Question

Greener Grass Company (GGC) competes with its main rival, Better Lawns and Gardens (BLG), in the supply and installation of in-ground lawn watering systems in the wealthy western suburbs of a major east-coast city. Last year, GGC’s price for the typical lawn system was $1,900 compared with BLG’s price of $2,100. GGC installed 9,960 systems, or about 60% of total sales and BLG installed the rest. (No doubt many additional systems were installed by do-it-yourself homeowners because the parts are readily available at hardware stores.)

GGC has substantial excess capacity–it could easily install 25,000 systems annually, as it has all the necessary equipment and can easily hire and train installers. Accordingly, GGC is considering expansion into the eastern suburbs, where the homeowners are less wealthy. In past years, both GGC and BLG have installed several hundred systems in the eastern suburbs but generally their sales efforts are met with the response that the systems are too expensive. GGC has hired you to recommend a pricing strategy for both the western and eastern suburb markets for this coming season. You have estimated two distinct demand functions, as follows:

Qw =2100 – 6.25Pgw + 3Pbw + 2100Ag - 1500Ab + 0.2Yw

for the western market and

Qe = 36620 - 25Pge + 7Pbe + 1180Ag - 950Ab + 0.085Ye

for the eastern market, where Q refers to the number of units sold; P refers to price level; A refers to advertising budgets of the firms (in millions); Y refers to average disposable income levels of the potential customers; the subscripts w and e refer to the western and eastern markets, respectively; and the subscripts g and b refer to GGC and BLG, respectively. GGC expects to spend $1.5 million (use Ag = 1.5) on advertising this coming year and expects BLG to spend $1.2 million (use Ab = 1.2) on advertising. The average household disposable income is $60,000 in the western suburbs and $30,000 in the eastern suburbs. GGC does not expect BLG to change its price from last year because it has already distributed its glossy brochures (with the $2,100 price stated) in both suburbs, and its TV commercial has already been produced. GGC’s cost structure has been estimated as TVC = 750Q + 0.005Q2, where Q represents single lawn watering systems.

E. Add a short note to GGC management outlining any reservations and qualifications you may have concerning your price recommendations.

Answer 1

Answea- The demand GGC he west movre is gven as Assuming Qu 9100-625Pg32100)+2100(1-5)-1500 (-2 Qw : 오100-6.25Pgu) + 6300+315 o-1300112000 Theefore, den ond -RS GGC is The tnveyse demand unction is given as We -blal evenue tunction is given as Ά 0.2(60000) 2 twes mar ret is qiven as The cosㅏ the f,m ;s given as 2 The utput producedn wemte is Gto