Marketing Report On British Airways - 1088 Words

Marketing report on British Airways Corey Molloy 1.0 Introduction This report is an assessment for the marketing unit in the Higher National Diploma Business Course. The aim of this report is to explain the nature of marketing and the marketing decisions taken by British Airways. 2.0 Sources of Information ? 3.0 ? 3.1 An introduction to British Airways British Airways (BA) was formed when the 4 nationalised airlines were merged together in 1974, it was then privatised by the then conservative Government in 1987, this led to a period of growth and expansion with the airline taking over three smaller British Airlines before merging with Spain’s Iberia in 2012 to form the International Airlines Group (IAG) which is the third largest airline in the world in terms of revenue. BA has been the United Kingdom’s flag carrying Airline since its formation in 1974 however it is only the second largest airline in the UK after EasyJet. 3.2 Marketing – Key Characteristics The business Dictionary definition of the ‘Marketing Concept’ is: â€Å"Management philosophy according to which a firm s goals can be best achieved through identification and satisfaction of the customers stated and unstated needs and wants.† British Airways has adopted the marketing orientated approach this is because BA’s aim is to meet the needs of its customers in order to ensure that BA is the first choice airline. Meeting customers needs in a fast changing, increasingly competitiveShow MoreRelatedBritish Airways Marketing Report3300 Words   |  14 Pages.......... 2 * Brief Background of British Airways....................................................................................... 2 * The Marketing Mix................................................................................................................ 3 * S.W.O.T. Analysis................................................................................................................... 5 * British Airways Target Market and Positioning Strategy......Read MoreBritish Airways Marketing Planning Report2202 Words   |  9 Pages Candidate Number 1501304 Year: 2 Course Code MN2305 Course Tutor: Sarah Glozer Assignment No.: 1 Degree Title: Marketing Strategy Question No. Title: British Airways Marketing Planning Report 1. Executive Summary 2. Introduction 3-1. Company Analysis 1) Introduction to the company 3-2. Market Analysis 1) Current Market Situation 4. SWOT Analysis 5. Objectives Issues 6. Market Strategy 6-1. Product 1) Product description 2) Positioning A. Differentiation B. Branding 6-2Read MoreBritish Airways : The Top Airlines977 Words   |  4 PagesBritish Airways is one of the top airlines both globally and in the UK. It boasts a large global flying network and provides travel to over 170 destinations on 280 aircrafts. Annually it serves 40 million customers making it an accessible, convenient brand, and an Industry leader (British Airways). In comparison to the original brand Virgin Atlantic, British Airways markets itself very differently despite sharing a niche and a market segment. The 4-Ps analysis will be a useful tool in examining theseRead MoreBritish Airways Information System1483 Words   |  6 Pagesexplore how information systems helps organisations to make decisions at different levels to achieve set objectives and strategic advantages over competitors .The team carried out research and debate on various companies, and agreed to focus on British Airways. Through literature we found out, that BA is amongst the busiest premium international air lines worldwide, BA operates mainly from Heathrow, London city and Gatwick airports and flies over 35million people to more than 300 cities and freightsRead MoreBritish Airways Case Study1363 Words   |  6 Pagesorganization, and change corporate culture provide the basis for analyzing British Airways’ (BA) transformation and the difficulties encountered in making an organizational change. Identification of critical factors leading to British Airways successful transformation as well as steps, sequence, and risks taken to transform the organization and personal assessment is provided for this case study. Connection of British Airways case to re-energizing the mature organization How was the accompanying readingRead MorePrepare an Organizational Audit for Amazon1865 Words   |  8 PagesBusiness Strategy (BS) Task 1: Understand the process of strategic planing British Airways Mission Statement To be the most exclusive and first choice airline for all airline travelers One Destination seeks to ensure our customers fly confident that, together, we are acting responsibly to take care of the world we live in. British Airways Vision Uniquely different : equally valued - British Airways’ vision for equality BA has been redefining the vision, and making sure it isRead MoreBritish Airways Case Study1409 Words   |  6 Pageschange corporate culture, provide the basis for analyzing British Airways’ (BA) transformation and the challenges encountered in making an organizational change. Identification of critical factors leading to their successful transformation as well as the steps, sequence, and risks taken to transform the organization and personal assessment of what could have been done differently is provided in this case study. Connection of British Airways case to re-energizing the mature organization The re-energizingRead MoreProfit and Loss Accounts962 Words   |  4 PagesWithin this assignment I will be interpreting the contents of the British airways accounts I will also be writing a statement about the business and its progress, and describe what profit and loss accounts are. PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT By law business are required to provide annual financial statements, which will appear in their company report, there are two main types of financial statements, one is balance sheet and the other is a profit and loss account. A profit and loss account is a recordRead MoreBritish Airways Operational Environment1547 Words   |  7 PagesBritish Airways – Operational Environmental Introduction British Airways (BA) is the UK’s largest international scheduled airline, currently flying to over 550 destinations. The British Airways group consists of British Airways Plc and a number of subsidiary companies including, among others, International Aeradio, British Airways Helicopters serving mainly the North Sea oil rigs and British Airways Holidays Limited (BA 2008)and (Encyclopaedia Britannica-a). Historically, British Airways wasRead MoreBritish Airways3107 Words   |  13 PagesStudent Number: Module: Sales and Marketing for Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure Assignment: Company Report and Promotional Plan Tutor: Catherine Bedwei-Majdoub Module code: TH50040E Intended: Managing Director Contents Page 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Industry 1.2 Sector 1.3 Company Overview 2. MARKETING MIX 2.1 Product 2.2 Price 2.3 Place 2.4 Promotion 3. SWOT – Internal amp; External Analysis 3.1 Strengths 3.2 Weaknesses 3.3 Opportunities 3.4 Threats 4. PEST

Facebook Addiction Disorder Free Essays

Article 1 Title : Online Social Networking and Addiction Writer(s) : Daria J. Kuss and Mark D. Griffiths Source : www. We will write a custom essay sample on Facebook Addiction Disorder or any similar topic only for you Order Now mdpi. com/journal/ijerph Social Networking Sites (SNS) or in this case Facebook has been causing serious addiction amongst individuals these days. This situation is no longer seen as an addiction but as a serious mental health issue. People these days spend majority of their time online by surfing Facebook in their virtual community. Psychologists describe this scenario as ‘Facebook Addiction Disorder’ (FAD). This disorder is seen as an addiction because the individual who is said to be addicted to Facebook actually confronts similar criteria as other addictive activities. One is said to be having FAD due to the increase in time spent on Facebook. Besides that, FAD also increases individualistic culture among its users. Moreover, egocentrism is another factor that contributes to this problem since it may induce addictive characteristics within the particular individual. This is mainly down to attraction which is the key factor to Facebook Addiction Disorder. Furthermore, like any other addiction, this issue has its symptoms as well. The author has addressed several symptoms that can be used to classify a person as a Facebook addict. Negligence of personal life, mental preoccupation, escapism, mood modifying experiences, tolerance, and concealing the addictive behavior are among the symptoms that can be seen in a Facebook addict. These symptoms are detrimental to one’s mental health and well being because the person spends too much of time and energy in a virtual world. The effects of Facebook addiction or behavioral-related addiction and substance-related addiction is suggested to be the same as both have negative consequences on the addict as time goes by. (259 words) Article 2 Title : Facebook Addiction Disorder – The 6 Symptoms of F. A. D. Writer : Amy Summers Source : www. socialtimes. com This article touches on the issue of Facebook Addiction Disorder, amongst teenagers and its effect on their surroundings. This occurrence is the latest obsession and a virtual object of craze amongst teenagers. This is mainly due to Facebook being the current big thing everywhere that even family members of the teenagers till educated professionals are going mad over the social networking site. These teenagers tend to go overboard when they participate in this phenomenon as it is a trend that is considered uber- cool and they become obsessive about it. â€Å"Facebook Addiction Disorder† (FAD) is a condition which is defined by hours spent on Facebook by a person. The time spent is said to be affecting the balance of an individual’s life. There are six key symptoms mentioned by the author for this disorder. Firstly, a person with FAD will be spending so much time on the site which leads to a stage where they need it in order to obtain satisfaction. Besides, reducing normal social or recreational activities, they will also plan virtual dates as instead of meeting their partner somewhere, they will ask their partner to be online at a certain time. Other than that, the friends list of an addict will mostly have strangers rather than the ones they know in real life. Finally, the sign of complete addiction is when they introduce themselves to someone and promise to see them on Facebook. Parents who try to help their children out of this problem, turn out to be more addicted than their teenage kids. (257 words) REFLECTION Facebook. Something that started off within the walls of Harvard University in 2004 has been ruling the world for the past half decade. Newborn babies to near death grannies and even animals these days have a profile on this social networking site. This site has been so major that these days the first word that type into the World Wide Web is Facebook. 45 million users in just 8 years is a quite a record for any social networking site in the world. It has been so hyped up that to have a Facebook profile has become a basic need for certain group of people. A tool that is supposed to be used prudently has been used extensively by some individuals so much so that they have become addicted to it. In fact, psychologists in the United States of America came up with the term ‘Facebook Addiction Disorder’ (FAD) back in 2009 as they predicted this syndrome will take the world faster than it took for the site to become global. Well, their prediction has become true. This condition is considered to a serious mental illness these days, even worse since it’s caused by addiction that could be compared to the likes of drugs and cigarettes. Who would’ve thought that a social networking site could spell so much trouble? Based on the two articles, the key point to this disorder is due to the amount of time spent on this site. People tend to spend too much time on this site than actually do something about their lives. Those days when a working man gets his off day, he would be either having a good sleep or spend some quality time with his family, but nowadays the working man would rather spend his off day by enduring a sleepless night just to spend his time on Facebook. This sounds totally ridiculous. In the context of students, they would be glad to chat with their friends online, upload pictures and update their status but they would not bother to even flip through their textbooks or homeworks given by the teacher. This proves that Facebook is affecting people regardless of age limit. The amount of time spent on Facebook shows the level of addiction of the person to the site. Thus, the hypothesis would be that, the more the time taken to use Facebook, the higher the addiction level. A person who is possessed with this global demon is also very dangerous as it may make you oblivious to your surroundings. Facebook addicts do not care about what’s happening around them. However, they would ‘like’ a certain post about Earth Hour during the hour when all electric appliances should be shut down. This shows how a person can be an environmentalist in the virtual world, but a person with no social awareness in reality. This means that Facebook addicts have another problem, Multiple Personality Disorder because they have two avatars, each in two different worlds, Facebook and reality. This disorder also causes people to be very aggressive. They would be very sad if a friend did not respond to their request to be friends on Facebook. Some of them would even compete with each other to increase their list of friends. This situation could not be considered as something that tickles our funny bones, but it is something that should be thought rationally and seriously since the issue is getting worse day to day. What is the point of adding a thousand people into your profile and chat with them happily online, when you turn your back towards them in reality? Besides that, the majority of group that is most affected by this phenomenon are teenagers. Being born in this era of online madness is not a sin, but they are being led into fake world that is given a fancy name of globalization! They think that being on Facebook is the coolest thing to do as a teenager. What a misconception? Students these days do not prefer face to face interaction where as they prefer to virtual communication. Do not be surprised if in the future two people, who won’t even smile at each other, could be best friends on Facebook. If the number of Facebook addicts increase continuously, sooner or later we would be witnessing the growth of an unhealthy generation of youth with no social skills because all this while they never knew how to make friends, socialize or even take part in recreational activities. The major factor to this crisis is because their conceptualization of social life is Facebook. This so called social networking site also happens to social crime networking site lately. On 18th April 2012, in Pune, India, a 16 year old girl was kidnapped by her Facebook friend whom she had known through the website. After kidnapping her, the accused initially demanded a ransom of Rs 100,000 from her mother. But later fearing police action, he got the girl admitted to a private hospital telling the hospital authorities that he found her ‘wandering’ on the road after she was thrown out of a van by some people. What could have happened to the girl if the kidnapper was a psychopath? The consequence would have been unfathomable. This is what happens to certain Facebook addicts who reveal too much of details online. What is the worth of an individual who is deemed as a very private person in reality, where as in the virtual world they reveal everything to everyone? In the working world, those days’ workers were scolded by their employers for talking during their work time; nowadays they are sacked for using Facebook at work. In certain scenarios, the employees are sacked because they update their Facebook status at work, capture pictures while working and also to have the guts to upload it at work. Where is the discipline of the working world going? Why are they being so irresponsible? In a book titled ‘Facebook Addiction’, the author who is an addict himself says that once when he was trying to pack up his laptop, a client called and asked him to work on a website. The moment he opened the internet browser, the first thing he did was, type in â€Å"www. acebook. com† and logged in, he promised to himself to spend only five minutes, he couldn’t resist himself and spent eight hours on the website. On top of that, in terms of relationships, Facebook addicts do not have a proper life there either; there have been reported cases in America, of young married couples who file for divorce. In a survey conducted by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), researchers found t hat Facebook was mentioned in 1 out of every 5 divorces in the United States. Some of the cases were due to lack communication between couples because one of the partners was always busy updating his Facebook status rather than actually communicating with his wife. Before marriage, messaging through the site could be fun or romantic, however post marital relationship requires commitment and real communication. These cases have proved that Facebook Addiction Disorder has been the major cause of many serious problems from school to the confinements of our home. If this scenario continues, this disorder could get into the line along serious mental illnesses. We as educators will be facing great dilemmas as the students would be more passive socially in reality, to overcome it we have to teach them in a condition where there is no active interaction between teacher and a student. However, if we stand with our hands folded, one day we might see the portrait of our society in the obituary column in the newspapers. APPENDIX Article 1 Title : Online Social Networking and Addiction Writer(s) : Daria J. Kuss and Mark D. Griffiths Source : www. mdpi. com/journal/ijerph â€Å"I’m an addict. I just get lost in Facebook† replies a young mother when asked why she does not see herself able to help her daughter with her homework. Instead of supporting her child, she spends her time chatting and browsing the social networking site . This case, while extreme, is suggestive of a potential new mental health problem that emerges as Internet social networks proliferate. Newspaper stories have also reported similar cases, suggesting that the popular press was early to discern the potentially addictive qualities of social networking sites. Such media coverage has alleged that women are at greater risk than men for developing addictions to SNSs . The mass appeal of social networks on the Internet could potentially be a cause for concern, particularly when attending to the gradually increasing amounts of time people spend online . On the Internet, people engage in a variety of activities some of which may be potentially to be addictive. Rather than becoming addicted to the medium per se, some users may develop an addiction to specific activities they carry out online. Specifically, Young argues that there are five different types of internet addiction, namely computer addiction (i. e. , computer game addiction), information overload (i. e. , web surfing addiction), net compulsions (i. e. , online gambling or online shopping addiction), cybersexual addiction (i. e. , online pornography or online sex addiction), and cyber-relationship addiction (i. e. , an addiction to online relationships). SNS addiction appears to fall in the last category since the purpose and main motivation to use SNSs is to establish and maintain both on- and offline relationships. From a clinical psychologist’s perspective, it may be plausible to speak specifically of ‘Facebook Addiction Disorder’ (or more generally ‘SNS Addiction Disorder’) because addiction criteria, such as neglect of personal life, mental preoccupation, escapism, mood modifying experiences, tolerance, and concealing the addictive behavior, appear to be present in some people who use SNSs excessively. Social Networking Sites are virtual communities where users can create individual public profiles, interact with real-life friends, and meet other people based on shared interests. SNSs are web-based services that allow individuals to: construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system†. The focus is placed on established networks, rather than on networking, which implies the construction of new networks. SNSs offer individuals the possibilities of networking and sharing media content, therefore embracing the main Web 2. attributes, against the framework of their respective structural characteristics. In terms of SNS history, the first social networking site (SixDegrees) was launched in 1997, based on the idea that everybody is linked with everybody else via six degrees of separation, and initially referred to as the â€Å"small world problem†. In 2004, the most successful current SNS, Facebook, was established as a closed virtual community for Harvard students. The site expan ded very quickly and Facebook currently has more than 500 million users, of whom fifty percent log on to it every day. Furthermore, the overall time spent on Facebook increased by 56% from 2007 to 2008. This statistic alone indicates the exponential appeal of SNSs and also suggests a reason for a rise in potential SNS addiction. Hypothetically, the appeal of SNSs may be traced back to its reflection of today’s individualist culture. Unlike traditional virtual communities that emerged during the 1990s based on shared interests of their members, social networking sites are egocentric sites. It is the individual rather than the community that is the focus of attention. Egocentrism has been linked to Internet addiction. Supposedly, the egocentric construction of SNSs may facilitate the engagement in addictive behaviors and may thus serve as a factor that attracts people to using it in a potentially excessive way. This hypothesis is in line with the PACE Framework for the etiology of addiction specificity. Attraction is one of the four key components that may predispose individuals to becoming addicted to specific behaviors or substances rather than specific others. Accordingly, due to their egocentric construction, SNSs allow individuals to present themselves positively that may â€Å"raise their spirits† (i. . , enhance their mood state) because it is experienced as pleasurable. This may lead to positive experiences that can potentially cultivate and facilitate learning experiences that drive the development of SNS addiction. A behavioral addiction such as SNS addiction may thus be seen from a biopsychosocial perspective . Just like substance-related addictions, SNS addiction incorporates th e experience of the ‘classic’ addiction symptoms, namely mood modification (i. e. , engagement in SNSs leads to a favourable change in emotional states), salience (i. e. behavioral, cognitive, and emotional preoccupation with the SNS usage), tolerance (i. e. , ever increasing use of SNSs over time), withdrawal symptoms (i. e. , experiencing unpleasant physical and emotional symptoms when SNS use is restricted or stopped), conflict (i. e. , interpersonal and intrapsychic problems ensue because of SNS usage), and relapse (i. e. , addicts quickly revert back in their excessive SNS usage after an abstinence period). Moreover, scholars have suggested that a combination of biological, psychological and social factors contributes to the etiology of addictions, that may also hold true for SNS addiction. From this it follows that SNS addiction shares a common underlying etiological framework with other substance-related and behavioral addictions. However, due to the fact that the engagement in SNSs is different in terms of the actual expression of (Internet) addiction (i. e. , pathological use of social networking sites rather than other Internet applications), the phenomenon appears worthy of individual consideration, particularly when considering the potentially detrimental effects of both substance-related and behavioral addictions on individuals who experience a variety of negative consequences because of their addiction. Article 2 Title : Facebook Addiction Disorder – The 6 Symptoms of F. A. D. Writer : Amy Summers Source : www. socialtimes. com â€Å"Okay, I admit it. I am truly addicted to Facebook,† said teenage blogger Heidi Barry-Rodriquez in 2007. In 2009, teen Neeka Salmasi described the social networking giant as being â€Å"like an addiction†. This year, a casino site mentioned that â€Å"Facebook provides the atmosphere where it is tough to walk away† in a direct comparison to gambling addiction. A quick web search and it becomes appallingly evident that we have a problem. Text messaging is no longer the biggest teenage obsession, and long gone are the days where the biggest worries for parents were celebrity crushes, massive phone bills from ridiculously long phone calls and chocolate overloads. These teenage obsessions still exist, but in today’s day and age, and in comparison to the Facebook craze, they seem rather insignificant. Facebook is taking over the world, and that’s no exaggeration. Everyone from eager-to-fit-in teens to educated business people to intrigued grandparents has joined the phenomenon, and unsurprisingly many teenagers have also caught Facebook fever. And like with many of the latest attention-grabbing trends, some teenagers can go a little overboard when participating in them. Perhaps we join Facebook because everyone has an account and, as teenagers, the need to fit in is just too great, or perhaps there’s just a special something that has helped the social networking site attract so many million people. Teenagers have a tendency to become obsessive with the ‘in’ thing and Facebook, the trend of the decade, is no exception; the question is, have we overdone in? And is there really such thing as Facebook addiction? An American psychologist believes so. In fact, he’s even introduced a new term to describe such an addiction. FAD, or Facebook Addiction Disorder, is a condition that is defined by hours spent on Facebook, so much time in fact that the healthy balance of the individual’s life is affected. It has been said that approximately 350 million people are suffering from the disorder that is detected through a simple set of six-criteria. People who are victims of the condition must have at least 2-3 of the following criteria during a 6-8 month time period. . Tolerance: This term is used to describe the desperate behavior of a Facebook addict. They spend an increasing amount of time on the site, coming to a stage where they need it in order to obtain satisfaction or on the other extreme, it is having a detrimental effect on them as a person and their life. For the family members and friends who think they are dealing with an addict, a sign to look out for are multiple Facebook win dows open. Three or more confirms that they are indeed suffering from this condition. 2. Withdrawal symptoms: These become obvious when one is restricted from using Facebook because they have to participate in normal everyday activities. Common signs are anxiety, distress and the need to talk about Facebook and what might have been posted on their wall in their absence. 3. Reduction of normal social/recreational activities: Someone suffering from FAD will reduce the time spent catching up with friends, playing sport or whatever it is they used to enjoy doing, to simply spend time on Facebook. Instead of catching up with a friend for coffee, they will send a Facebook message. A dinner date will be substituted with a messenger chat. In extreme cases, the person will even stop answering their parent’s phone calls, instead insisting that they use Facebook to contact them. 4. Virtual dates: It is obvious that things are extreme when real dates are replaced with virtual dates. Instead of going to the movies or out to dinner, they tell their partner to be online at a certain time. 5. Fake friends: If 8 out of 10 people shown on their Facebook page are complete strangers, it is undeniable: they have a serious case of FAD. 6. Complete addiction: When they meet new people, they say their name, followed by â€Å"I’ll talk to you on Facebook†, or for those who are extremely bad, â€Å"I’ll see you in Facebook†. Their pets have Facebook pages, and any notifications, wall posts, inboxes or friend requests that they receive give them a high, one which can be compared to that gambling addicts get from the pokies or roulette table. So someone believes that addiction to the net is a real condition that needs to be treated just like any other addiction, with care and caution, but is an obsession with Facebook a real condition, or is FAD really just the latest fad? Either way, Facebook obsessions are definitely present in today’s society and whether it is a disorder or not, something needs to be done to fix it. Forget the fancy name and look at the facts. Many people, teenagers in particular, are spending too much time online. People’s lives are being affected because of the hours spent looking at profiles and pictures. Facebook, very beneficial in some ways, is having a detrimental effect on the everyday behaviors of people around the world. Having seen the affects of too much time online firsthand, I know this to be true. Nobody can possibly disagree when the facts speak for themselves and when an individual’s online ‘life’ becomes more important than their real one; we know that there is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. But, what to do about it? How can we possibly fix a problem that has affected more than a third of the world’s population? That is a question I can’t answer, but I do know that our parents can play an important role, well, that is if the addicted is still young enough to be influenced by their parents. There are two kinds of parents in my area, both from different ends of the spectrum. On one side we have the Facebook haters; the parents who don’t have Facebook, don’t understand Facebook and never want to understand Facebook. On the other side, we have the Facebook lovers, those who act more like their teenage children than their parents. They’ve befriended their kids online, participate in their online conversations, comment on their photos and send messages from the lounge room to the bedroom instead of just walking up the hallway and keeping matters that should be kept private, well, private. Don’t believe me? I completely understand. It definitely sounds strange. But the truth is I actually know people like this and well I can only conclude one thing: that these parents, in an attempt to be their teen’s friend rather than their parent, have also been swept up in the Facebook craze and are now suffering from a similar sort of addiction. The apple really does never land far from the tree. REFERENCES 1. http://www. healthism. com/articles/facebook-addiction 2. http://deaddictioncentres. in/news/facebook-de-addiction-social-dysfunction/ 3. http://columbianewsservice. om/2011/02/the-facebook-relapse-trying-to-defriend-facebook/ 4. http://www. sakaaltimes. com/20120418/5754739842191348023. htm 5. http://socialtimes. com/facebook-addiction-disorder-the-6-symptoms-of-f-a-d_b60403 6. http://www. tomsguide. com/us/facebook-twitter-myspace,news-10312. html 7. http://www. netaddiction. com/index. php? option=com_blogview= 8. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Text Revision, Fourth Edition; American Psychiatric Association: Washington, DC, USA, 2000 9. Lenhart, A. Social Networking How to cite Facebook Addiction Disorder, Essay examples Facebook Addiction Disorder Free Essays Article 1 Title : Online Social Networking and Addiction Writer(s) : Daria J. Kuss and Mark D. Griffiths Source : www. We will write a custom essay sample on Facebook Addiction Disorder or any similar topic only for you Order Now mdpi. com/journal/ijerph Social Networking Sites (SNS) or in this case Facebook has been causing serious addiction amongst individuals these days. This situation is no longer seen as an addiction but as a serious mental health issue. People these days spend majority of their time online by surfing Facebook in their virtual community. Psychologists describe this scenario as ‘Facebook Addiction Disorder’ (FAD). This disorder is seen as an addiction because the individual who is said to be addicted to Facebook actually confronts similar criteria as other addictive activities. One is said to be having FAD due to the increase in time spent on Facebook. Besides that, FAD also increases individualistic culture among its users. Moreover, egocentrism is another factor that contributes to this problem since it may induce addictive characteristics within the particular individual. This is mainly down to attraction which is the key factor to Facebook Addiction Disorder. Furthermore, like any other addiction, this issue has its symptoms as well. The author has addressed several symptoms that can be used to classify a person as a Facebook addict. Negligence of personal life, mental preoccupation, escapism, mood modifying experiences, tolerance, and concealing the addictive behavior are among the symptoms that can be seen in a Facebook addict. These symptoms are detrimental to one’s mental health and well being because the person spends too much of time and energy in a virtual world. The effects of Facebook addiction or behavioral-related addiction and substance-related addiction is suggested to be the same as both have negative consequences on the addict as time goes by. (259 words) Article 2 Title : Facebook Addiction Disorder – The 6 Symptoms of F. A. D. Writer : Amy Summers Source : www. socialtimes. com This article touches on the issue of Facebook Addiction Disorder, amongst teenagers and its effect on their surroundings. This occurrence is the latest obsession and a virtual object of craze amongst teenagers. This is mainly due to Facebook being the current big thing everywhere that even family members of the teenagers till educated professionals are going mad over the social networking site. These teenagers tend to go overboard when they participate in this phenomenon as it is a trend that is considered uber- cool and they become obsessive about it. â€Å"Facebook Addiction Disorder† (FAD) is a condition which is defined by hours spent on Facebook by a person. The time spent is said to be affecting the balance of an individual’s life. There are six key symptoms mentioned by the author for this disorder. Firstly, a person with FAD will be spending so much time on the site which leads to a stage where they need it in order to obtain satisfaction. Besides, reducing normal social or recreational activities, they will also plan virtual dates as instead of meeting their partner somewhere, they will ask their partner to be online at a certain time. Other than that, the friends list of an addict will mostly have strangers rather than the ones they know in real life. Finally, the sign of complete addiction is when they introduce themselves to someone and promise to see them on Facebook. Parents who try to help their children out of this problem, turn out to be more addicted than their teenage kids. (257 words) REFLECTION Facebook. Something that started off within the walls of Harvard University in 2004 has been ruling the world for the past half decade. Newborn babies to near death grannies and even animals these days have a profile on this social networking site. This site has been so major that these days the first word that type into the World Wide Web is Facebook. 45 million users in just 8 years is a quite a record for any social networking site in the world. It has been so hyped up that to have a Facebook profile has become a basic need for certain group of people. A tool that is supposed to be used prudently has been used extensively by some individuals so much so that they have become addicted to it. In fact, psychologists in the United States of America came up with the term ‘Facebook Addiction Disorder’ (FAD) back in 2009 as they predicted this syndrome will take the world faster than it took for the site to become global. Well, their prediction has become true. This condition is considered to a serious mental illness these days, even worse since it’s caused by addiction that could be compared to the likes of drugs and cigarettes. Who would’ve thought that a social networking site could spell so much trouble? Based on the two articles, the key point to this disorder is due to the amount of time spent on this site. People tend to spend too much time on this site than actually do something about their lives. Those days when a working man gets his off day, he would be either having a good sleep or spend some quality time with his family, but nowadays the working man would rather spend his off day by enduring a sleepless night just to spend his time on Facebook. This sounds totally ridiculous. In the context of students, they would be glad to chat with their friends online, upload pictures and update their status but they would not bother to even flip through their textbooks or homeworks given by the teacher. This proves that Facebook is affecting people regardless of age limit. The amount of time spent on Facebook shows the level of addiction of the person to the site. Thus, the hypothesis would be that, the more the time taken to use Facebook, the higher the addiction level. A person who is possessed with this global demon is also very dangerous as it may make you oblivious to your surroundings. Facebook addicts do not care about what’s happening around them. However, they would ‘like’ a certain post about Earth Hour during the hour when all electric appliances should be shut down. This shows how a person can be an environmentalist in the virtual world, but a person with no social awareness in reality. This means that Facebook addicts have another problem, Multiple Personality Disorder because they have two avatars, each in two different worlds, Facebook and reality. This disorder also causes people to be very aggressive. They would be very sad if a friend did not respond to their request to be friends on Facebook. Some of them would even compete with each other to increase their list of friends. This situation could not be considered as something that tickles our funny bones, but it is something that should be thought rationally and seriously since the issue is getting worse day to day. What is the point of adding a thousand people into your profile and chat with them happily online, when you turn your back towards them in reality? Besides that, the majority of group that is most affected by this phenomenon are teenagers. Being born in this era of online madness is not a sin, but they are being led into fake world that is given a fancy name of globalization! They think that being on Facebook is the coolest thing to do as a teenager. What a misconception? Students these days do not prefer face to face interaction where as they prefer to virtual communication. Do not be surprised if in the future two people, who won’t even smile at each other, could be best friends on Facebook. If the number of Facebook addicts increase continuously, sooner or later we would be witnessing the growth of an unhealthy generation of youth with no social skills because all this while they never knew how to make friends, socialize or even take part in recreational activities. The major factor to this crisis is because their conceptualization of social life is Facebook. This so called social networking site also happens to social crime networking site lately. On 18th April 2012, in Pune, India, a 16 year old girl was kidnapped by her Facebook friend whom she had known through the website. After kidnapping her, the accused initially demanded a ransom of Rs 100,000 from her mother. But later fearing police action, he got the girl admitted to a private hospital telling the hospital authorities that he found her ‘wandering’ on the road after she was thrown out of a van by some people. What could have happened to the girl if the kidnapper was a psychopath? The consequence would have been unfathomable. This is what happens to certain Facebook addicts who reveal too much of details online. What is the worth of an individual who is deemed as a very private person in reality, where as in the virtual world they reveal everything to everyone? In the working world, those days’ workers were scolded by their employers for talking during their work time; nowadays they are sacked for using Facebook at work. In certain scenarios, the employees are sacked because they update their Facebook status at work, capture pictures while working and also to have the guts to upload it at work. Where is the discipline of the working world going? Why are they being so irresponsible? In a book titled ‘Facebook Addiction’, the author who is an addict himself says that once when he was trying to pack up his laptop, a client called and asked him to work on a website. The moment he opened the internet browser, the first thing he did was, type in â€Å"www. acebook. com† and logged in, he promised to himself to spend only five minutes, he couldn’t resist himself and spent eight hours on the website. On top of that, in terms of relationships, Facebook addicts do not have a proper life there either; there have been reported cases in America, of young married couples who file for divorce. In a survey conducted by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), researchers found t hat Facebook was mentioned in 1 out of every 5 divorces in the United States. Some of the cases were due to lack communication between couples because one of the partners was always busy updating his Facebook status rather than actually communicating with his wife. Before marriage, messaging through the site could be fun or romantic, however post marital relationship requires commitment and real communication. These cases have proved that Facebook Addiction Disorder has been the major cause of many serious problems from school to the confinements of our home. If this scenario continues, this disorder could get into the line along serious mental illnesses. We as educators will be facing great dilemmas as the students would be more passive socially in reality, to overcome it we have to teach them in a condition where there is no active interaction between teacher and a student. However, if we stand with our hands folded, one day we might see the portrait of our society in the obituary column in the newspapers. APPENDIX Article 1 Title : Online Social Networking and Addiction Writer(s) : Daria J. Kuss and Mark D. Griffiths Source : www. mdpi. com/journal/ijerph â€Å"I’m an addict. I just get lost in Facebook† replies a young mother when asked why she does not see herself able to help her daughter with her homework. Instead of supporting her child, she spends her time chatting and browsing the social networking site . This case, while extreme, is suggestive of a potential new mental health problem that emerges as Internet social networks proliferate. Newspaper stories have also reported similar cases, suggesting that the popular press was early to discern the potentially addictive qualities of social networking sites. Such media coverage has alleged that women are at greater risk than men for developing addictions to SNSs . The mass appeal of social networks on the Internet could potentially be a cause for concern, particularly when attending to the gradually increasing amounts of time people spend online . On the Internet, people engage in a variety of activities some of which may be potentially to be addictive. Rather than becoming addicted to the medium per se, some users may develop an addiction to specific activities they carry out online. Specifically, Young argues that there are five different types of internet addiction, namely computer addiction (i. e. , computer game addiction), information overload (i. e. , web surfing addiction), net compulsions (i. e. , online gambling or online shopping addiction), cybersexual addiction (i. e. , online pornography or online sex addiction), and cyber-relationship addiction (i. e. , an addiction to online relationships). SNS addiction appears to fall in the last category since the purpose and main motivation to use SNSs is to establish and maintain both on- and offline relationships. From a clinical psychologist’s perspective, it may be plausible to speak specifically of ‘Facebook Addiction Disorder’ (or more generally ‘SNS Addiction Disorder’) because addiction criteria, such as neglect of personal life, mental preoccupation, escapism, mood modifying experiences, tolerance, and concealing the addictive behavior, appear to be present in some people who use SNSs excessively. Social Networking Sites are virtual communities where users can create individual public profiles, interact with real-life friends, and meet other people based on shared interests. SNSs are web-based services that allow individuals to: construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system†. The focus is placed on established networks, rather than on networking, which implies the construction of new networks. SNSs offer individuals the possibilities of networking and sharing media content, therefore embracing the main Web 2. attributes, against the framework of their respective structural characteristics. In terms of SNS history, the first social networking site (SixDegrees) was launched in 1997, based on the idea that everybody is linked with everybody else via six degrees of separation, and initially referred to as the â€Å"small world problem†. In 2004, the most successful current SNS, Facebook, was established as a closed virtual community for Harvard students. The site expan ded very quickly and Facebook currently has more than 500 million users, of whom fifty percent log on to it every day. Furthermore, the overall time spent on Facebook increased by 56% from 2007 to 2008. This statistic alone indicates the exponential appeal of SNSs and also suggests a reason for a rise in potential SNS addiction. Hypothetically, the appeal of SNSs may be traced back to its reflection of today’s individualist culture. Unlike traditional virtual communities that emerged during the 1990s based on shared interests of their members, social networking sites are egocentric sites. It is the individual rather than the community that is the focus of attention. Egocentrism has been linked to Internet addiction. Supposedly, the egocentric construction of SNSs may facilitate the engagement in addictive behaviors and may thus serve as a factor that attracts people to using it in a potentially excessive way. This hypothesis is in line with the PACE Framework for the etiology of addiction specificity. Attraction is one of the four key components that may predispose individuals to becoming addicted to specific behaviors or substances rather than specific others. Accordingly, due to their egocentric construction, SNSs allow individuals to present themselves positively that may â€Å"raise their spirits† (i. . , enhance their mood state) because it is experienced as pleasurable. This may lead to positive experiences that can potentially cultivate and facilitate learning experiences that drive the development of SNS addiction. A behavioral addiction such as SNS addiction may thus be seen from a biopsychosocial perspective . Just like substance-related addictions, SNS addiction incorporates th e experience of the ‘classic’ addiction symptoms, namely mood modification (i. e. , engagement in SNSs leads to a favourable change in emotional states), salience (i. e. behavioral, cognitive, and emotional preoccupation with the SNS usage), tolerance (i. e. , ever increasing use of SNSs over time), withdrawal symptoms (i. e. , experiencing unpleasant physical and emotional symptoms when SNS use is restricted or stopped), conflict (i. e. , interpersonal and intrapsychic problems ensue because of SNS usage), and relapse (i. e. , addicts quickly revert back in their excessive SNS usage after an abstinence period). Moreover, scholars have suggested that a combination of biological, psychological and social factors contributes to the etiology of addictions, that may also hold true for SNS addiction. From this it follows that SNS addiction shares a common underlying etiological framework with other substance-related and behavioral addictions. However, due to the fact that the engagement in SNSs is different in terms of the actual expression of (Internet) addiction (i. e. , pathological use of social networking sites rather than other Internet applications), the phenomenon appears worthy of individual consideration, particularly when considering the potentially detrimental effects of both substance-related and behavioral addictions on individuals who experience a variety of negative consequences because of their addiction. Article 2 Title : Facebook Addiction Disorder – The 6 Symptoms of F. A. D. Writer : Amy Summers Source : www. socialtimes. com â€Å"Okay, I admit it. I am truly addicted to Facebook,† said teenage blogger Heidi Barry-Rodriquez in 2007. In 2009, teen Neeka Salmasi described the social networking giant as being â€Å"like an addiction†. This year, a casino site mentioned that â€Å"Facebook provides the atmosphere where it is tough to walk away† in a direct comparison to gambling addiction. A quick web search and it becomes appallingly evident that we have a problem. Text messaging is no longer the biggest teenage obsession, and long gone are the days where the biggest worries for parents were celebrity crushes, massive phone bills from ridiculously long phone calls and chocolate overloads. These teenage obsessions still exist, but in today’s day and age, and in comparison to the Facebook craze, they seem rather insignificant. Facebook is taking over the world, and that’s no exaggeration. Everyone from eager-to-fit-in teens to educated business people to intrigued grandparents has joined the phenomenon, and unsurprisingly many teenagers have also caught Facebook fever. And like with many of the latest attention-grabbing trends, some teenagers can go a little overboard when participating in them. Perhaps we join Facebook because everyone has an account and, as teenagers, the need to fit in is just too great, or perhaps there’s just a special something that has helped the social networking site attract so many million people. Teenagers have a tendency to become obsessive with the ‘in’ thing and Facebook, the trend of the decade, is no exception; the question is, have we overdone in? And is there really such thing as Facebook addiction? An American psychologist believes so. In fact, he’s even introduced a new term to describe such an addiction. FAD, or Facebook Addiction Disorder, is a condition that is defined by hours spent on Facebook, so much time in fact that the healthy balance of the individual’s life is affected. It has been said that approximately 350 million people are suffering from the disorder that is detected through a simple set of six-criteria. People who are victims of the condition must have at least 2-3 of the following criteria during a 6-8 month time period. . Tolerance: This term is used to describe the desperate behavior of a Facebook addict. They spend an increasing amount of time on the site, coming to a stage where they need it in order to obtain satisfaction or on the other extreme, it is having a detrimental effect on them as a person and their life. For the family members and friends who think they are dealing with an addict, a sign to look out for are multiple Facebook win dows open. Three or more confirms that they are indeed suffering from this condition. 2. Withdrawal symptoms: These become obvious when one is restricted from using Facebook because they have to participate in normal everyday activities. Common signs are anxiety, distress and the need to talk about Facebook and what might have been posted on their wall in their absence. 3. Reduction of normal social/recreational activities: Someone suffering from FAD will reduce the time spent catching up with friends, playing sport or whatever it is they used to enjoy doing, to simply spend time on Facebook. Instead of catching up with a friend for coffee, they will send a Facebook message. A dinner date will be substituted with a messenger chat. In extreme cases, the person will even stop answering their parent’s phone calls, instead insisting that they use Facebook to contact them. 4. Virtual dates: It is obvious that things are extreme when real dates are replaced with virtual dates. Instead of going to the movies or out to dinner, they tell their partner to be online at a certain time. 5. Fake friends: If 8 out of 10 people shown on their Facebook page are complete strangers, it is undeniable: they have a serious case of FAD. 6. Complete addiction: When they meet new people, they say their name, followed by â€Å"I’ll talk to you on Facebook†, or for those who are extremely bad, â€Å"I’ll see you in Facebook†. Their pets have Facebook pages, and any notifications, wall posts, inboxes or friend requests that they receive give them a high, one which can be compared to that gambling addicts get from the pokies or roulette table. So someone believes that addiction to the net is a real condition that needs to be treated just like any other addiction, with care and caution, but is an obsession with Facebook a real condition, or is FAD really just the latest fad? Either way, Facebook obsessions are definitely present in today’s society and whether it is a disorder or not, something needs to be done to fix it. Forget the fancy name and look at the facts. Many people, teenagers in particular, are spending too much time online. People’s lives are being affected because of the hours spent looking at profiles and pictures. Facebook, very beneficial in some ways, is having a detrimental effect on the everyday behaviors of people around the world. Having seen the affects of too much time online firsthand, I know this to be true. Nobody can possibly disagree when the facts speak for themselves and when an individual’s online ‘life’ becomes more important than their real one; we know that there is a serious problem that needs to be addressed. But, what to do about it? How can we possibly fix a problem that has affected more than a third of the world’s population? That is a question I can’t answer, but I do know that our parents can play an important role, well, that is if the addicted is still young enough to be influenced by their parents. There are two kinds of parents in my area, both from different ends of the spectrum. On one side we have the Facebook haters; the parents who don’t have Facebook, don’t understand Facebook and never want to understand Facebook. On the other side, we have the Facebook lovers, those who act more like their teenage children than their parents. They’ve befriended their kids online, participate in their online conversations, comment on their photos and send messages from the lounge room to the bedroom instead of just walking up the hallway and keeping matters that should be kept private, well, private. Don’t believe me? I completely understand. It definitely sounds strange. But the truth is I actually know people like this and well I can only conclude one thing: that these parents, in an attempt to be their teen’s friend rather than their parent, have also been swept up in the Facebook craze and are now suffering from a similar sort of addiction. The apple really does never land far from the tree. REFERENCES 1. http://www. healthism. com/articles/facebook-addiction 2. http://deaddictioncentres. in/news/facebook-de-addiction-social-dysfunction/ 3. http://columbianewsservice. om/2011/02/the-facebook-relapse-trying-to-defriend-facebook/ 4. http://www. sakaaltimes. com/20120418/5754739842191348023. htm 5. http://socialtimes. com/facebook-addiction-disorder-the-6-symptoms-of-f-a-d_b60403 6. http://www. tomsguide. com/us/facebook-twitter-myspace,news-10312. html 7. http://www. netaddiction. com/index. php? option=com_blogview= 8. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Text Revision, Fourth Edition; American Psychiatric Association: Washington, DC, USA, 2000 9. Lenhart, A. Social Networking How to cite Facebook Addiction Disorder, Papers

Competitive Strategy Optimize Business Management

Question: Describe about the Competitive Strategy for Optimize Business Management. Answer: Paragraph 1: The key ideas A potential business strategy is important to coordinate with all business activities by eliminating the intervention and maximising the profitability. An integrated business strategy assists the organisation to make appropriate decisions regarding the different operational activities. In the opinion of Schirone and Torkan (2012), a strategy helps to foster an environment in the marketplace for attaining a healthy competition. Without getting a competitive advantage, the companies could not boost up the product selling in the target marketplace. Thus, it could be deduced that strategy of marketing facilities and the healthy competition allow a business to be successful in the target market area. According to the opinion of Dandira (2011), streamlines product development is one of the major strategies that helps to make the products and services for making more profitability. Adding to this, the establishment of effective product distribution helps to maximise the marketing effectiven ess. Easy availability of the products is helpful for the business organisation to grab the customers attention. Furthermore, this strategy assists the firm to increase the communication with the customers. It is also essential to make a framework for keeping the organisational decision making a process more efficient. Considering the words of Akhtar et al. (2015), all the operational decision of the firm has to be aligned to the adopted strategies for fostering the decision making the approach more successful. In this present context, the researcher has chosen the retail furniture brand Ikea to demonstrate the business strategy. The leading firm has constructed the strategies as per the category of the business. Paragraph 2: The beneficial applications It has been observed that the source of Ikeas successful business graph in the market of retail furniture business is the Ikeas low price and flexibility. As per the view of Dandira (2011), the forward-thinking strategy of Ikea has made the firm as a top furniture seller in the international marketplace. The firm can change the concept of the people while purchasing the furniture goods. The brand has incorporated a new-thinking like solving the worst part of buying furniture that has changed the customers buying nature. This concept has helped the firm to attain a new competitive advantage, besides the conventional furniture stores. On the other hand, Schirone and Torkan (2012) mentioned that hitting the right demographic makes the production process more simple of the organisation to draw the attention of the customers, suppliers and the other business entities. It has been identified that the price point of the firm is perfect to increase its customer base. The not expensive, but n ot too cheap price range has helped to increase the good value of the brand regarding customer footfall in the retail stores rather than the rivals such as West Elm and Bed, Bath Beyond. In the opinion of Baraldi (2008), with the assistance of intricate showroom, Ikea has become a unique destination for the customers. The scholars stated that Ikea is an impartial store that helps the shopper to meet the requirements and demands. Thus, it could be inferred that the effective marketing strategy has helped the brand to introduce 298 stores in 26 countries. The annual selling of $36 billion is the other fundamental aspects of Ikeas business success. WEEK 4: Business Model Innovation Paragraph 1: The key ideas For every successful business, organisation innovation is required to attain a high degree of customer loyalty index and the utmost competitive advantage of the global market area. According to the opinion of Zhang and Li (2006), innovation is required to up surging the customer value as well to reduce the overall cost of the products and services. The innovative business model (BMI) tool is adopted by every successful business organisation like IBM, Google, Intel, Apple, etc. The organisation has created the specific business model either directly or indirectly at the time of its foundation. The business organisation is continuously developing and reconstructing the business model by using the existing technology to expand the success factor. It has been speculated that there are four important determinants such as Initiation, ideation, Integration and Implementation that help to develop an innovative business model (Lindgren, 2012). Adding to this, it is also seen that the innovati ve business model is also helpful to make the organisation financially achievable. Thus, every organisation needs to identify a significant business model for the products, service, income, expense and the target customer group. Supporting this, Liao (2013) added that an effective business model is also necessary to enhance the success factor by comparing with the other business model of the leading organisations. In this present context, Ebay has been considered in the next paragraphs to evaluate the benefits of employing an innovative business model. Paragraph 2: The beneficial applications Considering the opinion of Lindgren (2012), Ebay is one of the e-commerce sites with having an effective trading movement, so that people can buy or sell the products and services. The aims of the e-commerce organisation are to establish a visual marketplace, where the people could easily make the trading activities. The basic concepts of innovative business models of Ebay instruct the people to register and incline the products and services. The buyers from the site are not required to recompense any commission for the bidding and browsing for different product categories. According to the opinion of Liao (2013), Ebay offers a subscription package to the sellers as a monthly fee between 150 and 2,500 free listings. On the other hand, a fixed price listing can be defined as auction listings and provides advantages to that group of customers who want to buy immediately. Ebay also conducts the online conference for the sellers to provide additional training for increasing the product v alue to the target group of customers. This process helps the e-commerce site to achieve more customer visits that help directly to increase the market share in the international market area. Adding to this, Bucherer et al. (2012) cited that Ebay is also generating its revenues from the different authentic payment gateway like Pay pal, Billdesk and the other online financial services facilities. Furthermore, the opportunity of 20 free listing has helped the firm to obtain a sustainable market position in the global marketplace of e-commerce industry (Lindgren, 2012). Moreover, the integration and implementation of the innovative business model assist the firm to execute the operational activities efficiently and as well as helps to attain a long-standing business goal in the international market area. References: Bucherer, E., Eisert, U. and Gassmann, O. (2012) Towards systematic business model innovation: Lessons from product innovation management, Creativity and Innovation Management, 21(2), pp. 183198. Liao, S. (2013) Applying innovative model and optimize business management for product market, Journal of Distribution Science, 11(3), pp. 1322. Lindgren, P. (2012) Business model innovation leadership: How do SMEs strategically lead business model innovation?, International Journal of Business and Management, 7(14), pp. 120122. Zhang, H. and Li, H. (2006) Factors affecting payment choices in online auctions: A study of ebay traders, Decision Support Systems, 42(2), pp. 10761088. Akhtar, F., Lodhi, S.A. and Shah Khan, S. (2015) Permaculture approach: Linking ecological sustainability to businesses strategies,Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, 26(6), pp. 795809. Dandira, M. (2011) The impact of executive directors service contracts on strategic plan,Business Strategy Series, 12(1), pp. 1218. Baraldi, E. (2008) Strategy in industrial networks: Experiences from IKEA,California Management Review, 50(4), pp. 99126. Schirone, D.A. and Torkan, G. (2012) Food in IKEA: A strategy to support the core business,Business and Management Research, 1(4), pp. 124126.