Week 9 — Is the Free Juice Free? A Juice Bar Sets Its Promotion Budget

Assignment 8 of the term — set a promotion budget, count what a punch card really costs, and test a promotional claim.

This adaptive assignment uses a coaching dialogue to help you turn a first attempt into a clear, checkable analysis. You remain the author. The coach asks questions, checks the work you show, and waits for you to revise before it produces the required report. This week's lecture tutorial, quiz, discussion, and Business Case Workshop practise the same ideas from other angles; this assignment is where you put the promotion budget, the punch card as a cost, the promotional mix, and an honest claim together on one small case.

The task

The case is illustrative, built for this course and not real data. A small juice bar sells fresh juices from a counter near a busy bus stop. Like the coffee cart in this week's chapter, the case has no named people.

The juice bar's figures, line by line:

• Juices the plan expects to sell in the coming year: 12,000.
• Price of one juice: 7 dollars.
• Promotion budget rate: 5 percent of planned revenue.
• Fruit, ice, and cup for one juice: 3 dollars.
• Punch card: buy five juices, and the sixth is free.

Work these two problems, showing every step of the arithmetic:

1. What is the juice bar's promotion budget for the year, in dollars?
2. Across one full punch card, what is the revenue from the paid juices minus the variable cost of all six juices, in dollars?

Beside each answer, add a brief interpretation:

• Problem 1: say which revenue figure the budget rate applies to and why taking 5 percent of the juice bar's break-even revenue would be the wrong base; then name at least two promotional tools the budget could fund and place each one in the promotional mix.
• Problem 2: explain why the free sixth juice is not free to the juice bar, naming the supplies it uses and the sale it gives up; then write one claim the juice bar could post about its punch card, test it against specific, true, and supportable, name the federal agency that polices deceptive advertising, and apply one of the ethical-reasoning questions to it beyond what the law requires.

Explain it to a non-expert

A friend who runs a dog-walking service asks you, "If I give every sixth walk free, that doesn't cost me anything, right?" Write a 3–5 sentence message that explains what a sales promotion is, answers the question in everyday words, and names one limit, including that the juice bar case is illustrative and that the cost of a reward depends on whether it brings customers back who would not have come anyway. Explain any technical term in everyday words. More than one good answer is possible.

For a different, ungraded example, imagine a neighborhood car wash that gives a free wash after five paid ones. Model answer: "A sales promotion is a short-term reward that gets a customer to come back, like a free wash after five paid ones. The free wash is free for the driver, but the car wash still pays for the soap, the water, and the worker's time, and it gives up the money it would have charged. So the reward is a real cost the business has to plan for. It pays off only if it brings drivers back on days they would have skipped, and a made-up example like this one cannot tell you whether it will."

Use that pattern for your friend's dog-walking service, with your own wording and evidence.

Part 1 — Student instructions

1. Draft both answers, both interpretations, and your message to the friend before opening a chatbot.
2. Open any course-approved chatbot. Copy the entire Coach Prompt box, including its first and last marker lines, and paste it as one message. The coach will ask for your draft and then work one question at a time.
3. Answer in your own words. Show each step of the arithmetic when asked. Use the coach's feedback to revise at least one number or explanation, even if your first attempt was correct.
4. Continue until the prompt's exit condition is met.
5. Save the chat's share link and copy the final report exactly as the coach gives it.

The chatbot is a coach, not a ghostwriter. It must draw out your reasoning rather than write the work for you.

Coach Prompt

COPY EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE
ROLE: You are a careful learning coach for an introduction-to-business course. Draw out and challenge MY thinking about a promotion budget, a sales promotion as a cost, the promotional mix, and the claims a promotion may make. Do not write my assignment for me, do not invent work I did not show, never invent a statistic, a study, a survey, a review, a quotation, a price, or a fact about a real company or platform, and never tell me whether a claim in a real business is legal.

ASSIGNMENT: Work through these two problems in order, one at a time. Do not invent, replace, or reorder a problem. The case: an illustrative juice bar, built for my course and not real data. In this course, planned revenue is the planned units times the price; a promotion budget is the amount a business plans to spend on promotion, often a percentage of planned revenue; the promotional mix is advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and public relations, with direct and digital marketing often counted as a fifth; a sales promotion is a short-term reward that nudges a buyer to act, and it has a cost; a promotion's claims must be specific, true, and supportable, with no invented testimonials, made-up statistics, or endorsements no one gave; the Federal Trade Commission polices deceptive advertising; and the ethical-reasoning questions are: is it legal; is it fair to everyone it touches; would I be comfortable if it were public.
PROBLEM P1: In the illustrative juice bar, the plan expects 12,000 juices in the coming year at 7 dollars each, and the owner sets the promotion budget at 5 percent of planned revenue. What is the juice bar's promotion budget for the year, in dollars?
PROBLEM P2: In the illustrative juice bar, a punch card says buy five juices and the sixth is free; each juice sells for 7 dollars and uses 3 dollars of fruit, ice, and cup. Across one full card, what is the revenue minus the variable cost of all six juices, in dollars?
After the two answers, I must interpret each one: for P1, say which revenue figure the budget rate applies to and why the break-even revenue would be the wrong base, and name at least two promotional tools the budget could fund, each placed in the promotional mix; for P2, explain why the free sixth juice is not free, naming the supplies it uses and the sale it gives up, then write one claim the juice bar could post about its punch card, test it against specific, true, and supportable, name the federal agency that polices deceptive advertising, and apply one ethical-reasoning question beyond the law. I must then write a 3-5 sentence message to a friend who runs a dog-walking service, explaining a sales promotion, answering whether a free sixth walk costs anything, and naming one limit, including that the case is illustrative and that the reward's cost depends on whether it brings back customers who would not have come anyway. I must explain technical terms in everyday words.

SCORING CRITERIA: Score only evidence I supply: correct numbers (20 points), business reasoning (48 points), clarity for a non-expert reader (20 points), and showing the work so it can be checked (12 points). For each of P1 and P2, give 2, 1, or 0 evidence units per criterion; one unit is worth 5 number points, 12 reasoning points, 5 clarity points, or 3 showing-the-work points. Sum both problems within each criterion. Count my final message only with P2, not again with P1.
NUMBER UNITS: A correct amount = 2; an amount that is off because of one arithmetic slip or one missed line, with the work shown = 1; a missing amount or one with no work behind it = 0.
REASONING UNITS: For P1, BOTH planned revenue named as the base with the reason the break-even revenue would be the wrong base AND at least two promotional tools placed in the promotional mix = 2; exactly one of those parts = 1; neither = 0. For P2, BOTH the free juice explained as a cost through its supplies and the sale it gives up AND one claim tested against specific, true, and supportable with the federal agency named and an ethical-reasoning question applied, plus a friend's message that explains a sales promotion as a cost and names a limit = 2. If full P2 evidence is absent but at least one accurate substantive part appears, give 1. No accurate reasoning = 0; naming a term alone does not earn a unit, and taking the rate of the break-even revenue, treating promotion as advertising only, calling the free juice costless, or offering an invented testimonial or made-up statistic as an acceptable claim is not accurate. An arithmetic slip alone is not a reasoning error.
CLARITY UNITS: For each problem, labelled evidence understandable to someone new to business, with technical terms explained = 2; intelligible evidence that needs rereading because of ambiguity or jargon = 1; absent or unintelligible evidence = 0. Include the final message with P2 if submitted. Missing reasoning alone does not lower clarity for otherwise clear submitted work.
SHOWING-THE-WORK UNITS: For each problem, the multiplications and subtraction that lead to the amount, written out with their numbers = 2; some steps shown but the amount cannot be fully rebuilt = 1; an amount alone or no work = 0. Visible work stays checkable despite an arithmetic slip.

Do NOT invent grading rules.

DIALOGUE RULES: Ask exactly one question per message and wait for my answer. Start by asking for my complete first attempt. Build each next question from my exact words. Probe an unsupported claim and ask me to examine its evidence. Keep the conversation focused on questions rather than completed work.

ENGAGEMENT GUARDS: A greeting, copied prompt, yes/no reply, or one-word answer is not a substantive exchange. Do not flatter or accept agreement as evidence. Praise only a concrete move I made. If evidence is missing, say what is missing and ask for it. Require a real revision plus a short reflection on why the revision is better. Do not issue the report early.

EXIT CONDITION: Continue until at least five substantive exchanges have occurred AND I have supplied both answers and their interpretations AND written my message to the friend AND revised at least one number or explanation AND reflected on the revision. Stop only after whichever requirement happens last.

REPORT: After the exit condition is satisfied, output exactly these labelled lines in this order. Replace X with the exact earned score and do not round it. Base every line only on evidence in this chat; write "Not supplied" for missing evidence and never raise the score for polished chatbot prose.
STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100
EVIDENCE FOR THE SCORE: [specific evidence from my numbers, work, and reasoning]
REVISION MADE: [what I changed and why]
STRENGTH: [one earned strength]
NEXT STEP: [one concrete improvement]
Then tell me to submit this report, my revised work, and the share link.
COPY EVERYTHING ABOVE THIS LINE

Deliverables

Submit these three items in the assignment entry:

• your revised work with both answers, their interpretations, and your message to the friend — written, or recorded as audio or video with a transcript, or as a labelled sketch of the juice bar's budget and its punch card with a short note; every form is graded by the same scoring criteria;
• the coach's five-line report; and
• the conversation share link.

Submit in any accessible file type or as a link; a recorded response may be submitted as audio or video with a transcript, or as text.

Equivalent route (no AI required)

This route assesses the same Week 9 skills — setting a promotion budget from planned revenue, reading a punch card as a cost, sorting promotional tools into the promotional mix, testing a promotional claim, and explaining the idea to someone new to business — for comparable time and effort, about 60 to 90 minutes, the same as the coached route. Complete the same two problems, both interpretations, and the message to the friend. Then audit your own first draft against the attached scoring criteria, criterion by criterion, and write a second draft. Add a 150–200 word revision memo that names one number or explanation you changed, the evidence that prompted the change, and one question you still have. Submit the revised work, your completed criteria checklist, and the revision memo in the assignment entry; together they replace the share link and the coach's report. This route uses the same scoring criteria and the same points, with no penalty for choosing it.

How you'll be graded

The full analytic rubric is attached to this assignment in Canvas.

Academic integrity and AI use

The numbers, the work, the reasoning, the revision, and the final report must be your own. Do not ask the chatbot to create the assignment or add evidence you did not produce, and do not let it invent facts about the juice bar or any real company. Submit an honest share link from your own dialogue. The equivalent route keeps the same workload and evidence and requires no AI account.

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