Marketing Analysis: Kellogg Cornflakes

Marketing Analysis: Kellogg Cornflakes Kelloggs has persisted in the market as a strong brand in the FMCG industry. Its cereal flakes is a line of product that has been accepted worldwide as one of the most convenient ready to eat meal for breakfast. Over the years people in most countries has consumed more of Kelloggs products than any of its competitors. Annual report of the company shows in late 1980s the company had reached all time peak, gaining a staggering 40 percent in the US ready to eat market and thereby prompting a yearly sales of US $6 billion. In 1990s since the industry in the core markets of U.S and U.K started to face stiff competition with lots of players entering, Kelloggs made a decision to migrate into the Indian market. The market potential was huge since it was a population of 950 millions, out of which 250 million were middle class and was a completely untapped market. In 1994 Kelloggs entered the Indian Market by investing US$ 65 million into launching its flagship product Corn Flakes. However the Indian Consumers found it hard to merge the concept of Corn Flakes with their lifestyle. The most prevalent practice was boiled vegetables and hence the concept of ready to eat failed in India. Even though the first year sales were encouraging, the sales started falling from the second year. It was becoming apparent that people mainly purchased it as a onetime novelty purchase. This study reflects the possible ways in which the brand can be sustained as a successful one in the Indian market. Devising a Marketing plan using the SOSTAC Model: Situational Analysis using SWOT: Strength: High Global Market Share: Kelloggs has 65% global market share according to the audit of March 2010 conducted by KPMG, in the ready-to-eat cereal products and it is also the leading producer in this category. Strong Brand: As a brand the worth of Kelloggs is 13 billion USD at the present time, and even in the period of strong economic crisis it is regarded as one of the profitable brands in US and the European Countries. Some of the brands under Kelloggs are widely accepted. Nutri-gain, Pop-tarts, Kebbler and Ego are just to name a few of them. Large Product Line: In terms of the depth and width of the product mix, Kelloggs has got a wide variety of packaged cereal flakes. It has also stated producing products in assorted categories other than cereal flakes such as choco flakes for children, and also categories such as vegan, certified halal meat, low sodium content and gluten free flakes. Kelloggs also has a healthy food category. Continuous Research to reduce cost: Kelloggs invests a substantial amount on Research and development in order to reduce cost. They have also set up their manufacturing plants in South East Asian countries in order to produce at the expense of cheaper labour and to reduce cost on logistics. Weakness: High Price: A package of 475 grams of Kelloggs corn flakes cost 130 INR which is considered to be pretty high from the Indian perspective. Most housewives who are potential shoppers do opine that this pack lasts for a maximum of 3 usages. This is not regarded as economical from the Indian perspective. Unsuitable for Indian Lifestyle: The general Indian practice was of using warm milk, which was very contradictory to the American concept of using cold milk. Due to the usage of warm milk, the flakes became soggy. Declining Sales: Asia represents only 2% of the Kelloggs worldwide sales. Since its inception in 1994, the countrywide sales have dropped by 25%. Bad relation with Supermarkets: To be in tandem with its pricing Kelloggs should establish itself to sell more through the Supermarkets. However Kelloggs recently had to suffer a lot due to its bad relationship with Supermarkets. For instance Kelloggs products were moved from the shelves of Food Bazaar since it was giving the retailer a much lesser margin than Tasty Treat which is its private label. Opportunity: Globalisation: Due to the effect of globalisation, Indians are now more exposed to the International Cultures. The youth in India now tries to imitate a lot of the lifestyles prevalent in U.K and U.S.A. Increasing level of Disposable Income: Being a growing economy, the income level is rising, hence if Kelloggs can switch over from being a premium pricing brand to a slightly competitive pricing brand, it would be able to extract the money from Indians. Advent of Television Advertising: Due to a continuous improvement in the quality of television advertising, advertisement campaigns are creating awareness and interest towards a brand at a faster. A brand like Kelloggs Choco can be very popular in this way. Threats: Private Label Brands: With supermarkets such as Food Bazaar, Spencer, More, etc gaining more margins on private label brands, it is becoming difficult for Kelloggs to maintain its shelf space in super markets. Local Competitors: Some local and regional competitors such as Crunchy Oats are becoming stronger players due to their low pricing strategies. The Environmental Analysis Using Porters 5 Forces: C:UsersstephenDesktopimages.jpg Degree of Rivalry: (High) Face a stiff competition in Indian market from Local and Regional players such as Crunchy Oats and private label brands such as Tasty Treat. Even global players such as Nestle are giving them tough competition in products within the kids segment. An oligopolistic competition structure exists within the industry. Switching cost is negligible, and most consumers regard switching to be profitable since they get better quality product at a lesser price. Growth is stagnant for the last five years whereas the Industry is expanding. Bargaining Power of Buyers: (High) Supermarkets are continuously forcing to reduce price of products to obtain higher margins, hence consumers are more inclined towards private label brands. Switching cost is again negligible. In certain semi urban and developing areas of the country, people still find it difficult to associate with the concept of consuming cereal flakes in cold milk. Bargaining Power of Suppliers: (Low) The company has a central manufacturing unit in the country and about 20 other units across the world. Raw materials are sourced from the local market. Hence the supplier bargaining power is low. Threat of Substitutes: (High) Other ready to eat and packaged food products are more popular among Indian consumers such as Maggie Noodles. Maggie noodles are more preferred since they are served hot. There is no switching cost involved. Threat of New Entrants: (High) It is difficult for competitors to develop new products in this category since they would require investment and time to develop. Distribution is a major concern. High slotting promotional fees, limited shelf space, and the need to create retail demand are additions to the manufacturing cost. Capital costs are very high since setting up production facilities and distribution chain takes into account a high upfront investment. Objective Setting at different strategic levels: Corporate Strategy: To increase profitability by 23% worldwide by 2011 Business level Strategy: To gain 50% market share countrywide in India by 2011. Marketing Strategy: To become the breakfast meal of 70% of the urban Indian Household by 2011. Developing Strategies: Creating a Growth Strategy using the Ansoffs Matrix: C:Documents and SettingssoumyadeepMy DocumentsMy Picturesuntitled.bmp Kelloggs operates in a country wherein it is an existing brand for the last five years. All products in the product line are known to consumers and a market for such products has also developed. Hence the strategy that Kelloggs should undertake in order to increase its sales is Market Penetration. Kelloggs being an established brand would not have a problem in penetrating the market and increasing its share. The risk factor would also be considerably low. In order to penetrate Kelloggs has to look at two things: Creating a different position for the brand through a better communication and in turn developing a new improved value proposition. Kelloggs must make utilization of cost reduction in order to gain price leadership in the market. Once the product appeals to consumers they will purchase it readily due to the low price. If the company can sell a higher volume at a lesser margin, then they can combat competition successfully. Creating a competitive strategy using Porters Generic Strategies: Kelloggs being an FMCG product has to have an Industry wide strategic scope. However according to the research Kelloggs should practice a combination of Differentiation and Overall Cost leadership. Kelloggs as a brand has a large portfolio of products and each product have its own uniqueness. Hence they should continue to leverage on the differentiation aspect. However a major challenge that Kelloggs faces is its premium pricing, on gaining a cost leadership, it can implement a competitive pricing. This will make the brand more attractive. Tactics employed in order to achieve strategic objectives: Product: Pack Size: Since most of the products within the product mix are widely accepted across the globe, Kelloggs should not change the range of cereal flakes that it has. However in order to increase the frequency of purchase, Kelloggs can reduce the minimum pack size from 475g to 250 g so that it becomes more popular amongst young individuals who live a fast life and stay single. For such group of target customers the basket size of purchase is much small. Hence smaller size packs will attract them to a greater extent. Apart from this value packs must be issued initially to pick up sales. These are packs of 500 g at the price of 475g packs. Packaging: Most of Kelloggs packs do not have the nutritive benefits engraved on them (except for Special K). They only contain a small label showing the nutritional ingredients. Over the recent years the urban Indian population has become more diet conscious. Hence it would be advantageous to engrave the nutritive benefits on them. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/photo.cms?msid=3190216 Present packaging new packaging Price: Kelloggs flakes are priced higher than competitors. Prices of three most manufactured Indian Brands are higher than most competitors. 475g of Kelloggs Corn Flakes costs Rs 130, whereas its closest competitor delivers 500g at Rs 109. Kelloggs thus should reduce the price. In the recent company audit report from KPMG it has been found that the most highly purchased product, the Kelloggs choco is priced at Rs 125 for a 375g pack, thus making it difficult for a middle class Indian household to avail it. Kelloggs should promote more of this product by reducing the price. Also in order to obtain better penetration in the market Kelloggs should try and sell more through Supermarkets rather than corner grocery shops. Hence Kelloggs should supply more volume at lesser margin to supermarkets and hypermarkets. Place: Internet: One of the medium through which urban customers are purchasing more of their FMCG products is the internet. The advent of online retailing, Kelloggs must try and sell more through online medium. Especially for institutional sales such as to hospitals and school or college hostels, where purchases are made in bulk, Kelloggs should encourage online sale of products. This will help them in reducing the time to deliver their products faster and help them to sell higher units. Also, the negotiation terms with supermarkets, hypermarkets and convenient stores should be laid in a way such that Kelloggs cereal flakes occupies maximum shelf space in its particular product category. The main objective should be to gain maximum shelf space rather than trying to earn more margins per unit. Promotion: The most important element in the marketing mix of Kelloggs is the promotions. When Kelloggs entered India about fifteen years ago, they lacked research of the behaviour of the Indian consumers. They took no notice of the fact that Indians disliked the concept of consuming cold milk, and the flakes became soggy in warm milk. Hence in order to promote the practice of the consuming normal or cold milk Kelloggs should use the television advertising media effectively. This would create a separate value proposition for the brand. For example time can be used as a parameter to create urgency for the brand. A television advertisement showing this concept will create response among customers. Idea- Showing a household wherein every member is rushing for his or her work or school. In such a short time boiling milk and consuming flakes is a lengthy process. Hence normal milk is used and it even tastes nice. The new mission statement of the brand could be Kelloggs: Your Fast BreakFastà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The other forms of communication channels should be advertising hoardings, posters in super markets and magazines such as Graphiti. In order to promote kids products such as Kelloggs Choco the company can organize event promotions through various retailers and also through sponsorship of kids activities and competitions at schools. Sales promotion would also be done throughout the year through the distribution of freebies. Freebies such as a bowl can be given with a pack of 475g of Kelloggs Corn Flakes. This would be of utility in the consumption process and would in-turn increase sales. Process: Distribution is the pivotal processes that should be taken care of in achieving the objectives After the manufacturing process, the distribution chain should be controlled from different centers. There should be four regional distribution centers (RDC) at the four different zones- Delhi (North), Calcutta (East), Mumbai (West) and Bangalore (South). Each distribution center should supply in its particular zone and each distribution center should use the hub and spoke model. All four distribution centers should be interconnected to each other. The distribution model is as follows: Actions followed to achieve the tactics: The head office of Kelloggs is situated in Mumbai. All plan of action should be coordinated from the Mumbai head office and the decisions should effectively pass on across the distribution centers up to the store level where the product gets handed over to the end consumer. Usage of 2009 Financial Statements (Historical method): The budget is planned based upon an analysis of the income statement of 2009. In the fiscal year 2009 as per the annual reports of the company the net income $1,212 million. The net cash flow in the last quarter has been $1230 million and also as per the last quarter the liquid cash reserves of the company is $527 millions. Hence Kelloggs Corporation can invest a high amount in the development of the Indian market in order to bring it to a growth. The total budget allocated towards marketing activities of the Indian market is. The allocated amount is divided into five discrete divisions to carry out activities. These divisions are packaging, sponsorship, advertisement, sales promotion, event promotion and value packs. To map the budget according to the activities of the organisation a GNATT action chart is used. Activity Time Staff Amount Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Packaging 1 Sponsorship 2 Advertisement 3 Sales Promotion 4 Event Promotion 5 Value Packs 6 Gaining Control over the plan: Control can be gained over the process by using two different approaches: Periodic control: A periodic control can be exercised over the plan by performing Marketing Audits from time to time. The company must not rely only on external auditors such as KPMG, they should also gain control through internal audits performed by auditors within the company. Through marketing audits performance gaps should be identified. The extent to which the results vary from the desired targets should be noted and corrective measures should be taken accordingly. Continuous Control: A continuous control should be introduced by maintenance of a Balanced Scorecard customized specifically for stakeholders perspective of Kelloggs.

Effective Listening

In a monthly marketing meeting, the marketing manager wants 5 of his staffs to conduct a research on market share on 5 different areas. Each staff is assigned a territory. The manager rejects, one month later in the same meeting, one of the 5 reports because the research is on the wrong territory. If we assume the ability of all staffs is the same, then it is obviously a communication breakdown that causes the wrong research was conducted. The consequence of misunderstanding may be costly to a company. Often when a misunderstanding occurs on the job, it is attributed to a lack of communication, which most of time implies that whoever was delivering the message did not do an effective job. But what about the other side, the listener? Listening is important in business because it is the communication skill most often used in human interaction (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.56). Between 45 and 55 percent of people’s communication time will be spent in listening to others (Nichols and Stevens 1957, p.6, Werner 1975, p.26). However, listening is not a skill that most people perform well. Studies show that people do not listen effectively. On an average, people listen only at 25% efficiency (Nichols and Stevens 1957, p.ix). It is difficult to define listening, but generally it can be defined as † a receiver orientation to the communication process; since communication involves both a source and a receiver, listening consist of the roles receivers play in the communication process† (Floyd 1985, p.9). Listening is a process that includes hearing, attending to, understanding, evaluating and responding to spoken messages. (Floyd 1985, p.9) Our own listening habits have been developed since we were born. Such habits are so well established that we perform them without thinking. But unfortunately, such habits are usually undesirable and lead to poor listening. There are numbers of reasons for ineffective listening. These do not apply equally to all listeners and the degree to which they do apply will vary from different situation, speaker, topic and so forth, They represent common and important reasons for ineffective listening: Rehearsing Your whole attention is designing and preparing â€Å"what to say next†. You look interested, but your minds are miles away because you are thinking about the next comment. Judging Negatively labeling people can be extremely limiting. Everyone has biases, but it leads to ineffective listening. For example you hear a speaker discuss an idea that you don’t like, you might stop paying attention to that speaker says, you might distort the message, and therefore failing to understand it because of prejudgment. As a result, your evaluation of the speaker and /or message could be unfair or in error (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.59). So, A basic rule of effective listening is to that judgements should only be made after you have heard and evaluated the content of the message (Johnson). Identifying You take everything people tell you and refer it back to your own experience. They may want to tell you about a car’s braking system, but that reminds you of your car accident. You launch into your story before they can finish theirs (Johnson). Talking rather than listening We too often love to hear our own voice and feel that our comments and ideas are always right (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.58). You are a great problem solver that you do not have to hear more than a few sentences before you begin searching for the right advice. But, while you are coming up with suggestions, you may have missed what is most important. Sometimes, people argue and debate with others who never feel heard because these people are so quick to disagree. In fact these people’s main focus is on finding things to disagree with. Filtering We usually filter out messages and listen only to those topics and materials that we want to hear. We will stop paying attention to those topics that we do not want to hear, such as messages that criticize us. Then we cannot be corrected, and we cannot take suggestions to change (Johnson). Placation As we have been taught to be nice, pleasant and supportive to others, we seldom criticize others especially when others are telling you things that we want to hear. But too hasty acceptance of messages that tells us what we like and want to hear can lead to serious problems (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.60). We may half-listen just enough to get the drift, but not really involved. Instead, we should be careful to pay attention, to comprehend, and then to analyze and evaluate what speakers say (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.60) Distraction A distraction is anything that pulls your attention away from that which you want, or need, to pay attention to (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.60). It is difficult to avoid distraction. There may be distraction in the environment and within you – day dreaming. When we dream, we pretend to listen but we actually drift about in our interior fantasies. Instead of disciplining ourselves to truly concentrate on the input, we turn the channel to a more entertaining subject. We may have missed some important points while we are dreaming. It is the major reason for ineffective listening. Fear of difficult This block applied when we need to listen and understand new materials or subjects that are new, difficult and challenging to us. In such situation, it is difficult to listen (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.60). We always try to avoid or rationalize these subjects and not to listen. It is mainly due to the fear of failing. People does not like failing and try any methods to avoid it. There are numbers of ways to avoid failure. We stop paying attention to the subject and spend our time to somewhere else. Then we may tell ourselves, we are not fail to understand the topic, but refused to deal with it. Rationalization also helps people to avoid failure (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.60). We usually hold someone else responsible for the consequences of not listening or understanding by saying the material is â€Å"boring†, † stupid†, â€Å"nothing to do with my daily work† and so forth. But as a result, we still do not understand the material. Like any other skill, the first step to improve listening is to understand of what you can do or stop doing in order to get better. The second step is to practice the new skill over and over again to make it as your habit. We have examined the blocks for effective listening. Let us move on to the elements to improve effective listening. There are 2 major elements to improve effective listening, namely comprehension and Analysis/Evaluation. Comprehension means that you are able to understand the speaker (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.61). There are some basic ways to improve our ability to understand speakers. The first step towards more effective listening comprehension is paying increased attention (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.61). Attention is your focus to the speaker and his/her material and sustaining the focus. Paying long and well enough attention help you to keep these verbal and nonverbal stimuli into your long-term memory. Then you are able to compare the information with new and old materials. Otherwise, information not stored in long term memory will be lost in a second and you are not able to understand the content because you will bot remember it (Tyson 1982). Everyone can increase attention by realizing its importance, avoid common tendency to day dream, fighting the tendency to give in to external and internal distractions, remove distractions if possible or learn to listen over distraction. We have the ability to listen to and understand speech even when there are severe distraction (Moore 1977, p.239). The second step to improve your ability to understand speaker is to understand the nature of non-verbal communication. Nonverbal communication is any communication expressed not in words but in body motion, paralanguage (how something is said), proxemics (the use of space), artifacts (physical objects), or environment (Knapp 1980, p. 4-11). It serves a variety of functions that to repeat, contradict, substitute, complement, accent, or regulate verbal communication (Knapp 1978, p. 38). However, it does not mean nonverbal communication is more important than verbal communication. In case nonverbal communication is contradicted to verbal communication, it does not always the case that nonverbal communication is more reliable. The third step towards more effective listening is to increase your ability to comprehend verbal symbols, or message (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.63). Although it is the speaker’s responsibility to make himself/herself clear and meaningful, communication is a two way process that listener has the same responsibility to understand speaker’s materials. This task can be accomplished by (1) increasing the quality and quantity of your experience, (2) learning to use context as a mean of increasing your understanding, (3) keeping your bias away, (4) controlling any fear of failure, (5) improve your vocabulary (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.63-64), and (6) feedback to confirm your interpretation. The next element that helps to improve effective listening is analysis and evaluation. Once you have attended to and understood the speaker, you are ready to analyze and evaluate the message. Analysis is to examine the message in order to learn what the meanings are. Evaluation is the rendering of judgement on message to decide the value of the message. Both analytical and evaluative functions require you to examine a speaker’s support and reasoning, such as data, conclusion, reasoning process, examples and statistics. Effective listening will benefit as well as those who work with you. It breaks up the barriers between people and can understand each other more. In workplace, effective listening minimize the losses of potential revenues which may result from shipping the wrong products to customers. Or from miscommunication objectives and priorities among staffs. Or even from time lost because of having to re-communicate a second or third time to get things straightened out. To listen effectively, one must be positive, active, prevent affected by blocks we mentioned earlier, paying and sustain enough attention to the speaker, able to analyze after understanding. It is not an easy skill, but it is the most fundamental and powerful skill we need. When someone is willing to stop talking or thinking and begin truly listening to others, all of their interactions become easier, and communication problems are all but eliminated. Effective Listening In a monthly marketing meeting, the marketing manager wants 5 of his staffs to conduct a research on market share on 5 different areas. Each staff is assigned a territory. The manager rejects, one month later in the same meeting, one of the 5 reports because the research is on the wrong territory. If we assume the ability of all staffs is the same, then it is obviously a communication breakdown that causes the wrong research was conducted. The consequence of misunderstanding may be costly to a company. Often when a misunderstanding occurs on the job, it is attributed to a lack of communication, which most of time implies that whoever was delivering the message did not do an effective job. But what about the other side, the listener? Listening is important in business because it is the communication skill most often used in human interaction (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.56). Between 45 and 55 percent of people’s communication time will be spent in listening to others (Nichols and Stevens 1957, p.6, Werner 1975, p.26). However, listening is not a skill that most people perform well. Studies show that people do not listen effectively. On an average, people listen only at 25% efficiency (Nichols and Stevens 1957, p.ix). It is difficult to define listening, but generally it can be defined as † a receiver orientation to the communication process; since communication involves both a source and a receiver, listening consist of the roles receivers play in the communication process† (Floyd 1985, p.9). Listening is a process that includes hearing, attending to, understanding, evaluating and responding to spoken messages. (Floyd 1985, p.9) Our own listening habits have been developed since we were born. Such habits are so well established that we perform them without thinking. But unfortunately, such habits are usually undesirable and lead to poor listening. There are numbers of reasons for ineffective listening. These do not apply equally to all listeners and the degree to which they do apply will vary from different situation, speaker, topic and so forth, They represent common and important reasons for ineffective listening: Rehearsing Your whole attention is designing and preparing â€Å"what to say next†. You look interested, but your minds are miles away because you are thinking about the next comment. Judging Negatively labeling people can be extremely limiting. Everyone has biases, but it leads to ineffective listening. For example you hear a speaker discuss an idea that you don’t like, you might stop paying attention to that speaker says, you might distort the message, and therefore failing to understand it because of prejudgment. As a result, your evaluation of the speaker and /or message could be unfair or in error (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.59). So, A basic rule of effective listening is to that judgements should only be made after you have heard and evaluated the content of the message (Johnson). Identifying You take everything people tell you and refer it back to your own experience. They may want to tell you about a car’s braking system, but that reminds you of your car accident. You launch into your story before they can finish theirs (Johnson). Talking rather than listening We too often love to hear our own voice and feel that our comments and ideas are always right (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.58). You are a great problem solver that you do not have to hear more than a few sentences before you begin searching for the right advice. But, while you are coming up with suggestions, you may have missed what is most important. Sometimes, people argue and debate with others who never feel heard because these people are so quick to disagree. In fact these people’s main focus is on finding things to disagree with. Filtering We usually filter out messages and listen only to those topics and materials that we want to hear. We will stop paying attention to those topics that we do not want to hear, such as messages that criticize us. Then we cannot be corrected, and we cannot take suggestions to change (Johnson). Placation As we have been taught to be nice, pleasant and supportive to others, we seldom criticize others especially when others are telling you things that we want to hear. But too hasty acceptance of messages that tells us what we like and want to hear can lead to serious problems (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.60). We may half-listen just enough to get the drift, but not really involved. Instead, we should be careful to pay attention, to comprehend, and then to analyze and evaluate what speakers say (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.60) Distraction A distraction is anything that pulls your attention away from that which you want, or need, to pay attention to (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.60). It is difficult to avoid distraction. There may be distraction in the environment and within you – day dreaming. When we dream, we pretend to listen but we actually drift about in our interior fantasies. Instead of disciplining ourselves to truly concentrate on the input, we turn the channel to a more entertaining subject. We may have missed some important points while we are dreaming. It is the major reason for ineffective listening. Fear of difficult This block applied when we need to listen and understand new materials or subjects that are new, difficult and challenging to us. In such situation, it is difficult to listen (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.60). We always try to avoid or rationalize these subjects and not to listen. It is mainly due to the fear of failing. People does not like failing and try any methods to avoid it. There are numbers of ways to avoid failure. We stop paying attention to the subject and spend our time to somewhere else. Then we may tell ourselves, we are not fail to understand the topic, but refused to deal with it. Rationalization also helps people to avoid failure (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.60). We usually hold someone else responsible for the consequences of not listening or understanding by saying the material is â€Å"boring†, † stupid†, â€Å"nothing to do with my daily work† and so forth. But as a result, we still do not understand the material. Like any other skill, the first step to improve listening is to understand of what you can do or stop doing in order to get better. The second step is to practice the new skill over and over again to make it as your habit. We have examined the blocks for effective listening. Let us move on to the elements to improve effective listening. There are 2 major elements to improve effective listening, namely comprehension and Analysis/Evaluation. Comprehension means that you are able to understand the speaker (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.61). There are some basic ways to improve our ability to understand speakers. The first step towards more effective listening comprehension is paying increased attention (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.61). Attention is your focus to the speaker and his/her material and sustaining the focus. Paying long and well enough attention help you to keep these verbal and nonverbal stimuli into your long-term memory. Then you are able to compare the information with new and old materials. Otherwise, information not stored in long term memory will be lost in a second and you are not able to understand the content because you will bot remember it (Tyson 1982). Everyone can increase attention by realizing its importance, avoid common tendency to day dream, fighting the tendency to give in to external and internal distractions, remove distractions if possible or learn to listen over distraction. We have the ability to listen to and understand speech even when there are severe distraction (Moore 1977, p.239). The second step to improve your ability to understand speaker is to understand the nature of non-verbal communication. Nonverbal communication is any communication expressed not in words but in body motion, paralanguage (how something is said), proxemics (the use of space), artifacts (physical objects), or environment (Knapp 1980, p. 4-11). It serves a variety of functions that to repeat, contradict, substitute, complement, accent, or regulate verbal communication (Knapp 1978, p. 38). However, it does not mean nonverbal communication is more important than verbal communication. In case nonverbal communication is contradicted to verbal communication, it does not always the case that nonverbal communication is more reliable. The third step towards more effective listening is to increase your ability to comprehend verbal symbols, or message (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.63). Although it is the speaker’s responsibility to make himself/herself clear and meaningful, communication is a two way process that listener has the same responsibility to understand speaker’s materials. This task can be accomplished by (1) increasing the quality and quantity of your experience, (2) learning to use context as a mean of increasing your understanding, (3) keeping your bias away, (4) controlling any fear of failure, (5) improve your vocabulary (Curtis, Floyd and Winsor 1992, p.63-64), and (6) feedback to confirm your interpretation. The next element that helps to improve effective listening is analysis and evaluation. Once you have attended to and understood the speaker, you are ready to analyze and evaluate the message. Analysis is to examine the message in order to learn what the meanings are. Evaluation is the rendering of judgement on message to decide the value of the message. Both analytical and evaluative functions require you to examine a speaker’s support and reasoning, such as data, conclusion, reasoning process, examples and statistics. Effective listening will benefit as well as those who work with you. It breaks up the barriers between people and can understand each other more. In workplace, effective listening minimize the losses of potential revenues which may result from shipping the wrong products to customers. Or from miscommunication objectives and priorities among staffs. Or even from time lost because of having to re-communicate a second or third time to get things straightened out. To listen effectively, one must be positive, active, prevent affected by blocks we mentioned earlier, paying and sustain enough attention to the speaker, able to analyze after understanding. It is not an easy skill, but it is the most fundamental and powerful skill we need. When someone is willing to stop talking or thinking and begin truly listening to others, all of their interactions become easier, and communication problems are all but eliminated.

How did Bobbie Ann Mason`s upbringing in the rural south influence her writing of Shiloh Essay

Bobbie Ann Mason is considered as one of the great American writers from the South. Her personal background as a Southerner influenced and set a backdrop for most of her fiction stories. From a small country girl who used to read Bobbsey Twins and the Nancy Drew mysteries, Bobbie Ann Mason has become one of the America’s leading fiction writers. In 1980 The New Yorker published her first story. â€Å"It took me a long time to discover my material,† she says. â€Å"It wasn’t a matter of developing writing skills; it was a matter of knowing how to see things. And it took me a very long time to grow up. I’d been writing for a long time, but was never able to see what there was to write about. I always aspired to things away from home, so it took me a long time to look back at home and realize that that’s where the center of my thought was† (Bobbie Ann Mason’s Homepage). This discourse will try to map out the journey that Bobbie Ann Mason has taken from being just a country girl to being one of America’s leading fiction writers as well as how her upbringing has been manifested in her writings, especially â€Å"Shiloh†. Bobbie Ann Mason was born in 1940 in a small town in Mayfield, Kentucky. Growing up in her parents’ dairy farm, she spent most of her childhood days in the typical rural Southern setting and experiencing the Southern way of upbringing. (â€Å"Bobbie Ann Mason,† Wikipedia) The first nine (9) years of her educational life were spent in a rural school. Shortly thereafter Bobbie Ann Mason attended a â€Å"city† school where she stayed until her graduation. It was here where she first experienced living in the city and experiencing the hustle and bustle that was absent from the rural setting that she was accustomed to in Kentucky (Webber). It was her love for literature that prompted her to pursue a degree in journalism from the University of Kentucky and eventually attain a Ph. D. in English from the University of Connecticut. (â€Å"Bobbie Ann Mason,† Wikipedia) This seeming â€Å"duality† of her background, growing up in the Southern Setting and highly educated in a metropolitan setting, is reflected within most of her written works (Hunt). Rothstein describes Mason’s style as a combination of her â€Å"intellectual sophistication† (after all, she had a doctorate degree) and â€Å"the sense of isolated, yearning existence of her rural characters [is] one she has never quite shed herself. † The influence of growing up in the South is clearly shown in most of her characters in her stories yet the theme and feel of the story reveals her intellect and cosmopolitan views as well. A perfect example of how Mason reveals this â€Å"duality† is in Shiloh. In Shiloh, Mason shows this through the challenges that the characters undergo; some of these changes that the characters in experience deal with the nature of human life, the changes brought on by death, the issues on disease and aging; but these changes are not so common, nor as troublesome, in Mason’s stories as the changes brought on by a changing society. These changes, as Edwin T. Arnold correctly observes, are brought about by the fact that the present â€Å"has effectively displaced, transformed, and cheapened the traditional,† and Mason’s characters are depicted as they lose their strengths and beliefs and find nothing substantial to replace them (136) Bobbie Ann Mason’s writings are mostly set in the South. Her version is more realistic and not romanticized; unlike the works of Faulkner or O’Connor (Hunt), she depicts small-town rural Southern living, using dialogue and settings characteristic of the South (Hunt). However, â€Å"southern history and all it represents seems irrelevant to her characters’ lives† (Fine 87). Bobbie Ann Mason occasionally reveals her talent and wit by being able to focus more on her characters and their sense of isolation and their want for something more from their lives and draw the reader towards the characters and make them empathize with the characters. These characters are not simply depicted as typical Southerners, but rather as people â€Å"who are trying desperately to get into the society rather than out of it† (Reed 60). Mason shows the Southern Influence by creating believable characters that are caught in the transition between the old, pastoral, rural world of farms and close-knit communities and the modern, anonymous, suburban world of shopping malls and fast-food restaurants (Shiloh: Themes). In â€Å"Shiloh,† for example, Leroy did not notice the change in his hometown while he was on the road as a trucker. However, now that Leroy has come home to stay, â€Å"he notices how much the town has changed. Subdivisions are spreading across western Kentucky like an oil slick. † Change, a theme often used by Mason in her works, shows just how much Mason is influenced by her upbringing and also reveals how she laments over how people are slow to realize the changes in southern society. In this story, it takes a traumatic event of some kind to make the characters see that the land has changed or that they no longer know who they are. In Leroy’s case, it is his accident and injury in his rig that make him see that the land has changed, that Norma Jean has changed, and that â€Å"in all the years he was on the road he never took time to examine anything. He was always flying past scenery† (2). Several of Mason’s characters react to the changes in their lives by trying, at least momentarily, to go back. Leroy thinks that he can hold onto his wife if he can go back to a simpler time. He decides to accomplish this by building her a log cabin for which he goes so far as to order the blueprints and to build a miniature out of Lincoln Logs. Mabel, Leroy’s mother-in-law, is convinced that if Leroy and Norma Jean will go to Shiloh where she and her husband went on their honeymoon, they can somehow begin their fifteen-year-old marriage anew. So does Leroy. He says to Norma, â€Å"You and me could start all over again. Right back at the beginning† (15). It is ironic, fitting, and symbolic that it is at Shiloh that Norma tells him she wants to leave him. By story’s end, Leroy knows that he cannot go back as â€Å"it occurs to him that building a house of logs is . . . empty — too simple. . . . Now he sees that building a log house is the dumbest idea he could have had. . . . It was a crazy idea† (16). He realizes that â€Å"the real inner workings of a marriage, like most of history, have escaped him† (16). The female characters that Mason brings to life are what set her stories apart from the usual literature which depicts Southern women; their dreams, goals, and their want for progress significantly differs from those of the traditional Southern belle characters such as Scarlett O’Hara and Adie (Hunt). The female characters of Mason embrace change and are not afraid of it (Kincaid 582). This seemingly feminist theme reflects the change in social relationships between men and women; how evolving and rapidly shifting gender roles affect the lives of simple people. Mason also shows how some of her women try to forge new identities in the wake of shifting gender roles and how their efforts often include a blatant shrinking of traditionally feminine behaviors or characteristics; sometimes they seem almost completely to be trading roles with the men in their lives. And since change often causes uncertainty and instability, another aspect is the way these women find some solid ground through connections with other women (Bucher). â€Å"Shiloh† is a story that â€Å"symbolizes the modern woman striving to find her identity† (Cooke 196). In this short story, Bobbie Ann Mason masterfully portrays the lead female character, Norma Jean, as one such woman; strong, determined and confused in a search for her identity. Mason is able to show this to the reader through the acts of Norma Jean as she tries to improve her physical appearance by â€Å"working on her pectorals† (Mason 271), enrolls in a â€Å"variety of classes, from weightlifting to cooking exotic foods to English composition in an attempt to become a new woman† (Thompson 3). These actions of Norma Jean actions reveal more of a strong desire for inner personal transformation, much more than anything else. However, Mason also recognizes that abrupt change in one’s personality has its own dangers (Hunt), as illustrated by Norma Jean and Leroy’s relationship. Norma Jean and Leroy’s relationship is a perfect example of the dangers of an abrupt change as it shows a marriage with serious problem and the effect that change has on it. Leroy and Norma Jean Moffitt, are working-class people living in the modern South, and thus they bring into their marriage all sorts of unspoken expectations of who they should be, which often contrast violently with who they are – even more so with who they are becoming (Bucher). When in a twist of fate, Leroy loses the use of his leg, Norma Jean suddenly assumes the role of being the man in the family and this leads to problems. It is this sort of change that is not only abrupt but also drastic which Mason shows in Shiloh that reveals her Southern influence. She emphasizes the changing role of women in society by using the Southern setting as a backdrop. Mason is a lover of rock and roll music. This passion and preference for rock music and pop culture are frequently reflected throughout her stories as well (Webber). â€Å"Writing is my version of rock-and-roll,† Rothstein quotes her (Webber). This is aptly shown in â€Å"Shiloh,† where the main characters themselves are named after Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe, popular icons of the rock and roll scene and pop culture in the early 1950s. All in all, it can be said that Bobbie Ann Mason’s personal background shows a very consistent influence in the fiction stories that she writes and provides a deeper and different perspective about living in a Southern setting and rural life in general. â€Å"In the country in Kentucky, people are just amazed that anybody in New York wants to read about their lives† (Rothstein). With fiction stories of Bobbie Ann Mason, however, it is not surprising that people will want to read more about Kentucky or the Southern locales of the United States, for that matter, for her stories speak of the universal human experiences that transcend physical and cultural boundaries which people can identify with. WORKS CITED: Arnold, Edwin J. â€Å"Falling Apart and Staying Together. † Appalachian Journal (1985): 135-141Aycock-Simpson, Judy. Bobbie Ann Mason’s Portrayal of Modern Western Kentucky Border States: Journal of the Kentucky-Tennessee American Studies Association, No. 7 (1989) â€Å"Bobbie Ann Mason. † Wikipedia: Free Encyclopedia. August 30, 2006. November 11, 2006 â€Å"Bobbie Ann Mason. † Bobbie Ann Mason’s Homepage. September 17, 2005. November 24, 2006 â€Å"Shiloh: Themes. † Short Stories for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes. com. January 2006. 24 November 2006. Bucher, Tina. â€Å"Changing Roles and Finding Stability: Women in Bobbie Ann Mason’s Shiloh and Other Stories† Border States: Journal of the Kentucky-Tennessee American Studies Association, No. 8 (1991) Cooke, Stewart J. â€Å"Mason’s ‘Shiloh. ‘† The Explicator 51 (1993): 196-197. Fine, Laura. â€Å"Going Nowhere Slow: The Post-South World of Bobbie Ann Mason. † The Southern Literary Journal 32 (1999). Hunt, Kristina. â€Å"Mason’s Transformation of the South. † October 27, 2000. November 11, 2006.

A Critique of the Juliette Beck Speech Essay - 967 Words

A Critique of the Juliette Beck Speech Juliette Becks speech, Reclaiming Just and Sustainable Communities in the Age of Corporate Globalization neither adequately described the problems of globalization as it is currently structured, nor did it provide any answers to the problems with it, either the real problems that actually exist (labor and environmental exploitation) or the problems that Beck purported (large corporations). Primarily, Becks speech was flawed in that it was incoherent and empirical incorrect. For instance 1) it purported the idea that globalization was not inevitable, 2) it called upon the myth of small is beautiful, confusing the real problem with globalization (Capitalist structure) with a false problem†¦show more content†¦Localism, by its nature, cannot address problems that exist beyond local levels. Globalization, it should be obvious, is one of these. Too bad for us on the left certain supposedly left political analysts of global activity cannot pi ck up this basic truth. Maybe part of the reason one analyst in particular is unable to realize the futility of localism is that she has succumbed to the false romantic ideology that small is beautiful. Much in the same way as libertarians and conservative, Beck beat on the drum of Localism, relating to the audience the horrors of such companies as Wal-Mart, Nike, and Starbucks. She advised us not to shop at these as they (in the case of Wal-Mart) drive out mom and pop stores in local communities. As an alternative, we should shop at locally own stores, and buy fair-trade coffee. One should not try to persuade others into action on the basis of ones own guilt, for it is futile if one seeks structurally change. But this is what Beck does, by personalizing the trauma (your local store vs. big nasty corporate stores), and it is not effective. Instead of focusing on the problems of one order of Capitalism (localism) vs. a different order of Capitalism (big business), one should realizes that it is Capitalism it self that is the impetus of the problem, and that the Capitalist exploitation of the earth, labor, and