Strategic Marketing Management Sainsburys

Strategic Marketing Management Sainsburys Introduction J Sainsbury plc is a huge UK based food retailer with interest in financial services. Its chain of supermarkets has survived the challenges of competitive retail business since 1869, which makes it the longest standing major food retailing chain in UK. With the heritage of providing customers with healthy, safe, fresh and tasty food it has indeed come a long way from a small store from Drury lane to the current headquarter in Holborn, London. Currently it is serving over 18 million customers just in a week and have a market share of a staggering 16%. Along with its 502 supermarkets it has over the course of time diversified its business to 290 Sainsburys convenience stores, an internet-based home delivery shopping service and Sainsburys Bank. The internet-based home delivery shopping is available noticeably to about 88 percent of the UK households. They clearly identified five areas to focus on in order to maintain their superiority in the retail business which were a) Great food at fair prices b) Accelerating the growth of complementary non-food ranges c) Reaching more customers through additional channels d) Growing supermarket space e) Active property management. Situation Review In order to perform the situation review as a Marketing Consultant I have decided to conduct a SWOT analysis of J Sainsbury Plc. The reason behind my selection of SWOT analysis is that it has been used for a long time and is a trusted tool of strategic and marketing analysis. Its importance in reviewing the situation of a company is massive as it suggests ways in which the organisation can profit from strengths and opportunities and shield itself from weaknesses and threats (Adams, 2005). After the explanation of every SWOT elements of J Sainsbury Plc Ive also mentioned the likely effect of such elements to their competitive advantages and brand. However it is a method that has to be used very carefully because if not thought or investigated properly the results will not provide the actual picture. Strength There are several strengths of Sainsbury that needs be highlighted when performing a situation review which are analysed below: Sainsburys as a brand: Brand of Sainsburys stands it out amongst the crowd of other supermarkets. The goodwill that has been built over 140 years of service in its business is represented by its brand and that has several benefits like customer loyalty, brand familiarisation, increase and maintenance of customer belief etc. If Sainsburys want to increase its outlets the cost involved for advertisement for the local areas will be far less than that for a smaller organisation with a lesser known brand. Having such a strong brand is definitely continue to enhance its competitive advantage as other new competitors will have a hard time building up such a good brand as it needs a lot of time and effort. Use of effective Marketing Strategy: Sainsburys like any other large company has to use effective marketing strategy. It has been doing so very well and which is why it stood up the test of time. Sainsburys use of Jamie Oliver one of Britains most high profile chefs who famously launched campaigns regarding healthy eating in different sections of the community in its advertisements can be considered as a very good marketing move. It was like using a renowned dentist to promote toothpaste as it adds to the customers the trust for healthy food for good price. The positive effects of the campaign were apparent as shown in the growth of the sales in Sainsburys. With its effective marketing strategy Sainsbury is far likely to attract more customers and increase their competitiveness and enhancement of their already powerful and attractive brand. Human Resource Policy: There is equal opportunities policy in Sainsbury on different functions like recruitment, promotional, training and development etc. Their policy basically focuses on keeping their staff motivated and providing them with proper training. These kinds of policies have enhanced the reputation of Sainsbury as a very good employer. Having a good HR policy will only have positive results in terms of their competitiveness and brand as people will be more inclined towards joining with their team and most importantly staying with them. Conveniently located: Due to its huge network of outlets there is always a Sainsbury nearby. This is a very good advantage to have which backs up the effects of the brand. Even if Sainsbury had built up a good brand most people will be only be interested in going to buy groceries and daily necessities if there is a Sainsbury close by. Groceries and daily necessities are prime products of Sainsbury and in order to boost their sales location is of prime importance. Like I mentioned convenience is a key to a retailers success and its wide spread outlet helps them to provide customers with opportunity to stay loyal to them. Reliability and trust: Sainsbury have built up over the years, a sense of the trust and reliability among customers. Customers believe on Sainsbury that it would not compromise on health and safety issues. They also trust Sainsbury on providing very competitive prices for the products if not the cheapest. When there is trust among customers about your product and services they will continue to remain your customers. Extra care is taken by Sainsbury and this will in future continue to boost their image. Environment Friendly: Sainsbury has always been environmentally aware while performing its business. Some of Sainsburys efforts are mentioned below: It uses environment friendly till printers. It gave away eco-friendly loo rolls as promotional offers. It opened environment-friendly store in Dartmouth, Devon which was built with recycled materials and will help in reducing its energy bills. It signed a landmark deal that has enabled the creation of a new  £8 million wind project at Lochhead in Scotland, due to be completed in Summer 2009. The Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) means that Sainsburys will purchase energy direct from A7 Lochhead Ltd. for the next ten years. These efforts mean that customers will have in the back of their mind that Sainsbury is doing its part in the great cause of saving the environment. The reputation has been slowly building in this regard and will continue to grow further. Try something new today: Even by the slogan we can understand that there are a range of products available in similar categories. Sainsbury take every possible care to match the changing needs of the different cultures and communities with its products and on doing so provides multi choices to customers. For example, Frozen Chicken Tikka Masala (Indian dish), Chicken Dumplings (Chinese dish) etc found in Sainsbury. This strength of Sainsbury means that it will increase its customer base, retain its customer by spoiling them with choice and attract new suppliers as well, boosting its competitive advantage and brand name in the process. Weaknesses Lack of international expansion: Sainsbury has always been a brand that is famous only in Britain. It hasnt ventured into the international market that much as yet. In other words it has not been adventurous enough. Its main rival Tesco has been more successful in this regard than them which will hamper their growth and market domination. This weakness will definitely haunt them as with more international coverage its rival will be more powerful and have more flexibility which means theyll gain more competitive advantage and a better brand name. No self-service: In todays world time is money. The service should be up to the standard at the same time it should be time efficient. Due to which self-service system has proven to be very effective over the years. However, there are no self-service systems like self-checkout counters in most of the Sainsburys stores. Providing time efficient service in every way is a key to any companys success and Sainsbury has not fully integrated this theory in their practice which will have negative effects in their competitive advantage and brand. Implementation problem: There have been many such cases in Sainsbury where they have been found short on the implementation of the pre-determined plans. It can be considered as one of their major weakness. There is no point of planning if it were not be implemented. It will affect adversely to their morale and brand doing a world of good to that of their competitors. Opportunities Every organisation in order to survive and compete in a market has to keep a close eye on any opportunity of growth, expansion, diversification, merger etc. Opportunities are something if not grabbed at the right moment the value of it later will be significantly diminished or elapsed. On the current situation I have tried to categorise some of the opportunities that lay in front of J Sainsbury, which are as follows: Growth: Sainsbury has been involved in other projects as well like its investments in property, banking, environmental issues etc. These kinds of alternative business present great opportunities for future growth. Growth is vital for any companys competitiveness and for Sainsbury its no different. Suppliers and Partners: Food for Britain (FFB) is Sainsburys partner and supplier. FFB helps its clients access new opportunities abroad through a network of nine international offices, associates in developing markets and a range of London-based services. Maintaining a good supply chain will help Sainsbury to be cost effective and hence competitive. Technology: This is a modern age of technology where every company has to find ways to upgrade their services using technology. Sainsbury has had bad experiences for not planning technology better when they had to buy back  £1.8b worth of technology outsourcing deal with Accenture. However there are huge opportunities in front of Sainsbury in the future for further development in technology. Technology is one of the key aspects in todays IT age to stay competitive. Previously overlooked Market Segments: Ive mentioned earlier that Sainsbury has not ventured into many international markets. This thus provides it with great opportunities for future to go forward towards those markets which were not considered fruitful. Markets changes with the economy and previously overlooked markets need to be analysed now and then which might prove very helpful to edge ahead of your competitor. Social Patterns: Understanding of the changing social patterns is a challenge as well as opportunity for Sainsbury. Understanding the need of the current society is vital. Threats Threats are other external factor that needs to be give considerable attention in order better prepare the company to face them in a proper way. It is one of the major component on determining the companys performance and situation. There will definitely be some underlying threats for every kind of industry and the company must take appropriate measures to deal with them. Threats however cannot always be identified beforehand so awareness of the environment is the key. Some of both the underlying/imminent and possible threats of J Sainsburys are explained below: Entrance of new competitors: Sainsbury needs like any other company watch out for entrance of any new competitors. This is a serious threat and emerging competitions should be monitored. Too much environment friendly: Huge investments have made in environmental and green issues without immediate benefits. There is a threat of doing it a bit too much. Actually a balance has to be maintained and cost should be controlled to remain competitive. Technological Changes: Technology is changing all the time and it is a massive threat to Sainsbury as well. Expansion of Competitors: Expansion of its competitors like Tesco have to be monitored carefully as their expansion is a clear threat to Sainsburys market coverage. This threat if not addressed properly can harm gravely to the competitiveness of Sainsbury and its brand name as well. Foreign company takeover: We can say that Sainsbury represents the British people. It lacks of international expansion also means that most of their customers are British. However there was a takeover bid by the Qataris Private equity firm which can have serious implications as its customers who are predominantly British will gravitate towards other British companies at the prospect of Sainsburys being governed by a foreign firm. This is also a significant threat as it will diminish the competitive advantage and brand name built by Sainsbury on British people. Task-B Explanation of various marketing strategies and how they can be used by J Sainsbury Plc to achieve competitive advantages and long term growth. In order to fulfill the visions of a company by fulfilling the its goals a proper marketing strategy needs to be formulated. Marketing strategies are the corner stones upon which marketing plans can be based. Market strategies include a series of tactics to make a marketing plan more effective in order to achieve marketing goals. Marketing strategies amalgamates the organizations marketing goals, policies, and tactics into an effective unit. Markets change their nature and behaviour constantly so for marketing strategies to become successful it needs not only to be properly planned but should be dynamic and interactive. Types of strategies Marketing strategies need to be formulated as per the need of the market situation for any given company. However there are of ways of generalizing some of the common strategies. There are several general marketing strategies that have emerged of which some are presented below: 1. The strategies that are based on market dominance Here there are basically three types of market dominance strategies: Leader Challenger Follower 2. Innovation strategies This strategy basically goes for promoting new product development, cutting edge technology and business innovation. In this type of strategy there are three types: Pioneers Close followers Late followers 3. Growth strategies This scheme focuses more on growth of the company. Some ways of differentiating the strategies are as follows: Horizontal integration Vertical integration Diversification Intensification 4. Porter generic strategies Porters these strategies are the most commonly used strategies so needs to be discussed in detail. Michael Porter described the generic strategies as not firm or industry dependant but general. These strategies were initiated in the early 1980s, and till date it has been widely used. According to Porter for any company go generate profit the attractiveness of the industry itself may be the main factor however even if the industry is doing not very well the company can still make good returns if it holds a good position in the industry. In order to position itself properly in the industry the firm has to leverage its strengths. When these strengths are applied in either broad or narrow scope the following generic strategies are evolved: Cost leadership Differentiation Focus Further explatnation: Cost leadership: The motto of this type of strategy is to remain cost effective and gain competitive advantage though being able to produce at the lowest cost at a given quality level. With its low cost the company can benefit in two ways. One, it can obtain higher returns against its rival while selling at industrial average and two it can benefit from increased market share while selling below industrial average which it can do without making loss. There are many ways to achieve this kind of leadership some of which are mentioned below: Improving the efficiency of processing Research in obtaining cheaper raw materials Utilising the benefits of outsourcing Avoiding various leakages in cost controls. Differential Leadership: As its name suggest, this strategy tries to dominate the market by developing products and services which are different and at the same time also appreciated by customers more than other products and services available generally in the market. The customers are hence ready to pay some extra due to the uniqueness of the product. However it needs the following kinds of strengths to achieve success in this strategy: Able to invest in research and developments. Highly skilled manpower. Creativity and insight. Proper marketing tools and media. Goodwill in regards to quality and innovation. No close substitute of product/service available in the market. Focus Strategy: This strategy basically focuses on attempting to achieve either cost or differentiation advantage upon a narrow segment of market. The assumption behind this strategy is that when strategies are focussed on a narrow segment of market the actual needs of such a market can be addressed. It tries to achieve as much customer loyalty as it can in order to be competitive. The main drawback of this strategy is that it will lose its bargaining power with the suppliers while focussing on a narrow market and producing less. Other risks might be that a broad-market leader may influence its target market and as its market is limited there will be no flexibility or room for tackling such competitiveness. Having said that, if the focus strategy is based on differentiation advantage due to its uniqueness it will be able to maintain its competitiveness. In light of the marketing strategies propounded by Michael Porter, J Sainsbury Plc can use these strategies to gain competitive advantage and long term goals in the following ways: As the brand of Sainsbury is of such worth it can use differential strategy to invest in research and production of its own organic food, special diet food, environment friendly recycle bags and other products. Due to its huge coverage of market and large human resources it might be beneficial for them to use differential strategy like opening its own training institute for retailing, health and safety clinics etc. As close proximity of its stores is a major strength of Sainsbury it can use focus strategy to increase its sales. For example: opening special vegetarian oriented store in a community which is thickly populated with Gujrati people ( a tribe of Indian people who are mostly vegetarian). Due to its strong and long partnership with Food For Britain (FFB) and its operation in a broad scope with good purchasing power it can use cost leadership strategy and reduce its cost of purchase. Differential strategy can be used to promote its products as it already has goodwill as environmentally friendly retailer. With its possession of good HR system and career security it can use differential strategy and can acquire capable human resource at affordable price. Task-C Analysis of Current marketing environment for J Sainsbury Plc and Recommendations on how the marketing mix elements may be developed to contribute to enhance their goals and values. In order to comment on the marketing mix that can be developed by Sainsbury to contribute to enhance their goals and values Ive first analysed the current marketing environment of J Sainsbury Plc and then explained further about the marketing mix. Environment and its factors: Globalisation: With rapid increase in globalization Sainsbury like any other company has to face a lot of challenges. The basic challenge is to fight to off the competition to achieve best value for quality supply of its products. Opportunities like entering new markets via joint venture and partnerships etc also arise due to globalisation. The price fixing scandal: Sainsbury is one of the four retailers within the UK who are most likely to be affected by this scandal or allegation. Sainsbury has a strong presence in the market and possession of a good public image there is a serious threat of this being hampered by the recent allegations. Tax rate: Corporation Tax rate is fixed by the government in UK like any other country. It keeps on fluctuating generally upon the need of the industry. Currently UK government has changed the tax rate to 28% from 30%. A huge amount of tax is paid by a company like Sainsbury every year and this change of 2% is a massive cut in the tax rate which means there is more margin in profit. Cost of products prices: Food prices have risen dramatically since the increment in global food crisis resulting in the rise in Sainsburys costs. This will mean that the increased cost will be passed on to the customers and theyll have to pay more. Unpredictable fluctuations in the fuel costs also has made it even harder to plan and control the cost of production and delivery. The credit crunch: The mentioning of credit crunch while discussing about the current market situation has been an obligation recently. There are basically two ways in which itll affect Sainsburys. One getting finance has become so much difficult as the market has become almost dead and two credit crunch have decreased the purchasing power of consumers. This has created a sense of distrust and suspicion in the market. Sales of luxury items have gone down and even basic products are being bought less. Another section of Sainsbury that has been hit by this is its bank. The Sainsbury bank is not a very established bank and when even the big players in the banking systems are in trouble it has been really difficult time for Sainsburys bank. †¢ Nowadays there seems to be more emphasis on fresh, easy style cooking. This serves an opportunity for Sainsburys to encourage new recipes and unfussy The Internet sales: In order to stay competitive in todays market, internet sales is a phenomenon that has to function well. The Internet accounts for 8% of global advertising spend and is growing rapidly (The Economist, 2007). Sainsburys can further develop in this area. It can either develop itself or outsource the internet system to increase its sales. Marketing mix It is a commonly used marketing term probably the most famous one. It is also known as the Four Ps which are product, price, place and promotion. It is the combination of the elements of marketing and what roles each element plays in promoting your products and services and delivering those products and services to your customers. In short the marketing mix is a set of controllable, tactical marketing tools that work together to achieve companys objectives and goals. The elements of Marketing Mix and how they can be used by Sainsbury: Product: The product is the first element of marketing mix elements that needs to be explained. The products or services offered to your customer have physical attributes what they do, how they differ from your competitors and what benefits they provide to the customers. The product/service has to maintain quality, features, packaging, guarantees, and after-sales service. The basic objective of Sainsburys Supermarkets is stand as the leader of the pack when it comes to consumers choosing their food. They want to deliver products of outstanding quality and great service at a competitive cost through working faster, simpler and together. For that their product has to be given top priority and only quality products will do for that reason. Environmental friendliness should also be considered while deciding on the product. Services like banking should be made efficient and easy to use. Price: Price is the second most important thing of marketing mix elements. How you price your product or service so that your price remains competitive but allows help to make a good profit. How price plays a role in your marketing strategy with respect to differentiating your products or services from your competitors. The pricing policy including discounts, allowances and credit policies. Your pricing should be based on a realistic assessment of all your costs and take into account what the market will bear and the image you are trying to create. To stay competitive, price should be competitive as well as it is a prime element in the marketing mix. If the price is either very high or very low in regards to its competitors the long term goals will be hindered. Place: Place may also be used in your marketing strategy to differentiate you from your competition in the market. Where your business sells its products or services and how it gets those products or services to your customers. By considering good locations, retailers, inventory implications, transport and warehousing you can reach close to your customers. It will obviously give you a competitive advantage. Place is another important factor that has to be considered by Sainsbury to achieve its long term goal. It has a huge number of outlets around UK and is in close proximity with its customers. It should however always look to build upon it more. Promotion: Promotion is used to communicate with the customers and express the features and benefits of your products/services to your target customers. Promotions may include advertising, personal selling, public relations, networking, web-based marketing etc. By doing this you will express your product and its features to the customers to attract them to by the products and it will be helpful to earn profit. Sainsbury has built up its image as a very good retailer in terms of its product quality, environmental friendliness, services etc. Partly its such success in creating such an image goes to its promotion and advertisements, like using Jamie Oliver in its advertisements. There are much rooms for improvements in that area as well. References: Lecture notes provided by our lecturer Dr. Roman Puchkov Mica R. Endsley, Daniel J. Garland, 2000, Theoretical Underpinnings of Situation Awareness, 2nd Edition, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwah, NJ, 383pp. O Connor J and Galvin E, 1999, Marketing in the Digital Age, 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall. Doyle P, 2001, Marketing Management and Strategy, Prentice Hall. Official website of Sainsbury, www. Sainsburys.co.uk

Under Population

John Albjerg Writing 122 Persuasive Essay Under population The effect of under population in the world is causing lack of people to replace those who die or retire with inability to continue working. Just done in the U. S. Census 83 countries and territories are now thought to experience below-replacement fertility. This basically means they won’t be able to replace the people who are dying or no longer able to work, these places take up roughly 44% of the world’s total population. Due to several causes in our current world we are experiencing low mortality rates. Currently several countries are having lower life expectancy that they did not have 40 years ago. Though many countries are experiencing a time of peace there is a large HIV-AIDS epidemic going on in about 1/6thof the world. These low mortality rates are causing issues with proper population in these countries. Another cause of under population is the legalization of Abortion. Reports have shown since the legalization of Abortions that since they were legalized Europe as well as 15 countries by 2002 is reporting rates of 1. 3 children per woman or below. A rate of 2. is needed to maintain a population. The reports where this is the largest issue is found in Europe where abortions are used as a method of birth control. This issue is also begunto appear due to women waiting till later to have children. Instead of starting to have children in their early 20’s many women are waiting till 30 or later to have their first child. This is causing people to have smaller families as well . The average family is going from a 2-4 children per family to a 1-2. In some cases the women lose fertility and are unable then to have children at all as well. There is report’s that many nations are not offering enough maternity leave in terms of length and money being paid out to the women during it. This has caused some women to put off having children till later in their careers. This comes into play once again the older the woman gets the less fertile she becomes. This also causes the women to lose desire to have more than one maybe two children. Some nations have begun to address this issue by offering more maternity leave benefits and/or reward larger families in other ways. None of these countries appear to be considering revising their bortion laws in attempt to overcome this issue of under population. If Europe does not get a stronghold on this issue they could be looking at a lack of 20 million workers in 2030 compared to what they have in their current work force today. Now this can be counter acted if they were able to increase their immigration. But it would need to at least quadruple to an average of almost 4 million n et entrants a year just to prevent a decline in the size of people ages 15 – 64 years old, considered the working age over the next 50 years. Soon coming as well is the large amount of people coming to retirement age within China as well. They also in some means of want to control the population within their country have cut down on how many children people are allowed. By doing this they have caused themselves issues in the fact that the work force in large abundance is reaching retirement age within their country. Without sufficient people to support those retiring I think we are going to see a huge economic crash within their workforce and communities. The real cause of under population is all speculative. Only real hard facts are that we are not producing as many children as there are people within the world. Disease, accidents, and old age are all factors to be counted in. But overall people are dying at a much higher rate than producing and if we continue down this path we won’t have the people to make up for the work force that is retiring and dying off. One thing we don’t seem to keep in mind is that even though the advances within medicine are much better today than they were 50 years ago some reason our mortality rate is much lower today than back then. I think people don’t seem to notice the changes due to the fact we are living in a more peaceful era than most of our ancestors in the last decade. In the last 30 years we have not had any world changing wars. That left millions dead and millions more homeless or handicapped for life. But still we are not reproducing at an upward rate. The cause like I said has many factors and not one can be pointed at directly. Well all of these need to be addressed we need to main address the fact that if we do not change our ways of life in the next 50 years our world will not be able to support itself. In conclusion my feeling is that we need to give women more incentive to want to reproduce and have families. We have built our world around a working family. 60 years ago the typical family was the man worked and the woman raised the kids. Today you look at our society and it says that the man and woman should both work. I feel this is the biggest factor that comes into play. It is causing women to wait longer to have children and end up having less if none. All my information from the census and numbers was from the website http://www. abortiontv. com/Lies%20&%20Myths/underpopulation. htm

Analysis of The Oath of the Horatii by Jacques-Louis David Free Essay Example, 2500 words

Soon after Napoleon s deposition, David was exiled to Brussels, where he worked for the rest of his life until his death. Throughout his lifetime, he served as an artist and propagandist influencing politics and history with the power of his paintbrush. David s artworks sensibly present the historical situations surrounding the French Revolution. Some of his artworks that glorified the revolution with views of honor, self-sacrifice, and duty include Tennis Court Oath (1792), The Death of Marat (1793), Distribution of Eagles (1810) and many more. His morally uplifting Death of Socrates (1787), archaeologically interesting Paris and Helen (1789), and the self-sacrifice themed, The Lictors Bringing to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons, were few of his notable works that gained much recognition in the later years. The theme of sacrifice to home and country is one among the recurring themes in David s paintings. Furthermore, he also made few privately commissioned portraits such as Brutus ( 1789), which had an unanticipated political significance. The pathos and aesthetic sense of his paintings brought him into the limelight, adding fame and recognition, as well as had a long-term effect and influence on French painting styles. We will write a custom essay sample on Analysis of The Oath of the Horatii by Jacques-Louis David or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page With the father holding the three swords, the three sons of Horatius swear the oath to sacrifice their lives for defending Rome.

Translating French Verbs to English Imperfect Science

This lesson is an overview of how  French and English verb  forms match up, and we illustrate points with examples: the  je  form of  prendre  (to take) and the  vous  form of  aller  (to go). Make sure you know  how regular verbs are fully conjugated  in  the simple and compound tenses and how the irregular verbs  prendre  and  aller  are fully conjugated in the simple and compound tenses. French has many different tenses and moods, which come in two forms: simple (one word) and compound (two words). Translating French verbs into English, and vice versa, can be difficult for several reasons: The two languages dont have the same verb tenses and moods.Some simple forms in one language are compound in the other.English has modal verbs  (unconjugated auxiliary verbs such as could, might and must, that express the mood of the verb that follows), but French does not.  Many verbal constructions have more than one possible equivalent in the other language, depending on the context. 1. Simple Verb Tenses Simple tenses consist of only one word. Compound tenses consist of more than one word: usually an auxiliary, or helping, word and a past participle.   Present Tense   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  je prends I take, I am taking, I do take  Ã‚  Ã‚  vous allez you go, you are going, you do go Future   Ã‚  Ã‚  je prendrai I will take  Ã‚  Ã‚  vous irez you will go Conditional   Ã‚  Ã‚  je prendrais I would take  Ã‚  Ã‚  vous iriez you would go Imperfect   Ã‚  Ã‚  je prenais I was taking  Ã‚  Ã‚  vous alliez you were going Passà © Simple (literary tense)      je pris I took  Ã‚  Ã‚  vous allà ¢tes you went Subjunctive   Ã‚  Ã‚  (que) je prenne (that) I take, me to take  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il est important que je prenne... Its important that I take...  Ã‚  Ã‚  Veut-elle que je prenne...? Does she want me to take...?  Ã‚  Ã‚  (que) vous alliez (that) you go, you to go  Ã‚  Ã‚  Il est important que vous alliez... Its important that you go...  Ã‚  Ã‚  Veut-elle que vous alliez...? Does she want you to go...? Imperfect Subjunctive (literary tense)   Ã‚  Ã‚  (que) je prisse (that) I took  Ã‚  Ã‚  (que) vous allassiez (that) you went 2. Compound Tenses As we did with simple (one-word) tenses, for compound tenses, which consist of an auxiliary verb and a past participle, we will be using examples: the  je  form of  prendre  (to take) and the  vous  form of  aller  (to go).  Remember that these are irregular verbs and that  prendre  needs  avoir  as the  auxiliary verb, while aller requires  Ãƒ ªtre.  To properly absorb this lesson, make sure you understand how to fully  conjugate compounds verbs  in every tense and mood, in particular the compound versions of the example words:  prendre  and  aller. Passà © composà ©   Ã‚  Ã‚  jai pris   I took, I have taken, I did take  Ã‚  Ã‚  vous à ªtes allà ©(e)(s)   you went, you have gone, you did go Future perfect      jaurai pris   I will have taken  Ã‚  Ã‚  vous serez allà ©(e)(s)   you will have gone Conditional Perfect   Ã‚  Ã‚  jaurais pris   I would have taken  Ã‚  Ã‚  vous seriez allà ©(e)(s)   you would have gone Second Form of the Conditional Perfect  (literary tense)   Ã‚  Ã‚  jeusse pris   I would have taken  Ã‚  Ã‚  vous fussiez allà ©(e)(s)   you would have gone The following French compound conjugations all translate to the English past perfect, because these tense distinctions, which are so important in French, arent made in English. In order to understand how the French verb forms are different in meaning and usage, please follow the links. Pluperfect      javais pris   I had taken     vous à ©tiez allà ©(e)(s)   you had gone Past subjunctive   Ã‚  Ã‚  (que) jaie pris   I had taken  Ã‚  Ã‚  (que) vous soyez allà ©(e)(s)   you had gone Pluperfect subjunctive  (literary tense)   Ã‚  Ã‚  (que) jeusse pris   I had taken  Ã‚  Ã‚  (que) vous fussiez allà ©(e)(s)   you had gone Past anterior  (literary tense)   Ã‚  Ã‚  jeus pris   I had taken  Ã‚  Ã‚  vous fà »tes allà ©(e)(s)   you had gone 3. Impersonals and Imperatives To illustrate a comparison of these  French and English verb  forms, we will again use examples:  the  nous  form of  prendre  (to take) and the  vous  form of  aller  (to go). a.  Imperatives Imperatives are a verb  mood  thats used to:   give an orderexpress a desiremake a requestoffer advicerecommend something Imperative   Ã‚  Ã‚  (nous) prenons   lets take  Ã‚  Ã‚  (vous) allez  - go Past imperative   Ã‚  Ã‚  (nous) ayons pris   lets have (something) taken  Ã‚  Ã‚  (vous) soyez allà ©(e)(s)   have gone b.  Impersonals Impersonal means that the verb does not change according to grammatical  person. Why? Because no person or other living being carries out the action.  Therefore, impersonal verbs have only one conjugation: the third person singular indefinite, or  il, which in this case is equivalent to it in English. They include expressions like  il faut  (its necessary) and weather terms such as  il pleut  (its raining). Simple impersonal conjugations: Present participle   Ã‚  Ã‚  prenant   taking  Ã‚  Ã‚  allant   going Past participle   Ã‚  Ã‚  pris   took, taken  Ã‚  Ã‚  allà ©Ã‚   gone, went Compound impersonal conjugations: Perfect participle   Ã‚  Ã‚  ayant pris   having taken  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ãƒ ©tant allà ©(e)(s)   having gone Past infinitive   Ã‚  Ã‚  avoir pris   have taken, having taken  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ãƒ ªtre allà ©(e)(s)   have gone, having gone