Everything Totally Explained


Ask & we'll explain, totally!
Rate of return pricing
Totally Explained


  NEW! All the latest news in the worlds of computer gaming, entertainment, the environment,  
finance, health, politics, science, stocks & shares, technology and much, much, more.  


View this entry using RSS

Everything about Rate Of Return Pricing totally explained

Target rate of return pricing is a pricing method used almost exclusively by market leaders or monopolists. You start with a rate of return objective, like 5% of invested capital, or 10% of sales revenue. Then you arrange your price structure so as to achieve these target rates of return. For example, assume a firm invests $100 million in order to produce and market designer snowflakes, and they estimate that with demand for designer snowflakes being what it is, they can sell 2 million flakes per year. Further, from preliminary production data they know that at that level of output their average total cost (ATC) is $50 per flake. Total annual costs would be $100 million (2 million units at $50 each). Next, management decides they want a 20% return on investment (ROI). That works out to be $20 million (20% of a $100 million investment). Profit margin will need to be $10 dollars per flake ($20 million return over 2 million units). So the price must be set at $60 per designer flake ($50 costs plus $10 profit margin). Similar calculations will determine price based on rate of return to sales revenue.
   An unusual consequence of this pricing model is that to keep the target rate of return constant, the firm will have to continuously be changing its price as the level of demand changes. This can be seen in the diagram below. Based on market demand expectations, the firm estimates it'll be operating at 70% capacity. Given its production function and cost structure, it knows its average total costs at that output level will be represented as point A . If its predetermined rate of return requirement is amount A, B, then it'll set its price at P*. Because profit is equal to (P-ATC)*Q, then their total profit will be defined by area P*, B, A, P70%.

Rate of Return Pricing with Changes in Demand

If demand increases such that the firm is now operating at 90% capacity and facing a reduced average total cost of C, then margin will increase to C,D and profit will be P*,D,C,P90%. If demand were to decrease so the firm was operating at 60% capacity, margins would be reduced to E,F and the firm would have to increase prices to maintain their desired margin. This is a questionable decision. It is seldom a good strategy to increase prices in the face of falling demand. The net result is usually further reductions in demand. That explain why this strategy is used only by market leaders and monopolists.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Rate Of Return Pricing'.


External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

    <a href="http://rate_of_return_pricing.totallyexplained.com">Rate of return pricing Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
   As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.



Copyright © 2007-8 totallyexplained.com | Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License | Site Map
This article contains text from the Wikipedia article Rate of return pricing (History) and is released under the GFDL | RSS Version