Firms in Competitive Market
The Florida Citrus Industry is one of the best industries that provide juices and other products in United States. Its major product is the citrus juice. It promotes its products and educates people that a diet without some juice is not healthy. The company produces 100% orange and grapefruit juices which contain essential vitamins and nutrient-rich antioxidants that give energy and help support a healthy immune system. Its advertisements and education has helped increase the consumption of juices in the United States.
Advertising and Individual Orange Growers
I have not seen and it is very hard to see an orange grower advertising his or her individual products. This is because the companies that need the products are quite few and they purchase products from many farmers. Having interest with an individual farmer is quite hard not unless the farmer is a large scale farmer who produces much of the product. Again, the cost of posting advertisements in places that the companies can view is very expensive. This implies that the farmer who dares advertise his individual products might end up incurring some loss due to increased costs. In addition, advertising won’t increase the selling price of the product meaning that the farmer will only be wasting his or her time. The farmer also has many companies where he or she can take the product and is already aware of the companies that pay well for such products. In most cases, advertising is aimed at reaching consumers of ones products especially if there is competition or the consumers are not aware of the existence of ones product. An orange farmer is competing with any other farmer and therefore needs not advertise his or her individual products. The market for oranges is also high in Florida regardless of the amount of oranges that a farmer produces. This makes it very hard for a farmer to advertise his or her individual product.
Characteristics of Oranges that make the Market Competitive
The market for oranges in Florida is very competitive. Most companies that purchase the good use it to produce juices that are taken after meals to make a healthy diet. Oranges contain many classes of vitamins that other fruits do not have. The presence of these vitamins in the good makes it the best to produce juices that are full of valuable nutrients. The antioxidants in the good are used to prevent some diseases like leukemia in children and also fight some diseases such as cancer (George, 2007, prg.4). The fruits are also sweet and produce a juice that can be consumed by everybody comfortably.
Monopoly
Microsoft Corporation is the leading corporation in computer technology. It develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports many software products that are used in computers. It is known for the production of software such as the Microsoft windows operating system and the Microsoft office. The company has enjoyed monopoly in the field of software even after some other companies that develop software have been formed. The company made high amounts of profit in a very short period of time due to popularity of its software.
Competition involves companies that produce similar products or those that produce substitute products. A high quality product helps a company obtain competitive advantage over other companies. This might help a company become the sole provider of a certain product in a market full of competitors. The production of software to be used in computers is quite common and a monopoly company can produce software as long as it will be user friendly and efficient to the users.
Characteristics of Microsoft that makes the Market Competitive
Microsoft Corporation produces Microsoft software that is user friendly. This makes it easy for any individual to use the software regardless of his or her expertise in the field of computing. In addition to the friendliness of the software, the software was the first one that many individuals have used and are used to it (Richard, 2006, prg.6). Many individuals are not willing to change to other software. Many lecturers and teachers are used to the Microsoft products and therefore many schools offer their courses using them. The availability of experts in the products helps the company enjoy monopoly. The software has been developed using technologies in a way that it does not accommodate software from other companies. This means that one can only remove the Microsoft operating system for example ion order to install an operating system from a different company. One product like the Microsoft Office is capable of performing several tasks. It is an integration of several programs and an individual selects the one that he or she is interested in from a list of these programs. The provision of updates for individuals who have access to the internet makes many individual like the product. This allows individuals to update the software whenever some updates are released. Microsoft products also occupy a small space in the computer and therefore allow individuals to save some memory.
Oligopoly
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is an organization that coordinates and unifies petroleum policies of the countries that are members to it. It tries to ensure that the oil markets have stabilized so as to secure an efficient, economic, and regular supply of oil to consumers. Stabilization reduces harmful and unnecessary fluctuations in the prices of petroleum thus benefiting producers. Stabilization also ensures a steady income to producers and a steady profit to those who invest in the petroleum industry. All these ensure efficiency on part of the consumer, producer, and the investor. There are twelve member countries that include: Angola, Algeria, Ecuador, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and the United Arabs Emirates. Indonesia was a member but withdrew its membership in 2008 after it started importing oil. OPEC was founded in September 1960 in Baghdad, Iraq and the initial members were Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia.
The Oil Prices
There has been great debate on the prices of oil which have been on the rise. OPEC as an organization of those countries that supply the whole world with oil was formed to regulate and stabilize the prices of oil for the sake of the producer, consumer, and the investor. Unfortunately, the consumer is not very comfortable with the current price of petroleum and its products. Considering the high demand of petroleum today due to the developing nations and the deteriorating wells, there is a high possibility that OPEC is likely to keep the prices of oil quite high (Ron, 2008, prg.9). This is simply because the few countries have full control of the supply of oil in the world. Industries have to run and automobiles have to move meaning that countries must buy oil regardless of the high prices that have been fixed by OPEC. In fact, there is a chance that oil prices will even go higher as more countries compete for the product that is becoming quite remote.
Reference
George, M. F. (2007). Oranges. Web.
Richard, S. (2006). Microsoft’s New Monopoly. Web.
Ron, B. (2008). The Great Oil Price Debate. Web.