Tests always make me nervous. The night before a test I can not sleep. Waiting for a professor to pass out a test is like waiting for a jail sentence. When the test is returned and I am expecting a B or better, I see an F, waving back and forth in red ink like an American Flag. With this in mind, I feel like tests are an inaccurate indication of what has been learned.
Trying to get through in time, I hurriedly rush through the test. Time is a big problem. When put on a time limit, it takes my mind off the test. I focus mostly on finishing the test in time, not concentrating on essential elements such as punctuation, grammar, mechanics, and content.
In most cases I remember concepts only for the test; they are never to be thought about again. Many tests are accurate in testing short-term memorization skills. They do not give an accurate measurement of what has been learned. I have passed tests without learning anything, and I have failed tests when I studied extra- hard. “,”80″:”202″:”1019870636″:”40504″,”8”
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“lingchun”; “Danone Is In Talks With Coke, Cadbury To Distribute Evian”; “The U.S. bottled-water market is growing fast recent years, while Danone is confronting the volume decline of Evian. The main competition of Danone’s Evian comes from three market leaders — Nestlé’s Poland Spring. PepsiCo’s Aquafina and Coke’s Dasani. Both of the leaders provide less-expensive bottled-waters compared to the premium-priced Evian. It might be a good way to make use of rivals’ strength to grab sales.
In the bottled-water industry, the key success factors are low price and a strong network of distributor. Water is just water, it is a less out of the ordinary product and no switching costs for buyers. Besides, there are many substitute products, such as juice, milk or soft drinks. Therefore, Buyers have very strong power and are price sensitive. Who provides low-priced products will be the winner in the market.
Danone is facing three diversified multinational companies with strong economies of scale and scope. With the backup of strategic fits, those market leaders are able to take competitive advantages. It is easy for them to transfer competitively valuable resources from other beverages to bottled waters. They capitalize on cross-business economies of scope and build low-cost advantage to outcompete rivals. They also capture full economies of scale and experience curve effects. Consequently, those rival firms can provide lower price bottled-waters and aim at a more mainstream market.
If Danone can utilize the distribution network from its rivals, it might reduce costs in the value chain and gain more market share. In addition, I think Danone should also targete Evian on a differentiation strategy to have different distribution channels from its rivals’. It can put more emphasis on marketing Evian’s chic mineral water feature and building high-quality brand image. Evian, for example, can be distributed in fancy restaurants. However, it is an easy-to-copy differentiating features and cannot produce sustainable competitive advantage in the long run.
For the long-term viewpoint, Danone should revamp its value chain and also target on a low-cost provider strategy. Since price competition is very vigorous in this market, low cost relative to competitors is the only competitive advantage that really matters.
