The March 8, 2004, edition of BusinessWeek contained an article titled “Courting the Mass Affluent”. The article discusses the efforts of Charles Schwab Corp. to attract a bigger share of investors who have \($100,000\) to \($1\) million to invest. Read this article and complete the following requirements.

Required:

a. Schwab increased its marketing budget during the first quarter of 2004. What was the amount of the increase? Is this cost fixed or variable relative to the number of new customers that the company attracts?

b. Assume that Schwab acquires a significant number of new customers. Name several costs that are likely to remain fixed as revenue increases.

c. Assume that Schwab acquires a significant number of new customers. Name several costs that are likely to vary with increasing revenue.

d. Consider the cost of establishing a new customer account. Describe a set of circumstances under which this would be a fixed cost and a different set of circumstances under which this would be a variable cost.