Will you marry me?

I chose an advertisement for a cell phone company, NOKIA. The type of this advertisement is drama. It uses a romantic situation in which a man proposes to a woman. Proposing is one of the most romantic situations in life. Although this situation is unrelated to cell phones, this company chose it to make a pleasant image so that the audience will buy this company’s cell phone. The music is also romantic. I like this ad because it has a surprising and happy ending. This advertisement appeals to any kind of market except lawyers for divorce. I think this advertisement is excellent. 
NOKIA Ad

Hiro

Food Market Potentials in Saudi Arabia

Food Market Potentials in Saudi Arabia

I was planning to go grocery shopping last weekend , so I went to the supermarket, grabbed a trolley, and began to venture. Moving from one aisle to another I browsed between racks which were piled with different items. Looking at some of the food products which I came across were Kellogg's corn flakes, Green Giant canned food, Philadelphia cream cheese, Activia diary products, and many other products seemed familiar. It was like if I were almost walking into a grocery store in Riyadh.

Also not far from where I live, just around the corner there's Uno Grill a famous restaurant for its menu, with almost the same dishes in their branch in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, TGIFriday's, Chili's and other famous fast food restaurant chains also available in Saudi Arabia. These are examples to show that the Saudi food market is open to foreign investment in different forms national and international trade either importing or through franchise.

The Saudi economy for the last decade has undergone major reforms.1 While witnessing an economic booming as a result of the increase of oil prices, and with the inflation that is affecting the global economy not to mention the overall increase of prices affecting the majority of consumers, the Saudi Riyal is pegged to U.S. Dollar at fixed exchange rate at $1 =  3.75 Riyals. This could be one of the reasons that wasn't exacerbated and kept steady yet growing annual demands.

Other means that have certainly aided in expanding the consumer base is the changing life style, the fast moving pace of our activities, the trend of moving to live in big metropolitan and urban cities migrating from rural areas. These factors played a major a role in altering our eating habits, although the awareness of the consumer created a flourishing market , and investors had to respond accordingly by supplying the need for the consumers constantly.

Bander Al-Aseeri

The interest in the Saudi food market is driven by a number of reasons. That's why it got the attention and attracted foreign investors who definitely saw the promising opportunities and sought to invest in this market. That was seen through The new encouraging regulations by the government on food trade and the reduction of taxes. However, the main reasons could be, first, the Saudi population is growing at 3% per year, which means demand will grow proportionately in addition huge supermarkets and malls that have food courts are being newly constructed. Second, the Saudi market imports $8 billion U.S. worth of food and beverages every year.2 Finally, the Saudi market is the biggest importer of food with a 66% of the annual Middle East imports. all the Middle East’s annual imports. 3

the Saudi food market posses huge investing potentials that is constantly growing. While the Saudi economy is not the biggest in Asia, It is considered one of the largest consuming market in the continent and the biggest in the middle east. The rate of consumption reaches it's peak during the pilgrimage (Hajj) season. These elements does show opportunities for a rising future of the Saudi food industry and the midst of the economic booming existing now that could definitely make it one of the growing markets in the world.

The "Science" of Money

Jieung Im
EAP 050
10/01/08

The “Science” of Money

People work for this, pray to get this, sometimes fight because of this. Can you guess what it is? It is money. In modern society, people cannot live a normal life without money. Even with the invention of the credit card, people want to get more. Although people like money, they may not know about how it is made.

Most people think bank notes are made of paper, but generally they are not. In the Republic of Korea, cotton is used to make currency. That is because cotton is an efficient material which is not easily torn. Clothes and money are similar in this aspect. Money made of cotton is darker than normal paper. In some other countries, they make money out of particular combination of plastic, called polymer. It is twice as expensive and four times as durable as cotton. Also, it can be made transparent on a small portion of the bill, which means that money made of polymer prevents counterfeiting. The biggest demerit is that ink can be erased at high temperatures. Nowadays, money made of polymer has an upward trend in many countries.

Each country applies optional techniques to avoid counterfeiting according to the manufacturing cost, the amount of current money, and technical expertise. Korea is number three in scientific techniques of making currency. There are 21 techniques to make bills, but only 10 techniques are opened to the public. One of the popular ones is the watermark; it is that particular picture appearing when light shines through it. Its fundamental principle is a difference of thickness. Another technique is the hologram, which has different figures according to one’s view, preventing color reproductions. Although these techniques are expensive, many countries have introduced them to prevent counterfeiting.

When note-issuing banks make money, people think about which color is suitable. There are some specific qualifications in common use. For example, most color printers do not print yellowish green but yellow. Also, red gets faint and blue becomes dark using a color printer, so if people use yellowish green to issue money, counterfeiters cannot forge it. In other words, it is easy to prevent counterfeiting by not using particular techniques. That is why yellowish green is the major color in the won and U.S. dollars. The last step in making money is which ink people use. Ink used to make money emits an ultraviolet light. Therefore, it is useful to distinguish whether it is counterfeit or not. The most powerful ink is OVI ink, which changes color depending on one’s viewpoint.

People use paper money several times in a day. Currency hides secrets of scientific techniques, and it prevents people from counterfeiting. It is difficult to detect the forged notes with the naked eye. Using specific techniques, forged notes can be seen with ease. After these techniques are known , people can feel all the more keenly the science of money.