Britain in the First World War Essay -- Papers

Britain in the First World War Introduction Recruitment and conscription had become a big issue at the beginning and propaganda was used to change the attitudes of the public. After the First World War, life in Britain had changed dramatically. Britain owed nearly six billion pounds to the Americans. Air raids back on the British homeland had killed over one thousand people and left millions homeless. In total nearly one million British people had died during the war. Women had come to do the jobs of men, and governments had taken new measures to ensure we had won this new kind of war. The League of Nations had been intended to bring peace back to Europe and the world but only brought more bitterness. Recruitment Before conscription, men would be encouraged by their families to enlist and fight for the country. Propaganda was used to stir up the ideas and emotions of what kizer whilhelm had in mind for Europe and to bring out countrymen's patriotic duties. When Lord Kitchener as put in charge of Britain's fight against the Germans he realized that more men would be needed. The BEF (British Expeditionary Force) only had one hundred thousand men and so the recruitment drive had begun. Women were encouraged to persuade men to enlist, and at the height of the recruitment drive half a million had enlisted. Men that didn't enlist were seen as cowards and given white feathers to wear in public. Many feared that the war would be over before they got to the front. All countries involved had greeted the war with enthusiasm hoping to fight for 'King and country'. Conscription Conscription was introduced... ...re that this could never happen again. America on the other hand wanted to keep Germany from being punished too much incase any thing like this happen again. Britain was in the middle of all this. They understood were both nations were coming from. They agreed on the punishment and forced Germany to sign the treaty of Versailles. The British blockade had starved the Germans into surrendering. The German public had nicknamed the government the 'November Criminals'. The League of Nations had been created by woodrow Wilson but when he backed out, the league was left with no real power. The permanent members were still recovering after war. The league had more defeats then victories and rarely brought peace to rising conflicts. The American public had felt they should never have gotten involved with European affairs.

Advertising and Sales Essay

Assignment Q1. What is the meaning of advertising? Explain the advertising pyramid with a neat diagram. â€Å"Advertising is the non-personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media to reach broad audiences† The five basic element of this pyramid are: attention, interest, desire, action and satisfaction. Attention: The first objective of advertising is to capture attention of the consumer. The job is easy as even shouting or clapping can draw attention. Therefore, the copywriter usually makes the headline very catchy by using the bigger fonts. The other techniques are to use short punch lines in conversational language. Interest: The advertisement’s next objective is to create interest in the readers about the product. After giving a good headline, their interest is retained by elaborating on the key features of the product. This is usually incorporated in the body copy. Desire: In this step, the advertisement creates a situation for the prospective customer to enjoy benefits of the product vicariously. The writer creates a situation that makes the reader feel as though there is a lot that is being missed if one does not use the product. Action: The purpose of this step is to motivate people to do something. No advertisement is successful if it cannot induce any action. This is not a difficult step because if the copy is clear then surely the reader will act. Satisfaction: The tip of the pyramid is satisfaction. After the product is bought, the buyer should have a feel of satisfaction. The customer should always feel that it has got the appropriate returns for the money spent. Q2. What do you understand by integrated marketing communication (IMC)? What are the various roles? â€Å"IMC is a strategic business process used to develop, execute, and evaluate coordinated, measureable, persuasive brand commun ications programs over time with customers, prospects, employees, associates, and other targeted relevant internal and external audiences. The goal is to generate both short-term financial returns and build long-term brand and share-holder value.† Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) is a process involving coordination of various promotional elements and other  marketing activities that communicate with a firm’s customers. It includes managing customer relationships that drive brand value through communication efforts. The role of IMC can be discussed with the following points:  · Identifying the target audience  · Specifying promotion objectives  · Setting the promotion budget  · Selecting the right promotional tools  · Designing the promotion  · Scheduling the promotion Identifying the target audience: IMC’s first function is to identify the right audience. It is very important to deliver the message to the right audience. Specifying promotion objectives:  · Designed for a well-defined target audience  · Measurable  · Cover a specified time period Hierarchy of effects: Sequence of stages a prospective buyer goes through Use as a tool to develop objectives  · Awareness – Ability to recognize and remember the product or brand  · Interest – Increase in desire to learn about the product features  · Evaluation – Consumer’s appraisal of the product on important attributes  · Trial – Consumer’s actual first purchase and use  · Adoption – Repeated purchase and use of the product or brand Setting the promotion budget:  · Percentage of sales: Funds are allocated as a percentage of past or anticipated sales  · Competitive parity: Matching the competitor’s absolute level of spending Selecting the right promotional tools  · Specify the combination of the five basic IMC tools – advertising, Personal selling, sales promotion, public relations and direct marketing  · Promotion mix can vary  · Assess the comparative importance of the various tools Designing the promotion:  · Design of the promotion plays a primary role in determining the message that is communicated to the audience  · Design activity is viewed as the step requiring the most creativity  · Design each promotional activity to communicate the same message Scheduling the promotion:  · Determine the most effective timing  · Promotion schedule describes  · Factors such as seasonality and competitive promotion activity can influence the schedule. Q3. While developing an advertisement, some theories are useful. Discuss the two theories to design an advertisement. In developing an advertisement for an advertising campaign, several theoretical frameworks are useful. The first theory is the hierarchy of effects model. The second is a means to an end chain. Both the hierarchy of effects model and a means to an end chain can be used to develop leverage points. 1. Hierarchy-of-Effects Model Among advertising theories, the hierarchy-of-effects model is predominant. It helps clarify the objectives of an advertising campaign as well as the objective of a particular advertisement. The model suggests that a consumer or a business buyer moves through a series of six steps when becoming convinced to make a purchase. These six steps are as follows: Awareness – If most of the target audience is unaware of the object, the communicator’s task is to build awareness, perhaps just name and recognition with simple messages repeating the product name. Consumers must become aware of the brand. Knowledge – The target audience might have product awareness but may not know much more; hence this stage involves creating brand knowledge. This is where comprehension of the brand name and what it stands for become important. What are the brand’s specific appeals, its benefits? Liking – If target members know the product, how do they feel about it? If the audience looks unfavorably towards the product then the communicator has to find out why. If the unfavorable view is based on real problems, communication campaigns alone cannot do the job of erasing it. Preference – The target audience might like the product but not prefer it to others. In this case, the communicator must try to build consumer preference by promoting quality, value, performance and other features. Conviction – A target audience might  prefer a particular product but not develop the confidence about buying it. The communicator’s job is to build conviction among the target audience. Purchase – Finally, some members of the target audience might have conviction but not quite get around to making the purchase. Th ey may wait for more information or plan to act later. 2. Means-End Theory A second theoretical approach a creative (team) can use to design an advertisement is a means-end-chain. This approach suggests that an advertisement should contain a message or means that lead the consumer to a desired end state. Means – end theory is the basis of a model called the Means-End Conceptualizations of Components for Advertising Strategy (MECCAS). The MECCAS model suggests using five elements in creating advertisements.  · The product’s attributes – delicious and refreshing are the products attribute.  · Consumer benefits – delicious and refreshing are linked with the benefit of freshness and good taste.  · Leverage point – the leverage point in the advertisement is the link between the benefit of delicious drink and the personal value of choosing the right drink of an athlete.  · Personal Values – the value of the consumer, the reason of buying Coca Cola. He could value the ’refreshing’ or the ’delicious’ attributes. The marketers need to understand the personal value so that the message will hit the right target. Q4. What do you mean by public relations(PR)? What are the difference between PR and advertising? â€Å"Public relations† is used to build rapport with employees, customers, investors, voters or the general public. Public Relations (PR) is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual etc. in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers etc. The most comprehensive definition is as follows: â€Å"Public relation is the management function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an organization with the public interest and executes a program of action and communication to earn public understanding and acceptance.† The following are the differences between advertising and public relations. Advertising 1. The company pays for advertising the company. Hence the focus is on getting its products or  services. 2. Since you are paying for the space, you have creative control on what goes into that advertisement. 3. Advertisements can be published or run repeatedly. An advertisement generally has a longer shelf life than one press release. 4. In advertising, you get to exercise your creativity in creating new advertising campaigns and materials. 5. If you are working at an advertising agency, your main contacts are yours-workers and the agency’s clients. 6. You are looking out your target audience and advertise accordingly. You would not advertise a kid’s Product in a business magazine. 7. Some industry professionals such as Account Executive have contact with the clients. Others like Copywriters or Graphic Designers in the agency may not meet with the client at all. 8. â€Å"Sales!, 20% discount, Buy this product! Act now! Call today!† These are the things you can say in an advertisement. You want to use those buzz words to motivate people to buy your product. Public relations 1. The objective is to get free publicity for space. You know exactly when that advertisement will on air to be published. 2. You have no control over how the media presents your information, if they decide to use your information at all. They are not obligated to cover your event or publish your press release. 3. You submit a press release about a new product or about a news conference once. The PR exposure you receive is only circulated once and the editor will not publish more than once. 4. In public relations, you have to have a nose for news and be able to generate buzz through that news. You exercise your creativity in the way you search for new news to release to the media. 5. In PR, the main contacts will be people in the area of publications and broadcast media. 6. It is generally not possible to segment, target or position the product or service. 7. In public relations, you are very visible to the media. PR professionals are not always called on for the good news. In an emergency you may have to give a statement or on-camera interview to journalists. You may represent your company as a spokesperson at an event. 8. You are strictly writing in a no-nonsense news format. Any blatant commercial messages in your communications are disregarded by the media. Q5. What are the four types of annalists used to develop a comprehensive model for evaluation of a sales organization? There are mainly four factors or types of analysis that are usually needed to  develop a comprehensive model for evaluation of a sales organization. They are: 1) Sales analysis 2) Cost analysis 3) Profitability analysis 4) Productivity analysis 1) Sales analysis: It is an important factor for evaluating the effectiveness of a sales organization. Sales analysis detects strengths and weaknesses of the organization. Sales analysis is described as a detailed inspection of a company’s sales data, which includes assimilating, classifying, comparing and drawing conclusions. Sales analysis is done based on the following parameters: a) Levels in sales organization: Sales analysis should be done at all levels of the sales organizations. This includes evaluation of sales performance from the company level down to the last level. b) Types of sales: The analysis of different types of sales at different organizational levels definitely increases the sales manager’s ability to detect problem areas in the company’s sales performance. For example, analysis can be done: a. Based on type of products b. By distribution channels types c. By type of customer classifications d. By size of orders 2) Cost analysis: Cost analysis is the analysis of costs that affect sales volume. The purpose of marketing cost analysis is to determine the profitability of sales control units, like market segments, sales territories and products. This is done by subtracting the marketing costs from the sales revenues, associated with the sales control units. 3) Profitability analysis: Profitability analysis of marketing units (that is, regions, branches, channels, products or customer groups) can be developed by preparing profit and loss (or income and expense) statements for marketing units. However, the question arises as to how to allocate indirect or shared expenses to various marketing units. There are two approaches for profitability analysis 4) Productivity analysis: Productivity is usually measured by ratios between outputs and inputs. For example, sales per salesperson are used by many companies as a measure of productivity. There  are other productivity ratios such as selling expenses per salesperson, sales calls per salesperson, and quotations submitted per salesperson. Q6. Describe the meaning and importance of media fix decisions. A media mix is the way various types of media are strategically combined in an advertising plan, such as using newspaper and posters to announce a new product as the iPod managers did, followed by television advertising that shows how to use the product and billboards that reminded people to look for it when they go out to the store. A media vehicle is specific TV program (Comedy Circus, CID), newspapers (The Telegraph, Mumbai Mirror), magazines (The Sport star, Elle). Media planning is the way advertisers identify and select media options based on research into the audience profiles of various media; planning also includes scheduling and budgeting. Media buying is the task of identifying specific vehicles, such as TV channels/programs or websites, negotiating the cost to advertise in them and handling the details of billing and payment. Frequency refers to the number of times a person is exposed to the advertisement. An impression is one person’s opportunity to be exposed one time to an advertisement in a broadcast program, newspapers, magazines or outdoor locations. Circulation means the number of copies sold. In the media industry, there are professionals who do both, sell and buy advertising. Media sales people work for a medium, such as a magazine or television channel and their objective is to build the best possible arguments to convince media planners to use the medium they represent. There are also media reps, who are people or companies that sell space (in print) and time (in broadcast) for a variety of media. The rate base is the real number of copies of a newspaper or magazine that gets printed and sold. Readership is the average number of readers per copy sold.

Afrocentrism Versus Eurocentrism Essay examples - 4480 Words

Afrocentrism vs. Eurocentrism | Afrocentrism and Eurocentrism differ in many ways, and have help to advance the cause of both Africans and Europeans throughout history. Some would argue that had it not been for Eurocentrism Afrocentrism would never have existed, and in a sense the former is responsible for the creation of the latter. The manner in which both ethnocentric ideas view the world are totally different from one another but they are alike in the sense that they strive to place each of their ideals at the center. There is a long storied past associated with these two ideologies as well as a difference in opinion between and among the two. Afrocentrism seeks to teach a worldview that highlights the contributions of African†¦show more content†¦They practice barbaric customs toward women, such as female genital mutilation (North Africa), widow-burning (sati, India) or foot-binding (China). Non-European societies are inflexible and unchanging. Some European thinkers have attributed this lack of change to topography or climate, for instance extreme dependence on a major river, such as the Nile or the Yellow River, or extreme heat or dryness. Non-European societies are poor, backward, and underdeveloped, as opposed to the industrialized, progressive, and rich West. Non-European societies lack rational modes of thinking and scientific approaches (Ancient African Writing Systems and Knowledge ). This Eurocentric thinking through colonialism and imperialism has affected the rest of the world a great deal. Those who were born and raised in a society where Eurocentrism dominates are raised to believe that the West is superior to the rest of the world, and that Caucasians are superior to everyone and everything. When looking at and studying the history of different societies across the world where Eurocentrism has spread, one can clearly see how different that society has become since the influx of Eurocentric thought and practices. In many instances such as countries in Africa these societies do not profit from their natural resources but instead Europeans and/or the West collect most of the profits and use these natural resources in order to benefit them and their societies. In a

Character Analysis of Meusault in The Stranger - 637 Words

The main character in The Stranger, Meursault is mentally not attached to the world. He is unable to decipher good or bad in his actions. The passing of his mother has no effect on him or a girl’s continuous proposal whom he is very attracted too, also, he murders a man for no apparent reason and does not see anything wrong in doing so. Meursault is seen as a careless monster too society. At the beginning of this story Meursault is told his mother has passed away. After hearing the news, Meursault does not know how to respond. He apparently has not spoken with his mother in a couple of years after she was put in a home. As he arrives at the funeral to pay his respects, the man who is in charge begins a conversation with Meursault, he starts to space off not listening to a word but simply thinking about how he does not want to be there. After reading this, I got the impression that Meursault is a heartless man. After dealing with the funeral Meursault heads to the beach, at the beach he sees Marie, who used to work in the same department as him. They get to talking and schedule a date for that night. Night time comes around and on their date Meursault expresses his attraction towards Marie. When Meursault returns to his apartment after his date with Marie, he runs into Raymond who lives on the same floor as him. Raymond is not well liked because there is speculation around that he is a pimp. Raymond asks him to come over and since Meursault had time to kill he agreed to goShow MoreRelatedLiterary Analysis: How Meursault Is Indifferent in the Stranger, by Albert Camus874 Words   |  4 PagesLiterary analysis: How Meursault is indifferent in The Stranger, by Albert Camus Although Meursault is the title character and narrator of Albert Camus’ short novel The Stranger, he is also a somewhat flat character. His apparent indifferent demeanor may be a convenience to Camus, who mainly wanted to display his ideas of absurdism. And as a flat character, Meursault is not fully delineated: he lacks deep thought and significant change. His purpose is that of a first-person narrator whose actions

The Eclipse Of God And The Need For The Jews - 1680 Words

The eclipse of God and the need for the Jews to prove their faith in God stands out as another key response by the Jews. According to Jewish theologians, there are times in the history of religion that God had adamantly refused to show his face to the world. In the Holocaust context, the Jewish theologians argue that God was intentionally absent during this period to test the Jewish and their endurance through suffering. Admittedly, this premise is particularly complex because a section of the theologians has argued that it could be possible that God was seemingly absent because God is a distant God. The premise of the eclipse of God explains why the Jews hold to the belief that God is a distant God who prefers to give human beings a free†¦show more content†¦It shows just how extremely strong they are because I truly don’t know if I would even believe in God or a higher power after the Holocaust. The fact that they are willing to test their faith and provide reasons as to why this happened is really eye opening. I can relate with them on the fact that they think God was absent during this time and that it was meant to make their faith stronger; he would eventually return and all of this madness would end. I also think the Holocaust helped with people’s faith. They were left with no answers for such a tragedy; it was up to them to test their faith and try to figure out exactly why this happened. It made them in my opinion, the strongest believers and observers of if God or a higher power is real. One can think of the Holocaust as a total destroyer of any hope but I believe everyone who lived through this held onto faith/hope and that is the reason why they made it out alive. The United States, Britain as well as the Soviet Union jointly acknowledged the mass murders, but were very reluctant to stop or prevent the innocent deaths. They can be referred to as some of the bystanders. President Roosevelt was worried about the anti-Semitic sentiment in America, the public as well as the congress were against the idea to assist the European Jews. On the other hand, the British feared that it could provoke the Palestinian Arab leaders and, therefore, it remained

Gd Topics Free Essays

Every candle has its shadow. †¢ Has computer revolution lead to unemployment in India? †¢ Tube lights are better than bulbs. †¢ Red. We will write a custom essay sample on Gd Topics or any similar topic only for you Order Now †¢ Everyone likes it hot. †¢ India – Sustained growth is a mirage. †¢ Globalizations – a boon or bane? †¢ Advertising – A necessary evil. †¢ One can make a difference. †¢ Indian youth – unemployed or unemployable? †¢ Corruption is the main outcome of democracy in India. †¢ Life is an onion. †¢ Human capital of India. †¢ Blue. †¢ The impact of TV on society? †¢ Has election lost its importance in India? †¢ Prohibition should be implemented across India. Media is a mixed blessing / how ethical is media? †¢ Television news channels cannot replace newspapers. †¢ Film stars should not smoke in public. †¢ Foreign television channels are destroying our culture. †¢ Are we responsible for environmental imbalance? †¢ Quality is a myth in India. †¢ Indian villages – our strength or our weakness? †¢ Cricket is destroying other sports in India. †¢ Mobile is a social evil. †¢ Are women really safe in India? †¢ Are marriages becoming a business in India? †¢ India should have a compulsory military training. †¢ Does banning fashion show and New Year parties save our culture? Responsibility of Politicians in Today’s Politics. †¢ The costs of war are incalculable. †¢ Man exploits nature for his own ends but nature often has the last word. †¢ The IPL will damage Indian cricket. †¢ Gandhism is not relevant today. †¢ Reservation in the education institutions for the OBCs is a welcome step. †¢ The western life – style is harming Indians. †¢ India shining – myth or reality. †¢ The changing face of youth in India. †¢ Success is all about attitude. †¢ Multinational Companies: a threat to Indian industries. †¢ Would we be able to use our mental faculties or completely dependent on machines? How to cite Gd Topics, Papers

Key Logistics Activities and Technologies Related to Logistics free essay sample

Logistics play a major role in our life. Most of the people might not be aware of the importance of logistics until there are problems appear. Under the pressure of arising competitive environment, most of the business entities are initiated to focus on the development of logistics. Logistics can be said as the transfers of goods and services from the point of origin to the point of consumptions effectively and efficiently in order to meet the requirement of the customers (Logistics World, n. d. ). Logistics include the distributions of raw materials, in-progress inventories, finished goods and other related information. Successful logistics enable the business entities to deliver the goods and services consistently to the correct customers on time. Based on the question given, I do not agree with the statements saying that ‘logistics is nothing more than getting goods from one point to another’. Logistics covered much more aspects and involved a lot other activities other than what the statement above mentioned. There are still many different types of activities in logistics such as customer services, inventory management, material handling and packaging, order processing, procurement and et cetera. On the other hand, in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of logistics management, a variety of solutions and technology advancements had been introduced to the business market. The literature below will review the other activities and the technologies improvement for logistics (Stock amp; Lambert, 2000). Key logistics activities One of the activities involved in logistics is the customer service. Stock amp; Lambert (2000) stated customer service is â€Å"a customer oriented philosophy that integrates and manages all elements of the customer interface within a predetermined optimum cost-service mix† (p. 4). To design a logistics system, companies should always start with setting a strong and clear customer service objective. Without having a common objective for everyone in the company, decisions about order strategies, production, transportation, inventory investment, and warehousing will not be consistent and effective. Customer service objective acts as guidel ines for the logistics managers in setting up targets of their performance as well as making decisions when they encounter problems in the future. Logistics play an important role in ensuring high customer satisfaction. Getting the right product to the customers under the right condition, at the right place and the right time, as well as with the right cost are the main criteria for achieving a high customer satisfaction (Stock amp; Lambert, 2000). For example, Kraft Foods Incorporate make sure their customers get the right products they ordered at the right time and right place regardless of whether the customers are at the hypermarket in France or a cafe in Sweden (Kraft Foods, n. . ). Other that the five rights, excellent customer services also need to make sure the order and return processes are convenient to customers. The company needs to provide accurate and consistent information to customer by selling the products and services that are worth for the price. Lastly, they need to deliver the products and services on time. By providing the best customer service and fulfilling all the five ‘right’ criteria, com pany will be able create higher customer satisfaction and therefore gaining competitive advantage. When customers are satisfied with the products and services provided by company, they will most likely become the loyal customers and support the products and services from the company in long term scenario (Stock amp; Lambert, 2000). Besides that, Banning amp; Gibson indicate loyal customers can act as one of the advertising medium by conveying positive messages and comments to their friends and family (Banning amp; Gibson, n. d. ). In that way, the market share and profitability of the company will increase and at the same time the total costs of logistics also will reduce. Other than that, inventory management is also one of the activities under logistics. In the industries now, most of the company will hold inventory to achieve economies of scale. Company usually purchase and transport all inventory at once to reduce their cost. This is because purchase in a huge amount will reduce the cost of per-unit price while having a full truckload shipment will reduce the cost of per-unit transportation. Then, company will also choose to have a greater plant capacity so that the per-unit manufacturing cost will be lower. However, holding inventory contributed a significant amount of expenses to the companies due to high storage costs, capital cost, service cost, risk cost, and some of the product can be obsolescence in short time. Therefore, the company might try to minimize the expenses by reducing the amount of inventory without interrupting the flow of the products to the customers. Since there is conflict between economies of scale with handling and warehousing costs, companies need to find a suitable way to balance of these two criteria. For instances, company can use Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) to determine the best amount of inventory to order (Stock amp; Lambert, 2000). The objective of every inventory planner is controlling the inventory they hold to meet the exact amount of customers’ demand. This is because either excess or shortage of inventory will bring up significant costs to the business affecting the operation and opportunities of the business (Management Study Guide, n. d. ). In addition to that, raw materials and parts, work-in-process, and finished goods inventories are required to be considered. These inventories require sufficient physical space, capital, and personnel time to maintain and pile up. A successful inventory management will determine the amount of inventory necessitate to meet the demand of customers and at the same time consider the costs needed to put in the logistic activities. Besides that, excellent inventory management can increase the cash flow and return on investment. Nowadays, many companies start paying more attention to inventory control especially on the products that can become obsolete in short time, such as high-tech merchandise, automobiles, and seasonal goods (Stock amp; Lambert, 2000). For example, in April 2005, Mazda Motor Corporation comes out with its Mazda Materials Management Planning (M3P) which is an inventory control system. The system of M3P improved inventory levels, enhanced the speed of supply, and ensure the Mazda’s retail and service operations are smooth all the time. Other than that, M3P also brings benefits to customer such as providing better customer service and shorten the length of responding time (Mazda, 2005). Furthermore, logistics need to take care of the material handling and packaging in the company. Material handling takes part in managing the flow of raw materials, in-process inventory, and finished goods inside a warehouse. The costs of firm will increase for each and every item handled. Since handling the item will not increase the value of a product but incur more costs to the company, company should always try to reduce the number of material handling wherever possible by decreasing the inventory. Then, materials handling design the plan to reduce distance travelled of the materials and minimize the work-in-process of the materials. Other than that, material handling makes sure the materials can flow through the process consistently without having troubles. Lastly, material handling will find ways to decrease the possibility of getting losses from breakage, waste and spoilage (Stock amp; Lambert, 2000). On the other hand, packaging is the process of getting the container and wrapper to hold the products (Reference for Business, n. d. ). In logistics aspect, packaging of the products can act as a barrier to prevent the products from getting damaged during transportation of the products or storing the products. Furthermore, product with appropriate packaging is easier to be move or store. However, packaging will add up space and weights subsequently incur more cost. Thus, many people in this area always spend time in thinking ways to reduce to space and weight of the products after packaging (Stock amp; Lambert, 2000). A successful packaging strategy can help a firm to strengthen its competitive advantages such as optimizes service, cost, and become more convenient (Learn Marketing, n. d. ). When a product go international, the packaging will becomes more important to a company. The products are required to travel more distances and need more physically handling if compare to domestic packaging (Stock amp; Lambert, 2000). Additionally, order processing is taken to account when discussing about the activities of logistics. Order processing is the  process or work flow that starts with the receipt order from customer, followed by verifying the order status and communicate about the order with customer, while lastly making order and ensure the availability of the products to satisfy customer’s needs (Jetef, n. d. ). Order processing can divide into three groups. The first group is the operational elements, including order shipping, setting preparation, order entry, scheduling, and invoicing. Next group is the communication elements, for example, order status inquiries, order modification, error correction, tracing and expediting, and product information requests. The last group of order processing is the credit and collection elements, such as accounts receivable processing and credit checking. The quality and speed of the information flow provided by company during the order processing to their customers can affect the cost and the efficiency of the entire operation. If the information flows are slow and erratic, the company will not only suffer from decreasing in customer, but also increasing transportation, inventory, and warehousing costs. The faster and more accurate the service the company can provide, the greater the customers satisfaction obtained by the company. Information system today can help in order processing by making the time of order processing to become shorter between order placement and product shipment. For example, customers’ order can be placed and sent to the company’s computer directly by using electronic data interchange (EDI). Decision support system (DSS), quick response (QR), efficient consumer response (ECR) and et cetera are other information system that can help the company to improve order processing and achieve customer service goals at competitive cost. Information system not only helps company to improve its speed, quality, and accuracy of order processing, but also help company to save some logistics expenses like transportation and inventory while boosting up the sales (Stock amp; Lambert, 2000). Finally, the last activity of logistics that this literature will discuss is procurement. Procurement is the effective purchasing of goods and services to make sure the manufacturing and logistics processes of the firm are run in effectiveness. In order for the company to ensure them to obtain the supplies that can meet their requirement in terms of time, location, quality and quantity, the company is required to procure suitable goods and services (Procurement, n. d. ). The procurement function includes supplier selection, determination of the form of material to acquire, purchasing time, pricing and quality control. According to WiseGEEK, while â€Å"procurement logistics are the processes used in the delivery, receipt, movement and storage of materials purchased for a business or organization†. The goals of procurement are to minimize the costs at the same time increase the service provided (WiseGEEK, n. d. ). In the purchasing process, the most important task is to choose the best supplier from all the potential vendors. The purchasing process is complicated. Decision makers and decision influencers from decision making unit (DMU) need to go through twelve steps of buying process when purchasing items from supplier. If company is doing routine buying, then some of the steps can be skipped (Stock amp; Lambert, 2000). When making purchasing decision, DMU also need to consider the number of orders, lead time requirements, delivery expectations, product reliability, drop-off locations and others. All of the final price of products should be including transportation and storage cost. Company can usually try to minimize these hidden costs by requesting just-in-time delivery from supplier (WiseGEEK, n. d. ). In short, paying enough attention o the management of purchasing cost as well as the evaluation of purchasing performance can lead to increasing profitability of a company (Stock amp; Lambert, 2000). Technologies related to logistics Due to an increase in attention paid on the logistics, experts started to develop more and more ways to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of logistics through acquiring the technologies. One of the most significant improvements made by technology is the Electron ic Data Interchange (EDI) (Stock amp; Lambert, 2000). EDI is the exchange of business messages and information through computers of the trading partners via communication cables with standard protocols and standard data formats (EasyLink Services, n. d. ). For example, EDI can be used when there are purchase orders. Organizations are able to make a purchase order with their suppliers through computers. EDI is more convenient for the organizations as the usage of internet are more and more common (Stock amp; Lambert, 2000). According to GXS, there are a few advantages of using EDI in logistics. EDI will transform most of the paper works into electronic base. Many of the procedures can be done automatically and quickly through the advancement of technologies. Therefore, the time taken to complete the process will be reduces significantly. It promotes the efficiency of the organizations which leads to the increase of productivity. Besides, EDI replaced human to key in the data of the organizations routinely. When there are less human works, the probability of getting error in data entry will be reduced drastically or even eradicated. Furthermore, the data transferred among the computers are using the standard and same formats. This ensures that the data transferred to the receivers will be analyzed accurately and correctly. Thus, the communication error between the sender and receiver is diminished. The diminished in error will subsequently raise the efficiency of the organizations as well since there are less likely for the organizations to repeat the procedures and make corrections on the mistakes (GXS, n. d. ). In addition to that, EDI can also increase the accuracy of inventory and reduce the cycle time and thus reduce the cost of inventory. In such, EDI increases the productivity while reducing the costs as well. With the development of the internet, EDI is free if it flows through the internet instead of VAN. Many major companies such as NASA Goddard, UNISYS and AVEX Electronics are now using EDI supported by the internet (Stock amp; Lambert, 2000). Bar coding is another technology advancement that contributes to the improvement of logistics. Bar coding are commonly use in our daily life such as the products in supermarket. Bar codes are a row of parallel bars distanced with a number of gaps with different width. They able to convey different messages in the form of letters, numbers and special characters based on the array of gaps between the bars. A beam of light is used to interpret the information of the bar codes and sent it to the computers. These codes are used mainly on tracking and security purposes. They are important in decreasing the probability of errors compare to key in the information manually. Statistics showed that the bar codes error rate is one out of hundred thousand while the error rate of manually key in data is one out of thirty. It had clearly showed that the error rate had been improved significantly (Stock amp; Lambert, 2000). In relation to the bar codes, as said by Lyne, Quick Respond (QR) codes from Japan are also introduced to the society. QR codes is a two dimensional barcodes that normally stored with specific links contained with extra information. QR codes are named because it can be scanned quickly even with the smart phones that installed with QR codes reader. It is convenient for the consumers to obtain certain information about the products since it does not required a specific code reader device just like that bar code reader. Furthermore, QR codes able to store more variety of information instead of letters, numbers and special characters only such as url links and geo coordinates. QR codes are enable the customer to know about the product details, contact details, coupons or event a link to YouTube video for further information (Lyne, 2009). For instance, the product code, manufacturing history, expiration date and other data can be encoded in the QR codes. Coca-cola had used this feature in their logistics management at Chukyo. They are able to check for the quality and track the products easily using QR codes (Sundaramurthy, n. d. ). Management Information System (MIS) is also one of the technologies used to improve logistics. A successful MIS is able to provide sufficient and relevant information for the managers in order to make an effective decision. There are five areas that MIS need to fulfil which are the timing, accuracy, relevance, completeness and consistency (Office of the Comptroller of Currency, 1995). MIS should be able to provide the latest and current information using the shortest time. The information collected should be checked buy auditors as well as ensuring the information is useful. Unwanted information need to be filtered and the relevant information need to be summarize completely. Lastly, the method in processing and compiling the information need to be consistent so that the manager will not misunderstand the information. MIS is important in logistics for collecting, analyzing and interpreting the information from various aspects such as the suppliers, resources, transportation and so on. MIS can make sure there is no interruption n the supply chain. A well managed MIS allowed the organizations to control every detail in different region in a faster time (Stock amp; Lambert, 2000). In real example, World Health Organization need to have an uninterrupted supply of drugs through the supply chain to ensure the increasing number of HIV/AIDS patients are able to get their treatment.