Marketing Management Questions and Answers

Answer: B

The key gives both (A) and (R) as incorrect. High expectations do not necessarily lead to dissatisfaction, since satisfaction depends on how perceived performance compares with expectation, and a firm can deliver on high expectations. The assertion's claim that performance never matches them is too absolute, so (A) is not accepted.

The reason that product performance is always customer specific is likewise an overstatement, because many performance features, such as the fuel economy of a car, are objective. Both are therefore rejected, and the options accepting either one are wrong.

Answer: C

Sales promotion is used for short-term sales achievement. Tools such as discounts, coupons, free samples, contests and premiums give buyers an immediate reason to act and produce a quick rise in sales.

Personal selling and advertising are long-term communication tools that build relationships and awareness over time. Public relations builds goodwill and a favourable image of the firm, whose effect is also gradual and not directed at immediate sales.

Answer: B

The public distribution system relates to the marketing system. It is the government network of fair price shops through which essential commodities, such as foodgrains and sugar, are distributed to consumers at controlled prices, which is a channel for moving goods from procurement to consumers.

It is not a retailing system in the commercial sense, since fair price shops work under licence as agencies of the government. It is also not an industrial or a selling system, which refer to production and to personal selling, so the key goes to the marketing system.

Answer: B

Delighted customers buy more, complain less, spread positive word of mouth, ensure a large customer base and repeat business. A delighted customer is one whose experience has exceeded expectation, which creates strong loyalty.

Merely satisfied customers have had expectations just met and may still switch to a competitor with a slightly better offer. Industrial customers are a type of buyer, not a level of satisfaction, so the first and third options do not name the group described. Hence 'None of the above' is also wrong.

Answer: D

All the above is correct. Buying impulses that persuade a customer to buy a product without evaluating its positive and negative values are called emotional or blind motives. Emotional motives arise from feelings such as fear, pride or affection, and blind motives involve no rational evaluation. Egoistic motives are linked with ego, self-image and status, which can also push a purchase without careful thought.

Since each of the three types fits the description, choosing only one of them is incomplete and the answer is the last option.

Answer: D

All of economics, psychology and sociology are relevant to the study of consumer behaviour. Economics explains how buyers allocate income among products. Psychology explains perception, motivation, learning and attitudes. Sociology explains the influence of family, reference groups, social class and culture on buying.

Since consumer behaviour draws on all three behavioural sciences, naming any single subject is incomplete, and the combined option 'All the above' is the right one.

Answer: C

The incorrect statement is that attitudes are synonymous with behaviour. An attitude is a learned tendency to respond favourably or unfavourably to an object, and behaviour is the actual action. A person may have a favourable attitude to a brand but not buy it because of price or availability, so the two are linked but not the same.

The other three statements are accepted: an attitude is an evaluation of an object, attitudes are learned, and they have motivational qualities because they drive a person towards or away from an object.

Answer: C

The key gives (A) as true and (R) as false. An indent is an order placed by an importer with a foreign supplier through an agent. An open indent does not specify the price and other details, and a closed indent specifies the brand, price, quantity, packing, shipping mode and insurance. So the assertion correctly states the two kinds.

The reason, that this is required as a part of export procedures, is not accepted, since the indent is an import-side or buying order and not a prescribed step of export procedure. So the options with both true, both not correct or (R) true alone are wrong.

Answer: A

The keyed answer is (A), the machine model. The Howard-Sheth model of buyer behaviour is the one that treats the buyer as a system with inputs, such as marketing and social stimuli, hypothetical constructs and outputs, such as attention and purchase. The question links the model with that machine-like input-output form, which is why the key gives (A). Option (B), human model, option (C), marketing model, and option (D), purchase model, are not names by which the model is known. The answer rests on the key and the input-output form and not on a name that I can cite independently.

Answer: C

The description is of green marketing, so (C) is correct. Green marketing is the effort to create and facilitate exchanges that satisfy human needs and wants while keeping the harm to the natural environment to a minimum, by means such as eco-friendly products and packaging. Aggressive marketing in option (A) means pushing sales forcefully without regard to environmental impact. Operating marketing in option (B) is not a recognised concept of this kind. Option (D) fails because only one of the three is correct.