Exam 17: Price Setting in the Business World

A producer makes an item for $32 and sells it with a 50 percent markup to a wholesaler. The wholesaler then applies a 20 percent markup. A retailer then uses a 60 percent markup. The final retail selling price is:

When the end benefit of a purchase is significant to the customer, he is likely to be less price sensitive.

Most retailers and wholesalers set prices by using a different markup percent for each different product carried.

In which of the following cases will profit be maximized?

Alex's Knot Shop prices its ties at $5 intervals from $10 to $25 because most customers find these prices appealing and easier to compare. This is:

Regarding "full-line pricing," which of the following statements is TRUE?

Randy Todd, marketing manager for Sporting Products, Inc. (SPI), is thinking about how changes taking place among retailers in his channel might impact his strategy. SPI sells the products it produces through wholesalers and retailers. For example, SPI sells basketballs to Wholesale Supply for $8.00. Wholesale Supply uses a 20 percent markup and most of its "sport shop" retailer customers, like Robinson's Sporting Goods, use a 33 percent markup to arrive at the price they charge final consumers. However, one fast growing retail chain, Sports Depot, only uses a 20 percent markup for basketballs, even though it pays Wholesale Supply the same price as other retailers. Furthermore, Sports Depot occasionally lowers the price of basketballs and sells them at cost-to draw customers into its stores and stimulate sales of its pricey basketball shoes. Sports Depot is also using other pricing approaches that are different from the sports shops that usually handle SPI products. For example, Sports Depot prices all of its baseball gloves at $20, $40, or $60-with no prices in between. There are three big bins - one for each price point. Todd is also curious about how Sports Depot's new strategy to increase sales of tennis balls will work out. The basic idea is to sell tennis balls in large quantities to nonprofit groups who resell the balls to raise money. For example, a service organization at a local college bought 2,000 tennis balls printed with the college logo. Sports Depot charged $.50 each for the tennis balls-plus a $500 one-time charge for the stamp to print the logo. The service group plans to resell the tennis balls for $2.50 each and contribute the profits to a shelter for the homeless. Todd is not certain if Sports Depot ideas will affect SPI's plans. For example, SPI is considering adding tennis racquets to the lines it produces. This would require a $500,000 addition to its factory as well as the purchase of new equipment that costs $1,000,000. The variable cost to produce a tennis racquet would be $20, but Todd thinks that SPI could sell the racquet at a wholesale price of $40 each. That would allow most retailers to add their normal markup and make a profit. However, if Sports Depot sells the racquet at a lower than normal price other retailers might decide to carry it. By pricing below other retailers, Sports Depot apparently:

Average cost is obtained by dividing:

When setting prices, the marketing manager should consider the firm's demand curve, or else the price may not even cover the firm's total cost.

A CVS drugstore that is trying to attract customers by advertising a special bargain price on a popular brand of cold remedy during the cold season is using:

In a down economy, a local florist surveys her customers to determine the amount they feel comfortable spending for a bouquet of flowers. Then she displays bouquets costing that exact amount in her refrigerated case. This is an example of:

Which of the following is a TRUE statement about markups?

Marginal analysis focuses on the changes in average fixed cost per unit and average variable cost from selling one more unit to find the most profitable price and quantity.

Sellers sometimes take the auction approach and adapt it by using sequential price reductions over time. When or where is this approach most commonly used?

Setting prices by adding a "reasonable" markup to a firm's average cost is called:

Which of the following statements concerning "negotiated price" is FALSE?

The idea that people will pay extra for "quality" and status is the idea behind

Average-cost pricing works well if the firm actually sells the quantity which was used in setting the price, but losses may result if actual sales are much higher than were expected-due to higher total variable costs.

Randy Todd, marketing manager for Sporting Products, Inc. (SPI), is thinking about how changes taking place among retailers in his channel might impact his strategy. SPI sells the products it produces through wholesalers and retailers. For example, SPI sells basketballs to Wholesale Supply for $8.00. Wholesale Supply uses a 20 percent markup and most of its "sport shop" retailer customers, like Robinson's Sporting Goods, use a 33 percent markup to arrive at the price they charge final consumers. However, one fast growing retail chain, Sports Depot, only uses a 20 percent markup for basketballs, even though it pays Wholesale Supply the same price as other retailers. Furthermore, Sports Depot occasionally lowers the price of basketballs and sells them at cost-to draw customers into its stores and stimulate sales of its pricey basketball shoes. Sports Depot is also using other pricing approaches that are different from the sports shops that usually handle SPI products. For example, Sports Depot prices all of its baseball gloves at $20, $40, or $60-with no prices in between. There are three big bins - one for each price point. Todd is also curious about how Sports Depot's new strategy to increase sales of tennis balls will work out. The basic idea is to sell tennis balls in large quantities to nonprofit groups who resell the balls to raise money. For example, a service organization at a local college bought 2,000 tennis balls printed with the college logo. Sports Depot charged $.50 each for the tennis balls-plus a $500 one-time charge for the stamp to print the logo. The service group plans to resell the tennis balls for $2.50 each and contribute the profits to a shelter for the homeless. Todd is not certain if Sports Depot ideas will affect SPI's plans. For example, SPI is considering adding tennis racquets to the lines it produces. This would require a $500,000 addition to its factory as well as the purchase of new equipment that costs $1,000,000. The variable cost to produce a tennis racquet would be $20, but Todd thinks that SPI could sell the racquet at a wholesale price of $40 each. That would allow most retailers to add their normal markup and make a profit. However, if Sports Depot sells the racquet at a lower than normal price other retailers might decide to carry it. SPI pays its salespeople a commission on each product they sell. The commission is:

Leader pricing: