Contemporary Utopia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Contemporary Utopia - Essay Example Grube and Reeve (328b) in their description of Plato’s Republic, propose other utopia related ideologies such as abiding peace, strict government structure and high levels social equality. The community under investigation for utopian ideas, in this case, is Los Angeles based Ashram West. Ashram West’s utopian ideologies can be discerned from a wide array of elements, ranging from the community’s name to its practices. For instance, if directly interpreted, the word ashram means a place of religious retreat. Further, Ashram West seeks to provide refuge for gay-identified individuals, offer enlightenment services to the community and bolster spirituality of diverse people. Evidently, this gay spiritual residential area entwines religious, philosophical, administrative and sociological utopian ideologies as discussed further hereunder. Ashram West was conceived in the year 1997 by an individual known as William, and later incorporated as a nonprofit organization (NPO) in the state of California. The establishment is currently situated in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles, and occupies a large apartment with one bedroom. The organization is affiliated to the Southern California Vedanta Society, thus explaining its religious connections to Hinduism and Buddhism linked Tantra teachings. Further, Ashram West is legally sanctioned as a religious establishment, meaning that the community affiliates uphold its religious teachings. The community does not hold any form of prejudice against people from varying races, countries of origin, sexuality and social status, among other distinguishing elements. In regard to membership, Ashram West is always open for new affiliates. Other aspects of interest within this community include mode of leadership or government and social practices. In consideration of leadership and decis ion making, members select an individual to lead them on the basis of

Marketing Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6500 words

Marketing - Term Paper Example The main strength of the Wild planet is the quality and the product pricing. All the products of the Wild Planet’s are tested several times before they come to the market for sales. The internal strength of the company is the idea generation team. They have a tremendous branding and marketing strategies which attract the kids as well the parents towards the brand. Mattel: Mattel is the market leader in the United States. While the Mattel acquired the third largest toy manufacturing company Tyco Toys Inc in 1996, the company became extremely confident over the future performance. The Barbie and the Hot Wheels are the two show stoppers in the toy market. However, the companies combined sales represented only 19 percent of the total American Toy market. (Snyder, 2002, p 14) The Mattel Inc is a giant company in the toy industry. It is rated as the biggest toymakers in the world. The main strengths are the two brands and they are the Barbie and Hot Wheels. The company’s sales are being driven by these two brands. However, Soul Mate is in manufacturing innovative toys and they don’t manufacture small scale models of cars. Mattel is a threat to any toy manufacturing company as the deep financial pockets can allow them to buy any company in the toy industry. Mattel is a big company with a global exposure. However in the United States kids are boarded with the same old Barbie and Hot Wheels cars and may be that is the reason it contributes only 19 percent in the total sales of toys in United States. The new product idea is not that strong. From the above analysis it is very clear that the Wild Planet is the main competitor for the company. To differentiate soul Mate from its competitor it is very vital to understand the strength and weakness of the competitor. The business strategy of the Soul Mate and that of the Wild Planet is more or less same. The Wild Planet sells the innovative toys like Soul Mate and some of their products are Spy gadgets, Spy