Casino Development in Massachusetts Essay -- Casinos Gambling Governme

Casino Development in Massachusetts The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is in trouble. As the Big Dig gets closer to completion and the unemployment rate rises in the state, what are lawmakers doing to help boost the economy and close the deficit? Heading into the fiscal year 2005, Massachusetts is facing a record deficit of close to two billion dollars. Lawmakers on Beacon Hill are scrambling for solutions, but seem to be coming up empty handed. With the elections drawing nearer and nearer, and local state contenders vying for seats in the state congress getting more competitive with one another, what can Massachusetts do about this economic crisis. A number of legislators from Massachusetts seem to have a solution to help Massachusetts out of this rut, and boost the struggling economy and job market. That solution is the introduction of legalized gambling and casinos to the state of Massachusetts. The legalization of casinos in Massachusetts would provide the state huge tax profits, provide thousands of jobs to a strug gling market, help boost the states lagging tourism sector, drive local business upwards through millions of new visitors each year, and provide everyone (tourists & local citizens) with quality entertainment. Throughout the twentieth century, legalized gambling has become an excellent source of entertainment. Proponents of gambling argue that casinos provide an outstanding source for job opportunities, direct revenue to state and local governments through taxes and fees, and increased tourism in the surrounding areas. Opponents of the controversial gambling topic focus on the attraction of an unwanted crowd, increased crime rate, and traffic congestion on state and local roadways. Both United States citizens and foreign tourists who want to experience the glitz and glamour of gambling can travel to remarkable Las Vegas or Atlantic City. For many years, Nevada and New Jersey were the headquarters of gambling in North America. However, the corporate gambling world got a facelift on February 15, 1992, when a new casino opened in the New England area that would change the entire legalized gambling world forever. This casino would become the most â€Å"fantastic† gambling venue in the w orld. A Whole New Ballgame Foxwoods Resort and Casino, developed by the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Nation, has grown from a small casino to the largest casino i... ... Gives information regarding recent votes and recent legislative moves that directly effect the gaming movement. Van Voorhis, Scott (2004). Gambling biz betting change is for better. Boston Herald. http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=46327ain Discusses recent moves by Thomas Finneran (Fmr. Speaker of the House), which has a major effect on the issue at hand. References (cont.) Gambling Magazine Online. (2003) (http://www.gamblingmagazine.com/managearticle.asp?C=280&A=8441 ) Discusses spending that is happening in Massachusetts to help push casinos to the state. http://www.foxwoods.com Gives General information regarding the casino itself, facilities, and services. Used for a variety of data and information. The Center for Business and Economic Research ,University of Nevada, Las Vegas (2004). Metropolitan Las Vegas Tourism Statistics. http://www.unlv.edu/Research_Centers/cber/tour.html Provides statistical data for tourism in Las Vegas area. http://www.02133.org/issue.cfm?ID=10 Gives good background information regarding the Massachusetts casino movement specifically and also presents good facts and data.

Contemporary society Essay

Perhaps the most poignant criticism of the societies in these two novels is the violation of the principals and mores of modern society. In â€Å"The Wars†, death and injury becomes common place, and stopping to help a fellow soldier is not always permitted. â€Å"That was the rule. No one went back- even for a dying comrade. Only someone wounded could stay with another wounded man†¦ No one spoke. The dead all lay with their faces in the mud or turned to the walls of the trench. This was the only way they could be told apart from the wounded.† (Findley 118) More difficult to accept that this apathetic view of death is the enthusiasm that some of the soldiers in â€Å"The Wars† felt for the war and the destruction it caused. After being rained on with shells, having a close brush with death, â€Å"a bright young man with popping eyes turned to Robert and gushed at him: ‘Isn’t it marvellous!’ † Privacy is nearly impossible for ordinary soldiers. While on the boat, going to England the men â€Å"were cramped into spaces meant to hold a quarter of their number†¦ The make shift latrines and showers were virtually open forums where privacy was unheard of†¦ Up in the first class accommodations, the officers were somewhat better off.† (Findley 56-7) This also shows another disadvantage soldiers face that their superiors do not. Sexual abuse is seemingly common and goes unpunished in the novel. Four men rape Robert while his is in a changing stall at Asile Desolà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½. â€Å"His assailants, who he’d thought were crazies, had been his fellow soldiers. Maybe even his brother officers. He’d never know.† (Findley 169) Many aspects of the society in â€Å"The Handmaid’s Tale† also contrast modern societal values. Dead bodies are put on display for all to see. When on their daily walk Offred and Ofglen, â€Å"stop, together as if on signal, and stand and look at the bodies. It doesn’t matter if we look. We’re supposed to look: this is what they are there for, hanging on the Wall. Sometimes they’ll be there for days, until there’s a new batch, so as many people as possible will have the chance to see them.† (Atwood 40) Death does not have much shock value to individuals in the Gileadean society, as they have been exposed to it frequently. The Handmaids take part in the execution of a man who has performed crimes against society. â€Å"There is a surge forward, like a crowd at a rock concert in the former time†¦ Now there are sounds, gasps, a low noise like growling, yells†¦ he’s obscured by arms, fist, feet. A high scream comes from somewhere, like a horse in terror.† (Atwood 349) These women, who are not violent in every day life, are so desensitized to death that they are able to vent their anger through murder. Rape is common with the Gileadean society, although it is not recognized as such. Handmaids are required to copulate with their Commander, if the choose not to, they will be sent to the Colonies. With citizens being desensitized to death, enjoying killing and destruction, and the acceptance of sexual exploitation, the societies in â€Å"The Wars† and â€Å"The Handmaid’s Tale† transgress the morals of contemporary society. â€Å"The Wars† and â€Å"The Handmaid’s Tale† take place over dissimilar time spans, there are many societal parallels that are criticized in both novels. Soldiers are exploited by their superiors in â€Å"The Wars†, just as the unprivileged citizens in â€Å"The Handmaid’s Tale† are used solely to benefit the government. Ignorance to the true motivations and actions of the government are evident in both novels. Social mores and values of present-day society are infracted in both â€Å"The Wars† and â€Å"The Handmaid’s Tale†. Regardless of occurring over different time periods, there are several analogous aspects in the two societies represented in â€Å"The Wars† and â€Å"The Handmaid’s Tale†, which are criticized.

Gun Laws Essay

The Second Amendment in the United States Constitution gives people the right to keep and bear arms. The Second Amendment has been interpreted in many ways, and its limitations and what it controls have been questioned. The question that arises over and over again is that will stricter gun laws make the United States safer or more perilous. The answer is clear. With lack of gun control and that black market guns are at almost every street corner whether you think it or not. Guns are a very dangerous weapons, and the United States has to create stricter laws in order to operate and obtain them in order to protect the public. Stricter gun laws would improve the criminal justice system. For example, a national registry which contained finger printing and gun information would allow for the bullets at a crime scene to be traced back to the owner. The only way to get guns off the streets is for Government to take action and for laws to be put down. The goal for stricter gun laws is simple. It is to make it harder for dangerous people to get their hands on guns, improving the safety of guns, and regulating the sales of guns at gun shows and on the streets. The debate over gun control has continued for many years. In 1939 there was an important case, United States vs. Miller, which dealt with the Second Amendment. In this case the supreme court was asked to decide whether or not the Second Amendment protected Miller’s right to not register a sawed off shotgun. A sawed off shotgun is a shotgun with a shorter barrel therefore it shoots out less accurately but more spread out with the same power as a regular shotgun. They are very dangerous especially in smaller places. During that time the Supreme Court believed that the Second Amendment protected those who had weapons for military use only. As a result the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment did not protect Miller’s right to own a sawed off shotgun because he did not have it for military purposes. Gun control opponents deny that federal policies keep firearms out of the hands of high-risk persons; rather, they argue, controls often create burdens for law- abiding citizens and infringe upon constitutional rights provided by the Second Amendment. Some argue further that widespread gun ownership is one of the best deterrents to crime as well as to potential tyranny, whether by gangs or by government. They may also criticize the notion of enhancing federal, as opposed to state, police powers. So what these gun lovers want to do is defend their homes from those they feel threaten them and use guns for protection. The NRA also says over and over again that it will cost tax payers millions if the number of gun sales drop. Is there really a price for saving lives?

How to Increase Retail Sales Essay

1 Introduction One of the challenges for companies that have invested heavily in customer data collection is how to extract important information from their vast customer databases and product feature databases, in order to gain competitive advantage. Market basket analysis (also known as association rule mining) is one of the data mining methods (Berry and Linoff, 2004) focusing on discovering purchasing patterns by extracting associations or co-occurrences from a store’s transactional data. Several aspects of market basket analysis have been studied in academic literature, such as using customer interest profile and interests on particular features of the product for the product development and one-to-one marketing (Weng and Liu, 2004), purchasing patterns in a multi-store environment (Chen et al., 2004), or point at certain weaknesses of market basket analysis techniques (e.g. Vindevogel, Van den Poel and Wets, 2005). Market basket analysis has been intensively used in many companies as a means to discover product associations and base a retailer’s promotion strategy on them. When different additional brands are sold together with the basic brands, the revenue from the basic brands is not decreasing, but increasing. â€Å"Buy two, get three†sales promotion campaigns are very successful, if market basket analyses are used in order to determine the right products to be promoted. â€Å"Buy a product, get a gift† sales promotion campaigns are successful, if a basic product and a gift are related and the basic product has high margin rate. Based on market basket analyses, sets of products are defined and sold together with discount. Limitedbrands organizes internal competition in up-selling. Our paper – a case study – presents and analyses the application of market basket analysis in a major trade company in Slovenia. 2 The company Merkur, d. d. Merkur, d. d. is a trading company (Merkur, 2005) that has for years ranked among the top companies in Slovenia dealing in items for home improvement, home services as well as lawn and garden. Merkur, d.d. has recently strengthened its position on the foreign markets through the supplies of goods to industrial enterprises, and by the establishment of its own retail network abroad. Merkur, d.d. is the mother company of Merkur Group. The Group consists of two Slovenian subsidiaries and six subsidiaries abroad (Zagreb, Sarajevo, Skopje, Munich, Milan and Warsaw). Besides that, the group also includes two offices (Moscow and Belgrade). Merkur plans to further strengthen its position on the domestic market, spread its sales to the foreign markets, especially to the markets of former Yugoslavia, and develop a high-quality range of products. The company is organised in  several large departments: Wholesale, Retail Sales, Sales to Foreign Markets, Purchasing, Logistics and Supporting Services. Customers include construction companies, trading organisations, installation companies, industrial enterprises, craftsmen and small entrepreneurs, as well as end consumers. The company makes almost 60% of its sales revenues by selling goods wholesale. To make the sales quick and efficient, the Wholesale Department has been divided into four sales sub-divisions. At present, Merkur has 38 retail sales centres in Slovenia. Specialisation increases the effectiveness of sales, so two types of Merkur sales centres were developed: MERKURDOM focusing on ordinary households, and MERKURMOJSTER intended for DIY (do-it-yourself) users. More information about MerkurDom and MerkurMojster is available on Merkur internet site: www.merkur.si. 2.1 Characteristic figures of the company The scope of the company Merkur, d.d. can be shown through the following figures: The sales programme consists of about 200.000 active items (more than 120.000 items on stock), divided into 5 sales programmes, 74 lines of goods, 720 groups of goods and 5.600 basic goods classifications. Around 80% of sales are done with the top 12.000 items and 80% of stock is held on the top 20.000 items. The Purchasing Department issues more than 250.000 purchase orders with 1.200.000 items annually. Merkur purchases goods from more than 2.000 suppliers. About 80% of purchases are done with the top 200 suppliers. Wholesale has business relations with more than 2.500 buyers – organizations. About 80% of wholesale sales are done with the top 800 buyers. Wholesale issues approximately 400.000 invoices with total 2.200.000 items annually. Retail sells goods to 13.000 buyers / organizations and to about 500.000 end consumers. More than 70% of sales to end consumers are personalized with the Merkur loyalty card called the â€Å"Merkur Card of Trust†. Retail issues 6.000.000 invoices with more than 20.000.000 items to end consumers annually. In the period from 1993 to 2004 Merkur achieved 19% average annual growth in revenues, 20% average annual growth in net margin and 27% average annual growth in profit from operations. Today Merkur is the sixth largest Slovenian company in revenues. 3.1 The history of DW&BI in Merkur Merkur started to implement data warehousing and business intelligence (DW&BI) in 1999 with a project called KAS (Commercial Analytical System) (Svetina, 2002). Before 1999, different analyses and reports were performed in Merkur’s transactional information systems, much of the analytical data was held in Excel spreadsheets and Access databases. In the past, Merkur twice attempted to implement DW&BI technology, but failed because proposed technology was still too difficult to use for the majority of the users. In 1999 Merkur started with a major business process reorganization and, therefore, better and new business analyses were needed in order to make better decisions. The need for a DW&BI system emerged, so the KAS project was given high priority. Merkur started to design analytical data models for sales data and succeeded in integrating sales data from wholesale, retail and sales to foreign markets in one unified data model. The IT department proposed Microstrategy DW&BI technology, which was installed and tested in the beginning of the year 2000. The technology was found to be appropriate and the decision was made to implement DW&BI with Microstrategy solutions. The first power users (sales analysts) were educated and the first KAS sales analyses were used in the decision-making process. In the beginning the ETL (extract – transform – load) process was carried out on monthly basis, but by autumn of 2000 the company started to perform ETL process daily. Later in the year 2000 the purchasing analytical system was introduced as well. In 2001, the data warehouse was upgraded with data on Merkur’s business plans. Sales and margins were planned on a very low organizational level. The annual plan fact table has more than 1.000.000 records, so the salespersons’ performance is measured very accurately. Because the technology is easy to use, the number of KAS users increased up to 100. In 2002, the implementation of a very large and complex analytical module followed, containing inventory data. The inventory levels of each item in every warehouse on a monthly basis is stored in KAS and enables detailed inventory analyses and detection of critical items. Also, data on Merkur’s partner’s  debts and liabilities was added to data warehouse, which enables accurate cash flow management. Item price calculation elements and different prices were imported in KAS in 2003, so critical prices can be detected and all inconsistencies eliminated. Many minor additions to the system were also made over the last few years. All the time Merkur tries to use adequate analytical and data mining methodologies in order to improve the whole system of business reporting. From the DW&BI history we can see a controlled step-by-step development of the KAS system. Such way of development gives opportunity for good definition and implementation of analytical contents and enables Merkur to make many better business decisions. The KAS system brings Merkur an important competitive advantage, which enables the growth of the company. Improved decision making can be demonstrated through different measurable key success factors which are improving constantly. Key success factors such as net margin, net margin per item, net margin per customer, number of new customers and others are measured in KAS. These factors are always accessible for KAS users and help them to make better decisions. 3.2 DW&BI technology Since 2000 Merkur has used the Microstrategy DW&BI technology. Microstrategy provides ROLAP solutions, which enable a step-by-step approach in data warehouse development and processing large amounts of data. The data warehouse is implemented in an Oracle relational database. This means that the same database technology is used in both transactional and analytical information systems. Therefore, Merkur’s IT department can focus in one database platform instead of two or even more. Oracle technology was used in Merkur before the implementation data warehouse was started, so the implementation of this technology was fast and smooth. In Merkur the  following Microstrategy tools (Microstrategy, 2005) are used: MicroStrategy Intelligence Server is the heart of the BI system and provides reporting and analysis for the whole enterprise. This BI server provides the full range of BI applications through unified metadata and a single integrated server. MicroStrategy Administrator consi sts of a suite of tools that provide the systems management environment for business intelligence. It maximizes uptime of BI applications. Its tools give an environment for developing, deploying, monitoring and maintaining of systems. MicroStrategy Architect is a rapid development tool that maps the physical structure of the database into a logical business model. These mappings are stored in a centralized metadata repository. MicroStrategy Desktop is the business intelligence software component that provides integrated query and reporting, powerful analytics and decision support workflow with a desktop PC. MicroStrategy Desktop provides an arsenal of features for on-line analysis of corporate data. Reports can be viewed in various presentation formats, polished into production reports, distributed to other users and extended through a host of ad hoc features including drilling, pivoting and data slicing. The interface itself is customizable to different users’ skill levels and security profiles. In Merkur, the Desktop solution is used by 13 power users (analysts). MicroStrategy Web provides users a highly interactive environment and low maintenance interface for reporting and analysis. Using this intuitive HTML-only Web solution, users access, analyze and share corporate data through any web browser on any operating system. MicroStrategy Web provides ad hoc querying, quick deployment and rapid customizability, making it even easier for users to make informed business decisions. In Merkur, Microstrategy Web is used by 90 end users of KAS. MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server is a proactive information delivery server that distributes personalized business information to users via email, pagers and cell phones. It includes an intuitive self-subscription interface that enables users to specify what information they want to receive, as well as when and how they want to receive that information. Narrowcast Server is becoming more and more important in Merkur because of its efficiency. 3.3 Merkur’s DW&BI system today Presently, KAS; Merkur’s DW&BI system, is five years old. The development of the system continues constantly and there is still much content throughout the organization which must be implemented in the BI system. The most important content to be implemented in the future are the following: Integral data from Merkur’s finance and accounting system (the finance and accounting analytical system) Relevant business data from Merkur’s subsidiaries Data from Merkur’s human resources analytical system Data from Merkur’s e-business analytical system Data from Merkur’s logistic analytical system Presently in KAS (Merkur Commercial Analytical System – KAS, 2005): †¢ 13 power users (analysts) and 90 end users; of both groups, 50 users have the ability and knowledge to set-up their own reports. †¢ Up to 30.000 reports are run on KAS on monthly basis. †¢ KAS consists of the following objects: o 137 tables o 433 attributes o 1.195 metrics o 5.611 reports †¢ Over 35 automated services are run on the Narrowcast Server The KAS system enables many sophisticated business analyses such as market basket analyses, described later in this paper. 4 Market basket analysis and the used methodology Market basket analyses are an important component of analytical system in retail organizations. There are several definitions of market basket analysis. In a broader meaning, market basket analysis targets customer baskets in order to monitor buying patterns and improve customer satisfaction (Microstrategy, 2003). The following analytics can be used: attachment rates, demographic baskets, brand switching, customer loyalty, core items, items per basket, in-basket price, revenue contribution, shopper penetration and others. In a narrower meaning, market basket analysis gives  us the answer to the following question: which goods are sold together within the same transaction or to the same customer? By analysing this information, we try to find out recurring patterns in order to offer related goods together and therefore increase the sales. We can track related sales on different levels of goods classifications or on different customer segments. In this paper, the narrower meaning of market basket analysis will be taken into consideration, focusing on the use of these analyses in Merkur. It has to be noted that several other terms are also used to describe market basket analysis: related sales, cross-sell, up-sell. The distinction between these terms is very unclear and the same terms are often used in different meanings. What can we gain from market basket analysis (Limitedbrands, 2004)We get the ability to learn more about customer behaviour. We can make more informed decisions about product placement, pricing, promotion and profitability. We can find out which products perform similarly to each other. We can determine which products should be placed near each other. We can find out which products should be cross-sold. We can find out if there are any successful products that have no significant related elements. 1. Discover the selling documents (transactions) with the item, for which we want to perform market basket analysis. This logic is valid, if we want to carry out item-related market basket analysis. We can also perform good classification or even loyalty card holder-related market basket analyses, which will be shown later in this paper. 2. Discover all the items in relevant selling documents and their selling quantities, prices, number of transactions and other relevant data. As an example, an item related market basket analysis will be presented. We want to analyse sales related to item ‘209525 Decorative lamp Saturn II’. In the first step we determine the selling documents with this item. The partial result is shown in the table 1. Further, the result of the first step is used as a filter in the second step, which results in a table with items, sold together with item 209525. 5 Areas of market basket analyses In Merkur different kind of market basket analyses are done. Analyses are adapted to various business needs, and some of them are discussed in the following sections. In every section, the relevant examples of analyses are presented and opportunities for business action discussed. 5.1 Marketing and sales promotion campaigns When sales campaigns are prepared, promoted items must be chosen very carefully. The main goal of a campaign is to entice customers to visit Merkur’s retail centre and buy more than they usually do. Therefore, we must choose the right items and offer the right prices or other conditions. Margins on promoted items are usually cut, therefore, additional non-promoted items with higher margins should be sold together with promoted items. As we could see from the example in Section 3, item ‘209525 Decorative lamp Saturn II’ is quite adequate to be included in a promotion. Together with it many other items are sold, so we can allow a lower margin of promoted item. Of course, there are some other criteria for an item to be included in a campaign, such as: †¢ Where on the item life cycle curve is the item situated? †¢ What is our brand promotion policy? †¢ Can we reach an agreement with the supplier (producer) to assure larger quantities and better prices? Table 4. Sales promotion market basket analysis In table 4, data from a New Year’s promotion campaign is shown. The: campaign was done through public advertising. Paper catalogues of promoted items were sent to households, there were also commercial spots on TV and radio, and advertisements in newspapers. Because of advertising a certain number of customers came in Merkur retail centres in order to buy the promoted items. Additionally, they also bought many non-promoted items (70% opposed to 30% of revenues and 75%  opposed to 25% of margins) with much higher % of margin (29,08% opposed to 21,81%). This means that promoted items generated sales of non-promoted items. There are also many possible ways for organizing campaigns using direct marketing tools for the interaction with Merkur loyalty card holder. This issue will be discussed in Section 5.5. 5.2. System solutions offering Market basket analyses are also used to combine more items in a set or a system, because the majority of customers are interested in buying and using them at a time or in a short period of time after the purchase of a particular item. By designing sets and systems of related items a company can increase sales and also cut down costs of sales transactions, so that various discounts can be offered to customers. This results in a typical win-win situation. A retailer must know the needs of customers and adapt to them. Market basket analysis is one possible way to find out which items can be put together in sets and systems. Table 5. Classification Group ‘Kitchen extractor hood’ market basket analysis In Table 5 we can see groups of goods which were sold together with the group ‘Kitchen extractor hood’. In the related groups are also different kitchen appliances like refrigerators, dish washers, kitchen-ranges, taps, dishes etc. This means that Merkur should design and offer the customers different kitchen systems. These systems should include kitchen furniture,  major and small kitchen appliances and kitchen utensils. Such a system should be displayed in one place in a retail centre where customers could choose from whole system solutions to just several parts (items) of these solutions. 5.3. Placement of goods in retail stores Market basket analyses give retailer good information about related sales on group of goods basis. As we can see in Table 5, the majority of kitchen appliances groups are related. Customers who buy a kitchen appliance often also buy several other kitchen appliances. It makes sense that these groups are placed side by side in a retail centre so that customers can access them quickly. Such related groups of goods also must be located side-by-side in order to remind customers of related items and to lead them through the centre in a logical manner. In Merkur, two basic concepts of retail centres are used: MerkurDom specialises in high-quality items for home improvement and garden, MerkurMojster specialises in high-quality products aimed at DIY users, craftsmen, and entrepreneurs. Centres are also classified by size as small and large centres. For each of these concepts, standardized placement plans were developed. Market basket analyses represent one segment of tools for decision making considering placement of goods. It can show us where we should change the placement of goods. After the change we can measure the business effects of the change. 5.4. Education of salespeople The interesting results of market basket analyses must be presented to the salespeople in retail centres, because the employees must be aware of them and they should use them in the process of selling. Every salesperson has some knowledge about related items from his or her experience. With market  basket analyses we can structure this knowledge and use it to teach less experienced personnel. Merkur invests a lot in education of salespeople through both internal and external sources. Knowledge from market basket analyses is widely used in internal education. 5.5. Segmentation of customers As mentioned in Section 1.1., more than 70% of sales to end consumers are personalized with the Merkur loyalty card called â€Å"Merkur Card of Trust†. This data enables us to answer the following question: What did consumers who bought item (group) X in period 1, buy in period 2? If we identify customers who bought item X today, we can anticipate what they will buy, for instance, in next three months, and we can advertise them the right products. A typical example is shown in Table 6. We analysed loyalty card holders who bought ceramic tiles in the period from April to June 2004. In Table 6 we can see product groups which were bought by the same card holders in the period from July to November 2004. They bought different bathroom and kitchen accessories and central heating elements. It would be very useful, if Merkur organized a targeted marketing campaign for this specific group of customers in July 2004 and promoted these products. There are many other possibilities and opportunities in Merkur to use loyalty card-based market basket analyses as a support tool for direct marketing campaigns. Merkur usually organizes non-targeted common campaigns, in which the majority of Slovenian households are included. But lately Merkur also started to implement direct marketing methods and therefore an effective data warehouse and business intelligence system is essential. This helps many interesting marketing ideas to be implemented. 6 Conclusion The practice in Merkur proves that market basket analysis is a very useful for marketing campaigns, good placement definition and education of sales personnel. Merkur uses market basket analysis throughout the promotion campaign process. When a sales promotion is prepared, market basket analysis is used to define the right products and the right prices for the campaign. Related non-promoted items are also defined in order to place them in the vicinity of promoted items and therefore increase sales. When sales promotion finishes, its results are carefully analysed in order to discover opportunities for next promotions. Merkur widely uses market basket analyses to manage the placement of goods in retail centres. Related products and product groups are placed together in such a manner that customer can logically find items he/she might buy. The findings of market basket analyses are an important part of the process of teaching the salespeople of Merkur. Sales personnel must be aware of related products in order to increase satisfaction of customers and intensify sales. Market basket analyses are just a part in the holistic approach to the execution of marketing development strategy in Retail in Merkur. The analytical process is integrated in other marketing activities and analysts are an important part of Merkur marketing development team. Team work is crucial for successful use of such analyses. Beside of the organization of the Merkur marketing process, a capable DW&BI system is needed. The BI system must have good performances when processing large amount of data. It also has to be scalable and flexible, but, above all, the BI system must be user-friendly so that different marketing specialists can use it without any problems.  Fortunately, Merkur’s KAS is such a system. But there is still much work to be done. We demonstrated that market basket analysis in Merkur can be done and that it brings useful results. In the future a working direct marketing strategy must be developed based on data already available in KAS. Then an organization and information systems for efficient execution of this strategy have to be established. 7 References Berry, M.J.A., Linoff, G.S.: Data Mining Techniques: for Marketing, Sales and Customer Relationship Management (second edition), Hungry Minds Inc., 2004  Chen, Y.-L., Tang, K., Shen, R.-J., Hu, Y.-H.: â€Å"Market basket analysis in a multiple store environment†, Decision Support Systems (article in press), 2004, accessed through www.ScienceDirect.com Limitedbrands: Achieving Greater Efficiencies with Market Basket Analysis, Microstrategy World 2004 Conference, Miami, 2004 Microstrategy: Business Intelligence in the Retail Industry, Microstrategy World 2003 Conference, Las Vegas, 2003 Microstrategy Web Site: http://www.microstrategy.com/Software/, Microstrategy, 2005 Merkur Commercial Analytical System – KAS, internal document, Merkur, 2005 Merkur Web Site: http://www.merkur.si/ang/podj.html, Merkur, 2005 Svetina, Marko: Izdelava in uporaba market basket analiz, http://www.muson.net/Konferenca_login.asp?mni=12, Konferenca MUS 2004, Ljubljana, 2004 Svetina, Marko: Kome rcialni analitski sistem v podjetju Merkur d.d., Konferenca Poslovna inteligenca in upravljanje odnosov s strankami, Ljubljana, 2002 Vindevogel, B., Van den Poel, D., Wets, G.: â€Å"Why promotion strategies based on market basket analysis do not work† (article in press), Expert Systems with Applications, 2005, accessed through www.ScienceDirect.com Weng, S.-S., Liu, J.-L.: â€Å"Feature-based recommendations for one-to-one marketing†, Expert Systems with Applications, Vol. 26, 2004, pp. 493-508.

The Psychological Context of Bystanders Apathy Case Study

The Psychological Context of Bystanders Apathy - Case Study Example The major point of the discussions was the behavior the witnesses showed during such a terrible incident. But questions arise in the psychological context as to how these witnesses perceived the scenes (the cognitive aspect), what are their behaviors in response to what they saw (behaviorist point of view), and what was the reasons for such behaviors (the psychodynamics). In the cognitive viewpoint, Hofstetter (1997) mentioned that the reaction of human beings on a certain event is based on perception, thought, and memory. In this case, the witnesses were looking at the event individually and each one just saw a portion of the event. Judgment on what was currently seen would be based on past events or similar and relevant events. This means that the reaction was based on what had been learned from the past. Since most of the witnesses did not actually saw the brutal part of stabbing, or as one witness analyzed was hitting, they considered it a kind of lover’s quarrel that has no cause for alarm. Only the witnesses that saw the harsh part reacted by shouting and calling the police. The reaction was based on available information and not a show of unconcern. In a psychodynamic point, granting the witnesses really perceived the event unfolding in their eyes was a murder, whether they saw it in part or in whole, the reaction was a result of the feelings not to be involved. Getting involved in such an event would complicate things and therefore being silent means getting away from any responsibilities and burden. There are emotional connections with the decisions not to be involved. It can be fear, anxiety, fatigue, or other factors. This type of bystander’s reactions to a situation differs when they are in a group than when they saw it individually (Silk, 2005)

Operations and Supply Chain Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Operations and Supply Chain Management - Essay Example His model had classified government policies and regulations, corporate policies and firm size as moderating variables. Literature Review: Australian Manufacturing and Service Market Studies carried out to survey the service delivery have shown that the public sector has undergone significant reforms to meet public expectation on its performance. The government had addressed this through microeconomic reforms that were characterized by financial deregulation, improved monetary and fiscal policy, tariff reforms, labor market reform, and trade liberalization amongst others (Shergold, 1996, p. 18 and James, 2003, p. 96). In the later years, however, there was a shift to privatization of service delivery to NGOs and private sector (Tang, 1997, p. 98; Productivity Commission 1999. p. 6; Lyons, 1994, p. 182; James, 2003, p. 105 and Rapper, 2000, p. 23). Surveys carried out in Australia to determine whether government should outsource health services for an improved service delivery found o ut that there is the likelihood of poor performance in terms of quality, cost, and other externalities (Boardman and Hewitt, 2004, p. 921). This had left the house undecided on whether to privatize service delivery in this sector or not. Surprisingly, studies conducted to determine delivery speed and delivery reliability found transportation is very fast and reliable but quite expensive. The study shows that Australian gross value added of the transport and storage sector was $ 34, 496 million in 1999-2000. This was 5.6% of GDP. On comparison to other logistic costs, transportation occupies 29.4% of logistics cost, exceeding even warehousing cost, packing cost, management cost ordering cost and movement cost (Chang, 1998, p. 15 and BTRE, 2001, p. 9). Similarly,... Study has shown that the public sector has undergone significant reforms to meet public expectation on its performance. The government had addressed this through microeconomic reforms that were characterized by financial deregulation, improved monetary and fiscal policy, tariff reforms, labor market reform, and trade liberalization amongst others. In the later years, however, there was a shift to privatization of service delivery to NGOs and private sector. Surveys carried out in Australia to determine whether government should outsource health services for an improved service delivery found out that there is the likelihood of poor performance in terms of quality, cost, and other externalities. This had left the house undecided on whether to privatize service delivery in this sector or not. Surprisingly, studies conducted to determine delivery speed and delivery reliability found transportation is very fast and reliable but quite expensive. The study shows that Australian gross value added of the transport and storage sector was $ 34, 496 million in 1999-2000. This was 5.6% of GDP. On comparison to other logistic costs, transportation occupies 29.4% of logistics cost, exceeding even warehousing cost, packing cost, management cost ordering cost and movement cost. Similarly, studies conducted on new product introduction in the Australian market suggested that the rate of success of new products depends on the following: management style, marketing strategies, staff expertise, senior management support, available resources, organization size and distribution channels.