65) Which of the following marketing communications tools is most effective at the later stages
of the buying process?
A) personal selling
B) public relations
C) advertising
D) sales promotions
E) direct marketing
66) Which of the following statements is true of the role of advertising in business markets?
A) Advertising is unsuitable for explaining any new features that a product might have.
B) Sales calls are more economical than reminder advertisements.
C) Sales calls are more effective than advertisements at reminding customers how to use a
product and reassure them about their purchase.
D) Sales representatives can use copies of the company’s ads to legitimize their company and
products.
E) Advertisements are the least preferred tools when intended to generate leads for sales
representatives.
67) Which of the following circumstances are best suited for the use of personal selling?
A) when the products used are simple and easy-to-use
B) when there is minimal risk involved in buying or using the products
C) when the market has fewer and larger sellers
D) when the products being marketed are inexpensive and easily available
E) when prospective customers are spread across a wide geographic area
68) Which of the following marketing communications tools is most effective at influencing
customers at the conviction stage of buyer readiness?
A) advertising
B) publicity
C) sales promotion
D) personal selling
E) events and experiences
69) Advertising and publicity tools play the most important roles in influencing buying decisions
at the ________ stage of buyer readiness.
A) comprehension
B) conviction
C) ordering
D) reordering
E) awareness-building
70) Which of the following tools or combinations of tools is most influential at the
comprehension stage of buyer readiness?
A) sales promotion and advertising
B) advertising and personal selling
C) publicity and personal selling
D) reminder advertising and publicity
E) sales promotion and personal selling
71) Which of the following marketing communications tools has the highest cost-effectiveness in
the introduction stage of the product life cycle?
A) personal selling
B) sales promotion
C) interactive marketing
D) direct marketing
E) events and experiences
72) Which of the following marketing communications tools is most influential at the maturity
stage of a product’s life cycle?
A) sales promotions
B) direct marketing
C) advertising
D) publicity
E) interactive marketing
73) Luke is considering the various options available to him to promote an energy-drink,
Turbozade, that is seeing decreasing sales volumes after having peaked some time back. Which
of the following marketing communications tools should Luke focus marketing efforts on to
keep the sales volume up?
A) advertising
B) direct marketing
C) events and experiences
D) sales promotions
E) publicity
74) Which of the following marketing communications tools is most influential at the reordering
stage of buyer readiness?
A) events and experiences
B) publicity
C) direct marketing
D) sales promotion
E) interactive marketing
75) ________ is a measure of communications effectiveness that describes the percentage of
target market exposed to a communication.
A) Frequency
B) Reach
C) Width
D) Depth
E) Range
76) ________ refers to a planning process designed to assure that all brand contacts received by
a customer or prospect for a product, service, or organization are relevant to that person and
consistent over time.
A) Brand engagement
B) Integrated marketing communications
C) Market research
D) Customerization
E) Marketing research
77) Marketing communications allow companies to link their brands to other people, places,
events, brands, experiences, feelings, and things.
78) The rapid diffusion of multipurpose smart phones, broadband and wireless Internet
connections, and ad-skipping digital video recorders (DVRs) have augmented the effectiveness
of the mass media.
79) The pervasive nature of advanced communications technologies, such as the Internet, has
resulted in greater exposure of customers to advertising content than it was in the 1960s.
80) Marketing communications in almost every medium and form have been on the rise, and
some consumers feel they are increasingly invasive.
81) In this new communication environment, advertising is often the single-most important
element of a marketing communications program for sales and building brand and customer
equity.
82) Personal selling refers to people-to-people oral, written, or electronic communications that
relate to the merits or experiences of purchasing or using products or services.
83) In building brand equity, marketers should be “media neutral” and evaluate all
communication options on effectiveness and efficiency.
84) The less the sender’s field of experience overlaps that of the receiver, the more effective the
message is likely to be.
85) All the response hierarchy models assume that a buyer passes through affective, cognitive,
and behavioral stages, in that order.
86) A “do-feel-learn” response sequence is considered appropriate when the audience has high
involvement but perceives little or no differentiation within the product category.
87) Though the target audience can be profiled in terms of demographic, psychographic, or
behavioral segments, it is often useful to do so in terms of usage and loyalty.
88) Marketers can set communications objectives at any level of the hierarchy-of-effects model.
89) The marketing communications objective of “brand attitude” refers to helping consumers
evaluate the brand’s perceived ability to meet a currently relevant need.
90) Problem removal and normal depletion are examples of positively oriented relevant brand
needs.
91) Communications effectiveness depends solely on the content of a message, irrespective of
how it is expressed.
92) Volkswagen’s famed “Drivers Wanted” advertising campaign aimed at attracting active,
youthful people uses a transformational appeal as its creative strategy.
93) One-sided presentations that praise a product are found to be more effective than two-sided
arguments that also mention shortcomings.
94) Two-sided messages are more effective with more educated audiences and those who are
initially opposed.
95) In a one-sided message, presenting the strongest argument first arouses attention and interest,
important in media where the audience often does not attend to the whole message.
96) Fear appeals work best when they are rather strong and reinforce what the audience already
believes.
97) If the messages are too discrepant, audiences will counterargue and disbelieve them.
98) Motivational or “borrowed interest” devices—such as the presence of cute babies, frisky
puppies, popular music, or provocative sex appeals—are often employed to attract attention and
raise involvement with an ad.
99) Celebrities are likely to be effective when they are credible or personify a key product
attribute.
100) Trustworthiness is that source of a spokesperson’s credibility that describes his or her
attractiveness.
101) The most highly credible source would score high on at least two of the three dimensions—
expertise, trustworthiness, and likability.
102) The principle of congruity implies that communicators can use their good image to reduce
some negative feelings toward a brand but in the process might lose some esteem with the
audience.
103) Personal communications channels derive their effectiveness from individualized
presentation and feedback and include direct and interactive marketing, word-of-mouth
marketing, and personal selling.
104) Personal influence carries especially great weight when products are inexpensive, risk-free,
or purchased frequently.
105) Although personal communication is often more effective than mass communication, mass
media might be the major means of stimulating personal communication.
106) The two-step flow supports the notion that consumption styles are primarily influenced by a
“trickle-down” or “trickle-up” effect from mass media.
107) Two-step communication suggests that mass communicators should direct messages
specifically to opinion leaders and let them carry the message to others.
108) The affordable method accounts for the role of promotion as an investment and the
immediate impact of promotion on sales volume.
109) The percentage-of-sales budgeting method encourages management to think of the
relationship among communication cost, selling price, and profit per unit.
110) The percentage-of-sales method leads to a budget set by market opportunities rather than by
the availability of funds.
111) Marketing communications budgets tend to be higher when there is much change in the
marketing program over time and more complex customer decision making.
112) Advertising allows the buyer to receive and compare the messages of various competitors.
113) Public relations is incapable of reaching prospects who prefer to avoid mass media and
targeted promotions.
114) In general, personal selling is used more with complex, expensive, and risky goods and in
markets with fewer and larger sellers.
115) Advertising and publicity play the most important roles in the conviction stage of buyer
readiness.
116) In the growth stage of a product’s life cycle, demand has its own momentum through word
of mouth and interactive marketing.
117) Media coordination can occur across and within media types, but marketers should combine
personal and nonpersonal communications channels through multiple-vehicle, multiple-stage
campaigns to achieve maximum impact and increase message reach and impact.
118) By using full-service marketing communications agencies, integrated and more effective
marketing communications at a much lower total communications cost can be achieved.
119) Briefly describe the current marketing communications environment.