63) A job-shop specialist ________.
A) sells only in a certain locality, region, or area of the world
B) customizes its products for individual customers
C) operates at the low- or high-quality ends of the market
D) offers one or more services not available from other firms
E) specializes in serving only one channel of distribution
64) A firm that is based in France designs jewelry and takes custom orders from around the
world. They do not design more than 15 pieces of jewelry in a year and ensure that each design
uses unique stones and is different from the other. Such nichemanship is an example of
________ specialist role.
A) customer-size
B) product
C) product-feature
D) job-shop
E) quality-price
65) When a bank takes loan requests over the phone and hand-delivers the money to the
customer, it becomes a ________ specialist.
A) geographic
B) job-shop
C) quality-price
D) channel
E) service
66) ________ is the period of slow sales growth and nonexistent profits.
A) Growth
B) Decline
C) Maturity
D) Introduction
E) Stagnancy
67) Campbell Soups is a newly established company that specializes in preparing healthy but
tasty food for children under the age of 5. It is incurring huge productions costs, nonexistent
profits, and slow sales growth. The company is in the ________ phase of its life cycle.
A) stagnancy
B) introduction
C) maturity
D) decline
E) growth
68) ________ is a period of rapid market acceptance and substantial profit improvement.
A) Stagnancy
B) Introduction
C) Maturity
D) Decline
E) Growth
69) A dance school in the Bronx teaches professional hip-hop and salsa. It is experiencing an
increase in student admissions, which is leading to substantial improvement in profits. The
school is going through the ________ phase of its life cycle.
A) decline
B) stagnancy
C) growth
D) introduction
E) maturity
70) ________ is a slowdown in sales growth because the product has achieved acceptance by
most potential buyers.
A) Obsolescence
B) Introduction
C) Growth
D) Decline
E) Maturity
71) A music school in Boyles Height, LA, specializes in teaching the guitar and the violin. After
a spurt in growth and a few successful years, the school is experiencing a slowdown in sales and
stability in its profits due to an increase in competition. The school is in the ________ stage of its
life cycle.
A) introduction
B) growth
C) decline
D) maturity
E) obsolescence
72) During the ________ stage of a product’s life cycle, sales show a downward drift and profits
erode.
A) introduction
B) growth
C) decline
D) obsolescence
E) maturity
73) After a couple of years of successful business, an experimental theatre company based in
Aurora is unable to sell tickets for its theatre shows. They have been using profits from previous
shows to run the business. The company is in the ________ phase of its life cycle.
A) maturity
B) obsolescence
C) introduction
D) growth
E) decline
74) According to Peter Golder and Gerald Tellis, a(n) ________ is the first to develop a working
model of the product.
A) developer
B) creative pioneer
C) market pioneer
D) product pioneer
E) inventor
75) One of the ways to change the course of a brand is to modify the product. Under product
modification, ________ adds size, weight, materials, supplements, and accessories that expand
the product’s performance, versatility, safety, or convenience.
A) feature improvement
B) quality improvement
C) style improvement
D) size improvement
E) technological improvement
76) An alternate way to increase sales volume is to expand the number of users. This can be done
by ________.
A) having consumers use the product on more occasions
B) having consumers use more of the product on each occasion
C) having consumers use the product in new ways
D) remaining in the current market segment
E) attracting competitors’ customers
77) An alternate way to increase sales volume is to increase the usage rate among users. This can
be done by ________.
A) converting nonusers
B) having consumers use less of the product on each occasion
C) having consumers use the product on more occasions
D) attracting competitors’ customers
E) entering new market segments
78) ________ is a distribution strategy that can be effectively used during the growth stage of the
product life cycle.
A) Building product awareness
B) Phasing out unprofitable outlets
C) Building selective distribution
D) Building intensive distribution
E) Stressing on brand differences
79) Which of the following strategies should be adopted by marketers during a recession?
A) increase investment on marketing existing products
B) focus on expanding the customer base and not on the retention of existing customers
C) focus primarily on price reductions and discounts
D) concentrate on communicating the brand value and product quality to consumers
E) stick to the budget allocations adopted during the preceding years
80) Benz & Frendz Corp., a manufacturer of high end consumer durables, experienced a sluggish
sales growth in most of its product categories during three consecutive quarters of 2009.
However, market analysis revealed that its competitors’ sales had also slackened during this
period. Analysts pointed out that when all firms are losing sales, it is extremely important to
adopt strategies that are aimed at retaining customers. This led the firm to reduce operation costs
while maintaining product quality. They also revamped their marketing strategy to focus on the
values created by their products. Which of the following can be inferred from the strategies
adopted by the firm?
A) The company was trying to protect its market share and continue to operate as a market
leader.
B) The company was focusing on geographical expansion.
C) The company was aiming to capture a new market segment.
D) The company was marketing its products amidst an economic downturn.
E) The company was focusing on market penetration.
81) When the total market expands, the dominant firm usually gains the most.
82) The market leader should look for new customers or more usage from existing customers.
83) A market-penetration strategy is one where a company searches for new customers in a
group that has never used a product before.
84) One way to increase the frequency of consumption of a product by consumers is by
introducing it in larger package sizes.
85) Increasing amount of consumption requires identifying additional opportunities to use the
brand in the same basic way.
86) A marketing program can communicate the appropriateness and advantages of using the
brand.
87) The most constructive response to protecting market share is continuous innovation.
88) A responsive marketer looks ahead to needs customers may have in the near future.
89) An anticipative marketer finds a stated need and fills it.
90) A creative marketer discovers solutions customers did not ask for but to which they
enthusiastically respond.
91) Position defense means occupying the most desirable market space in consumers’ minds,
making the brand almost impregnable.
92) In counteroffensive marketing, the market leader can meet the attacker frontally and hit its
flank, or launch a pincer movement so that it is forced to pull back to defend itself.
93) In contraction defense, the leader stretches its domain over new territories through market
broadening and market diversification.
94) Market diversification shifts the company’s focus to unrelated industries.
95) Market challengers are companies that attack the leader and other competitors in an
aggressive bid for further market share.
96) Attacking the market leader proves successful and beneficial only when the leader is not
serving the market well.
97) A frontal attacking strategy is another name for identifying shifts that are causing gaps to
develop, then rushing to fill the gaps.
98) Encirclement attempts to capture a wide slice of territory by launching a grand offensive on
several fronts.
99) Guerrilla attacks consist of small, intermittent attacks, conventional and unconventional,
including selective price cuts, intense promotional blitzes, and occasional legal action.
100) As a market-follower strategy, a counterfeiter emulates the leader’s products, name, and
packaging, with slight variations.
101) As a market-follower strategy, an imitator duplicates the leader’s product and packages and
sells it on the black market or through disreputable dealers.
102) As a market-follower strategy, an adapter takes the leader’s products and adapts or improves
them.
103) Firms with low shares of the total market can become highly profitable through smart
niching.
104) An alternative to being a follower in a large market is to be a leader in a small market.
105) The nicher achieves high sales volume, whereas the mass marketer achieves high margin.
106) The growth stage of a product’s life cycle is a period of rapid market acceptance and
substantial profit improvement.
107) During the maturity stage of a product life cycle, profits stabilize or decline because of
increased competition.
108) A fashion is a basic and distinctive mode of expression appearing in a field of human
endeavor.
109) Fads are fashions that come quickly into public view, are adopted with great zeal, peak
early, and decline very fast.
110) An inventor is the first to develop a working model while a product pioneer is the first to
develop patents in a new-product category.
111) Price, distribution, and communication are the nonproduct elements that marketers modify
to increase product sales.
112) An alternate way to increase sales volume is to expand the number of users by having them
consume more of the product on each occasion.
113) An alternate way to increase sales volume is to expand the number of users by converting
nonusers.
114) An alternate way to increase sales volume is to increase the usage rates among users by
having consumers use the product in new ways.
115) An alternate way to increase sales volume is to increase the usage rates among users by
entering new market segments.
116) The prime objective, during the introduction stage of a product life cycle, is to maximize
market share.
117) The product strategy during the maturity stage of the product life cycle should be to build
more intensive distribution.
118) During economic downturn, the potential value and profitability of some target consumers
may change.
119) Heavy focus on price reductions and discounts during recession allow firms to improve
long-term brand equity and price integrity.
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120) Which three groups of customers can help expand a firm’s market demand?
121) Which three groups of marketers help satisfy a customer’s needs?
122) What is counteroffensive defense? Explain with an example.
123) Characterize the four broad strategies often employed by market followers to meet their
competitors.
124) What are end-user and vertical-level specialists?
125) What is fashion?
126) What must the firm do to sustain rapid market share growth?
127) Which are the three ways to change the course for a brand?
128) Explain how luxury brands can benefit during an economic recession from having lower-
priced brands or sub-brands in their portfolio.
129) Describe the three strategies that are necessary for a market leader to accomplish to stay on
top.
130) Your marketing manager has asked you to develop a new customer strategy for your
company. Additionally, you have been asked to develop, specifically, a market-penetration
strategy to assist in gaining new customers. Describe a market-penetration strategy in this
context.
131) Assume that your firm is a market leader in manufacturing detergent. How would the firm
use position defense as a defensive marketing strategy to maintain its share?
132) If you were asked to develop a mobile defense for your products that are likely to come
under attack from a market challenger, what would you suggest?
133) As a brand manager of a firm that manufactures denim jeans, how will you implement a
preemptive defense marketing strategy to meet an anticipated competitive challenge?
134) The cost of buying higher market share through acquisition may far exceed its revenue
value. Which are the four factors a company should consider before doing so?
135) Who are the ideal opponents of a market challenger?
136) Describe frontal attack as a general market-challenger attack strategy.
137) Assume that you are the marketing manager of a firm that manufactures athletic shoes. How
will you launch an encirclement attack on your competitor?
138) The marketing manager of a firm that manufactures cotton cloth has chosen the bypass
attack as a means of responding to an industry leader. How will the manager go about launching
this type of attack?
139) What is a guerilla attack?
140) How can a firm choose a specific attack?
141) Describe a counterfeiter as a market-follower.
142) If your company, which is a market follower, was labeled as an imitator, what would its
primary strategies for meeting competition be?
143) Who is a market-nicher?
144) The market nicher is a specialist. Characterize the end-user specialist role that can be
assumed by the market nicher.
145) What is a product-feature specialist?
146) What are fads?
147) What is the criticism of the product life-cycle concept?