White Castle Essay Example for Free

White Castle Essay White Castle is known as the original fast-food hamburger chain. The first White Castle opened its doors in Witchita, Kansas, in 1921. White Castle (WC) has since grown to 393 restaurants in 11 states (White Castle hamburger , 2004) and is now expanding internationally. By analysing White Castles internal strengths, internal weaknesses, external opportunities, and external threats, otherwise known as a SWOT analysis (Kerin, 2005), Learning Team B was able to exam market demographics, company needs, trends, and market forecast as they pertain to White Castle. During the SWOT analysis Learning Team B (LTB) discovered the primary strategic marketing issue is in order to remain profitable White Castle needs to promote its unique product(s) and adapt its menu items in order to continue to appeal to the changing desires of todays consumers. The same holds trues today as it did in 1998 when William J. McDonald stated White Castle needs to continually reassess its marketing strategy, particularly its pricing and promotional activities to determine what approach will be most effective into the future. Marketing strategy recommendations A major strategy in the element of marketing is generating and maintaining brand recognition. Attaining brand recognition in the target market is a critical milestone for any branding strategy. There are many cues in the brand recognition arsenal. Typically brand building begins with aesthetic cues, the design features in a graphic or logo meant to visually represent the brand. Color, shape, texture, style, typeface, and position are among the design attributes which can offer recognition cues, making a design visually distinctive. Its the reason why, when a new logo is evaluated, recognition factors and design uniqueness are taken into consideration. According to Kim Kelly-Bartley (2001), vice president of marketing and site development for the Columbus, Ohio-based chain, summarizes, In an effort to boost brand recognition, White Castle is revamping units for only the second time in its 80-year history. An earlier change occurred five years ago, when the nations oldest burger chain celebrated its 75th anniversary. Prior to that, the chain had not changed, other than to make sure the units were clean and in good repair. The first retrofit was introduced in late July, in an existing store in Queens, N. Y. The prototype is also being tested in Chicago, St. Louis and Columbus. The chains updated look features orange accents, wood laminates and chrome finishes. Orange neon lighting, for example, encircles the restaurants dining room and accents seating. White Castles enduring (and too many customers, endearing) color scheme had been limited to blue and white. We wanted to see if you can add a color and still uphold the look. (p. 1). The process of recognition is a core component of branding. If a brand strategy doesnt employ visual or auditory cues, establishing brand perceptions and evoking memories is a lot more difficult and complicated. Without cues, the brain has to rely solely on recall to remember a brand. Boosting brand recognition is always a combination of knowing the target audience, market(s), category competition, and distribution. In order to boost brand recognition, a company must know their brands visual equity and level of current brand recognition. Finally, a company must understand what sales have been doing in their target market(s), what their strategic business goals are for increased sales, and what the budget is for increasing sales. Generating brand recognition through exposing the market to the product and promoting it heavily as well as finding promotional partners may also be beneficial. In a special Valentines Day promotion, couples who love White Castle hamburgers can dine at any of 48 White Castle fast-food restaurants nationwide participating in a special Valentines Day promotion. In comparison with some of the pricier, more upscale events held for lovers, Valentines Day at White Castle cost just 49 cents per burger to enjoy. Hostesses dressed in elegant costumes instead of the usual White Castle uniforms seat couples at cloth-covered, candlelit tables while romantic music is played in the background. The promotion is not a new invention. It debuted in St. Louis and Minneapolis about 16 years ago but was so popular it was expanded to White Castles in other Midwestern cities last year. For duos on a budget, the evening cost a whopping $6. 05 for a 10-pack of the bite-sized burgers and a small order of fries, leaving just enough money in the bank for the requisite Valentines Day bouquet of flowers and box of chocolates. Growth in competition in the fast-food market The consumer is the driving force in any highly competitive market, with his power growing ever stronger and becoming ingrained. The fast-food market is being fueled by the generation x and echo-boomers running between work, soccer, dance and other family activities with little time to spare for cooking at home. Todays consumer has more choices in variety, nutrition and value than ever before. The minimum population growth currently being experienced in the United States means that there is little new business to be had so it must be taken from others (http://www. fmi. org/media/bg/FoodRetailing. pdf). In order to compete in the fast-food market White Castle will need to give the consumer what they want. Many customers today are demanding healthier choices on menues, as well as more family friendly surroundings. Consumers are looking for family dining experiences without losing the fast-food aspect of dining out. Restraunts are starting to offer more salads and other alternatives to red meat, like chicken and fish in order to attract the more health conscience consumer (http://www. entrepreneur. com/franzone/article/0,5847,308510,00. html) . Location, location, location has been suggested as one of the most important marketing and competitive strategies. White Castle should consider expansion into new markets in new areas of the country. Proposed marketing elements What specific price, distribution, promotion, and product elements would you propose and why? Conclusion References At long last, change. (2001, September). Chain Leader, 6(9). Retrieved April 9, 2006 from EBSCOhost Database. Elan, E. (2006, February). White Castle offers couples a Valentine promo with heart. Nations Restaurant News, 40(9). Retrieved April 9, 2006 from InfoTrac OneFile Database. Kerin, R. , Hartley, S. , Berkowitz, E. , Rudelius, W. (2005). Marketing (8th ed. ). New York: McGraw-Hill. McDonald, W. J. , (1998). Case 6 White Castle System Inc. , UOP Eresource, Retrieved April 8, 2006, from Eresource database. White Castle hamburger chain adopts DigitalPersona fingerprint authentication technology. (2004, Decemeber). Digitalpersona. Retrieved on April 9, 2006 from http://www. digitalpersona. com/company/news/releases/120804. php http://www. whitecastle. com/ Retrieved on April 9, 2006.

Rene Descartes & Faith and Reason Essay -- Essays Papers

Rene Descartes & Faith and Reason The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed a colossal transition in the scientific view of the universe. During this period a profound rethinking of scientific theory as well as moral and religious matters took place. Traditional ideas were reconsidered by religious thinkers. Philosophers began applying rational scientific thought to problems that they considered. The main concept of the Scientific Revolution was to "question everything". The Scientific Revolution was an elaborate movement. Many brilliant people with a wealth of new ideas contributed to this movement. The French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist Rene Descartes was one of these people. Rene Descartes was born March 31, 1596 in Touraine, France. He was born to a mother who, at the time, had tuberculosis and died of it a year later. As a result of his mother's condition, Rene was very frail and suffered from dry coughs all of his life. Rene’s father, Joachim Descartes, was an established lawyer as well as a councilor of the parliament in Rennes 1. Descartes was educated at the Jesuit school of La Flà ¨che in Anjou. He enrolled in the college at the tender age of eight years. During his eight years there, his passion for learning burned brightly. He over-achieved in all of his studies, especially in mathematics and physics. Descartes also received a proficient education in classical languages, literature, and traditional Aristotelian philosophy. Because of his fragile condition he was granted permission to remain in bed until 12 o'clock noon, rather than being awakened at dawn as the other students were. To be sure he didn't rouse too late, Descartes woke himself early and then spent the morning reading, taki... ...eived analytic geometry and established the Cartesian curves and Cartesian coordinates. To algebra he contributed the convention of exponent notation and the treatment of negative roots. Perhaps no other intellectual movement was more significant for the future of European and western civilization. Footnotes 1. Cottingham, John. Descartes. New York: Basil Blackwell, 1986. 2. Same as 1 3. Same as 1 4. Same as 1 5. Morgan, Vance G. Foundations of Cartesian Ethics. New Jersey: Humanities, 1994 6. Sorell, Tom. Descartes. Oxford: Oxford, 1987 7. Same as 6 Works Cited - Cottingham, John. Reason, Will, and Sensation: Studies in Descartes’s Metaphysics. Oxford: Clarendon, 1994. - Jolley, Nicholas. The Light of the Soul. Oxford: Clarndon, 1990 - Tierno, Joel Thomas. Descartes on God and Human Error. New Jersey: Humanities, 1997 Rene Descartes & Faith and Reason Essay -- Essays Papers Rene Descartes & Faith and Reason The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed a colossal transition in the scientific view of the universe. During this period a profound rethinking of scientific theory as well as moral and religious matters took place. Traditional ideas were reconsidered by religious thinkers. Philosophers began applying rational scientific thought to problems that they considered. The main concept of the Scientific Revolution was to "question everything". The Scientific Revolution was an elaborate movement. Many brilliant people with a wealth of new ideas contributed to this movement. The French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist Rene Descartes was one of these people. Rene Descartes was born March 31, 1596 in Touraine, France. He was born to a mother who, at the time, had tuberculosis and died of it a year later. As a result of his mother's condition, Rene was very frail and suffered from dry coughs all of his life. Rene’s father, Joachim Descartes, was an established lawyer as well as a councilor of the parliament in Rennes 1. Descartes was educated at the Jesuit school of La Flà ¨che in Anjou. He enrolled in the college at the tender age of eight years. During his eight years there, his passion for learning burned brightly. He over-achieved in all of his studies, especially in mathematics and physics. Descartes also received a proficient education in classical languages, literature, and traditional Aristotelian philosophy. Because of his fragile condition he was granted permission to remain in bed until 12 o'clock noon, rather than being awakened at dawn as the other students were. To be sure he didn't rouse too late, Descartes woke himself early and then spent the morning reading, taki... ...eived analytic geometry and established the Cartesian curves and Cartesian coordinates. To algebra he contributed the convention of exponent notation and the treatment of negative roots. Perhaps no other intellectual movement was more significant for the future of European and western civilization. Footnotes 1. Cottingham, John. Descartes. New York: Basil Blackwell, 1986. 2. Same as 1 3. Same as 1 4. Same as 1 5. Morgan, Vance G. Foundations of Cartesian Ethics. New Jersey: Humanities, 1994 6. Sorell, Tom. Descartes. Oxford: Oxford, 1987 7. Same as 6 Works Cited - Cottingham, John. Reason, Will, and Sensation: Studies in Descartes’s Metaphysics. Oxford: Clarendon, 1994. - Jolley, Nicholas. The Light of the Soul. Oxford: Clarndon, 1990 - Tierno, Joel Thomas. Descartes on God and Human Error. New Jersey: Humanities, 1997

Geography- Development

GNI stands for Gross National Income, therefore it basically finds the average of all the income the List the shortcomings of GNI per capita as an indicator of development. If a country has a GNI, that doesn't mean that everyone in that country is rich or living a good life. Because GNI is an average, there will always be people below the average and way above it too. Therefore GNI cannot tell us whether there are poor people or even if there is equality in the country, there might be more poor people than rich people but the money the rich people are making is very superior that it makes the average pretty high.Explain the concepts of underlying PPP. PPP stands for Purchasing Power Parity and it is defined by a number of units of a ountrys currency needed to buy the same amounts of goods and services in a country as $1JS1 would buy in the United States. PPP examines a wide range of goods and services, including food, transport, clothing and housing. It provides a measure of what peo ple can actually afford regardless of the local value and exchange rate of their currency.Explain why the three variables used to calculate the PQLI were chosen. The three variables: literacy, life expectancy and infant mortality were used to calculate the PQLI because they are three indicators of quality of life that were thought to be particularly important. Literacy rates are linked to the level of education the population is receiving, life expectancy is linked to how well the health of the population is and how advanced the doctors are and infant mortality shows how advanced the healthcare is.How does the HDI differ from the PQLI? HDI (Human Development Index) uses three measures to generate index and two of the three measures are the same: literacy and life expectancy. However, rather than using infant mortality, the HDI uses GDP per capita on a PPP basis. This was done to balance the social measures of development with an economics measure, as control f personal resources and wealth was seen as an important aspect of people's quality of life. 5. What is your preferred indicator of development?My preferred indicator of development is Literacy rate because that tell us whether the population is educated or not, if it is then most of then could get a decent Job, therefore they can have a decent life with resources at their reach. Some people could have really good Jobs because they were given the chance to learn and get an education. When there is a high literacy rate in a country, one can tell that the healthcare will be advanced because the education is good. Therefore there will be low death rates and high life expectancy. 2/11/2013 Why people who live in rural area susceptible to food insecurity: they depend on agriculture for food, they have limited alternative sources of income or employment (for example: floods and droughts) and they are vulnerable to crisis, prone to natural diseases, depend on farming, The key issues regarding Child and Female hun ger: one child is dying every 5 seconds of hunger, child hunger is inherited, they lose their curiosity, motivation and even the will to play, many leave school prematurely, stops physical and mental growth.Women are the primary food producers but they are more affected by hunger and poverty than men, 7 out of 10 of the world's hungry are women and girls, their hunger is the reason why we have a low birth-weight child. 2. Read: the origin of disparities, living conditions and land ownership p. 33 Poverty remains in the world despite economic growth in many regions, the world is more unequal than it was a decade ago. NICs (Newly Industrialising Countries) such as South Korea and Taiwan have a quite high level of GNP per capita.

The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a tense 13-day-long (October 16-28, 1962) confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union triggered by America’s discovery of nuclear-capable Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. With Russian long-range nuclear missiles just 90 miles off the shore of Florida, the crisis pushed the limits of atomic diplomacy and is generally considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war. Spiced with open and secret communication and strategic miscommunication between the two sides, the Cuban Missile Crisis was unique in the fact that it took place mainly in the White House and the Soviet Kremlin, with little or no foreign policy input from either the U.S. Congress or the legislative arm of the Soviet government, the Supreme Soviet. Events Leading to the Crisis In April 1961, the U.S. government backed a group of Cuban exiles in an armed attempt to overthrow communist Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The infamous assault, known as the Bay of Pigs invasion, failed miserably, became a foreign policy black eye for President John F. Kennedy, and only widened the growing Cold War diplomatic gap between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Still smarting from the Bay of Pigs failure, the Kennedy administration in the spring of 1962 planned Operation Mongoose, a complex set of operations orchestrated by the CIA and Department of Defense, again intended to remove Castro from power. While some of the non-military actions of Operation Mongoose were conducted during 1962, the Castro regime remained solidly in place. In July 1962, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, in response to the Bay of Pigs and the presence of American Jupiter ballistic missiles Turkey, secretly agreed with Fidel Castro to place Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba in order to prevent the United States from attempting future invasions of the island. The Crisis Begins as Soviet Missiles Detected In August of 1962, routine U.S. surveillance flights began showing a build-up of Soviet-made conventional weapons on Cuba, including Soviet IL–28 bombers capable of carrying nuclear bombs. A U.S. patrol plane flies over a Soviet freighter during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Getty Images Staff On September 4, 1962, President Kennedy publicly warned the Cuban and Soviet governments to cease the stockpiling of offensive weapons on Cuba. However, photographs from a U.S. U–2 high-altitude aircraft on October 14 clearly showed sites for the storage and launch of medium- and intermediate-range ballistic nuclear missiles (MRBMs and IRBMs) being built in Cuba. These missiles allowed the Soviets to effectively target the majority of the continental United States. On October 15, 1962, the pictures from the U-2 flights were delivered to the White House and within hours the Cuban Missile crisis was underway. The Cuban ‘Blockade’ or ‘Quarantine’ Strategy In the White House, President Kennedy huddled with his closest advisers to plan a response to the Soviet’s actions. Kennedy’s more hawkish advisers – led by the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- argued for an immediate military response including air strikes to destroy the missiles before they could be armed and made ready for launch, followed by a full-scale military invasion of Cuba. At the other end, some of Kennedy’s advisers favored a purely diplomatic response including strongly-worded warnings to Castro and Khrushchev they hoped would result in the supervised removal of the Soviet missiles and dismantling of the launch sites. Kennedy, however, chose to take a course in the middle. His Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara had suggested a naval blockade of Cuba as a restrained military action. However, in delicate diplomacy, every word matters, and the word â€Å"blockade† was a problem. In international law, a â€Å"blockade† is considered an act of war. So, on October 22, Kennedy ordered the U.S. Navy to establish and enforce a strict naval â€Å"quarantine† of Cuba. The same day, President Kennedy sent a letter to Soviet premier Khrushchev making it clear that further delivery of offensive weapons to Cuba would not be allowed, and that the Soviet missile bases already under construction or completed should be dismantled and all weapons returned to the Soviet Union. Kennedy Informs the American People Early in the evening of October 22, President Kennedy appeared live across all U.S. television networks to inform the nation of the Soviet nuclear threat developing just 90 miles from American shores. In his televised address, Kennedy personally condemned Khrushchev for the â€Å"clandestine, reckless and provocative threat to world peace† and warned that the United States was prepared to retaliate in kind should any Soviet missiles be launched. â€Å"It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union,† stated President Kennedy. Kennedy went on to explain his administration’s plan for dealing with the crisis through the naval quarantine. â€Å"To halt this offensive buildup, a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated,† he said. â€Å"All ships of any kind bound for Cuba, from whatever nation or port, will, if found to contain cargoes of offensive weapons, be turned back.† Kennedy also stressed that the U.S. quarantine would not prevent food and other humanitarian â€Å"necessities of life† from reaching the Cuban people, â€Å"as the Soviets attempted to do in their Berlin blockade of 1948.† Mere hours before Kennedy’s address, the Joint Chiefs of Staff had placed all U.S. military forces on DEFCON 3 status, under which the Air Force stood ready to launch retaliatory attacks within 15 minutes. Khrushchev’s Response Raises Tensions At 10:52 pm EDT, on October 24, President Kennedy received a telegram from Khrushchev, in which the Soviet Premier stated, â€Å"if you [Kennedy] weigh the present situation with a cool head without giving way to passion, you will understand that the Soviet Union cannot afford not to decline the despotic demands of the USA.† In the same telegram, Khrushchev stated that he had ordered Soviet ships sailing for Cuba to ignore the U.S. naval â€Å"blockade,† which the Kremlin considered to be â€Å"an act of aggression.† During October 24 and 25, despite Khrushchev’s message, some ships bound for Cuba turned back from the U.S. quarantine line. Other ships were stopped and searched by U.S. naval forces but were found not to contain offensive weapons and allowed to sail on for Cuba. However, the situation was actually growing more desperate as U.S. reconnaissance flights over Cuba indicated that work on the Soviet missile sites was continuing, with several nearing completion. US Forces Go to DEFCON 2 In light of the latest U-2 photos, and with no peaceful end to the crisis in sight, the Joint Chiefs of Staff placed U.S. forces at readiness level DEFCON 2; an indication that war involving the Strategic Air Command (SAC) was imminent. During the DEFCON 2 period, about 180 of SAC’s more than 1,400 long-range nuclear bombers remained on airborne alert and some 145 U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles were placed on ready status, some aimed at Cuba, some at Moscow. On the morning of October 26, President Kennedy told his advisers that while he intended to allow the naval quarantine and diplomatic efforts more time to work, he feared that removing the Soviet missiles from Cuba would ultimately require a direct military attack. As America held its collective breath, the risky art of atomic diplomacy faced its greatest challenge. Khrushchev Blinks First On the afternoon of October 26, the Kremlin appeared to soften its stance. ABC News correspondent John Scali informed the White House that a â€Å"Soviet agent† had personally suggested to him that Khrushchev might order the missiles removed from Cuba if President Kennedy personally promised not to invade the island. While the White House was unable to confirm the validity of Scali’s â€Å"back channel† Soviet diplomatic offer, President Kennedy received an eerily similar message from Khrushchev himself on the evening of October 26. In an uncharacteristically long, personal and emotional note, Khrushchev expressed a desire to avoid the horrors of a nuclear holocaust. â€Å"If there is no intention,† he wrote, â€Å"to doom the world to the catastrophe of thermonuclear war, then let us not only relax the forces pulling on the ends of the rope, let us take measures to untie that knot. We are ready for this.† President Kennedy decided not to respond to Khrushchev at the time.   Out of the Frying Pan, but Into the Fire However, the next day, October 27, the White House learned that Khrushchev was not exactly that â€Å"ready† to end the crisis. In a second message to Kennedy, Khrushchev emphatically demanded that any deal to remove Soviet missiles from Cuba had to include the removal of U.S. Jupiter missiles from Turkey. Once again, Kennedy chose not to respond. Later the same day, the crisis deepened when a U.S. U–2 reconnaissance jet was shot down by a surface-to-air (SAM) missile launched from Cuba. The U-2 pilot, U.S. Air Force Major Rudolf Anderson Jr., died in the crash. Khrushchev claimed that the Major Anderson’s plane had been shot down by the â€Å"Cuban military† on orders issued by Fidel Castro’s brother Raul. While President Kennedy had previously stated he would retaliate against Cuban SAM sites if they fired on U.S. planes, he decided not to do so unless there were further incidents. While continuing to search for a diplomatic resolution, Kennedy and his advisors began planning an attack on Cuba to be carried out as soon as possible in order to prevent more nuclear missile sites from becoming operational. As this point, President Kennedy still had not responded to either of Khrushchev’s messages. Just in Time, a Secret Agreement In a risky move, President Kennedy decided to respond to Khrushchev’s first less demanding message and ignore the second one. Kennedy’s response to Khrushchev suggested a plan for the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba to be overseen by the United Nations, in return for assurances that the United States would not invade Cuba. Kennedy, however, made no mention of the U.S. missiles in Turkey. Even as President Kennedy was responding to Khrushchev, his younger brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, was secretly meeting with Soviet Ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Dobrynin. In their October 27 meeting, Attorney General Kennedy told Dobrynin that the United States had been planning to remove its missiles from Turkey and would proceed to do so, but that this move could not be made public in any agreement ending the Cuban missile crisis. Dobrynin related the details of his meeting with Attorney General Kennedy to the Kremlin and on the morning of October 28, 1962, Khrushchev publicly stated that all Soviet missiles would be dismantled and removed from Cuba. While the missile crisis was essentially over, the U.S. naval quarantine continued until November 20, 1962, when the Soviets agreed to remove their IL–28 bombers from Cuba. Interestingly, the U.S. Jupiter missiles were not removed from Turkey until April 1963. The Legacy of the Missile Crisis As the defining and most desperate event of the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis helped to improve the world’s negative opinion of the United States after its failed Bay of Pigs invasion and strengthened President Kennedy’s overall image at home and abroad. In addition, the secretive and dangerously confusing nature of vital communications between the two superpowers as the world teetered on the brink of nuclear war resulted in the installation of the so-called â€Å"Hotline† direct telephone link between the White House and the Kremlin. Today, the â€Å"Hotline† still exists in the form of a secure computer link over which messages between the White House and Moscow are exchanged by email. Finally and most importantly, realizing they had brought the world to the brink of Armageddon, the two superpowers began to consider scenarios for ending the nuclear arms race and began working toward a permanent nuclear Test Ban Treaty.