Question

Question 1:

Suppose that your group is the executive sales team for Starbucks. The CEO has just proposed lowering the price of regular coffee and increasing the price of specialty coffee drinks. The belief is that our customers are sensitive to a price change of regular coffee but much less sensitive to a change in the price of specialty coffee. As such, your team is tasked with providing an analysis on this proposal. In order to provide your analysis, you need to find out if the CEO’s theory about customer behavior, and their sensitivity to price changes for regular and specialty coffee, is correct. In order to find out how sensitive customers are to a price change, you will need to calculate the price elasticity of demand, describe what that means, and evaluate the impact on revenues.

For this activity, use the standard percent change formula (also known as the point method).

You have been given the following data on prices and changes in quantity demanded.

Regular Coffee:

Current Price per cup: $2.00 and quantity sold per month is 1 million

Proposed Price per cup: $1.80 and estimated quantity sold per month is 1.5 million

Specialty Coffee:

Current Price per cup: $4.00 and quantity sold per month is 50 million

Proposed Price per cup: $4.40 and estimated quantity sold per month is 47 million

Part 1: Find the elasticity of demand for regular and specialty coffee.

Part 2: Find the total change in revenue for regular and specialty coffee.

Part 3: Use a demand curve graph to explain the change in revenue. You only need to show the demand curve on your graph.

You may upload a picture/file of your graph or use the creately template.

Question 2:

Suppose that your group is the executive sales team for McDonalds. The CEO has given your team a proposal; To analyze the impact of raising the price of the Big Mac by 10% and raising the price of regular fries by 10%.

In order to provide your analysis, you need to find out how sensitive customers will be to a price change of Big Macs and fries. In order to find out how sensitive customers are to a price change, you will need to calculate the price elasticity of demand, describe what that means, and evaluate the impact on revenues.

For this activity, use the standard percent change formula (also known as the point method).

You have been given the following data on prices and changes in quantity demanded.

  Big Mac:

Current Big Mac Price: $2

Current Big Mac monthly sales: 1 million

Estimated monthly Big Mac sales at the new price: 980,000

Regular Fries:

Current regular fry Price: $1.50

Current regular fry monthly sales: 2 million

Estimated regular fry monthly sales at the new price: 1.4 million

Part 1: Find the elasticity of demand for the Big Mac and fries.

Part 2: Find the total change in revenue for the Big Mac and fries.

Part 3: Use a demand curve graph to explain the change in revenue. You only need to show the demand curve on your graph.

You may upload a picture/file of your graph or use the creately template.

Answer 1

Ans. 1

Price elasticity of demand = %change in demand / % change in price