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Section IV

According to a news agency article, a particular model of car (Sundra) costs $65,000 to produce, while its market price is $34,000. As a result, the author of the article concluded that the automobile company would be losing $31,000 on each Sundra it builds and recommended that the automobile company should not be producing more Sundras. A breakdown of the $65,000 figure was provided as follows:


1. Incurred development costs of about $4.5 billion spread out over the 100,000 cars produced to date, for an average of $45,000 per car; and
2. Cost of building an additional car: $20,000.

Question 9 (1 point)

Provide the rationale for the author's recommendation that the automobile company should not be producing more Sundras. (Hint: Define, identify and use the concept of average total cost)

Question 9 options:

Provide the rationale for the author's recommendation that the automobile company should not be producing more Sundras. (Hint: Define, identify and use the concept of average total cost)

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Mahe Alam
Mahe AlamLv10
28 Sep 2019

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Related questions

According to a news agency article, a particular model of car (Sundra) costs $65,000 to produce, while its market price is $34,000. As a result, the author of the article concluded that the automobile company would be losing $31,000 on each Sundra it builds and recommended that the automobile company should not be producing more Sundras. A breakdown of the $65,000 figure was provided as follows:

1. Incurred development costs of about $4.5 billion spread out over the 100,000 cars produced to date, for an average of $45,000 per car; and
2. Cost of building an additional car: $20,000.

Do you agree with the author's recommendation that the automobile company should not be producing more Sundras? Fully explain and justify your answer. (Hint: Define, identify and use the concepts of sunk costs, marginal cost and marginal revenue)

View the video transcript below and share your thoughts on the economic concepts that you believe are applicable.

Question# 1. Provide a rationale on whether or not a firm has to possess market power in order to raise prices.

How to Raise Prices Without Losing Customers

JJ RAMBERG, anchor:

With gas prices soaring and the economy tightening, you may think it’s not possible to charge your customers more. But, it turns out you can successfully raise prices without driving those customers away. Bob Prosen runs the consulting company, Prosen Center for Business. He’s helped business leaders rapidly increase performance, productivity and profits, and he’s also author of the book, “Kiss Theory Goodbye: Five Proven Ways to Get Extraordinary Results in Any Company.” Bob, welcome.

Mr. BOB PROSEN: Thank you.

RAMBERG: So, if you’re going to raise prices on your customers, one of the things you say is don’t surprise them. So, how do you give them warning?

Mr. PROSEN: Well, our customers are very important to us, lets not surprise them. Let’s let them know in advance that prices will increase. But, it’s important to explain to them in their language as to why prices are increasing. For instance, if its fuel surcharges, they’ll understand that. But its important we put it in their language so that they, in turn, can pass that along and plan for it in their own business.

RAMBERG: So, a lot of times when people are paying more, they expect to get more. So, you should communicate increased value I assume. But is saying, um--gas prices are going up for me, is that uh--the same as saying, you’re going to get more for your money?

Mr. PROSEN: No, definitely it’s not. In fact, the equation for value is benefits plus price. So, if prices are going to go up we have to have increased benefits for our customers. So, we can do things like under promise and over deliver. Give them a little bit more. Understand their customer’s customer. So that when we provide our services to them, they’re customized for our customers. They see more value, we understand their business, and therefore they’ll be more appreciative of what we do and less sensitive to price increases.

RAMBERG: That seems to--to follow into your next point, or go right into your next point, which is, track the quality of your products.

Mr. PROSEN: This is absolutely critical, and we can track the quality of our products many ways. Customers call us, complaints, warranty, rework. If we’ll deal with that, capture that, and inside of “Kiss Theory Goodbye” I teach business people how to reduce these problem occurrences and increase the quality of their product. You do it for two reasons: One, customers like us a lot more when things work the way they’re supposed to; and our cost structure goes down therefore maybe we don’t have to increase our prices as much and we can be more competitive.

RAMBERG: And then, also, relationships matter.

Mr. PROSEN: Oh this…

RAMBERG: So, if you have a good relationship, you can do more within that relationship.

Mr. PROSEN: Oh, definitely. People like to do business with people they like. So, lets make sure we stay in touch with our clients. Customize what we touch them with. You know, for instance, when I travel and I deal with business people, I always carry thank you notes in my briefcase. When I’m finished, I send them a note. It’s a rarity these days to even get a thank you note.

RAMBERG: Yeah, it absolutely is. So, about how much can you raise prices by? Can you suddenly figure out that your costs are gone up so much because of energy prices, or food prices, or gas prices, whatever it is, um--and raise it by 50%? Should you do it incrementally? Should you do it all at once? How does it work?

Mr. PROSEN: Yeah, that’s a great question. It depends on what industry you’re in. It depends on what you customers are doing. It depends on a number of things that determine how much, and when, and the frequency of our ability to raise prices. Therefore, what I always recommend to business leaders is work on your cost structure; make sure you’re efficient and effective. Keep your costs as low as you can. Therefore, you can be more competitive on your pricing. Sometimes, you have to pass along the price. Other times, try to absorb what you can through improved efficiencies.

RAMBERG: Should you be looking at your competitors and how much they’re charging?

Mr. PROSEN: Yes, you should absolutely be looking at your competitors. We always want to know what they’re charging. And by the way, we want to differentiate our products and services from our competitors. And, if we can prove a higher value by dealing with us versus our competitor we should be able to articulate that, and we do it based on facts because we know what’s going on in the industry.

RAMBERG: Alright, Bob I know a lot of people are thinking about raising prices so thanks for giving them some tips on how to actually do it.

Mr. PROSEN: My pleasure.

AEC 316 - Agricultural Marketing
Homework Assignment 2: Chapter 2

Name:____________________ Date:____________________

Multiple choice questions.

There is only one correct answer in multiple choice questions. Please, mark the correct

answer. Each multiple choice question is worth 5 points.

1. A perfectly competitive firm’s demand curve equals its:

Marginal cost curve

Average variable cost curve

Average fixed cost curve

Average revenue curve

None of the above

2. A perfectly competitive firm maximizes profits by setting price equal to:

a. Marginal cost

b. Marginal revenue

c. Average revenue

d. Average total cost

e. Average variable cost

3. In order for a monopoly to continue to be a monopoly:

a. The marginal revenue curve must be downward sloping

b. There must be no close substitutes

c. Marginal revenue must equal marginal costs

d. Average total costs must be decreasing

e. None of the above

4. Marketing strategy which involves dividing a broad target market into subsets of consumers who have, or are perceived to have, common needs, interests, and priorities, and then designing and implementing strategies to target them.

a. Brand name

b. Minor ingredients

c. Market segmentation

d. Product features

e. Packaging

5. What characteristic is indicative of oligopolies?

Low profits

Interdependence of firms

Many firms

Entry is blocked

None of the above

6. At an equilibrium price:

a.The self-interest of consumers is maximized

b.Supply equals demand

c.There is an upward pressure on price

d.There is a downward pressure on price

None of the above

7. When both supply and demand increase, equilibrium quantity will:

a.Decrease

b.Increase

Stay the same

Can’t say

None of the above

8. Elasticity is a concept that deals with:

a.Market structure

b.Market equilibrium

c.Perfect competition

d.Consumer and producer sensitivity to changes in prices and income

None of the above

9. A set of competing firms producing similar products or a commodity in a market is called a(n) ___ .

a.Branch

b.Competition

c.Channel

Industry

None of the above

10. A market structure where there is only one buyer of a specific product is called:

a.Monopsony

b.Monopoly

c.Oligopsony

Monopsonistic competition

None of the above

Essay question: 50 points

11. Use the agricultural commodity that you selected in Chapter 1 and choose one agribusiness that buys it. Investigate the agribusiness using the Internet and other resources, and then write an essay addressing all or as many as possible of the following aspects of the agribusiness:

Size

Sales

Scope of product line

Worth (if public)

Number of employees

Locations globally

Market structure

Industry sector

All your answers/discussion should be typed in one essay that is at least 15 lines long (using formal English, correct paragraph and sentence structure, and making sure your ideas flow well from one sentence to another) using Times New Roman, 12 point, double space and 1-inch margins all around. Before submitting the final essay, use the “Spelling & Grammar” function of the MS Word to correct grammar.

At the end of your essay, provide the full citation record in alphabetical order in your list of references. For examples, visit: http://www.saea.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/reference-style-sheet.pdf. Please, note that the list of references does not count toward the minimum required 15 lines. Include your references in the text as “(Smith, 2015)” when citing at the end of a sentence, or “According to Smith (2015)” when citing at the beginning of a sentence. For example,

Negative publicity is a key determinant affecting consumers’ buying decisions (Ahluwalia, Burnkrant, and Unnava, 2000).

According to Cawley and Rizzo (2005), pharmaceutical products in the same therapeutic class experienced negative spillover in terms of lost sales.

Note: Most of the future essay questions will build on this essay question and/or the one agricultural commodity that you choose. This means that if there is little information on the agricultural commodity that you have chosen for this essay question, you should consider choosing a more common agricultural commodity on which ample information is available. In addition, this course will require you to compile all your answers to the essay questions into one term paper to be submitted by the end of the course. This means that the more effort you put into answering essay questions now, the more material you will have accumulated for your term paper by the end of the semester.

TYPE YOUR ANSWER TO THE ESSAY QUESTION 11 BELOW USING AS MUCH SPACE AS YOU NEED. THEN, PRINT THE HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT AND SUBMIT THE HARD COPY.

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