Which sales forecasting approach is effective when intimate knowledge of customer
plans is important?
a. executive judgment
b. Delphi method
c. time series
d. sales force composite
e. causal analysis
Market-driven firms attempt to match their resources, skills, and capabilities with:
a. competitive intelligence.
b. customers needs that are not currently being served adequately.
c. derived demand.
d. the needs of upstream suppliers.
The concept of tangibility helps the manager to:
a. focus clearly on the firm’s total market offering.
b. recognize that a change in one of the elements of the marketing offering may
completely change the offering in the view of the customer.
c. determine how a service will marketed.
d. all of the above.
e. (a) and (b) only.
When buying influentials and decision makers lack well-defined criteria for comparing
alternative products and suppliers and they also lack strong predispositions toward a
particular solution, they are operating in a stage of _____ problem solving.
a. cerebral
b. limited
c. selective
d. routinized
e. extensive
Common elements of logistics service include:
a. delivery time.
b. order accuracy.
c. cost-per-unit.
d. All of the above.
e. Only (a) and (b).
The most successful advertisements directed at business customers tend to focus on:
a. the physical product.
b. product attributes.
c. product benefits.
d. indirect appeals to action.
e. the price of the advertised product.
E-channels can be used by business marketing firms for:
a. information platforms.
b. transaction platforms.
c. customer relationship management platforms.
d. All of the above.
e. Only b and c.
The primary responsibility for strategic control typically lies with:
a. top management.
b. middle management.
c. salespeople.
d. buying organizations.
e. front-line employees.
Which of the following statements regarding competitive threats is incorrect?
a. Matching a price cut will be an ineffective strategy if the competitor simply
reestablished the differential by a further price reduction.
b. A single response is rarely enough to stop price moves by competitors that are
struggling to establish a market position.
c. If a price response is required, the strategist should focus the firm’s competitive
retaliation on those actions that are most cost-effective for the firm.
d. All of the above.
Which of the following represent the three bridge elements that tie together the major
components of the business model?
a. Customer benefits, configuration, and company boundaries.
b. Firm benefits, configuration, and functional boundaries.
c. Customer benefits, configuration, and functional boundaries.
d. Core strategies, strategic resources, and value networks.
A brand mantra is
a. a very short summary of the essence of the brand
b. is used to communicate the core values of the brand
c. helps employees understand the key meaning of the company’s product
d. is crucial in the overall process of building a strong brand
e. all of the above.
Responsibility charting constitutes an approach that can be used to classify
decision-making roles and to highlight the multifunctional nature of business marketing
decision-making. A manager who is told of the decision when it is made, but may not
have been consulted before the decision was approved is performing which of the
following roles?
a. responsible
b. approve
c. consult
d. implement
e. inform
Examples of pricing objectives include:
a. channel relationships.
b. achieving a market-share goal.
c. achieving a target return on investment.
d. all of the above.
e. (b) and (c) only.
Among technology adopters, these customers have access to organizational resources
and can assume an influential role in giving an innovation a boost during the early
stages of market development. However, these customers frequently demand
modifications to the product that are difficult for the innovator to provide. This
describes:
a. technology enthusiasts.
b. visionaries.
c. skeptics.
d. pragmatists.
e. product champions.
All of the following are potential micro bases of business market segmentation except:
a. organizational innovativeness.
b. importance of purchase.
c. personal characteristics.
d. structure of decision-making unit.
e. type of buying situation.
Flagstaff Electrical Supply wonders whether they are spending too much or too little on
various elements in their marketing program. Which of the following tools would
appear to be most appropriate in examining the efficiency of operations?
a. sales analysis
b. market share analysis
c. expense-to-sales ratio analysis
d. price analysis
e. product analysis
_____ involves activities in which the decision and execution of strategy actions
approach convergence with each other in time.
a. Time pacing
b. Patching
c. Routinization
d. Quality function deployment
e. Improvisation
The sales resource grid indicates that a particular territory (planning and control unit)
possesses low PCU opportunity and low sales organization strength. This suggests
which of the following sales resource assignments?
a. Invest a high level of resources to take advantage of opportunity.
b. Invest a moderate level of resources.
c. Invest a minimal level of sales resources, selectively eliminate resource coverage, or
possibly eliminate the PCU.
d. None of the above.
During the bowling alley phase of the adoption life cycle, the business marketing
strategist should:
a. focus on market segmentation.
b. extend distribution channels.
c. drive to the next lower price point.
d. all of the above.
e. (b) and (c) only.
Service variability is a unique service characteristic. From the following list, choose the
marketing implication most closely related to this characteristic.
a. buyer-seller interaction requiring that the service be done “right”
b. planning capacity on the basis of peak demand
c. emphasizing strict quality control standards
d. using pricing and promotion to even out demand peaks and valleys
e. None of the above applies specifically to service variability.
The most crucial limitation(s) associated with causal methods of sales forecasting
is(are):
a. the problem of determining future values of the independent or causal variables.
b. the problem of securing unbiased sales estimates from the sales force.
c. that seasonal variations in performance are difficult to precisely estimate.
d. both (b) and (c).
e. All of the above are crucial limitations of causal methods of sales forecasting.
The home base for a business is the location where:
a. strategy is set.
b. core product and process technology is created and maintained.
c. a critical mass of sophisticated production and service activities reside.
d. all of the above.
e. (a) and (c) only.
In a modified rebuy situation, the “in” supplier should do which of the following?
a. Make every effort to understand and satisfy the procurement need.
b. Try to move decision makers into straight rebuy.
c. Both (a) and (b).
d. Neither (a) nor (b).
The percentage of organizational buyers who have a positive image of a company
minus the buyer with a negative opinion is called:
a. brand attitude.
b. brand equity.
c. a strong brand
d. none of the above.
High-performing salespeople are generally set apart from low performing sales people
on the basis of:
a. their time on the job
b. their ability to recruit desired ad hoc members on to their sales team
c. their past experience in new task selling situations
d. all of the above
e. none of the above
Concerning the chain of suppliers involved in the creation of a Honda automobile,
which of the following fall within the business marketing domain?
a. Honda purchasing power steering components from direct suppliers.
b. Direct suppliers of power steering systems purchasing sheet metal from upstream
suppliers.
c. Organizations purchasing Honda automobiles for their fleets.
d. all of the above.
e. (a) and (b) only.
Techniques for motivating individual channel members include all of the following
except:
a. dealer advisory councils.
b. competitive compensation.
c. building trust.
d. better planning by the business marketer.
e. product training for channel members.
Concerning business-to-business advertising media, _____ publications are directed at a
specific task, technology, or function, whatever the industry.
a. common
b. specialty
c. horizontal
d. vertical
e. target
Buyers of business services often experience difficulty in evaluating service quality.
Since it is difficult to evaluate quality,
a. buyers tend to experience more perceived risk.
b. buyers rely on different prepurchase information sources to reduce risk.
c. symbology plays a more important role in the evaluation process.
d. all of the above
e. (a) and (b) only
Concerning the level of sales that a salesperson might achieve in a particular territory,
which specific territory traits appear to be most important?
a. potential, workload, dispersion
b. potential, concentration, dispersion
c. potential, competition, concentration
d. potential, workload, competition
e. potential, dispersion, competition
In deciding which trade shows to attend, some business marketing strategists turn to
reports published by Exhibit Surveys, Inc., a company that surveys trade show
audiences. One useful tool that they provide measures the percentage of the audience
planning to buy the products being exhibited within the next 12 months. This is called:
a. Surveys of Industry Purchasing Power.
b. Controlled Audience Index.
c. Total Buying Plans.
d. Buying Power Index.
e. Net Buying Influences.
A benchmarking study sought to uncover the critical success factors that drive a firm’s
new product performance. The results indicate that successful firms:
a. center development efforts on clearly-defined market and technology domains.
b. seldom “kill” a project once the new product development process has been initiated.
c. emphasize low-price strategies to penetrate a mass market.
d. all of the above.
e. (b) and (c) only.
In evaluating alternative bases for segmentation, the marketer is attempting to identify
good predictors of differences in buyer behavior.
The development of marketing programs for both products and services can be
approached from a common perspective, yet the relative importance of various strategic
elements and the form of these strategic elements will differ between products and
services. Explain.
Answer:
n/a
The compensation provided to middlemen should be based on loyalty, length of service,
and past years’ sales performance.
Core customer outcome measures used to monitor performance include market share,
customer retention, and customer profitability.
Externally mediated rewards are controlled and offered
by____________________or____________________, such as financial incentives,
pay, or recognition.
Micro bases of organizational market segmentation require a high degree of market
knowledge and focus on the characteristics of decision-making units within each of the
various macrosegments.
Relating sales revenues and marketing costs to market segments improves decision
making.
The home base for a business is the location where strategy is set and a critical mass of
sophisticated production and service activities reside.
Efficiency and effectiveness control is the primary responsibility
of____________________management.
Because business marketers cannot always provide flawless service, the response to
service problems is critical to future success. Explain how an excellent service recovery
process can lead to a differential advantage for firms. How does a business marketer
figure out how much to spend on service recovery and service quality?
Answer:
n/a
Strategic plans emerge out of a bargaining process among functional areas.
Conflicts frequently emerge during the strategy formulation process because various
functional units operate under unique reward systems and reflect unique orientations.
Customers in the business market can be broadly classified into three categories: (1)
commercial enterprises; (2) government; and (3) institutions.
Price may be critical in the marketing strategy for supplies because many supply items
are undifferentiated.
Price elasticity of demand is not the same at all prices.