Two companies share the bulk of the market for a particular kind of product. Each is now planning its new marketing plans for the next year in an attempt to wrest some sales away from the other company. (The total sales for the product are relatively fixed, so one company can increase its sales only by winning them away from the other.) Each company is considering three possibilities: (1) better packaging of the product, (2) increased advertising, and (3) a slight reduction in price. The costs of the three alternatives are quite comparable and sufficiently large that each company will select just one. The estimated effect of each combination of alternatives on the increased percentage of the sales for company 1 is as follows:

Each company must make its selection before learning the decision of the other company.
(a) Without eliminating dominated strategies, use the minimax (or maximin) criterion to determine the best strategy for each company.
(b) Now identify and eliminate dominated strategies as far as possible. Make a list of the dominated strategies, showing the order in which you were able to eliminate them. Then show the resulting reduced payoff table with no remaining dominated strategies.

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Player 2 Strategy 2 Player 12 4 2