The shutdown is continued for its eighth date and the five hundred stocks went down by 0.4%. “On Monday, the Dow fell 136.34 points, or 0.9%, to 14,936.24 and the S&P 500 slumped 14.38 points, or 0.9%, to 1,676.12. The Nasdaq dropped 37.38 points, or 1%, to 3,770.38.” The investors want some kind of protection until  the shutdown ends because if this continues to October 17th, the stocks are expected to fall even more.

In my analysis, the investors does not need to worry too much on falling stocks because the third-quarter earning season is soon coming and the analysts are expecting the rise of earnings compared to last year’s. Moreover, it is obvious that the stocks go down and it is only temporary so when the shutdown is over, the stocks will go back to where they were before.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/markets/2013/10/08/stocks-tuesday/2941339/

During the lecture on financial accounting, there was a talk about Interbrand and Apple was the best global brand in 2013, surpassing Coca-cola, which has been in a first place since 2000; The reason for this is Apple’s uniqueness and variety of its products that all of the products are loved by consumers consistently. However, the rankings change every year and there is a threat to Apple in many ways. Samsung’s smartphone series are placing Samsung as a rival to Apple so it should strive towards slowing the Samsung’s momentum. Moreover, Apple should keep thinking differently so that it will not end up like a Blackberry that went out of the top 100 list this year.

Furthermore, it s always important to create new ideas and following with the trend so that it does not get forgotten by customers. For example, a huge company which sold films for camera came to bankruptcy in 2012 because it was not following the trend of digital camera. Therefore, companies have to develop to continue to have a relationship with their consumers. Otherwise, a company can be a targeted to go down in the rankings among competitive brands.

http://interbrand.com/en/best-global-brands/2013/Best-Global-Brands-2013.aspx

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/30/business/media/apple-passes-coca-cola-as-most-valuable-brand.html

Brand positioning is a really important factor to be considered when a company strives toward a better reputation among customers. For an example, Volvo is the safest car that places in consumer’s mind which makes this company to have better reputation. However, companies sometimes thinks that “you can tell a better story without actually becoming a better company.”

Companies sometimes has to listen to its critics on how to unlock the perspective of consumer’s mind. It is not always the goods and services that they have to fix but it is the opinions from the consumers that they have to listen to with an open mind. The problem with some companies is that they do not listen to the advice but tries to go against criticisms. Even though the criticism may harm the reputation in a short term it will be better for the company in a long term to listen and commit to get better. The changes companies make will be placed as a righteous company in consumer’s mind.

http://hbr.org/2013/10/dont-spin-a-better-story-be-a-better-company/ar/1

http://www.beinggeeks.com/2012/05/seo-company-succeed.html