Marketing Management Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The correct matching is a-(iv), b-(iii), c-(i), d-(ii).

• Introduction: establish a clear brand identity, so the new product becomes known (iv).
• Growth: improve product quality and add features, to win share as competitors enter (iii).
• Maturity: redefine target markets and look for new users and uses, as sales level off (i).
• Decline: cut costs, including reducing the number of distribution outlets (ii).

The other codes move outlet reduction into the growth stage or brand building into decline.

Answer: B

Increasing market share is a sales related objective.

Pricing objectives are usually grouped as profit-related (such as profit maximisation or a target return), sales-related (such as increasing sales volume or market share), competition-related (such as meeting or preventing competition) and customer-related. A firm seeking a larger share of the market often prices low to raise sales volume, which is a sales-related aim.

Market share does relate to competitors, but the standard classification places it with sales objectives.

Answer: A

The factor that is not consistent is political stability.

The promotion mix, the combination of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and publicity, is decided by factors such as the type of product (consumer or industrial), the size and spread of the market, the stage of the product life cycle, the budget available and the nature of the customers.

Political stability is a feature of the macro environment that affects business in general. It is not one of the factors that determine the mix of promotional tools.

Answer: D

The invalid type is the entertaining label.

Labels are usually classified as brand labels, which give only the brand name; grade labels, which show the quality grade (such as A, B or Agmark grades); descriptive labels, which describe composition, use and care; and informative labels, which give detailed information.

An 'entertaining label' is not a recognised category.

Answer: B

Such a consumer is called enthusiastic.

In Kotler's classification of buyer attitudes towards a product or brand, consumers range from enthusiastic (the most favourable), through positive, indifferent and negative, to hostile (the most unfavourable).

A positive consumer is favourable but less strongly so, an indifferent one has no strong feeling, and a hostile one is the opposite end of the scale.

Answer: A

It is outbound logistics.

Outbound logistics covers the storage and movement of finished products to customers: warehousing of finished goods, order processing, transport and distribution. In Porter's value chain it follows operations.

Inbound logistics is the receiving, storing and moving of raw materials and inputs into the business. 'Supply of goods' and 'transportation' are parts of these activities rather than the name for the distribution side of the chain.

Answer: D

The consumer purchase decision follows the order 1, 2, 3, 4, 5: problem recognition, search for alternatives, evaluation of alternatives, purchase action and post-purchase action. The buyer first feels a need, then gathers information on the choices, compares them, buys, and finally judges satisfaction after use.

The other sequences are out of order. Evaluation cannot come before the search for alternatives, and purchase cannot precede evaluation, since there would be nothing to evaluate. Problem recognition must come first, so the sequence beginning with 2 is also wrong.

Answer: A

Customer value is the ratio between the customer's perceived benefits and the resources used to obtain those benefits. It is the customer's judgement of what is received (quality, service, image) against what is given up (price, time, effort).

The excess of satisfaction over expectation describes customer delight, not customer value. Post-purchase dissonance is the discomfort a buyer feels after buying that the choice may have been wrong, which is a separate idea. Since the first option is correct, none of the above is also wrong.

Answer: A

The correct matching is a-2, b-1, c-4, d-3, which is the code 2 1 4 3. The silent mental repetition of information is rehearsal. Selecting a word or visual image to represent a perceived object is encoding. The place where information is kept temporarily before further processing is the store house, and the stage of memory in which information is processed and held for a brief period is working memory.

The other codes swap these pairs: for example 1 2 3 4 would call repetition encoding and the temporary holding place working memory, which reverses the definitions given in the list.

Answer: B

The correct order is a-4, b-3, c-1, d-2, which is the code 4 3 1 2. Loyal customers buy more products, are less price sensitive, pay less attention to competitors' advertising, and serving an existing customer is cheaper than winning a new one.

The other codes make a sentence read wrongly. Code 3 1 2 4 would read 'Loyal customers less price products'. Code 2 1 3 4 would give 'Loyal customers cheaper products', and code 4 3 2 1 would say that loyal customers pay cheaper to competitors' advertising, none of which makes sense.