Consumer Buying Behaviour: The Cosmetics Industry

Consumer Buying Behaviour: The Cosmetics Industry Abstract Women have an inherent love of beauty. The rapid economic growth, coupled with the huge development of cosmetics industry in China, contributes to the significant changes of cosmetics consumer behavior. Cosmetics have become a routine tool to make women more presentable. Understanding behaviour of consumers is a key to the success of business. As a huge potential consumer group, understanding of their attitudes and buying behavior towards cosmetics seems to be necessary. This study focused on investigating and analysing the purchasing patterns for female college students. Via the systemic study, companies will be beneficial to have a better understanding of college females in terms of cosmetics purchasing. The survey was conducted with focus group and questionnaires. The results of questionnaires will be analyzed by using SPSS and data were analysed by frequency analysis, cross-tab analysis and multi-respond analysis. Introduction 1.1 Research background With the expansion of social group and rising incomes, beauty consciousness among women has changed. Cosmetics entered into womens lives on a daily basis. The act of beautifying physical appearance not only becomes a distinct way to express ones image but also a pattern to show respect to other people (Choi, Kim, Kim, 2007). Following decade of years tremendous economic development, the Chinese cosmetics industry is undergoing fast changes and advancement. It further enhances the consumption level of urban and rural residents, improve the consumption environment, optimize consumption structures, and contribute to expansion of the fields of consumption (Tao, 2005). Consumer categories such as cosmetics benefited from the rapid growth in consumer spending, and have become a huge money maker. Meanwhile, the increasing fashion and beauty consciousness, as a natural outgrowth of rising incomes, diversify consumers demands. Obviously, this potential has not only attracted international cosmetics companies, but also led to more domestic cosmetics producers trying to enter the market. As a consequence, competition will be further intensified among foreign and domestic companies. Previous research indicated that females spending on cosmetics still making up of the main income for the entire cosmetics market. An increasing number of female college students starting to show strong interest in enhancing their appearance through make-up (Huang, 2003). With a high level of interests in appearance, they have revealed a great potential. College students represent not only the remarkable consumption potential but also the future mainstream. Thus, the female college students patterns of consumption gradually become a major concern (Choi, Kim, Kim, 2007). Studying consumer behavior enables companies to understand why consumers make the purchase decision and predict how they will react to promotional messages. On the purpose of maintaining and expanding market share, understanding of consumer behavior will be required to suit their changing needs. Therefore, research need to be conducted to provide cosmetic companies with basic data required in establishing marketing s trategies for advancement into Chinese market to tailor consumption patterns of female college students. 1.2 Scope and objectives of study When reviewing the literatures on the cosmetic and toiletry industry, the existing research related to Chinese cosmetic consumer is typically concerned with the entire market. Not many studies are available specifically focus on college students buying behavior. In the regard, considering the massive size of China, the present study limits itself to the female college students. By and large, this dissertation makes an attempt to investigate and analyse purchasing pattern of female college cosmetic consumers. In particular, this study aims to achieve the following objectives: To pinpoint and obtain a general picture of the cosmetics industry in China. On completion of this objective, the intention would be to get an insight into the cosmetics environment and the rapid growth trend of the industry so as to have a good knowledge base that can support the study throughout the dissertation. To investigate and analyse cosmetics buying behavior of female college students in China. The intention of this objective would be to a) understand how college student perceive cosmetics, b) identify their characteristics in terms of cosmetics purchase, and c) develop a greater understanding of motivation for purchasing, different factors involved in purchase decision of cosmetics and how product attribute, such as price, quality etc, effects buying patterns, thereby mapping out a model for female college students purchasing behavior. Based on the analysis of the research carried out, briefly propose a number of key recommendations enable companies in the industry to target their marketing strategies at college cosmetics consumers. The data that plan to be gathered for this research will be obtained from both primary and secondary resources. The secondary sources of data will be derived from published articles from internet database, journals and magazines, theses, and related studies on cosmetics. On the other hand, the primary source of information regarding the study will be gathered from focus groups and questionnaires, prepared by the researcher, which will be delivered to the respondents of the research. 1.3 Significance of study The boom of cosmetics industry in China has brought about changes in consumer behavior. The importance of the study cannot be understated. It is anticipated that the outcome of this study will certainly contribute towards a better understanding of the changing perception and behaviour of cosmetics buyers. Furthermore, there are a number of literatures that have discussed the female consumer behavior with regards to the purchase of cosmetics. This study will combine the relevant literature with own findings from primary research to provide an in-depth discussion. Therefore, the study will be significant in terms of better positioning of products and more effective marketing communication to tailor the demand of college females. This means that the findings will not only be able to benefit both foreign and domestic companies who have the willingness to enter the market but also various retailers who want to expand sales. Literature review Many theories have been proposed to explain consumer behaviors within certain industry area. Understanding todays consumer is the key to realising the future needs and expectations of beauty consumers, and is potentially relevant to improving marketing effectiveness (Tang, 2008). Previous studies hold that knowing the psychological process by which consumers make purchasing decisions enables marketers to grasp opportunities and even predict the shifts and future development trend of the consumer markets. Additionally, it exerts positive impact on improving cosmetics sales (Yau, 1994). Previous studies regarding the patterns of purchasing cosmetics à £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒ £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒ £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒ £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒ ©Ã¢â€ž ¢Ã‹â€ Ãƒ ¨Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ °Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ »Ã‚ ¥Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ¸Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ Ã‚ ³Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ °Ã¢â‚¬  displayà §Ã… ¡Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ¸Ã‚ »Ãƒ ¨Ã‚ ¦Ã‚ Ãƒ ¨Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒ §Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¹ à §Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ¸Ã¢â€š ¬Ãƒ ¦Ã‚ ®Ã‚ µÃƒ ¨Ã‚ ¦Ã‚ Ãƒ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ Ã‚ ¹Ã‚ ¼Ã‚ Ã‚ ¼Ã‚ Ã‚ ¼Ã‚  2.1 Relationships between cosmetics and females à §Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ¸Ã¢â€š ¬Ãƒ §Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¹Ã‚ ¼Ã… ¡Ãƒ ¥Ã…’-à ¥Ã‚ ¦Ã‚ Ãƒ ¥Ã¢â‚¬Å" Ãƒ ¨Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬ ¡Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ ¥Ã‚ ³Ãƒ ¦Ã¢â€š ¬Ãƒ §Ã… ¡Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ ¤-à ¨Ã‚ ²Ã…’ à ¨Ã‚ ¿Ã‹Å"à ¦Ã‹Å" ¯Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ ¹Ã‚ ²Ãƒ ¨Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã¢â‚¬  Ãƒ §Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃ‚ ´Ãƒ ¦Ã… ½Ã‚ ¥Ãƒ ¥Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â€ž ¢ à ¦Ã…“†°Ãƒ ¥Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã‚ ³consumer behaviorà §Ã… ¡Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ãƒ §Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬  Ãƒ ¨Ã‚ ®Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¼Ã… ¸Ã‚ ¼Ã… ¸Ãƒ ¥Ã†â€™Ã‚ keralaà ©Ã¢â‚¬ ¡Ã…’à ©Ã‚ Ã‚ ¢Ãƒ ©Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ £Ãƒ ¦Ã‚  Ã‚ ·Ã‚ ¼Ã… ¸Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ Ã… ¡Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ¸Ã‚ ª300à ¥Ã‚ ­-à §Ã… ¡Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ °Ã‚ Ãƒ ©Ã¢â‚¬Å" ºÃƒ ¥Ã… ¾Ã‚ « Few systematic studies have examined that à ¦Ã‚ ¯Ã¢â‚¬ Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ ¦Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒ ¨Ã‚ ¯Ã‚ ´Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ »Ã¢â€š ¬Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ¹Ã‹â€  à ¥Ã…’-à ¥Ã‚ ¦Ã¢â‚¬  Ãƒ ¥Ã¢â‚¬Å" Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ ¯Ã‚ ¹Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ ¥Ã‚ ³Ãƒ ¦Ã¢â€š ¬Ãƒ §Ã… ¡Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ãƒ ©Ã¢â‚¬ ¡Ã‚ Ãƒ ¨Ã‚ ¦Ã‚ Ãƒ ¦Ã¢â€š ¬Ãƒ ©Ã‹Å" ¿ à ¤Ã‚ ¹Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ãƒ §Ã‚ ±Ã‚ »Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ¹Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ãƒ §Ã‚ ±Ã‚ »Ãƒ §Ã… ¡Ã¢â‚¬Å¾ à ¥Ã‚ ¥Ã‚ ³Ãƒ ¦Ã¢â€š ¬ à ¤Ã‚ ¸Ã‚ ºÃƒ ¤Ã‚ »Ã¢â€š ¬Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ¹Ã‹â€ Ãƒ ¨Ã‚ ´Ã‚ ­Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ¹Ã‚ °Ãƒ ¥Ã…’-à ¥Ã‚ ¦Ã¢â‚¬  Ãƒ ¥Ã¢â‚¬Å" Ãƒ ©Ã‹Å" ¿ In this generation, cosmetics are used by women of practically all walks of life High-end cosmetics The desire to be beautiful could be considered a human tendency, as it is exhibited by almost every culture all around the world. KIRARA(PDF) Research suggests that beauty consciousness among people in general is changing. Vigneron and Johnson (1999) reported that peoples needs for appearances and materialism were increasing. That is human beings wanted to satisfy the need to look and feel good. This created a boom in the cosmetic and toiletries sector across the world. Chambers Encyclopedia defines cosmetics as (a) articles intended to be rubbed, poured, sprinkled or sprayed on, introduced into or otherwise applied to the human body or any part thereof for cleaning, beautifying, promoting attractiveness or altering the appearance and (b) articles intended for use as a component of such articles. Now a variety of cosmetic and toiletries ranging from natural to sophisticated items are available in the market. The pattern and preference of use of these items vary according to different segments of gender, age and socio-economic class. When we review the literature on the cosmetic and toiletry industry, not many studies are available especially about Indian scenario. 2.2 Patterns of women purchasing cosmetics Most early theories of consumer behavior were concerned with the purchasing characteristics and influential factors. Schutte and Ciarlante (Schutte Ciarlante, 1998)argued that in China the purchase decision is typically based on the usefulness of the product such as its physical characteristics and price value. However, recent studies outlined by Liang (Liang, 2008) suggested that womens purchasing pattern differs with men. Their buying decision tend to influenced easily by the purchasing environment, and have more impulse purchase. Besides, generally speaking, females have strong self-awareness when purchasing, which means majority of the decisions were made on the basis of personal preference or subjective impression, sensation. 2.2.1 Characteristics of purchasing cosmetics In general, female invest more money on various cosmetic products and even spared no expense because they pay more attention to appearance than men (Huang, 2003). The characteristics of modern Chinese females regarding cosmetics purchase can be summed up in three points: Easily affected by market atmosphere Normally, products promotion, advertising and other factors can easily tempt young females to make irrational purchases. In a research by Cong (Cong, 2008), results showed that 56% of females bought unneeded or unexpected cosmetics products as a result of discount, followed by the purchase due to interests aroused by shop environment and sales exhibition (40.8%). Accounts for 22.8% of females who bought useless products or had irrational consumption were affected by advertisement. Thus, compare with men, female is prone to be encouraged over-consumption by commercial appeals. Mood consumption Female tend to have more generous sentiments in the process of purchase. Their certain desires are prone to be roused and affected by mental activities. Oliver Yau (Yau, 1994) contended that mood consumption normally occurs in two situations. One of which might be triggered by delusion under particular circumstance. For example, lots of females had encountered situation that unexpected spending happens after being paid out the salary. Another circumstance that contributes to mood consumption is likely to happen in the case of that female with unusual mood. Such as, a considerable number of female go shopping when they feel frustrated and happy. Relatively low loyalty to brands Chinese cosmetics consumers show less passion on being loyal to brands. They would like to try several brands to compare them rather than be from the same brand (Labbrand, 2009). Besides, another reason that contributes to low brand loyalty is seasonal consumption of Chinese consumers due to the significant difference in climate between summer and winter (Mo, 2008). Customers have to change their purchase habit to suit the season. For instance, customer tends to use more sunscreen to protect their skin and less oily cream in summer than they do in winter. 2.2.2 Purchasing influences As established by Access Asia Limited (Access Asia Limited, 2008), Chinese consumers heavily rely on products, stores and services they know and trust. The same philosophy is applicable equally to product brands, with word-of-mouth communication proving to be a pervasive reason for consumers to change brands and most potent marketing tools in China. This is supported by Xuecai Liang (Liang, 2008) who claimed that among the females, friends group plays a very important role on information communicating about different brands of cosmetics. Some people will only buy products that they have been recommended by friends. However, the increasing effects of advertising on the urban and younger Chinese buyer cannot be neglected as their media exposure increases (Yang, 2004). In addition, the physical characteristics like reliability, innovative technology and high brand profile are the important factors when make a cosmetic purchase, a study by Yuyuan Huang suggested that (Huang, 2003). Taking different attitudes towards local and foreign brands as example, Huang explained that foreign brand represent high quality and status at the Chinese consumers view, while local brand are perceived as shortage of these selling advantages, even both product sold at the same price. Besides, it worth to notice that local cosmetics consumers now are prepared to pay more for better quality, service, and convenience. The variety of choice is seen as another factor. According to Shen, Liu and Huang (Shen, Liu, Huang, 2005), majority of the consumers will prefer to shop in large stores when they can easily reach such places, whereas finding the lack of product choice in smaller stores (especially in terms of range of price) to be embarrassed. It can be argued that larger stores will provide more bargains, which means the products tend to have higher price value. Such stores are also considered as being more convenient to shop in, contributing to the flourishing development of the discount retailing sector over recent years (Access Asia Limited, 2008). Moreover, in the eyes of Chinese consumer, the depth of communication brands had with their customers is vital. According to survey conducted by Labbrand (Labbrand, 2009), Chinese consumers have a strong demand to communicate with brands. For instance, they would like to receive inquiry from brand concerning their feeling about the products they use, or to be informed in time when brand have special events. Besides, consumers considered that from communicating with brand they can better compare and finally find the most suitable cosmetics for their specific needs and desires. Thus, it can be argued that companies who kept contact with consumers tend to have higher sales and brand loyalty. Industry review The huge advances witnessed over the past two decades have improved the living standards of millions of Chinese citizens. With the upgrade of living standards, private consumption among expenses has reached a higher level. The rise in private consumption translated into greater spending on personal care products in the booming cosmetics industry (Tao, 2005). In China, the development of the cosmetic industry has been to a new stage and it shows a sound momentum of growth. Market potential: Chinese cosmetic market continues to surge In recent year, the continuous rapid economic growth generates good environment and favorable development space for cosmetics industry maintaining a rapid rate of growth. In 2003, china had become the second-largest cosmetics market in Asia after Japan, and was the eighth largest in the world (Li, 2005). According to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of China, the Chinese cosmetics market generated total revenues of RMB ¿Ã‚ ¥488.3 billion in 2007, representing annual sales grew by 26.3 percent over the same period last year. In 2008 and 2009, the sales grew by 22.2% and 17.2%, respectively, over the same period, to reach respective values of RMB ¿Ã‚ ¥596.5 and RMB ¿Ã‚ ¥348.2 billion in 2008 (HKTDC, 2009). At the same time, it has also been taken note that the performance of the market is forecast to decelerate, but still increase by approximately 13% annually (Datamonitor, 2009). Overall, the cosmetics industry is surely faster than the economic growth which means the long te rm potential of the Chinese cosmetic market is fairly vast. Additionally, given its population of approximately 1.3 billion, China has the largest market potential. Chinas share of the global cosmetic market may seem small compared to huge markets like the US and Japan, but with a population of over a billion people, the growth potential there is staggering, said Lenka Contreras, vice president and head of the Consumer Products practice for Klines research division (Pitman, 2005). Chinas cosmetics market is still far from saturation.à ¨Ã¢â€š ¬Ã†â€™Ãƒ ¨Ã¢â€ž ¢Ã¢â‚¬ËœÃƒ ¤Ã‚ ¸Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ãƒ ¨Ã‚ ¦Ã‚ Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ¸Ã‚ Ãƒ ¨Ã‚ ¦Ã‚ Ãƒ ¦Ã‚ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Ãƒ ¥Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃ‚ ¾Ãƒ ¨Ã‚ ¡Ã‚ ¨Ã‚ ¼Ã‹â€ HKTDCà ©Ã¢â‚¬ ¡Ã…’à ©Ã‚ Ã‚ ¢Ãƒ §Ã… ¡Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ãƒ ¥Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃ‚ ¾Ãƒ ¦Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬ ¡Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ ¯Ã‚ ¹Ãƒ ¦Ã‚ ¯Ã¢â‚¬ Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ¸Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ¼Ã…’à ¦- ¥Ã‚ ¼Ã…’xx ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °!!!!à ¨Ã‚ ¿Ã‹Å"à ¦Ã‹Å" ¯Ãƒ §Ã¢â‚¬ Ã‚ ¨datamonitorà §Ã… ¡Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¼Ã… ¸!!!!!!! Characteristics of chinas cosmetics market The consumer market development is vigorous With economy expanding and mass livelihood improving, awareness of personal well-being prompts strong and continuous growth in the consumer market. It not only reforms the consumption pattern but also drive the sales (Asia consulting, 2008). In that sense, it is predicted that the Chinese cosmetic consumer market is dynamic. Women stimulating the market growth Female is still an essential part of Chinese cosmetics market, especially those office ladies. As Chinese women are now increasingly beauty consciousness and awareness, the use of cosmetics has become a part of their daily routine (Fung, 2005). Accordingly, the rising proportion of young females in white-collar jobs has formed the loyal customer basis for this market, and the cosmetics sales have been driven. Their spending on cosmetic is outgrowing over other areas. National Bureau of Statistics has come up with data that shows women ages from 20-54 account for 27.21% of the total population. Being more economically independent, the enormous number of consumers in the group will generate huge demands than ever (HKTDC, 2009). The famous-brand effect appears day by day on the market The rising sales of famous-brand products reflected that customers attitudes concerning cosmetics have changed (Chen Xue, 2005). As the improving residents consumption level, people are willing to pay more attentions to those well-know cosmetic products which were considered with high grade, quality assurance and harmlessness. For example, customers will be highly delighted with brand-name products that can prevent wrinkles or keep moisture balance in the skin. Due to the impression lifted in mind, its sales increased dramatically and gradually become the main growth point of the entire market. Instead, few shows interest in low-end cosmetic products (China Consulting, 2008). Consumer In Chinese cosmetics market, consumers ways of spending are undergoing a significant change. Dianyi Zhang, president of China Cosmetics Association, claimed that modern customers behave more independently on consumption. Consumers tend to utilize different channels and rely on various measuring standard to get a pleasing cosmetics, rather than dependent on advertising. In addition, changes also occur on consumer group. Depending on the difference in requests on brand, quality, price and personal affordability, consumers were divided into low, middle and high classes. And, every class has a great number of loyal customers (HKTDC, 2009). Women of all ages were concerned with their lifestyle. The rising purchasing ability of women helped them to spend more on personal grooming. This grooming consciousness was encouraged by womens active participation in advertisement or fashion shows, such as the popular Fashion TV program (Pitman Simon, 2009). In china, consumption pattern of consumers is changing. The consumers have become globalized in their thinking and are ready to enjoy with some impulsive shopping. Access to various brands and products give them better knowledge towards cosmetics, due to fast-flowing information (Tang, 2008). Therefore, as a cosmetics producer, motivations and type of products purchased should be different depending upon the segment of consumer targeted. Competitive situation The business environment in China has been improving, especially since 2001, when the country joined the World Trade Organization. The commitment to opening its market in compliance with the WTO rules has further stimulated the market, with greater participation from international and domestic player. Consequently, competition between multinationals and local players is heating up across the country (Utsunomiya, 2003). 3.4.1 Foreign Brands Continue to Dominate in the Chinese Market International brands play a dominant role in the upper-end cosmetics market, such as PG (Olay), Unilever (Ponds), Shiseido, LOreal and Estee Lauder etc (See Table 1) , due to young womens pursuit of well-known brands in literary. These large multinational cosmetic players have entered the mainland market one after another to build their own manufacturing basis and sales network (Sunfaith China Ltd, 2005) and many of those players have been operating successfully in the China market, making their brands well-known and occupy about 80% of the total market share. According to certain statistics, the world top 15 brand of cosmetics had set up own specialty stores (HKTDC, 2002). Even so, those cosmetics magnates have accelerated expansion into low-end products. For example, Avon and LOreal launched low-end cosmetics one after another to suit the changing customers needs and purchasing behavior, and expand the market share (HKTDC, 2009). Table 1 Top Ten Preferred Colour Cosmetics Products, 2006 (Access Asia Limited, 2008) Brand % Share Maybelline 10.3 LOreal 9.9 Shisiedo 8.0 Lancà ´me 7.3 Avon 6.6 Està ©e Lauder 5.5 Yue Sai 5.1 Revlon 4.7 Amway 3.8 H2O 3.2 Others 35.6 TOTAL 100.0 3.4.2 Transformation of local Chinese companies is under way Compared with foreign companies domestic players have smaller market share due to several weaknesses. For instance, weak financial ability, lack of research and development capability, and lack of experience in brand management and marketing. Therefore, most of those players produce low-end product with only a small number making high-end product that can compete with foreign players (Li, 2005). Nonetheless, as the economic growth domestic companies has undertaken a transformation, gradually changed the impression with low quality and price, and entered into high-end market so as to become more competitive (Ocn, 2008). Facing with the open markets and trade liberalization in China, the previous mentioned increasingly fierce competition is inevitable. On the purpose of responding to the changing customer demands, market players have devised a variety of marketing strategies so as to create impressive product image in customers mind and drive them to spend more money on their own products. Distribution channel SWOT analysis of the female market Future develop trend http://www.cosmeticsdesign.com/Products-Markets/Asian-cosmetics-players-opt-for-natural-and-organic-standards Cosmetics players opt for natural and organic standards In karara (PDF) the main reasons for boom in cosmetic industry as increasing fashion and beauty consciousness coupled with rising incomes and focus on health and fitness. A natural and holistic approach attracts these women, especially where there is an interest in complementary health and in overall well being. 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Main issues that need to investigate include: Main characteristics of Cosmetics Industry in china What current market development trend is What Competitive situation is within cosmetics market Development opportunities of the cosmetics market within china This information will be helpful to better understand and form general perceptions of industry situation in china. There are several ways to obtain required information above. Data sources: Internet Databases Go to college library website and use its databases, such as: Marketline Academic Search Premier Business Insights Access Asia Series Business Source Premier To look for industry reports and e-journals those contain information regarding the Chinese cosmetic market. Find out information about the current cosmetics market and even see what demographics suit Shiseido to introduce the product to. Applying databases is a good way to get information due to its huge information storage volume and reliability. Most of them are academic-based, and have a comprehensive understanding on specific field. Websites: Look up necessary websites such as www.shiseidochina.com where might be possible to get some internal data sources. The use of this data is to define the competitive position of the firm, an evaluation of a marketing strategy the firm has used in the past, or gaining a better understanding of the company. Even, their past researches on consumer behaviors. The internal data sources might be sales marketing reports and accounting financial reports of the company. Magazines Newspapers It is also possible to look at some Chinese cosmetics industry magazines so that to acquire valuable industry information and some current cosmetic issues happened in china. Quantitative Qualitative methods In order to ascertain consumers cosmetics buying patterns and product satisfactions, quantitative and qualitative researches are both required to be implemented. It should be noticed that the understandings of consumers would exert significant impacts on companys marketing strategies. Besides, it is valuable for coming up with comments and suggestions to Client Company after analyzing Chinese customer. The main objectives of quantitative and qualitative research falls into several parts as followed: Motive of Purchasing Cosmetic Product Motives are defined as general drives that direct a consumers behavior toward attaining his or her need and the motivational drive directly affects the specific benefit criteria consumers use to evaluate products. Thus, understand buying motivations will provide evidences to Client Company to better position its products. Information Sources There are differences in using information sources among various age groups. Knowing customers through what kinds of channels to get products information could help Shiseido sell products more effectively to target audiences. Evaluative Criteria for Purchasing Cosmetics As for criteria for purchasing cosmetics, the responses will be in order of quality, price and volume of content. It is crucial to see what element is more important to customers when buying cosmetics. This will do company a favor to develop products or marketing strategies. Place of Purchasing Cosmetics In terms of the place of purchase, primary research should focus on finding out the reasons for selecting these places of purchase. Then, company can identify the perfect place to sell its products on the basis of information provided by survey. Satisfactions and dissatisfactions It is well known that satisfactions with a product will perform huge influences on its sales volume. This primary research should identify the level of satisfactions towards Shiseido and try to find out any aspects that consumers wish to see changes. Quantitative research Questionnaires As the measuring tools of this study, questionnaire based on previous studies and results of preliminary research were used. In this case, this study was carried out in the country of China. Therefore, questionnaire in English should be translated into Chinese. To reach a variety of different customers, questionnaires are supposed to carry out at different city within china so that to get as many points of views as possible. Questionnaire is consisted of 3 main sections: Section 1 is simply some questions on demographical characteristics of respondents like gender, age and occupation etc. to profile consumers. Section 2 emphasizes on customers buying behavior on cosmetics. As objectives mentioned above. For instance, purchase motivation information sources, evaluative criteria for purchasing basic skin care items and color make-up products, store type of purchasing cosmetic product and reasons for store selection persons to exert influence upon purchasing and satisfaction/dissatisfaction on cosmetics purchased. Section 3 focuses more on investigating customers perceptions concerning Shiseido products. Such as, customers brand awareness of Shiseido, brand image and brand position in customers mind. Additionally, the results of questionnaires will be analyzed by using SPSS. The analysis conducted in the study with SPSS statistics package includes frequency analysis, cross-tab analysis, analysis of variance and Multiple Range test. Survey In order to keep questionnaire short enough to maintain respondents interests, there must be some questions cannot be asked. Thus in this project, I will also consider conductin

A Generic Supervisory Of ICT Agriculture Information Technology Essay

A Generic Supervisory Of ICT Agriculture Information Technology Essay Agriculture is the most assured engine of development and a reliable key to industrialisation (Ajibola, 2007). It is the basis of development, especially in Africa and other developing countries. Increased in agricultural production is the best way of assessing that development. However, adoption of agricultural technologies is the tool of measuring the levels of achievement and production potentials. Thus, reliable means of improving the living conditions of the farmers. Priorities are therefore attached to the ways of exposing the farmers to current agricultural practices (Mando, 2002). High population increase and excessive competition on limited agricultural and related technologies, mandated various stakeholders to devise the ways of utilising agricultural resources effectively. The appropriate means of achieving that and increase productivity are through involving farmers to various decision making processes, and make them realise the ways of manipulating and combining various techniques that involved both scientific and indigenous knowledge. The use of desirable information technology that enhance horizontal and vertical exchange of ideas among farmers and other related components becomes instrumental towards increased agricultural production and improve the living conditions of the rural people. (Michiels, 2001) have defined ICT as a range of electronic technologies which when converged in new configurations are flexible, adaptable, enabling and capable of transforming organisations and redefining social relations. In related development, (Greenidge, 2003) defined ICT as those technologies that can be used to interlink information technology devices, such as personal computers with communication technologies, such as telephones and their communications . The definitions above, stresses on the need for integrating modern communication technologies with conventional ones, aimed at devising more diversified means of exchanging and sharing of ideas among individuals. However, failed to consider the printed materials, group meetings and workshops, and question and answer service as ICTs that are used frequently, conveniently filled the gaps of impersonal communication and enhances the feedback mechanisms. According to Joseph Schumpter, innovation is simply the doing of new things or the doing of things that are already being done in a new way. A definition that is more appropriate is the application of technological, institutional and human resources and discoveries to productive processes, resulting in new practices, products, markets, institutions and organisation that are improved and efficiency enhancing. (Nigel, 2006).The two generic sources of innovation in agriculture are informal system of experimentation and selection, and formal systems of research and development. These two systems are connected to national and international sector organisations. The bottom line is how to consider the two (2) approaches to innovations, i.e. central and multiple source models. The central source model emphasise on the theoretical and rhetoric concepts of formal agricultural research and extension institutions, where major technical, institutional and social innovations evolved from the syste matic work of international research centres. While the multiple sources of innovation model embrace natural and farmer selections, and considered agricultural research and diffusion processes within various political, economical, institutional and historical context through which technological changes occur. Thus, innovations evolved from various sources of farmers, international centres, extension staff, national research system and non-governmental organisations (Biggs, ). Information and communication technology is an example of private sector innovation of high priority. Agricultural extension/education considered ICT issues as the most important topics for quite a long time. (Poole, 2000) examined the conventional ICTs like radio and television as the most important means of establishing a strong link between the farmers and their respective market demands, which are their major area of interest. And the information gap among the farmers and other beneficiaries are bridged up through providing additional sources by the modern ICTs like satellite, computer, internet service providers and telephone systems. Both ICTs are used for addressing developmental issues and reducing poverty, and are adopted by target audience. Agricultural knowledge sharing created by information flow helps in developing different agricultural sectors. However, there is a significant difference in sharing of information between rural areas and agricultural knowledge centres. Accessibility of information by the targeted audiences are the responsibilities of some stakeholders and intermediary organisations(Stienen, 2007). In earlier and closely related observations by (Kenny, 2000)the accessibility of ICTs by rural people assist in devising a multi-dimensional approaches to technological uptake, poverty eradication and other related developmental issues. While (Skuse, 2001)argued that the use of ICT in addressing such issues, especially poverty eradication, depends to a greater extent on the desirable information content and infrastructural facilities. It is important to appreciate the earlier perceptions of (Chambers, 1997), that, individuals use of information and the reasons for using that information supercedes the infor mation context. He further emphasised that, in rural areas, priorities are attached to policy and decision makers than the end users. Rural areas are therefore deprived by appropriate information, which is important for initiating developmental activities. There is the need to bridge the gap in knowledge and solve some problems through information acquisition. In considering the roles of ICTs in adoption of innovation, it is absolutely necessary to examine the differences in the needs of the rural and urban people, and the benefits derived. ICT uses could be more inclined to rural areas, mainly because of the contributions they provide towards agricultural developments. The roles therefore, provided by ICT in rural areas towards improving their livelihoods are unparallel to other areas. The roles of ICT in adoption of innovation in Nigeria is related to provision of agricultural support services, improving market efficiency and weather forecast, through the use of internet and Global Service Mobile (GSM) phones, which improve farmers production potentials successfully, and reduces social isolation(Pickernell, 2004). Modern ICTs like internet, computer and mobile phones that improves rural banking systems and accessibility to credit facilities were encouraged and approved in Nigeria by the World Summit Information Society (WSIS), 2003 2005 as tools for developing rural communities (Stienen et al., 2007). The applications of ICT in Nigeria are considered vital for revolutionary role in diversification of scientific and indigenous technology. ICT abridged the gap created by geographical and cultural barriers, which are detrimental to agricultural production. Thus, information are shared effectively in post harvest technology, databases, market prices and other related information for immediate and future use, which is achieved by internet, email and world wide web to facilitate communication (Obayelu, 2010). The roles of ICT in adoption of innovation are suppose to first be considered from the integrated point of view, before addressing the roles of individual ICTs. This is particularly important due to the differences in the socio-economic status of the rural people, and the need for encouraging the participatory action community approach, which is user-driven in nature. It is important however, to appreciate the uses of combination of conventional and modern ICTs in adoption processes. To this effect, therefore, the benefits derived from the Telecentres in Nigeria and other developing countries towards exposing the rural people to more diversified ICTs need to be discussed. Kiplang at 2001, defined Telecentre as community-based centre that accommodate ICTs, including fax, telephone, computer based system with internet connection and photocopying. A few telecentres provide additional services such as postal facilities, selling of telephone cards, newspaper and refreshment. The main objectives of establishing telecentres in the rural areas is to eradicate poverty and capacity building among the rural people. Telecentres are used for sharing knowledge among the rural people. It expose the farmers to various agricultural technologies and makes them to adopt the most desirable innovation. Telecentres are widely used in Africa and other developing countries. According to Synman, 2002, South Africa established fifty-six (56) telecentres in the year, 2002 out of the projected one hundred (100) through Universal Service Agency. The average visiting clients were 140 per day, and the clients are from different areas of community-based services, like agricultural extension workers, farmers, teachers and students and health workers. Telecentres are widespread in Uganda, Senegal and Kenya, owned by Governmental and Non-governmental organisations. While some are managed by agricultural research institute, like Ugunja Communication Research Centres in Kenya (Oguya, 2001). Oke-Ogun community development network (OCDN), located in Oyo-State -Nigeria and Fantsuan Foundation ICT in North-Central are two telecentres established in the years, 2003 and 2000 respectively, by the people of those communities, provided only four (40) computers to Ago-Are town, mainly used for training rural people, without telephone services. With the intervention of Pam Mclean from the United Kingdom, internet service provider was installed through internet connection in 2004. Information about agricultural innovations becomes readily available to the farmers in the area. Pam Mclean and Carole utilised the centres, with extensive web site on solar cooking information, which is rich information source, and introduced solar cooking video project which was widely adopted in the area. Participatory action research approach was the research method used. The technology is particularly relevant in minimising deforestation and other environmental problems caused by mining, and excessiv e farming activities on forested lands in Nigeria (Carole, 2005). As earlier emphasised, agricultural information in Nigeria and other developing countries are targeted to rural areas where the farmers lives, so that, their social and economic conditions are favourably improved. To achieve this, Emerald Publishing Group of the United Kingdom established a broad band service knowledge centre in Nigeria in Ihala village of Anambra State, which had a projected population of 20,000 people. The project took up in 2007 mainly for exchange of agricultural ideas among the farmers, aided by volunteer students. Computers with internet services and customised website were installed and monitored. Social interactions, mutual exchange of ideas and information retrieval were enhanced in the village. The project was successful, with up to 61% of the participants utilising the knowledge centre website for socialisation and discussions with farmers. Participatory community approach was effectively used(Ha, 2008). The serious problem facing all the telecentres in Nigeria is poor electricity supply and lack of stability in internet services. This problem is particularly not only in the rural areas, but in the urban counterparts. The unreliable internet connection reduces the efficiency of such telecentres, especially when users are eagerly anticipating urgent response to the ways of combating a disease/pest infestation and immediate call for directions of use for newly introduced package. Farmers in Nigeria have different backgrounds, speak various languages. Standardised ICT usage cannot be applicable to all of them. The variation in the language of communication, coupled with low understanding of English, inhibits effective utilisation of ICTs. It is therefore, recommended that, software translators should be developed for proper ICT use. Linkages of such centre with universities and research institutions are not highly intensified. Only one of the available telecentre in Nigeria (OCDN) is linked through ICT with International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the university of Ibadan for certain project implementations. Combining socialisation and research activities in the same spot, makes the people to inclined more to social related activities than research. Radio is still the frequently used ICTs for adoption of innovation in Nigeria. This can be attributed to its availability than any other conventional or modern ICTs. Various adoption of innovation were successful in Nigeria through the use of radio. Combination of radio, posters, video and global system mobile (GSM) were used, with core extension programs for extending Purdue Improved Cowpea Storage (PICS) technology in Nigeria and other West African countries. The project realised that, accessibility of the rural people in Nigeria to television was very low, mainly due to inadequate supply of electricity. Radio messages were used during various events of sensitisation, demonstration, follow-up and open the bag. There was a great difference in the adoption rates between villages with and without PICS radio messages. Thus, radio messages had significantly influenced the adoption of PICS sacks in Kano and other Northern states of Nigeria (Moussa, 2009). Posters were also distributed to various stakeholders that are involved in the adoption of PICS technology, which revealed the various stages that can be used for optimal utilisation of PICS technology . A video sketch on the use of the technology in the languages that are easily comprehended by rural people in Nigeria, Niger and Burkina Faso (Hausa and French ) were transferred to the GSM phones through Bluetooth to augment the demonstrations performed in various villages. The use of GSM phones was due to the realisation of the project of the expanded use of those phones in rural areas of Nigeria and other African countries (Moussa, 2009). Integrated ICTs (Radio, posters, video and mobile phones) were used in this project and tremendously increased the rate of adoption of this technology (PICS), thereby increase in the income level of the adopters, when sold the cowpea during lean period, and more importantly improved the health conditions of the people. Radio is the most persistently used conventional/traditional communication medium that is capable of transmitting various information to different set of people(FAO., 2004). According to (Chapman, 2003), radio has the capabilities of reaching farmers, regardless of their educational status and provide relevant information in the language they can understand. They emphasised that, radio is the cheapest means of providing information with exceptional power of linking the modern and conventional technologies for improving the livelihoods of the rural people. (Okwu, 2007) argued that, radio is the most widely appropriate medium used by all research and extension systems to extend messages to rural people, with little intellectualism to reach the remote places that could not be reach by the extension workers. The sensitive assessment of great impact of radio in Nigeria is related to the findings of Iro, 2006 that, radio is the most preferred means of educating pastoral Fulani, which they found portable, even when herding. The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) utilises radio and television to introduce educational and enlighten programmes to Fulani. Educational status of Fulani is still low, despite the programmes aired for educating them, the enrolment pattern of their children in Nomadic schools is very low when compared with children of farmers in the same schools. The possible explanation to this is the nature of their movements from one place to another, which could affect the reception of the radio in some areas. It can also be attributed to lack of clear information about the time when the programmes are to be broadcasted and the content of the language. With all little things taken care of, and increasing level of awareness, educational and enlighten programmes would reduce the Fulani/farmer conflict that is persistently affect agricultural production in Nigeria. However, with all the benefits of radio as conventional ICT in Nigeria, the current status of telecommunication system after the sector has been reformed, is the emergence of many private radio stations. Those radio stations are profit-oriented, attached exorbitant charges to programmes sponsored by Non-governmental organisations, with little or no consideration to agricultural related programmes. While the public radio stations are producer-driven, inclined more to programmes that are satisfying the interest of the government. Television and Video: Are important communication tools, ideals for demonstration of various techniques for easily understanding. They have an additional value of displaying motion pictures, essential for teaching and learning processes. Many farmers are reached and stimulated about the new ideas(Ifran, 2006). When appropriately used, it is a source of reliable information, but most people considered it more as entertainment tools (Kari, 2007). According to (Omotayo, 2005), video has the potentials of using undistorted messages to reach large number of farmers, since it doesnt depend on any reception/coverage patterns. Video could be use to inspire individuals to involve in various planning and implementation stages of agricultural activities. It allows farmers and extension agents to edit and document important events like agricultural shows. Telephone: There was remarkable increased in telephone lines in Nigeria when GSM was introduced in 2001. GSM lines were then 450,000, raised to over 38 million lines in 2007. The teledensity increased accordingly from 0.4 to 24 g/cm3 (Adeyinka, 2009). Telephones are available in either fixed or mobile form. Telephones are the rapidly spread ICT that cover large area in exchange of messages across various agricultural components of farmers, research and extension. According to (Shaibu, 2008) telephones are used by famers to access the agricultural markets conveniently. This helps in having knowledge about real situations in various markets, so as to enhance market efficiency and consistency. It can be integrated with computer for internet connectivity. Telephones are used by farmers to seek for immediate attention of extension agents during disease outbreak or other consultations which are prevented by geographical barriers. Nomadic Fulani are relating efficiently with veterinary assistants through mobile phones as long as there are network coverage. Computers : For agricultural information to be sufficient through web technology, established connection is needed between computers and internet service providers. Such connection is useful for generation, compilation, dissemination and exchange of agricultural information (Zaman, 2002). Internet is therefore used by farmers to realise appropriate agricultural information that can be useful to adopt and utilise various innovations.(Munyau, 2000) explained that, world wide web (www) is used as important tool for creating awareness and providing agricultural information to farmers, while email services complements the www function , through establishing interactive linkages and effective feedback mechanism. High cost of computer hard and soft wares and lack of computer literacy prevent rural people from using computer and other internet services effectively in evaluating relevant information about current technological advancements. THE WAYS ICT HELP RESEARCH AND EXTENSION IN OVERCOMING THE CONSTRAINTS OF ADOPTION OF INNOVATION IN NIGERIA: The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has divided its agricultural research institutes into five (5) agro-ecological zones, and these zones are liable for effective linkages between research and extension components. There are various senders and receivers of agricultural innovations and ideas that are involved in the communication of agricultural technologies to rural communities. Such communication sources are considered obnoxious when sent to the farmers at a later stage of agricultural production (Obayelu, 2010). There are eighteen (18) agricultural research centres in Nigeria that are solely responsible for improving the local crop varieties and developing new ones that are conducive to the existing farming situations, like rice, sugarcane, cassava, banana, soyabean to mentioned but a few.(Faturoti, 2006). Research and extension components have distinctive functions in agricultural development. The research component is responsible for providing science-based innovations, which is significant for creating the much needed change to agricultural productivity. While the extension components conveyed the innovations to the farmers for adoption, and in turn communicate the results, expectations and problems of the farmers to research component. For the roles of these components to be effective, there should be well coordinated linkage between them, which will enable each component to realise its potentials. In an effort to develop and strengthen these linkages, the FGN established various systems, like On-Farm Adaptive Research (OFAR), Farming System Research (FSR), Small Plot Adoption Techniques (SPAT) and Research- Extension Farmer- Input Linkage system (REFILS). Although, the systems are relevant in providing much needed interaction, the FGN failed to support the linkages financially. There is the need to provide effective means with less cost and highly satisfactory result. This could only be achieved through integrating ICT for reinforcing the linkages (Lawal-Adebowale, 2008). The roles of ICT in augmenting the services of agricultural research are considered significant in adoption of innovation. This can be achieved through ways in which the results of some findings generated by research institutions can be extended to farmers, which is associated with changing agricultural information systems, such that the information about new agricultural innovations can be assessed by farmers through the web-based information systems. This helps in providing access to relevant publications directly. Efficiency of agricultural research could be enhanced by making soft wares that are related to agriculture more readily available. Accessibility of research soft ware is highly intensified in International Agricultural Research Centres. It is particularly important to involve various stakeholders, so that high interactive sessions for improving information generation and utilisation among farmers can be achieved successfully. Agricultural development and improving the quality of peoples life in Nigeria and other developing countries depends to a greater extent on the viability of the nations agricultural research and extension systems (NARES). Investment in NAREs, by the FGN becomes necessary for achieving the much needed progress in agricultural development. World Bank provides sufficient loans to Nigerias agriculture, specifically to Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) and research institutions for effective performance. Nigerian Agricultural extension system passed through various stages of development from commodity focus to professional services which have vision for farmers production potentials. ADPs are available in all States, still the most dignified extension service delivery in Nigeria, involving Local Government staff for carrying out various tasks. REFILS provides the desirable linkages for various stakeholders to interact in generating appropriate technology, assigning responsibilities to the actors involved and strategise the effectiveness of the modified training and visit extension system. Farmers and private sector involvement is still low in technological development and planning of the programme, with strengthen linkage mechanism. NARES and private sector (commercial and NGOs) provides specialised roles in the linkages, while the former is responsible for technological development, the later is engaged in the provision of essential inputs and supply services of credit and marketing. The major partners in REFILS are the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS) of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and the project coordinating unit (PCU). Non-Governmental organisations i.e. profit and non-profit oriented, joined extension services in Nigeria. The non profit oriented are providing extension services in a participatory inclined approach and weak linkages to NARS and public extension services. (NAERLS., 2002) ascertained that, in Nigeria, extension agents are the most effective means through which farmers have information about innovation. Until the intervention of State-wide ADP in 1980, the ratio of extension agent to farmer was 1: 2000, sometimes 1: 3000. They further realised that, the ratio ranges from 1: 848 in South Western zone to 1: 1,650 in North Western zone, with more wider range when it involves women extension agents. The ratio failed to meet the recommendation of FAO of 1:500. This therefore calls of integrating ICTs for cost effective and wider coverage of extension services that can complement the existing usage of ICTs in research and extension to overcome the problems of adoption of innovation. The inclusion of modern ICTs to complement the existing conventional ICTs becomes imperative for making the farmers more knowledgeable about the current agricultural practices for increased in productivity. According to (Arokoyo, 2002), the roles of ICT in research and extension is traced after the establishment of ADP as World Bank assisted project. The strategy utilised the T V extension services in developing effective communication system. It was achieved through the use of mobile cinema vans, moving from one rural area to another, with extension publications that are printed in the languages easily understood by the people. Successful implementation of which led to additional ICTs like radio, video and television in the mobile vans, when the bank increased the assistance. ADPs in various states extends its extension messages through radio and television programmes. National Agricultural Technology Support Project (NATSP) was established by ADP, as one of its second developmental phase in 1996, with Development Support Commission (DSC) units, which increased the viewing facilities. Through NATSP, more radio listening clubs were formed. (NAERLS., 2002) examined that, in the year, 2002, 70% of the states ADPs utilised one or more radio programs to broadcast agricultural information to farmers in their local languages that enhance proper understanding. The findings further revealed that, more than 48% of the ADPs broadcasts are relevant agricultural programmes in the television. The CTA-supported Questions and Answers service in Nigeria used by NAERLS and nine (9) collaborative institution popularly known as Nigerian Question and Answer Service (NAQAS) has revolutionalised the ICT in research and extension. Users of NAQAS are provided with information required through references, factional information referral and advisory services. In a similar development, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in partnership with International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Communication for Change (CFC), NAERLS and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, established the Information and Communication Support (ICS) for agricultural growth in Nigeria, with aim of strengthen capacity of farmer assistance organisations to package and disseminate information to farmers, thus, enhancing information flow(Ogunyinka, 2002). The project was started in eight ADPs states. (Ogunyinka, 2002) emphasised that, the networking in the project involves all the stakeholders and farmer association. The major activity of ICS is establishment of farmer resource centre in each of the eight states. The centres are supposed to have and utilised the following ICTs; Radio and Television, Camera and Video, Computer with internet facilities, Telephone and Fax, Scanner, Photocopier and Printer, Cassette recorder/player, Generator and Lamination and Spiral binding machine. The NAQAS and ICS are established to use ICTs in improve horizontal exchange of ideas among the farmers, thus improving extension services. The information flow focus on the end-users (user-driven), in order to satisfy their needs. Establishing integrated ICTs like NAQAS, ICS and other telecentres are exceptionally significant towards providing a relevant and reliable information to the farmers living in rural areas. It is important to note that, any sustainable information development that entails using modern and conventional ICTs that is not encouraging a strong linkage between research/extension and the farmers should not have a significant impact in agricultural development. In Nigeria, the linkages between extension and farmers is highly intensified, while that, between research and farmers is relatively weak. This can be attributed to the low level of literacy for assessing information easily, on part of the farmers and weak contacts to the farmers, depending on extension component to disseminate information and more emphasis on the managerial activities. The constraints the NAQAS and ICS may likely face is the domination of accessibility of such centres by researchers and other literate individuals in t he communities. The centres are supposed to provide intensive trainings to farmers for proper utilisation of the resources. The sustainability of this and other related projects that are funded by international organisations, tend to terminates if such funding terminates. The Local, State and Federal Governments are expected to consistently monitor and evaluate the activities of such centres for achieving the desired objectives. The status of ICT in agricultural research and extension organisations in South Western Nigeria was assessed by Lawal-A., 2008, analysed that, all the eight agricultural research institutes and six extension organisations except, Osun State ADP, had computers, internet facilities and telephone system. Telex/fax machines were available in four research institutes, and two extension organisations. The result however, shows that, the ICTs were only found in some offices at the headquarters. The research and extension personnel with whom the field works are assigned have little access to such facilities. Adequate ICT infrastructure is necessary for agricultural development and the effect of such development could not be felt with the marginal improvement in ICTs infrastructural facilities (Institute., 2005). Kano State ADP is currently using mobile telephones to call for meetings, workshops and other important information to farmer groups. More than 12,000 farmer groups were formed, each group comprises of 25 members. Focus group discussion and use of existing traditional groups were the techniques used in forming the groups. Each group has a leader possessing a functional mobile phone through which the head of extension unit of the ADP contact them for important messages that deserve immediate attention. Thus, the use of mobile phones facilitates communication and established reliable linkages between the extension and rural farmers. From the discussions, it was observed that, research and extension in Nigeria are currently using integrated ICTs in motivating farmers to adopt various innovations. However, the use of effective individual ICTs are relevant for extending messages to fa

The Definition of Love :: Definition Essays Love Godly Romantic Essays

The Definition of Love Love by definition is an emotion explored in philosophy, religion, and literature, often as either romantic love, the fraternal love of others, or the love of God based on the definition found in The Encarta Encyclopedia. As I explored the definition by means of the Internet, books, and articles I noticed the definitions changed quite a bit, but yet had the same basic understanding. The definition I found in The Encarta Encyclopedia was probably the most simple and most basic. It refers to love in the whole aspect, which is Godly, fraternal, and romantic. All in which can only be defined by one word and that it love. The definitions of love are the same and yet different. Godly, for instance is the love of God, and your devotion and respect toward him, the creator. In all religion, god carries the same aspect. Fraternal love is the love of ones family and relatives, even the love of one who is close to you, in that respect, such as a friend. Then there’s romantic love; a love between two people, which I consider to be both intimate and sexual. Older dictionaries and encyclopedias usually refer to the romantic aspect of love, as the love in which is experience between man and woman. In today’s society it is said that romantic love can be found regardless of your gender and based on that definition I would have to agree, but personally disagree for the simply reason that we were physically made to adapt with the other gender sexually. Feeling romantic love for the same sex would defeats the purpose of our existents, which is procreation. Thus making love for the same sex unjust.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Love has been expressed since the beginning of time; since Adam and Eve. Each culture expresses its love in its own special way. Though out history, though, it’s aspect has always been the same. Love has been a major characteristic of literature also. One of the most famous works in literary history is, Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. This story deals with the love of a man and a woman who’s families have been sworn enemies. There love surpassed the hatred in which the families endured for generations. In the end they both ended up killing their selves, for one could not live without the other. This story is a perfect example of true love.

Psychological Research Report on Memory Essay -- essays research paper

ABSTRACT How is memory encoded and what methods can lead to greater recall? There have been many different models suggested for human memory and many different attempts at defining a specific method of encoding that will lead to greater recall. In this experiment subjects are asked to do a semantic task on a word related to them and an orthographic task in which they analyze the letter in the word. The results of the experiment indicate that the words which where encoded semantically and are related to the self have greater recall. INTRODUCTION In the last half century several theories have emerged with regard to the best model for human memory. In each of these models there was a specific way to help people recall words and images. The first model of memory is the short term and long term memory. In this model information is temporarily stored in the short term memory. Over here it is easily and quickly recalled and it can stay in short term memory and be recalled if the person rehearses it. When information leaves short term memory it goes into long term memory. While long term memory has a much larger storage capacity it is harder to recall items from long term memory. It has been proposed that items from long term memory are recalled by having large part of it placed in short term memory where it is examined to see if it has the necessary piece of information. If it doesn’t then either the person gives up on recalling it or takes another large set of information from long-term memory to examine. (Atkinso n & Sciffrin 1971). However this multi-store view of memory has not provided a strong enough explanation for scientists. Another theoretical view of memory is the idea that memory is based on depth of proce... ...nitially rehearsed by recognition could have greater recall. An example would if this experiment asked subjects to again find a letter in a word if the word appeared before. It has also been shown in this experiment that words that are related to oneself can lead to greater recall. However this experiment has not tested whether words related to oneself have a greater recall then other words that are encoded semantically since the other grouping of words were not semantically encoded. REFERENCES Atkinson, R.C. & Schifrin, R.M. (1971) The control of short-term memory. Scientific American, 225, 85-90. Zachmeister, E.B. & Nyberg, S.E. (1982) Levels of Processing. Human Memory, Ch.12, 250-273 Klein, Stanley B. & Kihlstrom, Jhon F. (1986) Elaboration Organization and the Self-Reference effect in Memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology 115, 26-38

Fast food and health promotion Essay

Abstract Healthy eating is a major concern of the public and has been under-researched for decades. A successful healthy eating campaign can help to raise awareness and in the long run, prevent and minimize long-term diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer. This can also reduce the burden on the National Health Service. For all of these reasons, this dissertation aims to determine what people eat, why they choose to eat the way they do and whether they feel the Government has done enough to promote healthy eating. Initially, this study examines the trends of contemporary food culture by sociologists and the marketing powers of promotion to increase student awareness on healthy eating. A discussion on Government policies indicates the efficacy of the Government to reach students with their healthy eating promotion in this country. This study uses qualitative research methods to determine the awareness of the students, on healthy eating and their opinions on the Government’s attempt to promote a healthy nation. Based on the data gathered in this research, an evaluation was made on whether healthy eating promotion is effective in today’s student society. In this study, student choices of food were shown to be primarily affected by price, taste and peer pressure. This is in contrast with the available literature which suggests that social class, culture, the food industries and Government campaigns are the main influences on people’s eating habits. Introduction This dissertation aims to understand how food is promoted and consumed by the public. Our choices of food are affected by many factors such as our social class, our culture, and the media and Government campaigns. Over the past thirty years a surge of interest has arisen and an increase in the consumption of fast food. However, more recently health concerns regarding fast food consumption has surfaced. Sociologists often seek explanations for human behavior and try to link this with the environment in which they live in. Similarly, sociologists such as Alan Warde have examined contemporary food culture and suggested reasons that influence people’s choice. Initially, changes in food consumption patterns and healthy eating promotions from different dimensions were examined. The  © 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 1 dissertation then describes the interviews that were conducted with regards to healthy eating. Some key findings were revealed to support the sociological theories. Finally, the discussion sums up and reflects the findings in relation to these theories and see if there is any correlation between the two. This research was undertaken at a University and based on ten one-to-one interviews. It is important to examine whether we are eating healthily. Food is the basic necessity in life humans consume daily. In this dissertation I want to explore student’s knowledge on healthy eating and whether the Government is doing enough to promote a healthier nation. Sociological Promotion. Perspectives on Food Consumption and Healthy Eating Current Trends in Food Consumption Food consumption relates to the substances that are taken in to produce energy, stimulate growth and maintain life. It consists of essential body nutrients, such as carbohydrates, proteins, fats and vitamins or minerals. Healthy food is considered to be highly beneficial to health, especially a food grown organically or free of additives. Food consumption has tilted towards fast food culture over the past few decades due to its price, convenience and the shortage of eating time. In this section, general consumption trends will be studied and the change of consumer culture over time will be discussed. Sociologists like Bourdieu and Bauman have written literature and devised their own theories on the consumption of food. Many of them believe that this is a structureagency debate. In other words, how social structure shapes our actions and how we, in turn, shape the social structure (Germov, 1999:302). One of the examples given by Pierre Bourdieu is that the way we consume food reflected our social class and background (Warde, 1997:9). He argued that consumption is based upon cultural upbringing and is therefore socially embedded. Bauman, on the other hand, saw consumption as â€Å"less restricted† rather than another part of life (Warde, 1997:10). In reality, Bauman claimed that there is a small role for choices, for example, we cannot choose to be born into which family, but within consumption, we have more power to alter our choices. Bauman believed that individuals are thought to gradually detach themselves from the social regulations and create their own personal identity by making their own choices. These two theories differ in relation to social environment and habits, to freedom of choice on the consumption of food. Bourdieu’s theory is more commonly practiced in modern society as different social classes dominate our choice of food. The working class tends to eat food which has a â€Å"high amount of animal fat†, compared with the middle and upper classes (Mennell, 1992:54). Besides, people from poorer backgrounds may understand that fresh food is healthier; however, they could not afford to travel further to purchase fresh food (Whelan, 2002: 2083). Therefore they tended to purchase cheap quality food with a high fat content, from nearby shops.  © 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 2 There have been rapid changes in food consumption over the past few decades. Alan Warde, in his book, Consumption, Food & Taste suggested four theses for the changes in eating habits. Firstly, people have more freedom on the choice of food, but are uncertain of what to eat. In modern society, we have a wider range of food available to us. As technology is constantly improving, we are no longer restricted by the seasons and harvests, which had affected people previously (Beardworth, 2000:33). However, Claude Fischler saw this as an â€Å"omnivore’s paradox† (Warde, 1997:30). Human beings want a variety to choose from; however, they feel anxious and unsure about trying new foodstuffs. This can be further explained by the changing concept of food poverty. In the past, food poverty was referred to as â€Å"lack of food, under- nutrition† (Adams, 2000:48). In the contemporary society, food poverty means â€Å"overabundance of processed foods, lack of balance diet† (Adams, 2000:48). Before, we experienced under nutrition, and now, we suffer from an unbalanced diet. Although we may have more food than before, we do not know what to choose. This reflects the lack of education in healthy eating. The second thesis suggested that in a mass producing society, people would consume similar products and gradually lose their identities. Individual producers tend to dominate particular industrial markets, for example big brands like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola target customers en mass. Mass food production can be explained by ‘McDonaldisation’, where customers experience the â€Å"same look, same service, same products and same taste† (Germov, 1999:12). This thesis is supported by a report by the Financial Times Exporter in 1995 (Adams, 2002:47). In the report, sixty-five percent of people in China recognized the brand name Coca Cola and nearly half of the people knew big brands like Pepsi. This concluded that large corporations ‘mould’ our taste and have great control over our choice of food. One may argue that supermarkets bring a wider selection to people. In fact, some of the varieties are created by developing alternative forms of packaging and storing methods, such as canned fish, frozen fish and fresh fish (Warde, 1997:167). Therefore, we will enjoy many versions of the same products. In a broader view of the food industry, the five largest supermarkets in the UK, dominates seventy percent of the grocery market. (Adams, 2002:47) This large market share led to the closure of many local stores. Single mothers or elderly people who live in rural areas will suffer a further limitation of food due to the restriction on mobility and financial support (Whelan, 2002:2083). Since mass production has moulded our tastes and choices, consumers start losing their personal taste and identities. To react against this passive consuming pattern, people are driven towards the post-Fordist view on consumption, which is the main focus of the third thesis. In the post-Fordist world, all commodities are expected to be more consumer-orientated. As the consumer’s expenditure increases, they expect the quality of food to be higher. People require greater differentiation of the commodities in different markets. For example, McDonalds serves a different menu across the world to accommodate differing cultures with distinct tastes. This is illustrated by McDonald franchises in Germany, whom also serve beer as refreshment. Customers hope to buy food that serves their interests and their local traditions. Businesses increase their profits and the consuming power; by produce the right products for the targeted consumers. A more suitable product for the customers, equates to more purchases which in turn equates to more income.  © 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 3. The final thesis describes the persistence of social differentiation. Warde uses Bourdieu’s theory to prove that food consumption is a â€Å"means of expressing ‘distinction’† and has social meanings behind it. For example, class differences play a role in dictating eating habits. In this way, food consumption has more social meanings than a consume-to-survive model. In comparing the eating behaviour of manual workers and white collar workers, Bourdieu observed that clerical staff paid more attention to body maintenance and slimness whilst manual workers, paid limited attention to their waistline. This observation is seen in France. In Britain, Warde suggested that class distinction in relation to food has been more obvious in recent decades. Finkelstein supports this idea by saying that â€Å"dinning out is an expression of individuality, choice, spontaneity and that we select restaurants for food and price in ways which demonstrate our discrimination and what we value and desire† (Beardsworth, 1997:119). The interest of the media, increasing eating-out habits and foreign cuisines are becoming more common, food consumption has made a significant distinction between classes. There is a clear line between the richer and the poorer, and who can afford to taste different types of food. These theses have helped us to understand the reasons behind changes in food consumption. Fast food outlets are one of the popular choices for dinning out and have had a big impact on our food consumption. In the following paragraph, the significant effects that fast food has on our choices of diet will be examined. A Fast Food Nation? Fast food culture has penetrated into our lives and influenced our eating habits. The fast food industry grew fast in the 1990s. In 1991, fast food had reached nineteen percent of the global consumer catering market (Tansey, 1995: 133). From 1992 to 2003, expenditure spent on eating and drinking outside home has increased by 89. 9 per cent. (Website 1) These food shops provide roast chicken, pizza, etc. However, there is a limited choice of food and most of them have a high fat content (Millstein, 1993: 220). Excessive consumption predisposes individuals to a great deal of health problems in later life. Foods high in fats can cause high blood pressures, cancer, atherosclerosis and heart disease. In recent years, the increase in consciousness of healthy eating has forced the fast food chains to change their menu in order to survive. For example, McDonalds now offers a new menu which includes green salad, carrot sticks and a fresh fruit pack. This was done in response to public concern about the nutritional values of its food, following the film â€Å"Supersize Me†. This programme follows Morgan Spurlock who lived on nothing but McDonalds for an entire month. Spurlock risked his health the sake of this project and it resulted in numerous visits to the doctor. (Website 2) Increasingly, fast food chains have started to advertise with the concept of â€Å"light or low fat† meals. As a customer, we are often misled by these statements and believe that the â€Å"low fat† meal is a healthier option. The Times Newspaper compared the fat content and the price of a standard burger with a chicken caesar salad. (Website 3) With regards to the price, the salad costs twenty nine pence more than a Big Mac. Data shows that a chicken salad with dressing and croutons contains 21. 4g of fat, whereas a standard burger only contains 7. 7g of fat. Even adding a portion of chips to the burger will result in a smaller amount of fat (16. 7g) than the salad. (Website 3) One may think that the salad dressing causes the high fat content of the salad; however, this is not true.  © 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 4 From the McDonalds website, a chicken caesar salad without a dressing still contains more fat than a burger. (Website 4) Another shocking data is the salt content of the crispy chicken ranch salad is more than half of the Government’s recommended daily allowance of 6g. (Website 4) Therefore, the salad which seems like a healthier option to the consumer is in fact more expensive and less healthy than a burger. Other than fast food chains, consumers can purchase fast food from the supermarkets. Ready meals, frozen or canned food can be categorized as fast food (Millstone, 2003: 94). With the invention of the microwave, ready meal culture has been further developed. There was a rapid increase in the sale of microwaves from five million in 1981 to seventy million in 2000 (Milldstone, 2003: 94). Microwaves enable food to be ready within minutes whereas it may take at least half an hour to cook a meal using the oven. In 1997, an Australian newspaper demonstrated how different social classes chose different fast foods (Germov, 1999: 137). Wealthier and well educated people believed that choosing takeaway foods such as Thai and Japanese are higher in nutrition (Germov, 1999: 137). On the other hand, people in the lower socioeconomic state tended to consume food with a high fat and salt content, for example, pizzas and burgers. Therefore, we could find â€Å"nutritional underclass† with distinct eating patterns (Germov, 1999: 137). Nutritional underclass refers to the difficulty of lower socioeconomic groups in making choices about food and diet. This is turn leads to a poor nutritional intake. By comparing different consumption patterns of takeaway food between people in different classes, two features have been developed. Firstly, fast food is consumed and well developed in all classes but wealthier people tend to have more choices available to them. Besides, most fast food does not provide the consumer with balanced nutritional values that we need from a meal. That is a reason why the public label fast food as unhealthy food. Our food consumption patterns are affected by different media in our society. These are a powerful way of educating the public with the knowledge of what is healthy to eat and how to eat healthy. The following paragraphs examine the effectiveness of the healthy eating promotions. Health Promotion (By Government, Media, Food Industries). Different groups have tried to promote healthy eating in their own distinct ways. Several groups take control over our choices of food and actively promote healthy eating. These include: the Government departments, the food industries and the media. The progress and the effectiveness of the healthy eating promotion campaigns within these sectors will now be examined. The Governments the dominant enforcement body has introduced many healthy eating promotion initiatives to push the nation to eat more healthily. Its aim is to enforce regulations on food production in a bid to prevent illness (Mennell, 1992:40), so as to reduce the costs and burden on National Health Service. The Government has come a long way on the healthy eating campaign. The emergence that some of  © 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 5 our diets are responsible for certain diseases such as cancer, new food policies were created to improve and promote healthy eating (Baggott 2000,168). From the early 1970s onwards, the Government became more aware of the public’s diet and set up several organizations such as the Committee on the Medical Aspects of Food and Policy (COMA), the National Advisory Committee on Nutrition Education (NACNE) and the Joint Advisory Committee on Nutrition Education. (Baggott, 2000:136) Their mission was to provide nutritional advice to the public and promote healthy eating. (Beardsworth, 2000:136) However, the Government departments’ interference with the work of these organisations resulted in little success being achieved (Baggott 2000:170). With the increasing public interest in health and food safety in the 1990s, the Labour Government introduced tougher policies on food and health when they came to power in 1997 (Baggott, 2000:175). The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has been authorized a new set of powers to give nutrition guidelines and labelling advice. The FSA recommended six grams of salt per day and wanted to introduce the â€Å"colourcoded system† on ready-made foods, so customers could identify the fat, salt and sugar content of the food by the labels. The FSA believes that specific seasoning contained within the food, will determine whether it is healthy or not. Food with a low salt, fat and sugar content is considered to be healthy by the FSA. (Website 5) The colour-coded system will show consistency for all food packaging; therefore, it is easier for everyone, including children, to recognize the foods which are considered to be healthy and also reduces any confusion. In February 2004, the National Health Service (NHS) published a free booklet called â€Å"Five a Day Made Easy† to promote a healthier lifestyle. (Website 1) It believes that eating five portions of fruit or vegetable per day, is eating healthily. Therefore, the Government considers fruit and vegetables as the key element of healthy food. In November 2004, the FSA put forward the ‘traffic light labels’ to the Public Health White Paper. (Website 7) However, there are a lot of pressures around this recommendation. The food and farming industries were worried that full labelling indicating the fat, sugar and salt content will increase their cost and cause restriction on their marketing strategies. (Baggott 2000:171) Moreover, the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) who is the largest representative of the food and drink manufacturing companies pointed out that the ‘traffic light labels’ are too â€Å"simplistic, subjective and potentially misleading†. (Website 8) Rather than help consumers fit the labelled food into a balanced diet, it is likely that they will simply view the food as good or dismiss it as bad. There are pressures that prohibit the Government from implying more regulation on food labels. Since the closure of food industries do not simply lead to less food choices, but also a great deal of job losses and plunging of the economy, the Government is required to think carefully about the implications of new regulations and whether the new comprehensive food label would working on not. The media also plays an important role in promoting healthy eating concepts. The term media refers to television, radio, poster advertisements, and newspaper and magazine articles. With the media’s wide spread of power, the issues they brought up helped to give information on diets quickly. However, it is debatable whether all the media are impartial and helpful in improving our diets. Since most of the media  © 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 6 relied on the advertising revenues to survive, concerns are made to the effect of their advertisers (Tansey, 1995:183). In the advertising aspect, American children watch 20,000 commercials a year where at least 10,000 of them are food products. (Millstein 1993:219) In Britain, food industries have spent forty billion every year on advertising (Millstone, 2003: 98). Food advertisements are wide spread on television, magazines, radio, internet and posters on the street. Most of the advertised products are branded and processed. More importantly, compared with the perishable food, they are high in sugars, refined starches, fats and added salt (Millstone, 2003:98). These advertisements persuade consumers to buy more. Food products such as chocolates and crisps are promoted to the teenage market (Conner, 2002:120). Children consume the confectionaries between meal times which lead them to miss out their meals, consequently, not acquiring enough nutrition (Dobson, 1994:19). The effects of advertisements are powerful, but not always helping to promote healthy eating ideas. Media can be a direct tool to help the public understand the scientific reports and learn about food safety and what is healthy to eat. However, sometimes the headlines of the news reports are misleading and exaggerated. One of examples is the headline from New York Times â€Å"Low fat diet does not cut health risks†, where that heading is referring to a study of women aged fifty to seventy-nine years old with respect to breast cancer research (Newsweek, March 2006). People who do not read the details will presume that low fat diet is useless in maintaining health, whereas if you read the whole article one will find out that low fat diet does not reduce your risk of breast cancer. The media penetrates every household and although it might not always guide the public on healthy foods, they are definitely helping to shape the future food consumption patterns. Food industries and the retailers produce and sell the food. Food industries promote their products in a healthy manner only because of the market’s need. The major concern of a food business is to make profit. There is a limit on how much a person can eat and consume, therefore the overall demand for food will not increase much. However, the food industries can further expand their market and make more profit by adding value to fresh food and turning them into commodity goods such as canned food, frozen food etc (Warde, 1997:191). Food processors have a set of ingredients to ‘add-value’, they are sugar, starch, fat and flavourings (Tansey, 1995:111). Consequently, processed food is not as healthy as raw food. In order to fulfil the customers’ health desires, supermarkets use healthy eating as one of their promotional strategies. Tesco has improved their company image by initiating healthy eating and has launched food labels on its retail products (Murcott, 1998:119). Although its original aim was to increase profit, it did arouse people’s attentions to eat healthier. On one hand, the supermarkets are promoting healthy eating; on the other hand, they develop all sort of processed food such as chilled and ready meals at the same time to exploit another market. Most supermarkets have developed their own branded products. This is to enlarge their market share rather than providing customers with a wider choice. One of the examples is chilled ready-meals where this kind of product was completely new in 1980s (Murcott, 1998:119). Marks and Spencer, as a pioneer, developed this market. By the 1990s, this market was worth over three hundred million pounds per annum  © 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 7 (Murcott, 1998:119). These ready-meals are one of the processed foods with added salt and sugar. With confusing food labels on the packaging, consumers can hardly calculate how much salt they consume. Since the central aim of food manufacturers and retailers are to make profit, their intention to promote healthy eating is not convincing enough. There is still a baffling question of what to eat is value for money and good for health (Jenkins, 1991: 54). Do We Have a Choice to Eat Healthy? Although we are responsible for looking after our own health, the public, private and voluntary sectors have directed our choice of food. Our choices of food are affected by social, cultural and political factors rather than individuals’ preference. Social factors included class, age, family backgrounds considerations. The direct social-economical restriction of our choice of food is the amount of money we have available to spend on food. Jenkins supports this idea by noting that â€Å"knowledge is a source of consumer power, but only when you have got money to spend† (Jenkins, 1991:72). Our choices of food are based on the amount of wealth. He pointed out that poorer people tended to pay more for food. This is not only due to the limitation of transport, but due to the amount of product they could afford to buy (Jenkins, 1991: 74). Small purchases are more expensive compare with bulk sales. Poor people suffer from the consequences of supermarket sale strategy. For example, the price for two packs of chicken thighs is 148 pence per pound, whilst the price for eight packs of chicken thighs is 135 pence per pound (Jenkins, 1991:73). Customers will get a better deal if they buy products in bulk. This illustrates that poor people know how to eat healthily, but they cannot afford to do so. Other than getting food that is not value for money, poor people suffer the fact that they know what is good for them but cannot afford to purchase it. For poor people, food expenditure is elastic and paying for other bills to maintain the living is more important (Murcott, 1998:177). Cutting the food budget is the most direct way to save money. Therefore, even though parents know that fresh juice is more nutritional than squash, they can do nothing about it. At the end of the day, even if the government has successfully promoted the healthy eating concept to the public, certain people still do not eat healthily due to the financial constraints. Different age groups have various food consumption patterns. The elderly prefer to stick with the traditional food for instance roast meat, whereas young people adopt new things such as rice or curries easily (Murcott, 1998:175). There is a rapid development of convenience food, but it does not necessarily mean that people in all age groups enjoy more choices to eat healthy. The elderly is an example that demonstrates a negative perception on fast food and ready-meals and they believe that home-cooked food is healthier. Therefore, a larger range of processed products do not mean a greater choice of food for everyone. Our eating habits are also constructed by the environment in which we grow up. Therefore, our families have a direct effect on our diet. A research was carried out in the early 1980s, on all major aspects of family food provision and consumption (Rodmell, 1986:73). This study found that the role of the housewife did not  © 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 8 automatically give you the power to make a decision of what to prepare for meals. Surprisingly, most housewives claimed that they would cook whatever their husbands liked, in order to please them. Some wives claimed that even though they did not like the unhealthy diets, they would still cook it for their husbands to reward them for a long working day. As a child, there was less choice; they had to eat what was given to them. As a result, our tastes of food are customized by the working men. Recently, with the increasing number of single parent households, where many of them are either unemployed or earn a small amount of money, the choice of food remains to the individuals who purchase food for the rest of the family. Cultural differences affect our choices of food and whether we know how to eat healthily with our ethnicity backgrounds and traditions. There is a diversity of health implications and how people define healthy choices among different cultures. People have their own traditions in choosing and cooking food. ‘One size fits all’ health education programmes do not fit all the ethnics. One of the examples is that in Chinese traditions, food is divided in to ‘yang’ (hot) and ‘yin’ (cold), where eating yang food when our body is in yin’s condition and vice versa (Germov, 1999:150). Therefore, the health professionals have to study the background of minority groups and teach them to eat healthily without spoiling their culture. To familiarise the ethnic minority groups with the nutrient value, specialists about particular cultures are required to educate the minority group with healthy eating knowledge. There have been a few changes in food labelling policy, but these regulations have never requested manufacturers to provide a comprehensive nutrition label. As a customer, we have the right to know what kind of ingredients are in the processed food that we are consuming. However, food industries remain powerful and can keep the customers in ignorance. The Health Education Authority performed a survey with regards to food labels in the early 1990s (Hea, 1996:19). In this survey, twenty five percent of the informants have never read the nutritional information on food packages. This shows that the food label is important in directing food choices, as three quarters of those questioned follow guidance from the nutritional advice. Therefore, providing a comprehensive label on food packaging is essential. In recent years, a great deal of new products has had dishonest slogans on them, such as â€Å"low fat†, â€Å"freshly squeezed†, and â€Å"no artificial additives† (Jenkins, 1991:43). For example, olestra is a type of oil used to produce ‘low fat’ products. However, it brings significant side effects such as abdominal cramps when we consume it in large amounts (Germov, 1999:303). As a customer, reading the food label is not sufficient to conclude whether a particular product is healthy or not, we have to under the meaning behind these â€Å"low fat† products. In a food market where food labels are not universal and some of the packaging is misleading, there is no way to ensure that the product we choose is healthy. Knowing what is healthy is not good enough for the contemporary food market, consumers also have to learn and understanding the meanings behind the food labels. Therefore, understanding how to eat healthily is important, but regulations on food labels are also essential.  © 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 9 Methodology. Research Aim There are a few aims for this research. This study aims to explore perceptions on the healthy eating concept and review the reasons behind people’s choice of food. Furthermore, it seeks to examine awareness of Government policies on healthy eating promotion. It is also important to examine the reliability of food labels and the popularity of fast food culture. Semi-structured Interviews. It is important to see if there is a correlation between the literatures in chapter one and the research I do, therefore, selecting an appropriate way to carry out this research is essential. Semi-structured interviews were held on a one-to-one basis where interviewees were given a few topics to discuss. This interview consisted of three main parts. Part A is concerned about the interviewees’ healthy eating concepts and their view of contemporary eating culture. By understanding how they defined a healthy diet, participants were asked to review their food consumption habits, restrictions on food shopping and their opinion on fast food culture. In the final of the interview, I enquired about their knowledge on Government policies and supermarket promotions on healthy eating. This research aimed to understand people’s view and opinion rather than to test their knowledge and numerical data. Therefore, it is more suitable to use a qualitative approach. Qualitative research helps to develop interviewees’ personal opinions and experiences for this research. The research is based on one-to-one semi structured interviews, which allows me to have more freedom in developing the interview and pursue further questions in response to the replies received (Bryman, 2004:543). Each interview lasted approximately an hour in order to allow interviewees to express themselves fully. In order not to interfere with the interview, I did not express my opinions on the topics. I guided the discussions with the same topic questions for everyone.

Costs and budgets

The management of costs is a very important aspect of managing financial resources. If costs are not managed effectively, it can lead to profits being damaged and the business potentially unable today its expense. Keeping within a budget, increasing income in order to cope with change and making sure that working capital is available and money and set aside for emergencies is all part of the balancing exercise. Costs managed to budget McDonald’s budget was adverse as there was a miscalculation and McDonalds managed to overspend. This is because the management team at McDonalds under budgeted on certain aspects like staffing, security and utility bills. Costs managed to budget there are two main types of costs: Fixed cost – these are costs that do not change regardless of the number of goods that sold or services that are offered. These costs include rent, insurance, salaries. Whatever McDonalds makes whether its 100 or 10,000 products, these cost must be paid. Variable cost – these are costs that change depending on McDonalds output. So if McDonalds makes a burger it will have varying requirements for amounts of bread, meat, fish, cheese and lettuce head will depend on how many burgers the make. Break –even point Businesses can use the calculations that they make of fixed costs, variable costs and sales to work out the point at which their costs equal their sales. This is known as a break-even, this is essential for McDonalds as this will work out how many products they need to produce and sell which will conclude them to know whether they are making a profit or a loss. To work out the break even you have to do a formula: BEP= Fixed Cost / Sales – Variable Costs per unit. This means that to work out break-even pint (BEP) you have to take fixed cost and divide it with the Unit contribution and take-away the variable cost per every unit. When McDonalds calculates their break-even point this would give them an understanding on how many products they need to sell before they can start to make a profit. There are two main costs that need to be managed to budget which are fixed costs and variable cost. Fixed costs are costs that do not change regardless of the number of merchandise that is sold or services that are offered. These costs are things such as rent, insurance and salaries. Regardless if the business is not making enough profit these costs have to be paid. Variable costs are the costs that change according to the output. These costs can change according to how many products are made for example MacDonald’s costs will depend on their product which is for example burgers. They will have varying requirements for the about of meat, burger buns, and so on how many burgers it makes. Budgeting is a very difficult process because it looks to give a guide to how much the business thinks it will spend in the future. Some businesses choose to use zero budgeting where the departments in a business are given no budget. But they have t ask the managers of their department for money based on what they think they will use in that year. The opposite of it is allocated budgeting this is when money is allocated for a budget and divided up into the amount of departments and the amount of people working there. The budget is normally set at the start of the financial year and the business must stick to its predictions. If the business is making more profit than they predicted that the outcome of that will be positive. Variance analysis is when a business measures the difference between what is budgeted and the actual costs or the sales revenue. If the result is better than expected than the budget is known as favourable but if the sales are lower than expected than the budget is known as adverse. A business should monitor the variances because is the business notices them early enough it can make changes to them and get back on track. Businesses can use the calculations that they make out of fixed costs, variable costs and sales to work out the point at which their costs equal their sales. This is known as break even, it shows how many products they need to produce and sell or the services they need to offer, the Business needs to get to the point where they are not making a profit or making a loss.