Sketchers Shape Ups marketing plan

Executive Summary Successful introduction of a product in the market requires research and critical analysis of the product, its competitiveness, relevance and acceptability among the targeted clients. Specifically, the successful introduction of the Sketchers Shape Ups product requires a balanced mix between marketing and strategic positioning in the expansive market.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Sketchers Shape Ups marketing plan specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This comprehensive marketing plan covers the advertising promotion plan, and various properly-researched marketing strategies should be employed so that the product can cut a niche in the in the consumer packaged-goods industry. Media has emerged as an important tool to organizations and individuals due to its ability to bridge the gap between producers and consumers in the business matrix. This is especially true for the visual media which has widel y been used to draw attention of the consumer on new or already existing goods and services that business offer in the complex trading arena. The effects of visual media on marketing communication has led to suitability of marketing approaches at times, while at others, the approaches have been praised for their authoritativeness towards informing the public. This reflective treatise attempts to explicitly examine the effects of visual media on marketing of the Sketchers Shape Ups product by discussing the different aspects and factors affecting efficacy and effectiveness of visual media. Besides, the treatise adopts a reflective approach in analyzing the positioning strategies, competitive advantage, and branding for the product. In addition, the treatise explores the option for expanding the market for the product to Iraq. Introduction The Sketchers Shape Ups is one of the products in the consumer packaged-goods industry. The industry has other good like Sketchers Sport, Sketchers Resistance, and many others. Initially, the industry sold products like the skate shoe and the utility-style boots. However, with time, the company diversified its products and started selling a variety of casual and sports wear for adults, as well as children. The industry works hard to maintain its fashionable and elegant brand image. Some of the strategies that the industry employs include celebrity-driven advertisements, which facilitate in reaching thousands of celebrities. This paper will focus on a promotion strategy for Sketchers Shape Ups product. Advertising and Promotion Plan The advertising and promotion plan will require the company to spend more than what its competitors will spend to enable it to gain a competitive advantage. Setting a high cost for advertising and promotion in the marketing plan, usually demonstrates how the company will deliver its unique selling propositions to its prospective customers. Advertising and promotion tools are key elements of the mark eting mix.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Therefore, the company requires making sure that it has the best advertising and promotion strategies for its products. This would enable it to compete with its competitors, as well as to gain a competitive advantage. A company can only compete well if it has enough money to use in advertising and promoting its products (Birdsall Johnston, 2010). A company ought to think in terms of, which media is the most effective in reaching the targeted markets. Once it identifies the appropriate media, the company requires computing the annual budget to facilitate in effective promotion. If the company wants to stand out from its competitors, it ought to look for an advertisement medium that would reach a large number of customers (Jedidi, Mela Gupta, 2007). Media Used and Why To make substantial sales, a company ought to communicate its pro ducts to a big number of people. This can only be achieved through selecting an advertisement medium that is accessible to many people. While organizations have numerous advertisement media to choose from, not all media are accessible by all consumers. Consequently, before deciding on the advertisement medium to use, an organization ought to have an accurate profile of its target customers. In this case, the company intends to use television as its advertisement medium. The main reason for using television as the advertisement medium is that it will facilitate to capture a vast target audience. Majority of the homesteads owns televisions. Hence, using television to advertise the Sketchers Shape Ups will give the company an opportunity to reach a wider consumer base. Apart from reaching a wider consumer base, television conveys messages in both audio and visual form (Jedidi, Mela Gupta, 2007). Therefore, through this medium, the company will be able to pass the information even to t hose consumers that do not know how to read. Advertising the product in both audio and visual format will also facilitate in information retention. Once people watch and hear an advertisement, it becomes hard for them to forget it quickly. Audiovisual communication facilitates in retention of the message. Therefore, the company opts to use television since it will facilitate in retention of the information, thus, making sure that consumers do not forget about the product. Promotions used The company chooses to use sales promotion. This choice was made since it helps the company to increase its sales volume within a short period. In this case, the company will apply sales promotion strategy such as the push up sales. This will facilitate in attracting and retaining new customers by issuing them with free samples and gifts.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Sketchers Shape Ups marketing plan specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Lear n More Sales promotion will ensure that consumers return to the company whenever they are in need of Sketchers Shape Ups. In spite of sales promotion being expensive, the promotion strategy facilitates in creating a good rapport between a company and its consumers. In response, the company benefits from return customers. Role of public relations to marketing plan Public relations play a significant role in providing the support required for implementation of the marketing plan (Birdsall Johnston, 2010). In this case, public relations will help in promoting and establishing the product. Public relations will also help in creating a favorable reputation for the company by publicizing news about events that take place in the company. Consumers like associating with companies that give back to the society. Hence, the public relations will facilitate in informing the community about the company’s corporate social responsibility as a way of trying to win its trust. Events and me dia choices for one calendar year The marketing plan will comprise of a detailed calendar of the promotion events for a whole year. The year will be divided into three segments January-April, May-August, and September-December. To create customer awareness about the product, the company will carry out an aggressive advertisement and promotion program during the first segment. It will run daily advertisements on the television to make sure that consumers know about Sketchers Shape Ups. As consumers get to know about the product, the company will relax its advertisement program. Therefore, the second segment will entail running the advertisements thrice per week. This will aid in keeping the clients aware of the product. Besides, it will target those consumers that might not have heard about the product. The last segment of the calendar year will involve running the television advertisement once per month. By this time, majority of the consumers will have known about the product. Besi des the advertisement, the company will also conduct some promotion campaigns, especially during the first segment of the calendar year to recruit more consumers. With these events running throughout the year, the company is guaranteed that it will keep its target consumers aware of the product.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Marketing vision and goals For an organization to succeed in marketing, it has to have both vision and goal for its marketing. They act as the guideline and reference point. The company refers to the vision and goals to determine if it is making positive progress. Therefore, to succeed in selling Sketchers Shape Ups, the company will require having strong marketing vision and goals. The company’s vision will be to be the leading company in the sales of Sketchers Shape Ups. On the other hand, the marketing goal will be to sell 300 units of Sketchers Shape Ups per week for the first six months. Besides, the company will have a goal of adding value to the life of its target consumers. Through its marketing, the company will strive to ensure that consumers continue benefiting from Sketchers Shape Ups at all time. Product strategy and positioning statement To be able to achieve the mission and the set goals, the company will require having a captivating position stamen and superio r product strategy. In this case, the company’s positioning statement will be as follows, We have what everyone wants, and at considerable prices. The products are unique and of high quality. They are supremely stylish, trendy and certainly the latest in the market. Those that purchase the products will be viewed as being at speed with fashion. The prices are also considerable; one will get anything they want at an affordable price. Celebrities wear the Sketchers Shape Ups. Consequently, one of the product strategies that the company will utilize is to make sure that it attributes the product to famous celebrities. This will make the target consumers perceive the product as being of high quality, therefore, purchasing it. Again, the company will sell products at affordable prices as a strategy to attract consumers and not scare them away with high prices. Customer snapshot The customer snapshot helps the business get an overview of the customers. In the plan, we will incorpor ate customer snapshot. The features that will be included in the snapshot are recent invoices and payments. This will show what the company has sold. Therefore, it will be of significance when evaluating the effectiveness of the marketing plan in the future. The snapshot will include a list of the items that are highly purchased so that the company can focus on these items when running its subsequent promotional campaigns. Competitive analysis The Sketchers Shape Ups industry is competitive. Other many companies offer the same products. Majority of these companies relies on local consumers. Therefore, they do not run promotional campaigns or advertise their products. Consequently, this company will have an advantage since it will create consumer awareness through its promotions and advertisements. Besides, majority of the competitors sell their products at high prices, and they run out of stock frequently. To surmount this competition, the company will use strategies like consumer e ducation on how to get the best from the product by using it appropriately. The existing competitors do not teach the consumers on how to use Sketchers Shape Ups. The company will regular replenish its inventory to make sure that its does not run out of the product. Consumers get frustrated whenever they visit a business only to learn that the product they want is out of stock. This discourages them from visiting the business in the future. Hence, the company will make sure that it has a regular supply of Sketchers Shape Ups to encourage the consumers to return to its store. Brand elements and differentiators The company’s name, logo, and design facilitate to differentiate its brand from the competitors. Marketers ought to establish unique brand features that can draw the attention of the target consumers (Steenkamp et al., 2005). To stand out from the competitors, the company will use the logo to differentiate its Sketchers Shape Ups from those of the rival companies. It wil l promote its products by using colorful logos. This will create an impression of brand quality in the minds of the target consumers, hence; help the company to make substantial sales. Colorful logos will also make consumers remember about the brand whenever they come across a color portrayed in the logo. Moving the Product to Iraq The marketing needs of a detailed and workable blend that the company might employ to determine the suitability of Iraq as a new market is important to review. In a bid to establish an international investment opportunity, Iraqi displays a big potential with the several million citizens as ready users of the Sketchers Shape Ups product. As projected by the United Nations, Iraqi market will grow by 30 percent in the next two decade. With a typically well organized commodity pool, this investment scheme for the Sketchers Shape Ups product is already in Iraqi market. Reflectively, to capture the distribution channel, the beneficial interests are distributed across the commodity users who are the Iraqis. This strategy will facilitate the restructuring effective sales and public awareness to develop product knowledge of its products to its Iraqi clients. If well merged with appropriate market mix, the strategy will secure a continuous quantitative increase of market by constantly maintaining relatively fare prices of the products it’s offering as well as the maintenance of up to per competition levels from other competitors. This penetration plan will record an increase in the usage of the company’s the Sketchers Shape Ups product across its country’s boundaries by having a range of colors and designs for the product. The rationale for expanding the market of the product to Iraq was informed by relatively low competition besides ready market in the populous Iraqi nation. The main difference in the customer profile in the local and Iraqi market is the unique culture characterized by Islamic religion which determines a cceptability of a product based on how it is marketed. However, the similarity in the two markets is quality preference among the users of the Sketchers Shape Ups product. Considering the unique culture in Iraqi market, the ideal media for advertisement would be television since every household in Iraq owns a television set and the product targets everyone. References Birdsall, C. Johnston, N. (2010). Achieving brand-driven business success. Design Management Review, 19(2), 67-74. Jedidi, K., Mela, C. Gupta, S. (2007). Managing advertising and promotion for long-run profitability. Marketing Science Winter, 18(1), 1-22. Steenkamp, J., Nijs, V., Hanssens, D. Dekimpe, M. (2005). Competitive reactions to advertising and promotion attacks. Marketing Science Winter, 24(1), 35-54. This essay on Sketchers Shape Ups marketing plan was written and submitted by user Dirty Titmouse 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. 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Free Essays on DNA

With the start of the new millennium having rapidly passed us by without technology failing us as we were all fearfully expecting, it is safe to come to the conclusion that we can count on technology to benefit us in many ways, one way being as a crime-fighting tool. No, science has not yet built something that we can see the future with. It is not surprising that technological advances are being utilized all over the country, as well as the world, to fight crime by deferring criminals as well as catching them after the act. Throughout history, detectives have searched for the perfect method of catching law breakers. The use of DNA by law enforcement in recent years has been proven its extraordinary value in identifying criminals who, in the absence of this technology, would go free. This While it’s true that the old fashioned way of fighting crime is still necessary (policemen on the beat, investigations, etc.), we now have advanced methods of finding the worst criminals using forensic science. A crime can occur in the middle of the night or in an isolated area where no witnesses are present. It’s only the evidence left behind that os the true witness to their crime.... Free Essays on DNA Free Essays on DNA With the start of the new millennium having rapidly passed us by without technology failing us as we were all fearfully expecting, it is safe to come to the conclusion that we can count on technology to benefit us in many ways, one way being as a crime-fighting tool. No, science has not yet built something that we can see the future with. It is not surprising that technological advances are being utilized all over the country, as well as the world, to fight crime by deferring criminals as well as catching them after the act. Throughout history, detectives have searched for the perfect method of catching law breakers. The use of DNA by law enforcement in recent years has been proven its extraordinary value in identifying criminals who, in the absence of this technology, would go free. This While it’s true that the old fashioned way of fighting crime is still necessary (policemen on the beat, investigations, etc.), we now have advanced methods of finding the worst criminals using forensic science. A crime can occur in the middle of the night or in an isolated area where no witnesses are present. It’s only the evidence left behind that os the true witness to their crime....

Overview of the Peoples Crusade

Overview of the People's Crusade A popular movement of crusaders, mostly commoners but also including individuals from all levels of society, who did not wait for the official leaders of the expedition but took off for the Holy Land early, unprepared and inexperienced. The Peoples Crusade was also known as: The Peasants Crusade, The Popular Crusade, or The Crusade of the Poor People. The Peoples Crusade has also been termed the first wave of crusaders by noted Crusades scholar Jonathan Riley-Smith, who has pointed out the difficulty of distinguishing separate crusade expeditions among the almost ceaseless stream of pilgrims from Europe to Jerusalem. How the Peoples Crusade got started: In November 1095, Pope Urban II made a speech at the Council of Clermont calling for Christian warriors to go to Jerusalem and free it from the rule of Muslim Turks. Urban no doubt envisioned an organized military campaign led by those whose entire social class had been built around military prowess: the nobility. He set the official date of departure for mid-August of the following year, knowing the time it would take for funds to be raised, supplies to be procured and armies to be organized. Shortly after the speech, a monk known as Peter the Hermit also began to preach Crusade. Charismatic and passionate, Peter (and probably several others like him, whose names are lost to us) appealed not just to a select portion of travel-ready combatants but to all Christians men, women, children, the elderly, nobles, commoners even serfs. His enthralling sermons fired the religious zeal in his listeners, and many people not only resolved to go on Crusade but to go right then and there, some even following Peter himself. The fact that they had little food, less money, and no military experience did not deter them in the least; they believed they were on a holy mission, and that God would provide. Armies of the Peoples Crusade: For some time, the participants in the Peoples Crusade were regarded as nothing more than peasants. While it is true many of them were commoners of one variety or another, there were also noblemen among their ranks, and the individual bands that formed were usually led by trained, experienced knights. For the most part, to call these bands armies would be a gross overstatement; in many cases, the groups were simply a collection of pilgrims traveling together. Most were on foot and armed with crude weapons, and discipline was almost nonexistent. However, some of the leaders were able to exercise more control over their followers, and a crude weapon can still inflict serious damage; so scholars continue to refer to some of these groups as armies. The Peoples Crusade moves through Europe: In March 1096, bands of pilgrims began to journey eastward through France and Germany on their way to the Holy Land. Most of them followed an ancient road of pilgrimage that ran along the Danube and into Hungary, then south into the Byzantine Empire and its capital, Constantinople. There they expected to cross the Bosphorus to territory controlled by the Turks in Asia Minor. The first to leave France was Walter Sans Avoir, who commanded a retinue of eight knights and a large company of infantry. They proceeded with surprisingly little incident along the old pilgrim route, only encountering any real trouble in Belgrade when their foraging got out of hand. Their early arrival at Constantinople in July took the Byzantine leaders by surprise; they had not had time to prepare proper lodging and supplies for their western visitors. More bands of crusaders coalesced around Peter the Hermit, who followed not far behind Walter and his men. Greater in number and less disciplined, Peters followers encountered more trouble in the Balkans. At Zemun, the last town in Hungary before reaching the Byzantine border, a riot broke out and many Hungarians were killed. The crusaders wanted to escape punishment by crossing the Sava River into Byzantium, and when Byzantine forces tried to stop them, violence ensued. When Peters followers got to Belgrade they found it deserted, and they probably sacked it in their ongoing quest for food. At nearby Nish, the governor allowed them to exchange hostages for supplies, and the town almost escaped without damage until some Germans set fire to mills as the company was leaving. The governor sent troops to attack the retreating crusaders, and although Peter ordered them not to, many of his followers turned to face the attackers and were cut down. Eventually, they reached Constantinople without further incident, but the Peoples Crusade had lost many participants and funds, and they had inflicted serious damage on the lands between their homes and Byzantium. Many other bands of pilgrims followed after Peter, but none made it to the Holy Land. Some of them faltered and turned back; others were sidetracked in some of the most horrific pogroms in medieval European history. The Peoples Crusade and the First Holocaust: The speeches of Pope Urban, Peter the Hermit, and others of his ilk had stirred up more than a pious yearning to see the Holy Land. Urbans appeal to the warrior elite had painted Muslims as enemies of Christ, subhuman, loathsome, and in need of vanquishing. Peters speeches were even more incendiary. From this malevolent viewpoint, it was a small step to see Jews in the same light. It was, sadly, an all-too-common belief that Jews had not only killed Jesus but that they continued to pose a threat to good Christians. Added to this was the fact that some Jews were notably prosperous, and they made the perfect target for greedy lords, who used their followers to massacre entire Jewish communities and plunder them for their wealth. The violence that was perpetrated against European Jews in the spring of 1096 is a significant turning point in Christian and Jewish relations. The horrific events, which resulted in the deaths of thousands of Jews, have even been called the First Holocaust. From May to July, pogroms occurred at Speyer, Worms, Mainz, and Cologne. In some cases, the bishop of the town or local Christians, or both, sheltered their neighbors. This was successful at Speyer but proved futile in other Rhineland towns. The attackers sometimes demanded that the Jews convert to Christianity on the spot or lose their lives; not only did they refuse to convert, but some even killed their children and themselves rather than die at the hands of their tormentors. The most notorious of the anti-Jewish crusaders was Count Emicho of Leiningen, who was definitely responsible for the attacks on Mainz and Cologne and may have had a hand in the earlier massacres. After the bloodshed along the Rhine was over, Emicho led his forces onward to Hungary. His reputation preceded him, and the Hungarians would not let him pass. After a three-week siege, Emichos forces were crushed, and he went home in disgrace. The pogroms were decried by many Christians of the day. Some even pointed to these crimes as the reason God forsook their fellow crusaders at Nicaea and Civetot. The end of the Peoples Crusade: By the time Peter the Hermit arrived in Constantinople, Walter Sans Avoirs army had been restlessly waiting there for weeks. Emperor Alexius convinced Peter and Walter that they should wait in Constantinople until the main body of Crusaders, who were massing in Europe under powerful noble commanders, arrived. But their followers were not happy with the decision. Theyd undergone a long journey and many trials to get there, and they were eager for action and glory. Furthermore, there still wasnt enough food and supplies for everyone, and foraging and theft were rampant. So, less than a week after Peters arrival, Alexius ferried the Peoples Crusade across the Bosporus and into Asia Minor. Now the crusaders were in a truly hostile territory where there was little food or water to be found anywhere, and they had no plan for how to proceed. They quickly began squabbling amongst themselves. Eventually, Peter returned to Constantinople to elicit help from Alexius, and the Peoples Crusade broke into two groups: one primarily made up of Germans with a few Italians, the other of Frenchmen. Toward the end of September, the French crusaders managed to loot a suburb of Nicaea. The Germans decided to do the same. Unfortunately, Turkish forces expected another attack and surrounded the German crusaders, who managed to take refuge in the fortress at Xerigordon. After eight days, the Crusaders surrendered. Those who did not convert to Islam were killed on the spot; those who did convert were enslaved and sent eastward, never to be heard from again. The Turks then sent a forged message to the French crusaders, telling of great riches the Germans had acquired. In spite of warnings from wiser men, the Frenchmen took the bait. They rushed onward, only to be ambushed at Civetot, where every last crusader was slaughtered. The Peoples Crusade was over. Peter considered returning home but instead remained in Constantinople until the main body of the more organized crusading forces arrived. The text of this document is copyright  ©2011-2015 Melissa Snell. You may download or print this document for personal or school use, as long as the URL below is included. Permission is  not granted to reproduce this document on another website.

Is health care a right or privlege Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Is health care a right or privlege - Essay Example Getting good healthcare is not possible for everyone as you need a background of money for that, but every individual has a right to an average rated healthcare. These people are not asking for the best, they just want somebody to help cure them and help them live a little longer. In America 20 per cent of the people are below the poverty level which means that they can not afford to pay for health insurance or for any other medical expenditure incurred by them. This level of poverty shows that one out of every six children goes to bed hungry. The government to solve this problem of health care can allocate a bigger portion of the budget for this service and especially help those people out who are in dire need of it. Another approach that can be used to provide proper heath care is to take it as a personal responsibility. If every individual himself starts living healthy by eating the right diet and causing less of self harm by smoking cigarettes and drinking less alcohol, it would make things much easier. It is not just the government or the doctors who are responsible for health it is every individual. (Christopher et. al, 2004) People who belong to different social strata hold differing opinions about health care. Health care is directly related to the amount of money a person has. The richer you are the more you are concerned about your health. While people who belong to the lower income groups are not really bothered and will not take precautionary steps to reduce the risk of getting sick. In America there are 45 million people who do not have health insurance. (Papadimos, 2007) Aristotle believed that anything that has a soul displays life. The body can grow, decay and provide itself with nutrition while the soul has powers of sensation, thinking and motivation. According to Aristotle, "If the whole body was one vast eye, sight would be it soul. As the eye is a tool for seeing with, but a living tool which is part of ourselves, so the body is like a tool or instrument for living with. Hence we may say of the soul that it is the 'end' of the body, the activity to which the body is instrumental, as seeing the 'end' to which the eye is instrumental." (Papadimos, 2007) What Aristotle is trying to say is that for the soul to be nourished, health care needs to be provided to individuals so that they can grow to their fullest extent. According to Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), man would eventually realize the things that are needed to preserve life. He gives us the law of nature which says, "A law of nature (lex naturalis) is a precept or general rule, found out by reason, by which a man is forbidden to do that which is destructive of his life or taketh away the means of preserving the same, and to omit that by which he thinketh it may be best preserved." (Papadimos, 2007) Basically he said that every human being has a right to anything he wants, even if it is another human's body. He considers three aspects: seeking peace, laying down the right of nature and making covenants, and performance of covenants. By seeking peace he means that if an individual has a problem such as a hearing defect then seeking peace

Homosexual Marriage Needs to Be Legalized Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Homosexual Marriage Needs to Be Legalized - Essay Example This would never have happened if Charlene and Kate were allowed to legally marry. Today, gay marriage is illegal in most states in America, and this is unconstitutional, as it is violating a fundamental right, which is marriage. The most egregious thing about the issue of denying gay marriage is that there really is not a legitimate argument put forth by the other side which would substantiate keeping an entire class of people from enjoying basic rights. For instance, consider the â€Å"slippery slope† argument. This argument states that if homosexuals were allowed to marry, then the legislatures would have to legalize marriage between man and dog, man and daughter, man and 12-year-old boy. This argument does not hold water for two major reasons – one, marriage between two homosexuals is sanctifying a consensual relationship, and all the other scenarios above would not be. And, two, perhaps most importantly, pedophilia, incest and bestiality are all illegal, probably in all fifty states. Homosexual relationships, on the other hand, are not, and cannot be due to the case of Lawrence v. Texas, a 2003 Supreme Court case which established that sodomy laws are unconstitutional. Therein lies a diffe rence – legislatures cannot be pressured to legalize marriage based upon relationships which are illegal, such as pedophilia, incest and bestiality, therefore the slippery slope argument is not legitimate. Another argument is that marriage is based upon procreation, and, since homosexuals cannot procreate, they should be denied the right to marry. This argument cannot be logically consistent, because, if the argument were to carried out to its logical conclusion, anybody and everybody who would be unable or unwilling to have children would also be denied the right to marry. Your grandmother in the nursing home who met her soul mate at the age of 86? Sorry, grandma, you can't marry because you can't have children anymore. Your sister who had ovarian cancer and had to have a hysterectomy? Sorry, sis, you can't marry either, because you are unable to have children. This is the logical extension of the ?ays can't marry because they cannot procreate argument,one that the supporter s of this argument must adopt if they are to be logically consistent. Of course, the other major argument is that homosexuality is proscribed by the Bible, but this is not a justification for denying a constitutional right. Roe v. Wade4 established this, as it states that morality is not a legitimate concern upon which to base a law that affects one's fundamental rights. And besides, if legislatures are going to start basing their laws on Biblical proscriptions, then they are going to have to outlaw drinking and getting rowdy at Sunday football games, as this would be desecrating the Sabbath, and this is an offense punishable by death according to Exodus 31:14.5 As for the argument that allowing homosexuals to marry would undermine the sanctity of marriage exhibit A to refute this argument would be Kim Kardashian. If her sham of a marriage, 72 days long, is not undermining the sanctity of the institution of marriage, then what is? Of course, it would be unfair to single her out, as there have been countless celebrities whose marriages lasted well short of a year. Not to mention Elizabeth Taylor, who was married eight times. These are just celebrities there are countless people who are not famous who are in the same predicament. Who doesn't have an uncle with five ex-wives? In short, heterosexuals

The Lies Told By People Everyday

The Lies Told By People Everyday Tad William once said We tell lies when we are afraid afraid of what we dont know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing that we fear grows stronger. In relationships and marriages, dishonesty is a love buster. But sometimes honesty is worse, like the article dishonesty it says: When a wife first learns that her husband has been unfaithful, the pain is often so great that she wishes she had been left ignorant. When a husband discovers his wifes affair, its like a knife in his heart and he wonders if it would have better not known. In fact, many marriage counselors advise clients to avoid telling spouses about past infidelity, saying that its too painful for people to handle. Besides, if its over and done with, why dredge up the sewage of the past? (Harley, 1976) They look at it as just a mistake and want to be forgiven. People are dishonest because they believe that the others cant handle the truth, which for most cases its true because the truth most of the time is bitter. But i think that no matter how hard the truth is you should just be straight up and honest. Mark Twain once said If you tell the truth you dont have to remember anything. Just like Dishonesty article says: Its this sort of confusion that leads some of the most well-intentioned husbands and wives to lie to each other, or at least give each other false impressions. They feel that dishonesty will help them protect each others feelings. But what kind of a relationship is that? The lie is a wall that comes between the two partners, something hidden, a secret that cannot be mentioned, yet is right under the surface of every conversation. (Harley, 1976) If you think about it youre going to have to take a lie and keep adding on to it more and more and you cant even remember what you said in the beginning so even though telling the truth is difficult its the easiest. With a lie youre always going to get caught up. Just like karma- what goes around comes around. And depending on the lie you can be holding all this unnecessary weight on your shoulders and be stressing about it. A Russian proverb states With lies you may get ahead in the world but you can never go back. Just like the article Dishonesty states: Dishonesty strangles compatibility. To create and sustain compatibility, you must lay your cards on the table. You must be honest about your thoughts, feelings, habits, likes, dislikes, personal history, daily activities and plans for the future. When misinformation is part of the mix, you have little hope of making successful adjustments to each other. Dishonesty not only makes solutions hard to find, but it often leaves couples ignorant of the problems themselves. (Harley, 1976) So along with lying not only would you be feeling guilty and stress, you may even regret what you have lied about which makes it even more difficult to confess what you have lied about. A lie can take care of the present and solve what you are going through momentarily, but it does not have a good future. Bill Copeland once said: When you stretch the truth, watch out for the snapback. Once you have become a liar, people cannot believe you no matter how hard you try. They will immediately develop an instinct to question the words that are coming out of your mouth. For instance, we have all heard of the tale The boy who cried wolf. The little boy would entertain himself by tricking villagers that a wolf is attacking his flock of sheep. When they came to help him, they found out that it was a false alarm and he just wasted their time. They thought he was just a little boy that was playing around. However, when the boy was actually confronted by the wolf and cried wolf, none of the villagers believed him. In other words, the moral of the story was even when liars tell the truth, they are never believed. Some people even lie because they feel desperate, like they steal because they are desperate and in need of money. They do not know where to turn to so they see this as their only way of getting away. Also another example is academic dishonesty. Some students feel really desperate to cheat or plagiarize because they want to pass or earn a decent grade. Other People basically lie sometimes just so they can get straight to what they want, like in the movie sisters keeper, the girl who had Leukemia told her 11 year old sister to lie to her mom saying that she didnt want to donate her kidney to her, but really it was because the girl with the Leukemia didnt want everyone to suffer with her. So it was a lie because the daughter didnt want to hurt her mother. Kids start learning to lie from their parents, especially when the kid is afraid of the parent. On Feb 10 2008, Po Bronson wrote an article in the New York Magazine it was a study that A doctor in a University made, this is what the article said: For a study to assess the extent of teenage dissembling, Dr. Nancy Darling, then at Penn State University, recruited a special research team of a dozen undergraduate students, all under the age of 21. Using gift certificates for free CDs as bait, Darlings Mod Squad persuaded high-school students to spend a few hours with them in the local pizzeria. Each student was handed a deck of 36 cards, and each card in this deck listed a topic teens sometimes lie about to their parents. Over a slice and a Coke, the teen and two researchers worked through the deck, learning what things the kid was lying to his parents about, and why. They began the interviews saying that parents give you everything and yes, you should tell them everything, Darling observes. By the end of the interview, the kids saw for the first time how much they were lying and how many of the familys rules they had broken. Darling says 98 percent of the teens reported lying to their parents. Out of the 36 topics, the average teen was lying to his parents about twelve of them. The teens lied about what they spent their allowances on, and whether theyd started dating, and what clothes they put on away from the house. They lied about what movie they went to, and whom they went with. They lied about alcohol and drug use, and they lied about whether they were hanging out with friends their parents disapproved of. They lied about how they spent their afternoons while their parents were at work. They lied about whether chaperones were in attendance at a party or whether they rode in cars driven by drunken teens. Most parents hear their child lie and assume hes too young to understand what lies are or that lyings wrong. They presume their child will stop when he gets older and learns those distinctions. Talwar has found the opposite to be true-kids who grasp early the nuances between lies and truth use this knowledge to their advantage, making them more prone to lie when given the chance. Although we think of truthfulness as a young childs paramount virtue, it turns out that lying is the more advanced skill. A child who is going to lie must recognize the truth, intellectually conceive of an alternate reality, and be able to convincingly sell that new reality to someone else. Therefore, lying demands both advanced cognitive development and social skills that honesty simply doesnt require. Its a developmental milestone, Talwar has concluded. (Bronson, 2008) Basically kids learn how to lie from fear. One lie that we will never stop having is, lying to ourselves. Lying to yourself maybe to build some confidence, or even maybe to understand something. The article The Human Thing to Do: Lying to Yourself by Vanessa Gilbert says: As humans, we perform a lot of acts we wish we had never done, and we spend a lot of our time on earth regretting what has already been done, something we cant change. Whether it was that bad breakup, or smoking for twenty years, or even wishing we would have gone out and exercised on those Sunday mornings, we all worry about them and we all lie to ourselves to pretend that it wasnt our fault, and that we couldnt have prevented it anymore than what we did. In fact, it seems we lie to ourselves so much we cant piece the truth apart from the false things we have told ourselves for months on end. If there is one fact I have learned in my thirteen years of life, it is that everything in this world is corrupt in one way or another. That certain aspect, religion, club, organization, or mindset didnt even start out pure because it was most likely made by humans, who are dirty, selfish, and continually seeking the solace they find in having a solution for everything. I guess you could say that lying to yourself has always been something we have done. You cant blame this one on popular culture, teenagers, or the failing economy. Humans have lived this way for thousands and thousands of years, and weve made it this far thinking the same exact way. Is it okay to be delusional and far from the truth? Is it worth knowing the truth just because it is the truth? Furthermore, would we be better off if we were up front with each other and ourselves? It may hurt to face the truth in the beginning, but in the long run, you are guaranteed to be happy. You will be happy with yourself, with the people you love, and with the cold, hard truth, and nothing else. In the process of opening your eyes, you see a lot more than just whats around you. You see what you missed, what is real, and what is to look forward to. Not everything that is true is harsh. If we do not come to realize what is real, we will continue to be let down, and we will always make the same mistakes. All our energy will all be put into something that is not helping us any. We will neither advance nor go backward. Instead of staying stagnate, why not move forward? (Gilbert, 2009) In conclusion, dishonesty isnt the best thing, and also sometimes it isnt the worse thing. Society is filled with liars and dishonest people. But there are also people that had only told a few lies. Baltasar Gracian once said A single lie destroys a whole reputation for integrity. A single lie might just ruin ones whole life. So one must watch out and think before talking or doing, so no one can get into lies. Resources: Harley, Dr. Dishonesty. Marriage Builders  ® Successful Marriage Advice. 1 Jan. 1976. Web. 30 July 2010. . Bronson, Po. Are Kids Copying Their Parents When They Lie? New York Magazine. New York Magazine NYC Guide to Restaurants, Fashion, Nightlife, Shopping, Politics, Movies. 10 Feb. 2008. Web. 31 July 2010. . Gilbert, Vanessa. The Human Thing to Do: Lying to Yourself DivineCaroline. DivineCaroline: Relationships, Health, Home, Style, Parenting, and Community for Women DivineCaroline. 07 June 2009. Web. 30 July 2010. .

Rehabilitation Counselor Education Programs Regarding Essay

For the past several years, the health care and insurance industries in America have been undergoing significant reform in order to rein in the high cost of delivering health care services. Managed care has become a cornerstone of this process (Strickland, 1995). The case management industry (with its focus on cost containment, managed competition, and quality care) is playing an increasingly important role in the managed care environment (Owens, 1996). According to Mullahy (1995a), the number of case managers has risen astronomically in recent years. These individuals come from diverse professional backgrounds and practice settings that include nursing, rehabilitation counseling, and social work. Case management, however, is not a new concept. Many human service, rehabilitation, and health care professions have a history of using case management models in the execution of their responsibilities. For example, in many psychiatric rehabilitation work settings social workers are frequently hired as case managers to coordinate the provision of community-based services to their clientele (Sledge, Astrachan, Thompson, Rakfeldt, & Leaf, 1995). Case management is also an extremely important function of rehabilitation counselors in both public and private sectors (Leahy, Chan, Taylor, Wood & Downey, 1997; Leahy, Szymanski & Linkowski, 1993; Matkin, 1995). Similarly, medical case management is increasingly being viewed as an essential aspect of professional nursing practice (Lamb, 1995). The Development of Private Sector Case Management The impetus for case management practice in health care settings can be traced to the skyrocketing cost of workers compensation in the 1970s. Private sector rehabilitation grew in response to the demand for vocational rehabilitation services by workers’ compensation insurance carriers (Matkin, 1995). Federal legislation also promoted the growth of private sector case management services. albeit inadvertently. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 gave priority within the state-federal vocational rehabilitation system to individuals with severe disabilities, causing workers’ compensation carriers to seek vocational rehabilitation services for their (typically less severely injured) claimants in the private sector Habeck, Leahy, Hunt, Chan & Welch, 1991). In increasing numbers. rehabilitation nurses and rehabilitation counselors were hired to provide both medical and vocational case management services to workers’ compensation claimants. In the late 1980s, case management began to develop its own impetus as an independent profession (E. Holt, personal communication, December 1, 1996). In 1991, 29 organizations involved in the field gathered in Dallas, Texas, at a consensus meeting organized by the Individual Case Management Association. The intent was to agree upon the philosophical basis for case management, a universal definition of case management, and a set of meaningful practice standards. Eventually, a certification program for case managers was developed, including eligibility criteria and content areas for a certification examination. On July 1, 1995, the Commission for Case Manager Certification (CCMC) was incorporated as a separate, independent credentialing body. Although the process is still very young, there are already over 19,000 Certified Case Mangers (CCMs) who have completed certification requirements. With technical and administrative support from the Foundation for Rehabilitation Education and Research, Leahy (1994) surveyed 14,078 practicing case managers representing multiple professional disciplines in a variety of work settings. His research suggested that case managers share a common knowledge base required for case management practice comprised of five factors: 1) coordination and delivery of services; 2) physical and psychosocial aspects of disability; 3) benefit systems and cost benefit analysis; 4) case management concepts; and 5) principles of community re-entry. Roles and Functions Studies In 1991, Matkin used a job analysis approach to identify work role categories as well as knowledge requirements associated with the major tasks performed by rehabilitation specialists in the private sector (Matkin, 1995). Seven major knowledge domains were identified, but case management and the coordination of rehabilitation services were determined to occupy approximately 40% of the subjects’ work time. More recently, Leahy, Chan, Taylor, Wood, and Downey (1997) identified seven empirically derived knowledge factors as important for effective private rehabilitation practice. These knowledge factors are: vocational assessment and planning; case management and reporting; expert witness testimony; employment and disability related legislation and regulations; community resources; psychosocial and functional aspects of disability; and job analysis and odification. In their study, knowledge of case management was rated as most important with a mean (M) score of 3. 24 (based on a five-point Likert-type scale, with 0 meaning not important to 4 indicating absolutely essential). Their study may reflect a shift in private rehabilitation practice from predominantly vocational counseling and job placement to medical and vocational case management. These same researchers also found several distinctions between private rehabilitation practitioners with a rehabilitation counseling background and those with a nursing background. While specialists with rehabilitation counseling expertise viewed knowledge in vocational rehabilitation as important to private rehabilitation practice, practitioners with a nursing background believed that community resources and medical rehabilitation service coordination activities were more important.