Marketing Management, 15e (Kotler)
Chapter 6 Analyzing Consumer Markets
1) ________ is the study of how individuals, groups, and organizations select, buy, use, and
dispose of goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and wants.
A) Target marketing
B) Mind mapping
C) Consumer activism
D) Consumer behavior
E) Product differentiation
2) Which of the following would be the best illustration of a subculture?
A) a religion
B) a group of close friends
C) your university
D) a fraternity or sorority
E) your occupation
3) The relatively homogeneous and enduring divisions in a society, which are hierarchically
ordered and whose members share similar values, interests, and behavior constitute a ________.
A) culture
B) subculture
C) social class
D) family
E) group
4) A person’s ________ consist(s) of all the groups that have a direct (face-to-face) or indirect
influence on his/her attitudes or behavior.
A) subculture
B) family
C) social class
D) reference groups
E) social networks
5) A(n) ________ group is one whose values or behavior an individual rejects.
A) aspirational
B) dissociative
C) membership
D) primary
E) procreational
6) Joe is a computer service technician. People in his neighborhood usually depend on his
suggestions for purchasing any computer accessory or hardware, as they believe that he has
access to far more information on computer technology than the average consumer. The
neighbors are also aware that Joe has the required knowledge and background for understanding
the technical properties of the products. Within this context, Joe can be called a(n) ________.
A) transactional leader
B) opinion leader
C) role model
D) gate-keeper
E) international marketer
7) For a high school student, Tim is highly concerned about environmental issues. He is a strong
supporter of the garbage recycling and afforestation campaigns taken up by the environmental
activists in his neighborhood. He wants to become a full time volunteer for their upcoming
wildlife protection program and has even saved money to contribute to the cause. This group of
environmental activists can be categorized under which of the following reference groups?
A) primary group
B) secondary group
C) aspirational group
D) dissociative group
E) cognitive group
8) Jason writes a weekly column in his school’s newspaper about movies he has seen, books he
has read, and concerts he has attended. His column provides information and opinions. Feedback
from his fellow students is positive, and they are appreciative of the advice that is given. Which
of the following would be the most apt description of the role played by Jason?
A) silent majority
B) protestor
C) protector
D) adapter
E) opinion leader
9) Social classes differ in media preferences, with upper-class consumers often preferring
________ and lower-class consumers often preferring television.
A) movies
B) radio
C) video or computer games
D) magazines and books
E) music downloads
10) If a direct-mail marketer wished to direct promotional efforts toward the family of ________,
efforts need to be directed toward parents and siblings of the family members.
A) orientation
B) procreation
C) immediacy
D) intimacy
E) reference
11) The family in a buyer’s life consisting of parents and siblings is the ________.
A) family of procreation
B) family of influence
C) family of efficiency
D) family of orientation
E) purchasing family
12) When Gary was a high school student, he enjoyed rock music and regularly purchased hip
clothing sported by his favorite rock band. However, five years later, when Gary became an
accountant, his preference shifted toward formal clothing. Which of the following personal
characteristics is likely to have had the most influence on Gary’s preferences during his high
school days?
A) education
B) age
C) income
D) gender
E) physiological needs
13) Marriage, childbirth, and divorce constitute the ________ that shape the consumption pattern
of individuals.
A) psychological life cycle
B) product life cycle
C) social status
D) post-puberty cycles
E) critical life events
14) Identify an economic circumstance that can greatly affect any product or brand choice.
A) retirement
B) values
C) lifestyle
D) borrowing power
E) relocation
15) ________ refers to a set of distinguishing human psychological traits that lead to relatively
consistent and enduring responses to environmental stimuli.
A) Image
B) Personality
C) Psychological transformation
D) Lifestyle
E) Acculturation
16) Brand personality analysts identified the popular music channel MTV as daring, spirited, and
highly imaginative. As per Jennifer Aaker’s research, which of the following brand personality
traits best suits MTV?
A) excitement
B) sincerity
C) competence
D) ruggedness
E) sophistication
17) The Marlboro Man was depicted in the advertisements of Marlboro cigarettes as a rugged
outdoor, tough cowboy type. This was done to establish what is called ________.
A) trademarking
B) a brand name
C) a brand personality
D) co-branding
E) a brand reference
18) Consumers often choose and use brands that have a brand personality consistent with how
they see themselves, also known as the ________ self-concept.
A) actual
B) ideal
C) others’
D) prohibitive
E) suggestive
19) Consumers often choose and use brands that have a brand personality consistent with how
they think others view them, also known as the ________ self-concept.
A) actual
B) others’
C) ideal
D) dual
E) perceptual
20) Consumers who are highly sensitive to how others see them and who choose brands whose
personalities fit the consumption situation are called ________.
A) change agents
B) self motivators
C) self monitors
D) self adapters
E) opinion leaders
21) Within the context of Jennifer Aaker’s analysis, identify the brand personality that can be
associated with a new product whose promotional messages consistently portray it as being
reliable, intelligent, and successful.
A) sincerity
B) excitement
C) competence
D) sophistication
E) ruggedness
22) Ford Motors uses the ad caption “Magnify the Adventure” to promote its latest SUV, the
Ford Endeavour. The ad features the car traveling through an uneven, rocky terrain. Within the
context of Jennifer Aaker’s brand personality analysis, Ford Endeavour is most likely to be
strong on which of the following traits?
A) sincerity
B) intelligence
C) imagination
D) sophistication
E) ruggedness
23) ________ portrays the “whole person” interacting with his or her environment.
A) Attitude
B) Personality
C) Lifestyle
D) Self-concept
E) Subculture
24) IKEA has achieved global recognition by offering consumers leading-edge Scandinavian
furniture at affordable prices. IKEA is delivering value to consumers who are ________
constrained.
A) money
B) time
C) brand
D) value
E) self-concept
25) Marketers who target consumers on the basis of their ________ believe that they can
influence purchase behavior by appealing to people’s inner selves.
A) time famine
B) sophistication
C) money constrain
D) social class
E) core values
26) Social class is the fundamental determinant of a person’s wants and behavior.
27) An example of a subculture would be a person’s geographic region.
28) Groups that have an indirect influence on a person’s attitude or behavior can be a part of his
or her reference groups.
29) Members within a social class tend to behave more alike compared to members from two
different social classes.
30) Secondary groups require continuous interaction to be effective and meaningful.
31) When Ketan went to college he had a burning desire to join a social fraternity; for Ketan, the
fraternity would be a dissociative group.
32) A person’s position in a group is defined in terms of role and status.
33) Marketers need to be aware of the status-symbol potential of brands because people usually
choose products which reflect their role and their actual or desired status in a society.
34) The behavior people exhibit as they pass through certain life-cycle stages, such as becoming
a parent, is largely fixed and does not change over time.
35) For an employee at an organization, an annual appraisal can be considered a critical life
event that impacts his or her consumption behavior.
36) Whereas economic circumstances can have a profound effect on consumption, occupation
does not impact how people spend their money and what they buy.
37) According to the research conducted by Jennifer Aaker, one of the five traits of a product’s
brand personality is its physical structure.
38) Brand personality is the specific mix of human traits that may be attributed to a particular
brand.
39) The five brand personality traits identified by Jennifer Aaker are consistently observed
regardless of nationality or culture.
40) A person’s personality portrays the “whole person” interacting with his or her environment.
41) Consumers who experience money constraints are prone to multitasking.
42) Explain the differences between culture, subculture, and social class.
43) What is a reference group? Describe three different types of reference groups that can have
an impact on a consumer’s purchasing behavior.
44) The family is the most important consumer buying organization in society, and family
members constitute the most influential primary reference group. We can distinguish between
two family categorization in the buyer’s life. Name the two families and their impact on buying
behavior.
45) Each person has personality characteristics that influence his or her buying behavior. What
does personality mean in terms of buying traits?
46) Culture is the fundamental determinant of a person’s wants and behavior. The growing child
acquires a set of values, perceptions, preferences, and behaviors through his or her family and
other key institutions. What values are typical American young children exposed to?
47) An opinion leader is the person in informal, product-related communications who offers
advice or information about a specific product or product category, such as which of several
brands is best or how a particular product may be used. According to the text, how do marketers
try to reach opinion leaders?
48) Explain the differences between a role and status.
49) Mention the personal factors that can influence the decision of a buyer.
50) What is brand personality and what are the five traits that have been linked to it?
51) The starting point for understanding consumer behavior is the ________ model in which
marketing and environmental stimuli enter the consumer’s consciousness, and a set of
psychological processes combine with certain consumer characteristics to result in decision
processes and purchase decisions.
A) self-reliance
B) self-perception
C) psychogenic
D) stimulus-response
E) projective
52) In the exact moment you run out of laundry detergent and realize you need to pick some up
at the store, you are in the ________ stage of the buying decision process.
A) information search
B) evaluation of alternatives
C) problem recognition
D) purchase decision
E) postpurchase behavior
53) ________ assumed that the psychological forces shaping people’s behavior are largely
unconscious, and that a person cannot fully understand his or her own motivations.
A) Abraham Maslow
B) Frederick Herzberg
C) Sigmund Freud
D) John Cacioppo
E) Karl Marx
54) Which of the following techniques was suggested by Freud to trace a person’s motivations
from the stated instrumental ones to the more terminal ones?
A) laddering
B) word association
C) role playing
D) casting
E) selective attention
55) Which of the following theories developed by Frederick Herzberg distinguishes dissatisfiers
from satisfiers?
A) trait-role theory
B) psychological constraint theory
C) probability theory
D) leadership model
E) two-factor theory
56) At the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (shown as a pyramid in the text) are ________
needs.
A) esteem
B) self-actualization
C) social
D) safety
E) physiological
57) ________ is the process by which we select, organize, and interpret information inputs to
create a meaningful picture of the world.
A) Consumption
B) Perception
C) Acculturation
D) Assimilation
E) Cognitive dissonance
58) ________ can work to the advantage of marketers with strong brands when consumers make
neutral or ambiguous brand information more positive.
A) Selective attention
B) Selective distortion
C) Selective retention
D) Selective choice
E) Selective embellishment
59) ________ is the tendency to interpret information in a way that will fit our preconceptions.
A) Selective retention
B) Cognitive dissonance
C) Selective distortion
D) Subliminal perception
E) Selective embellishment
60) Marketers embed covert messages in ads or packaging of which the consumers are not
consciously aware, yet it affects their behavior. This technique employed by the marketers
targets the ________ of a consumer.
A) selective attention
B) selective distortion
C) subliminal perception
D) voluntary attention
E) selective retention
61) ________ theory teaches marketers that they can build demand for a product by associating
it with strong drives, using motivating cues, and providing positive reinforcement.
A) Demand
B) Learning
C) Economic
D) Psychological
E) Demographic
62) Anne is a frequent purchaser of Yoplait strawberry yogurt. For once, she decides to try a
different flavored yogurt. Instead of trying out the flavors offered by competing brands, Anne
selects a different flavor offered by Yoplait. Here, her past experience with the brand prompts
her to make the choice. Anne’s behavior can be best described as ________.
A) fallacy of proposition
B) associative networking
C) generalization
D) heuristic thinking
E) self-actualization
63) The ________ says people have a general tendency to attribute success to themselves and
failure to external causes.
A) availability heuristic
B) trait-role theory
C) awareness set
D) generalization theory
E) hedonic bias
64) As Rita scans the yellow pages section of her phonebook looking for a florist, she sees
several other products and services advertised. Though interesting on first glance, she quickly
returns to her primary task of finding a florist. The items that distracted her from her initial
search were most likely stored in which of the following types of memory?
A) short-term memory
B) long-term memory
C) middle memory
D) subconscious memory
E) subliminal memory
65) Betsy, a teenager, uses most of her after-school hours in either playing tennis or watching
movies. She barely manages to concentrate on her lessons for a couple of hours before exams.
Being questioned about her substandard performance in school, she points out the teacher’s
inability to complete the entire course during the school hours as the possible reason. Betsy’s
behavior is most likely to be associated with ________.
A) generalization
B) hedonic bias
C) discrimination
D) selective attention
E) psychological repositioning
66) The associative network memory model views long-term memory as ________.
A) a subliminal perception
B) the interplay of drives
C) a strong internal stimulus impelling action
D) a temporary and limited repository of information
E) a set of nodes and links
67) ________ refers to the process in which information gets out of memory.
A) Memory encoding
B) Memory decoding
C) Memory classification
D) Memory retrieval
E) Memorization
68) Amtex electronics, a consumer products brand, frequently advertises its products inside
supermarkets and retail stores to promote the process of memory ________ and stimulate
purchase.
A) verification
B) retrieval
C) decoding
D) formation
E) augmentation
69) Cognitive psychologists believe that memory is ________, so that once information becomes
stored in memory, its strength of association decays very slowly.
A) highly perceptual
B) somewhat collective
C) highly communicative
D) often reflective
E) extremely durable
70) Psychogenic needs arise from the physiological states of tension such as hunger or
discomfort.
71) Sigmund Freud assumed that the psychological forces shaping people’s behavior are largely
unconscious, and that people cannot fully understand their motivations.
72) When Chrysler decided to offer the PT Cruiser, they did so based on the recommendations of
Ernest Dichter, who helped them unlock the code, or the unconscious meaning people give to a
particular market offering.
73) In Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a sense of belonging and love are examples of social needs.
74) Sensory memory is the virtually unlimited repository where information that we encounter as
we go through life ends up.
75) When State Farm uses consumer research to create a mental map of consumers that indicates
that consumers perceive State Farm as conservative, safe, responsive, and convenient, they are
interested in subliminal perceptions.
76) According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model, recognition, self-esteem, and status
constitute a person’s social needs.
77) According to Herzberg’s two-factor theory, satisfiers will make the major difference as to
which brand the customer buys.
78) Perception depends only on the physical stimuli experienced by the person.
79) People are more likely to notice stimuli whose deviations are large in relation to the normal
size of the stimuli.