You are in charge of the annual banquet for the Football Boosters Club at your college. One week before the banquet you must make a commitment for the number of dinners. The price for these dinners will be $7 each. If fewer people show up than the committed number, you are still required to pay for the full number. If more people attend than your committed number, they will be served at a cost of $12 each. For example, if you commit for 200 people and 200 or fewer show up, you still have to pay $1,400. If more than 200 attend, you pay $1,400 plus $12 for each dinner in excess of 200. Your judgment about the number attending can be described by a normal probability distribution with mean of 400 people and standard deviation of 100. Suppose the cost of the banquet is being borne entirely by the Alumni Association, your objective is to minimize the cost, given that all who attend will be served. How big a prior commitment for dinners should you make to the hotel?

b) a student tests 100 students to determine whether other students on her campus prefer soda brand a or soda brand b and finds no evidence that preference for brand a is not 0.5. later, a marketing company tests all students on campus and finds no difference. choose the correct answer below.

Jameson manages a well-known cell phone company. this company has been voted as having the best cell-phone service. consumers appreciate the fact that they can call from almost anywhere in the world and the service still gets through. jameson knows that the company's product far surpasses that of the competition. one thing has been bothering him, though. in order to put so many resources into ensuring the best service, jameson has cut back on employees at the firm's customer call center. recently, consumers have begun complaining about long wait times when they call in with a problem or concern. although its cell phone service is still considered one of the best, customer satisfaction with the firm's customer service has plummeted. jameson does not understand why consumers are getting so upset. he believes the exceptional cell phone service more than makes up for long waiting periods and other issues with its customer service. "after all," he says, "they can't have it all. if i invest more in customer service, that means less investment on ensuring the quality of our product offering."refer to scenario. jameson has asked you, a marketing consultant, to give him advice. he cannot understand how a cell-phone company with the best product offering in the cell-phone service industry could get such low satisfaction ratings simply because the customer service is not up to par. you suggest that jameson has a narrowly defined view of the company's product offering. you tell jameson that successful marketers should define their products as what they

Oakmont company has an opportunity to manufacture and sell a new product for a four-year period. the company’s discount rate is 18%. after careful study, oakmont estimated the following costs and revenues for the new product: cost of equipment needed $ 230,000 working capital needed $ 84,000 overhaul of the equipment in year two $ 9,000 salvage value of the equipment in four years $ 12,000 annual revenues and costs: sales revenues $ 400,000 variable expenses $ 195,000 fixed out-of-pocket operating costs $ 85,000 when the project concludes in four years the working capital will be released for investment elsewhere within the company. click here to view exhibit 12b-1 and exhibit 12b-2, to determine the appropriate discount factor(s) using tables.