Issues In Policing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Issues In Policing - Essay Example The justice department issues a directive that the so called â€Å"bad apple syndrome† whereby we blame the problems plaguing the police force on a few bad elements is misguided. Consent decrees require that police are held accountable for their actions whether they are at work or anywhere else. They can also be referred to as settlement agreements, consent judgments or stipulated agreements. A consent decree originates from an order given by a judge, which expresses a voluntary agreement by all the individuals involved in a lawsuit or case. Consent decrees arise when the participating parties want to avoid a court trial. Court trials can be long, tiresome and expensive, however, consent decrees are issued because of their ability to obtain results are similar to a court trial (The United States Department of Justice, 2014). Consent decrees can also arise due to the following reasons. There are no financial costs incurred (legal fees) because both parties forgo a trial. A trial is unpredictable, and both parties try to avoid the uncertainties surrounding a court trial. It is good because the necessity of proof and guilt is not required. Consent decrees are mostly favored because the parties involved have control over the remedial plan. They allow both parties to decide on how best to remedy their issues. Consent decrees allow them to implement their agreements voluntaril y rather than by force, and since they hold the same outcome as a court trial, any disregard for the decree is seen more as a violation of the law. It is because the parties involved are bound by the consent decree. A pattern of practice refers to a lawsuit. It is whereby a plaintiff attempts to show that the accused individual(s) or defendants have systematically engaged in prejudiced activities. The plaintiff must provide proof to show that the defendant`s behavior forms a pattern within the routine practices (Pallitto & Weaver, 2007). Discriminatory activities

Intellectual Property Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 2

Intellectual Property Law - Essay Example In a different perspective, intellectual property rights cover identification marks used by companies in order to protect malicious use of the same. Such protections are in place with an aim of encouraging new inventions, innovations, and technologies, which is vital for growth of both a nation or a society and the global economy. Examples of such intellectual rights include copyrights, patents, trade secrets, industrial designs, and trademarks. These rights depend on the form and type of invention or innovation that an individual attains. In the above scenario, Trevor discovered a drug that can cure common cold. In this case, Trevor’s discovery qualifies for a patent as one of the intellectual property rights. Millennium compound has been in existence for long yet no one used it to invent a drug for curing common cold. It is therefore wrong to assume that since Millennium compound has been in existence, someone was going to use in at some point to come up with a drug for curi ng common cold. ... Since they are not co-owners of the idea, Trevor has a right to obtain the patent right under his name. In a scenario where Trevor will allow the professor to have patent under his (professor) name, then Trevor should forget about such rights as provided for within intellectual rights. Therefore, it is important that Trevor fight for his name to be used for obtaining such patents rights since without that then he (Trevor) is unlikely to benefit from the same rights. After all, patent rights according to UK Patents Act 1977, Section 3 2the only person who enjoys patent rights of an invention is one whose name is used in success application and approval of the same rights. Patentability Requirements Under the United Kingdom’s Patent Rights law, there are specific requirements that an inventor must adhere to in order to apply successful for a patent right against his or her invention. Some of the conditions that should be in force include having an element of novelty, invention i nvolving an inventive step, invention having practical use, and the subject matter must be accepted as patentable within the United Kingdom’s laws. Novelty is the most vital prerequisite for any patent right to be successful completed under the UK law. Under the UK law, novelty requirement states that for an invention to acquire patent rights it must be new. According to the UK Patents Act 1997 Section 2(1)3, a new invention is one that does not take any part of the ‘state of the art’ within a reasonable time just before patent application date. In this regards, the ‘state of art’ refers to the entire information or matter made available to members of the public

Steinbecks Of Mice and Men And Gary Sinise film version as Foundation for the story Essay Example for Free

Steinbecks Of Mice and Men And Gary Sinise film version as Foundation for the story Essay Steinbecks tragic and hard writing novel critique of the us in the 1930s. The everlasting novel is about two outsiders who are looking for a job on ranch so they can collect enough money to find there own place in this unforgiving world. The opening of the novel and the film differ from each other in many ways. The film has a tense and dramatic start where as the novel is set in a quiet and peaceful woodland area as Steinbeck sets the scene in clear detail. The film opens with chilling pace of music in the background while the credits appearing in white writing for a couple of minutes. Gary Sinise puts the credits at the beginning rather than at the end. As the music fades there is black background with the infrequent, faint beam of moonlight, streaming through the open cracks in the box car of a train. The camera shot focuses on a lonely person, crouched in the corner, looking by the expression on his face as if he has the weight of the world on his shoulders. This makes the audience curious about who the man is, which makes them want to watch on to find out the identity of this character. Suddenly the film explodes into colour in a dramatic style as a panic and stricken woman, with her dress ripped, runs towards a group of men working on a ranch. The next clip is of the group of men, carrying guns on horseback, chasing two un-armed men. These two men are Lennie and George, who are racing through the grassy fields and bushes. A sense of danger and threat is created as George is continually looking over his shoulder and pushing Lennie along as the men on horseback continue to hunt the two men. When George always look over his shoulder for Lennie in real life. It shows a mother always looking over her shoulder to see if her baby is all right. Both of the men fall into a stream and hide under the overgrown Weeds and grass from the Men. The men pass by the stream and this causes a sense of excitement within the audience. The first close up on Lennie shows us his big, worried eyes, like a child, The heavy breathing stops but both men remain silent, and as time goes by the crickets begin to chirp this shows that the men have stopped chasing them. The beginning of the novel is very different as Steinbeck opens the scene in the countryside close to the Salinas River near to Soledad in USA California. Steinbeck describes this in clear detail. He creates a very peaceful atmosphere by using words such as fresh and green with every spring and the leaves lie so deep and so crisp that a lizard makes a great skittering if he runs among them. Rabbits come out of the brush to sit on the sand in the evening. This is explaining how peaceful and quitter the atmosphere is. But the film shows an exciting chase in a tense and dangerous atmosphere. The first time you see Lennie and George in the novel they are nicely walking through the trees and drinking from the pool. His huge companion dropped his blankets and flung himself down as he drank from the surface of the green pool. This is another symbol of Lennie behaving like a child. As George settles back to relax and Lennie get his nerves we are shown how George blames Lennie for making his life difficult. Lennie is described in terms of an animal, bear-like. When we first see Lennie and George in the film they are running away from a Mob of ranchers. This show the audience they are criminals. In the film they are both wearing different clothes. George is wearing denim and Lennie is wearing dungarees to make him look like a big kid. This differs from the novel as Steinbeck has the two men in the same dress. Both were dressed in denim trousers and in denim coats with brass buttons. And they both wore black hats. The beginnings of the Steinbecks novel and Gray Sinsie film version are very different The film effects the story line by making Lennie and George look like criminals because they are running form a mob of ranchers the first impression you get is of the Lennie and George are bad people and they have done something very bad. Before when George is in the box car this draws the audience to the film but gives them difficulty to know if that character is this makes him look suspicious because when it goes into the scene where the women is running to the ranchers the impression the audience that George is the person that attacked her. The both lets us understand to like the characters of George and Lennie so we can be sympathetic towards them this is the reason why both start better of the foundation of the end of the story then the film the end of the novel is better because we grow to love the chanters and when George shoots Lennie I fell very up set because I had stared to like them like friends but the film is does not make u feel very sympathetic.

Molecular Mechanisms of Membrane Fouling

Molecular Mechanisms of Membrane Fouling The membrane fouling problem is still the main obstacle that faces the application of membrane technology at the industrial and environmental application. So, the main motivation for this work is to develop an enhanced performance of commercial desalination membranes with polyamide barrier layer. In this study, we will use Layer-by-Layer (LbL) modification with tailored macromolecular surface modifiers in order to coat the membranes so that stable zwitterionic surface properties (for reduced fouling) and minimal loss in permeability are achieved. In order to study in detail this novel modification, we will use a model oligoamide system on surfaces which allow using analytical methods which cannot be used on real membranes. The deposition conditions for model surface preparation, the composition of tailored zwitterionic/cationic copolymers used for LbL modification as well as the LbL modification conditions will be optimized. The characterization tools are x-ray photoelectron spectros copy (XPS; also known as electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis, ESCA) for determination the elemental composition of the deposited layer while scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is used to show the topography of the formed layers. Ellipsometry can be a useful tool in identification the thickness of the deposited layers at nano-scale. In addition, the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) will be used for testing the protein resistance of the deposited layers. Other physical and chemical properties will be detected such as the wettability of the layers using contact angle measurement, and the kind of surface charge and their quantity via zetapotential measurements. After model investigation steps, the same LbL sequence (with the optimum conditions) will be applied for a selected range of commercial nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes with polyamide barrier layers. The permeability and salt rejection will be measured using dead-end and cross flow mode. The formation potential of biofilm will be also detected. Keywords: Desalination, Fouling, LbL, Protein resistance and Oligoamide. A major problem in the membrane technology for purification applications is membrane fouling, which is the accumulation and adherence of colloidal organic matter [1,2] inorganic salts (scaling), or bacteria that form biofilms (biofouling) [3]. Engineering strategies for mitigating fouling depend on the accurate characterization of the fouling mechanism on reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes using flux decline measurements [4] or studies of the physicochemical properties of the membranes, such as hydrophobicity, charge density, surface roughness, and porosity [5]. An extensive research has been devoted to understand the molecular mechanisms of fouling using a variety of techniques. For example, atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to relate the surface chemical character to protein adsorptions or organic fouling intermolecular forces [6] , adsorption of proteins and detergents to surfaces, measured by SPR, was correlated with surface wettability [7], quartz crystal microbalances were used to study organic fouling mechanisms [8] and novel fluorimetric assays were used to characterize protein adsorption [9]. Recently, the effects of surface-exposed chemical groups on scaling were assessed by surface pressure–area (Langmuir) isotherm measurements [10] where aromatic polyamide films are an integral component of RONF membranes and they cannot be isolated from their supports for physicochemical studies. In addition, the supporting porous polymer layer prevents incorporation of polyamide into analytical devices and interferes with measurements. But this problem can be simplified by modeling RONF membranes using surfaces with well-defined and homogeneous chemistry. There is a history for using model compounds of polyamide from twenty century that model polyamide. One of these studies is using a benzanilide derivatives, to test the resistivity toward active chlorine [11]. But, there was unsuitability for the surface adsorption studies for these small compounds. In addition to the above mentioned fact, trials were done to prepare analytical sensors using spin-coating techniques that obtained different surface chemistry from that obtained from polyamide RO membranes [12]. So applying the LbL method, which typically involves the alternating adsorption of polycations and polyanions, with water rinsing between each adsorption, will help in adsorption of polymer layer on any substrate (silicon or gold wafers for example) [13]. In recent study done by Wang et al [14], they prepared low-pressure water softening hollow fiber membranes by polyelectrolyte deposition with two bilayers. Where they used PES UF as supporting layer which modified with the polycation and polyanion LbL deposition to separate the divalent ions from monovalent ions. Another work carried out by Zhao et al [15] in which zwitterionic hydrogel thin films anchored as antifouling surface layers of polyethersulfone ultrafiltration membranes via reactive copolymer additive. The main advantage of these hydrogels are their excellent durability in long term tests and hemocompatability. In another work, the Polyelectrolyte multilayers as anti-adhesive membrane coatings for virus concentration and recovery. In our suggested modelling work to develop an oligoamide coating system as a surface mimetic for the polyamide barrier of the commercial desalination membranes, there is a need to neglect the effect of supporting layer so we choosed silicon and gold wafers which does not exhibit any selectivity by itself, the separation function for the composite membrane can be exclusively ascribed to the deposited polyelectrolyte multilayer [17] which will give the accurate modeling data for the surface that will be used in our work . And , learning from previous works, we decided to make model studies to identify the best system with respect to well-defined and stable building units of synthesized nanolayers. These nanolayers will be optimized in terms of the number and thickness of building units, the concentration of the used zwitter ionic copolymers, charge polarity and density, roughness and swelling can be determined via various techniques while these parameters can be easily controlled by varying polyelectrolyte types or/and other deposition conditions [18]. Finally,The fouling resistivity of the model system will be followed via surface plasmon resonance (SPR) measurements using bovine serum albumin as model foulants. Additional foulants may be also used. 2. Experimental Part 2.1. Materials and Chemicals Commercial reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes. Polystyrene sulfonic acid. bovine serum albumin (BSA), sodium chloride (NaCl), humic acid (HA). Silicon / Gold wafers/quartz. m-phenylene diamine(mPD), dimethyl formamide (DMF), triethyl amine (ET3N), trimesoyl chloride (TMC), dichloromethane (DCM), Cysteamine and Ethanol. Cuprous chloride (CuCl2), Tetrahydro furan(THF), Methanol (MeOH), 10 nm titanium nanoparticles and 30 nm gold nanoparticles. Some chemicals will be added according to the applied procedures and optimization processes. 2.2. Synthesis of the Support Substrate and the Zwitterionic Polymer 2.2.1. Synthesis of the Zwitterionic/Cationicpoly (2-(N,N,N-trimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate)-co-(2-(N,N-dimethylamino-N-propanesulfonate)ethylmethacrylate) PTMAEMA-co-PSPE (cationic building block for LbL modification) The LbL method, which typically involves the alternating adsorption of poly-cations and poly-anions, with water rinsing between each adsorption. So, here in this work we will synthesize the zwitterionic polymer starting with free radical polymerization step of (N,N-dimethylamino-N-propanesulfonate) ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA). The obtained polymer then undergoes partial conversion to zwitterionic side groups in presence of THF. And at last step, methylation of quaternization side groups to get the desired zwitterionic polymer. 2.2.2. In-situ Synthesis of Oligoamide According to Kasher 2011 [19] (model studies) Oligoamide is synthesized according to Kasher et al. 2011 applying LbL methodology. In this work we will make preparation of the gold surfaces with an oligoamide layer that resembles the surface chemistry of RO/NF aromatic polyamide films and that can be tested in fouling and adsorption studies using a wide range of physical methods. The synthesis protocol can be ascribed as follow (steps starting from 1 to 4 represents one cycle that can be repeted): Surface cleaned gold coated silicon wafers will immersed in 1 mM cysteamine/ethanol for 24 hours then in 2) 1% triethylamine/dimethylformamide (ET3/DMF). Immersion in trimesoyl chloride/dichloromethane (TMC/DCM), ET3N for 15 minute. Then in mPD/DMF for 15 minute and then washing with water for 10 minute. 2.2.3. Studies with the Model Surfaces 2.2.3.1. Coating and Characterization the Synthesized Oligoamide with the Synthesized Zwitterionic Polymer Applying LbL Methodology. Coating the synthesized oligoamide with the synthesized zwitterionic copolymers. The formed thin films will be characterized using ellipsometry technique. Other characterization methods will be used such as FTIR, XPS and SEM. The reaction conditions will be also tested such as (type of anionic building block, coating conditions, thickness as function of anionic building unit plus the coating condition). Depending on the obtained characterization data, the number of layers will be optimized. The optimum conditions will be applied to modify the surfaces of commercial RO/NF membranes. Ellipsometry, which is a nondestructive and sensitive optical measuring method mostly used for the analysis of thin films, where here in our work we suggest using gold wafers as supporting substrate for this methods. Via these mechanistic technique we will optimize the number of applied layers on the model oligoamide layer. And, SPR will be used to measure the fouling resistivity of the model oligoamide la yer. 2.2.3.2. Evaluation of the Synthesized Oligoamide System Two strategies will be used to evaluate the synthsized system, first one is depending on the characters that gathered from the different characterization techniques. While, The second strategy is by doing a complete assessment the antifouling properties of the synthetic moeites via: Flux measurements via dead-end mode and cross flow mode. Measuring MWCO of the synthetic moites via GPC (Gel permeation chromatography) Rejection of some organic pollutants such as BSA (bovine serum albumin) 2.3.3. Modification and Evaluation the Commercial NF/RO Membranes Based on the best characters that grasped from the above sections, the best condition will be used for modification of some commercial NF/RO membranes using the synthetic zwitterionic polymer applying LbL assembly. The modified membranes will be characterized as mentioned in the above sections. The evaluation also will be done as mentioned. This work mainly aims to fulfill the following SIX goals Synthesize model surfaces for desalination membranes (oligoamide system) on silicon or gold substrates Synthesize novel cationic and zwitterionic copolymers as building block for layer-by-layer (LbL) modification Study in detail LbL modification on model surfaces (layer thickness and stability as function of novel building blocks, respective anionic building block and coating conditions) with focus on nanoscale analysis with ellipsometry Study in detail the resulting surface and anti-fouling properties, with focus on contact angle, zetapotential and foulant deposition measured with surface plasmon resonance Transfer the best modifications to commercial membranes with polyamide barrier layer Evaluate the performance of those modified membranes vs. state-of-the-art with focus on permeability, salt rejection and long-term fouling behavior. Benefits that will be expected from this work can be summarized as follow: Increasing the fouling tolerance of the commercial membranes increasing the life time of applied membranes in addition to low maintenance periods. transfere the gained experiences to the National Research Center to help in establishing the membrane technology as a successful technology in many applicable fields.

My Philosophy about Child Development Essay -- Education Children Deve

My Philosophy about Child Development Works Cited Missing A child's development affects how they learn. All children don't fit the norms of development but not all children should be looked down on because of this. The development of the body and mind leads to the development of skills a child learns in life. Teachers need to help the child expand their skills and the knowledge to do the skills well. "Virtually everything a young child does is affected if physical development is delayed" (Charlesworth, 2000). Adults and teachers need to do everything possible to keep physical development from being delayed. Adults can provide children with opportunities to help them in development. By the age of three a child's brain is three quarters of its adult size. From infancy to the age of two development is very rapid (Santrock, 1996). For this reason it is essential for the child to be able to explore their world around them. By exploring children will increase their knowledge and understanding of the world. A child must have physical development before motor development can occur (Charlesworth, 2000). According to Piaget infants acquire knowledge from their environment. Through sight, smell, hearing, and touch this is accomplished. Adults are responsible for seeing that the children have a chance to explore to acquire the knowledge. A child must be physically able to do the work that is required to keep up with the other students. Many chil...

The Jihad Trap :: September 11 Terrorism Essays

The Jihad Trap    The war America is engaged in after the attacks on the WTC, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania is a war for the hearts and minds of average Muslims around the world. Bin Laden, if indeed he is the mastermind behind the attacks, has set a trap for the US into which it must not fall. By attacking the US as part of a jihad ("a holy war"), Bin Laden is in fact claiming to Muslims to represent their grievances and to represent real Islam. He is in effect saying: "Muslims, I share your grievances unlike your corrupt and authoritarian governments; I am the only one doing something about it. I have destroyed the symbols of American capitalism and stopped the heartbeat of world finance which the US dominates." The US, as well as moderate Muslims the world over, must unite and deny him this symbolic victory and must not accept to engage him in combat on these terms. We should not let him define the terms of our intellectual and symbolic battle. As a professor of Islamic law I have researched the law of jihad and can state unequivocally that the war Bin Laden has engaged us in cannot be labeled a jihad. Furthermore, I believe a strong case can be made that he has acted contrary to the tenets of Islam and can be ostracized from the community of believing Muslims. Moderate Muslims will agree with me, certainly, as they are horrified by this attack and are desperate to have it disassociated from their religion. The West must provide moderate Muslims a way out of Bin Laden's trap. According to Islamic law there are at least six reasons why Bin Laden's barbaric violence cannot fall under the rubric of jihad: 1. Individuals and organizations cannot declare a jihad, only states can; 2. One cannot kill innocent women and children when conducting a jihad; 3. One cannot kill Muslims in a jihad; 4. One cannot fight a jihad against a country in which Muslims can freely practice their religion and proselytize Islam; 5. Prominent Muslim jurists around the world have condemned these attacks and their condemnation forms a juristic consensus (ijma`) against Bin Laden's actions. This consensus renders his actions un-Islamic; 6. The welfare and interest of the Muslim community (maslaha) is being harmed by Bin Laden's actions and this equally makes them un-Islamic.

Brand and Lifebuoy

Industry Overview: The bar soap industry in India is highly orgai&ed with an annual growth rate of 13% and over RS 9,193 Crores in 2007. The industry is fragmented to a moderate extent with a few international players having large market share and few local players occupying minor share. The largest companies in this segment are HUL, Wipro, Godrej, Nirma, and Reckitt Benkiser. The bath and shower products form bulk of this industry with a contribution of Rs 8,678 Crores1. The soap industry in India is classified into three categories based on the price Product overview: Lifebuoy is one of the oldest brands of soap bar that is market by the Unilever group. The original Lifebuoy was first produced in 1895 in the UK. Though the soap is no longer produced in the UK, it is still produced in many countries around the world and is the market leader in every Asian market that it is sold. The brand is very popular among the rural population with more than 50% of its sales in rural Asia. With a goal to provide affordable and accessible hygiene and health solutions to everyone. Lifebuoy sponsors a Health Education Program in India and has reached more than 70 million people with this initiative. Marketing history of lifebuoy Lifebuoy was launched in India in 1935. Originally Lifebuoy was positioned as a masculine soap with sports and fitness as the background theme in its advertisement. The epic 1992 football advertisement with the jingle ‘Lifebuoy hai jahan, Tandurusthi hai wahan' (Wherever Lifebuoy is, health is there) positioned it as masculine soap. The soap contained carbolic acid which gave it its typical red color and odor. Lifebuoy went through a major brand repositioning in 2002 when it shed it masculine image and positioned itself as a family soap. The company changed the colour, shape and odour of the soap to appeal to all members of the family. The company adopted a new jingle ‘Koi Darr Nahin' (No Fear)(sample adv) with 100% protection against germs as the selling point. Today Lifebuoy is an umbrella brand for different products like Hand Sanitizer, body wash, bar soap, hand wash, Men body wash and Clear skin. For the rest of our report, we will only discuss Lifebuoy soap bar and its post 2002 marketing strategy. Marketing Strategy The marketing strategy of Lifebuoy is closely linked with its vision of fulfilling the intrinsic desire of everyone to be clean, active and healthy. Segmentation and Targeting: The segmentation strategy of Lifebuoy is focussed on price and health awareness. Since the vision of the brand is to provide hygiene to all classes of the society purchasing power of the consumer is a major factor. A few pointers towards it segmentation strategy * Geographic region are of no significance * Demographic characteristics like Age, Family size, Gender and Occupation are not of any significance. * Lifestyle and persong^ty are of no significance Using the above information, the segmentation and targeting of Lifebuoy is given as below Geographic: Tier 2 cities, Semi-Urban and rural areas Demographic: Income group – Middle class and lower middle class behavioral: * Occasion – Regular * Benefits – 100% germ protection A brief on Psychographic profile of the target customer is given in the next section. Hence, Lifebuoy targeting strategy clearly falls in between selective specialization and full market coverage. Psvchographic Pro filing of Target segment The target segment of Lifebuoy is the semi-urban and rural households. A brief Psychographics profiling is done for the consumers, not based on any scientific study but on intuitive thinking. Purchasing decisions In this segment, the purchasing decision in the household for soap bars, in most of the households, is typically taken by the women in the house. Hence we attempt to profile the psychographics of women. Spending Habits The consumers in the segment are middle-income to lower middle-income group. The disposable of this group is meager . hence spending is mostly on barely necessities and on augmented products . Motive Every human being, who is part of the society, has an intrinsic desire to be clean due to health and social acceptance reasons. The primary motive behind buying the product is to fulfil this desire i. e. , be healthy and socially acceptable. Media Reach The consumers in semi-urban areas have fairly good access to all sorts of promotional media like TV, newspaper, radio and billboards. However a large portion of the target consumers are from rural areas which the reach of conventional media like television and newspaper is limited. Hence a separate stream of media has to be designed to reach out to the consumers to educate them on the benefits of using Lifebuoy. Activities and Interests The typical woman in the target segment would be housewife. Hence the activities that she would be involved in are very few. Also they would also have very little interests outside of their household chores. The data below is about how women spend their time and what sort of things that they would be interested in. A few pointers have been made as to how marketers can use this information for efficient marketing. Family care: The women in this segment are entrusted with the responsibility of taking care of the family members especially children. Hence this emotion of the women has to be exploited while making advertisements. Work: A large number of women in this segment work in the unorganized sector as unskilled or semi-skilled labor to support their family. Since it is unorganized sector there is less emphasis on personal grooming and more on hygiene (matches with Lifebuoy's value offering) Television: A large number of the women in this target segment, especially in the semi-urban geographies have access to television and soap operas are very popular with them. Hence most of the companies advertising home needs use time slot during the soap operas. Household chores: Most of the women in this segment do the household chores including purchasing by themselves. Hence advertisements should be aimed at housewives directly. Financial planning: The spending power of the people in this segment is very low and hence cost savings are given utmost importance. Hence to entice housewives the product price should be kept very low Opinions Here we try to delve into what kind of views the women have about themselves and surrounding and how this views and opinions affect their buying pattern. 1. Health of the family is important than personal beauty. Hence women are more likely to buy a disinfectant soap than a beauty soap 2. Price can be low to a level where it meets the quality threshold. Anything below this threshold deemed of low quality. Hence both price and quality are important but price is given high preference. 3. More for less is always better. A bundle pack that offer discounts is better than a single pack. 4. Big shops and supermarkets stock only costly products. Hence a typical woman would visit a shop at the end of her street than visiting a supermarket. Hence companies should stock their products at every shop. 5)A brand that with high recall is of better quality than the one which is not. Hence brands should advertise to have a higher brand recall. Positioning Before evaluating the positioning strategy of Lifebuoy, it is important to assess the competitors and identify the factors that influence the purchase decisions of soaps. The main players that have significant share in the segments Lifebuoy operates in are 1)Santoor: Santoor is a sandalwood based beauty soap that is targeted at the woman and is the largest soap brand in South lndia. )Dettol: Dettol is an antiseptic soap from Reckitt Benckiser that has closely followed Lifebuoy in terms of product offering 3)No 1: Godrej No 1 is the most popular soap product from the Godrej house and is currently the third largest selling soap in India and market leader in Delhi, Haryana and Himachal Pradeshvl 4) HUL Products: Lifebuoy also competes with internally with other HUL products like Breeze and Rexona According to a literature research published in the IUP Journal of Management, the factors and attributes that influence the consumer behaviour of buying soaps are )Packaging and Promotion Schemes 2)Composition : Fragrance, Ingredients, Skin Type 3)Availability and Brand Recognition Additionally price and few functional attributes like hygiene and beauty have been considered. Since there is no data to draw quantitative perceptual/positional maps, we have evaluated the soap brands qualitatively based on the factors given above. Marketing Mix: In this section, we try to evaluate how the STP strategy influences the marketing mix of Lifebuoy and how it provides Lifebuoy advantages over its competitors Product: Lifebuoy is a bar soap that is aimed as a family soap with health and hygiene as its selling proposition. The soap was originally positioned as a masculine soap with fitness and health as the value offering. In 2002, the product underwent a major change shedding it legacy shape, colour and fragrance to make it more appealing to all members of the family. The product, since then, is positioned as family toilet soap with 100% protection from germs as it value proposition. As a product that is more than 100 years old and 75 years of presence in the Indian market, Lifebuoy is one of the most recognised products. Positioned as a family soap, Lifebuoy holds and advantage over its competitors as it appeal to all members of the family. This is really important as it fits well with the typical middle-class and lower-middle class households' habit of using the same soap by all the members of the family. However, Lifebuoy fails to attract beauty conscious women in the family. Also, many of Lifebuoy's competitors have products that have traditional ingredients (Sandalwood in Santoor and Godrej No. l) which Lifebuoy has not yet forayed into. Place Lifebuoy is positioned as soap for the semi-urban and rural population. With over 70% of India's population falling under this segment, it provides huge market potential for Lifebuoy. However catering to this segment brings logistical challenges. Lifebuoy enjoys a distinctive advantage over its competitors in this context as it is promoted by HUL, the largest non-tobacco FMCG Company in the country. Due to HUL's widespread distribution network, Lifebuoy is virtually available at every POS. Hence Lifebuoy is able to capture close to one-fifth of the Indian soap industry. Though Lifebuoy is present even in the urban markets it is pushed to the backseat as the focus of the company is to sell its other soap products like Lux and Rexona. Price Lifebuoy is priced in the mid-level segment. The current price of Lifebuoy soap is about Rs 14 for 100 grams. Lifebuoy is available in packs of various sizes (50gm, 75gm, 120 Gms, 4* 120gm family pack) and is affordable to people of all economic sectors. The competitors of Lifebuoy are priced slightly higher than Lifebuoy . The segment that Lifebuoy caters to is highly price sensitive and hence being priced lower than its competitors provides a distinctive advantage. Promotion Lifebuoy promotion through advertising is based on its slogan ‘Koi Darr Nahin' (no fear). Most of its advertisement focuses on cleanliness and hygiene as the central theme. The premise of most of its advertisement is about a child playing/working in dirt with his mom proclaiming ‘Koi darr nahin' to portray that there is no fear of infection as they use Dettol. Since, the primary target market of Lifebuoy is rural market which is not very educated about the benefits of Lifebuoy or cleanliness in general; lifebuoy has taken the initiative of educating the customers. The initiative called Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetana is the largest rural health and hygiene education programme ever in India and has already reached 70 million people till date† With an effective advertisement and CSR activities, Lifebuoy has been able to build up a formidable brand over its competitors. Competitive Strategy With about 18% of the total soap market share, Lifebuoy is definitely the market leader in this industry. The brand has been a pioneer in the mass rural marketing model and is also the price leader among its competitors. Let us at the various strategies that Lifebuoy follows to stay the top. Expand the total market Most of the customers in the target segment are not frequent users of soaps and use soap only for bathing purpose. Lifebuoy has made many steps in educating the customer on the importance of using soap at five key occasions †¢Before Breakfast †¢Before Lunch †¢Before dinner †¢During daily bath †¢Immediately after visiting the toilets Lifebuoy has been involved in many awareness programs which have been discussed in detail in the report. Through such initiatives Lifebuoy has been able to bring in new customers as well as increase the usage among existing customers. Defend Market Share: In the recent years, due to the introduction of many competitors, the market share of Lifebuoy has been on the decline. To defend its market share Lifebuoy has slashed its prices further to gain over competitorsvl†. The brand was also re-launched with an improved formulation that reduces mush and signals better consumer valuelx. Lifebuoy also introduced many variants of its soap with natural ingredients to defend its position against natural soaps like Godrej No. l and Santoor. Expanding market size: Rural segment, which forms the bulk of Lifebuoy's consumer share, is heavily influenced by product availability while making their purchases. The disposable income in this segment is very less and hence consumers buy products as and when they need it and do not stock extra at home. Hence if the product is unavailable on the shelf, they would buy any other product. Lifebuoy (HUL) therefore undertook projects to enhance the rural supply chain by a network of sub-stockists and ‘Project Shakti' in partnership with the Self-Help Groups of rural women. These Self-Help Groups acted as direct-to-home dealers. In rural India, women are the catalyst of change and that is why Project Shakti kept women in focus. Project Shakti has proved to be a great marketing venture for Lifebuoy since it works in both terms which is promotion as well as a distribution network with social welfare benefits. Through such innovative campaigns, Lifebuoy is able to expand its share in the years following its repositioning. However in the recent years the market share has been declining. Building Brand Equity Lifebuoy has been in India for over 75 years. Since then the brand has been able to connect to the consumers at an emotional level and develop a brand loyalty. Today the brand is market leader in the soap market with over 18% market share and has been repeatedly voted among the top ten most trusted brands in the country*. Though the brand had to undergo a re-positioning in 2002 and had to face a plethora of competitors, both external and internal to HUL, Lifebuoy has not only been able to survive but also emerge as the market leader. A few traits about brands have been given below. Brand Promise Lifebuoy promises to give 100% better protection from germs, which is repeatedly mentioned in its ads. The brand aims at providing health and hygiene to all members of the family by protecting from germs. The brand promise of Lifebuoy closely follows the mission of providing affordable hygiene to all the people of the world. Lifebuoy is the largest selling health soap in the world and has been proven to be effective against germs. Brand Archetvpe Lifebuoy should be regarded as the Caregiver as the vision of Lifebuoy closely matches the core desire of the Caregiver, to protect and care for others. Lifebuoy has been involved in bringing awareness among its consumers in the importance of health and hygiene. Many of its social awareness programmes have already been discussed. Brand elements In this section we look at the brand elements of Lifebuoy and how each element helps in building the brand equity Brand Name The name Lifebuoy is derived from ‘lifebuoy' which means’*† â€Å"a life preserver in the form of a ring of buoyant material†. The name is apt for the brand as it clearly conveys the message of health and hygiene and is as such a life saver. However in the Indian context, where most of the consumers in Lifebuoy's target segment are not highly educated, the brand name which is in English has very little or no significance. Logo : Lifebuoy's logo consists of a Red cross with Lifebuoy written across it. Red Cross is usually associated with ambulance and hospitals and as such indicates good health and hygiene. The logo is also very common and hence is easily recognisable and recallable, the two important characteristics that are necessary for any brand. The logo also means the same in all culture/geographies and hence can be used across the globe. Particularly in the Indian context, the colour red signifies simplicity, purity and holiness and protector from evil spirits which is evident from the fact that red is used in all auspicious ceremonies (bridal dress, thilak, sindhoor etc. . Hence it conveys the brand promise of Lifebuoy. Slogans/Jingle Over the years Lifebuoy has used many slogans/jingles that have helped it build its brand equity. The most popular of Lifebuoy's jingle was the one launched in the 1992 football advertisement â€Å"Thandurusti ki raksha karta hai lifebuoy, lifebuoy hai jahan tandurusti hai wahan† meaning â€Å"Lifebuoy protects good health, good healt h is where Lifebuoys is†. The jingle is particularly famous because it was rhythmic and catchy. It is easily one of the most recallable jingles of all times. It also clearly conveyed the brand promise and hence was able to spread brand awareness among the consumers. In 2002, after the brand underwent a change, the jingle was changed to â€Å"Koi Darr Nahin† meaning â€Å"No Fear†. The new jingle portrayed that by using Lifebuoy, there was no fear of infections. Hence, Lifebuoy has, over the years, used slogans that are attention getting and communicating the prime benefit to the consumer. Packaging:- Prior to 2002, Lifebuoy was sold in ordinary packaging and was red in color with a very strong smell due to the presence of carbolic acid. However, in 2002 the packaging was changed to make the brand more appealing. The logo was modernized to match the contemporary standards. The shape of the bar was also changed from brick to a more contemporary one to match the standards set by its competitors. The brand also focused on the rural consumers and introduced small sized packets at lesser prices to make it affordable. The following elements are not strictly part of typical brand elements. However, in Lifebuoy's context they are significant in differentiating the brand from its competitors. They also fit in the three criteria of brand building as they are memorable, meaningful and likable. Characters:- Traditionally, Lifebuoy has never used any celebrities or any characters in its advertisements. This was because the brand never wanted to position itself as premium brand and hence the use of celebrity did not fit in well with its image. Since its repositioning in 2002, Lifebuoy ads have always been revolved around middle-aged woman (mother) and kids. Effective Marketing:- Rural Marketing:- Since its repositioning, Lifebuoy's has focussed on the rural markets and built a strategy to spread brand awareness through TV and print media. It also launched Lifebuoy Swashthya Chetana, the first single largest rural health and hygiene educational program through which it has been able to reach 70 million people already. The campaign aimed at educating the community especially the children about the necessity of basic hygiene in maintaining good health. Since most of the people in the target segment did not have access to print or TV media, Lifebuoy designed innovative methods to reach to them. It used innovative communication tools at melas, festivals etc. to spread awareness about hygiene and health by product demonstrations. These techniques were used in order to change the hand-washing and bathing habits in rural India. For example, people in mela were asked to put their hands below a special camera where they could see the germs on their hands and were asked to wash their hands with Lifebuoy and see the difference. Hand-carts were also displayed at the company's stall for attracting more people. Lifebuoy tried to market the product not just at the point of sale but also at the point of consumption. Ideas like putting advertisement stickers on hand pumps, walls of the wells, putting tin plates on trees surrounding the pond were some of the innovative media utilised by Lifebuoy. Other media techniques used were shop-fronts and cinema van operations having films and audio cassettes with songs and dance sequences f)om popular films that comprised ads of HUL products during breaks. Through such innovative campaigns, Lifebuoy was able to reach out to customers who could not be reached through conventional media and was able to create a brand loyalty among the rural people. CSR work Since the launch, Lifebuoy has been involved in many health awareness programs. The brand pursues a social mission of bringing health to all the people around the world. †¢Lifebuoy has launched ‘Save the Children' campaign to spread awareness about prevention of diarrhoea. The programs aims at promoting handwashing with soap as the most economical way of fighting diarrhoea †¢It also conducts Global Hand washing Day, an event which aims at educating children about the importance of washing with soap and water. The event has been very popular and now holds the Guinness record of largest community hand wash event. Through Gurudwara, a promotional programme done with collaboration with Gurudwaras (Sikh temples) Lifebuoy has been able to create awareness among the rural population of Punjab. †¢Lifebuoy also launched ‘The Lifebuoy way of life' in Mumbai, a study aimed at understanding whether a bar soap when used as recommended for hand and body washing reduces d iarrhoea and/or acute respiratory infections in the target population. Lifebuoy also launched Lifebuoy active involvement in health awareness programmes has helped it develop a brand loyalty and value above its competitors.