Ever since my dad started to work at an international company, he is always been sent to other countries on business trips. He has been in the US for countless of times attending seminars and meetings. This time would be different; my dad was going to Russia. Russia was territory he was unfamiliar with, of course he knew the geographic location, and other general information that can read on books and watched on television. Obtaining a Russian visa is not easy, but since he was going there on a business trip, he was getting a russian business visa. He need not worry about getting an invitation letter, his company, had taken care of that, and also the expenses.
My dad, when going somewhere for the first time, does a little research about it, since he was heading to Russia, he read about various tourist attractions that can be found in Russia, he even read about the magnetic north pole heading towards Russia, their culture and of course, about russian food, delicacies and drinks, and he could wait to taste the different kinds of Russian soups.
When you are planning for a party make sure your guests are invited at least 2 weeks before the event so that they can be able to make it. It will be more elegant if you invite them by sending beautiful cards. The picture and illustrations on the card should match the occasion and the desired theme of the event. If you want it to make a formal dinner party then the card should be designed accordingly. There are many card makers available in the market making beautiful and eye-catching printable cards that your guests will surely love. In recent years Paper So Pretty has emerged as a reputed brand for stylish, elegant and funny invitation cards. The journey of SanLori invitations cards began in the year 1996. This is a nationally recognized company which creates various exciting invitation cards for all occasions. For an unforgettable and exciting birthday party you may try Stacy Claire Boyd birth announcements cards. The owner of the company is Stacy Claire Boyd herself. She started this company in 1985. Her design became so popular that she created many birthday invitation cards for celebrities including the birthday of Caroline Kennedy and Kathy Lee Gifford. If you want to buy the unique and nice-looking invitation cards from online card retailers then you will have to place the order through their website. The order will be sent to your house within few days. For personalization on the cards an additional charge will be included with the basic price.
Let me explain how easy it is to apply for payday loan with fastcashonline.com. I applied on their site online, and within a few minutes, I got approved. I was so surprised and thought there could be a gimmick. No, absolutely not! The next day, my requested loan amount sat nicely on my bank account. I still couldn’t forget the moment when I went to my payday loan agency to pay my account off yet without the need to re-borrow again. Now, I would only need to serve a single loan and that’s my payday loan online at fast cash online. I would definitely recommend fast cash online to all my friends since it makes a world of difference to me now.
Leasing, rather than buying, is a hot trend. In fact, nearly 40 percent of light trucks are leased these days. But is it really for you?
That depends. The big problem for hunters and fishermen is that at the end of the lease (typically 24 months), the lessee (that’s you) must pay for any “excess wear and tear” when the vehicle is returned. Given where we drive our trucks when we hunt and fish, you may find that your truck has a number of scratches or small dents.You will pay handsomely for this. You also may not be able to personalize the vehicle, if you want to add a roof rack, brush guard, auxiliary lights, an electric winch, and other bolt-on accessories, you need to find out whether the lessor (the finance company that owns the vehicle) will allow you to make modifications.
In some ways, leasing is a more complicated procedure than buying. There are many fmancial pitfalls, so you better do your homework before you sign on the dotted line. But a quick way to figure out if leasing may work for you is to answer the following questions:
Leasing may work for you if:
1. You prefer to drive a new, rather than old, truck;
2. You don’t mind making monthly payments;
3. You put less than 12,000 miles a year on your truck;
4. You don’t expose your truck to “excess wear and teat”
Leasing probably won’t work lbr you if:
1. You prefer to pay off the loan in frill and then drive the vehicle for several years thereafter;
2. You drive more than 12,000 miles per year;
3. You routinely drive into areas where brush, rocks, and other hazards can damage the vehicle.
Federal, state, and local governments have established regulatory agencies to enforce laws. At the federal level, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) wields the broadest powers of any agency to influence marketing activities. It has the authority to enforce laws regulating unfair business practices and can take action to stop false and deceptive advertising. The Federal Communications Commission regulates communication by wire, radio, and television. Other federal regulatory agencies include the Food and Drug Administration, the Consumer Products Safety Commission, the Federal Power Commission, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The FTC uses several procedures to enforce laws. It may issue a consent order through which a business accused of violating a law can agree to voluntary compliance without admitting guilt. If a business refuses to comply with an FTC request, the agency can issue a cease-and-desist order, which gives a final demand to stop an illegal practice. Firms often challenge cease-and- desist orders in court. The FTC can require advertisers to provide additional information about products in their advertisements, and it can force firms using deceptive advertising to correct earlier claims with new promotional messages. In some cases, the FTC can require a firm to give refunds to consumers misled by deceptive advertising.
The FTC and US. Justice Department can stop mergers if they believe the proposed acquisition will reduce competition by making it harder for new companies to enter the field. In recent years, these agencies have taken a harder line on proposed mergers, especially in the computer, telecommunications, financial services, and health-care sectors.
Removing regulation also affects the marketing environment. Deregulation of the telecommunications and utilities industries has changed the competitive picture considerably. No longer do utilities have the exclusive right to operate within a territory. As Figure 2.5 reveals, natural gas utilities like Mobile Gas compete with the local electric company in supplying homeowners and businesses with energy needs for heating, cooling, and preparing meals. Because of deregulation, they also compete with other gas companies. Since 1993, natural gas distributors have been able to send gas through local pipelines, similar to the way long-distance phone companies use local lines and compete with other companies around the country. The Archdiocese of Chicago saved $8 million by purchasing gas from Houston’s Enron Corp. rather than its local utilities. Customers of KN Energy in southeastern Wyoming can choose from among 12 competing gas companies.
This kind of restructuring in the utility industry after 90 years of monopoly will affect many different sectors. If power costs drop the expected 20 percent due to deregulation of the generation process, businesses and individuals will have more money to spend on other things. Competition will improve efficiency in what had become a complex and inefficient market. Consolidation of the industry will increase due to mergers between utility companies.
The latest round of deregulation brought the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This law removed barriers between local and long-distance phone companies and cable companies. It allowed the seven regional Bell operating companies and GTE Corp. to offer long- distance service; at the same time, long-distance companies—such as AT&T, WorldCom, and Sprint that control over 90 percent of this market—gained authority to offer local service. Cable companies can offer phone service, and phone companies can get into the cable business. The change promises huge rewards for competitive winners. Just capturing 20 percent of the local calling market, for example, is worth $15 billion to $20 billion per year to AT&T.
Begin with the home’s surroundings. You’re not just buying the house, you’re also buying into a community and a neighborhood. What’s around the house can be as important as what’s inside it. Consider the street on which the home is located, as well as the other streets with the six blocks or so on all sides. Do the homes and yards appear to be well cared for? The condition of nearby properties will affect the value of the house you buy. If the houses around yours are in poor repair, you should be concerned about what’s happening in the neighborhood. Maybe it’s a down-and-out area that’s on its way back up; on the other hand, it may be heading down. Make sure you know which way the trends are moving. What kind of area is it in? Is it exclusively residential, or are there commercial uses as well? How much space is there between houses? What amenities — shopping, movies, transportation, parks, schools, churches, and so on — are close by? Are there any other developments planned for the area? If one of the things you like is the open space nearby, see if you can find out who owns the land and whether it’s likely to stay open. This is the time to discover that a developer plans to build a 200- home subdivision across the road, or that the state has selected the nice field at the foot of the hifi as the site of its new waste- treatment facility. All of these questions about the neighborhood are of concern to you not only as a prospective buyer, which you are today, but as a prospective seller, which you may be in the future. Don’t say about potential problems, “I guess we could live with them,” without also asking, “But what about other people — the ones we might want to sell to later on?” So if you’re interested in a neighborhood, find out as much as you can about it. A real-estate broker should be able to provide basic information about market trends, development plans, and the like. But count on doing some research on your own. Now’s a good time to start reading the community newspapers — the supermarket “throwaways” as well as the wider-circulation dailies and weeklies. Grab anything you can find that might give you a better idea of what it would be like to live in the area. This is how you might discover, for example, that a regional shopping center is in the works nearby or, in a less positive vein, that the local schools have lost their accreditation or that local property taxes are going to be revalued for the first time in twent’ years (which means they’re likely to jump).
Make sure your research on the neighborhood includes the other people living there. Is the area full of two-career families, leaving it practically deserted during the day? That might be a drawback to a new mother who’s going to be at home with her child. Families with children typically like to live in areas where there are other children living nearby. It’s true that you can’t really know how you’re going to like a neighborhood until you live there, but you can ask other people how they like living there. One very good question to ask some of your prospective neighbors is simply, “If you had it to do over again, would you still buy a house in this area?”
In the course of evaluating your options, some of you may find yourselves in a position to consider whether to buy an existing home or to build a new one. The appeal of building your dream home can be hard to resist. The paint is fresh, the systems are unused and probably covered by warranties, and, most important, you decide on the materials to be used, the layout of the rooms, and the size of the closets. From a cost-efficiency standpoint, however, you stand to get significantly more house for your money by buying a previously owned and occupied house.
These are the key points:
1. Square foot for square foot, an existing house is cheaper than a freshly built new home. In 1987 the median price of new homes nationally was approximately $105,000, while the median price of existing homes was about $87,000.
2. An existing home has the additional advantage of being something of a known quantity. You don’t have to guess what the utility costs will be, because the people who are already living there can tell you. If there are structural problems in an occupied ñouse — a leaky roof or a damp basement, for example -
can find out about them before making the deal and moving in. As the first occupant of a new home, you’ll be the one to discover all its hidden flaws.
3. Building generally requires undeveloped land, which is scarce almost everywhere and virtually nonexistent in some of the major markets.
4. Financing a land purchase can be a problem, since in many areas lenders prefer not to get involved in land deals. You may have to buy the lot outright.
5. Managing any kind of building project is a headache. No matter what the project — whether it’s rehabbing a kitchen or building a new home from scratch — there always seems to be a force at work that causes every job to take three times as long and to cost twice as much as planned. Finding reliable workers who do quality work can prove to be a challenge, and scheduling and supervising their work even more so. You can hire a general contractor to ride herd, which is expensive, or you can do the supervising yourself, which is vexatious, time-consuming, and usually more difficult than people who aren’t in the business typically assume.
6. A house isn’t going to be perfect just because it’s new. A shoddily built home will mean an endless stream of problems large and small, from a leaky roof to a heating system that breaks down to a stairway that sways. Even in well-constructed homes, settling can cause walls to crack. New systems often have to be debugged, and even small problems can seem worse because you were expecting perfection.
7. Scheduling occupancy is more likely to be a problem with a newly built house than with an existing one. The pressure can get intense when you know you have to be out of your current apartment by an impending date and the contractors are still putting up staging and waiting for materials.
Building a new home can also be a brilliant solution. You may have a special shot at a choice piece of land. You may be living in a region where builders are desperate for work. You may be in a position in which financial factors are not constraining. If so, good luck and God speed.
But if you’re among the almost 90 percent of new homeowners who buy existing homes, then let’s move on to the business of sizing up houses that are already standing.
In recent years, headlines have publicized unethical conduct by several well-known businesses. In 1999, Microsoft Corp., which owns more than 90 percent of the PC operating-systems software market, was convicted of violating antitrtist laws by abusing its monopoly to stifle competition and harm consumers. Magazine subscription offers from such direct-marketing giants as American Family Publishers and Publishers Clearing House containing announcements like “You’re our newest winner!” confused a number of recipients, prompting a series of lawsuits and investigations by government agencies, and led to more stringent regulations of such sweepstakes. The U.S. Department ofJustice investigated allegations of global price fixing and other illegal activities by agribusiness giant Archer-Daniels-Midland. Despite these and other alleged breaches of ethical standards, most businesspeople do follow ethical practices. Over half of all major corporations now offer ethics training to employees, and most corporate mission statements include pledges to protect the environment, contribute to communities, and improve workers’ lives. In some cases, only media attention and pressure from consumers motivate companies to implement social responsibility programs.
Such programs often produce such benefits as improved customer relationships, increased employee loyalty, marketplace success, and improved financial performance. Technology is also playing a role in helping companies like Ford Motor Co. do the right thing. Every Ford vehicle is made from 75 percent recycled materials, ranging from old soda bottles and beer cans to telephones and tires—even old personal computers. They are melted down into brand-new parts like splash shields, lamp bodies, and battery housings. The steel Ford recycles would build 200 Eiffel towers a year, and the 2-liter bottles it converts would fill a 400 acre lake. Ford believes it makes good business sense, but saving money is secondary to saving the planet.
Many companies of all types and sizes sponsor community-based programs. Phillips Petroleum’s commitment to reducing air pollution is illustrated in Figure 1.10 in which they show that by reducing sulfur emissions, not only does the human race benefit, but so do animals and vegetation. Because ethics and social responsibility are important topics to marketers, each chapter in this book includes an experiential exercise called “Solving an Ethical Controversy.” For example, this chapter’s feature presents pro and con arguments about whether marketers should use hidden cameras at public events to assess shopping habits of prospective customers.