Marketing Management Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The controllable variable is Price.

The marketing mix, product, price, place and promotion, consists of the variables that marketing management can control and adjust.

The environment, competition and consumers are external, uncontrollable variables to which the firm must adapt its marketing mix.

Answer: D

A group of closely related products is a product line.

A product line is a group of products that are closely related because they perform a similar function, are sold to the same customer groups, or fall within a given price range.

The product mix is the set of all product lines a company offers, so it is wider than one group. Product quality and uniformity are attributes, not groupings of products.

Answer: C

The two ways are line stretching and line filling.

In Kotler's account of product line decisions, a company lengthens a product line in two ways. Line stretching extends the line beyond its current range, downward, upward or both ways. Line filling adds more items within the present range.

Line extension and brand extension are branding strategies, using an existing brand name for new items or categories, and 'line elastic' is not a recognised term.

Answer: C

This is the economic model of buyer behaviour.

The Marshallian economic model assumes the buyer is a rational person who knows his wants and the alternatives, and makes purchase decisions so as to get the greatest utility from his money, guided by prices and income.

The learning model (Pavlovian) explains behaviour through drives, cues, response and reinforcement; the psychological (Freudian) model through unconscious motives; and systems models treat the buyer as one part of a larger set of interacting influences, none of them resting on rational utility.

Answer: D

The key gives Intimate groups.

Reference groups are the groups a consumer uses as a standard for attitudes and behaviour. The most influential are primary groups, the family, close friends and neighbours with whom a person interacts frequently and intimately.

'Hybrid', 'digital' and 'media' groups are not standard categories of reference group in the classical consumer-behaviour literature, so intimate groups is the only option that names one.

Answer: D

The key gives Leverage pricing.

Cost-based pricing sets price by adding a margin to cost, differentiated pricing charges different prices to different customer segments or for different times and places, and affordability-based pricing sets price at a level the target customers can pay, as in many products for the Indian mass market.

'Leverage pricing' is not a recognised pricing method; leverage is a term of corporate finance, which is why it is the answer.

Answer: D

The one that is not a feature of services is Durability.

Services are distinguished from goods by four characteristics: intangibility (they cannot be seen or touched before purchase), inseparability (production and consumption occur together), heterogeneity or variability (quality varies with who provides them and when), and perishability (they cannot be stored).

Durability is the opposite of perishability and is a property of goods, so it is the answer.

Answer: D

Customer value is measured by customer lifetime value.

Customer lifetime value is the present value of the stream of profits a company expects from a customer over the whole relationship. It shows how much a customer is worth and how much it is sensible to spend acquiring and keeping him.

Short-term value ignores the future stream, and 'relationship value' and 'satisfaction value' are not standard metrics of customer value.

Answer: C

This is ambush marketing.

In ambush marketing a company that is not an official sponsor associates itself with a major event, such as a world cup or the Olympics, through advertising and promotions timed and themed around it, so as to gain publicity without paying sponsorship fees.

Dependent, survival and skill marketing are not names for this practice.

Answer: B

It is niche marketing.

A niche is a narrowly defined group, often a sub-segment, whose needs are not well served by the products aimed at broader segments. Niche marketers specialise in meeting those needs closely, and because the niche is small, competitors are few and customers will often pay a premium.

Segment marketing targets larger groups with shared characteristics, local marketing tailors offers to particular areas or stores, and individual (one-to-one) marketing customises for single customers.