Study On The Objectives Of The Bse Sensex Finance Essay

Study On The Objectives Of The Bse Sensex Finance Essay BSE SENSEX is the short form of the BSE Sensitive Index. The index is widely used to measure the performance of the Indian Stock Market. It is a Market Capitalization Weighted index of 30 stocks representing a sample of large, liquid, well established and financially sound companies. The index is widely reported in both, the domestic and international, print and electronic media and is widely used to measure the performance of the Indian stock markets. The BSE Sensex is the benchmark index of the Indian capital market and one which has the longest social memory. In fact the Sensex is considered to be the pulse of the Indian stock markets. It is the oldest index in India and has acquired a unique place in the collective consciousness of investors. Further, as the oldest index of the Indian Stock Market, it provides time series data over a fairly long period of time. One of the most important attributes of Sensex is to maintain continuity with the past i.e. to update the base year av erage. The base year value adjustment ensures that the rights issue and new capital of the index scrips do not destroy the value of the index. The day-to-day maintenance of the Sensex is done by the Bombay Stock Exchange and special care is taken to include only those scrips, which pass through several filters. The Stock Exchange, Mumbai popularly known as BSE was established in 1875 as The Native Share and Stock Brokers Association. It is the oldest one in Asia, even older than the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which was established in 1878. It is a voluntary non-profit making Association of Persons (AOP) and is the first Stock Exchange in the country to have obtained permanent recognition in 1956 from the Government of India under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956. The Exchange, while providing an efficient and transparent market for trading in securities, debt and derivatives upholds the interests of the investors and ensures redressal of their grievances whether against the companies or its own member brokers. A Governing Board having 20 directors is the apex body, which decides the policies and regulates the affairs of the Exchange. The Governing Board consists of 9 elected directors, who are from the broking community (one-third of them retire every year by rotation), three SEBI nominees (Securities Exchange Board of India), six public representatives an Executive Director, Chief Executive Officer and a Chief Operating Officer. The Executive Director and the Chief Executive Officer are responsible for the day-to-day administration of the Exchange and he is assisted by the Chief Operating Officer and other Heads of Departments. OBJECTIVES The BSE Sensex is the benchmark Index of the Indian Stock Market with wide acceptance among individual investors, institutional investors and fund managers. The objectives of the index are: Æ’ËÅ" TO MEASURE MARKET MOVEMENTS Given its long history and wide acceptance, no other index matches the BSE Sensex in reflecting market movements and sentiments. Sensex is widely used to describe the mood in the Indian Stock Market. Æ’ËÅ" BENCHMARK FOR FUNDS PERFORMANCE The inclusion of the Blue chip companies and the wide and balanced industry representation in the Sensex makes it the ideal benchmark for fund managers to compare the performance of their funds. Æ’ËÅ" FOR INDEX BASED DERIVATIVE PRODUCTS Since Sensex comprises of leading companies in all the significant sectors in the economy, we believe that it will be the most liquid contract in the Indian market and will garner a pre dominant market share LISTING OF SECURITIES Listing means admission of securities to dealings on a recognized stock exchange. The securities may be of any public limited company, Central or State Government, quasi-governmental and other financial institutions/corporations, municipalities etc. The objectives of listing are mainly to: Æ’ËÅ" Provide liquidity to securities Æ’ËÅ" Mobilize savings for economic development Æ’ËÅ" Protect interest of investors by ensuring full disclosures. The Exchange has a separate Listing Department to grant approval for listing of securities of companies in accordance with the provisions of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956, Securities Contracts (Regulation) Rules, 1957, Companies Act, 1956, Guidelines issued by SEBI and Rules, Bye-laws and Regulations of the Exchange. SELECTION CRITERIA The criteria for selection and review of scrips for the BSE Sensex can be explained in the following manner: A. QUANTITATIVE CRITERIA 1. MARKET CAPITALIZATION: The Scrip should figure in the top 100 companies listed by market capitalization. Also market capitalization of each of the scrip should be at least. 0.5 % of the total market capitalization of the Index i.e. the minimum weight should be 0.5%. Since the BSE Sensex is a market capitalization weighted index, this is one of the primary criteria for scrip selection. (Market Capitalization would be averaged for last 6 months). 2. LIQUIDITY: a. Trading Frequency: The scrip should have been traded on each and every trading day for the last six months. Exceptions can be made for extreme reasons like scrip suspension etc. b. Number of Trades: The scrip should be among the top 150 companies listed by average number of trades per day for the last one year. c. Value of Shares Traded: The scrip should be among the top 150 companies listed by average value of shares traded per day for the last one year. d. Trading Activity: The average number of shares traded per day as a percentage of the total number of outstanding shares of the company should be greater than 0.05 % for the last year. 3. CONTINUITY: Whenever the composition of the Index is changed, the continuity of historical series of index values is re-established by correlating the value of the revised index to the old index (index before revision). The back calculation over the last one-year period is carried out and correlation of the revised index to the old index should not be less than 0.98. This ensures that the historical continuity of the index is maintained. 4. INDUSTRY REPRESENTATION: Scrip selection would take into account a balanced representation of the listed companies in the universe of BSE. The index companies should be leaders in their industry group. 5. LISTED HISTORY: The scrip should have a listing history of at least 6 months on BSE. However, the Committee may relax the criteria under exceptional circumstances. B. QUALITATIVE CRITERIA 1. SCRIP GROUP: The Scrip should preferably be from à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾Aà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸ group. 2. TRACK RECORD: The company should preferably have continuous dividend paying record or / and promoted by management having proven record. S P CNX NIFTY The NSE -50 Index was launched by the National Stock Exchange of India Limited, taking as base the closing prices of November 3, 1995 when one year of its Capital Market segment was completed. It was subsequently renamed S P CNX Nifty- with S P indicating endorsement of the Index by Standard and Poorà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¸s and CNX standing for CRISIL NSE Index. The S P CNX NIFTY, also popularly known as the Nifty 50, is one of the most scientific indices in India that reflects the price movement of 50 blue- chips, large cap, liquid and highly traded stocks of 23 sectors. The Nifty is managed by India Index Services Products Ltd. (IISL). The total value of all Nifty stocks is approximately 70% of the traded value of all stocks on the NSE. Nifty stocks represent about 59% of the total market capitalization. OBJECTIVES The basic idea of this index is to ascertain the movements of the stock market as a whole by tapping the news which can affect the stock. The index also averages out the good stock specific news for a few companies and bad stock specific news for others and left with the news that is common to all stocks. The news that is common to all stocks is news about India, which is the sole purpose of NSE Nifty. According to NSE, the Index was introduced with the objectives of: 1. Reflecting market movement more accurately, 2. Providing Fund Managers with a tool for measuring portfolio returns vis-a-vis market returns, and 3. Providing a basis for introducing Index based derivatives. This paper discusses Efficient Market Hypothesis (thereby referred to as EMH), seasonalities and its implications in both advanced and emerging securities markets. EMH suggests that investors cannot expect to out perform the market consistently on a risk adjusted basis (Mayo, 2003). According to Fama (1965) who developed the Efficient Market Hypothesis, an efficient market is a market where there are a large number of rational profit-maximizers actively competing, with each trying to predict future market values of individual securities, and where important current information is almost freely available to all participants. In an efficient market, competition among the many intelligent participants leads to a situation where at any point in time, actual prices of individual securities already reflect the effects of information both on events that have already occurred and on events which, as of now, the market expects to take place in the future. In other words, in an efficient marke t at any point in time, the actual price of a security will be a good estimate of its intrinsic value. On the other hand, in an inefficient market, EMH would not hold. This suggests that existence of loop holes which could be exploited to make abnormal returns by predicting market price patterns, using past price information and insider information. These market inefficiencies, also called market anomalies have received as much research work as EMH. 2. THREE FORMS OF MARKET EFFICIENT HYPOTHESIS There are three forms of market efficiency in an informationally efficient market, where prices adjust quickly and accurately to new information (Emery et al, 2007). These forms show the degree of efficiency of security markets and attempt to answer the question of how efficient a market is. (Mayo, 2003 and Keane, 1983) 2.1 Weak Form Efficiency The weak form of EMH asserts that the current price fully reflects information contained in the past history of prices only. Stock market price information is available via most means of mass communication. Thus, investors should be unable to make superior profit from use of public information i.e. daily stock market prices or company results available to all. Again, many investment bankers and financial analysts devise investment strategies using technical analysis of past data to outperform the market and their competitors, in satisfying their clients demand for superior returns. Transaction costs of trading, investment advice, analysis and commissions when considered, affects the investors return, especially for investors who continue to use traditional full service brokers (Mayo,2003) 2.2 Semi Strong Form Efficiency The semi strong form of EMH, according to Brealey et al (2006), prices reflect not just past prices but all other published information, such as you might get from reading the financial press. Similarly, Fama (1969) defined it as publicly available information with examples of announcements of annual earnings and stock splits. Semi-strong form of EMH asserts that current prices fully reflects public knowledge about the underlying companies and that efforts to acquire and analyze this knowledge cannot be expected to produce superior investment results (Lorie Hamilton 1973). 2.3 Strong Form Efficiency The strong form of EMH suggests that share prices fully reflect not only published information but all relevant information including data not yet publicly available. It also asserts that not even those with privileged information (insiders) can often make use of it to secure superior investment results (Lorie Hamilton 1973). These three forms of EMH are not independent of one another. For the market to be efficient in the semi-strong form, it must also be efficient in the weak form, because if price movements follow a predictable path which the perceptive observer can exploit profitably, the implication is that the price has reacted slowly or capriciously to published information. Likewise, for the market to be efficient in the strong form it must also be efficient at the other two levels, otherwise, the price would not capture all relevant information (Keane, 1983). He went on to state that for an inefficiency (seasonality) to be operationally significant it must be exploitable. Keane (1983) analyses four criteria an exploitable inefficiency should satisfy, these are: (a) it should be authentic supportable by properly conducted statistical research. (b) It should be identifiable-not just strategies or people that beat the market but concrete and verifiable evidence. (c) It should be material- inefficie ncies are not exploitable unless they are sufficient to compensate for the costs and risks of pursuing them. (d) It should be persistent-the value of inefficiency is not just a record of its existence in the past but that it will continue to exist in future. These criteria are very important in understanding the different types of market seasonality or anomaly, their existence, prevalence and their implications for the EMH. 3. SEASONALITIES AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE EMH Seasonalities, as the name suggests are time regularities, patterns or predictable trends. In the financial securities market, seasonalities would suggest predictable time patterns in the behaviour of the stock market-volume of stock trades, stock returns etc. If it does exist, then investors can exploit the market for superior returns in all financial securities markets. Seasonalities as defined by Alagidede (2008) are evidences of market efficiency anomalies. These are also known as seasonal anomalies (calendar effects) which may be loosely referred to as the tendency for financial returns to display systematic patterns at certain times of the day, week, month or year. Calendar effects include: January effect, the month of the year effect, monthly effect, holiday effect, Monday effect / day of the week effect, weekend effect, turn of the year effect etc. (Guo and Wang, 2007). Discussing a few of them will be worthwhile. 3.1 The January Effect The January effect is where returns are much higher during the month of January than any other month, i.e. where investors can earn a disproportionately high amount of the total annual return available from both fixed income assets and equity in January Clare et al (1995). Most research conducted in developed economies confirm the presence of the January effect, although, in more recent times they seem to be disappearing. Keim (1983) and Reinganum (1983) show that the January effect and the size effect are highly interrelated. Blume and Stambaugh (1983) discovered, after controlling for upward biases in small stock returns, the size effect was only significant in January. An extensive amount of studies has gone into the month of the year effect. Mills and Coutts (1995) concluded that stock returns are much higher in the month of January in the UK using FTSE indices between January 1986 and October 1992(FTSE 100,Mid 250 and 350 indices). Gultekin and Gultekin (1983) using 17 countries also found evidence that the January return is much higher than other months returns, Alagidede (2008) tested for month of the year effect in emerging African markets and concluded that the January effect is positive and significant for Nigeria, Egypt and Zimbabwe. However Guo and Wangs (2007) study on the emerging Chinese stock market shows that there is no significant January effect in Chinese stock market. Many researchers have sought the cause of the January effect and arrived at a number of causes which include: tax-loss selling hypothesis, provision of new information at the end of a fiscal year, firm size had the significant higher risk in the beginning of the year than the rest of the year and the systematic tendencies for closing prices to be recorded at the bid in the last traded in December and at the ask in early January (Guo and Wangs, 2007) 3.2 The Holiday Effect The definition of a holiday is relative, subjective and would vary for different countries and their capital markets e.g. Christian, Muslim, public holidays etc. One definition of a holiday looks at days, other than Saturday or Sunday, upon which the market is closed (Alagidede, 2008). Ariel (1990) used US data reports to show that the trading day prior to holidays on average displays high positive returns, this result was supported by Kim and Park (1994) for US, Japan and UK .However, Cadsby and Ratner (1992) using UK data concluded that the holiday effect was insignificant This conclusion was challenged by Mills and Coutts (1995) in their study of calendar effects using London stock FTSE indices. Coutts et al (2000) showed that the holiday effect is present in their study of the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE), although, no similar study has been undertaken on the ASE which would have been used as a basis of comparison. Their results were consistent with international evidences. 3.3 The Weekend Effect One of the most prevalent anomalies appears to be a weekend effect where stocks display significantly lower returns over the period between Fridays close and Mondays close (Arsad and Coutts, 1995). Jaffe and Westerfield (1985) examined the daily stock market returns in 4 international stock markets including, the London stock Exchanges FT30 over the period 1950 1982 and found a significant weekend effect. Consistent with Jaffe and Westerfield (1985) findings, Condoyanni et al (1987) also found the existence of the weekend effect in the UK when examining the FT30 over the period 1979 1994. Arsad and Coutts (1996, 1997) also found the weekend effect in the FT30 from the period 1935 1994, although according to their research the effect was found not to be persistent. Board and Sutcliffe (1988) examined the weekend effect in the Financial Times all share index over the period 1962 1986 and found clear evidence of a weekend effect over the sample period, with the significance of the e ffect diminishing over time. This is consistent with later research done by Dubois and Louvet (1996) on the same index for the period 1969 1992, in which negative returns was found on Monday, which are compensated by abnormal positive returns on Wednesday. Agrawal and Tandon (1994) examined the weekend effect in 18 countries including the UK and found a negative Monday return when the market rises in the previous week. Furthermore, they found the effect disappearing in 1980. Mills and Coutts (1995) found evidence of the existence of the weekend effect in the UK when the FTSE 100, Mid 250, 350 and certain of the accompanying industry baskets was examined for the period from 1986 to 1992. Ajayi et al (2004) investigated day of the week stock return anomaly, using major market stock indices in eleven eastern European emerging markets for the period 1994 2002. The results show negative and positive Monday returns in six and five emerging markets respectively, of which only two of the six show negative Monday returns and one of the five show positive Monday returns and were statistically significant. Choudhry (2000) investigated the day of the week effect in seven emerging Asian stock markets from 1990 1995 and found significant weekend effect in some of the markets considered. 3.4 The Day of the Week Effect: The day of the week effect refers to existence of a pattern on the part of stock returns, whereby these returns are linked to the particular day of the week (Poshakwale 1996). The last trading days of the week, particularly Friday, are characterised by substantially positive returns while Monday, the first trading day of the week, differs from other days, even producing negative returns (Cross 1973, Lakonishok Levi (1982), Rogalski (1984), Keim Stambaugh( 1984) and Harris (1986). In other words, this effect relates to the difference in returns across different days of the week with the variance in stock returns found to be largest on Mondays and lowest on Fridays (Raj Kumari 2006). It should be noted that the day of the week effect in emerging capital markets has not been extensively researched and the presence of such an effect would mean that equity returns are not independent of the day of the week effect against random walk theory (Poshakwale 1996). On the other hand, the inte rnational evidence of the report has been somewhat mixed. Dubois and Louvert (1996) find returns to be lower for the beginning of the week (but not necessarily Monday) for European countries, Hong Kong and Canada. However, it was observed that the anomaly disappeared in the USA for the most recent periods. Agrawal and Tandon (1994), find negative Monday returns in nine countries and negative Tuesday returns in eight countries (out of a total of nineteen countries). Several theories have been put forward regarding specific time periods anomalies in the capital market. The day of the week effect has been explained by examining various kinds of measurement errors such as: settlement period hypothesis; which attributes the day of the week effect to the settlement dates with prices higher on the pay-in days as compared to the pay-out days. Calendar time(trading time) hypothesis; implies that since Monday returns are spread across three days (Saturday, Sunday Monday), the returns should be three times as high as other days. The negative Monday returns go against this reasoning, which lead to the proposed theory that returns should be proportional to trading time as opposed to calendar time (Raj Kumari 2006). Information flow hypothesis postulates that the difference in information flow over the weekend compared to other days of the week causes the Monday effect (Dyl Maberly 1988). Often companies hold back negative information till the weekend, g iving the investors two non-trading days to absorb the information before reacting with trading activity. Consequently, all sell orders get pushed to Monday, thereby giving negative returns (Raj Kumari 2006). Retail investor trading hypothesis, suggests that negative Monday returns could be the result of individual investor trading activity (Brooks Kim 1997). It was found that trading activity is significantly lower on Monday for large size trades, while small size trades have a higher percentage of sell orders on Monday as compared to other days of the week. 3.5 Trading Month Effect The trading month effect also called the turn-of -the-month effect which was first documented by Ariel(1987) using US data shows that returns are only positive around the beginning and during the first half of trading months, whereas during the second half they are on average zero. This study was replicated by Jaffe and Westerfield (1989), for the UK, Japan, Canada and Australia, in their study. However, only Australia shows a significant monthly effect. A conflicting evidence for the UK in a report from Cadsby and Ratner (1992) shows a significant trading month effect in the FT 500. Ariel (1988) offered three explanations for the trading month effect which include: new information concerning corporate cash flows, changes in risk free rate and changes in the preferences of market participants leading to variation in demand for securities which cannot be offset by supply. Mills and Coutts (1996) investigated the this effect using a large sample of daily returns from the Financial Time s Industrial Ordinary Share Index and found that a trading month effect is present but exists for a much shorter period than has been documented by previous studies for both the US and the UK. The information release hypothesis of French(1980) was accepted as an explanation of the trading month effect, only if the unexpected release of good and bad news has a tendency to fall in the final and first days of trading months, securities would be riskier during these periods , thus justifying the higher first half returns. Context of India: Published studies that have examined calendar effects in the Indian stock market appear to be limited. Kaur (2004) reports that few studies have examined the day-of-the-week effect in the Indian stock market, and further notes the absence of studies that examine monthly seasonality in the Indian stock market. Kaur utilized two Indian stock indexes, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 30 index and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) SP CNX Nifty stock index, to examine the day-of-the-week effect and the monthly effect. Kaur did not find a January effect in the Indian stock market, but did find that March and September generated substantially lower returns, whereas February and December generated substantial positive returns. Sarma (2004) adds that very few studies have examined calendar effects during the post reform era in the Indian stock market. Sarma investigated the BSE 30, the BSE 100, and the BSE 200 stock indexes to detect the day-of-the-week effect. Utilizing Kruskal-Wallis test statistics, Sarma concluded that the Indian stock market exhibited some seasonality in daily returns over the period January 1, 1996 to August 10, 2002. Bodla and Jindal (2006) examined several seasonal anomalies in the Indian stock market utilizing the SP CNX Nifty Index for the period January 1998 to August 2005. For the monthly effect, they did find some significant differences for their sub-period, January 2002 to August 2005. However, they were unable to find any significant differences among individual months. In an earlier study, Ignatius (1998) examined seasonality in a BSE index and in the Standard and Poors 500 stock index for the period 1979-1990. Ignatius found that December generated the highest mean returns , and that April and June generated high returns in the Indian stock index. Some studies examine seasonality in the Indian stock market as part of a broader analysis of seasonality in several major emerging stock markets. For example, Fountas and Segredakis (2002) investigated monthly seasonal anomalies in eighteen major emerging equity markets, including the Indian stock market. They examined the monthly effect for the period January 1987 to December 1995. For the Indian stock market, they found August returns were significantly greater than April, May, October and November returns. However, they did not find evidence consistent with hypothesized tax-loss selling in the Indian stock market, as the tax-year in India commences in April. Yakob, Beal and Delpachitra (2005) examined seasonal effects in ten Asian Pacific stock markets, including the Indian stock market, for the period January 2000 to March 2005. They state that this is a period of stability and is therefore ideal for examining seasonality as it was not influenced by the Asian financial crisis of the late nineties. Yakob, et al., concluded that the Indian stock market exhibited a month-of-the-year effect in that statistically significant negative returns were found in March and April whereas statistically significant positive returns were found in May, November and December. Of these five statistically significant monthly returns, November generated the highest positive returns whereas April generated the lowest negative returns. Evidence of monthly seasonality in the Indian stock market is somewhat mixed. This may be, in part, a consequence of the fact that the Indian economy is in transition and is therefore constantly evolving, supporting the notion that further research into these calendar effects in the Indian stock market is warranted.

Catholic and Jewish Rituals Stemming from Sacred Texts

In the last few thousand years, various religions have made the choice to record their various stories and teachings, to eliminate the â€Å"Chinese Whispers† effect that alters the details of these important themes. These writings are often utilised by those who follow the religion as a reference point to base their rituals on. The monotheistic religions of Christianity, more specifically Catholicism, and Judaism are both largely founded in their respective sacred texts and rely on these as a story to live by that guides and directs them through their ritualistic lives.Some rituals comprised from elements in religious texts are the community worship, a day of rest and the use of bread as a spiritual symbol. The form of community worship used by Catholics is the mass. Traditionally, it occurs on Sunday morning, and it attended by the Catholics of the community (The Catholic Archdiocese of Perth, 2008). However, in more modern times, it is only the more devoted worshippers that regularly attend mass at a cathedral/church/chapel. Within the mass are many rituals comprised from bible stories, such as the reciting of the Our Father.It is in the bible when Jesus is asked how to pray by his disciples, Luke 11: 1-13 (The Catholic Youth Bible, 2004). It was here that the Messiah first prayed the most well known Catholic prayer, which is used routinely by not only Catholics, but all of Christianity. The recording of this incidence in the scared text provides a reference point for the ritual of prayer in Catholicism. Jewish peoples attend the Synogogue, where they also pray as a community. This community is split, men and women must worship separately, as combining the two genders will cause a distraction and reduce the focus the individuals may place on their prayer (Chabad. rg, 2012. During the time that is spent in the Synagogue, ritual dictates that the Torah is read at various points throughout. The Torah is made up of the five books of Moses, as it is said t hat on Mount Sinai, God tells him what to record. Among these books, are the 613 commandments. The most famous of these are referred to by the Jewish people as the 10 Statements (BBC, 2009), while Catholics name them as the 10 Commandments, as they place less importance on the other 603 than the Jewish people do.The day of rest used by Catholics originated in the book of Genesis, where it is stated that God rested on the seventh day and sanctified it (Genesis 2:2) (The Catholic Youth Bible, 2004). In present times this has been adapted to the expression, â€Å"Even God rested on the seventh day,† reinforcing the theory that this ritual of rest is still observed in modern times even by those who do not follow the religion. This day of rest is called the Sabbath and happens every Sunday. Catholics take this to mean that if even God had to rest on the seventh day, so should they.Those in Judaism also have the day of rest for the same reason, thought the scripture reference diffe rs though they call it the Shabbat and it happens from Friday at sundown to Saturday at sundown. During this time, they must fast and everyday chores and work are not executed (Judaism 101, 2011). Despite both rituals both being derived from the same text, they have branched throughout time to form the state they are both currently in, thanks to the numerous influences that have been placed on each. While, in one sense it could be said these originated from the same ‘book’, this is incorrect.Both of this sacred days began due to the direction God gave in the creation story, however, the two religions have significant difference in their sacred texts. From a Catholic perspective the story begins in Genesis 2: 1-3 (The Catholic Youth Bible, 2004), though a Jewish person would it is in Bereshit 2: 1-3. These are the same stories, being told under different names – Bereshit being one of five books of the Jewish Torah (Volker Doorman, 2008) and Genesis being one of si xty-six books in the Catholic Bible.In Catholicism, bread is used in the Eucharist in memory of the Last Supper (Luke 22: 1-23) (The Catholic Youth Bible, 2004), when Jesus gave the bread of his body and wine of his blood to his apostles to symbolise giving himself to them, as he would be the next day when he was crucified. This meal was made immortal in the painting by Leonardo Da Vinci, which is known to most of the Western World. The current significance of this painting commemorates the importance of that night to Catholic peoples.However, the bread is used on Judaism for an entirely different reason, during the Passover/Pesach (Exodus 12/ Sh’mot 12). During this time, they may not eat anything leavened, as is set out in Leviticus 23:5 (The Catholic Youth Bible, 2004). The unleavened bread, which is usually braided to form a pattern in the bread, is the only bread that they are allowed to consumed in this time. The Passover meal has enormous significance to the Jewish and Christian peoples, it marks the time that the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt by the 10 plagues sent by God.The most well known of these plagues was one that killed the first-born of the Egyptian families. The name comes from the presence of the lamb’s blood on the door, which alerted the spirit that it was not an Egyptian inside, but an Israelite – therefore it must ‘pass over’ that dwelling (Historic Jesus). The various aforementioned rituals, comprised from elements in religious texts are community worship, a day or rest and the use of bread as a spiritual symbol.They are all used by the monotheistic religions of Christianity, more specifically Catholicism, and Judaism – founded in their respective sacred texts and partially reliant on these stories as a guide and to provide direction to them through their ritualistic lives. Without the sacred texts, these religions would lack the structured way that they now operate and the true meaning of the stories would be lost among the many different tales.

Marketing strategies of Apple Inc Essay

A study on the marketing strategies of Apple Inc (Dissertation)Document 1. †A study on marketing strategy of Apple† December 2012 I †Critical Analysis of using marketing strategies of branding Apple Inc† Maha H 2. †A study on marketing strategy of Apple† December 2012 II Declaration I hereby declare that this dissertation is my own original work and is the result of my own investigations. This dissertation research was conducted to fulfill the requirements of BA (Hons) in Business Administration (Marketing) associated with University of Wales. XYZ December, 2012 3. †A study on marketing strategy of Apple† December 2012 III Acknowledgement I would like to thank a bunch of people who helped me in completion of my dissertation like: My facilitator for guidance and support throughout the dissertation. All respondents and friends for filling in the questionnaires. My family for constant support and motivation. 4. †A study on marketing strategy of Apple† December 2012 IV Abstract , computernicsconsumer electroApple Incorporation is a multinational company that creates and sells The.billionabout US$16363 stores worldwide, with global sales of, insoftware, and personal computers are mainlyiPadand theiPhone,iPodline of computers,Macintoshlikeknown products-company’s well e due to high brand awareness related to these products. Applerecognized as a source of competitive edg ,Final Cut Studio,Aperture,iWork,iLife,iTunes,Mac OS Xalso sells other branded products like, .iOSbrowser andSafari,Logic Studio The main objective of this study is to analyze the importance of using marketing strategies of branding in Apple Inc. The study will help to find out about the related benefits of branding mainly. The details of the study will help us to learn about the consumer’s awareness about the brand and how their loyalty can be increased in order to gain a competitive edge. Also, analyzing the importance of branding can help us to find out about the Apple brand’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, by using SWOT analysis tool and by using STP process, we can know how to segment the market, target the customers and position the products/services. Whereas, by using 4 Ps of marketing mix, we can find out about the branded product, its price, promotion and placement. Therefore, since the competition in the technology industry is increasing, ‘A study on using marketing strategy of branding in Apple’ will help the company in staying at the top of consumer’s mind, to cope up with the changes, to gain competitive edge, to attain goals  set by the company, to make improvements for the future related to products, its pricing strategy, communications used to promote and the placement of the product. Therefore, it will help us to evaluate whether branding will affect Apple Inc’s success rate or not. 5. †A study on marketing strategy of Apple† December 2012   Introduction 1.1 Technology Industry Wiki invest (2012) Technology states, the technology industry provides foundation for activities such as, chip production, information and communication systems, and computer systems. The companies belon ging to this industry serves as developers and manufacturers of the products which increase efficiency and production of cell phones, computers, televisions, and other communication and information systems. It is a huge industry with a high growth potential, but it is sometimes go through volatile cycles, like the semiconductor industry. As chips are getting smaller and globalization is increasing, demand for faster and efficient technology, demand for technological industry in increasing. 1.2 Introduction to Apple Incorporation Apple Incorporation is a multinational company that createst,tha,statesApple store(2012)Wikipedia 363 stores, computer software, and personal computers, selling inconsumer electronicsand sells oncompany was first foundedThe.billion in merchandiseabout US$16ide, with global sales ofworldw and thenRonald Wayne, andSteve Wozniak,Steve Jobsby, CaliforniaCupertinoApril 1, 1976 in he company was named as Apple Computer, Inc before for the first 30Ted on January 3, 1977.incorporat The company’syears. The word â€Å"Computer† was then removed from its name on January 9, 2007. Now the company’s.consumer electronicson personal computers shifted towardswastraditional focus , along with theiriPadand theiPhone,iPodline of computers,Macintoshknown products are the-best suite ofiLifemed ia browser,iTunes,)operating system(Mac OS Xother line of products including, (professionalAperture(suite of productivity software),iWorkmultimedia/creativity software, , aLogic Studioindustry),-(suite of professional audio and filmFinal Cut Studiophotography package), (mobile operating system).iOSweb browser andSafarisuite of music production tools; 1.2.1 Mission statement of Apple Inc According to Apple Inc (2012), †Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is  defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.† Another mission statement is:†Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and internet offerings.† 8. To find out about the branded product and its related price, promotion and placement and to find out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats the company may be facing.ï‚ · To find out about the benefits of branding for the company and to find o ut how branding helps to gain a competitive edge by differentiating themselves and how it increases customer loyalty and increases brand awareness. To analyze the importance of using a marketing strategies of branding for Apple Inc and to find out how STP strategies helps Apple’s brand. Toinnovateonaregularbasis. 1.2.4 Major competitors of Apple Inc Samsung, Microsoft, Dell, HP, Blackberry, Nokia 1.3 Motivations of research: As the competition in the technology industry has increased, it has become mandatory to make a study on the importance of using a marketing strategies of branding for Apple, to stay at the top of consumer’s mind, to cope up with the changing environment, to gain competitive edge, to make improvements in future and to attain goals set by the company. 1.4 Research Objectives: Toopenmorestoresevenoninternationallocationsto increase sales and dominate world market. ï‚ · Tokeepcreatingandreleasingcomputersandconsumerelectronics those are user-friendly. ï‚ · To obtain products and services within tight timeframe, at a cost providing the best value to the customers and shareholders. ï‚ ·Ã¢â‚¬ A study on marketing strategy of Apple† December 2012 2 1.2.2 Vision Statement of Apple Inc â€Å"We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great productsAccording to Apple Inc (2012), and that’s not changing. We are constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple not the t we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products thatcomplex. We believe tha we make, and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution. We believe in hat are truly important andsaying no to thousands of projects, so that we can really focus on the few t pollination of our groups , which allow us to-meaningful to us. We believe in deep collaboration and cross innovate in a way that others cannot. And frankly, we don’t settle for anything less than excellence in honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to-company,  and we have the selfevery group in the change. And I think regardless of who is in what job those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well.† 1.2.3 Objectives of Apple Inc As stated on the website Apple Inc (2012) are: 9. †A study on marketing strategy of Apple† December Does branding really contribute in making a difference in Apple Inc’s success? 1.6 Organization of Study: Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Literature Review Chapter 3: Methodology Chapter 4: Research findings, data presentation and data analysis Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendationsï‚ · How will using STP strategies, 4 Ps of marketing mix and SWOT Analysis help to enhance Apple’s brand? ï‚ · Does branding allow Apple Inc to charge premium for its products and yet maintain customer loyalty? ï‚ · Does branding allow Apple’s customer to easily recognize and recall the company and its products? ï‚ · Does branding helps Apple to differentiate its products from its competitors, by gaining competitive edge? ï‚ · Does branding allow Apple Inc to communicate company’s objectives, mission and vision clearl y to their customers? 2012 3 1.5 Research question: 1.5.1 Leading question: What benefits will Apple and its customers benefit from after using branding marketing strategy? 1.5.2 Subsidiary questions: 10. Brand recognition- is when the consumers have good knowledge of brand when they are asked questions related to a specific brand and they are able to differentiate a brand on the basis of having noticed or heard about earlier. E.g. Is I-phone related to Apple or Samsung?ï‚ ·Ã¢â‚¬ A study on marketing strategy of Apple† December 2012 4 CHAPTER 2: Literature Review 2.1 Introduction This section will provide the details about the qualitative data, providing a foundation for all the details to follow. 2.2 What is branding? According to Kotler (1999), branding is a †name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of all these that identifies the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.† Branding does not only allow your targ et market to choose your company over the competitor’s, but it helps in getting your prospects to see you as the only company that provides a solution to the consumer’s problems. It provides a company’s with a recognizable and trustworthy badge of originality, an intangible guarantee, i.e. a promise of performance that the product will meet with desired consumers’ expectations. 2.2.1 Apple’s Branding Strategy According to Marketing minds (2012), Apple Inc. uses the Apple brand to  compete across several highly competitive markets, including the personal computer industry with its Macintosh line of computers/laptops and related software, the consumer electronics industry with products such as the iPod, digital music distribution through iTunes Music Store, the smart phone market with the Apple iPhone, magazine, book, games and applications publishing via the AppsStore for iPhone and the iPad tablet computing device, and movie and TV content distribution with Apple TV. The company is also establishing a very strong marketing presence relative to the rival (Google) in the advertising market, via its business Apps and iAd network. Steve Job s, the co-Founder of Apple, described the company as being a â€Å"mobile devices company†, largest in the world as their revenues are bigger than Nokia, Samsung, or Sony’s mobile devices business. 2 .2.2 Brand Awareness It is when the consumers are familiar about the life or availability of the product. It is the degree to which consumers associate your brand with a specific product/service. As indicated by Management study guide (2012) in their article † What is brand awareness?†, Brand awareness may include of: 11. It strengthens user loyalty Apple has a branding strategy that focuses on the emotions. Apple brand’s personality is about lifestyle, imagination, liberty regained, innovation, passion, hopes, dreams and aspirations, and power-to-the-people through technology. The Apple brand personality is also about simplicity, making life easier for people as they have people-driven product design, and is a humanistic company with a heartfelt connection with its customers. 2.2.4 Apple’s Brand equity According to Investopedia, it is the premium value that the company realizes from a product with a recognizable name as compared to its generic equivalent fi rm. Companies can create brand equity for their products by making them memorable, easily recognizable and superior in quality and reliability. Also, mass marketing campaigns may help to create brand equity. Brand equity is said to be positive if the consumers are willing to pay more for a branded product than for a generic one. Brand awareness plays a key role in building brand equity. Create reliable brand image, slogans and taglines, helps to strengthen brand awareness which therefore improves brand equity. Marketing minds (2012) also states, Since Apple has strong brand awareness, it has high sales and high market share, and the consumers are well acquainted and familiar with the brand and its products. They are also  willing to pay premium price for their products, relative to the competitor’s brand due to Apple’s positive brand equity. Apple is not just intimate with their consumers but there is a real sense of community among users of its main product lines. Therefore, this also helps to create consumer’s brand loyalty (where brand loyalty is when the consumers become committed to your brand, ch oosing it over competitors and making repeat purchases over time.)ï‚ · It motivates the buyer ï‚ · It connects your target prospects emotionally ï‚ · It confirms your company’s credibility ï‚ · Helps to deliver the message clearly ï‚ · Brand recall- It allows a customer to recover a brand from his memory when given the product class/category, needs satisfied by that category or buying scenario as a signal, i.e. if they are able to recall the brand from their memory. E.g. Showing a logo of Apple’s brand, and asking which brand does this logo belongs to. 2.2.3 Apple’s brand personality As stated by About.com (2012), †What is branding and how important is it to your marketing strategy?†, a good brand helps a company to achieve these objectives: ï‚ ·Ã¢â‚¬ A study on marketing strategy of Apple† December 2012 5 12. †A study on marketing strategy of Apple† December 2012 6 2.3 Benefits of branding a company (Apple) 2.3.1 Emotional Appeal – As stated by Clarity marketing LTD (2005), emotional appeal helps a great deal in targeting customer’s emotions with product names. A strong, recognizable brand will acts like a ‘short cut’ in decision making process, as the customers don’t dither over alternatives or compare options where there is no clear point of difference, and instantly chooses your brand as they know what it stands for. For instance, as Apple manufactures technological items, the name of each product clearly reflects technological aspects like iPod touch, which indicates that it is a product that allows you to play and choose music through touch properties. It therefore, helps in creating an integrated appeal to specific emotions promoting the product recognition and sales. 2.3.2 Memorability and Familiarity – According to Marcia Yudkin (2012), brand helps to create a reputation and good will for a company. It is very hard for customers to refer to a company as â€Å"that whatsitsname store† or to refer business as â€Å"the shop from the Yellow Pages.† In addition to the company name, it gives people to give constant reminders reinforcing the identity of companies they will want to buy from. Memorability can come from the logo, its design, color, style etc which  helps to nail your company’s name in the minds of the public. Similarly, after your brand is nailed in the minds of your customers, that’s when your customers have become familiar and aware of your company’s existence in the market. Branding allows having huge effects on non-customers too. Psychologists’ studies have proved that familiarity develops liking for it. Also, the customers who have never bought from your company, may many tomes be willing to recommend your company to others even without having any personal knowledge of your products or services. Therefore, the half bitten Apple logo and the brand name ‘Apple’ help a great deal to help customers remember, be familiar and recommend the brand to others. 2.3.3 Premium image and Premium price – Branding allows a company to differentiate themselves from competitors existing in the market, because of which instead of dealing with price-shoppers the customers become eager to pay a higher price for your company’s goods and services. A strong brand let the customers associate themselves as being a company that offers premium quality, trendy products and is offering unique products that other companies are not offering. 2.3.4 Extensions – When your company’s brand is well-established, you can spread the respect you’ve earned to a related new product, service or location and win acceptance easily of the newcomer. For instance, when Apple introduced a new product extension line of Ipad, the customers trusted the brand so they didn’t feel reluctant and bought Ipads anyway, making these tablets quite popular of its kind in the market. 2.3.5 Loyalty – When customers have a positive experience with your company’s brand, they are more likely to buy your products and services again in future rather than the competitors. Customers that are closely bonded with your brand’s identity may not only repurchase what they bought earlier, but may also buy related items of the same brand, and recommend your brand to others and resist the lure of a competitor’s price cut. The brand identity helps to create and anchor such loyalty.

Analyzing the Surprise Ending in Descartes Discourse on...

Surprise Ending in Descartes In the book Discourses on the Method and the Meditations, author Rene Descartes famously questions the existence of humanity. His most famous quotation, the one for whom he is most remembered is I think therefore I am (Descartes 11). According to this idea, so long as a being has the ability to think then they existed. Animals have brains and therefore they must exist. In order to truly, exist, to be a thinking entity, a person or organism must utilize the ability granted to them by their mind. This is the focus of much of this text, the nature of existence and the line between what is true and what we only imagine or perceive to be true. For the majority of the text, the philosopher asks questions in trying to formulate his own identity and indeed whether or not he existed as all. It would be assumed that the end of the book would be a conclusion of this internal dialogue where Descartes definitively states his position on human existence. However, Descartes instead devotes the end of the text to a wholly new concept: namely he applies the question of existence to a being above humanity. At the end of the text, instead of continuing on with these questions Descartes instead discusses the idea of God and whether or not He exists. At the time of the Royal Society which Descartes was a member of, the researchers and philosophers were trying to understand everything about the world, something which actually is impossible to do. Renee DescartesShow MoreRelatedMetz Film Language a Semiotics of the Cinema PDF100902 Words   |  316 Pagestranslate Greimas s concept of actant is misleading and actant is usually kept (see Ducrà ´t and Todorov, Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Sciences of Language, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979, p. 224), and discours image when translated as image discourse is not very clear, since it is referring to film, which is made up of images. The following rough spots occur only once each: Unusual (p. 5) translates weakly insolite, which has also the connotation of strange, disquieting, surprising, unexpected