An intensive distribution strategy serves well for products such as snack foods and soft
drinks.
In the communication stage of the value creation and delivery sequence, marketing
must determine specific product features, prices, and distribution channels.
Williams-Sonoma reported a tenfold increase in response rates when it adopted
personalized e-mail offerings based on individuals’ on-site and catalog shopping
behavior.
Creative public relations can affect public awareness at a fraction of the cost of
advertising.
Customer satisfaction is the only way by which a firm can increase its profitability.
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.
When ESPN found new products for its existing markets by expanding into 10 cable
channels, a Web site, and a magazine, it was using a product-development strategy.
Furniture is high in credence qualities.
A pricing system in which there is a “fixed” fee and then a variable “usage” fee is called
bundling.
Intrabrand shifts in a company’s sales are always undesirable.
Customers cause many service failures, and the number of customer-caused failures is
increasing.
Consistent with the elaboration memory model, consumer brand knowledge in memory
can be conceptualized as consisting of a brand node in memory with a variety of linked
associations.
When examining products, consumers compare an observed price to an internal
reference price they remember or an external frame of reference.
Companies with superior information enjoy a competitive advantage.
Activity-based costing does not consider indirect, variable, and overhead costs.
Each society contains ________, groups with shared values emerging from their special
life experiences or circumstances.
A) stakeholders
B) cliques
C) consumer bundles
D) subcultures
E) behavioral niches
Regardless of the type of segmentation scheme used, the key is adjusting the marketing
program to recognize ________.
A) the level of disposable income earned by the target group
B) customer differences
C) the cost-benefit relationship of narrowing the target market
D) customer complaints
E) saturated markets
Why must researchers avoid generalizing from focus group participants to the whole
market?
A) Participants’ responses are not reliable.
B) Most of the participants are likely to be ignorant about the topic of discussion.
C) The size of the group is too small and the sample is not drawn randomly.
D) Most of the participants are likely to exhibit similar tastes and preferences.
E) The participants usually come from diverse backgrounds.
People vary in their views of society and their consumption patterns often reflect their
social attitudes. ________ usually live more frugally, drive smaller cars, and wear
simpler clothing.
A) Makers
B) Escapers
C) Seekers
D) Changers
E) Developers
Gabrielle is the chief marketing officer of Boyd Pharmaceuticals. She is meeting with
Trent, the chief financial officer to decide on the company’s marketing communications
budget. They pore over the sales reports and other financial records and determine the
amount of resources they can spare for marketing communications, after resources have
been allocated to other functions, such as R&D, logistics, etc. What method did
Gabrielle and Trent use to arrive at the marketing communications budget?
A) objective-and-task method
B) affordable method
C) competitive-parity method
D) activity-based method
E) percentage-of-sales method
Rolex calls itself the “Official Timekeeper” of the Wimbledon and Australian Open
lawn tennis championships, by virtue of its sponsorships of the marquee events. What is
the most likely objective for Rolex’s sponsorship deal with these events?
A) to permit merchandising or promotional opportunities
B) to express commitment to the community or on social issues
C) to create experiences and evoke feelings
D) to identify with a particular target market or lifestyle
E) to increase salience of company or product name
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
The customer service representatives at a call center have been asked to handle each
call within five minutes. A recent customer survey by the company revealed that
customers appreciate it when employees take the time to answer their questions fully
and listen to their grievances. What kind of service gap is apparent here?
A) gap between perceived service and expected service
B) gap between service delivery and external communications
C) gap between service-quality specifications and service delivery
D) gap between management perception and service-quality specification
E) gap between consumer expectation and management perception
Which of the following is true for the modern company organization chart?
A) Frontline employees are less important than top management.
B) Customers are at the top of the pyramid.
C) Top management is at the top of the pyramid.
D) Customers are less important than middle management.
E) Frontline employees are at the top of the pyramid.
Which of the following types of advertising timing patterns calls for spending all
advertising dollars in a single period?
A) frequency capping
B) flighting
C) concentration
D) pulsing
E) continuity
The characteristic of useful market segments that relates to whether the segments can be
effectively reached and served is whether the segment is ________.
A) measurable
B) substantial
C) differentiable
D) accessible
E) actionable
Robert is hired as a sales representative for a company that manufactures fire
extinguishers. His job description reads as follows: “The key duty of the sales
representative is to unravel the customer’s problems using the company’s products.”
Which of the following positions would best describe Robert’s profile?
A) deliverer
B) technical salesperson
C) missionary salesperson
D) order taker
E) solution vendor
When BMW first made its strong competitive push into the US market in the early
1980s, it positioned the brand as the only automobile that offered both luxury
(competing with Cadillac) and performance (competing with the Corvette), which is
known as ________ because it uses points-of-difference and points-of-parity across
categories.
A) a competitive frame of reference
B) zone of tolerance positioning
C) straddle positioning
D) red-ocean thinking
E) perceptual mapping
When innovation at Siemens enables the company to offer solutions that can make the
generation of hydroelectricity more environment-friendly, the company will want to
reap the benefits of being the first to introduce such a product across countries. In this
case, which of the following approaches is likely to be the best approach to entering
foreign markets?
A) the rifle approach
B) the continuous approach
C) the born global approach
D) the sprinkler approach
E) the waterfall approach
A social definition of marketing says ________.
A) effective marketing requires companies to remove intermediaries to achieve a closer
connection with direct consumers
B) a company should focus exclusively on achieving high production efficiency, low
costs, and mass distribution to facilitate the broadest possible access to the company’s
products
C) marketing is the process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and
want through creating, offering, and freely exchanging products and services of value
with others
D) marketing is the process of extracting the maximum value from consumers to
facilitate corporate growth
E) marketing is the process of aggressive selling and promotion to encourage the
purchase of products that might otherwise be unsought by the consumer
When firms look for new users in groups that have never used the product before, the
firm is using the ________ strategy.
A) new-market segment
B) market-penetration
C) geographical-expansion
D) product development
E) diversification
In which of the following examples is a company communicating category membership
using a product descriptor?
A) Use Zipex for quick and thorough cleaning.
B) Barry’s Oats, when you want nutrition and flavor.
C) Clarity offers you the best prices for the best quality.
D) Choose Grissom’s for an unparalleled shopping experience.
E) Chloe: All you need for a beautiful you.
Abbot Laboratories warehouses and delivers 3M’s medical and surgical products to
hospitals across the United States. The best description of this form of alliance would
be a(n) ________.
A) product alliance
B) logistics alliance
C) pricing collaboration
D) indirect collaboration
E) promotional alliance
Consumers might not consider a hand sanitizer truly a hand sanitizer unless they are
gels designed to apply topically, contain alcohol that kills the germs present on the skin,
and developed for use after washing hands or for those times when soap and water are
not available. These service elements are considered ________.
A) competitive points-of-difference
B) competitive points-of-parity
C) category points-of-difference
D) category points-of-parity
E) conceptual points-of-parity
If a buyer is loyal to two or three different brands of soap, this buyer’s loyalty status can
be described as being among the ________.
A) switchers
B) shifting loyals
C) split loyals
D) hard-core loyals
E) antiloyals
Which of the following is the second largest contributor to global warming, accounting
for roughly a fifth of carbon emissions?
A) transportation
B) primary metal production facilities
C) electrical power plants
D) aerosol cans
E) rural cooking fires
Redo is a market follower in the wristwatch industry. After noticing a shortfall in the
market leader’s product, Redo improves its product to suit consumer needs and becomes
a challenger for the market leader. This is an example of a(n) ________.
A) counterfeiter
B) cloner
C) imitator
D) adapter
E) innovator
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
Ellie’s manager has asked her to come up with ways to reduce costs of their new
product by utilizing a process called “target costing.” What should Ellie do?
Explain the classification of advertising objectives.
List the four categories of nonstore retailing and briefly explain each.
Explain three techniques for stimulating creativity to generate better ideas.
Atlas camera division produces a range of professional quality 35mm and
consumer-friendly digital cameras. The 35mm market is rapidly declining and the
faster-growing digital camera segment is saturated with competition, so Atlas is
struggling with sales. Identify the marketing tasks the management team would need to
address to make Atlas competitive in the digital camera space.
A group of entrepreneurs is planning to start a food processing company. Comment on
the likely evolution of the company’s marketing channels.
Mention the personal factors that can influence the decision of a buyer.
How can a firm anticipate a competitor’s reactions to a price change?
Briefly describe the role of television as an advertising medium.
What is marketing control? List the four types of marketing control.