Summary of learning objective
1. Discuss basic pricing concept
• The basic economic interplay between demand and supply helps to set price.
Customers buy less at a high price than they do at a low price.
Producers (suppliers) are able to sell more at a high price than at a low price.
Equilibrium price is set where quantity demanded equals quantity supplied.
• Price elasticity of demand is the percent change in quantity demanded for a given percent change in price.
Products with elastic demand tend to:
Have many substitutes
Not be necessities
Take a relatively large amount of consumer income
Products with elastic demand tend to:
Have few substitutes
Be necessities
Take a relatively small amount of consumer income
• Market structure affects the relationship between the company and other companies in its industry.
Perfectly competitive markets have many buyers and sellers. Price is set in the market.
Monopolistic competition is characterized by some ability to differentiate one’s product from that of other firms.
Monopoly is characterized by one seller with the ability to increase price somewhat above that of a competitive market. There may be legal reasons for the monopoly.
Oligopoly is characterized by few sellers and many buyers. There are frequently high barriers to entry in this market.
2. Calculate a markup on cost and a target cost.
• Many firms use cost-based pricing.
Price is based on cost plus desired profit.
The markup is NOT pure profit – it also includes all costs not included in the base cost.
Strategy is supply based – it does not take demand into account until late in the process.
• Target cost-based pricing strategy begins with price and subtracts desired profit to determine allowable cost.
3. Discuss the impact of the legal system and ethics on pricing.
• The legal system supports competition and outlaws certain business practices.
Predatory pricing
Some forms of price discrimination
• Fairness and ethical conduct many prevent the exploitation of market power.
Price gouging
Dumping
4. Explain why firms measure profit, and calculate measure of profit using absorption and variable costing.
• Profit is measured to assess performance.
• Absorption-costing income measurement is required for external financial reporting.
All manufacturing costs are attached to units of product including:
Direct materials
Direct labor
Variable factory overhead
A portion of fixed factory overhead
Product costs for the period are assigned to units sold or units put into inventory.
• Variable costing is useful for management decision making.
All variable manufacturing costs are attached to units of product including:
Direct materials
Direct labor
Variable overhead
All fixed costs (including fixed factory overhead and fixed selling and administrative expense) are treated as period expenses on the income statement.
• Variable costing and ABC give better signals regarding performance and incremental costs.
• Profitability analysis can be accomplished for individual segments, including:
Product line
Divisions
Customer groups
5. Compute the sales price, sales volume, contribution margin, contribution margin volume, sales mix, market share, and market size variances.
• Profit-related variances are used to analyze the changes in profit from one time period to another.
Sales price variance compares expected price with actual price and multiplies by actual volume.
Sales volume variance compares actual volume with expected volume and multiplies by expected price.
• Contribution margin variance considers interplay of price and variable cost.
Contribution margin volume variance shows the impact of a difference between expected and actual sales volume on contribution margin.
Sales mix variance shows the impact on contribution margin of changes in the actual versus expected sales mix.
• Market share and size variances allow a firm to compare its performance against competing firms.
Market share variance shows the impact of a difference between actual and expected percentage of market volume multiplied by budgeted average contribution margin.
Market size variance shows the impact on profit of a difference between actual volume sold in the market and expected volume.
6. Discuss the variations in price, cost, and profit over the product life cycle.
• The product life cycle has an important impact on price.
Introduction phase usually has negative profit.
Growth phase shows increasing profit.
Maturity phase is accompanied by a leveling off of profit.
Decline phase is the end of the product life cycle.
• Learning effects and increasing efficiency help costs decrease as the product life cycle changes from introduction through growth and maturity.
7. Describe some of the limitations of profit measurement.
• Limitations of profit include:
Focus on past performance
Uncertain economic conditions
Difficulty of capturing all important factors in financial measures
• Successful firms measure far more than accounting profit.
Impact on the community
Employees
• Ethical behavior is fostered by appropriate emphasis on profit.