Exam 17: Price Setting in the Business World

Given the following data, compute the BEP in DOLLARS: Selling price = $2.00 Variable cost = $1.00 Fixed cost = $150,000

Most firms in the business world set their prices using:

A supermarket is bound to expect a higher stockturn for fresh fruits and vegetables compared to soaps and detergents.

"Stockturn rate" means:

If a retailer adds a 25-cent markup to a product which costs the retailer $1.00, then according to the text the retailer's markup is 25 percent.

An automobile manufacturer charges a higher price for its "hybrid" car that runs on both electricity and gasoline than it charges for a car that runs on only gasoline. The manufacturer contends that the consumer will save money with the hybrid car in the long run because the money saved on gasoline will more than cover the price differential between the hybrid car and a regular car. This manufacturer is using:

In marginal analysis, the most profitable price is the price at which:

A regional manager for a chain of auto parts stores visits one of the stores in the chain. He looks in the store's warehouse and finds about 100 cases of motor oil that have been sitting in the warehouse for over one year. Upon inspection, he finds that in each case, one of the twelve cans of oil has leaked, thus soaking through the box and making the case unfit for sale. The regional manager instructs the store manager to unpack all of the cases, discard the leaking cans, clean up the remaining cans, and to contact the oil company for new boxes. He tells the store manager to repackage the remaining cans in the new boxes and to sell the cases to customers at the retailer's cost with no added markup. He explains to the store manager that moving this inventory will not result in immediate profit, but that it will benefit the store by improving the:

Marginal analysis

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. If SPI uses average-cost pricing, a big problem will be:

A publisher needed one of its best-selling authors to fly from his home in Richmond, Virginia to Chicago, Illinois in order to start a publicity campaign for the author's new book. The author could have taken a flight to Detroit, Michigan, changed planes, and then flew on to Chicago for about half the price of a non-stop flight from Richmond to Chicago. However, he chose the non-stop flight. He became less price sensitive because of:

If the price per unit is $1.00 and the average variable cost per unit is 60 cents, the fixed cost contribution per unit is $1.40.

The sole objective of leader pricing is to sell large quantities of the leader items.

All customers have the same reference price for the same basic type of purchase.

_____ means offering a specific price for each possible job rather than setting a price that applies for all customers.

According to the text, the two basic approaches to price setting are

A company has total fixed cost of $400,000. Its fixed- cost contribution per unit is $10.00, and its price per unit is $5.00. What is the break-even point in sales dollars?

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. What is the service organization's average cost for the printed tennis balls it buys from Sports Depot?

A paving contractor wants to work on road construction contracts administered and paid for by the state government. The contractor submits a sealed proposal to the state department of transportation for each construction job. The proposal contains a description of how the contractor will fulfill the specifications for the job at a specified price. The contractor is engaging in:

Blue Ridge Weavers wants to set its selling price on an item so that the retail list price will be $50-taking into account the usual markups of 10 percent at wholesale and 30 percent at retail. At what price should Blue Ridge Weavers sell the item?