Chips Food Industry: Marketing Analysis

Chips Food Industry: Marketing Analysis Integrated marketing communication program for CHIPS: Executive summary: Various CHIPS industry such as Lays, Uncle chips, and fun pop etc. design various integrated marketing program. Although common objective of all IMC program is increase brand awareness, sale and design a unique image in customers mind. In order to address and attract customer all chips industry launch various campaign. To communicate with public and customers they advertise their campaign on TV, magazine, online and radio. Through their advertisement they want to design their brand image in customer mind. Besides advertisement, they also carried out promotion activity, public relation, direct marketing etc. Direct marketing is although time consuming but most effective tool for communication. Various chips industry also organizes various events in order to communicate properly with customers, for example Lays company was planning to launch a new taste called â€Å"GIVE US YOUR DILLICIOUS FLAVOR† for their customers. Main purpose of this event is to increase the variety of chips . Before designing IMC program this company carried out market research in order to judge customers behaviors and taste toward chips. For research they design the strategy for chips event. During the event they decided to get feedback from customer who visits retail outlet so that appropriate primary data can be collected for designing IMC strategy for â€Å"The HUB†. Before designing integrated marketing communication program it is necessary to judge consumers behavior toward chips , it is necessary to known customers liking and disliking, these data provide various support during designing of IMC program. Although there are various media available for communicating but Print ads in magazine and news paper is seen most effective medium followed by television. After Research survey done by various chips company, it has been found that oldest peoples were less brand conscious than youths. There is no particular taste trend about chips among oldest peoples, but youths are more conscious towards chips market. â€Å"Tastes† and â€Å"varieties† are the major attributes considered by customer while buying chips. Marketing plan plan Situation Analysis: Every organization faces a lot of problem at present time so it became necessary for every organization that before setting any objective carried out situation analysis in order to recognize strength, weakness, opportunities and threat present in our organization. According to Sally and John, marketing plans are â€Å"the written document or blueprint for implementing and controlling an organizations marketing activities related to a particular marketing strategy†. A successful marketing plan is able to improve organizations profits and growth, uses in objective setting and monitors results. So to gain a successful market plan it is necessary to understand the current situation comprehensively and trends affecting the future of the organization. There are two major reasons to explain why situation analysis plays a vital role in developing marketing plan. Firstly, dynamic marketing environment will lead to uncertainty, threats and opportunities for marketers. Marketing managers who success to know changes in environment through situation analysis can lead their companies to capitalize on opportunities and cope with threats created by changes. Then, systematically analyzing situational environments in order to identify our customers and understand their needs and taste. There are certain opportunities in chips industry, such as increase people taste, increase market and market share through integrated PR, and advertisement and promotional campaign. Besides opportunities there is a lot of threat that create barrier for entry in chips industry. These threats are as follow: Too much competitors in the market Mainly prefer to old brand. High price and loyalty decrease loyalty toward brand Main objective behind situation analysis is to known analyze customer, competitor and there strategy. Marketing objective: After situation analysis we became able to known our organization strength, weakness, opportunities and threat present in environment. It provides a lot of support in setting of objective. There may be a lot of marketing objective, some are as follow: Increase market share To Launch new variety chips with new flavors. Increase sale by 50% in 6 month from the launch of public campaign Create awareness among target audience. Use excessive advertising especially using media preferred by the target market. Create product belonging and position among buyers mind Marketing strategies : To achieve these objective we implement various strategy. Target market: Urban personality: Affluent institutes Prosperous young professional Students and cosmopolitan Mainly for the youth Gender: male and female Age: 5 to 40 years Marketing Mix Strategies : Main aim of various chips industry to produce high quality chips in different-different ingredients such as SPICY, BUTTER, SALTED, LEMON. This is mostly done to capture youth attention. They produce chips in different ingredients to capture more market share. Must of chips brand such as lays, uncle chips, bingo, fun pop jump in to Indian market by producing high quality of chips. Form that alls lays captured very high share in the market. Pricing range from 3 to 40. Chips do not need too much promotion. It is done mostly by fair, E commerce and agent The distribution channels for chips industry are as follows. MANUFACTURER (COMPANY) WHOLESELLER CHIPS SEND TO RETAILER CUSTOMER Internal Process It is as follows. Import Potato Cutting Fried Wrapped flavors Withdraw wastage Finishing Dispatched to store Packing and containers Samples of Product; Implementation tactics : Launch a blind ad campaign on billboards and magazines in all A class areas of major cities and magazine. Heavy advertising on TV, newspapers and magazines Set displays in buses and major dealer outlets in all cities. Reduce number of billboards, television and magazines advertisements. Continue Advertising Evaluation, Monitoring and Control: Goal of marketing plan is to achieve market objective that are established before implementation of marketing plan. We evaluate and control our strategic tactic by comparing our result with standard established before setting of plan, by measuring customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. If result is less than our standard than there any is default in implementation and monitoring. The people who are responsible for the monitoring and control of the marketing plan involves, the Marketing Executives, Sales Managers, Media Managers, Market Research Departments, and the Production Managers. Some activities must be carried out for precisely and closely evaluating the effectiveness of the strategies and tactics for example the gathering and structuring of data regarding market, product, consumers and the pricing trends, then the generation of daily sales report should be maintained and then in the end continuous reconfirming of the marketing budget and activities by the managers of different divisions. The Integrated Marketing Communication Plan Integrated Marketing Communications is a term used to describe a holistic approach to marketing communication. It aims to ensure consistency of message and the complementary use of media. The concept includes online and offline marketing channels. Online marketing channels include any e-marketing campaigns or programs, pay-per-click, affiliate, email, banner to latest web related channels for webinar, blog, micro-blogging, RSS, podcast, and Internet TV. Offline marketing channels are traditional print (newspaper, magazine), mail order, public relations, industry relations, billboard, radio, and television. A company develops its integrated marketing communication programme using all the elements of the marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion) So Integrated marketing communication is integration of all marketing tools, approaches, and resources within a company which maximizes impact on consumer mind and which results into maximum profit at minimum cost. Promotional activities include Advertising, sales promotion, and personal selling activities. It also includes internet marketing, sponsorship marketing, direct marketing, database marketing and public relations. And integration of all these promotional tools along with other components of marketing mix to gain edge over competitor is called Integrated Marketing Communication. Situational analysis : First of all we carried out we carried out situation analysis in order to understood problem. In this we identify our competitors and their strategy for example Lays carried out competitor analysis and find out various strategy adopted by other chips companies e.g. lays, uncle chips, kurkure , Fun pop, oho yes . After situation analysis Lays company found that customer wants a new taste in chips and needed a change in strategic direction. Management responded to the increase its manufacturing plants offshore and by introducing a new taste of chips in the market. Under situation analysis we also analyze financial position of company. IMC objective : There are various IMC objective set by jeans company after situation analysis in order to accomplish their goal. Some of objective are as follow: To Increase sale by 50% in six month To Increase brand awareness To Increase customer loyalty To Increase desire of customer To Increase repeat purchase To measure customer satisfaction To create relationship with customer on personal level To control and observe public opinion To receive feedback from customer on regular basis Media objectives state the impact that you expect to have on an audience in terms of reach and frequency. Objectives must meet the following criteria: Measurability Quantifiability Realism time-specificity Budget determination: We need to establish what amount of money will be needed to achieve the IMC objectives.Although there is various methods present to determine what amount of money invest on IMC. These methods are as follow: Affordable Method Percentage of Sales Method Unit of Sales Method Zero Budgeting Method In affordable method we invest money on IMC as soon as we can afford. However in Percentage of Sales Method amount of money invest on IMC tool depend on what amount of sale we expect to achieve during course of year. These percentages are mostly adhoc and sometime based on judgment. In Unit of Sales Method Company allocate a certain proportion of cost of product to promotion. Thus say if ex factory cost of the product is say Rs 10/ the company will allot Rs.100/- toward promotion cost. Hence if company expects sale 30000 unit of the product, thus allocated IMC budget will be Rs.30,00,000/-. In Zero Budgeting Method, company determine what need to achieve in term of sale and then rework backward in term of what money will be needed to be allocate to deliver those customers. Thus if company believe that in order to achieve their sales, 30,000 customers need to purchase their chips once during the planning period than it will work out what number of prospective customers will needed to be targeted through ATL and BTL activity, in order to achieve that result. IMC Methodologies There are various component of integrated marketing communication that is as follow: Advertisement Advertisement is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas or products by an identified sponsor. Objective of any ads is to increase brand awareness. Objectives: There are mostly three objective of advertisement campaign, that are as follow: Inform Persuade Remind 1. Inform: Informative advertising, seeks to tell the market about the chips, explain the new quality added in chips, provide information on pricing, and build awareness of both the chips quality and the company. Such objectives are normally pursued at the launch of a new quality chips, or re-launch / up-date of an existing chips. 2. Persuade: Here objectives are to encourage the target audience to switch brands, make the purchase, and create a preference in the market for the chips as opposed to its competition. Advertising of this nature is required in highly competitive markets, where a ingredient of chips flavor competes directly with each other. In such circumstances businesses often seek to differentiate theirs chips through Comparison Advertising either directly or indirectly comparing its chips to that of its competitors. 3. Remind: Reminder Advertising, is used to maintain interest and awareness of a well established chips brand in the market, often in the latter stages of its product life cycle. It is often used at the Point-of-Purchase to remind consumers of the Brand. Advertisement budget: Having identified advertising objectives, the advertising budget must be set. Determining exactly how much a business should spend on advertising to achieve the desired level of sales. Commonly, the decision is based on past experience of expenditure on advertising, and the sales subsequently achieved. There are however a number of factors that can be considered in setting the advertising budget Factors influencing the setting of advertising Budgets: Product life cycle stage: New products in the Launch stage of their Product Life Cycle, will normally require greater expenditure on advertising to create product awareness, and encourage consumers to trial the product. Whilst products that have reached Maturity in their product life cycle, will often require smaller advertising budgets to achieve the level of sales required. Competition: The number of competitors in the market, and their expenditure on advertising competing products, will influence a business to spend to a similar or higher degree. Product Differentiation: A product very similar to other products on the market may require greater expenditure on advertising to differentiate it from its competitors. Advertising Strategy: Developing an Advertising Strategy to achieve the objectives of a campaign, requires that consideration be given to both the ‘Message which will be communicated and the ‘Media through which it will be sent Advertising Message An advertising campaign, no matter how much money is spent, no matter what media is used, will only be successful if the Message appeals to the target audience. Given the level of advertising which bombards the average consumer, a successful advertising message must stand out amongst the advertising clutter. Thus marketing professionals are required to be creative, imaginative and innovative in developing the advertising message, both in terms of what is said, and How it is said? What is said This is often referred to as the ‘Big Idea, and will normally address the key benefits sought by the target audience, motivating the audience to pay attention. Given the constant search for new ways to appeal to target audiences, it is difficult to categories the content of advertising messages which a business may send.. How they say it During delivery of advertisement massage in customer mind take the taste symbol, and various flavors as consideration. In addition the tone of the advertisement will need to be established, which can be either positive or negative. The advert may therefore promote positive feelings of fun, contentment, and happiness or take on a more negative, somber, or even threatening tone. Selecting Advertising Media: In addition to deciding upon the content, style and tone of the advertising message, the media through which the message will be communicated to the target audience must also be selected. Mostly for chips advertisement we select media such as magazine, newspaper and outdoor. TV rarely used for advertisement of chips. In order to select the most appropriate media, consideration must should be given to various advantage and disadvantage of various media. Strengths and weakness of various media are as given below: Television : Strengths Dynamic attention getting media, combining visual, sound and animated stimulus. Strong potential Impact High market coverage Good at demonstrating products Weaknesses: Highly expensive Poor at communicating lengthy technical information Newspapers: Strengths: Targeting is possible through profiling readership Good level of market coverage Weaknesses: Static media, not suitable for product demonstration Potential for poor reproduction, sometimes limited to black and white print Short-life span, i.e. todays newspapers become tomorrows rubbish Magazines: Strengths: High quality reproduction, of color images Targeting is possible through specialist publications Good pass on readership Weaknesses: Static media, not suitable for product demonstration Lengthy lead-time between advert being placed and magazine being published Outdoor: Strengths: High repeat exposure to advert Relatively low cost Low levels of competition, in terms of advertising clutter Weaknesses: Limited audience selectivity / targeting possible Static media, not suitable for product demonstrations Difficult to monitor effectiveness Sale promotion: Sale promotion is collection of various consumers and trade promotional tool such as rebate, discount, gift, contest, coupons, price deal, contest game, sampling etc. to increase sale of products. There are certain objectives of sale promotion. However main objective is to increase immediate sale because Sales Managers are under great pressure to produce results quickly. Objective: There are certain objectives of sale promotion that are as follow: To increase immediate customer sale To increase support among the marketers sales force. To gain the support of the trade in marketing the product Reasons for Growth of Sales Promotion: There are number of reason for growth of company in sale promotion some are as follow: 1. Increasing Competition Due to increase in competition, companies are finding it increasingly difficult to compete on quality. They are therefore resorting to more innovative methods of sales promotion. In order to have a competitive advantage over its competitors like lays, uncle chips, kurkure, oho yes, fun pops once a year has a grand sale of up to 50%. 2. Customers Have Become More Price Sensitive: The increase price sensitivity is direct result of rampant inflation. Economic support this trend further, as a result customers and dealer became more sensitive toward price. If the customers believes in on lays then he definitely buy the new chips but customer buy it when our product provide high quality with cheap rates. 3. Sales Promotions Generally Create an Immediate Positive Impact on Sales: Advertising, personal selling and other methods of promotion produce slower impact on sales in compared to sales promotion. Sales promotions are mostly for short duration, for a specified period, leading to a sense of urgency in consumers to buy now. This creates an immediate positive impact on sales. 4. Products have become more standardized: In many product categories there is proliferation of brand or line extension and me too many brands. Most of brand perceived by consumer varies little in price. Due to this it became very difficult for advertiser to reposition their product in customers mind. Due to which they focus on more and more on sale promotion to get immediate result. 6. Advertising Has Become More Expensive and Less Effective: All the advertising media have become quite expensive. Audio-visual medium, which is considered as the most effective for short-duration ads, may cost in excess of Rs. 1 lakh for a 10 second exposure during prime time. In many cases, consumers have reached a point of boredom due to excessive advertising on TV. Firms with small budgets cannot compete with big companies, which spend huge sums of money on advertising. For these small budget firms, sales promotion is a more cost-effective promotion method to produce sales results. 7. Trade Has Become More Powerful: At present time Retailers and wholesalers have became more powerful and demand extra facility from company to promote their product. Company has no other alternative. Besides these there are also various kind reason such as Excess Stocks, Impulse Buying Is Increasing, Sales Promotions Maximize Profits etc. Promotion Strategies: Promotional strategy is mostly run to change consumers behavior, to increase brand image, to increase profit, to increase sale of various good. There are mostly two kind of sale promotion, one is directed toward consumer and other one is directed toward trade such as dealer, supplier, retailer etc. Consumer sale promotion tool: there are a lot of promotional tool used to increase sale. Consumer sale promotion is directed toward consumer. It stimulate consumer to purchase their product rapidly. There are a lot of tool that are as follow: Price deal: Price deal is temporary reduction in price of product. There are two type of deal: one is buy in bulk and second is extra quantity. Coupon: A coupon is typically a printed certificate giving the bearer a stated price reduction or special value on a specific product, generally for a specific period. Various company issue various kind of coupon that contain various discount price , customer get the advantage of this discount and get chips at free of cost. Offer: There are various kind of offers given by various chips industry. For example buy 2 chips and get 1 free. or buy 3 and pay for 2. That types of schemes provided by the chips industries. Premium: sometime various companies like Lays, kurkure etc. offer some gift inside the chips packet or at bargain price to encourage customer buying. Sampling: Some companies when launch a new taste of chips in the market, before the launching, sample of chips is to be taste in the market. If that sample is being liked by the peoples then it launch in the market. Advertising Specialities: Advertising specialities also call a promotional product. It mostly given to our loyal customers. It includes various card like birthday card, New Year card. It is mostly done to retain old customer. And this cards is provide to retailers for the customers. Trade sale promotion tool: Objectives of Trade Sales Promotion: Gain/maintain distribution Influence resellers to promote product Influence resellers to offer price discount Increase reseller inventory Defend against competitors Avoid reduction of normal prices There are various sale promotion tools that stimulate trade to promote company product. There are a lot of trade sale promotion tools some are as discussed below: Trade Allowances: Trade allowances are short-term special allowances, discounts, or deals granted to resellers to stimulate reseller to rapid purchase of their product. Point-of-Purchase Display: Point-of-purchase displays are generally used at the retail level to call customer attention to a featured product. In this company employees observe every retail shop and those retail shop that display more company product will be winner of special gift or prizes. Trade Shows: A trade show is periodic, semi periodic public event at which supplier displays their chips product and provides information about chips quality and price to buyers. After implementing these different techniques of sale promotion we monitor result and evaluate these by comparing with objective set before implementation of plan. Public relation Public relation is nothing but creating a favorable relation for organization and product which is done through used of various communication channel and tool. So public relation is mostly done to improve the image of company and build good image in customers mind. So public relation may be define as â€Å"Public Relations is a set of management, supervisory, and technical functions that foster an organizations ability to strategically listen to, appreciate, and respond to those persons whose mutually beneficial relationships with the organization are necessary if it is to achieve its missions and values. Objective: like other aspect of marketing, public relation is also used to address several broad aspect of marketing like: Building Product Awareness When introducing a new product or relaunching an existing product, marketers can use a PR element that generates consumer attention and awareness through media placements and special events. Creating Interest: Public Relation create public interest to used the product at least for once time. Providing Information: Through the Public relation we can provide a lot of information about company activity and their product feature and service provided by company. This information is delivered to public through newspaper, article website, collateral material; PR helps in delivering information that helps to public in understanding the product feature. Stimulating Demand: A positive article in a newspaper, on TV, news show or mentioned on the Internet, often results in a discernable increase in product sales. Reinforcing the Brand: In many companies like lays, kurkure company the public relations function is also involved with brand reinforcement by maintaining positive relationships with key audiences, and thereby aiding in building a strong image. Direct Marketing Direct marketing is business of selling company product directly to customers through mail order, telephone, fax, e-mails, or web selling, rather than through retailers. Objective: There are mostly to objective for which direct marketing is carried out these are as follow: Convert not user to user. It is mostly done to obtain new client. The identification of new potential clients is very crucial when it comes to recruit new prospects and transformed them into your clients. The perpetual loyalty of customers. A loyal consumer cost less than new customers. Strategy: Various chips industry like Lays, kurkure involved in direct marketing to get more market share. These companies sent a mail-order catalog to approximately prospective customers. 100-page catalog, developed in-house, targets childrens, men and women and also contains 10 pages devoted to home products. There are various tools for direct marketing these are as : Direct mail, Telemarketing, Email Marketing ,faxing, Voicemail, Couponing, Direct response television marketing. Measuring and Evaluate the Planning process: Reason for measuring IMC performance: There are various reason, due to which it became more necessary to measure performance of IMC. These reasons are as follow: Since a lot of money is required for advertisement and promotion and other marketing activity. So it became necessary to evaluate whether such invest generate any return or not. After measuring the performance it became able to understand where I am. So it help in choosing the most effective alternative. We carried out IMC performance evaluation to eliminate unproductive strategy. It also helps in estimating whether objectives are achieved or not. Evaluation of IMC planning process: Evaluation of an IMC plan is not easy because often communications effects are difficult to measure. At times they may not even have a direct impact on sales or profitability; effects may be delayed, etc. Therefore it is important to set the objective or â€Å"standards for measuring performance† in specific, measurable terms to make the evaluation possible. After doing all these now its time to evaluate the performance, the performance is satisfactory as they have imagined because its quit difficult to enter into the chips industry but after this they have achieved their objectives and satisfy their customer by providing the new taste with reasonable price, different flavors, and ingredients. Manager has to measure the actual performance either through consumer surveys or sales figure. Sales have been increasing day by day. Their market share also increased. Brand image is increasing because their strategies are up to the mark so they got success to satisfy their customer towards their new product Manager got to know these outcomes by comparing actual performance with set standards of new product. These steps also helped out to take further decision or plans.

Barks Computer Screens Case: a Market Analysis

Running head: BARKS COMPUTER SCREENS CASE Barks Computer Screens Case: A Market Analysis Barks Computer Screens Case: A Market Analysis A market analysis is a key component of a business plan and should be conducted every few years due to market and product changes. One important aspect is identifying the supply and demand of a product in the target market. The supply curve is a positive sloping curve because as the price increases so does the quantity of product. The demand curve is a negative sloping curve because as the price increases the demand for the product decreases (Hirschey, 2012).Changes can occur to both curves as changes in the market and economy take place. This will cause the curves to shift either to the left or the right. The supply curve is affected by changes in the economy such as an increase in the prices of material or a natural disaster that would prohibit supply of product. The demand curve is affected by changes in population income, economic outlook, govern ment spending, and real interest rates (McBride, 2008). In the Barks Computer Screens Case, Barks has hired me as a consultant and provides the results of his market analysis.He has found that the functions for supply and demand in his market are: Qd = 157 – 35P + 12. 5Pw + 0. 1Y and Qs = –120 + 75P – 30Pw + 13PL + 12R. Where: Qd = Demand, Qs = Supply, Pw = Average price of Wides, Y = Income in his market, PL = Price of labor, and R = Is the average humidity level measured in hums. I have assumed the quantities demanded and supplied are a function of price and applied the following conditions: Pw = $6. 00, Y = $1,600. 00, PL = $9. 00, and R = 25. Demand: Qd = 157 – 35P + 12. 5Pw + 0. 1Y = 157 – 35P + 12. (6) + 0. 1(1600) = 157 – 35P + 75 + 160 = 392 – 35P. Supply: Qs = –120 + 75P – 30Pw + 13PL + 12R = -120 + 75P – 30(6) + 13(9) + 12(25) = -120 +75P – 180 + 117 + 300 = 117 + 75R. The following price conditio ns were used to determine supply and demand market conditions: $1. 75, $2. 10, and $2. 70. Qd = 392 – 35P = 392 – 35(1. 75) = 392 – 61. 25 = 330. 75. The same equation was used for the other two prices to determine quantities demanded at each price. At $2. 10 the Qd is 318. 50 and at $2. 70 the Qd is 297. 50. Qs = 117 + 75P = 117 + 75(1. 5) = 117 + 131. 25 = 248. 25. The same equation was used for the other two prices to determine quantities supplied at each price. At $2. 10 the Qs is 274. 50 and at $2. 70 the Qs is 319. 50. The following graph illustrates the supply and demand curve to reflect my findings. As you can see on the above graph, Qd and Qs intersect at a point. This point is when market equilibrium is met. â€Å"Market equilibrium describes a condition of perfect balance in the quantity demanded and the quantity supplied at a given price† (Hirschey, 2012).To determine equilibrium price, I set the Qd equation equal to the Qs equation and solved for P (price): 392 – 35P = 117 + 75P, 275 – 35P = 75P, 275 = 110P, 2. 5 = P. Equilibrium price is $2. 50. To find equilibrium quantity, use P = 2. 50 in either Qd or Qs equation: 392 – 35P = 392 – 35(2. 50) = 392 – 87. 50 = 304. 50. Equilibrium quantity is 304. 50. The equilibrium price and quantity determines shortage or surplus. A surplus of product occurs when actual price is greater than the equilibrium price. A shortage of product occurs when actual price is less than the equilibrium price (McBride, 2008).Based on an equilibrium quantity of 304. 50 the only time there will not be a surplus or a shortage is when they are priced at $2. 50. When Wides are priced at $1. 75, there will be a surplus of 26. 25 screens. At $2. 10, there will be a surplus of 14. At $2. 70, there will be a shortage of 7. My recommendation is to price the Wides at $2. 50. Having a surplus builds inventory but eventually decreases market prices and product output, wherea s a shortage can increase market prices and create a push on production.At equilibrium, revenue is generated without a change in price or quantity produced (Hirschey, 2012). References Hirschey, M. (2012). Fundamentals of Managerial Economics, 9th ed. (9th ed). South Western Educational Publishing. Retrieved from http://digitalbookshelf. southuniversity. edu/books/1111439907/id/ch4 McBride, C. (2008). Supply & Demand Analysis Chron. com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness. chron. com/supply-demand-analysis-727. html

In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien: Theme Analysis

Tim O’Brien’s In the Lake of the Woods is centered around the mysterious disappearance of Kathy Wade. Mysterious is the key word, as throughout the novel O’Brien plays with the fine line between ambiguity and reality. Kathy’s husband John Wade, the main character, is a Vietnam veteran and former politician whose participation in the infamous Mai Lai Massacre caused his fall from grace. Following a landslide defeat in the congressional elections, Kathy and John retreat to solitude in an isolated cabin in the Minnesota woods. Here, O’Brien highlights the stress that secrecy has had on their relationship. During their retreat, Kathy disappears in the middle of the night. Their boat is missing, but there are no other clues. O’Brien does not reveal the truth behind Kathy’s disappearance; instead, throughout the novel, in several chapters entitled â€Å"Hypothesis,† he proposes potential solutions. O’Brien suggests that Kathy drowned in the lake, or John murdered her, or that she got lost on a deserted island. In the final hypothesis, which is both the most unsuspected and the most supported by the end of the novel, Kathy plans her disappearance. Weeks later, John too goes missing, and he and Kathy are together once again in an isolated world. While he leaves does not offer a conclusive verdict, O’Brien does support each theory with both evidence from John’s past and police evidence from Kathy’s disappearance. The basis of In the Lake of the Woods is the burden of secrecy and the effects of truth. Mysteries are plentiful, including John’s obsession with magic as a young boy, the hiding of the Mai Lai massacre, the deceit of politics, and the central mystery of Kathy’s disappearance. The connecting theme between all of these mysteries is that secrecy was a convenient way for John and Kathy to avoid facing the facts, but the burden of hiding the truth eventually proved to be too much. In the end, while the truth is ugly, it does manage to liberate John and Kathy. To highlight this theme, O’Brien constantly uses light imagery, namely the presence or absence of sunlight to differentiate between truth and mystery. O’Brien highlights several aspects of John Wade’s childhood to trace the mysteries that surround John back to his roots. As a child, John took an obsessive interest in magic, making frequent trips to â€Å"Karra’s Studio of Magic† to buy tricks, or illusions, as he called them. John used magic to escape from the verbal abuse of his drunken father, Paul, who frequently teased John for his weight. â€Å"After school, and on most weekends, he spent his free time down in the basement, all alone, no teasing or distractions, just perfecting his magic. There was something peaceful about it, something firm and orderly. (208) For John, magic was a way to avoid facing his problems with his father. To further avoid dealing with the alcoholism, John even tried to get rid of the liquor by replacing it with water. â€Å"Another little trick,† he said. (209) Both this trick and his magic tricks did nothing but increase the secrecy surrounding John’s turbulent childhood. When he was sober, Paul was a loving father, which is what John feverishly tried to imagine him as. O’Brien highlighted the difference between the sober Paul and the drunk Paul through the use of light imagery. John’s mother, Eleanor, said, â€Å"He’d just point those incredible blue eyes at you and you’d feel like you were under a big hot sun or something†¦Except then he’d go back to the booze and it was like the sun burned itself out. † (195) The presence of sunlight when Paul was sober and a loving father proves that that was the image that John chose to believe. On the other hand, Eleanor said the sun burned out when Paul drank. This was because John ignored this side of his father, instead opting to cover it up with magic and secrecy. In fact, John kept pictures of his father, his father’s empty vodka bottles and his father’s neckties alongside his magic equipment in his â€Å"box of tricks,† demonstrating that he had conceived an completely unrealistic relationship with his father in which magic and trickery acted as a facade to hide the drinking and verbal abuse. John was terrified of discovering the truth about his father. O’Brien explained that for John, â€Å"[Knowing] is to be disappointed. To understand is to be betrayed. † (242) While hiding the truth was convenient for John, the secrets piled up and ultimately proved to be too much of a burden. For as hard as John tried to cover up the truth, he always knew about his father’s drinking. â€Å"That was the worst part. The secret drinking that wasn’t secret,† O’Brien explained. (66) When Paul hanged himself, however, John was finally able to face the truth. He was still a child, and at the funeral he continually screamed in front of the entire procession, finally relieving himself of the burden of years of secrecy. While the truth of Paul’s alcoholism was not pretty, and was certainly less convenient to face than simply ignoring it, it was a significant relief for John. His mother explained: â€Å"I hate to say it, but it was a relief to have him out of the house. John and I, we both adored the man, but suddenly all the tension was gone and we could have supper without sitting there on the edge of our seats. † (97) Throughout the rest of John’s life, a similar process of hiding the truth and ultimately accepting it would repeat. As he progressed to the next stage of his life, as a young adult serving in the Vietnam War, John would bear a secret much heavier than his father’s alcoholism. While serving in the U. S. army, John’s battalion partook in the gruesome Mai Lai Massacre. An entire village, including hundreds of women and children, was wiped out with its inhabitants all murdered and buried in mass graves. Many victims were raped or tortured. In every reference to the massacre in In the Lake of the Woods, O’Brien purposefully describes the bright sunlight that shone over Mai Lai on that day. â€Å"In the sunlight, which shifted from pink to purple, people were shot dead and carved up with knives and raped and sodomized and bayoneted and blown into scraps. † (200) Here, O’Brien reveals the brutal truth, which is fittingly accompanied with sunlight. John, however, being quite the Houdini, would of course try to avoid the truth. John’s interest in magic continued into his adulthood. At night, obviously when the sun was down, he would perform magic tricks for his fellow soldiers, who called him â€Å"Sorcerer. † In fact, very few of them actually knew his real name. Even though John was more of a bystander than a participant in the massacre, he still refused to face the truth, even when one of his friends in the war tries to convince him that they can tell their story without repercussions. John was horrified by the massacre, and once again the terror of discovery caused him to turn to secrecy even though he obviously knew the truth. â€Å"Pure wrongness, [John] knew. He could taste the sunlight. It had a rusty, metallic flavor, like nails on his tongue. † By describing the unfavorable taste of the sunlight, O’Brien demonstrates John’s negative view of the ugly truth. Thus, similar to his use of magic to avoid facing his father’s alcoholism, John kept the massacre a secret. He was able to keep it a mystery to everyone around him until he became a politician, which fit in perfectly with the theme of In the Lake of the Woods. Like many politicians, John was an expert at manipulation, especially manipulation of the truth. He explained that, â€Å"Politics was manipulation. Like a magic show: invisible wires and secret trapdoors. † (35) But as he rose in status and ran for a seat in the Senate, it became harder to keep the secret. Much to the dismay of his campaign manager, Tony Carbo, John never even told him about the massacre. â€Å"Doesn’t say anything about the Vietnam shit—not to his wife or me or anybody†¦The guy was a magic man, keeping that stuff locked up inside, it must’ve driven him crazy sometimes. (196) Carbo was certainly correct, as the burden of keeping the massacre a secret became even worse than the truth. It affected his relationship with Kathy, who described a new darkness in his eye. When John ran for a Senate seat, the press discovered the truth about the Mai Lai Massacre. While it was horribly embarrassing for John and Kathy, they actually achieved peace with themselves. Patricia Hood, Kathy’s sister, explained Kathy’s cheerfulness during their last conversation before she disappeared. â€Å"She seemed so happy. Like she could finally relax and get on with her life. (182) John’s mood also lightened after news of the massacre broke, and he and Kathy took a vacation to the lake house where Kathy would soon disappear from. In the six days they had there before she vanished, John and Kathy were relieved and isolated from the rest of society. Throughout the novel, John and Kathy’s relationship is plagued by John’s tendency to hide the truth. Kathy is truly in love with him, but she struggles to deal with the constant lying. Early on in their relationship, in fact, John constantly spied on Kathy. He was completely obsessed with manipulating their relationship. As he rationalized it, â€Å"He was Sorcerer, after all, and what was love without a little mystery? † (45) This mystery took a toll on his relationship with Kathy, however. Kathy felt urges to leave John, as she grew tired of the constant secrecy and spying. She had a loveless affair with her dentist, Harmon, and in a typical nature, John chose to pretend like he was not aware that she was cheating on him. Kathy was both desperate for the truth and apprehensive about receiving the truth. To show this, O’Brien used light and dark imagery. In the middle of the night, Kathy had a â€Å"huge and desperate wanting in her heart. † (253) This desire is to end the lies that her relationship is based on, such as the spying, and the desire to stop John’s constant manipulation in politics. She frequently wakes up in the middle of the night because of the burden placed upon her by John’s lies, but she always feels more relaxed during the day. â€Å"It was just after six o’clock [in the morning]. Flakes of speckled light filled the kitchen. ‘Well, that’s better,’ she said. (14) At the same time, however, Kathy was still hesitant to leave the convenience of secrecy. While she was desperate to put an end to the lying, she worried that doing so would put an end to their relationship. John, however, was comfortable living in secrecy, or in the dark. â€Å"Wade lay back in the shade†¦Pleasant memories came to mind. Kathy’s laughter. The way she slept on her side, thumb up against her sleeve. He remembered the times back in college when they’d gone dancing, how she’d look at him in a way that made him queasy with joy. (183) Ultimately, John’s secrecy affected him, as it caused Kathy’s affair with Harmon. The lies finally came to fruition when the Mai Lai Massacre was unveiled and John’s career unraveled. John was able to accept Kathy’s unfaithfulness and he stopped spying on her. With the truth finally out, John and Kathy were relieved of the pressures on their relationship and they moved on. By going to the lake house in the woods, they were able to start anew with a relationship free from secrecy and manipulation. Soon after, however, they would be separated again. The central mystery of In the Lake of the Woods is Kathy’s disappearance. She left her bed in the middle of the night and took their boat out onto the lake. Fittingly, it is completely dark when she disappears, as once again the truth is unknown without sunlight. After weeks of searching, no one found her. Throughout the novel, O’Brien proposes four solutions to the mystery, all in chapters entitled, â€Å"Hypothesis. † The first three are the most plausible. Perhaps Kathy drowned in the lake, or was stranded on a small island, or perhaps she was even murdered by John. The police suspect the latter, since John is seemingly unaffected by Kathy’s disappearance. But in the final chapter, O’Brien proposes the idea that in one last magic trick, John and Kathy planned her disappearance, with John joining her later on. Bethany Kee, Kathy’s coworker, supported this theory. â€Å"Maybe they decided†¦Hard to say. But I know this much. She had the guts. And she wanted changes. † (297) Ironically, this â€Å"magic trick† would be the only secret that resulted positively. Having disappeared together, Kathy and John have faced the truth and are now at peace, even when the sun is down. And so one chilly evening he might have joined her on the shore of Oak Island, or Massacre Island, or Buckete Island. Maybe she scolded him for being late. All around them there was only wilderness, dark and silent, which was what they had come for. They needed the solitude†¦Maybe they spent the night huddled at a small fire, celebrating, thinking up names for the children they wanted—funny names, sometimes, so they could laugh—and then later they would’ve planned the furnishings for their new house. (300) Even though O’Brien never reveals what actually happened, this hypothesis is supported by the fact that John, who was madly in love with Kathy, was not fazed by disappearance. Out of all the hypotheses, it serves the central theme the best, as John and Kathy have been liberated by truth. In the Lake of the Woods is an excellently written book. O’Brien is ingenious, and he is always one step ahead of the reader. By leaving the ending inconclusive, O’Brien adds to the mystery of the book. While this could leave readers unsatisfied, it was the only way O’Brien could feasibly end the story. John Wade is an incredibly intriguing and dynamic character whose different sides show throughout various parts of the novel. O’Brien brilliantly intertwines elements of John’s childhood, time in Vietnam, time as a politician, and the present day. Every piece is connected, molding together into one, profound message. Sunlight imagery perfectly serves this message, and its subtle inclusion is well-used. In the Lake of the Woods is not the most satisfying book to read, but it is certainly a thrilling and thought-provoking work of high literary quality.

Progress Monitoring Systems Not Being Appropriate For The...

There are many issues about progress monitoring in early childhood such a progress monitoring systems not being appropriate for the early childhood classroom, and the only focus of progress monitoring is on academic skills. This is an issue that is happening because people without early childhood education background are pushing down systems that work in the upper grades without taking into consideration the demographic that needs the interventions. This is something I have personally experienced in my own school. Since I teach at Pre-K-12 school, I am in a RTI team of elementary educators that don’t fully understand what is needed in the early childhood classroom. A few years ago I went looking for behavior intervention for a student and was suggested that I should sit down to complete a puzzle with him because it might make him enjoy school. It didn’t address how to address the target behavior and create a replacement behavior. 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