Marketing Management Questions and Answers

Answer: B

It is a Marketing intelligence system.

Kotler defines a marketing intelligence system as a set of procedures and sources managers use to obtain everyday information about developments in the marketing environment. Sources include sales staff, distributors, trade publications, competitors' reports and customer feedback.

A marketing research system gathers information through formal studies designed for a specific problem, not on an everyday basis. An internal database holds the firm's own records of orders, sales and receivables, and enterprise resource planning integrates the firm's internal operations, so neither tracks the external environment day to day.

Answer: B

The keyed answer is Grading.

Grading divides products into classes of uniform quality on the basis of standards such as size, colour or purity, for example Agmark grades for agricultural produce. Because each grade carries its own price, a buyer can compare the quality of a product with its price at a glance and buy by grade without inspecting every lot.

Standardisation sets the standards themselves; grading applies them to sort the goods. Labelling gives information about the contents and use of a product, and branding identifies its maker. Neither of these classifies goods by quality.

Answer: B

A product does not have to be imported for price skimming.

Skimming sets a high initial price to collect revenue from the buyers who value a product most, then lowers it step by step. It works when the product is new and distinctive, has no close substitute so demand is inelastic, and carries prestige value, so that early buyers will pay a premium.

Where the product is made has nothing to do with it: home-produced electronics and medicines are often launched with skimming prices. The other three options are the conditions skimming relies on.

Answer: C

The rural-specific medium is demonstrations, decorated bullock carts with advertisement panels.

Rural marketers rely on non-conventional media that fit village life and reach people with limited exposure to mass media: product demonstrations at haats and melas, decorated bullock carts and vans carrying advertisements, wall paintings, puppet shows and folk theatre.

Point-of-purchase displays, the print press and television shows are used in cities and villages alike, so none of them is specific to rural markets; print in particular reaches a small share of rural households.

Answer: A

Services are characterised by performance, intangibility, variability, perishability and no transfer of ownership.

A service is a performance rather than an object. It cannot be seen or touched before purchase (intangibility), its quality varies with who provides it and when (variability), it cannot be stored for later sale (perishability), and the buyer gets the benefit of it without acquiring ownership of anything.

The other options describe goods. Tangibility, durability and transfer of ownership, the possibility of storage, and the separation of production from consumption are exactly what services lack; services are produced and consumed at the same time.

Answer: B

The key gives the process that manages the interaction with customers through retention, profitability and customer lifetime value.

The stem says that a customer relationship is about value more than about the relationship itself. Option B is the one that states value in measurable terms: customer retention, customer profitability and customer lifetime value, reached through a systematic, protocol-based process. That is the usual description of customer relationship management as a value-creating process.

Option C describes only the handling of customer information at touch points, which is the data side of CRM. Option D, any attempt to retain past customers, is too narrow because it ignores profitability and lifetime value. Option A lists ingredients (experience, data, retaining profitable customers) rather than the process through which value is produced.

What could not be confirmed: the sentence appears to be a paraphrase of a textbook definition and no source was found for it, and A is close to B in meaning. B is taken because it is the keyed answer and the fullest statement of value.

Answer: A

This is the selling concept.

The selling concept holds that consumers left alone will not buy enough of the organisation's products, so the firm must undertake an aggressive selling and promotion effort. It is typical of unsought goods such as insurance and of firms with excess capacity.

The product concept assumes customers favour products of the highest quality and performance, so the firm concentrates on improving the product. The marketing concept starts from customer needs and aims to satisfy them better than competitors. 'Customer concept' is a later customer-by-customer extension of the marketing concept, not a belief in heavy promotion.

Answer: A

In PESTEL analysis, P stands for political factors.

PESTEL lists the macro-environmental forces outside a company's control: Political (government stability, policy, taxation), Economic (growth, inflation, interest rates), Social (demographics, culture), Technological, Environmental (ecological concerns, climate) and Legal (laws and regulation).

Psychological, physiological and physical factors are not part of the framework. Psychological factors affect individual buyer behaviour, which is part of consumer analysis, not of the macro environment.

Answer: A

Buying and assembling relate to concentration.

F.E. Clark divided the marketing process into three stages. Concentration brings goods together from many producers at central points, which is done by buying and assembling. Equalisation adjusts supply to demand in time, quantity and quality through storage, grading and financing. Dispersion distributes the goods to consumers through selling and transport.

So dispersion corresponds to selling and equalisation to storage and grading. Trading is not one of the three stages.

Answer: B

This is the societal marketing concept.

The societal marketing concept asks marketers to balance three considerations when setting policy: the company's profits and objectives, consumers' wants, and society's long-term interests. It responds to criticism that satisfying immediate wants can harm consumers or the environment in the long run.

The plain marketing concept balances company goals with customer needs but leaves out the public interest. The production concept focuses on efficient, low-cost output and the product concept on product quality; neither weighs society's welfare.