Determine Disinfectant and Antiseptic Effectiveness Using Zone Inhibition Method

Lab Report Title Page: Determine Disinfectant and Antiseptic Effectiveness Using Zone Inhibition Method Prepared for: By: Date: Introduction Page: Abstract This study is to examine the effects of different types of disinfectants by disk diffusion method using common agents such as Betadine, Clorox, Crest, Kiss My Face, Listerine, and Lysol. Wound care and general cleaning of home surfaces is a part of daily activity for many of the general population. Knowing which agents are effective against the bacteria that most commonly cause infection, disease, and illness allows educated decisions on which agents to use. We compared the bactericidal effectiveness of 6 common agents widely used by the general public against 3 common bacterial organisms. Introduction Sterilization kills all organisms in or on an object or substance. Disinfectants and antiseptics do not sterilize since many types of organisms and spores are not killed. Disinfectants are described as antimicrobial agents that are used on inanimate objects such as an instrument or structural surfaces. The term antiseptic is usually applied to antimicrobial agents that are used on living tissue such as skin and throat mucosa. A disinfectant must be capable of killing pathogens while it is in contact with them, so that they cannot grow again when it is removed. This action is said to be cidal (lethal), and it is described according to the type of organisms it kills as bactericidal, sporicidal, fungicidal, virucidal, etc†¦ If the antimicrobial substance merely inhibits the organisms while it is in contact with them, they may be able to multiply again when it is removed. In this case, the agent is said to have static activity and may be described as bacteriostatic, fungistatic, etc†¦ Microorganisms of different groups are not uniformly susceptible to chemical disinfection due to the structures of their cell walls. As an example, Mycobacterium are more resistant than most other bacteria because of their waxy cell walls. Of all microbial forms, bacterial endospores display the greatest resistance to both chemical and physical agents of disinfection. The efficacy claimed for a given disinfectant in killing vegetative bacterial species may have no bearing on its ability to destroy bacterial or fungal spores, mycobacteria, some viruses or prions. A number of factors must be considered when choosing a disinfectant besides type of organism. These include exposure time, concentration of the antimicrobial agent, temperature, optimal pH activity of the antimicrobial agents, the concentration of the microorganisms present, and the toxicity of the agent for skin or its effect on materials to be disinfected. Here we will test the effectiveness of various antimicrobial substances by inoculating culture plates with the test organisms and then applying the disinfectant/antiseptic to the inoculated plate by a filter paper disk that has been dipped into the disinfectant/antiseptic. This is a disk diffusion method that is similar to the method used to test the effectiveness of various chemotherapeutic agents. We will then measure the zone-of-inhibition. With this method, the presence of such a clear zone (lack of growth) surrounding the chemical shows either the cells have been killed or that their growth has been inhibited. A zone of inhibition does not discriminate between bacterio-static and bactericidal chemicals. The 6 agents we will be testing are: Betadine (B) – A povidone-iodine preparation used mainly for skin disinfection and wound treatment. Kills a wide range of disease-causing organisms including bacteria, fungi, many viruses, and most micro-organisms. Does not affect hydrophilic viruses such as polyomavirus and PBFD. Clorox (C) – A biguanide preparation of Sodium Hypochlorite used mainly for surface cleaning in various environments such as homes and hospitals to kill microorganisms. Bleach is effective as a disinfectant and kills many micro-organisms, but is not a viable solution to the spread of tuberculosis, bacterial spores and Chlamydia. Crest (Cr) – A widely used antimicrobial for oral bacteria and biofilms. Especially useful on Gram-negative micro-organisms such as Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, Campylobacter rectus, Eikenella corrodens, and Fusobacterium nucleatum. Kiss My Face (Kf) – An organic alternative to typical alcohol based mouthwashes using aloe vera as antimicrobial agent and grapefruit extract as a polyphenol. Proven useful with Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Staphylococcus aureus. _ _. Listerine (Li) – An alcohol based antiseptic mouth rinse containing the active ingredient ethanol which is toxic to bacteria at concentrations of only 7%. Reduces dental carries, plaque and gingivitis. Lysol (Ly) – A O-phenylphenol preparation of cresols used for surface cleaning in various environments such as homes and hospitals to kill microorganisms such as fungi, Tuberculosis, certain viruses,_ staphylococcus_ and Pseudomonas bacteria. Does not kill nonenveloped viruses, such as _parvovirus, polyomavirus, papillomavirus, adenovirus and reovirus_, nor will they kill all bacteria types. The three common bacteria we will be testing against are: Pseudomonas aeruginosa – An ubiquitous environmental organism associated with whirlpools whereby infection is caused by immersion in contaminated water. Staphylococcus aureus – A normal flora organism on the skin surfaces of most healthy humans. Escherichia coli – A large and diverse group of organisms associated with fecal remnants that have been ingested causing infection. Materials and Methods Page: Materials and Methods T-Soy plates (TSA) – Lawn spreading method Sterile swabs Forceps Sterile filter paper disks Disinfectants/Antiseptics We will follow the specific instructions to carry out this experiment as noted in Lab 16 p90 of Symbiosis by Pearson. Results Page: Results and Discussion This experiment was conducted to show how different disinfectants and antiseptics kill bacteria. The results of our experiment under normal room conditions on the TSA agar were as follows: Conclusion Page: Conclusion Previous research has shown that if an antiseptic disinfectant agent does not kill bacteria, the risk of infection is significantly higher. We used a Gram-negative (P aeruginosa), a Gram-positive (S aureus), and a Gram-negative (_E. coli_) bacterium for bactericidal testing procedures. We allowed the TSA agar to mature over a 7 day period and then noted our results by viewing and measuring the zone inhibition (mm). Findings were that while all had an effect, there were differences among how effective each agent was against each strain of bacterium used. Surface cleaning agents – Lysol was most effective against S. aureus and E. Coli, while Clorox did significantly well with all three bacterium. It appears from our findings that Clorox is the most effective disinfectant and antimicrobial of the six agents tested. Oral care agents – The effects of Listerine were less than stealer, while the organic product Kiss My Face was more effective with all three types of bacteria. Crest rated low as an effective agent for all three types of bacteria. It is important to note that the standard deviation rose as high as 7. 8, which is a significant difference in the resulting data accuracy. Literature Cited Pearson, 2010. Symbiosis Lab 16 Disk Diffusion Assay to Determine Disinfectant and Antiseptic Effectiveness, pp. 89-91. Pearson Custom Publishing Vicki S. Rabenberg, Christopher D. Ingersoll, Michelle A. Sandrey, and Mary T. Johnson. The Bactericidal And Cytotoxic Effects Of Antimicrobial Wound Cleansers. 2002. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention http://www. cdc. gov/nczved/divisions/dfbmd/diseases/ecoli_o157h7/index. html#spread Violet I. Haraszthy, DDS, MS, PhD; Joseph J. Zambon, DDS, PhD;Prem K. Sreenivasan, PhD. The Antimicrobial Efficacy of Commercial Dentifrices Featured in General Dentistry. 2010 Agarry O. , Olaleye M. T, and Bello-Michael, C. O. Comparative antimicrobial activities of aloe vera gel and leaf. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 4 (12), pp. 1413-1414, 2005. ZDENKA CVETNI, ANDA VLADIMIR-KNE. Antimicrobial activity of grapefruit seed and pulp ethanolic extract. Department of Microbiology Faculty of Pharmacy and BiochemistryUniversity of Zagreb in conjunction with the Croatia and Department of Pharmacognosy Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry University of Zagreb, Croatia. 2004.

The Study of Simon’s Character in Lord of the Flies

From a Freudian perspective, the tripartite components of the human psyche—id, ego, and superego —are enacted symbolically by Jack, Ralph and Piggy, in the respective order. Simon’s existence in the story serves no purpose to portray this psychic mechanism whereas the other three main characters wrestle with each other and attempt at role balancing in response to survival need. Jack is the id-ridden one, who follows the primitive instinct of the body, and hunting and killing to his satisfaction at any cost.Obviously, even as one of the Hunters, Simon’s apathy about hunting and his abstinence from eating meat evince the dominion of his mind over his body. Considering the superego, readers might confuse Simon with Piggy and equate their roles as both of them stand for the ethical voice on the island, trying to maintain moral standards by which the ego, Ralph, operates. In fact, the characteristics possessed by Piggy are more consistent with the core of super ego.Intending to be socially conventional, Piggy constructs an ethical frame according to the rules imposed by adults, by which he emphasizes their importance whenever in the face of injustice. In contrast, Simon knows man’s essential illness as a result of long time introspection, in a natural shelter concealed in undergrowth from humanity. On the other hand, Simon’s altruistic tendency, shown by his feeding of the hungry horde of neglected littluns, intensifies his saintliness, as the divisions of the psyche essentially embody three levels of desires.Recalling the scene when Simon, Ralph and Jack find the candle-like plant, the difference in their interactions with the outside world is clearly demonstrated. Ralph denies their illuminating functions and Jack shows contempt for their inedible quality. They associate an external object with its possible practical use in reality. Simon differs in â€Å"seeing† the candle buds, treating an experience as a pure comm union, through which insights would have developed according to his sense of impression. Such internal individual perception is limited to affect his inner world of beliefs, but never the others’.This account for the great difficulty Simon encounters when he tries to explain the beast that he â€Å"sees†, actually a concept, is true when those utilitarians cannot even understand Piggy’s practical and logical consequence. Another item worth mentioning is Simon’s inclination to be internally or spiritually satisfied—he detects the candle buds after telling his companions that he is hungry. Candles are a commonly used decoration in religious venues, generally meaning a connection to spirit. Similar instance occurs when the others think that he would be bathing in the lagoon, he seeks solitude— a cleansing of his mind.Although realizing that the beast-innate evil nature of mankind does exist, Simon is steadfast in his faith in original virtue of humanity, which was once heroic and sick. If the island is personified as a female, Simon is prone to embrace its beauty and tranquility, meditates alone in a glade surrounded by white glimmering flowers of the candle buds, which symbolize mankind’s spiritual purity. He is not ever disturbed by the affirmed discovery of the beast, and feels completely at ease with going by himself across the forest to rejoin Piggy’s group.The other boys interpret the island in an opposite manner, and become more aware of her danger and hostility as time passes by, giving vent to this restlessness by claiming the existence of the beast. During an assembly, Simon makes a valiant and unsuccessful effort to indicate the essence of the beast- â€Å"maybe it is only us†, implying that he expects the beast is one of the two dimensions of our nature . Then he questions the crowd, asking â€Å"what is the dirtiest thing there is? †, assuming mankind’s natural tendency to h ave an affinity with the clean- the virtuous side of himself.This belief is radically undermined when he witnesses the brutal killing of a sow with a sense of violent sexual imagery comparing it to a rape, rendering the glade a filthy and bloody place. The concrete ugliness of the body—the spilled guts and the pungent smell, juxtaposes with the abstract one—the hunters’ indulgences to bestial impulse . Nature, which he used to hold in regard for her sacred beauty, is tainted with the sin of flesh, where its root is man’s body, an indispensable part since birth.The pig’s head on a stake, foul but magnetizing a flock of flies, changes into the Lord of the Flies in Simon’s hallucination, in which he remains conscious, suggested by his comment on the self-proclaimed beast- merely â€Å"a Pig's head on a stick†. The Lord of the Flies is an externalization of human sin envisaged by Simon, acting as a medium for presenting his inner conflict with choosing between compliance and self-preservation, the ignorant lie and the despairing truth, at last the abusiveness of evil and the fragility of virtue.Through the monologue in a form of phantasm, Simon refutes his previous notion of human nature and brings a new definition to it—the beast is part of us instead of being in dichotomy; â€Å"Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! † he said to himself. He comes to recognize his own plight and that of the island, having a premonition of death as the Lord of the Flies promises to have â€Å"fun† on the island. Awake, Simon defies the threat and accepts his fate, as â€Å"What else is there to do? †.He undergoes a physical and spiritual transformation-â€Å"The usual brightness was gone from his eyes and he walked with a sort of glum determination like an old man†. The unmasking of the supposed beast on the top of the mountain which he finds to be a dead parachutist, conf irms his belief- the beast is within us. Before climbing down the mountain to make public the truth, he frees the corpse of the fallen man from the bondage in compassion, with a significance of â€Å"dust thou art, to dust returnest†, enabling nature to purge the sin from the body.In his last and desperate attempt in liberating mankind from sin, Simon fails, albeit his love and unwavering faith in mankind, believing that confronting the truth would achieve them a conversion into goodness. His death is inevitable, as a testament to his hypothesis—he stumbles into a circle of insanity before he can explain the nonexistence of the beast, then being torn apart by a group of dancing and chanting â€Å"beasts† that have their predatory instinct unleashed and their identities lost. In the arms of the sea, a sign of life’s eternality, Simon finds the homeland of his soul.The ‘strange, moonbeam-bodied creatures with fiery eyes’ that forms a halo aroun d his head give a little consolation to his death, but they are actually low form of life similar to flies, which are aesthetically accepted by nobody. It is Simon’s noble spirit, under that decaying body, makes them glow. Simon’s death produces no corrective effect on the boys’ ignorance of their inner beast, as ironical as his death, most of the boys give in to such bestiality afterwards so as to gain a psychologically completeness of the brutalities that they have committed, and the island soon ends up being an earthly hell in blaze.The participation of Ralph and Piggy in Simon’s murder, driven by the need to join the â€Å"demented but partly secure society†, indicates the irreversible loss of the boys’ innocence to animality, as the two are the only left on behalf of rationality, yet being insensible to the internal beast, believing that ‘evil is somewhere else’. Even for Piggy, who reasons scientifically, has his own limit ation to reach the understanding of their defects by nature, and simply concludes Simon’s death as an accident when he ants to exculpate himself. This explains the futility of Science when tackling with the dark side of humanity. The story itself is a miniature of mankind history, and the reason for the collapse of a society can be inferred- neither determined by the fire nor the conch. The former represents technology—can be the first spark ever ignited but also a destructive atomic bomb, helps, at the same time, totally destroys civilization.And the latter refers to a democratic parliamentary system which Golding had elaborated on in his speech-â€Å"The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable. † Therefore, Simon is the final resolution for all chaos, who exemplifies the ideal moral that individual should have- he is temperate in sensual d esire, sacrifices for mankind’s welfare expecting nothing in return, sees through man’s latent ill nature but martyr for a faint possibility of healing it.Nonetheless, here comes the paradox- Simon is not a convincing character that can come to life. The author had him idealistically created and endowed him a propensity to put overly the spiritual above the material: basically, he does not express the normal desire to survive, neither in a primitive society nor a civilized one, for the structural model of psyche is inapplicable to him. Again, he spontaneously has an insight into human nature with a covert thinking process, likely to produce an ill-founded outcome for his reliance on idealism (of philosophy) if being in reality.Rather than calling him an idealistic thinker, he suits better to the role of a visionary, having a supernatural intuition that Ralph could go home eventually. Thus the only way to justify for his motivations is that he is deliberately intended t o be a Christ figure, admitted by Golding in an interview, in which he also said, â€Å"What so many intelligent people†¦find, is that Simon is incomprehensible. †¦a person (Simon) like this cannot exist without a good God.Therefore the illiterate person finds Simon extremely easy to understand†¦Ã¢â‚¬  In â€Å"Lord of the Flies†, Simon is designed to be a symbol of religion, because of the parallelism between his fate and Jesus’s which is found by many critics. Unlike Jesus, Simon’s death is not redemption of the world from sin. It indeed coincides with an assertion made before the outbreak of World War II, by a German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche—†God is dead†, literally meaning that the conventional Christian God is no longer a feasible source of any absolute moral principles.

Howard Gardner And His Theory Of Multiple Intelligences Education Essay

Howard Gardner, born on July 11th, 1943, is one of modern twenty-four hours ‘s greatest psychologists. ( Smith ) He was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania to parents who escaped from Germany because they were Jewish. ( Winner ) The holocaust was an influential factor in his life. ( Gardner ) Another great influence in his life is the decease of his brother Eric, although his parents seldom talked about the affair, it significantly impacted his thought and development. ( Smith ) In other words, his household and equal greatly shaped who he became today. ( Myers 118 ) He was a superb immature kid, who ended up traveling to Harvard University with a grade in Law but his involvement in psychological science and the societal scientific disciplines grew. ( Gardner ) Finally he developed his theory of Multiple Intelligence in 1983 in his book Frames of Mind: theory of multiple intelligences. ( Gardner ) During that clip period psychological science was progressively popular. For illustrat ion, a outstanding field during the 80 ‘s and 90 ‘s is cultural psychological science which assumes the thought that civilization and head are inseparable. ( â€Å" Cultural Psychology † ) Besides that clip period contained a batch of economic, societal and general alteration which makes his new thought more acceptable. More significantly the fact that he is American agencies that he grew up in a free thought society so he can take from what he learned and transforms it into what he believes is true so base on balls on his sentiments. Three other psychologists who influenced him greatly are Jean Piaget, Jerome Bruner and Nelson Goodman. ( Gardner 3 of 7 ) Jean Piaget who deals with the nature of cognition and how worlds can bit by bit to obtain it, make it, and utilize it. Besides, Jerome Bruner contributed to cognitive psychological science and cognitive acquisition theory in educational psychological science. Goodman dealt with inductive concluding based on human wont. ( Gardner 3 of 7 ) The three of them goes along with Gardner ‘s statement of how kids learn cognition. Besides their plants caused Gardner to go more interested in societal scientific discipline. Waldorf instruction developed in the early 1900s by Rudolf Steiner was similar to Gardner ‘s thoughts. ( Why Waldorf Works ) It was about incorporating practical, artistic and conceptual elements into larning. This instruction emphasizes imaginativeness and creativeness so that pupils can develop into free, morally responsible and incorporate persons. The first Waldorf School was opened in Germany in 1919 and now there are many schools get downing to utilize methods of Waldorf instruction. ( Why Waldorf Works ) Last an thought credited to be developed by Jerome Bruner in the 1960 ‘s is find larning which promoted custodies on tilting where scholars draw from his or her ain experience and anterior cognition. ( â€Å" Discovery Learning ( Bruner ) † ) So there were many factors that influenced his thought and that pushed him to develop his theory. His theory trades with how worlds have many different ways to larn and treat information. ( â€Å" Howard Gardner ‘s Multiple Intelligences theory † ) He believes that everyone has different degrees of intelligence in each class which is why some kids learn some things faster than others. Gardner believes that intelligence is normally defined by psychometries but it does non adequately describe people ‘s broad mixture of cognitive abilities. IQ trials can sometimes be taken excessively earnestly but it can non find future success ( Gardner 3 ) . Even college aptitude trials are â€Å" thinly cloaked intelligence trials. † ( Myer 432 ) For illustration a kid that takes longer to larn generation does non intend the kid is dense but that the kid is more intelligent in other countries. In the facet of instruction, Gardner wants to prioritise because he believes the cognition we learn is superficial, â€Å" a stat mi broad an inch deep † . ( Guignon ) He r ecognizes that â€Å" Students learn in ways that are identifiably typical † so he promotes more pupil centered as opposed to teacher centered larning which is a really practical thought. Harmonizing to Garner, there are 8 perchance 10 intelligences ; spacial, lingual, logical, bodily, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and realistic. Spatial is the ability to visualise with the head ‘s oculus. ( Chapman ) Linguistic intelligence trades with words, spoken or written. These people learn best by reading, taking notes, listening to talks, and treatment. ( Chapman ) Logical-mathematical is about logic, abstractions, concluding, and Numberss, concluding capablenesss scientific thought and probe traditional constructs of â€Å" intelligence † or IQ. ( Chapman ) Bodily-kinesthetic is the control of one ‘s bodily gestures and the capacity to manage objects skilfully. Musical intelligence trades with sounds, beat, tones, and music sing, play musical instruments. ( Lane ) Interpersonal intelligence is about interaction with others. They are largely extraverts, characterized by their sensitiveness to others ‘ tempers, feelings, dispositions and motiv es and collaborate good with others. ( Lane ) Intrapersonal is the introverted and self-reflective capacities. Those people are introverted but good at decoding their ain feelings and motives. ( Lane ) Lastly is realistic who deals a batch with nature associating information to one ‘s natural milieus. The 9th intelligence is non to the full confirmed yet but it is experiential which is about contemplating phenomena or inquiries beyond centripetal informations. And eventually, the ten percent is moral intelligences covering with moralss and the value of life. ( Chapman ) His theory greatly changed the heads of many and started the development of more across-the-board schools. Traditionally, schools have highlighted the development of logical and lingual intelligence but many pupils do non larn good in that environment. ( Lane ) Gardner ‘s theory argues that pupils will be better served by a wider vision of instruction, wherein instructors use different methods to learn all pupils non merely the few that are intelligent logically or linguistically. ( Guignon ) Although, many instructors see the theory as simple common sense and some even say they already know that pupil learn in different ways, Gardner ‘s system has non been accepted by most faculty members instructions. ( Guignon ) Some schools nevertheless, have developed to better fit Gardner ‘s thoughts. For illustration, one of the most celebrated schools that implement Gardner ‘s theory is the New City School in St. Louis, Missouri. This school has been utilizing the theo ry since 1988 ( â€Å" Why New City School † ) There has been much unfavorable judgment for his theory though. Some say he uses the word intelligence in topographic point of ability. ( Gilman ) Others say that he has non settled on a individual definition of intelligence though he admits himself that he has no fixed definition. ( Gilman ) Last and most significantly, he has no empirical grounds for this theory. ( Smith ) In fact, some neurological research disproves his theory and his old plants has major defects. ( Smith ) Recently, the current No Child Left Behind act passed by the Bush disposal does non embrace his theory at all because the Act is about holding pupils all pass standardized trials while he wants to acquire rid of those trials in order to make out to every kid ‘s demands. ( â€Å" No Child Left Behind Act ( NCLB ) | ESEA † ) His theory affects us so much today because it relates to instruction ; Gardner goes into how schools merely teach superficial cognition significance schools teach a batch of everything but non in deepness into anything so some childs may stand out in one country but non the other. ( Gardner ) There is excessively much shoal cognition so he suggests that kids should larn and really understand constructs non merely larn for taking a trial. ( Smith ) If he obtains more support for his theory, the whole instruction system will hold to be changed. But his thought of an instruction system should work good because this will assist do the instruction system m ore just and embracing for all childs. Right now, some kids that may look like they are neglecting school but their failure is non because they are dense but because the manner topics are taught in school is non how he or she can grok and use. ( Gardner ) Even though Gardner ‘s theory is appealing, it will likely non work because there is no widespread support particularly from authorities. ( No Child Left Behind Act ( NCLB ) | ESEA ) Besides, single instructors particularly in lower classs have unconsciously adapted parts of his theories but because in higher classs there is more lecture manner instruction, his theory seldom applied to higher instruction. ( Guignon ) Furthermore there is so much contention over this theory because it keeps on altering and there is no cogent evidence which makes it difficult to wholly believe this theory. ( Smith ) Additionally, since Gardner is still alive, he can maintain on altering his theory and acquiring more grounds and support. ( Gardner ) Lastly, some schools have already adapted his theory such as the New metropolis school. This school published many books about implementing this theory in more schoolrooms such as the school ‘s instructors have produced two books for instructors, Observing Multiple Intelligences and Succeeding With Multiple Intelligences and the principal, Thomas Hoerr, has written Becoming a Multiple Intelligences School in add-on to many articles on the practical applications of the theory. ( â€Å" Multiple Intelligences Resources ) The school has besides hosted four conferences, each pulling over pedagogues from around the universe. ( â€Å" Why New City School † ) The school remains a valuable resource for instructors interested in put to deathing the theory in their ain schoolrooms. It is clear that Howard Gardner has had an of import impact on today ‘s psychological science universe and instruction. His continuity to â€Å" dispute an educational system that assumes that everyone can larn the same stuffs in the same manner † has decidedly made an impact in the universe as many schools have recognized the different ways kids learn. ( Lane ) Should his theory go more prevailing, who knows what out instruction system will be like in the hereafter.

Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 4

Proposal - Essay Example However most individuals are not aware of the health hazards which regular fast food consumption may cause. Although it is not possible to completely eradicate fast food, it is important to reduce its consumption and make people aware of its health implications. Fast food chains however hesitate to display nutritional information as they fear it may cause losing consumers. This practice further impacts food choice and causes chronic health conditions. According to the National Institute of health Statistics of the U.S (2002), the proportion of obese adults have grown from 23% to 31%. A number of fast food chains which are stated to be healthy also have grown multiple folds in the last decade. Many health researchers such as Heini and Weinsier (1997) have opined that individuals at present burn fewer calories as compared to earlier times due to the rapid growth of technology. Although the number of leisure activities are seen to rise steadily, the time spend by individuals in these activities has been low. Individuals do not indulge in as much physical activity as per their calorie intake (Chandon, Morwitz and Reinartz, 2005). Moreover, the health claims made by fast food chain restaurants misdirect consumers. According to Mussweiler (2003) the nutritional facts stated by many fast food chains are seen to be inaccurate due to which more orders gets placed. Consumers get misdirected by the manner in which fast food chains display t he calorific information of different food items (Ledikwe, Julia and Barbara, 2005). The attitude of consumers towards such information is also seen to remain casual to a very large extent. The presence of a few vegetables or fruit items in the food gets overestimated by consumers and they fall under the assumption that the food they are consuming is healthy (Balasubramanian and Cole, 2002). Additionally, consumers are not aware of the net amount of energy their body requires each day and therefore

Registered Nursing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Registered Nursing - Essay Example Since ill patients depend on nurses, I am interested to venture in this since it is my dream to touch and provide comfort to people who are not well. To be qualified though, I have to be registered to make sure I deliver quality health care. This is for me to meet the educational requirement. Although, educational requirement depends on the country you are to be registered, nevertheless, in most part of the globe, the completion of a bachelor’s degree or associate’s degree is the foremost requirement. A student may graduate with an earned diploma. The bachelor’s degree last for four years and is more comprehensive because it includes both theory and practicum to sharpen nursing skills learned in the four walls of the classroom. Practicum is done in the hospital and in the community settings. Associate program on the other hand, is taken for only two years with both theory and clinical exposure just the same but not as comprehensive as the bachelor’s degree . This makes most registered nurses to go back to pursue bachelor’s degree to meet the prerequisites and be selected for nurse’s NCLEX examination (Baker, 2008). Attached to the white uniform of nurses, I do understand that they have varied tasks since they comprise the biggest group within the health care system.

Information Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Information Systems - Essay Example The researcher of this essay provides the reader with detailed explanation of Apple's company success. From the earliest government sponsored projects to produce computers based on vacuum tubes to today’s multi-core systems, the saga of computer technology has seen major players ousted and minor players become leaders. While many companies have come and gone over the past 40 years, Apple Computer comes across as one of the companies which has stood the test of time and has managed to turn out convincing products that have given it an image of innovation and being a radical organization. The essay describes that Apple is an American company and one of the front runners amongst computer hardware, software and allied equipment manufacturers. The company prides itself on creating innovative products for the consumer electronics and technology sectors. In 2005, it posted global sales of nearly 14 Billion dollars and had more than fourteen thousand people working for it around the w orld. The researcher then uses different analysis models, such as Porter’s Five Forces, Value Chain, Competitive Advantage, Value Proposition, Revenue Model and Information System to describe and present Apple's corporative strengths and weaknesses in modern market. For example, the five forces model shows that Apple has a significantly strong position in the market for some of its products e.g. the iPod and the iTunes Music Store but for others it is positioned on rather weak footing e.g. personal computers.

Principles in non- profit leadership Research Paper

Principles in non- profit leadership - Research Paper Example Successful leaders, however, are not just adepts in formulating plans that are in line with the organizational dynamics, but also implement of those plans keeping in view the social dynamics of the organization. In addition, leaders provide the necessary support, communicate effectively with employees and motivate them sufficiently to ensure successful execution of the formulated strategy (Mumford et al.). It is an undoubted fact that the birth and growth of non-profit organizations has placed new demands on leadership. According to two famous researchers, Herman and Heimovics, the role of leadership in non-profit organizations is demanding and intricate. There are many instances where the leadership is faced with the daunting task of reconciling various responsibilities and functions with organizational goals (Herman and Heimovics). Furthermore, there has been a pressing need for successful leadership in non-profit sectors lately. One fundamental aspect of leadership in non-profit organizations is that it must manage articulately the relationship between itself and the Board of Directors (Carver). Researchers have mostly viewed non-profit corporations as hierarchical structures defined by formal lines of authority. The law in some countries, such as the United States, defines the Board of Directors as having an authority superior to that of the executives and leadership (Carver). Thus, the Board explicitly lays down the rules, regulations, policies and procedures for the company, has the authority to accept or deny proposals or plans and settles the budgets, plans and other aspects of the organization. This is based on Max Weber’s model of bureaucracy whereby decision making is determined by formal lines of authority and chain of command (Carver). Research with respect to non-profit organizations suggests that the Board formulates the strategy and decisions, whereas, the leadership simply executes thos e

The musical student Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The musical student - Essay Example He clutches his backpack awkwardly. If his fingers do not have an instrument to strum, pluck, or press, the music students hands moves nervously around whatever object is closest. When heading off to school, the object closest is the backpack strings. The music student is going to study music at college once again. If he is not at college, the music student is holed up in his apartment playing music. The music student’s haunting music must come from his breakup. Once a striking woman started coming to the music student’s apartment. All the music from the apartment was full of romance. I would see him carrying flowers in and out of his apartment. The last time the woman was seen around our neighborhood, she sat in a coffee shop with her boyfriend. The music student’s fingers were twisting a coffee cup. She was crying and gesturing towards him. Every now and then, she would grasp his arm. The look on his face was sheer agony. However it was not an agony that could be expressed, this agony was like soul cancer. The music student’s aura was never the same after that night. If spoken to, the music student does not reply. He is no longer part of our world. The music is where he resides today. Only the shadow of the man walks. The music student evokes great sympathy in our world. However he does live a spectacular life. When on stage, in his studio apartment, or college class, the music student is alive in the world of music. Many would pity the music student, but he does not want pity. He is glad that his heart was broken. Without a broken heart his music would not have the same quality. In the end, the music student only loves the music. Humans come and go in his life, but music has always been a comfort. The music student would rather have his music than the

International Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

International Marketing - Essay Example Another benefit of a quality outsourced customer care is the ability to provide flexibility. Outsourcing offers most companies an opportunity to diversify when they decide to break down most of their operations and having both internal and external ways to operate. Q. 2. The main advantages of licensing as a market entry strategy according to Cateora, Gilly and Graham (2011) include: provision of supplementary profitability with an early diminutive investment, brand recognition, provision of a way of circumnavigating extra charges, attractive return-on-investment rates and finally low implementation costs. The main disadvantages of licensing include: competition, inadequate participation resulting to lack of control and the likelihood of loss in returns. Examples of companies that use licensing as their market entry strategy include Disney Consumer Products and Phillips-Van Heusen. Q. 3. According to Keegan (2002), global strategic partnership involves participants who remain autonom ous after formation of the association, share profits of the association as well as control over performance of assigned responsibilities and lastly the participants involve in making continued contributions in products, expertise and other key strategic areas. Global strategic partnerships differ from joint venture since entry strategy for a joint venture involves a single target country whereby associates end up dividing the ownership of a newly created business entity. Global strategic partnerships involve collaborative agreements with more than one target country. Part 2 Marketing Plan Atek’s mission is to base everything that they do on quality that cannot be surpassed in the industry, manufacture complex medical devices, launch new products with expertise and providing experiences and resources that contain value. This is achieved with one goal in mind, which is to improve in the core areas important to consumers. The main marketing objectives for Atek are: to help impr ove the speed of speed-to-market, product performance, and profitability in an atmosphere of high quality. This is achieved by launching millions of devices in the market that are aimed at satisfying each consumer’s specific needs so as to optimize the manufacturing process. The objectives are also accomplished by providing support that meets the consumers’ requirements. Atek’s short term plan is to be the premier manufacturer and distributor in their market country which is the U.S. According to Wind & Douglas (1974), it would be relatively easier to market a new product to a target audience in the U.S relatively than in other diversified locales if the manufacturing company is U.S. based. This is influence by factors like consumer awareness, target audience and product information. The criteria used in selecting the U.S. as a viable target market for this product was the size of the market. This market has diversity in both cultural and racial demographics hen ce making it a suitable market. Access to consumers was vital criteria since upon the manufacture of the devices, availing them to the target consumers with ease would be very important to Atek. Also the way consumers relate to product launches of this kind of nature was very important when selecting the market area. The cost of market reach is weighed against the cost of potential gain and from the past studies and researches done Atek from

Safeguarding the security of Americans Essay Example for Free

Safeguarding the security of Americans Essay The FDA is responsible for safeguarding the security of Americans by ensuring that all types of Pharmaceutical and biological products, cosmetics, medical equipment and the nations food supplies are inspected and meet the standards expected. However, this has been compromised because the organization faces severe under funding. Hence, the nation is experiencing increased cases of health problems like poisoning, illnesses and even deaths resulting from consuming infected food. To prevent more fatal outcomes in future, boosting FDA funding is mandatory for improved performance. There are various estimates with regard to cases relating to deaths resulting from consuming infected food. â€Å"Ames, Iowa-based Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, an organization composed of 36 scientific societies, suggests that anywhere from 6.5 million to 33 million illnesses and up to 9000 deaths each year may be caused by food borne hazards (Schmidt p.2). Further, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that yearly, 76 Million cases of illnesses associated with food contamination and over 300,000 people are hospitalized. In addition, 5000 people and more die from illnesses associated with the same. These figures are particularly threatening and worrying especially due to the fact that the causes are known and these incidences can be avoided altogether. It is even more annoying because America has adequate capacity in terms of financial resources and technical know how to adequately address this problem. On January seventh, two thousand and eight, The Massachusetts Department of Public Health found out that a bacterium called Listeria monocytogenes was traced back to a milk-processing plant. Well, the bacterium is in most cases found in such environments though it is particularly concentrated around domesticated and wild animals. One hundred samples were taken and the results showed that sixteen of those contained the bacterium. The factory claims that it complied with the FDA regulations but an outbreak still occurred. Of course this was not intentional; changes in processing food could cause an outbreak. Changes in food processing in many instances provide suitable conditions for specific bacterium to thrive. Donald Schaffner, an extension specialist with the Department of Food Sciences at Rutgers University in New Jersey says, some emerging strains have resulted from changes in voluminous food production. â€Å"Sometimes, a change in food production optimizes proliferation of a rare strain and makes that strain more common,† he says. â€Å"Other times, these unique strains have always been there, but we get to know them because new tools and techniques tell us they are there† (Schmidt p.3). Other causes of food contamination include poor sanitation. In these cases, food is not well handled by the manufacturers who pay little or no attention to sanitation of the equipment they use during processing. Naturally, most foods have small quantities of bacteria which have no effect to humans. However, these if poorly handled are a risk to human health. Also, if food is not well prepared, it contributes to food borne diseases. Animal products should especially be given attention during preparation. Lastly, inappropriate food storage mechanisms in various ways do contribute to multiplying of the bacteria, causing food poisoning. Recently, America has experienced a number of food borne diseases being contacted by its population. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, such diseases include salmonellosis, listeriosis, and hemolytic uremic syndrom. Presently, the FDA is undergoing great criticism as a result of its inability to keep the public free of contaminated food. Officials from FDA have on certain occasions acknowledged that they can not tell if the product is contaminated before they get complaints from the public and the police. Besides, the FDA in some cases actually knows about food contamination in certain manufacturing plants and farms but fail to act accordingly until death and illness cases are reported. For instance, in the cases of contamination and sanitation problems at a Peanut butter manufacturing company in Georgia and on Spinach farms in California, the FDA acted only after three deaths and hundreds of sicknesses were reported.   This apparently implies incompetence on their part. The FDA staff is estimated to be around seven thousand people. However, this number of workers is expected to inspect close to sixty two thousand factories as well as other imported products from other countries. This is certainly a huge workload. Based on the above statistics, it would take the FDA thirteen years to inspect each factory once, without having to inspect the seemingly increasing products from other countries. This poor performance is because of under funding. The organization only receives a third of the budget allocated to food safety despite the fact that it controls almost 80% of the nations food. It hence finds it tricky to perform tasks expected of it because of these limited funds. Its state of technology also wants making it difficult to compare and analyze any reports about dangerous products and substances. Most of the reports handed in by the FDA field inspectors are usually hand written and hence can not pass through the system in an efficient way. The congress is working round the clock to ensure that the FDA is financially empowered to curb the challenges it faces. It asserts that in order to work effectively in the coming five years, the FDA would need an increase in its funding by fifteen percent. Clearly, there is not enough manpower to effectively oversee the sanitation of food that Americans consume each day. Another concern is about the imported food. Leaders from the Democratic council claim that ninety eight point seven percent of the food from other countries is often not inspected. This is worrying because several countries America imports food from have a history of contamination and disease. Urgent attention need to be given to this concern especially because of the current trend that has seen increasingly many countries manufacture contaminated food, even those whose technology and standards were considered to be satisfactory. An example would be China in the case of contaminated milk. Since the number of food products entering the country is so much that the FDA can not handle each and every product, loopholes are created, giving room to infected products to reach the market and consequently be consumed without knowledge. Americans are susceptible to consuming contaminated food as the cases of contamination increase. While this threat is glaring, â€Å"The FDA, on the other hand, limits its oversight to random port-of-entry inspection of imported foods. But in the same way that the FDA has been unable to keep up domestic production, it is overwhelmed by imported foods as well, and can only inspect a round of two percent of overseas shipments† (Schmidt p.2) Poor performance of the PDA and its failure to protect the health of the Americans is contributing to more and more tainted food products coming in the country. America is the biggest importer of fish, vegetables, fruits and nuts from especially China. If the current trend holds, this nation is at risk of consuming contaminated food from China. Because of the inability of the FDA to perform effectively, this country has turned in to a dumping site for infected foods and drugs. Well, other countries seem to be aware of this and may be that’s the reason why currently, more cases are reported more often. Apparently, veterinary drugs also find their way in to the country illegally. Consequently, the health of our domestic animals including pets is at stake.   Very many incidences have seen pets die because of consuming contaminated feeds from China. This means that indirectly, human health is at risk as we consume products from the animals we keep as well as the animals themselves. In order to address the raised concerns and restore the trust Americans once had in FDA, the government should financially empower the agency. With adequate financial empowerment, it will be able to execute its duties accordingly and boost the health of many Americans who are adversely affected by its incompetence. WORKS CITED Schmidt, Charles W. Safe Food: An All-Consuming Issue. Brogan Partners 107.3 Mar 1993 144-A149. 26 Feb 2009 http://www.jstor.org/stable/3434501?seq=2.

Analysis Of Celcom Axiata Investment In Tune Talk Marketing Essay

Analysis Of Celcom Axiata Investment In Tune Talk Marketing Essay Celcom Axiata is a member of Axiata Group is facing tough competition against the other major telecommunication rivals. Having coined as malay telco provider that is, Celcom Axiata has weak penetration into some major markets and the strategy to overcome this is by appointing the Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) to penetrate into the identified markets using their own brand, look and feel. Celcom Axiata business model for Tune Talk MVNO is by having 35% stakes in the company. After over 11 months in operation, Celcom Axiata is reviewing its position in this company whether to remain its stake, increase its shareholding or pullout. Prior to making any decision with its investment, Celcom Axiata needs to evaluate the existing Tune Talk financial standing and its capability to provide the required return on investment as well as its ability to handle the issues at hands especially those concerning the cash flows. Introduction Celcom Axiata is one of the 4 major mobile telecommunication companies in Malaysia. As at 31st March 2010, Celcom Axiata was ranked as second largest mobile telecommunication company behind Maxis, and ahead of Digi and U Mobile respectively. Celcom Axiata is a member of Axiata Group of companies who manage a group of Mobile Telecommunications in the Asia region. Axiata Group was previously known as TM International and part of TM (Telekom Malaysia) Group. The process of de-merger within TM Group saw the birth of Axiata Group, meant to focus on mobile telecommunications arm of the corporation within the region whilst TM continue to maintain its fixed lines business as well as broadband provider. According to the first quarter financial report, Celcom Axiata continue to show double digit growth on a YoY basis in all key indicators. Revenue was up 15% whilst Earning Before Interest Tax Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) increased by 16%. In tandem, Profit After Tax (PAT) was up 24% in the same period. On a QoQ basis, Celcom continued to show positive performance. Despite coming off an exceptional 4Q09, which recorded the highest ever quarterly growth, revenue growth was marginal, but still up by 0.2%. Continued focus on costs saw EBITDA up by 2% with margins improving by 0.7 percentage points QoQ to 45.4%. PAT showed a robust increase of 7% to RM441 million (Celcom Axiata media release, 27th May 2010). Celcom Axiata has been aggressively expanding its network and coverage to cater for the increasing demand by the customers. Despite its continuous efforts to penetrate into the various segments in this country, Celcom Axiata still lagging in some of key markets such as the Chinese market segment, immigrant market segment and student market or low income earners segment. These markets are predominantly controlled by Maxis and Digi and will be the key success factor for Celcom Axiata to capture in order to become the number one mobile telecommunication provider in this country. One of the strategy to penetrate into these segments as single out by Celcom Axiata is by way of having a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) approach. MVNO means Celcom Axiata will appoint a third party to run the mobile business using their own brand, leveraging on their own strength such as networking, channel of distribution, marketing and customer service. By doing this, Celcom Axiata can reduce its financial burden on the go-to-market cost which in turn will be born by the MVNO partners themselves. To date there are four MVNOs appointed and launched by Celcom whereby each of them is given different market segment to penetrate and capture. Each MVNO is treated as separate entity from Celcom Axiata where the respective MVNOs have full control over their own operations and management of the companies except for Tune Talk Sdn Bhd where Celcom Axiata has 35% share of the company. Being different business model from other MVNOs, Tune Talk Sdn Bhd is seen as another Celcom Axiata joint venture company. Tune Talk is owned by the following shareholders as shown in figure 1 below : Tune Ventures (owned by Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes and Datuk Kamarudin Meranun) Individuals shareholders are Datuk Seri Kalimullah Masheerul Hassan, Lim Kian Onn, Jason Lo (the CEO of Tune Talk), Gurtaj Singh (the COO of Tune Talk) and Mark Lankaster (the CEO of Tune Hotels) Celcom decision to have its stake in Tune Talk is to ensure it has some form of control as one the major shareholder. Although Tune Talk management will have the control over the management of the company but the shareholders will have their voice heard during the monthly board exco meeting. Having represented by 2 permanent exco members from Celcom, it can ensure that Tune Talk business plan and strategies are in line with its goal to become one of the top mobile service provider in this country. The Situation Tune Talk is approaching its first anniversary on the coming 19th August 2010. Celcom need to assess its investment and evaluate whether Tune Talk business is moving to the right direction and hence generate the desired dividends to shareholders. In order to achieve the target, Celcom needs to keep track of Tune Talk managements way of running the business. The permanent exco members sitting in the boardroom must be able to drill down to the bottom line and analyze their way of spending their fund. This is very important to Celcom as the major shareholder in Tune Talk so it can decide on the next course of actions such as to inject more fund into Tune Talk, or to remain its position without adding anymore cash or worst case decide to pull out from the pack. Prior to such decision, Celcom needs to gather as much information as possible with regards to Tune Talk financial position, business directions, marketing strategies and other commercial matters which will be the key determination factors. Based from the previous exco meeting it was learned that Tune Talk is facing difficulties to move forward with its business plans and marketing strategies due to shortage of cash flow. Tune Talk Chief Financial Officer (CFO) during his presentation to the board of directors highlighted the following scenarios : a. Increase in Managed Services Costs Tune Talk adopted the managed services concept to deploy and maintain the Intelligent Network (IN) billing system, network related infrastructure namely Short Message Services Centre (SMSC), Home Location Register (HLR) and other Value Added Services (VAS). Managed services concept is a new trend in telecommunication and information technology (IT) business whereby the customers or business operators do not buy outright the related systems but pay to the supplier or provider on usage based. This method saves the company from spending an upfront purchase of an asset, hence reduce the cash outflow. Managed services can help a particular company to avoid from having to allocate depreciation cost which may impact the company balance sheet. In the case of Tune Talk the burden they are facing now is due to the increase in the amount to be spent on this managed services. The deal they are having right now is based on the number of subscribers using the system, the higher the number of subscribers the higher the managed services cost to be incurred. The amount will grow in tandem with the intake of new subscribers where the average cost per subscriber remain unchanged. Unlike buying own fixed asset, the average cost will tend to reduce as the number of new subscribers grow until it reaches the economic of scales. Increase in Channel and Distribution Cost In Malaysia, all the mobile operators are highly dependant to the normal traditional channel ie. mobilephone dealers to sell its SIM card and recharge vouchers. Being too dependant to this type of distribution channel will increase the companys cost of sales whereby for every sales of SIM cards or recharge voucher the company needs to allocate some amount of percentage as an incentive for them to push its products over the competitors. Traditionally, in mobile telecommunication business the channel of distribution consist of 3 layers : distributors master dealers ordinary dealers Normally only a handful of distributors are being appointed to distribute to the master dealers whom will then sell it through the ordinary dealers. Each of these channels will keep a small percentage as their incentive from the retail price. Operators are normally stuck with this channel cost which they cannot run away with in order to push their products to the customers. On average an operator will have to spend not less than 10% from its retail price being part of the channel cost. Allocation for Marketing Cost As a new mobile operator in Malaysia competing against the other 4 major mobile telecommunications service providers Tune Talk is facing a tough time to introduce its brand to the market. According to Nielsen Co Malaysia 2009 report (a research company), the telecommunication companies are among the highest contributor to the total advertising expenditure in Malaysia with Celcom leading the pack at RM 115.8 million, followed by Telekom Malaysia at RM 94.3 million, Maxis with RM 89.7 million and Digi for RM 87.1 million (see Figure 2 below). Newspaper and TV advertisement represent the top 2 categories for advertising followed by Radio, Magazine and Outdoor. To date Tune Talk had already spent RM 2 million in their advertising cost through billboards, newspaper, TV and radio advertisements. This amount is rather very small compare to the amount spent by the big giants and it may not give the required exposure that Tune Talk expected to create its brand awareness to the market place. Based from the report and dip stick survey conducted by Tune Talk marketing department their brand index is still very low and they would require more fund to be pumped in for this purpose. Slow Moving of Customer Recharge Activities Tune Talk is only selling prepaid mobile and it main source of income is by selling the SIM card and recharge vouchers. As far as Tune Talk is concern the revenue generated from these sales are considered as their income (based on the generally Accepted Accounting Principle). This is due to the fact the income will be reported when it is earned (Ross, Westerfiled, Jaffe, Corporate Finance, 7th edition). The good thing about prepaid business is the transactions are in cash terms. This means Tune Talk will get to record the transaction into its book as and when the SIM cards or vouchers are sold to the distributors. In accounting, the revenue from sales of SIM cards and recharge vouchers will only be realized upon usage and not upon sales. Nonetheless, as far as Tune Talk income is concerned it has already acquired the money from the distributor and realized in its book as income as per GAAP. As a rippling effect to lack of awareness of its brand in the market place, Tune Talk sales of SIM cards and recharge vouchers are moving rather at a very slow pace. Table 1 below is example of the average sales and projected 1st year revenue from SIM cards and recharge vouchers : Table 1 Items Average Monthly Revenue Projected 1st Year Revenue SIM Cards RM 500,000 RM 6,000,000 Recharge Vouchers RM 900,000 RM 10,800,000 Total RM 1,400,000 RM 16,800,000 This figure is far cry from the original budget that Tune Talk has to make which is RM 36.0 million for its first year operation and increase to RM 50.0 million and RM 72.0 million in year 2 and 3 respectively. High Customer Turnover or Attrition Rate It is common in the prepaid business industry that users tend to move or hope around from one operator to another operator to find for better offer and cheaper cost. Tune Talk is also affected by this game by the customers whereby the rate of customers churning out or leaving for another brand keep on increasing on month-on-month basis. Malaysian prepaid business industry rate of customers staying in a particular operator (industry language is length of stay) is in average of 6 months. However in the case of Tune Talk its customers average length of stay is a mere 3 months which is about half of the industry average. The impact of this short stay will cause a high acquisition cost to Tune Talk whereby its cash flow will be badly affected. In order to stay healthy, Tune Talk needs more than 3 months for each customer with average usage of RM 30 per month to recover its upfront acquisition cost such as the channel incentive, marketing cost and the other variable costs. Shortage of Cash Tune Talk started off its business with RM 7.5 million worth of shares with 35% own by Celcom whilst the remainder are by several other individuals. After 11 months of operations, Tune Talk is now facing with the most critical moment in its business where their cash flow is deteriorating. Despite being a lean and mean in expenditure and had not spent any money on fixed asset, Tune Talk still face the cash flow difficulty. An area that has badly affected Tune Talk cash flow is the channel incentive and the wholesale airtime rates that it has to pay back to Celcom. With intense competition Tune Talk needs to set its incentive on par or slightly better than the competition in order to get the channel attention and support. On the other hand, the prepaid business market is competing on the call rates to be offered to the end users in order to beat the others. Since Tune Talk is buying its airtime from Celcom at fixed rate, the competition which had forced Tune Talk to also lower down its selling rate to the end users had cause Tune Talk margin to shrink and became smaller. The result is, the income collected from the sales of SIM cards and recharge vouchers will have to be spent largely to incentive and wholesale airtime to Celcom, leaving only peanuts to Tune Talk to be used to re-generate its business. It is also better for Tune Talk to maintain a level of working capital that allows it to make it through those crunch times and continue to operate the business within tight budget (Cater McNamara, Authenticity Consulting LLC). Action Celcom Axiata really need to review its investment in Tune Talk Sdn Bhd by looking at the present situation and its potential. It is a known fact that every new business need some times to be able to stabilize and start to show positive result out of its investment. As far as telecommunication industry is concerned, a minimum of 3 years is required in order for a particular mobile operator to have a strong foothold and have substantial subscriber base to be relevant. The question here is whether Tune Talk strategies are gearing towards the right direction which will guarantee to bear fruits at the end of 3 years? How much will investor need to pump in to ensure that Tune Talk can still survive until the 3rd year ? It is imperative that Celcom Axiata representatives in the Tune Talk board of directors to insist Tune Talk management to review their existing business models which had obviously affected their cash flows. Serious attention must be given by Tune Talk management to revisit its dependency on the existing channel which will become its biggest threat in trying to minimize its cash out flows. Tune Talk management also needs to re-negotiate with its managed services provider to review the charges being imposed to Tune Talk for every new subscribers added into the system. The charges should be on decreasing trend as more customers being added. Tune Talk may also want to consider finding new manage service provider should the negotiation come to a dead end. This is important in managing Tune Talk spending over the long run. Prior to Celcom Axiata to make any decision with its investment, it needs to analyze Tune Talk financial condition. It is advisable for Celcom Axiata to scrutinize the Tune Talk financial management and ensure that all the monies are well spent and efficiently managed to protect its interest. Celcom Axiata finance manager needs to advice the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the real condition of Tune Talk by analyzing its financial statement cash flows. Having spent for over RM 2.6 million and holding 35% of Tune Talk shares, Celcom Axiata has the responsibility to report to its board of directors on the progress of its investment. The Celcom Axiata board of directors must be very interested to know whether the management of Celcom Axiata has made the right decision by investing in Tune Talk. One thing interesting in this business model ie MVNO is because the airtime being sold by Tune Talk (in this case the MVNO) is using Celcom network infrastructure. This means even though Tune Talk does not make huge profit and may not be able to provide the required rate of return in terms of dividends to the shareholders but as far as Celcom Axiata is concerned, it still make money from the airtime sold. Thus, board of directors of Celcom Axiata may well be pleased by the increase in Celcom Axiata revenue alone rather than going down to the details of earning through the Tune Talk dividends. Another area that needs special attention is to assess the existing Tune Talk management team style and business competencies. This industry is regarded as highly competitive and it takes excellent team to be able to compete with the big boys (as being referred to the seasoned mobile operators). Celcom Axiata representatives in the Tune Talk exco members must be able to provide information to the Celcom Axiata management whether there is an existence of conflict of interest in the Tune Talk management team. Although according to Vishny and Robert W, NBER Reporter, September 1989 said that the standard and ideally corporation allows management to have 5% of shares. This can be ascertained by judging into their way of running the business, their seriousness in fulfilling the required tasks as outlined in the business plans, their priorities in spending and handling the cash flows. Conclusion It is probably premature for Celcom Axiata to make decision to pull out from this pack by merely basing on the first 11 or 12 months Tune Talk operation. However any decision to increase its capital in Tune Talk either by buying more shares or by pumping more money to support Tune Talk operations must be done with great detail analysis. It is not advisable for Celcom Axiata to simply inject more cash to Tune Talk without seeing any progress or improvement on some of the area of concern which have been highlighted in previous pages. The major issues that need to be really scrutinize by Celcom Axiata financial manager is on the cash flow management. The action items highlighted in previous pages suggested Tune Talk to improve the way it runs its business which will eventually give a positive impact to its cash flow. It is said that high risk will normally generate high rate of return, but having said that, the save decision at the moment is for Celcom Axiata to remain its position without adding more cash but to continue to monitor Tune Talk progress and improvement. After all, Celcom Axiata is the one who makes more money from anyone else in the pack which is through the sales of wholesale airtime. This investment although had not been able to generate dividends to Celcom Axiata but somehow has managed to complement the weak area that cannot be penetrated by Celcom Axiata using its own brand.

Effect of Produce Placement in Computer Games

Effect of Produce Placement in Computer Games Product Placement Does Product Placement in Computer Games Affect The Consumer’s Buying Behaviour? Chapter 1 Introduction Can you remember a movie in the cinema without some kind of product placement (a product and/or a brand intentionally placed in a cultural medium (Lehu, Bressoud (2007))? Placing branded products in entertainment media like movies is not a new developed concept. This kind of advertising nowadays is very common. People often ask themselves what exactly advertising is. The term advertising describes any communication effort that might influence consumer purchase decisions (Rotfeld, H. J., 2008). Different types of models can therefore be used like product placement used in movies or in computer games. Everything started with investments in the production of radio programs at the beginning of the 1930s. Consumer product manufacturers tried to reach their target audiences via the radio through so called sponsor-owned shows (Lavin, 1995). Product Placement, also called brand placement and â€Å"brand casting†, appeared first in motion pictures as early as the late 1940s and early 1950s. One example was in 1948 in the drama Mildred Pierce where an actor in the movie drank Jack Daniels whiskey (Nebenzahl Secunda, 1993). In the beginning, using branded property by donating, loaning or purchasing them for particular movie scenes just to enhance their artistic qualities (Spillman, 1989). Since Reese’s Pieces appeared in the blockbuster movie E.T. The Extraterrestrial, over 20 years ago, product placement has developed and evolved significantly. That implicated that after the film release, Hersey claimed a 65% increase in sales of Reese’s Pieces (Karrh, 1998). Today, almost every movie contains product placement. While in the â€Å"James Bond†-Movies 007 drinks Martini, Will Smith drives a Porsche 911 Turbo in Bad Boys. (Quellen) There could be mentioned thousands of examples like this as today ads in movies are very common. Beside movies, another media based method to reach a wide range of consumers, can be seen in ads turning up in computer games. To date, except for movies or television, attitudes toward product placement in media have received little attention, despite increased product placement in games (Nelson, 2004). Computer and console games are getting more and more interesting for marketers due to today’s households own at least one PC and playing computer games nowadays is very common. This applies not only for the youngsters in a family but also for their parents who also play games. Computer games are emerging as a new medium for advertising but yet there is comparatively little empirical independent research investigating the outcomes of marketing communications using this medium. Ads in computer games have not a very long tradition like ads in movies but nowadays it is more and more often used. To reach key consumer segments, marketers are turning to games in order to improve their chances. In 2005, advertisers spent $80 million to reach video game players. Experts expect this spending to top $400 by 2009 (Park Associates 2006). Whether it is billboard ads, sponsorship and product placement, or the game character experiencing the product by drinking, wearing, driving or listening to it as a part of the game, the opportunities for branding in computer games are vast (Townsend, J., 2007). While European gamers’ most popular form of entertainment is watching TV, the $25 Billion gaming is even bigger than the $10 Billion film, as well as the $20 Billion home video industry. If we believe analysts from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the worldwide game industry is set to rocket to revenues in 2009 of about $54.6 billion (Ferrand et al., 2006). In regard to those numbers for today’s companies advertising in computer games has also become important to gain popularity. As 75% of people who have internet access also play online games for more than an hour per month (NEUE STUDIE IGDA Online Games SIG Steering Committee 2005). Another important issue today is subliminal advertising in media. Beginning in 1982 many people were concerned about subliminal messages in rock music claimed that messages had been recorded backward into popular rock music (Vokey Read, 1985). They feared that these messages could be perceived while listening to the music in the normal way. Even in computer games there is advertising that is perceived just incidentally. This might be true for example in racing games. Here might raise the question whether the player perceives billboards while driving with a speed of 130 MPH. Nobody can say if some kind of messages have an impact on our decision making process. Yet no empirical study has explored incidental effects on computer game players by advertising. Furthermore, it has not been investigated if the placement of the ads is designed to be subconsciously processed. 1.2 Reasons for Choice of Topic The topic in this paper was specifically chosen due to the writer’s interest in the area and desire to learn more on the subject of game related advertising issues and effects on the consumer of computer games. 1.3 Research Objectives This paper explores recent developments in the video game market in marketing practice that have resulted in brands being found in an increasing number of computer games. The main target of this investigation is to work out if product placement has any impact on the consumer in terms of the buying behavior and actions that the consumers enforce as a result of brands appearing in computer games. To investigate the prior research question, there will also be investigated if product placement is perceived by the respondents and their attitude towards product placement will be examined. As the subconscious as a component that should not be neglected in terms of subliminal advertising, it should be questioned whether it has any influence on the consumer or not. All these questions are coherent as if people perceive the product placement and have a positive attitude towards product placement it is possible that they subliminally perceive the placements. As all this is coherently, it is also possible, that buying decisions are predicated on these variables. 1.4 Computer Games Limitations Academic and professional literature on gaming often makes distinctions between computer games, video games and electronic games. These boundaries are blurred and moreover the situation is complicated by the availability different types of games. There are console games, PC games, mobile games, handheld games, interactive entertainment and virtual worlds that could be differentiated. Some of these distinctions are made to describe the hardware on which the games are played. Others also refer to a particular characteristic of the medium or the social aspects of playing. This variety of different types of consoles and handhelds is not helpful especially considering that today many games like for example the game Doom can now be played on cell phones, calculators in addition to PCs and tricked out consoles. Creating and using a separate name for each case/instance of a new hardware group would quickly become obstructive. The term â€Å"electronic games† might be too broad as it could also include games that are technically electronic like for example pinball machines. This kind of media is rarely discussed in the context of â€Å"video† or â€Å"computer games†. Like a good fit on the other hand seems to be â€Å"computer games†. The term â€Å"computer games† refers to games that are controlled or used by a computer which is a machine that digitally processes data according to a set of instruction. This then again includes a large range of devices that contain an embedded computer. Computer games that use a video display as the primary feedback device can be described by the term â€Å"video games†. Since most of the games discussed in this paper rely on computer monitor or a television screen for the visual playback, â€Å"computer games† and â€Å"video games† will often be used alternately. Below there will also follow a contextual definition while clarifications will be provided when necessary. 1.5 Chapter outline Following from this chapter; chapter two gives a crucial review of the literature available on the chosen subject matter and identifies an apposite theoretical framework for this study. It looks at the issues raised by academics and provides a basis for what has been observed. Chapter three discusses the quantitative methods used in this dissertation to collect the research required. The set up of a questionnaire is depicted as well as the appropriate methods that need to be factored in. Chapter four presents the findings of the primary research undertaken for this dissertation and the findings will be analyzed using content analysis in order to put some figure to the numeric nature of quantitative research. It will present the participant’s answers to the questions asked for the research of this project, and reiterate statements made in the data collection process (questionnaires). Finally in chapter five the research findings and analysis and attempts to draw conclusions from this are considered. To resolve the matters discussed and argued in this paper, the conclusion will help to draw an end to this dissertation. Chapter 2 Review of Literature 2.1 Introduction This chapter deals with the academic literature and pre-existing studies on the subject of product placement in computer games and its impact on the consumer. This chapter’s aims and objectives are to afford better clarification of the topic and the variables that affect consumers. Existing studies will be explored further and perhaps bring new understanding to the subject. This is achieved through the way in which this chapter is structured; by looking at the definitions presented by academics of product placement; subliminal advertising; brand recognition and recall; brand equity and trust; considering various studies and selecting the most appropriate ones for this dissertation to prove the research questions. 2.2 Product Placement From the time when movies provided brands in the 1940s and 1950s, they have been served as background scenery as well as props and character developers. Advertising supports media economically, yet for product placements but when the practice began with branded products it was donated, bartered or bought (Nelson et al., 2004). Today, companies generally are paid by film-makers to appear in the movies (Chunovic, 2002) and that change was then being followed in the game industry, too. Brand properties or placements differ from conventional broadcast advertising in leastwise three ways: At first, placements do not suspend the media experience of the consumer like it is done by paid media advertising which operates between media content (Nelson et al., 2004). Secondly, placements are according to Wasko et al. (1993) not always paid by the brand. Thirdly, Nelson et al. (2004) claim that it would be important that placements are not be perceived by consumers as commercial messages. In a public policy debate the extent of the consumer awareness and knowledge about product placements is considered an important measure. Product placements are presented as subversive, subconscious techniques, even though others assert that most consumers are aware of the practice (Nelson et al. 2004). The continuous advances in technology have made it incrementally easier for consumers to circumvent traditional advertising messages. Whether bypassing advertising by switching to another channel via the remote control or VCR and DVR make it necessary for advertisers to find other ways to catch the attention of the consumers to make them buying the company’s products. One such strategy that marketers have begun to make use of is product placement in entertainment media (Lee, Faber, 2007). 2.3 Definition of games and information about the people playing them While taking all the time about games; what is a game in the sense used in this paper? Jesper Juul (2003), a video game theorist, investigated seven well-known definitions of games which have been provided by different academics. Based on a screened listing of features which describes issues that are necessary for something to be a game, he then identifies it as â€Å"a rule-based system with a variable and quantifiable outcome, where different outcomes are assigned different values, the player exerts effort in order to influence the outcome, the player feels emotionally attached to the outcome, and the consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable† (Juul, 2006). To be able to understand the distinctive features of the computer games particularly as a medium, this description will become helpful later. To understand the entire matter around games, there should be explained the type of people who play games. According to a study conducted by the Interactive Software Federation Europe (2008) the average gamer in Europe today is 33 years old. It is also claimed that in a typical week 45% of the PC owners play games more than 1-5 hours while 29% play more than 5 hours. In case of console owners it is more or less the same so this does not need to be considered separately as in this paper this component is not taken in account. The main reason of playing is for most of them to play just for fun (80%) followed by relaxing and de-stressing (55%) and playing when they are bored (41%) (Interactive Software Federation Europe, 2008). Gamers are people who immerse themselves in an alternate reality which allows brands having the permission to act in a way that helps players to do this. Shortly this means, as brands appear in or around a game, it makes sense to use them to enhance the virtual reality (Mediaedge, 2005). Nevertheless it would be pointless to place billboards of real world advertising like Coka Cola in games with a fantasy setting like for example the well known World of Warcraft. That kind of product placement would not turn up realistic and it would disturb the player’s experience. World of Warcraft is an ongoing multiplayer world that was subscribed by about 8 million at the beginning of 2007 which (Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., 2007) has increased to 10 million in 2008 (Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., 2008). The expert Samuel Turcotte (Lehu, 2007) claims that ‘product placement isn’t about sales; it’s about brand awareness’. Aiming on increasing sales and making the customer aware of one’s product, marketers should not try to disturb the player’s word but enhance it. Examples like World of Warcraft show that those players or subscribers are out of advertiser’s reach. Today in generally things have changed as product placements are part of many games. Depending on the setting and the kind of placement, many products found their way into the games. Whether BMW in car racing games like for example Need for Speed or ordinary products like Axe deodorants and Airwaves chewing gums in Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, most products that appear in the games are products that surround gamers and non-gamers daily. According to a study conducted by Nielsen BASES and Nielsen Games on behalf of in-game advertising network IGA Worldwide, 82% of gamers react positively to contextual In-Game Ads (Androvich, 2008). Results of this study showed that of consumers with the strongest opinion about in-game ads, both positive and negative, over 70% felt the ads made them feel better about the brand. They felt more favourable toward the brand and it made them more interested in the brand. Ultimately they believed that the ads are for innovative/cutting edge brands. More than 60% of these most opinionated customers feel ads do not interrupt their attention while experiencing the game. Also, the ads catch their attention and make games more realistic as well as the brands shown in the games are promoting relevant products. According to Lockergnome (2007), most of today’s computer games give the impression being made for men. An industry report published by IBISWorld (2008) reveals that women and older adults are the new driving force behind the success of the video games industry. According to IBISWorld (2008) it is also claimed that today, more and more women begin to play action games. Today in general the consumer research on product placements has focused on attitudes towards the practice and the effectiveness (Nelson et al., 2004). 2.4 Gamers’ attitude towards product placement in computer games Advertising placements that mimic real-world ads – such as billboards in sports or racing games – are generally accepted by gamers because they have perceived to add to the realism of the game (Thompson, 2006) which is also in accordance with Nelson (2002). He claims the research on consumer attitudes to in-game product placement shows that participants were in the main positive about practice and did not perceive any disruption in the experience of the game used in the study. As already mentioned above, brands should be used as enhancer of the virtual reality (Mediaedge, 2005), some participants of the study just mentioned reported that product placement enhance the realism of the game as well as it would add value to the gaming experience (Nelson, 2002). The argument that consumers are more positively disposed towards brand placements relative to more conventional forms of advertising is also supported by research investigating consumer’s attitudes to product placement in other media (Nebenzahl and Secunda, 2003). They also found that product placement was related favourably by 70% of people going to the cinema, extensively higher than ratings for pre-movie advertisements. As attitudinal surveys and focus groups showed, questioned consumers generally find product placements to be acceptable. They even said that it would enhance the value of the media as well as the entertainment value (Nelson et al., 2004). On the other hand, some of the polled consumers, in most cases women from countries like the U.S., Austria, France and Singapore are not that positive about the acceptability of ethically-charged products. They claim that such things like guns, cigarettes or alcohol in media would be targeted at children (Nelson et al., 2004). According to information from PRNewswire (2008) women do also play computer games with that kind of content like action games or shooter. So it depends on the attitude of the individual and the kind of placement used in the media. In most cases when guns are placed in a computer game, it target adults (PRNewswire, 2008). In Germany for example, it is controlled by law what kind of games need to be censored or not. All this is the executed by an institution called USK. If a computer game is not checked by the USK, it is not coming out. And if it contains explicit violence and language, it may only be sold to adults which is from 18 years on. 2.5 Brand Equity and Social Trust Many customers buy needed goods by habit, are drawn to purchase by promotions, or simply do not pay much attention to which brand they buy (Walshe and Fearn, 2008). Therefore it is important for marketers to draw customers’ attention, convince them to prefer their product blindly and make them to trust in the product. Brand equity is depicted to be known by Yoo and Donthu (2002) to create customers’ blind preference for a brand over its competing brands. Brand equity also increases the company’s value by affecting the decision making in terms of merger and acquisition, stock market responses and the extendibility of a brand name. Brand equity measures most of which have long been used by marketers but which are only now being brought together as single intangible asset which in accounting terms, is brought forward at the start of the period and carried forward to the next (Ambler, 1997). As long as the marketers don’t do anything dreadful, traditional brand leaders will stay brand leaders. This can also be seen in the fact that the brand leaders in the 1920s were mostly the leaders 60 years later (Wurster, 1987). Brands with lower rankings normally hold their places. Ambler (1997) claims that the awareness is cognitive, as is our knowledge of a brand’s functional performance characteristics and price. Attitudes towards the brand are primarily affective. Most essentially, making use of regularly purchased brands is likely to be merely reinforced by advertising. Believing in a product blindly requires people’s trust in the company. To comprehend the importance of trust a definition of trust will now follow. ‘Trust is one of the most important synthetic forces within society’ (Simmel, 1950). Trust is needed to gain customers’ blind preference for a brand. Customers that trust in company’s products as well as in its established brands will buy these products in the future. Referring to this, for marketers it is an essential factor, that trust is built. This signifies that trust is controlled mentally. Ambler (1997) claims that as long marketers are engaged with what changes customer’s behaviour, mental stages of the customer cannot be ignored. While the customer perceives that a product represents a high profit, it is probable that the product will be bought in the future. Convincing a customer to consider another the own product to be better is very hard for a company to. If a product is favoured by the customer, then good arguments are needed by the marketer change the preferred product. By looking at features like customization in computer games like in many car-racing games it can be seen, that product placement can be implanted differently. Even the design or the car’s power can be adjusted. Very famous for that is for example the car racing game series Need for Speed. By implementing such features the player identifies himself with the brand, which in real life can results in an increased brand loyalty of the respective player. The virtually perceived quality then may have an impact on the gamer. A possible indicator of future performance might be the perceived quality which has been identified as a key; possibly it is the key (Gale, 1994). However, as we do not know the correlation it is hard to forecast which seems probable between perceived quality and trust. In a computer game, the perceived quality in a racing game may lead the player to believe the car he is driving with is unbeatable, but it is questionable whether it can be trusted in that car to be equal in reality. These examples show that the options of marketers in the game segment are enormous. Brands simplify the process of making decisions by acting as ‘summarized knowledge’. A brand reduces the need of the customer to undertake the time-consuming activity of ‘researching’ products (Morrison and Firmstone 2000). 2.6 Subliminal Messages in Media As already mentioned above, subliminal messages also appeared in media or still do. Embedding material in print, audio or video messages so faintly that they are not consciously perceived is called subliminal advertising (Rogers and Smith, 1993). Besides the attention, the capacity and the perception of in game advertising, there exists another theory. A lot of scientists say that subliminal messages do leave a mark on the brain. By using brain scanners, they found â€Å"we often record images we are not even aware of having seen† (Jha, 2007). Researchers from the University College of London proved on a psychological level that invisible subliminal images catch the brain’s attention on a subconscious level. Using a method called fMRI, this study investigated if it is possible images which the customer is not aware of – but ones that reach the retina – have any impact on activity of the brain in the primary visual cortex, part of the occipital lobe (Smith, Lewis, 2007). The brain of the subjects did act in response to the object even when they did not know about having seen it (Smith, Lewis, 2007). At a basic level, people perceive messages differently when they are presented in the form of an advertisement than when they are written in the form of other types of communications as the same literal content can result in different consumer perceptions (Rotfeld, 2008). The research of the University College of London tackles the theory of William James, a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher (1842-1910), who once said: â€Å"We are conscious of what we attend to, and not conscious of what we do not attend to† (Subliminal Advertising Leaves Its Mark On The Brain, 2007). Within several tests scientists found out that there are situations where consciousness and attention don’t accompany each other. Nevertheless, the research also indicated that when the brain doesn’t have enough capacity to attend to an im age, even subconsciously perceived images simply do not get realized (Subliminal Advertising Leaves Its Mark On The Brain, 2007). According to Rogers and Smith (1993) many people in the public have heard of the term ‘subliminal advertising’ and know about its importance. They also claim that as the public understands the basics of the concept they believe it not only to be used by advertisers but also to be successful in influencing brand choice and purchase behaviour. Zanot (1984) examined 38 studies of American attitudes to advertising from the 1930s to the 1970s. He found that these became increasingly negative over time, perhaps reflecting increases in the volume of advertising, the growth of consumerism and rising concerns about the social responsibility of business. According to studies conducted by Zanot, Pincus and Lamp (1983) after a survey of 209 adults in Washington, DC it was reported that 81% had heard of subliminal advertising and that respondents believe that subliminal advertising is widely and frequently used and that it is successfully in selling products. According to Rogers and Smith (1993), these results were confirmed in separate surveys conducted later. They also conducted an own study to prove whether the results are still valid or not, and it was proved again. Heyder et al. (1992) compared attitudes across several East and Western Europe countries. They also found more positive attitudes in Britain than in France or West Germany, although Czecheslovakia emerged as the country best disposed to advertising. Attitudes were however less favourable in Poland, Hungary and East Germany. 2.7 Effectiveness of Product Placement Brand Recognition and Recall Even though advertising through digital games appears widely in popular print media and industry magazines there are only a few empirical studies attempt to explain the effects of the ads that target game players. Today the increasing brand awareness is amid the most ordinary goals advertisers have when product placement in games is used. Often it is assumed that the amount of people playing a game is equal to the number of people that actually pays attention to brand names turning up in the game. As a game player is busy playing the game then this is what occupies primary attention. It is important for advertisers to find out whether their brand name is being noticed at all since brand names displayed in a game are not the focal object of attention (Lee and Faber, 2007). According to Lee and Faber (2007), â€Å"most cognitive psychologists believe that attention is the progress of allocating cognitive capacity to an object or task†. Furthermore, researchers frequently focus their attention on two issues: on the one hand on the selective aspect on the other on the intensive aspect. Lee and Faber (2007) also claim that the intensity of attention relates to the amount of cognitive capacity. This intensity of attention is allocated to a particular task as well as the selectivity which refers to selective allocation of cognitive capacity to a certain task in preference to others. Beside the attention, there is also the capacity that should be thought of. As the player is attentive it might be that the brain does not have enough capacity to handle all the absorbed information. To explain both, the selective and intensive aspects of attention, the limited-capacity model of attention was generated (Kahneman 1973). This model makes use of the assumption that ones entire attentional capacity is limited at any moment (Kahneman, 1973). Even with a strong attention, it might be difficult as there is no capacity to handle the mass of information. Kahneman (1973) claims that the entire capacity that is allocated to execute all actions can be split into two parts: on the one hand there is capacity devoted to the primary task and on the other hand there can be regarded spare capacity (Kahneman 1973; Lynch and Srull 1982). According to scientists, spare capacity attends to secondary tasks and other surroundings. They also say that the capacity that is used to perform the primary task cannot be used for the secondary task as the more capacity is used for the primary task, the less is available for the person – in the context of this paper the gamer – to accomplish any secondary task. Both, primary task capacity and spare capacity are central to understand the how in-game ads are working in terms of product placement on brand memory. According to Lee and Faber (2007), playing the game is the primary task that players perform. Processing advertisements embedded in the game is then the secondary task. As more attentional capacity is needed to apply oneself to playing the game, the less will be accessible for handling brand information. Similar to industry measures, academics have relied seriously on memory-based measures. Examples for those can be aided and unaided recall, recognition, and sometimes on acceptance, reported usage behavior and perceived ethical factors related to product placement (Gupta and Gould, 1997; Karrh, Firth, and Callison, 2001; Morton and Friedman, 2002; Russel. 2002; Sargent, 2001). Andrà © Sonder, New Business Director of IGA Wordwide, subsidiary of Microsoft responsible for co-oper sations in matters of advertising, provides reasons for computer games as advertising medium. On one hand, he claims, that investigations showed that in particular men between the age of 18 and 34 have a six to seven times higher cognition while gaming than while watching primetime TV-Shows. In-game ads are for that reason very effective as the player is very concentrated and ads can be better recognized than in television. (Aichinger, 2006) Displaying brand identifiers in the games may be comparable to product placements in TV shows or in films in various ways. However in other ways, playing games is in some way different compared with watching a movie or TV program, and the force and consequences of product placements may, as a result of that differ. The major difference may be in the scope of involvement and its effects on the resources concerning attention. While gamer interact with the game actively by managing and influencing what happens in the game a ‘TV watcher’ passively just ‘watches’ television or movies (Nicovich 2005). Compared with movie or TV product placements, noticing a brand and remembering it may be more difficult in the game context to a considerable degree. This might be due to its immersive nature (Chancy, Lin, and Chancy 2004; Nicovich 2005). To create a to some extent on-of-a-kind situation for in-games this distinction may also interact with other variables. According to a study to investigate the effects of product placement in games on brand recall which was analyzed by Nelson (2002), it was found that 95% of the participants were able to recall the brand of the car they drove during the game spontaneously. Nevertheless, on the other side, recall declined to 0% after a five-month post-play period. 2.8 Effectiveness of in-game ads studies There are a few studies around product placement concerning computer games. The British company Bunnyfoot offers the op