You’re currently assigned to the mobile products team at intel, supporting their marketing efforts. you’ve been watching sales data come in for a specific product line, the particles chips. intel invented these chips in 2010 and has held the market ever since. microprocessors have become increasingly revolutionized for the rapid rise of smart phones. a new competitor has entered the market to compete against particles, and you’ve noticed that the customer defection rate had a sharp increase last month. the percentage of repeat customers buying particles from us declined suddenly. you know that the cost of acquiring a new customer is higher and less efficient than continuing to sell to an existing customer. what would you do?

You receive a memo from the vice president of procurement responding to your query. he writes: “it will be very important to maintain product continuity. we have a large base of devoted customers. we want to make sure that the quality and key characteristics of island knight stay the same through this transition. talk to frank, our consulting professional perfumer, for more information about the cologne. seasonal variations in costs are the single most significant factor in our deciding to go with another supplier, so finding a way to limit that should be the top priority. the overall marginal costs and shipping costs are probably somewhat less significant. you may want to talk to cindy, the product manager for island knight, regarding pricing information about the product.” what is the best action to take next?