Scandian Myth Essays - Flood Myths, Greek Mythology,

Scandian Myth The Scandinavian myth of creation begins by presenting Odin as the All-Father, a god that is older and mightier than all other beings. Being the ruler of all living things, Odin was responsible for the creation of the skies in the heavens and the ground on the earth. Soon after his formation the planet, the deity composed the first man, breathing life into his body and providing generously a soul to the frame. Even with such apparent power and control over the world, Odin the All-Father, was not the first creature. Before Odin there was only a great emptiness called Ginnungagap and was the only thing that existed. Niflheim, an area filled with mist and ice, was fashioned in the abyss along with Muspellsheim, a section in the south of intense heat and fire. Yggdrasil, the world-tree, and her nemesis, Nidhogg, an evil serpent, were spawned to occupy the space as well. The two points of cold and hot, Niflheim and Muspellsheim, collided into each other, melting the ice with a strong fire. From the interaction, Ymir was formed, the frost-giant who adopted the shape of humans. Giants were produce from his perspiration, causing a massive cow to be grown to feed them. The cow began to lick the ice, resulting in the appearance of hair, a head, and then a full body named Buri. From Buri three gods, Odin, Vili, Ve, were born, producing a new race that killed Ymir. The offspring of Ymir, the giants, drowned in immense sea of his blood. His body made land and his skull into the heavens by three gods. Dwarfs were molded from the maggots that consumed Ymir`s body, while the first man was created from an ash tree and a woman from a vine. In Greece, the origins of creation were not drastically different, referring to the story of King Lycaon of Arcadia. Lycaon was a conventional ruler and man of the age, having no regard for other mortals, beasts, or even gods. Zeus, the god above all others, masquerading carefully in a human form, visited the castle of the great king only to find him and his nobles in celebration. As a practice of the day, the god sat down at the table and ordered a hot meal, expecting a hospitable welcome as a visitor. Having seen through Zeus's ruse, Lycaon replaced him intended dinner with that of human limbs, an effort to murder the god. Zeus rose from the table, scorned and furious, removing all who were present at the banquet with his mighty wrath except for one, Lycaon, a man that was transformed into a wolf. In an attempt to eradicate the mortals, Zeus commanded a flood to be spread upon the earth once he reverted to his original form at Mount Olympus. The creator of humans, a titan Prometheus, forewarned Deucalion, his mortal son, of the destructive plans, allowing him to gather his wife Pyrrha and rations before the danger. Deucaltion and Pyrrha, two individuals that were in Zeus's favor, survived by resting on a chest for nine days and nights, remaining after all mortals had be destroyed. Both looked to the goddess of the titans, Themis, for council, praying for advice of the situation. The goddess instructed for Deucalion to throw stones over his shoulder, resulting in the creation of men, and directed Pyrrha to perform the same, generating women upon the earth from stone. Bibliography Work Cited Crystal, Ellie. ?Greece - Creational Myths.? Creation 28 Sept. 2001 . Crystal, Ellie. ?Scandinavian Creational Myths ? Odin.? Creation 28 Sept. 2001 . Mythology Essays

Essay on CUSTOMER RETENTION STRATEGY AND CONTACT PLAN FOR ORANGE part 2

Essay on CUSTOMER RETENTION STRATEGY AND CONTACT PLAN FOR ORANGE part 2 Essay on CUSTOMER RETENTION STRATEGY AND CONTACT PLAN FOR ORANGE part 2 Essay on CUSTOMER RETENTION STRATEGY AND CONTACT PLAN FOR ORANGE part 2Essay on CUSTOMER RETENTION STRATEGY AND CONTACT PLAN   FOR ORANGE part  1Question 2. Explain how to develop a customer contact plan in order to avoid losing customers considering the different market conditions in European markets.Orange is a large telecommunications provider offering internet services, fixed and mobile telephony and IPTV. The company’s customer base is very diverse, as Orange operates in 30 countries and has more than 230 million customers (Baines Fill 2014). The company is headquartered in Paris, France but its services are offered at the international level. Major regions of operation are Europe and Africa (Baines Fill 2014). Strategic objectives of Orange are to strengthen its core network offer and to add innovative services to achieve growth in order to expand the company’s market share.It is currently important for Orange to increase customer retention. Currently the c ompany’s approach to managing customer lifecycle includes three stages – welcome, grow and keep (Baines Fill 2014). Yet the impact of financial crisis in European countries led to the increase of involuntary churn for customers who are unable to pay their bills. In this context, it is difficult to simply â€Å"keep† a customer because customers experience financial hardships (Baines Fill 2014). The lack of a consistent customer contact strategy in Orange leads to the outflow of customers to other competitors and increases customer churn. Therefore, Orange should develop a consistent contact plan for its customers aimed at increasing customer retention.In terms of developing a customer contact plan, Orange should first of all determine its approach to marketing its services at international level. There are four key approaches to international market development – ethnocentric approach, polycentric, regional and geocentric approach (Payne Frow 2013). Et hnocentric approach focuses on the national market, polycentric approach views every market as a separate environment, regional approach is based on grouping countries into specific groups and targeting the regions, while geocentric approach views all target markets as a unified global market (Payne Frow 2013).Currently Orange has elements of ethnocentric approach (some key assumptions such as customer service use patterns are taken from national experience) combined with polycentric approach (customer retention strategy is standardized across Europe). It is recommended for Orange to switch to regional approach and to group European countries according to their financial health, borrowing culture and to the degree of reaction to financial crisis. For example, one group of countries might include stable and healthy economies which did not suffer significantly from financial crisis (e.g. France or Germany) and another group might include countries in which the purchasing ability of c ustomers was notably affected by the financial crisis, e.g. Spain and Romania.Research pertaining to customer retention in telecommunications shows that companies are switching from customer acquisition to customer retention due to competition and market saturation. Furthermore, according to Baines and Fill (2014), it is essential for telecommunications companies to focus on customer value and customer preferences. Kestnbaum, Kestnbaum Ames (1998) identified the following motivators of customer retention in telecommunications: customer service quality, phone/internet service quality and phone/internet plan quality. More recent findings also indicate that it is essential to optimize customer plans. Wong (2010) found that telecommunications customers often have difficulties predicting their usage needs and requirements, and tend to choose plans that are not optimal for them. Furthermore, Wong (2010) found that helping customers optimize their plans notably decreases churn rate and im proves customer retention.Therefore, to build a successful customer contact plan, Orange should analyze the needs of its customers as well as customer contact preferences, and to help customers optimize their plans according to their needs and financial position. The first step in creating such contact plan will be collecting customer information and dividing customers into categories using typical customer profiles (Pourasghar 2009). Key customer profiles might be: brand advocates (trusted customers actively supporting the brand), loyal customers (those who purchase regularly but do not take active part in brand promotion), average customers (make purchases from time to time), switchers (non-loyal customers who prefer discounted purchases), difficult customers (customers who have low satisfaction and have a lot of complaints), adversaries (those who are dissatisfied and spread negative information about the brand) and new customers (Kumar Reinartz 2012). Customer profiles should b e matched against country groups with different financial position. The combinations of customer and country profiles should be used for identifying the steps for customer contact plan.For each of the above-mentioned categories, it is necessary to develop a specific communication strategy to increase customer retention. For brand advocates, it is recommended to offer loyalty bonuses, access to new technologies and offers for free, advanced plans, etc. For loyal customers, such contacts as service news, account upgrade options and account optimization services can be offered. For â€Å"average† customers it is best to contact them with new offers, bundles, announces of new technologies and to provide them with exceptional customer support ready to explain and compare existing offers.For switchers, it might be efficient to suggest loyalty bonuses and to focus their attention on economic offers and bundles. Family options and group purchase options might also increase retention for such customers. Providing discounts for reviewing the company’s products and services might also encourage these customers to establish a better relationship with the company. For difficult customers, it is recommended to assign personal customer support workers who would help them and resolve their issues. Similar approach might be used for adversaries; furthermore, it might be beneficial to offer them a discount or free service for switching from competitors (assuming that the negative issues they disliked could be eliminated). For new customers, it would be best to offer a short survey of their preferences and interests, and then to suggest personalized services and plans according to survey results.Furthermore, it is essential to optimize the ways of contacting customers (Gillgan Wilson 2012). There are customers who prefer being contacted by email and those who prefer calling (Wong 2010). Additional methods of contacting customers are text messages, regular mail, me ssages in social networks, etc. (Gillgan Wilson 2012). For each customer, it is necessary to keep the preferred contact channels in customer profile and to use these channels. For the group of countries which were more significantly affected by financial crisis, more economic offers, discounted offers and options for paying by installments should be offered. For Orange, it might also be efficient to analyze the patterns of service use for all customers, to identify customers with low plan use rates and to suggest optimized plans to such customers. Using these recommendations, Orange would be able to create an efficient customer contact plan and increase customer retention.

Law Of Banking And Financial Institutions Benchmark Assignment

Law Of Banking And Financial Institutions Benchmark - Assignment Example When dealing with people and capital, conditions are always at stake. These conditions and the possible conflicts warrant legislation and regulations. Banking and the financial institutions, in general, are intensely regulated by the law. The legislation that has been set aside focus on regulating relationships between the financial institutions and its clients, the institutional securities, transaction and also regulate the tax compliance of the institutions. The need for legal help in banking is a common observation in the financial world. One section of banking that requires strict regulation is private banking. This is the part that involves personalized financial depositing of capital into a financial institution by an individual who has access to high income and therefore has no problem investing in the financial institution in large sizable assets (OConnor & Faille, 2000). The services are, therefore, offered in more personalized terms. In this case, the possibility of entering into a contract without full information is real. In addition, there is a danger of being shortchanged in the process. The legislation, therefore, co mes in to secure the instability of private banking. The risk with private banking including money laundering and litigation must be controlled by the government through the Office of Comptroller of Currencies (Schooner & Taylor, 2010). 2. The instability in the US banking sector in the early years was based on two issues. First, there was a level of inexperience that covered the banking industry. The lack of experience in identifying risks and responding to them led to the ultimate vulnerability. This failure was seen as many of the banks, especially those that were started just before the great recession in the 1930s failed to survive the crisis.