What Do People Want to Wear?

You work for a clothes apparel merchandiser. You have been given the job of purchasing agent and need to help your boss anticipate what consumers are demanding. You are going to look at various retail clothing web sites to determine what is "hot"' and what is "not". By trying to determine what is "hot" and what is "not", you will be learning about determinants of demand and ultimately, price.


Task:
You will use a market scenario as a basis for analyzing the relationship between the demand for and the price for a product. The market scenario will allow you see how changes in demand affect products and their prices. Changes in various determinants that influence a product's demand will have an impact on that product's price. Your job is to determine what some of the determinants of demand are and how they will influence price.

Process:
How do different market scenarios affect the demand and price for clothes? Your boss has given you a list of items she would like to sell. The list includes dress pants, winter coats, ski sweaters, and athletic shorts. You will need to select examples of these products online.


You will need to look at many web sites to get examples of products. Potential web sites include but are not limited to the following:



Reebok Footwear Web site - www.reebok.com/US/#

Nike Sportswear Web site - www.nike.com/main.html

Adidas Sportswear Web site - www.adidas.com/

Ann Taylor Apparel Web site - www.anntaylor.com/home.jsp

Eddie Bauer Apparel Web site - www.eddiebauer.com/eb/default.asp


Remember, you want to enter a market that will have increasing demand for your product.

Market Scenarios:
Use the above sites to search on-line for an example of each of the following products: winter coats, ski sweaters, athletic shorts, and dress pants.  Copy and paste each of the products you selected into a Word Document.  Then answer the following questions to determine the effect of the given scenarios on the given products. Make sure to include which determinant caused the demand to change. You may chose the determinants of demand from this list:

-Tastes and preferences

-Income (normal and inferior goods)

-Price of related items, goods and compliments

-Future expectations

-Number of consumers in the market


Your answers to these questions should also be included in your Word Document.

Questions:
1. What effect does the following scenario have on the product (think demand and price)?  Why?
    
                 Winter Coat
                  Scenario 1: Unusually Mild Winter?
                  Scenario 2: Winter Begins?
                  Scenario 3: Relocate to Southern California
                  (warm temps)?
                  Scenario 4: Rock Stars make it trendy to wear
                  winter coats?

                  Ski Sweater
                  Scenario 1: Skiing becomes more popular?
                  Scenario 2: Ski Sweaters help increase weight loss?
                  Scenario 3: Unusually Mild Winter?
                  Scenario 4: Celebrity Endorsements?

                  Athletic Shorts
                  Scenario 1: Famous people wear them in public?
                  Scenario 2: Schools ban the wearing of athletic shorts?
                  Scenario 3: Working out becomes trendy?
                  Scenario 4: Unusually cool summer months?

                  Dress Pants
                  Scenario 1: The move to a more casual workplace?
                  Scenario 2: Increase in per capita income?
                  Scenario 3: Warmer weather?
                  Scenario 4: Increase in employment in the professional
                  sector?

2. What relationship do you see being established between a change in price and a change in demand?

3. Why do businesses advertise their products?


4. Why might you advise a business to have a sale?

5. How do seasonal expectations influence demand and price?

6. In your work purchasing products, how might you be influenced by what you have learned?

Extra Time?
If you finish with extra time, create some original market scenarios that demonstrate a change in demand. Turn them in to Ms. Berliner for extra credit.