Premium Beer Market in Thailand free essay sample

There were various kinds of determinants influencing the enlargement of the beer market; especially the cause from gas price has risen up high like never before. Deriving the consumer products price had to be adjusted to avoid suffering from higher cost of production and transportation. On the other end, consumer’s purchasing power had become lower due to the higher cost of living; driving them to adapt to the economic situation they were facing. From the observation in the beer market, we could notice there were obvious changes in consumer’s behavior; consumers or drinkers tended to shift from having large size of beer 640ml. to the smaller size 330ml. in the form of small bottle or can. Moreover, there was a slightly drop in the frequency of buying beer also. In addition, government sectors also had plan in process to leverage IRS tax on alcohol beverage as the European Union had implemented it before in order to improve the social overall status and also eliminate beer industry pitfalls. We will write a custom essay sample on Premium Beer Market in Thailand or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Year 2006 In this year, there were many interesting movements occurring in the premium beer market. Beer manufacturers in the premium segment had planned an expansion in their production base to penetrate in other potential segments which were most likely to be the offering in light beer; providing more choices for consumers, containing less amount of alcohol or to be exact, lower than 5%. From the total amount of alcohol contained, although light beers were obviously positioned separately from the premium segment, still, they had become the new face of drinking premium beer which targeting on consumer who loves to drink healthier responded to the healthy concerning issues and rend in nowadays. Most importantly was light beers were actually sold in the cheaper price than premium beers. Plus with the facts that light beer market was still in the introduction stage, holding only 35 million liters in total production quantity or only 2% of the market shares in beer industry; therefore, showed that the light beers market still had more potential growth along the way (Source: Thai Bever age Marketing CO. LTD/Prachachat Newspaper: March 13th 2006) For the entrepreneur in light beers segment, San Miguel, the first brand penetrated into this market, was using the ‘Push Strategy’ in the early stage, implementing the intensive distribution to cover all convenience stores and on-premise market like pubs, bars, and restaurant in order to take advantages of being the first offering in the market. On the other hand, Chang Beer, who had been testing the light beer market since year 2005, decided to officially commercialize Chang Light into the premium market in March 2006; at a price of 45 baht per bottle which contains 4. 2% of alcohol volume; also implementing ‘sport marketing’ or ‘event sponsorship’ through golf and related activities. By March 2006, Singha Light was introduced to the premium market in Thailand. Although Singha was planning to focus on exporting their light beers to penetrate in Europe and America continents, but because of the high volume of alcohol up to 6% containing Singha Beer, it caused them to face with higher tax than the competitors. Plus, most drinkers in those markets preferred drinking beers with low degree of alcohol. Apart from that, Singha Light also put more focuses on driving the local market. Singha spent its marketing budget up to 150 million baht to present â€Å"Singha Light: The North Pole Challenge† in order to seek for 4 Thai persons getting once in a life time chance to travel up to the North Pole. Moreover, in this year, the government sectors had pushed through the new legislative law to be the mandatory for all alcoholic beverages. The law basically consisted of the regulations on selling and having to specific age of buyers, time and place of distribution. In addition, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA or ORYOR) had come up with the restriction of having any kind of advertisements relating to alcoholic beverages except print advertorial section in non-Thai magazines and other media. These regulations were officially brought to used on December 3, 2006 and immediately caused all the billboards, logos, brand related signs to be taken down and prohibited. Pubs, bars, restaurants, and also convenience stores were forced not to put any signs or logos of alcoholic beverage which could be seen clearly from outside the facilities. However, there were some exceptions were allowed in the case of social responsibility or tourism related activities. For example, the regulation stated that the facilities providing alcoholic beverages must also provide other non-alcoholic beverages like drinking water or sparkling/soda water etc. The company name must not be the same or rhyme with the name of the alcoholic drinks brand; and marketing strategy like ‘corporate brand image’ was prohibited like naming the company ‘Beer Thai’. For other marketing promotional tools like using pretty girls, the regulation still allowed them to dress in color to indicate the brand but the logos of the brand on the clothes including umbrella were prohibited; and for the issue of specialties or free giveaways that contained any logos indicating brand was postponed to be reconsider for the appropriateness. Year 2007 With the continuation of rapidly gas price rising situation, it was bad influencing the consumers to construct the negative perspective towards the stability spending and earning in the upcoming future and also directly affected the consumer’s behavior. As observed from the quantity of total beers sold in the early April, which usually the most profitable season of the beer industry; 143. 5 million liters comparing to the average sales from other months 140. 6 million liters or 2. 1%. These numbers obviously reflected the stagnant sales reached as low as 2-3%; dropped from 4-5%; mostly because of the pressure on the purchasing power of consumer due to the government regulation trying to decrease the alcoholic drinks consumption. On the tax regulation issue on beers, The Excise Department had organized into 3 groups and assigned different tax fees depending on each segment. The premium beer will be paying tax at 37 baht/liter; 36 baht/liter for standard market and 28 baht/liter for the economy segment respectively. For the controversial advertising issue since last year was finally settled down in this year with the revised regulations allowing the product image to be on print media but without persuasive messages or any presenter. Also print media was required to put 25% caution message of the total area of the advertisement. And for the mass media especially on television, they had divided into 2 phrases. First phrase, the TV commercials during the 10pm were allowed to put up any logo of the brand to be shown for approximately 5 seconds, and for the second phrase, 30 seconds mark shots were allowed. These changes made had tremendous positive effects to the beer market. However, those regulations were not major obstruction for the beer market. Marketers tried to adjust and improve their strategies and tactics to come up with new way of advertising. Event Marketing was one of their strategies which effectively doubled up the frequency of use. In this year, the expansion of the total beer industry had constructed the 6% growth of both quantity and value. But if we carefully looked through the segments, we would found that the premium beer market had surprisingly decreased by 8%. These were caused by the psychological factors driven consumers’ behavior to decline; plus with the government regulation had made impacts on many brands to seeking for new ways to market their products since back in August 2006 which eventually projected the decline in many firms’ total sales volume. Year 2008 Nowadays, the beer market in Thailand is still holding the attractive market for the imported brands. From the current market condition, we can notice there are many international brands which are trying to penetrate into Thailand’s beer industry to capture their potential market shares; starts off with re-entering of Carlsberg S/A Company, Denmark with the brand ‘Carlsberg’ into Thai beer market; after they had left the Thai market for the last 4-5 years. This comeback of Carlsberg is driven by the their main company in the foreign country; by starting from having the San Miguel’s breweries factory in Pathumthani as their production site. In the meantime, their marketing team has already been put in place and been planning to start their first comeback marketing event in March; and follow with the officially introduction in June. Carlsberg is mainly focusing all their efforts in distribution channel and strategies more than any other aspects. Carlsberg will initiate into the hypermarket and position itself in the same level as Heineken. Apart from that, in March, Thai Beverage Marketing CO. ,LTD. lso has plan preparing the expansion the beer portfolio to cover all the potential markets. Asahi was and still is the leader brand in Japan by having the most market shares in the beer market in Japan; by implementing the intensive distribution as their strategy, available to be purchased everywhere setting the price in the average range. Moreover, there has been improvement in the production procedure and logistics process in order to maintain the freshness and quality of the products and has tried to adjust the taste to be more preferable by Thai drinkers. They started out by focusing mainly on Japanese restaurants in order to construct the new customer base. By the year 2003, they have expanded more of their products into the common market including modern types of distribution channels like supermarkets, hypermarkets, and convenience stores etc. After some recession from the marketing strategies they had been implementing since the end of the year 2003; focusing on the taste of drought beer and plus with the innovative and futuristic of the products under the concept ‘Platinum Beer’ which derived from the sparkle silver-colored wrapped around the bottles and cans. But the selling point is somehow overestimated the perception of Thai drinkers. Therefore, in the year 2004, Asahi had decided to turn the other way around, back to its own origin which was Japan as the selling point along with the message of the bestselling beer in Japan by hoping the J Trend would eventually improve the Asahi Super Dry’s image. The result was quite successful; Asahi had captured the wider market share. By using J Trend, Asahi had effectively reached into the office workers which were employed in the Japanese firm or the group of people who have passionate in Japanese style including college students. Although there was not that large group of buyers, but most of them were likely to be identify as the middle class people, educated and have enough purchasing power. Year 2005 Asahi had decided to renovate the whole marketing strategy by turning to focus mainly on the concept â€Å"Think Difference† with â€Å"Color Marketing Strategy : Universally Communication†. They tried to emphasize on the silver strip on their products to create brand awareness, recognition and recall; distinguished from other brands in premium market. Source : BA Distribution CO. ,LTD. /Prachachat : July 17, 2005) Later on, Asahi had captured more market shares especially the increasing in rural markets; 40% from the eastern and northern part and the rest 60% from Bangkok and Metropolitan. During the second semiannual, Asahi had set the marketing budget up to 120 million baht from the total 180 million baht in order to emphasize on below-the-line 70% and above-the-line 30%. Year 2006 Organizational management structure was rearranged; the management team from Boon Rawd Brewery had come in and totally taken places in all positions in Asahi by deviding the works into two major departments under 4 CEOs; 2 from Japan and 2 from Boon Rawd. Sales department was under the Boon Rawd management team and BA would be taking care all of the marketing activities. Although there was major change in the management team, still they had not changed the positioning of Asahi and maintained its brand as international brand. San Miguel San Miguel first initiated into the beer industry by sponsoring in many golf competition; holding beer booths in many golf courses started from the middle of November and so on. Moreover, San Miguel had distributed their beers through many channels possible. However, San Miguel had the advantages over other competitors in terms of strong financial capability; therefore, San Miguel could use the turnkey operation; letting the 3rd party management team, which specialized in the particular kind of managing, to come in and run the business for them. Year 2005 San Miguel had decided to spend large amount of budget up to 375 million baht to settle down the contract with Pat-Kol Co. ,Ltd. in order to construct 95 rai of ‘Multi-Beverage Production Site’, which could be utilized to manufacture many kinds of beverage like fruit juice, drinking water, ready-to-drink tea/bottled tea, and also soft drinks in Amata City Industrial Park, Rayong. And debut its first brand of beer â€Å"Kirin† 2nd market leader from Japan. Year 2007 San Miguel had specified the marketing policies into major brands like San Miguel’s Low Calories Beer, San Mig Light as followed mandatory from the main headquarter. On the local market, San Miguel offered Blue Ice Beer as a standard brand and Red Horse Beer as an economy brand. These brands were already introduced to the Thai beer market for 2 years but they were intended just to test the market, and will be taken out of the market eventually. In this year, San Miguel had planned to emphasize more in below-the-line marketing; increasing from 60% to 70-80% mainly through pubs, bars, and restaurants in order to directly reach the right group of target; and decreased the above-the-line from 40% down to 20-30%. Moreover, they had planned to join with ‘Sugar Beet Restaurant’ in order to boost sales and build more brand awareness. Federbrau Thai Beverage Public Company Limited has just decided to introduce Federbrau into the premium beer market in order to fill up their beer portfolio. They have started off by distributing through on-premise channel like night clubs, pubs, bars since March by offering three sizes of products which are 630ml large bottle, 330ml small bottle, and 330ml can. These products will be further on distributing into another channel like supermarkets and hypermarkets. Feberbrau Beer is the imported brand from Germany; containing 4. 7% of alcohol volume which is the lightest taste provided nowadays like the word ‘Federbrau’ itself means ‘feather’. It is the first brand in Thailand which keeps practicing ‘Reinheitsgebot’, the law legislated in Germany allowing only 4 ingredients in brewing beer; water, malts, barley hops, and yeasts. Although the law has not passed the qualification of the EU, many breweries has still produced beer following this law in order to project higher standard than other manufacturer. Feberbrau Beer is being brewed by COSMOS Brewery (Thailand) Co. Ltd. , Wangnoi, Phra Nakhon Sri Ayutthaya. Federbrau has planned to position its product as the genuine German beer; offering new choices for consumers though Thai drinkers might not know the story behind their recipe; therefore, it is focusing on sending messages indicating the German-style and creating the adventurous sensation by using blu e color. They are mainly targeting the ages between the ranges of 22-35 who have self confidence, freedom lovers, and have their own lifestyles. For the regulation issues, there are many strict regulations on alcoholic beverages to be complied. But since Federbrau has clearly stated its position, it would not create any conflicts between the brands like Chang Light under Thai Beverage itself unlike the previous conflict between Chang and Archa. The marketing plan of Federbrau for the first 9 months will be mostly focusing on emphasizing on above-the-line rather than below-the-line; all kinds of media including billboard will be used to promote the brand awareness and brand recall by started off in the Bangkok area and then move on to nationwide through TV, radio, newspaper, shop decoration and also holding event to cover all potential market opportunities.

Record Label and Napster S Strategy Essay Example

Record Label and Napster S Strategy Essay Example Record Label and Napster S Strategy Essay Record Label and Napster S Strategy Essay Napster, developed in 1999 by Shawn Fanning, is a program that allows music to be traded over the internet. People were able to share high quality digital copies of music recordings over the internet using Napster. Napster did not store the recordings, however. It allowed its members who were logged onto the service to choose from an index of songs. Napster was one of the most popular sites on the internet. The site had some 15 million users in a year’s time. Many college students downloaded so many songs that many colleges had to block the site from their system. A year after its launch, Napster was sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The RIAA represents major recording companies. The RIAA claimed that copyright laws were violated by Napster for allowing users to swap music recordings for free. The RIAA sought to stop the downloading of copyrighted songs, as well as damages for lost revenue. Song swapping had cost the music industry more than $300 million in lost sales. A few months later, Napster was sued by a heavy metal band, Metallica, and rap star Dr. Dre. They were suing Napster for copyright infringement. In 2000, a judge granted the request of the RIAA and ordered Napster to stop making copyrighted recordings available for download. This would have shut Napster down. Napster was granted a last-minute reprieve until the lawsuits could be tried in court. Despite its many claims, Napster was found guilty of direct infringement of the RIAA’s musical recordings. The company was ordered to stop allowing its millions of users to download and share copyrighted material without properly compensating the owners of the material (Ferrell Hartline, 2008). Napster later offered $1 billion to the recording industry to settle the lawsuit. Napster also agreed that $150 million would be paid annually for the first five years to Sony, Warner, BMG, EMI, and Universal, and $50 million annually was allotted for independent labels. The recording industry refused the offer. The industry wanted Napster to shut down for good. Napster tried many times to compromise with the recording industry, but to no avail. Napster filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in 2002. The company also tried to reach a deal with Bertelsmann AG, their strategic partner. A few months later, a Delaware judge blocked the sale of the company to Bertelsmann. Napster then laid off nearly its entire staff and proceeded to convert its Chapter 11 into a Chapter 7 liquidation. Many music labels were dabbling in online music distribution. Napster had clearly beaten them to it and had done so efficiently, which was the main problem for the company. It was obvious to the record labels that online distribution was here to stay. Napster’s name and assets were purchased by a company called Roxio. Roxio was a company known for its CD-burning software. Roxio had intentions to relaunch Napster as a fee-based service. Napster was renamed Napster 2. in 2003. Apple was one competitor for Napster, holding 70 to 80 percent of the online music market. Rhapsody holds 10 to 15 percent of the market, and Napster holds 5 to 10 percent of the market. The remaining portion is divided among several different companies (Ferrell Hartline, 2008). Napster’s strategy focuses on being a subscription-based revenue model. Computer users could download as mu ch music as they wanted for a fee of $14. 95 per month. Napster created partnerships with BellSouth, Ericsson, and XM Satellite Radio as a means to connect with untapped markets. Napster partnered with Tower Records Japan and launched Napster Japan in 2006. The company also began a partnership with Japan’s largest mobile phone company. About 90 percent of music downloads in Japan occur through wireless phones (Ferrell Hartline, 2008). Napster has shown interest in being acquired by another firm. Napster hired UBS Investment Bank to help with the sale. A SWOT analysis structures the assessment of the fit between what a firm can and cannot do (strengths and weakness), and the environmental conditions working for and against the firm (opportunities and threats). The SWOT analysis for Napster would consist of the following (Ferrell Hartline, 2008): Strengths Large music library Convenient and easy to use Strong brand name and reputation Weaknesses Lack of compatibility Pricing Limited areas of differentiation Opportunities New technologies Decline in illegal file sharing Rapidly growing market Threats Powerful competition New technologies Potential for disintermediation Looking back at the weaknesses listed in the SWOT analysis, one point that should be worked out is the pricing of Napster services. Napster is set up on a subscription-based model. If the price per subscription was cheaper, more customers would subscribe to the site. Napster offers the same basic services as some of the other big names in the online music distribution industry. Another area to refine would be the lack of compatibility. Napster is not compatible with all MP3 players, especially the iPod. Those with an incompatible player will not want to purchase the service. New technology is emerging every day. Napster should work on creating avenues that will allow music to be downloaded to wireless devices, such as the smart phone, PDAs and other handheld devices. Napster should put forth efforts to keep existing customers happy while also trying to expand the customer market. Keeping existing customers happy should always be a company’s top priority. Having a solid core of customers to build on is very important to the stability and success of the company (Business KnowledgeSource. com, 2010). By keeping the existing companies happy, Napster could offer a free one month subscription for those members who have been loyal to company for a certain amount of time. Flyers or inserts could also be placed in the packaging of MP3 players. This advertisement would entice users to connect with Napster for all of their music downloads. With this deal, new users could download up to five songs for free before having to sign up for a subscription. Napster could offer discounts to new users for a certain period of time. For instance, a new user could get the first three months at a discounted rate before paying the regular price. There are many ways for Napster to expand their customer base. Finding out which plans work and which plans do not work is the key.

Explaining a Concept Research Pape Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Explaining a Concept Research Pape - Essay Example From the viewpoint of the employees, engagement is an emotional and attitudinal status that develops from the proficiency recognized to be managed by the organization. It further identifies the concept of employee engagement as â€Å"an individual’s degree of positive or negative emotional attachment to their organization, their job and their colleagues† (Scarlett Surveys International 2011). It is a relatively new concept in the field of human resource management. It can be defined as the extent to which the staff get fully engaged and dedicated to their job, concerned about their colleagues and organizations and are ready to be available walk the â€Å"extra mile† so that it can help their organizations achieve success. In simpler terms, EE is the integration of organizational elements like employee motivation, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and individual commitment. In the words of Robinson, the topic of employee engagement has become much admired in the recent days however there has been astonishingly limited empirical and academic survey on the same, till date. This resulted in the topic of employee engagement to become a bit faddish, in other words it is, â€Å"old wine in a new bottle.† Most frequently, the term employee engagement has been referred to as intellectual and emotional attachment towards an organization. As per the definition provided by Kahn, employee engagement is, â€Å"the harnessing of organization members’ selves to their work roles; in engagement, people employ and express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally during role performances.† In other words Kahn wanted to define employee engagement as the whole hearted presence of the employee, both physically and mentally, when delegating or performing some organizational duty. Employee Engagement and its relation with HRM Human beings form the most important part of an organization because technology and innovation alone can’t run a company and human beings are required for operating the machines and for serving the customers. Previously the business houses used to incorporate â€Å"Personnel Management† within its domain. Historical evidences provide the essential knowledge about the need for managing people since the inception of human civilization. During wars the warriors were organized along with their weapons & uniforms to form a disciplined team ready to defeat their enemies. Then, people were treated as cost to the company & they were hired for executing the directions given by their superiors. Here lies the basic difference between personnel management & human resource management. Human resource management considers their staff as asset to the company. If people are not happy with an organization’s rules & terms, they would unite against the firm which will pave the way for conflicts. Every revolution that happened throughout the world had one common thing, â€Å"a bad leader†. Therefore in order to avoid such occurrences, the field of management introduced the much sophisticated approach of Human Resource Management to deal with the people with compassion & manage them with strategy. The modern concept of Human Resource Management is a vast area with includes the recruitment of ideal staff for the

Chinese martial arts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Chinese martial arts - Essay Example Conclusively, these arts have a significant role in the lives of those who practice them. Understanding these important roles has seen the Chinese martial arts become more popular among people of other cultures, which has ultimately led to their adoption across the world and integration into the cultural settings of non-Chinese populations. In particular, they are seemingly centered upon improving the physical strength and adaptability of the individual, enhancing muscular formation and keeping the body fit and flexible. As the influence of the Chinese spreads around the world, Chinese martial arts have found new homes across the many places where the Chinese have settled either temporarily or permanently. The beauty of the martial arts coupled with their health benefits has seen them penetrate the Western culture, where some of the acts are changed to suit the local cultures. However, many more of the martial arts practices have remained in their original form. Several aspects of the Chinese culture and traditions are reflected through martial arts, largely taken loosely in the outside world to be Kung Fu, but which is indeed a misconception of Chinese terms by foreigners. Such attempts to try and interpret the traditional Chinese cultural aspects to more understandable standards for the outside world indicate their growing influence and popularity globally. However, they have remained distinctively unique to the inventors and partly vague to the outside world. As noted by Theeboom and Vertoghen, more cultural aspects of the Chinese are captured by their exercising the martial arts than any onlooker from a non-Chinese community would notice.1 This highlights the fact that understanding the cultural values embedded in Kung Fu requires a vast understanding of the Chinese culture. From here we mark our journey of investigating what martial arts stand for in contemporary China. Translated into its component words, the phrase martial arts in Chinese

The opening of Pride and Prejudice Essay Example for Free

The opening of Pride and Prejudice Essay How does Jane Austen in the opening of Pride and Prejudice decide the subject and the tone of the novel? How does this prepare the reader for rest of the book? Pride and prejudice is Jane Austen most popular Novel. In this novel Jane Austen has portrayed the book on a real life story and tells us about the initial misunderstanding between Elizabeth and Darcy. Darcy is a handsome, rich man, and full of attitude, this is what Elizabeths point of view is Elizabeth thinks like this of him because he was being very mean and arrogant on their first meeting this can be a misunderstanding, its possible that Mr Darcy will take some time to get along with her or he is acting like this maybe because he is finding the atmosphere very annoying. Mrs Bennet can be the cause of that, because they way she acts show how desperate she is about getting her daughters married and Mr Darcy finds it very annoying. Mr Bringleys sisters husband offers Mr Darcy to dance with many ladies but he refuses to because he doesnt find anyone much attractive, he also refuses to dance with Elizabeth and when says that she, in particular, is not pretty enough for him to ask her to dance. Mrs Bennets daughter Elizabeth heard that, but being a very simple and down to Earth kind of a person she ignored it. The Novel starts with showing how curious and crazy Mrs Bennet is about getting all her daughters married to rich men, which is not good for her daughters future. This way they might find men who are rich but they wont be able to stay happy with them later on in life. On the other hand Mr Bennet being the father of all these girls shows no interest in what Mrs Bennet is up to. He is a very sensible man and is going to let his daughters decide who they want to marry. In the beginning of the novel when Mrs Bennet finds out that Mr Bringley is moving to their neighbourhood she tells Mr Bennet to go meet him so he could get close to the family, (because she wants Mr bringley to see one of her daughters and marry them) but Mr Bennet doesnt want to and shows no interest in this. As the novel moves on we will see that Mrs Bennets pressure is going to cause her daughters to marry guys they wont be happy with, later on in life. They might marry these guys because of their mother wants them to, and because of that they wont stay happy with them. Elizabeth Bennet is a very simple girl and would want to marry someone who is very simple and has no attitude unlike Mr Darcy. She would want a loving and caring husband, but as I see it she might end up marring Mr Darcy because of her mothers pressure on her, or it can be possible that she would herself want to marry Mr Darcy because they both might fall in love and build up good relationship.

Exploration of Values in Robinson Crusoe, Odyssey, Tempest and Gulliver

Exploration of Values in Robinson Crusoe, The Odyssey, The Tempest and Gulliver’s Travels In the novels and epics of Robinson Crusoe, The Odyssey, The Tempest and Gulliver’s Travels the reader encounters an adventurer who ends up on an island for many years and then returns back home.   These four stories have another point in common: they are all unusually popular.   There is something very appealing to the popular imagination about such narratives. In this essay I will explore the vision of life (or at least some aspects of it) which this novel holds out to us and which is significantly different from the others, no matter how apparently similar the narrative form might be.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Very simply put, these four stories have a similar general narrative structure which goes something like this: (a) a member of a sophisticated European society is accidentally cast adrift into the wilderness, where everything is unfamiliar and there are no apparent aids of normal society; (b) the hero must adjust to this strange environment, find some means of coping with the physical and the psychological dislocation; (c) the hero must find a way off the island, and (d) the hero must reintegrate himself into the society from which he unwillingly was alienated.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The casting adrift can happen in any number of ways.   Typically it is the result of a shipwreck, a mutiny, or a misadventure of some kind.   Adapting to the new environment may or may not involve adjusting to the people who live there.   It almost always will require the hero to cope with a very different vision of nature, and he will be forced to confront the fact that in this place things run very differently from what he is used to.   This, in turn, may produce al... ...t what really matters and what does not.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Thus, adventures with isolatos are, or can easily become, an exploration of moral values forced into the awareness of the hero by an unusual circumstance.   And this development brings with it inevitably a criticism or a confirmation of the social values (or some of them) of the society of which he is a representative, whose values he brings with him to the island, and to which he returns.   Prospero’s rejection of the island and of the magic he so loves, like Odysseus’ rejection of Calypso for his own Penelope, is not just a manifestation of the hero’s moral nature; it is also a confirmation of certain values in the society to which they are returning.   Gulliver’s rejection of European society upon his return at the end of the fourth voyage is, in large part, a very severe criticism of the moral laxity of Europe.

How Vampirism Is Depicted in Dracula by Stoker and I Am a Legend by Richard Matheson Essay

Vampires are creatures that are believed to feed on flesh blood of living things and especially human beings. From the novels, vampires evolved from dead human beings and came back to life with more powers than them making them super humans. To understand vampires’ evolution, different myths were developed across the world. Ancient Persia recorded their first history as most Greek and Roman myths tried to expound further on their evolution. In the history recordings, vampires were depicted as huge creatures who struggled with human beings to feed on their blood. They further differed with human being in that; they could not age or contract diseases. Their immunity to diseases prevented them infections from human beings when they fed on their flesh and blood. Although many history recordings argued on traditional history, there existed some modern vampires that first appeared in Europe. In contrast, myths also recorded a different category of vampires whose origin was not from dead human beings but with temporal incarnation between humans and vampire. This category included blood thirsty goddesses, who were classified as Stinges, Lamiae and Empusae that fed on blood occasionally. Vampirism                  Vampirism can be defined as the act of feeding on flesh and blood of living things other than vampires. When feeding the blood of human beings, vampires bite the victims’ neck sucking out large volumes of blood. Through neck biting, they are able to injure the carotid artery, which is the major artery that transports blood to the brain hence paralyzing the victim and sucking the whole blood. Vampirism is regarded as a belief of one gaining supernatural powers and feeding on human beings blood in the folklore and popular culture. Stoker tried to expound on vampires by using them as characters in his book Dracula. In this book, Dracula, who is a vampire, is the main character. The author explained how the vampire had lived for many years, which was atypical for a normal human being. Similarly, Richard Matheson book was dominated by vampires who were created by infusion of viruses. Although people could be infected with vampirism virus, Matheson brings out the nature of immunity where one of his characters Robert Neville never contracted vampirism despite being infected. He was immune to the virus though he had unique human characteristics such as blond hair and blue eyes. Matheson described Neville as an educated medical researcher who concentrated on the research on vampirism only to find out that his blood was infected though immune to the virus. Vampires in the Text                  Stoker used different vampire characters to construct his book story. Dracula, the most dominant vampire in the story was described as the king by other characters such as Van Heslin. He was very powerful and he could control nature as well as living creatures such as wild animals. In addition, Dracula has the ability to incarnate to a bat, werewolf and change his victims into vampires through infections. His ability to hypnotize his victims gave him control over them and avoided being hurt by others. Despite his powerful nature, Dracula had a number of weaknesses as described herein. His powers were limited by reflecting him on reflective objects such as mirrors. This was evidenced when Jonathan tried to reflect his image on a shaving mirror. He lost his powers and became weak to the extent of being controlled by another person. Stoker emphasized in his book, despite the weakness, it was hard to fully destroy Dracula. More weaknesses emerged as holy symb ols and garlic repelled him and his sleep was on the fate of ancestors and the native land. He did not have ability to cross river, which water was following unless supported my men or the luck of the water. This showed how he could be controlled or destroyed in cases he became so dangerous. Matheson classified vampires in two categories, which included the dead and the living ones. Similarly, as Stokers described, he depicts vampires as being repulsive to garlic and holy symbols. For example, Christian vampires feared the cross as it was a sign of holiness. Matheson explained how Neville destroyed vampires by exposing them to sunlight, inflicting large wounds and staking them with wooden spike. Comparison between the Two Works                  Both authors acknowledged garlic and religious symbols as repellant to vampires. For example, Ruth recoiled violently when Neville handed garlic over her in Matheson book and Dracula when dining with Jonathan avoided feeding on garlic. In both texts, vampires relied on flesh and blood as their main food that strengthened them. For example, Dracula in the first paragraph almost attacks Jonathan when he cuts himself. Vampires are depicted feeding on blood by Matheson and he uses the phrase blood thirst to emphasize on their need of blood. Superstition is also another theme that was described in both books. Stocker explained how Van Helsing and Seward followed the garlic superstitions from the old country where they were believed to ward off spirits by protecting themselves by them. Religious symbols such as bread and cross represented Christ and his Body (stoker 123). Despite Neville’s ability to destroy vampires, he still used garlic to protect himself strengthening the theme of superstitions in the text. Both authors described vampirism as contagious from vampires to normal people. People who survived attack by vampires were infected through bites and insects. For example, Neville was infected by vampirism and his immune ability prevented him from transformation to vampire. In both books, vampires appeared to be enemies of the normal people. In I Am a Legend, the human race was insignificant as most of them were destroyed and killed by vampires. Moreover, Neville struggles with vampires and kill most of his encounters at nights. Stoker explained how Helsing had lived wanting to conquer and destroy the Dracula and how people continuously warned him and Jonathan against close association with the monster Dracula. The conspiracy, fights, and killings between vampires and the normal human beings is an evidence of enmity between the two races. In both books, vampires’ body circulations were totally different from those of normal human beings. For example, when Neville killed a woman vampire for research in Matheson’s book, he found that her body contained rows of salt and pepper mixed the same ratios (Matheson 60). Similarly, Stoker explained how vampirism victims could not be transfused with blood from normal people and their fate was solely on supernatural powers to heal them. On the other hand both books described contrasting characters on vampire and discussed below. Vampires described by Stoker were difficult to destroy and kill and were only destabilized by refection. On contrary, vampires described by Matheson were easily killed by exposure of sunlight and infliction of wound that were staked. According to stoker, vampires were as a result of the work with supernatural evil spirits that were connected to dead. In contrast, Matheson wrote that vampires were created by infusion of microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses. Matheson described the evolution and development of vampires as progressive. That is, they grew from young to strong creatures that mutated at some points and they could spend some times in the sun. Stoker described vampires’ development as retrogressive, growing from old weak creature to young strong creature through feeding of blood. Stoker work was based on religious beliefs and his main aim was to strengthen and restore r eligious faith in the society. He did this by creating a scenario where vampires who were believed to be evil became afraid of holy symbols and supreme powers. It was learnt from the text that, vampires feared holy waters and for that reasons people could protect themselves from them. Dracula represented devil and this was expressed more by name of his home in London, Piccadilly. The word appears to be close to the word peccadillo â€Å"a slight offence† or sin (Merriam-Webster 530). Matheson work in contrary was not based on spirituality. His entire book denounces the interrelationship between God and humanity as evidenced by Neville when he did not depend on invisible beings when trying to destroy and kill vampires. He was more dependent on his vampire research, which was facilitated by his medical research career. According to science, the reliance on invisible being appears absurd and science does not validate it. In both books, the concepts of vampirism indicate the wickedness of humankind as it is concerned with termination of life and shedding of blood. This is against the societies norms and values and the books were written to address the evils. Matheson brought out vampires in his book as unique and modified enabling them to be more alluring to the intended target audience. This was contradictory to those in Stoker’s book where they were depicted as monsters of devil’s associates thus attracting believers as the main audience. This would help the believers appreciate the mighty power of God that made devil afraid as evidence by Dracula avoiding religious symbols. On the other hand, the target audiences for Matheson work are mainly non-believers as most of the characters such as Neville were never afraid of super beings or supernatural powers. He uses the assumption that the doctoring of individuals affects what they fear and what they do not (Matheson123). Neville discovered the reflective character of vampires in Matheson book, which was opposed to those described by Stoker (Matheson 16). In the book, I Am a Legend, Neville searches a scientific cure for vampirism from his blood due to its immunity unique character on vampirism. Although his initial trials to heal vampires had aborted, he continued to search for a solution ceaselessly. Fortunately, he found the cure, which could depress the vampires thirst for blood thus reducing their threats on human beings. This was the not the case in the text of Dracula. Vampires in both books appear as creatures, societies uphold their beliefs and norms without permitting vampires to despise them. Despite the vampires being hostile to people, they struggled to push the out of the society and denounced their evil deed across the society through eliminating them. Society struggled to push Dracula out of the society but his unnatural power defended him and the society attempts were in vain. Their fear of evil spirits prevented them from his attack and instead hoped for a savior who will come for their help. The society saw Helsing as their savior and their belief in God. He was a well-learned doctor who had an open mind and thus was probable the person to save them (Stoker 109). The two books targeted the evils in the society by addressing them and trying to bring people closer to a supreme being, God. Perhaps, the society was full of evils at the time of writing and so it was necessary to address the issues through text. It can also be assumed that, people used texts or books to learn most of the things in the societies and thus there was need to use the medium to communicate exclusively to the people. From the fact that Christianity (Church) was evident in the texts, the authors revolved their writings around it acknowledging God as the protector of human race from all sources of evils such as vampires in the book society. The individuals were protected by religious artifacts that was evidenced by possession of religious symbols by Helsing had religious items such as holy waters, which helped to protect the society from evils. Matheson described Neville as having tattoo of a cross which served as vampire repellant thus to some extent having religious belie fs. Not much was explained in the about Christianity and the church. Some of the people in the society were enlightened and had both scientific knowledge and religious beliefs to deal with the evils associated with the vampires. The authors of the books were skilled and considered perception of the people when writing so that they could be able reach and impact on the people’s ways of life. For a typical author, he or she must be able to understand his or her audience in order to deliver a relevant message and in an appropriate way without provoking them. Matheson and Stoker used this aspect and combined it with the knowledge of vampires and their attitude in the society. The use of vampires in both books was fundamental as they depicted the evils in the modern that are caused by various abnormalities as Matheson explained one of the cause to be the second world war. Therefore, by use of reality and fiction, the authors were able to prove their worthiness in literature and society. Conclusion                  Both books used vampires to deliver their messages to the respective societies. They depicted societies that were full of hostilities and blood spilling between vampires and normal human race. Although the vampires in both books had common characteristics such as feeding on human blood, they exhibited slight differences on their evolution and development. The books attracted varied audiences with Dracula attracting audience of vampires who knew Dracula as the best vampire in history. The books addressed the political views of the time with Stocker in being more concerned on Europe where the church was prominent in the political scene with believers as rulers such kings and queens. In the Matheson book, the issue of the world war was described as politically influenced and depicted how mankind would be swept off on earth by stronger weapons than nuclear if wars were to recur. References Dunnigan, James F. How to Make War. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2003. Print Matheson, Richard. I am Legend. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, 1954. Print Stoker, Bram, and Leonard Wolf, ed. The Annotated Dracula. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc. Publisher, 1975. Print Source document