Marketing Management-1A

Assignment – A

 

Q.1: A Chennai based soft – drink company has proposed to launch a new variant of Soft-drink in three flavours lemon, rose, and orange priced at Rs.6 /-, Rs. 7/- Rs.8 /- in 300ml bottles. As advertisiting consultant develop an advertising campaining Strategy. What will be your message, who will be your target market and what will be the ideal media mix?

 

 

Q.2: “Indian consumers are changed both in social values and cultural life.” Discuss the change you have observed with the Indian consumers and their impact on the Marketing in the post – liberalisation period.

 

 

Q.3: Write short notes on the following:

1. Marketing mix with 4 Ps model
2. Marketing concept
3. Product concept

 

Q.4: What is new product? Describe the logical steps to be followed in the new Product development and strategy?

 

Q.5: Define data. What are the sources of data. Explain marketing research designs for data collections?

 

Assignment – B

Q .1: Define company’s marketing environment. What are the actors and forces that constitute company’s marketing environment? Discuss

 

Q.2: What is a brand? Discuss the different branding strategies with examples?

 

Q.3 Define channel of distribution. Why do producers use channel of distributions

 

 

Case Study

CONSUMERS CONFOUND MARKETERS

 

Household spending by all UK households amounted to over £500 billion in 1997, or 63% of gross domestic product. This level of expenditure is very closely related to conditions in the country’s macro-economic environment. For marketers, it is crucial to be able to read the macro-economic environment and to predict the effects of change in demand for their goods and services. Identifying turning points in the economic cycle has become a work of art as well as science, as consumers frequently confound experts by changing their expenditure levels in a way which could not have been predicted on the basis of past experience.

 

During the Autumn of 1998, mortgage rates in the UK were falling; unemployment was close to its lowest level for two decades; pay rises were keeping ahead of inflation; and share prices were recovering from their recent falls. Yet expenditure by British households was falling sharply. For three consecutive months retail sales fell in value, with retailers such as Marks and Spencers and Storehouse reporting below expected levels of sales. Retailers have traditionally found excuses to justify poor sales to their shareholders, including weather which is too cold/too hot. Even the death of Diana Princess of Wales was widely blamed for keeping people out of the shops.

 

Throughout 1998, prices of consumer goods had fallen significantly, with consumer durables down in price by an average of 2% in a year and clothing by 5%. Economic theory would have suggested that lower prices would have resulted in higher sales, especially considering the other favourable elements of the macro-environment. However, this did not appear to be happening.

 

What else could have been happening in the marketing environment to explain falling household expenditure? At the time, the media was full of reports of an impending global economic crisis, triggered by difficulties in the Asian economies. Consumer confidence is crucial to many high value household purchases such as houses and cars, with consumers reluctant to commit themselves to regular monthly repayments when their source of income is insecure. Even this may be only a partial solution, as a survey of consumer confidence carried out in October 1998 by GFK on behalf of the European Commission showed that although consumers were pessimistic about the state of the national economy, they were quite upbeat about their personal financial situation.

 

One possibility was that consumers had become cannier. If prices are falling, why not wait longer until prices have fallen further? Consumers had also witnessed the effects of previous over-borrowing and had been more cautious during the recent period of economic growth, resulting in a historically low level of personal sector indebtedness. In 1997, 9% of disposable household income was saved, compared with just 3% at the height of the economic boom of 1988.

 

For companies who need to commit resources a long while in advance in order to meet consumers’ needs, an accurate understanding of the market environment is crucial if stock surpluses and shortages are to be avoided. But this case shows that getting it right can still be very difficult.

 

ADDITIONAL CASE STUDY REVIEW QUESTIONS

 

1. Identify all of the environmental factors that can affect the demand for consumer durables and assess the magnitude and direction of their impact.

2. In what ways can a manufacturer of consumer durables seek to gain a better understanding of its marketing environment?

3. How can a manufacturer of consumer durables seek to respond to environmental change as rapidly as possible?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ASSIGNMENT – C

 

1. Transaction buyers can be generally described as which of the following?

a. only interested in the purchase at hand

b. see the benefit of sharing the business between a number of suppliers

c. seek a long-term relationship with suppliers

d. consist mostly of small companies

 

2. Which of the following best describes the characteristics of relationship customers?

a. seek a short-term orientation with suppliers

b. sees the benefit of sharing the business among a number of suppliers

c. only interested in the purchase at hand

d. consist mostly of small companies

 

3. Lifetime customer value is often described as which of the following?

a. the cost of customers switching to another brand

b. the stream of revenue a customer can produce over a lifetime with your product

c. acquisition cost

d. variable cost

 

4. Retained customers _____ than switchers.

a. are less profitable

b. are more profitable

c. cost more

d. are less loyal

 

5. The compelling economic reason for increasing the customer retention rate is described by_____.

a. a small difference in retention rate changes slightly over a long period of time

b. a small difference in retention rate is greatly magnified over a long period of time

c. a small difference in retention rate does not change over any period of time

d. retention rate is not a factor in the lifetime customer value

 

6. According to the text, loyal customers are more profitable because of all of the following reasons except:

a. they stimulate revenue growth

b. are less expensive to serve

c. willing to pay a premium price

d. price sensitive

 

 

 

 

7. Which of the following costs represent an initial cost for any customer?

a. development cost

b. fixed cost

c. variable cost

d. acquisition cost

 

8. The ________ is simply the profit margin a company earns from an average customer.

a. supplementary profit

b. base profit

c. complementary profit

d. voluntary profit markup

 

9. Retained customers have been found to do which of the following?

a. speak negatively about the product

b. increase their purchase quantities over time

c. decrease their purchase quantities over time

d. switch to a competitor within a month

 

10. It has been found that existing customer’s cost _____ to serve compared to new customers.

a. less

b. more

c. the same

d. is not applicable

 

11. Which of the following is not considered one of the strategic approaches to the marketplace as described in the text?

a. sales driven

b. technology driven

c. competitor driven

d. customer driven

 

12. In a customer-focused organization, advertising is considered:

a. an investment in the brand name

b. providing value to the customer

c. an expense

d. all of the above

 

13. The marketing environment where firms compete is not:

a. static

b. dynamic

c. fast changing

d. stable

 

14. Which of the following is not consistent with the marketing concept?

a. Embraces the notion of being customer focused

b. Is consistent with being competitor focused and making a profit

c. Serves all customer needs at all costs and the customer is always right

d. Turn away customers and customer segments that are unprofitable to serve

 

15. When Ford or GM sells automobiles to their customers, their customers are actually buying all of the following except:

a. transportation

b. prestige

c. fun

d. automobiles

 

16. If you spoke to a marketing manager at P&G regarding the marketing of laundry detergent, he/she would say that they are selling all of the following except:

a. laundry detergent

b. clean clothes

c. fresh-smelling clothes

d. no color runs

 

17. Information from marketing research studies should be sent to individuals in all of the following functional areas except:

a. production personnel

b. application engineers

c. sales personnel

d. marketing personnel

 

18. From the perspective of a marketing manager, marketing can be viewed as all of the following except:

a. brand enhancement

b. customer service

c. packaging production

d. raw material cost control

 

19. The marketing manager’s internal interactions include all of the following except:

a. sales

b. finance

c. suppliers

d. public relations

 

20. The internal interactions of the marketing manager’s job can be described as all of the following except:

a. working with the company’s Board

b. dealing with suppliers

c. dealing with members of the media

d. reporting to senior management

 

21. The elements of a complete marketing strategy include all of the following except:

a. developing a value proposition

b. developing competitive advantage

c. positioning products and services

d. developing price and delivery programs with raw materials vendors

 

22. Marketing managers are challenged by all of these problems except:

a. developing reasonable sales and market share goals

b. developing a targeted list of customers

c. developing reasonable product costs

d. how to differentiate their product

 

23. Which of the following best describes a marketing objective?

a. a corporate vision and mission

b. a written definition or general intent or company position

c. the criterion by which the success or failure of the strategy is measured

d. a measurable evaluation of the business

 

24. “Increased market share” is not a good objective because:

e. it is too challenging

f. it is not measurable

g. it doesn’t mention quality

h. it doesn’t assign responsibility

 

25. All of the below are characteristics of good objective statements except:

a. should assign individual responsibility

b. should have a quantified standard of performance

c. should have a clear time frame

d. should be stated in measurable terms

 

 

26. For which of the following would marketing managers target a market penetration strategy?

a. Individuals who have never used the product or service

b. Offshore customers who have a need for the product or service

c. Individuals who are buying your product or service or a direct competitor’s

d. Individuals who buy closely-related products or services

 

27. Which of the following best describes why marketing managers should pursue a market penetration strategy?

a. There are always a large number of potential customers who have never purchased your product or service

b. They have purchased your products or services in the past and are familiar with its benefits

c. There are customers who don’t know about your product or service

d. There are customers who have an unmet need for your product or service

 

28. Which best describes the realities of targeting competitors’ customers?

a. It is easier to locate them because they are already buying the product or service

b. It is easier to sell them as they already know the advantages of the product or service

c. There is little loyalty among consumers and getting customers to switch is easy

d. It is riskier and more expensive to “steal” customers away from a competitor

 

29. In which Product Life Cycle phase is it easier to persuade a customer to switch to your product or service?

a. introduction phase

b. growth phase

c. mature phase

d. decline phase

 

30. A marketing manager uses all of these groups to give more focus to market segmentation decisions except:

a. existing customers

b. competitors’ customers

c. non-buying customers in currently targeted segments

d. most profitable customers in the largest segment

 

31. Which of the following best links the consumer and the marketer through information that can be used to identify marketing opportunities and problems?

a. strategic marketing

b. consumer behavior

c. marketing research

d. personal selling

 

32. The mission of the Market Research department is all of the following except:

a. gather information

b. analyze information

c. interpret marketing information

d. evaluate past promotional programs

 

33. According to the text, all of the following are mentioned as major functions of marketing research except:

a. scanning for opportunities and threats

b. evaluate past promotional programs

c. risk assessment of future programs

d. monitoring of current programs

 

34. Specifically, marketing research is most commonly used to:

a. forecast the sales of existing and new products

b. refine new product concepts

c. understand competitors

d. all of the above

 

 

35. The first step in the marketing research process is which of the following?

a. defining the problem

b. determine the research objective

c. design a questionnaire

d. collect the data

 

36. Which of the following information sources already exist and were not developed for the particular problem at hand?

a. primary

b. secondary

c. quantitative

d. qualitative

 

37. Information sources that are generated for the particular problem being studied are best described as:

a. primary

b. secondary

c. quantitative

d. qualitative

 

38. Marketing managers are well advised to consult _____ sources before embarking on major data collection process.

a. primary

b. secondary

c. quantitative

d. qualitative

 

39. Which of the following is an advantage of primary data collection?

a. Data can be collected quickly to meet a manager’s needs

b. Data is tailored to the manager’s needs

c. Data is perhaps the most inexpensive among data collection methods

d. Data already exists for another study and is more accurate because it has already been analyzed

 

40. All of the following are disadvantages of primary data collection except:

a. Data can be collected quickly to meet a manager’s needs

b. Data is tailored to the manager’s needs

c. Data is perhaps the most inexpensive among data collection methods

d. Data already existed for another study and is more accurate because it has already been analyzed