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Pricing Howtoplay Script

1) The document provides instructions for a pricing simulation where the user takes on the role of district manager for a rental car company and must set monthly pricing for different cities to improve performance. 2) As district manager, the user will have access to analysis tools to review historical data and market research to inform pricing decisions over the course of a simulated year. 3) The simulation allows the user to review competitors' prices and adjust their own prices and potentially fleet sizes monthly to gain market share and maximize profits.

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Ramiro Costa
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147 views2 pages

Pricing Howtoplay Script

1) The document provides instructions for a pricing simulation where the user takes on the role of district manager for a rental car company and must set monthly pricing for different cities to improve performance. 2) As district manager, the user will have access to analysis tools to review historical data and market research to inform pricing decisions over the course of a simulated year. 3) The simulation allows the user to review competitors' prices and adjust their own prices and potentially fleet sizes monthly to gain market share and maximize profits.

Uploaded by

Ramiro Costa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Pricing Simulation: Universal Rental Car

‘How to Play’ Audio Script

In this simulation, you are the newly appointed District Manager for Universal Rental Car in Florida. Your
mission is to develop a pricing strategy for the region in order to improve performance. Depending on
the configuration chosen by your instructor, you’ll set weekday and weekend prices for your rental car
inventory in one, two, or three cities in the Florida region.

When you first login, the Prepare section provides you with basic information on Universal Rental Car
and how the simulation works. Note that there is a downloadble pdf file you can print if you’d like a
reference guide on how to play.

The Analyze section presents numerous sources of information to help you make your pricing decisions
each month. The Dashboard Overview provides a high level view of your market share, unit sales,
capacity utilization, and fleet size in each of the cities you’re managing. You’re competing against one
competitor, shown here in gray. Note that the simulation starts in October, but you are given three
months of historical data to review.

As district manager, you need to make monthly pricing decisions over the course of the next simulated
year. On the right of the screen you’ll always see the Decide panel. Here you can enter your weekday
and weekend prices for each of your cities. If your instructor has enabled capacity changes, you’ll also be
able to move cars between cities once every three months.

In order to make your pricing decisions, review the details in the Analyze subscreens.

The Price History screen shows both your price history and your competitor’s price history. On any of
these Analyze screens, you can toggle between “view graphs” and “view data.” The data view shows you
the same information in tabular form. Clicking on “copy to clipboard” will paste the data on your
computer’s clipboard for copying into your spreadsheet program of choice, most typically Excel.

Next, the Market Demand screen tracks both the overall market size, as well as how you and your
competitor split the market. The dotted lines track forecasted demand based on expected seasonality
shifts. .

The Unit Sales screen shows unit sales for both Universal and your competitor mapped against the price
in each month.

Fleet Size tracks any changes you make to the fleet size over the course of the simulation. If enabled by
your instructor, you’ll be able to redistribute your inventory across cities, but you can’t increase the
overall size of your fleet.

Capacity Utilization tracks how much of your capacity you actually use over the course of the simulation,
as well as your monthly orders.

The Market Research screen gives you detailed information about how your customers are broken out
between cities. Each bar chart shows you both weekday and weekend rentals for business and leisure
customers. The graphs below show weekday vs. weekend market share for both you and your
competitor. This screen also contains a view of your competitor’s income statement for the current
month.

Net Income can be viewed in a variety of ways, including Per Vehicle Per Month, Per Rented Vehicle, or
by Percentages. You can also sort by city or see the aggregate view of your entire Florida region. While
this page shows only the last three months played, you can copy the complete data set to your clipboard
if you’d like to see all months in the simulation.

Finally, the breakeven calculator allows you to experiment with changes in pricing to see how these
might affect your revenue or volume. The breakeven change in volume shows the change in unit sales
resulting from a change in price that would keep total contribution constant.

When you’re ready to set your prices for the month, enter them on the right and click “Advance to the
Next Month.” The simulation will advance and you’ll see how your decisions played out in next month.
You’ll do this for every month until you reach the end of the simulation. Good luck with your pricing
strategy!

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