2 Responses 01/21

Actual work where 2 students given their post on this:

Work #1:

Discussion Board – Demand Function

Demand function specifies other factors that management will often consider, including the design and packaging of products, the amount and distribution of the firm’s advertising budget, the size of the sales force, promotional expenditures, the time period of adjustment for any price changes, and taxes or subsidies. For this discussion forum, consider your favorite consumer product (e.g. cell phone, car, cereal, restaurant, hair gel, etc.) and describe the variables that might be part of the demand function (i.e. substitute good, complementary good, income level, advertisement, consumer preference, etc.) for this product. How would you describe the elasticity of demand for this product – is it highly or somewhat elastic or inelastic? Why?

Please find the attachment.

Dushyanth Work:

The Demand Function for Cell Phones

            The demand curve shows that association between price and quantity of a commodity demanded. I can employ the curve in analyzing the demand for cell phone, which is my favorite consumer product (Pratap, 2018). I ensure I buy the most recent device and study the technologies being used in the cell phone production. One of the factors that affect the product’s demand is technology trends (Pratap, 2018). Developers have ensured cell phones can monitor one’s health, communicate and trade.

            The advancement has improved the demand for the devices. The other factor is convenience, compared to its competitors like tablets and computers (Pratap, 2018). Consumers prefer cell phones since they are portable and can execute operations done by computers. Thus, they can use it for entertainment, while still executing their duties in the workplace. Third, demographic factors have increased cell phone demand (Pratap, 2018). Most of the young people are the Millennial and rely on the devices to access the internet.

            Moreover, they spend a lot of time on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.  The portability of the devices makes them suitable to the millennials (Pratap, 2018). Fourth, the world has experienced improved economic performance. The trend has reduced unemployment and raised the disposable income. Thus, more people can afford mobile phones (Pratap, 2018). They also use the devices to under online purchases after spending most of their time in the workplace.

            I believe that the cell phone demand is elastic. That is, a slight increase in price leads to a large decline in number of phones demanded. The price increase affects consumer tastes and preferences.  I will also consider the impact on income on the demand (Pratap, 2018). If the employees were to lose their employment, they would cease buying new phones.

References

Pratap, A. (2018, February 21). Factors Affecting Demand for Smartphones and Tablets. Notesmatic

Jacob Work:

Demand function depicts the relation between the demand quantity of product to the price of the product. Demand function determines the factors deriving the demand of a commodity. There are numerous factors which determine the demand of any product and in case of a cell phone, some of the factors include the price value of the product, features and services offered by the product, market demand of the product and its sustainability etc which will influence the market and customers to purchase a new product. The demand function mainly relies on the choice of the customers and the need of hour in market over period of time. While purchasing a new product, customer always looks for better services which will serve their need. When it comes to a specific brand where customers are willing to buy then it turns to be inelastic demand as they prefer goods over price. If in any case customer is looking for services under economical price scale then they would switch to other alternatives which are offering same services under less price as demand of elasticity is highly elastic in such situation(Mary., 2019).

Price of cell phone plays a significant role in demand function and high-end mobiles are ranged at higher prices and are more likely to target less customer base who are conscious of their brand choice. But in many cases, customers demand for best services and prefer quality products besides the best design and aesthetic features. Quality products are the prime concern of majority of consumers and it turns out to be a determinant in demand function. Elasticity of demand is referred as the case where customers are willing to buy the products even after the price variation and how they are responding to such price changes. The demand of elasticity for cell phone is high as market is full of new products and alternatives and cell phone market is huge across globe and are plenty with alternate products to increase the demand of elasticity(Mei et al., 2012).

References:

Mary Hall (Apr 19, 2019): Elasticity vs. Inelasticity of Demand: What’s the Difference? Reverted from https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/012915/what-difference-between-inelasticity-and-elasticity-demand.asp.

Mei Min, C., Ling Hong, C., Jian Ai, Y., & Pei Wah, W. (2012). Conceptual Paper: Factors Affecting the Demand of Smartphone among Young Adult. International Journal of Social Science, Economics and Art, 2(2), 44-49.