Analyzing Barnes & Noble.com

The Barnes & Noble online store – www. bn. com – was launched in March 1997. Among its primary strengths is its offline component – the Barnes & Noble, Inc. which is a leading publisher and retailer involved in selling trade books, mass market paperbacks, children’s books, bargain books, magazines, music and movies. The big inventory of this online channel is largely attributed to its offline counterpart. Another strength that Barnes & Noble. com has is its purchase of SparkNotes. com.This website is considered as the world’s largest educational site which provides access to thousands of study guides on various poems, short stories, novels, and other literary pieces. When Barnes & Noble bought SparksNotes in 2001, the educational site already had six million registered users. This number is continuously increasing and this increase widens the market reach of Barnes & Noble. com. Apart from SparkNotes, Barnes & Noble. com is also affiliated with the Barnes & Noble University.The university offers free courses and its students are potential targets which can be reached through the direct introduction and promotion of the online store and its products. Another advantage of Barnes & Noble. com is its acquisition of an online electronic book retailer – Fictionwise. Fictionwise allows the online store to penetrate the e-book market and effectively compete with Amazon. com (its prime competitor) in distributing digital copies of books and other content. Before, the prime problem of the site was that it was not as user-friendly as Amazon. com.Fortunately, that has been resolved by changing the site’s management team. Now, the major weakness that Barnes & Noble. com has is the fact that it is still not as popular as Amazon. com. When it started its operation in 1997, Amazon was already two years ahead in operation and it has already built a very big market of registered users in its database. In 1999, it was noted that Ba rnes & Noble. com only had 1. 8 million names while Amazon had 8. 4 million. Another weakness is the fact that its product prices are not as competitive with Amazon especially when it comes to e-books.Amazon also has bigger storage capacities for its products and this enables them to provide services and ship their products very quickly. Fortunately, its recent affiliations with SparkNotes and Fictionwise pose many opportunities. Barnes & Noble. com management speculates that Fictionwise can help the company significantly reduce its marketing price in e-books. Moreover, the acquisition of SparkNotes increases the market database of Barnes & Noble. com by millions. The company can also utilize its nationwide stores as marketing venues which already have access to millions of Barnes & Noble customers.It can also foster affiliations with other online companies in order to expand its market reach and increase probabilities for future innovations. As for the threats, Barnes & Noble still faces challenges from Amazon. com, as well as other book sellers which adapted the Amazon concept of online retail. This includes Blackwell Synergy, Books-A-Million, and Powell’s Books. If these companies would merge to launch a new online library and book retailer, Barnes & Noble. com might have suffer from fierce competition. A leader in the industryBarnes & Noble. com is considered as a leader in the online bookselling as it offers a wide selection of in-stock inventory – three million from the company’s online catalogue and another thirty million listings from other book dealers of in-print books which may be new, rare, used, or out-of print. In addition to that, the website is also leading in the electronic books and publishing industry. The site has almost 5,000 e-book titles which can be purchased and readily downloaded from the site to any personal computer, laptop, or pocket PC.With its rapid expansion and tie-up with various online companies, Barnes & Noble predicts that it won’t be long before their site would offer digital companies of all of the company’s book titles. Barnes & Noble. com is also leading in the music commerce. Recently, Forbes. com voted the website as the No. 1 music site. The music store of Barnes & Noble. com has been credited for offering not just great music of jazz, world music or Broadway. Instead, it also achieved recognition for its extensive and interesting editorial features for people who want to know more about the music that they are buying.Barnes & Noble. com’s success is best demonstrated in its revenues. Based on the company records, the sales of this online channel have steadily increased in the past few years. In 2006, its sales reached $433 million for the full year. In 2007, the sales were up to $477 million for the full year – exhibiting about 13. 4% increase as compared to 2006. The revenue model of the E-commerce site Barnes & Noble. com is patterned after Am azon. com’s web catalog revenue model. Like other booksellers, Barnes & Noble.com get their revenues when customers choose from the on-site product catalogs and buy through the site. The orders can be placed and paid through the automated ordering forms and â€Å"shopping cart† of the website. What’s good about this model is the fact that it acts as an online extension of the company’s nationwide stores for its in-print products. Since the model is implemented at an online level, the revenue generation becomes more effective as potential customers can access the site, view their choices, and buy products anytime that they want to.Although there are other methods of earning which Barnes & Noble. com can use (i. e. advertising through editorial content and ad spaces), such must be utilized only at a minimal level in order to avoid comprising the site’s book selling and promotion process. Marketing on the web Barnes & Noble. com tries aims to appeal t o the general audience. To attract the target market and maintain a great share of loyal customers, the company employs various promotional methods – both offline and online. Offline, www. bn.com is introduced through the stores of Barnes & Noble. It is also popularized through the Barnes & Noble Membership Program which offers incentives to shoppers of the company’s products online and offline. The most beneficial incentive is the discounts which range from ten to ninety percent. The marketing campaign of Barnes & Noble. com is a lot more aggressive. Foremost of these is the promotional mailing. The online book retailer attempts to pitch various book clubs including the 5. 5 million members of the Bertlesmann.In addition to that, they have linked their physical stores to their site. Included in their previous strategy was to provide incentives for customers who give away their e-mail addresses to them. Through their university, Barnes & Noble gains access to the e-mai l addresses of students as well. The e-mails are then supplied with promotional offers, flyers, brochures, newsletters and product catalogs. In addition to this, the online book seller is promoted through advertorials and advertisements in Yahoo. In 2000, Barnes & Noble.com initiated a partnership with Yahoo. As a result, the site became the premier book seller that is featured in the Yahoo directory. The site was also the featured merchant on Yahoo Shopping. Moreover, graphic links of Barnes & Noble. com were presented in every search result page and in all the book category pages of Yahoo. Conclusion Barnes & Noble. com has achieved its position as a leading online bookseller through its successful acquisition, affiliations and merging with other online companies such as Yahoo, SparkNotes, Spinway, and FictionWise.Moreover, a great part of its success must also be attributed to the fact that it has a big inventory of books (in-print and e-books), magazines, and CDs and DVDs of var ious music and movies. The online book seller also has an efficient marketing campaign – online and offline – through Yahoo. com, Barnes & Noble physical stores, and through its aggressive promotional mailings distributed primarily via book clubs and the Barnes & Noble University. Barnes & Noble. com’s success is best demonstrated in its continuously increasing revenues for the past few years.Furthermore, this success is seen in its rapid expansion and continuously increasing inventory. To keep up with this success and the fierce competition with Amazon. com, the online company should make sure that it can keep up with the new innovations in marketing, new methods in presenting online product catalogs, and more efficient processes in shipping their products. It should also increase its inventory storage capacity through the acquisition of more warehouses. References: Barnes & Noble (2008). Barnes & Noble Press Release: Barnes & Noble Reports 2007 Year-End Sales, Released 03-03-2008.Retrieved 03-15-2009 from http://www. barnesandnobleinc. com/newsroom/press_releases_list. html Danielle Belopotosky (2009). E-Book Seller Fictionwise Bought by Barnes & Noble. Published 03-05-2009 in New York Times Online. Retrieved 03-15-2009 from http://gadgetwise. blogs. nytimes. com/2009/03/05/e-book-seller-fictionwise-bought-buy-barnes-noble/ Gale Group (2007). Barnes & Noble Reports Preliminary 2006 Results: Issues First Quarter 2007 Guidance. Published 03-22-2007 in Business Wire, The Free Library. Retrieved 03-15-2009 from http://www. thefreelibrary.com/Business+Wire/2007/March/22-p53 Larry Light (1999). Barnes & Noble's New Battle Plan for the Cyberbook War. Published 07-07-1999 in Business Week Online. Retrieved 03-15-2009 from http://www. businessweek. com/bwdaily/dnflash/july1999/nf90707a. htm Yahoo. (2000). Yahoo Press Release: Barnes & Noble Announces Availability Of Free Unlimited Internet Service CDs At Stores Nationwide, Released October 16, 20 00. Retrieved 03-15-2009 from http://yhoo. client. shareholder. com/releasedetail. cfm? sh_print=yes&releaseid=173692 Barnes & Noble Website: http://www. barnesandnobleinc. com

Roosevelts New Deal Essays

Roosevelts New Deal Essays Roosevelts New Deal Essay Roosevelts New Deal Essay In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt won the presidential election with 57% of the vote. His predecessor was Herbert Hoover, a Republican who believed in the policies of rugged individualism and laissez-faire. This election took place during the Great Depression. Although Hoover during his presidential period tried to introduce policies that would improve the standard of life of those struck by unemployment and poverty as a result of the Depression, the situation barely improved. After the lame duck period from November 1932 to March 1933, President Roosevelt came into power. He intended to bring America out of Depression by restoring hope and faith into the people, and by direct aid through relief (handouts to relieve poverty and stop people from losing homes or farms), through recovery (revive the economy and help unemployment rates) and through reform (introduce aid measures such as social security and pensions for people in the USA). Roosevelt achieved the latter through a series of agencies and policies to relieve the Depression, which collectively became known as the New Deal. Some examples of these policies which related to relief were the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps. These policies involved direct government aid and initiative, and therefore were seen as a change to society from Hoovers laissez-faire ideals. Recovery was initiated in acts such as the National Industry Recovery Act and the Tennessee Valley Authority. As the government had previously not been involved heavily in the business sector, this was a drastic change. With the Bank Holiday of 1933, Roosevelt closed down all banks, so that the government could reorganize them, which it did with the Emergency Banking Relief Act (authorized government to monitor the banks finances to determine its condition) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) of 1933 (provided an insurance of deposits in banks to a maximum of $100,000 per depositor, which meant that if the banks crashed, the government would compensate for the individuals deposited money). This boosted the publics confidence and bank deposits, which restored the banks ability to invest in other businesses with its new monetary source. With the banks investment, many new businesses formed and developed while old ones reopened and began to recover from the Great Depression. Not only that, the Home Owners Loan Corporation and the Farm Credit Administration, by providing refinancing, low interests, and mortgages, the two encouraged people to borrow money from the banks, which increased the source of income for the banks to flourish and invest in other businesses. In addition, the Securities Act of 1933, which created the Securities and Exchange Commission, ensured the soundness of stocks and bonds by forbidding the speculative business practices (for example, stock-watering) that led to the Wall Streets crash, further hindering the possibility of another crash of businesses. Finally, the National Recovery Administration guaranteed profits to businesses by setting minimum prices on certain goods. Indeed, Roosevelts first New Deal was composed of numerous legislatives that helped businesses revive. Of course, that didnt mean that the first New Deal was completely unfavorable to labor. The National Recovery Administration gave workers the rights to organize into a union and bargain as a union with its employers. Also, it established provisions for guaranteeing fair wages and hours for labor by setting standards for wages, labor hours, and expected production levels. Not only that, it provided millions with desperately needed jobs. However, despite the aid given to the laborers, the first New Deal stopped short at providing jobs and few laborer rights, while the significant right to unionize was declared unconstitutional in the case of Schecter v US. Thus, the first New Deal benefited the businesses more significantly than it did to labor. Roosevelts second New Deal, by contrast, favored labor by improving the laborers conditions with new numerous legislatives. It provided a significant number of jobs to the unemployed. For example, the Works Progressive Administration of 1935 employed 3.4 million men and women in its first year of constructing public works, and 9 million over a period of 8 years. Secondly, it provided desperately demanded reforms regarding laborers rights. For example with the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, the laborers were granted the right to organize into unions and to bargain as a union with their employers, and this was not declared unconstitutional, unlike the NRA of Roosevelts first New Deal. Also, this outlawed business practices that were deemed unfair to laborers, and the National Labor Relations Board was established in order to enforce those aforementioned rights. The acts success in benefiting the cause of labor was reflected by the creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizat ions, which was a significant and successful union of the unskilled laborers. In addition, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 further favored the laborers by setting the maximum limit of working hours to 40 hours per week, and established minimum wages of 40 cents per hour. Furthermore, the act prohibited the employment of those under the age of 16, which was a demand by pro-laborers in the past. Finally, the second New Deal guaranteed financial assistance to the laborers. The Social Security Act of 1935 provided federal insurance, or simply monthly federal payments, to retired laborers over the age of 65, unemployed, physically disabled, dependent children and their mothers. Also, the Resettlement Administration was established under Roosevelt with the goal of resettling landless farmers to lands of better quality, providing loans to sharecroppers, tenants, and small farmers, and establishing numerous federal camps, in which destitute migrant workers could be housed in decent conditions. Overall, it could be observed that Roosevelts second New Deal granted the laborers new rights, which further improved their conditions, thus favoring labor. It is not a surprise that Roosevelt was able to gain extreme popularity with his New Deal program because he benefited both labor and business under the common objective of relieving the nation after the Great Depression: he revived the crashed businesses and granted new rights to the laborers, which improved their conditions.

Countable and Uncountable Nouns for Beginners

Countable and Uncountable Nouns for Beginners There are many different types of nouns in English. Objects, ideas, and places can all be nouns. Every noun is either countable or uncountable. Countable nouns are nouns you can count, and uncountable nouns are nouns you cant count. Countable nouns can take the singular or the plural form of a verb. Uncountable nouns always take the singular form of the verb. Study the rules and examples below. What Are Countable Nouns? Countable nouns are individual objects, people, places, etc. which can be counted. Nouns are considered content words meaning they provide the people, things, ideas, etc. about which we speak. Nouns are one of the eight parts of speech. For example, apple, book, government, student, island. A countable noun can be both singular- a friend, a house, etc.- or plural- a few apples, lots of trees, etc. Use the singular form of the verb with a singular countable noun: There is a book on the table.That student is excellent! Use the plural form of the verb with a countable noun in the plural: There are some students in the classroom.Those houses are very big, arent they? What Are Uncountable Nouns? Uncountable nouns are materials, concepts, information, etc. which are not individual objects and can not be counted. For example, information, water, understanding, wood, cheese, etc. Uncountable nouns are always singular. Use the singular form of the verb with uncountable nouns: There is some water in that pitcher.That is the equipment we use for the project. Adjectives With Countable and Uncountable Nouns. Use a/an with countable nouns preceded by an adjective(s): Tom is a very intelligent young man.I have a beautiful grey cat. Do not use a/an (indefinite articles) with uncountable nouns preceded by an adjective(s): That is very useful information.There is some cold beer in the fridge. Some uncountable nouns in English are countable in other languages. This can be confusing! Here is a list of some of the most common, easy to confuse uncountable nouns. accommodationadvicebaggagebreadequipmentfurnituregarbageinformationknowledgeluggagemoneynewspastaprogressresearchtravelwork Obviously, uncountable nouns (especially different types of food) have forms that express plural concepts. These measurements or containers are countable: water - a glass of waterequipment - a piece of equipmentcheese - a slice of cheese Here are some of the most common containers / quantity expressions for these uncountable nouns: accommodation - a place to stayadvice - a piece of advicebaggage - a piece of baggagebread - a slice of bread, a loaf of breadequipment - a piece of equipmentfurniture - a piece of furnituregarbage - a piece of garbageinformation - a piece of informationknowledge - a factluggage - a piece of luggage, a bag, a suitcasemoney - a note, a coinnews - a piece of newspasta - a plate of pasta, a serving of pastaresearch - a piece of research, a research projecttravel - a journey, a tripwork - a job, a position Here are some more common uncountable food types with their container / quantity expressions: liquids (water, beer, wine, etc.) - a glass, a bottle, a jug of water, etc.cheese - a slice, a chunk, a piece of cheesemeat - a piece, a slice, a pound of meatbutter - a bar of butterketchup, mayonnaise, mustard - a bottle of, a tube of ketchup, etc.

THREE FACES OF THE WRITER

THREE FACES OF THE WRITER I attended a conference recently where a short story instructor elaborated about the three sides of a writer. I like to call them faces. The concept he painted was not new to me, but I marveled at how it remained hidden in the back of my mind, an assumption, like it wasnt worth remembering. In reality, understanding our three faces is phenomenally important. Astounding, even. THE AUTHOR This personality is the source of all ideas. Here is where you contrive the plot and choose your characters. This side of you involves ingenuity. THE WRITER This face is the crafter. Here is the side of you that defines the words, matches nouns to verbs, carefully chooses adverbs (if any). This is the most easily taught of the three talents. You can be schooled on how to put words together correctly. THE STORYTELLER Here is the magic. This is what most people call voice. So many people can be authors and writers, but not everyone is a storyteller. This face isnt easily taught, since its almost an inherent trait. Its this side of you that can show and not tell, translating enthusiasm into words. Th storyteller isnt in all writers and authors. There may be words on paper, in order, written properly, with a beginning, middle and ending, but without the storytellers touch, the tale falls flat. How do you master all three? Read voraciously, watching for all three faces of the writer you read. Make yourself learn the writer side, grasping the word building until its second nature. Listen to storytellers. Close your eyes and hear audiobooks, movies, and plays. Absorb the wordplay, recognizing how the writer avoids telling. Then try to be uninhibited in your writing. Dont worry about what your mother will think about the sex in Chapter 14. Forget about how your cousins may misinterpret the twist in Chapter 23. Sling all the crap on the page and dare to be alive. Story creation is a careful balance of knowing the rules, thinking creativity, and then daring to explode onto the page without concern for the ramifications.

Globalisation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Globalisation - Essay Example At the time, 'USA produced at least half of the world's manufactured goods and held half its reserves' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_sytem ). While the gold standard prevailed, currency exchange rates were more or less fixed, ensuring stability in world trade. Although expounding a liberal free trade and free market philosophy, the USA also is accused of being isolationist. 'America first' is a very powerful slogan. 'The historic insulation of the American economy from the global one stems from the size and physical remoteness of the U.S. market, which relies less on trade than virtually any other in the world. ' even a modest percentage of American GNP constitutes a sizable share of global economic activity. In the early 1950s ' American exports constituted more than a third of industrial exports, yet less than 5 percent of GNP' (http://www.lehigh.edu/'bm05/research/global15.htm ). This kind of hegemony of the US economy began to be eroded in the 1960s and 70s when financial capital in the form of international syndicates of the largest banks of the world undermined the stability of national currencies. There was speculation in currency trading at a time when the currencies of post-war Germany and Japan were becoming stronger vis-a-vis t he American dollar. There was also greater manufacturing successes and enhanced export potential evinced by Japan and the EEC as a trading bloc. Since then trans-national or multinational corporations have also complicated capital and currency movements across the world. A cogent reason for the U.S. planners to advance the concept of a liberal, free market international economic system was that, as the then US Secretary of State Cordell Hull (1933 - 1944) argued the perception that the main cause of two world wars of the 20th century were due to economic protectionism. Nazi Germany's exchange controls in the form of bilateral arrangements and the British Empire's Sterling Area, stood in the way of international free flow of capital and foreign investments. The U.S. indulged in the rhetoric that '' free markets (were associated) with material prosperity, stability, justice, democracy, human rights, international peace and more' (Moon, 1998). However, without government intervention vulnerable groups like unskilled labour find themselves outside the benefits accruing to countries in the wake of such liberalisation (vide The Stolper-Samuelson theory). The 'Heckscher-Ohlin trade theory' also predicts that 'inefficient sectors of the economy will suffer losses. ... As American supremacy ' eroded since the 1970s, greater vulnerabilities have produced dislocations in scattered industries, most prominently in textiles, steel and autos'(op. cit.). As a result of this ''vulnerability to trade competitors and its changing pattern of comparative advantage, American policy has become increasingly narrowly self-interested' (op. cit.). Outsourcing or offshoring are terms used to explain the migration of most of American service and technical jobs

Membership makeup of this unions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Membership makeup of this unions - Essay Example Firstly, with regards to the demographic makeup of these unions, it must be understood that the German unions are almost exclusively made up of individuals that it been within the workforce for a period of time. As such, the average age group that is demonstrated by these individuals is necessarily higher than would be for entry-level employees; represented within the German system as an average age of 43. Comparatively, did the fact that unionization is requirement within the Chinese system, the average age is much lower at 37.5 years of age. It is of course necessary to note the key differential is economies is the fact that the German unionization system is voluntary; although heavily impacted by the extent to which government oversight integrates with economic development (Fitzenberger et al 148). Moreover, with respect to the Chinese system, the Communist party insists that any and all enterprise must necessarily be overseen by and ultimately managed by the state. Although a gre at degree of liberalization is taken place in recent years, the level and extent to which unionization has dropped in China is not indicative of a fully capitalist system. Similarly, with regards to the overall level of minority composition that is represented within these two systems, Germany has a minority representation within the unions of approximately 14%. This is somewhat interesting due to the fact that the minority population Germany only registers around 8%. With respect to the Chinese system, the dynamic is considerably different. Due to the fact that minorities make up only around 8% of the Chinese population, the reality of union representation is surprising. As a result of the fact that the Western regions of China represent the lion’s share of the minorities and due to the fact that these regions are on the whole un-industrialized, the level of union participation among minorities is approximately 2% (Wang 680). Likewise, with regards to the sexes and their ove rall representation within the unions, Germany represents a gender representation of males to females that is nearly 3:1. However, as has been previously discussed, the nature of government involvement within the unions of China means that a much larger precentage of participation by females is realized. Due to this fact, the level of participation among the female population within China is much higher and represents an overall dynamic around 1.5:1. Although it may be assumed that the ratio would be closer to 1:1, the fact of the matter is that no matter how industrialized the economy or the region, there continues to be a differential with regards to the total integration of the workforce based upon males and females. Moreover, with regards to the relatively lower level of female participation within the unions of Germany, this of course can be understood as a dynamic that is the result of the overall percentages of industrial workers that make up the broad majority of union membe rs. Due to the fact that these are traditionally male dominated jobs, the level of female participation within the unions of Germany are necessarily constrained. Work Cited Fitzenberger, Bernd, Karsten Kohn, and Wang Qingwei. "The Erosion Of Union Membership

Is David Hume's argument against William Paley here a strong one Essay

Is David Hume's argument against William Paley here a strong one - Essay Example From the evidence of inventors who developed new ideas, this argument is flawed because there would be no logical design that the inventors had encountered before designing their inventions. This indicates that Hume’s argument was based on ignorance; there was no way that he would know that new designs would be invented; designs that would negate his argument. Hume’s argument is also flawed because of the apparent contradictions present in the argument itself. A summary of the argument indicates that Hume believed that an individual should only believe that an object is made from design if the individual had previously encountered similar design. Therefore, the argument by Hume seems to indicate that an individual who had not encountered design should not attribute designs to the working of a designer. This argument means that Hume preempts the human mind; the argument tries to negate the working of the human mind in deducing the result of design. The other factor that indicates that Hume’s argument was a weak argument is in the design of the universe. Contrary to the biological argument presented by Hume, the universe is an infinite product of design. This means that any human being can attribute the design of the universe to some supreme deity, a fact that Hume tries to negate in his argument. The anthology that an individual has to have experienced design in order to recognize other instances of design would serve to negate the possibility of a supreme deity who gives humans deductive ability. Therefore, the argument by Hume can be considered weak because of its structural failures and the proposition. The fact there exists unique designs in the universe is also proof that Hume’s argument was not strong. This is because design is the product of the intellect, creativity, and innovativeness. Hume’s argument seems to propose that design is born of