The Outsiders

The Outsiders by S. E Hinton, the author argues that heroism defines a person by their actions not by their background, history, or looks. The events at the church, the incidents that happened before the church and the aftermath all show the changes that happened over time that would eventually negate Ponyboys history and background and regard him as a hero.There are different points of heroism in the story and different forms of eroism in the story but for now we are going to look at the most important three, Cherry acting as a spy, Ponyboy rescuing the kids and what he was defined by before he was a hero. Ponyboy is very much defined as a hero after the events that happened at the church in which he rescued all those kids from death by grabbing them out of the burning church. He did out of courage and kindness and was praised as a hero for it. â€Å"Mrs.O'briant and I think you were sent straight from heaven. Or are you Just professional heroes or something? Sent from heaven? Had he gotten a good look at Dallas? â€Å"No were greasers† I said. I was too worried and scared to appreciate the fact that he was trying to be funny. mfou're what? † â€Å"Greasers you know like hoods, ID's. Johnny is wanted for murder, and Dallas has a record with the fuzz a mile long. â€Å"(95). The quote present here relates to the theme and explains the ambulance driver overlooking his past and still appreciating him as a hero.The author is putting emphasis on the heroism in the quote and that no matter what background heroes ome from, they are looked upon for their actions and the same applied for Ponyboy and what he did for those kids. The reason that he was looked upon as a hero was because of his actions, but what was he defined as before the church? He was a greaser, Just your average every day greaser who was looked upon as a hood, a thief, and Juvenile delinquent to society. â€Å"It was my pride. It was long and silky, Just like sodas only a little bit re dder.Our hair was tuff – we didn't have to use much grease on it. Our hair labeled us greasers too – it was our trademark. The one thing we were proud of. Maybe we couldn't corvairs or madras shirts, but we could have hair. † Ponyboys pride was his hair and that's what he considered himself to be defined by. It was a painful change for him to make when he had to cut it off. When Johnny told ponyboy that he is going to cut their hair ponyboy replied by stating the previous quote. Ponyboy could have been defined as a hero before the events at the church in a different way and from a different perspective.He could be a hero in Johnnys eyes or sticking with him ever since he killed the Socs Bob to him lying in his death bed. He is a hero for standing by his friends through the good and the bad. Although Ponyboy is the most notable hero in the story there are others who did other things such as Cherry acting as a spy for the Greases and giving them info. In the end al l of the different stories of heroism in the story all relate back to the main theme heroism is defined by your actions not by your background, history, or looks. The Outsiders By Pancakewaffe The Outsiders Search for Self Conflict arises between two incomparable social groups, resulting in tragic deaths. In the novel The Outsiders by S. E Hint, two separate gangs, the Soc and Greasers, are at constant contention. The Outsiders takes place In Oklahoma, the sass's. Hint uses the character, Pony Curtis to explain why It doesn't matter what social position you are In. The message she Is trying to get across to the readers Is you are your own person, and you don't have to be classified as anyone else but yourself.Throughout the novel Pony becomes more sophisticated, by learning to reaffirm is own values and sense of self. He progressively matures through the course of the novel in many different ways by experiencing things he would have never imagined going through. Pony never admired the girls that were Greasers but one night he found the girl of his dreams. Unfortunately, she was a Soc and she had different standards for her romantic companion. Pony knows his position in society but that never held him back from falling for the delectable Cherry Valance.Heartbreaking for him, she was more of the girl to fall for â€Å"bad-boys† unlike Pony. It wasn't Johnny's fault Bob was a booze-hound and Cherry went for boys bound for By the end of the novel, Pony finally comes to the realization of thinking of Cherry as more of a friend, rather than having romantic affections for her. He shows sensitivity and understanding by appreciating their differences and accepting her feelings towards him. A second way Pony has changed is by learning the consequences of his own mistakes and wrong doings.After Running away was always Pony supreme speculation on finding a place he felt acknowledgment, â€Å"Come on, Johnny, we're running )After coming home late, his older protective brother Dairy, who has taken over responsibility of Pony and Soda after their parents passed away, is very furious with him. As a result of his outrage, he ends up hitting Pony. Devastated, Pony runs away , and relies on one of the gang members to keep him up to date on what Is going on. He Is then stuck In an abandoned church starving for news to come from his confidant.As a result of his actions, Pony learns how big of an Impact his family and friends have n him. The biggest impact that changed Pony throughout the novel was the realization of his brother's feelings towards him. In the beginning of the novel, Pony is rebellious against his oldest brother Dairy, â€Å"Me and Dairy just didn't dig each other. â€Å"(p. 13)He felt like Dairy was only out to get after him, and that Pony was never exceptional enough. Even though Dairy is stricter than their parents, he was only trying to make the best of Pony, which he came to realize at the end. Dairy did care about me, maybe as much as he cared about Soda, and because he eared he was trying too hard to make something of me. â€Å"(p. 98)After trying to block Dairy out, Pony finally figured it out for himself after seeing the agony h e has put Dairy through.

The Success Factors of Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon

The Success Factors of Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon Presented to The Department of Business Administration 2011-12 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This repost is studying the success factors of Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. It will be collect the information and data from questionnaire survey and focus groups. Also, it will be through Value Important Performance Grid tool and SWOT analysis that more understand the performance and state of this marathon, then make some recommendation. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This thesis would not have been possible unless someone who give the information support.It is an honor for our group to interview Mrs. Vivian So, the Executive director of HKAAA, and Mr. Wong Ka Man, an committee of HKAAA. Our group also would like to thank some participants who attend our questionnaire survey and focus group. Their view and information gave us a lot of help for this report. I would like to show my gratitude to my supervisor, Leonard Kwan and course leader, Johnny Ch iu, whose encouragement, guidance and support from the initial to the final level enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject.Lastly, we offer our regards and blessings to all of those who supported us in any respect during the completion of the project. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS LIST OF TABLES LIST OF APPENDICES CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 2. 1 Background of Event 2. PROBLEM STATEMENT 3. 2 Statement of the Problem 3. 3 The Assumption 3. 4 Methodology 3. 5 Limitation 3. FACTORS AFFECTING A EVENT 4. 6 Public Acceptance 4. 7. 1 Social Environment – Cultural 4. 7. 2 Lifestyle 4. 7 Support from Stakeholders 4. 8. 3 Commercial Sponsorships . 8. 4 Participants 4. 8. 5 Organizations 4. 8. 6 Non-profit organizations 4. 8. 7 Celebrities 4. 8. 8 General Public 4. 8. 9 Government 4. 8 Effective Event Management 4. 9. 10 Event Planning 4. 9. 11 Human Resource Management 4. 9 Publicity 4. 10. 12 Word of Mouth 4. FINDIN GS 5. 10 Value Important Performance Grid 5. 11 SWOT Analysis 5. 12. 13 Strengths 5. 12. 14 Weaknesses 5. 12. 15 Opportunities 5. 12. 16 Threats 5. 12 Sustainability 5. 13 Potential for future development 5. CONCLUSION 6. RECOMMENDATIONS APPENDICES 2| 1. Introduction 1. 1 Background of the EventStandard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon is one of the most significant and brand sport event for Hong Kong. This sports event has been held annually every Chinese New Year. This event is large-scale, with local and foreign people participation. Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon has been gaining a lot of support from companies, organizations, public, government and tourist. Prior to Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, it was named â€Å"Shenzhen Marathon† and was held in 1996. Due to the lack of funds, Standard Chartered Bank become the title was sponsor of â€Å"Shenzhen Marathon†.Afterward it has been named Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. Since then the Marathon has been held for 15years. In the beginning, the number of participants of this event was limited thousand and the awareness was 1000. Until 2011, the number of participant has increased to more than 70,000 in 2012. 2. PROBLEM STATEMENT 2. 1 Statement of the Problem The purpose of this report is to find out the success factors of Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. The event had a humble beginning, and very few Hong Kong people showed interest to join the race.After a few years, Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon has started to gain its popularity in Hong Kong year after year. The event has become a Hong Kong branded sports event now. This report is to study the factors that attributed to its success. This report also investigates the possible strategies to sustain its success in the future. Based on the participant number of Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon in past 16 years, it showed in Chart 1. The figure indicates that the participant numbers are growing year after year. This proved the event has been more widely accepted by people in Hong Kong than other sports.Hence, how to this event successes in attracting so many people to participate every year allows us to better understand the reason behind its success. Thus, it helps to project whether the event is sustainable in the future. 2. 2 The Assumption Our group assumes public acceptance, support from stakeholders, effective event management and publicity are the important factor of success event. 2. 3 The Methodology In this report, we had used primary and secondary sources of information for the analysis of the critical success factors of Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. 2. 3. 1 Data Collection Secondary researchFirst of all, we had found a lot of reference books in the library, for example, Successful Event Management, Event Sponsorship, Sports and Entertainment Marketing and Sports Marketing etc. Also, we will find the professional journals, such as the Journal of Business Research, Jour nal of Marketing Event Research, Journal of Marketing, Organizational Behavior etc. Then, we will have more information about the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon’ success factors. Moreover, we had found the sports magazine, such as Sportsoho, these helped us to know more about Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon.Moreover we found a lot of relevant information on the newspapers, such as, Singtao newspaper, Mingpao newspaper, etc. It can help us to find out more Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon information, such how can prepare for the event. Moreover, we had used internet to find more secondary information. For example, using Google to research information related to Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. It can easy to research some useful information in the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, such as, past history and year the participant situation etc.Also, we used Wise News to find some past news. Primary research First of all, we have interview with Miss V ivian, the Executive Director of the Hong Kong Amateur Athletic Association (HKAAA) to get more information of Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. So, we can have more information about this event, such as the process of marathon, brand building etc. Furthermore, we had set questionnaires and used to interview with stakeholders such as, runner and supporter, to find out how they feel about Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. We had interviewed them the days near the marathon.We had finished 384 interviews in different place, such as, sport ground, a competition area etc. Then, it can help us to understand the customer’s behavior and expectation. We are using the following formula to decide the number of questionnaire: n=[z * se]2 Where n = sample size n=[1. 96 * 50%5%]2 z= Confidence level =384 s= sample variance e= error acceptance The latest survey has a response rate 92 per cent, a sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points and a confidence level of 95 perce nt.On the other hand, after the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, we had interviewed with focus groups who are amateur sport members from The Citizen Athletic Association and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Track and Field Team. We had interviewed with four focus groups that 5 to 6 people in a group. We had asked lots of questions on how they feel on the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon in order to help us to draw out the analysis. Lastly, we will use the following analytical methods to analysis the success factors of Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. 2. 3. 2 Analytical methods 1. Value Important Performance Grid 2.SWOT analysis The Value Important Performance Grid can help us to evaluate the performance and areas of improvement of Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. Also, SWOT analysis can let us more understand the relative strength and weakness of this sport event for organizer perspective. 3. Factors Affecting a Mega Event 3. 1. Public Acceptance Public ac ceptance is defined to be a clear identity and social statuses have a favorable position. Also, it get the support and love of people and their ideas and direction is have to the same goal that can establish a good reputation and word of mouth . For example, Echoes of the Rainbow movie made in Hong Kong, a low-cost film production. At the beginning, this movie had few people pay attention. When this movie received the best picture in the new generation of Children's Film Unit Crystal Bear Award at the 60th Berlin Film Festival, there are many people start attending this movie. Since this movie had received an award, it caught everyone’s attention about this film. More people accept that this king of film and story. In 2008 Beijing Olympics was very successful sport event. It is because the sportsmen from all over the world had come to support and participates in it. We all attach great importance to this event.It is because this game has good recognition. This paper approache s the topic by first referencing to the present environment under the categories of social and lifestyle perspectives of the living environment in Hong Kong. According to the findings, we conjecture the public needs and analyze how the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon can fulfill the needs and obtain public acceptance. 3. 1. 3Social – Cultural Since 1996, Lee Lai Shan won the first-ever Olympic gold medal for Hong Kong in the women’s mistral boardsailing class and was the first champion in the Asian Games representing Hong Kong, China.Since them, Hong Kong people started paying more attention to our Hong Kong Campaigns. And government started investing a lot more money and time in the promotion for Hong Kong sports. In addition, Lee Lai-Shan has received â€Å"the ten most Outstanding Youth Award† and the Bronze Bauhinia Star Award in recognition of her outstanding achievements in the international sports scene. A stating of her on a wind surf board was ere cted in honor of her near the beachfront at Cheung Chau. Hong Kong Sports Stars Awards is an annual election organized by the Sports Federation ; Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China.The purpose is to encourage athletes and teams to strive for excellence. Also, it can provide role model sand inspiration for Hong Kong young people, thus help to promote sports development in Hong Kong. Moreover, it can encourage the community’s involvement in sports to further promote the sport culture in Hong Kong. Among them, Lee Lai-Shan has won numerous awards including 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2004. Government has also encouraged the public to do more exercise. And it promotes different sports and exercise for us. Furthermore, nowadays people are increasingly aware about their health and peruse a healthy way of living. In the Leisure and Cultural Service Department of Healthy Exercise for All Campaign, Launched in April 2000, the â€Å"Healthy Exercise for All Campaign† is a territory- wide event jointly organized by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) and the Department of Health (DH). With the slogan of â€Å"Daily exercise keeps us fit, people of all ages can do it†, the Campaign aims at raising the public's interest in exercising and encouraging them to exercise regularly so that they can understand the benefits of exercising to health. † This can show that doing exercise benefits for both body and mind.Also, regular exercising can improve the health conditions, and strengthens body’s resistance to illness, trains muscles, strengthens bones and helps prevent osteoporosis. In addition since the outbreak of SARS on 2003, the public awareness to public health exercise caused more people to do exercise. All their incidents coincide with the repaid growth of participants in Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon from 2001 to 2006. Moreover, running is one of the most popular sports and easily practiced by people of all ages. Also, running can enhance physical fitness, strength and willpower.Nowadays, running of the equipment has become more advanced technologically. The innovation of running supplies, clothing and footwear which become to more lightweight and offer better protection. Running gears are how made with more eye-catching color, preferred by ladies who want to live and run in a more relaxed mood. For example, running shoes are now ultra-lightweight. Shoes cage is widen to allow runners to wear comfortable with high-tech arch boosters and the stronger induction of the foot to promote runners reflex, increase their agility, run faster. Also, windproof and breathable jacket make running more comfortable and enjoyable.Furthermore, the technological advancements now even allow smart phones to measure the running speed and pacing. It is very convenience for runner and makes more people like this sport. 3. 1. 5Lifestyle â€Å"Lifestyle is a mode of living that is identified by how people spend their tim e and resource, what they consider important in their environment, and what they think of themselves and the world around them. † First of all, there is an apparent relation between slow economic growth and desire for participation in sports event. In 2003, Hong Kong has a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and bully impact the Economic. A government spokesman explained that the March to May this year. The unemployment rate and underemployment rate rose to a new high. It is because of the impact of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome(SARS) on the labor market intensifies, consumption and tourism, the impact on industry layoffs increase with an overall decline in employment. † According to government year book2003 â€Å"The labour market worsened abruptly in the first half of 2003, mainly affected by the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased from 7. per cent in the first quarter of 2003 to an all-tim e high of 8. 7 per cent in May-July 2003. † â€Å"Also, Hong Kong economic situation in 2003 can showed the unemployment rate and the underemployment rate surged to record highs in the summer of 2003, a consequent of an abrupt economic downturn under the impact of SARS. † (Chart 1) Chart 1 Unemployment and underemployment rates â€Å"Amidst the slackened labour market conditions, overall labour earnings and wages continued on a decline in 2003. The decline nevertheless narrowed down after the mid-year. †(Chart 2) Chart 2 Earnings and wages| year-on-year rate of change in money terms)| Since more people were unemployed, so that they have more time to use the spare time for exercise running. Also, running does not cost money and is a low-consumption activity that is good exercise for most people. Therefore, most people change their lifestyle. They are love to running. In addition, running is good for health. It is because most of doctors said that running could enh ance the breathing health of lung. So people started paying more attention to running. (App1) The Hong Kong Anti-Cancer Society also suggests that people to do exercise 30mins every day, such as running.They claimed that, running can prevent the disease. Since then more people are interest in doing exercise. ————————————————- Furthermore, the World Health Organization suggested people to do 150mins exercise every week. This can make the body became healthily and lengthen the life by 3years than without doing exercise. ————————————————- ————————————————- Therefore, people need to health and good life time, they take action to running. It can benefit for their health.It can show that the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon increase the participants join to after 2003. Moreover, every person has different a way of living and habits. Their lifestyle reflects the attitudes and values of a person. Ms Vivian So, the Executive Director of HKAAA said that â€Å"Running is not limited to any place and no need to pay any money. Anyone can do it. However, if one plays football, basketball etc one needs to have a large group of players. Therefore, running is very convenient. † This explains why distance running has become popular in the present busy lifestyle of Hong Kong people.Leung Yiu-chung a member of the Legislative Council also said that when he was young who like swimming, running, hiking, football, table tennis, volleyball etc. But most of sports need to have a partner. After he started working, it become difficult to find a partner does exercise together. Therefore, he chose running because he can do it alone. He has been ru nning which run for more than 20 years. Ken Yuen, Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Corporation Limited of presenter said that running need only sport shirts, pants and shoes which can be done alone.Running is very convenient for him. There is one thing in a common, many people working busily. It is difficult to meet friends to do exercise together. Therefore, running can fit in to the lifestyle of new generations. Then, a study on consumer behavior can explain why people join the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. We apply the theories of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to explain it. â€Å"Consumer behavior is the study of when, why, how, and where people do or do not buy a product. It blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology and economics.It attempts to understand the buyer decision making process, both individually and in groups. It studies characteristics of individual consumers such as demographics and behavioral variables in an attempt to unders tand people's wants. It also tries to assess influences on the consumer from groups such as family, friends, reference groups, and society in general. † It is mean the consumer behavior is a buyer decision making process, it includes individual, groups. The groups are like the family, friends, media, leader or artist. Participant will influence with them when they make decision. Consumer behavior is â€Å"The study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and society. † Behavior occurs either for the individual, or in the context of a group (e. g. , friend’s influence what kinds of clothes a person wears) or an organization (people on the job make decisions as to which products the firm should use). † We can understand consumer behavior is affect by individuals, groups, or orga nizations. The consumer behavior also knows people's need.So, people join the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon is effect by their making decision and what they needs. Otherwise, the participant also will use their knowledge, experience to join it. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (chart. xx) â€Å"Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology, proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper A Theory of Human Motivation. Maslow subsequently extended the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity. His theories parallel many other theories of human developmental psychology, all of which focus on describing the stages of growth in humans.Maslow is use the terms Physiological, Safety, Belongingness and Love, Esteem, and Self-Actualization needs to describe the pattern that human motivations generally move through. † ————————————————- The Nee ds can identify why participants join the Marathon. Physiological need is base on eating, drinking. Participates need a healthy body. Safety is meaning ensure public safety, such as how the events management provides enough facilities to protect participants. Belonging and love is base on with friends, family together. Participants may join this event with friends, families.Esteem is the glory of participating in the race to makes them satisfied. The self challenge is when the participant makes a breakthrough in their finishing time or finishing the race by challenging their potential. ————————————————- Participants join the race as they think that they can gain a great experience or achieve their personal goal in the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. Chart 5 Through our questionnaires, we find that near a half part of participant motion that they join this marathon a s for self- challenge. About 24% participants join because of the health.Impact of peer and family and honor respectively is 11% and 14%. Also, these had a 2% was participated with company or a litter bit number for other reasons. So, we would understand that achievement is really importance as the personal goal and this may cause the reason that why the number of participants is continuous growth. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Higher– Level Needs Lower – Level Needs ————————————————- ————————————————- 3. 2 Supports from Stakeholders It is important to cooperate with stakeholder in an event.A good stakeholders’ support can make the event more successful. In the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, we can see that it has received a good support from participants, celebrities, general public and the government etc. 3. 2. 1 Commercial Sponsorship Sponsorship is a contribution to an activity (typically in sports, arts, entertainment or causes) by a commercial organization in cash, or in-kind, with the expectation of achieving corporate and marketing objectives. Sponsorship continues to represent a popular way of cutting through advertising clutter and reaching potential customers.Commercial sponsor can increase the media and marketing leverage which can let the event become more large-scale. The scale of a representative event can’t be too small. A large scale of an event can attract and increase the number of people to join or to pay close attention to it. Also, it can cause by the public and media to discuss and report the event. – For instance, Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse sponsored the Hong Kong Sevens Rugby Match was one of the successful model in the early years. Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse was t he title commercial sponsors.Because of the sponsorship, Suisse Hong Kong Sevens become more popular and large-scale. And, the event has been well known. Because it makes the event become more representative and attract the number of people to pay attention to it. Regarding Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, because of the sponsorship of Standard Chartered Bank, making had more resources to promote the event. Also, commercial sponsor can increase the media and marketing leverage which can let the event become more large-scale. A large scale of an event can attract and increase the number of people to join or to pay close attention to it.A part from that, it can cause by the public and media to discuss and report the event. Therefore, it prove that commercial sponsor is also one of the reason why caused the marathon be more success. 3. 2. 2 Participants The Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon started in 1997. Since then, it has been gaining in popularity. In the past thirteen y ears, it made record in entries every year. Now it has become a signature international sporting event in Hong Kong and was recognized as a â€Å"Brand Hong Kong Event† by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.The continuous growth of the number of participants, it proves that people support the event. Chart 1 Also, Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon has attracted a lot of international athletes from over seventy countries and regions, including China, Chinese Taipei, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Malaysia, Mongolia, Morocco, Poland, the Netherland, New Zealand, Russia, Ukraine and Singapore. It is because people believe that Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon is a large-scale and well-known running event.These may cause that why they are interested and support for the marathon. Participants join the race as they think that they can gain a great experience or achieve their personal goal in the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. Chart 5 Through our questionnaires, we find that near a half part of participant motion that they join this marathon as for self- challenge. About 24% participants join because of the health. Impact of peer and family and honor respectively is 11% and 14%. Also, these had a 2% was participated with company or a litter bit number for other reasons.So, we would understand that achievement is really importance as the personal goal and this may cause the reason that why the number of participants is continuous growth. A part from joining the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, participants can achieve their personal goals. We find that about 70% of participants had joined more than one times. It can show that a great part of number were repeat participate. Chart xx Chart 6 Also, all of interviewer motioned that they will participate in the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon again.It can see that participant generality enjoyable and think the higher value than payable in this mara thon. So, the continuous growth of the number of participants, it proves that people support the race. 3. 2. 3 Organization On the other hand, Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon also has attracted a lot of companies and organizations’ support. Some companies and organizations like Standard Chartered Bank, LI & FUNG, Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants have joined corporate challenge or SME Marathon Cup.Furthermore other education groups include The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist University, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and The Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Educational etc. They were many staff and students who participated in it. The purpose that they may not to win for the race, they only want to have a nice day and enjoy the event. They may only want to express the support to a meaningful cause. These show that organizations’ support for the event. —————————†”——————-For example, Standard Chartered Bank has 2800 staff running in Marathon 2012. It is means participants had affected by each other’s within these groups. Through the organizations we can identify the reasons that made this event became successful. 3. 2. 4 Non-profits organization Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon is a large-scale sporting event. Therefore it needs lots of volunteers to make the event orderly. Ms Vivian So, the Executive Director HKAAA, said that volunteers are important for an event and good services can attract potential customers.Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon had thousands of volunteers serving the runners and the organizer beyond the track to ensure the race can go on smoothly. Volunteer physiotherapists, overseas invited runners’ liaison team members and photographers etc. The volunteers in Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon come from all walks of life and all of them regarded the vo lunteer work very challenging. Therefore, it can prove that non-profits organization is important for an event enter in successful. On the order hand, in order to let the marathon carried out more smoothly, it s important to have non-profits organizations’ support, like Scout Association Hong Kong – Hong Kong Island Region, Auxiliary Medical Service etc. Without their support, the event can’t continue as such smoothly. 3. 2. 5 Celebrities The Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon has received a lot of support from celebrities. Since 2004, artists like EO2, Fiona, Sky etc, they played games with participants, sang and share their experiences on running at the Marathon Expo. On the day before the marathon, there was a cheering concert to boost the morale for participants and volunteers.These make the event more interesting and attract more potential customers to join. Also, Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon Ambassadors personally participated in the event, for example, Andy Hui, Alex Fong etc. These can prove that how the celebrities supported the event. Celebrities are important endorsers of the marathon. Therefore, from 2001 to 2006 the participants’ number has significant increase and one of the reasons that maybe participants want to support their idols. On the other hand, Mr. Donald Tsang Yam-Kuen, the Chief Executive, presented at opening ceremony and supports the participator.Moreover, lots of support from celebrities and famous people, likes Mr. Ricky Wong Wai-kay, Chairman of the City Telecom (H. K. ) Limited. Mr. Timothy T. T Fok, GBS, JP President of Sports Federation & Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China, they helped promote the vision of Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon to their employees as well. These may attract more people to join the race. A part from these, it proves that the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon has received a lot of support from celebrities and these may cause the reason that why marath on are success. 3. 2. General Public Moreover, in order to let the marathon conducting more smoothly. Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon caused large scale road closure, making it inconvenient to a lot of people who live along the race track. However, no public protest against the road closure has been heard. According to Apple Daily on February 24, 2012 â€Å"Road closure would certainly cause inconvenience to some people, but for the marathon road closures was definitely better than New Year Parade, fireworks, Celebration Parade is worth. † showing that the public accept holding a mega event like this.Also, Ms Vivian So, the Executive Director HKAAA, said that it can prove the popularity. The event has been support by the popularity, though it may have caused a little disturb to the neighborhood. It showing that most of the public accept for the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon and they are support Hong Kong for holding such kind of international activities. 3. 2. 7 Government Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon is now being recognized as a â€Å"Brand Hong Kong Event† and a â€Å"M† Mark sporting event by the Hong Kong Government.It has attracts more than 70,000 participants taking part in this challenge in 2012. In order to contain a greater amount of participants, government has done a lot of measures, such as road closure. Moreover, in order to let the marathon conducting more smoothly, Hong Kong Police Force and Hong Kong Road Safety Patrol had send out a great amount of human resources to support the race. On the order hand, Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon normally starts early in the morning (5 a. m. ). In order to support the marathon, MTR Corporation started its trains earlier.Also, those runners who could not reach the pre-set specific time limits need to board the official buses. These special service can see that how government support Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. 3. 3 Effective Event Management 3. 3 . 1 Event Planning â€Å"Event planning is the process of planning a festival, ceremony, competition, party, or convention. Event planning includes budgeting, establishing dates and alternate dates, selecting and reserving the event site, acquiring permits, and coordinating transportation and parking.Event planning also includes some or all of the following, depending on the event: developing a theme or motif for the event, arranging for speakers and alternate speakers, coordinating location support (such as electricity and other utilities), arranging decor, tables, chairs, tents, event support and security, catering, police, fire, portable toilets, parking, signage, emergency plans, health care professionals, and clean up. † The event manager should control that planning process for events management is management, organizational and operates.Also, the planning should address in coordination of when, where, who, what, why and how (5Ws). Because an event is need to identities the objective. Set the location can hold the event, such as indoor or outdoor. Decide to who are the major customer and potential customer, or sponsor. Find which timing is suitable to hold the event. We study that when (timing), where (location), who (human resource management) to prove the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon becomes success. Timing The event planner selected the race day to decide the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon in which day. Spring, summer, and particularly fall are the busiest times for transportation companies, hotels, and resorts, which are taking care of good-weather conventions, vacationers, and business meetings. Because of the potential attendees are more likely to able to afford the time, and to attend the event. About the sport events effect are on the daily pace and commerce of the city. † The Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon always starts one to two weeks after Lunar New Year. Because in this period, the weather is cool. It coul d increase participator’s running performance.According to Ms Vivian So, the Executive Director of HKAAA , said that the Half- Marathon and Full- Marathon have been held only in a few seasons. During Lunar New Year, road traffic normally decreases because many people will be on their vacation and no need to go to work. Air pollution is greatly reduced. † Because, it can avoid the celebration of New Year, and government could regulate would more effectively. Thus, HKAAA selected the race day after Lunar New Year one to two weeks. And decrease some impact for resident and store.Moreover, this period can reduce participants working hour. Location Location can be a critical factor in determining the success of an event. During 1997 to 2012, the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon changes the route 7 times. In 1997, the route started from Sheung Shui, Lok Ma Chau, and ended in Shenzhen. In 1998, the route started at Tsing Ma Bridge and the end point was Hong Kong Internati onal Airport. In 1999, as a starting point in Central at Tsim Sha Tsui and passed by Western Harbour Tunnel, Cheung Tsing Tunnel, and as the end point, Sham Shui Po Sports Ground.In 2000, runners departured from the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, passed by Tsim Sha Tsui, Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade, and a crossed the Ting Kau Bridge and ended at the Sham Shui Po Sports Ground. In 2001 to 2007, it started from Miramar Hotel, Tsim sha tsui, and then passed by the West Kowloon Highway, Cheung Tsing Tunnel, Tsing Ma Bridge and Ting Kau Bridge exhumation of the Western Harbour Crossing, ended at the Golden Bauhinia Square in Wan Chai. Start 2008 to 2009, the route of race was separated from the10 kilometres, Half-Marathon and Full-Marathon.The participants can follow their designated route. 10 kilometres race was first staged on Hong Kong Island Eastern Corridor. Participants are required to walk from Victoria Park on the Island Eastern Corridor in order to reach the starting point. The race end ing points was Victoria Park. Half-Marathon and Full-Marathon continued to start on Nathan Road and ended at Victoria Park. But Full-Marathon continued to run on Tsing Ma Bridge, Ma Wan, and Ting Kau Bridge. In 2010 to 2012, the 10 kilometres race was held on Hong Kong Island Eastern Corridor, and end at Victoria Park.Although Half-Marathon and Full-Marathon are started by Miramar Hotel and end of Victoria Park, Full-Marathon race was changed to Ngong Shuen Chau Viaduct, Stonecutters Bridge, East Tsing Yi Viaduct, Nam Wan Tunnel, Tsing Ma Bridge, Ting Kau Bridge, and Western Harbour Crossing than Half- Marathon. In conclusion, the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon has been holding in urban area and the race track passes by score local landmarks. Participate can tour around the city such as Island Eastern corridor, Nathan Road, Tsing Ma Bridge, Stonecutters Bridge, etc. This is different from other running races.Because those routes are only for transportation, people normally ca nnot walk or run on the Tsing Ma Bridge, Ting Kau Bridge and other public facilities. Thus, participate can enjoy and find the route interesting. In overseas, the Marathon route shared similar characteristics . For instance, Tokyo Marathon is also held in urban area. In 2011, this event attract more than 350,000 participates to apply. But the participants need to draw by ballot. So the actual number is around 33,000. So we can know if the event can be held at downtown, it can attract more people to join.The routes are showed in Fig. 1 Tokyo Marathon and Fig. 2 Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. There are similar with both held the marathon in landmarks. Fig. 1 Fig. 2 3. 3. 2 Human Resource Management â€Å"Human resource management (HRM or simply HR) is the management of an organization's workforce, or human resources. It is responsible for the attraction, selection, training, assessment, and rewarding of employees, while also overseeing organizational leadership and culture, a nd ensuring compliance with employment and labor laws.In circumstances where employees desire and are legally authorized to hold a collective bargaining agreement, HR will typically also serve as the company's primary liaison with the employees' representatives. † The human resource management is including selection and training or briefing staff. And make sure staff understands the job duties and responsibility. Staff and Volunteer In 2012, 2800 Standard Chartered staff runners participated in the Marathon while another 700 volunteered to cheer or support on race day. Appendices xx) Among those volunteers their were Association of International Marathons and Road Races, Auxiliary Medical Service, Civil Aid Service, and Scout Association Hong Kong, and so on. (Appendices xx) There was a wide range of supporting volunteers and organization from commercial organizations, voluntary bodies, and to charitable organizations. The success of the event is found highly depending on the cooperation among them. Their duties include crowd control, logistics, and so on.Michael Armstrong, Joint Managing Partner of E-reward and an independent management consultant, said that business success is most likely to be achieved if the personnel policies and procedures of the enterprise are closely linked with, and make a major contribution to, the achievement of corporate objectives and strategic plans. Therefore, the management of staff and volunteers are critical to the success of the event. Ms Vivian So, the Executive Director of HKAAA, said that the marathon was success because of the enthusiastic staff and volunteers also worked hard and endeavour to finish the event.It raised the normal of event workers. This showed the marathon event was successful due to support from the staff and volunteers. In conclusion, the success of the marathon depends on the preparation of the job descriptions to staff and volunteers. Since the duties are different. HKAAA should select the volu nteers well. HKAAA should ensure them understand the procedures well. HKAAA should provide sufficient briefings to its staff and volunteers before the race events. 3. 4 Publicity 3. 4. 1 Word of Mouth Word of mouth (WOM) is one of the importance factors for holding a successful event.Mr. Wong Ka Man, an committee of HKAAA, said that it lead to more people know Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon and feel interest in this event because of word of mouth. Mr. Wong also motion that â€Å"after few years for holding this marathon, Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon was more corporate with media like Hong Kong Commercial Radio. Under eulogized, Standard Chartered Marathon was became a hot topic. Also, participants were post some event photo in the internet that attract many citizens attention and feel interest to participant. So we can that word of mouth is the importance factor. Word of mouth is a social communication between consumers or between businesses about a product, service or brand. People share and seek other opinions on consumption experiences. A desire to help other people drives consumers to provide advice to others while a desire to reduce risk and time in decision making pushes them to seek options from other consumers. Storytelling is the oldest form of word of mouth communication where one person tells others of something, whether a real event or something made up.Word of mouth depends on the extent of customer satisfaction with the product or service, and on the degree of its perceived value. Even without a direct and full control of word of mouth, companies can indirectly influence word of mouth by making sure consumers have many incentives to praise and no reason to talk about the negative aspects. Sports marketers must can take the expanded relationship into account. To do so, engage in positive word of mouth exchanges with other people. Word of mouth by event organizationBecause of positive word of mouth building, Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon was doing something that let more people think this is a joyful event. Firstly, Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon have had revamped official website (www. hkmarathon. com or http://hk. hkmarathon. yahoo. com) in 2002. This website has been designed and engineered by the renowned internet service provider Yahoo! Hong Kong. Up to now, except the related race information of Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon on the website, there are also including â€Å"Activities†, â€Å"News†, Photo Gallery† and â€Å"Webcast† etc.Visitors can gain more information like pre-event promotional activities, pre-race activities, any news report, also review the exciting moments of the past few years and last event's highlights. People accept more positive information and image, so they may build up a confidence for this Standard Chartered marathon and feel a grand occasion that they need to participate too. Word of mouth by media Newspaper reports also hav e a lot of influence on the public image of Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, the more positive reports for this event by the media, the more word of mouth can be built to help them to build the image.Because of knowing the covers range of Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon report by all newspaper medias, what including Apple Daily, Ming Pao Daily News, South China Morning Post, any Free and overseas Newspaper. The reports will collected by using Wisers information Portal service system and with the keywords â€Å" / / / /Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon/Hong Kong Standard Chartered Marathon/Hong Kong Marathon/Standard Chartered Marathon† that search the number of related article between 1998-2012 (no data before 1998). Also these include the number of StandardChartered Hong Kong Marathon official Press release (no data before 2002). Source: Wiser Information Portal and Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon official press release Period| Number of Article| Number ofStandard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon official press release| 1/1/1998- 30/6/1998| 64| -| 1/7/1998-30/6/1999| 256| -| 1/7/1999-30/6/200| 219| -| 1/7/2000-30/6/2001| 247| -| 1/7/2001-30/6/2002| 299| -| 1/7/2002-30/6/2003| 375| 3| 1/7/2003-30/6/2004| 404| 5| 1/7/2004-30/6/2005| 468| 15| 1/7/2005-30/6/2006| 938| 29| 1/7/2006-30/6/2007| 805| 14| 1/7/2007-30/6/2008| 895| 11| /7/2008-30/6/2009| 1281| 10| 1/7/2009-30/6/2010| 1386| 7| 1/7/2010-30/6/2011| 1885| 12| 1/7/2011-26/3/2012| 2817| 13| According to the analysis the numbers of articles are increasing every year. And except in the first few years, the number of Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon official press release had increased and so are the news reports. During 2005 and 2006, the number of press release and article doubled. After 2006, the official press release reduced, but the news reports still increasing. So that, we can see how the news reports caused stronger word of mouth.In analyzing of the official press release a nd the newspapers report from2002 to 2012, within the period from September to March, it was found that most of the news releases were reported from October and February. The race entry usually starts in October, so there were more news posted in this month, and there report are usually related the race information, apply state etc. Usually, around before the date of event applies entry 1-2 months, there also has had the report for pre- event promotion and help to attract more participants when thought this word of mouth.Since the race is held after Chinese New Year, so that Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon will be become the hot topic during February and that explain why most of the news report were written on this month and some on March. The news in this time are usually related the race, winners and champion feeling or comment. Other then print media, Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon also gained a lot of electronic media exposure like CCTV, myTV, Magazine, internet too ls etc.Some difference sport magazines are like to report Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, like Sportsoho. Sometime, magazines are like make a interview with this event winner or coach. They present both feeling and professional knowledge and view to influence people to think that Standard Chartered marathon is a popular event as the participant of some outstanding contestant. Sportsoho is a popular monthly magazine, special for sport lover. There were some themes related Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon during October to March.According to the research, there were averages of 8 to 15 pages related to Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon in one issue of Sportsoho. The content was sicker as compare with other sports event and it can get a big help in word of mouth among the magazine readers. Journal of Advertising Research had motion that â€Å"There is a positive relationship between openness and word of mouth. People are more willing to forward a message to their frien ds. And this group people are intelligent, imaginative, curious, visionary, and emotionally responsive consumers. Also, people are easily influenced by each other and affect their decision making. Without created the word of mouth on some media, Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon also did a lot of thing to building their image and tell the public that they have social responsibility. At the same time, word of mouth will be create and gain an effective effort. Word of mouth by celebrity For example, in 2005, Standard Chartered bank was sponsored HENRY WANYOIKE, who have lost his sight overnight in 1995, to raise fund for â€Å"SEEING IS BELIEVING†.Henry Wanyoike is a famous runner and used to gain a lot of awards in running before he lost his eye sight. People may really appreciate his firm and persistent, also they may take action to support this so meaningful raises fund. Another, Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon also invites some famous celebrities as spokesmen. In 2004, this marathon had invited Alex Fong, a highly successful swimmer who represented Hong Kong at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and set several local records in the pool.Furthermore, Do Do Cheng, who is a famous artist in films and television in Hong Kong was once the event spokesperson. The public may trust what she said due to her positive image. So that they can really create some positive work of mouth as their support, and leading more people come to join this event. There are some celebrity will be join this marathon every years, they may like to share their preparation of race, race feeling and experience to public. There will be increase the attention after their word of mouth. Word of mouth by participantAs revealed from the result of our this marathon race focus group on the reason of the first time to participant in Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon, most of the participants said that good of word of mouth and recommendation from their friends or families are the main reason. Also, all of respondents mentioned that they used to share their feeling and experience of Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon to other people. In the focus group research, nearly 80% of the interviewers used Facebook to share their experience, and a great part of these massages are positive.Internet is the one of the extensively communication way for people send and received massages. In the internet, these are so many tools for us to express ourselves feeling. Facebook, yahoo blog, weibo and chatroom also are the popular tool in Hong Kong and abroad. Now, we are Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon was found successful in creating a special and unforgettable experience for participants. The participants will give their comments and express their experience in SCHKM to everyone on the internet. We had known that people like to forward a message to their friends, thus generated a social facilitation effect.In the internet search, it is not difficult can see the topic whi ch related Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon in the social network website, like facebook, weibo,and some popular chatroom etc. For example, one participant of this Standard Chartered marathon used to mention in her blog that she felt so great to join this event, and the feeling was so different between being the help and the runner. She thanked her friends who keep giving her the support. Also, she was wished everyone can do the best next year and appeal more people come to join together.The comment from his friends in his post, they were so agreed with her and promise to join together next year again. So, it can see that these social communications really work to exchange experience whatever friends or unknown, also direct to create word of mouth. Ms Vivian So had motion that an attraction of the event is important. If the events have attraction itself and give the happy experience, it can build word of mouth easily and a positive image, then these unforgettable memories will stay in their mind deeply. Ms So also said that Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon is attractive by itself.This event is a brand event in sports. Fun and good atmosphere of SCHKM have influenced many people. Because of this, word of mouth let one person to spread the message to ten people and grow exponential. 4 Findings 4. 1 The Value Important Performance Grid on Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon (Chart 7) As revealed from the analysis with the Value Important Performance Grid, we can identify and determine which value of the event attributes that need improvement. There are four parts including waste resources, people feels good, ignore and problem area.Among the 17 attributes studied in the survey, participants regarded 8 of them are well performed, with only one attributes found to have priority for improvements. This represents that participant will continue to be loyalty to join this event. According the Value Important Performance Grid, we found that Standard Chartere d Hong Kong Marathon have 8 attributes performing well and met the expectation of the participants. They are scale of the activity, word of mouth, transport arrangements, staffing arrangements, atmosphere, personal meaning, activity flow and support.Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon has been a mega sports event in Hong Kong, the scale of the activity is large. This sports event attracts  a lot of media to  reports of every year and the number of participant has been increasing. In addition, then people have different feeling about Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. When the event has been organized, people have become more willing share with each other, thus creating word of mouth. Also, transport arrangements have been one of the important elements that to hold an event and participants are relatively satisfied with the arrangement.On the race day, MTR  provide special transportation arrangements that is the routes will open early to succeed the shuttle and  buses p rovide the relative transport arrangements  to pick up participants  to  the  race location. Furthermore, staff arrangements are important to the success. Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon has been a mega event, with many people and organizations to orchestrate the event, including staff and helper, to help make this sports event holding smoothly. There are different training and briefing to staff and helper. The atmosphere of this sport event is has been very hot.The public knows about  the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. Close to  the event holding date, people will see  a lot of promotion about this sports event,  such  as  television advertising  and newspaper  advertising. Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon have strong message bring out. Their slogan is â€Å"Run for a reason†, let people thinking Marathon for their own personal meaning. Each participant  has  their own personal  reasons  to attend  this event. Therefore th ey all have  different purposes  to participate this sports event. The interviewers also feet satisfied with the schedule of the activity. The sports event categories are clear.Apart from full marathon, half marathon and a 10 km run hold on different time, they found the racing schedules were much friendlier. Furthermore, Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon needs different government departments, organizations and groups to support it. Without that, HKAAA is difficult to hold this sports event become a mega sports event. Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon has many supported by different companies, patrons, agencies, organizations, groups and government departments. It is include Hong Kong Tourism Board, Leisure and Cultural Service Department etc that can help this sports event holding smoothly.In the other point, there are three attributes that people feel importance but the performances are not good, including information, sponsorship and guide. There problems need to be improved, to make the event more successful. The information attribute of the event is slighter lower in the performance, so compared with the importance. It need to carefully. Many people think that need to improve. They feel  that  the  information  is not very liquid, should know the message through the General Assembly announced. With regard to sponsorship, the attributes is average level but its performance is bad.Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon has many companies sponsorship. Although Standard Chartered Bank is the title sponsor, the overall sponsorship is not attractive enough. Race participants expect more than the current level of sponsorship. Guide the importance is average but the actual performance is badly. This must need to improve. As a mega event, guideline must be clearly, let people easy to find where they can go. In race day, the race route do not have enough guideline, they do not have the way of cheer in en route, there are many cheer  group cann ot cheer  for the participants.In the Value Important Performance Grid, performance is high and importance is low area is mean not important but the performance is good, it is waste resources. According to the analysis, Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon did not have attribute not important but the performance is good. That means HKAAA holding this event have little wastes of the resources. Besides, there are six attributes are not important and the performances are bad. This attributes can be ignored. They include enrollment process, promotion, social contribution, entertainment, application fee and souvenir. . 2 The SWOT Analysis on Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon SWOT Analysis is conducted in order to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and  Threats involved in Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. SWOT Analysis can identify the internal and external factors. HKAAA can ensure a clear objective that it is important part for event planning and achieve t heir objective. SWOT Analysis provides information that is helpful in matching HKAAA resources and capabilities to the competitive environment in which it operates.Moreover, SWOT Analysis can help us find out more, which is the potential problem and fault of Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. 4. 2. 1 Strengths Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon has received a lot of sponsorship and been supported by different companies, patrons, agencies, organizations, groups and government departments. Standard Chartered Bank has been the title sponsor. Without which, HKAAA might not have sufficient resources to hold the event. Many patrons support this event, including the honourable Donald Tsang (Chief Executive, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region).The promotion has been well planned with advertisements on television, cover page on print media and has built a positive image. As a result, more people know this mega event. Ms Vivian So, the Executive Director of HKAAA said that increas e in the promotion has been one of the factors that can let more people attend this sports event. In addition, HKAAA has sent mails to past participants of Hong Kong Marathon, to remind them come to join this year Hong Kong Marathon. Promotions of a star players are quite effective point attract people to join this sports event.Moreover, there are theme songs of 2003- 2006 year. Since 2009 Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon provides touching slogan that remind people about Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon effectively and created word of mouth in the community. Also, they have good human resources support from include staff, helpers and volunteers. They are well co-ordinate to make this event run smoothly. Ms Vivian So, the Executive Director of HKAAA said that the  volunteers help  has been  a very important part than let more people care this sports event and make Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon  to  be conducted  successfully.For instance, this event was very good in planning and supporting, includes baggage, equipment food supplies etc. Apart from full marathon, half marathon and a 10 km run hold on different section time, crowd was controlled effectively. Participants were mostly satisfied with Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. Moreover, HKAAA, as the event organizer had invited some overseas runners to join this event, and it can capture the international media attention about Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. Therefore created more media coverage let more local people and foreigners know about Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. . 2. 2 Weaknesses The event experienced some accidents in year 2001-2007, when the full marathon, half marathon and a 10 km run were arranged on the same track,  10 km and half- Marathon runners crowded  in  the  Western Harbour Tunnel. Besides,  some participants dressed in fancy costume, took pictures  and even  pushed baby trolleys on the race track ,  caused danger and ot her participants’  discontent. In the  2011  race,  the wheelchair  race was canceled. Many disabled athletes  could not participate in the race and felt disappointed. There also lack  toilets on the race track, making it inconvenient to some  participants.This is a quite an important problem. Participants feel bad about that and are not satisfied with the race route for having too few toilets to use. 4. 2. 3 Opportunities People began to focus on their health nowadays. According to our survey (Chart 5), 24% of the participants ran in the race for this reason. Therefore many people wanted to join this sports event. ‘Launched in April 2000, the â€Å"Healthy Exercise for All Campaign† is a territory-wide event jointly organized by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) and the Department of Health (DH). With the slogan of â€Å"Daily exercise keeps us fit, people of all ages can do it’.The Campaign aims at raising the public's awareness in exercising and encouraging them to exercise regularly so that they can understand the benefits of exercising to health. † This is an opportunity get more attention for Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. This can encourage more people to do more exercise and let them peruse their interest that is good for health. â€Å"As people  grow older, physical fitness decline,  and  wanted to do something  easier  sport. Running is a good choice to keep healthier. This sport equipment  to  acquire  are less expensive  and there is no strict requirements  on the  physical fitness.Most important of all, there is no opponent,  and can be  done anywhere. Reaching the  age of 30, friends, and family are usually busy at work. Finding sports  partner can  become increasingly difficult. † This massage brings out running is a good sport. As a result, many people have been more willing to join this exercise. â€Å"With five days  at work, it is difficult  to  find  time for exercise. In  fact,  I like a different ball games, but  with teammates  gradually busy at work,  practicing together has become difficult and, running has become my only  sport. Otherwise, busy life of Hong Kong can attract people running and let the public keen to go running. Gradually running becomes a public favorite sport. In  addition, Ms Vivian So, the Executive Director of HKAAA said that running  is easily accessible, even with no partner. It can be  flexible, and inexpensive, and without doing it in a team. Furthermore, there is no restrictions, need to rent a  venue;  individual can also participates in the run  without the need for special gear. † The lifestyle is more favorable to long distance race like Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon. 4. 2. 4 ThreatsStandard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon has been one of the Hong Kong major running races. But there are many different running races in Hong Kong . Running races are confronted with strong competitiveness. These are about Mizuno Shing Mun River 10KM, UNICEF Charity Run etc. Marathon to race still face strong competition among themselves. HKAAA need to constantly improve the activities. Otherwise, Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon may be replaced by other running game. According to am730, road closure has been the one important problem to be a real mega event. Now participants needed to join the e

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Shipping Law case abt DEVIATION AND LIBERTY CLAUSES - Essay Example Instantly Mr. Francis (owner of the ship) received a message to consign 10 containers of engineering equipments to Southampton, before reaching New York. The ship docked in New York on 7th November 2008. When the ship was being anchored, it happened to hit against a dock wall, due to apparent negligence of the ship’s master. Consequently 40 crates of medical equipments, valued at around  £40,000 were totally ruined. The subsequent inquiries revealed that navigating officer and master of the vessel, who were mainly responsible for the safety of ship and cargo, were in an inebriated state during the time of occurrence of accident. The shipping law is a combination of customs, precedents, legislations, and ratio decedent. The subject matter of the same is ownership and operation of ships travelling through the high seas which confers rights and imposes duties on the respective parties. The transportation of goods along the high seas is primarily based on contracts or agreements between the ship owner on the one hand, and the party consigning goods, on the other. Anyway, these agreements are grounded on archaic customs and antiquated precedents prevailing in the industry. As already mentioned the transportation of goods through high seas is mainly based on contracts or agreements between the ship owner and the consigner. These types of contracts are otherwise termed as â€Å"Charter Parties†. The term Charter Party is derived from the Latin word â€Å"Carta Partitta† which means â€Å"divided charter†. As per the classification the charter party is divided into three types which are â€Å"Demise charter†, secondly, â€Å"Time charter† and finally â€Å"Voyage charter.† 1 It is the charterer who appoints the master and the crew of the ship. The charterer himself affects the repairs etc. In summary the charterer acts as if he is the owner of the vessel during the period of the contract. In time charter the

Efficient Opperation of the Potatoe chip Industry Term Paper

Efficient Opperation of the Potatoe chip Industry - Term Paper Example Economists have put forwarded various structures of the market with different characteristics. The most fundamental of the market structure is perfect competition in which the product is homogeneous and there is absence of barriers to entry for the suppliers. The benefits to the stakeholders A firm operating in the monopoly market structure can produce at a much lower than the firm operating in perfect competition. In the monopoly situation the firm can enjoy the economies of scale while in perfect competition the firms share in total output. The monopoly is the only supplier of the good. In order to achieve higher levels of profit the monopolists have the potential to set the prices at higher levels (The Ohio State University, 2010). Because of the constraint of the demand curve they cannot charge the price that are considered fit for the manufactured product. If the price is set at the level that is considered unaffordable for the consumers the demand conditions will contract and w ill lead to loss of revenue for the firm. The existence of long run profits will serve as the incentive for investors to invest more on research and development. The investment will contribute to offer better products to the consumers. The investment can also contribute in lowering the cost of production and eventually the monopolist can use the return on the initial cost of capital. The capability to utilize consumers would come from the high ranged prices charged upon them. In the monopoly structure a firm can gain abnormal profits both in the short as well as in the long run and the average cost of the firm is lower than that of the average proceeds. Such a strategy will put off the potential firms put of the industry as the monopolists are aware that they will not be able to produce at such low cost in presence of competition. The benefit of low cost accrues to the consumers and therefore the welfare of the consumers is also affected (Case, Fair, and Oster, 2009). In the monopol istic market structure the firms are able to sell similar but not identical products. The products can be differentiated. In the market of potato chips the sellers can enter freely into the market. Each bag of potato chips is characterized by different genre and name. Therefore the considerations for each supplier are different. According to economics a monopoly produces a product which has no close substitutes and significant barriers of entry are present to allow new firms enter into the market. By purchasing the firms the lawyers paved the way for pure monopoly situation. It will allow the two firms to control the market. By seizing the market control the firms will now operate on the market demand curve. They now have the potential to control the output control and price. The only limitation for the firms will be the cost of production. In monopoly market there is hardly any difference between firm and industry. The price discrimination will have effects on the consumers and the suppliers. In monopoly market the Wonk potato chip firm has created a monopoly market where potential competitors cannot enter. In the new market the prices will tend to rise as there is lack of competition and the level of output will either be at the stable level or will decrease. The monopolistic industry will try to keep the industry closed as entry of new firms will lead to reduction of price and the rise in costs of production. The higher price will lead to loss of consumer surplus. The choices of

The e-government and e-procurement situation in the GCC countries Research Paper

The e-government and e-procurement situation in the GCC countries - Research Paper Example Oman has a high level of economic growth and has a free economy.The new trade and investment laws provide better degrees of vitality and flexibility to E-commerce and the government actively participates in the E commerce initiatives to provide for better business conditions (2).Qatar is more closed up and does not allow FDI in some sectors like banking, insurance, real estate, commercial agencies. Further more not more than 40% of foreign ownership is allowed unless there is a sector like Agriculture, industry, health, education, tourism, leisure and development of natural resources, energy, and mining (2).The UAE is the fastest growing economy with the recent government’s allotment of $13.4 billion towards the development of the non-oil sector, much of which will be spent on telecommunications and information technology. A recent initiative is the Dubai Internet City which is a great move to UAE’s future internet economy (2).Bahrain is an important business center and is only recently warming up in the internet race. It is located half way between the time zones of East and West, and give that the GCC countries (mostly import oriented) have an estimated population of more than 19 million, and added 100 million to adjoining neighboring countries that leads to enormous consumer bases potential. It is reported that the Bahrain government is striving towards E-procurement in the sectors of business & financial services, tourism, information technology, telecommunications, healthcare & education (2).... Qatar is more closed up and does not allow FDI in some sectors like: banking, insurance, real estate, commercial agencies. Further more not more than 40% of foreign ownership is allowed unless there is a sector like: Agriculture, industry, health, education, tourism, leisure anddevelopment of natural resources, energy and mining (2). The UAE is the fastest growing economy with the recent government's allotment of $13.4 billion towards the development of the non-oil sector, much of which will be spent on telecommunications and information technology. A recent initiative is the Dubai Internet City which is a great move to UAE's future internet economy (2). Bahrain is an important business centre and is only recently warming up in the internet race. It is located half way between the time zones of East and West, and give that the GCC countries (mostly import oriented) have an estimated population of more than 19 million, and added 100 million to adjoining neighboring countries that leads to enormous consumer bases potential. It is reported that the Bahrain government is striving towards E-procurement in the sectors of business & financial services, tourism, information technology, telecommunications, healthcare & education (2). In a similar vein Saudi Arabia has followed suit and an even better climate is found in Kuwait where as any Kuwaiti or GCC national over 21 years of age can carry commerce in Kuwait. In Kuwait public procurement is dealt with government of law 37 of 1964, Law 18 of 1970 and Law 81 of 1977. There is no internet procedure for most of the tendering procedures and this has yet to change to promote public procurement (2). 2. Role of Internet and the other emerging ICT ways of communication in

Research proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 6

Research Proposal Example The main reason for conducting this research proposal is to find out the importance of outdoor activities in Kamloops. There have been a growing number of recreational facilities over the last ten years in Kamloops. Bilton (14) also argue that most of these recreational centers are utilized during summer time. This proposal will seek out to find information pertaining to the reason why many people prefer visiting outdoor activities during summer time. Many researchers argue that most people in the British Columbia, Canada prefer going for outdoor activities in their home country rather than foreign countries (Bilton 14). What main reasons could be attributed to this preference? The deep engagement of this question and others will establish the reasons why native outdoor recreation facilities are preferred. From the government’s point of view, outdoor activities help them in earning revenue that they use to provide goods and services to the nationals. However, questions have been arising, whether they are undertaking the necessary steps to control and promote these recreational facilities. External markets also exist and they seek to attract as many customers as possible, regardless of their localities. Therefore, the role of the government in this exercise should also be established. What do the residents of Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, as well as the state stand to gain from these outdoor exercises? The examination of the accruing benefits is virtually important. Establishing the benefits may also give a glimpse on what to expect in terms of sales and customers. For effective implementation of these activities, positive effects should outweigh the negative effects (Pender et al. 35). On establishing the various significances that relate to outward exercises, various stakeholders can now take the necessary steps and measures to boldly expand their activities and improve on

How would you describe your views on sex and sexuality Essay

How would you describe your views on sex and sexuality - Essay Example The essay "How would you describe your views on sex and sexuality" focuses on the view on sexuality and sex. In American culture, sex is not necessarily to be showed to a loved one, but can be merely a way to satisfy one's physical desires. However, I do not believe that sex can merely be used to fulfill a physical desire, like scratching an itch. The practice of sex outside the realms of marriage is considered to be a sin. Sex should be an emotional experience between loving, married couples and not between two compatible physical partners to show lust. Even if one grows up and experiences a want to be sexually content, the individual should wait for the right time to get married to fulfill his needs. Here I would like to state that when it comes to such activities the most important role is played by the society. If one is raised up in a conservative environment where such activities are considered a taboo before marriage then there are good chances that an individual will wait unt il marriage. Some societies, or basically the environment, in which people are raised do not allow any individual to stay with the opposite gender alone after they’ve reached puberty in order to keep distance and to maintain purity. This is a part of my culture and hence my belief. Hence, there is no way to explore the opposite gender and safe distance was maintained. These values are majorly uprooting from the religious and culture benchmarks one belongs to. Some sects believe that sexuality is only feasible after marriage.... At times being involved in sexual activities is considered to be a source of pride and manhood for the family and tribe. Moreover, Islam promotes sexuality after marriage and I side up with this view as a sexual relationship before marriage can lead to pregnancy and hence the birth of an illegitimate child. These days a fairly different concept has emerged with the increase in gays, lesbians and homosexuals. Today where freedom is given to each and every individual hence their sexual preference is also accepted. I personally would put forward that this act is going against nature and would never help to build up a normal life with normal children. One thing that needs to be highlighted here is that one cannot force another person to involve in sexuality without their consent. Strict laws are formulated throughout the world that deals with people who force, violate the dignity of another or involve in sexual activities with minors. In American culture Sex initially was considered to b e a sin and nobody on the front foot had the courage to be involved in such an activity but nowadays values have virtually died and one feels proud to call himself a 'non virgin'. Furthermore there is immense social pressure that has resulted in the widespread of sex related activities as those who do not follow the trend of exploitation are considered to be inhuman or incapable. (Teens and sex 2013) On the other hand the Middle Eastern culture still promotes chastity as they believe that a normal life cannot be lead without purity. Initially sex within marriage is to the process of reproduction and the purpose to initiate a family and enjoy the life, but sex outside the circle of marriage has become a trend and

The United States Constitution Essay Example for Free

The United States Constitution Essay I. The United States Constitution is essentially a set of principles that provides for the framework of our government, establishes the three main branches of government and provides for their functions. It also contains an enumeration of the rights and liberties of the people. It is a relatively short document considering the role it plays in every nation. Because the constitution contains only general principles and policies, it does not seek to cover every eventuality. It also does not seek to provide a solution to every conceivable problems of man. As a result, disputes among those in power and those between the government and its citizens are likely to arise. Under the constitution, it is the Supreme Court and the other courts that are tasked to interpret the constitution. The concept of judicial interpretation has spanned a number of controversies regarding how the judges are to perform their constitutional function. Some say that the Supreme Court must adhere to the principle of strict constructionism. Under this principle, in case of doubts in the interpretation of any vague and doubtful provision of the Constitution, the Supreme Court must strictly construe its provision. According to Law. com, strict constructionism refers to the interpretation of the constitution â€Å"based on a literal and narrow definition of the language without reference to the differences in conditions when the Constitution was written and modern conditions, inventions and societal changes. (â€Å"Strict Construction†) This principle is preferred because it protects against judicial activism or judicial legislation which means that the Supreme Court goes beyond its function of mere interpretation and encroaches upon the domains of the legislature. By following this principle, the public can be assured that the constitution will not be abused and its meaning will not be changed depending on the whims and caprices of the Justices of the Supreme Court. Strict constructionism is contrasted with the principle of Original Intent. Under this principle, the vague and doubtful provision of the constitution is interpreted by means of ascertaining the intent of the framers of the constitution at the time it was enacted. They do this by examining different sources, including contemporary writings, newspaper articles and the notes from the Constitutional Convention. This is preferred compared to the principle of Strict Constructionism because it goes beyond the literal wordings of the constitution and determines the reason behind the constitution. It affirms that the reason why the constitution was vaguely written and couched in general terms is because the framers wanted the future generations to refer to the intention of the original framers of the constitution for guidance. Among the arguments against the principle of Original Intent is that the framers may have written the constitution but it was the will of the people who made it happen and who ratified it. Considering that they were merely agents and that the real principals are the delegates to the Constitutional Convention and the people, too much attention to the intent of the framers should be tempered. Secondly, even the framers had differences amongst themselves on some issues. In case of dispute, which intent should be upheld by the Supreme Court? For the present society, it is very troublesome that the intent of a person who has been dead for several generations shall be used as basis for important decisions that may affect a person’s life and his future. Among the arguments raised against strict constructionism is that it does not give justice to the constitution. As a living document, the constitution must be interpreted in accordance with its spirit that gives life to it not according to its strict and literal meaning that kills it. II. The procedure in juvenile justice system is essentially different compared to the procedure in adult courts. In criminal courts, our criminal justice system takes into account the element of free will. This means the court considers that when the crime was committed, the same was done willfully and intentionally by someone who is in full possession of his mental faculties. As a result, the penalty imposed is proportional to the crime committed. On the other hand, when a juvenile commits a crime, the law takes into account that he lacks full intelligence. The law considers that he is still corrigible. As a result, the emphasis is not on punishment and deterrence but on rehabilitation. The following are the differences in the proceedings before juvenile courts and adult criminal court: a) the proceedings in the criminal court are public and as a matter of public policy the public can gain access to their records except on certain cases. On the other hand, juvenile courts keep the proceedings private so as to avoid social stigma being placed upon the juvenile; b) another difference is that trial is strictly based on the fact of the commission of crime. No other evidence that seeks to prove the good character of the accused is generally admissible. On the other hand, juvenile courts take into account in its hearing the fact of the previous record of the juvenile; c) the determination in criminal courts is that the accused is either innocent or guilty. On the other hand, juvenile court’s ruling is that the juvenile is adjudged delinquent for the purpose of protecting the juvenile against the social stigma; d) two proceedings are involved in juvenile courts, once the juvenile is adjudged to be delinquent, another hearing is conducted for the purpose of determining the penalty to be imposed. On the other hand, only a single trial is conducted in adult criminal courts. Once the defendant is adjudged guilty, the finding already includes the proper penalty to be imposed without the need of separate hearing.

The Relation Between L1 and L2 Proficiency Essay Example for Free

The Relation Between L1 and L2 Proficiency Essay Investigations of the relationships between L1 and L2 contextualized and decontextualized language skills among immigrant students will be reviewed according to the background of the students involved. The three major categories are Finnish students in Sweden, Hispanic students in the United States, and Asian students in the United States and Canada. The some additional evidence from bilingual programs involving both majority and minority students will be reviewed and finally we will examine studies involving adult L2 learners. According to some researchers, the defining difference between a first language (L1) and a second language (L2) is the age the person learned the language. For example, linguist Eric Lenneberg used second language to mean a language consciously acquired or used by its speaker after puberty. In most cases, people never achieve the same level of fluency and comprehension in their second languages as in their first language. These views are closely associated with the Critical Period Hypothesis. In acquiring an L2, Hyltenstam (1992) found that around the age of six or seven seemed to be a cut-off point for bilinguals to achieve native-like proficiency. After that age, L2 learners could get near-native-like-ness but their language would, while consisting of few actual errors, have enough errors to set them apart from the L1 group. The inability of some subjects to achieve native-like proficiency must be seen in relation to the age of onset (AO). â€Å"The age of 6 or 8 does seem to be an important period in distinguishing between near-native and native-like ultimate attainment More specifically, it may be suggested that AO interacts with frequency and intensity of language use† (Hyltenstam, 1992, p. 364). Later, Hyltenstam Abrahamsson (2003) modified their age cut-offs to argue that after childhood, in general, it becomes more and more difficult to acquire native-like-ness, but that there is no cut-off point in particular. Furthermore, they discuss a number of cases where a native-like L2 was acquired during adulthood. As we are learning more and more about the brain, there is a hypothesis that when a child is going through puberty, that is the time that accents start. Before a child goes through puberty, the chemical processes in the brain are more geared towards language and social communication. Whereas after puberty, the ability for learning a language without an accent has been rerouted to function in another area of the brain—most likely in the frontal lobe area promoting cognitive functions, or in the neural system of hormone allocated for reproduction and sexual organ growth.

HMV PESTLE and SWOT Analysis

HMV PESTLE and SWOT Analysis 1.0 Executive summary HMV group a U.K giant entertainment company is one of the struggling firms that eventually succumbed to closure of its business operation in 2013. This report will explore the HMV company profile, current financial, positioning in the marketplace, current business model, competitive positioning and HMV target market. Why the company’s sales figure have dropped and how the company got into financial crisis that led to its closure in 2013. This report draws attention to the fact that in 1960s, HMV has a strong brand HMV is a major retailer that specialises in music, film, games and technology products, the organisation has been a top dog in the entertainment industry for many years now, prior to the rapidly evolution of technology advancement, which had affected and is still affecting the wider consumer behaviour in regarding to how music, film, games and technology products are being purchased by the consumers. With the rapid shifting of consumers onto online music / movie streaming distribution sites such as iTunes, Amazon, Netflix and so on, where does HMV fit in or how does HMV sustain in the current entertainment or music distribution market which is highly technological advancing and hyper competitive. It is therefore recommend that HMV needs to invest more in technologies to compete in the industry. 2.0 Company profile HMV Retail limited is U.K leading music and Entertainment Company, founded in 1921 on the street of Oxford in London. The success continues with the expansion and creation of the retail branch of the business from 1960s with over 239 stores in UK and Ireland and employing over 5000 staff before the closure of its business operation in 2013. Since HMV is been in operation â€Å"it has made music and entertainment available to its customers in every format imaginable: from sheet music and the earliest gramophone 78s to today’s digital downloads† http://www.hmv.ie/about-us In 1986 HMV Group is formed and the retailer looks to expand and open stores in Ireland and In 1999 HMV media launched an an e-commerce site. In 2002 HMV media went public on London Stock Exchange and changed its name to HMV Group. HMV experience competition from other competitors in the industry such as iTunes, Amazon supermarkets and others in the industry and with increase in illegal download it was necessary to invest in online business. In 2008 HMV launched its â€Å"social network â€Å"Get closer â€Å"which allowed users to import their own music library in a bid to rival online music stores iTunes and Napster† www.retail-week.com/hmv-timeline but prove unsuccessful and was closed in September 2009.. The business also piloted its refreshed ‘Pure Play’ loyalty scheme. HMV fail to respond quickly and compete against online music stores and the increase in illegal downloads the company suspend its shares in January 2012 and months later in April HMV is bought by Hilco for  £50 million and takes over the remaining 141 stores In January 2013 HMV went into administration with over 230 stores closed in UK and Ireland and over 4,000 jobs staff losing their job two months later a new HMV emerge under the new ownership of Hilco. â€Å"Today HMV trades from over 120 stores in the UK and fast rebuilding its presence in Ireland, an updated product mix, refreshed stores and new digital services together with a commitment to bring customers more exclusive in-stores† and experience than ever seen HMV regain its rightful place at the home of entertainment. www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/hmv-closes-historic-oxford-street-store-9056780.html The current key executives of HMV are Trevor Moore (CEO) and Ian P Kenyon (Finance Director) http://www.bloomberg.com/quote/HMV:LN/profile 2.1 HMV financial status Decline Financial Status of HMV According to Whetten (1980a) financial decline happen as a result of company’s mismanagement or issues related to internal and external factors. The data below shows how HMV’s financial status started to nosedive from 2006 till 2012 which eventually cost HMV and the company went to administration 2013. 3.0 Competitors Analyses In recent years, thus with the massive influx of online music / audio distribution sites such as iTunes, Amazon, Hulkshare, Soundcloud, Torrent, Mixcloud and many more plus recently infamous Netflix, an online video/ internet streaming subscription services that enables customers / subscribers to rent and watch movies online in the comfort of their own home. In a way Netflix is more or less a movie rental provider, thus all the transactions between Netflix and the customers take place online.  Ã‚   HMV faces a huge challenge in sustaining in the current entertainment market industry in the foreseeable future, as the people’s way of doing things are drastically changing as a result of technology advancement, hence social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blackberry Messenger, Linkedn, Snapchat and many more social networks are developing and emerging on a daily basis. HMV is a physical entity which currently relies heavily on consumer consumption based on how many customers visit its shops and how large the customers purchases are, thus vast majority of people in today’s world actually live in a virtual world, they shop online, interact with friends or make new friends online, study online, bank online, gamble online, game online and more importantly people tend to view the online community as their main source of getting new music e.g. if Lady GaGa intends to release a new single, the quickest way to learn about this is on her Twitter page or Facebook page. Beyonce released her fifth studio album overnight and online on December 13th 2013 without no prior promotional fiasco or press releases, the album is exclusively available to be purchased on iTunes. Amazon â€Å"Amazon.co.uk, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, was launched in 1998. Today, the site provides fast, convenient service for customers in the UK and Ireland† www.amazon.co.uk/About-Amazon Amazon operates online business selling CD’s DVD’s games and books. Amazon adopts the cost leadership strategy their aim is to sell their product at a lower price compare to others in the industry. They have been able to main the cost leadership strategy due to selling purely online hereby saving money to maintain a physical store. Due to lack of physical presence where customer can go into the store and purchase their products Amazon continue to invest heavily in technology to make the shopping easier for their customers. However Amazon is losing a lot of customer especially the older generation who will rather go to store and purchase their goods. However they have been able to maintain their share in the market with their low cost leadership strategy and ease online shopping which has contributed to the massive increase in their sales. ITunes In 2004 iTunes store was launched in the UK serving UK and Ireland due to its huge success in the U.S. iTunes sold over 70 million songs in its first year in the U.S. â€Å"Apples online store is also more than just an online music service; there are other sub-stores too which offer music videos, audiobooks, movies, free, apps, and more† http://mp3.about.com/od/digitalmusicdelivery/tp/topmusicstores.htm. â€Å"Apples iTunes account for 67% of TV downloads, 65% of movies† Kevin Bostic. ITunes success has been attributed to online presence where customers are able to download a single track rather than buying an album or physic disk. ITunes target younger generation than any other in the industry making it easier for them to download music However it is not available for everyone which has greatly reduced its market share it’s only available to Apple device users i.e. iPhone, iPod and iPad. ITunes continue to face threats from Amazon, illegal music downloads and online free music downloads websites. Netflix Netflix was founded in 1997, started its subscription based digital distribution service in 1999 and has been very effective in the United States since then, thus after embarking on the Irish shore and The UK about two years ago, business has not been as usual for the DVD seller and rental stores such as HMV and thus also the likes of Xtra-Vison. â€Å"Digital claims over 50% of all UK music sales value in second quarter of 2013† Fiona Keenan. â€Å"HMV’s recent store closures have hit the high street retailer hard, with its number of shoppers almost halving in the latest 12 weeks compared with the same quarter last year and its market share dropping by 8.4 percentage points†(Fiona Keenan) HMV slipped from its position as Britain’s second largest entertainment retailer to fifth in second quarters as Tesco replaced it as the second largest entertainment retailer in 2013. Percentage share of the entertainment market (includes physical sales of videos, games and music and digital sales of music) 12 wks to 30 Sep 12 12 wks to 29 Sep 13 % change Amazon 18.3 20 1.7 Tesco 11.9 17.1 5.2 Asda 9.8 12.1 2.3 HMV 18 10.6 -7.4 iTunes Music 9.1 8.8 -0.3 Sainsbury’s 6.8 6.9 0.1 Game Group 5.6 6.2 0.6 Morrisons 2.9 2.9 0 Play 3 1.9 -1.1 Other 14.5 13.6 -0.9 http://www.levidepoches.fr/contagiousideas/2013/07/digital-claims-over-50-of-all-uk-music-sales-value-in-q2-2013-kantar-the-research-firm-based-the-sta.html Marketing environment of HMV An organisation must understand its environment if it is to exploit changing market conditions and target its market successfully. BPP (2010:87) this consists of both Macro and Micro environment, within the marketing environment an organisation needs to consider both macro and micro factors. PESTEL Political Government enforces law on how organisation run and responds to competition. Any changes in government policies Environmental protection laws Taxation policy and Employment laws will influence how HMV makes its decisions. In the UK the increase in VAT to 20% has led to decrease in sales of music and putting HMV under pressure Illegal download is a major problem and still continues till today. It is therefore a problem in the music and movie industry. Economics The current economic situation has huge impact on household, HMV decisions will be influenced by economic factors i.e. Unemployment has gone up in the past years people have less money to spend on non-essential items leaving them with little or no money to spend on entertainment. Customers now prefer to shop around for better deal therefore not loyal to a brand anymore. Customers now go online to see what HMV is offering and most go for cheaper options from competitors or even download illegally .HMV needs to find a way to be competitive in the market Social/cultural Social /cultural affects people’s values, perceptions and behaviours. Younger generations are more interested in media and social groups compare to older generation. Entertainment and music is becoming very important in our everyday life most specially the younger generations spending more on games and music. Market for DVD and CD is falling as customers are now turning to alternative such as MP3 players with more people storing music on their phones and laptops. Sales of CD and DVD have fallen massively as people now turn to downloads or streaming sites. HMV needs to understand what is going on in this constantly changing environment and try to market their product to meet the needs of this people. Technology Technology is very important in today’s market environment. Technology has given HMV competitive advantage in 2007HMV launch get closer which was launched via the media and in UK stores. The idea was for fans to discover content through the site and buy more music as a result. HMV also launch a download service through iOS and apps to tempt mobile users to purchase music while on the go. HMV also strike a deal with APPLE to allow users download song from the apps straight into their iPhone gaining competitive advantage over iTunes. Survey conducted by Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) in 2012-2013 shows that digital download increase by 40%. Expanding into digital market gives HMV completive advantage to compete in the market with growing consumer demand. â€Å"In 2009 HMV partner with Curzon artificial to bring the cinema experience to HMV retail outlets across the UK a move which could deliver earnings of  £3m† www.theguardian.com. HMV needs to continue to invest heavily in online business and find a way to compete in the market as online market is continually growing driven by advanced internet technologies and secure payments. Online stores such as Amazon are offering customer’s competitive price due to cost saved running a physical store. Environment Government are putting pressure on organisations to become more responsible to the society by finding ways to reduce pollution and cut down their waste by introducing laws regulating environmental pollution to reduce environment damage and act in a way which benefits the society .People are becoming more conscious about the environment Millions of media disc are thrown away yearly with burning them leading to the release of harmful toxins leading to drive to recycle them. Larger capacity storage CD (album rather than singles) and DVD that can hold a larger amount of media are encouraged to reduce number of disc being made. Amazon is offering cloud drive and cloud computing which can be used to store music eliminating the need for hardware and storage device this is something HMV can do as well. Legal Illegal downloading and Piracy are important issues that have constrained the growth of legal digital channel and severely affected the sales of physical entertainment. There is mass distribution of illegal download product which undercuts the retail price that HMV and others are charging for their product. Until government measures and controls to reduce and eliminate copyright infringement are successful issues such as illegal downloading and piracy will continue. In 2010 the Digital Economy Act was made into law. It was introduced to regulate digital media in the UK, and to protect intellectual property and curb illegal file sharing. The passing of the Act into law was important for HMV, however its effect has been minimal as offenders of music and film piracy are rarely caught or face penalties. SWOT ANALYSIS Strength HMV has a well-known brand name with extensive market presence, since its opening in 1921 with Physical presence across UK, Ireland, Asia, Canada and USA. HMV has vast amount of experience in the music industry hence their relationship with music and film providers because they have been around for a while famous artiste/bands has recorded with HMV. HMV has both physical and digital presence in the market therefore sell to a broader market giving them competitive advantage over their competitors Weakness HMV lack direction and leadership in the past and during market structure change leaving HMV in debt. HMV was slow to react to change with low barriers to entry in terms of online sales. HMV is competing in an industry where physical sales are falling and profit is being reduced by intense competition in the industry, If HMV lower its price and improve its stores appearance they will have competitive advantage over others who are just present online Opportunities HMV need to invest more money on digital market to develop a world beating online presence as few people now go to stores to buy goods and competitors such as Amazon are ahead of HMV in online market if HMV wants to get back their market share they need to invest heavily in online market. HMV will need to improve on advertising to improve brand awareness and save its brand. HMV could also expanded further into international markets as there might be less competition compare to UK and Ireland market this could be more profitable. HMV could open more physical outlets around Ireland and UK currently they only focus on prime shopping district causing them to lose market in other areas There’s opportunity for HMV in cloud digital storage to keep up with competitors like Amazon. Joint ventures with other market i.e. supermarkets for market share growth. Opportunity in e-book and social network, in 2012 Sainsburys acquired HMV Groups shareholding in Anobii Threats The continued growth of technology, internet, and illegal downloads is a threat to HMV. It’s becoming more evident that customer’s wants goods provided from large numbers of services and it is complicated for HMV to meet these needs. There is also impact of recession on music industry people have less money to spend on entertainment and some are finding cheaper way to get their music hence downloading illegally. Illegal download is affecting the purchase of both physical media and online digital. According to Philip Beeching He explained, â€Å"The three biggest threats to HMV are online retailers, downloadable music, and supermarkets discounting loss leader product.† His warnings were ignored www.stratile.com Competition has been growing and continues to impact on HMV profits this Competition threatens to diminish HMV sales and market share as well as their profit. Competitors like Amazon, iTunes and Napster are taking over HMV’s market easily. Supermarkets continue to providing more service in a location that is usually far away from HMV stores to reduce this threats HMV can go into joint ventures with supermarkets. HMV failed to adapt quickly to today’s business model where more than 70% of music and video is bought online Technology is advancing at an exceptional rate and opening new paths of opportunities by helping organisation to compete in the market place and gaining the attention of their customers. E business is the new trend in the music industry, HMV has been slow to embrace the opportunity and competitors such as iTunes and Amazon were the first to set up online music market and took the lead in the market. HMV stores are under high pressure from music and DVD downloading, both legal and illegal. With stores across the UK Ireland, it reaches the more physical customers in the market. This multi-channel distribution would be a strong advantage for HMV if managed well. Security is an issue with online market HMV need to constantly monitor their website against internet threats customers wants to know that their details are protected when shipping on their website if customer know their website is secure this will generate more sales and any issue with security will be a disaster for the organisation.