The Tobacco Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Tobacco Industry - Essay Example This paper will examine the historical mechanisms through which the tobacco companies exercised their political influence, assess whether they influenced the public policy process legitimately, and discuss how this particular case study affects people generally. As a preliminary matter, from an historical point of view, the tobacco industry has most certainly influenced the public policy process. Their general approach has been essentially twofold. First, the tobacco industry has relied for many decades on financial contributions made to political parties and to individual candidates and incumbents. These financial contributions were not made on the basis of any particular ideological affinity; indeed, until the election of the Clinton administration in the mid-1990s, the tobacco industry contributed roughly the same amount to both political parties. This changed, however when the Clinton administration began to highlight the public health issues involving tobacco. In short, financial contributions were used for many years to influence both parties; after Clinton took a harder stand against tobacco, the contributions continued but predominantly in favor of the Republican Party. These contributions were supplemented by financial contribution s, made through political action committees,, to individual candidates and incumbents. In addition to these "soft money contributions", a second mechanism was the creation, funding, and support of lobbying groups with interests in line with those of the tobacco industry. As the case study notes, the tobacco industry, either of its own initiative or through its proxy, the Tobacco Institute, funded or supported advocacy groups, think tanks, and other research projects consistent with their economic and public policy aims. There was no particular concern for scientific integrity; quite the contrary, as the case study explains, the tobacco industry was most interested in partisan research that could be used to influence public policy in it is favor. In sum, these financial contributions and lobbying efforts formed the primary mechanisms by which the tobacco industry influenced public policy. This influence was profound and remarkably successful; to be sure, the tobacco industry had never lost a product liability lawsuit until 1996, and governmental efforts to regulate tobacco had been fundamentally feeble. The question, in hindsight, is whether the tobacco industry influenced the public policy process in a legitimate manner. The answer must be, despite technical niceties, a resounding no. This is because the tobacco industry effectively corrupted the public policy process for its own ends rather than contributing to an honest public discussion. Politicians were afraid to lose their financial

Marketing planning sos analysis for tesco Essay

Marketing planning sos analysis for tesco - Essay Example Marketing has grown by leaps and bounds today. It is a creative industry that has expanded down to various genres such as advertising, distribution and selling. Customer base is figured out, their needs and aspirations realized and the relevant product developed accordingly. In today’s international arena, Marketing is an important tool since it contributes greatly to the success of the business and its products. Productivity and sales are largely dependent on companies’ marketing strategies. On the other hand, engineering is also an important aspect as it allows innovation in an organization which aims to bring positive change to boost customer or producer value. Most often, innovation is conducted as a private activity within an organization in a series of narrowly managed steps. Keeping in mind the importance of marketing and innovation, companies must understand their product to be able to market them. According to Bill Campbell in an interview, only engineers know the information that they should get and deliver about the product they have produced and only effectively communicating that information to the customers would yield desired results. Now, this effective communication is done by our super-creative marketers. Therefore, it is important that marketers and engineers work hand in hand to effectively deliver what customers want. Marketers know their customers and their goal is to create customer value whereas engineers know their product and their goal is to create producer value. Therefore, when marketers and engineers work together, they yield innovative products that are customer-oriented. In an investigation, it was found that those firms are more successful at innovative product development in which the employees are well equipped with the required skills to strategize marketing as a whole. Recently, a product-development process called Quality Function Deployment (QFD) has been adopted by U.S. and Japanese firms who promotes commun ication within the core team (marketing, engineering and manufacturing) and changes communication patterns from â€Å"top-to-bottom† management to focus more on horizontal routes where core team members communicate directly with each other and come up with better results. One of the greatest examples of integrating innovation with marketing is of Apple Inc., a multinational corporation which is ranked as the world’s most innovative company and who markets its designs and products as the customer’s need. Tesco is one of UK’s most successful super markets today. Its total market share stands at 38% and it continues to ride high. It is speculated to become the biggest super market chain of UK very soon. It is currently at number 8 amongst the top 10 grocery retailers of the world. Tesco is known for its huge variety of goods ranging across the board from groceries to fresh food to clothes to compact discs. It’s success has been a result of numerous fa ctors. It is claimed that it’s leading edge in areas like price, customer service, distribution, ecommerce, loyalty cards and own label products have been key to it’s phenomenal success. Their deputy Chairman, Mr David Reid, asserts that Tesco focuses on customer needs and delves a lot of time in understanding the customer needs and wants before translating them into plans aimed at adding value for the