Monday, 24 September 2012


Changes to Demand

There are four main determinants of demand.  They are:

-       Preference
-       Income
-       Prices of related products
-       Future expectations

There are also a few other determinants, including Size of the market population (a growing population means demands goes up) and change in distribution of income.

A great example of changes to demand would be Tim Horton’s.  During the cold winter in Canada, people are often stopping by Tim Horton’s for a hot coffee.   But when summer hits, the demand for an ice cap rises dramatically.  This is due to the consumer’s preference toward the product.  With the same scenario, Tim Horton’s can also experience a change of demand (decrease) if their competitors were to put a similar product on sale, or boost in advertisement towards their brand.  For example, second cup’s Chiller, Starbuck’s ice Frappuccino, or even McDonald’s Ice Blended latte.  This would be an example of “substitute product”.

The following graph is a mock example of changes in demand for Tim Horton’s Ice cappuccino:




2 comments:

  1. This if great example. I would just clarify the gragh stating that the D1 is for Iced Cappuccino in winter and D2 is for Iced Cappuccino for summer.Am I right with my conclusion?

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  2. That would be correct olha!! thank you for the comment, i should have stated it better on the graph!!

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