Pricing Decisions
Pricing Decisions
1. Customers
2. Competitors
3. Costs
12-2 Not necessarily. For a one-time-only special order, the relevant costs are
only those costs that will change as a result of accepting the order. In this case,
full product costs will rarely be relevant. It is more likely that full product
costs will be relevant costs for long-run pricing decisions.
12-5 Two alternative starting points for long-run pricing decisions are
2. Cost-based pricing which asks, “What does it cost us to make this product
and, hence, what price should we charge that will recoup our costs and achieve
a target return on investment?”
12-6 A target cost per unit is the estimated long-run cost per unit of a product
(or service) that, when sold at the target price, enables the company to achieve
the targeted operating income per unit.
12-9 No. It is important to distinguish between when costs are locked in and
when costs are incurred, because it is difficult to alter or reduce costs that have
already been locked in.
12-11 Cost-plus pricing methods vary depending on the bases used to calculate
prices. Examples are (a) variable manufacturing costs; (b) manufacturing
function costs; (c) variable product costs; and (d) full product costs.
12-12 Two examples where the difference in the costs of two products or
services is much smaller than the differences in their prices follow:
1. The difference in prices charged for a telephone call, hotel room, or car
rental during busy versus slack periods is often much greater than the
difference in costs to provide these services.
1. The full set of revenues and costs associated with each product becomes
more visible.
12-15 Predatory pricing occurs when a business deliberately prices below its
costs in an effort to drive competitors out of the market and restrict supply,
and then raises prices rather than enlarge demand. Under U.S. laws, dumping
occurs when a non-U.S. company sells a product in the United States at a price
below the market value in the country where it is produced, and this lower
price materially injures or threatens to materially injure an industry in the
United States. Collusive pricing occurs when companies in an industry
conspire in their pricing and production decisions to achieve a price above the
competitive price and so restrain trade.