Design pattern Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Design pattern - Assignment Example These receiver commands are string in nature. In this algorithm, all the commands that will be visible to the user are subclasses to the moveable command abstract class. The three objects which are moveable which include the rook, bishop and the knight are able to be moved to and from the different positions on the board. The codes for each segment of the class are given in the chart above. This design pattern models a one to many dependency between the objects in the algorithm. This design pattern is creational in nature and connects the state of an observed object the subject with many observing objects and the observers. The square view model is related to the composite class in the algorithm which in turn is related to the color background and the square state of game. The square view model object is able to position the board which is ten passed to the composite class which sets the required state of the square. The color background class sets the background color of the object and finally the square state model of the class is changed as set by the user. The main use for this approach in programming is to ensure that we maintain consistency across the states that appear to be redundant in the code and also optimize the changes so that the consistency necessary is maintained. In this approach to in pattern design, the consistency is maintained using three main var iants: The square view model object acts as the publishing notification which then subscribes to both the color background and the composite objects which then push the notification to the subscribing notification for updating. If we take into consideration a user interface toolkit that is capable of supporting multiple number of applications and controls, the game view object sets up a game on the user interface which then clears the board to create a new game. The new game has two main components sub objects which include the controllers for the object and the

Strategic Analysis report on pharmaceutical sector company - Essay

Strategic Analysis report on pharmaceutical sector company - GlaxoSmithKline (gsk) - Essay Example GlaxoSmithKline Plc. (GSK) is a British pharmaceutical multinational corporation dealing in various drugs, biologics and vaccines. The company has its headquarters in Brantford, London. In the year 2014, GSK was ranked number six among the world’s largest pharmaceutical company. It only trails Johnson & Johnson, Hoffmann La Roche, Novartis, Sanofi and Pfizer. This ranking was done in terms of revenue, making it one of the largest corporations in Britain. GSK came into existence in the year 2000 following a merger between SmithKline Beecham Plc. and Glaxo Wellcome (Anon, 2003). While disruptions in manufacturing and the unfavorable market conditions in key geographical areas have affected its performance, it has always taken necessary steps and strategies to ensure future success. The UK pharmaceutical market is the sixth largest in the world. The market is driven by over 35,000 general practitioners. This implies that it is an open market. However, the leading companies like GSK have stronger presence compared to the smaller companies. According to Towse (2014), the growth in the market has been decelerating in the last three years. Despite this trend, there is still a high worldwide demand for versatile and quality products. Climate has emerged to be a key issue in the industry, with stakeholders striving to come up with products that do not have detrimental impacts on health and the environment. Being an open market, little regulation is usually witnessed. The main economic regulation, however, comes through the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS), which limits the rate of returns associated with medicine sales. The intended rate is that which is equal to the overall UK rate. The pharmaceutical industry has generally performed well and managed to preserve various incentives to invention. There are, however, some current issues that are facing the industry and having an impact on the overall performance. Being a dynamic sector, various

Medically and Mentally Challenged Inmates Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Medically and Mentally Challenged Inmates - Essay Example It is evidently clear from the discussion that once identified with suicidal tendency, the inmate should be offered such cells or wards where 24-hour observation is possible. Similarly, those who are identified with medical issues should be housed separately so that they can be monitored more frequently than other general inmates. Secondly, the correctional staff is given training in various intervention procedures and a toolkit for first aid in emergencies. Even after initial screening, these people are able to observe the inmates closely and report any inmate’s exhibiting signs of physical or mental illness. The third best practice is the strategy of utilization review. This means the appropriateness of the services and procedures offered to each inmate is periodically reviewed. This helps reduce the cost involved in offering unnecessary monitoring and treatment. Finally, it is clear that about 50% of all the diseases, injuries, and death in the United States are entirely pr eventable. Therefore, another best practice is to introduce preventive measures, including frequent health screenings, medicines and vaccines, health education campaigns, and checkups. These practices will help correctional facilities better manage medically and mentally challenged inmates.

Corporate governance and the role of executive incentives Essay

Corporate governance and the role of executive incentives - Essay Example The paper seeks to determine the role and effectiveness of executive incentives in corporate governance drive of an organization and draws the conclusions from various research findings to anchor the understanding of the concept. Inclusion of real life cases assists the application of theories in practical sense. Separating management and ownership is one problem that has always posed serious challenges for corporate form of an organization. The fundamental problem of conflict of interests where managers focusing on personal gains overlooking shareholder’s interest gets severe in loosely governed organization. Corporate governance is a tool which aims to align the interest of all parties and stakeholders in the organization and provides a strategic direction to the performance and control functions by ensuring order and decision making process are done effectively. In this regard, areas where most of the conflicts arise within an organization are related to recruitment and compensation of CEOs and top level management. Based on the above conflicts a detailed theory has been developed which is known as Agency-theory (Jensen and Meckling 1976). The theory describes various types of costs which are incurred owing to the different type of conflicts between shareholders, managers and debt owners. Agency cost is defined as the sum of monitoring cost, bonding costs and residual loss. Other two types of costs are agency cost of equity and agency costs of debt where former arise due to conflict of interests between managers and shareholders whereas latter arises due to conflict between shareholders and debt holders. Corporate governance is a system that brings more transparency and control in the organization. The approach involves setting accountabilities and linking management’s compensation with shareholder’s value. There are many mechanisms that can be applied to

Theories of juvenile deliquency Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Theories of juvenile deliquency - Assignment Example In order to belong, youths have the ideology that they have to be rich and famous. Economically underprivileged adolescents may be pressured to obtain money in unlawful ways, such as stealing and the like. The thinking of the youth today must be transformed and they should be made aware that they have to be critical in choosing their peers. Another theory is that of Albert Bandura. His theory is known as the â€Å"Social Learning Theory†. Bandura points to the environment as the cause of possible criminal acts committed by the youth. He reasoned that the adolescent observes his environment and tries to imitate what he sees. In this specific theory, family, peers, and media can directly influence the behavior of the youth (Kartha, 2010). The picture on the right suggests the effect of media on today’s youth. Juveniles are usually in want of entertainment and their common sources of this are the television and the internet. Viewing shows that can either directly or indire ctly promote violence can affect the mind of the viewing minor. Without authoritative parental guidance, he might be led to thinking that what he views is acceptable by society. To reduce cases of juvenile delinquency, parents are compelled to monitor the shows and websites their children see.

Tesla Motors Essay Example for Free

Tesla Motors Essay The Global Business Community The first macroenvironmental factor that Tesla Motors faces is the society and subcultures. In this day in age consumers worldwide have increased their knowledge and sensitivity about its environment. Numerous companies have catered to this need of becoming more environmentally responsible by offering products that are â€Å"green† or environmentally friendly. This new growth amongst people and organizations alike of becoming more environmentally conscious has created an opportunity for Tesla Motors with its brand of product. Tesla Motors produces and sells fully electric cars as well as electric vehicle powertrain components that give off no tailpipe emissions. Also Tesla motor vehicles cut CO2 emissions in half compared to gas burning automobiles that currently dominates the roads today. Environmental consciousness is what Tesla Motors is built on and its pursuit of diminishing dependence upon a diminishing resource for their consumers is what the company values most and depends on most for increasing revenue. The second macroenvironmetal factor that Tesla Motors runs into is the demographics. The demographics factor may pose as a major problem for Tesla’s success in the future as its product only appeals to those that are able to afford their vehicles. Although Tesla Motors offers a first-rate vehicle when it comes to performance, efficiency, and class the price for the fairly new automobile company is not economically friendly. Currently Tesla’s prices can range from the base vehicle Model S which currently costs roughly $58,000 up to its â€Å"signature edition† which is estimated at $105,000. With its above average cost of the high end fully electrical cars Tesla must integrate a more concentrated segmentation strategy in targeting the correct demographics to foster the company’s success. Tesla Motors should also take into consideration of tackling demographics in regions with higher gas prices compared to others. According to the American Automotive Association California, Hawaii, Alaska, Connecticut, and New York are among the states with the highest gas prices (Kurtzleben, 2011). In accomplishing this Tesla will be able to market to demographics that can offer a higher incentive in purchasing their fully electric vehicles. The third macroenvironmental factor Tesla faces is in regards to the economic factors. One economic factor that can possibly affect the Tesla would be the prices of petroleum dropping to a low cost for consumers and possibly staying at an affordable price. With an affordable price on gasoline, consumers would be less likely to look for alternatives to combat rising gas and oil prices that we see today, making the high-priced fully electric Tesla vehicle even more unattractive. The economic downturn can also be an ailing factor for Tesla Motors as well. The economic collapse has caused the buying capacity of consumers to dramatically decrease making individuals across the country a lot more conscious about the spending their hard earned dollar. The automobile industry as a whole has struggled overall with battling record losses in revenue and waiving workers. Being that it is a fairly new competitor within the industry Tesla will find it very difficult for selling and staying above its break-even point with its high-end luxury fully electric vehicle. The forth macroenvironmental factor Tesla faces is the natural and physical factors. The increased usage of oil and fossil fuel which is mainly being used for transportation and the decreasing of the resource globally play as an opportunity and advantage for Tesla Motors. â€Å"Petroleum currently fuels 95% of the United States transportation sector, a sector that demands nearly 28% of total usage† (Musk, 2012). With Tesla Motors’ fully electric vehicles offer consumers a substantially alternative towards saving money from not ever relying on purchasing gas at an ever increasing price due to its low supply and high demand of petroleum. Minimizing the dependence on petroleum not only reduces emissions, but also will help build a stronger energy economy (Musk, 2012). The fifth macroenvironmetal factor Tesla faces is in consideration of political and legal issues. Tesla has already been involved in several lawsuits. One that has been most notarized is the lawsuit filed against its competitor Fisker Automotive in early 2008 for stealing design ideas and confidential information such as business plans, technology, and trade secrets. Henrik Fisker was hired by Tesla to design its WhiteStar model vehicle in 2007. After gaining access to designs and confidential information which is Tesla’s competitive advantage he then used the information which enabled Fisker to develop his own high-end electric car which was called Karma. After consulting with an arbitrator Tesla lost its case 7 months after filing the suit due to the finding an interim award in Fisker Automotives favor. The sixth and final macroenvironmetal factor Tesla Motors faces is technology. Tesla holds a technological advantage over all of its competitors in comparison with to the overall performance of the vehicle. Tesla’s electric powertrain found in each vehicle allows higher driving efficiencies. With Tesla’s understanding of using energy efficiently the company has created vehicles with superior design by improving technologies of vehicle road-load which encompasses wind resistance, mechanical friction, and tire rolling resistance; energy conversion losses, as well as electric vehicle efficiency. Overall the driving efficiency is 88% compared to 20-25% for traditional gas-powered cars (Musk, 2012). Although hybrids also increase the total efficiency of internal combustion they are still less efficient than Tesla vehicles (Musk, 2012). Another technological advantage Tesla’s has is its affordability in fueling the vehicle with electricity rather than gas, making it a sound financial decision for consumers. â€Å"Tesla vehicles cost as little as $5 to charge; equivalent to $0. 02 per mile. Alternatively, a gasoline-powered car that is rated at 20 mpg cost $0. 15 per mile† (Musk, 2012). Tesla’s has a competitive advantage in regards toward its technology used within its product. However, the main concern is how long Tesla Motors will be able to hold its competitive advantage in regards toward its technology over time. The Market Heading into the microenvronmental analysis of the paper the first factor that Tesla Motor’s faces is the collaboration. Collaboration with other companies can be beneficial and viewed as a positive for both parties if performed properly. With Tesla Motors’ technological advancements for its electric cars the company has teamed up with major automobile company Toyota towards supplying the company with control systems, batteries, and motors Toyota’s new electric vehicle the RAV4 SUV (Bullis, 2012). Tesla has also recently agreed to provide similar electric car supplies for Mercedes-Benz in a similar deal (Bullis, 2012). The collaboration microenvironmental factor can be turned into an opportunity for Tesla Motors as leverage. If the company manages to not succeed as an independent automobile manufacturer, Tesla still can have the ability to produce the proper technologies needed in developing an electric car for larger manufacturers. Through collaboration Tesla can also develop itself in become an attractive company to be acquired by larger automobile companies such as Toyota and Mercedes-Benz respectfully. The second microenvironmental factor Tesla Motors faces is in regards to competition. With nearly every major automobile manufacturer gearing up plans to roll out with their very own electric car Tesla now has to compete with the likes of General Motors, Ford, and Nissan. However these companies will be indirectly competing with Tesla for market share within the niche. Companies that will be directly competing with Tesla are Mercedes and BMW in the market for high-performance luxury electric vehicles (Bullis, 2012). Competition has been expanded into a much broader scope for Tesla Motors since the company was founded back in 2003. Along with other smaller automobile manufacturers that Tesla must compete with, Tesla has to also compete with companies that provide other energy efficient alternatives such as hybrids, hydrogen powered, flex fuels, and compressed natural gas. The third microenvironmental factor Tesla Motor must account for is its suppliers. It is imperative for companies to have a positive relationship with suppliers in order for the procurement process to be run efficiently and effectively especially when there is more than one supplier needed to fulfill the completion of the overall product. Procurement is a series of steps that a company takes to obtain or acquire necessary materials (Magal Word, 2009). It is vital that Tesla stays in complete control of its product lifecycle process as the company deals with many suppliers from different countries all over the world. Besides the company’s powertrain which is built at Tesla’s at headquarters in California, car parts for design such as body panels are produced in France, as well as battery cells shipped from Japan (Musk, 2012). Tesla can use strategies such as locking in lower prices for different supplies to ensure savings overtime if prices were to be raised. The fourth and final microenvironmental factor that must be taken into consideration on behalf of Tesla Motors are the regulators. Tesla has to be aware and make proper adjustments to its business plans once government regulation occurs. In January of 2012, California, adopted the strongest new clean-air regulation in the United States. California will mandate that one out of seven cars sold in 2025 are plug-ins or full electrics (Woodyard, 2012).

Relationship Between Customer Perception and Branding

Relationship Between Customer Perception and Branding ABSTRACT: Purpose: This paper will try to establish a relationship between the perception build within the users through the process of the branding irrespective of the core use ability, and thus trying to prove the importance of branding which has become the modern tool for doing the business METHODOLOGY The basic questionnaire was designed and were distributed to the users who spend atleast the minimum amount on the above three product, the target of 70 was set order to get rid of the errors like miscommunication, unfilled sets etc and thus of 70, 38 did answer the questionnaire properly which were further tabulated and concluded FINDINGS What I was expecting that Neurofen would appear as a most effective in its class of product but, rather Anadin leads in term of effectiveness but still the sales figure shows that Neurofen is market leader. So this might be the sheer effect of the branding which Neurofen has adopted, thus despite a little bit weak in its performance as per the survey its branding is excellent far better than other two products. LIMITATION Due to the limitation of the time the primary research was conducted on time scale of around 17 days, so I was able to cover 38 users which is more than half as compared to the 70 which were targeted. Executive summary: Well the basic aim of the dissertation is to show how the perception is built among the users for a particular brand irrespective of the effectiveness. Thus also I will try to explain the UK market for the over the counter products and try to analyze the top three brands, where I will be dealing with process of branding in respect to these three brand The dissertation initially will deal with general introduction where we will be able to understand the what is the over the counter products are, who are brands that leads the market, then I will be dealing with each brand with brief description of their portfolio, this will certainly give the clearer picture of the brands in whole. Followed by this I will give the brief description of the primary research where in I will investigate the effectiveness of the brand irrespective of the brand position and we expect Neurofen to be the most effective as per the market position, and thus relating the findings to the process of the branding and ultimately to the sales figure In order to make the data understanding more easy there has been use of graphs and the few of the pie chart which gives the more precise picture of the situation. Thus dissertation will end up with few of the interesting figures their analysis vs. the actual scenario GENERAL INTRODUCTION: Until 1960s and 1970s, painkillers were kept in a glass bottle in the bathroom medicine cabinet. When you had a headache, you would wait until you got home and then open the dusty bottle and shake out two pills: round, powdery discs with bevelled edges and a bisect line a groove cut into the pill so that you could snap it in half for a reduced dose. Youd swallow the pills, either aspirin or Paracetamol, with a glass of water. They felt uncomfortably large in the throat and had a bitter taste. The bottle, which contained 50 pills, hung around for months, even years. Now, when we feel a headache coming on, we pat our pockets to see if we have any painkillers with us. The time between pain and treatment has shrunk to almost nothing. These days, the pills do not come in bottles, but in blister-packs in bright, shiny boxes. When I leave the house, I sometimes run through a checklist keys, wallet, phone painkillers. The packets, some of which are plastic and shaped like mobile phones, are cheerful and glossy; elegant enough to put on a table in a restaurant, they look like lifestyle accessories. You take them with you when you leave the house, partly for convenience and partly because you know that, if you leave them lying around, someone else will pocket them. Painkillers are no longer hard to swallow; the pills have smooth edges, and some have a glossy coating of hard sugar, like Smarties or MMs. Some of them are mint- or lemon-flavored. If your throat objects to tablets, you can take caplets, which are longer and thinner, or â€Å"liquid capsules†, which are soft and gelatinous, like vitamin pills, or powder, which is poured from a sachet into a glass of water. You could conceivably take a painkiller while you were out jogging, or running for the bus. Painkillers are also more widely available than they used to be. We have been able to buy aspirin and paracetamol over the counter for some time now, but in 1996 restrictions on the sale of ibuprofen the newest, raciest painkiller were relaxed, making it available in supermarkets, newsagents and corner shops, as well as from the pharmacist. This was part of an NHS drive to save money by taking pressure off doctors and pharmacists; during my stay in London, we have been taught to be self-medicating when it comes to pain. The change came about after Galpharm, a British pharmaceutical company, made a successful application to the Medicines Control Agency for a license to have ibuprofen moved from the pharmacy to the â€Å"general sales list†. After that, painkiller advertising, marketing and packaging moved into a different league. Inevitably, we are also spending more on painkillers than ever. Id buy them as a matter of course, with my groceries. We now a days found wanting to buy smart painkillers, in the same way that I might buy smart jeans or decent coffee. For me, and for many people I spoke to(co-employee), the temptation is to catch headaches early, nip them in the bud. We have become enthusiastic self-medicators. In 1997, according to the market research firm Euro monitor, the British painkiller market was worth  £309m. In 2001, it was worth  £398m. In other words, it grew by almost 30% in just four years, probably the biggest hike since the German company Bayer opened the first US aspirin factory in 1903. Euro monitor predicts more growth: by 2006, it estimates that the market will be worth  £483m, and by now it has already crossed  £600 figure. Recently, I found myself in someones (college friend) house with a slight headache. No problem, he said. He had stocked up on painkillers he thought he had four packets, a total of 48 pills. But he couldnt find them; the packets had all gone. Three people (room mates working in Mac Donald) were living in the house. â€Å"I just bought them a couple of days ago,† he said. This is what makes me more querious that how this tiny stuff has entrenched in our lives. As per my finding from the local corner shops An ordinary shop, you can buy three basic types of painkiller The one which contains aspirin, which has been around for a century; or either has paracetamol, which emerged as a popular alternative after the war; and from past couple of decades they contain basically ibuprofen, which was invented in the early 1960s and has been a pharmacy medicine since 1983. Ibuprofen is slightly gentler on our stomach than aspirin, but it does not thin our blood to the same extent. Aspirin and ibuprofen reduce pain, fever and inflammation, while paracetamol reduces only pain and fever. Paracetamol is gentle on the stomach, but can damage the liver if you take too many. Paracetamol is also the suicide drug; you can die a painful death by knocking back as few as 25. (For this reason, the government has taken steps to reduce packet sizes; since 1998, you have been able to buy packets of no more than 16 in supermarkets, or 32 in pharmacies though there is nothing to stop you from going to more than one shop. The multibillion-dollar paracetamol industry in the US has thus far resisted all attempts by the Food and Drug Administration to reduce packet size.) Aspirin and ibuprofen are potentially less harmful: most people would survive a cry-for-help dose of around 50 aspirins, or even 100 ibuprofen tablets. When it comes to headaches, ibuprofen is my drug of choice. (Im not alone: according to Euromonitor, ibuprofen now has 31% of the market, and is growing exponentially. Aspirin has a 7% share, and paracetamol 13%; the rest of the market is made up of combination painkillers.) I also, I have noticed, have strong brand loyalty. When I go to the supermarket, my eye is drawn to the row of shiny silver packs with a chevron and a target design Nurofen. Nurofen claims to be â€Å"targeted pain relief†. I am highly influenced by the advert of the car racing and the way the tablet they have shown as bullet acting on the pain. Targeting a headache costs me around 20p a shot. On one level, I am aware that the active ingredient in a single Nurofen tablet, 200mg of ibuprofen, is exactly the same as that in a single Anadin ibuprofen tablet, or an Anadin Ultra, a Hedex ibuprofen, a Cuprofen or, for that matter, a generic own-brand ibuprofen tablet from Safeway, Sainsburys or Tesco. On another level, Nurofens targeting promise appeals to me. It feels hi-tech(Remember about car advert), almost environmentally sound. It makes me think of stealth bombers dropping smart bombs down the chimney of the building they want to destroy, with minimum collateral damage. Are our headaches getting worse, or do we just think they are? I went to see DrVajpayee My GP, a consultant in pain management, in his office at Brigstock medical service in Thornton heath, to find out what he thought. Dr Vajpayee offers his service through NHS Dr Vajpayee believes that our society tolerates less pain than ever before. Modern life requires you to be pain-free; there just isnt time to lie around waiting for a headache to go. Young people are more impatient than older people; when they feel pain, they want something done about it, immediately. Generally speaking, the younger the consumer, the stronger the painkiller they are marketed: Anadin Original is pitched at people over 45, Anadin Extra at people between 25 and 55, and Anadin Ultra at people between 19 and 32. Of course, there is a limit to this sliding scale: Nurofen for Children (six months and over) contains 100mg of Nurofen, half the adult dose. Is any of this surprising? We live in an age of quick fixes. These days, we expect everything to get faster cars, lifts, food. When we suffer psychological distress, we take Prozac and Seroxat. More people are having their wisdom teeth extracted under general anesthetic. Caesarean section is on the increase. Half a century of the NHS has softened us up, and the sheer success of modern medicine has made pain something of an anomaly. We work out, we take vitamins: we cant really be doing with headaches. We see pain not as a symptom an alarm system to warn us of illness but more as an illness in itself. When the alarm comes on, we just want it turned off. Look at the ads on TV, and on buses and trains in any major city: painkillers will get you back to work, help you keep your job, deal with the kids; with painkillers, you can cope. I had a slight hangover the day I visited Vajpayee, which seemed to be getting worse. Id nearly missed my train, and found myself repeatedly clenching my jaw in the taxi. Id planned to buy some Nurofen before I got on the train, but had run out of time. Dr Vajpayee explained the anatomy of my headache. The alcohol We drink does dehydrates the inside of our skull. Consequently, the Dura, the Cellophane-like membrane that encases our brain, has no longer fully supported. Cells inside our skull were gets traumatized, and had responds by releasing tiny amounts of Arachidonic acid; this acid, having seeped out by our cell after we drink ,later this acid turns into a set of chemical compounds called prostaglandins. And these prostaglandins hurt us; they tell nerve endings in our head to tell our brain that my cells were traumatized. Our brain, in turn, does try to get our attention, and succeeds. And this process of our brain to communicate that there is some defect in our system the process is called pain. It felt as if something inside my head was being gently pulled away from my skull, which it was. When you take aspirin, or paracetamol, or ibuprofen, the drug works by deactivating a chemical called prostaglandin H synthetase, the catalyst that turns Arachidonic acid into prostaglandins. So even though your cells are still traumatized, your brain is no longer aware of the trauma. Your brain is being fooled. This process was discovered in aspirin in the 1970s by John Vane, a scientist working at the Welcome Foundation, who went on to win the Nobel Prize in 1982. (Aspirin was first synthesized in Germany in 1899, and so had been on the market for more than 70 years before anybody knew how it worked.) â€Å"Pain,† said Vajpayee, â€Å"is what the patient says it is.† All sorts of things can make you feel headachey, including muscle contractions on the scalp or the back of the neck, dehydration from drinking too much alcohol or caffeine, staring at your computer screen for too long, looking at bright lights, colds and flu, grinding your teeth, anxiety at the prospect of getting a headache. Sometimes, prostaglandins are produced when there is no apparent trauma. You might feel pain because something has subtly altered the balance of your brain chemistry, or simply because your mood has changed; you might be producing an uneven amount of serotonin or dopamine. You might, most worryingly, have a headache because you take too many painkillers, a condition known as â€Å"medication overuse headache†. A study published in the British Medical Journal last October found that â€Å"daily or near-daily headache is at epidemic levels, affecting up to 5% of some populations, and chronic overuse of headache drugs may account for half of this phenomenon†. Low doses daily appeared to carry greater risks than larger doses weekly. Of course, most pharmaceutical research is sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, which are understandably reluctant to explore the negatives. But what research there is suggests that analgesics, when used frequently, chronically reduce levels of serotonin, and increase levels of pain-signalling molecules. Earlier this year, the New York Times reported that a German study had found that even a two-week course of Tylenol (an American brand of paracetamol) â€Å"causes a drop in serotonin-receptor density in rat brains†, an effect that is reversed when the rats are taken off the painkillers. If you keep fooling your brain into not feeling pain, your body will eventually fight back and make you feel more pain. And then youll want more painkillers; its a vicious circle. Imagine this as a business proposition. You buy a cardboard tub of fluffy white powder for around  £100. Then you turn the powder into a quarter of a million pills, which you sell at 10p per pill. Every cardboard tub you buy makes you a profit of  £24,900. The powder is pure ibuprofen. The pills are painkillers. The company is Boots, which owns a subsidiary called Crookes Healthcare, which manufactures Nurofen. Sounds good, doesnt it? Of course, there are overheads you have to invent the drug, spend years on expensive clinical trials, build a factory, and hire people to make the pills, tell the public about the pills, and design the packs so they look attractive on the shelves. From the store manager of East Croydon boots pharmacy and article from Google, Boots corporate responsibility. â€Å"It takes 10 years and  £200m to get a new drug accepted,† said Dr Jagdish Acharya, a senior medical adviser to Boots(From the store manager of East Croydon.) Boots head office, and the factory that makes many of its painkillers, are on a campus that lies a few miles outside Nottingham. Every day, trucks full of raw ingredients arrive at one end of the factory, and trucks leave the other end with the finished product tens of thousands of cardboard packs, destined for 90 countries. This is D-95, one of the biggest painkiller factories in Britain, working 24 hours a day. If youve ever popped a Nurofen tablet, or a Nurofen tablet, or a Nurofen Plus, or a Nurofen liquid capsule, or a Boots own-brand generic ibuprofen tablet (the active ingredient is the same), or a Boots own-brand aspirin or Paracetamol tablet, the pill you swallowed will have been made here. â€Å"Six hundred people work here,† as per Catherine McGrath, who is working there as â€Å"shift manager, analgesics†. She explained that the factory works seasonally, making cold remedies in the autumn to meet winter demand, and hay fever remedies in the spring. Headaches are a year-round phenomenon. â€Å"Theres a constant demand for painkillers,† McGrath Before the fluffy white powder becomes a hard, glossy pill, it must go through many different stages. First, it is mixed with â€Å"excipients†, ingredients that have no painkilling role. Each Nurofen pill, for instance, contains 200mg of ibuprofen, but also maize starch, sucrose, calcium Sulphate, Stearic acid and shellac. These things hold it together, bulk it out, make it taste nice and help it disintegrate when it reaches the stomach. The factory is large and sterile, like a setting in a JG Ballard novel big, barn-like spaces, dull, neutral colours, large rooms full of vats. The thing that gets you is the scale. This is about making millions and millions of pills to cure tension headaches in France, migraines in Germany, hangovers in Holland, Belgium, Denmark, and Sweden. Naturally, after a few hours in this environment, a headache started creeping up on me. Stewart Adams, the inventor of ibuprofen, lives modestly in a compact modern house on the outskirts of Nottingham. On the sideboard in his living room there is a silver Nurofen pack, cast in metal, with the names of the first Nurofen advertisers on the back. He won an OBE for services to science in 1987, and his name is on the ibuprofen patent. But Adams has derived no great material reward from his invention no house in the country, not even a lifetime supply of painkillers. When he gets a headache, he goes to the corner shop just like the rest of us. From the article the guardian 2001 A sprightly, talkative 79, Adams came upon ibuprofen when he was working as a research scientist for Boots in the late 1950s, looking for a drug to reduce inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Looking back on his career, he says he was â€Å"very disappointed†. He had found a headache remedy that was more potent than aspirin, with fewer side-effects but he hadnt found a cure for rheumatoid arthritis. His operation was very small â€Å"a man and a boy†. Typically, his research budget was between  £4,000 and  £5,000 a year. Adams discovered that aspirin reduced the swelling caused by ultraviolet light on the skin. Working with an organic chemist called John Nicholson, he began looking for aspirin-like compounds that might have fewer side-effects on arthritic patients. â€Å"It was a bit hit and miss,† he told me. (This was long before John Vane had discovered how aspirin worked.) â€Å"We werent as clearcut in our thinking as we might have been,† said Adams. He and Nicholson looked at hundreds of chemical compounds. They put several drugs through clinical trials, testing them on arthritic patients. One drug produced a nasty rash in a large percentage of the patients; another produced a rash in a smaller, but still significant, percentage. A third, ibufenac, an acetic acid, caused jaundice. â€Å"We had to sit back and have another rethink,† said Adams. During this long process of trial and error, Adams synthesized a version of ibufenac that was not an acetic acid but a proprionic acid ie, related to propane rather than vinegar. He assumed it would be toxic but, surprisingly, it wasnt: it had a short half-life in the tissues. It was like aspirin, only you could take more of it. Adams and his colleagues began taking the compound, ibuprofen, when they got headaches. â€Å"We knew it was analgesic, because we were taking it well before it got on the market,† he says. He remembers making a speech at a conference after a few drinks the night before, having dealt with his hangover by taking 600mg of this new drug he had invented. When Boots patented ibuprofen in 1962, Adams could have had little idea what he had invented an analgesic that would compete with aspirin; a drug that, once its control had passed into the hands of the marketing men, would change the way we consume painkillers for ever. For the rest of his career, Adams continued with his efforts to find a cure for rheumatoid arthritis, without success (although ibuprofen has important uses in its treatment). Holding the original patent in his hands, Adams said, laughing, â€Å"We didnt get anything. I think, in fact, we were supposed to be given a pound for signing away our signatures, but we didnt even get that.† Now that painkillers exist in a no mans land between medicine and product, they dont need someone to prescribe them they need someone to market them. Don Williams, the man currently responsible for the design of the Nurofen pack, works in Notting Hill, west London. His office is just what youd expect minimal furnishings, varnished, blond-wood floors. In the upstairs lobby there is a shopping trolley full of products designed by his company, Packaging Innovations Global: Double Velvet loo paper, Head Shoulders shampoo, Pot Noodle and Nurofen. A former session guitarist from Middlesbrough, Williams is tall and slim, with wonderfully tasteful casual clothes and a fashionably shaved head. â€Å"Thats our philosophy,† Williams said, looking at the trolley. â€Å"Thats what we believe in. Getting things in trolleys. At the end of the day, thats what were paid for.† Packaging Innovations began designing Nurofen packs about five years ago. â€Å"There are very few brand icons that visually communicate what they actually do,† Williams said. The target design is â€Å"directly related to the brand promise†. Two years ago, the Brand Council, an advertising industry panel, named Nurofen as one of 100 British â€Å"superbrands†, one that â€Å"offers consumers significant emotional and/or physical advantage over its competitors that (consciously or subconsciously) customers want, recognize and are willing to pay a premium for†. One of Williams innovations was to place the target in the centre of the pack, with a chevron radiating out to the sides. He also wanted more of the silver foil on the packs to be visible. Consumers, he told me, are visually literate they see the pack design before they read the words. When he took over the design of Benson Hedges cigarette packs, Williams made sure that every pack was gold, even the packs containing low-tar cigarettes, which had previously been silver. â€Å"We believe that brand identities should be recognized at a distance,† he said, â€Å"even through half-closed eyes, or sub-optimal conditions, or in peripheral vision.† In supermarkets, says Williams, â€Å"We want a blocking effect on the shelf. The chevron links all the packs together, so you get a wave effect.† As I left, he said, â€Å"I get more kicks out of seeing a pack in a bin than on a shelf.† This article gives the glimpse of the Neurofen how it is produce? How it was established and how the packing of the brand was designed. So right from 1960 through the effort from the three colleagues from the boots pharmaceutical while developing the drug to the event of August 1983 where it was launched as OTC medicine under the name of the Neurofen, the process of branding had already began. The brand is owned by the Reckitt Benckiser Now the company Reckitt Benckiser, creates the question mark specially on most of us specially to common people who has atleast the knowledge about companies like Pfizer and JohnsonJohnson or say Procter and Gamble which are very much well-known for the best corporate practices and are always been active in media .where as in case of this company it is not rather, the brands which they owned has been widely accepted and has been part of our daily lives from decades long Brand like: Veet, Dettol, Clearasil, Streptsile, Gaviscon Home care like: Air wick, Mortein Fabric care: Calgon, Vanish Surface care: Lysol: Dettol: and Neurofen Most of these brands like Dettol Airwick and Mortien are well establish brand and are 1st choice of the customers when they buy it, they are whichever brand these company owns has certainly enjoyed the brand loyalty, these are the brands that are emotionally attached to the people. Now Neurofen is among the other brand which has already achieved a market leader in its segment and it is in the process to get emotionally attached to their lives. As per the latest figure (0) mentioned the,net sales was 83.5 million which was further boosted to 89.90 million in the year 2008. So there is a clear difference of around 7 and half million growth, specially in such a enviournment where business are not growing, it is very rare, also companies are not investing too much in developing their brand and this might have affected Anadin and Panadol business. Where as in case of Anadin which is owned by Wyeth the net sales in 2007 was 38.50 which dropped down in 2008 by 2.3% to 37.60 million and similar is the case of Panadol which is owned by Glaxo smith Kline where the net sales which were just 12.8 in 2007 to 13.4 growth of around 4.9 % in all. Prior to 2007 Anadin was market leader but later on the placed is replaced by the Neurofen and now it has established brand as a with sustainable growth. So what are the factor that has created this change? Is it totally phenomenal event where 1 brand dies and other replaces it? But how can Neurofen can compete with brand like Anadin who as I mentioned is owned by Wyeth which is one of the worlds leading pharmaceutical and healthcare products companies, which have skilled professional who understand the pharmaceutical business, similar is the case of Panadol whose owner Glaxo Smith Keline which are also involved in the core business of pharmaceuticals from many years. So a company which is partially related to pharmaceuticals with just few OTC products in its portfolio has become market leader in past couple years is indeed due to the fabulous branding of the product Thus how the Nurofen is different from the other brands? Is it really more effective towards the pain ?or Is it the components of the branding that is creating the space within the buyers? To understand this we need to know where the other competitors are were during the 2006 and where are they right now, what were their strategic moves? STARTING WITH ANADIN Few interesting facts: Anadin was formulated by a US dentist in 1918. Nearly 400m Anadin tablets were sold in the last year. If laid side by side they would reach from London to New York ACHIEVEMENT: Anadin is the most famous OTC brand in the UK with over 90% consumer awareness (Source: RSGB). It has mass market appeal with users of all ages from sixteen upwards. Changes in legislation in the 1990s enabled the brand to extend its product range while maintaining its position as a leading pain killer brand which delivered a range of long standing values to the consumer. Today Anadin is the second biggest selling branded analgesic in the UK and its product range is worth  £45m. History Originally launched in the US as Anacin, the brand appeared in the UK in 1932 under the Anadin name. It is owned by Wyeth and has always communicated that its key task is to defeat pain quickly. Widely respected by health care professionals and consumers alike, Anadin has used several different slogans to press home its message over the years. These range from the famous Nothing Acts Faster than Anadin slogan, which was introduced in 1955, to the recent â€Å"Headache! What Headache?† and â€Å"When only fast will do†. Anadin has successfully steered its way through the growth of Own Label products during the 1990s which resulted in many consumers switching from branded goods to retailers own lines, including health care products by innovating and providing solutions relevant to its target market. Product Anadin is one of the UKs oldest and best known oral analgesics and a firm family favorite. The original aspirin-based formula provides fast, effective relief for a wide range of everyday aches and pains including headaches, period and dental pains, as well as the symptoms of colds and flu. The range has evolved into a portfolio of six UK variants delivering pain relievers in a variety of formats comprising caplets, tablets, liquid capsules and soluble tablets. Anadin Extra, containing aspirin, Paracetamol and caffeine was launched in 1983. Its counterpart, Anadin Extra Soluble, which was unveiled in 1992, is ideal for those finding tablets difficult to swallow. The formula is more readily absorbed into the bloodstream enabling it to act faster. In 1988, Wyeth launched Anadin Paracetamol, a formulation suitable for children from the age of six, which is designed to reduce temperature and is therefore especially beneficial in the treatment of feverish colds and flu. In 1997, Anadin Ibu profen was introduced. Coated for easy swallowing, it is formulated to relieve rheumatic or muscular pain, backache and period pain whilst actively reducing inflammation. Recent developments The last three years have witnessed continuing innovation. As a result of the launch of Anadin Ultra in September 1999, sales grew at a double-digit rate. Anadin Ultra contains an ibuprofen solution in an easy to swallow, soft gelatin capsule allowing it to be rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream, combating pain more than twice as fast as tablets. In a move to benefit consumers and trade, the entire range received a new look in July 2002. Key features included a new embossed Anadin logo which reflects a more modern and dynamic image. In addition, Anadin Ultra and Extra packs were foiled to differentiate these variants as the most premium within the range. The effect of these changes has added branding consistency across the entire product range, ensuring stronger impact when the variants are grouped together. This improved on-shelf stand-out conveys to consumers that in an increasingly competitive market, Anadin offers a range of premium quality products. For consumers, the new design aims to take the pain out of choosing a painkiller while communicating the modernity of the brand. Key indicators on the front of packs encourage analgesic users to identify the best product for their specific type of pain. Additionally, the use of consumer friendly language on the back of packs and on information leaflets further simplifies product selection and usage. Careline details are also included on packs, allowing consumers to receive further advice and guidance about the range. Promotion Anadins familiar logo is synonymous with its brief to tackle everyday aches and pains swiftly and effectively since its launch more than 70 years ago. It is important for the brand to be at the forefront of product development and to inform the public about the benefits these products can bring. Therefore, advertising is key to Anadins promotional strategy. In September 2002 it launched a terrestrial and satellite television campaign for Anadin Ultra. The campaign avoided the scientific angle taken by some other brands and opted for a humorous, slice-of-life approach featuring the Twice as Fast strapline with the consumer message that Anadin Ultras liquid ibuprofen capsules could hit pain more than twice as fast as their tablet equivalent. The Bus Stop creative focuses on a typical British scene †¹ a bus queue. The woman at the front of the queue announces, â€Å"Its gone!† leaving everyone to assume she means the bus. Confus Relationship Between Customer Perception and Branding Relationship Between Customer Perception and Branding ABSTRACT: Purpose: This paper will try to establish a relationship between the perception build within the users through the process of the branding irrespective of the core use ability, and thus trying to prove the importance of branding which has become the modern tool for doing the business METHODOLOGY The basic questionnaire was designed and were distributed to the users who spend atleast the minimum amount on the above three product, the target of 70 was set order to get rid of the errors like miscommunication, unfilled sets etc and thus of 70, 38 did answer the questionnaire properly which were further tabulated and concluded FINDINGS What I was expecting that Neurofen would appear as a most effective in its class of product but, rather Anadin leads in term of effectiveness but still the sales figure shows that Neurofen is market leader. So this might be the sheer effect of the branding which Neurofen has adopted, thus despite a little bit weak in its performance as per the survey its branding is excellent far better than other two products. LIMITATION Due to the limitation of the time the primary research was conducted on time scale of around 17 days, so I was able to cover 38 users which is more than half as compared to the 70 which were targeted. Executive summary: Well the basic aim of the dissertation is to show how the perception is built among the users for a particular brand irrespective of the effectiveness. Thus also I will try to explain the UK market for the over the counter products and try to analyze the top three brands, where I will be dealing with process of branding in respect to these three brand The dissertation initially will deal with general introduction where we will be able to understand the what is the over the counter products are, who are brands that leads the market, then I will be dealing with each brand with brief description of their portfolio, this will certainly give the clearer picture of the brands in whole. Followed by this I will give the brief description of the primary research where in I will investigate the effectiveness of the brand irrespective of the brand position and we expect Neurofen to be the most effective as per the market position, and thus relating the findings to the process of the branding and ultimately to the sales figure In order to make the data understanding more easy there has been use of graphs and the few of the pie chart which gives the more precise picture of the situation. Thus dissertation will end up with few of the interesting figures their analysis vs. the actual scenario GENERAL INTRODUCTION: Until 1960s and 1970s, painkillers were kept in a glass bottle in the bathroom medicine cabinet. When you had a headache, you would wait until you got home and then open the dusty bottle and shake out two pills: round, powdery discs with bevelled edges and a bisect line a groove cut into the pill so that you could snap it in half for a reduced dose. Youd swallow the pills, either aspirin or Paracetamol, with a glass of water. They felt uncomfortably large in the throat and had a bitter taste. The bottle, which contained 50 pills, hung around for months, even years. Now, when we feel a headache coming on, we pat our pockets to see if we have any painkillers with us. The time between pain and treatment has shrunk to almost nothing. These days, the pills do not come in bottles, but in blister-packs in bright, shiny boxes. When I leave the house, I sometimes run through a checklist keys, wallet, phone painkillers. The packets, some of which are plastic and shaped like mobile phones, are cheerful and glossy; elegant enough to put on a table in a restaurant, they look like lifestyle accessories. You take them with you when you leave the house, partly for convenience and partly because you know that, if you leave them lying around, someone else will pocket them. Painkillers are no longer hard to swallow; the pills have smooth edges, and some have a glossy coating of hard sugar, like Smarties or MMs. Some of them are mint- or lemon-flavored. If your throat objects to tablets, you can take caplets, which are longer and thinner, or â€Å"liquid capsules†, which are soft and gelatinous, like vitamin pills, or powder, which is poured from a sachet into a glass of water. You could conceivably take a painkiller while you were out jogging, or running for the bus. Painkillers are also more widely available than they used to be. We have been able to buy aspirin and paracetamol over the counter for some time now, but in 1996 restrictions on the sale of ibuprofen the newest, raciest painkiller were relaxed, making it available in supermarkets, newsagents and corner shops, as well as from the pharmacist. This was part of an NHS drive to save money by taking pressure off doctors and pharmacists; during my stay in London, we have been taught to be self-medicating when it comes to pain. The change came about after Galpharm, a British pharmaceutical company, made a successful application to the Medicines Control Agency for a license to have ibuprofen moved from the pharmacy to the â€Å"general sales list†. After that, painkiller advertising, marketing and packaging moved into a different league. Inevitably, we are also spending more on painkillers than ever. Id buy them as a matter of course, with my groceries. We now a days found wanting to buy smart painkillers, in the same way that I might buy smart jeans or decent coffee. For me, and for many people I spoke to(co-employee), the temptation is to catch headaches early, nip them in the bud. We have become enthusiastic self-medicators. In 1997, according to the market research firm Euro monitor, the British painkiller market was worth  £309m. In 2001, it was worth  £398m. In other words, it grew by almost 30% in just four years, probably the biggest hike since the German company Bayer opened the first US aspirin factory in 1903. Euro monitor predicts more growth: by 2006, it estimates that the market will be worth  £483m, and by now it has already crossed  £600 figure. Recently, I found myself in someones (college friend) house with a slight headache. No problem, he said. He had stocked up on painkillers he thought he had four packets, a total of 48 pills. But he couldnt find them; the packets had all gone. Three people (room mates working in Mac Donald) were living in the house. â€Å"I just bought them a couple of days ago,† he said. This is what makes me more querious that how this tiny stuff has entrenched in our lives. As per my finding from the local corner shops An ordinary shop, you can buy three basic types of painkiller The one which contains aspirin, which has been around for a century; or either has paracetamol, which emerged as a popular alternative after the war; and from past couple of decades they contain basically ibuprofen, which was invented in the early 1960s and has been a pharmacy medicine since 1983. Ibuprofen is slightly gentler on our stomach than aspirin, but it does not thin our blood to the same extent. Aspirin and ibuprofen reduce pain, fever and inflammation, while paracetamol reduces only pain and fever. Paracetamol is gentle on the stomach, but can damage the liver if you take too many. Paracetamol is also the suicide drug; you can die a painful death by knocking back as few as 25. (For this reason, the government has taken steps to reduce packet sizes; since 1998, you have been able to buy packets of no more than 16 in supermarkets, or 32 in pharmacies though there is nothing to stop you from going to more than one shop. The multibillion-dollar paracetamol industry in the US has thus far resisted all attempts by the Food and Drug Administration to reduce packet size.) Aspirin and ibuprofen are potentially less harmful: most people would survive a cry-for-help dose of around 50 aspirins, or even 100 ibuprofen tablets. When it comes to headaches, ibuprofen is my drug of choice. (Im not alone: according to Euromonitor, ibuprofen now has 31% of the market, and is growing exponentially. Aspirin has a 7% share, and paracetamol 13%; the rest of the market is made up of combination painkillers.) I also, I have noticed, have strong brand loyalty. When I go to the supermarket, my eye is drawn to the row of shiny silver packs with a chevron and a target design Nurofen. Nurofen claims to be â€Å"targeted pain relief†. I am highly influenced by the advert of the car racing and the way the tablet they have shown as bullet acting on the pain. Targeting a headache costs me around 20p a shot. On one level, I am aware that the active ingredient in a single Nurofen tablet, 200mg of ibuprofen, is exactly the same as that in a single Anadin ibuprofen tablet, or an Anadin Ultra, a Hedex ibuprofen, a Cuprofen or, for that matter, a generic own-brand ibuprofen tablet from Safeway, Sainsburys or Tesco. On another level, Nurofens targeting promise appeals to me. It feels hi-tech(Remember about car advert), almost environmentally sound. It makes me think of stealth bombers dropping smart bombs down the chimney of the building they want to destroy, with minimum collateral damage. Are our headaches getting worse, or do we just think they are? I went to see DrVajpayee My GP, a consultant in pain management, in his office at Brigstock medical service in Thornton heath, to find out what he thought. Dr Vajpayee offers his service through NHS Dr Vajpayee believes that our society tolerates less pain than ever before. Modern life requires you to be pain-free; there just isnt time to lie around waiting for a headache to go. Young people are more impatient than older people; when they feel pain, they want something done about it, immediately. Generally speaking, the younger the consumer, the stronger the painkiller they are marketed: Anadin Original is pitched at people over 45, Anadin Extra at people between 25 and 55, and Anadin Ultra at people between 19 and 32. Of course, there is a limit to this sliding scale: Nurofen for Children (six months and over) contains 100mg of Nurofen, half the adult dose. Is any of this surprising? We live in an age of quick fixes. These days, we expect everything to get faster cars, lifts, food. When we suffer psychological distress, we take Prozac and Seroxat. More people are having their wisdom teeth extracted under general anesthetic. Caesarean section is on the increase. Half a century of the NHS has softened us up, and the sheer success of modern medicine has made pain something of an anomaly. We work out, we take vitamins: we cant really be doing with headaches. We see pain not as a symptom an alarm system to warn us of illness but more as an illness in itself. When the alarm comes on, we just want it turned off. Look at the ads on TV, and on buses and trains in any major city: painkillers will get you back to work, help you keep your job, deal with the kids; with painkillers, you can cope. I had a slight hangover the day I visited Vajpayee, which seemed to be getting worse. Id nearly missed my train, and found myself repeatedly clenching my jaw in the taxi. Id planned to buy some Nurofen before I got on the train, but had run out of time. Dr Vajpayee explained the anatomy of my headache. The alcohol We drink does dehydrates the inside of our skull. Consequently, the Dura, the Cellophane-like membrane that encases our brain, has no longer fully supported. Cells inside our skull were gets traumatized, and had responds by releasing tiny amounts of Arachidonic acid; this acid, having seeped out by our cell after we drink ,later this acid turns into a set of chemical compounds called prostaglandins. And these prostaglandins hurt us; they tell nerve endings in our head to tell our brain that my cells were traumatized. Our brain, in turn, does try to get our attention, and succeeds. And this process of our brain to communicate that there is some defect in our system the process is called pain. It felt as if something inside my head was being gently pulled away from my skull, which it was. When you take aspirin, or paracetamol, or ibuprofen, the drug works by deactivating a chemical called prostaglandin H synthetase, the catalyst that turns Arachidonic acid into prostaglandins. So even though your cells are still traumatized, your brain is no longer aware of the trauma. Your brain is being fooled. This process was discovered in aspirin in the 1970s by John Vane, a scientist working at the Welcome Foundation, who went on to win the Nobel Prize in 1982. (Aspirin was first synthesized in Germany in 1899, and so had been on the market for more than 70 years before anybody knew how it worked.) â€Å"Pain,† said Vajpayee, â€Å"is what the patient says it is.† All sorts of things can make you feel headachey, including muscle contractions on the scalp or the back of the neck, dehydration from drinking too much alcohol or caffeine, staring at your computer screen for too long, looking at bright lights, colds and flu, grinding your teeth, anxiety at the prospect of getting a headache. Sometimes, prostaglandins are produced when there is no apparent trauma. You might feel pain because something has subtly altered the balance of your brain chemistry, or simply because your mood has changed; you might be producing an uneven amount of serotonin or dopamine. You might, most worryingly, have a headache because you take too many painkillers, a condition known as â€Å"medication overuse headache†. A study published in the British Medical Journal last October found that â€Å"daily or near-daily headache is at epidemic levels, affecting up to 5% of some populations, and chronic overuse of headache drugs may account for half of this phenomenon†. Low doses daily appeared to carry greater risks than larger doses weekly. Of course, most pharmaceutical research is sponsored by pharmaceutical companies, which are understandably reluctant to explore the negatives. But what research there is suggests that analgesics, when used frequently, chronically reduce levels of serotonin, and increase levels of pain-signalling molecules. Earlier this year, the New York Times reported that a German study had found that even a two-week course of Tylenol (an American brand of paracetamol) â€Å"causes a drop in serotonin-receptor density in rat brains†, an effect that is reversed when the rats are taken off the painkillers. If you keep fooling your brain into not feeling pain, your body will eventually fight back and make you feel more pain. And then youll want more painkillers; its a vicious circle. Imagine this as a business proposition. You buy a cardboard tub of fluffy white powder for around  £100. Then you turn the powder into a quarter of a million pills, which you sell at 10p per pill. Every cardboard tub you buy makes you a profit of  £24,900. The powder is pure ibuprofen. The pills are painkillers. The company is Boots, which owns a subsidiary called Crookes Healthcare, which manufactures Nurofen. Sounds good, doesnt it? Of course, there are overheads you have to invent the drug, spend years on expensive clinical trials, build a factory, and hire people to make the pills, tell the public about the pills, and design the packs so they look attractive on the shelves. From the store manager of East Croydon boots pharmacy and article from Google, Boots corporate responsibility. â€Å"It takes 10 years and  £200m to get a new drug accepted,† said Dr Jagdish Acharya, a senior medical adviser to Boots(From the store manager of East Croydon.) Boots head office, and the factory that makes many of its painkillers, are on a campus that lies a few miles outside Nottingham. Every day, trucks full of raw ingredients arrive at one end of the factory, and trucks leave the other end with the finished product tens of thousands of cardboard packs, destined for 90 countries. This is D-95, one of the biggest painkiller factories in Britain, working 24 hours a day. If youve ever popped a Nurofen tablet, or a Nurofen tablet, or a Nurofen Plus, or a Nurofen liquid capsule, or a Boots own-brand generic ibuprofen tablet (the active ingredient is the same), or a Boots own-brand aspirin or Paracetamol tablet, the pill you swallowed will have been made here. â€Å"Six hundred people work here,† as per Catherine McGrath, who is working there as â€Å"shift manager, analgesics†. She explained that the factory works seasonally, making cold remedies in the autumn to meet winter demand, and hay fever remedies in the spring. Headaches are a year-round phenomenon. â€Å"Theres a constant demand for painkillers,† McGrath Before the fluffy white powder becomes a hard, glossy pill, it must go through many different stages. First, it is mixed with â€Å"excipients†, ingredients that have no painkilling role. Each Nurofen pill, for instance, contains 200mg of ibuprofen, but also maize starch, sucrose, calcium Sulphate, Stearic acid and shellac. These things hold it together, bulk it out, make it taste nice and help it disintegrate when it reaches the stomach. The factory is large and sterile, like a setting in a JG Ballard novel big, barn-like spaces, dull, neutral colours, large rooms full of vats. The thing that gets you is the scale. This is about making millions and millions of pills to cure tension headaches in France, migraines in Germany, hangovers in Holland, Belgium, Denmark, and Sweden. Naturally, after a few hours in this environment, a headache started creeping up on me. Stewart Adams, the inventor of ibuprofen, lives modestly in a compact modern house on the outskirts of Nottingham. On the sideboard in his living room there is a silver Nurofen pack, cast in metal, with the names of the first Nurofen advertisers on the back. He won an OBE for services to science in 1987, and his name is on the ibuprofen patent. But Adams has derived no great material reward from his invention no house in the country, not even a lifetime supply of painkillers. When he gets a headache, he goes to the corner shop just like the rest of us. From the article the guardian 2001 A sprightly, talkative 79, Adams came upon ibuprofen when he was working as a research scientist for Boots in the late 1950s, looking for a drug to reduce inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Looking back on his career, he says he was â€Å"very disappointed†. He had found a headache remedy that was more potent than aspirin, with fewer side-effects but he hadnt found a cure for rheumatoid arthritis. His operation was very small â€Å"a man and a boy†. Typically, his research budget was between  £4,000 and  £5,000 a year. Adams discovered that aspirin reduced the swelling caused by ultraviolet light on the skin. Working with an organic chemist called John Nicholson, he began looking for aspirin-like compounds that might have fewer side-effects on arthritic patients. â€Å"It was a bit hit and miss,† he told me. (This was long before John Vane had discovered how aspirin worked.) â€Å"We werent as clearcut in our thinking as we might have been,† said Adams. He and Nicholson looked at hundreds of chemical compounds. They put several drugs through clinical trials, testing them on arthritic patients. One drug produced a nasty rash in a large percentage of the patients; another produced a rash in a smaller, but still significant, percentage. A third, ibufenac, an acetic acid, caused jaundice. â€Å"We had to sit back and have another rethink,† said Adams. During this long process of trial and error, Adams synthesized a version of ibufenac that was not an acetic acid but a proprionic acid ie, related to propane rather than vinegar. He assumed it would be toxic but, surprisingly, it wasnt: it had a short half-life in the tissues. It was like aspirin, only you could take more of it. Adams and his colleagues began taking the compound, ibuprofen, when they got headaches. â€Å"We knew it was analgesic, because we were taking it well before it got on the market,† he says. He remembers making a speech at a conference after a few drinks the night before, having dealt with his hangover by taking 600mg of this new drug he had invented. When Boots patented ibuprofen in 1962, Adams could have had little idea what he had invented an analgesic that would compete with aspirin; a drug that, once its control had passed into the hands of the marketing men, would change the way we consume painkillers for ever. For the rest of his career, Adams continued with his efforts to find a cure for rheumatoid arthritis, without success (although ibuprofen has important uses in its treatment). Holding the original patent in his hands, Adams said, laughing, â€Å"We didnt get anything. I think, in fact, we were supposed to be given a pound for signing away our signatures, but we didnt even get that.† Now that painkillers exist in a no mans land between medicine and product, they dont need someone to prescribe them they need someone to market them. Don Williams, the man currently responsible for the design of the Nurofen pack, works in Notting Hill, west London. His office is just what youd expect minimal furnishings, varnished, blond-wood floors. In the upstairs lobby there is a shopping trolley full of products designed by his company, Packaging Innovations Global: Double Velvet loo paper, Head Shoulders shampoo, Pot Noodle and Nurofen. A former session guitarist from Middlesbrough, Williams is tall and slim, with wonderfully tasteful casual clothes and a fashionably shaved head. â€Å"Thats our philosophy,† Williams said, looking at the trolley. â€Å"Thats what we believe in. Getting things in trolleys. At the end of the day, thats what were paid for.† Packaging Innovations began designing Nurofen packs about five years ago. â€Å"There are very few brand icons that visually communicate what they actually do,† Williams said. The target design is â€Å"directly related to the brand promise†. Two years ago, the Brand Council, an advertising industry panel, named Nurofen as one of 100 British â€Å"superbrands†, one that â€Å"offers consumers significant emotional and/or physical advantage over its competitors that (consciously or subconsciously) customers want, recognize and are willing to pay a premium for†. One of Williams innovations was to place the target in the centre of the pack, with a chevron radiating out to the sides. He also wanted more of the silver foil on the packs to be visible. Consumers, he told me, are visually literate they see the pack design before they read the words. When he took over the design of Benson Hedges cigarette packs, Williams made sure that every pack was gold, even the packs containing low-tar cigarettes, which had previously been silver. â€Å"We believe that brand identities should be recognized at a distance,† he said, â€Å"even through half-closed eyes, or sub-optimal conditions, or in peripheral vision.† In supermarkets, says Williams, â€Å"We want a blocking effect on the shelf. The chevron links all the packs together, so you get a wave effect.† As I left, he said, â€Å"I get more kicks out of seeing a pack in a bin than on a shelf.† This article gives the glimpse of the Neurofen how it is produce? How it was established and how the packing of the brand was designed. So right from 1960 through the effort from the three colleagues from the boots pharmaceutical while developing the drug to the event of August 1983 where it was launched as OTC medicine under the name of the Neurofen, the process of branding had already began. The brand is owned by the Reckitt Benckiser Now the company Reckitt Benckiser, creates the question mark specially on most of us specially to common people who has atleast the knowledge about companies like Pfizer and JohnsonJohnson or say Procter and Gamble which are very much well-known for the best corporate practices and are always been active in media .where as in case of this company it is not rather, the brands which they owned has been widely accepted and has been part of our daily lives from decades long Brand like: Veet, Dettol, Clearasil, Streptsile, Gaviscon Home care like: Air wick, Mortein Fabric care: Calgon, Vanish Surface care: Lysol: Dettol: and Neurofen Most of these brands like Dettol Airwick and Mortien are well establish brand and are 1st choice of the customers when they buy it, they are whichever brand these company owns has certainly enjoyed the brand loyalty, these are the brands that are emotionally attached to the people. Now Neurofen is among the other brand which has already achieved a market leader in its segment and it is in the process to get emotionally attached to their lives. As per the latest figure (0) mentioned the,net sales was 83.5 million which was further boosted to 89.90 million in the year 2008. So there is a clear difference of around 7 and half million growth, specially in such a enviournment where business are not growing, it is very rare, also companies are not investing too much in developing their brand and this might have affected Anadin and Panadol business. Where as in case of Anadin which is owned by Wyeth the net sales in 2007 was 38.50 which dropped down in 2008 by 2.3% to 37.60 million and similar is the case of Panadol which is owned by Glaxo smith Kline where the net sales which were just 12.8 in 2007 to 13.4 growth of around 4.9 % in all. Prior to 2007 Anadin was market leader but later on the placed is replaced by the Neurofen and now it has established brand as a with sustainable growth. So what are the factor that has created this change? Is it totally phenomenal event where 1 brand dies and other replaces it? But how can Neurofen can compete with brand like Anadin who as I mentioned is owned by Wyeth which is one of the worlds leading pharmaceutical and healthcare products companies, which have skilled professional who understand the pharmaceutical business, similar is the case of Panadol whose owner Glaxo Smith Keline which are also involved in the core business of pharmaceuticals from many years. So a company which is partially related to pharmaceuticals with just few OTC products in its portfolio has become market leader in past couple years is indeed due to the fabulous branding of the product Thus how the Nurofen is different from the other brands? Is it really more effective towards the pain ?or Is it the components of the branding that is creating the space within the buyers? To understand this we need to know where the other competitors are were during the 2006 and where are they right now, what were their strategic moves? STARTING WITH ANADIN Few interesting facts: Anadin was formulated by a US dentist in 1918. Nearly 400m Anadin tablets were sold in the last year. If laid side by side they would reach from London to New York ACHIEVEMENT: Anadin is the most famous OTC brand in the UK with over 90% consumer awareness (Source: RSGB). It has mass market appeal with users of all ages from sixteen upwards. Changes in legislation in the 1990s enabled the brand to extend its product range while maintaining its position as a leading pain killer brand which delivered a range of long standing values to the consumer. Today Anadin is the second biggest selling branded analgesic in the UK and its product range is worth  £45m. History Originally launched in the US as Anacin, the brand appeared in the UK in 1932 under the Anadin name. It is owned by Wyeth and has always communicated that its key task is to defeat pain quickly. Widely respected by health care professionals and consumers alike, Anadin has used several different slogans to press home its message over the years. These range from the famous Nothing Acts Faster than Anadin slogan, which was introduced in 1955, to the recent â€Å"Headache! What Headache?† and â€Å"When only fast will do†. Anadin has successfully steered its way through the growth of Own Label products during the 1990s which resulted in many consumers switching from branded goods to retailers own lines, including health care products by innovating and providing solutions relevant to its target market. Product Anadin is one of the UKs oldest and best known oral analgesics and a firm family favorite. The original aspirin-based formula provides fast, effective relief for a wide range of everyday aches and pains including headaches, period and dental pains, as well as the symptoms of colds and flu. The range has evolved into a portfolio of six UK variants delivering pain relievers in a variety of formats comprising caplets, tablets, liquid capsules and soluble tablets. Anadin Extra, containing aspirin, Paracetamol and caffeine was launched in 1983. Its counterpart, Anadin Extra Soluble, which was unveiled in 1992, is ideal for those finding tablets difficult to swallow. The formula is more readily absorbed into the bloodstream enabling it to act faster. In 1988, Wyeth launched Anadin Paracetamol, a formulation suitable for children from the age of six, which is designed to reduce temperature and is therefore especially beneficial in the treatment of feverish colds and flu. In 1997, Anadin Ibu profen was introduced. Coated for easy swallowing, it is formulated to relieve rheumatic or muscular pain, backache and period pain whilst actively reducing inflammation. Recent developments The last three years have witnessed continuing innovation. As a result of the launch of Anadin Ultra in September 1999, sales grew at a double-digit rate. Anadin Ultra contains an ibuprofen solution in an easy to swallow, soft gelatin capsule allowing it to be rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream, combating pain more than twice as fast as tablets. In a move to benefit consumers and trade, the entire range received a new look in July 2002. Key features included a new embossed Anadin logo which reflects a more modern and dynamic image. In addition, Anadin Ultra and Extra packs were foiled to differentiate these variants as the most premium within the range. The effect of these changes has added branding consistency across the entire product range, ensuring stronger impact when the variants are grouped together. This improved on-shelf stand-out conveys to consumers that in an increasingly competitive market, Anadin offers a range of premium quality products. For consumers, the new design aims to take the pain out of choosing a painkiller while communicating the modernity of the brand. Key indicators on the front of packs encourage analgesic users to identify the best product for their specific type of pain. Additionally, the use of consumer friendly language on the back of packs and on information leaflets further simplifies product selection and usage. Careline details are also included on packs, allowing consumers to receive further advice and guidance about the range. Promotion Anadins familiar logo is synonymous with its brief to tackle everyday aches and pains swiftly and effectively since its launch more than 70 years ago. It is important for the brand to be at the forefront of product development and to inform the public about the benefits these products can bring. Therefore, advertising is key to Anadins promotional strategy. In September 2002 it launched a terrestrial and satellite television campaign for Anadin Ultra. The campaign avoided the scientific angle taken by some other brands and opted for a humorous, slice-of-life approach featuring the Twice as Fast strapline with the consumer message that Anadin Ultras liquid ibuprofen capsules could hit pain more than twice as fast as their tablet equivalent. The Bus Stop creative focuses on a typical British scene †¹ a bus queue. The woman at the front of the queue announces, â€Å"Its gone!† leaving everyone to assume she means the bus. Confus