Free To Cash Flow Per Share Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1603 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Research paper Did you like this example? Definition: Free to Cash flow also known as FCF is the cash flow available to the firm or its equity holders net of Capital Expenditures Bodie, Kane and Marcus (2009). Jensen (1986) defines FCF as cash flow remaining after all positive net present value projects are funded at the relevant cost of capital. Free to Cash Flow per Share which is a measure of a firms financial flexibility and it is determined by dividing the free cash flow by the total number of shares outstanding. Importance: The capacity of a Firm to generate Free Cash flow is one of the most key factors to consider when analyzing the firm from a fundamental point of view. Most investors are familiar with basic indicators such as the price-earnings ratio (P/E), book value, price-to-book (P/B). However Investors, who recognize the significance of cash generation, use the Cash Flow Statements of the Company. Cash flow represents the flow of cash earned (income) and spent (expenditure) in a company, and the Free to Cash Flow is regarded as a subset of the Cash Flow. The free to cash flow valuation approach is considered vital because it takes into consideration the firms capital expenditures. Companies with free cash flow that is, cash flow net of capital expenditures can increase the growth, expansion and prosperity of their company. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Free To Cash Flow Per Share Finance Essay" essay for you Create order FCF Per Share= Cash Flow- Capital Expenditure/ Outstanding Shares The Free to Cash Flow Theory: A positive Free to Cash Flow value indicates that the firm is generating more cash than is used to run the company and therefore reinvest to bring about growth in the company. A negative Free to Cash Flow value indicates either that the company is not able to generate adequate cash to maintain the business, or the company is making large investments and if these investments earn a high return, the strategy has the potential to pay off in the long run. FreeÂÂ  cash flow is very relevant because itÂÂ  provides a company the opportunity to carry out various investments that enhance shareholder value. With insufficient cash, it is difficult for a company toÂÂ  develop new products, make acquisitions, pay dividends and reduce debt. Based on this we can suggest that firms with positive or high free to cash flow, can reduce their debt or leverage levels, while firms with negative or low free to cash flow will most likely have to increase their debt or leverage levels to maintain the companys business. This is consistent with the PECKING ORDER THEORY developed by Myers (1984) and Myers and Majluf (1984), which is based on the premise that there is a strict ordering or hierarchy of sources of finance which implies that firms will have a preference for internal sources of funds followed by debt and then, when such sources are exhausted, equity finance will be used. This implies that firms with high free to cash flow, will have low leverage levels and firms with low free to cash flow will have high debt or leverage levels. JENSENS (1986) FCF HYPOTHESIS: Jensens FCF hypothesis is that firms with high levels of Cash flow will waste it on negative NPV projects. According to Jensen this is likely to arise as a result of large amount of free cash flows, i.e. cash flows in excess of the funds needed to finance all positive NPV projects. Such free cash flows should be paid out to shareholders if the firm is to maximize shareholder value. Jensen (1986) claims that the corporate restructuring move of the past decade, such as leveraged buyouts, leveraged takeovers and leveraged recapitalizations, are ways for corporations to lessen free cash flows. Increased leverage forces the firm to commit future cash flows to debt servicing, thereby reducing the discretionary cash of managers. This lowers the possibility that managers will invest in value-decreasing projects, thus enhancing value to shareholders. From this, it has been theorized that Leveraged Buyouts solve the problem by not only removing management but also the debt associated with the LBO reduces managements discretion when it comes to the cash, because when corporate resources are incompetently managed, shareholders wealth is destroyed. Lang and Litzenberger (1989) empirically test the FCF hypothesis their results provide empirical support for the FCF hypothesis. It generally explains the benefits of debts or leverage in reducing agency costs of free cash flow. The Free to Cash Flow per Share is an important company financial indicator based on the research and study above it reflects the Cash position of the firm and therefore is important to the Researcher in determining the leverage ratio or Capital Structure of the Firm and also to the Manager in its effect on the Firms Strategic Decisions, thus It is of high relevance in the Model in determining the level of leverage by the sample firms. MARKET TO BOOK RATIO Definition: Market to book ratio, is the ratio of price per share divided by book value per share. It is seen as a useful measure of value and an indicator of how aggressively the market values the firm Bodie, Kane and Marcus (2009). Market to Book Ratio= market value per share/book value per share Importance: Market to book ratio has been used severally by many researchers in analysing the Theories of Capital Structure and as an important indicator of Corporate Financial and Strategic Decisions. Market to Book ratio also called the price to book ratio and is used to determine whether the stock of a firm is undervalued or overvalued. It is most especially used as a measure of growth opportunities of the firm. A ratio above 1(one) suggests a potentially undervalued stock, while a ratio below 1(one) suggests a potentially overvalued stock. THE TRADE OFF THEORY It is generally accepted that market to book ratio, which is necessarily seen as a measure of a firms growth opportunities, is negatively related to leverage ratio, that is firms with higher market to book ratios have lower leverage based on empirical studies by Hovakimian (2004), Baker and Wurgler (2002). However some other researchers such as Long Chen and Xinlei Zhao (2006) came to the conclusion that the relationship between the market to book ratio and leverage ratio is not monotonic and can be positive or negative for various firms. The Trade off Theory- The trade-off theory is based on the premise that firms choose optimal leverage ratios by balancing borrowing costs against benefits. According to this theory, firms with higher market to book ratios also have higher growth opportunities and they intend to keep lower current target leverage ratios thus they are more likely to issue equity when they realize new investment opportunities and downwardly adjust their target leverage ratios. Long Chen and Xinlei Zhao (2006) carried out a study on the relationship between the market to book ratio and debt financing costs using corporate bond data. They made use of credit spread which is the difference between corporate bond yield and treasury bond yield of similar maturity. The credit spread data and related bond information covering the 1995- 2002 period. The purpose was to examine the relationship between credit spread and market to book ratio after controlling for other determinants. The estimation technique uses was the pooled panel regression which where were controlled for heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation. With three control variables (i) bond-specific, including bond rating and maturity; (ii) firm-specific, including size, leverage ratio, equity volatility, and equity return; and (iii) macro variables, including 3-month T-bill rate and interest rate slope (the difference between 10-year and 1-year interest rate), their conclusion was that credit spread is significantly negatively related to the market-to-book ratio. Therefore, firms with higher market to book ratios face significantly low borrowing costs, which mean the firms can borrow more, since debt is cheaper for them. These results suggest that the relationship between the market to book ratio and leverage ratio might not be monotonic (can either be positive or negative) as earlier discussed. According to Long Chen and Xinlei Zhao (2006) since the trade off theory predicts that firms choose optimal leverage ratios by balancing borrowing costs against benefits. A version of the trade off theory that is consistent with the empirical evidence in their research is as follows: Higher market to book ratios is related to lower borrowing costs. For firms with low to medium market to book ratios, the benefits from borrowing exceeds external equity issuance, and firms make optimal decisions by borrowing more. Alternatively, firms with high market to book ratios have high growth opportunities since they are faced with low borrowing costs and thus preserving low leverage target ratios becomes a major concern. They suggested that fresh insights are needed to explain the relationship between the market to book ratio, growth opportunity, and leverage ratio. The market to book ratio was also used as an indicator of growth opportunities, in a research paper by Basil Al-Najjar and Peter Taylor, based on their study of Jordanian firms they found a strong significant positive relationship between the potential growth rate, as indicated by the market to book ratio, and leverage, this explains that with high growth opportunities the firms have a preference for debt financing as a means of financing their investment opportunities. This is also evidence that the relationship between leverage and Market to book ratio is not monotonic. Based on this study of The Market to Book Ratio is very relevant in this research work and in the Model because it is an essential financial indicator for the Researcher in determining the Capital Structure or Leverage Ratio of a Firm, and for the Manager in investigating how it affects the Firms Financial Strategic Decisions.

Orlando Florida Environment and Ecology - 1102 Words

Orlando Florida Environment Ecology Introduction Orlando Florida is known worldwide for its entertainment facilities, notably Walt Disney World, Universal Theme Park and other attractions. This paper reports on Orlandos natural environment and ecology, which doesnt get the attention and publicity that the theme parks do, but in the end these natural world places are more vital to the well being of the humans and wildlife in that area of Central Florida. Orlandos Environment / Ecology The most prominent ecological feature of the Orlando area is the multitude of lakes. Some bass fishermens guides claim there are up to 2,000 lakes in the greater Orlando area, if a person counts the lakes, ponds, and potholes and sinkholes, which occur with regularity in Orlando. Officially, according to the City of Orlando there are about 97 lakes, with names like Lake Beauty, Lake Druid, Lake Fairhope, Lake Hourglass, Lake Ivanhoe, Mud Lake, Red Lake, and Lake Winvah, among many more (City of Orlando). 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Twenty-four of the described fibre cultivars have been tested simultaneously in standardized trials in the context of the evaluation of the CPRO Cannabis germplasm collection in Wageningen, the Netherlands

Security on the Internet Free Essays

string(42) " consumer database maintained by Equifax\." The Internet has had security problems since its earliest days as a pure research project. Today, after several years and orders of magnitude of growth, is still has security problems. It is being used for a purpose for which it was never intended: commerce. We will write a custom essay sample on Security on the Internet or any similar topic only for you Order Now It is somewhat ironic that the early Internet was design as a prototype for a high-availability command and control network that could resist outages resulting from enemy actions, yet it cannot resist college undergraduates. The problem is that the attackers are on, and make up apart of, the network they are attacking. Designing a system that is capable of resisting attack from within, while still growing and evolving at a breakneck pace, is probably impossible. Deep infrastructure changes are needed, and once you have achieved a certain amount of size, the sheer inertia of the installed base may make it impossible to apply fixes. The challenges for the security industry are growing. With the electronic commerce spreading over the Internet, there are issues such as nonrepudiation to be solved. Financial institutions will have both technical concerns, such as the security of a credit card number or banking information, and legal concerns for holding individuals responsible for their actions such as their purchases or sales over the Internet. Issuance and management of encryption keys for millions of users will pose a new type of challenge. While some technologies have been developed, only an industry-wide effort and cooperation can minimize risks and ensure privacy for users, data confidentiality for the financial institutions, and nonrepudiation for electronic commerce. With the continuing growth in linking individuals and businesses over the Internet, some social issues are starting to surface. The society may take time in adapting to the new concept of transacting business over the Internet. Consumers may take time to trust the network and accept it as a substitute for transacting business in person. Another class of concerns relates to restricting access over the Internet. Preventing distribution of pornography and other objectionable material over the Internet has already been in the news. We can expect new social hurdles over time and hope the great benefits of the Internet will continue to override these hurdles through new technologies and legislations. The World Wide Web is the single largest, most ubiquitous source of information in the world, and it sprang up spontaneously. People use interactive Web pages to obtain stock quotes, receive tax information from the Internal Revenue Service, make appointments with a hairdresser, consult a pregnancy planner to determine ovulation dates, conduct election polls, register for a conference, search for old friends, and the list goes on. It is only natural that the Web’s functionality, popularity, and ubiquity have made it the seemingly ideal platform for conducting electronic commerce. People can now go online to buy CDs, clothing, concert tickets, and stocks. Several companies, such Digicash, Cybercash, and First Virtual, have sprung up to provide mechanisms for conducting business on the Web. The savings in cost and the convenience of shopping via the Web are incalculable. Whereas most successful computer systems result from careful, methodical planning, followed by hard work, the Web took on a life of its own from the very beginning. The introduction of a common protocol and a friendly graphical user interface was all that was needed to ignite the Internet explosion. The Web’s virtues are extolled without end, but its rapid growth and universal adoption have not been without cost. In particular, security was added as an afterthought. New capabilities were added ad hoc to satisfy the growing demand for features without carefully considering the impact on security. As general-purpose scripts were introduced on both the client and the server sides, the dangers of accidental and malicious abuse grew. It did not take long for the Web to move from the scientific community to the commercial world. At this point, the security threats became much more serious. The incentive for malicious attackers to exploit vulnerabilities in the underlying technologies is at an all-time high. This is indeed frightening when we consider what attackers of computer systems have accomplished when their only incentive was fun and boosting their egos. When business and profit are at stake, we cannot assume anything less than the most dedicated and resourceful attackers typing their utmost to steal, cheat, and perform malice against users of the Web. When people use their computers to surf the Web, they have many expectations. They expect to find all sorts of interesting information, they expect to have opportunities to shop and they expect to be bombarded with all sorts of ads. Even people who do not use the Web are in jeopardy of being impersonated on the Web. There are simple and advanced methods for ensuring browser security and protecting user privacy. The more simple techniques are user certification schemes, which rely on digital Ids. Netscape Communicator Navigator and Internet Explorer allow users to obtain and use personal certificates. Currently, the only company offering such certificates is Verisign, which offers digital Ids that consist of a certificate of a user’s identity, signed by Verisign. There are four classes of digital Ids, each represents a different level of assurance in the identify, and each comes at an increasingly higher cost. The assurance is determined by the effort that goes into identifying the person requesting the certificate. Class 1 Digital IDs, intended for casual Web browsing, provided users with an unambiguous name and e-mail address within Verisign’s domain. A Class 1 ID provides assurance to the server that the client is using an identity issued by Verisign but little guarantee about the actual person behind the ID. Class 2 Digital IDs require third party confirmation of name, address, and other personal information related to the user, and they are available only to residents of the United States and Canada. The information provided to Verisign is checked against a consumer database maintained by Equifax. You read "Security on the Internet" in category "Essay examples" To protect against insiders at Verisign issuing bogus digital IDs, a hardware device is used to generate the certificates. Class 3 Digital IDs are not available. The purpose is to bind an individual to an organization. Thus, a user in possession of such an ID could, theoretically, prove that he or she belongs to the organization that employs him or her. The idea behind Digital IDs is that they are entered into the browser and then are automatically sent when users connect to sites requiring personal certificates. Unfortunately, the only practical effect is to make impersonating users on the network only a little bit more difficult. Many Web sites require their users to register a name and a password. When users connect to these sites, their browser pops up an authentication window that asks for these two items. Usually, the browser than sends the name and password to the server that can allow retrieval of the remaining pages at the site. The authentication information can be protected from eavesdropping and replay by using the SSL protocol. As the number of sites requiring simple authentication grows, so does the number of passwords that each user must maintain. In fact, users are often required to have several different passwords for systems in their workplace, for personal accounts, for special accounts relating to payroll and vacation, and so on. It is not uncommon for users to have more than six sites they visit that require passwords. In the early days of networking, firewalls were intended less as security devices than as a means of preventing broken networking software or hardware from crashing wide-area networks. In those days, malformed packets or bogus routes frequently crashed systems and disrupted servers. Desperate network managers installed screening systems to reduce the damage that could happen if a subnet’s routing tables got confused or if a system’s Ethernet card malfunctioned. When companies began connecting to what is now the Internet, firewalls acted as a means of isolating networks to provide security as well as enforce an administrative boundary. Early hackers were not very sophisticated; neither were early firewalls. Today, firewalls are sold by many vendors and protect tens of thousands of sites. The products are a far cry from the first-generation firewalls, now including fancy graphical user interfaces, intrusion detection systems, and various forms of tamper-proof software. To operate, a firewall sits between the protected network and all external access points. To work effectively, firewalls have to guard all access points into the network’s perimeter otherwise, an attacker can simply go around the firewall and attack an undefended connection. The simple days of the firewalls ended when the Web exploded. Suddenly, instead of handling only a few simple services in an â€Å"us versus them manner†, firewalls now must be connected with complex data and protocols. Today’s firewall has to handle multimedia traffic level, attached downloadable programs (applets) and a host of other protocols plugged into Web browsers. This development has produced a basis conflict: The firewall is in the way of the things users want to do. A second problem has arisen as many sites want to host Web servers: Does the Web server go inside or outside of the firewall? Firewalls are both a blessing and a curse. Presumably, they help deflect attacks. They also complicate users’ lives, make Web server administrators’ jobs harder, rob network performance, add an extra point of failure, cost money, and make networks more complex to manage. Firewall technologies, like all other Internet technologies, are rapidly changing. There are two main types of firewalls, plus many variations. The main types of firewalls are proxy and network-layer. The idea of a proxy firewall is simple: Rather than have users log into a gateway host and then access the Internet from there, give them a set of restricted programs running on the gateway host and let them talk to those programs, which act as proxies on behalf of the user. The user never has a account or login on the firewall itself, and he or she can interact only with a tightly controlled restricted environment created by the firewall’s administrator. This approach greatly enhances the security of the firewall itself because it means that users do not have accounts or shell access to the operating system. Most UNIX bugs require that the attacker have a login on the system to exploit them. By throwing the users off the firewall, it becomes just a dedicated platform that does nothing except support a small set of proxies-it is no longer a general-purpose computing environment. The proxies, in turn, are carefully designed to be reliable and secure because they are the only real point of the system against which an attack can be launched. Proxy firewalls have evolved to the point where today they support a wide range of services and run on a number of different UNIX and Windows NT platforms. Many security experts believe that proxy firewall is more secure than other types of firewalls, largely because the first proxy firewalls were able to apply additional control on to the data traversing the proxy. The real reason for proxy firewalls was their ease of implementation, not their security properties. For security, it does not really matter where in the processing of data the security check is made; what’s more important is that it is made at all. Because they do not allow any direct communication between the protected network and outside world, proxy firewall inherently provide network address translation. Whenever an outside site gets a connection from the firewall’s proxy address, it in turn hides and translates the addresses of system behind the firewall. Prior to the invention of firewalls, routers were often pressed into service to provide security and network isolation. Many sites connecting to the Internet in the early days relied on ordinary routers to filter the types of traffic allowed into or out of the network. Routers operate on each packet as a unique event unrelated to previous packets, filtered on IP source, IP destination, IP port number, and a f few other basic data contained in the packet header. Filtering, strictly speaking, does not constitute a firewall because it does not have quite enough detailed control over data flow to permit building highly secure connections. The biggest problem with using filtering routers for security is the FTP protocol, which, as part of its specification, makes a callback connection in which the remote system initiates a connection to the client, over which data is transmitted. Cryptography is at the heart of computer and network security. The important cryptographic functions are encryption, decryption, one-way hashing, and digital signatures. Ciphers are divided into two categories, symmetric and asymmetric, or public-key systems. Symmetric ciphers are functions where the same key is used for encryption and decryption. Public-key systems can be used for encryption, but they are also useful for key agreement and digital signatures. Key-agreement protocols enable two parties to compute a secret key, even in the face of an eavesdropper. Symmetric ciphers are the most efficient way to encrypt data so that its confidentiality and integrity are preserved. That is, the data remains secret to those who do not posses the secret key, and modifications to the cipher text can be detected during decryption. Two of the most popular symmetric ciphers are the Data Encryption Standard (DES) and the International Data Encryption Algorithm (IDEA). The DES algorithm operates on blocks of 64 bits at a time using a key length of 56 bits. The 64 bits are permuted according to the value of the key, and so encryption with two keys that differently in one bit produces two completely different cipher texts. The most popular mode of DES is called Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) mode, where output from previous block are mixed with the plaintext of each block. The first block is mixed with the plaintext of each block. The block uses a special value called the Initialization Vector. Despite its size and rapid growth, the Web is still in its infancy. So is the software industry. We are just beginning to learn how to develop secure software, and we are beginning to understand that for our future, if it is to be online, we need to incorporate security into the basic underpinnings of everything we develop. How to cite Security on the Internet, Essay examples

A Good Vacation Gone Bad Essay Example For Students

A Good Vacation Gone Bad Essay â€Å"Steven Helfer, you will not be attending this flight† were the worst words I could hear at the start of summer 2013. It was suppose to be the best summer vacation yet and everyone in my entire family was stoked. We planned months a head for it and eagerly waited for the date until we departed to the island of Turks and Caicos. It was finally the day we left and everything was running smooth the morning of our flight, until one thing that was so critical went missing. This mishap or I can say TRAGEDY caused a big delay, that I wish didn’t transpire. It was truly the best example of a good vacation gone wrong at first. It was 5 am on the day we left and I was comfy in a perfectly wrapped burrito blanket. I could already hear my mom yelling, â€Å"GET UP, WERE LEAVING AND WE ARE WAITING ON YOU† in a hurried voice. Me, not being a morning person, woke up late and I was supposed to be already out the door. I got up and Dashed through the house grabbing all my luggage, while my family waited for me in the car. â€Å"Come on! Were going to be late† is all I heard from my Dad, as I walked out and he closed the garage behind me. When I finally got in the car, my mother made sure everyone had everything and we were all set to travel as I started to doze off ignoring her. I soon woke up as my Dad was parking the car in one of the parking garages at DIA. We were already somewhat late and were basically running to the luggage check in. Everything went smoothly as normal until we had reached the security. â€Å"Passports and ID out† said the officer in charge of the checking in process. Everyone in my family pulled out their passport and then the panic began when I couldn’t find my passport. I rapidly started going through everything we currently had on and nothing. We approached the officer when it was our turn and explained what had happened, that I might have left it at the house or in the car. It was too late to turn around being that our flight took off in the next 20 minutes. I knew what had to happen and that was to let my family leave without me at that very moment. It was the saddest moment leaving my family behind, but there was still hope for me. The officer said if I had left my passport at home then I can still catch a flight the next day, being that there aren’t many flights to the destination I was headed to. I got the keys to the car and left the airport on my long journey. When I arrived I began frantically looking for the passport and there it sat. It was on my floor in my room and boy was I happy, but still sad this all happened because of my forgetfulness. I decided to get some rest and I even woke up 2 hours before I even had to be at DIA. When I got to DIA the weather was so traitorous, they had to cancel my flight till later that night. My patience was at an all time low and time was my worst enemy. I sat down on an uncomfortable airport chair and slowly dozed off until the sound of my Iphone’s alarm was blaring through my ear via headphones. It was time to board the plane and my happiness was unbearable. As a long story short, we had a great vacation on the beautiful island of Turks and Caicos and everything worked out.

Fashion Marketing free essay sample

If illness or other serious problem prevents you attending college to submit your work on the deadline, contact your tutor to arrange to hand in the work and complete an extenuating circumstances form, with documentary evidence. NB Details of extenuating circumstances procedures and the form can be found in the policies and procedures section of your handbook †¢ Referral/Re-Submission Should you fail to attain the required standard, you must submit a new or amended piece of work in order to pass the unit. Under these circumstances, you will be notified of the requirements and the dates and times for re-submission by post or via tutorial. †¢ Work that shows evidence of plagiarism (copying someone else’s work) will be referred. You will be required to submit another piece of work, which will gain no more than a Pass grade, and disciplinary procedures may be instituted. London College of Fashion Graduate Certificate in Fashion Marketing FEEDBACK SHEET Unit Title Principles of Fashion Marketing Credit Rating 20 Staff Responsible Edwin Phiri STUDENT: A A Haseeb Uddin Project/Assignment title Marketing Plan Level 3H – Graduate Learning outcomes Define marketing concepts and their significance in contemporary fashion marketing †¢ Identify and explain fashion marketing segmentation targeting and positioning †¢ Critically evaluate consumer buying behaviour and the marketing approaches developed to meet consumer requirements †¢ Describe and explain the role of fashion public relations and other promotional techniques in communicating fashion to consumers †¢ Grade Feedback against Learning outcomes Outstanding definitions of marketing concepts and their significance in contemporary fashion clearly discussed in the report Excellent discussion regarding segmentation, targeting and positioning techniques for the selected range. We will write a custom essay sample on Fashion Marketing or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Outstanding information supplied and discussed in relation to market approaches in order to meet the consumer requirements. Very good information illustrated in the report regarding communicating with customers 86% / Distinction Additional comments: Haseeb, you have presented a very well balanced report between theory and practised that was a marvel to read. You have made specific, clear and what seems to viable and achievable suggestions and backed them with the relevant facts and figures. The standard of writing is very good and the discussion is easy to follow punctuated by headings and sub-headings to guide the reader. Harvard style was well used. Tutor’s signature (Edwin Phiri) Date 19 June 2006 IV signature where applicable Marketing Plan Exploring the potential of Children’s Wear Online Retailing in Pakistan By Abu Adham Haseeb Uddin Tutor: Edwin Phiri Principles of Fashion Marketing Graduation Certificate in Fashion Marketing London College of Fashion Marketing Plan for Retailing in Pakistan Online Children Wear Online Introduction: The application of a range of techniques and a business philosophy that centres upon the customer and potential customer of clothing and clothing related product, promoting a lifestyle and services is called fashion marketing (Easey, 2003). Likewise, the management of the objectives set to be achieved by the means of advertising and other promotional activates for fashion can also be defined as fashion marketing (McDonald, Dunbar, 1995). Fashion Marketing according to Morden (1995) is the most important managerial task within the organization of understanding the needs of the customer in the marketing in the light of fashion context (Morden, 1995). Looking reflexively into the above statements, fashion marketing is dominant and regards the designer or marketer as someone who must respond to the specification of customer requirement as established by marketing research. It is also argued that marketing constraints have strangled the creative aspects of design (Easey, 2003). Identifying a marketing opportunity requires extensive research in the target area of the proposed plan. Any action taken must start from an understanding of the market, and must work back from this to production. The first step in establishing a sustainable buyerseller partnership is therefore to establish the level of demand for the product, and to confirm that this demand will not disappear at least in the short term (Morden, 1995). The usage of Internet has revolutionalized the companies approach to target their customers and offer product in a more accessible way. Internet is now an essential element of every individual, who intends to work efficiently and resourcefully. The Internet has extensively changed the way people live or contemplate their lifestyle. In the recent years, online retailing has become an important channel of promotion and 1 of 15 distribution to fragmented markets. The Online retailing has proved to be more effective and more profitable approach for every kind of business. Similarly, Internet marketing has had a large impact on several industries including the fashion industry all over the world (Smith, Chaffey, 2001). The Internet has also become an indispensable tool in the fashion-marketing context. The use of the Internet has allowed fashion brands/retailers to establish a presence on the World Wide Web prior to a potential future transactional website. The Internet allows companies to penetrate into international, even global market without the costs associated with this strategy. Many children wear fashion houses (Mother Care, MS, Johnson Johnsons, etc) have crossed international boundaries and therefore provide opportunities for international marketing communications for global fashion brands (Easey, 2003). â€Å"A rapidly growing number of consumers are online and while there, many are shopping and buying. Even so, the sentiment surrounding e-retailing has gone from one of all blue skies and unlimited possibility to one that may more accurately reflect the business realities of e-retelling’s future. E etailing has become an accepted mode of retailing† (Whitfield, 2003). Online retailing is a type of marketing that can be defined as achieving objectives through the use of electronic communications technology such as Internet, e-mail, E-Books, database, and mobile phone. It is a more general term than online marketi ng, which is limited to the use of Internet technology to attain marketing objectives (Yips, 1989). 2 of 15 Marketing Proposal The Marketing Plan Aims to develop an online retailing model based of the marketing mix focusing on the customer (people), channel/online retailing content (place), cost effectiveness (price) and promotion (online and offline). The essence of this proposed model is based on the idea that it will create increased revenue and cost effectiveness for both consumer and the online fashion e retailing in Pakistan. The fashion marketing mix is the range of variables that can be controlled by the fashion marketer to meet the needs of buyer’s profitability. The marketing mix is getting the right product to the chosen market segment at the correct time, in the right place, and for the right price (Easey, 2003). Morden (1995) discusses Marketing mix as the combination of detailed strategies; tactics; operational policies, programmes, techniques and activities, to which resources may be allocated such that the company’s marketing objective can be achieved. The marketing plan focuses to implement an Online Retailing model to a Children Wear and accessories outlet for the age group of 0 – 6 . The marketing plan encompasses, from online shopping to the delivery of the product. In 1998, census conducted by the Government of Pakistan resulted that Pakistan’s total population then was approximately 134 million. However with in the next eight years, the population growth rate per annum came to an average of 2. 75% resulting in an approximate present population of Pakistan to 158 million. Out of the 158 million population of Pakistan, on average, a total of 13% of population belongs to the age group of 0 – 6. This results in almost 20. 4 million children who are living in the urban areas of Pakistan only (Federal Bureau of Statistics Pakistan, 2004). This only gives us a rough idea as how lucrative the business model may be ascertained and the potential this market possesses. According to the All Pakistan Internet 3 of 15 Association, by the end of 2005, the individual Internet usage has topped more then 8 million users all over Pakistan, at more then 109 destination (APIA, 2005). In the past few years, online retailing has had a successful penetration as a marketing tool in Pakistan. Initially the online retailing sector was used by the banking sector only. But in the past two years, the online marketing is penetrating in other businesses. Most of the companies, which are using the Internet as a marketing tool, are from the Automobiles, Electronics or service-based industry. None of the Fashion related companies have been using the Internet for online retailing or at least for the marketing of their products. However, a niche segment of the Internet users of Pakistan, look online for new fashion products but because of scarcity of Fashion House Website’ unavailability, they have to look into fashion houses in different countries. Even though the Internet usage in Pakistan is now constantly increasing day by day, people have not been able to successfully take complete advantage of the facility. The online retailing is Pakistan has yet to be explored especially in the discipline of Fashion Marketing. The retailers’ use of Internet as marketing and retailing tool has given them a great leap in their advancements. Because of the Internet, the retailers can make a huge cost difference in marketing and selling their products. The most ideal feature for the details is that the Internet has ended all geographical boundaries (Morden, 1995). Online retailing is similar to agricultural-age marketing, with direct recurring relationships between consumer and producer but with lower costs (Sheth, J. N. , Sisodia, R. and Sharma, A. 2000). 4 of 15 Environmental Analysis of the Proposal In order that marketing activities such segmentation, targeting and positioning are carried out effectively and efficiently, the company needs to make an analysis of the environmental in which it operates. This is called the environmental analysis. The company has an internal (micro) and external (macro) environment. Factor with in the internal environment can be easily controlled or manipulated by the company to suit its immediate control and are therefore are termed as ‘uncontrollable factors’ and quite unpredictable therefore constant monitoring and evaluation is important (Morden, 1995). SWOT Analysis SWOT analysis is the micro level environmental analysis tool which assesses the internal factors that would affect its marketing activities and there for competitive position. Morden (1995) discusses SWOT analysis as a tool for auditing an organization and its environment. It is first stage of planning and helps marketers to focus on key issues. SWOT Analysis considers both internal and external factors about either the whole company or a particular fashion product line or range in relation to customers, competitors and trends in the marketing environment (Easey, 2003). The identification of the key strategic issues is one of the most outcomes of the SWOT analysis, which is later, fed particularly in marketing objectives to achieve the goals. Strengths The retailing model that has been proposed, is already working in Karachi in the shape of children wear and accessories outlet. The business is being operated successfully for the past 15 years. This gives an extreme amount of experience broadly, as what are the products, which are required to fulfil the needs of children of the age group of 0 – 6. The available experience will help jumpstart the categorization of the products from the daily usage commodities to products used occasionally and used on special occasions. 5 of 15 Since the business has been in successful operation for the past 15 years, a strong customer loyalty has been established. In addition, none of the other fashion houses in Pakistan are using the internet as marketing or retailing tool, therefore it gives an advantage as the first to use the technology in the Fashion Market of Pakistan. In order to minimize internal and external threats, measures will be taken to offer more wider range of products, better quality of the products and low pricing will be introduced. Weakness Specifically in Karachi, there are many outlets who deal exclusively in children wear and accessories. Therefore pricing and delivery of the product are addressable issues. It is very interesting to find out that Online Retailing in Pakistan is now being used more then ever it has been, however shopping over the Internet has not been accepted in the general public domain due to some logistical factors. These logistical factors include the delivery of the products to the consumers and most importantly, less number of people holding Credit or Debit Cards, which can be used over the internet. How ever measures such as setting up a delivery procedure and an alternative payment method may be inducted to address such issues. Opportunities Even though the Internet usage in Pakistan (especially in Karachi) is now constantly increasing day by day, people have not been able to successfully take advantage of the facility. Very few companies in Pakistan have shown interest in setting up any electronic form of marketing and selling approach. The Apparel industry in Pakistan has hardly used the Internet as a form of marketing tool. The Online Retailing concept has yet to be explored in Pakistan, especially in the fashion industry. Currently there are many individual outlets in Karachi, who deals in the retailing of Children Wear and Accessories and some of them also have chain of outlets in Karachi and some urban areas of Pakistan. Even having chain of retail outlets, none of them 6 of 15 provide services to the customers such as online retailing or delivery services. Where as the proposed plan, provides both from shopping online to the delivery of the products. If the proposed plan is success in Karachi, it shows significant evidence that it can be expanded to other urban cities of Pakistan too. Therefore an opportunity to expand the business to the rest of the Pakistan exists. Threats As mentioned above, other business retailers in Pakistan who also specializes in the children wear and accessories are also operating, (in some cases, more then one city in Pakistan) they can be of a direct threat even when they are conducting their business offline, as they may offer competitive pricing and offers. Therefore it is very important to keep a close watch as what are they offering to their customers and at what price. 7 of 15 PEST Analysis The PEST Analysis is the acronym for Political, Economical, Social and Legal factors which is concerned with the environmental influences on a business. Identifying the PEST influences is a very useful way of summarising the external environment in which a business operates. How ever, it must be followed up by consideration of how a business should respond to these influences (Morden, 1995). Although the business is already established as a retail outlet in Karachi, PEST analysis may influence the implementation of the proposal. Political and Economical Environment: Even the textile and apparel sector of Pakistan are the main export products of Pakistan, a number of products (especially children accessories) are imported from other parts of the world. The national and local government policy changes can have effect over availability and the pricing of the products which will be imported from other countries. The financial health of the economy and other economic factors can have direct impact over the spending of the customers. Therefore once again, the pricing policy of the product will be required to review as the economical and political factors change. Legal Environment: Legal restriction and legislation can play a very important role in profitability of any business. Therefore the legal issues may be taken into account before executing the proposed plan (Morden, 1995). The legal issues majorly include purchase licence of Telecommunication and server equipment, for which the respective department of the Government of Pakistan shall be contacted. Since the proposed business is already in operation complying with all the legal obligations to operate, therefore no others legal issues should be of concern. 8 of 15 Technological: Technological factors can provide both threats and opportunities. Organizations are expected to keep up to date with changes and new equipments (Easey, 2003). One of the most technological factors that can pose a threat is that the overall Internet and telecommunication Infrastructure in Pakistan is weak, which might result in connectivity problems from the end user to the onlin

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