APPRAISAL OF ASSET VALUATION AS A TOOL FOR MARKETING BUSINESS

APPRAISAL OF ASSET VALUATION AS A TOOL FOR MARKETING BUSINESS
 
ABSTRACT
The success or failure of any business depends largely on the marketing function. It also provides a vital interface between the organization and its environment. Similarly every investment has some "opportunity cost", since each involves the owner foregoing some alternative. Similarities notwithstanding, there are great many differences among investments. They differ as to the nature of economic activity, the magnitude of the outlay, asset type/class and otl mundane issues as location and identity of owners. To this effect, financial theorists and market analysis have developed many techniques to evaluate and market specialized product of this nature. As for market analyst, asset valuation is to aid the marketing of businesses eitherin part or in whole In an effective and efficient manner. Therefore the concept of value and the different valuation methods like, book value, earnings potential, market value must be accorded its prime place in the course of evaluation, This must also be considered alongside the marketing objectives, investor's preferences and the operating environment: economic, social/political, legal and other components of the environment. However, it is important to remember that no single approach will ever give the 'right" answer. To a large extent the appropriateness of any method depends on the evaluator and the prevailing circumstances. Therefore, the purpose of this study is not to arrive at 'the answer' but lay a solid foundation for a market to identify critical variables for a target buyer and develop realistic scenarios to enable him establish a 'value' for the assets. This definitely would lead to the attainment of marketing objectives in an efficient and effective manner.
 
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Marketing is perhaps the most dynamic, complicated and challenging, function of business. Especially having regard to the specialized nature of financial assets (securities) marketing. Indeed, more and more discerning financial institutions are recognizing that a detailed and objective appraisal of the assets (securities) is a pivotal determinant of investor/investment success in the marketing of financial products and services.
The success or failure of any business depends largely on the marketing function. It also provides a vital interface between organization and the environment. Service should run through an organization like blood through a body.
Service marketing is a deliberate and systematic planning and execution of a set of rational activities designed to satisfy end users of intangible products. Service marketing is concerned with the happiness satisfaction and pleasure given by the representative of an organization to the consumer of intangible goods.
Peter Drucker insightfully observed that a company's first task is "to create customer." But today's customers face a vast array of product and brand choices, prices, and suppliers. Then the question: How do customers make their choices?
Customer’s estimate, which offers, will deliver the most value. Customers are value maximizes, within the bound of search costs and limited knowledge, mobility, and income. They form an expectation of value and act on it. Then they learn whether the offer lived up to the value expectation and this affects their satisfaction and their repurchase probability.
Total customer value can then be seen as a bundle of benefits customers expect from a given product or service. Therefore customer's delivered value would then be the difference between total customer value and total customer cost.
One of the entrepreneur's critical tasks is determining value. This is important not only for the individual about to purchase a company, but also for the entrepreneur who is starting a firm, and is attempting to estimate the value of the business may have in the future. Finally, understanding value is a key step for the entrepreneur about to harvest a venture, either through sale or taking the business public, Financial theorists have developed many techniques, which can be used to evaluate a going concern of course, for a large public company; one could simple take the market value of the equity. For a going concerning with along history of audited financials, earnings and cash-flow projections are possible. But the valuation of a small, privately held business is difficult and uncertain at best.
If the hurdles can be scaled one way or the other, we still have to contend with characteristic nature of all investments where they all look alike, in the sense that every investment involves the outlay of resources in the expectation of future benefits.
Similarly, every investment has some "opportunity cost", since each involves the owner foregoing some alternative opportunity. Similarities notwithstanding, there ate a great many differences among investments.
They differ on basic issues such as the nature of economic activity involved, the magnitude of the outlay, etc and on such superficial issues as the geographical location of the activity or the identity of owners, Such differences give rise to various classifications of investments.
The fundamental basis for classifying financial assets is the intrinsic nature of assets in which the outlay is denominated. Conceptually, there are many ways of analyzing the nature of assets, for example whether the investment is in tangible assets such as buildings, or in intangible assets such as advertising. However, the basic distinction which we make in this project is between investment in real assets and investment in financial assets (securities). Both types of investments can further be classified on the basis of a number of parameters:
(a) Magnitude of outlay:
Major investments could be distinguished from minor investments. In investment outlay, size is relative. An investment is major or minor depending on the relative proportion of the outlay to the total size of the firm. Thus whereas an investment of N20000 could be considered a minor investment by a firm capitalized at NZOO million, it is very major investment to a small firm with total assets valued at N40000.
(b) Risk environment of Financial Assets:
A distinction is made between investment under conditions of certainty, investments under conditions of risk, and investments under conditions of uncertainty.
(c) Motivation for investment in the asset
A distinction could be made among investments for asset replacement, capacity expansion or modernization, and investments for strategic purposes.
(d) Sequencing of Cash Flows
Conventional investments are distinguished from non conventional investments on the basis of the timing and sequencing of cash flow arising from the investment.
(e) Nature of expected benefits
A distinction exists between cost saving and revenue yielding, real asset investment, The former is illustrated by a firm that replaces old equipment in the hope of cutting operating costs over the life of the new equipment, In a revenue expansion programme, on the other hand, funds are invested in order to increase gross revenue either through additional sales volume or through increased price per unit of sales.
When evaluating a cost-saving investment, the value of total costs saved is compared with the additional investment made. In the latter situation, the investor would have to compare the increased costs with the additional sales revenue realized.
(f) Relationship to other investments
The costs and benefits of a given investment may or may not be affected by alternative investments. In this regard, dependent investments are different from independent investment activities.
Distinction among investments is necessary for meaningful investment evaluation because various types of investments raise different problems. A major investment requires detailed evaluation and the dlrect attention of the top level executives of a corporation. Conversely minor investments could be appraised superficially at low levels of an organization.
Similarly, knowledge of the economic status of an investor influences the nature of costs and benefits relevant for appraising his investment, For example, the cost/benefit implications of a given investment could be different if it is sponsored by the government than if the same investment is made by an individual. Proper classification of an investment is therefore a necessary first step in its appraisal and management.
Every investment activity has definite or implied costs and benefits. In business organizations, the ultimate consequences of investment activities are expressed in terms of cash flow, i.e., the receipts (cash inflow) or payment (cash outflow) of cash by an organization. Within a period, a typical organization makes a series of cash payments and receives a series of cash benefits. Where the cash inflow of a period exceeds the outflow, one talks of net cash inflow.
Conversely, a situation of net cash outflow exists where the outflow of a period exceeds the inflow. There are instances however, where the costs or benefits of an investment cannot be described solely in terms of cash flow. A firm for example can donate to a charity for the purpose of improving its public image.
In such a case, there is some difficulty in expressing the future goodwill which accrues from the donation in precise money terms. A similar analogy applies to a firm which donates generously to a political campaign In the hope of winning government patronage if the favored political or political party comes to power.
Investments whose costs and benefits are difficult to measure in terms of cash flow abound in non-profit making organizations in both the private and public sectors. The cost/benefits implications of government investments are not generally easy to quantify in monetary terms. A highway, for example, has direct monetary costs, such as constructions and maintenance costs, and many indirect social costs, such as providing an easy escape to criminals, more accidents, disfigurement of the landscape, noise, pollution, etc. Similarly, the benefits of such a highway accrue both in monetary and non-monetary forms. Even in government business enterprises there are several benefits which do not accrue in direct monetary forms. For instance, a government could decide to set up an under-productive factory in a depressed section of the community for the purpose of increasing local employment opportunities.
Financial assets are the 'promissory notes' of various economic units (government, business firms, etc), which represent claims on the productive assets of the issuers. Investments in such assets could be categorized either on the basis of the variability of the price of the financial assets or on the basis of the nature of income expected from the assets.
In terms of the former, a distinction is made between investments in fixed price and in variable price financial assets. Fixed price financial assets are very liquid and virtually risk free because their money values do not change with time. Examples are deposits in bank savings accounts and investments in government savings bonds.
Returns on such investments are relatively low and should really be seen as compensation for potential loss in the real value of the assets over time. Fixed price financial assets are unusual media for investment. They are mentioned for purposes of complete analysis. The bulk of investments in financial assets are in the form of variable price financial assets such as government and corporate securities. Security prices fluctuate in response to changes in the environment. Such price fluctuations create opportunities for potential capital gains or losses when others sell their securities.
The basic difference between investment in securities and investment in real assets is that an individual security holder does not necessarily exercise direct control over the firm whose security he holds. Possible exceptions arise where an investor is the majority equity shareholder. A majority shareholders can use the might of his voting power to control the affairs of the firm. In that case, however, the distinction between real and financial asset investment tends to be very narrow indeed.
The nature of rights and control exercised by a security-holder depends ultimately on the type of security held. In that connection, rights inherent in fixed income securities are different from those of variable income securities.
Fixed income securities are debt instruments (bonds), which provide for specific rates of money income to holders. Bonds are issued by various types of business organizations (corporate bonds), by federal and state governments (government development stocks or bonds), or by local government or municipal authorities (municipal bonds). In general, bond holders have two types of claims on the issuers. The first is alright to full repayment of the nominal value of the bond at maturity. The other is a right to periodic interest at a specified rate of the principal amount payable in accordance with conditions stipulated in the bond indenture, both claims are unconditional.
Investments in fixed income securities are presumed to have very limited degrees of risk. Consequently, they attract low rates of return. Unfortunately, the purported safety of investment in bonds is, at times, illusory. The sophisticated investor is more interested in the real values of expected income than in the money values of such income. Fixed income securities could, in fact, expose holders to variable real incomes particularly during inflationary periods. In addition, both interest payments and the repayment of principal are in some cases compromised where the bond issuer is faced with long periods of irrecoverable losses.
The purported safety of fixed income securities therefore depends both on the ability of issuers to generate adequate income to cover the claims and on the ability of the macro-economy to operate at stable price levels.
Variable income securities are equity stock (shares) by various types of business organizations. Returns on such securities, for any given period, depend on profit performance of the issuer for the period. They are therefore subject to a great deal of variability. Both the primary attraction and the greatest danger of investment in equity stock arise from this feature of variability of income. In periods of economic boom and rising corporate profit performance, equity stock holders reap windfall returns.
Conversely, they receive the greatest losses during periods of depressed economic conditions. Other attractions of investment in equity stock arise from rights of corporate ownership inherent in such investments. Equity stock holders have rights designed to attract and retain their interest in the corporation.
Apart from the right to share in residual corporate income, other examples of attractive rights enjoyed by equity holders include the right to a pro-rata share of corporate assets in liquidation, and voting rights, The other group of rights is the protective rights which protect the interest of equity stock holders, They include the right of transfer ownership interest, the right of prior consideration in subscribing to additional issues of equity stock, and the right to inspect corporate books.
Hybrid securities make up the last group of securities. They are hybrid because such securities have some features of fixed income securities and some characteristics of variable income securities. While the expected income of a hybrid security is basically a percentage of the value of the security, the payment of such income is contingent on the profit performance of the issuer. A typical example of a hybrid security is preferred stock (preference shares). Preferred stocks are unpopular media for financial assets investment, particularly, in developing economies. The reason is that they neither offer the chance of large profits like equity stock nor the guarantee of steady money income which could compensate for the shortcoming.
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
It has always been difficult marketing businesses because of the technical and many other complex issues involved in the exercise. The use of valuation models will no doubt reduce the difficulty, if the approaches to the valuation of assets/businesses and their appraisal are common knowledge.
Therefore there is the need to appraise valuation in a way that would bring about an understanding of the concept to both the marketer and the consumer/investor.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
To tackle the above problem, the research objectives are:
1.   Establishing the concept of value and valuation, on the business as a financial product (service). X-ray analytical methods what would facilitate an understanding of assets and business valuations.
2.   Develop an effective and result oriented marketing programme for business sales.
3.   Integrate the 4 P's of marketing in assets valuation models.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.   What are the main approaches to the valuation of  assets/business and how are they appraised?
2.   How would a marketer develop a marketing programme that can influence and benefit a potential investor or purchaser?
3.   How can financial services provider/marketer in the context of marketing for businesses improve their product offering, to ensure optimum benefits to financial services consumers; for assets/business valuation and purchase?
HYPOTHESIS
Effective valuation of assets/business is critical to marketing
of businesses.