Lincoln Navigator:
Take truck add leather seats. Profit? $15,000 per unit.
Safety regulations? Not for trucks.
CAFE regulations? Not for trucks.
Gas prices artificially low? Yes, for a time there.
Tax write off for weight? Yes.
Ford wants to sell more Lincoln Navigators or Lincoln sedans? Which dominated advertising?
Advertising creates demand in the mind which absolutely transcends textbook economics.
Widget A has 20% margins. Widget B has 5% margins. Which widget do you want to sell?
You're mixing apples and oranges.
Ford is a manufacturer; Best Buy is a retailer. Each advertises differently, and with different results.
As a manufacturer, Ford's goal is to sell more high-margin trucks.
As a retailer, Best Buy's goal is to sell more of whatever products get shipped to their stores by the manufacturers.
Margins on computers are razor-thin, regardless of whether it's a laptop or a desktop. Prices on laptops have come down over the last five years as a product of increased consumer demand for laptops, not because Best Buy has aggressively marketed them. Consumers have always wanted laptops, but were put off by the price; as a result of the lower prices, demand went up. Best Buy doesn't have a dog in that fight.
(As an aside, I want to know what world you live in where leather seats even
cost $15,000, let alone bring in that much profit. Mine were a $1,600 upgrade, and that's for an SUV.)
