Demographics Ice Cream Industry - 1600 Words

Demographics of the Ice Cream Industry The Canadian demographic for ice cream has been a constant presence of a sweet treat on a hot summer day. Thankfully, Canadians love ice cream, and enjoy it all year around. But, just who is enjoying this delicious milky treat, and what opportunities and threats does that leave the ice cream industry with? Opportunities Canadians have loved ice cream for centuries, and it shows today as children as young as ages 2-12, and folks as mature as 75 and up love ice cream. (Canadians Crazy for Ice Cream, 2010, Para. 12). Parents have also been giving their children exposure to ice cream at ages as little as one year in moderation. This opportunity will allow ice cream to bring them childhood memories and†¦show more content†¦Yet, where there are micro environmental factors, there’s also macro. Macro environmental factors are affected by natural disasters such as the fire that caused $2million of damages at Chapman’s institution of Markdale (CTV Toronto, 2009, Para. 1 16), which posed as a threat because the result was loss of an entire product plant as well as product growth. Other macro environmental factors also include the economy. If the economy goes down, the less people will spend money and the more they’ll cut out the little things, like ice cream. Other threats to obtaining the demographic span can be as simple as people who are lactose intolerant. Being lactose intolerant is actually having the high sugars in milk products not properly being broken down in the body. However, ice cream provides these high sugars, making it difficult and uncomfortable for the body to digest. (Canadian Digestive Health Foundation, 2013, para.1) While this seems like a mild threat, it holds the value of over 7 million Canadians who suffer from lactose intolerance and are not able to enjoy milk products, resulting in a large loss. (Canadian Digestive Health Foundation, 2013, Para 2) Opportunity or Threat. DEMOGRAPHIC Ice cream is becoming exposed to children at young ages.(Mamapedia, 2012, Para. 2) -This is an opportunity for the ice cream industry because as the ice cream industry grows, people grow with it. The early exposure of ice cream to children can create cravings,Show MoreRelatedThe Market Value of Frozen Yogurt in New Zealand Essay641 Words   |  3 PagesChoice† frozen yogurt company is a speciality shop for frozen yoghurt. In the frozen dessert industry, frozen yogurt is a new popular dessert since ice cream. Although frozen yogurt businesses have developed greatly in the past few years in New Zealand, and are going strong in the future. Frozen dessert category is characterized by high demand in New Zealand and Australia. New Zealanders love their ice cream products than other country people. Many big manufacturers sell their products through retailRead MoreIce Fili Is The Top Ice Cream Company1373 Words   |  6 PagesCase Analysis #1 Questions Case: Ice-Fili Introduction Ice-Fili is the top ice cream producer in Russia. Currently, the company is experiencing tough competition with Nestle, Baskin-Robbins and regional ice cream producers. Its loss in market share due to their poor quality decisions-making after Russia became an open marketing in 1992. Nestle took great advantage of Ice-Fili’s low reaction adjustment and is taking over their market. 1. Which segments of the general external environment, if anyRead MoreIce Fili Case Study Solution756 Words   |  4 Pages- While analyzing the Ice-Fili case study, I determined that all six parts of the general external environment are applicable. With the economic crisis and the dissolution of the Soviet Union an open market economy emerged. An open-market system meant that the government had little to do with the regulation of the market which created issues because companies just like Ice-Fili could not patent or trademark some of their best-selling ice cream creations. Companies took advantage of this and put theirRead MoreEnvironmental Changes to Marketing Mix1615 Words   |  7 Pagescompany s marketing mix: The different aspects of the marketing mix will be assessed with regards to the forces in the marketing environment for ice-cream and food retailer, the Swenson s Group (the Company) operating in the Thai market. The context in which the changes in marketing mix will be examined will be based on their products, eg: ice-cream and food Ââ€" economic and the services, eg: customer service, retail premises etc. Describe more about the company/product. PROMOTION: The CompanyRead MoreBackground of Magnum Ice1122 Words   |  5 PagesBackground of Magnum Ice-Cream Streets are an Australian company originating from New South Wales. Set up in the 1920’s by Edwin ‘Ted’ Street, Street began selling ice-cream to the local community along with selling sweets, cakes and lemonade from the back of his shop (Streets 2009). Due to the impending demand and popularity of his products, Edwin set up the first Streets factory for production of ice-cream in 1923. Edwin- along with his son Ronald Street managed to maintain a strong reputationRead MoreJordan and Ice Cream809 Words   |  4 PagesCASE : SADAFCO What are the strategies and business models of SADAFCO and the MNCs? SADAFCO in accordance to other MNC:s managed to diversify their business in order to maintain and possibly also strengthen their position within their industry. SADAFCO went from initially being a milk producer to becoming a producer of other food products that had a similar production process as their milk production. They managed to successfully take advantage of synergy effects and scale economies andRead MoreMarble Slab Creamery: Marketing Challenge faced by Penny Thomas1156 Words   |  5 Pagescapabilities to make this franchise successful? Internal analysis of the proposed Marble Slab franchise: Strengths- support from experts, certified kosher ingredients, established brand recognition, product differentiation between customized ice cream and mixins, Penny’s personal experience as a buyer for Hudson’s Bay Co and her business background, help from brand management experts. Weaknesses- limited support from Rhea, low promotional budget of $10,000, lack of creativity in pricing - whichRead MoreLegal Form Of Ownership : Sundae Magic, Llc Essay1575 Words   |  7 Pagesbusiness plans, company goals, policies, and marketing tactics. Will oversee all aspects of the operations of Sundae Magic, LLC and will also be responsible for generating business development opportunities to achieve and maintain growth within the industry. The Chief Operations Officer will also direct the Shift Supervisor, and ensure on-site locations are operating efficiently and within the standards and regulations that are required by statute. This position will also be required to establish andRead MoreHaagen Dazs Marketing Plan1213 Words   |  5 Pageseffect our industry market and how to effect our customer relationship to make it successful The marketing environments can analysis both of micro-environment and macro-environment. The micro-environment can analysis our company how to serve our customer â€Å"which is included the company, supplier, marketing intermediaries, customer markets, competitor and public†.(Philip 2010). The macro-environment is analysis outside company to effect micro-environment â€Å"which is included demographic, economic,Read MoreMarble Slab Case Analysis2962 Words   |  12 PagesEXECUTIVE SUMMARY Company: Marble Slab is a company that is famous for making fresh ice cream. It sells its premium prestige ice cream that is made daily with unique toppings. The unique thing about Marble Slab is the customers’ ability to completely customize their ice cream the way that they want to eat it. Instead of having a predetermined flavour, customers are able to mix their flavours of ice cream that they please and put a numerous amount of toppings on them that include Bananas, Strawberries

Social Media Strategy of Sainsburys - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 8 Words: 2496 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Marketing Essay Type Case study Level High school Did you like this example? This essay contains a brief introduction which will contextualise and define and the term social media marketing strategy. It will then analyse the UK supermarket chain Sainsburys social media marketing strategy with particular attention paid to their strengths and weaknesses. The conclusion will provide a concise set of recommendations for improvement which will be underpinned by academic theory. Introduction Use of the internet has shifted since its begging where individuals created and published content, to what is currently known as web 2.0, whereby content is continuously changed and updated by other users, essentially creating collaborative content (Oreilly, 2007). Web 2.0 can be seen as holding the ideological and technological enabler of social media (Kaplan and Heliean, 2010). Social media is defined as Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking (Oxford Dictionary, 2015). As such a social media marketing strategy can be understood to be how a firm tries to use social media for promotion with the aim of achieving their business objectives. Most firms use social media to communicate with external third parties, commonly adopting a multipronged strategy operating across numerous social platforms (Piskorski, 2011). The other key way in which firms use social media is for internal communication known as enterprise so cial media (ESM). Leonardi, Huysman, and Steinfield (2013) define ESM as Web-based platforms that allow workers to (1) communicate messages with specific co-workers or broadcast messages to everyone in the organization; (2) explicitly indicate or implicitly reveal particular co-workers as communication partners; (3) post, edit, and sort text and files linked to themselves or others; and (4) view the messages, connections, text, and files communicated, posted, edited and sorted by anyone else in the organization at any time of their choosing.. In line with Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) the four types of social media this essay focuses on are, collaborative projects, content communities, blogs and social networking sites. Sainsburys is one of the leading retailers in the UK with a current market share of 16.8%, and has diversified into services namely the finance and energy solutions sectors (Marketline advantage, 2015). Currently listed on Sainsburys social media page they have 4 twi tter accounts, a Facebook page, a YouTube channel and a Flikr profile (Sainsburys, 2015a), they also have created their own content community online called TrolleyTalk (Trolley Talk. 2015) which facilitates discussion among stakeholders on any issue regarding supermarket trade, as well as an ESM platform Yammer (Brooks, 2015). Currently Sainsburys external social media strategy incorporates three main elements, Customer service, Crisis control and sales. Sales appears to be the most prevalent across all platforms with their main twitter account, Facebook page and YouTube channel primarily attempting to stimulate sales through promoting recipes and competitions. The profile for Sainsburys main twitter account reads delicious recipes, food inspiration, competitions and customer service. Got a question? Our team is here to help! (Twitter, 2015a). The secondary aim appears to be raising brand awareness by promoting their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity, brand values an d press releases, seen on their twitter account @sainsburysnews (Twitter, 2015b). While their ESM objectives appear to be improving internal connectivity, sharing ideas and celebrating success (Brooks, 2015). An analysis of the strengths of this social media strategy will follow. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Social Media Strategy of Sainsburys" essay for you Create order Strengths of Sainsburys social media marketing strategy Klout a social media tool which is used to measure brand influence, has found Sainsburys to have the most influence on social media of any UK retailer (Briggs, 2014). This suggests that the way in which Sainsburys are using social media is extremely successful (Boyd, 2014) and the following section looks at three of the determining key factors of this. Firstly Sainsburys have partnered with a social media crisis management specialist Conversocial (Joeseph, 2013) in order to rapidly identify consumer issues on social media. This software is extremely useful to provide overviews during wide-scale crisis such as the horsegate scandal when horse meat was found in products in UK supermarkets including Sainsburys (BBC, 2013), but also for providing excellent customer service to dissatisfied customers. Due to the dynamic and public nature of social media dissatisfied customers now have the tools to be heard by millions and seriously damage a brands reputation (Gillian, 2007), but thi s also presents an opportunity for a firm to publically showcase their excellent customer service and improve their brand. Tax, Brown, and Chandrashekaran (1998) found that customer service which left a dissatisfied customer feeling satisfied actually improved a brand image further than if they had been satisfied with the original service they received. Conversocials software allows Sainsburys to pull all social media activity regarding them into one stream, theoretically giving the ability to respond to any comment within 45 minutes. This not only gives them the ability to respond to large issues (such as the horsegate scandal) but also listen to individual customers issues and respond to them efficiently in the public domain, not only improving their brand with that individual customer, but with the wider audience. An example of a customer response by Sainsburys which went viral was a humorous response to a letter from a 3 year old girl regarding the name of one of their products. The exchange received more than 14,000 shares on social media sites, and resulted in Sainsburys renaming their product due to popular demand (Sheriff, 2013), resultantly receiving positive nationwide brand exposure due to coverage by the BBC (BBC 2013). Secondly Sainsburys have not merely adopted usage of existing social media channels, but have been proactive about creating two of their own TrolleyTalk and Yammer. TrolleyTalk allows Sainsburys the opportunity to not only dictate the marketing message they wish to portray, but also to shape the conversation happening between consumers (Mangold and Faulds, 2009), allowing Sainsburys to positively influence consumer brand perception. On their website Sainsburys claim this platform gives them the opportunity to reach approximately 4,000 people per week and gain rich insight on issues which concern customers and take immediate and effective action. The example they give is that during the recent UK supermarket price war on milk, co nsumers were becoming increasingly concerned with the negative effect on dairy farmers. Resultant of identifying this issue on the platform TrolleyTalk, Sainsburys took the initiative to advertise that they pay their dairy farmers a higher rate than their competitors (Sainsburys, 2015b). A study by Millward Brown digital cited in Sarner et al, (2011) found that brands which have online communities drove up to 12 times the traffic and made double the amount of online sales conversion than brands which solely used existing social channels. The final key strength of Sainsburys social media marketing is the high level of cross platform cohesiveness in the message they deliver. Their YouTube, Facebook and Twitter accounts all primarily generate food and recipe based content, and appear to be used for customer service. This cohesiveness avoids any confusion which can be caused by conflicting messages across different platforms (Mangold and Faulds, 2009). Weaknesses of Sainsburys social media strategy Bull (2012) argues the case for brand journalism, and states that all communication by a firm must be consistent with their core values. While Sainsburys social media marketing strategy has a high level of cross platform congruency, it does not fully match up with their overall business strategy written on their website Our strategy: We know our customers better than anyone else. We will be there whenever and wherever they need us, offering great products and services at fair prices. Our colleagues make the difference, our values make us different. (Sainsburys, 2015c). While TrolleyTalk arguably provides them with a great opportunity to get to know their customers better, and Conversocial allows Sainsburys to efficiently engage with customers who require attention, Sainsburys social media has very little emphasis on promoting the values which they claim differentiate them. Sainsburys main twitter account very rarely if at all mentions the distinguishing corporate values upon whic h their strategy is based. They have a twitter account @sainsburysnews (twitter, 2015b) which provides updates on these sorts of issues, and despite having 10 times less followers, the posts on this account have a similar level of engagement to that of the main account @sainsburys. This points towards this content being far more engaging for consumers than what is currently being promoted on the main page. Sainsburys have four twitter accounts, which on average tweet 4 times per day each. Rowles (2014) suggests that the optimum amount of times for a brand to tweet is four per day, in order to prevent clogging up users feeds. While each individual Sainsburys account adheres to this basic principle, if a customer has subscribed to more than one of the accounts they will receive far more, up to four times the recommended amount of contact, which could prove invasive for consumers and make them unsubscribe from one or more accounts, regardless of whether they found the content engagi ng. If Sainsburys were to reduce the number of accounts they have on each platform it is possible Sainsburys would receive a higher level of social media engagement as well as reaching a larger audience (Singh, Veron-Jackson and Cullinane, 2008). This would give higher visibility to content regarding Sainsburys core values and the recent partnership with Argos digital which is being integrated into selected stores, maximising the impact of their competitive advantage on both fronts. While Sainsburys has recently adopted the use of an ESM platform called Yammer, it only has 10,000 users (Brooks, 2015). Sainsburys currently has 160,500 employees (Marketline Advantage, 2015) which highlights the small extent to which ESM is being used by Sainsburys. ESM can improve internal communications between the workforce and be used to promote the brand internally, and be used as a tool to manage the psychological contract (Mazzei, 2010) and as such this represents a missed opportunity. This w eakness ties in with the final one which will be discussed, which is the lack of visibility by the CEO on social media. Currently the CEO of Sainsburys Mike Coupe has a distinct lack of personal visibility on social media. Dutta (2010) found there to be three main benefits of a firms CEO having a notable social media presence. Firstly social media both internal and external, aids an executive in engaging with important contacts. It allows them to strengthen relationships or personify the companys support for a cause which adds credibility. Secondly the CEO can use social media to engage employees internally, enabling the CEO to increase his personal support through high internal visibility, which leads onto the third benefit which is learning. By having a higher profile within the company and being open to learn a CEO can gain feedback on any large scale changes from the workforce, which can lead to strategic changes having lower levels of opposition making them easier to impleme nt and in turn reduce staff turnover, an opportunity Coupe is currently not exploiting. Recommendations for improvement The following recommendations are resultant of the above analysis. It is recommended Sainsburys merge their @sainsburys and @sainsburysnews twitter accounts, providing half of the original content from each. This will allow them to promote their brand values to a much wider audience, and reduce the chance of excessive contact becoming invasive. In line with Rowles (2014) it is recommended they continue to tweet 4 times per day, only if they have content which they believe is worthwhile and will be of interest to their audience. It is recommended that Sainsburys advance efforts to increase participation on the internal social media platform Yama. A SWOT analysis conducted by Marketline Advantage (2015) found that the major threat to Sainsburys is the rising labour costs in the UK. As a result it is recommended that internal marketing and branding can be used in order to improve the psychological contract and resultantly raise employee retention (Mazzei, 2010). This will help to address the threat caused by rising labour costs by reducing recruitment and training costs associated with taking on new staff. It is recommended that the CEO of Sainsburys Mike Coupe starts to become an active user on both internal and external social media platforms. Internally high CEO visibility and approachability will go some way to improving the perception Sainsburys workforce has of its employer and will help to reduce staff turnover. It is recommended Coupe uses external social media to promote Sainsburys core brand values. If done strategically he can be used to personify the ethical values held by the company and strengthen the support the British public have of these values. This will not only make their campaigns further reaching, but it will also improve their credibility (Dutta, 2010). References BBC. (2013a). QA: Horsemeat scandal. Available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21335872 BBC. (2013b). Tiger bread renamed giraffe bread by Sainsburys. Available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16812545 Books, B. (2015). Sainsburys introduces Yammer social network for staff. Available: https://m.thegrocer.co.uk/people/people-news/sainsburys-introduces-yammer-social-network-for-staff/513910.article Boyd, L. (2014). Social Media. In: Jones, D Brand Fammous. Cornwall: Capstone. 1-287. Briggs, F. (2014). Sainsburys is most socially influential UK retail brand, new ranking finds. Available: https://www.retailtimes.co.uk/sainsburys-socially-influential-uk-retail-brand-new-ranking-finds/ Bull, A (2012). Brand Journalism. Abbingdon: Routledge. 1-322. Gillian, P. (2007). In: The new influencers: A marketers guide to the new social media.. Sanger: Quill driver books Joeseph, S. (2013). Sainsburys launches bid to drive social customer service. Available: https://www.ma rketingweek.com/2013/09/23/sainsburys-launches-bid-to-drive-social-customer-service/ Kaplan, A. and Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizens. 53 (1), 59-68. Oreilly, T. (2007). What is Web 2.0: Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software. Communications strategies, (1), 17. Oxford Dictionary. (2015). Social Media. Available: https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/social-media Leonardi, P. Huysman, M and Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise Social Media: Definition, History, and Prospects for the Study of Social Technologies in Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 19 (1), 1-19. Mangold, W and Faulds, D. (2009). Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business Horizens. 52 (1), 357-365. Marketline Advantage. (2015). J Sainsbury PLC. A company profile. Mazzei, A. (2010). Promoting active communication behaviour s through internal communication.. Corporate Communications: An International Journal . 15 (3), 221-234. Piskorski, M. J. (2011). Social strategies that work. Harvard Business Review, 89(11), 116-122. Rowles, D (2014). Digital Branding: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Strategy, Tactics and Measurement. London: Kougan page. 1-300. Sainsburys. (2015a). Social Media. Available: https://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/media/social-media/ Sainsburys. (2015b). We know our customers better than anyone else. Available: https://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/about-us/business-strategy-and-objectives/we-know-our-customers/ Sainsburys. (2015c).. (2015). Business strategy and objectives . Available: https://www.j-sainsbury.co.uk/about-us/business-strategy-and-objectives/ Sarner, A., Thompson, J. D., Drakos, N., Fletcher, C., Mann, J., Maoz, M. . (2011). Magic quadrant for social CRM. Gartner, Stamford. Singh, T., Veron-Jackson, L., Cullinane, J.. (2008). Blogging: A new play in your market ing game plan. Business Horizens. 51 (4), 281-292. Sherriff, L. (2013). Sainsburys Letter Tiger Bread Giraffe Bread Makes Lily Robinson And Chris King Internet Sensations. Available: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/01/25/sainsburys-letter-tiger-bread-giraffe-bread-lily-robinson-chris-king_n_1230595.html Tax, S., Brown, W., and Chandrashekaran, M. . (1998). Customer evaluations of service complaint experiences: implications for relationship marketing. The Journal of Marketing., 67-70. Trolley Talk. (2015). Welcome. Available: https://www.trolleytalk.co.uk/Portal/default.aspx Twitter. (2015a). @Sainsburys. Available: https://twitter.com/Sainsburys Twitter. (2015b). @sainsburysnews. Available: https://twitter.com/SainsburysNews?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

Addiction Free Essays

Introduction: In the current world, we have had various issues that have come out due to the technological development that has been experienced in the world during the previous century. The world has recorded tremendous technological development in the recent past and this has come up with various challenges despite the good aspects that have come with the developments. The advancement in technology has presented a new challenge in the name of technological addiction which needs to be categorized as a real disorder more like any other addiction disorders including drug addiction, gambling and alcohol. We will write a custom essay sample on Addiction or any similar topic only for you Order Now Technology addiction has become a major issue in the modern world which manifests itself in many ways including problematic use of the internet. This paper shall examine technology addiction as a real disorder which requires medical attention just like many other medical issues and not as a failure of character as it has been regarded for a long time. Technology Addiction: Technology addiction is not a new concept per se; television, radio, and telephones have been with us for a long period of time. Technology has resulted into various objects that have altered our behaviors in one way or another. Video games for instance have resulted into addictions where individuals spent more time playing the video games and would not want to abandon their acquired habits. Dr. Ivan Goldberg coined the ‘Internet Addiction Disorder’ in the year 1995 ensuing unending debate as to whether technology addiction could be regarded as a mental problem or not (Wells, 2007). Previously, it was thought that technology addiction was a domain that concerned young people. However, demographic surveys reveal that technology addiction is not a preserve of young individuals as it cuts across all ages and gender. Problematic internet use for instance is said to affect all age groups, social classes with no respect to race, education level, income level, and gender (Young, 1998). Due to the technological advancement and the way it has traversed the lives of many individuals in virtually all aspects of their lives, the people risks overexposure to the new advances regardless of age. Most individuals become addicted to the technology in various manners which includes the â€Å"cell phone, video games, PDAs and the internet† (LeClaire, 2009, para 1). Technology addiction has been overlooked by the respective medical professionals in the field of mental health which deals with mental problems including addiction. In the newly released manual, ‘The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, technology addiction was avoided and therefore not recognized as a mental disorder (Guy, 2008). Technology Addiction a real disorder: The surge in technological advancement has made various technological gadgets available for the people of all ages. Cell phones and computers have taken the world by storm and virtually anyone has access to these gadgets and many others. The technology that has come up may be misused or may affect the individual in a negative manner. Overuse of the technological gadgets like the computers and the cell phones may have negative impacts on the individuals (Parenting Teens Blog, 2008). Technology addiction is therefore a real problem that requires attention more like any other form of addiction. Technology addiction as reported in a survey on its effects on school children is disastrous. The research revealed that children are addicted to cell phones in various ways and that about 40 percent of these children admitted that the text messaging had impacted on their language use due to the internet slang thereby affecting their spelling negatively. Video games also impact negatively on the children as the research reveal that such children become anti-social. Such children were found to distance themselves and they are more likely to thrive in a fantasy. A child who is always playing an online game is likely of being docile and passive and become an aggressive individual. There are various types of technology addiction but the internet is the most profound. The impacts on the children are that such addiction has significance on the personality of the child (Parenting Teens Blog, 2008). Technology addiction is here with us and there is need for curative and preventive measures to be adopted to save the world from its bad consequences. In various parts of the world, some measures have been adopted to help deal with the problem and they include clinics which charges expensively for their programs which may last for a month and include exercising and reading of books. However, there is no regulation on how to deal with the problem due to the fact that technology addiction is yet to be officially accepted by the medical professionals (Guy, 2008). Conclusion: Technology addiction has to be looked at as a real disorder that if left unchecked shall affect the people in a bad way. Though there is need to let the children access technology since it holds the future of the world; boundaries needs to be established to safeguard the technology usage. This calls for the need to monitor the child’s accessibility to the internet and other technological devices. The young people who are left unchecked on their technology usage stand a high risk of identity theft. It must be noted that children might not realize the importance of keeping private information secret. If technology addiction is not recognized as a major problem in the society today, then humans stand to loose not only on the moral ground but social as well. Reference: Guy, G., (2008). Technology Addiction? Retrieved on 26th July 2010 from; http://www.efa.org.au/2010/04/28/technology-addiction/. LeClaire, J., (2009). Personal Tech Addiction Snares Teens, Adults. Retrieved on 26th July 2010 from; http://www.technewsworld.com/story/53102.html. Parenting Teens Blog, (2008). Teen Technology Addiction. Retrieved on 26th July 2010 from; http://parentingteens.com/blog/460/teen-technology-addiction/. Wells, T., (2007). Addicted to Technology? Retrieved on 26th July 2010 from; http://www.devhardware.com/c/a/Opinions/Addicted-to-Technology/ Young, K. S. (1998). Caught in the Net.   New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. How to cite Addiction, Essay examples Addiction Free Essays

Ella Baker Essay Example For Students

Ella Baker Essay Ella BakerElla Josephine Baker was born in Virginia, and at the age of seven Ella Baker moved with her family to Littleton, South Carolina, where they settled on her grandparents farmland her grandparents had worked as slaves. Ella Bakers early life was steeped in Southern black culture. Her most vivid childhood memories were of the strong traditions of self-help, mutual cooperation, and sharing of economic resources that encompassed her entire community. Because there was no local secondary school, in 1918, when Ella was fifteen years old, her parents sent her to Shaw boarding school in Raleigh, the high school academy of Shaw University. Ella excelled academically at Shaw, graduating as valedictorian of her college class from Shaw University in Raleigh in 1927. After her graduation from Shaw University, Baker migrated to New York City on the eve of the Great Depression, determined to find an outlet for her intellectual curiosity and growing compassion for social justice. She was deeply moved by the terrible conditions she witnessed on the streets of Harlem during the 1930s; scenes of poverty, hunger, and desperation. The first political organization she joined after moving to Harlem was the Young Negroes Cooperative League (YNCL), founded by writer George Schuyler in December 1930. The expressed purpose of the group was to gain economic power through consumer cooperation. The YNCL was headquartered in New York City. In 1931 Baker was elected to serve as the groups first national director. Another important experience that helped to shape Bakers evolving political consciousness during the Depression was her employment with the Workers Education Project (WEP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a program designed to equip workers with basic literacy skills and to educate them about topics of concern to members of the work force. During the 1930s, Baker also began to grapple with the issue of womens equality and her own identity as an African-American woman. She supported and worked with various womens groups, such as the Womens Day Workers and Industrial League, a union for domestic workers ; the Harlem Housewives Cooperative; and the Harlem YWCA. Baker refused to be relegated to a separate womans sphere, either personally or politically. She often participated, without reservation, in meetings where she was the only woman present, and many of her closest political allies over the years were men. Similarly, in her personal life Baker refused to comply with prevailing social norms about womens place or womens behavior. When she married her longtime friend, T. J. Roberts, in the late 1930s, the marriage was anything but conventional, which typified her rebellious spirit. Baker never assumed her husbands name, an unusual act of independence in those days. Also, even though she was married for over a decade, she never framed her identity as a woman around that of her husband and apparently never allowed domestic obligations to interfere with her principal passion, which was politics. While in Harlem in the 1930s, Baker also worked as a reporter and editor for a variety of publications, including the West Indian News and the National News, a short-lived publication run by her close friend George Schuyler. In 1935 she coauthored an investigative article that exposed the plight of African-American domestic workers in New York during the Depression, which was published in the Crisis, the magazine of the NAACP. Among her political friends and associates in Harlem during this period were labor leader A. Philip Randolph, Lester Granger of the National Urban League, Communist Party lawyer Conrad Lynn, and George Schuyler. The next important phase of Bakers political career, which further solidified her evolving views of political struggle and social change, was the beginning of her involvement in the NAACP in 1940. Throughout her relationship with the NAACP, first as a field secretary and later as director of branches (194346), Baker remained on the staff of the NAACP until 1946, when, fed up with bureaucratic structure of the organization and its legalistic strategy for social change, she resigned as director of branches. Another factor that influenced her resignation was the added responsibilities she assumed when she took custody of her nine-year-old niece, Jackie. Baker continued to work with the NAACP in a volunteer capacity as the president of the New York branch, the