The industry$-$low, industry$-$average, and industry$-$high benchmarks for the costs per branded pair sold in each geographic region $($including production costs, shipping, import tariffs, and exchange rate adjustments$),$ distribution and warehouse expenses per branded pair sold, and marketing expenses per branded pair sold that appear on p$.7$ of each issue of the Footwear Industry Report

are of the most value to the managers of companies with subpar stock prices and credit ratings.

are worth careful scrutiny by the managers of all companies because when the benchmarking data signals that a company's branded costs or operating profitability for one or more of the benchmarks are out$-$of$-$line, managers are well advised to take corrective action in the next decision round.

have the greatest value to the managers of companies that have negative operating profit per pair sold in one of more geographic regions and$/$or whose marketing expenses per pair sold are above the industry average.

are most valuable to the managers of companies whose marketing expense benchmarks are below the industry average and$/$or who are looking for evidence to confirm the need to substantially increase their company's marketing expenses in the upcoming decision round.

are of little value because the benchmarking data do not identify which companies have the lowest$/$highest costs for any of these three benchmarked cost categories.