Profile of Harvey M. Robinson

Profile of Harvey M. Robinson The east side of Allentown, Pennsylvania had the reputation of being a nice, safe area for families to raise children. The residents in the area felt secure to walk their dogs, jog, and let their kids play out in the yards. All of that changed in the summer of 1992. The residents and police force of Allentown had a problem. For the first time, its east side residents were being stalked by a serial killer. A Killer Is Born Harvey M. Robinson was born on December 6, 1974. He grew up in a troubled family. His father, Harvey Rodriguez Robinson, was an alcoholic and physically and emotionally abusive towards his mother. By the time he was three, his parents were divorced. Harvey Rodriguez Robinson ended up going to prison for manslaughter after beating his mistress to death. The younger Harvey idolized his father, regardless of his abusive and criminal behavior. School Years At a very early age, young Harvey Robinson showed great athletic and academic potential. He won awards for his essays and was a fierce competitor in wrestling, soccer, football and various cross-country sports. However, as early as nine years old he demonstrated a dark side that diminished all of his positive accomplishments. School counselors determined that Robinson suffered from severe conduct disorder. As a child, he was known to throw tantrums. As he got older, he developed a quick temper and was unable to define between right and wrong. From the age of nine to 17, he filled up a rap sheet with numerous arrests including burglary and resisting arrest. He was also a known substance abuser, which added to his propensity towards impulsive aggressive behavior. He detested authority and lashed out at those who tried to control him including the police and his teachers. As he grew older, his threats intensified. Teachers and students were afraid of Robinson, and he liked it. Why Robinson began raping and murdering children and women is unknown, but as far as what is known for sure, it all started on August 9, 1992, when he was 17-years-old. First Victim At about 12:35 a.m. on August 5, 1992, Robinson burglarized the home of Joan Burghardt, 29, who lived alone in a one-bedroom apartment on the first floor of a residential apartment complex on the east side of Allentown. He broke through the screen on the patio door, which was locked, and ripped just enough to slip his hand through the doorknob and open it. Burghardt reported the burglary and the missing $50 from a drawer in her bedroom dresser. Everything else seemed undisturbed. Four days later at around 11:30 a.m. on August 9, 1992, Burghardts neighbor telephoned the police to complain that Burghardts stereo had been on for three days and nights and that no one answered the doorbell. She also reported that the screen had been out of the window for three nights and during one of those nights she heard Burghardt screaming and banging the wall and sounds as if she was being beaten up. When the police arrived, they found Burghardt dead, lying on the living room floor. She had been severely beaten about the head. The autopsy revealed that Burghardt had been sexually assaulted and hit over the head at least 37 times, fracturing her skull and damaging her brain. She also had defensive injuries on both hands, indicating that she was alive during at least some of the attack. Seminal stains were found on a pair of shorts found at the scene, suggesting that a male had masturbated on them. Second Victim Charlotte Schmoyer, 15, was always diligent about delivering the Morning Call newspaper on her assigned route on the east side of Allentown. When she failed to deliver the paper on the morning of June 9, 1983, one of her customers scanned the street for the young carrier. She did not spot Schmoyer, but what she did see alarmed her enough to phone the police. Schmoyers newspaper cart was left unattended, for more than 30 minutes, in front of a neighbors house. When the police arrived, they found that the newspaper cart was half-filled with newspapers, and Schmoyers radio and the headset had been strewn on the ground between two houses. There were also finger streaks on the windowpane of the door to the nearby garage of one of the houses. Based on the scene the police concluded that Schmoyer had likely been abducted. The police began their search and found her bicycle abandoned along with some of her personal property. Within hours a tip came in, and investigators began searching a wooded area where they found blood, a shoe, and the body of Charlotte Schmoyer buried under a stack of logs. According to the autopsy report, Schmoyer was stabbed 22 times, and her throat was slashed. Also, there were cutting and scraping wounds in her neck area, indicating they were inflicted while the Schmoyer was conscious and her neck bent down. She had also been raped. Investigators were able to collect blood samples, a pubic hair and a head hair on Schmoyer that did not match her blood and hair. The evidence was later matched to Robinson through DNA. Burglary John and Denise Sam-Cali lived on the east side of Allentown, not far from where Schmoyer had been abducted. On June 17, 1993, Robinson burglarized their home while the couple was away for a few days. He had taken Johns gun collection, which was kept in a bag in the closet. Within days John bought three new guns, one of which he purchased for Denise for protection. The couple grew even more concerned about their safety after learning that someone had broken into their neighbors home and attacked their child. Third Victim On June 20, 1993, Robinson entered a womans home and choked and raped her five-year-old daughter. The child managed to live but based on her injuries it appeared that he had intended for her to die. Some theorized that he was actually after the childs mother, but when he found her sleeping with her partner, he attacked the child instead. Fourth Victim On June 28, 1993, John Sam-Cali was out of town, and Denise was alone. She awoke to the sounds Robinson was making from inside the walk-in closet near her bedroom. Frightened, she decided to try to run out of the house, but he grabbed her, and they struggled. She managed to get out of the house, but Robinson grabbed at her again and pinned her down onto the ground in the front yard. As the two fought, she was able to bite him on the inside of his arm. He repeatedly punched her, sliced her lip open and then raped her, however, her screams alerted a neighbor who turned on her porch light, and Robinson ran away. When the police arrived, they found Denise alive, but severely beaten, with strangulation marks around her neck, and her lip deeply slashed. They also found a butcher knife wrapped in a napkin lying outside the bathroom door. After recovering in the hospital, the Sam-Calis went out of town for a few days. Fifth Victim On July 14, 1993, Robinson raped and murdered Jessica Jean Fortney, 47, in the living room of her daughter and son-in-laws home. She was found dead, half-naked and her face was swollen and black. There was blood spatter on the wall indicating she had died a violent death. The autopsy revealed that Fortney died in the early morning hours after being strangled and severely beaten. It was also determined that she had been raped. What Robinson did not know was that Fortneys granddaughter had witnessed the killing and was able to give the police his description. Back to Finish the Job On July 18, 1993, the Sam-Calis returned home. Before going out of town, they had the house equipped with a burglar alarm. At about 4:00 a.m. Denise heard a noise in the house and then the back door opened, setting off the alarm and the intruder, Robinson, took off. After that, the Allentown police set up a sting operation and arranged for a police officer to stay in the Sam-Cali home every night. They thought the man who attacked her was coming back to kill her because she could identify him. Their hunch was right. Officer Brian Lewis was staked out inside the Sam-Cali home when at around 1:25 a.m. on July 31, 1993, Robinson returned to the house and tried to open doors. Lewis heard the noises, then watched as Robinson broke into the house through a window. Once he was entirely inside, Lewis identified himself as a police officer and told Robinson to halt. Robinson began shooting at Lewis and gunfire was exchanged. Lewis went to the Sam-Calis bedroom to warn the couple to stay inside the room. He then called for backup. In the meantime, Robinson escaped by breaking through several glass panels on a wooden door in the kitchen. The police found a blood trail in the kitchen and out the door. It looked like the intruder had been shot, or severely cut during his escape. The local hospitals were alerted. Caught A few hours later the police were called to the local hospital after Robinson showed up there to be treated for a gunshot wound. A physical exam of Robinson found that he had fresh wounds to his arms and legs indicative of being cut with glass as well as a bite mark on the inner part of his arm. Officer Lewis also identified Robinson as the man he encountered inside the Sam-Calis home. He was arrested on various charges including kidnapping, burglary, rape, attempted murder, and murder. Investigators built a large case against Robinson with DNA evidence, eyewitness accounts and physical evidence found at his home and the victims homes. It was a solid case. The jury found him guilty for raping and murdering Charlotte Schmoyer, Joan Burghardt, and Jessica Jean Fortney. He was sentenced to a combined 97 years in prison and three death sentences. Resentenced Robinson and his lawyers were able to get two of the three death sentences resentenced to life in prison. One death sentence remains.

A Problem Of Child Abuse

A Problem Of Child Abuse Children Being Abused Unfortunately child abuse happens to be very common throughout the world. There are many different types of child abuse, and many different reasons for the ongoing abuse. â€Å"Since 1999, the majority of children confirmed to be victims of child maltreatment experienced neglect being at 62.8%, Physical abuse 16.6%, Sexual abuse 9.3%, Emotional/psychological abuse 7.1% , Medical neglect 2.0%, and Other at 14.3%† (Child Abuse and Neglect Statistics). Whether the abuse is mild or severe, it is all abuse and can affect how a person thinks and feels. Many people looks at a family and assume since the family looks kind and put-together, no abuse happens in it. This is very stereotypical. Child abuse can happen in family, whether they look like a â€Å"perfect† family or not. A perfect family is typically looked at a lot differently than a â€Å"bad† family. People associate poor, non-wealthy neighborhoods with crime and child abuse. Well unfortunately, Child abuse is all over the country and not just in poor neighborhoods and families. It is not only based on the particular race, cultural or economic group. Many families hide what is really going on and try to appear as normal as possible. Embarrassment, shame, and pity are very fearful and are commonly used.. Many mistake child abuse as only kidnapping and strangers. In reality, anyone can be a child abuser: Strangers, family, caregivers, family friends, babysitters, etc. Abusers are commonly thought of having been abused during their childhood as well. which can potentially influence them to become abusers when they have children. However there are many adult survivors that want to change and stand for what has happened to th em by using a child who is being abused by protecting them. They know what it is like to have gone through the abuse at such a young age and they sympathize with them. They are usually motivated to help them and typically go into a career path doing so, whether its teaching, therapist, doctors, etc. There is not one single age, race, or gender that associates abuse. â€Å"The victimization rate for girls was 9.7 per 1,000 girls younger than age 18, and the rate for boys was 8.7 per 1,000 boys younger than age 18.† According to the same source, â€Å"In 2010, most victims of child maltreatment were white (44.8%), followed by black (21.9%) and Hispanic (21.4%). Children of multiple races (3.5%), American Indian/Alaska Natives (1.1%), and Asian/Pacific Islanders (1.1%) accounted for a substantially smaller proportion of victims† (Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2014 National Report). This shows that child abuse is never targeted, sexist, or consistent, it is completely r andom and can happen to anyone. Child abuse is a continuing problem and is impossible to stop throughout the all of the countries. Child abuse comes in many forms; physical maltreatment, sexual molestation or mental abuse. Physical child abuse is a form of non-accidental trauma caused by the perpetrator. Some traumas include, â€Å"punching, beating, kicking, biting, burning or otherwise harming a child† (Child Physical Abuse). This type of maltreatment is the most noticeable form, unlike children being sexually abused. Sexual child abuse may not be as detectable as physical child abuse. When a child is being abused sexually, it is when the abuser touches the children in their private places . Children look up to their adult figures to be trustworthy and role models; this is why kids usually end up following through with the abuse. Another form of child abuse that isnt easily detectable to emotional child abuse. â€Å"Child emotional/psychological abuse is defined as behaviors, speech, and actions of parent s or other caregivers that have a negative mental impact on children† (Child Emotional/Psychological Abuse). You never know what is being said behind closed doors. Child abuse is not just about the broken bones, bruises, cuts, or the physical appearance that is made. Being emotionally abused and neglected is just as dangerous and harmful. It scars the children, but in an abstract way instead of a concrete way. â€Å"The U.S. has one of the worst records among industrialized nations, losing on average between four and seven children every day to child abuse and neglect†(Child Abuse, Domestic Violence Month noted). Emotional abuse is very deep and may affect a child more in the long run, maybe becoming depressed, anti-social, or losing trust in everyone.Mentally and emotionally abused children take a lot of time and help to recover, depending on the degree of abuse they’ve gone through and who that person is individually. â€Å"More than three million reports of child abuse are made in the United States that involve over six million children a year. Nearly 70% of children who die from the abuse are four year or younger. More than 90% of the juvenile sexual victims know their perpetrator in some way†(Child Abuse Statistics). Children who experience child abuse and neglect are more likely to become violent and interact with criminal activities. Child abuse happens because people often tend to believe that abuse is only physically leaving marks, scars, or â€Å"proof† of physical abuse left behind. People are less likely to intervene in more subtle child abuse cases because no physical mark is left. Often more than not, people classify abusers as bad people. Therefore â€Å"only bad people abuse their children†, but that is not always the case. Some abusers are not intentionally harming their children. Some abusers sometimes may think that what they are doing right, because that is the way they were taught, raised how to be and act properly. That is all they know about parenting, because that i what happened to them. Some may just have some mental issues, causing problems for them to be coherent, and initiating a lack of knowledge for parenting. Substance using people can be a problem of causing each form of child abuse. People are taught how to be parents, how to raise a child and how like a role model for the m. Everyone was taught, raised, and have learned differently. Learning how to take care of a child and provide for one is more tedious than learning how to do a household chore such as cleaning the dishes. Child abuse investigations, each year are reported to the Child Abuse Central Index, also known as CACl. These reports are submitted by county welfare and probation departments. The CACI was created by the Legislature in 1965. This was to protect the health and safety of children, mainly for california. Child abuse has many causes including, as a childhood symptom of mental illness in parents, as the culmination of a lifelong experience of violation towards the caregiver, of environmental and social stresses on the family, and the society’s acceptance and promotion of physical violence. In order to select which factors to study, researchers must exclude other factors. Clinicians, facing a variety of distinctive life events, personal characteristics, and unique circumstances of the families and children they serve, not always content with the explanations of the origin or child abuse found in the research literature. Child abuse and child neglect involve a variety of childhood injuries that are believed to be derived from parental acts of omission or commision. Although the prevalence of child abuse is unknown, the concern regarding the consequences of abuse is, for individual and for our society, is universal. A Problem Of Child Abuse A Problem Of Child Abuse Public schools across the Unites States do not know the challenges students face on a daily bases. Most of the conflict between teenagers and their peers are left oblivious. Everyday one point two million students at public schools go home without admitting their problems, caused by bullies, to their parents. Half of these students’ parents are later surprised to find their child deceased by the following week. Bullying is a tremendous problem that definitely needs more attention and public schools are not providing enough of it. In my own opinion, all schools should enforce bullying awareness programs to prevent from suicides, fights, and an uncomfortable environment. To start with, suicides are increasingly becoming more relevant for bullied victims. Majority of those who actually commit suicide did not pursue any help from their school faculty members. Two years ago in my own community Amber Markly took her life due to bullies. From my understanding, reports have said that she was being bullied by the same crowd of people daily. Through the last traumatizing months of her life only two faculty members took mild precautions to control the situation. The lack of awareness with Amber’s problem lead her parents to find their daughter deceased on a nuisance in her closet. Amber would not have taken her own life if greater bullying awareness was practice in schools. It would have taught the faculty and students to become more involved in situations like Ambers in preventing them from worsening. In additions, there are lots of raging fights due to bullying in schools. Fights are progressively acquiring online, through texting and even by physical contact. Having an awareness program will coach students on how to solve their problems without the need to fight. They can seek help from a teacher who can lead them into the right path of controlling a situation. The bullying awareness program can even include peer counselors. These are student counselors that are trained to help other students through their problems. Peer counseling is apart of the awareness program and can decrease the amount of fights taken place at schools substantially. Furthermore, school is becoming a place students are not comfortable with. All students should feel safe and worry free at school by their fellow peers. If schools enforced the bullying awareness program they can create a welcoming place for their students by practicing different activities. One popular activities done at my high school was mix it up day. This was an activity practiced at lunch in which students sat with people they normally would not be seated with. Doing small fun things such as that create an environment where students become comfortable. Soon it can eliminate bullies by creating a school of students that are familiar with each other in a positive manner and not by gossip spread from one person to another. As one can see, enforcing bullying awareness is a key factor to keeping a bully free school ground. Suicides will decrease as educators increase their knowledge of helping learners in need. Fights can be prevented through coaching students on how to control their actions before someone gets hurt. Practicing fun activities creates a place that makes students feel comfortable in their environment. If one school can give it a chance it could be the chain reaction of tomorrow.

Should young people carry guns Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Should young people carry guns - Essay Example Reported incidences of gun possession particularly by the media enhanced the growing concern over school violence. Recent reports of violence are a clear indication that guns should be prohibited in schools as they instill fear, disrupt education and may lead to physical harm or death. Researchers have attempted to identify reasons for the increase in school violence. Research in the field of psychology, criminology and social sciences have attempted to identify reasons for the increase in violence. The research was carried out in order to explain crime among the youth and also, so as to develop effective policies that may reduce crime (DeLisi 20).Researchers needed to provide clear definitions of the term â€Å"Violence† and â€Å"Weapons† in order facilitate the establishment of effective policies and laws. According to Sexton-Radek, violence refers to the threat or use of physical force that results in physical damage or intimidates another individual (Sexton-Radek 5). Weapons were later defined as any object that may be used to instill harm or intimidation (Hanks 21). Crime prevention policies and laws were adopted in an attempt to reduce crime. I n1990, the Gun Free Schools Zones Act stated that it is a federal offence for a student to knowingly poses a firearm in the school zone. The 1994,Gun Free Schools Act stated that states receiving federal funds for education were required to enact state laws that approved the expulsion of students, as a consequence for gun possession(Hanks 16). These two laws laid the foundation for other implemented state statutes. Schools were expected to adopt policies and safety measures that ensure the protection of students and teachers within the school zone. The definition of a weapon greatly influenced the established laws governing ownership of guns. In the U.S weapons are classified into three categories. These categories are true weapons;

Discussion Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 17

Discussion Questions - Assignment Example the community as well as that of its employees, being honest in their operations and ensuring that their operations do not harm the community, its environment or its economy. These obligations ensure that organizations uphold integrity in their operations and benefit their immediate societies (Paetzold, 2009). The approach of the second organization has several advantages that include creating a positive image of the organization to the public. Additionally, this approach can be used as a marketing strategy to reach more potential customers. The main advantage of the approach taken by the first organization is that it minimizes on costs. However, the approach may create a negative image of the organization. An organization’s responsibilities within a community differ from an individual’s responsibilities in several ways. While an organization is liable for all the actions that its employees take on its behalf, this is not the case with individual responsibilities. This makes the responsibilities of an organization to have a wider scope than those of individuals. Additionally, an organization, unlike individuals, risks incurring huge financial losses if it fails to observe its responsibilities. Individual responsibilities, on the other hand, have little financial or economic bearings on individuals (Paetzold,

Understanding of the Relevant Literature on the Skills Managers Dissertation

Understanding of the Relevant Literature on the Skills Managers Require in the 21st Century - Dissertation Example Understanding of the Relevant Literature on the Skills Managers Require in the 21st Century However, it is important to remember that the present age has new facets that are critical for the company’s success. Businesses nowadays are strongly influenced by globalisation and technological innovation. Hence, in order for managers to be effective, they must be capable of managing the forces that has characterized the new century. Moreover, since the new business age is very dynamic, it is therefore important for the managers of today to be more nimble and agile in order to anticipate and act quickly on the changes before they are pushed into obsolescence. That way, they can capture opportunities as they are realized or defend against threats as they emerge. Moreover, globalisation has demanded that managers become able to manage a diverse workforce as more and more companies are expanding overseas (Khatri and Ong, 1999). Hence there has been an increase in the demands of managers to go beyond their talents and skills to ensure that they are able to innovate themselves s ince this is basically the game that companies and managers have to play in the 21st century. The new century has offered new and exciting challenges for businesses all over the world. The massive improvements in technology have greatly helped in the advancement of communications and information capabilities of countries, companies and individuals worldwide. Basically, this has put an end to the industrial age and heralded the information age which has even brought to fore a new breed of employees, the knowledge workers. These people have radically changed the manner of doing things wherein the office hours as well as office spaces have been practically taken out of the equation (Serrat, 2008). This is all the more demanding if the company is trying to get and maintain a global presence since there is the inescapable need to source out manpower from the different countries from which they operate in as well as to be able to maintain this global workforce. Moreover, there has been a general shift from solely focusing on the financial indicators as the sole measure of the strat egic success of a company. Kaplan and Norton (2005) have shed light on the lack of capability of measuring the success of a company’s strategy by basing on the financials alone. According to these Harvard business thinkers, it is important to have a balanced view of the lagging as well as the leading indicators in order to properly gauge the company’s overall situation. Hence, they have brought forward the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) in order to properly capture these indicators in their four perspectives which are the Learning & Growth, Internal Business Process, Customer and of course the Financial Perspective. All these provide a confluence of indicators for the company to properly analyze their situation and make changes, if necessary, in order to ensure that they remain on track with their targets. However, all these goes to show the increasing demands to the managers of the 21st century wherein there seems to be a shift towards the capability to multi-task and be ab le to adapt to the fast-paced and multicultural business environment of today. Aim The purpose of this paper is to

Marketing Strategies Analysis Of Vodafone Marketing Essay

Marketing Strategies Analysis Of Vodafone Marketing Essay This report explores environmental evaluation and marketing strategies analysis of Vodafone. Referring to situational analysis, the SWOT analysis shows several important insights, such as fierce competition, high penetration rate, low differentiation and innovation. After defining two marketing goals, this study discusses marketing strategies of Vodafone from the perspective of marketing mix. Furthermore, there are two significant recommendations for Vodafone including social media and relationship marketing. Table of Content 1.0 Introduction This study will explain environmental evaluation and marketing strategies analysis of Vodafone. Firstly, this study will provide the situational analysis from the implementation of the SWOT analysis. Furthermore, segmentation targeting and positioning facilitates Vodafone to understand different needs of target markets. Secondly, the marketing objectives and goals will be defined and explained. Then, this study will introduce marketing mix to discuss marketing strategies. Finally, the recommendations will be given. 2.0 Situational Analysis This chapter will propose the situational analysis to evaluate the environment of Vodafone. The SWOT analysis including strengths and weaknesses of organisational environment and opportunities and threats of external environment aims to provide the comprehensive understandings of internal and external organisational environment. In the following, this chapter will employ the SWOT analysis to analyse and evaluate the internal and external environment of Vodafone. 2.1 Strengths There are several aspects of Vodafone strengths including brand recognition, emerging markets, solid foundation in major countries, strategic alliances and new service development. For instance, along with the economic recession severely influences the prospect of developed countries, such as European countries, UK, and North America, emerging markets increasingly contribute to the sustainable development of Vodafone. In terms of Table 1, during the period between 2009 and 2011, the annual growth of service revenue in emerging markets is more than 6%. However, there is comparatively slow growth of service revenue in Europe. Most telecom and internet service providers, like Vodafone, increasingly recognised that the exploitation and development of the global market, particularly emerging markets, considerably influence the sustainable development of telecommunications service providing companies partly because of the market saturation of domestic countries. Table 1: Key Revenue Performance Indicators 2009 2010 2011 Service revenue growth (0.3)% (1.6)% 2.1% Data revenue growth 25.9% 19.3% 26.4% Emerging markets service revenue growth 6.4% 7.9% 11.8% Europe enterprise service revenue growth (4.8)% 0.5% Fixed line revenue growth 2.1% 7.9% 5.2% Notes: (*) means that organic growth which presents performance on a comparable basis. Source: Vodafone (2011a, p.13) Furthermore, Vodafone has competitive abilities to develop new telecom service, such as 3G and data service. As Table 1 shown, compared with traditional service revenue growth, the data revenue growth is higher than traditional service revenue. Beside the higher growth of emerging markets and data revenue, the strong brand recognition and strategic alliances of Vodafone contributes to the sustainable development of Vodafone. 2.2 Weaknesses Several aspects of weaknesses, including uncertainty of revenue growth in data service and Euro market, gradually influence the development of Vodafone. For instance, there is a distinctive pattern of telecom service in emerging markets and developed countries. According to Figure 1, this figure implies that there are two significant results on mobile subscribers and penetration rates across regions. Firstly, the developing countries, especially rest of Asia, have over 800 million mobile subscribers, which is considered as the most potential mobile service consumption market. Secondly, compared with developed countries, rest of Asia and world has comparatively low mobile penetration. Hence, Vodafone, known as a pioneer of the global telecommunication service market exploitation and development, concerns its global market exploration. Figure 1: Total Mobile Subscribers and Penetration Rates by Region as of Mid-2007 Source: UMTS Forum (2008, p.6) 2.3 Opportunities Referring to Opportunities of Vodafone, the growth of emerging market and data service and telecom solution for corporates are described as two important opportunities. Firstly, as the previous analysed, the higher degree of mobile penetration in mature markets. Nevertheless, there is a growing space for Vodafone in emerging markets. Hence, emerging markets and relevant areas may gradually benefit the long-term development of Vodafone, since there are more opportunities. Secondly, Vodafone has its own business department for serving corporate client. Compared with consumer market, corporate client has their unique needs on communication and data service. For Vodafone, it not only is an opportunity, but also is considered as a challenge. 2.4 Threats There are several obvious threats facing Vodafone, such as high penetration rate in mature market, and powerful competitors. Firstly, as Figure 1 shown, compared with developing countries, mature markets, such as Europe and North America, have comparatively high penetration rate. In other words, the marketing environment in mature markets is more fierce competition than emerging markets. Secondly, in the UK mobile service market, there are three considerable competitors facing Vodafone, including Everything Everywhere (Orange and T-Mobile), O2 and Three. Everything Everywhere has more than 27.6 million subscribers (Everything Everywhere, 2011), which is separately more than each competitors. This competitor not only has the dominated position in the UK mobile service market, but also has the remarkable performance on international cooperation to explore global market. For example, it cooperating with Everything Everywhere in the UK market serves the Chinese tourists and residents dur ing the tourism period (Everything Everywhere, 2012). The following competitor is O2 that has over 22.2 million subscribers. For O2, it has the remarkable abilities to formulate and implement its well-defined marketing strategies. For instance, it provides the free Wi-Fi service suitable for consumers in McDonalds store (O2, 2012). These competitors exert their powerful influence on the competitive situation of Vodafone. 3.0 Differential Advantage/Competitive Edge This chapter will discuss the differential advantage/competitive edge of Vodafone, including solid foundation of innovation, innovative abilities for improve corporate client performance, and support of strategic alliances and cooperation. Firstly, Vodafone has its solid foundation in the telecom industry. In terms of the amount of the subscribers experiencing the telecommunication service, Vodafone is the second largest mobile telecommunications firm. Currently, Vodafone operates its telecommunications service in over 30 countries, such as UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Italy, and Ireland, and, cooperating with domestic partners to provide telecommunication services in more than 40 countries, including Denmark, Singapore, Thailand, Russia, Finland and Ukraine (Vodafone, 2012a). In terms of Vodafone (2012c), the vision is to be the worlds mobile communication leader-enriching customers lives, helping individuals, businesses and communities be more connected in a mobile world. Secondly, in the corporate client market, Vodafone has its competitive advantages. For instance, Vodafone innovatively provides the TomTom with traffic data service and machine to machine communication solution (Vodafone, 2010). It not only makes traditional telecom service applied to business communication solutions, but also expands its market from consumer market to business client. Thirdly, the strong strategic alliances and cooperation of Vodafone facilitate Vodafone explore international market. For example, in 2011, Vodafone and Conexus created the relationship of strategic alliance for expanding the Asian market (Vodafone, 2011f). In fact, since strategic alliance has considerable abilities to understand local consumer behaviours, business environment and government regulation, these abilities helps Vodafone to effectively formulate and implement marketing strategies in foreign markets. 4.0 Segmentation Targeting Positioning Market segmentation is described as a market with the similar needs and behaviour of consumers. It is considered as a process of an organisation recognising its competitive advantages for serving market segmentation. After implementing strategy of market segmentation, Kotler Keller (2006) argued that target market is based on the understanding of specific needs, qualities and behaviours of market segmentation. In another hand, the determination of market segmentation may specific target market not available to competitors. The targeting and positioning is dedicated to understand what target market wants and how to provide suitable service satisfying their needs. Currently, Vodafone has two major target market including consumer market and corporate market. Referring to consumer market, for instance, young generation consumers, such as university and college students, are more concerned with mobile data service including mobile chat, quizzes, phone games, ticket purchase and others. For this specific target market, Vodafone may provide more discount for young generation consumers to make them become loyal consumers, which consequently benefits the long-term development of Vodafone. For corporate market, Vodafone incline to provide the customised service for specific corporate client, since different corporate clients have their specific needs. 4.0 Marketing Objectives and Goals The marketing objectives and goals contain two detailed orientations including marketing sales performance and marketing communication. Firstly, referring to marketing sales performance, there are several detailed predictors for Vodafone to determine the marketing sales performance in the following five years. In the next five years, the service revenue growth in emerging market should be kept at 20%, and in mature markets at 2%. Furthermore, new services, such as 3G and data service, should experience a considerable development, which should annually increase by 3%. Referring to cost of marketing activities, Vodafone should make more efforts to improve the performance of marketing activities. Secondly, marketing communication not only involves corporate communication and marketing communications, but also concerns branding and the improvement of brand image in the mind of consumers (Pelsmacker, Geuens Bergh, 2010). Hence, evaluating the performance of integrated marketing communication is considered as another important marketing goal for Vodafone. For instance, it may hire professional service consultants to assess the performance of Vodafones IMC from various perspectives, such as consumers attention rate, and frequencies of advertising. Moreover, the feedback from consumers and partners will be used for improve the future performance of IMC. 5.0 Marketing Strategies and Programmes The analysis and evaluation on marketing strategies of Vodafone from the perspective of marketing mix. In terms of Kotler, Armstrong, Saunders Wong (2001), marketing mix is described as an effective marketing analytic tool for determining and marketing products. Therefore, this section will use marketing mix to analyse and evaluate the marketing strategies of Vodafone. 5.1 Product Today, Vodafone has three major business categories including business solutions, personal solutions and branded phones devices (Vodafone, 2012b). The service for business solutions contains integrated communications, mobile solutions, productivity services, voice and messaging, roaming for your business and machine to machine solutions, which aims to provide the efficient communication environment for business and corporate clients. In regard to personal solutions, Vodafone desires to facilitate individual consumers communicate with family and friends through several channels, such as mobile, email, chat, and internet. Furthermore, Vodafone offers the retailing service of branded phones devices. Since there is an extremely similar mobile service among different telecom companies, Vodafone should concern more services beyond communication, such as apps downloads for individual consumers to experience the benefits and funs from smartphone. For corporate client, the technical suppor t and customised service may contribute to successfully attract and maintain corporate client. 5.2 Price From the traditional view, since there is a few telecommunications service providers in a country, this liberalised market particularly facilitates these providers become oligopolies (Cambini Valletti, 2003). These oligopolies have the competitive influence in the pricing decision in comparison with consumers. Along with the application of the internet-based technologies offers more choices for consumers, such as internet chat, consumers increasingly shape their own influence in this market. Nevertheless, Vodafone and its competitors provide the similar service package and prices for consumers. For Vodafone, there are two important price plans containing pay monthly and pay as you go. The plan of pay monthly includes several dimensions for consumer to choose their proper plan, such as plan type, contract length, plan type and monthly cost (Vodafone, 2012d). Hence, the mobile service providers play a critical role in the game of pricing. 5.3 Promotion Promotion, known as integrated marketing communications, plays an important role in the creation and delivery of the persuasive information for consumers and the establishment and enhancement of the interactive relationship between Vodafone and its customers. There are several strategies of integrated marketing communications developed by Vodafone, such as social media, advertising and internet-based platform. Vodafone, like most firms concerning their brand image and their interactive relationship with consumers, focuses on the application of social media. For example, Vodafone adopts Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo to implement the interactive communication with target consumers. Furthermore, Vodafone establishes the internet-based platform to improve the engagement of consumers in mobile service and communications. For instance, several forums, including Apple forum, BlackBerry forum, HTC forum and others (Vodafone, 2012e), make each specific target market engage in these forums to e xchange feedback and experience on these products and relevant services. 5.4 Place Place is described as the distribution networking facilitating Vodafone effectively deliver services and products for consumers. In fact, the effective distribution networking can help firms to shape their competitive advantages. Currently, there are two major distribution channels developed by Vodafone, including online store and real store. Firstly, Vodafone launched the online store to offer several aspects of mobile products and services, such as mobile phones, accessories, apps downloads and mobile services. The online store can save consumers time and money. Secondly, Vodafone, like O2 and Everything Everywhere, operates real stores to improve customer experience. 6.0 Recommendations This chapter will propose two recommendations for Vodafone to achieve its sustainable development in the long run, including social media, and customer relationship and relationship marketing. The first recommendation on the application of social media concerns the implementation of integrated marketing communications. The second recommendation on relationship marketing contains four aspects to implement relationship marketing, such as service quality, price perception, brand image and value offers. In the following, this chapter will described relevant theories on social media and integrated marketing communications and relationship marketing and propose several detailed practices for Vodafone. 6.1 Social Media Vodafone adopted social media including Facebook, Twitter and Yahoo to enhance the interactive communication with target consumers. From the theoretical perspective, social media is defined as activities, practices, and behaviours among communities of people who gather online to share information, knowledge, and opinions using conversational media (Safko Brake, 2009, p. 6). Furthermore, these two researchers recognised that companies should integrate social media into their process of formulating and implementing marketing strategies. For consumers, social media plays a critical role in personal communication. Individuals enable to create and send their own understandings on Vodafone products and service, including good and bad feedback. However, compared with the traditional communications channels, such as advertising, sponsorship and public relations, Vodafone cannot control the contagion of user-generated information on the negative evaluation on Vodafone mobile services. Hence, it is difficult for Vodafone to manage social media. However, social media provides one of the most important measures, such as word of mouth. From the consumer perspective, the user-generated word of mouth may be more reliable and trusted in comparison with the Vodafone-generated information. For instance, Hanna (2008) stressed that more and more concerns review the online feedback on products or service experience from other consumers, which may exert its influence on their purchasing decision making. Based on the internet platform, individual consumers can share their experience and communicate with each other to become an influential opinion group. Vodafone should concern the development of these similar groups and engage in these groups to obtain their experience and information on products or service. The feedback and experience from consumers can help Vodafone to develop more effective marketing strategies. For the implication of social media for Vodafone, Vodafone should play an active role in the communication with target market under the circumstance of social media. For instance, Vodafone not only uses Twitter to send the information on products and services, but also employs YouTube to deliver the video on the practices of corporate social responsibility, such as social work for local communities. In particular, Vodafone should concern the contagion of the negative information and feedback and effective respond to these feedbacks. Furthermore, the resolution of the negative feedback not only may adjusts the negative attitude of consumers toward Vodafone and its mobile services, but also may recover consumer confidence and contribute to customer loyalty. 6.2 Customer Relationship and Relationship Marketing In terms of Tseng (2007), relationship marketing is described as the contemporary mainstream of marketing thoughts concerned with the establishment and maintenance of the strong relationship between firms and consumers. In this essence, the formulation and implementation of marketing strategies should be based on the comprehensive understanding on the changing needs of consumers. Compared with the traditional marketing thoughts, relationship marketing is more concerned with the long-term customer relationship, which consequently benefits both consumers and firms in the long run. Therefore, Vodafone should concern the building and maintenance of the strong relationship with consumers. In this section, there are several tactics contributing to the implementation of relationship marketing, such as service quality, price perception, value offered (Bansel, Taylor James, 2005) and brand image (Peng Wang, 2006). In the following, this section will explain the application of these four tac tics for Vodafone. Firstly, service quality distinctive from the quality of physical products contains several characteristics, such as intangible and produced and consumed simultaneously (Gronroos, 2000). Since service quality can be perceived by each consumer, each consumer may have different perception on the similar service quality. Hence, the trusted relationship between the frontline service employees and consumers plays a critical role in the enhancement of the perceived service quality. If consumer can perceive the superior service quality through the communication with the frontline service employees, the satisfied consumers can become the loyal consumers dedicated to the long-term mutual relationship with firms. Hence, Vodafone should concern the improvement and development of the frontline service employees to enhance the perceived service quality. Furthermore, there are various measures to improve the perceived service quality, such as service design and development and improvement of store environment. Secondly, price perception is more sensitive for consumers, since it considerably affects the final decision on purchasing behaviours. If consumers perceive the price beyond their expected, the higher price perception may exert its negative influence on their purchasing decision (Peng Wang, 2006). In terms of Cheng et al. (2008), there are two important dimensions determining the price perception, including reasonableness of price and comparison from competitors. For Vodafone, it should improve service quality to make consumers perceive the reasonableness of this price, but also concerns the fluctuation of prices developed by the competitors. Based on the fluctuation of prices developed by the competitors, Vodafone should evaluate the competitive situation and service of the competitors and make the reasonable decision to cope with the potential price war. Thirdly, referring to brand, Gronroos (2000) described brand as not first built and then perceived by the customers. Instead, every step in the branding process, every brand massages, is separately perceived by customers and together add up to a brand image, which is formed in customers minds (p.287). Hence, the building of brand image not only aims to marketing physical products and services through the predicted role of brand image, but also is involved in the sustainable development of a firm. For Vodafone, it is necessary for Vodafone to build and enhance the brand image of Vodafone. There are several detailed measures for Vodafone, including marketing communications and corporate social responsibility. The marketing communications measures contain advertising, sponsorship, and social media to enhance the brand image in the mind of consumers. In particular, the implementation of corporate social responsibility will significantly contribute to the building and enhancement of brand image of Vodafone, since most consumers believe that the practices and behaviours of corporate social responsibility can influence brand image in their mind and purchasing decision. Fourthly, value offers is that consumers will evaluate the value and cost of products and services. If consumers believe that they obtain value beyond the cost of products and services, they incline to purchase this product or service and produce customer satisfaction. According to Ravald Gronroos (1996), service providers should create and deliver the superior value for consumers through the enhancement of value offers, which consequently contributes to the improvement of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. For Vodafone, it should concern the creation and delivery of value offers. 7.0 Conclusion This report discusses three major issues of Vodafone including environmental evaluation, marketing strategies and recommendations. Referring to the SWOT analysis, there are several important insights, such as fierce competition, high penetration rate, low differentiation and innovation. After defining marketing objectives, marketing mix will be used for explaining marketing strategies of Vodafone.

Living Deficiently or Energy-Efficiently :: Economy Pollution Papers

To live deficiently or energy-efficiently: that is the question. Although the majority of us are aware of the pressing environmental problems we face daily, we are not very aware of the urgency to find a solution to them. Life on earth is built up like a wagon wheel; we can remove a few of those spokes and we might still be able to travel safely, but eventually the wheel will weaken and collapse. At that point, no amount of human ingenuity will allow us to reconstruct the wagon wheel so we can keep traveling on to the future. This fact is obvious, given our inability to completely clean up any damage our pollution has done to the environment—how can we expect to rebuild or repair a collapsed planetary ecosystem? We cannot keep consuming resources and damaging the environment at our current exponential rate. Exponential growth implies infinite expansion, but our Earth is finite, and its resources are finite. If something is not done about our wasteful use of the planetâ₠¬â„¢s energy and resources, our lives will be made miserable and desperate as the natural processes which support human life collapse like a flimsy wagon wheel made of sludge and decaying tree stumps. We will be living deficiently, if at all, according to our current standards of living. Pollution cleanup is no good; continuing to use the current rates of energy that we use without change is no good. We must concentrate on preventing environmental problems in the first place, and what’s more, we must figure out a simple, economical, and practical way that each of us can do it. This solution is energy-efficiency. Series of Topic Sentences to Follow Outline: It is necessary to find a practical resolution to environmental problems. Examples of these environmental problems include: These environmental problems pose a serious threat to humans because the planetary ecosystem is being slowly destroyed. We often like to use the less-impacting terms â€Å"degraded† or â€Å"injured,† but we shouldn’t use diction to hide the truth. By flagrantly using unnecessary quantities of energy, we are gradually destroying our environment—not â€Å"degrading† or â€Å"injuring† it, but destroying it. Our environmental problems are caused by pollution release, resource overuse and destruction, and carelessness towards the environment. The source of all these problems is the lack of human energy-efficiency in manufacturing products and, with greater contribution to the problem, the lack of energy-effiicient lifestyles.