Prevention Is Better Than Cure Essay Example for Free

Prevention Is Better Than Cure Essay Health is valuable present for human life. People can have money, houses, some luxurious things but they cannot buy health. Once geting a serious disease, everything becomes nothing immediately. So I agree with the point that â€Å" Prevention is better than cure†. This proverb advise everybody to care themselves before too late to save their lives. One person just has one life. People all know this definition but not many ones can adjust their lives to live healthier. It is the key point. People always lives with a easily way until a disease is found out. It has to say that cure is the last step to make your body out of danger. Some years ago, I evidenced my friend got a serious disease and the doctors hardly saved her life. According to her mother, she often stayed up late, had an unstable daily habits and was under stress. She got a costly experience of how to value the prevention. With the importance of health, health education and preventative measures need to be concerned. Today, money mainly is invested in some large health’s budget to cure diseases. But I think if people know how to protect themselves from diseases through health education, no need much money for curing anymore. So the investment for health education and preventive measures are as important as saving one life. In reality, it is fewer courses which supply information about the health knowledge are held. Otherwise, a lot of hospitals have been build. With this point of view, people more and more depend on hospitals while they do not know that they can cure themselves just through health knowledge. However, no one can ignore the importance of hospitals and doctors. They have existed to save people’s lives. Born, grow up, grow old and die is a life cycle; it is true that in some point of life, people will get disease and die. Hence, hospitals really play an important role in that situation. In conclusion, I consider that prevention is the first step for people to avoid diseases. So much more investment into providing health knowledge and presentative measures to people is necessary.

International Joint venture Essay Example for Free

International Joint venture Essay International Joint Ventures (IJVs) are becoming increasingly popular in the business world as they aid companies to form strategic alliances. These strategic alliances allow companies to gain competitive advantage through access to a partner’s resources, including markets, technologies, capital and people. International Joint Ventures are viewed as a practical vehicle for knowledge transfer, such as technology transfer, from multinational expertise to local companies, and such knowledge transfer can contribute to the performance improvement of local companies. Within IJV’s one or more of the parties is located where the operations of the IJV take place and also involve a local and foreign company. Basic Elements of an IJV Contractual Agreement. IJVs are established by express contracts that consist of one or more agreements involving two or more individuals or organizations and that are entered into for a specific business purpose. Specific Limited Purpose and Duration. IJVs are formed for a specific business objective and can have a limited life span or be long-term. IJVs are frequently established for a limited duration because (a) the complementary activities involve a limited amount of assets; (b) the complementary assets have only a limited service life; and/or (c) the complementary production activities will be of only limited efficacy. Joint Property Interest. Each IJV participant contributes property, cash, or other assets and organizational capital for the pursuit of a common and specific business purpose. Thus, an IJV is not merely a contractual relationship, but rather the contributions are made to a newly formed business enterprise, usually a corporation, limited liability company, or partnership. As such, the participants acquire a joint property interest in the assets and subject matter of the IJV. Reasons for Forming a Joint Venture There are many motivations that lead to the formation of a JV. They include: Risk Sharing – Risk sharing is a common reason to form a JV, particularly, in highly capital intensive industries and in industries where the high costs of product development equal a high likelihood of failure of any particular product. Economies of Scale – If an industry has high fixed costs, a JV with a larger company can provide the economies of scale necessary to compete globally and can be an effective way by which two companies can pool resources and achieve critical mass. Market Access – For companies that lack a basic understanding of customers and the relationship/infrastructure to distribute their products to customers, forming a JV with the right partner can provide instant access to established, efficient and effective distribution channels and receptive customer bases. This is important to a company because creating new distribution channels and identifying new customer bases can be extremely difficult, time consuming and expensive activities. Geographical Constraints – When there is an attractive business opportunity in a foreign market, partnering with a local company is attractive to a foreign company because penetrating a foreign market can be difficult both because of a lack of experience in such market and local barriers to foreign-owned or foreign-controlled companies. Funding Constraints – When a company is confronted with high up-front development costs, finding the right JVP can provide necessary financing and credibility with third parties. Benefits Many of the benefits associated with International Joint Ventures are that they provide companies with the opportunity to obtain new capacity and expertise and they allow companies to enter into related business or new geographic markets or obtain new technological knowledge. Furthermore, International Joint Ventures are in most cases have a short life span, allowing companies to make short term commitments rather than long term commitments. Through International Joint Ventures, companies are given opportunities to increase profit margins, accelerate their revenue growth, produce new products, expand to new domestic markets, gain financial support, and share scientists or other professionals that have unique skills that will benefit the companies. Structure International Joint Ventures are developed when two companies work together to meet a specific goal. For example, Company A and Company B first begin by identifying and selecting an IJV partner. This process involves several steps such as market research, partner search, evaluating options, negotiations, business valuation, business planning, and due diligence. These steps are taken on by each company. There are also legal procedures involved such as IJV agreement, ancillary agreements, and regulatory approvals. Once this process is complete, the IJV Company is formed and during this final procedure the steps taken are formation and management. Management There are two types of International Joint Ventures: dominant parent and shared management. Within dominant parent IJV’s, all projects are managed by one parent who decides on all the functional managers for the venture. The board of directors, which is made up of executives from each parent, also plays a key role in managing the venture by making all the operating and strategic decisions. A dominant parent enterprise is beneficial where an International Joint Venture parent is selected for reasons outside of managerial input. Finance When two or more partners get together and form an International Joint Venture agreement, they must decide early on in regards to what the financial structure will entail as this will aid in management and control. Some of the steps include establishing the capital required to start the IJV, the impact of securing a strong strategic alliance partner, and financial reporting. Once an arrangement is made, a tax-planned joint venture will be created which will aid in maximizing the after-tax returns. Factors affecting IJV Economic Factors Poor formation and planning Problems that arise in joint ventures are usually as a result of poor planning or the parties involved being too hasty to set up shop. For example, a marketing strategy may fail if a product was inappropriate for the joint venture or if the parties involved failed to appropriately asses the factors involved . Parties must pay attention to several analysis both of the environment and customers they hope to operate in. Failure to do this sets off a bad tone for the venture, creating future problems. Unexpected poor financial performance One of the fastest ways for a joint venture is financial disputes between parties. This usually happens when the financial performance is poorer than expected either due to poor sales, cost overruns or others. Poor financial performance could also be as a result of poor planning by the parties before setting up a joint venture, failure to approach the market with sufficient management efficiency and unanticipated changes in the market situation. A good solution to this is to evaluate financial situations thorough before and during very step of the joint venture. Management problems One of the biggest problems of joint ventures is the ineffective blending of managers who are not used to working together of have entirely different ways of approaching issues affecting the organization. It is a well-known fact that many joint ventures come apart due to misunderstanding over leadership strategies. For a successful joint venture, there has be understanding and compromise between parties, respect and integration of the strengths of both sides to overcome the weaker points and make their alliance stronger. Inappropriate management structure In a bid to have equal rights in the venture, there could be a misfit of managers. As a result, there is a major slowdown of decision making processes. Daily operational decisions that are best made quickly for more efficiency of the business tends to be slowed down because there is now a ‘committee’ that is in place to make sure both parties support every little decision. This could distract from the bigger picture leading to major problems in the long run. Cultures Factors When a joint venture is formed, it is literarily an attempt at blending two or more cultures in the hope of leveraging on the strength of each party. Lack of understanding of the cultures of the individual parties poses a huge problem if not addressed. A common problem in these multi-cultural enterprises is that the culture is not considered in their initial formation. It is usually assumed that the cultural issues will be addressed later when the new unit has been created. Usually, compromises are reached and certain cultural from the parties are kept on while others are others are either out rightly discarded or modified. Pros and Cons for IJV The joint venture is becoming a popular way for companies that outsource their operations to retain a piece of the ownership pie. The creation of a new legal entity during the launch of a joint venture comes with its share of ups and downs. On the plus side: Joint ventures enable companies to share technology and complementary IP assets for the production and delivery of innovative goods and services. Joint ventures can be used to reduce political friction and improve local/national acceptability of the company. Joint ventures may provide specialist knowledge of local markets, entry to required channels of distribution, and access to supplies of raw materials, government contracts and local production facilities. In a growing number of countries, joint ventures with host governments have become increasingly important. These may be formed directly with State-owned enterprises or directed toward national champions. On the minus side: A major problem is that joint ventures are very difficult to integrate into a global strategy that involves substantial cross-border trading. In such circumstances, there are almost inevitably problems concerning inward and outward transfer pricing and the sourcing of exports, in particular, in favor of wholly owned subsidiaries in other countries. Problems occur with regard to management structures and staffing of joint ventures. Many joint ventures fail because of a conflict in tax interests between the partners. Disputes Agreements Disputes When two or more partners agree on an International Joint Venture, there are possibilities for disputes to arise. Particularly in IJV’s, there can be issues between the partners who are likely to want their home country’s governing law and jurisdiction to apply to any disputes that may come up; therefore, to avoid such a problem, a neutral governing law and jurisdiction is chosen in some cases. A popular dispute resolution technique used in IJV’s is arbitration; however, many times a court process is given priority as this system has more authority. Other dispute resolution strategies utilized are mediation and litigation. Agreements Entering into an International Joint Venture agreement begins with the selection of partners and then generally this process continues to a Memorandum of Understanding or a Letter of Intent is signed by both parties. The Memorandum of Understanding is a document describing an agreement between parties. On the other hand, a Letter of Intent is a document outlining an agreement between the parties before the agreement is finalized. Examples of successful IJV Sony-Ericsson is a joint venture by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to make mobile phones. The stated reason for this venture is to combine Sonys consumer electronics expertise with Ericssons technological leadership in the communications sector. Both companies have stopped making their own mobile phones. Omega Navigation Enterprises Inc. is an international provider of marine transportation services focusing on seaborne transportation of refined petroleum products. One of the vessels, namely the Omega Duke, is owned through a 50% controlled joint venture with Topley Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Glencore International AG (Glencore).They have also formed an equal partnership joint venture company with Topley Corporation, namely Megacore Shipping Ltd.

Music in Titanic Analysis

Music in Titanic Analysis The movie Titanic is deemed as a romantic story fused by the love and the tragedy. The music employed in the film is to provide two rendering functions, one is to describe the love between Jack and Rose, and the other one is for the storyline. To achieve the goals above, two major themes of music created by the musician, one is for the love centered by My Heart Will Go On, and the other is for the sinking Titanic. Even though the movie Titanic is classified by drama to describe a romantic story on the disaster journey of Titanic, however, it is also a great musical film directed by James Cameron released in 1997. There is no doubt that the movie Titanic is one of the first-class films with the concord between music and pictures. The soundtrack in this film is recognized as one of the best classic movie soundtrack publicly in the 20th century. Its beautiful melodies, strong lyrical effect, inseparable connection with the picture, and powerful plot driven make it turn into the ultimate soundtrack in movie history, so that it is quite difficult to be transcended. Additionally, the key of the success of the soundtrack in this movie is that composer integrates the Scottish folk music into the pictures and the storyline in a perfect way. The beautiful and desolate rhythm played by Scottish bagpipes running throughout the film puts Scottish folk element into emotional tone of the tragedy organically, by which viewer gets a fresh feeling. In fact, music in the films has a singular influence on the perception and understanding of image, which is called aesthetic effect. Based on a study, it demonstrates that film music has effects on character amiability and the inevitability of perceiving characters emotions. (Berthold et al., 2011) In the case of film Titanic, the theme song My Heart Will Go On becomes the other main line throughout the film. As a consequence, many soundtracks are based on this song that portrays characters mental activity and emotion, and renders the mood, by which viewers are connected with the story closely. The audiences are possibly able to know what characters thought by corresponding melodies as the same time. The composer tries to use the multi-stage musical form, which is commonly used in films, to create the soundtrack for the movie Titanic. At the beginning of the movie, with tragic melody, a clear female voice accompanied by the plaintive sound of the Scottish bagpipes evokes memories of the past immediately, and also indicates that the romantic desolate love will start on this ship. As mentioned above, there are two parts of the movie Titanic, the love and the disaster. The theme of love is presented at the first meet between Jack and Rose who is ready to jump into the sea, through which viewers would feel that the love begins to germinate. During the development of romance between two characters, the composer continually presents the tragic melody through the rendering of the soundtrack. With the sinking of Titanic, people keep running for surviving. At this time, the composer introduce the quickly short melody played by stringed instruments, the sharp tone played by trumpet echoed with the melody played by the French horn, the gloomy melody played by the trombone and the sound played by the percussion which are accompanied by female voice and melody played by Scottish bagpipes as a whole for disaster mood rendering. (Content Server, Conclusion: Some, of course, are ballads appropriate for any event in which families were separated and lost loved ones. ) Please add something here. In addition, the perspective of the film is through that elderly Rose recalls shipwreck disaster occurred 85 years ago. To support that, the musical theme of the disaster mixed with the theme of love in the shadow brings strongly feeling of tragedy and nostalgia. Some times, those two themes are separated, and some times are united. There are also the scenes of the musicians who play the music during the event occurring. If those scenes are included, there are 75 musical scenes in the movie Titanic. At the beginning of the film, a female voice accompanied by the sound of the Scottish bagpipes indicates that the final of the story should be a tragedy. In the first half of the movie, the music presents magnificent sail song to support a bustling scene around Port Southampton, through which the final tragedy is contrasted. Generally, the soundtrack of a film should be connected to the story of the film closely. (Content, 1st par: We wanted to know) Please add something here. Firstly, the soundtrack can render the mood of the story, for instance, at the beginning of the movie, life so changed presents deep and melodious that gives a heavy feeling and makes viewers to get the sense of final tragedy. Furthermore, it can render the emotion of the characters, by which the inside emotion could be pulled out through the play of soundtrack. It is commonly believed that the best scene in the film is the cheerful melody with full dynamic jump played by piano when Jack does the painting for Rose. The melody shows Roses happiness and endless heartbeat during facing her lover, by which it is better way than using any gorgeous language to describe the emotion of characters. Besides, it is able to drive the story efficiently. To illustrate, the melody goes up and boosts up gradually when the carriage brings Rose into the scenes. Then, Rose waves gloved hand, gets off the carriage, raises hat and exposes cheeks, and the soundtrack reaches a climax at the same time. At t his moment, the music plays a fantastic role for the story driven. Lastly, it can also be played as a key to reveal the theme of the story. For example, at the end of the film, My Heart Will Go On presents a review of the whole story to viewers through the beautiful and desolate song performed by Celine Dion in her melodious voice. My Heart Will Go On as the theme song of the movie Titanic plays a role of conclusion of the sorrowful yet beautiful love story. This song brings the misty, vast and uninhibited feeling echoed in the ears from the high sky. Accompanied by ups and downs of the song, the melody becomes the key in the love theme of the film. It condenses the exact definition of love which Jack and Rose performs around 200 minutes, shocks the heart of viewers deeply, and leaves the tears to them. On the other hand, the other theme, the feeling of disaster has been weakened, as if the promise of love and song of love gives the sublimation to the spirit of the characters in the tragedy. After watching this movie, viewers would recall the soul-stirring story when they listen to the song, My Heart Will Go On. With the fantastic performance by Celine Dion, My Heart Will Go On holds on the top 1st of the US Billboard for 16 weeks continuously. According to a statistics, it indicates that Celine Dions album My Heart Will Go On sell like a hot cake caused by focuses on anniversary of the attractive theme from Titanic (Trust, G, 2012) Consequently, the popularity of the theme song of Titanic has a huge impact on box office. Although usually around 7 to 8 soundtracks in a film, there is one theme song performed in several scenes and throughout the story, and the melody of it would be different each time, sometimes on changes of speed, sometimes on variations of instruments. (Beyond, P1: Music has traditionally been regarded as a subordinate element in the standard film genres and film conceptualise music)For example, in the movie Titanic, there are at least three scenes with the theme song performed, Jack and Rose standing at bow of the ship accompanied by Scottish bagpipes and human voice, Jack is painting for Rose accompanied by piano, and elder Rose in sleep accompanied by Scottish bagpipes, human voice and piano. With the different plot of each scene, the different techniques for handling music could give more extensive imagination of the theme of the film to the viewers other than the picture and avoid the boring of the repetitions. As the theme song of the movie Titanic, My Heart Will Go On presents a forever pure love, so that it is responded and throughout each scenes this movie of love. If picture is the skeleton of the movie, the music gives it a soul. As a new type of musical expression, the soundtrack in movie sends out its own fascination, and acts as a key role in the movie. In each scenes of every movie, no matter the happiness, angry, sadness, or horror, the soundtrack is absolutely necessary that would give the vitality to pictures, and put the relative imagination to viewers mind. An excellent movie gives viewers not only the memory of a fantastic story, but also beautiful soundtracks (usually the theme song). And with the passage of time, even though the story would be blurred, the soundtracks still hovers in the mind, and it would fetch back the memory of the story sometimes.

Mariano Escobedo :: essays research papers

Mariano Escobedo Mariano Escobedo was a healthy man he was my Grandparents great great grandparent. He was a Mexican General from Mexico. He wanted to govern Mexico, he fought against dynasty and he won. Escobedo fought against the French Invasion in Mexico to govern Mexico. He became a great general who fought against Napoleon III (French.) In Mexico City airport and in Monterey his name is printed and also in some streets of difference parts of Mexico. Mexico had borrowed money from England, France and Spain. In 1861 representatives from this countries got together in London to find a way to get Mexico to pay this countries. Troops from this three countries went to Veracruz in 1862. They were welcomed from representative from Mexico. The general Juan Prim, from Spain accepted the way Mexico was going to pay little by little so as England. The representative from France is not accepted he wanted the money and ordered his troops to prepare to fight. The government of Benito Juarez organize the defens e. He made in charge the general Ignazio Zaragoza to get to Puebla and fight with the French. They attacked each other in the " Fuertes de Loreto y Guadalupe. The troops of Zaragoza, helped from the Indians Zacapoaxtla. In 1862of Mat 5 they won against the French. The emperor from France, Luis Napoleon Bonaparte, wanted to extend his powers in America and in Asia. He dreamed to form a great empire. Mexico took advantage of that situation to peek an European emperor to govern Mexico and to stop the politic anarchy. Luis Napoleon made them recommend Fernando Maximiliano de Habsurgo, brother of the emperor Francisco Jose. Maximiliano accepted his embarkation to Mexico but with her wife, the princess Carlota Amalia de Belgica. Luis Napoleon send his army to wish napoleon luck. Austria and Belgica also send troops. The emperors arrived to Mexico at the end of 1864. In Veracruz, Puebla were great big welcomes. To confront the invaders, to the president Juarez formed a government itin erante, who traveled from the capital to the north border. From this places it continue the position of the millitar action from the armies from the North, West, command from

GEORGE ORWELL Essay -- essays papers

GEORGE ORWELL George Orwell also known as Eric Arthur Blair lived from 1903 - 1950. He was a British writer who wrote documentaries, essays, and articles. He was born in Motihari, India. Orwell was educated at Eton College in England. From an early age Orwell said, " Perhaps the age five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer." After Orwell did not win a university scholarship at Eton College he joined the Indian Imperial Police. He served with the Indian Imperial police in Burma from 1922 - 1927. At the age of twenty- four, he started to teach himself how to write. After his time as a police officer in Burma he returned to England for a couple of years he went on living in London and then Paris among the poor. Out of George Orwells experiences he wrote about conditions in his life and ordeals that occurred that no one had ever done before. Orwell experienced many difficulties in his field. First as a police officer in Burma he saw how brutally the people where being treated by the other police officers. He also wrote about his resignations that he had abo...

Essay --

Ashley Lotoszynski Darren Pagtakhan Social Justice December 17, 2013 Imaginary Fear Teddy Roosevelt once said that, â€Å"the only thing we have to fear is fear itself†. Fear is a product of the absence of knowledge and thoughts that are blown out of proportion. As humans we are scared of the unknown and what it conceals from us. In the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, a group of children crash land on an unknown island without adults. As time passes, the kids become uneasy and try to seek comfort in their leaders. When their imagination takes over, the unknown soon ignites their fear and apprehension hinders the juveniles as they attempt to restore order. Since fear is fueled by imagination, the boys’ outward attempt to conquer it only results in violence and chaos. Because we are scared of what we do not know, we believe that the unknown can hurt us. In the beginning, the littluns become scared and speak of a â€Å"beastie†. Piggy asks one of the littluns what he saw and reports that, â€Å"he [the littlun] says he saw the beastie, the snake thing...he says in the morning it turned into them things like ropes in the trees and hung in the branches†(Golding 36). The â€Å"snake thing† is a figment of the littluns’ imagination, causing the children to be more scared which in turn leads them to conjure up more imaginary objects that they believe will hurt them. It is also evident that the boys are scared when Ralph says to Jack that, â€Å"they’re frightened...they dream. You can hear ‘em...They talk and scream...As if it wasn’t a good island† (Golding 52). The boys have nothing to fear on the island however they want to return home where there is danger and war. It is ironic that the boys wan t to leave the island and return home where there ... ...(Golding 181). Jack is a character that instills the fear in the other boys to manipulate them into getting what he wants. By putting the fear into the other boys, they follow him and carry out his evil work leading to violence and chaos. This not only shows that Jack is manipulative, but that he also has a fear of not being a leader and in control. Imagination is the root of fear and leads to destruction and death in the novel. It can make people do irrational things and triggers responses in our security center. In the Lord of the Flies, fear is more dangerous than any beast because the boys are afraid of themselves. Everything that the boys are scared of have an unknown aspect to them. Instead of conquering fear, imagination provokes violence and chaos. The only thing we really have to fear, is fear itself due to its mentally and physically destructive nature.

Assignment Product Life Cycle Essay

Each product will have a life cycle. Using examples, illustrate each stage in the Product Life Cycle outlining the possible challenges and strategies which may be employed to sustain the sales and profitability of the product. What is a Product? A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption and that might satisfy the customer wants or needs. A product is more than just a tangible goods, it is a service (haircuts, home repairs etc) or idea. However, in marketing product is not just looked at as something that is tangible, but it allow for communicating with the targeted audience on matters such as packaging, branding, highlighting the product tangible benefits, the massaging of the customer’s ego as to why they should have a particular product. Product can be viewed at three levels, such as Core Product – it addresses what the buyer is really buying, the Actual Product – which features characteristic such as quality, brand, design etc., and the Augmented Product – it is the additional consumer services and benefits that are built around the core and actual product, which includes things as the after sale service, installation, warranty etc. A Product can also be divided in two main classification based on the types of consumer that used them. These classifications are Consumer Products – which are bought by final consumers for personal, and Industrial products – which are those purchased for further processing or for use in the production of other goods and services. For example, flour that is used as an ingredient in the making of pastry like bun, bread etc. The Product Life Cycle The Product Life Cycle (PLC) is a useful tool employed by marketers to know and determining at what stage a product is in its life. Most Product Life-Cycle curves are portrayed as bell-shaped (See figure below). The product life cycle has four (4) very clearly defined stages, each with its own characteristics that mean different things for business that are trying to manage the life cycle of their particular products. 1.  Introduction Stage – This stage of the cycle could be the most expensive for a company launching a new product. It is a period of slow sales growth as the product is introduced in the market. Profits are non-existent because of the heavy expenses of product introduction, although it will be increasing as the product moves on to the growth stage. 2. Growth Stage – The growth stage is typically characterized by a period of rapid market acceptance and substantial profit improvement. strong growth in sales and profits, and because the company can start to benefit from economies of scale in production, the profit margins, as well as the overall amount of profit, will increase. This makes it possible for the company to invest more money in the promotional activity to maximize the potential of this growth stage. 3. Maturity Stage – A slowdown in sales growth because the product has achieved acceptance by most potential buyers. Profits stabilize or decline because of increased competition. During this stage the aim of the manufacturer is now to maintain the market share they have built up; by consider any product modifications or improvements to the production process which might give them a competitive advantage. During the maturity stage, the product is established and the aim for the manufacturer is now to maintain the market share they have built up. This is probably the most competitive time for most products and businesses need to invest wisely in any marketing they undertake. They also need to consider any product modifications or improvements to the production process which might give them a competitive advantage. 4. Decline Stage – Sales show a downward drift and profits erode. While this decline may be inevitable, the downward drift and profit erosion maybe due to the market becoming saturated (i.e. all the customers who will buy the product have already purchased it) or because the consumers are switching to a different type of product. The idea of the product life cycle has been around for some time, and it is an important principle manufacturers need to understand in order to make a  profit and stay in business. However, the key to successful manufacturing is not just to understand the product life cycle, but to proactively managing products throughout their lifetime, applying the appropriate resources and sales and marketing strategies, depending on what stage products are at in the cycle. Let us now look at the possible challenges and strategies for each stages of the product life-cycle. Marketing Strategies: Introduction Stage The first of the four product life cycle stages is the Introduction Stage, which a new product is first distributed and made available for purchase. Any business that is launching a new product must decide when to enter the market and needs to appreciate that this initial stage could require significant investment, increasing awareness of the product through effective marketing and promoting, and also low pricing strategies maybe employed to attract customers and give the new product the best chance of achieving product’s success. For example, a cell phone manufacturer with new technology may introduce a cell phone with basic features at reduced prices in hopes of gaining lots of new customers. Challenges of the Introduction Stage Small or no market: When a new product is launched, there is typically no market for it, or if a market does exist it is likely to be very small. Naturally this means that sales are going to be low to start off with. There will be occasions where a great new product or fantastic marketing campaign will create such a buzz that sales take off straight away, but these are generally special cases, and it often takes time and effort before most products achieve this kind of momentum. High costs: Very few products are created without some research and development, and once they are created, many manufacturers will need to invest in marketing and promotion in order to achieve the kind of demand that will make their new product a success. Both of these can cost a lot of money, and in the case of some markets these costs could run into many millions of dollars. Losses, Not Profits: With all the costs of getting a new product to market, most companies will see negative profits for part of the Initial Stage of the product life cycle, although the amount and duration of these negative profits does differ from  one market to another. Some manufacturers could start showing a profit quite quickly, while for companies in other sectors it could take years.