Chapter 11

4. What is a marketing strategy?

A marketing strategy is a plan of action for developing, pricing, distributing, and promoting products that meet needs of the specific customers.

7. Why are marketing research and information systems important to an organization's planning and development of strategy?

Before a company can set out to create, produce, distribute, and sell a good, service, or idea, it must utilize both marketing research and information systems. Marketing research is essential for gathering deep, recent data on consumers, while information systems make this information accessible for consumers inside and outside of an organization.

9. Discuss the impact of technological forces and political and legal forces on the market.

Computers and other technological advances that improve distribution, promotion, and new product development are technological forces having an effect on the market. Political and legal forces like laws and regulators' interpretation of law, law enforcement, and regulatory activities, regulatory bodies, legislators and legislation all also have an effect on the market.

5. What is market segmentation? Describe three target market strategies.

Market segmentation is a strategy whereby a firm divides the total market into groups of people who have relatively similar product needs. Three market strategies are demographic, geographic, and psychographic.

1. What is marketing? How does it facilitate exchanges?

Marketing is a group of activities designed to expedite transactions by creating, distributing, pricing, and promoting goods, services, and ideas. Marketing helps facilitate exchange because marketing is an expedited process of giving up money, credit, labor or goods for goods, services, or ideas.

8. Briefly describe the factors that influence buying behavior. How does understanding buying behavior help marketers?

Psychological factors like perception (how a person selects, organizes, and interprets information), motivation, learning, attitude (knowledge and positive or negative feelings towards something), and personality. Social factors include social roles like reference groups, social classes, and culture which are expectations for individuals which are based on a position they occupy all influence buying behavior.

6. List the variables in the marketing mix. How is each used in a marketing strategy?

The four variables in the marketing mix are product, price, distribution, and promotion. A product, which is a good, service, or idea, needs to be made/though up so there is something a customer can consume. Price is used to place a value on an object that is exchanged between a buyer and a seller. Distribution is making the products available in the places and quantities they are needed. Lastly, promotion is used to communicate with the consumer in an attempt to expedite the marketing exchange.

3. What is the marketing concept? Why is it so important?

The marketing concept is the idea that an organization should try to satisfy customers' needs through coordinated activities that also allow to achieve its own goals. The marketing concept is important because it guides all marketing activities. It not only helps a business satisfy the customer, but also allows for a business to achieve its own objectives.

2. Name the functions of marketing. How does an organization use marketing activities to achieve its objectives?

There are 8 different functions of marketing; buying, selling, transporting, storing, grading, financing, market research and risk taking. An organization uses these marketing activities to accomplish objectives and generate exchanges.