Keurig Company

Introduction Keurig Inc. is a company that has ventured into the coffee business providing its clients with solutions to quick and effective coffee brewing. Since its inception in 1992, it has established itself with excellence, as its name suggests (Cravens Piercy, 2009).Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on Keurig Company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The company had succeeded in introducing the single-cup brewing system in to the offices and was seeking to expand its customer base to include the at-home segment. However, Keurig needed to employ proper marketing strategies in order to have advantage over the several single-cup competitors in the market. Therefore, the management team re-evaluated the strategies of their product plan and decided to revisit their decisions on the price and marketing strategies. This paper will discuss the appropriateness of the distribution and channel strategies employed by Keurig and also consider the validity of the pricing strategies. It will also look into the types of promotions used for the consumer sales and its appropriateness in today’s market. Distribution and channel strategies Distribution is one of the key elements in the marketing strategy. It helps the firm to expand its reach and to become more profitable. This is basically the process by which a firm makes its products or services available for use by the target market. The channel design used is critical for the particular company. Keurig employed the level one channel since it has a single intermediary – the distributors. For this purpose, Keurig employed several distributors to distribute the coffee brewers throughout the United States. With its several distributors, placement of its equipment was made fast and effective and all the maintenance services required were provided. This distribution and channel system ensured that coffee brewers were provided in offices whe re managers were seeking to eliminate the unnecessary hustles and inconveniences at the workplace in order to improve productivity and employee satisfaction. The distributors also managed the feedback from clients in order to create proper customer relationships and ensure customer satisfaction. The Keurig authorized distributors (KADs) worked together with Keurig, under the supervision of the vice president of sales. These marketing channels helped to bridge the gap between the producer (Keurig) and its consumers. This way, they brought the right products to the right consumers.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The distribution and channel strategies employed by the company ensured effectiveness and efficiency. This marketing strategy is still used today because there is value created by intermediaries. It is created through the reduction of the number of sales contacts required to reach the clients. The main functions of the KADs included the transactional functions, logistical functions and facilitating functions. All these functions are necessary in any vertical marketing system. The KADs performed all their functions well. This includes the distribution and maintenance of the coffee brewers. They also ensured that the feedback on problems was well handled in order to maintain proper customer relations. Pricing strategies for consumer sales Firms usually employ diverse pricing strategies when marketing their goods and products. At times, companies are forced to alter their prices depending on the demand and the presence of competition (Hooley, Piercy, Nicoulau, 2008). In order to select a proper pricing strategy, every business should understand the current market situation. Market research is also an efficient tool when it comes to determining what the clients are willing to pay (Bradley, 2007). One of Keurig’s challenges was the deter mination of the proper pricing strategy for their new product. Therefore, they conducted a market research in order to determine the people’s view on the new product and its price. The types of studies included the intercept surveys, the use of focus groups, an internet-based study and a survey of the current client base. The study area included three cities. All the participants had to consume at least a cup a day. From the study, the results showed that almost all the participants were satisfied with the coffee. Most of them also showed interest in the product concept. The main advantages pointed out by the participants were the convenience and efficiency of the brewing process. The brewer was also easy to use and it required minimal time to clean up. In order to gain insight on the pricing of the commodity, the management team reviewed previous market research that had been done. In addition to this, they wanted to determine the views of the participants concerning the pri ce of the products.Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on Keurig Company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Since the participants were satisfied with the commodity, they expressed their desires concerning the price. Most of them were willing to pay $0.55 for a cup of that coffee. Their response on the price of the coffee maker was also positive. For a price range of between $69 and $149, they were willing to pay over $130 for the coffee maker (Cravens Piercy, 2009). Another pricing strategy that Keurig used was the use of discount pricing. This was particularly when it came to the sale of their coffee makers in the offices. The coffee makers were given either without any charge or at a low monthly rental. This discounted pricing strategy was necessary for promoting its product and attracting new customers. Promotions for consumers Promotion is another element in the marketing strategy. This involves activities th at include the sale, advertisement, direct marketing and publicising of the company’s products and services. One of the promotion (marketing) strategies employed by Keurig was providing the coffee brewers to offices free of charge. This strategy was appropriate and is still appropriate today because it one of the best ways to get people’s attention. This is what is referred to as the free-prize-inside effect. Giving commodities free of charge does not devalue the product but only raises its visibility. This form of marketing seeks to take the word out about a new product. Keurig employed this strategy and in exchange, they made coffee sales. According to the marketing research conducted, the studies showed that the company’s product was a demonstrations-driven product. This meant that the company needed to put in place proper strategies of demonstrating the system to its customers. In order to advertise its products, Keurig launched point-of-sale advertising. Th ese were developed and displayed on the brewers. The company, with the help of a majority of the Keurig authorized distributors, participated in the joint marketing program to ensure the sale of brewers that had advertising. Another promotional strategy employed by the company was the use of the internet to conduct an internet direct marketing campaign. The main objective of this campaign was to create awareness of Keurig’s products and services.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Through this campaign, Keurig received several emails from current clients inquiring of the availability of the company’s products for home use. Therefore, the internet provided a proper avenue for advertising. Keurig also used a public relations campaign together with other marketing exercises to reach its clients. One of the key objectives of promotion in marketing is to differentiate a product. Keurig was seeking to differentiate its product – which was the away-from-home business that focused on distributing its products to offices. It wanted to introduce this product to include home usage. This led to the introduction of the Keurig-Cup for the home market. This was also driven by the demand by the ever-increasing client base. The new product (Keurig-Cup) was to be distinguished by colour and design. They were tan in colour and had a distinct base area. Sale of the Keurig-Cups was both direct and indirect. The KADs made direct sales to the target market. The roaste rs, on the other hand, made sales in both direct and indirect markets. This included making sales over the internet. Conclusion Keurig Inc. is a company that has specialised in the distribution of coffee products and coffee makers. It has succeeded in providing an away-from-home solution to coffee making and has provided a number of offices with the coffee makers that have made brewing easier. This efficiency may be seen in the speed at which the machine makes coffee. In addition to this, the coffee makers require minimal cleaning. The company was seeking to also venture into the at-home consumer market and this was to be done by introducing the Keurig-Cup that would be used in the homes. Keurig used a network of distributors for their distribution strategy. This included the use of Keurig authorized distributors. These distributors ensured that they performed the transactional, logistical and facilitating functions. For the pricing strategy, the company performed a market research in order to determine what the customers were willing to pay. Keurig also promoted its new product effectively in order to capture the attention of the potential clients. References Bradley, N. (2007). Marketing research: Tools and techniques. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cravens, D. W., Piercy, N. F. (2009). Strategic marketing (9th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Hooley, G., Piercy, N. F., Nicoulau, B. (2008). Marketing strategy and competitive positioning (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. This case study on Keurig Company was written and submitted by user Damari Herman to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Quine-duhem thesis and Popper essays

Quine-duhem thesis and Popper essays Does the Quine-Duhem thesis create insurmountable problems for Poppers falsificationist methodology of science? Karl Popper can be credited with positing an alternative, original methodology of science that escapes, it would appear, many of the Humean problems to induction. What follows is a careful examination of the falsificationist philosophy where it shall be shown that falsificationism is not as coherent a philosophy as one might think, and that the objection in the form of the Quine-Duhem thesis renders Poppers position deeply precarious with few escape routes. The relation of observation experiences to language shall take a key place in this essay for it is here more than anywhere else that the debate shall be decided. The argument between realism and anti-realism shall not be gone into too deeply but, for the purpose of this essay, an anti-realist idea of science shall be presupposed in the sense that it will be taken that scientific knowledge is derived from factual statements and not from things in themselves. It shall be concluded that if scientific knowledge cannot transcend and e scape the language or concepts that are employed in expressing it then the Quine-Duhem thesis really does invalidate falsificationism. But after closely looking at the implications of the Quine-Duhem and holism, it shall be shown that Quine and Duhem face severe objections and that upon one interpretation falsificationism can be seen as the means in which holism is justified i.e. how it faces the tribunal of experience en masse. One striking similarity between Popper and Quine is that they were both fallibilists, i.e. they both argued against the absolute truth of scientific theories, theories were for Popper guesses or bold conjectures awaiting refutation. Popper took seriously Humes skepticism of induction and agreed that induction could not justify scientific knowledge; by adopting his...

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Governance and Enterprise Restructuring of Macedonia

Governance and Enterprise Restructuring of Macedonia Abstract: This paper is a case study of the Republic of Macedonia (Southeast Europe), which focuses on examining governance and enterprise restructuring. Governance and enterprise restructuring is already defined indicator in EBRDs studies and transition reports, measuring the effective corporate governance and corporate control exercised through domestic financial institutions and markets, fostering market-driven restructuring. As of the beginning of the transition process, governance and enterprise restructuring remains in the center, as essential pillar, that moves forward the society towards developed market economy. The data used in this article are analyzed with an econometric regression model, which as employed in this study examines the interrelationships between governance and enterprise restructuring and set of policies that influence the governance patterns. JEL Classifications: G30, G32, G38; L33; O11; P31 Keywords: governance, corporate governance, management strategy, transition, Southeast Europe, Macedonia Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Prof. Nicola Bellini for the continuous support, as well as, the PhD Program in Management and MAIN Lab of Scuola Superiore SantAnna, Pisa, Italy Introduction The research in this paper is to be focused on examining governance and enterprise restructuring in Southeast Europe economies and in particular a case study of the Republic of Macedonia. EBRD has governance and enterprise restructuring as basic indicator of economic transition and defines it as effective corporate governance and corporate control exercised through domestic financial institutions and markets, fostering market-driven restructuring. The corporate governance is most often defined in terms of the roles, responsibilities, and interactions of top management and the board of directors. Using data of South-East Europe i.e. case study of Macedonia, will be examined the interrelationships between governance and enterprise restructuring and set of policies that influence the governance patterns. Literature Review There are several contemporary theories that set the foundations of governance and enterprise restructuring within a framework important for this research. The institutional setting is of essence when governance and enterprise restructuring is analyzed in transition economies. Further, the literature on corporate governance is extensive and is linked to important theories, of which the agency theory is fundamentally predominant. The established agency theory highlights the function of corporate governance in the overall enterprise restructuring, ensuring that the firm protects the interests of shareholders in a given institutional context . Thus, the institutional setting has impact on the outcome of companies performance through the very nature of countrys ownership structure and policies undertaken to shape the governance system. When companies are analyzed, it is important to state the presence of different agency conflicts between shareholders and management in a given ownership structure of each country. Hence, different countries have divergent governance systems leading to variations in the nature of the agency problems, where ac cording to the law and economics viewpoint, legal systems craft institutional specificities . The literature further proposes that different national governance systems are also influenced by cultural and historical features in addition to their specific legal system . The links between agency theory and institutional theory explain that divergences in national institutions may have significant impact on the effectiveness of governance at the firm level . The law and economics approach (e.g., ) puts the focus on the fact that the ability to enforce financial contracts and thus increase the effectiveness of governance depends on institutional characteristics . Further, it is stated that in order to complete the frame already set by the agency theory it is necessary to merge it with institutional theory . There are two principal strings of institutional theory fitted to the analysis: a) the first, origins in political science and b) the second is derived from organizational theory . The political science approach focuses on the setup where political and economic institutions create incentives for managers and the way the outcomes are shaped. On the other hand, the organizational theory approach is concerned with the adjusting function of organizations while creating the institutional environment. In this regard, Aggarwal and Goodell argue that national corporate governance differences between countries used in their study are determined by legal, cultural, and other national characteristics . 1. Corporate Strategies in transition economy environment As countries undergo serious system transformations the managers are faced with complex decision-making environment , and thus it is closely regarded that the performance of large enterprises should be linked to managerial flexibility in making strategic decisions within the context of the firms governance. Furthermore, there arent many sources that can point towards emerging corporate governance mechanisms in South-East Europe, although prior research suggests that independent managers and board of directors (corporate governance) may be an important necessity for managerial ability to undertake performance-enhancing strategies . Before restructuring, the revenues were generated by monopolistic structure through a handful of specialized state-owned companies. As the reforms progressed towards free market economy in environment with sluggish internal demand, adopting better strategies may be closely linked to better financial performance of the firm . Moreover, we can see that previo us research has linked strategies with performance , and governance directly with performance , and consequently in this research we will make an essay to implement the governance and enterprise restructuring EBRD indicator as measure against set of policies. Economic reforms introduced in Southeast Europe aimed at increasing enterprise efficiency and making their products internationally competitive and thus reforms were tied with structural crisis . The pre-reform environment that was characterized by import protection and export promotion through monopolistic, state-owned foreign trade companies which in many terms crippled the enterprises to meet overseas threats and as a result made the internationalization of their work very difficult. As liberalization of the market forces and privatization progressed they were meant to eliminate the constraints imposed on managers by state ownership and command economy system . In the case of the Southeast Europe, companies were privatized using range of methods . Thus, the privatization process resulted with diverse range of ownership structures and governance mechanisms . The corporate governance affects enterprises restructuring and financial performance . Indeed, when firms from transition economies are involved in international activities, they are likely to develop their capabilities . As a consequence of the peculiar characteristics of the capital markets in South-East Europe i.e. lack of well developed capital markets, limited portfolio diversification and liquidity, it is often stated that large shareholders could wish to utilize potential upside of a particular business strategy, but they are frequently restrained and affected adversely by the companys idiosyncratic risk . Due to this phenomenon they chose to impose sub-optimal strategies on managers. Moreover, large shareholders in transition countries where the protection of minority investors is low, most often endeavor to take advantage of their power and grasp private benefits of control. This expropriation can be found in a range of forms, such as related party transactions, use of trans fer pricing, assets stripping and other forms of tunnelling of revenue and assets from firms . Therefore, in such economies high ownership concentration was investors response to low levels of protection of minority shareholders in emerging markets . Even though we analyze and focus specifically on Macedonia, variations in governance regimes indicate sufficient international analyses of governance and enterprise restructuring in the specific group of economies that undergo serious difficulties in transformation. Corporate governance and enterprise restructuring in Macedonia 1. Institutional and legal framework The institutional framework is essential in the development of the governance and enterprise restructuring process. There institutions that carry of the process are the Securities Commission and the Macedonian Stock Exchange and are aided by the Central Securities Depository . The legal framework is comprised of sets of laws and regulations including the first 1996 Company Law its enactment of 2004, as well as, the Securities Law, the Law on Takeovers, the Bankruptcy Law, and the Macedonian Stock Exchanges corporate governance code and listing rules . 2. Overall assessment of corporate governance characteristics Macedonias corporate governance model is consistently built since the beginning of transition to modern market economy. Thus, it complies with the notion that each country shapes its particular way of governance due to its own history, culture, and legal and regulatory framework . The main characteristics of the Macedonian corporate governance model are : Gradual concentration of ownership which is reflected through policies leading to dispersed ownership structure of companies to become concentrated over time in a more regular manner. As 2007 IFC Corporate Governance Manual for Macedonian Companies indicates around 300,000 individuals become shareholders in the first phase of the privatization process. Later the process reinforced itself and eventually resulted with 255,000 in 2004 and 105,000 in August 2007 individuals as shareholders. This was result due imposed regulatory reform (Company Law, 1996) and also the development of the capital market urging for voluntary decisions of shareholders to sell their shares on the Macedonian Stock Exchange, characterized with constant default on minority shareholders and investor protection during this period. However, with creation of the Central Securities Depository (state authority for securities registration), the quality of the process had improved. Company shareholders as company employees and vice-versa, describes the phenomenon of the dual role and mutual interaction of these two categories as most of the employees are at the same time shareholders in the company. Thus, there is conflict in the rights and the duties as these two roles, which in essence oppose themselves and exclude each other. Indeed, this characteristic is problem of many transition economies and needs time to be resolved, while is still producing mixed outcomes. As a consequence of the previous two, there is the third main characteristic of the Macedonian economy in light of governance and enterprise restructuring i.e. lack of separation of companys ownership from companys control. This practice, despite the introduced regulation, is still lagging, hence the unfortunate problem where majority-vote shareholders who most often hold companies top positions, trigger overwhelming influence over comprehensive daily work of the enterprise. Further, this reduces and prevents the control systems vigilance and reporting to and from shareholders and investors. The forth important feature derived from the previous, is the inadequate oversight of managements work. This is due the fact that members of the supervisory board are individuals with lack of experience directly appointed by the controlling majority shareholders or in submission to the very persons that they are supposed to control. Research hypotheses Two basic hypotheses to test governance and enterprise restructuring: 1st Hypothesis: Governance and enterprise restructuring depend on set of policies : large-scale privatization, small-scale privatization, price liberalization, competition policy, trade and foreign exchange system, banking reform and interest rate liberalization, securities markets and non-bank financial institutions and overall infrastructure reform; and , 2nd Hypothesis: Governance and enterprise restructuring is significant and improves over time due to imposed policies. Sample selection and Data It this paper it is used the same econometric model as in the first article. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Transition Report series have the latest information on the countries that are classified in transition. The data that this prominent organization offers are based on wide network of sources that they obtain from national and international authorities . EBRD tracks reforms and assesses the overall process of transition using set of transition indicators, which are formed in comparison to the standards of industrialized market economies. Further, the data sample is mainly drawn from the extended research and data bases of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the Transition Report publication series. Consequently, the data used in this research are taken from their index structure economic statistics and forecasts . The scale used in shaping the transition indicators ranges from 1 to 4+, where 1 represents little or no change from a rigid centrally planned economy and 4+ represents the standards of an industrialized market economy . There are detailed numbers for the countries in transition analyzing the period of 1989 to 2009 in different areas. These indicators are sorted by sector and country and are analyzing nine arias: large scale privatization, small scale privatization, governance and enterprise restructuring, price liberalization, trade and foreign exchange system, competition policy, banking reform and interest rate liberalization, securities markets and non-bank financial institution s, and overall infrastructure reform .ÂÂ   Model and Econometrics The econometric model that is used in this study is a regression model where we have estimated the fallowing equation : (1) (2) Thus, applied to our research this model has the fallowing shape: (3) where the dependent variable, . shows governance and enterprise restructuring; the independent variables, are as follows : large-scale privatization; small-scale privatization; price liberalization; competition policy; trade and foreign exchange system; banking reform and interest rate liberalization; securities markets and non-bank financial institutions; overall infrastructure reform; ÂÂ  is aÂÂ  p-dimensionalÂÂ  parameter vector ; ÂÂ  is theÂÂ  error term orÂÂ  noise. Results and Effects The first hypothesis is that governance and enterprise restructuring depend on set of policies: large-scale privatization, small-scale privatization, price liberalization, competition policy, trade and foreign exchange system, banking reform and interest rate liberalization, securities markets and non-bank financial institutions and overall infrastructure reform. The transition theory explains well the effects of privatization, restructuring, competition, budget constraints, policies of governance and management . The country results of the OLS regression for Macedonia (Figure 2) show that there are good results on correlation and dependence of governance and enterprise restructuring to large-scale privatization. However, the coefficients are negative pointing towards possible lag of governance mostly because of country specific dispersed ownership and agency conflicts as analyzed before (CG Manuel-IFC, 2007). The variable explaining trade and foreign exchange system and its relation to GOV behaves with mixed outcome depending on the model. Further, the price liberalization variable shows good results and there is good evidence and correlation between countrys governance, as well as, positive impact on GOV. The banking reform of the system and the interest rate liberalization demonstrated good results in contribution to the governance and enterprise restructuring. In this analysis the overall infrastructure reform has given important input in improving the overall economic governance, but the negative sign suggests some concern, as the disinvestment in infrastructure is constant lag in transition countries. On the other hand, governance and enterprise restructuring have strong relation to the small-scale privatization; competition policy and securities markets and non-bank financial institutions. In the case of these variables, the models have shown evidence i.e. p Figure I. Results of OLS on Macedonia The second hypothesis is that the variable governance and enterprise restructuring is significant and improves over time due to imposed policies. In the analysis (Figure 1) the results confirm this hypothesis with some mixed outcomes i.e. sluggishly improves over time. In fact, the close relation with number of these policies shows the significant impact of these policies to the way the governance and enterprise restructuring was imposed, positively or negatively. Thus, there is significant correlation to SSP, CP, BRIRL and SMNBFI, presenting outcomes to how each of these variables impacts GOV. Nonetheless, over time most of the variables improved and it is clear that there is relationship between them moving upwards. Further in Figure 2 we can see the movements of governance and enterprise restructuring over time. Also, in this case the analyzed variable moved alongside the increase of the other variables and towards positive upward climb. Figure 3 indicates that even though there is positive movement up, governance and enterprise restructuring is still at the bottom of estimated policies progress. Figure I. Macedonias Governance and Enterprise Restructuring Figure I. Indicators Dynamics Discussion On the first assumption that governance and enterprise restructuring depend on imposed set of policies, the analysis showed that there are mixed outcomes. There are positive and negative influences that eventually bring satisfactory picture for the overall governance and enterprise restructuring. On the other hand, due to analysis of the second assumption it is clear that as the transition process progressed along with the imposed reforms and there is a positive inclination of governance and enterprise restructuring. However, there is still more to be done in order to bring these economies closer to the standards of developed ones. Indeed, it is needed considerable improvement of corporate governance, institution-building to control agency problems and imposing already adopted regulation, as well as, enforcing new enterprise restructuring policies, within existing policies of overall transition economy restructuring.

Essay -- Papers

[IMAGE] A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERIODIC TABLE Although Dmitri Mendeleev is often considered the "father" of the periodic table, the work of many scientists contributed to its present form. [IMAGE] In the Beginning A necessary prerequisite to the construction of the periodic table was the discovery of the individual elements. Although elements such as gold, silver, tin, copper, lead and mercury have been known since antiquity, the first scientific discovery of an element occurred in 1649 when Hennig Brand discovered phosphorous. During the next 200 years, a vast body of knowledge concerning the properties of elements and their compounds was acquired by chemists (view a 1790 article on the elements). By 1869, a total of 63 elements had been discovered. As the number of known elements grew, scientists began to recognize patterns in properties and began to develop classification schemes. Law of Triads In 1817 Johann Dobereiner noticed that the atomic weight of strontium fell midway between the weights of calcium and barium, elements possessing similar chemical properties. In 1829, after discovering the halogen triad composed of chlorine, bromine, and iodine and the alkali metal triad of lithium, sodium and potassium he proposed that nature contained triads of elements the middle element had properties that were an average of the other two members when ordered by the atomic weight (the Law of Triads). This new idea of triads became a popular area of study. Between 1829 and 1858 a number of scientists (Jean Baptiste Dumas, Leopold Gmelin, Ernst Lenssen, Max von Pettenkofer, and J.P. Cooke) fou... ... varied periodically with atomic number. The question of why the periodic law exists was answered as scientists developed an understanding of the electronic structure of the elements beginning with Niels Bohr's studies of the organization of electrons into shells through G.N. Lewis' (see a picture) discoveries of bonding electron pairs. The Modern Periodic Table The last major changes to the periodic table resulted from Glenn Seaborg's work in the middle of the 20th Century. Starting with his discovery of plutonium in 1940, he discovered all the transuranic elements from 94 to 102. He reconfigured the periodic table by placing the actinide series below the lanthanide series. In 1951, Seaborg was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work. Element 106 has been named seaborgium (Sg) in his honor.