Premium Essay

Mousetrap Car Analysis

Submitted By
Words 863
Pages 4
All of last week we worked on building mousetrap cars. I briefly described them in my last blog post but on this post I will make a more detailed blog about what I struggled with and what went well for me and the whole process I went through while making this car.

The first mousetrap car that I made was a total disaster. I tried to do something different from what everyone else was going, to see if I could create something that would be more successful in some aspects also because the pictures online looked really cool, I liked the use of materials that were presented and it looked like it would be very efficient. In the photo the mousetrap car was held by 4 fish hook screws, which also held the axels. Then the CD wheels were fitted to the axel by wrapping a …show more content…
The first problem I ran into was that the fish hook screws that were available, were already used up. So after I removed some of the metal wire pieces I tried to bend them, but it did not work and I could not get the wire to bend into the right shape. Next, I tried to screw in just regular screws, and attach a hollow pen tube with a bamboo skewer in the middle but then there was no way for me to attach the string used to wind up up the car; properly like how it was in the photo. So I took everything apart and re-tried with something different. I figured that paperclips might work because they are easier to bend and I already and holes in all sides of my mousetrap ( from the screws before) so I could simply just fill the holes with hot glue and put the paper clip. Everything for this went very well, so I moved on the the next step, the wheels. I tried to wrap the ballon around the pen and it made the wheels very sturdy and fitted them well, but no matter what way I put them on or moved the CD, they were not straight and it was not efficient at all so I had to come up with

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Marketing

...chapter 1 Marketing’s Role in the Global Economy When You Finish This Chapter, You Should 1. Know what marketing is and why you should learn about it. 2. Understand the difference between micro-marketing and macro-marketing. 3. Know why and how macromarketing systems develop. 4. Understand why marketing is crucial to economic development and our global economy. 5. Know why marketing special— ists—including middlemen and — facilitators—develop. 6. Know the marketing functions and who performs them. 7. Understand the important new terms (shown in red). www.mhhe. When it’s time to roll out of bed in the morning, does your General Electric alarm wake you with a buzzer—or by playing your favorite radio station? Is the station playing rock, classical, or country music—or perhaps a Red Cross ad asking you to contribute blood? Will you slip into your Levi’s jeans, your shirt from L. L. Bean, and your Reeboks, or does the day call for your Brooks Brothers interviewing suit? Will breakfast be Lender’s Bagels with cream cheese or Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes—made with grain from America’s heartland—or some extra large eggs and Oscar Mayer bacon cooked in a Panasonic microwave oven imported from Japan? Will you drink decaffeinated Maxwell House coffee—grown in Colombia—or some Tang instant juice? Will you eat at home or is this a day to meet a friend at the Marriott-run cafeteria—where you’ll pay someone else to serve your breakfast? After breakfast, will you head off to school...

Words: 14069 - Pages: 57

Premium Essay

Retailing

...La Rosa, Maria Sophia S. BSBA – MM3 CHAPTER 7: MARKET SELECTION AND RETAIL LOCATION ANALYSIS 1. Why should retailers be concerned about selecting the right target market? How are target market selection and location related? Retailers should be concerned about selecting the right target market because their target market is their potential customers. These are the people who are most likely to buy their products or to buy from their stores. For the follow up question, target market selection and location are related to each other with regards to reaching the target customers. Location is a very important thing to consider when targeting a segment. Retailers should also be concerned not only with the demographics of their market but with the geographics as well. It would help the retailers in reaching their target markets and it could also help minimize the marketing costs and ensure the focus on the right target market. 2. What three criteria should be met to successfully target a market? The three criteria that should be met to successfully target a market are measurability, accessibility, and substantiality. 3. What types of retailers would be best suited for locating in a lifestyle center? For me, I think specialty and convenience retailers would be best suited to be located in a lifestyle center. 4. Why are some shopping centers and malls now using big-box stores such as Home Depot, Bass Pro Shops and Kaplan’s as anchors? Aren’t anchor stores supposed...

Words: 2701 - Pages: 11

Premium Essay

Assignment

...holds that consumers prefer products that are widely available and inexpensive. Managers of production– oriented businesses concentrate on achieving high production efficiency, low costs, and mass distribution. This orientation makes sense in developing countries such as China, where the largest PC manufacturer, Lenovo, takes advantage of the country’s huge and inexpensive labor pool to dominate the market. Marketers also apply the production concept when they want to expand the market. THE PRODUCT CONCEPT The product concept proposes that consumers favor products offering the most quality, per-formance, or innovative features. However, managers are sometimes caught in a love affair with their products. They might commit the “ better mousetrap” fallacy, believing a better product will by itself lead people to beat a path to their door. A new or improved product will not necessarily be successful unless it’s priced, distributed, advertised, and sold properly. THE SELLING CONCEPT The selling concept holds that consumers and businesses, if left alone, won’t buy enough of the organization’s products, so the organization must undertake an aggressive selling effort. It is practiced most aggressively with unsought goods buyers don’t normally think of buying, such as insurance and cemetery plots and when firms with overcapacity aim to sell what they make, rather than make what the market wants. Marketing based on hard selling is risky. It assumes customers coaxed...

Words: 2756 - Pages: 12

Premium Essay

Microeconomics for Mba - Capítulo 10

...www.cambridge.org/micro4mbas McKENZIE: MICROECONOMICS FOR MBAS PPC CMYBLK ................................................................................................................ 10 Monopoly power and firm pricing decisions If monopoly persists, monopoly will always sit at the helm of government … its bigness is an unwholesome inflation created by privileges and exemptions which it ought not to enjoy. If there are men in this country big enough to own the government of the United States, they are going to own it. Woodrow Wilson That competition is a virtue, at least as far as enterprises are concerned, has been a basic article of faith in the American Tradition, and a vigorous antitrust policy has long been regarded as both beneficial and necessary, not only to extend competitive forces into new regions but also to preserve them where they may be flourishing at the moment. G. Warren Nutter and Henry Alder Einhorn t the bottom of almost all arguments against the free market is a deep-seated concern about the distorting (some would say corrupting) influence of monopolies. People who are suspicious of the free market fear that too many producers are unchecked by the forces of competition, but instead hold considerable monopoly power or control over market outcomes. Unless the government intervenes, these firms are likely to exploit their power for their own selfish benefit. This theme has been fundamental to the writings of economist John Kenneth Galbraith: The...

Words: 12857 - Pages: 52

Premium Essay

Corperate Finance

...CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Corporate Finance Compensation of corporate executives in the United States continues to be a hot-button issue. It is widely viewed that CEO pay has grown to exorbitant levels (at least in some cases). In response, in April 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Say on Pay” bill. The bill requires corporations to allow a nonbinding shareholder vote on executive pay. (Note that because the bill applies to corporations, it does not give voters a “say on pay” for U.S. Representatives.) Specifically, the measure allows shareholders to approve or disapprove a company’s executive compensation plan. Because the vote is nonbinding, it does not permit shareholders to veto a compensation package and does not place limits on executive pay. Some companies had actually already begun initiatives to allow shareholders a say on pay before Congress got involved. On May 5, 2008, Aflac, the insurance company with the well-known “spokesduck,” held the first shareholder vote on executive pay in the United States. Understanding how a corporation sets executive pay, and the role of shareholders in that process, takes us into issues involving the corporate form of organization, corporate goals, and corporate control, all of which we cover in this chapter. 1.1 What Is Corporate Finance? Suppose you decide to start a firm to make tennis balls. To do this you hire managers to buy raw materials, and you assemble a workforce that will produce and...

Words: 7653 - Pages: 31

Premium Essay

Management

...chapter 1 Marketing in a Changing World: Creating Customer Value and Satisfaction ROAD MAP: Previewing the Concepts Fasten your seat belt! You’re about to begin an exciting journey toward learning about marketing. To start you off in the right direction, we’ll first define marketing and its key concepts. Then, you’ll visit the various philosophies that guide marketing management and the challenges marketing faces as we move into the new millennium. The goal of marketing is to create profitable customer relationships by delivering superior value to customers. Understanding these basic concepts, and forming your own ideas about what they really mean to you, will give you a solid foundation for all that follows. ᭤ After studying this chapter, you should be able to 1. define what marketing is and discuss its core concepts 2. explain the relationships between customer value, satisfaction, and quality 3. define marketing management and understand how marketers manage demand and build profitable customer relationships 4. compare the five marketing management philosophies 5. analyze the major challenges facing marketers heading into the next century Our first stop: Nike. This superb marketer has built one of the world’s most dominant brands. The Nike example shows the importance of — and the difficulties in — building lasting, value-laden customer relationships. Even highly successful Nike can’t rest on past successes. Facing “big-brand backlash,” it must now learn...

Words: 18289 - Pages: 74

Premium Essay

Hotel Mobile Channel

...How to Write a Great Business Plan by William A. Sahlman Harvard Business Review Reprint 97409 Which information belongs – and which doesn’t – may surprise you. How to Write a Great by William A. Sahlman Few areas of business attract as much attention as new ventures, and few aspects of new-venture creation attract as much attention as the business plan. Countless books and articles in the popular press dissect the topic. A growing number of annual business-plan contests are springing up across the United States and, increasingly, in other countries. Both graduate and undergraduate schools devote entire courses to the subject. Indeed, judging by all the hoopla surrounding business plans, you would think that the only things standing between a would-be entrepreneur and spectacular success are glossy five-color charts, a bundle of meticulouslooking spreadsheets, and a decade of month-bymonth financial projections. William A. Sahlman is Dimitri V. d’Arbeloff Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts. He has been closely connected with more than 50 entrepreneurial ventures as an adviser, investor, or director. He teaches a secondyear course at the Harvard Business School called “Entrepreneurial Finance,” for which he has developed more than 100 cases and notes. Nothing could be further from the truth. In my experience with hundreds of entrepreneurial startups, business plans rank no higher than 2–on a scale from...

Words: 6958 - Pages: 28

Premium Essay

Marketing Mix

...chapter 1 Marketing in a Changing World: Creating Customer Value and Satisfaction ROAD MAP: Previewing the Concepts Fasten your seat belt! You’re about to begin an exciting journey toward learning about marketing. To start you off in the right direction, we’ll first define marketing and its key concepts. Then, you’ll visit the various philosophies that guide marketing management and the challenges marketing faces as we move into the new millennium. The goal of marketing is to create profitable customer relationships by delivering superior value to customers. Understanding these basic concepts, and forming your own ideas about what they really mean to you, will give you a solid foundation for all that follows. After studying this chapter, you should be able to 1. define what marketing is and discuss its core concepts 2. explain the relationships between customer value, satisfaction, and quality 3. define marketing management and understand how marketers manage demand and build profitable customer relationships 4. compare the five marketing management philosophies 5. analyze the major challenges facing marketers heading into the next century Our first stop: Nike. This superb marketer has built one of the world’s most dominant brands. The Nike example shows the importance of — and the difficulties in — building lasting, value-laden customer relationships. Even highly successful Nike can’t rest on past successes. Facing “big-brand backlash,” it must now learn how to be both big...

Words: 18287 - Pages: 74

Premium Essay

Brand Positioning

...CHAPTER - 1 INTRODUCTION Introduction: In their 1981 book, Positioning: The Battle for your Mind, Al Ries and Jack Trout describe how positioning is used as a communication tool to reach target customers in a crowded marketplace. Regular use of the term dates back to 1972 when the same authors published a series of articles in Advertising Age called "The Positioning Era." Not long thereafter, Madison Avenue advertising executives began to develop positioning slogans for their clients and positioning became a key aspect of marketing communications. Positioning: The Battle for your Mind has become a classic in the field of marketing. The following is a summary of the key points made by Ries and Trout in their book What is Positioning? Positioning is a platform for the brand it facilitates the brand to get through to the target consumers. Positioning is act of fixing the locus of the product offer in the minds of the target consumers. In positioning, the firm decides how and around what parameters, the product offer has to be placed before the target consumers. The significance of product positioning can be easily understood from David Ogilvy’s words; the results of your campaign depends less on how we write your advertising than on how your product is positioned. Most authors define positioning as the perception that a target market has of a brand relative to its competitors. This definition raises two points. First, positioning is perceptual. In other...

Words: 12367 - Pages: 50

Premium Essay

Audit

...The Marketing Audit Comes Of Age Philip Kotler, William Gregor and William Rogers Comparing the marketing strategies and tactics of business units today versus ten years ago, the most striking impression is one of marketing strategy obsolescence. Ten years ago US, automobile companies were gearing up for their second postwar race to produce the largest car with the highest horsepower. Today companies are selling increasing numbers of small and medium-size cars and fuel economy is a major selling point. Ten years ago computer companies were introducing ever-more powerful hardware for more sophisticated uses. Today they emphasize mini and microcomputers and software. It is not even necessary to take a ten-year-period to show the rapid obsolescence of marketing strategies. The growth economy of 1950-1970 has been superseded by a volatile economy which produces new strategic surprises almost monthly. Competitors launch new products, customers switch their business, distributors lose their effectiveness, advertising costs skyrocket, government regulations are announced, and consumer groups attack. These changes represent both opportunities and problems and may demand periodic reorientations of the company’s marketing operations. Many companies feel that their marketing operations need regular reviews and overhauls but do not know how to proceed. Some companies simply make many small changes that are economically and politically feasible, but fail to get to the heart of the matter...

Words: 6893 - Pages: 28

Free Essay

Marketing Mid Term

...|Question 1 |1 points   |Save   | |  |Kroger buys a lot of cranberry products at Christmas due to high consumer demand. This is an | | | | | | |example of ________ demand. | | | | | | |[pic] | | | | | | |[pic][pic] | | | | | | | | | | | | | |elastic | | | | | | | | | | | | | |[pic] | | | | | | | | | | | | | |inelastic | | | | | | | ...

Words: 4709 - Pages: 19

Premium Essay

Walmart and the Usa Economy

...Pescatrice Professor of Economics Iona College Dr. Andrew Braunstein Professor of Business Economics Hagan School of Business Iona College Corresponding Author: Dr. Donn Pescatrice Iona College Department of Economics 715 North Avenue New Rochelle, NY 10801 (914)-637-2729 (dpescatrice@iona.edu) March, 2008 Wal-Mart and the U.S. Economy ABSTRACT The Wal-Mart company, the world’s largest retailer and second-largest corporation, is a dominant U.S. business. This study investigates whether there are significant long-run relationships between the business of Wal-Mart and the overall U.S. economy as measured by an array of traditional macro-level variables. Cointegration analysis reveals that Wal-Mart sales generally move counter to overall economic conditions, dampened in more prosperous economic periods and buoyed in more sluggish economic environments. Consequently, trends in Wal-Mart sales may serve as a rather non-traditional contrarian economic bellwether. Keywords Wal-Mart . macroeconomy . cointegration . bellwether JEL Classifications E32 . L81 . M21 WAL-MART AND THE U.S. ECONOMY Introduction The Wal-Mart corporation has come under media scrutiny for a myriad of reasons in recent years. It continues to be the focus of countless news stories, case studies, and organizational analyses—some lauding its business acumen, others decrying its negative...

Words: 6331 - Pages: 26

Premium Essay

Ford Case

...I N S T I T U T E F O R D E F E N S E A NA LYS E S Ford Motor Company’s Investment Efficiency Initiative: A Case Study James L. Nevins Robert I. Winner Danny L. Reed, Task Leader April 1999 Approved for public release; distribution unlimited. IDA Paper P-3311 (Revised) Log: H 99-001057 This work was conducted under contract DASW01 98 C 0067, Task AD-1-950, for the Office of the Deputy Director, Systems Engineering, Office of the Director, Test, Systems Engineering and Evaluation, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition and Technology). The publication of this IDA document does not indicate endorsement by the Department of Defense, nor should the contents be construed as reflecting the official position of that Agency. © 1999 Institute for Defense Analyses, 1801 N. Beauregard Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22311-1772 • (703) 845-2000. This material may be reproduced by or for the U.S. Government pursuant to the copyright license under the clause at DFARS 252.227-7013 (NOV 95). Preface This document was prepared for the Office of the Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition and Technology) under the task order Defense Manufacturing Strategy, and addresses a task objective, to provide a case study on integrated product/process development implementation. This case study will be used for acquisition and technology training purposes by the sponsor. Many of the incentives, strategies, and implementation approaches at Ford have parallels...

Words: 15990 - Pages: 64

Premium Essay

Kotler01 Study Q&a

...Chapter 1: Defining Marketing for the 21st Century GENERAL CONCEPT QUESTIONS Multiple Choice 1. Good marketing is no accident, but a result of careful planning and ________. a. execution b. selling c. strategies d. tactics e. research Answer: a Page: 4 Level of difficulty: Medium 2. Marketing is both an “art” and a “science”—there is constant tension between the formulated side of marketing and the ________ side. a. creative b. selling c. management d. forecasting e. behavior Answer: a Page: 4 Level of difficulty: Easy 3. The most formal definition of marketing is ________. a. meeting needs profitably b. identifying and meeting human and social needs c. the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) d. an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering, value to customers, and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stake holders. e. improving the quality of life for consumers Answer: d Page: 6 Level of difficulty: Medium 4. Marketing management is ________. a. managing the marketing process b. monitoring the profitability of the companies products and services c. selecting target markets d. developing marketing strategies to move the company forward e. the art and science of choosing target markets and getting, keeping, and growing customers through creating, delivering, and communicating superior customer value Answer: e Page: 6 Level of difficulty: Easy 1 Part 1: Understanding Marketing...

Words: 8776 - Pages: 36

Premium Essay

Strategic Management

...Strategic management is a field that deals with the major intended and emergent initiatives taken by general managers on behalf of owners, involving utilization of resources, to enhance the performance of firms in their external environments.[1] It entails specifying the organization's mission, vision and objectives, developing policies and plans, often in terms of projects and programs, which are designed to achieve these objectives, and then allocating resources to implement the policies and plans, projects and programs. A balanced scorecard is often used to evaluate the overall performance of the business and its progress towards objectives. Recent studies and leading management theorists have advocated that strategy needs to start with stakeholders expectations and use a modified balanced scorecard which includes all stakeholders. Strategic management is a level of managerial activity under setting goals and over Tactics. Strategic management provides overall direction to the enterprise and is closely related to the field of Organization Studies. In the field of business administration it is useful to talk about "strategic alignment" between the organization and its environment or "strategic consistency." According to Arieu (2007), "there is strategic consistency when the actions of an organization are consistent with the expectations of management, and these in turn are with the market and the context." Strategic management includes not only the management team but can...

Words: 7313 - Pages: 30