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124) 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
125) ________ 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
126) 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
127) 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
128) 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
129) 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
130) 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
131) 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
132) An alternate way to increase sales volume is 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
133) ________ 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
134) 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
135) 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.
136) All marketing strategy is built on segmentation, targeting, and positioning.
137) Positioning is the act of designing the company's offering and image to occupy a distinctive
place in the minds of the target market.
138) The result of positioning is the successful creation of an employee-focused value
proposition.
139) The competitive frame of reference defines which other brands a brand competes with.
140) Category membership is seen as the products which function as close substitutes of a brand.
141) A company is more likely to be hurt by current competitors than by emerging competitors
or new technologies.
142) Using the industry approach, competitors are defined as companies that satisfy the same
customer need.
143) To analyze its competitors, a company needs to gather information about both the real and
the perceived strengths and weaknesses of each competitor.
144) Associations that make up points-of-difference are based exclusively on product features.
145) Points-of-parity are attributes or benefits consumers strongly associate with a brand and
believe that they could not find to the same extent with a competitive brand.
146) Category points-of-parity may change over time due to technological advances, legal
developments, or consumer trends.
147) Category points-of-parity are associations designed to overcome perceived weaknesses of
the brand.
148) A competitive point-of-parity negates competitors' perceived points-of-difference.
149) Occasionally, a company will be able to straddle two frames of reference with one set of
points-of-difference and points-of-parity.
150) Perceptual maps provide quantitative portrayals of market situations and the way consumers
view different products, services, and brands along various dimensions.
151) Brand mantras must communicate both what a brand is and what it is not.
152) The product descriptor that follows the brand name is often a concise means of conveying
category origin.
153) If Barry compares his organization's products to those of leaders in the field, then he is
conveying category membership by "comparing to exemplars."
154) A leverageable advantage is one that a company can use as a springboard to new
advantages.
155) A good positioning should contain points-of-difference and points-of-parity that have
rational but not emotional components.
156) When the total market expands, the dominant firm usually gains the most.
157) The market leader should look for new customers or more usage from existing customers.
158) A market-penetration strategy is one where a company searches for new customers in a
group that has never used a product before.
159) One way to increase the frequency of consumption of a product by consumers is by
introducing it in larger package sizes.
160) Increasing amount of consumption requires identifying additional opportunities to use the
brand in the same basic way.
161) A marketing program can communicate the appropriateness and advantages of using the
brand.
162) The most constructive response to protecting market share is continuous innovation.
163) A responsive marketer looks ahead to needs customers may have in the near future.
164) An anticipative marketer finds a stated need and fills it.
165) A creative marketer discovers solutions customers did not ask for but to which they
enthusiastically respond.
166) Position defense means occupying the most desirable market space in consumers' minds,
making the brand almost impregnable.
167) 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.
168) In contraction defense, the leader stretches its domain over new territories through market
broadening and market diversification.
169) Market diversification shifts the company's focus to unrelated industries.
170) Market challengers are companies that attack the leader and other competitors in an
aggressive bid for further market share.
171) Attacking the market leader proves successful and beneficial only when the leader is not
serving the market well.
172) A frontal attacking strategy is another name for identifying shifts that are causing gaps to
develop, then rushing to fill the gaps.
173) Encirclement attempts to capture a wide slice of territory by launching a grand offensive on
several fronts.
174) Guerrilla attacks consist of small, intermittent attacks, conventional and unconventional,
including selective price cuts, intense promotional blitzes, and occasional legal action.
175) As a market-follower strategy, a counterfeiter emulates the leader's products, name, and
packaging, with slight variations.
176) 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.
177) As a market-follower strategy, an adapter takes the leader's products and adapts or improves
them.
178) Firms with low shares of the total market can become highly profitable through smart
niching.
179) An alternative to being a follower in a large market is to be a leader in a small market.
180) The nicher achieves high sales volume, whereas the mass marketer achieves high margin.
181) The growth stage of a product's life cycle is a period of rapid market acceptance and
substantial profit improvement.
182) During the maturity stage of a product life cycle, profits stabilize or decline because of
increased competition.
183) A fashion is a basic and distinctive mode of expression appearing in a field of human
endeavor.
184) Fads are fashions that come quickly into public view, are adopted with great zeal, peak
early, and decline very fast.
185) 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.
186) Price, distribution, and communication are the nonproduct elements that marketers modify
to increase product sales.
187) 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.
188) An alternate way to increase sales volume is to expand the number of users by converting
nonusers.
