Marketing Term Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Marketing Term - Research Paper Example Through engaging the consumer in a dialogue that promotes community and goodwill, there was no advertising campaigns until 2004, the company depending on word of mouth to promote its interests and gain a following. That following measures more than 4 million members, worldwide (Bloomberg). The marketing that has been engaged since 2004 has seen some turmoil with the perceived competitor, Weight Watchers, being directly confronted in a campaign, but the adversary fought back with a court injunction which ended that campaign. However, it might be concluded that Curves gained better publicity as being put in a position as a threat to Weight Watchers, so much so that they were directly confronted through legal action to shut down their advertising. This is a wise strategy, however, the company may soon face the same problems that Weight Watchers faces, which is as their targeted demographic ages out and the rising younger set sees them as a dinosaur of their mother’s age, combatin g a dated image will create an issue. Weight Watchers has confronted their problems through advertising that mimics the Jenny Craig advertising, using celebrities to promote their success through publicly visible weight loss on their programs. However, where Jenny Craig has used a middle aged set of celebrities, Weight Watchers used Jennifer Hudson to kick off their campaign, a decidedly younger star. This leaves curves facing the same problems as Weight Watchers in that through promoting a socialized setting, the age group becomes relevant to the attraction to the program. The following assessment will discuss the current and past methods of marketing that have been introduced for Curves. The background of the company will be given an overview in order to provide context in understanding the nature of the current standing of the company. An analysis of the marketing strategies and their results will be assessed for the successes and failures that have been experienced. A SWOT analy sis will then be conducted in order to provide an overview of the nature of the company in regard to how it will impact a marketing plan. The SWOT analysis will be addressed for the ways in which it can be utilized to address the future of the company. Finally, a summary of the marketing direction of Curves will be made with recommendations for addressing weaknesses and threats through exploiting the strengths and opportunities that are present. Background Curves International Fitness for Women has franchises in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australia and Asia. The company has well over 6000 stores, with the rate of their expansion earning them a title in the Guinness Book of World Records (Heavin and Colman 2). The first store was opened in Harlingen, Texas, with the first franchise opening Paris, Texas in 1995 with all stores now being a franchised venue (Curves International Fitness for Women). The company was opened in 1992, and by 2003 had expanded to the 6000 stor e mark, placing them in the record book. Hoovers lists more than 10,000 company stores are in existence to date. Gary and Diane Heavin opened the stores with a specific demographic in mind. Gary Heavin had ten years of experience in the fitness industry before designing this model with a specific target demographic (Funding Universe). The intention was to address the needs of women through nutrition and efficient exercise that kept the sessions short, thus providing an easy

English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

English - Essay Example Generally, when a writer produces a work, it comes in market in its original form and then it is presented to any other entity with its right and license to translate it to other languages to get it a place on international level. Such translations get feedback comprising of appreciations and loopholes both by the people having command on both original and translated languages which helps later to consider the drawbacks and produce better translations in future (Kovac, M., and Wischenbart, R., 2012). Translation of books into English language was not always appreciated as in Australia many authors did not like the Australian stories translated into English with so many changes in the text and wanted the youth to read original version of the stories (Nick Earls, ABC Premium News, 15 July 2009 i Allington, D., 2012). African writers also prefer to write in their own language and want Africa to be the centre of their literature. By doing this they do not aim to refuse the English stream rather they only wish to see things from African perspective. Ngugi is of the view that the Oral Tradition is important but it cannot replace the Modern African Literature. To remain loyal to the literature is to stick to the history and assimilate and embrace the traditional thoughts and so not losing the roots (Ngugi, 1986, p. 94-5). In the clip we observe South African writers’ reasons behind choosing language as a medium of their writing. Hambidge prefers to write in Afrikaans as it is connected to her identity. Moreover, she can express her thoughts and emotions in her own language in the best possible way. Magona and Ndebele see Afrikaans as the language of oppressed nation. Ndebele opts English for her writings as it is a language of opportunity and fame for its being international language Magona, though, prefers to write in English but she feels that she cannot write like Jane Austen and it involves both conscious and unconscious factors which shape thought language (U214, DVD 3, Clip 20.1, ‘Choosing to write in English’). While translating a language into English, problems may arise at lexical level. There may not be an alternative word available and a set of words express the meanings so it lengthen the sentence. For example in Russian language there is no separate word for ‘cloud’ rather there are words for different kinds of clouds so it makes the translator to interpret the kind of clouds relying on the context and present a different expression from the original sentence. This does not mean that Russian language is richer than English and provide finer details regarding vocabulary. In some other cases, Russian language has no separate word for ‘arm’ or ‘hand’ rather there is a single word ‘ruka’, so every time the translator encounters this word, he faces difficulty in interpreting that whether the writer is talking about ‘arm’ or ‘hand’. These pro blems are solved by using other words such as ‘fist’, ‘palm’ or ‘from shoulder to fist or wrist’ but it results in comparatively longer sentence. So, such lexical gaps between languages make it difficult to create a perfect translation (Cook, G., 2012). Cook observes the difficulties that become a challenge while translating other languages into English. Referring to the translation of the Chinese film ‘