Marketing Management Questions and Answers

Answer: B

These are point of purchase materials.

Point-of-purchase (POP) displays are promotional materials placed where the buying decision is made: shelf displays, racks, banners, show cards and signage that draw attention to a brand inside the shop.

A merchandise dealer is a trader and brokers are intermediaries, while 'promotion' is the whole category of marketing communication, too general to name these in-store materials.

Answer: D

Consumer-to-consumer selling is C2C.

In C2C e-commerce, consumers sell directly to other consumers through online platforms such as OLX, Quikr or eBay, with the platform only bringing them together.

B2C is business to consumer (an online retailer), B2B is business to business, and B2A is business to administration (government), so none involves consumers selling to consumers.

Answer: C

From the consumer's side, promotion means Communication.

In Lauterborn's 4 Cs, each P of the marketing mix is restated from the buyer's point of view: product becomes customer solution, price becomes cost, place becomes convenience, and promotion becomes communication, a two-way dialogue rather than one-way persuasion.

Selling is the seller's view, delivering goods relates to place, and solution to consumer problems is the consumer's view of the product, not of promotion.

Answer: B

This is Gradation (grading).

Grading sorts products, especially agricultural produce, into well defined classes according to quality characteristics such as size, colour and purity, as under the Agmark scheme.

Standardisation fixes the standards themselves, simplification reduces the number of varieties made, and diversification adds new products or markets, so none is the act of classifying standardised products into grades.

Answer: A

Marketing refers to the social and managerial process of anticipating, identifying and satisfying customer requirements profitably.

This combines the two standard definitions. The Chartered Institute of Marketing calls marketing the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably, and Kotler calls it a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through exchange.

The other options each describe one narrow part of marketing. Measuring requirements and collecting data on future requirements are marketing research, and creating demand for goods already made is the old selling concept, which starts from the product rather than from the customer.

Answer: D

The keyed answer is Fluctuating demand.

Demand that rises and falls over time (by season, day or hour), so that it does not match the available supply at every moment, is what Kotler classifies as irregular demand; the paper calls it fluctuating demand. Examples are crowded trains at rush hour and empty ones at midday. Marketers respond with synchromarketing, using flexible pricing and promotion to smooth the pattern.

Excess (overfull) demand is a steady level of demand higher than the firm can meet, declining demand is a falling trend, and latent demand is a need that no existing product yet satisfies. None of these describes demand going up and down over time.

Answer: D

Customer orientation implies the Ability to think like and act like customer.

A customer-oriented firm starts from the customer's point of view: it tries to understand needs, perceptions and buying behaviour as the customer sees them, and designs products, prices and service around them. This is the heart of the marketing concept.

Putting profit ahead of customer needs is the opposite of customer orientation. Selling at a moderate price is one pricing choice, not an orientation, and a cafeteria approach (offering a menu of options) is a technique, mainly used for employee benefits, rather than a definition of the concept.

Answer: D

Skimming pricing is appropriate when the Product is new and innovative.

Price skimming means launching at a high price to 'skim the cream' from buyers who value the novelty most, and then lowering the price step by step to reach more price-sensitive segments. It works when the product is new and distinctive, so that there is no close substitute and early adopters will pay a premium, as with new technology products.

When customers are sensitive to price, or competition is normal, the right strategy is penetration pricing. Option C points the same way as skimming, but the key takes the classic condition for skimming, a new and innovative product, as the answer.

Answer: A

Distribution logistics refers to all activities that accomplish delivery of the end product to the channels as well as the consumer.

Distribution (market) logistics covers the planning and control of the physical flow of finished goods from the end of the production line to the intermediaries and on to the final consumer: order processing, warehousing, inventory and transportation, together with the information flows that coordinate them.

The flow from product development to production is inbound or production logistics, not distribution. Transportation, warehousing and inventory management lists only some of the activities, and 'creating value' is too vague to be a definition.

Answer: D

It is known as Market positioning.

Kotler defines positioning as arranging for a product to occupy a clear, distinctive and desirable place relative to competing products in the minds of target consumers. A firm chooses its points of difference, such as quality, price or image, and builds its marketing mix to establish that position.

The marketing mix is the set of tools (product, price, place, promotion) used to support the position, not the position itself. Marketing planning and strategy is the broader process that includes segmentation, targeting and positioning, and the marketing process is the whole sequence of creating value for customers.