Association for Light and Life

Archive for the ‘General’ Category

There could be no better way of having fun at home than to play with your computer. There are lots of games available for us to play and online games are the best for me. I just made some digging and found out that online casino games are one of the most popular online games. I am still on the process of learning so I asked my friend’s help for that. My friends who are already players of online casino games and they told me where I can get slot games guide for players. I am beginning to like slot games so they told me where I can have guide.

I did some digging too to find out more about other online casino games and found on wiki roulette that roulette is also a great game even for starters like me. I also managed to find where I can learn how to play online roulette. The exciting game is really fun and enjoyable. Now I got another new things to do on my computer. I don’t have to go out just to have fun because I can find it on my own desk. With my computer and my internet service provider, I can have all the fun and excitement that I wanted to have.

Interactive media technologies combine computers and telecommunications resources to create software that users can direct themselves. They allow people to digitalize reports and drawings and transmit them, quickly and inexpensively, over phone lines, coaxial cables, or fiber optic cables. People can subscribe to personalized news services that deliver article summaries on specified topics directly to their fax machines or computers. They can telecommunicate via e-mail, voice mail, fax, video conferencing, and computer networks; pay bills using online banking services; and use online resources to get information about everything from investments to a local retailer’s special sale, day-care facilities, and local entertainment activities for the upcoming weekend.
Companies are now using interactivity in their marketing programs, as well. Interactive marketing refers to buyer-seller communications in which the customer controls the amount and type of information received from a marketer. This technique provides immediate access to key product information when the consumer wants it. Interactive techniques have been used for more than a decade; point-of-sale brochures and coupon dispensers are a simple form of interactive advertising. Today, however, the term also includes two-way electronic communication using a variety of media such as the Internet, CD-ROMs, and virtual reality kiosks.
Interactive marketing frees communications between marketers and their customers from the limits of the traditional, linear, one-way messages to passive audiences using broadcast or print ads. Now customers come to companies for information, creating opportunities for one-to-one marketing. For example, each customer who visits a XVeb site has a different experience, based on the pathway of links he or she chooses to follow. Interactive marketing can also allow many- to-many exchanges, where consumers can communicate with one another using e-mail or electronic bulletin boards.
Interactivity involves more than just moving from one section of a CD-ROM or Web page to another. These electronic conversations establish innovative relationships between users and the technology, providing customized information based on users’ interests and levels of understanding. Interactive technologies support almost limidess exchanges of information. People gain access to chosen programs and services via their personal computers and telephones, and they can purchase products not only from stores but also via television or the Internet. For example, the Weather Channel offers extra information on local forecasts and the Tonight Show provides details aboutjay Leno’s guests on its interactive TV programs.

One of the busiest areas of interactive marketing is online auctions and name-your-oi-price vendors. This sector, which is expected to draw well over 6 million buyers by 2002, includes airline tickets, hotel rooms, cruises, and rental cars. Although Budget, Avis, and Hertz all have Web reservation sites, Budget was the first to establish an interactive price bidding feature, the Bid- Budget program. Online bidders simply fill out a form indicating the desired dates and airport pickup location, preferred car type, contact information, a major credit-card number, and the price they are willing to pay. Budget notifies the bidder within 24 hours whether a bid is accepted and offers a money-back guarantee up to 48 hours before the pick up time.
Interactive marketing can transform and enhance customer relationships. Interactive promotions put the customer in control. They can easily get tips on product usage and answers to customer service questions, they can also tell the company what they like or dislike about a product, and they can just as easily click the exit button and move on to another area. The challenge is attracting and holding consumer attention. Marketers must devise new strategies based on interactive marketing techniques to build lasting customer relationships. Subsequent chapters will show how companies are successfully using interactive techniques in their marketing campaigns.

The challenges presented by today’s complex and technologically sophisticated marketing environment require critical-thinking skills and creativity from marketing professionals. Critical thinking refers to the process of determining the authenticity; accuracy, and worth of informadon, knowledge, claims, and arguments. Critical thinkers react skeptically to what they hear or see. They do not take information at face value and simply assume that it is accurate; they analyze the data themselves and develop their own opinions and conclusions.
Creative government bureaucracy might sound like an oxymoron, but it is an accurate description of the U.S. Mint since Philip N. Diehl became director. After years of fighting entrenched political resistance, Diehl was able to transform this $1 billion government agency into a close approximation of a private sector, profit-seeking business. The organization than was reorganized, jobs were redesigned and positions added, state-of-the-an computerized information systems were installed, bureaucratic workers were trained to become customer-responsive employees, and new products were introduced. Tn 1998, the 50-state quarter program was launched. The Mint will release five quarters a year, each featuring a different state. It also designed the new dollar coin, first minted in January 2000, featuring the likeness of the Native American Sacajawea. The result of all these creative changes is a government agency that shines, as they say, like a brand-new penny.15
Creativity is an extremely valuable skill for marketers. It helps them to develop novel solutions to perceived marketing problems. Leonardo da Vinci conceived his idea for a helicopter after watching leaves twirl in the wind. Swiss engineer George de Mestral noticing that burrs stuck to his wool socks because of their tiny hooks, invented Velcro.
Creativity is particularly important in the creation of promotional messages.

Marketers do not make decisions about target markets and marketing mix variables in a vacuum. They must take into account the dynamic nature of the five dimensions of the marketing environment: competitive, political-legal, economic, technological, and social- cultural factors. Environmental concerns have led to new regulations on air and water pollution. Automobile engineers, for instance, have turned public concerns and legal issues into opportunities by developing hybrid cars for the new century. These new models are fueled by dual energy: a gasoline engine and an electric motor. Toyota was the first to enter the market with its Prius, which depends primarily on the electric motor, but includes a backup gasoline engine. The Prius currently sells in Japan for about $19,000. Changes in the legal environment regarding automobile emissions alerted automobile designers to make these changes. By accommodating future needs of consumers and meeting the more stringent legal requirements, they created a new market segment. It did not take long for competitors to follow Toyota’s lead. Honda’s new VV model runs primarily on its gasoline engine with the electric motor as its secondary energy source. Honda plans to hit the showrooms with a vehicle that offers a lower price and better gas mileage. Nissan and Fuji Heavy Industries also have models on the drawing boards for launches scheduled within the next two years. European and U.S. automakers, however, have not jumped at the chance to enter the race with their version of a hybrid car. General Motors might have a so-called green car ready in 2001; Ford and DaimlerChrysler say they may be ready by 2005.
Corporate giants are increasingly looking to foreign shores for new growth markets. Wal-Mart has been the star child of American business for years, although a mounting number of competitors has begun to chip away its market. When the going got tough, Wal-Mart got going—to other countries, that is. Within two years, it doubled its foreign sales to $7.5 billion. Currently only 6 percent of Wal-Mart’s sales are from outside the United States, but this huge potential market is a major current focus.24
Two more important characteristics in the contemporary marketing environment include cultural diversity and ethical concerns. Every chapter in this book contains detailed examples that explore the impact of these factors.

One of the most difficult areas of marketing decision making, pricing strategy, deals with the methods of setting profitable and justifiable prices. It is closely regulated and subject to considerable public scrutiny.
One of the many factors that influence a marketer’s pricing strategy is competition. The computer industry has become all too familiar with price cuts by both current competitors and new market entrants. After years of steady growth, the market has become saturated with low-cost computers, driving down profit margins even farther. Big PC makers such as Dell, Compaq, and IBM are trying to compensate by focusing more on business customers. Meanwhile, start-ups like eMachines and Microworkz are the fastest growing segment of the retail computer market with a 20 percent share. In 1998, just 2 percent of computers could be bought for less than $600; today, well over 20 percent are sold at below that price.

Promotion is the communication link between sellers and buyers. Organizations use many different means of sending messages about their goods, services, and ideas. They may communicate messages directly through salespeople or indirectly through advertisements and sales promotions. Highly creative advertisements like the one in Figure 1.6 can even provide a form of demonstration. Kraft marketers advertise their three varieties of ranch dressing by creating a replica of the American flag from a combination of ready-to-dip items, including cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, blueberries, and star fruit. They offer a humorous set of preparation instrucdons that ends with “Solute and serve.”
In developing a promotional strategy marketers blend together the various elements of promotion to communicate most effectively with their target market. Many companies use an approach called integrated marketing communications (IMC) to coordinate all promotional activities so that the consumer receives a unified and consistent message. Sony PlayStation Underground, for example, has built the brand and its customer base through the use of IMC programs. The subscription-driven club for video garners who use PlayStation hardware targets consumers with a mix of direct mail, catalogs, a Web site, a computer disk magazine, television spots, package inserts, space ads, and even billboards. In just one year, PlayStation Underground members received some 47 mailings from Sony; software developers received nine; and PlayStation distributors got five mailings. Future plans include creating greater synergy between TV spots, print ads, and other marketing efforts. Sony’s database has grown from 100,000 to 1.5 million names, all of whom will receive Sony’s new catalog of branded merchandise. Says Peter Dille, Sony’s director for product marketing, “Anything that makes the PlayStation customer relationship stronger will sell more product.”

Marketers develop distribution strategies to ensure that consumers find their products in the proper quantities at the right times and places.
Distribution decisions involve modes of transportation, warehousing, inventory control, order processing, and selection of marketing channels. Marketing channels are made up of institutions such as retailers and wholesalers—all those involved in a product’s movement from producer to final consumer.
Technology is opening new channels of distribution in many industries. For example, software, a product made of digital data files, is ideally suited to electronic distribution. Major players like Netscape, Sun Microsystems, and Microsoft Corp. already distribute their programs and upgrades directly over the Internet. Electronic commerce holds great promise for providing quick response to purchasers while markedly reducing prices by slashing packaging and shipping costs, cutting out many intermediaries, and allowing online shoppers to look for the best prices from both domestic and international suppliers.
Distribution strategy is covered in more detail in Pan 6. Topics include marketing channels and logistics management (Chapter 13) and retailing, direct marketing, and wholesaling.

In different countries there are million children out in the street vendors and begging for alms, that suppose to be spending their time inside the school. And most children are linked to bad habits and influence by drugs. The most common substances are inhalants, like solvent/rugby and cough syrups, followed by marijuana and cocaine. Marijuana and cocaine in particular are drugs that are shared with friends whenever one friend member is lucky enough to have money to buy them. Moreover, many street children take more drugs more than once, some as often as a daily intake of solvent/rugby.

Generally, street children are thin, untidy, and undernourished, hardly equipped to survive the hazards of everyday living and working on the streets. Some of the hazards they face include sickness, physical injuries from vehicular accidents, street fights, harassment from both extortionists and police, sexual exploitation by paedophiles and pimps, exposure to substance abuse and sexually transmitted diseases.  Government should stay focus on this matter cause the future lays on our children’s hand.

In the Philippines one problem to be considered is overgrown population. Proper family planning is not been properly represented in a proper way to urban people. The Philippine population in the early 1990s continued to grow at a rapid, although somewhat reduced rate from that which had prevailed in the preceding decades. In 1990 the Philippine population was more than 66 million, up from 48 million in 1980. This figure represents an annual growth rate of 2.5 percent, down from 2.6 percent in 1980 and from more than 3 percent in the 1960s. Even at the lower growth rate, the Philippine population will increase to an estimated 77 million by the year 2000 and will double every twenty-nine years into the next century. Moreover, in 1990 the population was still a youthful one, with 57 percent under the age of twenty. The birth rate in early 1991 was 29 per 1,000, and the death rate was 7 per 1,000. The infant mortality rate was 48 deaths per 1,000 live births. Population density increased from 160 per square kilometer in 1980 to 220 in 1990. The rapid population growth and the size of the younger population has required the Philippines to double the amount of housing, schools, and health facilities every twenty-nine years just to maintain a constant level.

In biology, a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular species, in sociology, a collection of human beings. Individuals within a population share a particular characteristic of interest, most often that of living in a given geographic area. In addition, on average, populations often show differences in morphological, physiological, life history or behaviour characteristics. In taxonomy, population is a low-level taxonomic rank.

Human populations can be defined by any characteristics such as mortality, migration, family (marriage and divorce), public health, work and the labor force, and family planning. Various aspects of human behaviour in populations are also studied in sociology, economics, and geography.

Financial and economic crisis may depend to human population; we have to consider that family planning may help. Government should extend hand to several citizens and urban people and let them learn to stop over population.

This line has great significance to me as a teacher. What I am now is not a matter of chance but of choice. I chose to be a teacher in fact, I married my chosen profession for twenty years. The preferred character traits like perseverance, determination, industry, patience and self-discipline added in shaping my personality and were contributory factors to my modest academic achievements.

I find myself in this profession when I graduated in 1967, among the biggest batch of graduates in a deserted college, and passed the Teacher’s Examination in the same year. I am a major of Science and my first teaching stint was at the Education and Training Centers School near to our place, as substitute teacher for five months and was later assigned to a more and big opportunity, which is a known college in our country. That was the start of my progress, I gained composure in teaching different kinds of students, from the richest to the poorest. This had made me more successful in my profession and thanks for the unforgettable experience that I had…