Property Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Property Law - Essay Example However, in due course the differentiation between a will and a testament has become thin, and people use the term, will, to refer to a statement that both disposes of both personal property and real property. In the event an individual dies without drafting a will, the state proceeds to distribute the person’s estate in accordance with the laws of Descent and Distribution of the person’s stateii. The significance of a will is diverse from the fact that it gives the drafter a chance to choose the people who will be heirs to his property. It also allows the testator to decide the people who will execute their estate, and using fairness in distributing their wealth, in place of the court appointing a stranger to allocate the estate to the family. Another importance of a will is the fact that the testator can protect the interests of the people close to him, and those of his children in choosing who their guardian would be in the event of the testator’s death. When writing a will the law requires the testator give information as to who will take care of their children incase the stated guard dies before the execution of the will. This may include the other benefactors of the will in the event they die before the execution of the will. ... Requirements for a Will to be Valid The first requirement is that the testator, the person making the will must declare himself as the testator and that he revokes any previous will either express or impliediii. The person should also have the mental capacity to make a valid will at the time of drafting of the will. The person making the will to be accepted by the law as making a valid will through mental capability must be at least 18 years and above, bar for any exceptions provided for by law. Another indication of whether the person has the capacity to make a valid will is that they ought to be of sound mind, understanding, and memory. This is to mean that the person ought to be aware of what they are writing and its implications. It is essential to note that the Mental Capacity Act of 2005 does not have provisions for invalidating a will; that has already been prepared by an individual of unsound mind. There is normally the assumption of intention, in that if a will is validly ex ecuted and the person is of sound mind during the process of execution. This is the third requirement of a valid will; that the testator must have an intention to dispose of their properly as per the will upon the testator’s death. The third requirement is that there should be no traces of undue influence, force and/or fraud. If the court can establish that the testator was either pressured into making the will, or if the execution of the will was through fraudulent means, then it may set aside part of the will, or will in its entiretyiv. It is mandatory for the testator to sign the will or have someone sign it for them; the will must not be necessarily in writing. In most

PepsiCo’s Restaurants Essay Example for Free

PepsiCo’s Restaurants Essay In the case study, PepsiCo is considering in Carts of Colorado and/or California Pizza Kitchen. Senior Management is faced with the question of whether the necessary capital investment in order to purchase one or both of the businesses can be profitable for each of the acquired businesses, but must also take into consideration that the additional business units will not hinder the profitability PepsiCo itself. Would investing in other companies be the best way to expand PepsiCo? This question is important because it could affect the success of the company. By investing in a company PepsiCo started from Pepsi-Cola and then moved into a more diversified business with mainly soft drinks, snack foods and restaurants. In early 1990s, PepsiCo’s restaurant business is composed of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC, all of them are business leaders in their segment. 1By investing in C1a1r1t1s1 1o1f1 1C1o1l1o1r1a1d1o1, it1 1w1o1u1l1d1 1e1n1a1b1l1e1 1P1e1p1s1i1C1o1 1t1o1 1e1n1t1e1r1 1n1e1w1 1m1a1r1k1e1t1 1a1n1d1 1n1e1w1 1c1u1s1t1o1m1e1r1s1 1a1n1d1 1h1e1l1p1 1t1o1 1a1c1c1e1l1e1r1a1t1e1 1t1h1e1 1s1a1l1e1s1 1g1r1o1w1t1h1 1b1e1s1i1d1e1s1 1o1f1 1o1r1g1a1n1i1c1 1g1r1o1w1t1h. The Cart of Colorado’s (COC) industry is subject to strict government regulations and the uncertain demand for carts and kiosks, so the attractiveness to enter this industry is between low and medium. COC had succeeded in purchasing their largest competitor that generated sales of $2.5 million in 1990, which gives them potential to grow in the manufacturing and merchandising of mobile food carts and kiosks industry. PepsiCo will gain competitive advantage for its link with COC because it will be able to customize the carts and kiosk for its fast food chain; it is more aligned with PepsiCo’s current strategies of quick service. However, the tradeoff will be PepsiCo may focus on too many different strategies and product markets. Focusing on the same customer targets can minimize this tradeoff. It will be an advantage for PepsiCo should go and form a strategic alliance with COC. PepsiCo can use the carts to expand their KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut businesses. In my opinion, I think it would be in PepsiCo’s best interest to invest in the two companies because in this case they are both successful and would help boost PepsiCo sales.

Changes to the Concept of Mass Audience

Changes to the Concept of Mass Audience Is the concept of the mass audience becoming increasingly redundant as new communications technologies such as the internet and interactive tv develop. In order to understand whether the concept of the mass audience is still influential, with regard to new communications such as the internet and interactive TV, one will first need to know the meaning attached to the concept of mass audience theory.   Blumer (1950) argues that mass audience theory can be described in four parts.   Firstly, the mass audience may come from all walks of life, and from all distinguishable social strata; it may include people of different class position, of different vocation, of different cultural attainment, and of different wealth etc. Secondly, the mass is an anonymous group, or more exactly is composed of anonymous individuals (he means anonymous in the sense that unlike the citizens of earlier communities, the people who are members of the mass audience for the media do not know each other).   Thirdly, there exists little interaction or change of experience between members of the mass.   They are usually physically separated from one another, and, being anonymous, do not have the opportunity to mill as do members of the crowd.   Fourth, the mass is very loosely organised and is not able to act with the concertedness or unity of a crowd.   His statement was five years after the second world war.   This was during and after a period when the media was used as propaganda, through films, radio, and poster art that they had attempted to persuade mass audiences to follow their policies, in which to the critics of the time it is not surprising that the media must have seemed like a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands, capable of persuading millions to follow evil men.   The concept of the mass audience is essential to our understanding of the media.   It is the public in whose name programs are made and laws are passed.   It is the commodity that supports commercial broadcasting.   It is the arena in which the effects of mass communications are played out.   It is the place where the meanings and pleasures of media use are ultimately realized.   The audience, in short, is the foundation of the media’s economic and cultural power, whereby, without it, the entire enterprise has very little purpose, Webster and Phalen (1997).   The idea of an audience is common to both academic theory and industry practice.   As McQuail (2005) puts it, it is one of the few terms which can be shared without difficulty by media practitioners and theorists alike.   In most cases the audience is conceptualized as a large, loosely connected mass on the receiving end of the media.   In addition to this there are sufficient reasons to wonder whether the term audience is still a useful one, especially as there are so many kinds of use of many different communications media.   The term audience cannot easily be divested of its strong connotation of spectatorship, of rather passive watching and listening.   It is also closely tied in meaning to the reception of some message despite the fact that we know audience behaviour to involve several equally important motives or satisfactions, for example, social togetherness and the pleasures of actual use of a medium, regardless of content.   Despite this, there seems to be no viable alternative term, and so it will be used to cover diverse occasions.   In addition, Livingston (2002) comes to a similar conclusion, noting that no one term can be expected to cover the variety of relationships which now exist between people and the media.   She also adds that what is central is the nature of the relationship, rather than an artificial concept.   With this in mind one will move on to talk about the validity of the concept of the ‘mass audience’ becoming redundant as new communication technologies such as the internet and interactive TV develop.   Now, technology can be said to be one of the greatest challenges to the media in recent years, and one that will intensify further in the 21st century.   Its potential impact on the form and content of media output, the processes through which media messages are produced and consumed, and on the role of the media in society is bound to escalate to a level never seen before.   Such challenges are not new as the history of the mass media is a history of technological development with profound social consequences and implications at every stage.   There are however, strong grounds for believing that contemporary media are undergoing particularly dramatic technologically driven change, heralded by a qualitative new phase in the cultures of advanced capitalism.   This is a time that will be characterized by media interactivity, accessibility and diversity, with new freedoms for the audiences (or the consumer) McNair (1996).   It will also be the era of universally available cyberporn, information overload, and the decline or disappearance of some traditional media.   Cyberporn for example, is one big issue which has prompted some politicians and other interested parties to be pessimistic about the impact of these new technologies on the quality of cultural life.  Ã‚   The internet which is also known as the information superhighway through which information can be passed at an unprecedented rate, is a new medium which is currently having a strong impact on the production and consumption (mass audience) of the media.   The internet links millions of individual users and networks by satellite and cable, offering access to the Worldwide Web mainly used by commercial organizations and Usenet, a network for private individuals organized in to thousands of newsgroups.   These facilities can be used for advertising and promotion (including that of university departments, many of which now have a Web page profiling their activities); for on-line publishing of the type discussed earlier in the discussion of print media; and for communication between individuals by e-mail.   The latter maybe used for the circulation of data by researchers (for example, one could subscribe to a Latin American based services supplying up-to-date information about the Latin American media) or for a two way communication between geographically disparate users with a common interest.   As the internet develops and the infrastructure becomes more sophisticated it has become routine for virtual conversations to take place in cyberspace involving many individuals sending and receiving messages almost as quickly as if they were in the same room.   The power of the internet was first demonstrated during the San Francisco earthquake of January 1994, when it was used to send out the first information about the disaster, beating CNN and other news organizations to the Scoop.   But the significance of the internet for media culture goes beyond that of another leap in the speed of information dissemination.   It constitutes an entirely new medium, harnessing the vast information-handling potential of modern computers, now easily accessible to the mass consumer market as well as the traditional scientific and industrial users, and the distributive power of cable and satellite delivery systems.   The internet presents a further, and to date the most radical dissolution of the barriers of time and space which have constrained human communication since after the Second World War.   Speculation about what the Internet will do for and to human society abounds.   From one perspective, which we might describe as utopian; the Internet does indeed herald the emergence of a true global village, a benign virtual community accessible to anyone with a computer terminal and a knowledge of how to use it.   This perspective stresses the accessibility and interactivity of the new medium; the fact that it allows ordinary people to communicate across continents at the pressing of a return key on the keyboard of the computer, at relatively low cost (by comparison with telephone and fax), on all different types of issues and subjects.   The internet is not owned by any state or multinational company, and no state or company can control its use.   The internet’s relative freedom from the commercial and political constraints which have accompanied all previous communicative media, combined with its accessibility and interactivity, censorship, regulation, and commercialization like no other.   Another view is to see the internet as the latest in a long line of dehumanizing technological developments, producing a population of computer-nerds who, if they are not watching TV or fiddling with their play stations, are addictively surfing the Net.   The internet can be said to encourage not communication but isolation, in which one talks not to real people, but disembodied screens.   In addition to this, the cost of buying and owning a PC or laptop is rather expensive for countries whose economies are still developing.   Most people in these countries would not be able to afford to buy and own a PC or a lap top.   Hence, although it is a very useful medium used by people in the developed countries, it will take sometime before a more than average percentage of the general populis becomes aware of the major advantages of the use of the internet.   In most counties in the UK for example, there are libraries that provide free internet services for certain duration of time.   However, most people tend to use the internet for personalized e-mail services and searching for items and services.   These are not accessible through the traditional forms of the media (i.e. newspapers, brochures, etc).   Concerns about the implications of the internet are often based on a fear of its anarchic, uncontrollable character, precisely the qualities welcomed by its most enthusiastic advocates.   The internet, it is argued, provides an uncensorable platform for the dissemination of all kinds of antisocial messages.   For example, in the US newsgroups are devoted to the propaganda of extreme right-wing, pro-gun militias.   Cyberporn as earlier mentioned is also cited, particularly in relation to children and young people.   In July 1995, Time magazine devoted the bulk of an issue, and its cover, to the problem of cyberporn Elmer-Dewitt (1995).   The cover depicted a young boy, face reflecting the green light of a computer terminal, his eyes wide open with ama zement.   The article warned that Usenet and Worldwide Web networks were being used to distribute pornography all over the world, including as the cover illustration made clear to children and young adults.   The material being distributed was of the most extreme kind.   Rimm (1995) argues that computers and modems are profoundly redefining the pornographic landscape by saturating the market with an endless variety of what only a decade ago mainstream America defined as perverse or deviant.   Cyberporn does illustrate the threat posed by the internet, as seen by some.   To a greater extent than is true with traditional forms of disseminating pornography to the mass audience (and this applies to all morally or legally sanctioned information), the internet permits a private mode of consumption (no need for guilty browsing among the top shelves); it is user-friendly, allowing a high degree of selection and choice for anyone familiar with the system; and it is free of censorship, respecting no community standards or national boundaries.   As McNair (1996) puts it, traditional means of regulating and restricting pornography are useless on the Net.   And as children and young people are known to be among the most frequent and adept users of the Internet, cyberporn thus emerges as a serious threat to new generations.   Moral chaos and anarchy without the control of legislators does harbour information overload which acknowledges the inherent difficulty in imposing traditional constraints on the medium.   The key issue here is whether the internet i s a print medium, which enjoys strong protection against government interference, or a broadcast medium which enjoys strong protection against government interference, or a broadcast medium, which enjoys strong protection against government interference, or a broadcast medium, which may be subject to all sorts of government interference, or a broadcast medium, which may be subject to all sorts of government control Elmer Dewitt (1995).   The internet is neither print nor broadcasting, but a qualitatively new medium, to which conventional means of exerting control are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to apply.   It still remains to be seen if the global community (and it would have to be a genuinely global effort) can agree on standards of taste and decency for the Internet which are both enforceable and acceptable to the growing population of users.   According to the BBC (2004), new technologies and services are increasing the choice available to audiences and transferring power from schedulers and broadcasters.   Public sector broadcasting (PSB) providers will have to work much harder in future to persuade audiences to access their material and build brands across a variety of platforms.   They also add that fragmentation of audiences and the growth of digital television are posing new challenges for public service broadcasters.   BBC (2004) do suggest that changes in technology are also creating new and potentially more effective ways of meeting the needs of audiences in the nations, regions and localities.   The BBC also accepts a responsibility to explore partnerships with ot her broadcasters designed to sustain the wider PSB ecology.   The BBC is currently engaged in discussions with Channel 4 about a number of potential areas of co-operation.   These range from sharing R D and technology advances in new media services, through co-operating on international distribution, to options for pooling technical infrastructure, back-office functions and training.   In the same response by the BBC they argue that there is mounting evidence that regional television may be insufficiently local to meet the needs of some communities, having been hindered for decades by technology, topography and patterns of transmitters.   This response by the BBC to Ofcoms review also states that many viewers would prefer more local news to the current model of regional provision.   In their view, it is important to consider new ways of harnessing digital TV technology and broadband distribution, rather than simply replicating the traditional model of regional opt-outs.   McQuail, Blumler and Brown (1972) published results of research into the goals served by media use, not for society, but for media users.   They assumed media and content choice to be rational and directed to specific goals and satisfactions.   Audience members are conscious of the fact that they make choices.   In general these choices, or personal utility as McQuail calls it, are a more significant determinant of audience formation than aesthetic or cultural factors.   All these factors they assumed could be measured.   They do, offer an explanation of media-person interaction, which lists: diversion, personal relationships, personal identity and surveillance (or information seeking) goals.   McQuail in general was critical of this with regard to his earlier work and suggests that social origins and ongoing experience are important in understanding audience and media relations, which fell outside the initial behaviourist and functionalist leanings of the research.   These however are not so easily measured.   Social origins, any person’s class background, for example, can be translated into quantit ative terms (as more or less formal and informal schooling), but ongoing experience may, for any one person, take a multitude of forms that need not even relate directly to one another: from what one learns from an individual film or article in a magazine, to witnessing everyday racism or parental neglect in the street, to boredom doing a job that has seemed so exciting.   Theoretically, uses and gratifications never really develops.   It is impossible to establish whether uses indeed precede gratifications in time, or whether gratifications are legitimized by inventing uses.   If the latter is the case, the uses and gratifications model cannot free us from the dominant paradigm: we are still seduced by the media, to such an extent even that we invent needs for what is basically imposed on us by capitalism (commercial media) or paternalist nation-state (PSB).   It is also important to stress that gratificationist research as it has also been called, was not initially understood to be a mainstream or conservative approach to media and society.   On the contrary, it appeared to break with a tradition of only looking at effects (mass communication research) or at texts (such as the film criticism of the British journal Screen) in order to conclude something about audiences.   Gratifications research at least asked people and made them part of the media meaning society equation.   It is only when gratificationaist research is used as a spearhead in debates about the possible convergence of quantitative and qualitative traditions in media research (the first seen as conservative and mainstream, the second as its challenger), that media critics such as Ang (1989) offer a strong defence of ethnographic method against individualistic quantitative research and of taking a closer look at what we mean by the term active audience.   Ang (1989) argue that it is basically impossible to bring the two traditions in mass communication research together.   The social scientists who work with quantitative method in uses and gratifications research and have here been labelled mainstream may superficially be seen to use the same terms the critical researchers use, but this does not mean that the two have consensus over the way in which the object of study needs to be conceptualized, or infact over the goals and aims of science or social research as an enterprise. CONCLUSION One can conclude here that neither the optimistic nor pessimistic views described above represent a realistic appraisal of the Internet’s significance for media culture.   Certainly, as the utopian perspective asserts, the internet permits a qualitatively new level of communication between human beings, and hitherto unimagined access to all kinds of information.   But the resulting global village can be no more benign than the individuals who use it, and the materials sent down its superhighways and byways.   The Internet, like all previous developments in communication technology is destined to reflect the best and the worst that humanity has to offer.   It will continue to evade state censorship and arbitrary moral regulation, undeniably a good thing, but it will certainly be subject to a creeping commercialization, as its economic potential becomes clear in which the mass audience will play a major role in this revolution.   This process has already beg un, and will accelerate in the twenty-first century.   One will also add that successive waves of information revolution from the invention of the printing press to film and television, and now cyberspace have each presented problems of control and regulation for legislators in the UK and around the world, problems of adaptation and restructuring for the media industries; new challenges and temptations for audiences. REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY Ang, I., (1989), Wanting audiences, On the politics of empirical audience research, in E. Seiter, H. Borchers, G. Kreutzner and E. Warth (eds) Remote Control, Television, Audiences and Cultural Power, London:   Routledge, pp. 79 – 95. Blumer, H., (1950), Audiences and Media Effects, An introduction. Briggs, A., and Cobley, P., (2002), The Media:   An Introduction, 2nd edition, Pearson Longman. BBC (2004), Ofcom review of public service television broadcasting – Phase 2 Report, November, A BBC Response. Berger, A.A., (1995), Essentials of Mass Communication.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Elmer-Dewitt, P., (1995), On a screen near you: cyberporn, Time, July. Hay, J., Grossberg, L., and Wartella, E., (1996), The audience and its landscape. Livingston, S., (2002), Young people and New media, London: Sage. McNair, B., (1996), Mediated Sex, London: Arnold. McQuail, D., (2005), Mass communication theory. McQuail, D., Blumler, J., and Brown, J., (1972), The television audience, a revised perspective, in D. McQuail (ed.), Sociology of Mass Communication, Harmondsworth:   Penguin, pp. 135 – 165. Rimm, M., (1995), Marketing pornorgraphy on the information superhighway, (on-line version), first published in George town Law Journal Spring. Whelan, P., and Webster, J.G., (1997), The mass audience:   Rediscovering the dominant model. www.ofcom.org.uk

Wolff’s Critique of Chopin’s The Awakening Essays -- Chopin Awakening

Wolff’s Critique of Chopin’s The Awakening The critical case study to the novel establishes a definition of a type of critical response, and then gives as close an example that fits that mode of criticism—BORING! First, the book has these forms of criticism laid out contiguously, as if they occurred only spatially and not temporally. This flattened and skewed representation of critical approaches, taking an argument out of its context (an academic debate) and uses it as if it were a pedagogical tool. Just as criticism in many ways takes the life out of the text, by dissecting it and making it a part of an argument, the â€Å"model critical approach† takes the life out of criticism. It is interesting to see how the different Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism are altered by the text they are describing. For example, I have one volume on Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, and another for Great Expectations, both of which demonstrate the extent to which the object of critique affects the critique itself, such that â€Å"deconstruction criticism† in an intellectual vacuum is something different than when a scholar tries to apply it to a particular text, altering both the text as well as the principles of deconstruction. The Awakening gender criticism takes on a different feel from Great Expectation gender criticism even though they are informed by the same principles, because gender in the early Victorian Dickens is different than in the turn of the century American Chopin. In this way the criticism co-constructs with the primary document something different than both the criticism and the original text. Such a syntheses have produced exciting and inn ovative ideas, refreshing and reviving works from the tombs of academia. Unfor... ... is also a politics involving real becomings, an entire becoming clandestine. (A Thousand Plateaus 188) Finally, the sea is a common trope for mother, and maternal—that from which life springs. We are presented with Edna running away from Protestant society (the dynamo, the father) to Catholic Creole society (the earth-goddess transformed into the Madonna). She runs away from her father, and there is no mother for her to run towards except the archetypal sea. If these mythic formations say anything, the novel says something about Edna’s own lost mother. Is the tragedy of the book that this mother is never found even though Edna followed the trail to the musty scent? Is the tragedy of the story Edna’s mother died giving birth to Edna, leaving Edna with only one memory of her mother—the musty scent of childbirth? Does this inform her attitudes toward motherhood?

Best Fit vs Best Practice

Meaning of Best Fit and Best Practice The terms ‘best fit’ and ‘best practice’ are used in strategic human resource management literature. The best fit approach refers to the firm using human resources management (HRM) to their particular strategies and adapting to the firm’s condition and the environment referring to workforce character and business strategy. With the use of the Best Fit Approach the SHRM can become more flexible to the response change of the organizational life cycle: start-up, growth, maturity and renewal/decline. For example, Met Wholesale had chosen low cost strategy to sustain its position in merchandise industry. Thereby under this approach supportive HR practices like employing part-timers, fresh graduates, and by applying training systems will be applied. The outcome will be that the operation cost will be reduced and they will achieve its goal. On the other hand the Best Practice approach speculate that there is a exact set of HR practices that are applied in almost any organization context which helps in the increase in performance to deliver outcomes which may be valuable for all stakeholders particularly employees. It is based on the idea that there is a set of best HRM practices and its application will help to superior organization performance. This practice could be source from other competitor’s successful strategy. For example, emphasizing the enhancement of employees’ abilities or knowledge and skills through good recruitment and strong training. Another can be through incentives and a reward system; the firm can place emphasis for motivating desired behaviour. Also, by better trained and motivated employees they would have more contribution of ideas and participation. What separates the two approaches, is that the Best Fit relates to firms’ competitive strategy where the SHRM will be designed according to the firms condition and the environment, where as for Best Practice, the firm is able to refer other firm’s successful strategy or general best practice model to improve the firm itself.

Bcg on Hul Essay

Once you know which businesses stand where in your business portfolio, you also come to know which businesses need investments, which needs harvesting (making money), which needs divesting (reducing investment) and which needs to be completely taken out of the business portfolio. For a major organization like HUL, ITC etc which have multiple categories and within the categories, they have multiple lines of products; the BCG analysis becomes very important. At a holistic level, they get to make a decision on which product to continue and which product to be divested. Which product can give new returns with good investment, and which products are reaching the apex of market share. BCG Growth Share Matrix –  The BCG growth share matrix was developed by Henderson of the BCG group in 1970? s. The matrix classifies businesses / SBU’s by 1) Relative Market Share –  The market share of the business / SBU / Product in the market as compared to its competitors and overall product / category. 2) Market growth rate –  The growth rate of the industry as a whole is taken into consideration from which the growth rate of the product is extrapolated. This growth rate is then pitched on the graph. Thus by having 2 basic but at the same time very important factors on X axis and Y axis, the BCG matrix makes sure that the classifications are concrete. Calculating the Market growth rate comprises of both industry growth and product growth rate thereby giving a fair knowledge of where the product / SBU stands in comparison to the Industry. The market share on the other hand comprises of the competition and the product potential in the market. Thus when we consider growth rate and market share together, it automatically gives us an overview of the competition and the industry standards as well as an idea of what the future might bring for the product. Once the businesses have been classified, they are placed into four different quadrants of the matrix. The quadrants of the matrix are divided into 1) Cash Cows –  High market share but low growth rate (most profitable). 2) Stars –  High market share and High growth rate (high competition) 3) Question marks –  Low market share and high growth rate (uncertainty) ) Dogs –  Low market share and low growth rate (less profitable or may even be negative profitability) On the basis of this classification, strategies are decided for each SBU / Product. Let’s discuss the characteristics and strategies of each quadrant in detail. Explanation: 1) Cash Cows –  The cornerstone of any multi product business, cash cows are products which a re having a high market share in  a low growing market. As the market is not growing, that cash cow gains the maximum advantage by generating maximum revenue due to its high market share. Thus for any company, the cash cows are the ones which require least investment but at the same time give higher returns. These higher returns enhance the overall profitability of the firm because this excess revenue can be used in other businesses which are Stars, Dogs or Question marks. In the case of HUL following are the Cash cows like Mass Soaps, Beverages, Oral care and Laundry which are running very well in the market today, Oral and Mass soap today is doing very good hence it is the cash cows for HUL today. Strategies for cash cow –  The cash cows are the most stable for any business and hence the strategy generally includes retention of the market share. As the market is not growing, acquisition is less and retention is high. Thus customer satisfaction programs, loyalty programs and other such promotional methods form the core of the marketing plan for a cash cow product / SBU. 2) Stars –  The best product which comes in mind when thinking of Stars is the telecom products. If you look at any top 5 telecom company, the market share is good but the growth rate too is good. Thus because these two factors are high, the telecom companies are always in competitive mode and they have to juggle between investment and harvesting vis investing money and taking out money time to time. Unlike cash cows, Stars cannot be complacent when they are top on because they can immediately be overtaken by another company which capitalizes on the market growth rate. However, if the strategies are successful, a Star can become a cash cow in the long run. Just like the products from HUL like Hair Care products, Skin Care products, Premium Soaps & Laundry products, Deodorants and it’s lately release brand Water (PureIt) Strategies for Stars –  All types of marketing, sales promotion and advertising strategies are used for Stars. This is because in cash cow, already these strategies have been used and they have resulted in the formation of a cash cow. Similarly in Stars, because of the high competition and rising market share, the concentration and investment needs to be high in marketing  activities so as to increase and retain market share. ) Question Marks –  Several times, a company might come up with an innovative product which immediately gains good growth rate. However the market share of such a product is unknown. The product might lose customer interest and might not be bought anymore in which case it will not gain market share, the growth rate will go down and it will ultimately become a Dog. On the other hand, the product might increase customer interest and more and more people might buy the product thus making the product a high market share product. From here the product can move on to be a Cash Cow as it has lower competition and high market share. Thus Question marks are products which may give high returns but at the same time may also flop and may have to be taken out of the market. This uncertainty gives the quadrant the name â€Å"Question Mark†. The major problem associated with having Question marks is the amount of investment which it might need and whether the investment will give returns in the end or whether it will be completely wasted. Processed foods and Color Cosmetics are few of the Question Marks for HUL since it is very rare found in the market due to the reason that it is not giving results as much expected in the consumer market today. Strategies for Question marks –  As they are new entry products with high growth rate, the growth rate needs to be capitalized in such a manner that question marks turn into high market share products. New Customer acquisition strategies are the best strategies for converting Question marks to Stars or Cash cows. Furthermore, time to time market research also helps in determining consumer psychology for the product as well as the possible future of the product and a hard decision might have to be taken if the product goes into negative profitability. ) Dogs –  Products are classified as dogs when they have low market share and low growth rate. Thus these products neither generate high amount of cash nor require higher investments. However, they are considered as negative profitability products mainly because the money already invested in the product can be used somewhere else. Thus over here businesses have to take a decision whether they should divest these product s or they can revamp them and thereby make them saleable again which will subsequently increase the market share of the product. Dogs for HUL are its Sea Products which is definitely and alarm for HUL to kill it. Strategies for Dogs –  Depending on the amount of cash which is already invested in this quadrant, the company can either divest the product altogether or it can revamp the product through rebranding / innovation / adding features etc. However, moving a dog towards a star or a cash cow is very difficult. It can be moved only to the question mark region where again the future of the product is unknown. Thus in cases of Dog products, divestment strategy are used. Sequences in BCG Matrix [pic] Success Sequence in BCG Matrix – The Success sequence of BCG matrix happens when a question mark becomes a Star and finally it becomes a cash cow. This is the best sequence which really gives a boost to the company’s profits and growth. The success sequence unlike the disaster sequence is entirely dependent on the right decision making. Disaster sequence in BCG Matrix – Disaster sequence of BCG matrix happens when a product which is a cash cow, due to competitive pressure might be moved to a  star. It fails out from the competition and it is moved to a question mark and finally it may have to be divested because of its low market share and low growth rate. Thus the disaster sequence might happen because of wrong decision making. This sequence affects the company as a lot of investments are lost to the divested product. Along with this the money coming in from the cash cow which is used for other products too is lost. Results on the strategies for HUL based on the BCG Matrix. There are four strategies possible for any product / SBU and these are the strategies which are used after the BCG analysis. These strategies are 1) Build –  By increasing investment, the product is given an impetus such that the product increases its market share. Example  Ã¢â‚¬â€œÃ‚  Pushing a Question mark into a Star and finally a cash cow (Success sequence) ) Hold –  The company cannot invest or it has other investment commitments due to which it holds the product in the same quadrant. Example –  Holding a star there itself as higher investment to move a star into cash cow is currently not possible. 3) Harvest –  Best observed in the Cash cow scenario, wherein the company reduces the amount of i nvestment and tries to take out maximum cash flow from the said product which increases the overall profitability. 4) Divest –  Best observed in case of Dog quadrant products which are generally divested to release the amount of money already stuck in the business.