Determining the appropriate promotional budget is an important decision within any marketing strategy. Firms that set the budget too low risk blending into the competition and are often ineffective in communicating value to potential customers. Firms that set the budget too high open themselves up to waste and lower profits. Promotional budget decisions should consider a variety of factors, such as the types of products sold by the firm, the geographic location of the firm's customers, and the level of competition in the industry. Firms typically determine their promotional budget using one of three methods: (1) the affordable method, (2) the percentage-of-sales method, or (3) the objective-and-task method.

Ashop owner uses a reorder point approach to restocking a certain raw material. lead time is six days. usage of the material during lead time is normally distributed with a mean of 42 pounds and a standard deviation of four pounds. when should the raw material be reordered if the acceptable risk of a stockout is 3 percent?

Blue computers, a major pc manufacturer in the united states, currently has plants in kentucky and pennsylvania. the kentucky plant has a capacity of 1 million units a year and the pennsylvania plant has a capacity of 1.5 million units a year. the firm divides the united states into five markets: northeast, southeast, midwest, south, and west. each pc sells for $1,000. the firm anticipates a 50 perc~nt growth in demand (in each region) this year (after which demand will stabilize) and wants to build a plant with a capacity of 1.5 million units per year to accommodate the growth. potential sites being considered are in north carolina and california. currently the firm pays federal, state, and local taxes on the income from each plant. federal taxes are 20 percent of income, and all state and local taxes are 7 percent of income in each state. north carolina has offered to reduce taxes for the next 10 years from 7 percent to 2 percent. blue computers would like to take the tax break into consideration when planning its network. consider income over the next 10 years in your analysis. assume that all costs remain unchanged over the 10 years. use a discount factor of 0.1 for your analysis. annual fixed costs, production and shipping costs per unit, and current regional demand (before the 50 percent growth) are shown in table 5-13. (a) if blue computers sets an objective of minimizing total fixed and variable costs, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? (b) if blue computers sets an objective of maximizing after-tax profits, where should they build the new plant? how should the network be structured? variable production and shipping cost ($/unit) annual fixed cost northeast southeast midwest south west (million$) kentucky 185 180 175 175 200 150 pennsylvania 170 190 180 200 220 200 n. carolina 180 180 185 185 215 150 california 220 220 195 195 175 150 demand ('000 units/month) 700 400 400 300 600

What is a uniform law adopted by all states that facilitates business transactions?