1. Consider some of your favorite brands and their products. What role does the brand name have on the success of these products? Explain the significance of brand names in product planning, incorporating examples of real brands when possible. Be sure to identify key product mix strategies, as well. 2. Explain the concept behind market segmentation and the difference between geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral segmentation? Explore differences in purpose and function, providing an example or possible situation that would involve each.

3. As with most things in life, even products have a lifecycle. After defining what product lifestyle is and discussing its impact, choose a product example to help illustrate and identify each of the stages in a product lifecycle, briefly describing each.

4. Think about all of the products that you utilize in your everyday life and select three to examine in terms of product liability risks. For each product, identify potential defects, describing each, and explaining how these are liability risks.

5. When it comes to marketing, the overall functions that are involved go far beyond simple billboards or TV commercials. Identify the seven functions of marketing, provide an example of a related activity for each function, and categorize those activities.

5. profit maximization and shutting down in the short run suppose that the market for polos is a competitive market. the following graph shows the daily cost curves of a firm operating in this market. 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 price (dollars per polo) quantity (thousands of polos) mc atc avc for each price in the following table, calculate the firm's optimal quantity of units to produce, and determine the profit or loss if it produces at that quantity, using the data from the previous graph to identify its total variable cost. assume that if the firm is indifferent between producing and shutting down, it will produce. (hint: you can select the purple points [diamond symbols] on the previous graph to see precise information on average variable cost.) price quantity total revenue fixed cost variable cost profit (dollars per polo) (polos) (dollars) (dollars) (dollars) (dollars) 12.50 135,000 27.50 135,000 45.00 135,000 if the firm shuts down, it must incur its fixed costs (fc) in the short run. in this case, the firm's fixed cost is $135,000 per day. in other words, if it shuts down, the firm would suffer losses of $135,000 per day until its fixed costs end (such as the expiration of a building lease). this firm's shutdown price—that is, the price below which it is optimal for the firm to shut down—is per polo.

Bakery has bought 250 pounds of muffin dough. they want to make waffles or muffins in half-dozen packs out of it. half a dozen of muffins requires 1 lb of dough and a pack of waffles uses 3/4 lb of dough. it take bakers 6 minutes to make a half-dozen of waffles and 3 minutes to make a half-dozen of muffins. their profit will be $1.50 on each pack of waffles and $2.00 on each pack of muffins. how many of each should they make to maximize profit, if they have just 20 hours to do everything?

Which curve shows increasing opportunity cost as you give up more of one option? demand curve bow-shaped curve yield curve indifference curve