Brand management and the marketing mix model

ABSTRACT Brand management is typically defined as the way in which brands are positioned in the marketplace, both in terms of tangibles such as price, packaging and the marketing mix and intangibles such as consumer perceptions and brand equity. The conventional marketing mix model is often used to inform the tangible elements, but is lacking into two key aspects. Firstly, it ignores the role of intangibles. Secondly, the focus is solely on individual brands in isolation. This ignores the wider competitive context, where the decision to choose one brand is the simultaneous decision not to choose another. Successful brand management, however, requires a simultaneous holistic view of all players. To address both issues, this article argues for a dynamic time series version of the discrete choice attraction model. Firstly, the demand system structure treats the entire category as a single unit, capturing competitive steal, cannibalisation, halo and category expansion effects of brand-specific marketing. This provides accurate marketing return on investment and budget allocation, facilitating the manufacturer-retailer relationship. Secondly, the time series approach allows us to quantify the evolution and drivers of consumer brand tastescritical to understanding brand intangibles. This enables managers to set marketing strategy for optimal long-term brand performance

Children's processing and comprehension of complex sentences containing temporal connectives:the influence of memory on the time course of accurate responses

In a touch screen paradigm, we recorded 3- to 7-year-olds’ (N = 108) accuracy and response times to assess their comprehension of two-clause sentences containing before and after. Children were influenced by order: performance was most accurate when the presentation order of the two clauses matched the chronological order of events: ‘She drank the juice, before she walked in the park’ (chronological order) vs ‘Before she walked in the park, she drank the juice’ (reverse order). Differences in response times for correct responses varied by sentence type: accurate responses were made more speedily for sentences that afforded an incremental processing of meaning. An independent measure of memory predicted this pattern of performance. We discuss these findings in relation to children’s knowledge of connective meaning and the processing requirements of sentences containing temporal connectives

Mr Upjohn’s Debts: Money and Friendship in Early Colonial Calcutta

The paper discusses the effective operation of money and credit among Europeans in Calcutta around 1800, arguing for the importance of informal processes and ties of friendship that facilitated, regulated and enforced agreements, helping both to tide over individuals in times of economic stress and to underwrite the provision and transfer of capital. The argument is advanced by a detailed case study in regard to debts owed by one resident, Aaron Upjohn, to another, Richard Blechynden, amidst a web of acquaintance, officialdom and law that variously ensured that the debts were honoured. It is defined as ‘a support system among acquaintances, necessitated in part by shortage of money and abundance of risk’

Emergence of Topologically Nontrivial Spin-Polarized States in a Segmented Linear Chain.

The synthesis of new materials with novel or useful properties is one of the most important drivers in the fields of condensed matter physics and materials science. Discoveries of this kind are especially significant when they point to promising future basic research and applications. van der Waals bonded materials comprised of lower-dimensional building blocks have been shown to exhibit emergent properties when isolated in an atomically thin form [1-8]. Here, we report the discovery of a transition metal chalcogenide in a heretofore unknown segmented linear chain form, where basic building blocks each consisting of two hafnium atoms and nine tellurium atoms (Hf_{2}Te_{9}) are van der Waals bonded end to end. First-principle calculations based on density functional theory reveal striking crystal-symmetry-related features in the electronic structure of the segmented chain, including giant spin splitting and nontrivial topological phases of selected energy band states. Atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy reveals single segmented Hf_{2}Te_{9} chains isolated within the hollow cores of carbon nanotubes, with a structure consistent with theoretical predictions. van der Waals bonded segmented linear chain transition metal chalcogenide materials could open up new opportunities in low-dimensional, gate-tunable, magnetic, and topological crystalline systems

The Second Epoch: Liberal Imperialism and Decolonization. 1846-1974.

The costs and benefits of European Imperialism from the conquest of Ceuta, 1415, to the Treaty of Lusaka, 1974.Twelfth International Economic History Congress. Madrid, 1998.Patrick K. O'Brien and Leandro Prados de la Escosura (eds.)Editada en la Fundación Empresa PúblicaPedro Lains. An Account of the Portuguese African Empire, 1885-1975.-- Pedro Fraile and Alvaro Escribano. The Spanish 1898 Disaster: The Drift towards National-Protectionism.-- Pierre Van Der Eng. Exploring Exploitation: The Netherlands and Colonial Indonesia 1870-1940.-- Jean-Pierre Dormois and François Crouzet. The Significance of the French Colonial Empire for French Economic Development (1815-1960).-- Peter Cain. Was it Worth Having? The British Empire 1850-1950.-- Giovanni Federico. Italy's Late Unprofitable Forays into Empire.Publicad

Crisis and recovery: historical perspectives on the Coalition’s economic policies

The current economic crisis, originating in the international financial crash of 2007-8, bears comparison with those of the 1890s and the 1930s. The UK Coalition Government's economic strategy, centring on public spending cuts amounting to £81 billion and tax rises amounting to £29 billion by 2014-15, is designed to boost investor confidence and create space for a rise in domestic investment by the private sector, leading to growth in manufacturing and exports. We can test the likelihood of a positive outcome from this strategy by comparing the current crisis with those of the 1890s and 1930s, since both share its global dimensions. Recovery in the UK during the 1890s and 1930s was led by activity in the domestic rather than the international economy. Although the international economic climate today is more benign than it was in the 1890s or 1930s, its buoyancy could be threatened by currency wars, spreading protectionism and the choking of the fiscal stimulus in the USA. The Coalition's strategy has parallels with the one adopted by the Lloyd George Coalition in the early 1920s. Given the uncertain international outlook and the fragile state of the British economy, the implementation of 1920s-style cuts in a context of 1890s and 1930s-style crises threatens to lead to historically low rates of growth for many years

Amplification of frequency-swept signals in a W-band gyrotron travelling wave amplifier

The frequency agility of a W-band gyrotron travelling wave amplifier (gyro-TWA) was demonstrated by the amplification of a frequency-swept input signal (chirp signal). The gyro-TWA was developed to provide high output power and wide bandwidth by using a helically corrugated interaction region. In the experiment a ~0.5 W signal of linearly swept frequency bandwidth of 1 GHz was amplified and a gain of over 30 dB was measured when driven by a 40 keV, 1.5 A, axis-encircling electron beam

Karyology of three evolutionarily hexaploid southern African species of yellowfish, Labeobarbus Rüppel, 1836 (Cyprinidae)

The karyotypes of three species of yellowfish, namely Labeobarbus marequensis (A. Smith, 1841), L. capensis (A. Smith, 1841) and L. polylepis (Boulenger, 1907), were examined by Giemsa staining using an approach improved for the description of high chromosome numbers. In each case, 2n = 150; no heteromorphic chromosomes were detected; chromosomes in all morphological categories ranged smoothly from large to small, with no distinctly large submetacentric pairs; and metacentric chromosomes showed little variation in size. Labeobarbus marequensis had 26 metacentric (m), 44 submetacentric (sm), 42 subtelocentric (st) and 38 acrocentric (a) chromosomes and a fundamental number (FN) of 262; L. capensis had 16 m, 58 sm, 42 st and 34 a chromosomes and FN = 266; and L. polylepis had 18 m, 60 sm, 42 st and 30 a chromosomes and FN = 270. These results, combined with published literature, imply that Labeobarbus Rüppel, 1836 is an evolutionarily hexaploid African lineage and support its removal from synonymy with the evolutionarily tetraploid Asian genus Tor Gray, 1834. A review of fundamental numbers for conspecific Labeobarbus species examined in different studies implicated karyological technique as a confounding factor in assessing details of karyotypes, leading to recommendations for future karyological studies of barbine fishes. Potential synapomorphies are pointed out in karyological characters of species within Labeobarbus