Ayden is shopping at the local Costco on a Saturday afternoon and loves trying all the product samples. He's learned that he can usually try 5 to 7 different products while he's shopping in the store and the samples almost always taste great! He usually purchases the sampled item because he likes the taste and knows that he'll use it once he gets the item home. What type of marketing technique is utilized by offering product samples

Market Shaping strategy was used here.

Explanation:

The reason is that the strategy here has the tendency to shape the market which will benefit the firm and has greater influence on the customer's choices because he is experiencing a new market. So the strategy has completely changed the customer perspective. In UK, if you visit a Tesco you can taste the pastries and other bakery items and then order them, which means that the market shape has been altered by the Tesco. And this has led to greater amount of sales of Tesco because people don't want to spend the money and taste perhaps they will prefer to taste first and then order. This also helps in understanding which product the customer likes most and building brand recognition. In the current situation, Ayden is allowed to try his samples extracted and wants to choose the best which can be identified by trying all those samples and all the samples are of great quality and design. So the best choice he is choosing is from those samples and pays by trying it first. So this is similar to the Tesco case and has tendency to change the customer perspective and also that it has presented a completely new market shape which is attractive to potential customers.

marginal cost is a microeconomic measure that us to evaluate the extent to which the level of production of a good is sustainable in accounting, that is, to how many quantities the company plans to profit from the production of the good.

the concept of marginal cost is simple, it means the cost of producing one more item. for example, in the case of pies, the marginal cost is the cost of producing one more pie than those that have already been produced.

it is important to understand that productive activity influences marginal cost. the marginal cost of some goods can be very high, while others may be insignificant. for example, the marginal cost of producing an extra plane is very high. already the marginal cost of a water company to provide 1l more water is derisory.

in the case of pies, the cost involves the inputs, the labor and the fixed cost, which involves the fixed space of the bakery. the level of production initially has the marginal cost decreasing because there is space and manpower available. however, to produce more you have to hire more workers and buy more inputs. if physical space is limited, workers will conflict with places, inputs and their productivity will decrease, meaning there is an optimum point of production for each level of space and manpower. from this point on, the productivity of the workers will be getting smaller because of lack of space, so that the marginal cost of producing one more pie will be increasing. so, although you have not posted the chart, but if you have the answer, you can see that my explanation goes according to the marginal cost curve that will increase from the 4th pie, answer (c).