The strongest brands do not engage customers on a deep, emotional level.
Human needs are shaped by culture and individual personality.
A service refers to an activity, benefit, or satisfaction offered for sale that is essentially
intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything.
The whole-channel view recognizes that to compete internationally a company must
effectively design and manage a standardized global marketing plan.
The first question in a questionnaire should be purposely made difficult and
complicated to weed out the uninterested respondents.
Many shoppers now check out merchandise online and then buy it at brick-and-mortar
stores. This process is called showrooming.
Viral marketing allows marketers to send tailored messages to targeted customers who
have chosen to receive them.
Corporate chains are two or more outlets that are commonly owned and controlled.
The relative power of buyers affects segment attractiveness.
Herb Marks built his enterprise on the faithful patronage of four specialty shops and a
large contract from Elmore Distributors. But after two years, the maker of novelty pens
and pencils had to rethink his strategy when his contract with Elmore ended.
Herb built a company reputation on the manufacturing and distribution of a variety of
wooden writing utensils with customized engravings. Specialty shops loved to display
the products in their fancy, lighted showcases, but such specialty shops alone were not
profitable. Herb Marks established a brand name, known merely as Marks, and decided
to expand on it.
Herb extended his writing utensil lines to include quills, felt-tip pens, and
multiple-cartridge pens that write in different colors. He even added a line of various
grades of personalized stationery and business cards. Perhaps Herb’s biggest added
touch, however, was the addition of two salespeople who would work to explain the
diverse array of products offered by Marks, as well as nurture existing accounts.
“We make an excellent product,” Herb Marks stated, “and we honor a good guarantee
on everything we sell. But let’s face it-we face hundreds of competitors! We need Marks
representatives out there to help prospects understand what they should demand in
something as simple as a writing tool.”
The Marks brand was fast-becoming synonymous with top-notch customer service. Part
of the purchase package brought personal visits from the Marks representative, before
the purchase and long after.
An easier, more comfortable, more stylish transfer of thought onto paper refers to the
________ of Herb’s offerings.
A) tangible element
B) core customer value
C) actual product
D) augmented product
E) service variability
One common form of Internet fraud is phishing, a type of identity theft that uses
deceptive e-mails and fraudulent online sites to fool users into divulging personal data.
A ________ is a wholesaler-sponsored group of independent retailers that engages in
group buying and common merchandising.
A) voluntary chain
B) retailer cooperative
C) franchise
D) wholesale club
E) warehouse club
Which of the following is a geographical pricing strategy?
A) basing-point pricing
B) segmented pricing
C) dynamic pricing
D) internet pricing
E) location-based pricing
To break through the clutter, many marketers have subscribed to a new merging of
advertising and entertainment, dubbed ________.
A) Madison & Vine
B) Wall St. & Fifth Ave
C) buzz marketing
D) podcasting
E) webisodes
In the 1970s, Shipshewana was only a small town with a hardware store, a grain mill, a
shoe store, a small restaurant, and a grocery store. Over the next two decades, the small
town transformed into an international tourist attraction, attracting thousands of tourists
who were intrigued by the lifestyle of Shipshewana’s largest population-the Amish.
Ben and Mary Miller, having grown up within the Amish faith, decided to capitalize on
their town’s popularity and their woodworking skills. Their shop, Indiana Wood, began
with a small display of handmade hickory rocking chairs, Ben Miller’s specialty. But
within a few months, the display at Indiana Wood included picnic tables, flower boxes,
and small handmade novelty items. No other shop offers the same.
Mary Miller decorated the shop’s display room with authentic Amish d©cor and
eventually hired three Amish friends to sew and embroider napkins and other textiles as
per customer requests. In addition, two women from the Amish community sought
permission from the Millers to display home-baked pastries and jellies on Tuesdays and
Wednesdays, when Shipshewana attracts swarms of visitors to its flea market on the
south edge of town. The Millers also hired four more people to help customers
throughout the purchasing process and to provide the required product related
information to the customers.
“Shipshewana is full of specialty shops,” Mary Miller stated. “People don’t come here to
buy things made in China or Taiwan. They want real, Amish-made goods.”
Indiana Wood can be best classified as a(n) ________.
A) full-service retailer
B) industrial distributor
C) truck jobber
D) warehouse club
E) drop shipper
Which of the following is true about customer relationship management (CRM)?
A) Data mining has limited applicability in CRM activities.
B) Sophisticated analytical tools are sparingly used in CRM activities.
C) CRM reduces the number of customer touch points.
D) CRM aims to maximize customer loyalty.
E) CRM enables firms to compare various product and service categories.
Elmo Inc., a global conglomerate, designed the ElBrush, an electric toothbrush. Sensing
market demand for the electric toothbrush, Elmo started with an ideal selling price of $3
based on customer value considerations and then targeted costs to ensure that the price
was met. This exemplifies ________.
A) competition-based pricing
B) cost-plus pricing
C) target costing
D) everyday low pricing
E) high-low pricing
Which of the following follows a customer-centered ‘sense-and-respond” philosophy
rather than a product-centered “make-and-sell” philosophy?
A) market segmentation
B) the production concept
C) the marketing concept
D) the inside-out perspective
E) marketing myopia
Under ________, the market consists of many buyers and sellers who trade over a range
of prices rather than a single market price.
A) pure competition
B) monopolistic competition
C) oligopolistic competition
D) a pure monopoly
E) the dominant firm model
Persuasive advertising becomes ________ advertising when a company directly or
indirectly compares its brand with one or more other brands.
A) informative
B) reminder
C) attack
D) covert
E) institutional
Which of the following can help a company create direct procurement accounts with
suppliers, through which company buyers can purchase equipment, materials, and
supplies directly?
A) backsourcing
B) extranet
C) company blog
D) reverse auction
E) trade exchange
Which of the following is true of changes in the organization of distribution channels?
A) Developing new channels seldom causes conflict with a company’s established
channels.
B) To remain competitive, product and service producers must use fewer marketing
channels.
C) The growth of the Internet threatens many “brick-and-mortar” companies with
disintermediation.
D) Companies have fewer channel-options today than they did in the past due to
economic problems.
E) Advances in technology have decreased the number of channels available to
entrepreneurial firms.
What is deceptive pricing?
Give two examples of products for which captive product pricing might be used.
How is marketing applied in the not-for-profit sector?
What is personal selling?
Why is identifying predatory pricing difficult?
What does market targeting involve?
What are the different internal factors that affect a firm’s pricing decisions?
Explain why most marketers avoid deceptive practices.