RESOURCE SERIES

The economies of Superbowl advertising

A highlight of the year for many sports fans, the Superbowl presents advertisers with a unique opportunity to reach over 110 million captive viewers.

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Demand and Supply in Action - nail polish

Over the past year Superdrug have seen nail polish sales rise by 37 %. L’Oreal’s nail polish sales were up 24%, double the increase in lipstick and lipgloss sales.
‘We live in an image-obsessed world and nail varnish has become the ultimate accessory. Women want a quick and affordable way to get the latest look. A new varnish provides an expression of individuality and the same buzz as a new outfit for 10 per cent of the cost.’

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Perfectly price inelastic supply

What cost $10 in 1937 and would now set you back $1 million?

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Demand and Supply in Action - what’s in a name?

It has been suggested in a new report that Skegness should change its name to boost demand in the ailing resort. This links really well with fashion and trends in demand. Skegness has become less popular with the rise of the package holiday (substitute) and younger people seeing Skegness as a less desirable place to go on holiday.

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Delicious data - UK debt compared

Here is a great graph for using with your students to do a delicious data question.

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Demand and Supply in Action - Recession boosts fast food demand

The recent recession has led to a surge in demand for fast food. This means that 50.4% of all meals eaten out of the home are now at a so-called quick service restaurant, up from 47.3% just two years ago. The term quick service restaurant is used by the industry to describe any outlet where the consumer queues to buy take-away food so includes coffee shops.

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Demand and supply in action - oil prices

A great demand and supply in action story to start the year off. Oil prices have risen by 4%. The cost of Brent crude jumped $4 a barrel to $111.4 by yesterday. The reason is the tensions between Iran and the US.

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Demand and Supply in action - chocolate prices soar

Here is a great demand and supply in action story to get students practising their diagrams and explaining them.
The price of chocolate is set to soar over the next decade. This is due to a worldwide shortage of cocoa beans.
In addition growing taste for cocoa in China, rising demand for dark chocolate and an awareness of its health benefits are forcing up demand.

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Delicious data - UK GDP growth

Great graph here showing UK GDP growth between 2007 and 2011.

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Demand and Supply in action - The Christmas turkey

The cost of the Christmas turkey could be as much as 25% higher this year. As a result you will pay about £50 for an average 12lb turkey, up from £40 last year.

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EU growth rates - delicious data

A great graphic here on growth rates in the UK, Germany, France and the EU as a whole.

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VAT relief on DVDs

The Treasury is scrapping an exemption on VAT for goods valued at less than £15 dispatched from the Channel Islands

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Mnemonic Monday - Party Season Nearly Christmas!

It seems that Christmas festivities start earlier and earlier each year, so this mnemonic is rather fitting at the beginning of November.
This is a great one for remembering cross price elasticity.

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Demand and Supply in action - petrol prices

News coming in today suggests that we are going to see prices at the petrol pumps rise considerably over the next few years. The reason behind this will be increasing demand from the fast growing Asian economies.

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Mnemonic Monday - Supply factors

This weeks mnemonic hopefully will help students remember the factors which cause the supply curve to shift. PINTSWC

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Mnemonic Monday - Demand factors

So as we all embark on teaching demand and supply I thought it would be a good idea to remind ourselves of the useful mnemonics for this topic.
This week we will look at the factors which cause the demand curve to shift.

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Luxury items buck the trend

We are expecting demand for goods and services to be dropping as the economic outlook worsens. Not so says Burberry, makers of expensive luxury items such as the trench coat and handbags. They have seen revenues rise 30% in the six months to September 30th.

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Demand and Supply in action - fish and chips

1,200 people queued to get their hands on a fish and chip takeaway meal for just £1. Fosters Fish and Chips shop in Didsbury, Manchester, was offering the special promotion to celebrate its first birthday.
And the £4.75 savings on the usual price appeared to be reason enough for 1,200 customers to wait hours in line.

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Demand and Supply in action - pumpkins

The recent hurricane on the East Coast of America has seriously affected the crop of pumpkins ahead of Halloween. The US is facing a shortage this year after Hurricane Irene destroyed hundreds of pumpkin patches across the region.
Wholesale prices have doubled in some places as farmers nurse their surviving pumpkin plants toward a late harvest.

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Controversial statement - starter

Firms should employ more Britons.

This would make a great discussion, especially towards the end of term. Add to it a great short video from the BBC on this topic. This could be a starter or a main course depending on your students.

Demand and Supply in action - strawberries and raspberries

Strawberries and now raspberries have arrived into the shops extraordinarily early this year and the fruit itself has been larger, sweeter and juicier than any we have had in years.
This glut is a result of an unusually early spring and, essentially, good pollination.
Growers are fully expecting to outdo the 9,000 tonnes of raspberries sold last year, according to British Summer Fruits.

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Data - China, EU, UK and Germany

Some good data here on projected growth rates for China, EU, UK and Germany.

Great for a data comparison style question, such as:

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Demand and Supply in action - Chocolate digestives

The recent economic crisis has apparently made us all reach for the chocolate digestive. Sales of traditional favourite biscuits have been on the rise in the last year. The total market is up by 22 per cent over the past five years to some £2.2billion.
It is not just biscuits that have seen a rise in consumption due to the economic crisis, other comfort foods like sausage rolls and meat pies have also seen a rise in demand.

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Demand and Supply in action - Fake tan sales soar

Another great demand and supply in action to help you revise. The afternoon of the Royal wedding Debenhams saw sales of fake tan rise by 219% compared with the same day last year. It would seem that people saw the wonderful glow of Kate and Pippa Middleton and wanted to be like them - F in PASIFIC.

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Demand and Supply in action - Porridge sales surge

It would seem the porridge is the new in dish. Once again we see a great demand and supply in action story in this BBC video. It shows how fashion and trends (F in PASIFIC) have caused the demand for porridge to rise. This would be a great starter activity in the run up to exams, getting pupils to watch the video and draw a demand and supply diagram to show the change.

Demand and Supply in action - The Market Bag

This is a great demand and supply in action story I have just heard about on day time tv! The It Bag is apparently out. The new craze is the Market Bag.
At a cost of £90 per bag shown below has sold out everywhere.

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How many Easter eggs did you have?

It would seem not as many as previous years. Thorntons are blaming the great weather we had over Easter on the drop in demand for their chocolate. This is not the first time Thorntons has blamed the weather for poor demand and concerns over profit. Back in December they issued a profit warning due to low demand when the UK was affected by the snow.

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Demand and Supply in action - Bye bye white bread?

This is a great demand and supply in action story. Could white bread be on the way out? The demand for whit bread has significantly fallen over the last few years as people look to the healthier alternatives of brown and seeded bread in an attempt to become more healthy.

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Demand and supply in action - where to buy a cheap house

Here is a really interesting article about the cheapest streets to buy a house in England and Wales.
The study shows a real North-South divide with no street in the South entering the top 20.
This article could make a great start to a discussion about what will affect the demand for housing,

Oil and unemployment data

The Guardian have updated two of their very useful interactive guides.
Firstly, an interactive guide on oil prices since 1998.
Secondly, an interactive guide on unemploymet since 1984 which now includes statistics on youth unemployment.
Both of these interactive guides would make excellent data description tasks along with great revision discussion starters.