Advertising Coca Cola And Mcdonalds In Russia

Advertising Coca Cola And Mcdonalds In Russia Coke has been in operation for a long time and throughout this period, from as early as 1886, it has been very prosperous in its operations and market share acquisition. It was discovered by a curious pharmacist who on one evening mixed some few chemicals and took the mixture down to a friends chemist where it was mixed with carbonated water and some few customers sampled it, and upon tasting the mixture, they were delighted with the new creation and there and then, they pontificated it as a superior and novel drink that had not been seen before (Associated Press 2). A closely similar story is what McDonalds has been. This paper describes these two companies with the view of analyzing the different aspects of their operation and discusses unique cultures that they have that make them eccentric in their respective niche markets. Five cents a glass is the price that was charged for the drink which was sold in a chemist. Pemberton, who was the founders friends book keeper named the drink coca cola which is how the drink is known ever since then. It was received relatively slower in the market when it was introduced as only glasses were sold by Pemberton. Through the period of 1888-1891, businessman Assa Griggs Candler acquired the rights to the drink for a total of $2,300 (Pendergrast 47) and this made him the first president for the company who is on record to have creatively and ingeniously developed and popularized the companys vision. Candler who is characterized as a naturally born salesman identified the large market of the thirsty market and oversaw his drink quenching their thirst. He transformed Coca-Cola from a mere drink to a fully grown company. By 1985 Candler had already established a syrup firm in Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles. The drink was first packed into bottles by Mississippi business man Joseph Beidenharn. He sent 12 Samples to Candler who embraced the idea with enthusiasm. This dream was not realized until 1899 when two lawyers, Thomas Benjamin and Whitehead Joseph acquired the full rights to bottle and sell the beverage for only one dollar per bottle (BBC News 2). The Coca-Cola Company exists to provided refreshment, joy and quenching of thirst to its customers. It functions under a company called Coca-Cola Hellenic in the Russian region. The company first ventured into Russia in 2001. Coca-Cola Hellenic is based in Moscow and has 14 bottling branches scattered all over the country. It has an employee capacity of 10,000 and indirectly supports 5-10 times its supply chain making it one of the largest non-alcoholic beverages companies in the region (Lundy 23). The companys notable increased operations are traced back to 2005 when the Coca-Cola Company and the Coca-Cola Hellenic acquired Multon on a 50/50 ratio. The company has gradually built a strong business in Russia owing it to its diverse international premium brand and its extensive sale and distribution chain and Russia is considered as a high potential market (Mikkelson David 15). Given the increasingly complexity of the market Coca-Cola Hellenic Russia operates in, it has to adjust its business approach to meet the demand in the market. The company implemented a new strategic plan in 2006 as a way of ensuring business services offered met the consumers expectations. Basically the company is building a powerful route-to-market system and a strong partnership with its consumers to ensure that their sales in the market place are what is needed by the consumers. Coca-Cola Hellenic deals with merchandising equipment to offer consumers their right products that they want (Munizi 36). Consumers have different tastes and preferences considering their society and location. The Coca-Cola Hellenic company is adjusting to this preference so that it can provide the appropriate marketing activities and beverages to suit and connect the consumers. The Coca-Colas think locally, act locally marketing strategy allows it to fit into the market and determine the local market demands and determine how to understand and satisfy the demands of their target consumers (Murden 53). Coca-Cola advertisements have revolutionized the world of advertisings. Most of their advertisements are rooted in the image of a red Santa clause. The company began using the figure of Santa Clause in the year 1930 making it the first soft drink company to use that figure in the history of advertisement (Michaelssssss, 1). Before the thought of using Santa Clause, Coca-Cola depended on the use of smartly dressed young ladies to sell their beverages. In the year 1941 the company developed its official trademark nick name coke, this was followed by a series of advertisement aimed at informing the consumer that coke was coca-cola. Coca-Colas advertisements are pervasive and their main goal is to ensure that everybody on planet earth drinks coke as their preferred beverage. Most of Coca-Colas memorable advertisements were written by former Atlanta radio presenter Don Naylor during his span as a producer at McCann Erickson Advertising Agency. Most of the ancient coke advertisements featured musicians, movie personalities and sports icons (Pendergrast 34). Cola wars happened in the 1980s when Coca-Cola and Pepsi were fighting for a larger market share. Coca-Cola ran a number of advertisements to try and combat Pepsi and ended up tarnishing the image of Pepsi. In one of Coca-Colas advertisement, Coca-Cola compared the challenge that was posed by Pepsi to two chimpanzees that were deciding on which tennis ball that they had was furrier (Mohamed, 2). The wars later ended and Coca-Cola took back its popularity. In 1992 the Coca-Cola Company bought Colombia pictures and started using movies to advertise their brands. This was archived through inserting images of its products in most of the movies they produced. Coca-Cola has had two slogans since its introduction in Russia which are: à Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Ãƒâ€˜Ã‚ Ãƒ Ã‚ µÃƒ Ã‚ ³Ãƒ Ã‚ ´Ãƒ Ã‚ °CocaCola (1993-2009, which means Always Coca-Cola) and Coca-Cola à Ã‚ ¸Ãƒ Ã‚ ´Ãƒ Ã‚ µÃƒâ€˜Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ à Ã‚ ² à Ã‚ ´Ãƒ Ã‚ ¾Ãƒ Ã‚ ¼! (2010, which means Coca-Cola is going to the house!). Coca-Cola mainly uses the above lines for its advertisement and preferred using the media rather than personal encounters. One such advertisement is The Holidays are Coming which is characterized by a train of red delivery trucks covered in the name coke and decorated with lights all round. As the train moves on a snowy terrain it lights up for people to see as they pass. The advertisement was produced in the U.S by Doner Advertising Agency and it was also used as the companys worldwide campaign for many years (Smith 32). Coca-Cola has also designed a new way to advertise through sports. It began the spirit of sponsoring the Olympics back in 1928 Olympics which were held in Amsterdam and has continued sponsoring sports ever since. The Olympics games command a very large crowd of people which is what coke needed. The concept behind sponsoring the Olympics was that Coca-Cola products would be on display to a very large crowd of people simultaneously which was a very good advertisement strategy for coke. Coca-Cola has also been associated with the Fifa world cup and has been one of Fifas biggest sponsors since 1978. It is also the main soft drink for many collegiate teams in Russia and elsewhere (Watson 56). Coca-Cola Hellenic can be termed as one of the most successful businesses to advertise in the video world or above the line advertisement. All of its advertisements have taken the market with a storm and have generated a very high response. At one point consumers asked for the advertisement labeled, The Holidays are Coming, to be re-ran during the approach of Christmas holidays. This proves that the company has been successful in relaying its concept to the mass public. Due to the success of Coca-Cola video advertisements many books have picked its case up to be used a case study in many educational institutions (Watson 100). McDonalds Restaurants Another company that has made a very significant success in the field of video advertising is McDonalds. It is a company that deals in hamburger and fast foods where it serves well over 58 million customers on a daily basis. Its restaurants and stores are operated be either a franchisee, a given affiliate or by the corporation itself (Naruto 76). McDonalds basically sells Cheeseburgers, hamburger, chicken products, French fries, breakfast items, soft drinks, shakes and dessert (Quidoo 65). Due to the rising cases of obesity in the western Nations and general criticism of lack of healthy meals, the company has been forced to edit its menu and squeeze in some healthier items such as salads, wraps, and fruits. McDonalds fast food came into existence in 1940 when two Brothers, Richard and Maurice McDonald decided to open a restaurant in San Bernardino, California. These brothers are also responsible in bringing into existence the idea of fast food joints used in day-to-day life through a system they introduced called Spedee fast service . McDonalds first applied for U.S trade mark on the name McDonalds on May 4th 1961 with the slogan Driver-in Restaurant Services. McDonalds filled for a logo trademark using the symbol of M which is overlapping. The logo was later changed on September 6th 1962 to a single arch shaped M. The first McDonald restaurants were opened in United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Panama, Japan, The Netherlands, Germany, Australia, France, El-Salvador, and Sweden in the order of opening (Tuner 206). The company entered into the public stock exchange in 1955 where Ray Kroc purchased the McDonalds Equity and led the company to venture worldwide. The McDonalds argued about the control of the company with Kroc as is documented in the autobiography of Kroc and that of the McDonalds where it was thought to have been a good thing for the company and due to its level of prominence it has become a topic of many public debates. McDonalds restaurants are fou nd in 119 countries and operate 31,000 restaurants in these countries. McDonalds also runs other joints such as pile cafà © Most McDonalds offer both on counter services or drive through services with indoor and at times outdoor serving. In order to inhabit the new trends of quality coffee the McDonalds was compelled to start McCafe as an accompaniment to McDrive. The company earns money through investments in properties, franchise of restaurants and managing restaurants. Around 15% of McDonalds managed by the McDonalds Corporation are owned directly by the McDonalds Corporation (Berger 121). As a renowned fast food corporation McDonalds is frequently under criticism for its menu, its expansion and its business practices. In a form of counter attack McDonalds has sought to add healthier foods to its menu and has even designed a new slogan to its recruitment posters which is Not for a Bad McJob. In 2007 the company launched an advertisement campaign with the slogan Would You Like a Career With That on Irish television outlining that their business had many prospects (Caro 1). McDonalds advertises in many ways apart from only video advertisements. They first begin with handling the companys publicity. This is accomplished through several ways one of which is captured in this quote: In April 2008 the Corporation announced that 11 of their Sheffield were operating under biomass under trial and this had cut its waste and carbon emission footprints by half in the area. In this trial waste from the restaurants was collected by Veolia environmental services and was recycled in a plant to produce energy for the restaurants (Grimes 122 123). In Europe McDonalds has been recycling vegetable waste into diesel that is used to fuel trucks. The United States has also commended McDonalds for its continuous efforts towards reducing solid waste by coming up with more efficient packaging products and promotion of recycled products. All these efforts are driven towards promoting a solid and creditable publicity. The theory here is that if the company does give back to the community then the community will recognize its efforts and the community will be more acquainted with the company hence increasing its market prominence percentagewise (Watson 210). McDonalds has for its lifespan had a very antic and extensive way of advertisement campaign. Majorly the company advertises through media that is T.V, Radio and e- advertising but aside from that the corporation also makes use of billboards and signage. Sponsoring sports events ranging from little leagues to the Olympics is also a way that the corporation is designing for its advertisement benefits just like its fellow company Coca-Cola. The company also advertises through making of products that bear the companys logo to operate in various events. Nevertheless television still remains their major mode of advertisement for McDonalds (Orozco Quintanilla 87). Children represent a great part of television viewers and are also a great deal of audience. Advertisers do not only know that children are easily swayed by advertisements but they also know that children have the ability to pursued grown-ups to purchase stuff of their (childrens) preference. If a child spots something and wants it he becomes disturbingly persistent and annoying to the parent and in most cases, obliges his/her parent into buying what he/she (the child) wants. This is one fact that McDonalds knows and has delved fully into its exploitation for its business growth. At one specific point McDonalds advised employees to specifically focus on kids in an advertisement labeled; Kids Are Stars. The employees were advised to pay extra attention to children eating at the restaurant in order to make sure that they had a positive view of the restaurant as they ate. This campaign was one of the most successful advertisement strategy McDonalds had ever come up with but was stopped due to criticism that it was immoral to use children as advertisement props (Orozco Quintanilla 90). Summary of the Analysis of the two Companies The overview that has just been made shows how these two great companies have utilized a great deal of advertisement in order to increase their respective audience market. These companies have some few similar methods of advertising. For instance the Coca-Cola advertisement comprising of a train was mainly targeted at affecting the child audience as is similar with McDonalds advertisement dubbed Kids Are Stars signifying that the two companies have identified that children are a viable target audience (Whyte Lauridsen 45). These companies also focus on giving back to the community in order to increase their publicity through elaborate and effective Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. Still both of these companies extend their advertisement strategy to the play ground by acting as key sponsors of major and notable sports events like the Olympics (Murden 56). This notwithstanding, Coca-Cola and McDonalds do differ in their advertisement strategies in some ways. One way is that McDonalds only ventures into sponsorship of small sports events whereas Coca-Cola Majorly deals with promotion of sports of a higher caliber. McDonalds also produces adverts that are used by all the companys branches as compared to Coca-Cola that prefers that each region produces its own advertisement style according to the nature of the area it is located in. These two companies can be used to signify the power that advertisement holds.

Perfectionism and Athlete Burnout in Elite Sports: The Mediating Role o

Over the past few decades, American society has become more and more obsessed on performance outcomes and winning; being declared the best has become most important (Crain, 2004). Winning is often viewed as an all or nothing virtue, whereby greatness is a descriptive term reserved only for those whose names appear at the top of the list (Hanchon, 2011). This evolving mindset communicates to our youth that despite his or her efforts, only the final results matter. For many individuals the ideas of achievement, excellence, and self-worth have become highly dependent upon the perceived outcomes of the competitions or events in which they engage (Hanchon, 2011). Outperforming one’s competitors serves as the defining characteristic of success or excellence, which in turn, appears to serve as a key determinant in the individual’s self-assessment of life satisfaction (Harackiewicz, Barron, & Elliot, 1998). Sport performance is mediated by positive and negative variables; the pressure to perform for a result leads to the negative variable of higher expectations on the athlete. Stress and the pressure to perform are both contributing factors to higher anxiety levels, overtraining, and burnout in athletes (Weinberg & Gould, 2007). In some cases, â€Å"higher expectations also appear to increase the amount of stress an athlete may experience, and higher levels of stress are generally related to higher levels of state anxiety and burnout† (Jones & Hanton, 1996; Raedeke & Smith, 2001). Burnout Fear of failures, frustration, high expectations, anxiety, and other pressures to perform are all stresses identified as being related to burnout (Dale & Weinberg, 1990). Burnout has been addressed in the Old Testament (Exodus 18:17-18), in which ... ...ation and affect on elite athlete burnout susceptibility. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 28, 32-48. Lonsdale, C., Hodge, K., Rose, E. (2009). Athlete burnout in elite sport: A self-determination perspective. Journal of Sports Sciences, 27, 785-795. Raedeke, T. D. (1997). Is athlete burnout more than stress? A commitment perspective. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 19, 396-417. Raedeke, T. D., & Smith, A. L. (2001). Development and preliminary validation of an athlete burnout measure. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 23, 281-306. Vallerand, R. J. (2008). On the psychology of passion: in search of what makes people’s lives most worth living. Canadian Psychology, 49, 1-13. Weinberg, R. S., & Gould, D, (2007). Foundation of sport and exercise psychology (4th ed.). Chapter21: Burnout and Overtraining (pp. 489-509). Champaign, IL: Human

Animal Farm Russian Revolution Analysis

Russian Revolution and Animal Farm Image a brutal Communist Soviet revolution. Now imagine a group of barnyard animals who free themselves from humans in an effort to be free, and rule themselves. In the well-renowned fable Animal Farm by George Orwell the Old Major’s Dream, the construction(s) of the windmill and Napoleon himself are all symbolic representations of the Russian Revolution. Old Major’s Dream blatantly represents Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto. Orwell simplified the basic ideas of Marx’s Manifesto into Major’s dream.Major states that humans are the only species that consume without producing and animals must overthrow them which is relevant to Marx’s main idea, that capitalists collected all the profit from the worker’s profit, and he suggested they overthrow the capitalists if they wanted to be more successful. Old Major’s dream also represents the Manifesto the way he ends his speech. Marx ends the Manifesto wi th commanding the workers to unite, while Old Major ends his speech with commanding his comrades to rebel, both were advocating change.Orwell clearly portrayed Marx’s Manifesto in the story by allegorizing through Old Major’s dream. Another even that directly represented the Russian Revolution was the construction(S) of the windmill, and it represented the conflict between Stalin and Trotsky. Trotsky wanted to continue to spread the revolution, while Stalin wanted to focus on establishing communism in the newly attained Russian countries. This dispute really caused a division, with people following certain sides.In Animal Farm Napoleon felt it was unnecessary to build the windmill and suppressed it, while Snowball promoted it, which divided the Farm. Once Napoleon realized that Snowball’s promotion could have an impact, he exiled him from the farm, as did Stalin to Trotsky. Once their rival had been exiled, they continued to build the windmill and Communism. The decision whether or not to build the windmill represented the decision whether or not to spread Communism, the windmill symbolized Communism. In Animal Farm, the character Napoleon symbolizes Stalin himself.Napoleon acted as an allegory of Stalin, mirroring many of the actions he made. For example, Stalin exiled Trotsky and Napoleon got rid of Snowball, Stalin removed many other opponents and then adopted some of their ideas similarly Napoleon who eliminated Snowball but took his idea of building the windmill, both had a serious of purges where they murdered many traders and such, both were very harsh to their workers with Stalin and collectivization which lead to a huge famine and Napoleon with reduced rations, and they both were deceived, Stalin by Germany and Napoleon by Mr.Federick. Orwell adequately portrayed Stalin as Napoleon which is evident due to all these similarities. Old Major’s dream represented the Communist Manifesto, the construction of the windmill represen ted the feud amongst Trotsky and Stalin, and Napoleon represents Stalin. The author brilliantly allegorized features of the Russian Revolution into a fable consisting of barn animals, and each individual animal’s supposed personality fit well. â€Å"Animal Farm† is a direct symbol of the Russian Revolution.

The Puritan Dilemma essays

The Puritan Dilemma essays In The Puritan Dilemma we discover Edmund S. Morgans views of what Puritanism is and how John Winthrop dealt with the dilemma of being a puritan. After receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1942, Edmond S. Morgan taught at the University of Chicago (194546) and at Brown (194655) before becoming professor of history at Yale (1955). An expert on American colonial history, Morgan writes in a way that appeals to the general reading public while maintaining high scholarly standards. His many books include The Puritan Family, The Stamp Act Crisis, with his wife Helen, The Puritan Dilemma and biographies of Ezra Stiles and Roger Williams. Morgans work, The Puritan Dilemma, fits into his body of works based on the common thread of history that many of his works shared. Morgan traces how John Winthrop struggled with the dilemma, first internally, as he dealt with the question of whether traveling to the New World represented a selfish form of "separatism", the desire to separate himself from an impure England, or whether, as he eventually determined, it offered a unique opportunity to set an example for all men by establishing a purer Christian community in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It seems to have been important to Winthrop and his fellow Puritans that they had the approval of the King and that though they were distancing themselves from the Church of England, they were not actually in turn renouncing it. Three major themes of The Puritan Dilemma are a series of challenges that stem from the Puritan dilemma itself, which Winthrop describes as, the paradox that required a man to live in the world without being of it. The overall theme of the book was how to deal with keeping ones own beliefs pure when faced with trials and tribulations. These themes include the question of how the colony was to be governed, the separatism that was occurring within the church, and the beli ...

Free Printable Math Charts, Grids and Graph Paper PDFs

Free Printable Math Charts, Grids and Graph Paper PDFs Even in early mathematics, certain specialized papers and tools must be used to ensure students are able to quickly and easily identify numbers on graphs, grids, and charts, but buying reams of graph or isometric paper can be expensive! For that reason, weve compiled a list of printable PDFs that will help prepare your student for completing his or her math course load. Whether its a standard multiplication or 100s chart or one-half inch graph paper, the following resources are essential for your elementary student to be able to participate in math lessons and each comes with its own utility for specific areas of study. Read on to discover the different charts, grids, and graph papers your young mathematician will need in order to complete his or her studies, and learn some fun facts about early mathematics along the way! Essential Charts for Grades One Through Five Every young mathematician should always have a few handy number charts in their possession in order to more easily solve the increasingly difficult equations presented in first through fifth grades, but none may be quite as useful as the  multiplication chart.   A multiplication chart should be laminated and used with young learners working on the multiplication fact families as each multiplication chart illustrates the various products of multiplying numbers up to 20 together. This will help expedite the process of calculating larger problems as well as helping students commit the basic multiplication table to memory. Another great chart for young learners is the   100s Chart, which  is primarily also used in grades one through five. This chart a visual tool that displays all the numbers up to 100 then every 100s number larger than that, which helps with skip counting, observing patterns in numbers, adding, and subtracting to name a few concepts this chart is associated with. Graphs and Dot Papers Depending on the grade your student is in, he or she may require different sized graph papers to plot data points on a graph.  1/2 Inch,  1 CM, and  2 CM graph paper  are all staples in math education but are used more frequently in teaching and practicing measurement and geometry concepts. Dot paper, both in  portrait  and  landscape  formats, is another tool used for geometry, flips, slides, and turns along with sketching shapes to scale. This type of paper is highly popular for young mathematicians because it provides a precise but flexible canvas the students use to illustrate their understanding of core shapes and measurements. Another version of dot paper,   isometric paper, features dots that are not placed in a standard grid format, rather the dots in the first column are raised a few centimeters from the dots in the second column, and this pattern repeats across the paper with every other column higher than the one before it. Isometric paper in sizes  1 CM  and   2 CM  is meant to help students understand abstract shapes and measurements. Coordinate Grids When students start to approach the topic of algebra, they will no longer rely on dot paper or graphs to plot the numbers in their equations; instead, they will rely on the more detailed coordinate grids with or without numbers alongside the axises. The size of the coordinate grids needed for each math assignment varies by each question, but generally speaking printing several   20x20 coordinate grids with numbers  will suffice for most math assignments. Alternatively,   9x9 dotted coordinate grids  and   10x10 coordinate grids, both without numbers, may suffice for early-level algebraic equations. Eventually, students may need to plot several different equations on the same page, so there are also printable PDFs that include  four 10x10 coordinate grids  without and  with numbers, four   15x15 dotted coordinate grids without numbers, and even nine   10x10 Dotted  and non-dotted  coordinate grids.

Critically discuss the selection, role and responsibilities of the Essay

Critically discuss the selection, role and responsibilities of the expert witness in the criminal justice system - Essay Example Nonetheless, not every piece of evidence in a case is presented to the adjudicators; just the evidence that is important and acceptable serves a function in the conclusion of a case. Hence, an expert is defined in the legal system as ‘a person who, by reason of education or special training, possesses knowledge of a particular subject area in greater depth than does the public at large’2. With the rising difficulty of cases, specifically those that involve technical or scientific issues, the expert witness has become crucial to litigation’s success. The Rule 702 states that experts have a substantial influence over usual witnesses due to the fact that they are â€Å"the only witnesses who are permitted to reflect, opine, and pontificate. Experts can provide a bridge between the particular facts of a case and patterns of fact that can be observed and understood only through much wider study†.3 In general, experts are perceived as favourable contributors in c ourt trials. Nonetheless, experts can be at the same time described as ‘hired guns’ and ‘liars’.4 Regardless, one thing is for sure: the exploitation of experts is persistent. Indeed, experts have been equated to litigations. As stated by Robert R. Detlefsen, â€Å"The expert witness has become a fixture in high-stakes civil trials†.5 This is factual for a broad array of explanations, not the least of which is the growing difficulty of issues that comprise contemporary tort litigation and the continuously evolving procedures in the management of business processes: â€Å"the use of experts in courtroom trials is so prevalent today that the question confronting litigators is usually not whether to hire an expert witness, but rather how many to employ and where to find them.†6 Hence, this essay will discuss the selection, role, and responsibilities of the expert witness in the criminal justice system in the UK. Role of Expert Witnesses in the En glish Legal System Just as the essence or value of the testimony of an expert witness differs, so does the expert witness’s role in the legal system. In several instances, the expert witness is employed to discern issues or loopholes in the statement of fact witnesses. Expert statement, in other instances, is required to satisfy the ‘burden of proof’7 so as to create a defence or claim. Expert witnesses, occasionally, are used mainly to compete with the experts of the opposing side and to further strengthen the defence or claim of the proponent. Even though experts are generally determined by their role as witnesses at litigations or in deposition, they can help lawyers in the establishment of the case prior to trial as well. Lawyers may use experts to assess the work and official documents of other experts.8 Moreover, experts may help lawyers make sense of the technical features of a case by analysing documents and information generated by the parties and by stu dying and analysing subject matters in a case.9 Furthermore, experts can assist in the preparation of requests for information and documents which may turn into acceptable proofs, or they can formulate questions for cross-examination and direct questioning of witnesses.10 Expert recommendation may be crucial in strengthening the case prior to the trial by formulating compelling causation theories11 which should be presented to and reviewed by the jury. Another major role of expert witnesses may be to carry out trials linked to a component implication in the litigation and to

Russia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Russia - Essay Example Russia's transition from communism to capitalism has been a slow, albeit a positive, step. And while Russia is experiencing the pains of creating a new economic system, some progresses are already underway. It was in 1991 that the communist Soviet Union was dismantled and the Russian government proposed numerous radical reforms designed to transform the economy from one that was centrally planned and controlled to one based on capitalist principles. The Encyclopdia Britannica (2007) summed up that the major components of the reforms included establishing privately owned industrial and commercial ventures (using both foreign and Russian investment) and privatizing state-owned enterprises. Furthermore, the Russian government issued vouchers to citizens that enabled them to purchase of shares in privatized firms to promote privatization, though in practice these vouchers frequently were sold for cash and were accumulated by entrepreneurs. Moreover, a commodity- and stock-exchange system was also established to uplift the economic transition of a country fraught in political instability. Dolinskaya (2002) maintained that Russia's growth performance had already worsened before the beginning of economic transformation. The fundamental reason for the slowdown was the nature of Soviet economic growth, which was based on mobilization of resources rather than increases in productivity. However, at present, is Russia still struggling to get its economy on the right track How does Russia cope with the onset of globalization Does Russia deserve the attention of international investors This paper will attempt to find answers to these questions by sifting through current economic data and analyzing the potentials of the Russian market. II. Environmental Overview A. Economic Factors During the 1990s, the Russian economy experienced severe disruption as it moved from a centrally-plannedmodel to a free market system. Difficulties in implementing fiscal reforms aimed at raising government revenues and a dependence on short-term borrowing to finance budget deficits led to a serious financial crisis in 1998. In addition, lower prices for Russia's major export earners (oil and minerals) and a loss of investor confidence exacerbated the financial problems (Spulber, 2003, p. 206). The result was a rapid and steep decline in the value of the ruble, the flight of foreign investment, a breakdown of commercial transactionsvia the banking system, and the threat of runaway inflation. Nevertheless, Russia weathered the crisis well. Russia's economic performance has been strong in recent years, reflected in robust Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, strong external and fiscal positions, and growth in productivity and consumption. These achievements are attributed not only to favorable commodity prices, especially high oil prices, but also to generally prudent macroeconomic policies. In fact, Russia is presently in its eighth year of strong growth and now has the world's fifth largest foreign exchange reserves (Euromonitor International, 25