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IV. END-OF-CHAPTER ANSWER GUIDE
CHAPTER QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES
CONCEPTS: TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
14-1What is buzz? How do marketers practice buzz building?
The many-to-many communication model relies on consumers like you to talk to one another
about goods, services and organizations. Marketers think of buzz as everyday people helping their
marketing efforts when they share their opinions with their friends and neighbors. The idea is
14-2 What are some ethical problems in buzz marketing?
Just as firms are discovering there are a myriad of opportunities for buzz marketing, there are equally
large opportunities for unethical or at least questionable marketing behavior. Some of these are as
follows:
14.3 What is viral marketing? How do marketers use brand ambassador or brand evangelists?
One form of buzz building is viral marketing. This term refers to marketing activities that aim to
increase brand awareness or sales by consumers passing a message along to other consumers,
Many marketers realize that they cannot create buzz by themselves; they recruit loyal customers as
brand ambassadors or brand evangelists to help them. These zealous consumers can be the best
salespeople a company can ever find. They often work for no pay.. They are heavy users, take a
14.4 What is social media? What are social networks? Describe Facebook, Twitter, virtual worlds,
product review sites, mobile apps, and location-based social networks.
This term refers to Internet-based platforms that allow users to create their own content and share it
with others who access these sites. Social media include blogs, forums, picture-and video-sharing
sites, wikis and podcasts to name a few. Social networking sites or social networks are sites used to
Facebook is the most popular of all social networking sites with over 400 million users as we write
this book -- and no doubt many more as you are reading it. Users of Facebook first develop a profile
that remains private unless they choose to connect with a “friend.” Twitter is a free micro-blogging
service that lets users post short text messages with a maximum of 140 characters. People who
subscribe to an individual’s Twitter feed are called “followers.” Users can follow anyone they like,
14-5 What is direct marketing? Describe the more popular types of direct marketing.
Direct marketing refers to “any direct communication to a consumer or business recipient that is
14-6 What is m-commerce?
M-commerce refers to the promotional and other e-commerce activities transmitted over mobile
14-7 What role does personal selling play within the marketing function?
For most firms, some form of personal selling is essential for a transaction (the sale) to occur, so this
type of promotion is an important part of an organization’s overall marketing plan. Through
14-8 Describe the various types of sales jobs.
A wide range of different types of sales jobs are available, each of which has different job
requirements and responsibilities. See Figure 14.3.
● An order taker is a salesperson who processes transactions the customer initiates. Many
● A technical specialist contributes considerable expertise in the form of product
● A missionary salesperson whose job is to stimulate clients to buy. They promote the firm
14.9 What is relationship selling? How does it differ from transactional selling?
Relationship selling—a form of personal selling in which the salesperson seeks to develop a
14-10 What is prospecting? What does it mean to qualify the prospect? What is the preapproach?
Why are these steps in the creative selling process that occur before you ever contact the
buyer so important to the sale?
.
Prospecting is the process of identifying and developing a list of potential customers, called
These steps are important, as a salesperson needs to be prepared. They need to learn as much as
14-11 What are some ways you might approach a customer? Explain how some types of
approaches work better in one situation than another.
The hard sell is a high-pressure process. Hard-sell tactics reflect transactional selling, an
14-12 What is the objective of the sales presentation? How might you overcome buyer
objections?
A sales presentation lays out the benefits of the product over the competition. The focus
should be on the ways the salesperson and products can add value to the customer.
14-13 Why is follow-up after the sale so important in relationship selling?
14-14 What is the purpose of public relations? What is a crisis management plan? Describe
some of the activities that are part of PR.
PR seeks to build good relationships with organizations’ publics. PR is used to influence the attitudes
and perceptions of various groups. Proactive PR is designed to establish and maintain an
organization’s favorable image. A crisis management plan is a document that details what an
organization will do if a crisis occurs. It explains who the spokesperson will be, how the organization
will deal with the press, and what sort of messages will be delivered.
Public Relations Tactics
The most common way for PR specialists to communicate is by a press release. This is a report of
some event or activity that an organization writes and sends to the media in the hope that it will be
published free. Internal PR activities target employees; they often include company newsletters and
closed-circuit television to keep people informed about company objectives, successes, or even plans
to “downsize” the workforce. Often company newsletters also are distributed outside the firm to
14-15 What is guerrilla marketing? What is ambient advertising?
Organizations with tiny advertising budgets need to develop innovative and cheap ways to capture
consumers’ attention. Guerrilla marketing activities are an increasingly popular way to accomplish
ACTIVITIES: APPLY WHAT YOU’VE LEARNED
14.16 Creative Homework/Short Project Many firms today are using a variety of buzz-building activities
to encourage word-of-mouth communication about their products. Think about a business or place
that you and your classmates might visit. You might, for example, think about (1) a specialty coffee
shop, (2) a night spot where you and your friends might hang out on the weekends, or (3) a local
theme or amusement park. For your selected product, develop ideas for at least three different
buzz-building activities. Outline the details as to exactly how these activities would be implemented.
Next, rank order the activities as to which you feel would be the best and tell why you feel that way.
Develop a report for your class on your ideas.
14.17 Creative Homework/Short Project Assume that you are a marketing consultant for one of the
clients in item 14.16 above. You believe that the client would benefit from nontraditional
marketing. Develop several ideas for social-media tactics that you feel would be successful for
the client.
14.18 In Class, 10–25 Minutes for Teams In this chapter, we learned that marketers are
increasing their use of social media in their marketing communication strategies. Why is
this happening? What are some ways a university can use social media in their marketing
communication programs? How does your university use social media? What additions to
the current social media activities would you recommend for your university?
Students will enjoy brainstorming ways to use social media to communicate information about their
university. One idea is to use f-commerce (Facebook e-commerce). Major word-of-mouth buzz
among students can be achieved through Facebook. Students should also discuss the following
issues for social media:
14.19 Creative Homework/Short Project You work for a direct marketing firm, and your client, who
owns a lawn mowing and landscaping service, has enlisted your help in using various direct
marketing approaches to reach out to potential customers. Consider carefully which forms of
direct marketing would be most effective for your client and why. Devise a short presentation for
your customer so that he can weigh the various options you recommend.
MyMarketingLab for answers to Assisted Graded Questions
14.20 Creative Homework/Short Project Think of the last time you interacted with a salesperson,
whether it was for a new tablet computer or a trendy pair of jeans. Identify the type of salesperson
you were interacting with and explain what this person did to fulfill that particular role. Also
identify whether this salesperson used a transactional selling approach or a relationship selling
approach. Was this approach appropriate for the purchase you were considering? Why or why
not?
14.21 Creative Homework/Short Project Assume a firm that publishes university textbooks
(including this marketing textbook) has just hired you as a field salesperson. Your job requires that
you call on university faculty members to persuade them to adopt your textbooks for their classes.
As part of your training, your sales manager has asked you to develop an outline of what you will
say in a typical sales presentation. Write that outline, including how you might handle a specific
objective like “But this is the textbook we’ve always used, and it’s always worked well for us.”
14.22 Creative Homework/Short Project Your assignment for this project is to develop recommendations for
your university’s marketing communication program. First, schedule an appointment with your
university’s marketing communication or university relations department to discuss their
communication program. You will probably want to ask them about the following:
14.23 In Class, 10–25 Minutes for Teams Assume that you are the head of PR for a regional fast-food chain
that specializes in fried chicken and fish. A customer has claimed that he became sick when he ate a
fried roach that was in his chicken dinner at one of your restaurants. As the director of PR, what
recommendations do you have for how the firm might handle this crisis?
►APPLY MARKETING METRICS
One of the important benefits of social media such as Facebook and Twitter is that they allow marketers
to easily learn what consumers are saying about their brand—and about the competition. To better
understand that process, you can go out to Twitter and conduct a little detective work to see what
consumers are saying about a brand:
14.24 Select a product type and particular brand of that product to study—it can be in any product
category you choose. If you are doing a marketing plan project for your marketing course, you may
use that product for this exercise. If not, choose a product type and brand that you use and like, one
that you might use and are curious about, or one that you dislike.
14.25 Go to Twitter.com. Search for you selected brand and see what is revealed. After you have reviewed
the results, provide a summary of the following information:
a. The number of tweets that are positive
b. The major aspects of your brand that people think are positive
c. The number of tweets that are negative
d. The major aspects of your brand that people think are negative
e. The number of tweets that ask questions.
Students should discuss whether the data they collect speak to the brand’s equity/strength in the
marketplace. For example, do bigger, global firms have more positive tweets than smaller companies
for any or all of the distinct categories listed above?
►CHOICES: WHAT DO YOU THINK?
14.26 Critical Thinking A woman sued Taco Bell for deceptive advertising, claiming its tacos
had far less beef than advertised. Taco Bell, understanding the potential damage to its brand,
immediately went on the defense and filed a countersuit. In addition, Taco Bell’s CEO posted a video
statement and essentially released its recipe for seasoned beef, which contains 88 percent beef that is
100 percent USDA inspected.
Was this enough for Taco Bell to do to avert a PR crisis? What else could they have done?
Students can discuss crisis management as applied to Taco Bell. Crisis management refers to the
process of managing a company’s reputation when some negative and often unplanned event
14-27 Critical Thinking There is increasing concern about consumer privacy on social networking sites such
as Facebook. How do you feel about privacy on social networks? Is allowing personal information to
be available to others without a user’s specific permission unethical? Should the network owners do
more to protect users’ privacy? Should there be greater government regulation or should the sites be
free to develop as they want to meet the needs of users? How much responsibility should users accept
in protecting their own private information?
MyMarketingLab for answers to Assisted Graded Questions
14-28 Critical Thinking Have you ever “liked” a company or product page on Facebook? Why did you
do so? How often do you follow this company or product? Have you ever posted comments? If so, what
was the purpose of your comments? Do you feel the brand owner communicates effectively with the
brand community through this medium? Why or why not? What could the brand owner do better?
Students can share their experiences on Facebook.
14-29 Ethics Many salespeople, especially those that sell financial products such as life insurance or
annuities, earn their salary or a portion of their salary based on the product(s) they convince you to
purchase. In addition, buyers are often uneducated about how the sellers make their money and
about the product(s) themselves. What are the ethical obligations the seller has toward the buyer?
Should the salesperson disclose how he or she earns his or her money? Is it ethical for a salesperson
to try to sell the buyer a product that the salesperson receives a higher commission on? What
responsibility does the buyer have in such situations?
14.30 Critical Thinking Recently, Twitter has joined other Internet sites in selling preferred positions on
the site to generate revenue. Do you feel that such revenue-generating activities make sites such as
Twitter less attractive? If you know that the top comments on a site have their positions because
firms paid for them, are you likely to change your use of the sites? Are there other ways that an
Internet site such as Twitter can generate revenue?
Because Twitter can be considered a “buzz-building” tactic, the element of sincerity becomes
paramount. One way to think about these questions is to consider the ethical implications for
companies using Twitter in potentially harmful ways:
14.31 Critical Thinking M-commerce allows marketers to engage in location commerce when they can
identify where consumers are and send them messages about a local store. Do you think
consumers will respond positively to this? What do you think are the benefits for consumers of
location commerce? Do you see any drawbacks (such as invasion of privacy)?
14.32 Critical Thinking In general, professional selling has evolved from hard selling to relationship
selling. Do some organizations still use the hard-sell style? If so, what types? What do you think
the future holds for these organizations? Will the hard sell continue to succeed—that is, are there
instances in which transactional selling is still appropriate? If so, when?
MyMarketingLab for answers to Assisted Graded Questions
14.33 Critical Thinking Some critics denounce PR specialists, calling them “flacks” or “spin doctors”
whose job is to hide the truth about a company’s problems. What is the proper role of PR within an
organization? Should PR specialists try to put a good face on bad news?
discussion, remind the students of the many good things PR does. Ask students to think about their
own university. Could it afford a major promotional effort? How does PR help balance out the budget
as well as spread good word?
MINI-PROJECT: LEARN BY DOING
Miniproject 1
The purpose of this miniproject is to help you understand the advantages of following the
creative selling process:
14-34. With several of your classmates, create a new product in a category that most college students
buy regularly (e.g., toothpaste, shampoo, pens, pencils, soft drinks—anything that interests you that
might be sold through a drugstore like Walgreens). Make up a new brand name and some creative
features and benefits of the new product you come up with.
14-35. Assume you are a salesperson trying to sell your product to an organizational buyer like
Walgreens for adding to their product lines. Develop a plan for executing each of the steps in the
creative selling process. Make sure that you cover all the bases of how you would go about selling
your product.
14-36. Report on your plan to your class and ask the other students for feedback on whether your
approach will convince the Walgreens buyer to make a purchase. Alternatively, with a
classmate demonstrate your plan in a role-playing exercise.
Through these three questions, the groups will need to create a new product in a category that most
Instructors may wish to extend the deadline for this assignment so students have ample time to
complete the assignment and develop a report.
Miniproject 2
One of the more difficult parts of developing a marketing communication plan that includes a variety of
traditional and new media activities is coordination. This project will provide you with an opportunity to
explore the difficulties of this.
Assume you are the CMO for the Down Home Sausage Company. You are responsible for developing a
marketing communication plan for your firm’s new “grilling Sausage” product. You have decided that
your program could best be developed if it includes the following:
1. Traditional TV advertising
2. Outdoor billboard advertising
3. A buzz-building activity
7. An interactive brand website with a game, information about your product, and one or more
other interactive devices.
4. Digital advertising on various platforms.
5. Consumer sales promotion
6. Brand ambassadors
14-37 Design each of these communication program elements with detailed descriptions including timing,
and venues.
14-38 Each of these activities must be tied to the other activities. Now describe all of these connections.
14-39 To be successful today, a firm must do more than just provide consumers with information. Their
marketing communication activities must engage the consumer, must provide something of value (in
addition to information about the product) and must make the customer’s life better. Describe how your
communication activities will do these things.
This would make an excellent small-group project. Students can develop a marketing communication
plan, and each group can present the plan to the entire class.
V. MARKETING IN ACTION CASE: REAL CHOICES AT
BURGER KING
Summary of Case
Burger King has an advertising budget only one-fourth the size of McDonald’s. As a result, BK has
followed the advice that social media can minimize the advantages of size. Good content travels so
powerfully that every year the playing field gets more level. And that’s exactly what Burger King has
done.
Recently, Burger King gained the attention of the media by asking its rival McDonald’s to join together to
make a McWhopper in support of World Peace Day. The new hamburger would consist of six ingredients
from each burger and be sold exclusively for one day at a pop-up shop in Atlanta. Proceeds would go to
charity, and the theme of the event would have been: “What does peace taste like?” Television outlets
focused on the proposal, and the story went viral on social media. However, the offer was not warmly
received by McDonald’s, and the event never took place. Nevertheless, the McWhopper buzz generated
$182 million in earned media exposure and 8.9 billion media impressions for Burger king.
Although gaining customers’ attention is vital to brand success, that success can be fleeting. Burger king
will continue to be limited by its smaller promotion budget. Competition for customers’ thoughts in the
world of social media is fierce. And there’s no guarantee of buzz turning into revenue growth.
Suggestions for Presentation
This case could be assigned for various online or in-class discussion activities.
Online
Go on the Burger King website www.burgerking.com
and search for sales jobs/careers. How appealing or unappealing does a sale position within this company
sound to you?
Go to a Burger King restaurant and interview a manager who works with Burger King’s salespersons
In Class
Have the class do as a project a marketing-related SWOT analysis of Burger King and then make
recommendations for techniques salespersons at Burger King could employ.
You Make the Call
14-40 What is the decision facing Burger King?
Students may come up with a number of different decisions that Burger King might make.
How should Burger King continue to engage customers? How does Burger King convert the
social media excitement around the King, the Burger king chain’s robed mascot, into revenue
growth? The main challenge facing Burger King is that competition is fierce.
14-41 What factors are important in understanding this decision situation?
The following factors are important in understand this decision situation:
Burger King has an advertising budget only one-fourth the size of McDonald’s.
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