Autism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Autism - Essay Example Generally individuals afflicted with this neurological condition have difficulty in social interaction and communication. Repetitive and obsessive behavior frequently occurs, as individuals with autism will oftentimes develop intense and focused interests in specific subject matter. A number of theories have emerged regarding the origins and causes of autism. One of the newly emergent theories involves considerations of the individual’s biological clock. Within this mode of understanding, autism is understood as a timing disorder wherein individuals have difficulty determining communication timing. One important consideration in this context of investigation is that of the biological clock. Theorists have explored notions regarding biological clock genes regulating neuronal oscillators in the brain that potentially affect the timing problems of autism. There has been research that has supported this hypothesis, with findings noting that, â€Å"Two Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are enriched in clock genes in DNA obtained from autistic children† (‘Autism’, ppt). The two nucleotides referred to are the Period-1 (Per-1) and the NPAS2. Still, these nucleotides are in non-coding segments, complicating their potential as causing a d isorder. Recognizing the challenge of non-coding nucleotide mutations contributing to a disorder such as autism, researchers have explored the microRNA ("Micrornas provide new," 2011). In these regards, RNA forms secondary nucleotide structures. The miRNA functions through recognizing a seed sequence, as 7 nucleotides at 5’ end binds to a 3’ end of target. Notably, there are basepairing consequences that occur in relation to the microRNA functioning. Among these consequences include the degradation of the mRNA target, a block in translation resulting in new mechanisms of action, and subsequently new data that can activate translation. This is central to the understanding of autism as related to the human’s biological

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 5

Assignment Example This process of accommodation is known as Homeostasis. All living things respond to a stimulus that is a given force or energy form. This energy is formed though a combination of sunlight and chemical energy. The whole process involves chemical energy that in turn lead to certain reactions. This can be related or human body can be used as specimen. As man continues with his struggle of maintaining diet, vitamins have remained one of the darlings that he always seeks. The scientists have considered vitamins as having relatively equal importance, to that of carbohydrates and proteins, in maintaining the life of man. Its importance led the scientist into studying deeply what the vitamins may comprise. This leads to the categorization of the vitamins into types depending on how they contribute to the life of man. Among the categories included vitamin c also known as ascorbic acid. The characteristics of the ascorbic acid, as a compound, contribute to its uses in the life of man. Some of the known characteristics include less stable, soluble in water, only slightly stable in acids and presence potent. Human or nature contributes to the sources of the ascorbic acid in the daily life activities. ... The following is the structure of vitamin C Ascorbic acid/isoascorbic acid exists on earth as radicals at a physiological ph. As indicated in the structure, the ascorbic acid has unpaired electrons contribute by the C atom. The differences between the two radicals occur when there is application of the electron spin technique. The compound radical forms a cyclic structure composed of hydrogen bonds between the carbon atoms and oxygen atoms, and carbon atom to HO (Kastner, 2). The hydrogen bonds surround the sodium ion in ascorbyl radical while in isoascorbyl the bonds surround the potassium ion. Both of the radicals are electroneutral especially when considering the reasoning that they comprise sodium and potassium. The presence of glutathione normally triggers the action, which alters the electronic configuration of the carbon atom back to its original value of 4 (Biophys, 207). This together with the electroneutral properties allows for the transportation through of sodium and the potassium ion through the membrane. The optimum temperature for the function of the radicals is approximately 370C while it has a neutral ph at around 7. The temperature and the ph features always occur at the physiological values. Considering the physiological conditions, there is the presence of the specific enzyme systems, which helps in maintaining the stability of balance between the two radicals (ASC and Iso-ASC) and their corresponding semi- and fully oxidized states (Biophys, 207). The balance of these two (forming the mechanism of complex redox) helps in ensuring that there are suitable physiological conditions. The unbalance between the two may form a platform for the occurrence of many diseases. Uses and application They

Global Culture And Cultural Imperialism Media Essay

Global Culture And Cultural Imperialism Media Essay Some scholars believe that globalization is a process that human race constantly across the spatial barriers, institutional, cultural and other social barriers so that we can achieve fully communication (material and informational) on a global scale and reach more consensus and joint-action. This process is a multi-dimensional, both unified and diverse and constantly conflictive. On this basis, the â€Å"cultural globalization† is considered as a process of looking for cultural integration and sharing within the conflict and the unity, which means all national cultures through the exchange, integration, infiltration and complementarity continually break their own cultural patterns and geographic limitations and move towards the world; continuously go beyond the boundaries of the national culture and get cultural identity under human judgments; constantly change the national cultural resources into human sharing resources. This kind of process is a formation and evolution of fo rce. In this way, â€Å"globalization† seems to be such a force, which is the source of capitalist countries in Europe and now mainly is the United States. They are in an attempt to maximally transform or digest the various differences or conflicts of the worlds national culture into the same. However we have to clarify that culture, which is the human-specific phenomenon, as the crystallization of human civilization and progress, permeates through all areas of social life. It plays an irreplaceable effect for the people to foster a correct world outlook, philosophy of life, conception of history and sense of worth. National culture is the soul of a nation and the spiritual symbol. It is the core of culture. Any nations culture, including mode of production, social structure, ideology, religion, ethics, customs etc, is the sign of the existence of this nation and the premise of continuation of development. In the context of globalization, the reason cultural diversity still can be maintained is because this closely linked by national independence maintaining. One of the basic characteristics of culture is ethnicity. This is the cornerstone for this nationality based on the worlds nations. If one nation completely denies their own cultural traditions, loses the national self-confidence, and is willing to accept the alien to assimilation, it is the beginning of this nations decline. Once any kind of culture losing their national identity, it does not exist as an independent culture any longer. Establishing of the so-called globalization which are dominated by one specific kind of culture, its essence is to implement a cultural hegemony. It is a typical cultural imperialism. The term of â€Å"cultural imperialism† is one of the numbers of terms emerging in the 1960s to criticize of society in a radical-spirit way. Since then this term is widely used by the intelligentsia. However its definition and connotation has always been fragmented and ambiguous. The referent is extremely broad and similar to one another in a high degree. This term came originally from the mixture of two words culture and imperialism, and these two words in itself is extremely complicated and prone to doubt. The objective for synthesis of this word is to provide a concept which is similar with a protective umbrella, meanwhile it accommodates a very a wide range of topics. In certain circumstances, it can be defined as: â€Å"The use of political and economic power to exalt and spread the values and habits of a foreign culture at the expense of a native culture† (Tomlinson, 1991). Such a definition itself tends to think that the essence of cultural imperialism is to pro mote and spread the values in the habit, and in this process, â€Å"political† and â€Å"economic† power only plays an instrumental role. However, many of the discussion about cultural imperialism, in fact, more emphasize on the significance of economic role. While all cultural factors, but is a tool, is one used to support political and economic domination. In other words, the process of the imperialist countries controls other countries is cultural advanced. The imperialist countries export to other countries cultural forms of supporting the imperialist relations, and then complete the state of the imperial domination. Just like American scholar Jameson pointed out in 1986 that the First World countries master the worlds cultural output initiative. They can mandatorily indoctrinate their own values and ideologies to the Second World through media. At the same time however, the disadvantaged and marginalized Third World countries can only passively accept. Their cultu ral heritage is at risk, and their cultural values and ideologies are under constant infiltration as well. The aggression and infiltration of the First World culture provoked opposition from Third World culture, and the struggle against cultural colonial and hegemony which resulting the cultural conflict is inevitable. For a curtain period, many countries from Europe to the Americas, from Africa to Asia, a lot of new content have been appearing for the popular culture and daily life. Jeans, McDonalds, rock and roll, Hollywood blockbusters, or even the Western middle-class lifestyle, taste and pursuit, etc., have been becoming the new kind of fashion. People enjoy the Western civilization through eating, drinking and being merry; accept unconsciously the edification and influence of Western culture. Such cultural infiltration is more effective than the wars using of aircraft and missiles. Some cultural infiltration could lead many countries lose not only their national identity, but themselves as well, and then accept the Western values and institutions involuntarily. The external violence, such as missiles, is not very terrible, but more frightening than the missile is the economic and cultural which is a sort of subtle and underhanded soft knife. If the old imperialism mainly used guns to conquer the world and enslave the weak peoples, the â€Å"cultural imperialism† in virtue of cultural infiltration, quietly conquers the hearts of people from other countries and allows them to consciously obey the superpower hegemony. In the context of economic globalization, any country with the independent cultural tradition must safeguard their own cultural tradition, cultural benefits and cultural security by taking positive measures. Many countries and even some western developed countries use â€Å"multi-polar cultural theory† to against American â€Å"unilateral cultural strategy†. For instance, in 1989, the European Parliament passed through the â€Å"Television without Frontiers Directive (TVWF)† to ensure the playing time for the European film and television works; At the same time EU determined the six standards of â€Å"cultural exception†; In 1993, France, Canada and other countries in the Uruguay Round negotiations put forward the â€Å"cultural exception† concept which states that cultural exports should be treated differently than other goods in trade negotiations because national cultures should be protected. In my point of view, economic globalization and economic integration is indeed a tide and trend which cannot be stopped. However in contrast, the culture probably cannot be fully integrated. Generally speaking, there are both globalization and integration factors for culture, but also exist factors that cannot be completely globalized and integrated. The anti-globalization demonstration in Seattle and the protest by German people when the U.S. president visiting to Germany demonstrated that even in the west itself, there are widespread anti-globalization voices. Culture is far beyond the simple material production. It is a more advanced and more complex human spirit activity. The cultural homogenization which right followed of globalization should not be prematurely optimistic estimated. However these issues are well worth pondering: what aspects of culture is the ability to globalize and integrate; what are not the factors? To answer these questions, a special study on â€Å"culture† should be necessary. First of all, there is a commonality side between human feelings and ideas. In the process of creating its own history, human beings also create their own spiritual and emotional world. Although for the different regions and different ethnic people, their display form for the emotional and other spiritual activities are varied, there are some common areas that are communicable and blended with each other. Only in this way, humans can be closely linked rather than gapped. In this sense, cultural globalization is feasible and should be. Secondly on the other hand, factors for culture which cannot be globalized and integrated still should not be ignored. These cultural factors constitute the core of the different national cultures. Language is one of such cultural factors. Language is the carrier of any culture; moreover also constitute the core of different cultures. We can see that the globalization of strong languages, such as English, is contributing to the demise of many minority languages. In nowadays, about 20 kinds of languages are disappearing around the world every year. With the disappearance of these languages, those related natural cultures of disadvantaged groups have been becoming extinct. What is more, discussing literature and art is inseparable with the language. For a nations culture, literature is the most distinctive and ethnic. If the language can be globalized, in addition to those nations who use strong languages, the literature works with other languages will also completely eliminate as the languages disappearing. Language for literature is not just a medium. Disappearance of the various and colorful national languages could lead the spirit of literature to be sameness and narrow. The demise of literature which is the most characteristic is a symbol of the demise of the national culture. Therefore linguistic, as the core element of culture is not possible to or should not be integrated. The idea of cultural globalization is not able to fully become a reality. On the one hand, it is a consequence of increasingly frequent cultural exchanges in the process of economic integration; it is a real-life activity within an era of communication and dialogue. On the other hand, different cultures must keep their own unique contents and large or small differences, so that it can be able to communicate and dialogue. Homogenization of culture, unlike the process of economic activities, is not straightforward. It has many extremely important and unintegrated factors. Moreover, cultural diversity is a basis for the harmoniously existence of human civilization world. In the same way, diversity of literature and arts make a healthy and vibrant future. However at the same time, we have to admit that a fact that cultural globalization is an irresistible historical trend. The reason is decided by the cultures own characteristics. The cultures all have their own roots and soil of survival and development. They inevitably have regional, local, special and relatively stationary characteristics. Once the national cultures abandon their traditional forms, thus it means giving up their history and losing the foundation and conditions for further development. Meanwhile, the cultures possess universal, dynamic, penetrative and expansive features as well. Although culture always manifested itself through the specific form of history, showing of human nature, strength and scale aspects during the activities of human beings changing the world also outlines the indispensable common elements of different nationalities and different cultural systems. Any culture, regardless how unique the form is or how varied the content is, is based on certain modes of production and a certain form of society. Any variety of large or small size of cultural system subordinates to the â€Å"mother system†. It has the most general feature of culture, which is the bi-directional convective. This characteristic determines any kind of national culture is the unity of the static and dynamic. It is both single and diverse; it belongs with both nation and the whole world. The â€Å"aboriginality† for any local culture, in fact, is only a relatively significance. At the present day, as the earth becoming a village, the trend of â€Å"one world one family† is increasingly obvious. Cultural globalization has become an unstoppable tide. Cultural globalization, in brief, is that while economic globalization, the local culture opening active dialogues to the exotic culture with an open posture, developing and replenishing itself during the mutual exchange. So that the global culture can present that both unity and diversity, univers ality and uniqueness can be accomplished without coming into conflict. In short, inexistence of the state of cultural isolation, interdependence and development of multi-culture, and co-existence of the particularity of local culture and the universality of the worlds culture constitute the organic content of the cultural globalization. It can be seen that cultural globalization must not be understood as an assimilation of different global cultures or â€Å"westernization†. On the other hand, it precisely shows a kind of scene that the world multi-cultural existing at the same time, interacting with each other and mutual constructing. Apart from this, with the trend of cultural globalization, there is an objective necessity for the various ethnic, regional and major cultural systems to occur â€Å"value conflicts† within the interaction. It is because different cultural patterns producing different culture bred factors, and they all have their own quality requirements and the specific scope of application. Therefore the â€Å"value confl icts† generated in the multi-cultural interaction is normal and inevitable. Undeniably, the entirely different cultural patterns formed under differentiation can create an advantage. On the other hand, occupying a higher position, including all of the cultural differences together could maintain an advantage as well. An Indian religion organization named â€Å"Baba† or can be said â€Å"Zaire† is a great example. The logo for â€Å"Baba† is a flower composed of two-layer petals and each layer contains 5 petals. Inside the 5 petals involves all kinds of the identity of the worlds major religions: Hinduism Europe Mother Fu, Christian Cross, Zoroastrianism fire, Islam Crescent and Buddhism The Wheel of Dharma. Each of the traditional logo is the product under the cross-culture, creation and new meaning. Such a strategy holds all the different religions that come from various cultures into one same faith: â€Å"Religion is only one, which is love; Language is only one, which is soul; Race is only one, which is human; God is only one, which is self†. This compatible spirit of the universe make â€Å"Baba† expand to the whole world, and its followers, including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Mauritius, etc., have set up a total of more than 2,000 centers in 137 countries. In this case, it is no doubt that â€Å"Baba† is also a perfect successful example indicating the importance of creativity for cultural integration. Globalization has both advantages and disadvantages. Whether the globalization can benefit on national cultures development primarily depends on the definition of â€Å"globalization†. If the â€Å"globalization† aims to make a variety of culture develop and prosper jointly, that globalization is undoubtedly useful; if â€Å"globalization† is to make the western culture to dominate the development of entire world culture or advocate the â€Å"cultural imperialism†, this â€Å"globalization† is not acceptable from a cultural perspective. The impact of cultural globalization has big drawbacks on small nations. Under the powerful impact of globalization, the weak nations must give serious thoughts in order to avoid losing of autonomy for their local culture, and even assimilating by foreign cultures. Reference: Hamm, B. (2005). Cultural imperialism. Broadview Press. Jameson, F., (1986). Third-World Literature in an Era of Multinational Capitalism. Tomlinson, J., (1991). Cultural Imperialism. London: Printer. Yuanzi H., Xiaoyuan X.,(1998). Globalization and China. Beijing: CCTP.

An Economic Intrepration Of Th :: essays research papers fc

Economics is a way of life: The Lottery is not A lottery is something that many people would be very excited to win. Most people think of a huge cash reward for winning a lottery. The thought of millions of dollars being awarded just because they picked your name is very exciting. In most cases, the possibility of winning one of these great lotteries is very slim; you would have a better chance of being hit by lightning. Shirley Jackson writes about a lottery that took place in a small farming community consisting of a meager 300 people. The probability of winning this lottery is good; you would have a one in three hundred chance of winning. The lottery is there to insure the season’s crops. If you were “lucky'; enough to be chosen, you would be sacrificed to the gods. This sacrifice would involve the townspeople directing you towards the middle of a circle and proceeding to throw rocks at you until death. Everybody seems happy with the results of this yearly tradition until they are chosen for the stoning. Before the lottery, people are joking and gathering like it was a party. Once the “lucky'; participant has been chosen their cries of compromise are let out and this has no effect on the crowd at hand. Being one of the stoners, you are unwilling to recognize the screams of pain and the sights of blood. This sacrifice ensures the town’s economic success and their ability to feed the families. Crops are the lives of these families and if they fail there may not be enough food to feed this small town.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Killing one person a year to theoretically save the lives of three hundred people does not seem that bad. Sure the town’s people may follow this cruel tradition blindly, but how are they to know if the sacrifice is actually saving their crops or not? They keep on with their traditions because one bad year could wipe out the whole town. This town is run on economic success and a tradition that is not to be broken. The ability to follow cruel traditions without any remorse for the damage that has been done has a type of cult mentality. The economic well-being for this town is important, but is it important enough to follow a 100 year old tradition which, logically, does not help the crop condition one bit?

Race as a Social Construct

Race as a Social Construct Omi and Winant’s discussion from â€Å"Racial Formations† are generally about race being a social construct and is also demonstrated in the viewing of Race – The power of an illusion. Omi and Winant have both agreed that race is socially constructed in society. Ultimately this means that race is seen differently in different societies and different cultures. Media, politics, school, economy and family helps alter society’s structure of race. In the viewing , also media as well as history seemed to create race by showing how social norms have evolved in different racial groups.For example, â€Å"Rules shaped by our perception of race in a comprehensively racial society determine the presentation of self, distinction of status, and appropriate modes of conduct† (Omi and Winant 20). In other words, people tend to make their own rules for categorizing racial groups. We humans (usually more powerful ones) have set these arbitra ry divisions and then call them real. Race is defined differently within each culture. For example, as explained in the viewing, people in Africa see a person that is white in the United States as black.This because they define their races by socioeconomic status not the color of ones skin. Race is a social construction. And as a social construction, race functions as a source of management that sustains the importance of certain groups and the maintenance of other groups. This concept only becomes reality when people behave in ways that perpetuate subordination. Race should be expressed as a concept but unfortunately people misuse race. Race has now replaced the older concept of culture.As a concept race came to be defined by superficial attributes like hair type and skin color. â€Å"Film and television, for example, have been notorious in disseminating images of racial minorities which establish for audiences what people from these groups look like, how they behave and who they are†(Omi and Winant 23). Race is just an idea and or a biological myth. According to the viewing , humans don’t differ much genetically. Actually humans are genetically the most similar species. Why are humans so genetically alike?Humans have not existed long enough and have yet to evolve into various subspecies. â€Å"Race is indeed a pre-eminently socio-historical concept† (Omi and Winant 21). So race is historically made and not biologically. There is nothing real about race, a social construct, unlike a river which is absolute. A river will escist regardless of people thinking, agreeing or accepting that it does exist. Race requires people to collectively agree that it does exist , unlike a river. Although race does not exist in the world in an objective way, it still is relevant in today’s society.It is obvious that race is real in society and it affects the way we view others as well as ourselves. Race is a social construct that is produced by the su perior race and their power to regulate. â€Å"The category of ‘white’ was subject to challenges brought about by the influx of diverse groups who were not of the same Anglo-Saxonstock as the founding immigrants† (Omi and Winant 24). Frankly, ‘white’ was the norm, the others were considered an outcast. The dominant group in society are the one whom created restriction for group membership by defining race as a biological factor. White is seen as a ‘pure’ category†, as stated in the reading (Omi and Winant 21). Those who were ‘black’ were biologically inferior to a ‘white’ person. This is how the color line became about. Because of the color line , race was used to justify the captivity of the vastly growing free ‘black’ population early in United States society. â€Å"Differences in skin color and other obvious physical characteristics supposedly provide visible clues to differences lurking u nderneath† (Omi and Winant 23).The existence of racial ideology helps create racial sterotypes and myths. For example, in the viewing it was pointed out that American Jews reportedly dominated basketball during the first half of the 1900s. However , now it seems as if African Americans dominate the NBA. Concepts like ‘Black athletic superiority’ is the belief ‘black’ people have traits that have been acquired through genetic or een environmental factors. These factors help them excel over all other races in athletic competitions.The theories of racial differences and their possible effect on athletic ability have been noticed since the nineteenth century. More interests were attracted to the subject soon after the 1935 Track Championships, were Jesse Owen’s record breaking performance had shocked white Americans. â€Å"Temperament, sexuality, intelligence, athletic ability, aesthetic preferences and so on are presumed to be fixed and discernib le from the palpable mark of race† (Omi and Winant 23). The dominant group in society has always defined race which sets every other race inferior.Race creates many differences in social status. Status is indicated by race. This can either include or exclude people from more social constructs. This can also prevent or allow certain powers or privileges. Race is a social construct fueled by agreement and acceptance. Throughout history race has been the core of our society. It is vital that people begin to realize that race is and will always be â€Å"an unstable and ‘de centered’ complex of social meanings constantly being transformed by political struggle† (Omi and Winant 26).

Logoplaste

Universidade Catolica Portuguesa Faculdade de Ciencias Economicas Empresariais Corporate Strategy Unilever’s ice cream brand Portfolio Students: Maria Ines Galhardo, n? 150106011 Claudia Filipe, n? 150106026 Ricardo Lloret, n? 150106111 Joana Rodrigues dos Santos, n? 150106123 Diogo Sousa, n? 150106125 In order to draw the BCG matrix, we started by collecting some data. Based on the Datamonitor Market Report 2006 (appendix 1), we were able to calculate the total ice cream’s market value of 2008.We made the choice to do the work for the year 2008 because the present year has not already ended. Thus it was only possible to calculate estimated values for 2008. Market value: (212. 8-161)/4 = 12. 95 million per year 161 + (12. 95*2) = 186. 9 million in 2008 With the objective of studying Unilever’s principal products, we had to take into account Nestle (Unilever’s biggest competitor). We chose one equal competitor for each group of ice creams we thought were mo re important (appendix 2). Among all ice creams of Unilever, we focused on the ones that had a direct competitor in Nestle.This is why we did not choose Carte D’or or Solero, we thought that its competitors were not as obvious as the others. We assumed then that the market shares from Unilever and Nestle were the same as in 2006 (appendix 3). These values will enable us to estimate market values for each company and afterwards to calculate market shares and values for each product. We determined the division of the market in four segments: Super premium, Premium, Regular and Economy. The segments were chosen according to a price/quality ratio for each product we took into account (Appendix 4).The different market shares for each segment were estimated assuming that the super premium products would be a market niche with a small part of the market; the premium would be the most part and regular and economy would have similar market shares but smaller. Then, we estimated also p roportions for the different products we took into account. Both Unilever and Nestle have 2 different market shares since we assumed that they value different products in different segments. The percentages are Unilever Economy 20% Super premium 5% Regular 15% Premium 60%The premium segment was divided in three different products with different proportions for Unilever and Nestle. Considering that we only studied one product in some segments, we considered the whole segment share for these ones and for the regular we regarded as to have other ice creams besides Calippo that we did not include (we took them into account as â€Å"others†). 3 Unilever – Premium Viennetta 17% Cornetto 43% Magnum 40% Nestle – Premium Tarte Carolina 19% Nestle 43% Extreme 38% Trough the division of the market, we were able to attribute to each product the market share inside its own company.Splitting the different segments, we multiplied the total percentage of the segment to the shar e of each product inside this segment (Appendix 5). For the growth of each product, we assumed values based on the growth of each segment (Appendix 6). Finally, to calculate the relative market shares, we had to divide Unilever’s market share for each product by Nestle’s market share for the respective competitor (Appendix 7). 4 5 Unilever Brand Portfolio: ? Cornetto – It is a premium product that is present in most of the restaurants and cafes in Portugal.Cornetto is a cash cow and yours best seller and that is why we did not consider having a big growth rate. We assumed that this ice cream is already in the desired place in the market for Unilever. Therefore the investments are not very high and it has a big return. ? Magnum – This represents the second best product of your company, also premium and with high sales. However, it is a relatively young brand, only created in 1990, that needs a higher investment than Cornetto to establish itself in the mark et.Strong investments in new products like the temptations or limited editions like 7 sins and marketing & communication plans make this brand a star. ? Viennetta – This is a premium product only sold in restaurants and supermarkets therefore its market share isn’t very big. Although the brand is old and as a take home product it is very popular, not many people buy Viennetta because the take home ice cream market is smaller and most of the purchases are impulse. According to the case study on â€Å"Global ice cream:Nestle goes on attack†, the premium segment is growing up to 3% and since this brand is known by everybody there isn’t a great need to spend many resources on it. Occasional new flavors were added, however without great success. Still, it is a cash cow and therefore a good product because of its growth rate. ? Kids – This category integrates all the children directed products of your company, such as Perna de Pau, Super Maxi, Epa and Mi ni-Milk, which are cheap products specially directed to children with high levels of milk and calcium.It belongs to the economic segment, therefore, also according to the article mentioned above, the market growth is almost static. In this segment the competition is stronger, because Nestle makes associations with known brands such as Smarties and Kit Kat, appealing to kid’s attention. The strong 6 investment that the competitors make on this category justifies why Ola is not the leader in it, making it a Dog but still having recent investments and trying to have a bigger market share. Calippo – This product represents the water-based products on your company, it is quite old and there is little differentiation between it and its competitors because there isn’t much space to evolve and innovate, therefore people won’t see significant differences between the value of each brand. There is small investment in this brand and low revenues, and since it is inte grated in the regular ice cream segment its growth is small or even static, thus making it a dog also. Ben & Jerry’s – This is your offer regarding the Super-Premium market segment, with high quality, high price ice creams with different flavors and colorful presentations. This brand is not yet very well-known and has a low market share because it targets a small market and it is yet in a phase of brand recognition. The company has to spend a lot of money in marketing campaigns to make the brand recognized by everyone and also in the research to find new flavors.According to the case study this market segment is expected to grow up to 6% and all this makes this brand a question mark or a problematic child. One problem for this brand in Portugal is that it is mainly sold in Ben and Jerry’s own stores, which are not many and being a recent brand it is difficult to make people know the locations of the stores. Brand Portfolio Recommendations: According to the BCG m atrix your brand portfolio is well balanced, due to you having products in the different quadrants and in different stages of the lifecycle.Magnum, Cornetto and Viennetta are very profitable brands that support the less profitable brands of your company. However, it is not recommended to drop the other brands because your company needs to be 7 present in every segment in order to compete. This will increase brand awareness and reach more customers. Having this in mind, instead of decreasing any brands, you should increase some and adjust others. ? In addition we believe that your company should include low fat products directed to people that want to enjoy ice cream but don’t want the downsides of it.By providing these low caloric and low fat products your company will be covering an important segment that are the women, that according to the Key Note (page 53) are greater ice cream consumers than man, with increasingly focus on image not only in terms of self esteem but also on professional and personal related matters. Ben & Jerry’s should create a new range of products with some versions of their best sellers in a low caloric way trying to maintain their original flavor. The other brands should adopt the same strategy and create at least one product with less calories. You should increase Ben & Jerry’s market share and brand recognition to transform this problematic child in a star product. An idea can be to create a version of their ice cream for impulse consuming, perhaps adopting a similar format to the magnum ice cream (ice cream on stick) and include this brand in the Ola selling points, thus reaching more consumers. ? Your companies’ Kids segment is not very well positioned and it is not the market leader. To change this situation it would be a good idea to arrange partnerships with other companies, such as confectionery brands and cartoon enterprises.You could create a partnership with known confectionery brands like Kinde r because it will benefit from the other company’s brand recognition with little effort and reach this market segment with better arguments to compete with Nestle. 8 ? On the other hand the company should make a research every six month to determine which are the more popular cartoons at the moment and create a new product that offers prizes related to those cartoons. The basic product should be a high calcium ice cream that changes its packaging and prizes according to the research results.By doing this you will be captivating children’s attention that most of the time is only directed to the appearance and also their parents because you are offering an ice cream that is good for the kid’s health and growth. ? To access the Portuguese market it a good idea to create a new brand that sells ice cream with the flavors of some of the better recognized typical sweets in Portugal, such as â€Å"doce d’ovos†, â€Å"arroz doce† and â€Å"pastel de nata†. This brand would be sold as a premium product in restaurants and supermarkets. Another idea to increase your brand portfolio is to create specifically 18+ products with alcoholic beverage flavors such as vodka, whisky and baileys with special focus on a regional beverage that is Oporto wine that is typically Portuguese. This product should be premium or superpremium and it should be sold not only on the usual channels such as fancy restaurants and supermarkets but also in bars and summer discos. 9 Appendixes Appendix 1 2006 Market Value Growth Market share Source: Datamonitor Market Report 2006 2011 212,8 million 5,7% (2006-2011) 53,9% 161 million 4,3%Appendix 2 Unilever Ben and Jerry's Magnum Cornetto Viennetta Calippo Kids Outros Nestle Nestle Gelataria Nestle Extreme Tarte Carolina Pirulo Kids Outros Appendix 3 Unilever Market share Market value 0,56 Nestle 0,13 186900000 104664000 24297000 10 Appendix 4 Segments Super Premium Premium Products Ben and Jerry's Magnum Cornetto Viennetta Regular Economic Calippo Ola kids Appendix 5 Unilever Market Share Amount of Sales (â‚ ¬) 5,00% 5. 233. 200 24,00% 25. 119. 360 25,80% 27. 003. 312 10,20% 10. 675. 728 5,00% 5. 233. 200 20,00% 20. 932. 800 10,00% 10. 466. 400 100,00% 104. 664. 000Ben and Jerry's Magnum Cornetto Viennetta Calippo Kids Outros Total Nestle Market share Amount of Sales (â‚ ¬) 8,00% 1. 943. 760 23,65% 5. 746. 240,5 20,90% 5. 078. 073 10,45% 2. 539. 036,5 6,00% 1. 457. 820 23,00% 5. 588. 310 8,00% 1. 943. 760 100% 24. 297. 000 Nestle Gelataria Nestle Extreme Tarte Carolina Pirulo Kids Outros Total 11 Appendix 6 Super Premium Premium Regular Economy Market Growth 6% 3% 1,50% 1,50% Source: Datamonitor Market Report 2006 Appendix 7 Relative Market share Ben and Jerry’s Magnum Cornetto Viennetta Calippo Kids Mean 0,63 1,01 1,23 0,98 0,83 0,87 0. 93 Market Growth 5,30% 2,90% 1,67% 1,90% 0,93% 1. 63% 2. 37% 12