers in which the motor car industry have, the BMW competition does not only effective within car business industry but also to BMW’s rival and competitors. Moreover, the competition on BMW labeling is tight since consumers have different taste when it comes to car types and its brand names, BMW will get their supplies from those buyers who wanted to use BMW services from within promotion and ads agency. The BMW business will need to utilize the internet world in bringing in of innovative car products and services as due to technology advancement domain however, BMW’s marketing and strategies may have its own BMW service options and or substitute (Henderson and Mihas, 2000).

Conclusion

Therefore, Porter made valuable contributions in identifying important factors that contribute to national advantage, certain facts may not be supported by his model. For example, he suggests that the geographic concentration of industries is vitally important. Porter mentions that the automobile industry has become competitive due to the proximity of the supportive industry (Porter, 1990). While it is true that car companies such as Mercedes, BMW and Porsche are located in these areas, Porter’s model has only limited validity with respect to the importance of geographic concentration in motor car industry. Although Porter’s model provides a useful framework for analyzing the environment, especially the economic one, it does not require government policy makers to develop responsible alternative strategies that create and maintain a competitive advantage for their nations. His analysis of the competitive situation is mainly descriptive and does not necessarily result in the formulation of alternative strategies. Porter pointed out that five competitive forces determine industrial profitability: threat of new entrants; bargaining power of suppliers; bargaining power of buyers; substitutes; and rivalry among existing competitors (Porter, 1990) and makes unique BMW business. Furthermore, opportunities created through the car manufacturing industry allows free flow of capital, guided by common regulations governing financial transactions such as branch expansion revolves around the establishment of BMW branches throughout the business environment  Although the well-known management consulting company of McKinsey estimated that 40 percent of cross-border mergers of large companies result in failure, BMW successfully acquired the British Rover Group Holdings plc with the help of the strong German currency. This acquisition gave BMW head-start in producing a sports-utility vehicle, thus increasing its domestic competitiveness over its German archrival, Mercedes Benz. Michael Porter suggested that such rivalry contributes to a nation’s competitive advantage (Warner et al., 1995). Despite increased productivity, German workers are not much more productive than their Japanese counterparts to justify the world’s highest labor costs (The Economist, 1996). Such wage differentials make it very attractive for companies such as BMW to set up plants in Asia and the USA. In fact, BMW opened an assembly plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina early of the year 1997 (The Economist, 1996). Driven by BMW’s desire to be effective car manufacturer into the expanding market, there has been risks sharing its technology without sufficient protection (Templeman, 1995). Although the details of this venture are still being worked out, such projects show the dilemma and risks that companies face when entering countries like China which provide weak protection for technologies and intellectual property rights. The emergence of highly competitive industries due to the effect of information technology, particularly as presented in PESTLE as there changed the business environment in which BMW operates. Moreover, marketing strategies evolved to encourage direct interaction between producers and consumers in car  market wherein consumers have more complete information about BMW goods and services. In the Porter’s analysis it is noted that BMW environment  are challenged with high competition about the buyer and supplier powers, existence of substitute products and rival music industries and such changes in the relationships between consumers are taking place in the car industry. BMW must be able to utilize each chosen business model to generate loyalty among its customers; BMW must have the capability of prioritizing quality motor car services to offer to potential buyers or customers, the need for BMWto provide good manufactured products that would get the manufacturers be involved in business process.

 

References

 

Govind, S. (2006). A note on the Chinese Automobile Industry. The ICFAAI Center for Management Research

 

Henderson, T. and Mihas, E. (2000). Building Retail Brands. The McKinsey Quarterly, p. 110

 

Johnson, G, Scholes, K (2002). Exploring Corporate Strategy – Text and Cases, Prentice-Hall, Hemel Hempstead

 

Porter, M. E. (1980). Competitive Strategy. Free Pres

 

Porter, M.E. (1990). The Competitive Advantage of Nations, The Free Press, New York, NY

 

Templeman, J. (1995). A serious blow to German competitiveness, Business Week

 

The Economist (1996)

 

Warner, J., Templeman, J., Horn, R. (1995). The world is not always your oyster, Business Week

 

 

 

THE POLITICAL AND LEGAL ENVIRONMENT OF INTERNATIONAL MARKETS

Political and Legal Environment of International Markets

 

This paper takes a look on the political and legal environment of the global marketplace. It discusses the implications of a country’s legal and political framework in the establishment of foreign firms.

 

As a firm becomes involved in international activities, it becomes more engaged with foreign people and institutions. Like their domestic counterparts, international firms have to meet the external political challenges thrown at them except that these are more complex and varied due to the ‘world’ in which they operate. These challenges vary depending on the degree of internationalization of the companies concerned.

The governments of countries from which they operate play a significant role in the principle of trade. Government policies such those that issues permits on imports and exports affect the decisions to grant and withhold such permits. Similarly, the government can place severe restrictions or ban on certain products. On the other hand, liberal minded countries encourage exports and imports enabling the free flow of goods and services to and from their country. Permissions are usually subjected to health, safety and other non political conditions with exceptions to those non friendly countries (, 2000, )

A potential obstacle to firms wanting to enter the foreign market is the inadequacy of the legal, political and regulatory framework. A high degree of centralized control such that of China causes the firms to evaluate the level of political and business risk prior to their market entry.

The country’s political relations with the host country may become a major issue in the firm’s operations. Bans on trade can be implemented due to the countries’ misconduct on investors. A country’s colonial history may also be taken against the firm. Indeed, issues of the political environment are significant for international firms. Countries liken Russia have unstable governments whose policies may be changed if new leader are installed. Other countries also hold a little tradition of democracy which makes it difficult to operate.

In addition to this, the legal systems differ from one country to another. In this case, contracts may be done to even out the differences and specify in advance which laws are applicable. Treaties are also used to settle jurisdictions in which case their laws are applied to actions such as anti-competitive behavior.

The legal systems of other countries such as the United States are relatively transparent. However, some countries do not reinforced laws such as anti trust law. The limited access to legal systems is one of the serious problems among countries. Because of these there appears to be a means to redress the grievances of the parties involved.

Different legal systems are implemented in countries all over the world. In the United States, the system which is in effect is the common law. Such legal system is based on the legal tradition of precedent. In this sense, a new issue that arises from each case is considered on their merits and therefore becomes precedent for future decisions on those same issues. Europe on the other hand is guided by the code law. In this system, judges who are tasked in matching laws to situations are given a shorter leeway (‘’, 2007).

Islamic Laws which are based on the teachings of the Koran mandates prohibitions such as excessive interest rates. Because of this, Islamic countries ban interest rates while it may be tolerated by some for some reasons. This law is based primarily on the law of God rather than the requirements of the government.  The Socialist Law is guided by the notion that the government is always right and thus companies are compelled to do what the government dictates. Countries in Eastern Europe and Russia that are formerly under the communist regime are advancing their legal systems in order to accommodate the free trade and market (‘’, 2007).

            International organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) also help to facilitate the rules of trade between nations at the global level. It consists of agreements that are negotiated and signed by the world’s trading nations. Such provide legal ground rules for the implementation of international commerce. Contracts are essentially included to bund governments and keep their trade within the agreed limits (‘’, 2007).

            Generally, the legal and political environment in the international market must be understood well before the firm enters to the marketplace. Primarily because these factors have a great impact on the way they can operate. Additionally, the firms can engage in international organizations that facilitate the free trade among countries. This way legal rules will be provided that will serve as guide to the agreements of the trading countries.

 

References

Nurses role in swallowing assessment

Written Assessment Part B

Improving Clinical Practice – Reviewing & Evaluating the relationship between learning strategies and practice improvement

 

            In geriatric care, swallowing assessment is an important evaluative process because the results have important implications to the health of the elderly patients. In actual practice, nurses usually initially do the application of the swallowing assessment because they take charge of feeding and swallowing assessment is needed in determining the ability of the elderly patient to take in food (2002). Moreover, nurses frequently attend to the needs of geriatric patients (2000) as part of regular routine checks or evaluate changing conditions of patients that could become critical. This means that it is important for nurses to recognize the importance of conducting the swallowing test, master the application of the test, and accurately understand or interpret the results. Practical knowledge in applying swallowing assessment is achieved through the learning derived from theoretical sources that are tested through actual observations and case experiences of nurses. It is important for carers to become perceptive of learning derivable from experience and reflect on the new things learned as well as the corroboration of theoretical learning from actual practice or experience. The direction of continuous learning should be towards the enhancement of knowledge and skills directed towards improving the care for patients.

            Existing literature points to the need for carers to view swallowing as an important assessment measure for the condition of elderly patients. Swallowing dysfunctions such as dysphagia constitutes a general problem for geriatric patients (2000) more than younger patients. Estimated pervasiveness of dysphagia for the younger age groups is from 25 percent to 45 percent in patients receiving acute care ( 2003) while in the elderly patients the dysphagia prevalence ranges from 60 percent to higher percentages. This means that carers of geriatric patients need to perceive swallowing dysfunctions as important determinants of the condition of the patient and recognize the need to use the swallowing test to assess the ability of the patient to ingest food and the overall condition of elderly patients.

            Reasons for the higher prevalence of dysphagia in the older age group vary. (2000) explains that neurological conditions prevalent in the elderly cause swallowing dysfunctions.  (2001) and  together with S (2001) add that stroke diseases could contribute to the dysfunction in the swallowing capabilities of patients.  (2002) and , (2002) explain that the neurological condition Parkinson’s disease could impair the speech and motor skills of patients resulting to swallowing disorders.  (2001) discuss that dementia could also result to dysphagia because of changes in behaviour and physiology of swallowing of elderly patients exhibiting dementia. If the swallowing disorder of patients is not detected, this could lead to dehydration and malnutrition as well as the impairment of the overall quality of life or health of the elderly patient.  (2002) further explains that ageing has a recognized link to changes in the physiology of the elderly that also affects the swallowing process. Swallowing assessment serves the important purpose of determining the symptoms of elderly patients, to determine the particular cause of the exhibited dysphagia and apply the appropriate intervention. The different causes of dysphagia also entail various interventions and the carer needs to identify the cause to determine the applicable intervention. Carers can achieve this by recognizing the importance of swallowing assessment and mastering this process.

            Apart from the prevalence of dysphagia in the elderly,  (2003) provide that swallowing dysfunction also constitutes a salient reason for morbidity and mortality for the older age group. Swallowing disorder constitutes a significant risk factor that could lead to aspiration pneumonia. This condition then has a strong link to the mortality rate reaching 45 percent of elderly patients receiving hospital care for aspiration pneumonia. This means that preventing and managing the aspiration of elderly patients together with the complications that could occur are important. Even during the early stages of hospitalization, carers should be able to identify the elderly patients experiencing swallowing difficulties to prevent and anticipate possible future complications. Again, competence of carers in applying swallowing tests becomes important in assessing the swallowing conditions of elderly patients from the commencement of their hospitalization and extending throughout the duration of the care.

            In evaluating the swallowing condition of elderly patients, bedside assessment is the common screening tool. Dysphagia is a swallowing dysfunction occurring in four stages, which are oral preparatory, oral, pharyngeal and esophageal ( 2003). The severity of the swallowing dysfunction of the elderly patient depends upon the observed or recorded symptoms derived from the bedside swallowing assessment. This means that nurses should know what risk factors to look for in assessing the severity of the swallowing condition of the patient. In the case of determining whether the elderly patient can ingest food, the first level of observation is the whether the elderly patient exhibits LOC impairment, secretion management difficulties, wet voice sound, and coughing or choking when the patient is administered with small amounts of liquid or solid food based on the patient’s remarks or the family of the patient. In case the patient does not exhibit any or all of these symptoms, then this means that the patient can support the oral ingestion of food. Further test is the water swallowing evaluation. The elderly patient should be in a sitting position and administered with small amount of cool water while the nurse places the middle and index fingers over the tyroid cartilage of the patient. If the patient takes a sip and the nurse feels a difficulty of the patient in ingesting the water, then this means that the patient has a swallowing dysfunction and oral food should be stopped. If the patient can orally ingest fluids, a similar test should be made for solid food to determine the type of food that the patient can ingest orally. The severity of the swallowing dysfunction of the patient depends upon the observation of more symptoms.

            Apart from conducting the swallowing test to determine the capability of the elderly patient to take in food, the bedside test could also determine the cause of the swallowing problem. Stroke disease is the cause of the swallowing disorder when the physiological changes in the elderly patient attributable to the stroke are directly linked to the concurrent difficulties of the elderly patient in swallowing. Parkinson’s disease is the cause of dysphagia when the elderly patient exhibits impairment of speech and motor skills that also affects the ability of the elderly patient to swallow. Dementia is the primary cause of the dysphagia when the elderly patient shows behavioural changes that affect the ability to swallow.

            Depending upon the extent and the cause of dysphagia, the carer determines the intervention such as recommending the shift from oral to intravenous feeding if the cause is stroke or Parkinson’s disease and the treatment of the dementia to bring back the swallowing capability of the elderly patient. The determination of the proper intervention happens on a context basis since even patients with similar symptoms may require different interventions. This means that carers should be able to perceive specific needs based on the extent and range of their experience with dysphagia. However, the problem is the lack of simple clinical tools specially developed to test for swallowing dysfunction in the case of geriatric patients for application in a general ward context. Moreover, divergent views over the effectiveness of different swallowing tests without determining tests that work in the general ward context resulted to the minimal importance given to the development of swallowing tests or measures derived from best practices in the context of geriatric care.

              Clinical indices used in swallowing tests have been subject to differing opinions. Earlier literature discusses the significance of using indices in determining swallowing dysfunction in elderly patients. Indices tested include the amount of water that geriatric patients are able to swallow and the extent that patients can manage saliva. In these studies, these indices were useful in determining elderly patients with dysphagia and the extent of their swallowing disorders. However, these indices have been criticized in a number of studies. (2000; 2003) criticize existing clinical indices as lacking in sensitivity to validly identify patients with swallowing dysfunction and lacking in specificity to determine the cause of the dysphagia. While the claims of these critical studies have pointed out the limitations of existing indices, these have not been able to provide alternative indices. This means that effectively applying the swallowing test depends upon the knowledge and experiences of healthcare professionals working in various areas of healthcare. In the case of the nursing practice, there is need to develop clinical indices for standard use in different major healthcare areas such as geriatric care. Indices find bases from the experiences of nurses in geriatric care so that reflective assessment of experiences coupled with information sharing becomes a crucial aspect of the determination of standard indices able to accurately identify the elder patients with swallowing dysfunction, determine the extent of dysphagia, and link the swallowing disorder symptoms to the specific cause or causes of the dysphagia.

            Bulk of existing literature is highly focused on only two patient groups. The first group of patients comprises those who have recently experienced stroke. This group was not delineated according to age group so that these have not taken into consideration differences in the physiological factors that could differentiate the experiences of younger age groups and the elderly who have experienced stroke. The second group of patients is made of those patients who have been confined in facilities offering long-term care. This grouping also involves a wide range of patients from geriatric patients to the patients undergoing rehabilitation for physical or mental impairments. There could also be significant differences in the symptoms and causes of swallowing disorder among these different patient classifications requiring various interventions or treatments. Only a limited number of studies focusing on dysphagia as experienced by elderly patients who have become acutely ill have been made or dysphagia brought about by age-based causes. This is important in order to develop best practices on swallowing tests and indices that apply in the specific context of geriatric care. The development of best practices could also encourage healthcare workers to apply these tests in elderly patients receiving care even in the ward setting. Nursing practitioners would be able to apply swallowing tests for different patient contexts to derive accurate results and interpret the results based on the specific healthcare context of the patient. Due to these limitations in existing literature, reflective nursing practice is necessary to develop swallowing assessment measures based on geriatric care practice. Moreover, sharing of information is important to develop standards in swallowing assessment that comprises the criteria for applying swallowing tests but also assessing the accuracy of the reporting of observations, interpretation of observations, and recommendation of alternatives.      

            Apart from developing standard swallowing assessments and interpretation of results, (2000) suggest the need to introduce a simple but effective swallowing test for elderly patients. They suggested the swallowing test that measured age-based changes in the swallowing physiology of elderly patients such as delayed swallowing using the water test together with measures to determine aspiration risks such as coughing when swallowing, drooling, and dysphonia or voice alterations. The measures considered in the test recommended by the authors were based on the integration of various tests, which when considered individually will not lead to accurate results but if taken together increase the reliability of the results and the interpretation of the observations. This constitutes a simple swallowing assessment developed especially in the context of geriatric care. In relation to nursing practice, knowing this simple test would empower nurses to identify patients with swallowing disorder and collaborate with other healthcare professionals such as doctors and speech therapists in interpreting the results and determining the appropriate intervention or treatment that would improve the health and well-being of elderly patients. Moreover, in case of differences in interpretation or treatment recommended, the results of the simple swallowing assessment constitute the determining factor.