Children and consumerism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Children and consumerism - Essay Example According to Schor and Henderson (2008), children can be viewed through different paradigms. On one hand, children can be viewed as the innocent, naà ¯ve, and vulnerable targets of well-informed marketers who have to be protected by legislation in order to save them from negative messages channeled through the mass media. Proponents of this view oppose all marketing messages that target children and support their physical and emotional regulation in the hands of adults. A different paradigm, that of the ‘empowered child’, supports the notion that children have authentic interpretations of what they want that should not be affected by adult interpretations (Scor and Henderson, 2008). Proponents of this paradigm, most of whom are marketers, contend that children today are far more developed than those of past eras in that they can easily identify lies in advertising messages. According to Pine and Nash (2003), children can easily identify advertisement breaks in their tod dler years through symbols such as sound effects or logos, which they link with the product. Moreover, they may not be able to differentiate between how they feel about the product being advertised and their attitude towards the product. The interpretation that the advertisement is actually trying to sell them a product may come in the pre-teen years of 11 or 12 years. While both researches have documented statistics on studies conducted into child advertising, their respondents do not represent all the nations that are affected by marketing content that targets children. Both of the researches documented by Pine and Nash (2003) and Schor and Henderson (2008) feature participants who come from nations such as Australia, America, Britain, and Scandinavian nations. They do not address upcoming market trends in nations like Turkey, China, Mexico, or India, in which marketers are increasingly targeting children with messages

Family Business Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Family Business - Research Paper Example This can foster a feeling of resentment among family members who are not qualified enough to do the necessary work, but share the name of the company’s founder. In such cases, the heads of family-run organizations have to deal with the uneasiness of other family members at the thought of hiring outsiders to be privy to the long-held family secrets. According to a survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers to determine how family-run businesses achieve success, a number of the heads of such corporations choose not to involve extended family members in the making o important decisions even if the said members are considered as part-owners. In this survey, 15% of the surveyed family business leaders said that relatives such as in-laws do not have to be involved in decision-making (Miller and Le Breton-Miller 38). In a different survey conducted by the Egon Zehnder International organization among 720 family business executives and owners from Asia-Pacific, the Americas and Europe , over 60% of business managers felt that the lack of professional procedures and administrative structures is the biggest shortcoming of family-run businesses (Brun de Pontet and Aronoff 45). In addition, 55% of executives surveyed indicated that divergences among family members, due to a lack of accountability are another big problem. 60% of the respondents in this survey confirmed that family quarrels often get in the way of making good business decisions such as hiring external experts to deal with recurring problems (Brun de Pontet and Aronoff 46). From these two surveys, it appears that family conflict can result in the wrong decision being made due to the absence of an objective perspective. According to the KPMG and Family Business Australia’s biennial survey, which was conducted with 658 family-run businesses based in Australia, 57% of participants indicated that as family business leaders, they were concerned about the intentions of their potential successors, wheth er their children, or other relatives. In addition, 63% of the polled family business leaders indicated that they were not impressed by the abilities of their potential successors (KPMG and Family Business Australia Survey of Family Businesses 3). This corresponds with the findings of the Egon Zehnder International organization survey which also established that 60 % of the family business leaders had doubts about the proficiency of family members. According to these leaders, this was a common cause of conflicts among the family members (Brun de Pontet and Aronoff 46). It would seem that the biggest problem that family business leaders have to grapple with is the refusal of family members to accept the fact that they may not have the necessary skills to function in specialized operations. This can be a particularly difficult problem to solve because any skilled outsiders who are hired are likely to be met with hostility and subversive acts from disgruntled family members. Another pr oblem often faced by family business leaders has to do with making decision on strategic planning. Today, the family that is successful in progressing at a steady rise from generation to