You’d be laughed right out of a minimalist Apple Store if you asked for a breakdown of the cost of one of their products. The transaction is simple – Apple decides on a price and if you’re happy, you buy.
No matter how nicely you ask, Apple will never give you a price breakdown.
After we’ve given a quote for a VO talent + studio session that has been customised based on all the parameters involved (broadcast / corporate / word count / territories / social media / online / public display / telephone messaging / etc.), when a prospective client asks for a cost breakdown, our answer is always a polite but firm ‘no’.
I’ve had clients then respond by trying to change some parameters of their request so they can reverse engineer a breakdown.
If I were to turn the tables and ask them what the markup on our services would be to the final client, they’d get uncomfortable and mumble something about company trade secrets. Same with us – we offer a fantastic service at a good rate.