Price Income and Consumer Demand

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Price, Income, Taste and Consumer Demand Introduction Life is a continuous trade-off. People need to decide how to spend scarce income to maximize their satisfaction. Consumer demand reflects buyer's options, needs and preferences to some extent. However, there are many factors could affect consumer purchase decision. In this easy we will look at how price, consumer income and consumer taste might influence the consumer demand respectively. PRICE AND CONSUMER DEMAND The law of demand states that price of a commodity is inversely relating to the quantity demand. We can use price elasticity to measure how responsive demand is to changes in price. The level of price elasticity for a commodity depends upon whether it is a necessity or a luxury. Number of close substitute in the market is another factor that affects the price elasticity of demand. Necessities tend to have more inelastic demand than luxuries. Goods with many close substitutes are most likely to have elastic demand (Begg and Ward, 2009). It is not surprising Starbucks coffee has an elastic demand as there are many other businesses in the market provide similar product. Starbucks coffee is still regarding as a luxury not a necessity, particularly in those low income countries. Therefore, the demand of Starbucks coffee is highly sensitive to the price change. As far as the price of Starbucks coffee increase, customer can switch to another brand, such as Costa Coffee, McDonalds café. Moreover, coffee could also be replaced by a cup of tea or a bottle of soft drink. However, if the price of caffeine were to go up as a whole, the overall consumption of coffee or tea will remain constant as there are few substitutes for caffeine (Martin Pitek, 2009). On the other hand, water demand appears to be inelastic as the degree of water necessity is high and there is no easy substitute for water. It implies

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