The Vermont Teddy Bear Company :: Business Marketing

The Vermont Teddy Bear Company Introduction The Vermont Teddy Bear Company (VTBC) was founded in 1981 by John Sorinto. Unfortunately, for John, the company became too big for him to oversee since he was an entrepreneur. However, he gracefully stepped down in 1995 and supported the hiring of a new CEO that would lead the company into its future success (Vincelette, p. 27-3). One thing that has remained is the companies focus. The Vermont Teddy Bear's "...focus has been to design, manufacture, and direct market the best teddy bears made in America using quality American materials and labor." (p. 27-1) In fact, "American made with American materials" is the basis of the company's mission statement. Planning for the future of Vermont Teddy Bear Co. Inc it is important that we consider conditions/trends in the internal environment of the company that may impact the future success of the company. These factors (conditions/trends) involve financial resources, human resources, the quality of products and services provided the efficiency of internal processes, student and stakeholder satisfaction, and the company culture. Specification of these factors will allow us to: 1) identify their potential impact on the market; 2) assess the probability that they will continue; 3) categorize them as strengths or challenges; 4) rank them in terms of how well the company is doing in each category. The internal strengths and weakness analysis examines the recent performance of the Vermont Teddy Bear Co. Inc in terms of marketing, finance, operations and logistics, research and development, human resource management and information systems. The purpose of this analysis is to provide the data for the gap analysis -- the current performance of Vermont Teddy Bear Co. Inc and the desired (vision) performance required to successfully increase market share and customer satisfaction. Since strengths and weaknesses involve the study of the internal structure, or come from within the organization. This process is extremely important because Vermont Teddy Bear Co. Inc may want to develop new goals that should allow them to maximize its position relative to each functional area. 1 Opportunities   Ã‚  Ã‚  Larger manufacturing facility   Ã‚  Retail stores   Ã‚  Ã‚  Made in America   Ã‚  Ã‚  Production and Service, Customer perspective Threats   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Competitors (chocolates, flowers, and greeting cards)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Disney /Patents, Trademarks, and licenses   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Bear Grams   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   2 .20 .07 .18 .15. .20 .10 .10   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   3 4.6 4.2 5.0 4.2 3.6 2.8 2.5   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   4 0.92 0.29 0.90 0.63 0.72 0.28 0.25  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The small village, the Teddy Bear Common More retail stores are willing sell Attracts more Americans. The company provided unique and original customized products to everyone, from ages 1-100. advantage of national and international distribution opportunities The customers became confused and allowed Disney to enter the personalized teddy bear gift market.

Gardening as a Relaxing Hobby Essay

Amidst the problems with climate change and the food shortage in some parts of the world, certain hobbies may become beneficial to humankind. In my personal attempt to help in alleviating this environmental dilemma, I recently engaged myself in a hobby that is useful for myself and to the environment. Gardening is a hobby that I am quite interested in. This hobby is important to me as I am trying to go organic and help the environment in my own little way. Since I am just a beginner in this hobby, I know only little in this particular field and I have plenty of questions that need answers. Gardening may look easy at the start but tending the garden is actually a task that needs knowledge in plants and soil composition. I am moving towards in creating an organic garden that I find beneficial, since I can grow food in my backyard. However, I need to know what plants are best to plant in a particular season. In addition, I need to be knowledgeable on how I will be able to manage pests in my garden without using chemical pest control and how I will be able to add necessary nutrients in my garden soil to assure plants holistic growth. I managed to answer some of my queries through reading and researching about the particular topic. The main research tool that I used is the internet where I managed to find sites that are credible and reliable. They provided tips and suggestions on how to manage an organic garden effectively and efficiently. Also, I managed to find reading materials like magazine and books that contain articles on managing an organic garden. These are also reliable sources of information about the hobby. As a form of evaluating the sources, I assure that the material comes from an expert or someone who is knowledgeable in the topic. Gardening is a hobby that is beneficial to humankind and to the environment.

The Story of an Hour & a Sorrowful Woman

â€Å"A Sorrowful Woman† & â€Å"The Story of an Hour† The sadness and unhappiness displayed by both of the married women in â€Å"A Sorrowful Woman† and â€Å"The Story of an Hour† shows that marriage does not always bring the typical ending of most fairy tales. Thus being living happily ever after. It is evident that both of these women feel trapped in their marriages as many people feel today. Growing up with eight sisters I have also seen this feeling of entrapment in the world as well. In both of these stories the women display such a lack of love towards their spouses and in fact in â€Å"The Story of an Hour† it seems as though Mrs. Mallard never really loved her spouse and is the happiest for the hour that she thinks her husband is dead. The woman in â€Å"A Sorrowful Woman† is never satisfied with her marriage and life and feels trapped as well. The bizarre thing is that both of these women end up dead and do not find a way to get help or to get out of the marriages. The authors of these two stories Kate Chopin and Gail Goodwin both tie the unhappiness of these women to the way in which society impacts ones marriage. First of all, through the settings of their stories, both of the authors suggested that social expectations be the real causes of their protagonists’ deaths. In â€Å"A Sorrowful Woman,† the nameless protagonist has what seems to be such a desirable life. She has a â€Å"durable, receptive, gentle† husband and a â€Å"tender golden three† son (189) â€Å"He was attuned to her; he understood such things† (189). This statement leads one to believe that her husband always understood her. It also seems that he is willing to sacrifice his time for her and their family. Mrs. Mallard in â€Å"The Story of an Hour† is in a similar environment. Knowing that she has heart trouble, â€Å"great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband’s death† (18). By setting up such nice environments where the two protagonists live, the authors keep readers away from the thought that their protagonists’ deaths are the result of bad treatment. It is the force of social expectations placed upon the women that locked them in the jail of marriage and that eventually lead them to death. It becomes evident while reading both of these stories that both of the female protagonists in the two stories live very unsatisfactory lives. Mrs. Mallard in â€Å"The Story of an Hour† seems to feel trapped in her own marriage. â€Å"She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even certain strength† (19) tells us that her marriage has taken everything away from the young woman emotionally. â€Å"It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long† (19), shows that she never felt freedom in her life and felt very unhappy in this marriage because life seemed to be so long because of it. Therefore, â€Å"She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same† (18) when she was told about her husband’s death. She just accepted it and went to her room because she realized that her husband’s death gave her freedom and now â€Å"spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days [that] would be her own. † (19) In the other story â€Å"A Sorrowful Womanâ€Å", the once again nameless protagonist, is imprisoned in her own mind. This is different from â€Å"The story of an hour. † In â€Å"A Sorrowful Woman† the sight of her family makes her so disgusted and uneasy. She feels that to love and take care of her family is a burden. â€Å"She stood naked except for her bra, which hung by one strap down the side of her body; she had not the impetus to shrug it off† (189) indicates how tired and unmotivated she feels about her life. Both of these women in these two stories struggle to live happily and are constantly living in agony. Many readers, including myself, might wonder why they don’t free themselves by offering divorce to the husbands. Chopin and Godwin use a lot of irony to allow readers to know that it isn’t simple for their protagonists to break the social expectations that keep them in the boundary of marriage. Divorce is never an option for them. Divorce might have never been defined in their society, and it was most definitely not as common then as it is now. These poor women have no way to escape from their intense unhappiness. Not only did these women not have a way to get out of their crisis, but they were also prohibited from being themselves and from doing what they want. In â€Å"A Sorrowful Woman,† the main character is exhausted from being â€Å"a wife and mother one too many times† (189). When her son says, â€Å"She’s tired of doing all our things again† (193), this tells us what her life was like. She was constantly feeling the stress of trying to be a housewife against her will, although she did have the ability to write and wasn’t given much of a chance to write. Only once in her life does she have a chance to write â€Å"mad and fanciful stories nobody could ever make up again, and a table full of love sonnets†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (192-193); that is before her death. This woman is in a tough predicament. While the person herself tells her to do whatever she wants to, the person that is affected by social expectations inside her tells her to do other things. She completely loses controls of herself. Even though she was unable to do things she wants, she still had to pretend as if she was the luckiest woman (189). In â€Å"The Story of an Hour,† on the other hand, Mrs. Mallard’s overwhelming joy when she received the news of her husband’s death indicated for how long and how much she wanted to be â€Å"Free, free, free! (19). Only alone in her room could Mrs. Mallard express her happiness. In front of people, she has to repress her feelings and pretend to be sad. The conflict inside and outside the woman tells us so much about what the society expected her to do. It also seems that Godwin was trying to show the conflict between Mrs. Mallards marriage and society by intensely describing her world inside and outside of her room. Chopin and Godwin have successfully directed readers to the only reasonable resolution of their stories, the deaths of their main characters. Death is the only way our two protagonists are able to escape from their agony and from the pressure of social expectations placed upon them. These two women’s societies don’t allow them to die comfortably even when they have chosen death as their fate. In â€Å"A Sorrowful Woman,† even though our nameless protagonist despises being a mother and wife she still does what society would expect of her, as a housewife, right before her death. She made â€Å"five loaves of warm bread, a roast stuffed turkey, a glazed ham, three pies of different fillings, †¦Ã¢â‚¬  (192). In â€Å"The Story of an Hour,† Mrs. Mallard was said to have died of â€Å"joy that kills† (20) even though it seems as though she died because she was finally able to see freedom in her day’s ahead and could not fathom to live under her husband’s will again. Even until her death, her society still pushed her in the position of a pretender, of a person she never wants to be. Without a way out of these unhappy situations, both of the protagonists chose death for freedom. It is only through death that they are both able to escape from their unhappy lives. These stories provoke so much thought. Should society be more understanding of people? Maybe if our society could be more excepting and understanding there would be less tragedy like there has been in Chopin’s â€Å"The Story of an Hour† and Godwin’s â€Å"A Sorrowful Woman. † Works Cited Chopin, Kate. â€Å"The Story of an Hour. † Thinking and Writing About Literature. Michael Mayer. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001. 18-20. Goodwin, Gail. â€Å"A Sorrowful Woman. † Thinking and Writing About Literature. Michael Mayer. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001. 189-193.