Onhs Documentation

CHAPTER 1 1. The Problem and Its Background 2. 1 Introduction Enrollment serves as a vital part in the life of every student upon entering schools or universities, either public or in private. It gives students the impression on how the whole institute manages and manipulates the entire body. Moreover, enrollment serves as the first experience of all students by which he/she takes part either individually or with company of a parent or some relatives.Enrollment is considered as the first step or procedure that must be done by old students within a particular institution before the semester per school year totally starts, but for those freshmen, or first year students (new students), they are obliged to usually take an admission test, to know and assess them the right course to engage to, followed by a scheduled interview in order to give them brief instructions and information about certain issues with regards to the school’s policies, institutional programs as well as persona l information, health, economic status, so on and so forth.Good enrollment is always an asset in a school, pertaining to fast payment, assessment procedures, and easy transactions with a high rate of accuracy. Therefore, good enrollment within the schools, if present, can be described as civilize, organize, accurate and professional. Enrollment has always been a difficult task, but it is more so today than ever before, where administrators uses the traditional way of filing records on a cabinet.Schools, like any other organization used to manage all sorts of data and information to ensure attainment of its goals and objectives. The emerging needs in most schools for accurate and relevant data and reliable information strengthen the Student Information System. As the population of the students goes up, it is becoming more complex. Data should be stored in safer places, and can be retrieved easily and fast when someone needs it.Administrator’s task has becoming more complex, th ere have been efforts to improve the effectiveness of problem solving and central to this are quantitative techniques and electronic devices such as computers. This study aims to come up with an enrollment system and grades management with short message service system for a high school which also includes information pertinent data such as name, year, section, etc. This system is design for the use of the staff to enable them to produce information required by different people.It will make the work of faculty and staff faster, easier and more comprehensive. The system will also store the data of the students. For the future researchers, this study could be used for their reference in having an enrollment system and grades management with SMS System if the future researchers would like to formulate a system such as this. 2. 2 The Background of the Study Orani National High School (ONHS) is located at Kawayan, Orani, Bataan, it was established through the Sangguniang Panlalawigan Reso lution No. 41. ONHS campus started to operate three years before its House Bill No. 1425 was approved as Republic Act No. 8419 on November 27, 1997. ONHS is composed of (1864) one thousand eight hundred sixty four students. Five hundred forty (540) are first year, four hundred sixty three (463) are second year, four hundred thirty two (432) are third year and four hundred twenty nine (429) are seniors or graduating. The school has sixty six (66) teaching and non-teaching staff.Fifty three (53) teaching personnel are regular permanent and are nationally funded. Five are contractual, funded by the Provincial School Board of Bataan and the Local School Board of Orani. The non-teaching personnel is composed of three (3) Department Heads, one (1) Disbursing Officer who are regular and permanent and five (5) contractual support personnel funded by the Provincial School Board of Bataan and Local School Board of Orani.All teachers passed the Professional Board Examination for Teachers (PBET ) and Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) with Master of Arts in progress and are teaching their own major or field of specialization. The faculty, staff, students and parents of this school are caring people, who share one vision and one mission and who continuously strive to make ONHS a caring school system in Orani where every learner is Maka-Diyos, Maka-kalikasan, Maka-tao and Maka-Bansa; and make every student understand, do and enjoy what they have learned by being role models.Their enrollment is being done manually by the registrar and when the enrollment start the registrar will have a hard time to enroll the student in their current enrollment system, they found that using a manual process is hard to handle such as collection of records like storing, finding, sorting and securing of records particularly if this stored only in one room and in a limited space. It will be a big hassle for the registrar and the student when or if ever their going to get data or information .In this new system it will be easy for them to enroll and to get data or information from the registrar and also enable the registrar to easily produce information required by the different people in the school. 2. 3 Statement of the Problem 2. 4. 1 General Problem How to design, develop and implement an Enrollment and Grades Management with Short Message Service System for Orani National High School that would help the enrollment and grading process? 2. 4. 2 Specific Problems * Difficult data manipulation * The present way of enrollment and grading system is time consuming * There is no data retrieval of lost file There is no standard format when printing of grades * Difficult parental updates of the students * Security 2. 4 Objective of the Study 2. 5. 3 General Objective To be able to design, develop and implement an Enrollment and Grades Management with Short Message Service System for Orani National High School. 2. 5. 4 Specific Objective * To develop an information system tha t has the ability to manipulate data accurately. * To develop an information system that will lessen the workload, time, human resource and provides accurate  information  needed in an information system. * To develop a system that has the ability to protect the files. The proposed system will be having a standard printing format for the data. * To develop an information system that has parental updates. * For security purpose. 2. 5 Significance of the Study Due to the increasing students of Orani National High School, this study helped the school regarding their enrollment transactions. The proposed system aimed to benefit the school in their enrollment facilities such as maintaining the files, assessment of fees and especially the enrollment itself. The proposed system aimed to benefit the following: The School The main beneficiary of the study is Orani National High School.ONHS would be adapting the new innovation of technology through C# programming language that will make t heir work with optimum performance. The developed system will compensate the flaws and problems that the school is encountering. Registrar With regards to the registrar’s office the proposed system will help the school in maintaining the data of the students and the school will not use the manual data gathering. ONHS will just need to check the database for the records needed. Students The students will benefit by means of not having a hard time in falling in line and waiting for their turn to register. ProponentsThe proponents would also be a beneficiary of the study since the proponents would value the importance of enhancing their skills and work performance while grasping knowledge throughout the study. Future Researchers For the future researchers, this study could be used for their reference in having an enrollment system if the future researchers would like to formulate a system such as this. 2. 6 Scope and Limitation The system will have the following features: * File Management * Students Master List * Grades Management * Generation of Reports * Student’s records report * Student’s grades report * Enrollment Process SMS function * Security However, the system will have the following limitations: * Enrollment Reservation * The SMS function is only available only during class hours between 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. * The SMS function cannot be used if the prepaid kit doesn’t have enough loads to send information. 2. 7 Conceptual Framework ONHS Enrollment and Grades Management with Short Message Service System Of Orani National High School ONHS Enrollment and Grades Management with Short Message Service System Of Orani National High School ONHS System Students Information Students Grades Announcements through SMS ONHS SystemStudents Information Students Grades Announcements through SMS Students Information Users Information Students Grades Announcements through SMS Students Information Users Information Students Grades Announcements through SMS Output Output Input Input Process Process Figure 1. 1 Conceptual Frame Work 2. 8 Definition of Terms System- Any organized assembly of resources and procedures united and regulated by interaction or interdependence to accomplish a set of specific functions. Software-  a collection of computer programs and related data that provide instructions on telling the computer what to do and how to do it.Database- a system intended to organize, store and retrieve large amount of data easily. Program- (also a software program) is a set of instructions written to perform a specified task for a computer. Installation- (or setup) of a program (includes drivers, plugins, etc. ) is the act of putting the program onto a computer system so that it can be executed. Xampp- is a free and open source cross-platform web server solution stack package, consisting mainly of the Apache HTTP Server, MySQL database, and interpreters for scripts written in the PHP and Perl programming languages.My sql- MySQL is a relation database management system (RDBMS) which has more than 6 million installations. MySQL stands for â€Å"My Structured Query Language†. The program runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. Significance-This is the importance of the study which is a quality of suggestiveness and expressiveness. CHAPTER 2 2. 0Review of Related Literature and Studies This section presents the writing of different facts and principles conducted by the proponents during the research, which have relevant to the study.It involves quotation of the author of the books and reference materials that may serve as the basis for sorting out and solving some problems that may be encountered in the development of the proposed study. 2. 1 Foreign Literature This portion presents a review of several literatures that would be beneficial to the study summarized from previous writings, showing detailed facts asserted by few people and pioneer in the field of com puter industry. On this element of study some reviews of the proponents and author’s passage in order to help the proponents to find ways in contact with the problem that have been encountered.Success of SMS The proposed system has an SMS function. An SMS is intended only for short messaging. It is limited but very convenient to use. Even if it’s limitation, The SMS industry or Telecommunication industry is one of the most successful business ventures in the world. This was proved in the book of Brian Retford and Jordan Schwartz entitled â€Å"How to Build an SMS Service†. â€Å"SMS, or Short Message Service, is rapidly emerging as a multibillion dollar a year industry. A leading research firm reports that consumer spending on mobile services represents a $140 billion opportunity worldwide, with person-to-person SMS making up half f that. Portio Research reported that there were 946 billion SMSs sent in 2006. Clearly, the medium has hit the mainstream. To suppo rt the first statement, there is also an article regarding about the success of the SMS which is entitled â€Å"Future of SMS† by Ronald J. de Lange, Executive Vice President, Global Product Solutions, Tekelec. â€Å"SMS has been the most successful non-voice service for mobile operators in the history of telecommunications and, as such, has been a key revenue generator.Every year stories of the demise of this 160-character service are thick in the air, and every year SMS usage continues to grow as more uses are found for this once ignored service. The key to the success of SMS has been its simplicity, reach, price and reliability. All other messaging based applications launched since SMS have struggled to meet the lofty expectations set by the service and pale in comparison to its success. Industry-related reports point to a future in which SMS volumes and revenue will continue to grow on a global basis for at least the next three years. So what is going to drive this level of growth?In short, several trends will drive the continued expansion of the service. † The researcher believed that the existence of SMS is a big help in terms of convenient way of communication. Importance of Computers in the Business Today, our generation is considered as a computer age. There is no place in the world without Computers. Computers, Internet, Facebook are now considered part of our lives. Even in the school, Computers give us a lot of benefits especially in the business. Computers can provide a business a fast, reliable, systematized and organized way of giving services.This was proved in the research article of Alexis Writing entitled â€Å"What Are the Advantages of Computers in Business†. â€Å"Computers have tremendously improved the way businesses operate in their respective industries. Technology has advanced so remarkably that those who are not using computers in their business are at a major disadvantage against their competitors. In particul ar, there are several important advantages that computers can provide to small businesses. Organization Computers allow the application of different types of software that can help businesses keep track of their files, documents, schedules and deadlines.Computers also allow businesses to organize all of their information in a very accessible manner. The ability to store large amounts of data on a computer is convenient and inexpensive, and saves space. A computer's ability to allow a company to organize its files efficiently leads to better time management and productivity. Self-Sufficiency Computers have made staff and companies more self-sufficient by allowing them to do tasks that previously had to be outsourced. For example, a company can now use office software to create their own training material.Desktop publishing software can be used to create marketing materials. Online tax and accounting programs allow companies to prepare their own taxes. This allows the dominant operati ons of a company to remain in-house and empowers the company to become more independent and less susceptible to errors committed by outside parties. Cost-Effective Emerging technology makes new tools and services more affordable and allows companies to save on their staff payroll and office equipment. Because computers allow work to be done faster and more efficiently, it is possible for a company to hire fewer staff.In addition, with networked and relatively inexpensive computers, companies can store data more easily, saving on the cost of outside file storage, and can avoid having to purchase as many copiers, fax machines, typewriters, and other such items that were used before computers became popular. Correspondingly, potentially profitable businesses can be started with a smaller overhead cost. Email capabilities decrease postage costs; software applications reduce the need for large accounting departments, while videoconferencing reduces the need for travel.All resources saved will trickle down to the consumers, who are then provided with much more affordable products and service. Speed Computers help speed up other business operations. The collecting of consumer feedback, ordering of raw materials, and inspection of products is made quicker through the use of computers, allowing companies to operate much faster and to produce better quality results. Sales Computers can help generate higher sales and profits for businesses via a company website. Many businesses now operate online and around the clock to allow customers from around the world to shop for their products and services. 2. 2 Foreign Studies Short Message Service || SMS SMS can be used for a variety of uses in conjunction with mobile prepay including notification of low balance and balance inquiry, short codes used in conjunction with prepaid roaming, and even SMS itself can be provided on a prepaid basis by the mobile network operator. When used in conjunction with the SIM Toolkit, SMS can be used as the vehicle for a variety of secure transaction-oriented services such as mobile banking; news alerts, product alerts, updated sports information, job alerts, and SMS aided utility services and so on.According to the study AN SMS AND WEB-BASED TRAFFIC CASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN BANGLADESH by Sangeet Saha, August 2006, â€Å"The Traffic Police can use this SMS to know the case information, vehicle information and driver information. When the traffic police want to know this information then they will just send an SMS to a particular number. Then they will receive an SMS which contains all the information that they want to know. Thus this will help the traffic police in many ways. They can easily gather information through an SMS. Their SMS system will work when the police send an SMS using this format than this SMS will go to the central database and run the query. After getting the result, server will return an SMS to the police about the information. If no result found that it will also return an SMS of no result. In this the SMS for traffic, the police will send only the car license number. And the result will contain it’s case number, offender’s name, date of offence, date of presence to the station and the papers name that are captured.In the published thesis of Yu Loon Ng, SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE (SMS) SECURITY SOLUTION FOR MOBILE DEVICES, December 2006, â€Å"This thesis focuses on the security of Short Message Service (SMS) and the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) network, and the use of encryption to protect SMS messages. A detailed study of the GSM network, the SMS protocol and various encryption schemes was conducted to understand the properties of different encryption schemes and their applicability to SMS messages. An experiment was conducted to measure the actual performance of various encryption schemes on a modern smart phone.An analysis of the encryption scheme properties and the performance measurement was then conducted to select a suitable scheme for SMS encryption. The selected scheme was implemented in the form of a Secure SMS Chat application to validate the viability of the selected encryption scheme. Potential applications of secure SMS in military settings are also discussed. † Their thesis focuses on the use of encryption to secure SMS messages. The encryption requirements of voice traffic and other data traffic will not be discussed.The characteristics of different encryption schemes and their performance on a modern mobile device are presented. The properties of SMS were assessed with respect to their impact on encryption selection. Based on the measurement results, a suitable encryption scheme for SMS is selected, and deployed. A typical application is used to validate the selection. 2. 3 Local Studies Enrollment System The proponents primarily choose the topic regarding about enrollment is because this will give a lot of benefits to many, most especially to the students , teachers and of course the school.The other reason is because it has abundant resources that can help the proponents on developing the project. To improve the existing enrollment system our proposed system will be using the most efficient, fast and reliable machine that is widely used around the world which is computers. In the unpublished thesis of Computer Based Enrollment Information System for St. Mary's College of Meycauayan by Joseph Bernard Reyes, May 2002 it is mentioned that â€Å"One cannot deny the fact that the computer has become a tool that is shaping almost every facet of life.It is used by the government, military, big businesses, in homes and of course in schools. This is especially true in highly industrialized countries like United States, Japan and England. Moreover, the expanding application of computers in education and in business organization has prompted leaders and managers to find ways on how to use the computer to make their operations more efficient. They are be used to enhance performance and efficiency and this makes them very valuable tools for most learning institution in the Philippines†. The existing enrollment system of the school ONHS is using manual filing system.Nowadays almost all Universities, Colleges and Private Schools are using Computerized Enrollment System, that’s why the respondents agreed that it is time for the school to change and upgrade their enrollment system. Enrollment is considered as the first step or procedure that must be done by the students within a particular institute. It gives students the impression on how the whole institute manages and manipulates the entire body. Moreover, enrollment serves as the first experience of all students by which he/she takes part either individually or with company of a parent or some relatives.According to the study of Computer Based Enrollment Information System for St. Mary's College of Meycauayon, â€Å"Enrollment is the start of the relationshi p between the school and the students. Enrollment is one of the most important functions in any learning institution because it is the actual start of the interaction between the school and the students. † Moreover our proposed system aims to improve the Enrollment system of the school. The proponents want to help not only the students, teachers, the school but of course the development of the technology in our country.Short Message Service The proposed system offers not only Enrollment and Grading System but also an SMS or Short Message Service capability as well. The reason why the proponents came up on adding an SMS feature on the system is because aside from the internet, SMS is the best way to communicate with other people. According to the study â€Å"Tri Sensor Microcontroller Based Intelligent Monitoring System w/ SMS Transmission and Reception† by De Vera, Joy S. , Malixi, Jaime Jr. , Palisoc Aira, Purugganan, Leah S. , and Sarinas, Angolito Salvodor, Aug 20 20 03. SMS is a globally accepted wireless service that enables the alphanumeric messages between mobile subscribers and external system. It is characterized by out-of-bound packet delivery and low bandwidth message transfer, which results in a highly efficient means for transmitting short bursts of data. † The proponents will use the SMS to communicate with the parents or guardians of the students. The system’s SMS function will be the formal way of the school to communicate with the parents. According again to the study, â€Å"Communication is one important factor in life. It is the process of passing information of what is happening.Today, one medium we are currently incorporating is SMS / Text Messaging. In SMS messaging, information is sent effectively and fast. † The proponents therefor conclude that an SMS function on a system will be a big help on improving the current system of the School. Short Message Service, means of Communication Cellular Phones have b een a world-wide craze today. It plays an important role in everyone’s life. It helps us communicate and to be in touch with our love ones. One reason why all of us consider cellular phone a necessity is because of its SMS or short message service.In the Philippines there are many Telecommunications Company are offering a lot of affordable texting/SMS offers. According to the Study Microcontroller based SMS Micro E-load Vending machine by Cu, Joshua C. and Uy, Jeckson T. , August, 2006. â€Å"Cellular  communication can help us locate and be in touch with another person in a remote location. Since the Philippines being a developing country 33% of our population is under poverty (Senate Economic Planning Office, 2005). Wireless Telecommunications Company offered prepaid loading option that is highly suitable in the Philippine setting.Subscribers purchase consumable credits for  their account in present denominations. † In the statement above, it only shows how the S MS is widely used in our country. SMS or texting is considered not only for fun, it is considered today as a necessity. CHAPTER 3 3. 0 Methodology 3. 1Research Design Tools 4. 1. 1 Data Gathering Techniques Used Every  data  to  be  gathered  has  a  proof  from  the  respondents. Proponents interact on different participants which works are related to the design proposal, to gather relevant data from them. Directress was the overall head of enrollment system of Orani National High School.She deals with student’s evaluation and also has a list of copy of students enrolled. By  interview  and  observations,  proponents  will  know  current processes regarding enrollment activities. On the other hand, registrar department manages master list of the students  (new,  transferee,  old). The  department  was  also  assign  in sectioning of the students. By the use of this information, proponents will gather data about sectioning. In addition to that, selected parents and students will be an important participant since they are the main beneficiary of the design proposal.With the aid of surveys and sets of questionnaires about enrollment procedures, proponents will know problems regarding existing Enrollment System. Sources of Information a. Interviews which were conducted on the person involved in the Enrollment system to have a better understanding on how the current system works. b. Communication letters which were used by the proponents for request for permission to implement the study with the approval of the school. c. Other Sources of information are school documents provided by the school which contains information.Instruments Used  in the Survey, Sample Questionnaires, Interview  Questions, Communication Letters The following personnel are vital to how the system operates in which the proponents have selected to ask questions about how the current system works. a. School Registrar * Provided an ove rview of the system * Questions are imposed by asking general to specific questions b. Teacher aiding enrollment every year * Explained about further details of their system * Questions are raised from specific questions going to a more general one 4. 1. 2 Consolidated Findings, Analysis of Information Gathered, Summary  of  Information a.Summary of Information Information gathered through school documents is insufficient for the handbook only gives the history of the  school however in the interview the proponents found out that the student files are not secured from unauthorized personnel, data loss and inconsistency for the  it is  manual and only placed on a cabinet. 4. 1 Research Design The  proponents  adopt  descriptive  study,  and  used  quantitative approach in attaining relevant ideas that will involve in design proposal. In this  scheme,  proponents  ask  information  in  detailed  questions  regarding what they observed in actual to the school.They also adopt quantitative approach of  study which observed particularly in numbers. This will  give way to use the method where in data are manipulated by means of  getting only  sample that can represent a  whole. A  good  instance  is  an enrollment system wherein student’s population is much involved. By getting some portion in the population of students in every year level, they can achieve data by means of average answers. 4. 2 Instrument used in Study a. Interview Sheets Provide set of questions done by interviewer to be answer by selected respondents.Different  kinds  of  questions  are  indicated  seeing  as  that proponents interviewed several kinds of personnel involve in the system. The following  are  directress,  registrar  and  teachers  since they are much involved in enrollment activities of ONHS. b. Gantt Chart Gantt chart is a graphical representation of the duration of task against the  progr ession  of  time. It  is  a  useful  tool  for planning  and  scheduling projects. Proponents used Gantt chart in order to them to monitor allotted time for the project. 4. 3 System Development Paradigm Employed Verification Verification Testing ; quality assurance Testing ; quality assuranceMaintenance Maintenance Verify Verify Planning Planning Conceptualization Conceptualization Design Design Development Development Implementation Implementation Initiate Project Initiate Project Design Review Design Review Design Approval Design Approval System development System development Product Process Iteration Figure 3. 2 Waterfall model The proponents preferred to use the waterfall model, because the waterfall model is a sequential software development process, in which progress is seen as flowing steadily downwards through each phases. Progress flows from the top to the bottom, like a waterfall.This model represents the software development life cycle using processes, i nput and output. Each process transforms an input to produce a new product as output. Then the new product becomes the input of the next process. 4. 4 SYSTEM MODELS 3. 5. 1Data Flow Diagram of the Existing System Figure 3. 3 Existing Enrollment System Diagram Figure 3. 4 Existing Grades Management Diagram 3. 5. 2Data Flow Diagram of the Proposed System Figure 3. 5 Enrollment and Grades Management System with SMS Diagram BdayYear BdayYear BdayDay BdayDay BdayMonth BdayMonth 3. 5. 2Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) of the Proposed System LastnameLastname Firstname Firstname School Year School Year ID ID Sections Sections Has Has Third Year Third Year Second Year Second Year Fourth Year Fourth Year First Year First Year Year Level Year Level Enrollment Enrollment Enrols Enrols Student Student ID ID Middlename Middlename Guardian Guardian Contact Number Contact Number Section Section ID ID Year Year Date Enrolled Date Enrolled 3. 6 Programming Languages/ Database Used The proposed syste m used C# for the object-oriented programming method. The database used is MySQL due to its flexibility and open-source nature.Visual C# C# (pronounced â€Å"C sharp†) is a programming language that is designed for building a variety of applications that run on the . NET Framework. C# is simple, powerful, type-safe, and object-oriented. The many innovations in C# enable rapid application development while retaining the expressiveness and elegance of C-style languages. Visual C# is an implementation of the C# language  by Microsoft. Visual Studio supports Visual C#  with a full-featured code editor, compiler, project templates, designers, code wizards, a powerful and easy-to-use debugger, and other tools.The . NET Framework class library provides access to many operating system services and other useful, well-designed classes that speed up the development cycle significantly. MySQL The most popular Open Source SQL database management system, is developed, distributed, and supported by Oracle Corporation. XAMPP A  free and open source  cross-platform  web server  solution stack  package, consisting mainly of the  Apache HTTP Server,  MySQL  database, and  interpreters  for scripts written in the  PHP  and  Perl  programming languages. 3. 7 Feasibility StudyA feasibility study is made to ensure that the project to be implemented has benefits rather than costs or if the project will earn more benefits than before. 3. 8. 1 Economic Feasibility- Cost-Benefit Analysis Development Cost The major cost of the project’s development went to the transportation to the school and the documentation (all the print puts and final book bind) of the project. Transportation-500++ Documentation-1000++ Project Cost Because the proponent agreed to create and maintain the project for free the only cost there will be is prepaid kit for the SMS functions. Prepaid Kit-1200Intangible Benefits * The schools would require less supplies needed in their existing enrollment and grades management (bond papers, pens, folders, envelops, etc. ) because they can use the proposed system without using such papers and pens * Because it is a computerized system, the school will be easier to come across in the enrolment and grading process. * The parents or guardians of students, of the school can be updated because of the SMS that will send a grades of student and important announcement of the school. CHAPTER IV 4. 0Implementation and Evaluation 4. 1Implementation 4. 2EvaluationName: | Date:| School / Organization| Enrollment and Grades Management with Short Message Service Systemof Orani National High SchoolCheck the box which best matches your opinions:1-strongly disagree -5-strongly agree| Questions:| 1| 2| 3| 4| 5| 1. Is our system proposal user-friendly? | | | | | | 2. Is our system proposal can completely replace your existing system? | | | | | | 3. Is our system proposal can resolve some of the issues regarding your enrollment and grades management system? | | | | | | 4. Do you agree with the added SMS feature in the system proposal? | | | | | | 5.Is the system proposal reduces your working time? | | | | | | Please provide any other comments in the text below: Signature over Printed Name CHAPTER V 5. 0Summary, Conclusion and Recommendation 5. 1Summary Orani National High School is a public school in Orani, Bataan. Based on the investigations conducted, the school uses the traditional manual enrollment system. Data and information were kept on a filing cabinet, which finds difficulty and time consuming in retrieving the documents when needed. Grades were also kept by the present teacher of the students, which has no assurance of safe keeping.It also takes a long time to process grades, lists of students, and correction of entries. During the first day of school, the student finds it hard to locate their names in a list posted on the doors of the classroom. Because of this, we are proposing the Enrollment a nd Grades Management with SMS System. This software has the ability to keep student’s records in a single database. This system can be the solution to some of the problems encountered by the school as defined previously. It is recommended to the school to provide a computer where we can install the system.And also, a committee which can be headed by some teacher must be organized to operate the system. This software can be acquired in a very minimal cost. Free seminars and trainings will be given to the person who will operate the system, and manuals will be provided. Some of the benefits that can be acquired in this system were: * easy correction of entries * effective and efficient production of data * grades can be kept in a database for future use * upon enrollment, students can immediately know their designated sections * will lessen the workloads of the teachers and staff * effective enrollment processingThis proposed system is guaranteed to use, and will not be useless . Alternative solutions should be considered to make their enrollment system improved and progressive. 5. 2Conclusion Based on the observations that the team conducted during the interview, we found out that on the manual system that the school is presently using, information and records were not kept accordingly that causes lost of important papers and documents. The student’s Form-137 was kept by the present teacher of the student as well as birth certificate or baptismal certificate, which has no assurance of safety keeping.Another problem identified is when the entries of names in the student’s lists are not updated, where some are complaining when records are incorrect if someone needs the documents. One respondent said that lists of classes were not produced immediately upon the start of the school year, that’s why it takes 2 to 3 days to know what the student’s section. By gathering sufficient information through research, and interview the propone nts were able to develop a system that would help Orani National High School for the enrollment process. The system also eased ONHS from the risks and errors that are involved with their existing system.The development of an enrollment system requires an understanding and an analysis of the existing system of the problems, requirements, and specifications that the school laid out. It also required ample amount of preparation that involves conducting interviews, obtaining necessary information through research, and coming up with a resolution for the requirements of the school. 5. 3Recommendation Because of the problems encountered by  Orani National High  School, we recommend to the administration to have an Enrollment system that is useful in many ways, and that is the computerized enrollment system.An Enrollment and Grades Management with Short Message Service System that has the ability to store students information, to compute grades fast and easy and that can easily be retr ieved and printed when needed. This enrollment system also can be able to make corrections of entry easily and fast. Through this, we can be sure that all the information will be kept in a single database so that we can minimize some problems like loss of records.It is recommended to the  Orani National High  School that the detailed specification and implementation of the system would ensue as long as the administration approved the Enrollment and Grades Management with Short Message Service System. * Provide a computerized enrollment system that has the ability to track records, make corrections and that can generate data fast and effective. *   Provide a system that can secure all the information and record of the students. *   Provide software that will lessen the workloads of the teachers and the administration. * To have a system that can give the students a successful enrollment system.

Burt ‘s Bees

Colors purchased Burt ‘s Bees for our reputation in personal health care niche market. But we stay in the same market with same products for almost 20 years. Our regular market could not provide us an even more profitable market. We recommend turn Burst's Bees into a mainstream American market with multiple products combination to earn the profit minimization. According to the Colors research recently, 53 percent of consumers willing to pay for CEO-friendly products, and 47 percent of those customers want to pay 20-25 percent more on these natural reduces.That is to say, being natural and healthy Is the customers demand. From almost 1 billion for the big opportunities In the market for green goods. All these signs Indicate that we should shift our business from niche market Into mass market. Although we have thought the Idea keeping Burst's Bees stay In the niche market, such as developing partnership with spa chain to malting our Image as a premium status. The approach Is stil l not able to maximize our profit. Our product decisions should start with clear product lines and brand image. I suggest we keep the original Burt s bees image on the products.Our products should be segment into different product lines, face and lip care for mass customers as regular product lines, body care, baby care and makeup for high-end customers as our luxury products lines. By saying so, I mean that natural personal care is a trend. We should launch different product lines to meet different demands rather than staying in the same and simple product line. The next step is choosing the distribution channel. I suggest keep our luxury lines products stay in the drugs store or healthy store, besides, we commend display our body and baby care products into shopping mall such as Kohl ‘s and Macy's.In this way, Burst's Bees could remain a premium image to keep the good relationship with clients in the niche market. On the other hand, we recommend put our lips and hand care pr oducts into big-box market, such as Wall- Mart. Display the Burt Bees products near the Colors promotion shelves. In this way, those used to buy Colors stuff, especially those housewives can easily find the personal care products, Burt ‘s Bess particularly. Even they do not know our products fore, they care the natural products, they care their own healthy, and they can easily find such products in the market.I believe there is a big potential market among them. When choosing the price channel, we aim to stay the premium price In our luxury product lines, in order to keep the strong brand awareness of the natural and healthy. In the super market, we recommend set the price friendly strategy on our lip, hand and face care products. In addition, we could provide some coupon with Closer's products, provide discount package for Burst's bees and Colors products to attract those potential clients. Following this, we suggest to put a large portion of the profit Into advertising budge t.As a part of the company, we could use this opportunity expand our recognition and rebind the CEO-friendly Image of Colors. This can be done through TV advertisement, funding TV program such as â€Å"Discovery, given sponsorship to environment events and distribute Burst's Bees lip balm as samples, and direct mail with coupon to household or provide the discount to straight to mass market could bring an even more profitable result to Burt ‘s Bees, and create a more CEO-friendly image for Colors.

Controversy analysis essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Controversy analysis - Essay Example The research question that interests me much is the one that tries to explore the positive and negative effects of abortion (Do the pros of abortion outweigh the cons of abortion to support its legality?) The most interesting thing observed a legal limit of 24 weeks that is safe for abortion. The most convenient time is said to be 12 weeks after conception. This is further explained in that the longer the pregnancy is, the harder the process of abortion becomes. 1. What is something interesting you read in the first article that you didn’t know before? The most interesting thing learnt on the first article on abortion is that most of the modern methods of abortion are safe and do not cause health issues such as infertility and mental health to the person involved. This is as compared to the traditional methods which caused even death of both the mother and the fetus.These methods also give the option to terminate pregnancies, which are viewed to have abnormalities. 2. What is something interesting you read in the second article that you didn’t know before? Both heterosexuals and homosexuals should be given equal rights .this is further explained in that sexual orientation is more determined by nature rather than nurture. Individuals in both do not have any control in the way they are sexually oriented. Both of these topics (abortion, gay rights) are controversial since they seem to go against the rules and regulations of morality in the society. They are usually not easily accepted in the society as they seem to go against the norms or what people view to be right or wrong. Few people can go publicly advocating them or confess to involve in any of the two. The age at which an individual can undergo the process of abortion without exposing her to health problems, the views that teenagers have on abortion and reproductive health and how they

Paradigm Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Paradigm Paper - Essay Example Since gender is culturally determined, it is complex in nature. In the long run gender identity focuses on the various customs within an individual about their socio-cultural life. This is different from other the observation in other animal kingdoms which is specific to the task of reproduction. Sexuality, viewed in this regard in the human kingdom would just be but the tip of an iceberg. Why is this so? This is because human beings have in the recent past lived in such an advanced era that they have changed the original mode of reproduction. In the modern times, reproduction can be fully made a success even in a modern laboratory. This makes it also vary dynamically from one region, society, country or even continent, to the next. There are several gender issues that so much affect the societies globally. Key of this is provision of opportunities. It is evident that most societies we live in provide opportunities that are not equal. For example, the economic principle of division o f labor helps promote biases related to gender. Class Also in regards to sociological question, class is defined as an organization of a given social grouping; which are characterized by similar rights, perceptions if not qualities, and duties. These are most often founded innately on one side and through socialization on the other side. As an end, class is deemed with the task of founding a culture since there it forebears a routine within the organization in question. It is therefore no surprise that the local societies as well as the world over are usually classified. This alone describes the functionality definition of â€Å"class.† Age This refers to the cognition about ones introvert experiences of their age and the developmental stages they are undergoing. It is concerned with identity and can be able to inform any individual where they belong and where they do not belong. For example, the youths know their rightful position and are often perceived by the aged as inexp erienced. On the other hand, the old also presume the role of overseer in any given society, but often in the same societies, the youths consider them with distasteful reactions. This identity does belong to and can be based subjectively to the experiences a person undergoes when aging. Some people will mature in age but the same people may fail to attest to this development. Some may also be young but attest to aging, which for a fact is not the case. In this regard this discipline becomes fundamental to study because it displays a myriad of platforms upon which an individual life may be considered. The other significance is that every individual considers their identities with this importance because their development is so fundamental to them. The aging process can also be used to explain various human psychological processes. A good example is in the learning process. During learning each individual undergoes a change, for example, in this assignment of paradigm paper, I will be able to evaluate myself on my positive progress during this pre-test period and after I shall have undergone a detailed learning process. Belief System A belief system is defines by a perceived way of thought, which most often is termed as a school of thought. It is knowledge that has been conceptualized and standardized in a unique way to form living principles of an

Defining blackness in America Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Defining blackness in America - Essay Example in order to differentiate blacks from white. The racial line has always put blacks at a distance and hindered them from participating in American culture and politics. It is what has kept African Americans from being given equal opportunities in the U.S., being seen as citizens in the U.S., and being seen as humans in the U.S. Blackness is the best way to explain this complicated relationship African Americans share with America and the whites that they live alongside in this country. There used to be a strong argument in America that being black could affect one’s access to power. There, was an argument that being black was a disadvantage, and that an individual you would be limited in what you could accomplish simply based on the color of your skin. These perceptions would hold true in the past America, but in the modern day America, power is more accessible to people of all races, including African Americans. The argument that African Americans cannot get ahead because of t heir color is more of a crutch than something is which is factual. Like Toure stated in his book, â€Å"Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness†, we are going an era where there are so many different ways to be black that nobody has to keep up some pre-conceived black image because, honestly, there is not one (Toure 48). One common perception prevalent among man is that, generally, other people view them based on their physical appearance. This type of perception falls into the psychological concept that Toure refers to as the looking glass self in his book â€Å"Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness†. This states that people perceive themselves based on the way that their peers perceive them, which leads people to reinforce other people's perspectives of them (Toure 47). Naturally, people want to portray a certain type of image. When you think of individuals who are in power, you typically think of someone who is white and who is male. This is why some believe that blac ks who have skin light tones are more likely to be in power than dark skinned African Americans. This color complex has not only shaped the way white Americans view African Americans, but also the way African Americans view other African Americans. A lot of emphasis has been placed on skin color to the extent that, individuals opt for doing anything, to get an appearance that has the impression of taking them to the threshold of becoming successful. The further one strays away from this image the more challenging it becomes for them to have the illusion of power. This outdated view of politics is not a part of how it works anymore. Money, class and contacts fuel the realm of politics and have the say over who gets to be in power and who does not. Being light or dark does not really control how you fit in this modern day political atmosphere (Toure 47). Being light-skinned or dark-skinned does not really control how you fit in this modern day political atmosphere. We are entering an age where people at the top come in all races and nationalities. The journey to this position, however, has not been without its struggles and perils. Black people in America have had to deal with classism and sexism from within, on top of racism from without. African American women have borne the brunt of this in particular with mental and physical oppression from both white and African American males (Bharati 37). Blackness for the African American

Royal national lifeboat institute Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Royal national lifeboat institute - Case Study Example The name was subsequently changed to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in 1854, when cork lifejackets were first issued to crew members. Since its inception, the RNLI has saved more than 139,000 lives , the proof of which are the innumerable stories of courage of sailors and volunteers who have stood the social and technological change over a period of time. The purpose, vision and values of RNLI clearly define their activities i.e. Purpose is â€Å"saving lives at sea†, Vision is to â€Å"end preventable loss at sea† and the Values are â€Å"selfless, dependable, trustworthy and courageous†. Their philosophy is not to seek funding from the government but the lifesaving service is provided by volunteers, and the organization is supported by contributions, donations and legacies on a purely voluntary basis. The entire operation is performed through local teams but with resources and directions from a central location. They have gained expertise through the h istory and tradition of the RNLI’s achievement of almost two centuries. The whole objective is to carry out preservation of life at sea and on the water, primarily by prevention and rescue operations. Introduction This report is a case study of Royal National Lifeboat Institute. ... It was founded by Sir William Henry on 4th March 1824. It was started with the name of National Institute for the Preservation of Life from Ship wrecks; after thirty years it was named Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI). The idea of this Institute came up in his mind when he was on the Isle of Man and had witnessed the treacherous nature of the sea causing dozens of accidents of ships. So he decided to save their lives and then at his appeal, this charity was founded. In 1854, lifejackets were issued to the crew first time. In 1891, the first street collection was held at Manchester. This charity is established with the purpose of saving lives at sea. Its vision is to end preventable loss of life at sea. They all are dedicated towards their vision. They work together like a team to come up with the situation. Till now RNLI has saved more than 139000 lives. Now it has 444 lifeboats and 235 lifeboat stations. For saving lives, it has two main categories of lifeboats:- All weather boats: Weight of large boats is more than 40 metric tons, 1250hp engines, its speed is 25knots and its cost is around ?2 millions. Inshore lifeboats: These are small boats which work at the shores and are able to operate in shallow waters. It has different types of lifeboats for different places. When any incident occurs at the sea, then firstly it gets all the detail about the incident from the coastguard and then the crew can plot a course to the casualty. After arriving at the scene, they tell about their arrival to the coastguard and after that they assess the situation and take up the further steps. If possible they had a talk With the casualty and provide them reassurance.

Compare and contrast the findings from empirical studies on emotional Essay

Compare and contrast the findings from empirical studies on emotional labor in two different jobs (nurses and stewardesses) - Essay Example Another part of this part of it is the ability to put one’s own feelings aside, and deal professionally with events and circumstances which are difficult, for example dealing with difficult people or facing danger, injury or even trauma and violence. There are some professions, such as nursing and air stewarding which are recognized as requiring a considerable amount of emotional labor. The evidence from recent scholarship shows that despite equality legislation, the emotional labor of nursing and air stewarding is consistently valued less than other kinds of labor, and that this is related to the association which these two professions have as â€Å"women’s work.† Montgomery et al. (2005) examine the emotional labor issue in a sample of 180 doctors and 84 nurses in the context of Greece. The method of investigation used was questionnaires, and the researchers looked for indicators such as hiding negative emotions at work and surface acting at work. The study con cludes that in the case of doctors there was spill-over from work to family, while in the nurses there was spill-over from family to work. Both groups were required to perform emotional labor, but this occurred at mainly home for the nurses and at mainly at work for the doctors. The authors acknowledge that the study has limitations, most notably the self-selection element in the way that the sample was derived and possible variations in the degree to which individuals identify with their job role which were not measured. Elements of status and gender were touched upon, but not fully explored and this too, may render the conclusions somewhat suspect. A more in-depth analysis was conducted by Henderson (2001) who looked at 49 nurses from Canada and the United Kingdom who were involved in the care of abused women. The research methods used were individual interview and focus groups of 6-9 nurses. Nurses agreed with the view that they perform this emotional labor of caring in a society which both demands such labor and at the same time refuses to value it properly. The findings show that nurses are very adept at managing professional involvement and professional detachment in their working lives, but that they learn this skill on the job rather than in their training at college. In short, they felt that their education had not prepared them at all for the emotional labor that they found themselves delivering when they started their careers in hospitals. The author perceived this, however, as a matter of learning the theory first, and not realizing its deeper meaning until the opportunity arises to use the theory in practice. The nurses reported low status in the workplace, and perceived this as being directly linked to the old-fashioned view that nursing is â€Å"women’s work† and therefore inferior to other professions. This finding matches the findings of the Montgomery et al. study. In the case of air stewards, and particularly stewardesses, thes e same themes of low status and association with â€Å"women’s work† occur in a study by Chang and Chiu (2009) which used a questionnaire to explore the feelings of 353 Taiwanese flight attendants on this topic. The results indicated that female cabin crew face relatively high stress levels which contributes in some cases to exhaustion in the long run. Working conditions are cramped, with little opportunity for rest, schedules are unpredictable, and stewardesses are in the front line of company objectives to improve service quality. Despite these pressures, high levels

Changes Introduced by the Ottomans to Arab Urban Life Essay

Changes Introduced by the Ottomans to Arab Urban Life - Essay Example The Chronicle and the Muslim courts record document that are the relocation of the aesthetically distasteful industries in the city, and above all, the tanneries as the population spread beyond the old wall. For the same reason, cemeteries and mosques sprang out in areas where even none had ever existed (Hathaway and Barbir 145). Public baths also increased in the number, thus indicating the larger concentrations of the people in the broader expanse of the territory. The court note, in addition, settled disputes within the new neighborhoods, property purchases, non-Muslims, and some merchants living in the neighborhoods where they were formally unrepresented. This indicates some positive demographic shift in the urban areas. Another change that was introduced in the urban was the improved marketing. The constructions of gathering places like the mosques brought together people, which in turn resulted in the exchange of good and services (Hathaway and Barbir 139). The construction of the stalled building also attracted more merchants who brought in different goods for sale, since it was easy for them to store their merchandize and find a place to live. Besides, as it was before the era of Ottoman, Muslims never lived near the Christians or other groups of people. However, during the Ottomans era, they are seen to at least move closer and even stays near their neighborhoods. This is some of the changes that were introduced in the urban. Respect within the residential quarters and the people security indicates other critical changes that were introduced (Hathaway and Barbir 144). As seen, the quarters are squeezed only separated by the wall but every one respected his or her neighbor’s property. Besides, the union was also among changes that were introduced. Merchants would walk and cluster together in the neighboring home to the marketing center, and will comfortable welcomed (Hathaway and Barbir 140). From the

Credit Cards vs Debit Cards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Credit Cards vs Debit Cards - Essay Example Paying the credit card expenses within the billing period offers the user an opportunity to pay the money without interest. The disadvantage is that the interests pile up rapidly in case the money spent is not paid within the billing period. When used responsibly, credit cards can be of great help as they help the user build credit, which can eventually result in rewards and gifts. This paper focuses on effects that credit and debit cards has, how it can put you far in debt and how it impacts your credit. The advantage of having a debit card is that you can use it to shop in various places all over the world. Additionally, most ATM cards are pre-set such that they can provide debit option thus there is no need for cardholders to carry money around. On the other hand, credit card use entails purchasing good after which you sign or provide you credit card pin number as an assurance that you will pay the debt later (Nelson, Nelson, & Stroup, 2012). Most people prefer using debit cards t o credit card arguing that using debit cards prevents one from over expenditure since it makes one feel like you are using cash payments. The fact that debit cards are connected to a checking account enables the users limit purchases and only buys items that they can afford to pay for at the moment. Additionally, most establishments that offer debit cards do not have any charges for any transactions. On the other hand, credit cards holders have to pay quite a high interest if they fail to pay the bills in time in addition to card charges (Nelson, Nelson, & Stroup, 2012; Carbo-Valverde, et al., 2007). An advantage that credit cards have over debit card is that payments for goods purchased using credit card can be withheld till the buyer is satisfied that the quality of the product is satisfactory. On the contrary, sellers make instant deductions for goods purchased using debit cards. The Fair Credit Billing Act supports such action since it posits that the purchaser has no liability for fraudulent transactions and for goods, whose quality is unsatisfactory or undelivered services. This applies for any disputable purchases. This gives credit card holders protection against deceitful merchants or service providers or in case of theft (Basel, 2006). One disadvantage of being a debit cardholder is that, in case of debit card theft, you may have to pay for all purchase transactions done using your card, which may include overdrafts particularly if you fail to realize and notify your bank in a period of 60 days. Debit cards thus have restricted consumer protection as compared to credit cards. While doing online or over the phone purchases, credit cards are the preferable option since they offer protection to the user thus helps take care of any misadventure (Directgov, 2012), Credit card users have an opportunity to build a proper credit by ensuring punctual bill payment. Good credit history is important and can help in securing loans, insurance, or in getting a job. Loans borrowed by individuals with a good credit history have a lower interest rate as compared to those for persons with unsuitable or no credit history. Additionally, some credit card offer incentives that card holders can use to obtain gifts as well as get discounts (Barrett, 2009). Debit cards provide for overdrafts, which must be made at a specified period. However, it is advantageous in that the interest rates for such

Dating and the Single Parent Essay Example for Free

Dating and the Single Parent Essay Summary In the book Dating and the Single Parent Ron Deal walks the single parent through the process of dating again. This book is broken into three sections. Section one has five chapters and is titled â€Å"Getting Past the Butterflies and Warm Fuzzes.† In the beginning Deal starts with â€Å"Dating in a Crowd: Dating with Purpose.† (29) With this in mind the reader begins to understand you will be dating the entire family. Deal describes different types of daters, and warns the reader against the â€Å"Consumer daters who want guarantees† (44) about the dates. These consumer daters want the dates to be their all in all and meet their every need. Deal also describes the thought of â€Å"Mirror, Mirror on the Wall; Am I Ready to Date? (47) This section describes â€Å"the impact loss has on you, and your willingness to surrender to God’s direction regarding divorce and remarriage.† (58) While determining if you are ready to date; Deal lists the readiness factors: can you handle being alone, trusting in God, looking at past issues, and asking the questions like, â€Å"What in my past can I not shake?† This is getting yourself and kids ready for dating. While thinking of fear as the main hurdle in beginning to date, Deal suggests you not â€Å"sidestep† (83) your fear but â€Å"acknowledge it.† (83) Not only your fear but how to handle the kids’ fears and concerns in the dating world. Deal explains â€Å"When a parent dates, kids feel the shift in direction away from them and the family; this ignites their fear of more loss.† (98) The second section of the book is called â€Å"Going Fishing† (115) and talks about finding love. â€Å"Finding love in all the right places †¦and in all the wrong ways† (117) talks about defining the  relationship or the DTR; there are three ways to look at relationships; we need to learn when to yield, stop or run with yellow, red and green lights. â€Å"Going deeper† (163) reminds us to think of where we are in life. Deal states â€Å"Single people need that perspective so that won’t overvalue getting married, and married people need that perspective so they won’t lose sight of their purpose in being together.† (165) â€Å"Marital Commitment and Stepfamily Preparation† (181) is the topic of the third section of the book. It is about getting re-engaged and making decisions about getting married. Guidelines are given about what things to look for such as commitment and trust issues, how to be open with the children (young and adult). Some key steps in how to become a blended family are listed. Deal suggests exercises on how to be introduced, recognize loss in your child, planning the wedding and including the children, and telling the ex. This book takes you through the processes of wanting to date again, dating, and choosing the right type of person to date. The next steps are about the engagement, telling families and children you’re getting married and creating a happily blended family. Potential Use for Christian Couples The chapter on â€Å"Yellow Light. Red Light. Green Light.† (141) is a chapter that most pastors need to share with their clients in the premarital counseling. This chapter and the concepts to be taught and learned can save couples from a lot of pain down the road and give additional skills for making a marriage more compatible. â€Å"Yellow lights saying slow down† (143) warm that things are great for now, however when you get married and the honeymoon is over rough times are coming. When you are trying to carefully blend families you need to make sure no one has on â€Å"rose-colored glasses† (145) or is ignoring the bumps in the road that will turn in to mountains later on if not dealt with before the couple gets married. A counselor needs to advise a couple to slow down if â€Å"loneliness or desperation† (146) are detected in the counseling sessions. This could indicate an underlying problem that will come out later in the marriage. The person with one of these disorders may demand that the other person in the relationship try to be their all in all, and no one can be everything to someone. Counselors should consider a postponement of a marriage if one of the clients comes in with any character traits like: â€Å"quick temper, intimidating, anger  reactions, chemical or physical abuse, can’t say no, constantly blaming others, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, problems staying calm, financial problems, disengagement with family, hiding previous relationships, or diagnosed personality disorder.† (147-148) If a person has experienced or is experiencing one of these challenges, this counselor will strongly suggest that it is dealt with before the marriage takes place. One of these problems will cause too much stress for most marriages to overcome. Deal suggests there are red stoplights. If you â€Å"have extreme differences in parenting styles† (151) you need to stop dating. This counselor would agree. Raising children is a very hard job when you agree; however, when you disagree children tend to play one parent off the other causing conflict between the parents. You need to remember you are not only marrying the person, but also the children. Another red light could be the ex-spouse. If he/she causes constant trouble, you will be in constant turmoil in the new marriage and will need to consider canceling your plans to marry. Deal suggests other red flags such as cohabitation. This counselor would agree with Deal that cohabitation leans toward persons â€Å"who have negative attitudes toward marriage, increase their divorce risk by 50%, are less sexually trustworthy, have lower religious commitment, and are tempted to slide into marriage.† (154) Cohabitation is not biblical, in Genesis 2:24 gives us the standard for all marriages and in Matthew 19:5 Jesus tells us marriage is a legal and binding relationship. The â€Å"green light† (159) means everything is good and you can proceed with the dating or marriage plans. In the â€Å"green light† stage you can define your relationship. At this point Deal suggests you can share your relationship with your children. This also is the stage during which it is suggested you take the â€Å"Couple Checkup† (169). There are two advantages to doing it in this stage: first â€Å"it provides you and your partner an objective X ray of your relationship health.† (169) Second â€Å"learning about your weaknesses helps you as a couple target specific ways to improve.† (169) This counselor will encourage couples in the red light zone to take a break and consider not dating any longer. If they are in the yellow light zone this counselor will encourage them to consider looking deeply at what the problems are and working through them before proceeding with the relationship. In the green light zone this counselor will encourage them to be willing to talk about issues when they arise, to be willing to  talk about them, and to work on a compromise. Deal states: â€Å"Confidence calms the heart and reduces anxiety†. (194) This counselor could not agree more, and knowing where you stand in a relationship is the most important element. Solidifying the relationship so both persons know how each other feels and what to expect keeps the green light going. Telling the children if you have children will be important. A plan needs to be made about how to tell them and expect the unexpected. One needs to expect them to be happy and for them to be angry about the decision. Letting the children know what will happen will help them through the fear and anger. Deal does not go into depth about what to do if the families do not want this marriage. What if the families do not like the person you want to marry? This counselor agrees the spouse that was married to the ex ought to tell him/her before the wedding day. Once the wedding day has taken place often times the children are going to be stressed out by this and misbehave. Deal suggests often times when things settle down from the wedding the child parent relationship will work itself out. This is a relationship neither party has had to handle before and it will be new challenges to both the parent and the child. Deal encourages parents to have a united front with the children. (206) If they do not have a â€Å"unified team everything will begin to crumble.† (207) Critique Deal speaks about â€Å"commitment and trust† (187) issues with couples. He explains that marriage is complicated and requires a couple to not be selfish. â€Å"God in his infinite wisdom ask each person to make a covenant that binds them together throughout life,† (187) or â€Å"until death do us part.† (187) Elwell states in the time of Christ a man could â€Å"divorce his wife for the most trivial of reasons† (347) from the â€Å"Hillelite Pharisees.† (347) This would suggest that if you take the side of the Hillelite Pharisees, our no fault divorce laws have been around for centuries. It is a delicate dance to get someone to commit to marriage to you when you are ready to commit to marriage and they will not. Deal gives several ideas: â€Å"Patiently continue dating, wrestle with your impatience, identify any specific concerns, give time for the hesitant person to find resolution, and at some point, the higher desire person will grow weary of waiting.† (188) Deal does later in the book suggest a time line of five years is a reasonable time to wait on  someone. If you have waited for five years and they still have not made a decision but you love them and cannot imagine life without that person do you walk away? Would it not be like a divorce? This counselor would not suggest anyone stay with someone for more than the five years unless they can make a decision to marry or not to marry. Deal speaks about crockpots and blenders in the chapter about â€Å"Preparing for a Good Blend.† The crockpots are those couples who move slowly with low heat,† (208) while the blender couples are those who â€Å"move quickly with high velocity.† (208) Deal states: â€Å"It is far wiser to adopt the crockpot cooking style.† (208) Otherwise slow and study is a much better way to blend a family than trying to quickly trying to force them to be a blended family. In this chapter he gives ideas about how to create stepfamilies. He says: â€Å"Younger children under the age of five may require far less time to soften toward stepparents than those between the ages of ten and fifteen years. Also, on occasion, a stubborn ingredient may resist softening and retain a sour taste. In either case, keep cooking.† This counselor would whole heartedly agree with his wisdom. The younger children are when stepparents arrive into their life, the easier it is to accept t hem. Deal also gives ideas about how to handle situations like: â€Å"getting married, calling a stepfather Daddy, combining holidays and other special-day traditions, and taking pictures as a family.† (209-210) With statistics saying that â€Å"fifty percent of first marriages fail and sixty percent of second marriages fail† (smartmarriages.com) this counselor believes Deal has made great recommendations in his book about how to blend families. Blended families will take work and Deal says that many times in this book. This book is an easy read with thought provoking topics. Some of the topics have a different way of looking at them than traditional thoughts. This book is a must read if you are thinking of remarrying or marrying someone who has been married before. References Deal, R. (2012). Dating and the single parent. Bloomington, MN: Bethany House Publishing. Eller, W. (2001). Evangelical dictionary of theology. 2n ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House. Marano, H. E., Divorced? Don’t even think of remarrying until you read this. www.smartmarriages.com. Accessed November 8, 2014.

Analysis of Brand Management Strategy for Shoe Company

Analysis of Brand Management Strategy for Shoe Company Chapter 1: Introduction 1. Introduction This dissertation is comprised of brand evolution and sum various steps involved to construct it. The creation and importance of Brand Awareness, Brand Image, and Brand Loyalty is discussed followed by the evaluation of Servis Sales Corporation as how successful Brand they are in Shoe industry of Pakistan. Servis Sales Corporation claims to be the largest retail shoe sellers of Pakistan therefore research is held on the company as what are the various marketing strategies SSC adopted to gain such a large market share. Steps to create brand loyalty amongst their target market and implementing effective brand management are part of this research. Branding is the main ingredient in the process of creating stable reputation, identity and strong image of a company and is always a first requirement to have competitive edge, this create awareness and work as a positive gesture towards customers to be product or brand loyal. As the Chairman of Quaker Oats Ltd, John Stuart said, if this business were to be split up, I would be glad to take the brands, trademark and goodwill and you could have it all the bricks and mortar and I would fare better than you . Leslie De Chernatony(2001 p1) In this era of globalization every company wishes to grow and expand their businesses in order to attain a healthy position in throat cutting world of business . In this effort companies faces many challenges and went through many challenges by their rivals and most of all providing customer’s satisfaction. 1.1 Background Study: The term brand arrived form the ancient Norse word meaning â€Å"to burn† Rita Clifton, John Simmons, Sameena Ahmad (2004 ;13). The original term was developed to signify the source or maker or owner of a product or item. Now a days brand is used to identify service or product’s manufacturer or seller, when we go through we see that many of the many modern concepts of brands and branding were formalised in the United States at a Procter Gamble company in the late 1800s. We get a good example of importance of brand when we talk about â€Å"Virgin† which is currently at the face of hundred business strategies. A brand will be a strong brand if people’s values match the values of brand. Branding’s means adding value to the product Marieke K de Mooij (2005: 96) Brand stands for a reputation, you are always reputed when you are always reputed when you make a promise and fulfil it. Brand is more like a human nature not just a visual, public identity or a picture. Every single who is part of the organization represents the brand of the company and pay its part to construct it. The brand is a performance measured and recorded in interaction of every area involves customers investors, employees business partners and media (www.thebrandconsultancy.com) Its quite clear that every company is conscious about its brand loyalty amongst its customers because they know this if they are successful in managing the brand loyalty of their existing customers which is company’s strategic asset it will automatically add huge value to firm. As Douglas B states that Brand Loyalty is the customer’s willingness to stay with brand when competitor come knocking with offering that would be considered equally attractive had not to the customer and brand shared a history. The degree of customer stickiness is the key to the brand’s market power. Douglas B. Holt (2004 ; p 149) Merlo (2003) mentions that the brand loyalty is rewarded by an increase in profit through repeat business, referral sales, decreased customer maintenance costs and reduced exposure to price competition. When we talk about creating and enhancing brand loyalty we see that there are not-too complex ways of increasing brand loyalty. Companies can learn to recover from mistakes. A good recovery can turn angry, frustrated customers into a loyal ones. â€Å"Companies must handle problems and complaints with Care- Communicate, Acknowledgement, respect and regard and empathy†(Merlo, 2003) 1.2 Statement of Problem: Global challenges today have forced companies not to have their business image within their home land but to spread their identity across the borders by managing brand, securing the product or a service of companies and building loyalty among customers to achieve maximum and lasting competitive edge. The aim of the research is to evaluate the brand management of Servis Sales Corporation by analyzing their marketing strategies. Research covers the analysis that how successful SSC today is in gaining brand loyalty as it is considered to be the biggest footwear seller in Pakistan. 1.3 Aim and Objectives: The main Objective of the research is the finding that to what level SSC is successful in imperialising Brand Management to embrace positive effect on their customer’s perception and has given SSC a competitive edge, as they are Pakistan’s largest shoe company. Core Objectives of Research: To analyze marketing strategies of Servis Shoes Company leading to effective brand management giving SSC a positive brand image amongst their target market. To observe various strategies adapted by SSC to enhance brand loyalty amongst their customers? To find out what steps Servis Shoes Company took to create its Brand awareness amongst it’s target market and what are the areas they still need to focus upon. To identify the involvement of consumers to the brand as in why they prefer a particular brand (Servis) on every other different brands available in the market. 1.4 Report Structure: This report will be organized as follows: Literature Review: The literature review of this report covers understanding and benefit of effective brand management that how people connect to them. Chapter includes importance of creating and enhancing awareness among consumers followed by the concepts and historical perspective of brand loyalty giving a wider view of the perception about brand loyalty and its strategic values. Company Introduction: This chapter consist of the brief introduction to Servis Sales Corporation, giving a wider view of their leading position in shoe line in Pakistan amongst their rivals. This chapter shows company background and demographics with the facts and figures about their expanded business nationwide. Research Methodology: In this chapter different method of research is discussed. It also focuses on research philosophy principle, quantitative and qualitative analysis and secondary and primary data. After studying the methods and techniques different methods are identified which is most suitable to get the reliable and most accurate data? Which is used in research? Finding and Analysis After completing the research, the data gathered through different sources from the company are analysed in this chapter, which is explained with chart and then it is moderated with the findings. Conclusion: This chapter involves conclusion and the result in the light of findings with literature. Analysis of research finding and result are discussed, Recommendation to company and further research is also the part of this chapter. Literature Review Scott Galloway stated a very good definition showing importance of brands in today’s world of marketing that â€Å"Brand is the face of a business strategy† ( Scott Galloway in Alker, 2000 :33) another well appreciated definition of brand given by American Marketing Association cited in (Kotler 2003: 418) â€Å" A brand is name, term, sign, symbol, or services of one seller or a group of seller to differentiate them from those of competitors†. A brand is essentially a marketer’s promise to deliver a specific set of features, benefits and services consistently to buyers. The marketer must think that he is offering a contract to the customer about how the brand will perform ( kotler 2003) Le Pla et ala, (2003: 3) give a more profound and in depth definition of brand: Brand is the interaction between core company ( product or service ) strengths and what is customer value . Company strengths are what company does well. The things that the customers value include the benefits of a products features, as well as what the customer see as the ongoing worth of a relationship with the company. According to Kapferer (1997 : 56), â€Å"Products are mute: the brand is what gives them a meaning and purpose, telling us how a product should be read. A brand is both a prism and a magnifying glass through which products can be decoded†. Renault invites us to perceive its models as cars for living’.. brands guide our perception of products†. Hence it can clearly be seen from the above paragraph that branding goes a long way in giving a distinct identity to a product. Rowley (1997) explains that brand communicates with consumers, according too him when consumers are familiar with a brand, they expect the same qualities, benefits and advantages from products or services which are provided under that specific brand, this easily makes their decision in favour of the brand instead of searching or gathering information regarding products fulfilling their requirements. Therefore, it can be suggested that brand accelerates consumers’ process of decision making as it provides two different ways of communication between suppliers and their consumers (Rowley, 1997) Effective Brand Management The concept of â€Å"brand management† was developed at Procter Gamble in the US in the year 1930 and is also knows as product management .Ambler (2003:82). The main reason behind Brand management is to secure the product’s future and services any company or organization, and this is only possible with the formulation loyalty amongst customers creating emotional as well as rational values. This results sales in market place and stimulating affect on the perception of a company’s products .If brand power is tied together in a proper way organization can easily maximize market share and corporate profitability. Brands if handled and managed sensibly can provide their owners a considerable benefits and rewards. Davis (2002 :6) says that the following benefits accure to the company that manages is brands effectively: Loyalty derives repeat business- A recent study by Bob Pasikoff, president of brand keys, shows that an increase in customer loyalty of only 5% can lift lifetime profit per customer by as much as 100%. Premiums price of brand allow higher margins – Starbucks represents the ultimate example of a strong brand driving a premium price resulting in greater profit. Strong Brands lend immediate credibility to new one in product introductions. A well established brands can provide instant credibility for a new product. Gillette’s Marc 3 became number one personal shaver within a month of its launch. Strong brand allow for greater shareholder and stakeholder returns. One can see a good example is Yahoo and GE are big brands with even bigger shareholder returns. Strong Brand embody a clear, valued, and sustainable point of differentiation relative to competition – No one can FedEx’s claim of overnight delivery. Loyal customer base and strong brand make customer forgiving for the the mistakes made by the company, if a company makes a mistake for instance, the strike at the Saturn car plant had little impact on Saturn’s loyalty or sales. The lever for attracting best employees along with keeping satisfied customers is Brand Strength – Companies like coca-cola, Microsoft, Intel, Disney etc. are almost always in the top bracket of survey which measures employee satisfaction. It is obvious that it’s a difficult thing to build and maintain a brand reputation like Coke, Microsoft, Nike, General Electric, etc and as David D’ Alessandro, President of John Hancock Mutual Life insurance, in Klein (2000: 145), â€Å"it can take 100 years too build up a good brand and 30 days to knock it down†. Effect of Brand on People ( How People connect to them) Scott Davis( 2002) says that, Brands are at least in part a set of promises made to consumer. The leading brand travel a particular PATH in the human mind. This PATH is an acronym for promise, acceptance, trust and hope. Certainly this PATH is intangible and cannot be co modified†. But he then mentions that these very intangibles make a customer choose Sony over JVC and Nike over Reebok. The following are the customers perceptions vis-à  -vis a strong brand (Davis, 2002) 72% of customer sat that they will pay a 20% premium for their brand of choice, relative to the closest competitive brand. 25% of customer state that price matter if they are buying a brand that owns their loyalty. Over 50% of purchases are brand driven. Peer recommendation influences almost 30% of all purchases made today. More than 50% of consumers believe a strong brand allows for more successful new product introductions and they are more willing to try a new product from a preferred brand because of the implied endorsement. The view of Le Pla et al, (2002 ; 3) is that a strong brand is much more than an image or a logo. People emotionally identify with a strong brand and relationship with such a brand makes them feel more secure and comfortable. This is completely in sync with Kotler’s ( 2003) example of a consumer buying a Mercedes because the car ( which is also a strong brand) makes him feel more important and admired’. Aaker (1991) suggests that anything which a consumer realises about a brand can be defined as brand association it according to him it create positive consumer attitudes towards brands, thus influence consumer buying decision process. Kapferer (1997) says that brand is like a living memory. The memory factor explains why individuals preferences endure and why within a given generation people continue to prefer the brands they liked between the ages of seven and eighteen ( Guest 1964, Fry et al., 1973, Jacoby et al., 1978 in Kapferer 1997). This is proof, if it was ever needed, that strong brands do have a long-term effect on people. It is imperative now to take a more focussed look on the three constructs that constitute the basis of this study. The first to be analysed will be brand awareness followed by brand loyalty and brand image. Brand Awareness a number of the definition if the term â€Å" Brand Awareness† abound, a fundamental definition of the term is given by Aaker(1991: 61) â€Å" Brand Awareness is the ability of a potential buyer to recognize or recall that a brand is a member of certain product category†. David Aaker’s (1991) ground braking work â€Å"managing brand equity† details with the concept of brand awareness comprehensively. Hence, it has been use here as a main reference, although it has been complimented with other readings. Aaker says that brand awareness involves a link between the product class and the brand. For example, the use of the large balloon with the word Levi’s on it may make the name more salient, but it will not may necessarily help improve brand awareness. However if the balloon is shaped to resemble a pair of Levi’s 301 jeans , the link to the product is provided, the balloon’s effectiveness at creating awareness is enhanced. Aaker (1991). By using the brand, perceiving it and being confronted with it through advertising, consumers learn about its meanings. All this information is connected associatively to the brand name. the richer this associative network is, and the stronger the associations the greater the chance of consumers thinking. Levels of Brand Awareness â€Å"Brand Awareness involves the continuum ranging from an uncertain feeling that the brand is recognised, to a belief that it is the only one in the product class. This continuum is presented in the ‘ Awareness Pyramids’’’ ( Aaker 19991 : 62) Levels of Brand Awareness ( Aaker, 1991) Aaker stated that â€Å"the minimal level of brand is recognition which is based upon aided recall test where respondents are given a set of brand in a product category and asked to identify those that they had heard of before. Thus, although there needs to be link between the brand and the product class, it needs not to be strong. Brand Recognition is particularly important when a buyer chooses a brand at the point of purchases† (Aaker 1991 ;62). Franzen et al, ( 2001) stated that the situations in which none of the choice alternatives is well represented in or memory, brand familiarity ( recognition) will be the determinant in the choice process. The purchases in which consumers regularly choose and re-choose because of the awareness stored in his memory, aided brand awareness i.e. brand recognition has hardly any significance. If we see further we see that brand recall is the further level dependent on asking a person to name brand in a product class. This is â€Å"Unaided recall† because , unlike in the recognition task, the responded is not aided by having names provide. Unaided recall is a substantially more difficult task then recognition, and is associated with a stronger brand position. The first named brand in an unaided recall task has achieved top-of-mind awareness. (Aaker 1991) Strategic Value of Brand Awareness Brand Awareness provides a sustainable competitive advantage and can be a key strategic asset for the company ( Aaker 1998) The following are the banifits of creating a higher brand awareness ( Aaker 1991: 63) ( Figure 3); Anchor to which other association can be attached : Brand Recognition is the first basic step in the communication task. It usually is wasteful to attempt to communicate brand attributes until a name is established with which to associate the attributes. Familiarity/Liking: Awareness provides the brand with fimilarity and people like the familiar. They are prepared to ascribe all sorts of good attitudes to items that are familiar to them ( Aaker et al., 2000). Especially for low involvement products like soap, chewing gum, sugar , facial tissues etc., familiarity can some times drive the buying decision. Substance/ Commitment: Name awareness can be a signal of presence, commitment and substance, an attribute very important to consumer buyers of durables. The logic is that if a name is recognised, there must be a reason like: The firm is widely distributed. The firm has advertised extensively. The brand is successful-others use it. Even if the person has not been exposed to advertising and knows little about, brand awareness could lead to the assumptions that the firm is substantial and backs the brand with advertising. Brands to consider: The role of brand recall (discussed earlier) is crucial for frequently purchased products like coffee, detergent, serials et. Several studies have demonstrated the relationship between top of mind recall and attitude/purchase behaviour. One such study, of six brands in the three product classes (Fast food, Soda and banking), showed large differences in preferences and purchase likely hood, depending on weather the brand was first, second or third mentioned in an unaided recall task (Woodside and Wilson, 1985 in Aaker, 1991). Sometimes it is possible that people recall brands that they dislike strongly. Benefits of Brand Awareness (Aaker 1991) A number of researchers besides Aaker have also demonstrated that brand awareness is a particularly important concept relative to brand evaluation in predicting and explaining consumer choice behaviour. For instance, Arch G (1996 :38) refered to Axelrod (1968 , 1986) demonstrated that top-of-mind awareness (TOMA) of a brand is a sensitive and stable measure than can serve as an intermediate criterion for predicting brand-choice behaviour and brand-switching behaviour. Axelrod (1968) in Aech G(1996 ; 38) emphasized the needs for developing valid and reliable intermediate survey indicators of whether marketing and advertising influence product and brand choice behaviour because of the greater expense and time necessary for experiments to measure the impact of marketing and advertising actions on such behaviour. Haley et al, (1979 in Holden et al., 1992) postulated that brand awareness is more important than attitude. This nation was supported by Hauser (1978 in Holden et al ., 1992) who, using an information theoretic approach, reported that the probability of inclusion of the brand in the evoke ( recalled ) set accounts for more variation in brand choice thus brand attitude (Holden et al., 1992) Similar to Aaker ( 1991), Holden et al, (1992) also say that in the case of low involvement purchase, Brand recall may be reason enough to buy the brand ( that has been recalled Also a high degree of brand awareness is linked to higher sales due to the factor of â€Å" Social desirability† . Most people tend to behave according to the expectations of their social environment, even when it goes against their own opinion. If they are aware of the brand, they will have a tendency to buy it because it is the socially desirably thing to do ( Franzen et al., 2001). Copeland (1923: 287) talked about the benefits of brand awareness as follows â€Å" if the consumer’s previous acquaintance with the brand has been favourable, or if the manufacturer’s and dealer’s advertising has made favourable impression, other things being equal, the recognised brand will be selected from among other unrecognised brands†. Creating and Enhancing Brand Awareness Because consumers are bombarded everyday by more and more marketing messages, the challenge of creating awareness is considerable ( Aaker, 1996). The best approach for every brand to create and maintain brand awareness depends upon the context but the following do server as good points ( Aaker, 1991: 72) ; Be Different, Memorable: An Awareness message should provide a reason to be noticed and it should be memorable. There are many tacks that work but one key is to simply be different and unusual. Involve a slogan or jingle: A Slogan or a Jingle can make a big difference. Slogans like â€Å" it floats† or â€Å"Just do it† can help recall. For a product class like soap, it might be easier to come up with â€Å" it floats† and then Ivory, rather than to name Ivory directly. The link to the slogan might be stronger because it involves a product characterstic that can be visualised. Similarly, a jingle also is vey powerful awareness device. Symbol exposure: A symbol can play a major role in creating and maintaining awareness because it involves a visual image which is much easier to learn and to recall than a word or a phrase. Event Sponsorship: The primary role of most event sponsorship is to crate or maintain awareness. For example, the Benson and Hedges Cricket world cup, the Mercedes super 9- tennis tournament etc. It must be noted that the strongest brand are managed not for strategic awareness. It is one thing to be remembered ; it is quite another to be remembered for the right reason ( Aaker, 1996). Brand Loyalty Every company’s endeavour is to increase its brand loyalty in order to retain as many consumers as possible and it can be well assumed when we see that in 2000, the NDP Group, an international market research company in New York, conducted a survey that half of 20,000 respondents who described themselves as loyal to a company one year were no longer loyal the next. According to Frederic Rechheld, founder of Boston-based consulting firm Bain and Company, the average American company loses half of its customers every five years The next economy  By Elliott Ettenberg, NetLibrary, Inc (2001 ;34) The Brand Loyalty concept from Historical Perspective Contrary to what some people believe brand loyalty has existed for a long time in the realm of marketing. Copeland (1923) first introduced this concept around 80 years ago. He talks about three ascending stages of brand loyalty-consumer reorganisation ( when the product is recognised and bought from among a host of unrecognised products), consumer preference ( when pervious use or advertising has created a favourable preference in the consumer’s mind) and consumer insistence. The third stage is the pinnacle of brand loyalty where the consumer approaches the purchase of an article with the attitude that he will accept no substitute ( Copeland, 1923). Different Perceptions of Brand Loyalty â€Å" Brand Loyalty is the biased behavioural response expressed over time by some decision making unit with respect to one or more alternative brands out of a set of such brands†. More recently, the concept of loyalty have evolved further, encompassing a rich diversity of dimensions underlying the relationship that a customer may entertain with a brand. Martin et al.,(2004:217) referred Oliver’s statement in his book â€Å"Loyalty involves a favourable attitude towards the brand or organisation and positive re-purchase intentions. This can be further understood by investigating the element of loyalty. Cognitive Loyalty, in which the brand is cognitively compared with alternatives ( generally on functional grounds); Affective loyalty, in which the customer likes the brand or organisation as a result of previous satisfying experiences; Conative Loyalty, which reflects an intention to re-purchase; action loyalty, which relates to a deeply held commitment to rebuy or repatronise a preferred product/services consistently in future†¦ despite situational influences and marketing effort having the potential to cause switching behaviour’ ( Oliver 1999 cited in Martin et al.,(2004:217) In (2001) Chaudhuri and Holbroo stated couple of characteristic of brand loyalty â€Å"purchase loyalty and attitudinal loyalty mentioned by mentioned by Marion Maguire(2007), â€Å"Behavioural, or purchase loyalty consist of repeated purchase of the brand, whereas attitudinal brand loyalty includes a degree to the authors, purchase loyalty leads to greater market share because of higher levels of repeat purchase among their users†. It is found in the research that consumer’s perception about price of brands is not linked to brand loyalty. Another suggestion given by Dick and Basu (1994) says that â€Å"loyalty related marketing advantages, such as favourable word of mouth, which, in turn might increase market share†. But the findings of Dall’Olmo Riley et al. (1997) discerned that the attitudinal loyalty of many individual consumers appears to be fickle, According to them, various studies (by Achenbaum, 1982 repeat responses ranging about 50% in individual attitudinal answers (e.g. Taste Nice†) at two subsequent times, independent of the attitude scales used and from the length of the interval between interviews. Overall their interpretation was that specific attitudinal beliefs do not seem to be very strongly held but vary stochastically ( in random manner) (Dall’Olmo Riley et al., 1997) Rothschild (1987) at the university of Wisconsin, evaluated brand loyalty as encompassing only the behavioural aspect. He suggests that a psychological process that may explain brand loyalty is the one of behaviourism. The central concept of behavioural learning theory is that behaviour that is positively reinforced is likely to reoccur while that which is not reinforced, or punished, will be extinguished. Consumers become loyal to brands that are reinforcing to them: good decision are reinforces while poor decisions are not ( Rothschild, 1987). Dekimpe et al, (1997) also share Rothschild’s (1987) view and say that the approach is justified as behaviour is observable and hence easier to measure. Richard Elliott and Larry Precy quoted Franzen (1999) saying that loyalty brand users have a high degree of bonding with the brand and do not show much of an urge to switch. Its basically the bonding here meant was part of brand equity but it necessarily doesn’t need to be a function of brand equity. also if its contribution is there. Loyalty of a brand may be not habitual or it can be the high cost of switching to another brand. But when there is a genuine preferences involved it really contribute to brad equity. Quester et al, (2003) say that the behavioural approach to Brand Loyalty (taken by Rothschild, 1987 ; Dekimpe et al., 1997) many present an over simplistic view of the construct. Behavioural definitions are insufficient to explain how and why brand loyalty is developed and modified in consumers ( Dick and Basu, 1994 in Quester et al., 2003). Repeatedly buying a brand (behavioural approach) may reflect only the convenience inherent in the repetitive and habitual behaviour rather than any real commitment to the brand purchased (Quester et al., 2003). Habituals’ as termed by (Knox 1997) in Quester and Lim., 2003) display only behavipural loyalty and are very likely to switch brands if there routine purchases cycle is disturbed. â€Å"For ‘habituals’ and /or spurious loyals’. The brand is not closely tied to the consumers belief system, so they can be easily attracted by a competing brand that offers a better deal, a coupon etc. Behavioural definitions, therefore, essentially fail to distinguish between habitual or spurious loyalty and true ( or international) loyalty and it may be misleading to infer brand loyalty from merely overt purchase behaviour† (Quester et al.,2003 : 27). Fournier et al, (1997) have analysed the concept of brand loyalty in new light and have come up with some very interesting insight regarding the same. According to them, (1997) a major assumption while reaching the concept of Brand Loyalty is that loyalty process is a Black and white quality. This tendency towards dichotomy not only precludes attention to loyalty levels and type, but also blinds the researcher to the value that may exist in relationship classified as Disloyal ( Fournier et al. 1997) The research of eight brand loyal coffee drinkers by Fournier et al, (1997) revealed three intriguing loyal consumer-brand relationships namely martial commitment, falling in love consumers brand relationships namely martial commitment, falling in love and best friendship. Each of the above relationships share a strong and meaningful life theme connection that adds significant value in the consumer’s mind. On the other side, Fournier et al ., (1997) also found some rather piquant Non-Loyal Relationships. One of the interviewees shared meaningful relationships with not one, rather three coffee brands. Financial limitations prevented him from bonding exclusively to one brand. â€Å"By connecting at the level of kinship, a portfolio of brand candidates that at first glance appears as a set of interchangeable substitutes is revealed as a family of meaningful partners in the consumer-brand environment† (Fournier et al., 1997 :463). Fournier at al, (1997) say that the existing brand loyalty measurement process emphasizes share-of-use over the strength and character of brand relationship form. This approach is flawed in their opinion because â€Å"As with people expressions of loyalty need not be associated with exclusivity, but with emotional tenor and sincerity of intentions over time. Also, like normal human relationship, brand loyalty may sour overtime and subsequently change. In accepting the power of both Brand and Consumer to affect the relationship, loyalty is better appreciated as a dynamic phenomenon† (Fournier et al., 1997 :467). A consumer-based conception of loyalty that recognizes multi-brand relationlity and the delicacy of even a strongest of consumer-brand bonds seems more aligned with the realities of today’s variety-filled marketplace. (Firat and Venkatesh, 1995 in Fournier et al., 1997) The biggest criticism of the work of Fournier et al, (1997) is actually acknowledged by their own selves when