Environmental and Consumer Influences Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Environmental and Consumer Influences - Essay Example According to Wilhem,Yankov & Magee (2011), consumer behavior is determined by their psychological makeup and the influence of others or may be defined as the outcome of interaction of the consumer and personal influence as well as pressure exerted on them by outside forces. An understanding of consumer behavior is integral in marketing and planning strategies because consumer preferences influence the existing consumers to generate preferences for new phones. Consumers may be either influenced by personal consumption or organizational consumption or individual and environmental factors. Some individual factors affecting consumer decision are demographics, consumer knowledge, perception,, attitudes and lifestyles while environmental factors include culture, social class, reference group, family and household. Most consumer decisions are influenced by price, brand, and interface and features particularly the physical appearance. Consumers significantly consider the size and the menu or ganization of mobile phones for self-identity purposes. Mobile phone users are also influenced by aesthetics and costs of the gadgets. Consumers value price, quality and style functions of the mobile phones. Some users prefer high priced mobile phones with unique features and style functions for identity purposes. Such kind of preference tends to be common amongst individuals who value personality issues. Moreover, the current youthful population embraces technological changes and would always love to identify themselves with new technology in the market. They tend to buy mobile phones that have new technology features and this greatly influences them to make new purchase decisions (Wilhem,Yankov & Magee, 2011). There are consumers who consider reliable quality and user-friendliness of the specific brand of mobile phone brand especially amongst youth consumers. Young consumers, mostly students and urban residents, value handsets of reputed brands, nice appearance, and advanced value

China Oil Diplomacy In Africa Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

China Oil Diplomacy In Africa - Essay Example The Sino-African trade alignment is one such relationship between countries, which has raised many interesting issues at the international forum. The fact of the matter is that China requires oil for its fast growing industries, which Africa can offer, and Africa requires financial and development support, which China can provide. From the traditional Ricardian comparative cost advantage framework, each country specializes in producing and exporting the goods, which they produce at a lower relative cost than other countries. It is because each country is endowed with certain specific factors by nature, which places them in a unique position to produce certain goods at a cheaper cost than others. Hence a country which can produce a commodity at a cheaper price is in a position to compete with others whose cost of production is dearer. For example, China, because of its capabilities in producing and exporting textiles at a cheaper price in comparison with other countries, is better suited to supply textile products to Africa. At the same time, if China throw all its might in trying to extract oil from its own geographical bound aries, the unit cost of oil would be dearer in comparison with the oil they can import from, say, Angola. In such a situation, it is better for China to supply its cheaper textile products to Angola, and import its oil requirement from Angola. Thus, on account of inbuilt comparative advantages, international trade is beneficial for both the partner countries. On account of China's oil and other natural resources requirements, and China's capabilities in providing development assistance and technical support to Africa, both China and the African countries are better placed to enter into relationship with each other to mutually benefit from trade. Africa is looking for new development opportunities. Old actors such as Japan, the US and the EU and their African strategies did not go well with Africa. It is also evident that the African continent is growing fast on account of Sino-African relationships, in recent years. Further, during the China Africa Summit, China offered quick packages to Africa, which further strengthened the bond between Africa and China. However, the West looks at China's oil diplomacy in Africa with suspicion, and some critiques argue that China's engagement with Africa does not wear a human face. Hence it calls for an enquiry into the type of role played by China in the African continent to gauge the pros and cons in the Sino-Africa bilateral relationships. In an effort in this direction, I gather the views of various scholars in Sino-African studies and review the literature pertaining to China - Africa in section 2. Based on reliable data sources, I assess the trend in China's trade with Africa in section 3. The conclusions of this study are presented in section 4. Section 2: Literature Review: China's oil diplomacy springs from its quest for oil to feed its economic growth momentum. A steady overseas oil supply in the current geopolitical scenario can be a critical task. China's own experience in procuring oil from outside sources indicate that buying oil from overseas is a poor option compared with control