McDonalds Corporation Essay -- GCSE Business Marketing BTEC Coursewor

McDonalds Corporation McDonald’s is the undisputed king of burgers. This has been the trend in the fast-food industry from their creation in the 1960’s to their massive growth in the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and now the new millennium. Over the past forty years, McDonald’s has fully taken advantage of their strengths but because of maturity in the fast food industry, more focus will have to be put on opportunities, weaknesses, and threats. Strengths. The first strength of McDonald’s has been their product strategy. Throughout the past three decades they have simply been a hamburger and fries Restaurant. Growing customer wants and needs along with increased competition has forced them to alter and improve their menu to better fit the environment. Factors such as growing competition and consumers becoming more health conscious have forced them to make these changes. Today McDonald’s offers a wide variety of products that consist of 26 items. Breakfast items include biscuit sandwiches, Egg McMuffin, hotcakes and sausage, sausage McMuffin with egg, and scrambled eggs. Sandwiches include the Big Mac, cheeseburger, Crispy Chicken Deluxe, Filet-O-Fish, Grilled Chicken Deluxe, Grilled Chicken Salad Deluxe, hamburger, Quarter Pounder, and the Quarter Pounder with cheese. Dessert items include baked apple pies, chocolate chip cookie, hot fudge sundae, ice cream cone, McFlurry, and milkshakes. Other items on the menu include the apple-bran muffin, Chicken McNuggets, French fries, Garden Salad, Happy Meals, soft drinks, and other beverages. Promotion has also been a strength for McDonald’s. They have always focused promotion around good food, friendly folks, and fun. They have also spent a considerable amount of money on promotional programs such as Monopoly, Happy Meals, and the Big Mac. In addition to these promotions, McDonald’s signed a ten-year contract with Disney combining promotions for food items with Disney movies. They also continue the successful Beanie Baby promotion that is credited as the company’s most successful promotion ever. On October 25 they introduced the American Trio Collection of Beanie Babies that celebrate the American Political Process. In addition to promotion, McDonald’s has also been successful at placing restaurants in every available position. The increase of outlets per year has re... ...ket. These restaurants have the ability to be expanded throughout the United States and provide a large amount of sales domestically. This will be growingly important as sales in current McDonald’s restaurants flatten. These restaurant chains may also have the ability to be expanded internationally depending on their success in the U.S. An opportunity that McDonald’s has not been taking advantage of is their environmental concerns. Recently McDonald’s was honored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for their conservation and recycling efforts. The EPA cited McDonald’s as the industry leader because of its continual review and evaluation of packaging materials. This is something that could be used in a promotional effort to better their image in consumers’ minds. It could be positioned directly against competitors to show that McDonald’s does care about the environment. McDonald’s has done well with establishing a plan for future growth and expansion. As long as they continue to build awareness for their other brands, expand internationally, and better manage product introduction in existing McDonald’s restaurants, they will continue to be number one.

The Effects of Slavery on African-Americans

Slavery obviously had no small affect on the lives of millions of African-Americans in America. Both the North and South had strict rules on how the race was placed in society, rules that placed them far beneath any social class in America. It could be said that even free slaves, could never actually be â€Å"free† due to a complete lack of social equality granted by the American Government. Blacks were treated as something less than a human being, something like a product; this product was sold and traded around the country, and was the basis of the entire country's economy.Working in the fields from dusk to dawn not only hindered African-American's physically, but also exhausted them in the social and mental aspects of life. Slavery affected the lives of African-Americans in the South and the North by hindering them socially, mentally, and physically. Socially, African-American's were at the complete bottom of the list. Even the backwoods, workless â€Å"hillbillies† who lived nearly as harsh of lives as the African-Americans did were well above the slaves in social aspects.African-Americans in the South were completely deprived of any sort of education, including the simple knowledge of reading and writing. Black schools in the North were much despised, in one case, a school dedicated to the teaching of African-Americans was drug into a pond by a group of local whites. Blacks, horribly mistreated had virtually no legal rights, and could not even testify against a white person in court. This meant that no matter how brutally a slave was beaten, he could not do a thing about it.The â€Å"free† blacks had little freedom also, and were treated as a kind of â€Å"third race† in society. These people were essentially slaves still, only without a master. Secondly, African-Americans were hindered very much in the mental aspect. Blacks had no hope of social mobility in their country and recognized this. This, to many blacks became a degrad ing truth. They also felt deprived of their dignity and responsibility in the world. Knowing all of these depressing truths, many blacks esentially gave up and stopped putting so much effort into their role in society.Thus began the stereotype of the â€Å"lazy† African-American, who did just enough to get by, or purposely destroyed machinery in hopes of dodging work. Treatment of blacks within the family varied, some blacks in the upper South were treated as family while blacks in the deep South were whipped and branded on a regular basis. Lastly, the most apparent type of abuse that the African-Americans had to deal with was the physical abuse. Blacks toiled in the fields of cotton from dusk to dawn during their long work days.Masters were allowed to punish their slaves as they pleased, allowing them to whip their slaves if they weren't pleased with their effort. The Government offered no real type of protection to slaves due to the law that forbidded any African-American t o testify against a white in court. Even African-Americans that were finally free had to fear that they may be recaptured at any moment, and they could do nothnig about it. In the North, blacks were definitely a rare race. The blacks that were seen were discriminated against significantly, some blacks weren't even allowed entrance to certain states!In conclusion, African-Americans were placed at the pit of society throughout the 19th century. They had virtually no rights, and were worked tirelessly for a lifetime. African-Americans were not only exhausted by physical work, but they were also beaten in the mental and social aspects. Blacks almost always kept hope, and used the idea of being a free black as motivation, though this third race didn't have such a well-off life either. Slavery affected the lives of African-Americans in the South and the North by hindering them socially, mentally, and physically.

Linear Equation and Boarding Rate

Linear Equations in the real world Problem 1)  A cab company charges a $3 boarding rate in addition to its meter which is $2 for every mile. What is  the equation of the line  that represents this cab company's rate? | Problem 2)  A cab company charges a $5 boarding rate in addition to its meter which is $3 for every mile. What is  the equation of the line  that represents this cab company's rate? | Slope of this line  : 3 y-intercept of line: 5 Equation of this line(slope intercept form)  : y = 3x +5 Problem 3)  A cab company charges a $3 boarding rate in addition to its meter which is $? for every mile. What is  the equation of the line  that represents this cab company's rate? | Slope of this line  : ? y-intercept of line: 3 Equation of this line(slope intercept form)  : y = ? x +3 Problem 4)  A cab company charges a $4 boarding rate in addition to its meter which is $ ? for every mile. What is  the equation of the line  that represents this cab company's rate? | Slope of this line  : ? y-intercept of line: 4 Equation of this line(slope intercept form)  : y = ? x + 4 Problem 5)  A cab company does not charge a boarding fee but then has a meter of $4 an hour. What  equation  represents this cab company's rate? | Slope of this line  : 4 y-intercept of line: 0 Equation of this line(slope intercept form)  : y = 4x Problem 6)  A cab company does not charge a boarding fee but then has a meter of $4 an hour. What  equation  represents this cab company's rate? | Slope of this line  : 4 y-intercept of line: 0 Equation of this line(slope intercept form)  : y = 4x Problem7)  A cab company charges a $1 boarding fee and has a meter of $1/3 an hour. What  equation  represents this cab company's rate? | Slope of this line  : 1/3 y-intercept of line: 1 Equation of this line(slope intercept form)  : y = 1/3x+1 Need help with this page's topic? | At how many mnutes do both companies charge the same amount? | Never, the slope of the graphs of their rates is the same. Parallel lines  never intersect. | | At how many minutes do both companies charge the same amount? | 20 Minutes| | |

Reminiscences of the Japanese Occupation

In his seventies, Mr Rajoo is my uncle. He showed great enthusiasm and related his experience in Tamil during the 3 hours interview. His accounts shed light on the ways how individuals inject meanings to a particular subject. Background Mr Rajoo was born in 1930. He was the second son in a family of 10 children. His family lived in a village in Sembawang which was near to one of the Naval Base which was owned by the British. When the Japanese invaded Singapore, Rajoo’s family staying in North of Singapore then they moved as far as Tampinese. His family used a bullock cart to transport some of their properties.They stayed away from their home for a year. Then they returned to their village. So he had a chance to witness the Japanese rule in other parts of Singapore as well as his own hometown. The Dark Years of Japanese Occupation The impending presence of the Japanese on Mr Rajoo’s daily life was felt as early as 1941. As a 11 years old boy, his family and he faced seve re shortage of food and other necessities like medical. ( Q1 ) When the British surrendered, they did not want Japanese to enjoy the fruit of their labour. All the rice in the warehouse was sprayed with limestone.As limestone is white, the Japanese did not suspect any foul play by the British . So those who ate the rice had diarrhea . Japanese took over much of the foodstuffs and other goods for the use of their army. Due to the food shortage, essential food stuffs like rice, salt and sugar were controlled. Ration cards which limited the amount of food for each person was given out. ( Q4 ) His family lived on a simple diet and found other food substitutes for those food items which were scarce. Tapioca and sweet potatoes were used as substitutes for rice ( Q3 ) and palm oil or coconut oil was used as cooking oil.Even in schools pupils grew and took care of the vegetable plots. This was the widespread situation in Singapore during the Syonan-To years. Many historians have written abo ut the food scarcity during the Syonan rule. There are a lot of evidence to state that during the Japanese rule, many people suffered from malnutrition and diseases as they did not have well balanced meal. Those taken as prisoners of war also suffered under the iron grip of the Japanese and many died out of malnutrition. Transport during the Japanese reignMr Rajoo recalls bicycles being widely used as mode of transport during the Japanese reign. (Q6) So much so that even after the Japanese surrender, Rajoo and the other villagers working in the Sembawang Shipyard used bicycles as mearns of transport to travel to work. Tri-shaw which consisted of a bicycle with a side-car attached for a fare-paying passenger replaced the former richshaw. He stated that the Japanese bicycles had only thin solid rubber tyres. He also recalls in the interview to have seen a lot of motorcars before the Japanese rule and not during the Syonan-To period.Some historians state that there must have been tens of thousands of vehicles, many new and the majority of the rest in good condition were used by the Japanese. These great fleet of transport fell to the Japanese as booty, when they captured Singapore. However, the lack of spare parts, or technical skill, or both, made the fleet diminish rapidly to a deplorable state so much so that it almost faded by the time the Japanese surrendered. Transport was a big problem for the local people tthroughout the Occupation. (1) The Japanese were in control of the world’s rubber and many oil fields. 2) They forced many motor vehicles to run on coal gases or inferior petrol made from vegetable sources. Public vehicles dwindled and cars ceased to be available for almost all other than Japanese. School Experiences Mr Rajoo recalled how he had to learn Japanese language in his school. He could still recall some Japanese sentences. ( Q5 ) It is remarkable to know that even after 60 years he is able to remember some Japanese sentences. (Q5) All t his had been instilled in the young minds at a very tender impressionable age to gain people’s allegiance .School children were taught to face the direction of Tokyo where the Japan Emperor resided and sing the Japanese Anthem. (Q5 ) So the Japanese tried to influence the school children to become patriotic towards Japan. This is another aspect of their rule where they tried out propagandas. Several historians have concurred the same evidence regarding the Japanese intention to remove the western influence and premote the Japanese culture and values. Japanese lessons were published in the newspapers and broadcast over the radio. In order to encourage people to learn the Japanese language, job privileges and extra allowances were given.Different methods were used to influence the minds of the people in Singapore. Radio stations were controlled by the Japanese and radio sets were sealed so that people could only listen to local broadcasts. Those caught tuning in to foreign broa dcasting stations were severely punished or killed. Through the interview, I realized that Rajoo’s family and the villagers also did not own any radios. They were afraid of being punished. Japanese – The Disciplinarians Tthroughout the Syonan-To rule, the people were constantly living in fear because the Japanese took harsh action to establish control over the people.Those caught looting were shot or beheaded and their heads were displayed at public places. Those who were passing by must witness such a scene if not they will be called back to look directly at the decapitated head. ( Q8 ) Barbed wire was also put up across roads to form roadblocks. The Japanese guards would make the people passing by to bow to them as a sign of respect. Anyone who did not do so would be slapped, killed or punished in some ways. When the children forget to show respect to the Japanese soldiers, these soldiers will use their knuckles to hit on the children’s forehead .Those sthrong men found at home not working will be immediately sent to work. ( Q8 ) Those who were sick should still report to work. They despised men idling. The Japanese Treatment of the 3 main races in Singapore According Mr Rajoo the Chinese suffered the most during the Japanese Occupation. Many Chinese in Singapore had sent money to help China fight Japan. So the Japanese wanted to weed out the anti-Japanese sentiment among the population. They carried out the Sook Ching Operation. They ordered all Chinese men between 18 to 50 years of age to report at the mass screening centers. Then the men will be questioned.The Japanese, however, had no proper way of finding out who were against them. Those who the Japanese thought were against them were taken away in lorries. Thousands of Chinese were taken in this way to Changi Beach or other beaches where they were shot. ( Q7 ) Some Chinese who very desperate to save their lives disguised themselves as Indians or Malays to avoid the scrutiny of the Japanese soldiers. Mr Rajoo recalled that Japanese were not overly suspicious of Indians nor the Malays. However, anybody who were thought to have acted against the Japanese interest were severely dealt with.They will be either punished or killed. (Q7) Japanese role in instigating nationalistic feeling According to Mr Rajoo, the Japanese associated Indians in Singapore with Gandhi and his movement in India. Gandhi was fighting for India’s freedom from the British Colonial power. Japanese told the Indians in Singapore that Japan would help India to get rid of the British rulers. They also wanted all Indians to join the Indian National Army to fight the British in India. Subhas Chandra Bose, the founder of INA was allowed to come to Singapore to collect funds for his establishment.Historical facts also seemed to prove the relevance of his statement. From the interview, Mr Rajoo didn’t portray as someone anti-Japanese. Probably his family and he did not really undergo muc h torture by the Japanese. He definitely seemed to have welcomed the Japanese for one reason. The Light of the South From the interview one would deduce that Mr Rajoo sthrongly feels that the Japanese brought on the nationalistic fervor among the citizens. ( Q9 ) Nationalistic feeling caught onto some people like the forest fire and the thirst for independence was ignited due to Syonan-To.

Menopausal Symptoms can be controlled, the Natural Way, with Vitamin D Thesis

Menopausal Symptoms can be controlled, the Natural Way, with Vitamin D and E - Thesis Example The symptoms can start to show up many years earlier (MedlinePlus). A Gallup poll of menopausal women conducted in 2002 revealed the four major reasons for medical attention as hot flashes (70%), night sweats (68%), mood disturbances (50%), and sleep disturbances (48%) (Utian, 2005). An estimated 75% to 85% of menopausal women experience vasomotor symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats (Ohayon, 2006; Umland, 2008). The pathophysiology of hot flashes is uncertain but it is widely accepted that a dysfunction of the central thermoregulatory centers e.g., hypothalamus caused by certain factors might lead to hot flashes (Shansfelt et al., 2002). Diminishing level of circulating estrogen as a result of waning ovarian function during menopause is believed to cause a narrowing of the thermoregulatory threshold between sweating and shivering in the hypothalamus, leading to hot flashes (North American Menopause Society, NAMS, 2004; Mayo Clinic, 2009). Also, according to Mayo Clinic (200 9), rather than low estrogen levels alone, it could be the withdrawal of estrogen occurring during menopause that causes hot flashes. This is in agreement with the observation that hot flashes are predominant at the initial stages of menopause and do not usually continue throughout the postmenopausal period despite circulating estrogens being low (Sturdee, 2008). Norepinephrine and serotonin have also been implicated in the complex neuroendocrine pathway controlling the thermoregulatory zone (Shanafelt et al., 2002). Hot flashes involve the sudden onset of uncomfortable sensation of intense warmth beginning in the chest and moving to the neck and face, or spreading throughout the body. Anxiety, palpitations, profuse sweating, and red blotching of the skin are accompanying symptoms. Among the women experiencing hot flashes, the severity was reported as mild by 50% of the women, moderate by about 33% of the subjects, and 15% had severe hot flashes (Ohayon et al., 2006). Hot flashes ca n have an adverse effect on a woman’s work capacity, social well being, sleep pattern besides her general perception of health (Shansfelt et al., 2002). More than 81% of women experiencing severe hot flashes regularly had symptoms of chronic insomnia as well (Ohayon et al., 2006) since hot flashes often occur at night and cause sleep disruption. It has recently been observed by Szmuilowicz and Manson (2011) that menopausal hot flashes could be a good sign for the heart. Their study reviewed medical information gathered from 60,000 women who were enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study and followed for ten years, to determine the relationship between menopause symptoms and cardiovascular events. According to these authors, women who experience severe hot flashes and night sweats may have a lower risk for cardiovascular disease, stroke and death. Their study also revealed that women who experienced symptoms at initial stages of menopause had fewer cardiova scular events than those who experienced hot flashes late in menopause or not at all. The results reported by Szmuilowicz and Manson (2011) assume much importance since menopausal symptoms, being the result of instability of the blood vessels in the skin, have been thought to cause other types of vascular problems as well in women suffering from hot flashes. Vaginal atrophy or the thinning of the vaginal lining

Protecting Homeland Security Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Protecting Homeland Security - Essay Example Following the events of Sept. 11, the U.S. government has had a keen awareness of the risks posed by international terrorist groups, but it is divided over whether the military should be restructured in order to better respond to those threats. One major element of that dilemma has been the funding. With the Pentagon already engaged in expensive, armed conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, two countries invaded by U.S.-led forces as part of the war on terrorism, many wonder whether the U.S. can afford to implement major reforms in its military ranks. Since there is no clear answer to that question, efforts to institute far-reaching structural and policy changes in the U.S. military have divided many within Congress, the Pentagon and the defense industry, which produces the equipment and weapons used by the U.S. military. Supporters of military transformation include Bush, many prominent members of his administration, high-ranking officials in the Pentagon, members of Congress and a number of firms within the defense industry. They collectively argue that, due to the war on terrorism, conditions are right for reforming the military for the 21st century.

Discuss the way in which a particular celebrity has been used to Essay

Discuss the way in which a particular celebrity has been used to promote fashion - Essay Example Fashion advertisement can be done on the television, on radio stations, on social sites, on product labels, on billboards and many other channels. Use of celebrities in advertising is very essential and captures the minds of many people in the society. It creates a perception that a product is the best in the range of related products, which increases demand of a product, its sales, and profits (Mehta 199). There are many theories related to the study of media and all try to explain its impact in advertising, and the perceptions related to its use. The first theory is the uses and gratification theory, which states that people use advertised products for gratification (Karina). The public can use a product so that they can relate to the celebrity used to promote the product. The association with a celebrity gives them a sense of belonging and gratification (Karina). The theory also states that people use a product to help them for diversion to escape from problems, for personal identity, and for surveillance of important tricks for survival. People tend to use products that are associated with successful celebrities so that they can feel safe and away from their problems. It gives them a sense of belonging and fulfilment in life. According to this theory, use of products that are associated with a particular celebrity increases ones self-esteem and self-worth (Karina). The hypodermic needle model is also another theory related to the use of media and suggests that media audience always has trust and loyalty to media such that they do not pose any challenges or have doubts about the information they are given (Karina). According to this theory, the audience takes in any information supported by a celebrity and believes it as the truth. The public has strong belief in celebrities and assume that products the celebrity uses will also work on them