Monday, December 23, 2019

Essay on Fight Aganist Transnational Organized Crimes

1. Introduction Human Rights passed the important stages of development since 2nd World War and became an influential factor in international relations. At the same time, transnational crime has showed a significant increase. In this sense, the international community has reacted by establishing strong legal mechanisms and intensifying the preparation process of international agreements for the creation of a more favorable climate. Extradition is regarded as an effective tool in the fight against transnational organized crimes. Inevitable, there are divergences on the inclusion of human rights through the extradition process in terms of international treaties and domestic laws of the countries. More importantly extradition process†¦show more content†¦With the inherent difficulties of bilateral mechanisms and implications of obligations, there has been an increasing resort to regional and possible universal regulation systems in the context of extradition. Notwithstanding important points, there are significant controversial arguments, divergences between regional and bilateral treaties which cover basically human rights aspect of extradition procedure. However, main regulations of current treaties play an important role to define the categories of extraditable offences, obligations of states and human rights aspect of extradition at international and regional level. As one of the first regional instruments for extradition, European Convention on Extradition signed in 1957 serves for harmonization of extradition relations and development of mutual assistance amongst European states. Under this regional mechanism, states have to be more sensitive for human rights factor while extraditing suspects more than ever. Article 11 of the European Convention on Extradition which excludes extradition unless the requesting Party gives reasonable assurance that death penalty will not be executed. Furthermore, the fact that this convention is unable to limit the political applicat ion of political crimes which opens opportunities to abuse by subjects. The European Union Members achieved to tackle this problem by signing the European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism which entered into force in 1977. Outside

Sunday, December 15, 2019

What Is the Importance of Public Administration in Ghana Free Essays

string(187) " for settlements with populations above 15 000 and which are cosmopolitan in character, with urbanisation and management problems, though not of the scale associated with the metropolis\." gStructure of the new local government system The new local government system is made up of a regional coordinating council (RCC) and a four-tier metropolitan and three-tier municipal/DAs structure. Composition of structure The RCC consists of the regional minister as chairman and his deputies, the presiding member of each DA and the district chief executive of each district in the region, two chiefs from the regional house of chiefs and the decentralized ministries without voting rights. A DA consists of the district chief executive,   two thirds of the members directly elected by universal adult suffrage, the members of parliament (MPs) representing constituencies within the district, and not less than 30% of the members appointed by the president in consultation with chiefs and interest groups in the district. We will write a custom essay sample on What Is the Importance of Public Administration in Ghana or any similar topic only for you Order Now The district chief executive is nominated by the president, approved by two-thirds of the members of the DA present and voting, and appointed by the president. The assembly has a presiding member who is elected from among its members by two-thirds of all the members of the assembly. The sub-district structures include: †¢ The sub-metropolitan DCs which consist of not less than 25 and not more than 30 members, made up of all elected members of the assembly in that   sub-metropolitan district and such other persons resident in the sub-metropolitan district appointed by the president. †¢ The urban council consists of not less than 25 and not more than 30 members made up of not more than eight persons elected from among the members of the relevant DA, not more than 12 representatives from the unit committees in the area of authority of the urban council and not more than 10 persons ordinarily resident in the urban area. The zonal council consists of not less than 15 and not more than 20 members made up of not more than five persons elected from among the members of the relevant municipal assembly, not more than 10 representatives from the unit committees and not more than five persons ordinarily resident in the zone. †¢ The town/area councils consis t of not less than 15 and not more than 20 members made up of not more than five persons elected from among the members of the relevant assembly, not more than 10 representatives from the unit committees and not more than five persons ordinarily resident in the town or area. The unit committee consists of not more than 15 persons made up of 10 elected persons ordinarily resident in the unit and not more than five other persons resident in the unit and nominated by the district chief executive, acting   on behalf of the president. Elections to all local government bodies are on a non-partisan basis; the elections are state-sponsored and conducted by the electoral commission. Regional coordinating councils (RCCs) RCCs are established for each of the 10 regions of Ghana. An RCC is an administrative and coordinating rather than a political and policy-making body. Its functions are to: monitor, coordinate and evaluate the performance of the DAs in the region; †¢ monitor the use of all monies allocated to the DAs by any agency of the central government; †¢ review and coordinate public services generally in the region †¢ perform such other functions as may be assigned to it by or under any enactment. Metropolitan/municipal/district assemblies DAs in Ghana are either metropolitan (population over 250 000), municipal (one town assemblies with populations over 95 000) or district (population 75 000 and over. ) There are three metropolitan assemblies, four municipal assemblies and 103 DAs. A metropolitan/municipal/DA is: †¢ created as the pivot of administrative and developmental decision-making in the district and is the basic unit of government administration †¢ assigned with deliberative, legislative as well as executive functions †¢ established as a monolithic structure to which is assigned the responsibility of the totality of government to bring about integration of political, administrative and development support needed to achieve a more equitable allocation of power, wealth and geographically dispersed development in Ghana constituted as the planning authority for the district. Functions of the assemblies These are deliberative, legislative and executive. Section 10(3) of Act 462 lists them as follows: a) be responsible for the overall development of the district and shall ensure the preparation and submission through the regional coordinating council for approval of the development plan to the commission and budget to minister of finance for th e district b) formulate and execute plans, programmes and strategies for the effective mobilization of the resources necessary for the overall development of the district ) promote and support productive activity and social development in the district and remove any obstacles to initiative and development d) initiate programmes for the development of basic infrastructure and provide municipal works and services in the district e) be responsible for the development, improvement and management of human settlements and the environment in the district f) in cooperation with appropriate national and local security agencies, be responsible for the maintenance of security and public safety in the district ) ensure ready access to the courts and public tribunals in the district for the promotion of justice h) initiate, sponsor or carry out such studies as may be necessary for the discharge of any of the functions conferred by this Law or any other enactment perform such other functions as may be provided under any other enactment. Sub-district political/administrative structures These being subordinate bodies of the DAs, they perform functions assigned to them by the instruments setting up by the assemblies or delegated to them by the assemblies. They are constituted by the sub-metropolitan DCs, urban/town/ zonal/area councils, and unit committees. Sub-metropolitan DCs These structures are immediately below the metropolitan assemblies. There are 13 of these structures established by law. These are shown below: This arrangement has been dictated by the complex and peculiar socio-economic, urbanisation and management problems which confront these three metropolis. Urban councils Urban councils are peculiar to settlements of â€Å"ordinary† DAs. They are created for settlements with populations above 15 000 and which are cosmopolitan in character, with urbanisation and management problems, though not of the scale associated with the metropolis. You read "What Is the Importance of Public Administration in Ghana" in category "Papers" Thirty-four of these councils are established by law. Zonal councils The zonal councils are in the â€Å"one-town† municipal assemblies of Cape Coast, New Juaben, Tamale and Tema, for which the establishment of town/area councils will raise problems of parallel administrative structures. There are 108 of such zonal councils for the four municipal assemblies. They are based on the electoral commission’s criteria of: commonality of interest, population of 3000 and identifiable streets, land marks, etc. as boundaries. Sub-Metropolitan District Council under Respective Metropolitan Assemblies Assembly Accra Metropolitan Assembly Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly Ablekuma Asokwa Sekondi Ashiedu Keteke Bantama Takoradi Okaikwei Manhyia Shama Ayawaso Kpeshie Osu Klottey Subin Town/area councils These are found in the metropolitan assemblies and DAs. In the DAs, town councils are established for settlements with populations between 5000 and 1500. Area councils exist for a number of settlements/villages which are grouped together but whose individual settlements have populations of less than 5000. They cover areas with predominantly rural populations and in some cases can be identified with spheres of influence of a particular traditional authority. They are essentially rallying points of local enthusiasm in support of a new local government system. A unit is normally a settlement or a group of settlements with a population of between 500–1000 in the rural areas, and a higher population (1500) for the urban areas. Unit committees being in close touch with the people play the important roles of education, organization of communal labour, revenue-raising and ensuring environmental cleanliness, registration of births and deaths, implementation and monitoring of self-help projects, among others. Committees of District Assemblies In the performance of its functions, the DA works through the executive committee and its subsidiary committees of development planning, social services, works, finance and administration, and justice and security. Executive committees The functions of the assembly are performed by the executive committee, which is presided over by the district chief executive and consists of not more than onethird of the total number of members of the assembly excluding the presiding member. Heads of departments of the assembly attend the meetings of the relevant sub-committees and advise them on the execution of their functions, but may not vote. A sub-committee can also coopt persons to attend its meetings but also without a vote. The functions performed by the executive committee are to: coordinate plans and programmes of the sub-committees and submit these as comprehensive plans of action to the DA †¢ implement resolutions of the district in collaboration with the office of the DA †¢ oversee the administration of the district in collaboration with the office of the district chief executive †¢ recommend where it considers necessary – in the case of departments outside 364 the supervision of the assembly wh ich are in the district – to the appropriate government ministry/department/agency the appointment and replacement on stated grounds of officers within the area of authority of the assembly adopt measures to develop and execute approved plans of the units, areas and towns and sub-metropolitan districts within the area of authority of the assembly †¢ recommend to the DA the coordination, integration and harmonisation of district development plans and policies. Sub-committees of the executive committee The sub-committees of the executive committee and the functions they perform are shown below: Development planning sub-committee †¢ takes a comprehensive look at the district †¢ identifies the economic resources/potentials of the district †¢ develops an information base on the resources identifies opportunities and constraints for the exploitation of these resources †¢ prepares exploitation and phasing plans and strategies †¢ consults with other sub-committees and the private sector for the implications that the proposed district plan may have on other sub-committees’ plans †¢ submits the plan to the executive committee for harmonisation with other sub-committee plans. Social services sub-committee †¢ takes a comprehensive and long-term look at areas of social development in the district, in particular education, health, social welfare, sports, culture, etc. develops the information base on these areas of social development †¢ prepares a social development plan (long-, medium- and short-term) for the district Sub-Committees of the Executive Committees of the Assembly District Assembly, Executive Committee Development Planning Sub- Committee, Social Services Sub- Committee, Works Sub-committee, Finance Administration, Justice/ Security †¢ identifies the strengths and weaknesses in the social services areas †¢ examines the implications of the social development plan on other sub-sectors of the district economy submits the plans to the executive committee for harmonisation. Works sub-committee The functional areas of the works sub-committee includes roads, electricity, sanitation, water, etc. Within the general framework of Act 462 and the specific functions in the legislative instruments that establish the various assemblies, this sub-committee: †¢ takes a comprehensive look at the infrastructure needs and problems of the district †¢ develops an information base on each of these p rogramme/functional areas †¢ maps out, initiates and phases out programmes for their development and/or provision examines the implications of such actions for the other sub-committee proposals †¢ submits the programmes to the executive committee for harmonisation and action. Finance and administration sub-committee This sub-committee †¢ examines the general financial position of the assembly †¢ examines the revenue mobilisation and expenditure trends of the assembly †¢ maps out strategies to improve revenue mobilisation in the present and sets targets for the future †¢ submits financial plans to the executive committee for harmonisation with other sub-committee plans identifies strategies to ensure judicious utilisation of available resources. Justice and security sub-committee This sub-committee is set up to resolve intra-district and inter-district conflicts and to consider issues that pertain to the enforcement of by-laws of the assembly. To achieve these purposes, the sub-committee: †¢ examines these and other related conflict areas †¢ recommends to the executive committee ways and means to resolve disputes †¢ ensures ready access to the courts and tribunals for the promotion of justice in the district, e. . making sure that premises are available for use by community tribunals and that police logistics are adequate. A DA can form any other sub-committee, depending on the peculiarities of its environment or its area. The committee’s discussed above are, however, mandatory. They can be dissolved and reconstituted but cannot be replaced, for example by a task force. Sub-committees of metropolitan assemblies These and their subject areas are shown in Appendix 2. Boards of metropolitan assemblies For the efficient performance of its functions, a metropolitan assembly has three metropolitan boards: †¢ Metropolitan Planning Board †¢ Board of Metropolitan Works †¢ Board of Administration. The Sub-districts – New Decision-Making points for Poverty Reduction using the Sub-district Development Fund Saboba Introduction At the design stage of DSDA II, an Economic Development Component (Sub-district Development Fund) was suggested as a means to support economic development at the district and sub district levels. An amount of 14. 87 million DKK (US $ 2. 25 million) was earmarked over four years, to support activities of this component. This was designed to reduce poverty through the provision of social infrastructure and improved incomes, while strengthening the institutional and human capacity of the districts and economic stakeholders to manage these resources in an efficient and accountable manner. During the implementation stage a great number of lessons and experiences with regards to the Sub-district Development Fund (SDDF) herein after referred to as the Fund were accumulated and documented. The processes undertaken to reach these are highlighted in this chapter. The Best Practices and Lessons at the Design Stage dentifying and Establishing the Guiding Principles and Objectives Lesson One:Prior to the implementation of the Fund, an exercise was undertaken to establish guiding principles and objectives. The Fund, over the four-year period, operated around a number of principles which comply with the overall framework of Ghana’s decentralisation and poverty reduction programmes and these were: * Broad stakeholder participation in decision making; * Demand-driven;   Need and commitment; *   Viability and ownership; * Equity in resource allocation and targeting; * Decentralised development; and * Local capacity building and sustainability. The objectives which guided the support activities and the developed systems were: * To support social and economic development investments that will serve as catalyst for further economic opportunities in ruru mmunities. * To s trengthen the existing local government structures and institutions to provide services for decentralised development (financial, training, business development, project management, etc).   To enhance local decision making in project selection and implementation involving relevant stakeholders; * To deepen the sense of community ownership and responsibility for projects, especially post delivery operation and maintenance; and * To promote effective monitoring and evaluation of project implementation, utilisation and management for sustainability. Developing Effective Core Strategies and Approaches Lesson Two: For the SDDF, several strategies were developed through broad stakeholder consultation and validation. These consultations culminated in the formulation of specific strategies for implementation. A model strategy for poverty reduction, focusing on economic and social development was developed to guide implementation. In principle, three-tier strategy model proposed the targeting of economic funds towards projects with the highest potential to serve as catalysts for economic growth. Option 1: Regional economic promotion facility located at the regional level to cater for activities that seek to integrate economic development. Option 2: A district economic development policy and promotion facility, to support D As to establish district-based strategies and policy for economic development; and, Option 3: Community economic development facility categorised into: (a)  Ã‚  Ã‚   Economic Associations targeting those engaged in common economic vocations requiring common facilities and services to enhance their production activities; and (b)  Ã‚  Ã‚   Entire communities: where they require a common asset to broaden economic opportunities for all its residents. Each option was allocated a certain percentage of the total funds on the basis of major principles. Stakeholder Consultation and Decisions Lesson Three: Following the formulation of an entry strategy, stakeholders reached agreement on the feasibility of the strategy and made inputs towards owning it. Participating stakeholders included personnel of the Regional Coordinating Council and other regional institutions, personnel of the District Assembly and other district institutions, community level opinion eaders, representatives of women groups and credit/business advisory bodies. These consultations were organised first at the regional level and later at the district level. Involving stakeholders in project conception and inception was found to be critical for purposes of ownership and sustainability. The Best Practices and Lessons at the Implementation Stage At the implementation phase a number of lessons were learnt and some best practices emerged as follows: A Well Defined Impleme ntation Plan and Process Lesson One: The project cycle of the SDDF, was perceived as something beyond a mere list of activities. The processes were defined and shared to ensure their feasibility in relation to anticipated outputs. The instruments to facilitate effective implementation were pre-designed, discussed and modified appropriately. (i) Orientation of beneficiaries on SDDF as an Entry-Strategy: Following stakeholder validation of the economic development model and strategy, detailed orientation sessions in the two regions were organised. How to cite What Is the Importance of Public Administration in Ghana, Papers

Saturday, December 7, 2019

McDonald Service Analysis-Free-Samples for Students-Myassignment

Question: Discuss about the McDonald Service Anaysis. Answer: McDonald service analysis McDonald is a known brand in different parts of the world. The company operates in the QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) industry and it has number of outlets in Australia. McDonald has to ensure that its customers get the same experience across any of the stores. The organization ensures this thing through product and service standardization. Over the time, the management of McDonald has realized that it is easy to do product standardization. However, it is difficult to do service standardization. The management has to focus on various front stages and back stages operation for service standardization (Harris, 2009). The overall customer experience would depend on the way McDonald can manage its internal and external operations. It is imperative for McDonald to have standardized back stage and front stage operations across its stores. For example, the company cannot afford to have different front stage process in Sydney stores and Melbourne stores. It would result in a bad customer exp erience. The flowchart of the back-stage operations of McDonald can be shown as: Flowchart: Back Stage operations of McDonald The front operations of McDonald are more people dependent. Therefore, it is important that the company must invest on the training of people. The flowchart of the front-end operations of McDonald restaurant can be shown as: Flowchart: Front Stage operations of McDonald Significance of Service Encounter The above diagram shows the front stage operations of McDonald are complex in nature. There is a dependency on number of people encounter. Therefore, it would be correct to say that the service encounter is the key for McDonald to ensure service standardization. The definition of a service encounter is broad and includes a customer's interaction with customer-contact employees, machines, automated systems, physical facilities, and any other service provider visible element (Helgesen, 2008). It would be correct to say that the absolute customer satisfaction would come only when McDonald is able to improve the service encounter between its employees and its customers. In turn, the service encounter can be improved only when the touch points are improved. The above diagram shows that there are multiple touch points of service encounter for McDonald. The organization must take measures to improve the service encounter with consumers. The key steps of methods that McDonald can take to imp rove the service encounter can be listed as: Invest on training and development of people: Helgesen (2008) argued that the quality or customer experience in service industry depends a lot on the type of people that organizations can get. The organizations can ensure the service quality through adequate training and development programs. It is recommended that that McDonald should have a allotted budget for its training and development programs across Australia. Kwortnik (2009) suggested that generally organizations should have 1% to 2% of revenue as their training budget. The training and development plan should be developed and implement for employees and staff at different levels. With respect to McDonald, the training should be developed for senior management, mid level management and wait staff. Process standardization: Lusch (2008) argued that organizations could improve service encounter through process standardization. McDonald has taken various steps to improve process standardization. For example, organizations uses a full fledge ERP system so that its processes are standardized. Various processes of the organization like vendor management, procurement, and inventory management are interlinked through ERP system. Benchmarking: It is important to mention that benchmarking is also an important tool that could be used to improve the service encounter. Kwortnik (2009) suggests that the approach of benchmarking is particularly useful when the organizations want to adopt the best in industry fundamentals. With this approach, McDonald can learn from the service delivery mechanism of other players in the industry. Taking feedback into consideration: Lusch (2008) highlighted that customer feedback is one of the most effective method to improve service encounter. As a part of feedback process, McDonald should try to understand the pain point of customers. The strategy to tackle the service encounter should depend on the pain point of customers. The entire idea of improvement in service encounter is that the management of McDonald should understand that its employees are the first line of customers. The wait staff may appear as a low level employee. However, he or she is the one who eventually deals with employees. Therefore, it is imperative that McDonald should have a common code of conduct that should be used to manage its different stores. Managerial Implications I personally believe that organizations in service sector must focus to improve the service quality. There could be serious managerial implications if the service quality is not up to mark. It is important that the management of McDonald must keep continuous watch over its service offerings. The first thing for McDonald would be to plan a budget for its service improvement plans. It is recommended that the management should develop a group or formulate a committee that would initially assess the current quality of service offerings from McDonald. The management can use the Service Gap model. The gap model (also known as the "5 gaps model") of service quality is an important customer-satisfaction framework (Lancastre, 2008). It is important that the management should have a close watch over all the five gaps. The supply chain analysis of McDonald suggests that the company has a vast eco-system. The suppliers of McDonald are spread across Australia and in fact across the globe. Therefo re, any compromise in any of the service gap can affect the operations of McDonald badly (Voima, 2013). If any of these gaps do not support the organizations strategy and purpose, it needs to be addressed. The knowledge of the service encounter has some important implications for managers. It is important that the managers of McDonald should realize the importance of service encounters and the impact of service encounters on customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. It is recommended that the management of McDonald should take a top-down approach to inculcate the knowledge to mid level management. The senior leadership can arrange various learning sessions where the seniors can pass on the importance and criticality of service encounters to executives. It is important that the focus on service quality should be established as a culture within the organization. Employees at different levels should equally practice the culture. Another option for McDonald is to take the services of external consultants to provide training to employees. In this era of Internet, McDonald can also utilize the power of social media. The management can have online training modules. In fact, there should be training plans that can be made mandatory for employees (Bechkoff, 2009). The bottom line is that all the executives of McDonald should have a 360-degree view of the service encounters and service relationship marketing. The long term planning of service relationship marketing would help McDonald to improve its relationship with customers and in long term it would help McDonald to improve customer retention (Preston, 2013). The customers should be treated as advocate of McDonald so that customer can also market the offerings of the company. References Baron, S., Harris, K., Hilton, T. (2009).Services marketing: text and cases. Palgrave Macmillan. Broady-Preston, J. (2013). Changing Marketing Concepts: Contemporary Theories and Paradigms in Services Marketing.Marketing Library and Information Services II: A Global Outlook,159, 23. Gronroos, C., Voima, P. (2013). Critical service logic: making sense of value creation and co-creation.Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,41(2), 133-150. Helgesen, O. (2008). Marketing for higher education: A relationship marketing approach.Journal of Marketing for Higher Education,18(1), 50-78. Kwortnik, R. J., Thompson, G. M. (2009). Unifying service marketing and operations with service experience management.Journal of Service Research,11(4), 389-406. Lages, L. F., Lancastre, A., Lages, C. (2008). The B2B-RELPERF scale and scorecard: Bringing relationship marketing theory into business-to-business practice.Industrial Marketing Management,37(6), 686-697. Palmatier, R. W., Jarvis, C. B., Bechkoff, J. R., Kardes, F. R. (2009). The role of customer gratitude in relationship marketing.Journal of marketing,73(5), 1-18. Vargo, S. L., Lusch, R. F. (2008). From goods to service (s): Divergences and convergences of logics.Industrial Marketing Management,37(3), 254-259.

Saturday, November 30, 2019

Real Estate and Social Media

Introduction The purpose of this essay is to discuss the history of real estate and social media, the position of social media over the last years, importance of technology to improve business, the best ways to develop business, the ways by which social media can develop real estate and commercial building, the process to improve website and so on.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Real Estate and Social Media specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More History of Real estate The Times of India (5) pointed out that although the word ‘real estate’ has found in the dictionary for the last thousand years, but the history of ‘real estate’ is an integral part of human civilisation for more than ten thousand years. History demonstrated that concept of private ownership of the property has evidenced during the 17th century onwards that generated huge psychological impact on the possession of ‘real est ate’ that sowed that seeds to the preface of the real estate market (5). Archaeologists traced differentiated lifestyle among the ancestors where cave and cave painting on the stone point to the ordinary and luxurious living place, although the humankind is in scares of dwelling place from the hunter-gatherer. During 1066 AD, the origins of real estate law were established while King William conquered England and declared himself as a titleholder of the territory, the British Monarchy brings them into practice through ‘tenure’ ‘tenants’ and their concerned ‘rents’ globally (12). The Times of India also added that the industrial revolution has enhanced the opportunity among the middle class to buy land and built the own home, but most of them were eager to buy home from the real estate ready for at once living without experiencing the hazards of construction. The financial institution extended their hands to the real estate industry to ad dress the needs of middle class through debt financing; it flourished the market and turned real estate as a booming industry all over the world (15). At the same time, accretion of democracies, turned to safeguard the buyer and seller by establishing Real Estate Law, the extensive colonisation of British monarchy was aimed to establish same legal domain across the world through mixed ownership while the model of communism stands against private of ownership of real estate (14). Shiller studied with the historical evidence of US real estate market and argued that the exploration of housing finance and incorporation of real estate corporations in the stock market has bought a revolution with historic turning points in real estate. Starting from 1957, in context of Stock Price Index, the aggregate stock price of real estate has extensively risen for single-family homes up to 1988, reached it historic pick points in 2000, and evidenced rapid fall in 2003 (5). The changing nature of rea l estate has strongly associated with the high risk of credit crush due to extra burden of loan in this sector (Shiller 5).Advertising Looking for essay on communications media? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Barth et al. mentioned that the financial institutions amplified their cash flow for real estate from US$ 500 billion in nineties, while it jumped towards US$ 2.4 trillion in 2007 and during the global financial crisis in September 2008, the total outstanding loan volume elevated up to US$ 11.3 trillion that seriously hampered global economy causing banking sector collapse (11). Due to the growing significance of private sector for real estate mortgage funding, the adaptable rate of mortgage financing has tripled, at the time of diminishing towards US$106.7 billion during the second quarter of 2008 and demonstrated sharp boost throughout the boom, but huge drops in the shares price of real estate corporations at bubble burst. History of Social Media: The history of social media has developed from 1980s, but the major development in this sector has enhanced from 1990s, for example, First dial-up BBC continue to grow at the initial stage of development, but World Wide Web started its operation in 1991 to serve the purpose of military, government or university. Hershey (5) and Morrison Foerster (1) stated that WWW became available to the US people in 1995; in addition, Beverly Hills Internet (BHI) started operation of Geocities in 1995, which was purchased by yahoo by $3.570 billion and it closed in 2009. At the same time, Hershey (5) stated that first social networking site Forums launched in the late 1990s to share opinions on some issues, but it criticized as a non-social media Internet tool because of many decisions and operating system of the top management level. However, Morrison Foerster (1) pointed out that SixDegrees launched in 1997 and it was famous to more than one million users as it functioned much like Facebook, but this site closed in 2001. Morrison Foerster (1) and Hershey (5) reported that the concept of social networking sites mainly developed from 2002, for example, Friendster started operation in 2002 as a network-expanding social site to share personal profiles with online friends and Photobucket launched in 2003 and became the first leading photo-sharing site though it followed data protection acts. LinkedIn:Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Real Estate and Social Media specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Curtis (1) and Hershey (5) argued that LinkedIn founded in 2003 and it was the first business or colleague based social networking site, which established to prompt users to create a profile to connect with colleagues, accept recommendations, and introduce with other professional network. MySpace: Morrison Foerster (1) and Hershey (5) stated that MySpace launched in 2003 and it beca me the largest social media site within next three years; however, most of the features of this site have designed considering the users’ demand and it provides the opportunity to the users to generate unique backgrounds, embed slideshows, music players, and photos and so on. Facebook: Hershey (5) stated that Facebook started its operation in 2004 and it was only available to Harvard students, but within two years, this site became popular to the students of other colleges. However, Hershey (5) further pointed out that However, key characteristics of Facebook are – It is a social directory, which enables individuals to share information; for instance, it uses personal profiles and fan pages to attach individuals all over the world (Hershey 5); According to the annual report of Facebook 2011, it is largest and most popular social media site in the world since more than 70% of the users are outside the US; Facebook has integrated thousands of applications including onli ne games and music (Facebook 18); In addition, Facebook gives a great chance for users to stay in contact with old associates and keeping up with new friends; therefore, the average Facebook user has 130 friends and each user creates 90 pieces of content every month; In 2008, it surpassed MySpace as the leading social media site; According to the annual report of Facebook 2011, many renowned multinational companies tried to acquire this site considering the continues growth and financial prospect of this site, for example, Yahoo offered $1.0 billion to purchase Facebook in 2006, Microsoft attempted to acquire a stake in Facebook at a $15 billion valuation in 2010, Viacom bid to acquire Facebook at a proposed deal value of around $1.45 Billion, and so on YouTube:Advertising Looking for essay on communications media? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Cheng, Dale Liu (3) stated that the most popular and successful video-based social site and search engine YouTube started its journey in 2005, which provides users the opportunity to upload, download, view and share videos; however, it featured about 40.0 million videos and enjoyed 2400 million visitors in 2007 and it was the second major search engine after Google. In addition, Cheng, Dale Liu (3), and Hershey (5) stated that YouTube offered the users to create profiles and upload videos along with other opportunities that provided by all the other social media sites; therefore, the actors and musicians have the chance to become successful using this site. Twitter: Hershey (5) and Morrison Foerster (1) pointed out that status-based social media site â€Å"Twitter† founded in 2006 to communicate with people; however, the celebrities use this site to communicate with fans and news agencies monitor this site for breaking news. The social media over the last years Nowadays, s ocial media servers multi-purposes in order to develop strong networking, for example, Facebook and other social networking sites have changed their policies to make it easy for the users to communicate with other and they also concentrate on the data protection though there are many controversy in this regard. However, the numbers of the users of the largest social media like Facebook and Twitter have increased dramatically, for example, Facebook user hits 350 million in 2009 while it has 955 million Monthly active users and 552 million Daily active users in 2012. According to the annual report of 2011, Facebook generated $3.825 billion and Yahoo finance reported that it earned $4.330 billion in 2012, which demonstrated that the earning of social media is increasing day by day. On the other hand, Google  + launched in 2011 with intent to provide outstanding opportunities using digital technology to share documents, personal profiles, videos and so on; however, Morrison Foerster (2) reported that it is sharing more than one billion items per day. However, the following table shows the direct competitor comparison – Facebook Google Inc Microsoft Corporation Market Capital 47.540 billion 248.710 billion 248.570 billion Employees 3,976 54,604 94,000 Revenue 4.330 billion 43.160 billion 73.720 billion Gross Margin 0.74 0.63 0.76 EBITDA 1.050 billion 15.450 billion 30.710 billion Net Income 714.0 million 11.11 billion 16.98 billion EPS 0.29 33.73 2.00 Table 1: – Direct Competitor Comparison Source: – Self generated from Yahoo Finance (1) According to the above-mentioned data, the necessity of social media is increasing to improve business, which help social networking sites to expand their business; besides existing renowned sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter, etc., some other social networking sites has started operation to serve the people over the last years and these are – Loopt: Hershey (10) p ointed out that location-based and cell phone-based GPS sharing network site â€Å"Loopt† established in 2005, which is integrated into Facebook and Twitter to update status with a location link; however, it is the best geo-social networking site, but it has only three million members. Groupon: According to the report of Hershey (10), purchase-based and coupon Website â€Å"Groupon† founded in 2008 to socialize the economical world by separating local markets to share offers with their communities and to reach target audience; however, the users of this site have to create new accounts to get its services. Blippy: Hershey (10) argued that purchase-based social networking site Blippy started its journey in 2009 and gained a large number of users within short period, but this site authorized Google to index detailed transaction information, which was main cause to decline users dramatically though the management apologized for this inconvenience; as a result, this site w as shut down in 2011. FourSquare: According to the report of Hershey (11), location-based (GPS hardware in the mobile device) social networking site â€Å"FourSquare† started its operation in 2009 by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai; however, it has more than 20 million registered users and it provided the opportunity to the people the mobile devices to interact with their environment. Google Buzz and Social Television: Hershey (11) and Morrison Foerster (1) stated that Status-based Google product â€Å"Google Buzz† founded in 2010, which provides same service like Facebook and Twitter; in addition, members of this site can comments about vendors and locations on Google Maps; however, social media company Plaxo had worked to invent Social Television for the users. Whether technology is the best way to improve business or not In the changing pace of globalization and the drastic development in the innovation of new technologies in the 21st century, suitable applica tion of technology is indeed a lucrative way to improve any business. Today, it is almost impossible to find even a small business that does not make use of technology for day- to- day operations. Technology has embraced the corporate world so crucially that entrepreneurs could not even imagine a single hour without its help. According to Kooser (1), when it comes to improving a business from all spheres, certain uses of technology are highly essential. Efficient communication, for example, is one of the most crucial needs to fulfil the demands of the leaders and workers in an industry, and today, cell phones themselves have turned into small businesses; to be specific, such devices are linkages for any corporate personality to remain connected while on the street and replying to consumer enquiries in a timely manner. Smartphones raise the bar with access to Internet, email, and business applications in a small hand-held device, which also work as personal-organisers with electronic -diaries, contact lists, and automatic reminders; in addition, text-messaging, social-networking and e-mails are other uses of technology in communication that assist to improve businesses by linking them to their customer-bases and enhancing in-house communication inside the corporation. Technology has liberated many businesses from the limitations of advertising in print or electronic media when it comes to attaining new and existing consumers because today Internet marketing ranges from an easy informational-website, to advertising on search engines, to online-product sales; moreover, email-marketing is an effective and cheap way to reach mass people merely with newsletters, coupons or business updates. On the other hand, Kooser (1) also stated that technology becomes essential during production processes, as most companies require compressing every bit of productivity out of their operations and technological kits aid workers to get works done more rapidly – this could va ry from printing out marketing materials to supplying clients the best service by email or online chat. The key is to keep workforce determined while utilising technology and to use it properly with the aim of saving time; moreover, it is arguable that sometimes, a phone call may be more efficient and fruitful than an email; additionally, in order to ensure continuous improvement, many businesses provide workers with efficient-hardware and updated-software to bring out the best adroitness. In addition, teleconferencing or web-conferencing could accumulate collaborative-online-meeting spaces to generate tremendously interactive-environment, where people can work together on documents and rebuild the physical meeting experience; as a result, like all other businesses, in real estate industry also, it is impossible to imagine an improvement without the use of apt technology. The best ways to improve your business The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission of the United States pointed out that the mortgage and real estate markets aligned with the most risky loans and the financial institutions overloaded with bed debts, giant players like Lehman Brothers burdened with US$ 111 billion real estate loans, which were four times above its entire equity (FCIC 21). The collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 had brought into view a series of falls in the baking sector in the US and Europe and gradually turned the global financial crisis that shaped worldwide recession, the bailout and rescue packages has failed to stabilise the global economy. Although the real estate booms had engendered the economy through accelerating cash flow in the share market, a lot of new jobs creation in this sector, the regulatory authorise were reluctant to take control over the profitability financing firms, but after the economic down turn all they blamed real estate and housing sector for credit crash (38). Thus, under this scenario of the present economy it is very difficult to recover the inves tor’s confidence in the real estate industry and to improve real estate business it would an integrated strategy. Billingsley et al. added although the real estate industry has demonstrated a steady growth in recent years, there is no chance for quick recovery, or there is no chance to flow public debts in this sector that would provide quick raise, even the US Congress may not allow any financial package for economic recovery during the upcoming general election (3). The European financial institutions are worry to generate further cash flow in this sector and it is expected that the global economy would take up to 2014 to come out from the recessionary impact, thus it would be wise for the real estate and housing sector to sustain in the market with a moderate growth up to 2016. It would not to be wise to take any further risk of new product development or new supply in the real estate market with heavy investment and the industry players are suggested for highly defensive strategy for the next few years (3-4). From the strategic outlook at this point, the improvement of real estate business would possibly aim to reduce cost and investment by integrating the Information and communication technology at all levels of the operation, advertising budget would be reduced by using the internet based advertising rather than the print and electronic media. Integration of e-commerce would defiantly reduce sales and marketing cost of the traditional marketing process, web based customer relationship would also reduce the public relationship maintenance cost in the traditional process by providing quick information flow. At the same time, B2B or B2C mode of e-commerce would improve the sales and online payment without any hazard of tradition banking, enhance online product promotion and noteworthy reduction of cost with enhanced proficiency of business operation. The  ways by which the social  media improving real estate and commercial building Social media i s one of the most effective marketing tools to the real estate agents in order to develop and enhance relationship with potential and target customers; moreover, this system would assist the markers to increase traffic and create new opportunity of the joint venture business. However, it becomes now easy for the real estate agents to reach the message to the customers though they may deny to purchasing home from that particular company, but they can be potential customer for the future; therefore, it is important to the investors and the agents to make a plan to use the opportunities of these sites. However, the marketers of this sector should concentrate on few important issues, such as – It is necessary to define the nature of the business along with current projects in order to attract target audience and get positive feedback from them though different audiences respond to different things. In addition, the marketers of this sector have to design a questionnaire to know the choice of different customers to provide the best service of the customer considering their views, for instance, agents may ask what types of home they need, whether they are the first time buyer or not, and which place would be suitable for the customer and so on; Real estate agents have to find out the strongest point of the projects to increase customer base because selection of right offerings can hit the target audience to take service from any particular company. However, the marketers must try to find out the demand of the customers to segmenting target audience to offer best services, so, they need to produce free reports, weekly property lists, video tours along with other helpful marketing mechanisms; Drive traffic to the web pages of the real estate company can bring fruitful and direct results, for example, the options like inform friends about website, or about the business can develop strong social network, which would help the marketers develop distribution channe ls; After connecting people, the concept of cloud computing can play vital role to provide valuable information to the target audience and gain cultivate trust to sell products and services; The real estate agents need to build own email database and make sure that agents would fare with social media though the success of the business is depend on some other external and internal factors Trower (6) stated that Active Rain, WordPress Blog, Facebook and Twitter are the most powerful social media for the real estate and mortgage business because Active Rain designed considering the importance of real estate business, WordPress Blog designed for professional niche, Facebook is the leading social network with maximum number of members, and Twitter is the fastest growing social network. However, different sites provide different services and facilities for the real estate professionals; as a result, the marketers of the companies have to use the offers of the sites to get fruitful result s by using these sites. Rodriguez (1) stated that near 60% of the US citizens use social media and most of the time, they interact with the companies to purchase products and services; moreover, social media expenditure would increase from $716.0 million to near $3.10 billion by the fiscal year 2014; therefore, the importance of social medial is too high to the real estate professionals. The purpose of this report is to analyze the ways to improving real estate business by giving importance on the social media and its potential role in the real estate sales chain. However, Rodriguez (2) and Trower (6) stated that the real estate professionals have to design their own social media strategy to make a strong network, which will give opportunities to create new relationships, develop brand awareness, and gain a competitive advantage from the competitive market. Moreover, Rodriguez (2) and Trower (6) stated that real estate professionals have to concentrate more the development of brand awareness as brand awareness can increase loyal customer base and maximize profits as well; in this context, Facebook and LinkedIn can play prominent role to create quality followers and move the conversation to their specific website. However, Rodriguez (1) provided a pathway to describe how Social media works to increase customer base and to develop the position of the real estate professionals Figure 1: To gain effective result using Social media by the real estate professionals Source: generated from Rodriguez (1) At the same time, Rodriguez (1) argued that the proper use of YouTube could increase customer base, for example, the real estate professional can upload information based monthly report to aware people and change customer behaviour and test. The Process to improve website Sawyer et al. (13) conducted a survey on the IT integration of the real estate companies and argued that the real estate industry has facilitated with a remarkable advancement through their web prese nce were the real estate companies are capable of exchanging their information, options and exchange their views with the sellers and marketers. In fact, real estate industry has going through a revolution, being an information-intensive business sector the website of a real estate company is a vital tool that easily control and distribution information for buyer seller and agents without any hard efforts (13). Thus, the website of a real estate company may not be a static website, but must be dynamic with customised tools applicable for that company and the executives working with information level must possess minimum IT skills to listings sales leads and providing feedback to the all groups of users. Information is power or in the real estate market, customer always looks for competitive study regarding the price, location, and other features of the property, thus the existing static web should be re-engineered with customer relationship management tools long with e-commerce and payment gateway. Lin et al. (3) presented an expert website model for real estate companies with a practical implementation of dynamic tools, secured database integration, and speedy hosting server requirements that would ultimately resolve all requirements of the real estate industry in the digital dynasty. The model has delivered realistic proficiency and understanding of the real estate business for successful integration of e-business serving the benefits of all parties in this sector along with the scope of lead generation, real estate accounting opportunities, financial transaction gateway, land or ready apartment listing, auction listing, customer relationship management, and membership management and so on. It also incorporated other valued tools required to complete e-business solution with basic three categories of user groups where real estate companies at the top linking with property sellers and individual buyers; agents and referees are sub-categorised through applicat ion development for revenue sharing. The suggestive we solution of Lin et al. has aimed to adopt the e-business model integrating PHP and MySql database driven come within reach of easy design that assist implement the multi-organisation data sharing where the services for real estate companies could be considered a four layer website demonstrated in the following figure – Figure- 2: Four-layer website Model for Real Estate Company Source: Modified from Lin et al. (4) The first layer presented the most common website configuration generated HTML and XML language to furnish lucrative web graphing of the site integrating the style-sheet, where specialized PHP or ASP would endow with cost-effective solution small and medium sized real estate companies with minimum efforts (5). The second layer would generate membership databases for the website at MySql or ASP backend as an integral part of the first layer services, where the membership database plays a significant role for the real estate companies and their clients to promote their properties along with value added services without any extra cost or efforts. All users would be capable to get entry in the database through their username and password and would be facilitated to edit their existing data and listings. The third payer of the website would endow with the product database that preserves the image of the property instead in the website, their location, price, financing terms and all other necessary features that help the customers for their decision making. This database would be interlined with the membership database by which the clients would be traced and capable to interact with each other to commence a successful transaction. The fourth layer presents the networking opportunities that allow users to personalise and standardise his product and services linking with the social media and search engine optimisation, at this stag the users would be capable to get support service form the techn ical support team at the backend of the website. The linkage with the social network sites would provide extra strength to the website where the stakeholders of real estate industry and the members of the concerned site would get additional scope to maintain relationship with one another. This is the way to improve the website of a real estate sector; however, there are also some customised web based software in the market specially designed and developed for real estate companies, which are also suggestive to improve the web presence of this industry. What does a commercial developer do Porter argued that real estate industry could not run any longer with traditional viewpoints for which this is the time for the commercial developers to make their future strategy with the reality of concurrent financial downturn, market potentials, ecological factors and so on. To adopt an effective strategy, the commercial developers would consider two vital factors firstly real estate industry is not just an industry, but also an economic sector that consists other different industries like commercial space, brokerage, construction, steel mills, break fields, and land development where profitability changes dramatically. Secondly, the commercial developer would identify its present position in the industry, attractiveness of that industry, nature of the change over time and then set the target where it would like to with a particular span of time and then design its strategy (1). Porter also added that to develop its business the commercial developer then try to understand its industry as a whole, point out its competitive advantages within the industry, conduct a five-force analysis pointing to the forms of rivalry amongst competitors, threat of new entrants, bargaining power of the suppliers power and buyer, and substitute products and services (3). With this analysis the commercial developers designs an effectual strategy to bring successful operation of their organisati on in the market. Guma et al. (5) explored that in the changing nature of profitability of real estate market, the commercial developers nowadays put into practice of vertical phasing as a most popular strategy and business development option in their regional markets. Vertical expansion provides momentous opportunity for profit maximisation with logistical advantages for the commercial developers they consider it as an efficient tool to minimise the risk of economic downturn and recessionary impact by scaling back designs with little efforts. The vertical expansion of buildings is the technical course of action by which a totally an absolutely new building built upon an existing occupied building without using new land in the busy area (5). Although it is a highly technical process to keep, the original design of the building unchanged and add additional strength to the structure, but the commercial developers choice it to gratify the broad-spectrum market demands for space in a co st effective process (7). Vandell and Green pointed out that continuous development of technology and to integrate them is a common feature of commercial real estate firms; while modern construction equipment would assist them to reduce excessive burden of labour force, the information technology facilitate to manage and administer employees and ease marketing efforts (5). At the same time, the information technology has opened a new door for the commercial developers to communicate with their potential customers and facilitate to commence online transaction in a secured way. Podor (6) added that location of the real estate is a vital consideration for the customers of commercial developers while GIS technology assists them to show their location through online presence and manage required data that would help them for their buying decision-making. Whether the business is making the best use of technology or not Being the owner of ‘ABC Housing’ a commercial real estate developer, this author thinks that his business has always aimed making the best use of technology; adoption of right technology and effectual strategy, the company was able to sustain with less impact of global financial crisis. The management of the company is always eager to confirm the right use of technology within the organisation, rather than dynamic e-commerce website, it has already adopted ‘Smart-Phone’, iPad, and high-speed WARP. By using such ever-evolving technologies, staying at office the company management has enabled to monitor and manage employee’s activities at site, capable to navigate different site and at once calculate the value proposition more accuracy than the traditional analysis (ULI 12). At the same time, the company has upgraded its all projects with security alarming system for heating, fire, and thief protection, for such technological development the customers are willing to pay more than the other projects beside ‘ABC Housi ng’. The company also facilitated with solar system for power supply in the new project, where there is also stand by generators to encounter with any sorts of power failure, all the projects are composed with warless connectivity for the customers with less expenses. As a result, the company has turned as a pioneer in its region with rising market prospects with fully integrated online options to get customers’ feedback. The Way by Which Technology Can Improve Real Estate Business Vandell and Green (23) stated that technology has impact on the production of real estate and it can influence by three ways on the real estate business, for instance – It may act â€Å"upstream† to affect the effectiveness of production or quality; It can influence the construction along with operation of the real estate structure itself, such as, critical path method developed production capacity in 1960s; It could persuade the â€Å"downstream† tenants of the propert y, such as, the people of certain place may not be interested about the commercial building, but technology can change the external or internal environment to attract the customer. On the other hand, technology can play vital role to improve real estate business by increasing productivity, decreasing cost of the production, and escalating the demand for real estate stock and services; however, there are six other ways to develop this sector, such as New/ cheaper consumer goods: Introduction of new electronic devices and low cost raw materials had created the demand to develop real estate sector in terms of production, distribution, and marketing; Transportation development and the development of cities: Transportation development and the development of cities: the transportation technology developed real estate business, for example -manufacturers need suppliers, but if the suppliers had to pass long distance, then the cost of communication would become high; however, the reduct ion of 12 minutes distance can save $7.2 in the US (Vandell and Green 24); Construction technology: Improvement of steel frame construction, the invention of the elevator along with the introduction of mass manufacturing systems to building construction were the prime factor to develop this sector (Vandell and Green 27); Financial Engineering: Development of technology and legislation in order to change financial transaction system; Manufacturing systems: Development of supplier-producer relationships and just-in-time inventory methods, downsizing and outsourcing for specialization, building tenant improvements, and Deming total quality management techniques; The Internet revolution: Most prominent and significant technological innovation, which helps many ways like websites, and market data provision, data, the facilitation of real estate transactions online, The development of a real-time online auction; At the same time, information and communications technologies (ICT) reshap ed this sector and enhanced individual knowledge to develop functions, and provided new ways for purchasers and sellers to find one another; however, development of ICT has also increased competition among the real estate professionals; therefore, they need to take the advantages of the technology to compete each other. The way to improve business Porter (1) stated that the environment of the real estate industry is unpredictable as past modes of behaviour may not bring success in the present position; therefore, the decision-makers must have to change strategy over time to become successful in this field. In addition, Porter (1) pointed out that the decision-makers of the company should understand the nature of their business in the real estate industry before taking alternative strategies because different techniques are useful to different businessmen in this sector, for example, the person who is developing shopping malls need to putting up prime downtown commercial space. For t hat reason, Porter (1) argued that it is essential to the real estate professionals to select an effective strategy considering different economic logic, fundamental attractiveness of the business, competitive position within the real estate sector, and threat of new entrants, the bargaining power of the suppliers, financial position of the entrepreneurs, and so on. At the same time, the management of team should consider about the historical perspectives, superior market intelligence, real skills of the human resources, and kinds of projects, proliferate projects, identify the objectives of the business, implementation plan of the strategies, and finding economically attractive locations. However, the growth of the real estate business dropped in the current year due to the adverse impact of global financial crisis; as a result, it is important to find out a simple, but effective strategy, which will help the real estate professionals to attract customers because the success of the business depends on the customer’s behaviour. On the other hand, customer relationship management is a strategic tool or a managerial philosophy and it seeks to develop long-term relationship with customers along with the different markets to increase sales by integrating proper management of customer’s knowledge and information and relation with them (Berndt, Herbst Roux 2; Rodriguez 2; Trower 6; Hershey 5, and Morrison Foerster 1). However, most of the owners of small and medium sized company believed that investment to develop CRM practice failed to bring expected result and there is a chance to face lose using traditional CRM system; as a result, the marketers of the real estate business are seeking alternative strategy, which upholds organizational aims and purposes towards amplification of consumer satisfaction. In this context, the marketers of the real estate business has concentrated on the implementation of social media strategy and it has already enhanced the opportunity to the practice of CRM to achieving and retaining loyal customer base in the real estate business; however, SCRM primarily encompasses of a plan together with a corporate policy, backed via IT-platform, business policy, process and communal-characteristics. At the same time, smart use of social media can lead to successful involvement from the part of the customers; however, the following table shows the schedule of social marketing plan – Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Facebook Join more friends modernize fan page Facebook develop fan page Give feedback Facebook Optimize Link for convenience of the buyers LinkedIn Join more friends modernize fan page Facebook Live chat with the real estate professionals Twitter Open new accounts for this social networking sites Twitter Develop fan page Give feedback Twitter Join more friends Develop web content Groupon: Open new accounts for this social networking sites Groupon Join m ore friends modernize fan page Blog: Appreciating consumer potential by recognizing the consumers’ requirements and changing service range Blog: Write blog to entrustment and empowerment of the employees of the company to get best outcomes Write blog to encourage people to invest to purchase home for the future Contents for integrated marketing campaign Active Rain: Developed databases, which enclose thorough interaction data together with consumer links Active Rain Build up, preserve, and progress relationships with other firms Active Rain Content for IMC Developed databases SCRM Blog comments Customer’s feedback Table 2: – The schedule of social marketing plan Source: – Self generated The use of social media to improve own business Yes, the use of social media will improve the real estate business – The social networking sites of choice Using the  power  of  social networking to develop real estate business The  ways by which the social  media improving real estate and commercial building Google  + Foursquare Twitter Facebook Myspace YouTube LinkedIn Hi5 Why  it is significant to the individual or companies to  join  these networks to advertise about the real estate business There are many factors influence the investor to choose this strategy, such as – It should require low cost for advertisement, but can create large customer base Rodriguez (1) stated that social networking sites create relationships between individuals within a group and enclose universal language of joint camaraderie, which helps the real estate professionals like us to meet the challenges of finding the right type of customers through prospecting efforts. As a result, this strategy will facilitate our own company to create public profiles and display the home, apartments and other project profiles to a large group of people The particular reasons for which we would use  these social media Using soci al media strategy will be able to give the message to a large number of buyers who are looking for a comfortable home This strategy would be helpful because nowadays most of the internet users use social media to connect with the outer world irrespective of geography, age, gender, martial status, education, or cultures. In addition, there is no doubt that the advertisements will be successful because it will help the company to connect and develop close relationship among buyers, agents and sellers. However, it is necessary use these sites to create segmented customers; so, it should require to upload entire project videos, and informative content for the convenience of the related groups like buyers, agents, lenders, sellers and other real estate professionals What interactions would the company  do on  these networks The company have to ask feedback from the customers to assess customer behaviour and choice The purchasing power of the people has decreased due to global finan cial crisis; as a result, the prime duty of the real estate professionals is to focus on the pricing strategy and try to give the messages to the people by advertising through Google +, Foursquare, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, or Hi5 1. What  would the company share  on these networks and 2. What information  it would provide to the buyers, sellers and other people At first, it is important to provide outstanding content with the link of the company’s website The target customers or the people who are looking for good house must visit company’s website to know more details about the products and services. However, social media has unique power – this means that whilst advertising through newspapers, magazines, radios, trade fairs, televisions or billboards were able to target only a particular type of people, online sites like facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Active Rain can appeal to almost everyone, which in turn would mean enlarging market in the national and international market Table 3: Particular social networking sites, main advantages, and rationales for selection Source: Self generated The process to keep up with business: In order to keep up with the real estate business, it is highly essential to ascertain proper communication between owners, workers, and customers as well as the suppliers to ensure well- organised operations. This can be done by the use of cloud computing, which is a great technological aid to sustain the business for long- term; so, a good idea is to adopt hybrid cloud computing for data storage, which will give the business a chance to make use of both public and private cloud at the same time. In this way the real estate business could sustain by sharing data with the communities for advertising themselves and with the stakeholders for efficient management, lowering costs of sharing information externally and internally and ensuring higher capacity utilisation because of the elasticity/scalability tha t it offers: Figure 3: Advantages of keeping up with cloud computing Source: Bechtel Corporation (5) However, it is important to select the hybrid cloud provider carefully, as it is necessary for the providers to be highly flexible in order to make sure that the system can be updated any time at request; moreover, they should be capable to quickly recover from potential hacking and ensure cyber security. Works Cited Barth, James. et al. 2009. The Rise and Fall of the U.S. Mortgage and Credit Markets A Comprehensive Analysis of the Meltdown. PDF file. 03 October 2012. http://www.milkeninstitute.org/pdf/Riseandfallexcerpt.pdf. Bechtel Corporation. 2009. Cloud Computing—Overview, Advantages, And Challenges For Enterprise Deployment. PDF file. 03 October 2012. http://www.bechtel.com/assets/files/TechJournal/2009/Comms%2002%20Cloud%20Computing.pdf. Billingsley, Alan. et al. 2012. U.S. Real Estate Strategic Outlook. PDF file. 03 October 2012. http://www.rreef.com/content/_media/Re search_US_Real_Estate_Strategic_Outlook_March_2012.pdf. Cheng, Xu., Dale, Cameron and Liu, Jiangchuan. 2007. Understanding the Characteristics of Internet Short Video Sharing: YouTube as a Case Study. PDF file. 03 October 2012. http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0707/0707.3670v1.pdf. Curtis, Anthony. A Short History of Social Media. 2011. Web. http://www.uncp.edu/home/acurtis/NewMedia/SocialMedia/SocialMediaHistory.html. Facebook. 2011. Annual report 2011 of Facebook. PDF file. 03 October 2012. http://www.privco.com/media/assets/site/PrivCo-Private-Company-Report-Facebook.pdf. FCIC. 2011. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission: The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report 2011. PDF file. 03 October 2012. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/GPO-FCIC/pdf/GPO-FCIC.pdf. Guma, Anthony. Pearson, Jason and Wittels, Kate. â€Å" Vertical phasing as a corporate real estate strategy and development option.† Journal of Corporate Real Estate. 11.3 (2009). Web. http://ardent.mit.edu/real_options/Real_o pts_papers/Journal%20of%20Corp%20RE_Vertical%20phasing.pdf. Hershey, Megan. 2010. A Social Media Revolution. PDF file. 03 October 2012. http://www.personal.psu.edu/jmb851/blogs/la_200_–_business_and_the_liberal_arts/Social%20Media%20Revolution.pdf. Kooser, Amanda. How Does Technology Improve a Business? 2012. Web. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/technology-improve-business-2188.html. Lin, Zhangxi. Anderson, Gary and Anderson. 2003. Enabling Real Estate Businesses on the Web: From E-Business Model to The Application Services. PDF file. 03 October 2012. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download%3Fdoi%3D10.1.1.133.3755%26rep%3Drep1%26type%3Dpdf. Morrison Foerster 2011. A Short History of Social Media. PDF file. 03 October 2012. http://www.mofo.com/files/uploads/images/a-short-history-of-social-media.pdf. Podor, Andrea. 2010. GIS Application in Real Estate Investment. PDF file. 03 October 2012. https://ortus.rtu.lv/science/lv/publications/9597/fulltext.pdf. Porter, Michael. 1989. Competitive Strategy and Real Estate Development. PDF file. 03 October 2012. http://www.isc.hbs.edu/Porter_Strategy_Real_Estate1.pdf. Rodriguez, Michael. 2011. Making Social Media Effective In Real Estate. PDF file. 03 October 2012. http://www.baylor.edu/content/services/document.php/140948.pdf. Sawyer, Steve. Crowston, Kevin. Wigand, Rolf. 1999. ICT in the real estate industry: Agents and social capital. PDF file. 03 October 2012. http://crowston.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/ICT%20in%20the%20real%20estate%20industry%20Agents%20and%20social%20capital.pdf. Shiller, Robert. Historic Turning Points in Real Estate 2007. 2007. Web. http://cowles.econ.yale.edu/P/cd/d16a/d1610.pdf. The Times of India. 2010. Insights into the Indian Real Estate Transactions Industry. PDF file. 03 October 2012. http://rebiindia.co.cc/REBI_DealMaker/Deal_Maker_1_5.pdf. Trower, Naomi. 2010. Social Media Marketing. PDF file. 03 October 2012. http://passivecashmentors.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/0 4/FREE_CHAPTER.pdf. ULI. What’s Next: Real Estate in the New Economy. 2012. Web. http://uli75.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/WhatsNext.pdf. Vandell, Kerry and Green, Richard. 2001. The Impact of Technology on Commercial Real Estate. PDF file. 03 October 2012. http://whartonrealestate.org/research/papers/full/386.pdf. This essay on Real Estate and Social Media was written and submitted by user Milan Ruiz to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Free Essays on Lack Of Communication In The Cather In The Rye

Lack of Communication The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger is about a boy name Holden Caulfield and his struggle to communicate. This novel shows Holden’s life as he jumps from school to school and the difficulties in between. Throughout the novel we witness Holden’s struggle to communicate with others, which also leads to his depression. It is Holden’s inability to communicate with others that adds to his problems in life. â€Å"No, sir, I haven’t communicated with them, because I’ll probably see them Wednesday night when I get home.†(9) This is one of the first examples of Holden’s lack of communication. He makes this statement to Mr. Spencer, when Mr. Spencer asks if he told his parents that he had been kicked out of school. Holden was attending Pencey School but was recently kicked out, and he had yet to notify his parents about his news. For example, â€Å"I didn’t want to go home or anything till they got it and thoroughly digested it and all.†(51) Holden makes this statement after deciding he was going to go to New York and rest until he was sure his parents had received the notice. Holden did not want to take the chance of having to tell his parents the news if they hadn’t received the letter. In addition, â€Å" I figured maybe I’d give old Jane a buzz and see if she was home for vacation yet. So I went in a phone booth and called her up. The only trouble was her mother answered the phone so I had to hang up.†(116) After feeling lonely in New York Holden decides to call his old friend Jane. This quote shows Holden’s inability to even make â€Å"small talk† with an adult. Once deciding to leave Pencey early and go to New York we start to notice Holde n’s weakness. That is, his inability to communicate, and we have already seen the effects so far. After exploring the many sides of New York, Holden had enough and decided he would sneak home into his sister Phoebe's room in the middle of the night. â€Å"Dadd... Free Essays on Lack Of Communication In The Cather In The Rye Free Essays on Lack Of Communication In The Cather In The Rye Lack of Communication The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger is about a boy name Holden Caulfield and his struggle to communicate. This novel shows Holden’s life as he jumps from school to school and the difficulties in between. Throughout the novel we witness Holden’s struggle to communicate with others, which also leads to his depression. It is Holden’s inability to communicate with others that adds to his problems in life. â€Å"No, sir, I haven’t communicated with them, because I’ll probably see them Wednesday night when I get home.†(9) This is one of the first examples of Holden’s lack of communication. He makes this statement to Mr. Spencer, when Mr. Spencer asks if he told his parents that he had been kicked out of school. Holden was attending Pencey School but was recently kicked out, and he had yet to notify his parents about his news. For example, â€Å"I didn’t want to go home or anything till they got it and thoroughly digested it and all.†(51) Holden makes this statement after deciding he was going to go to New York and rest until he was sure his parents had received the notice. Holden did not want to take the chance of having to tell his parents the news if they hadn’t received the letter. In addition, â€Å" I figured maybe I’d give old Jane a buzz and see if she was home for vacation yet. So I went in a phone booth and called her up. The only trouble was her mother answered the phone so I had to hang up.†(116) After feeling lonely in New York Holden decides to call his old friend Jane. This quote shows Holden’s inability to even make â€Å"small talk† with an adult. Once deciding to leave Pencey early and go to New York we start to notice Holde n’s weakness. That is, his inability to communicate, and we have already seen the effects so far. After exploring the many sides of New York, Holden had enough and decided he would sneak home into his sister Phoebe's room in the middle of the night. â€Å"Dadd...

Friday, November 22, 2019

A Study of Brand Image towards Customers Satisfaction

In the recent competitive world, brand image of any company is important such as products or service offerings. Business organization mostly considers brand image as one of the powerful tool and asset for their success. In this particular research proposal, Sainsbury organization is selected which is a retail organization in United Kingdom. This study deals with understanding the key underlying factors of brand image and perceived value on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in Sainsbury retail organization. Customer loyalty as well as customer satisfaction is a widely accepted issues prevailing in the business organization. This is mainly applicable as marketing benchmark in case of checking over the performance of Sainsbury retail organization. It is imperative to demonstrate that if a consumer is satisfied with the products and services of the corporation then the customer can display loyal attitude towards the particular brand. This loyalty of the consumers towards the bra nd is reflected through the willingness of the customer to pay more, offer positive word of mouth and display of loyal attitudes and behaviors. As rightly put forward by (), success of organizations can be regarded as a direct consequence of the brand image and can be enumerated as an important characteristic of the present marketing strategy. Sainsbury's is a nationwide commercial corporation that offers financial services and is primarily a supermarket retailer; marketing food, clothing in addition to different home products. Sainsbury’s, the superstore is a part of the multi-national corporation J Sainsbury that serves the markets of both UK and USA. The Sainsbury’s superstore was first founded during the year 1869 by John James and Mary Ann Sainsbury and is considered as one of the longest standing major food retailing chain having 788 stores (Sainsburys.co.uk. 2016). Sainsbury’s, one of the largest operators of the supermarket chains in the United Kingdom, has more than 440 stores that stock more than 23000 products with more than 40% of the items carrying the Sainsbury’s brand. Again, the company Sainsbury has diverse chains that include the Sainsbury's Superstore, Sainsbury's Property Company and Sainsbury's Bank. In addition to this, there are JS Developments that operate in the markets of UK, while Star Market and Shaw's are located in the USA (Sainsburys.co.uk. 2016). The problem issues in the present research include assessment of the attitudes of the consumers within the limited period of 7 weeks and limited resources. Again, the present study includes a small sized sample of 100 participants; therefore, the current study might fail to represent the real vision of all the customers of the UK. Again, the sample selected through the non-probabilistic sampling might not adequately represent the customers of the Sainsbury and might also include the sampling errors that might prevent the learner from obtaining the real vision of the customers regarding the effect of the brand name on the customer satisfaction as well as loyalty. The present study intends to scrutinize the   loyalty of consumers to different brands and analyses and identifies different problems along with viable solutions that can be used by corporate units as strategic moves The rationale of the present research is to investigate the impact of brand image on the satisfaction of the customers as well as intention of customer loyalty. The present study can help in understanding the nature and characteristics of association between brand image and customer satisfaction and loyalty intention in the context of the operations of the supermarket chain of Sainsbury. The current study can assist the potential financiers, academic researchers, government units in gaining important insights into the nature of the association between the customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. As claimed by (Zameer et al. 2015), â€Å"a successful brand image enables customers in identifying needs that mainly satisfies and differentiate brand from its nearest competitors†. This is a term, name as well as symbol and any other features used for distinguishing from one company product to others. Branding procedures mainly adopts differentiation one individual cattle from applied marketing strategies. It is the exclusive set of relations especially present in the mind of clients concerning any brand situates and implied promises. Brand image is mainly developed with the help of advertising campaigns for consistent time and direct pricing of product. Moreover, Gurhan and Kandampully (2013) asserted that customer desires in purchasing products from supposed brand name and drawing concentration to their behaviors in certain situational perspective. Brand loyalty is the ideal measurement from the health of organization. Researcher’s reports that 5% increment in custo mer satisfaction produces profitability ranging from 25 to 95% in more than 14 industries. Competition takes place among the major key retailers like Tesco, Sainsbury as well as ASDA and Morrison. Competition is highly increasing for way to increase in attracting clientele. Diverse organization contain own individuality in popular brand in the UK marketplace. In this particular study, Sainsbury retail organization is taken into consideration who aims at adopting strategies for capturing elevated market share and enhancing buyer satisfaction level (Aaker 2012). Effects of brand representation on buyer satisfaction as well as faithfulness purpose in Sainsbury retail organization. This mainly refers to place of property as well as liability in association with brand name and symbol. According to Wirtz et al. (2013), brand fairness refers to exclusive cost of advertising compulsory by a particular product. It refers to the optimistic influence over product equity and occurs when customers are willing to spend more due to attractiveness in connection with products and services. One of the instance about brand as an equity type considers as law obligations for preservation of intellectual property. Brand equity can even be destroyed due to inappropriate management. For instance, poor client service inversely affects brand image leads towards decrease in the sales volume (Gurhan and Kandampully 2013). Brand values recognize producers as well as consumers with the help of deep-rooted legal organization. Most of the countries set up legal system for copyright and tackling through piracy. As opined by TuÃ… ¡kej, Golob and Podnar 2013), product is a tradable creation having reliable quantifiable monetary worth. Sainsbury is scheduled in the index of FTSE 100. Customers having positive image will not be focusing mainly on temporary promotional offer but over the overall brand. There are major classifications of product equity named as brand alertness, professed quality as well as brand faithfulness and brand relations. Brand Awareness - It is single of the major determinants of product equity. It mainly indicates the ability of the possible clientele in recognizing as well as recalling other brand. It is important for the clientele that they should be conscious regarding the product worth and their buying choice at the same time. Brand with high awareness has higher level of probability in purchasing items at retail chain organization (Gurhan and Kandampully 2013). â€Å"Brand Loyalty† - It is solitary of the major solution factor of product equity having direct positive influences. It indicates that a personality purchases goods as well as services from same brand in comparison with other brands. Brand Associations - It is distinct as cordial connection between brand as well as memory. It is a composite thought, which mainly connections with one an additional like several episodes, facts as well as ideas and examples. It aims at generating knowledge of brand network. Perceived Quality - It mainly refers to the perception of clientele of advantage on largely quality of products and services. It is one of the types of tangible product in towards brand recognition. Particular brand perceived quality aims at generating values with the help of offering from purchase, charging premium prices as well as motivating members to the channels of distribution. As opined by Tu, Li and Chih (2013), â€Å"satisfaction is the consumers fulfillment response†. It is that judgment of merchandise and examination features having agreeable level of consumption-related satisfaction involving level of under-fulfillment. Similarly, So et al. (2013) stated that earlier studies on customer satisfaction emphasized on effects of prospect as well as performance and disconfirmation of potential. As mentioned by Severi and Ling (2013), customer expectations are mostly pre-trial beliefs in regard with product working through orientation position or contrast normal on the product appearance. There are different literatures present on customer satisfaction focusing on expectations as well as needs of customers. Some of the researchers emphasizes mainly on the capabilities of using innovation as well as advanced technology in enhancing customer services. Some others indicate in understanding the significance of companies for focusing on customer services. Company mostly adopt unique instrument for measuring the client approval. As per Selnes (2013), customer satisfaction assessment is one of the key mechanisms used by successful organizations in current financial system in and around the globe. Customer satisfaction measurement helps in holding the existing customer as well as providing directions on attracting the new customers in the competitive trade surroundings. As opined by Ryu, Lee and Gon (2012), dimension of customer satisfaction understand the extent of helping organization for bringing improvement in their customer services. It is noticed that content customers mostly advocate products and services to family and friends. Nguyen, Leclerc and LeBlanc (2013) summary their earlier ten scope of examine quality to five scopes mentioned below: Tangibles- Tangibles relates with various physical equipments like counters, lights as well as physical environments and computers. Reliability- Reliability concerns mainly with capability for performing the promised services on accurate form. Addition to that, it relates with ability of trouble solving as well as time limits and service rights of the clientele (Severi and Ling 2013). â€Å"Responsiveness†- Responsiveness relates with enthusiasm to help customer, easily achievable in sequence as well as prompt services and responding demand of the clientele. â€Å"Assurance†- Assurance regards mainly to politeness, employee understandings as well as knowledge and their capability in stimulating confidence and trust especially to the customers (Muth, Ismail and Langfeldt 2012). â€Å"Empathy† - Empathy connects with kind individual attention as well as individual repair and sympathetic of specified desires of the clientele (Severi and Ling 2013). Scholars enclose their own set of disagreement regarding the significance as well as significance of SERVQUAL model. On the contrary, Muth, Ismail and Langfeldt (2012) assert that SERVQUAL dimension applies by lot of scholars for assessing customer satisfaction in institutions like banking, hospitals, educations, hotels as well as telecommunications and restaurants. In this particular context, researcher mainly adopts SERVQUAL model for evaluating customer satisfaction level at the retailers in the countries. Due to elevated competition and other related environmental issues, customer satisfaction as well as examine quality becomes on one of the fundamental marketing strategy for business companies. It requires enough enhancing service quality for long-term sustainability as well as growth for dealing with the threats and challenges in the competitive environment (Severi and Ling 2013). Service quality is the extent that mainly concerns with service offered by Sainsbury organization in meeting or exceeding customer expectations. Service quality is complicated in nature for measuring the customer service providers from different backgrounds for equivalent services and products. The first model mainly examines in the quality of services as proposed by Martà ­nez and del Bosque (2013) focusing on three major factors like technical quality as well as useful quality and representation quality. In this particular representation, scientific quality refers as what is being delivered as well as functional quality indicates process of service delivery at the same time. One of the famous models for customer satisfaction measurement is known as SERVQUAL as future by Lee et al. (2015). It mainly focuses on examine quality as well as difference between customer expectations and their perceptions regarding purchase products or services. Examination quality assessment based upon evaluation on the examiner deliverance as well as service outcomes. It mainly asserts good scale of usage as well as assessment for quality services in Sainsbury retail organization. It is one of the selected meaningful tools for association of assessed specific services for confirming valid as w ell as reliable outcomes (Muth, Ismail and Langfeldt 2012). Researchers adopt this model for evaluating level of customer satisfaction at Sainsbury retail organization. In this regard, Kapferer (2012) have asserted that more than fifty prepared definition of product loyalty divided as behavioral as well as composite approach. In this study, researchers found more that 60% loyalty measures in behavioral terms. According to He, Li and Harris (2012), customer loyalty defines that â€Å"a deep held commitment to repurchase or re-patronize a preferred products or services consistently in the near future†. It constantly causes recurring product set purchase depending upon the situational influence as well as making efforts in having potential causes for switching behaviors. Few scholars suggest that adopting behavioral as well as attitudinal approach for providing influential meaning towards brand loyalty. Behavioral assessment corresponds with static result from dynamic decision procedures. It makes no particular attempt in recognizing the elements for essential brand loyalty buying as well as causal factors (Muth, Ismail and Langfeldt 2012). On t he contrary, attitudinal assessment relates feelings of customers for definite intentions such as willingness for recommending and repurchasing services or products. Addition to that, they added that Sainsbury retail organization obtains in order of repurchase intention at measuring client approval in the most appropriate way. It is important to understand the fact that optimistic product image contribute towards enhancing client loyalty and building strong brand image for the company. Brand representation is considered necessary for companies for gaining life customer loyalty leading to gear up organizational efficiency. According to Hameed (2013), store image associates relates directly with store satisfactions. Some of the other factors include social motives as well as relationship with clientele has contrary belongings especially on client faithfulness. This mainly considers committed relationships between organizations as well as customers for keeping well-built link between brand picture and client loyalty. A investigates by Chung, Yu and Shin (2015) establish that there is no significant link between satisfaction as well as loyalty. Corporate representation associates with other elements such as approval has no significant belongings on faithfulness. Reputation leads towards customer loyalty due to high level of trust in getting public relation. Researchers confirm that client satisfaction positively influences on customer loyalty. When a particular customer is happy with the brand, then customer will recommend it to others and will not switch to other brands. From most of the empirical researches, retail image verifies that customer satisfaction strongly affects loyalty intention like intention for repurchasing particular product (Muth, Ismail and Langfeldt 2012). It demonstrates that customers claims towards high-satisfied customers for becoming loyal for the business organization. The development of the conceptual structure illustrates the association between the benefits of the brand image, customer satisfaction, satisfaction of the customers and the loyalty of consumers (Muth, Ismail and Langfeldt 2012). The careful facets of the product image are essentially the useful, representative, communal, and empirical and emergence augments. The development of the hypotheses primarily based on the empirical evidences and the literature are as follows: â€Å"H1: There exists a positive association between the advantages of the brand image and customer satisfaction† â€Å"H2: There is a positive relationship between the brand image and the customer loyalty intention† â€Å"H3: There exists a positive association between satisfaction of the customer and the loyalty intention† From the above reviewed literatures on product image, customer loyalty as well as client approval and any other relationships following the conceptual framework (Amin, Isa and Fontaine 2013). The above conceptual framework develops relationship among brand image benefits as well as customer approval and faithfulness meaning. Some of the careful factor of product image involves useful, symbolical and manifestation. As rightly put forward by John Kuada (2012), researches are essentially based on different underlying philosophical assumptions and valid research methods that are appropriate for the development of the knowledge in a particular study. The present segment on research methodology refers to different research procedures and the design that the learner can utilize in the current study. The research design refers to different strategies, instruments, tools and techniques for data collection and interpretation. In addition to this, the research methodologies and the design also explain different stages along with the processes involved in the study. As rightly put forward by Anderson and Shattuck (2012), the research philosophy can be categorized as positivism, interpretivism and realism that help in understanding the results as well as interpretations. The learner can adopt positivism that can help in introducing different subjects with the topic under consideration. The research of positivism refers to the study of the outcomes of the research with detailed research based on statistical techniques on matters related to the effects of the brand image and customer’s perceived quality on the overall satisfaction of the customers (Maxwell 2012). In this case, the researcher can select the research philosophy of positivism as the study involves future analysis of the impact of the brand image on the satisfaction of the customers with special orientation to the operations of Sainsbury. As rightly indicated by Miller   et al.   (2012), the research approach helps in providing an edge in the course of the discussion on effect of the brand image on the satisfaction of the customers and loyalty intention. The research approach essentially involves the inductive as well as the deductive approach for conduction of the research work. As opined by Pickard (2012), the deductive research approach stresses on the causality, whereas the inductive research approach refers to the process of investigation of new phenomena from diverse perspectives. The learner intends to adopt the inductive research approach for the purpose of testing the hypothesis and investigating the new phenomena based on research questions. The learner can consider the samples from more number of stores from different parts of the UK in order to validate different findings. Furthermore, the learner can consider a sample of 100 customers selected from six different retail outlets founded in London. A small sample of 100 customers can be taken into account owing to the time constraints as well as limited resources of the learner. In addition to this, diverse retailing brands are taken into consideration in the survey in a bid to ensure that the participants of the survey are from diverse backgrounds. However, the learner can take into consideration the non-probabilistic sampling that essentially involves the process of random selection. Furthermore, the leaner can also take into account the purposive sampling in the process of non-probability sampling that can help learner to select a predefined group with a specific purpose in mind (Fahy and Jobber 2012). As rightly put forward by Glanz et al. (2012), the primary and secondary data are two different types of data that require different types of skills as well as resources. Researchers in the social field can acquire data by getting it directly from subjects of their interest. The data hereby collected directly from the subject of interest from the field is known as the primary data. Researchers can acquire data on their own by way of surveys, interviews as well as direct observations. In addition to this, the researchers can also make use of the data that has been gathered by someone else. This is known as the secondary data. The secondary data can be collected from the official websites, published reports, journals and newspaper among many others. Therefore, for the purpose of the present study, the learner can also make use of both the primary as well as the secondary data (Jara and Cliquet 2012).   As rightly indicated by Oh   et al.   (2012), it is important to know the sources of the data to know the methods of collection of the data. The learner can take into account the process of sample survey for the purpose of the collection of the primary data required for the present research. The learner can frame the questionnaire containing the pertinent questions for the study and distribute the same to the target respondents of the survey with a request for reply. The responses to the participants gathered from the questionnaire can help the learner in acquiring the requisite data for the study. Again, the official websites, published reports, journals, books and newspapers can also become the sources of the secondary data for the present study (John Kuada 2012). The research work needs to be carried out in an appropriate manner by taking into consideration different ethical issues in mind. A research work needs to be conducted honestly and proper data needs to be used to accomplish the present research. The researcher can acquire primary as well as the secondary data and use it in the research work in an ethical manner. In addition to this, the learner can also take into account other ethical considerations that include objectivity that refers to the need of aversion of the bias in process of the experimental design, data evaluation, data interpretation, peer review along with the other important areas of research that have the need for   objectivity (Jara and Cliquet 2012). Furthermore, the learner also needs to incorporate the integrity in the research that refers to keeping promises as well as agreements, ensure conduction of the activities with sincerity, striving for consistency of actions as well as thoughts. The learner also needs to avoid errors and at the same time negligence and critically scrutinize their own work. In addition to this, the researcher also needs to keep good records of different research actions that include data collection, research design as well as correspondence with diverse agencies and journals. In addition to this, the learner needs to be open to criticisms from different quarters as well as innovative ideas. Moreover, the learner also needs to ensure the non-utilization of different unpublished data, procedures and results without prior permission. The learner also needs to acquire appropriate acknowledgement and credit for different contributions to the research and need to respect the patents, copyrights as well as other forms of intellectual property. Besides this, the learner also needs to be socially responsible and endeavor to promote both social good through the research that can prevent different social damages through research, public education as well as advocacy. The learner also needs to avoid discrimination among different respondents of the survey based on the race, ethnicity as well as other factors. Again, the learner also needs to be aware of the pertinent laws as well as institutional and governmental procedures that are applicable for the present research work. Nevertheless, the learner also needs to make it certain that the present work is used for academic purposes o nly and not for any commercial purposes.   The present research can direct the ways for the further research on the present topic. The areas for future research includes the procedures of handing the brand issues by different academic as well as market researchers, company and marketers. In addition to this, there remains scope for investigating the ways that can enhance the satisfaction of the consumers with the enhancement of the brand image and increase in loyalty of the consumers. Analysis of the strategies, empirical evidences and literature review Assessment of the Research methodology Data collection method- primary and secondary data Assessment and interpretation of data Aaker, D.A., 2012.  Building strong brands. Simon and Schuster. Amin, M., Isa, Z. and Fontaine, R., 2013. Islamic banks: Contrasting the drivers of customer satisfaction on image, trust, and loyalty of Muslim and non-Muslim customers in Malaysia.  International Journal of Bank Marketing,  31(2), pp.79-97. Anderson, T. and Shattuck, J., 2012. Design-based research a decade of progress in education research?.  Educational researcher,  41(1), pp.16-25. Brodie, R.J., Ilic, A., Juric, B. and Hollebeek, L., 2013. Consumer engagement in a virtual brand community: An exploratory analysis.  Journal of Business Research,  66(1), pp.105-114. Chung, K.H., Yu, J.E. and Shin, J.L., 2015, February. The relationship among perceived value, brand image, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty: The moderating effect of gender. In  Proceedings of the 3rd International Congress on Interdisciplinary Behavior and Social Sciences  (pp. 145-148). Fahy, J. and Jobber, D., 2012.  Foundations of marketing. McGraw-Hill Education. Glanz, K., Bader, M.D. and Iyer, S., 2012. Retail grocery store marketing strategies and obesity: an integrative review.  American journal of preventive medicine,  42(5), pp.503-512. Hameed, F., 2013. The effect of advertising spending on brand loyalty mediated by store image, perceived quality and customer satisfaction: A case of hypermarkets.  Asian Journal of Business Management,  5(1), pp.181-192. He, H., Li, Y. and Harris, L., 2012. Social identity perspective on brand loyalty.  Journal of Business Research,  65(5), pp.648-657. Jara, M. and Cliquet, G., 2012. Retail brand equity: Conceptualization and measurement.  Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services,  19(1), pp.140-149. John Kuada, 2012.  Research methodology: A project guide for university students. Samfundslitteratur. Kapferer, J.N., 2012.  The new strategic brand management: Advanced insights and strategic thinking. Kogan page publishers. Lee, D., Moon, J., Kim, Y.J. and Mun, Y.Y., 2015. Antecedents and consequences of mobile phone usability: Linking simplicity and interactivity to satisfaction, trust, and brand loyalty.  Information & Management,52(3), pp.295-304. Mackey, A. and Gass, S.M., 2015.  Second language research: Methodology and design. Routledge. Martà ­nez, P. and del Bosque, I.R., 2013. CSR and customer loyalty: The roles of trust, customer identification with the company and satisfaction.  International Journal of Hospitality Management,  35, pp.89-99. Maxwell, J.A., 2012.  Qualitative research design: An interactive approach: An interactive approach. Sage. Miller, T., Birch, M., Mauthner, M. and Jessop, J. eds., 2012.  Ethics in qualitative research. Sage. Muth, A., Ismail, R. and Langfeldt Boye, C., 2012. Customer Brand Relationship: An empirical study of customers’ perception of brand experience, brand satisfaction, brand trust and how they affect brand loyalty. Nguyen, N., Leclerc, A. and LeBlanc, G., 2013. The mediating role of customer trust on customer loyalty.Journal of service science and management,  6(1), p.96. Oh, L.B., Teo, H.H. and Sambamurthy, V., 2012. The effects of retail channel integration through the use of information technologies on firm performance.  Journal of Operations Management,  30(5), pp.368-381. Pickard, A., 2012.  Research methods in information. Facet publishing. Ryu, K., Lee, H.R. and Gon Kim, W., 2012. The influence of the quality of the physical environment, food, and service on restaurant image, customer perceived value, customer satisfaction, and behavioral intentions.International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management,  24(2), pp.200-223. Sainsburys.co.uk. (2016). [online] Available at: https://www.sainsburys.co.uk [Accessed 17 Aug. 2016]. Selnes, F., 2013. An examination of the effect of product performance on brand reputation, satisfaction and loyalty.  Journal of Product & Brand Management. Severi, E. and Ling, K.C., 2013. The mediating effects of brand association, brand loyalty, brand image and perceived quality on brand equity.  Asian Social Science,  9(3), p.125. So, K.K.F., King, C., Sparks, B.A. and Wang, Y., 2013. The influence of customer brand identification on hotel brand evaluation and loyalty development.  International journal of hospitality management,  34, pp.31-41. Tu, Y.T., Li, M.L. and Chih, H.C., 2013. An empirical study of corporate brand image, customer perceived value and satisfaction on loyalty in shoe industry.  Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies,  5(7), p.469. TuÃ… ¡kej, U., Golob, U. and Podnar, K., 2013. The role of consumer–brand identification in building brand relationships.  Journal of business research,  66(1), pp.53-59. Wirtz, J., den Ambtman, A., Bloemer, J., Horvà ¡th, C., Ramaseshan, B., van de Klundert, J., Gurhan Canli, Z. and Kandampully, J., 2013. Managing brands and customer engagement in online brand communities.Journal of Service Management,  24(3), pp.223-244. Zameer, H., Tara, A., Kausar, U. and Mohsin, A., 2015. Impact of service quality, corporate image and customer satisfaction towards customers’ perceived value in the banking sector in Pakistan.  International Journal of Bank Marketing,  33(4), pp.442-456.