Sunday, January 26, 2020

Hospitality And Tourism Marketing Strategies Marketing Essay

Hospitality And Tourism Marketing Strategies Marketing Essay 1.0 Introduction: Tourism and hospitality industry has become one of the largest industries in modern and competitive business world. It is a common remedy for development and the world travel and tourism industry supported 234 million jobs (8.7% of total world employment) and contributed 10.3% of world gross domestic product in 2006 (Opening up Trade in Services :Key for Tourism Growth, 2008) . The tourism and hospitality industry has been as a helpful force for world peace; the benefits of mixing together different types of people and different cultures. The travel industry has contributed to the accomplishment of millennium development goals especially in the third world countries. Despite a huge expansion in the travel industry fuelled by opportunities created by the internet and emerging markets consistent profitability for many airlines and travel-related firms remains elusive due to terrorism, recession, the SARS virus, strikes, and the Icelandic ash cloud: the list piles up. Before people tr avel for survival or to better themselves but, now people travel for entertainment, business purpose and amusement. Airship or air-ways business have become easier, faster and cheaper to travel around the globe and the airline industry such as Ryan air plays an important role in the tourism sector. 1.1 Over view of Ryanair airline: Ryanair is an Irish low-cost, first and largest low fares airlines in Europe. From Ryanair case study analysis (february19, 2008) it is shown that Ryanair head office situated at Dublin Airport, Ireland, and has based in London Stansted Airport (the third-busiest airport in the United Kingdom). The late Dr. Tony Ryan and his family have established Ryanair in 1985 with just 25 staff. In July 1985 they had launched their first route from Waterford and London Gatwick which is operated by a 15-seat Bandeirante twin-turboprop according to About Us (1985) www.ryanair.com. To defy the oligopoly market between British Airways (BA) and Aer lingus in Dublin-London route, the newly stabilised Ryanair obtains permission from the regulatory authorities. According to Ryanair website,( About Us ,1986 www.ryanair.com), Comparing the price of the BA and Aer Lingus lowest return fare of  £209,Ryanair launched the first Dublin-London Luton flight in May 1986 for only  £99.So in response to stay in the market those rivals cut down their high fares. Inspite of having three conjugative years growth in aircraft, routes and competitive price, they face a massive loss of  £20m which made the company to follow the model of Southeast Airlines leads a change of its management and structure according to Ryanair website(About Us, History of Ryanair, 1990, www.ryanair.com) .For getting a competitive position in Airline industry, The Ryan family put in an additional  £20m in the company and change their management which is a copy of Southwest Airlines low fares model(A bout Us,1990 www.ryanair.com). Thus they are going to begin their innovative management which generally based on low cost with low fare and starting first low fare business in European airlines sector. Now Ryanair offers lowest fares but high frequency flights, moving in to a single aircraft fleet type. It reduces its Dublin-London Luton flight fares from  £99 to just  £59 return by cutting down free drinks and meals on board. The Easter weekend seat sale fares of  £59 return that launched in 1990 was overcoming customers or passengers demand. A vast of people wanted to get this demanding Easter weekend seat and It was such demanding that in Dawson street there was more than halfway traveller s line for three days to get that bargain (About Us, www.ryanair.com). After taking the Southwest airlines low fare model and establishing cost reduction in their strategy Ryanair is rapidly growing in airline market. Their revenue is increasing rapidly which is shown in their annual report. According to annual report of Ryanair (2003), Revenues have risen increasingly and in 2002 revenue was à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 624.1million.After one year it was increasingly from à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 624 (2002) to à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬842.5 million (2003) and over the same time, net profits had increased from à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 150.4 million (35%) to à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬239.4 million (59%). Thus Ryanair increasing their business rapidly and get the huge amount of profit. Now Rianair is distinctive from their competitor .Currently introducing a fantastic team which consist more than 8000 people and it operates a massive number of 51,100 flights per year which is more than 1400 flights per day (About Us, History of Ryanair, www.ryanair.com). By operating a fleet of 250 new aircraft which includes short to medium range, single aisle, narrow body jet airliner 737-800, Ryanair becomes the worlds best budget airline (www.ryanair.com). Providing more than 1100 low fare routes from 44 bases across 27 countries, Ryanair connects 160 destinations. According to Ryanair website (www.ryanair.com), Within next 02 years before taking account of planned disposals, Rainair want to introduce 64 new aircraft in their fleet and currently it carries 73.5 million passengers (approx) which is almost 15% {(73.5/63.5100}higher than the last year (63.5m). Safety is a most important priority for the management of Ryanair. Their commitment to deliver great safeties for their pa ssenger and this obligation begins with instructing or training of Ryanairs pilot, cabin crews and maintenance human resources and includes a policy of maintaining its aircraft in accordance with the highest European Airline Industry Standards. 2.0 Marketing Concept: Marketing is a process which helps to find out what consumers want, and then provide it for them. It is a system of business activities which is designed to plan, price, promote and distribute services to target markets, in order to achieve organization objectives. Baker (1992,p.20) pointed that marketing is concerned with the establishment of mutually satisfying exchange relationships in which the judgements as to what is satisfying depend upon the perception of the parties to the exchange. Basically, it involves creating the right product with right price and then putting it in the right place with the right promotion; everything is done for making customers or target market happy. Marketing is identifying the target market and satisfying customers now and in the future. In most organizations, an analytical function, strategic direction and facilitates are tactically set to attract customers. Marketing strategy is important for every business. An effective marketing strategy can help a business to get more profit and also getting high position in competitive business market. Marketing strategy can be the life or death of a business. Having a wrong strategy, business will go down. Beginning an effective strategy is the key of success for business. Marketing strategy is the way and compass of an organisation over the long turn. Effective marketing strategy can bring advantages for the organisation. For creating effective strategy company always organized and proper utilized companies resources within a tough and challenging environment, to assemble whatever market needs, to fulfil what customer wants and also fulfil whatever stake holder expect. Successful strategy always examine the present situation and then set up plan which help to deal with all operational aspects needed to realize the achievement of organisational goal as argued by Jain (2000). Its a plan of action that summarizes what will be done to reach the stated objective. Jain (2000) identified the significant characteristic of strategic marketing as putting emphasis on long-term implications and monitoring the business environment, taking into consideration the corporate culture, business resources and the corporate stakeholders and varying roles for different pro ducts or markets. Marketing Strategy deals with the proper selection of marketing opportunities to pursue, examining and analysing target market and creating a right marketing mix that will satisfy customers in the target market. It basically deals with four essential elements which include sale or promotion, product, place and pricing. 2.1 Marketing strategy of Ryanair: Marketing Strategy is the most important business element for an organisation. It helps an organisation to identify organisations target goal and explain how organisation will achieve the target goal within a stated time frame. Generally all organisations have strategies that would maintain or enhance their competitive benefit in the market, and Ryan Air is never an exemption. There are different types of marketing strategy which is followed by organization or company to create an effective strategy, such as guerrilla marketing and viral marketing. Guerrilla marketing and viral marketing both are followed by Ryanair. 2.2.1 Guerrilla marketing: Guerrilla marketing is a marketing process hit hard, hit fast, get in, and get out and also a tactic which help to focuses on low cost, and fast-to-market, promotions. Guerrilla marketing is a marketing process of alternative ways of pursuing straight goals and an established technique of achieving profits with least amount money. The main aim of guerrilla marketing is to create a unique, appealing and stimulating idea to create buzz (buzz is used in word of marketing), and subsequently go round viral. Tom Richard (2005) pointed that with guerrilla marketing business can be able to increase the amount of traffic which comes from their business without spending a huge amount of money. 2.2.1.1Guerrilla marketing of Ryanair: In Ryanair marketing strategy, they follow guerrilla marketing technique which is unquestionably winning in realistic applications, are still new, fresh and not as clearly explored academically as other marketing technique. Strategy of Ryanair based on cost reduction strategy, minimum standard of service, short haul flight, very low prices and no frills, point to point frequency, all these are designed to achieve their goal and having a competitive position within the airline market. Here I discuss some guerrilla marketing techniques of Ryanair. Cost reduction strategy of Ryanair: Low fares and no frills are the key elements of Ryanairs marketing strategy. Low fares are offered by Ryanair to get large amount of passenger traffic while maintaining a continuous focus on cost-containment and operating efficiencies. Strategy of Ryanair is based on cost leadership strategy, in this strategy management manage and do all value adding activities with the lowest manufacturer of product in business and attract customer with their lowest price. Cost reduction strategy helps them to gain competitive position in airline market. Lowest price help them to get many customers. Their assured aim is to divide into constituent parts of air travel and cut costs in every possible area which help them to offer lowest fare to their passenger than other competitor airlines. A particular part of passengers are targeted by Ryanair and they are just absorbed all their energy on that. Their target customers are the ones who are not capable to travel on a main or highest fare airline. Ryan air has established a relationship with consumers by using low cost product which helps them to sell additional higher-margin products and services that develop the consumers interface with the low-cost product or service. Ryanairs strategy, achieve competitive advantage through cost leadership and differentiation across broad and narrow target market so that superior profits could be generated by charging the market average price while holding costs down and this is consistent with Porters (1985) generic strategies. Being reliable: To deliver the best customer service performance is the strategy of Ryanair. According to the reports of Association of European Airlines (2004) Ryanair has achieved better punctuality than their competitor, less lost bags and smaller amount of cancellations than all of the rest of its peer grouping in Europe. Ryanair achieved all these good will because they are purposeful to carry out their services on powerfully or strongly and operating their services from secondary airports which are not congested. Monthly customer service statistics for September, 2010 was published by Ryanair, substantiate that they deliver Europes No 1 airline customer service to their passengers. For the duration of the month of September 2010, it shows that on time arriving flight of Ryanair is 85% of over 42000, fewer complaint which is 1 complaint per 2,000 passengers and less than 1 missing bag per 3,000 passengers was received. Ryanair are more concern about the safeties for passenger. According to Ryan airs annual report (2009), in their twenty years working history they have not had a single occurrence involving major injury to their passengers or flight crew. Point to point Flight frequency: Ryanair also provides frequent point to point flights on short haul routes and this route allow Ryanair to give frequent service. Ryan air use secondary or regional airports because this Secondary and regional airports are usually not as much of crowded than major airports which helps Ryanair to provide superior rates of on time departures, quicker turnaround times (the time an aircraft expend at a gate loading and Unloading passengers), less terminal delays, more competitive airport entrance and handling expenses according to Association of European Airlines report (2004). Point to point flying allow Ryan air to provide non-stop routes and keep away from the expenses of service for connecting passengers, baggage transfer and transit passenger assistance costs. Faster turnaround time is an important factor for Ryanair to exploit aircraft utilisation. Association of European Airlines published on time performance record of some airlines in their statistics reports and the airlines sta tistics (2004). According to their statistics, for the first six months of 2004 Ryanair arrived within 15 minutes of schedule time which was 92%, on the other hand its main competitors like Lufthansa AG (Lufthansa) 84%, Air France 84%, easy Jet Plc (easy Jet) 82%, British Airways 81% and Alitalia S.P.A. (Alitalia) 80%. Building achievement in the Ireland-U.K. market and increasing service to continental Europe, Ryanair intends to pursue a manageable growth preparation targeting precise markets. Targeting specific market will have opportunities for sustained growth by initiating supplementary routes from the U.K. or Ireland to other locations in continental Europe that are currently served by higher-cost, higher-fare carriers; increasing the frequency of service on its existing routes and this are believed by Ryanair. 2.2.2 Viral marketing of Ryanair: According to Allen.K (2008) viral marketing is a marketing technique that employed the concept of using the social networks of other people so that they can spread and expose their business product and services. Viral marketing strategy is a strategy that encourages individual to pass on a marketing message to others, creating an ever-expanding nexus of internet users spreading the world pointed by Hutchison. T, Macy. A et al (2009). This marketing strategy help organization or company to pass their information by using website, video clips, e-books, brand able software, images or text messages. It also can be word of mouth. Some viral marketing strategy is included here which is followed by Ryanair. Straight marketing technique: Ryanair has been using straight marketing techniques for recruitment and maintenance of customers to widen products and services. Travel agents are not used by Ryan air so that they do not pay agency commissions. Customers book online over the internet which helps the company to save agency fees. According to About Us, History of Ryanair (2000) www.ryanair.com, on January 2000 Ryanair started biggest booking website of Europe which is www.ryanair.com. This largest website helps them to reduce their cost and getting huge amount of booking. After launching the website weekly it was taking over 50,000 booking and this huge number of booking was established within three mounts. This website also allows passengers to get the lowest possible cost hotel rooms, car hire, lowest cost travel insurance as well as cheapest rail services (www.ryanair.com, About Us, History of Ryanair (2000). According to Ryanair website (About Us,2000, www.ryanair.com) the weather report in Skynews gets sponsored by Ryanair, The first airline sponsoring weather news by doing this they reach to millions and thousands of people watching television in their homes and people in hotels all over the European countries. The flexibility of getting Online tickets within the wide time span from 15 days up to 4 hours which is prior to the departure of their scheduled flight. Boarding pass too can be reprinted up to 4 hours before the scheduled flight according to online booking, ryanair.com 2009. Ryanair Magazine: For focusing customer and creating good relation with customer Ryanair publish their monthly magazine. In their monthly magazine, it is generally described directly to the interests and purchasing behaviour of Ryanairs exceptional audience and essentials include charming destination guides, travel tour ideas, property and real estate guides, select hotel reviews, seasonal recreation guides, technology updates and individuality profiles according to www.ryanair.com (advertise with us). Their magazine provide their passenger do not need to pay too much and provide them too get cheapest travel tour, cheapest hotel etc.Ryanair also involve to do some social activities. They are donated all money whatever they raise by selling their charity magazines. Their first charity calendar was published in 2008 which features their cabin crew and it raised à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬75,000 for childrens charity Angels Quest in Ireland (www.ryanair.com). 3.0 Public relation tactics: In every organisation public relation strategy is very important to the success of a business. It helps to communicate with customers all over the world. Public relation (PR) is a relation between company or organization and public which provide a service for the company by serving to provide the public and the media a better thoughtful of how the company works. It helps the company to attain its full potential and provide feedback to the company from the public. This usually takes the form of research regarding what areas the public is most happy and unhappy with. Within the tourism industry, public relation is not solely the work of PR department but also the entire employees. Public relations help an organization to develop its mission and vision and also meet customer or public needs and desires. Most times companies take some tactics to make relation with consumer which help to keep the customer coming back for more time. Ryanair also follow some tactics to create a better relationship with customers. Statistics from Association of European Airline (2004) shows Ryanair topped the list of customer satisfaction. In customer satisfaction figures Ryanair has got the pole position by providing best punctuality, the smallest number of lost bags and the least cancellations .Ryanairs head of communications, Peter (Holiday extras, Ryanair best for customer service,2007) said that the high fare airlines basically cannot contend with Ryanair either on price or on customer service satisfaction. Recently, Ryanair revealed that they have entered into agreements with a number of companies to present advertising space on the seatbacks and overhead baggage storage areas on their planes. 3.1 Relationship marketing of Ryanair: There have been many attempts to define relationship marketing. Berry (1983) pointed that Relationship marketing is attracting, maintaining and in multi service organisation-enhancing customer relationships which help to strengthen the relationship with customer and also transforming indifferent customers into loyal ones. Todays competitive market relationship marketing is important to get more customers. Successful relationship marketing helps business to get loyal customer which is important for business. Ryanair has created relationship marketing with public by providing better service quality such as best punctuality, the least lost bags and least cancelation, creating their own website which provide all information and resent news of Ryanair, publishing their monthly magazine, donating charity and sometime offering special offer. For giving special offer 1st November 2010 Ryanair announce that passengers can book their à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬6 seats for travel and booking their à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬6 seats, passenger can travel on more than 500 European destinations in December and January. If passengers want to get this offer they have to booked these seats until midnight (24:00hrs) Thursday (4th Nov) according to Ryanair news (1st November 2010).This offer announcing by Ryanair to make relationship with thei r customer. For making relationship with public Ryanair donated for charity by selling their calendar. From this calendar they got 100,000 euro and donated this money to Dublins Simon Community which is a charity works with homeless people in Dublin city(About Us,www.ryanair.com). 3.2 Customer loyalty tactics of Ryanair No business exits profitability without customers, which means customers are main element for a business and business would be more profitable when they are loyal. Loyal customer is king buy more, buy longer and tells more people. That customer who doesnt return or doesnt make partnership to the organisation or doesnt spread positive word of mouth has no value to an organisation. If any company or organisation wants to win the market place they must be customer-centered. Creating customer loyalty is important for every company and according to Reichheld (1996) greater customer loyalty brings about superior employee satisfaction and improves returns for shareholders. Richheld (1996) identified that customer loyalty, employee loyalty and investor loyalty are the key for the success of an organisation. That means loyalty is the key element to create relationship with public. Like every company Ryanair wants to encourage its repeat visit. Ryanair needs to drive repeat customer business which will give an extra little help to its loyal customer and at the same time boost its revenue. To maximise the number of repeat customer, Ryanair appointed the well recognised incremental revenue provider for online business-Webloyalty which is revealed from webloyalty news on march 2010 (www.webloyalty.com). Webloyalty has a vast experience in online businesses which work on driving repeat customer business by providing an option, named discount scheme to its online shopper. Customers who are booking online with Ryanair, they will have the option to join shopper discount and rewards. This offer provides passengers the option to join a 30-day free trial of Shoppen und Sparen. It also provide year-round discounts of up to 20 percent at over 400 top online retailers and EUR15 cash back check from Webloyalty for their next Ryanair purchase after joining the program. Martin Child, managing director of Europes Webloyalty (2010) said this model will help Ryanair to reward its repeat customers whilst providing a revenue stream and repeat business to their web pages with minimal effort required by them to implement the programme. Sinead Finn(2009), director of commercial revenue (Ryanair), insisted the passengers of Europes largest low fares airline Ryanair has already save billions each year with the lowest guaranteed fares, now in partnership with Webloyalty across three European markets, even more of our passengers can choose to join membership programs of Webloyalty and save more with ongoing discounts. For keeping to its customer, on Thursday 20 August Ryanair, low fares airlines, has announced details of an amazing flight good deal in Bangor as well as Belfast to commemorate A-level results day (Stakeholder media news August 2009). Europes largest low fares airline Ryanair announced that Ryanair Company will benevolent to give away free of charge flights to A-level students. They give these free amazing flight offers for those students who have gained admission test of those colleges and universities which are situated in their five destinations from George Best Belfast City Airport to East Midlands, Bristol, Liverpool, Glasgow Prestwick and London Stansted,. This amazing offer can get those first students who can come in Major Street Bangor and Belfast at 11.00 am to 14.00 pm next Thursday with their A-level results slip as well as letter of offer to the Ryanair Company. Only these students can win these free flight tickets towards university according to Stakeholder media news ( 2009). From Stakeholder media news (2009) ,Laura McCormack, management member of Ryanair said that University can be costly time for students and their parents, but the special offer of low fare airline, Ryanairs guaranteed means that guardian or parents of students as well as students can fly their house and vacation at the lowest fares. All things are done by them for keeping customer. 4.0 Effectiveness Marketing strategies and Public Relation Tactics of Ryanair: Developing and managing effective marketing strategies are important for company to achieve the broad goal and with effective marketing strategy company can beat with other competitor which helps them to get high position in business market. Effective marketing strategy helps company to satisfy their customer and get the target market. A successful marketing strategy must be tractable. Marketing tactics are essential to create an effective strategy. Marketing tactics are the day-to-day actions that marketers undertake and involve the main marketing decision areas. This tactics help to make relationship with customer. Public relation tactics is the first step for an effective strategy. This marketing strategy helps the company to stand in competitive market and to gain competitive position in the airline market. Effective marketing strategy and public relation tactics is a way which helps company to growing revenue, increasing profits and reducing costs. With providing cost reduction strategy, point to point frequency, punctuality and minimum customer service now Ryanair is getting the largest low fares airlines in Europe. Revenue of Ryanair and increasing number of passenger provide that the strategy and public relation tactics of ryanair is so effective. According to About us, full year result 2010 (www.ryanaor.com), on 1st June 2010 Europes largest low fare airline Ryanair announced their full year Profits, it shows that after tax they get à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬319m profit and last year it was à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬105m profit that means it is increasing 204% when most of the competitors of Ryanair such as Bluewings (Ger), Globespan (UK) have announced sufferers or losses because of global recession .It provide that how effective there low cost marketing strategy is! Today customers are so concern about price and Ryanair use these things to attract their customer. Ryanair knows how to make relationship with their customer, what is their customer wanted, what is their expectation. Todays customers are kings for business so that they are always trying to make relationship with their customer by providing on time service .For making relationship with their customer Ryanair launches largest booking website which is www.ryanair.com. According to Ryanair website (About us, 1995, www.ryanair.com)by their effective strategy Ryanair achieve vast quantity of passengers in their Dublin-London route and go beyond some major airlines like British Airways as well as Aer Lingus. In Europe, Dublin-London is the major intercontinental scheduled route than other routes and Irish Airline Ryanair has turn into largest passenger airlines on their all route that is operated by Ryanair to or from Dublin. That means lowest fares, on time and high frequency of Ryanair co ntinues to win success in every market which is operated between Ireland and the UK. Though Ryanair provide minimum services to their customer, their passenger number is increasing day by day because of their cost reduction strategy. According to Ryanair news (4th September 2010),September 2010 their passenger number is 6.84 million and last year it was 6.12 million, it means it is increasing more than 12%. Their biggest growing number of passengers provide that they are doing successful Airlines business in Europe. 5.0 Recommendation and conclusion: Every organization should try to satisfy their customer by providing product and services to achieve their goal. Customer satisfaction is the main intend of the marketing concept. Beyond any doubt, by their effective marketing strategies now Ryanair is the largest low cost airlines in Europe and achieve recognisable brand name. It can be said that their Low cost or no frills marketing strategies helps Ryanair to be able to gain huge amount of passengers. If the company cannot fulfil customer expectations then this company will go down. It can be recommended that their low cost marketing strategy is so effective. It can be said that their low cost strategy is a fundamental reason for them to get high profit. Making relationship with customer is most important to get long term business and customer loyalty is the most powerful for increasing companies advert, rising companys good will and getting more profit. But Ryanair provide minimum service, getting a position in competitive market they should think about that customer is valuable and it is recommended that they should think to increase customer loyalty.It can be said If Ryanair increase their public relatio n, they will get superior success and also can increase their business in competitive business world. Ryanair marketing strategy is based on cost leadership strategy that mean their main marketing concept is to cut their cost in every possible way and attract customer with their lowest fare. As their business is airlines business which depends with oil price, this oil price is increasing day by day. So, if they want to do their business, it is recommended that they should think about their price strategy and increase the price of their fare to stay in business. 6.0 References and Bibliography: 1. Opening up Trade in Services :Key for Tourism Growth(2008)[Online] Available at http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/38/11/40191324.pdf 2. Laura Lake,(2010)Content Marketing[online] Available:http://marketing.about.com/od/strategytutorials/a/contentmarketing.htm 3. Baker, M. J. (1992),strategic marketing management, New York; Wiley 4. Jain, S. (2000),Marketing Planining and Strategy,6th edition, Cincinnati: South-Western College Publishing 5. Dibb, S.; Simkin, L.; et al (2006)Marketing Concept and Strategies fifth edtion, New York: Houghton Mifflin 6. Brennan, R., Baines, P.et al a(2003)Contemporary Strategic Marketing New York; Palgrave Macmillan. 7. Marketing teacher.com Ryan Air case study[Online] Available: http://marketingteacher.com/case-study/ryanair-case-study.html 8.Strategy-Ryanair-Strategy Available: http://www.ryanair.com/doc/investor/Strategy.pdf 9.Thinking made easy(2008)Ryanair case study analysis [Online] Available http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2008/02/ryanair-case-st.htmle: 10. Casestudyinc.com (2010)case study on ryanair, the biggest low-cost European airline [Online]Available: http://www.casestudyinc.com/ryanair-low-fares-airline-case-study 11. Ryanair.com (2010) [Online] Available at http://www.ryanair.com/en/news/ryanair-no-1customer-service-stats-august-2010 12. Smith+co (2009) Ryanair-a branded customer experience?[Online] Available at http://www.smithco

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Reciprocity in Anthropology

The way every being experiences the world around us is mostly constructed by the culture we are exposed to and brought up in. The world makes sense to us because of the ways culture influences our perception. We experience the world around us in a time, space, and mentality that are built solely by culture. The Kaluli are a tribal clan from Highland New Guinea who experience their lives through reciprocity. The way the Kaluli form relationships amongst one another, communicate, and practice their everyday lives is based through gift-giving and reciprocity.The Kaluli are socially dependent beings who have constructed a social mechanism in which everyone participates in the art of reciprocity to maintain and build these social relations with one another. The Kaluli reify and bring to life reciprocity through ceremonies such as Gisaro, through food and marriage, emotions, and socialization. Frequently, the Kaluli people will hold a traditional ceremony, called the Gisaro, which demonstr ates the importance of reciprocity in their daily lives. Gisaro is a ceremony in which the Kaluli guests perform dance and singing rituals for their hosts. Schieffelin, p. 22) The visitors spend many weeks preparing costumes, songs, and performances for their hosts, while in return the hosts plan feasts at their longhouses for their prospective guests. (Schieffelin, p. 22) During the evening, the Gisaro begins inside the longhouses, and the dancers from the visitors’ side begin performing. (Schieffelin, p. 22) The performing group is made up of roughly 25 men, who begin to dance and sing one by one in the centre of the longhouse, while the audience of hosts’ watch. (Schieffelin, p. 2) The performers will take their turns singing about places and people familiar to one or more of the hosts’ in the audience. Most of the places that are sung about are from the past of a member in the audience and the people that are sung about have died and have emotional ties to a udience members. (Schieffelin p. 23) As the singing and recalling of events related to audience members get intense, so does the emotional atmosphere amongst the audience of hosts’. A member from the crowd will likely begin to resurface past memories of loved ones that have died and will begin to get deeply emotional and will begin to cry. Schieffelin, p. 23) However, immediately after, the emotional host will become infuriated due to the fact that the dancer hurt them with past memories, and in anger the host will grab a lit torch and burn the shoulders of the performer continuously. (Schieffelin, p. 23) The performer however, will not show any sight of pain and one-by-one the performers will continue performing and the whole process of emotional-outbreak and burning will continue until the chirping of birds can be heard in the morning. (Schieffelin, p. 3) At the end of the night, before the visitors made their way back, they paid compensation to those whom they made cry. (S chieffelin, p. 23) The Gisaro ritual shows an abundance of reciprocity in social-relations and emotions. The ritual is based on the exchange between the hosts and the visitors; one provides plentiful food and the other performs and entertains. The reciprocal nature of this social gathering displays the dependency both parties place on one-another to perform their obligated role in the gathering. This kind of social giving and exchanging is basic to the Kaluli way of life. † (Schieffelin, p. 26) Reciprocity of duties aside, there is also an exchange of emotions that can be witnessed in the Gisaro ceremony. The performer hurts the audience member, who then in return inflicts physical pain upon the performer. (Schieffelin, p. 24) In the Kaluli society anger is looked upon as a justification for being hurt or angered, and requires ones to react in an aggressive manner to be compensated for the feelings of anger inflicted upon them. (Schieffelin, p. 34) If the Kaluli men do not rea ct in anger where they are socially required too, they will be looked upon as weak and incapable. (Schieffelin, p. 135) The Kaluli use this is a method to limit how far a person can be bullied and taken advantage of. By compensating oneself through aggressive manners, the Kaluli are able to make sure that no one is pushed further than the other, and that at all times everything is equal. (Schieffelin, p. 136) â€Å"Such interventions, which were quiet common, seem aimed more at allowing the interaction to conclude properly than with scolding or punishing the offender. (Schieffelin, p. 137) Thus, in the Gisaro ritual it is appropriate for a host to be angered by the performer and react in an aggressive manner. By performing the Gisaro, both the visitors and the hosts of the occasion share the exchange of emotion and ritual duties. Like the Gisaro, the Kaluli people partake in many other traditional ceremonies that show the reciprocity of food, labour, and duties. In marriage there i s an abundance of gift-giving and labour sharing which involves both the groom and the bride’s family.When a bride is chosen, the groom must compensate the bride’s family with brides-wealth, and both sides begin to part-take in many ceremonies. (Schieffelin, p. 26) One side will bring the other many fruits and meat, and then the other side will return the favour by doing the same, creating an on-going cycle of food-giving. (Schieffelin, pg. 26) Food is continuously exchanged and prepared by both in-laws because it is one of the best methods the Kaluli use to form and maintain social relations with their in-laws and family. Food as gift or hospitality is the main vehicle for expression of friendly relationship to anyone, kinsman or acquaintance. † (Schieffelin, p. 27) The reason that the Kaluli form such reciprocal customs is to provide the Kaluli people with the â€Å"the basis for the provision of hospitality for visiting, support in conflict, invitations to hu nt and fish, mutual assistance in garden labor, and occasional ceremonial prestations, which are formal customary gifts of food, especially meat. † (Schieffelin, p. 6) The Kaluli people distribute their labours and efforts in food-gathering by creating a mutual-dependency on one another. (Dr. Clark, Lecture 3) By creating a gift-based economy, there is a never ending cycle of giving, and thus there will always be support for the Kaluli people. (Dr. Clark, Lecture 3) Though western societies might look at the Kaluli gift-giving economy as an outdated method, it has shown to be the most efficient as there is less labour needed to be done by everyone and there is always certainty of being provided for. (Dr.Clark, Lecture 3) The Kaluli have found a form of security through these gift-giving rituals and traditions to make sure that they always have food and support. Through reciprocity, the Kaluli try to achieve a balance in their everyday life, and this has become the means in whi ch they experience their world. There is reciprocity to keep balance of food and relationships. Likewise, the Kaluli myths of how nature, their placement in reality, and their after-world presents a different form of reciprocity and balance. The Kaluli believe that at the beginning of time, there were only humans and that there was no nature. Schieffelin, p. 94) However, as time went on there were needs for food, shelter, clothing, and etc. Thus all men were gathered together and were given duties to become trees, animals, water, etc. (Schieffelin, p. 94) The Kaluli recognize that these trees and nature surrounding them are actually people, and that to these people the Kaluli appear to be trees, water, animals, and nature. (Schieffelin, p. 96) This means that the nature-world is a reflection of the Kaluli, and to the world of nature – which are actually people – the Kaluli reflect the world of nature.The Kaluli do not treat this world as a spiritual or sacred world, it is just an everyday reality for them which they refer to as the mama world. (Schieffelin, p. 96) They believe that every day they live in coexistence with the mama world which is identical to theirs and a wild-pig from the natural world is actually the reflection of the man in the real world. (Schieffelin, p. 97) This means that if something were to happen to the wild pig in the unseen world, it would inflict the same actions upon the corresponding man in the real world.Through this ideology and cultural reality, the Kaluli create a balance between the natural world and their own world. At all times there is a coexisting world which reflects their own. Even in death the Kaluli find balance and seem to face avoid the means of facing great damage and loss. â€Å"When a person dies, his wild pig aspect disappears from the mama world. His personal life virtue†¦escapes with his last breath and takes on human form in the mama world where it continues a life very much like the one h e left.In the visible world, the person now usually appears in the form of a bird or a fish. † (Schieffelin, p. 96) As it can be seen, all that happens during the death of a Kaluli is that he becomes a part of nature, and in the mama world the wild pig will become a human. Through this coexisting reality the Kaluli have created for them, the Kaluli reciprocate lives back and forth between the visible and mama world. In such ways, they establish a balance at all time and avoid from feeling a great deal of loss.Language is a very essential role in the lives of the Kaluli people, for it brings to life the culture of reciprocity in their everyday lives. From a very young age, the Kaluli are taught to talk and socialize in ways which expressed their exchanging and gift-giving behaviours. Songs are song about death which reminds the Kaluli the dangers that death brings, because once an individual dies, the act of reciprocating and exchanging comes to an end. (Schieffelin, p. 136) Da ily conversation usually revolves around the lines of who had to compensate whom, and what one got in return for something else. Schieffelin, p. 136) Regardless of the abundance of food the Kaluli have to eat, the Kaluli conversation consists of arguments either refusing or accepting food. There are even specific verbs denoted to the exchanging transaction: Dimina meaning give, and dima meaning take. (Schieffelin, p. 136) These words are used throughout the daily conversations of the Kaluli helping reify their realities of reciprocity. However, the Kaluli have no specific word for sharing, and thus they only see their relationships through give and take. (Schieffelin, p. 36) Through language and socialization the Kaluli continuously bring to life reciprocity and make it a part of their everyday lives. The Kaluli have come to see the world in a way of balance created by reciprocity, and through these cultural views the Kaluli have built their realities. It is a cultural experience in which the Kaluli form social dependencies in order to establish a stable and supportive way for living. â€Å"Idea that exchange, as a system of meanings, is involved in the shaping of particular cultural realities†¦Through the management of meaning exchange becomes a vehicle of social obligation. (Schieffelin, p. 503) The Kaluli create an ongoing cycle of gift-giving in which one is always obligated to give back to the other because of maintain a social circle. Through exchange and the reciprocation of labour and food, the Kaluli recognize them in such a manner where balance must always be achieved. This can be witnessed because when the Kaluli cannot be compensated or find a balance or reciprocate feelings, they become frightened, confused, or even lost. (Schieffelin, p. 45) For example, when the Kaluli hear thunder sounds they become angered because it is invisible and unpredictable, and because they cannot be compensated for their anger they are frightened. (Schieffelin, p. 142) The Kaluli are so used to living in a reciprocal based lifestyle, that if they feel like they cannot establish balance or be compensated, they feel as if they are at a loss and feel hopeless. (Schieffelin, p. 142) The Kaluli through language, food, gift-giving, and ceremonies, always seek to find reciprocity in which they can see themselves compensated and at a balance. Bibliography ———————————————— Clark, Dylan. 2011. Lecture 3, ANT204, Sociocultural Anthropology, University of Toronto, Mississauga, ON, September 14, 2011. Schieffelin, B. B. (1990). The give and take of everyday life: language socialization of Kaluli children. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schieffelin, E. L. (1980). Reciprocity and the Construction of Reality. Reciprocity and the Construction of RealityReciprocity and the Construction of Reality, 15(3), 502-517. Schieffelin, E. L. (1976). The sorrow of the lonely and the burning of the dancers. New York: St. Martin's Press.

Friday, January 10, 2020

Gender Stereotypes Essay

What are gender stereotypes? They are â€Å"simplistic generalizations about the gender attributes, differences, and roles of individuals and/or groups. Stereotypes can be positive or negative, but they rarely communicate accurate information about others. When people automatically apply gender assumptions to others regardless of evidence to the contrary, they are perpetuating gender stereotyping. Many people recognize the dangers of gender stereotyping, yet continue to make these types of generalizations. † You probably hear a gender stereotype on a daily basis but probably don’t realize it because it’s so common and casual now for people to just through everyone into a category and just assume they all are the same. Which is quite sad to me. You shouldn’t be judged and characterized based on your gender. Just because one female or male does something everyone in their gender should be assumed does it to? NO. Some examples of gender stereotypes are â€Å"cooking and cleaning are a women’s job† â€Å"woman can’t drive or park for anything† â€Å"all men are pigs†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ you get the point it’s a group of people (usually either women or men) that are grouped into a title that’s so bias! Ugh I get so mad even talking about it I hate stereotypes! THE IGNORANCE†¦ I’m going to be watching ‘The suite life of Zack and Cody’ on Disney Channel to get a good grasp of how often gender stereotyping is incorporated into our everyday television shows but goes unnoticed. I watch this show often, but never with the intention of it being stereotypical in any way. So today as I think about it if the characters were stereotyped, they would all be bias to one another’s gender. Girls would be the breadwinner’s, caregivers, nurturers, smarter, stay at home mothers. Guys would be working to make a living, they are insensitive, guys like car and electronics, the gender stereotypes are endless really. They can be basically anything and everything depending on how they are perceived and by WHO they are perceived. Sometimes they depend on what someone has gone through in life and based off that they gender stereotype. As I watch I notice that the mother of Phineas and Ferb is a stay at home mother, she does everything there is needed to be done at home. Takes care of the kids and their problems, grocery shops, cleans, cooks, etc. The father is the breadwinner and is the only one who is bringing in the income to support the family. It’s almost a typical old school American family. They have 3 children, 2 boys, 1 girl. Obviously Phineas and Ferb are the two young boys and Candice is their older sister. The whole show is about their sister always trying to get them (Phineas and Ferb) in trouble with their parents. I guess that’s the typical stereotypical sibling relationship always fighting for attention over the parents and to make one bad over the other and make one another more favorable than the other. I didn’t really realize it at first but then when I thought about my own relationship with my siblings it was quite comparable we always try and nag on each other and get one another in trouble. Phineas and Ferb are always coming up with new inventions, playing with electronics computers and inventing unique things. Just doing things most boys do in the stereotypical way. While, their sister Candice is always going to the mall, hanging out gossiping with her girlfriends, always on the phone, constantly nagging on them, obsessed with boys. The show is very stereotypical now that I think about it. It’s the classical guy/girl gender stereotypes. Candice is the girly girl who likes to gossip and shop and get her brothers in trouble while Phineas and Ferb are busy playing with gadgets of all sorts, not ever worried about Candice or what she’s doing, really involved with electronics and coming up with new inventions and having fun in their own little gadget-world you could say. A lot of commercials that come on and play in the mornings when all the kids programs are on are SUPER stereotypical. For girls they advertise Barbie dolls of all sorts, toys for girls such as cool, unique hair designing tools, kitchen accessories that include fake ovens and what not to play in. Which is stereotypical cause they say mothers should cook and clean and then here they are starting kids off at a young age throwing them under such a stereotype. They have commercials advertising water guns, monster trucks, building tools and what not for the boys. After watching this show that I always watch but with the objective of stereotyping as I watched in my head I noticed so much more than I ever did. It’s really sad that so many shows have gender stereotyping in them that goes unnoticed. It really actually (and excuse my language) pisses me off. That people interpret these things in television shows, their guiding the younger generation already in the wrong direction making them think that girls â€Å"do this† and guys â€Å"do this† and having them think basically in a box. I noticed that the show has the very typical stereotypes. Like I mentioned above. I can honestly say my thoughts have changed about this show and are different from what I thought before I had this objective in mind.

Thursday, January 2, 2020

The Constitution Of The United States - 972 Words

The constitution, the governing document of the United States, virtually perfect in its creation and given life through the thoughts, worries, and dreams of a few great and very intelligent men, it can be said to be the living law of the land, one that has grown and matured with society and the world of today. This document has performed amazingly in its ability to represent the people of its time and to allow room for interpretation of law in combination with society to allow it to continue to represent the people of the future. Created out of the desperation to preserve a struggling country, this document has been mirrored by others in order to create or recreate governments in many parts of the world. Still, despite of this, it seems that many in power within the United States at this time appear to struggle with the proper interpretation of this living law of the land, and instead manipulate government to achieve personnel agendas or personnel benefit in some fashion, while turni ng a near blind eye to any influence of constitutionality. So, in response to this, I feel that three amendments should be added to this great document, one out of the spirit of redundancy to illustrate the obvious, and the other two out of necessity to address issues of integrity and stability within government and society. These amendments reflect the issues of term limits to those within Congress, a religious freedom protection clause, and an American Integrity clause; the effects andShow MoreRelatedThe United States Constitution And The Constitution Essay1491 Words   |  6 PagesThe United States Constitution, this very detailed group of words was written in 1787, but it did not take effect until after it was ratified in 1789, when it replaced the Articles of Confederation. It remains the basic law of the United States then and till the present day of 2016. The first state to ratify the Constitution was Delaware; the last of the original thirteen to ratify was Rhode Island and since only nine were required, this was two years after it went into effect. When the U.S. ConstitutionRead MoreThe Constitution Of The United States Constitution Essay1185 Words   |  5 Pages(framers’ of the U.S. Constitution) position on the Presidency: The framers experienced the abuse of the English monarchs and their colonial governors. As a result, the framers were skeptical of the excessive executive authority. Furthermore, they also feared excessive legislative powers. This was something that the Articles of Confederation had given their own state legislatures. The framers of the constitution deliberately fragmented power between the national government, the states, and among the executiveRead MoreThe Constitution Of The United States885 Words   |  4 Pages In 1787, our founding fathers came up with a few principles that would establish what we now know as the United States of America. These principles were put on paper to serve as a guideline for how the United States would be operated and structured. This historical piece paper became known as the Constitution of the United States. In the Constitution, a Preamble is implemented at the beginning that essentially tells what the founding fathers set out to do. â€Å"We The People, in order to form a moreRead MoreThe Constitution Of The United States894 Words   |  4 Pagesthe substratum for that country. A Constitution can be defined as a document that is the substratum of the country’s principles. Elements in the Constitution may contain sundry information. Which can include: how many terms a leader may serve, what rights the citizens have, how the judicial system works, etc. The United States in no different from those countries. Every constitution is different, no country has the exact constitution as another. The U.S Constitution is a four-page document detailingRead MoreThe United States Constitution Essay1515 Words   |  7 PagesThe United States constitution was written in 1787 by the founding fathers of this country. 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The federalRead MoreThe Constitution Of The United States1007 Words   |  5 PagesThe United States of America has previously experienced failure every now and then. With trial and error, the country has learned to correct its ways and move toward(s) perfecting itself. Realizing the ineffectiveness of the Articles of Confederation is a prime example of the U.S. learning how to better itself. Subsequent to the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution of the United States was set as our new and improved framework of government. Possessing knowled ge on how America, although strongRead MoreThe Constitution Of The United States951 Words   |  4 Pageshappening again. Unlike the artifacts, The Constitution of the United States has not been forgotten, it is actually still very alive today. Unlike most relics, The Constitution still holds a very heroic and patriotic implication, freedom. With freedom comes self-government, freedom of speech, religious tolerance, etc. With all these things comes the great responsibility to adapt and fit to the wants and needs of the decade. Even though the Constitution was made for the interests of the people ofRead MoreThe Constitution Of The United States1338 Words   |  6 Pages The Constitution is the basis of law in The United States and has been since it was written in 1789. Since then it has been amended 27 times with the first ten amendments collectively known as the Bill of Rights. The US Constitution was preceded by the Articles of Confederation and supported by the Federalist Papers which we will touch more on later. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson all wrote or influenced The Constitution in a very important way. Alexander HamiltonRead MoreThe Constitution Of The United States1388 Words   |  6 PagesInterpretation of the Constitution is one of the biggest conflicts within the United States–the highly contentious issue of states’ rights resulted from two different interpretations of what powers should belong to the federal government versus what powers belong to the individual states. No issue has ever caused as much turmoil as the issue of states’ rights–but one side must have more v alid arguments. Should the federal government’s power be superior, or should the authority of the individual states be held