exam 4

Online Advertising and Email Marketing

Online advertising refers to advertising that appears while consumers are browsing online, including display ads, search-related ads, online classifieds, and other forms. The main forms of online advertising are display ads and search-related ads. Online display ads might appear anywhere on an Internet user's screen and are often related to the information being viewed. Today's rich media ads incorporate animation, video, sound, and interactivity. The largest form of online advertising is search-related ads or contextual advertising. In this form of advertising, text-based ads and links appear alongside search engine results on sites such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. Email marketing refers to sending highly targeted, highly personalized, relationship-building marketing messages via email. When used properly, email can be the ultimate direct marketing medium. But there is a dark side to the growing use of email marketing - the explosion of spam - unsolicited, unwanted commercial email messages that clog up our email boxes. Spam has produced consumer irritation and frustration. To address these concerns, most legitimate marketers now practice permission-based email marketing, sending email pitches only to customers who opt in.

Social Media Marketing

Social media are independent and commercial online communities where people congregate to socialize and share messages, opinions, pictures, videos, and other content. Marketers can engage in social media in two ways: They can use existing social media or they can set up their own. Using existing social media seems the easiest. Thus, most brands, large and small, have set up shop on a host of social media sites. Such social media can create substantial brand communities. Niche social media cater to the needs of smaller communities of like-minded people, making them ideal vehicles for marketers who want to target special interest groups. Beyond these independent social media, many companies have created their own online brand communities. For example, in Nike's Nike+ running community, members join together online to upload, track, and compare their performances.

Economic Environment

Two economic factors reflect a country's attractiveness as a market: industrial structure and income distribution. The country's industrial structure shapes its product and service needs, income levels, and employment levels. There are four types of industrial structures. In subsistence economies, the vast majority of people engage in simple agriculture. They consume most of their output and barter the rest for simple goods and services. These economies offer few market opportunities. Second, raw material exporting economies are rich in one or more natural resources but poor in other ways. Much of their revenue comes from exporting these resources. Third, in emerging economies, fast growth in manufacturing results in rapid overall economic growth. As manufacturing increases, the country needs more imports of raw materials and fewer imports of finished products. Industrial economies are major exporters of manufactured goods, services, and investment funds. They trade goods among themselves and export them to other types of economies for raw materials and semifinished goods. The second economic factor is the country's income distribution. Industrialized nations may have low-, medium-, and high-income households. Countries with subsistence economies consist mostly of households with very low family incomes. Still other countries may have households with either very low or very high incomes.

During the presentation step in the personal selling​ process, the salesperson​ ______________.

(tells the buyer a​ "value story") -closes the deal -attempts to​ "razzle-dazzle" the buyer -meets the buyer for the first time -handles objections

________ products have low immediate appeal but might benefit consumers in the long run—for instance, bicycle helmets or some insurance products.

-Pleasing (Salutary) -Deficient -Desirable -Marketing

Consumers may receive an​ e-mail, supposedly from their bank or credit card​ company, saying that their​ account's security has been compromised. The sender asks consumers to log on to a provided Web address and confirm their account and other personal information and then steals this private information. This is a fraudulent practice called​ ______.

-mobile marketing -infomercials (phishing) -spamming -telemarketing

The​ fastest-growing sales trend today is​ ______________.

-outside sales -inside sales -team selling -product selling (social selling)

Designing the Sales Force Strategy and Structure

A territorial sales force structure refers to a sales force organization that assigns each salesperson to an exclusive geographic territory in which that salesperson sells the company's full line. In a product sales force structure, salespeople specialize in selling only a portion of the company's products or lines. A customer (or market) sales force structure refers to a sales force organization in which salespeople specialize in selling only to certain customers or industries. Salespeople can be specialized by customer and territory, product and territory, product and customer, or territory, product, and customer. Each company should select a sales force structure that best serves the needs of its customers and fits its overall marketing strategy. If a company sells only one product line to one industry with customers in many locations, it would use a territorial sales force structure. If the company sells many products to many types of customers, it might need a product sales force structure, a customer sales force structure, or a combination of the two.

Catalog Marketing

Advances in technology, along with the trend of personalized, one-to-one marketing, have resulted in exciting changes in catalog marketing. Catalog marketing is a form of direct marketing through print, video, or digital catalogs that are mailed to select customers, made available in stores, or presented online. With the stampede to the Internet and digital marketing, more and more catalogs are going digital. They eliminate printing and mailing costs. They can offer an almost unlimited amount of merchandise. They offer a broader assortment of presentation formats, including search and video. They allow real-time merchandising; products and features can be added or removed as needed, and prices can be adjusted instantly to match demand. Even in the digital era, printed catalogs are still thriving. In addition to its traditional catalogs, Patagonia sends out catalogs built around lifestyle themes, as "a way we're speaking to our closest friends and people who know the brand really well." One recent catalog featured falconry and included only a handful of products, placed on the last four pages of the 43-page book. "Years ago, [a catalog] was a selling tool, and now it's become an inspirational source," says another direct marketer. "We know our customers love a tactile experience."

14-5 Summary

Although the fast-growing digital marketing tools have grabbed most of the headlines lately, traditional direct marketing tools are very much alive and still heavily used. The major forms are face-to-face or personal selling, direct-mail marketing, catalog marketing, telemarketing, direct-response television (DRTV) marketing, and kiosk marketing. Direct marketers and their customers usually enjoy mutually rewarding relationships. Sometimes, the aggressive and shady tactics of a few direct marketers can bother or harm consumers, giving the entire industry a black eye. Abuses range from simple excesses that irritate consumers to instances of unfair practices or even outright deception and fraud. The direct marketing industry has also faced growing concerns about invasion-of-privacy and Internet security issues. Such concerns call for strong action by marketers and public policy makers to curb direct marketing abuses. In the end, most direct marketers want the same things that consumers want: honest and well-designed marketing offers, targeted only toward consumers, who will appreciate and respond to them.

Looking at the Global Marketing Environment

Before deciding whether to operate internationally, a company must understand the international marketing environment. This includes understanding the international trade system, the economic environment, the political-legal environment, and the cultural environment.

Deciding Which Markets to Enter

Before going abroad, the company should try to define its international marketing objectives and policies. It should decide what volume of foreign sales it wants. The company also needs to choose in how many countries it wants to market. Companies must be careful not to spread themselves too thin or expand beyond their capabilities by operating in too many countries too soon. Next, the company needs to decide on the types of countries to enter. After listing possible international markets, the company must carefully evaluate each one. It must consider many factors to evaluate market potential as detailed on the next slide.

Blogs and Other Online Forums

Blogs, or Web logs, are online journals where people and companies post their thoughts and other content related to narrowly defined topics. Blogs can be about anything—politics, baseball, haiku, car repair, or the latest television series. Most marketers are now tapping into the blogosphere as a medium for reaching their customer communities. Marketers can use insights from consumer online conversations to improve their marketing programs. As a marketing tool, blogs offer some advantages. They can offer a fresh, original, personal, and economical way to enter into consumer online conversations. However, blogs offer disadvantages too. The blogosphere is cluttered and difficult to control. Although companies can sometimes leverage blogs to engage customers in meaningful relationships, blogs remain largely a consumer-controlled medium. The creative Nuts About Southwest blog, written by Southwest employees, fosters a two-way dialogue that gives customers a look inside the company's culture and operations.

Marketing's Impact on Society as a Whole

Critics do not view the interest in material things as a natural state of mind but rather as a matter of false wants created by marketing. Marketers, they claim, stimulate people's desires for goods and create materialistic models of the good life. In this view, marketing's purpose is to promote consumption, and the inevitable outcome of successful marketing is unsustainable overconsumption. Many observers predict a new age of more sensible consumption. As a result, instead of encouraging today's more sensible consumers to overspend their means, most marketers are working to help them find greater value with less. Business has been accused of overselling private goods at the expense of public goods. As private goods increase, they require more public services that are usually not forthcoming. A way must be found to restore a balance between private and public goods. One option is to make producers bear the full social costs of their operations. A second option is to make consumers pay the social costs. For example, many cities around the world are now charging congestion tolls in an effort to reduce traffic congestion. Critics charge the marketing system with creating cultural pollution. Marketers answer the charges of commercial noise with these arguments. First, they hope that their ads primarily reach the target audience. Second, because of ads, many television, radio, online, and social media sites are free to users. Thus, to hold consumer attention, advertisers are making their ads more entertaining and informative. A marketing campaign by the Center for a New American Dream urges people to reject "buy more" messages and instead say "More fun! Less stuff!"

Rapid Growth of Direct and Digital Marketing

Direct and digital marketing have become the fastest-growing form of marketing. Direct marketing continues to become more Internet-based, and digital direct marketing is claiming a surging share of marketing spending and sales. Total digital marketing spending—including online display and search advertising, video, social media, mobile, and email—now accounts for the second-largest share of media spending, behind only television, which it's expected to overtake by 2018.

Personal Selling

Personal selling involves personal presentations by the firm's sales force for the purpose of engaging customers, making sales, and building customer relationships. Most salespeople are well-educated and well-trained professionals who add value for customers and maintain long-term customer relationships. They listen to their customers, assess customer needs, and organize the company's efforts to solve customer problems. A salesperson is an individual who represents a company to customers by performing one or more activities: prospecting, communicating, selling, servicing, information gathering, and relationship building.

Which of the following is true regarding the forms of direct and digital​ marketing?

(Both the new digital and the more traditional forms of direct marketing must be blended into a fully integrated marketing communications program.) -Online marketing is the only form of direct and digital marketing. -Marketers today only use direct and digital marketing. -Direct and digital marketing does not include mobile marketing. -Traditional direct marketing tools are still used but are no longer important.

FancyFace, a cosmetics firm located in the United​ States, markets its products in Asian and European countries through independent distributors. In this​ case, FancyFace has entered international markets through​ ________.

-joint venturing (indirect exporting) -franchising -joint ownerships -direct investment

World Trade Organization (WTO)

Certain forces can help trade between nations. Examples include the World Trade Organization (WTO) and various regional free trade agreements. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) established the World Trade Organization (WTO), which replaced GATT in 1995 and now oversees the original GATT provisions. GATT was designed to promote world trade by reducing tariffs and other international trade barriers. WTO and GATT member nations have met in eight rounds of negotiations to reassess trade barriers and establish new rules for international trade. The WTO also imposes international trade sanctions and mediates global trade disputes.

15-3 Summary

Companies must decide how much their marketing strategies and their products, promotion, price, and channels should be adapted for each foreign market. At one extreme, global companies use standardized global marketing worldwide. Others use adapted global marketing, in which they adjust the marketing strategy and mix to each target market, bearing more costs but hoping for a larger market share and return. However, global standardization is not an all-or-nothing proposition - it's a matter of degree. Most international marketers suggest that companies should "think globally but act locally" - that they should seek a balance between globally standardized strategies and locally adapted marketing mix tactics.

Direct and Digital Marketing

Direct and digital marketing involve engaging directly with carefully targeted individual consumers and customer communities to both obtain an immediate response and build lasting customer relationships. Companies use direct marketing to tailor their offers and content to the needs and interests of narrowly defined segments or individual buyers. In this way, they build customer engagement, brand community, and sales.

Personal Selling pt. 2

Professional selling takes more than fast talk and a warm smile to sell expensive airplanes. Boeing's real challenge is to win business by building partnerships—day-in, day-out, year-in, year-out—with its customers.

Direct-Mail Marketing

Even though new digital forms of direct marketing are bursting onto the scene, traditional direct mail is still heavily used by most marketers. Direct-mail marketing involves sending an offer, announcement, reminder, or other item directly to a person at a particular address. Direct mail is well suited to direct, one-to-one communication. It permits high-target market selectivity, can be personalized, is flexible, and allows the easy measurement of results. Although direct mail costs more per thousand people reached than mass media such as television or magazines, the people it reaches are much better prospects. Direct-mail marketing offers some distinct advantages over digital forms. It provides something tangible for people to hold and keep, and it can be used to send samples. It creates an emotional connection with customers that digital cannot. It can be an effective component of a broader integrated marketing campaign. Direct mail may be resented as junk mail if sent to people who have no interest in it. For this reason, smart marketers are targeting their direct mail carefully so as not to waste their money and recipients' time. They are designing permission-based programs that send direct mail only to those who want to receive it.

Figure 13.2 How Salespeople Spend Their Time

Figure 13.2 shows how salespeople spend their time. On average, active selling time accounts for only 37 percent of total working time. Companies are always looking for ways to save time—simplifying administrative duties, developing better sales-call and routing plans, supplying more and better customer information, and using phone, email, online, or mobile conferencing instead of traveling. Companies need salespeople to spend much more face-to-face time with customers and prospects. For example, GE wants its salespeople to "spend four days a week in front of the customer and one day a week for all the admin stuff."

Consumer Privacy

Invasion of privacy is perhaps the toughest public policy issue now confronting the direct marketing industry. Consumers benefit from database marketing. However, too much knowledge about consumers' lives may lead to marketers taking unfair advantage of consumers. Some consumers and policy makers worry that the ready availability of information about consumers may leave them open to abuse.

15-4 Summmary

The company must develop an effective organization for international marketing. Most firms start with an export department and graduate to an international division. Large companies eventually become global organizations, with worldwide marketing planned and managed by the top officers of the company. Global organizations view the entire world as a single, borderless market.

Because of deceptive acts or practices by​ companies, Congress has enacted legislation designed to protect consumers. Which of the following was enacted to protect consumers against deceptive acts or​ practices?

​(Wheeler-Lea Act of 1938) -Fair Credit Reporting Law -Credit Card​ Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act -Consumer Rights Act of 2015 -Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914

The​ seven-step selling process takes a​ __________ approach to selling. In other​ words, its aim is to help salespeople close a specific sale with a customer.

​-relationship-oriented -customer-oriented -​value-oriented (​transaction-oriented) -​profit-oriented

​________ marketing means that the company should view and organize its marketing activities from the​ consumer's point of view.

(Consumer-oriented) -Sense-of-mission -Societal -Customer value -Innovative

____________ is perhaps the toughest public policy issue now confronting the direct marketing industry.

(Invasion of privacy) -Deceptive pricing -Junk mail -Irritation -Deceptive advertising

What is the final step in the​ seven-step personal selling​ process?

-Presentation -Closing -Prospecting -Qualifying ​(Follow-up)

To set its sales force​ size, a company can first group accounts into different classes according to​ size, account​ status, or other factors related to the amount of effort required to maintain the account. It then determines the number of salespeople needed to call on each class of accounts the desired number of times. This is called the​ ______ approach.

-complex -workforce (workload) -field -inside

According to the principle of​ ________ marketing, the company should put most of its resources into customer​ value-building marketing investments.

-conscious consumption (customer value) -sense-of-mission -consumer-oriented -innovative

University Boutiques promotes its brand in new international markets by providing rights to local boutiques to use its patented designs and brand name. In this​ case, University​ Boutiques' market-entering strategy is referred to as​ ________.

-management contracting -joint ownership -contract manufacturing (licensing) -exporting

As companies become more​ market-centered, a​ customer-focused sales force​ __________________.

-only needs to coordinate its efforts with marketing planners -has greater incentives to produce revenue (works to produce both customer satisfaction and company profit) -becomes more focused on profit and less on the customer -is less important than the results advertising and sales promotion can reap

Business Promotions

Business promotions are used to generate business leads, stimulate purchases, reward customers, and motivate salespeople. Business promotions include many of the same tools used for consumer or trade promotions. Additional major business promotion tools include conventions and trade shows and sales contests. Many companies and trade associations organize conventions and trade shows to promote their products. Firms selling to the industry exhibit their products at the trade show. Vendors at these shows receive many benefits, such as opportunities to find new sales leads, contact customers, introduce new products, meet new customers, sell more to present customers, and educate customers with publications and audiovisual materials. A sales contest is a contest for salespeople or dealers to motivate them to increase their sales performance over a given period. Sales contests motivate and recognize good company performers, who may receive trips, cash prizes, or other gifts.

13-1 Summary

Most companies use salespeople, and many companies assign them an important role in the marketing mix. For companies selling business products, the firm's sales force works directly with customers. Often, the sales force is the customer's only direct contact with the company and therefore may be viewed by customers as representing the company itself. In contrast, for consumer product companies that sell through intermediaries, consumers usually do not meet salespeople, or even know about them. The sales force works behind the scenes, dealing with wholesalers and retailers to obtain their support, while helping them become more effective in selling the firm's products. As an element of the promotion mix, the sales force is very effective in achieving certain marketing objectives and carrying out such activities as prospecting, communicating, selling, servicing, and information gathering. But with companies becoming more market oriented, a customer-focused sales force also works to produce both customer satisfaction and company profit. The sales force plays a key role in engaging customers and developing and managing profitable customer relationships.

Online Marketing

Online marketing refers to marketing via the Internet using company Web sites, online ads and promotions, email marketing, online video, and blogs. For most companies, the first step in conducting online marketing is to create a Web site. Marketing Web sites are designed to interact with customers to move them closer to a direct purchase or other marketing outcome. In contrast, a branded community Web site does not try to sell anything but presents brand content that engages consumers and creates customer-brand community. A Web site should be easy to use and visually appealing. Ultimately, Web sites must be useful. When it comes to Web browsing and shopping, most people prefer substance over style and function over flash.

Sales Force Management

Sales force management is defined as analyzing, planning, implementing, and controlling sales force activities. It includes designing sales force strategy and structure, as well as recruiting, selecting, training, compensating, supervising, and evaluating the firm's salespeople. These steps are presented in detail in the following slides.

Impact of Marketing Strategy on Cultures

Social critics contend that large American multinationals, such as McDonald's, Coca-Cola, and Starbucks, are not just globalizing their brands, but they are Americanizing the world's cultures. Critics worry that countries around the globe are losing their individual cultural identities. Such concerns have sometimes led to a backlash against American globalization. Well-known U.S. brands have become the targets of boycotts and protests in some international markets. Despite such problems, U.S. brands are doing very well internationally. Globalization is a two-way street. America gets as well as gives cultural influence. For example, KFC has become one of Japan's leading Christmas dining traditions, with the iconic Colonel Sanders standing in as a kind of Japanese Father Christmas. Japan's KFC Christmas tradition began more than 40 years ago when the company unleashed a "Kentucky for Christmas" advertising campaign in Japan to help the brand get off the ground.

Compensating Salespeople

To attract good salespeople, a company must have an appealing compensation plan. Compensation consists of four elements. A fixed amount, usually a salary, gives the salesperson some stable income. The variable amount, which might be commissions or bonuses based on sales performance, rewards the salesperson for greater effort and success. Compensation should direct salespeople toward activities that are consistent with the overall sales force and marketing objectives. Salespeople's compensation also includes reimbursement of expenses and fringe benefits. A good sales force compensation plan both motivates salespeople and directs their activities.

Criticism has been leveled at marketing for negative impact on other businesses. Of the​ following, which does NOT fall within those​ criticisms?

(Creating false wants and too much materialism) -Reducing competition through acquisitions -Practices that create barriers to entry -Harming competitors through acquisitions -Unfair competitive marketing practices

Which of the following is a form of traditional direct​ marketing?

-Blogs -Websites -Social media marketing -Mobile marketing (Kiosk marketing)

According to the sustainable marketing​ concept, a​ company's marketing objectives should support the​ ___________________________.

-company's long-term revenue and profit goals ​-company's sense of mission -overall strategic plans and revenue goals of the organization (best​ long-run performance of the marketing system) -company's value-based marketing objectives

Companies like Amazon and Expedia.com that sell products and services directly to final buyers over the Internet are known as​ _______.

-content sites ​-search-engine portals -transaction sites ​(e-tailers) -online social media

The digital version of​ word-of-mouth marketing that involves creating​ videos, ads, and other marketing content that is so infectious that customers will seek them out or pass them along to their friends is called​ _______.

-search engine marketing (viral marketing) -e-mail marketing -omni-channel marketing -online marketing

Webites, online​ advertising, email, online​ video, and blogs are all forms of​ ______.

-telemarketing -social media marketing -traditional direct marketing -mobile marketing (online marketing)

Online Videos

Another form of online marketing involves posting digital video content on brand Web sites or social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and others. Some videos are made for the Web and social media. Other videos are ads that a company makes primarily for TV and other media but posts online before or after an advertising campaign to extend reach and impact. Viral marketing is the digital version of word-of-mouth marketing. All kinds of videos can go viral, producing engagement and positive exposure for a brand. Marketers have little control over where their viral messages end up. They can seed content online, but that does little good unless the message itself strikes a chord with consumers. For example, in one simple but honest McDonald's video, the company answered an online viewer's question about why McDonald's products look better in ads than in real life by conducting a behind-the-scenes tour of how a McDonald's ad is made. The award-winning three-and-a-half-minute video pulled almost 15 million views and 15,000 shares, earning the company praise for its honesty and transparency.

Kiosk Marketing

As consumers become more and more comfortable with digital and touchscreen technologies, many companies are placing information and ordering machines, called kiosks, in stores, airports, hotels, college campuses, and other locations. Many modern smart kiosks are now wireless-enabled. Some machines even use facial recognition software that lets them guess gender and age and make product recommendations based on that data. ZoomSystems creates small, free-standing kiosks called ZoomShops for retailers ranging from Apple, and The Body Shop to Macy's and Best Buy. For example, 100 Best Buy Express ZoomShop kiosks across the country, conveniently located in airports, busy malls, military bases, and resorts, automatically dispense an assortment of portable media players, digital cameras, gaming consoles, headphones, phone chargers, travel gadgets, and other popular products. Redbox operates more than 42,000 DVD rental kiosks in supermarkets, fast-food restaurants, and other retail outlets.

Regional Free Trade Zones

Certain countries have formed free trade zones or economic communities. These are groups of nations organized to work toward common goals in the regulation of international trade. The European Union (EU) is one such community that was formed in 1957. It was set out to create a single European market by reducing barriers to the free flow of products, services, finances, and labor among member countries and developing policies on trade with nonmember nations. Today, the EU represents one of the world's largest single markets. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), founded in 1994, established a free trade zone among the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR), founded in 2005, established a free trade zone between the United States and Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Other free trade areas have formed in Latin America and South America. For example, the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), modeled after the EU, was formed in 2004 and formalized by a constitutional treaty in 2008. UNASUR makes up the largest trading bloc after NAFTA and the EU. Similar to NAFTA and the EU, UNASUR aims to eliminate all tariffs between nations by 2019. The European Union represents one of the world's single largest markets. Its current member countries contain more than half a billion consumers and account for 20 percent of the world's exports.

Marketing's Impact on Other Businesses

Critics charge that a firm's marketing practices can harm other companies and reduce competition through acquisitions of competitors, marketing practices that create barriers to entry, and unfair competitive marketing practices. Firms are harmed and competition is reduced when companies expand by acquiring competitors rather than by developing their own new products. Acquisitions have caused concern that vigorous young competitors will be absorbed, thereby reducing competition. In some cases, acquisitions can be good for society. The acquiring company may gain economies of scale that lead to lower costs and lower prices. In addition, a well-managed company may take over a poorly managed company and improve its efficiency. Some marketing practices bar new companies from entering an industry. Large marketing companies can use patents and heavy promotion spending or tie up suppliers or dealers to keep out or drive out competitors. Those concerned with antitrust regulation recognize that some barriers are the natural result of the economic advantages of doing business on a large scale. Existing and new laws can challenge other barriers. Some firms have used unfair competitive marketing practices with the intention of hurting or destroying other firms. They may set their prices below costs, threaten to cut off business with suppliers, discourage the buying of a competitor's products, or use their size and market dominance to unfairly damage rivals.

Environmentalism

Environmentalism is an organized movement of concerned citizens, businesses, and government agencies designed to protect and improve people's current and future living environment. Environmentalists are concerned with marketing's effects on the environment and the environmental costs of serving consumer needs and wants. They want people and organizations to operate with more care for the environment. Environmentalism is concerned with damage to the ecosystem caused by global warming, resource depletion, toxic and solid wastes, litter, the availability of fresh water, and other problems. Other issues include the loss of recreational areas and the increase in health problems caused by bad air, polluted water, and chemically treated food. Concerns related to the environment have resulted in federal and state laws and regulations governing industrial commercial practices impacting the environment. In recent years, most companies have accepted responsibility for doing no harm to the environment. More and more companies are now adopting policies of environmental sustainability. Environmental sustainability is a management approach that involves developing strategies that both sustain the environment and produce profits for the company.

16-5 Summary

Increasingly, companies are responding to the need to provide company policies and guidelines to help their managers deal with questions of marketing ethics. Of course, even the best guidelines cannot resolve all the difficult ethical decisions that individuals and firms must make. But there are some principles from which marketers can choose. One principle states that the free market and the legal system should decide such issues. A second and more enlightened principle puts responsibility not on the system but in the hands of individual companies and managers. Each firm and marketing manager must work out a philosophy of socially responsible and ethical behavior. Under the sustainable marketing concept, managers must look beyond what is legal and allowable and develop standards based on personal integrity, corporate conscience, and long-term consumer welfare.

Sales Force Size

Many companies use some form of workload approach to set sales force size. Using this approach, a company first groups accounts into different classes according to size, account status, or other factors related to the amount of effort required to maintain the account. It then determines the number of salespeople needed to call on each class of accounts the desired number of times. Sales forces may range in size from only a few salespeople to tens of thousands.

Social Criticisms of Marketing

Marketing receives much criticism. Social critics claim that certain marketing practices hurt individual consumers, society as a whole, and other business firms.

Political-Legal Environment

Nations differ greatly in their political-legal environments. In considering whether to do business in a given country, a company should consider factors such as the country's attitudes toward international buying, government bureaucracy, political stability, and monetary regulations. Most international trade involves cash transactions. Yet many nations have too little hard currency to pay for their purchases from other countries. They may want to pay with other items instead of cash. Barter involves the direct exchange of goods or services.

New Direct Marketing Model

Online travel agency Priceline.com sells its services exclusively through online, mobile, and social media channels. Along with other online competitors, Priceline.com has pretty much driven traditional offline travel agencies to extinction. Most companies still use direct marketing as a supplementary channel or medium. For example, Sears or Macy's, sell the majority of their merchandise off their store shelves, but they also sell through direct mail, online catalogs, and social media pages. For many companies today, direct and digital marketing are more than just supplementary channels or advertising media. They constitute a complete model for doing business. Firms employing this direct model use it as the only approach. For example, companies such as Priceline have built their entire approach to the marketplace around direct and digital marketing.

Impact of Culture on Marketing Strategy

Sellers must understand the ways that consumers in different countries think about and use certain products before planning a marketing program. There are often surprises. For example, the average French man uses almost twice as many cosmetics and grooming aids as his wife. Companies that ignore cultural norms and differences can make some very expensive and embarrassing mistakes. Business norms and behaviors also vary from country to country. Thus, understanding cultural traditions, preferences, and behaviors can help companies not only avoid embarrassing mistakes but also take advantage of cross-cultural opportunities. Furniture retailer IKEA's stores are a big draw for up-and-coming Chinese consumers. But IKEA has learned that customers in China want a lot more from its stores than just affordable Scandinavian-designed furniture. On a typical Saturday afternoon, display beds and other furniture in a huge Chinese IKEA store are occupied with customers of all ages lounging or even fast asleep. IKEA managers encourage such behavior, figuring that familiarity with the store will result in future purchases when shoppers' incomes eventually rise to match their aspirations.

Ethical Norms Suggested by the American Marketing Association

The American Marketing Association, an international association of marketing managers and scholars, developed a code of ethics that calls on marketers to adopt the following ethical norms. The first norm, which is to do no harm, means consciously avoiding harmful actions or omissions by embodying high ethical standards and adhering to all applicable laws and regulations in the choices we make. The second norm, which is to foster trust in the marketing system, means striving for good faith and fair dealing so as to contribute toward the efficacy of the exchange process, and avoiding deception in product design, pricing, communication, and delivery or distribution. The third norm is to embrace ethical values. This means building relationships and enhancing consumer confidence in the integrity of marketing by affirming core values such as, honesty, responsibility, fairness, respect, transparency, and citizenship. Companies are also developing programs to teach managers about important ethical issues and help them find the proper responses. They hold ethics workshops and seminars and create ethics committees

Motivating Salespeople

The goal of motivation is to encourage salespeople to work hard and energetically toward sales force goals. Management can boost sales force morale and performance through its organizational climate, sales quotas, and positive incentives. Organizational climate describes the feeling that salespeople have about their opportunities, value, and rewards for good performance. Many companies motivate their salespeople by setting sales quotas—a standard that states the amount a salesperson should sell and how sales should be divided among the company's products. Compensation is often related to how well salespeople meet their quotas. Companies also use various positive incentives to increase the sales force effort. Sales meetings provide social occasions, breaks from the routine, chances to meet and talk with company brass, and opportunities to air feelings and identify with a larger group. Companies also sponsor sales contests to spur the sales force to make a selling effort above and beyond what is normally expected. Other incentives include honors, merchandise, cash awards, trips, and profit-sharing plans.

Figure 14.1 - Forms of Direct and Digital Marketing

This figure shows the major forms of direct and digital marketing. Traditional direct marketing tools include face-to-face selling, direct-mail marketing, catalog marketing, telemarketing, direct-response television marketing, and kiosk marketing. A dazzling new set of direct digital marketing tools has burst onto the marketing scene, including online marketing (Web sites, online ads and promotions, email, online videos, and blogs), social media marketing, and mobile marketing.

The Sales Force Structure

Whirlpool specializes its sales force by customer (with different sales teams for Sears, Lowe's, Best Buy, Home Depot, and smaller independent retailers) and by territory for each key customer group (territory representatives, territory managers, regional managers, and so on).

Before making a decision to operate in other​ countries, what must a company​ understand?

-The domestic marketing environment -The internal marketing environment -The governmental regulatory market -The sociocultural marketing environment (The international marketing environment)

Companies embracing environmental sustainability policies develop strategies to implement them. The strategies include which of the following two​ components?

-implement renewable energy policies and protect company profits -sustain the environment and implement renewable energy policies -create recycling policies and ensure sustainability -ensure sustainability and establish sustainability policies (sustain the environment and produce profits for the company)

Other Sales Force Strategy and Structure Issues

A company may have an outside sales force (or field sales force), an inside sales force, or both. Outside salespeople travel to call on customers in the field. In contrast, inside salespeople conduct business from their offices via telephone, online and social media interactions, or visits from buyers. Technical sales support and sales assistants are other examples of inside salespeople. For example, technical sales support people provide technical information and answers to customers' questions. Sales assistants provide research and administrative backup for outside salespeople. Telemarketers and online sellers use the phone, Internet, and social media to find new leads, learn about customers and their businesses, or sell and service accounts directly. Most companies now use team selling to service large, complex accounts. Team selling does have some pitfalls, however. For example, salespeople who are used to having customers all to themselves may have trouble learning to work with and trust others on the team. In addition, selling teams can confuse or overwhelm customers who are used to working with only one salesperson. Finally, difficulties in evaluating individual contributions to the team-selling effort, can create some sticky compensation issues.

Proposed Consumer Rights

Comparing these rights, many believe that the balance of power lies on the seller's side. Critics feel that the buyer has too little information, education, and protection to make wise decisions when facing sophisticated sellers. Consumer advocates call for the following additional consumer rights: the right to be well informed about important aspects of the product; the right to be protected against questionable products and marketing practices; the right to influence products and marketing practices in ways that will improve "quality of life"; and the right to consume now in a way that will preserve the world for future generations of consumers. Consumers who believe they got a bad deal have several remedies available, including contacting the company or the media; contacting federal, state, or local agencies; and going to small-claims courts.

Marketing, the Internet, and the Digital Age

Digital and social media marketing is the fastest-growing form of direct marketing. It uses digital marketing tools such as Web sites, online video, email, blogs, social media, mobile ads and apps, and other digital platforms to directly engage consumers anywhere, anytime via their digital devices. The digital age has fundamentally changed customers' notions of convenience, speed, price, product information, service, and brand interactions. As a result, it has given marketers a whole new way to create customer value, engage customers, and build customer relationships. Some companies operate only online. They include a wide array of firms, from e-tailers to search engines and portals, transaction sites, content sites, and online social media. Omni-channel retailing involves creating a seamless cross-channel buying experience that integrates in-store, online, and mobile shopping. In fact, omni-channel retailing companies are having as much online success as their online-only competitors. Direct digital and social media marketing takes any of the several forms that include online marketing, social media marketing, and mobile marketing. We discuss each in turn, starting with online marketing.

13-3 Summary

Selling involves a seven-step process: prospecting and qualifying, preapproach, approach, presentation and demonstration, handling objections, closing, and follow-up. These steps help marketers close a specific sale and, as such, are transaction oriented. However, a seller's dealings with customers should be guided by the larger concept of relationship marketing. The company's sales force should help to orchestrate a whole-company effort to develop profitable long-term relationships with key customers based on superior customer value and satisfaction.

Global Firm

International trade has boomed with the advent of faster digital communication, transportation, and financial flows. Global competition is intensified as global trade grows. The need for companies to go abroad is greater today than in the past and so are the risks. A global firm is one that, by operating in more than one country, gains marketing, production, research and development (R&D), and financial advantages that are not available to purely domestic competitors. It minimizes the importance of national boundaries and develops global brands. The global company raises capital, obtains materials and components, and manufactures and markets its goods wherever it can do the best job. Companies that go global may face highly unstable governments and currencies, restrictive government policies and regulations, and high trade barriers. The recently dampened global economic environment has also created big global challenges. In addition, corruption is an increasing problem.

Evaluating Salespeople and Sales Force Performance

Management gets information about its salespeople in several ways. The most important source is sales reports, including weekly or monthly work plans and longer-term territory marketing plans. Salespeople write up their completed activities on call reports and turn in expense reports for which they are partly or wholly reimbursed. The company can also monitor the sales and profit performance data in the salesperson's territory. Additional information comes from personal observation, customer surveys, and talks with other salespeople. Using various sales force reports and other information, sales management evaluates the members of the sales force. Formal evaluation forces management to develop and communicate clear standards for judging performance. It also provides salespeople with constructive feedback and motivates them to perform well. On a broader level, management should evaluate the performance of the sales force as a whole. As with other marketing activities, the company should measure its return on sales investment.

Marketing's Impact on Individual Consumers

Many critics charge that the American marketing system causes prices to be higher than they would be under more sensible systems. Critics point to three factors: high costs of distribution, high advertising and promotion costs, and excessive markups. Deceptive pricing includes practices such as falsely advertising prices from a phony high retail list price. Deceptive promotion includes practices such as misrepresenting the product's features. Deceptive packaging involves exaggerating package contents in misleading terms. Deceptive practices led to the Wheeler-Lea Act, which gave the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) power to regulate unfair or deceptive acts or practices. Salespeople are sometimes accused of high-pressure selling that persuades people to buy goods they had no thought of buying. Too often, products and services are not made well or do not perform well. Also, many products deliver little benefit, or may even be harmful. Critics also have charged that some companies practice planned obsolescence, causing their products to become obsolete before they need replacement. Other companies are charged with perceived obsolescence, that is, continually changing consumer concepts to encourage more and earlier buying. Critics also accuse major chain retailers of redlining, drawing a red line around disadvantaged neighborhoods and avoiding placing stores there. Marketers of the popular caffeine-charged 5-Hour Energy drink were recently sued by the Attorneys Generals in three U.S. states, whose lawsuits alleged that the brand's advertising was deceptive and misleading.

16-4 Summary

Most companies now recognize a need for positive consumer information, education, and protection. Under the sustainable marketing concept, a company's marketing should support the best long-run performance of the marketing system. It should be guided by five sustainable marketing principles: consumer-oriented marketing, customer value marketing, innovative marketing, sense-of-mission marketing, and societal marketing.

Event Marketing

Red Bull hosts hundreds of events each year in dozens of sports around the world, designed to bring the high-octane world of Red Bull to its community of enthusiasts.

The Sustainable Company

Sustainable companies are those that create value for customers through socially, environmentally, and ethically responsible actions. Sustainable marketing goes beyond caring for the needs and wants of today's customers. It means pursuing the mission of a triple bottom line which is people, planet, and profits. Sustainable marketing provides the context in which companies can build profitable customer relationships by creating value for customers in order to capture value from customers in return, now and in the future.

16-1 Summary

Sustainable marketing calls for meeting the present needs of consumers and businesses while preserving or enhancing the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Whereas the marketing concept recognizes that companies thrive by fulfilling the day-to-day needs of customers, sustainable marketing calls for socially and environmentally responsible actions that meet both the immediate and future needs of customers and the company. Truly sustainable marketing requires a smooth-functioning marketing system in which consumers, companies, public policy makers, and others work together to ensure responsible marketing actions.

Telemarketing and Direct-Response Television (DRTV) Marketing

Telemarketing involves using the telephone to sell directly to consumers and business customers. Marketers use outbound telephone marketing to sell directly to consumers and businesses and inbound toll-free numbers to receive orders from television and print ads, direct mail, or catalogs. In 2003, U.S. lawmakers established the National Do Not Call Registry, which is managed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The legislation bans most telemarketing calls to registered phone numbers. Rather than making unwanted calls, many of these marketers are developing "opt-in" calling systems, in which they provide useful information and offers to customers who have invited the company to contact them by phone or email. Direct-response television (DRTV) marketing refers to direct marketing via television, including direct-response television advertising (or infomercials) and interactive television (or iTV) advertising. DRTV ads are often associated with somewhat loud or questionable pitches for cleaners, stain removers, kitchen gadgets, and nifty ways to stay in shape without working very hard at it. A more recent form of direct-response television marketing is interactive TV (iTV), which lets viewers interact with television programming and advertising. As the lines continue to blur between TV screens and other video screens, interactive ads and infomercials are appearing not just on TV, but also on mobile, online, and social media platforms, adding even more TV-like interactive direct marketing venues.

15-2 Summary

The company must decide how to enter each chosen market - whether through exporting, joint venturing, or direct investment. Many companies start as exporters, move to joint ventures, and finally make a direct investment in foreign markets. In exporting, the company enters a foreign market by sending and selling products through international marketing intermediaries (indirect exporting) or the company's own department, branch, or sales representatives or agents (direct exporting). When establishing a joint venture, a company enters foreign markets by joining with foreign companies to produce or market a product or service. In licensing, the company enters a foreign market by contracting with a licensee in the foreign market and offering the right to use a manufacturing process, trademark, patent, trade secret, or other item of value for a fee or royalty. Direct investment refers to entering a foreign market by developing foreign-based assembly or manufacturing facilities.

Figure 16.1 - Sustainable Marketing

This figure compares the sustainable marketing concept with other marketing concepts. The marketing concept recognizes that organizations thrive from day to day by determining the current needs and wants of target customers and fulfilling those needs and wants more effectively and efficiently than competitors do. It focuses on meeting the company's short-term sales, growth, and profit needs by engaging customers and giving customers what they want now. The societal marketing concept considers the future welfare of consumers. The strategic planning concept considers future company needs. The sustainable marketing concept calls for socially and environmentally responsible actions that meet both the immediate and future needs of customers and the company.

Figure 15.3 - Five Global Product and Communications Strategies

This figure shows the five strategies that are used for adapting product and marketing communication strategies to a global market. Straight product extension involves marketing a product in a foreign market without making any changes to the product. Product adaptation involves adapting a product to meet local conditions or wants in foreign markets. Communication adaptation is a global communication strategy of fully adapting advertising messages to local markets. Media also need to be adapted internationally because media availability and regulations vary from country to country. Product invention consists of creating something new to meet the needs of consumers in a given country.

As an economic​ community, which of the following contains more than half a billion​ consumers, accounts for almost 20 percent of the​ world's imports and​ exports, and is one of the​ world's largest single​ markets?

(European Union) -China ​-Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation -​Trans-Pacific Partnership -India

Marketers that wish to enter an international environment have to consider the​ political-legal environment. Of the​ following, which is NOT among the factors marketers should consider within the​ political-legal environment?

(Investment opportunities) -Monetary regulations -Government bureaucracy -International buying -Political stability

​_________________________ eliminated trade barriers and investment restrictions among three large global countries while establishing a single market of 487 million people who produce and consume over​ $23 trillion of goods and services annually.

(NAFTA) -UNASUR -Trans-Pacific Partnership -GATT ​-CAFTA-DR

The biggest involvement in a foreign market comes through​ ________ for the development of​ foreign-based assembly or manufacturing facilities.

-joint venturing (direct investment) -contract manufacturing -licensing -management contracting

14-1 Summary

Direct and digital marketing involve engaging directly with carefully targeted individual consumers and customer communities to both obtain an immediate response and build lasting customer relationships. Companies use direct marketing to tailor their offers and content to the needs and interests of narrowly defined segments or individual buyers to build direct customer engagement, brand community, and sales. Spurred by the surge in Internet usage and by rapid advances in digital technologies - from smartphones, tablets, and other digital devices to the spate of online social and mobile media - direct marketing has undergone a dramatic transformation. For buyers, direct and digital marketing are convenient, easy to use, and private. They give buyers anywhere, anytime access to an almost unlimited assortment of products and buying information. Direct marketing is also immediate and interactive, allowing buyers to create exactly the configuration of information, products, or services they desire and then order them on the spot. Finally, for consumers who want it, digital marketing through online, mobile, and social media provides a sense of brand engagement and community - a place to share brand information and experiences with other brand fans. For sellers, direct and digital marketing are powerful tools for building customer engagement and close, personalized, interactive customer relationships. They also offer greater flexibility, letting marketers make ongoing adjustments to prices and programs or make immediate, timely, and personal announcements and offers.

Through sustainable​ marketing, both businesses and consumers​ ___________________.

(are both called to more responsible actions) -display trust in the marketing system -create a code of conduct -embrace ethical values -are asked to​ "do no​ harm"

The primary purpose of​ _________ websites is to present brand content that engages consumers and creates​ customer-brand community.

(branded community) -content -search engine ​-e-mail -marketing

______________________ is the simplest way to enter a foreign market.

-Tariffs -Joint venturing -Direct investment (Exporting) -Importing

13-2 Summary

In designing a sales force, management must decide what type of sales force structure will work best, sales force size, who will be involved in selling, and how various salespeople and sales-support people will work together. In recruiting salespeople, a company may look to the job duties and the characteristics of its most successful salespeople to suggest the traits it wants in new salespeople. After the selection process is complete, training programs familiarize new salespeople not only with the art of selling but also with the company's history, its products and policies, and the characteristics of its customers and competitors. The sales force compensation system helps to reward, motivate, and direct salespeople, All salespeople need supervision, and many need continuous encouragement because they must make many decisions and face many frustrations. Periodically, the company must evaluate their performance to help them do a better job. The fastest-growing sales trend is the explosion in social selling—using online, mobile, and social media in selling. The new digital technologies are providing salespeople with powerful tools for identifying and learning about prospects, engaging customers, creating customer value, closing sales, and nurturing customer relationships. Ultimately, online, mobile, and social media technologies are helping to make sales forces more efficient, cost-effective, and productive.

Integrated Social Media Marketing

Most large companies are now designing full-scale social media efforts that blend with and support other elements of a brand's marketing strategy and tactics. More than making scattered efforts and chasing "Likes" and Tweets, companies that use social media successfully are integrating a broad range of diverse media to create brand-related social sharing, engagement, and customer community.

13-4 Summary

Sales promotion campaigns call for setting sales promotion objectives (in general, sales promotions should be consumer relationship building); selecting tools; and developing and implementing the sales promotion program by using consumer promotion tools (from coupons, refunds, premiums, and point-of-purchase promotions to contests, sweepstakes, and events), trade promotion tools (from discounts and allowances to free goods and push money), and business promotion tools (conventions, trade shows, and sales contests) as well as determining such things as the size of the incentive, the conditions for participation, how to promote and distribute the promotion package, and the length of the promotion. After this process is completed, the company must evaluate its sales promotion results.

Sales Promotion Objectives

Sales promotion objectives vary widely. Sellers may use consumer promotions to urge short-term customer buying or boost customer−brand engagement. Objectives for trade promotions include getting retailers to carry new items and more inventory, buy ahead, or promote the company's products and give them more shelf space. Business promotions are used to generate business leads, stimulate purchases, reward customers, and motivate salespeople.

Supervising Salespeople

The goal of supervision is to help salespeople work smart by doing the right things in the right ways. Many firms help salespeople identify target customers and set call objectives. Some may also specify how much time the sales force should spend prospecting for new accounts and set other time management priorities. One tool is the weekly, monthly, or annual call plan that shows which customers and prospects to call on and which activities to carry out. Another tool is a time-and-duty analysis. In addition to time spent selling, the salesperson spends time traveling, waiting, taking breaks, and doing administrative chores. Many firms have adopted sales force automation systems, which are computerized, digitized sales force operations that let salespeople work more effectively anytime, anywhere. Companies now routinely equip their salespeople with laptops or tablets, smartphones, wireless connections, videoconferencing technologies, and customer-contact and relationship management software. The result is better time management, improved customer service, lower sales costs, and higher sales performance.

The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade​ (GATT) was​ ____________________.

(designed to promote world trade by reducing tariffs and other international trade barriers) -created to promote international​ green, clean, and sustainable trade -created to support domestic trade -designed to promote agricultural trade by reducing tariffs -passed to support lower tariffs on medical devices and pharmaceuticals

The benefits of direct and digital marketing for buyers are that it is​ _________.

(easy, convenient and private) -easy, convenient and impersonal ​-convenient, private and hard to use​--easy, convenient and public -easy, private and expensive

H&M recently ran ads that let viewers with certain Samsung smart TVs use their remotes to interact directly with the commercials. This recent form of direct response television marketing is called​ ________.

(iTV) -TV -an infomercial -TVsquared2 -phishing

Personal selling can be more effective than advertising in complex selling situations because it is​ ______________________________.

(interpersonal) -nonpersonal -less engaging than advertising -designed to reach large groups of consumers -only used for​ face-to-face customer interactions

​Geico's website is designed to quickly turn an inquiry into a sale. Geico has designed​ a(n) ______ website.

(marketing) -branded community -e-mail -phishing -search engine

A blog is​ a(n) ______.

(online forum) -mobile app -type of targeted​ e-mail -text- and​ image-based ad and link that appears atop or alongside search engine results -type of online advertising

To avoid being intrusive and​ annoying, most legitimate​ e-mail marketers practice​ ______, which means sending​ e-mail pitches only to customers who​ "opt in."

(permission-based e-mail marketing) -phishing -viral marketing -spamming -unsolicited​ e-mail marketing

Which of the following replaced GATT in​ 1995, imposes international trade​ sanctions, and mediates global trade​ disputes?

(WTO) -IMF -NAFTA -IBRD -CAFTA

14-3 Summary

The Internet and digital age have fundamentally changed customers' notions of convenience, speed, price, product information, service, and brand interactions. As a result, they have given marketers a whole new way to create customer value, engage customers, and build customer relationships. The Internet now influences a staggering 50 percent of total sales - including sales transacted online plus those made in stores but encouraged by online research. To reach this burgeoning market, most companies now market online. For most companies, the first step in conducting online marketing is to create a Web site. The key to a successful Web site is to create enough value and engagement to get consumers to come to the site, stick around, and come back again. Online advertising has become a major promotional medium. The main forms of online advertising are display ads and search-related ads. Email marketing is also an important form of digital marketing. Used properly, email lets marketers send highly targeted, tightly personalized, relationship-building messages. Other important forms of online marketing are posting digital video content on brand Web sites or social media and blogs.

Which of the following statements about mobile marketing is​ correct?

(Smartphones can be very useful in shopping situations.) -Mobile advertising spending in the U.S. is declining. -Like other types of​ advertising, mobile ads are not very engaging. -Mobile marketing is not used by companies to stimulate immediate buying. -Most smartphone owners do not use mobile apps.

Sustainable marketing should be guided by five sustainable marketing principles. Of the​ following, which is NOT one of those​ principles?

(Strategic marketing) -Customer value marketing -Innovative marketing -Societal marketing -​Sense-of-mission marketing

The difference between the marketing concept and the sustainable marketing concept is that the marketing concept​ ___________________________.

(recognizes that companies thrive by fulfilling the​ day-to-day needs of customers) -teaches that there are major controllable factors of any marketing mix -embraces the principles of customer relationship management -recognizes that companies thrive and grow by having​ long-term revenue goals -understands that companies need​ long-term planning

One challenge of social media marketing is that​ ___________.

(social networks are largely​ user-controlled) -very few companies use it -it has not spread globally -it is used for​ real-time marketing -it is​ cost-effective

Which of the following are common trade promotion​ tools?

(​Discounts, free​ goods, allowances, and free advertising specialty items) -​Rebates, samples,​ coupons, and price packs ​-Discounts, free​ goods, allowances, and price packs -Discounts, free​ goods, coupons, and rebates -​Rebates, discounts, free​ goods, and allowances

​________ refers to striving for good faith and fair dealing so as to contribute toward the efficacy of the exchange process as well as avoiding deception in product​ design, pricing,​ communication, and delivery or distribution.

-"Do no​ harm" (​"Foster trust in the marketing​ system") -"Never be​ deceptive" -"Incorporate a sense of​ mission" ​-"Embrace ethical​ values"

The four elements of a compensation plan for salespeople are​ __________.

-A fixed​ amount, a variable​ amount, stock​ ownership, and fringe benefits -A fixed​ amount, a variable​ amount, expenses, and commission -A fixed​ amount, a variable​ amount, expenses, and salary (A fixed​ amount, a variable​ amount, expenses, and fringe benefits) -A fixed​ amount, a variable​ amount, salary, and commission

It's time for the Super​ Bowl, and the​ end-of-the-aisle displays at the supermarket feature​ chips, dips, and soft drinks. What type of sales promotion tool is​ this?

-Allowance -Sample -Premium (​Point-of-purchase) .-Sponsorship

​_________________________ are the objectives of trade promotions.

-Boosting consumer brand involvement and​ short-term buying (Getting retailers to carry new items and more​ inventory, buy​ ahead, or promote the​ company's products and give them more shelf space) -Urging​ short-term customer buying and gaining customer loyalty -Generating business​ leads, stimulating​ purchases, rewarding​ customers, and motivating salespeople -Getting more sales force support for current or new products and getting salespeople to sign up new accounts

________ involves sending an​ offer, announcement,​ reminder, or other item to a person at a particular address.

-Catalog marketing -​Direct-response television marketing (Direct-mail marketing) -Kiosk marketing -Telemarketing

In the​ whole-channel concept for international​ marketing, which of the following is NOT a global value delivery​ network?

-Channels between nations -International seller -Channels within nations (Price escalation) -Final user or buyer

​________ includes practices such as falsely advertising​ "factory" or​ "wholesale" prices or a large price reduction from a phony high retail list price.

-Deceptive promotion -Excessive markups -Deceptive packaging -High advertising (Deceptive pricing)

​__________ products give high immediate satisfaction but might hurt consumers in the long run.

-Desirable -Marketing -Deficient -Salutary (Pleasing)

Which consumer promotion tool is like​ coupons, except that the price reduction occurs after the purchase rather than at the retail​ outlet?

-Digital coupons -Premiums -Samples (Rebates) -Contests

​__________________ are limits countries can set on the amount of foreign imports that they will accept in certain product categories.

-Duties (Quotas) -Nontariff trade barriers -Exchange controls -Tariffs

After recruiting and selecting​ salespeople, what is the next major step in sales force​ management?

-Evaluating salespeople -Supervising salespeople (Training salespeople) -Compensating salespeople -Designing sales force strategy and structure

​_________ include biases against a​ company's bids, restrictive product​ standards, or excessive​ host-country regulations or enforcement.

-Exchange controls -Tariffs (Nontariff trade barriers) -Duties -Quotas

Which of the following statements is true regarding sellers and their use of direct and digital​ marketing?

-For​ sellers, direct and digital marketing is inflexible. (Sellers have opportunities to engage in​ real-time marketing.) -For​ sellers, direct and digital marketing is very inefficient. -Sellers using direct and digital marketing cannot solicit questions and feedback from customers. -For​ sellers, using direct and digital marketing is expensive.

Which of the following means striving for building relationships and enhancing consumer confidence in the integrity of marketing by affirming these core​ values: honesty,​ responsibility, fairness,​ respect, transparency, and​ citizenship?

-Foster trust in the marketing system -Incorporate a sense of mission (Embrace ethical values) -Do no harm -Never be deceptive

Which of the following is a type of marketing that calls for meeting the present needs of consumers and businesses while preserving or enhancing the ability of future generations to meet their​ needs?

-Global marketing (Sustainable marketing) -Cause marketing -Strategic planning -Societal marketing

________ economies are major exporters of manufactured​ goods, services, and investment funds.

-Income distribution -Subsistence (Industrial) -Emerging -Raw-material exporting

Which of the following is included in the American Marketing​ Association's (AMA) Code of Ethics and stresses consciously avoiding harmful actions or omissions by embodying high ethical standards and adhering to all applicable laws and regulations in the choices we​ make?

-Incorporate a sense of mission (Do no harm) -Avoid deception and misleading marketing practices -Foster trust in the marketing system -Embrace ethical values

Companies manage their international marketing activities in at least three different ways. Which of the following is the last step in their organizational​ activities?

-International division (Global organization) -Joint venture -Export department -Direct investment

Marketers operating in international environments must study and understand each​ country's economy. Which of the following are the primary economic factors that reflect a​ country's attractiveness as a​ market?

-Its GDP and technology infrastructure -Its sociocultural environment and workforce supply -Its industrial structure and technology infrastructure (Its industrial structure and income distribution) -Its income distribution and GDP

Which of the following statements about personal selling is​ correct?

-Personal selling is the nonpersonal arm of the promotional mix. -Salespeople represent the company to​ customers, but they do not represent customers to the company. -The role of personal selling is very consistent from company to company. -Personal selling is a fairly new profession. (Salespeople are often the only direct contact with a customer.)

At which step in the personal selling process does a salesperson meet the customer for the first​ time?

-Presentation -Preapproach -Qualifying -Prospecting (Approach)

In which of the following does top management tell its marketing​ people, "Take the product as is and find customers for​ it"?

-Product adaptation -Product invention (Straight product extension) -Promotion -Communication adaptation

​________ is when a company adds the cost of​ transportation, tariffs, importer​ margin, wholesaler​ margin, and retailer margin to its​ product's factory price.

-Product invention -Product adaptation -Straight extension (Price escalation) -Communication adaptation

Which form of marketing involves engaging directly with carefully targeted individual consumers and customer communities to both obtain an immediate response and build lasting customer​ relationships?

-Public relations -Sales promotion (Direct and digital marketing) -Advertising -Personal selling

Which of the following statements about sales promotions is​ correct?

-Sales promotions are only offered to consumers. -The use of sales promotions has declined in recent years. -Sales promotions offer​ long-term incentives to buy a product. (The heavy use of sales promotions has resulted in promotion clutter.) -Companies that use sales promotions usually do not use any other promotional mix tools.

How does Google earn approximately​ 90% of its​ revenues?

-Selling information to technology businesses (Selling contextual advertising) -Through​ fund-raising -Selling search results -Selling subscriptions to the site.

Which of the following describes an organized movement of concerned​ citizens, businesses, and government agencies designed to protect and improve​ people's current and future living​ environment?

-Societal marketing -Conscious consumption -Sustainable marketing -Consumerism (Environmentalism)

Amazon's Alexa speaks Hinglishlong dash—a blend of Hindi and Englishlong dash—with an unmistakable Indian accent. She knows Independence Day is August​ 15, not July​ 4, and wishes listeners​ "Happy Diwali and a Prosperous New​ Year!" What is this an example​ of?

-Straight product extension -Product invention -Communication adaptation (Product adaptation) -Promotion

What characteristics are possessed by the best​ salespeople?

-The best salespeople are highly educated. (The best salespeople are the ones who work closely with customers for mutual gain.) -The best salespeople consistently exceed their sales goals. -The best salespeople make a sale and then move on. -The best salespeople are excellent at proposals and quotes.

When a company considers international​ marketing, which of the following is a fundamental issue within the global environment that it must understand thoroughly from the​ outset?

-The internal trade system -Importing regulations -Exporting regulations (The international trade system) -The socioeconomic situation of target markets

Which of the following states that managers must look beyond what is legal and allowable and develop standards based on personal​ integrity, corporate​ conscience, and​ long-term consumer​ welfare?

-The societal marketing concept -The customer value marketing concept (The sustainable marketing concept) -The​ consumer-oriented marketing concept -The​ sense-of-mission marketing concept

Which of the following statements about blogs is​ correct?

-They are expensive to start and maintain. -Blogs are a​ company-controlled medium. (Blogs can be difficult for the company to control.) -Companies cannot gain insights from their blogs. -For​ consumers, they are impersonal.

Which of the following are used to generate business​ leads, stimulate​ purchases, reward​ customers, and motivate​ salespeople?

-Trade promotions (Business promotions) -Sales force promotions -Clutter promotions -Consumer promotions

One consumer promotion tool is​ _______, which are goods offered either free or at low cost as an incentive to buy a product.

-advertising specialties -rebates -coupons (premiums) ​-point-of-purchase promotions

Marketers use​ __________ to engage customers​ anywhere, anytime during the buying and​ relationship-building processes.

-blogs -permission-based e-mail marketing -online advertising (mobile marketing) -branded web communities

When a company begins doing business​ internationally, it generally starts with​ ____________________, working through independent international marketing intermediaries.

-contract manufacturing (indirect exporting) -licensing -joint venturing -management contracting

Justin, Inc., a​ U.S.-based watch​ manufacturer, sells its products in​ China, Russia,​ France, and India. To manage​ sales, Justin appoints a number of sales representatives to each location. Justin has adopted a​ ________ sales force structure.

-customer (territorial) -complex -market -product

The principle of​ ________ marketing requires that a company continuously seek real product and marketing improvements.

-customer value -​consumer-oriented (innovative) -sense-of-mission -conscious consumption

Most companies today want their salespeople to​ _______, which means demonstrating and delivering superior customer value and capturing a return on that value that is fair for both the customer and the company.

-cut prices to make the sale -use a​ transaction-oriented sales approach -close sales -capture​ short-term business (practice value selling)

Practices such as misrepresenting the​ product's features or performance or luring customers to the store for a bargain that is out of stock are considered​ ____________________.

-deceptive pricing -baiting -deceptive packaging -excessive markups (deceptive promotion)

Forms of digital and social media marketing include​ ______.

-direct-response TV​ marketing, telemarketing and​ direct-mail marketing -kiosk​ marketing, telemarketing and​ direct-response TV marketing -​telemarketing, direct-mail​ marketing, and catalog marketing -​telemarketing, face-to-face​ selling, and kiosk marketing (online​ marketing, social media​ marketing, and mobile marketing)

The first decision a manager must make in sales force management is​ _______________.

-evaluation of salespeople -sales training -sales force compensation -recruitment and selection processes for salespeople (designing sales force strategy and structure)

Exaggerating package contents through subtle​ design, using misleading​ labeling, or describing size in misleading terms is known as​ ____________________.

-excessive markups -deceptive pricing -bait and switch (deceptive packaging) -deceptive promotion

In the​ whole-channel view of​ distribution, the second​ link, _________, moves products from their market entry points to the final consumers.

-final user or buyer (channels within nations) -communication adaptation -channels between nations -global value delivery network

The purpose of a tariff is to​ _______________________.

-force the protection of local employment -increase the amount of foreign exchange (force favorable trade behaviors) -increase the amount of foreign imports -provide competition to local industry

Many consumers today rent DVDs from a vending machine called​ Redbox, which can be found in retail stores and other locations. Redbox is type of direct marketing tool called​ a(n) _________.

-iTV -website -infomercial (kiosk) -DRTV

Because social media are ​_____​, they are ideal for starting and participating in customer conversations and listening to customer feedback.

-immediate and timely -targeted and personal -engaging -cost-effective (interactive)

After the presentation and demonstration step in the sales​ process, a salesperson should next be prepared to​ _______.

-immediately close the sale -approach qualified customers -follow up with the customer -prospect the customer (handle objections)

Many companies get involved in several international markets and ventures. They can be​ __________, with country managers who are responsible for​ salespeople, sales​ branches, distributors, and licensees in their respective countries.

-international divisions -export departments -world product groups (geographical organizations) -international subsidiaries

In the​ whole-channel view of​ distribution, the first​ link, ________,​ move(s) company products from points of production to the borders of countries within which they are sold.

-price (channels between nations) -promotion -channels within nations -communication adaptation

More than a​ territory, compensation, and​ training, new salespeople need​ ________________.

-reasonable sales goals -customer relationship management skills (supervision and motivation) -product knowledge -ongoing customer sales support

GE Healthcare employs different sales forces for diagnostic​ imaging, life​ sciences, and integrated IT products and services. GE Healthcare has adopted a​ ______ sales force structure.

-territorial (product) -customer -complex -market

According to the​ text, _______ is perhaps the biggest advantage of social media.

-the potential for intrusiveness -the low cost -​user-controlled content -return on investment (engagement and social sharing capabilities)

​_________________marketing means that the company should define its mission in broad social terms rather than narrow product terms.

-​Consumer-oriented -Innovative (Sense-of-mission) -Societal -Customer value

A​ company's marketing should support the five sustainable marketing principles. Of the​ following, which is NOT among those​ principles?

-​Sense-of-mission marketing -Customer value marketing -Societal marketing -Innovative marketing (Salutary marketing)

Which of the following types of marketing calls for building​ long-run consumer​ engagement, loyalty, and​ relationships?

-​Sense-of-mission marketing -Societal marketing (Customer value marketing) -Innovative marketing -Customer-oriented marketing

15-1 Summary

A company must understand the global marketing environment, especially the international trade system. It should assess each foreign market's economic, political-legal, and cultural characteristics. The company can then decide whether it wants to go abroad and consider the potential risks and benefits. It must decide on the volume of international sales it wants, how many countries it wants to market in, and which specific markets it wants to enter. These decisions call for weighing the probable returns against the level of risk.

Figure 15.4 - Whole-Channel Concept for International Marketing

A whole-channel view refers to designing international channels that take into account the entire global supply chain and marketing channel, forging an effective global value delivery network. The figure shows the two major links between the seller and the final buyer. The first link, channels between nations, moves company products from points of production to the borders of countries within which they are sold. The second link, channels within nations, moves products from their market entry points to the final user or buyer. Channels of distribution within countries vary greatly from nation to nation. There are large differences in the numbers and types of intermediaries serving each country market and in the transportation infrastructure serving these intermediaries.

Developing the Sales Promotion Program

Beyond selecting the types of promotions to use, marketers must make several other decisions in designing the full sales promotion program. First, they must determine the size of the incentive. A certain minimum incentive is necessary if the promotion is to succeed; a larger incentive will produce more sales response. The marketer also must set conditions for participation. Incentives might be offered to everyone or only to select groups. Marketers must determine how to promote and distribute the promotion program. The length of the promotion is also important. If the sales promotion period is too short, many prospects will miss it. If the promotion runs too long, the deal will lose some of its "act now" force. Evaluation is also very important. Marketers should work to measure the returns on their sales promotion investments, just as they should seek to assess the returns on other marketing activities.

Global Price Considerations

Companies face many considerations in setting their international prices. The company could set a uniform price globally, but this amount would be too high of a price in poor countries and not high enough in rich ones. The company could charge what consumers in each country would bear, but this strategy ignores differences in the actual costs from country to country. Finally, the company could use a standard markup of its costs everywhere, but this approach might price the company out of the market in some countries where costs are high. Hence, regardless of how companies go about pricing their products, their foreign prices might be higher than their domestic prices for comparable products. Companies must add the cost of transportation, tariffs, importer margin, wholesaler margin, and retailer margin to their factory price. Depending on these added costs, the products may have to sell for two to five times as much in another country to make the same profit. To overcome this problem when selling to less affluent consumers in developing countries, many companies make simpler or smaller versions of their products that can be sold at lower prices. Others introduce new, more affordable brands in global markets.

International Trade System

Companies looking abroad must start by understanding the international trade system. A firm may face restrictions on trade between nations when selling to another country. Governments may charge tariffs or duties, taxes on certain imported products designed to raise revenue or protect domestic firms. Tariffs and duties are often used to force favorable trade behaviors from other nations. In certain product categories, countries may set quotas limiting the amount of foreign imports that they will accept. The purpose of a quota is to conserve on foreign exchange and protect local industry and employment. Firms may encounter exchange controls, which limit the amount of foreign exchange and the exchange rate against other currencies. A company may face nontariff trade barriers, such as biases against its bids, restrictive product standards, or excessive host-country regulations or enforcement. Because of nontariff obstacles, Walmart recently suspended its once ambitious plans to expand into India's huge but fragmented retail market.

Deciding on the Global Marketing Organization

Companies manage their international marketing activities in at least three different ways. Most companies first organize an export department, then create an international division, and finally become a global organization. A firm gets into international marketing by simply shipping out its goods. If its international sales expand, the company will establish an export department with a sales manager and a few assistants. It will create international divisions or subsidiaries to handle all its international activity. International divisions are organized in a variety of ways. They can be geographical organizations, with country managers who are responsible for salespeople, sales branches, distributors, and licensees in their respective countries. The operating units can be world product groups, each responsible for worldwide sales of different product groups. And the operating units can be international subsidiaries, each responsible for their own sales and profits. Many firms have passed beyond the international division stage and are truly global organizations. As foreign companies successfully invade their domestic markets, companies must move more aggressively into foreign markets.

Deciding on the Global Marketing Program

Companies that operate in one or more foreign markets must decide how much to adapt their marketing strategies and programs to local conditions. At one extreme are global companies that use standardized global marketing, essentially using the same marketing strategy approaches and marketing mix worldwide. At the other extreme is adapted global marketing, where the producer adjusts the marketing strategy and mix elements to each target market, resulting in more costs but producing a larger market share and return. Collectively, local brands still account for the overwhelming majority of consumers' purchases. Most consumers, wherever they live, lead very local lives. So a global brand must engage consumers at a local level, respecting the culture and becoming a part of it. Starbucks operates this way. The company's overall brand strategy provides global strategic direction. Then regional or local units focus on adapting the strategy and brand to specific local markets. For example, when Starbucks entered China in 1998, given the strong Chinese tea-drinking culture, few observers expected success. But Starbucks quickly proved the doubters wrong. Whereas U.S. locations do about 70 percent of their business before 10 am, China stores do more than 70 percent of their business in the afternoon and evening. "It's a lifestyle to the Chinese," says the head of Starbucks's China and Asia Pacific operations. "It's much more of a gathering place for social occasions." Under this adapted strategy, Starbucks China is thriving. China is now Starbucks's largest market outside of the United States.

16-3 Summary

Concerns about the marketing system have led to citizen action movements. Consumerism is an organized social movement intended to strengthen the rights and power of consumers relative to sellers. Alert marketers view it as an opportunity to serve consumers better by providing more consumer information, education, and protection. Environmentalism is an organized social movement seeking to minimize the harm done to the environment and quality of life by marketing practices. Most companies are now accepting responsibility for doing no environmental harm. They are adopting policies of environmental sustainability - developing strategies that both sustain the environment and produce profits for the company. Both consumerism and environmentalism are important components of sustainable marketing.

Consumer Promotion Tools

Consumer promotions include a wide range of tools. This table shows the customer promotion tools of samples, coupons, rebates, price packs, and premiums. Samples are offers of a trial amount of a product. Sampling is the most effective, but most expensive way to introduce a new product or create new excitement for an existing one. Coupons are certificates that save buyers money when they purchase specified products. Rebates, or cash refunds, are like coupons except that the price reduction occurs after the purchase rather than at the retail outlet. The customer sends a proof of purchase to the manufacturer, which then refunds part of the purchase price by mail. Price packs, also called cents-off deals, offer consumers savings off the regular price of a product. The producer marks the reduced prices directly on the label or package. Premiums are goods offered either free or at low cost as an incentive to buy a product. Advertising specialties, also called promotional products, are useful articles imprinted with an advertiser's name, logo, or message that are given as gifts to consumers. Point-of-purchase (POP) promotions include displays and demonstrations that take place at the point of sale. Contests, sweepstakes, and games give consumers the chance to win something, such as cash, trips, or goods, by luck or through extra effort. Marketers promote brands through event marketing or event sponsorships. Firms can create their own brand-marketing events or serve as sole or participating sponsors of events created by others.

Traditional Rights

Consumerism is an organized movement of citizens and government agencies designed to improve the rights and power of buyers in relation to sellers. Traditional sellers' rights include the right to introduce any product in any size and style, provided it is not hazardous to personal health or safety, or, if it is, to include proper warnings and controls; the right to charge any price for the product, provided no discrimination exists among similar kinds of buyers; the right to spend any amount to promote the product, provided it is not defined as unfair competition; the right to use any product message, provided it is not misleading or dishonest in content or execution; and the right to use buying incentive programs, provided they are not unfair or misleading. Traditional buyers' rights include the right not to buy a product that is offered for sale, the right to expect the product to be safe, and the right to expect the product to perform as claimed.

Public Policy Issues in Direct and Digital Marketing

Direct marketers and their customers usually enjoy mutually rewarding relationships. Occasionally, however, a darker side emerges. Abuses range from simple excesses that irritate consumers to instances of unfair practices or even outright deception and fraud. The direct marketing industry has also faced growing privacy concerns, and online marketers must deal with Internet and mobile security issues.

Irritation, Unfairness, Deception, and Fraud

Direct marketing excesses sometimes annoy or offend consumers. For example, many customers dislike direct-response TV commercials that are too loud, long, and insistent. Their mailboxes fill up with unwanted junk mail, and their computer, phone, and tablet screens flash with unwanted online or mobile display ads, pop-ups, or pop-unders. Some direct marketers have been accused of taking unfair advantage of impulsive or less-sophisticated buyers through television shopping channels, enticing Web sites, and program-long infomercials targeting television-addicted shoppers. They feature smooth-talking hosts, elaborately staged demonstrations, claims of drastic price reductions, time limitations, and unequaled ease of purchase to inflame buyers who have low sales resistance. Fraudulent schemes, such as investment scams or phony collections for charity, have also multiplied in recent years. One common form of Internet fraud is phishing, a type of identity theft that uses deceptive emails and fraudulent online sites to fool users into divulging their personal data. Many consumers worry about online and digital security. They fear that unscrupulous snoopers will eavesdrop on their online transactions and social media postings, picking up personal information or intercepting credit and debit card numbers. Another Internet marketing concern is that of access by vulnerable or unauthorized groups. For example, marketers of adult-oriented materials and sites have found it difficult to restrict access by minors.

Benefits of Direct and Digital Marketing to Buyers

For buyers, direct and digital marketing are convenient, easy, and private. They give buyers anywhere, anytime access to an almost unlimited assortment of goods and a wealth of products and buying information. Through direct marketing, buyers can interact with sellers by phone or on the seller's Web site or app to create exactly the configuration of information, products, or services they want and then order them on the spot. Finally, for consumers who want it, digital marketing through online, mobile, and social media provides a sense of brand engagement and community. For sellers, direct marketing often provides a low-cost, efficient, speedy alternative for reaching their markets. Because of the one-to-one nature of direct marketing, companies can interact with customers by phone or online, learn more about their needs, and personalize products and services to specific customer tastes. Direct and digital marketing also offer sellers greater flexibility. They let marketers make ongoing adjustments to prices and programs, or make immediate, timely, and personal announcements and offers.

14-4 Summary

In the digital age, countless independent and commercial social media have arisen that give consumers online places to congregate, socialize, and exchange views and information. Brands can use existing social media or they can set up their own. Most brands - large and small - have set up shop on a host of social media sites. Some of the major social networks are huge; other niche social media cater to the needs of smaller communities of like-minded people. Beyond these independent social media, many companies have created their own online brand communities. More than making just scattered efforts and chasing "Likes" and Tweets, most companies are integrating a broad range of diverse media to create brand-related social sharing, engagement, and customer community. Using social media presents both advantages and challenges. On the plus side, social media are targeted and personal, interactive, immediate, timely, and cost-effective. Perhaps the biggest advantage is their engagement and social sharing capabilities, making them ideal for creating customer community. On the down side, consumers' control over social media content makes social media difficult to control. Mobile marketing features marketing messages, promotions, and other content delivered to on-the-go consumers through their mobile devices. Many marketers have created their own mobile online sites with useful and entertaining apps to engage customers with their brands and help them shop.

Trade Promotions

Manufacturers direct more sales promotion dollars toward retailers and wholesalers than to final consumers. Trade promotions can persuade resellers to carry a brand, give it shelf space, promote it in advertising, and push it to consumers. Manufacturers use several trade promotion tools. Many of the tools used for consumer promotions—contests, premiums, displays— can also be used as trade promotions. The manufacturer may offer a straight discount off the list price on each case purchased during a stated period of time (also called a price-off, off-invoice, or off-list). They may offer an allowance (so much off per case) in return for the retailer's agreement to feature the manufacturer's products in some way. Manufacturers may offer free goods, which are extra cases of merchandise, to resellers who buy a certain quantity or who feature a certain flavor or size. They may also offer push money—cash or gifts to dealers or their sales forces to "push" the manufacturer's goods. Finally, retailers may be given free specialty advertising items that carry the company's name, such as pens, calendars, memo pads, flashlights, and tote bags.

16-2 Summary

Marketing's impact on individual consumer welfare has been criticized for its high prices, deceptive practices, high-pressure selling, shoddy or unsafe products, planned obsolescence, and poor service to disadvantaged consumers. Marketing's impact on society has been criticized for creating false wants and too much materialism, too few social goods, and cultural pollution. Critics have also denounced marketing's impact on other businesses for harming competitors and reducing competition through acquisitions, practices that create barriers to entry, and unfair competitive marketing practices. Some of these concerns are justified, but some are not.

Mobile Marketing

Mobile marketing features marketing messages, promotions, and other content delivered to on-the-go consumers through their mobile devices. Marketers use mobile marketing to engage customers anywhere, anytime during the buying and relationship-building processes. The widespread adoption of mobile devices and the surge in mobile Web traffic have made mobile marketing a must for most brands. Retailers can use mobile marketing to enrich the customer's shopping experience at the same time they stimulate buying. For example, Macy's built its recent "Brasil: A Magical Journey" promotion around a popular and imaginative smartphone app. The campaign featured apparel from Brazilian designers and in-store experiences celebrating Brazilian culture. By using their smartphones to scan codes throughout the store, shoppers could learn about featured fashions and experience Brazilian culture through virtual tours.

The Personal Selling Process

Most companies want their salespeople to practice value selling - demonstrating and delivering superior customer value and capturing a return on the value that is fair for both the customer and the company. Unfortunately, in the heat of closing sales, salespeople too often take the easy way out by cutting prices rather than selling value. Value selling requires listening to customers, understanding their needs, and carefully coordinating the whole company's efforts to create lasting relationships based on customer value. With value selling, sales management's challenge is to transform salespeople from customer advocates for price cuts into company advocates for value.

Deciding Whether to Go Global

Not all companies need to venture into international markets to survive. Any of several factors might draw a company into the international arena. For example, global competitors might attack the company's home market by offering better products or lower prices. The company might want to counterattack these competitors in their home markets to tie up their resources. The company's customers might be expanding abroad and require international servicing. Or, most likely, international markets might simply provide better opportunities for growth. Before going abroad, the company must weigh several risks and answer many questions about its ability to operate globally. Can the company learn to understand the preferences and buyer behavior of consumers in other countries? Can it offer competitively attractive products? Will it be able to adapt to other countries' business cultures and deal effectively with foreign nationals? Do the company's managers have the necessary international experience? Has management considered the impact of regulations and the political environments of other countries?

Sales Promotion

Sales promotion consists of short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product or service. Whereas advertising offers reasons to buy a product or service, sales promotion offers reasons to buy now. Sales promotion tools are used by most organizations. They are targeted toward final buyers through consumer promotions, retailers and wholesalers through trade promotions, business customers through business promotions, and members of the sales force through sales force promotions. Several factors have contributed to the rapid growth of sales promotion. First, product managers view promotion as an effective short-run sales tool. Second, the company faces more competition, and competitors are using sales promotion to help differentiate their offers. Third, advertising efficiency has declined because of rising costs, media clutter, and legal restraints. Finally, consumers are demanding lower prices and better deals. Sales promotions can help attract today's more thrift-oriented consumers.

Figure 13.3 - Steps in the Selling Process

The first step in the selling process is prospecting and qualifying—identifying qualified potential customers. They want to call on those who are most likely to appreciate and respond to the company's value proposition—those the company can serve well and profitably. Preapproach refers to a salesperson learning as much as possible about a prospective customer before making a sales call. During the approach step, the salesperson should know how to meet and greet the buyer and get the relationship off to a good start. During the presentation and demonstration step of the selling process, the salesperson tells the "value story" to the buyer, demonstrating how the company's offer solves the customer's problems. In handling objections, the salesperson should use a positive approach, seek out hidden objections, ask the buyer to clarify any objections, take objections as opportunities to provide more information, and turn the objections into reasons for buying. Closing refers to a salesperson asking the customer for an order. And finally, follow-up refers to a salesperson following up after the sale to ensure customer satisfaction and repeat business.

14-2 Summary

The main forms of direct and digital marketing include traditional direct marketing tools and the new digital marketing tools. Traditional tools are still heavily used and very important in most firms' direct marketing efforts. In recent years, however, a dazzling new set of direct digital marketing tools has burst onto the marketing scene. The chapter first discusses the fast-growing new digital direct marketing tools and then examines the traditional tools.

Social Selling: Online, Mobile, and Social Media Tools

The new digital technologies are providing salespeople with powerful tools for identifying and learning about prospects, engaging customers, creating customer value, closing sales, and nurturing customer relationships. Social selling technologies can produce big organizational benefits for sales forces. They help conserve salespeople's valuable time, save travel dollars, and give salespeople new vehicles for selling and servicing accounts. Salespeople now routinely use digital tools to monitor customer social media exchanges to spot trends, identify prospects, and learn what customers would like to buy, how they feel about a vendor, and what it would take to make a sale. They generate lists of prospective customers from online databases and social networking sites, such as InsideView, Hoovers, and LinkedIn. However, the technologies also have some drawbacks. They're not cheap, such systems can intimidate low-tech salespeople or clients, and things that require personal interactions cannot be presented via the Internet. For these reasons, some high-tech experts recommend that sales executives use online and social media technologies to spot opportunities, provide information, maintain customer contact, and make preliminary client sales presentations but use face-to-face meetings when the time draws near to close a big deal.

The Role of the Sales Force

The sales force serves as a critical link between a company and its customers. They represent the company to customers. At the same time, salespeople represent customers to the company. Salesperson-owned loyalty lends even more importance to the salesperson's customer-relationship-building abilities. Strong relationships with the salesperson will result in strong relationships with the company and its products. Poor salesperson relationships will probably result in poor company and product relationships. A company can take several actions to help bring its marketing and sales functions closer together. At the most basic level, it can increase communications between the two groups by arranging joint meetings and spelling out communications channels. A company can also create joint objectives and reward systems. Finally, it can appoint a high-level marketing executive to oversee both marketing and sales.

Figure 15.2 - Market Entry Strategies

The simplest way to enter a foreign market is through exporting. Indirect exporting involves less investment because the firm does not require an overseas marketing organization or network. Sellers may eventually move into direct exporting, whereby they handle their own exports. Investment and risk are greater in this strategy, but so is the potential return. Joint venturing involves entering foreign markets by joining with foreign companies to produce or market a product or service. There are four types of joint ventures. Licensing involves entering foreign markets by developing an agreement with a licensee in the foreign market. Contract manufacturing occurs when a company contracts with manufacturers in a foreign market to produce its product or provide its service. With management contracting, a domestic firm supplies know-how to a foreign company that supplies the capital. The final type of joint venture is known as joint ownership. This refers to a cooperative venture in which a company creates a local business with investors in a foreign market, who share ownership and control. Direct investment refers to entering a foreign market by developing foreign-based assembly or manufacturing facilities. If a company has gained experience in exporting and if the foreign market is large enough, foreign production facilities offer many advantages. However, the firm faces many risks, such as restricted or devalued currencies, falling markets, or government changes.

Marketing Ethics

The sustainable marketing goals of long-term consumer and business welfare can be achieved only through ethical marketing conduct. Not all managers have fine moral sensitivity and hence companies need to develop corporate marketing ethics policies - broad guidelines that everyone in the organization must follow. These policies should cover distributor relations, advertising standards, customer service, pricing, product development, and general ethical standards. Managers need a set of principles that will help them figure out the moral importance of each situation and decide how far they can go in good conscience. One philosophy is that the free market and the legal system should decide such issues. Under this principle, companies and their managers are not responsible for making moral judgments. Companies can, in good conscience, do whatever the market and legal systems allow. A second philosophy puts responsibility not on the system but in the hands of individual companies and managers. This more enlightened philosophy suggests that a company should have a social conscience. Companies and managers should apply high standards of ethics and morality when making corporate decisions, regardless of what the system allows. Dealing with issues of ethics and social responsibility, in an open and forthright way, helps to build and maintain strong customer relationships based on honesty and trust. As with environmentalism, the issue of ethics presents special challenges for international marketers. Business standards and practices vary a great deal from one country to the next.

Figure 16.2 - Environmental Sustainability and Sustainable Value

This figure shows a grid that companies can use to gauge their progress toward environmental sustainability. It includes both internal and external greening activities that will pay off for the firm and environment in the short run, and beyond greening activities that will pay off in the longer term. At the most basic level, a company can practice pollution prevention. Pollution prevention means eliminating or minimizing waste before it is created. Companies emphasizing prevention have responded with internal green marketing programs such as, designing and developing ecologically safer products, recyclable and biodegradable packaging, better pollution controls, and more energy-efficient operations. At the next level, companies can practice product stewardship, which involves minimizing not only pollution from production and product design but also all environmental impacts throughout the full product life cycle, while at the same time reducing costs. Many companies are adopting design for environment (DFE) and cradle-to-cradle practices. This involves thinking ahead to design products that are easier to recover, reuse, recycle, or safely return to nature after usage, thus becoming part of the ecological cycle. The beyond greening activities identified look to the future. First, internally, companies can plan for new clean technology. Finally, companies can develop a sustainability vision, which serves as a guide to the future. It shows how the company's products and services, processes, and policies must evolve.

Figure 16.4 - Societal Classification of Products

This figure shows how products can be classified according to their degree of immediate consumer satisfaction and long-run consumer benefit. Deficient products, such as bad-tasting and ineffective medicine, have neither immediate appeal nor long-run benefits. Pleasing products give high immediate satisfaction but may hurt consumers in the long run. Examples include cigarettes and junk food. Salutary products have low immediate appeal but may benefit consumers in the long run. Bicycle helmets or some insurance products are examples. Desirable products give both high immediate satisfaction and high long-run benefits, such as a tasty and nutritious breakfast food. Companies should try to turn all of their products into desirable products. The challenge posed by pleasing products is that they sell very well but may end up hurting the consumer. The product opportunity, therefore, is to add long-run benefits without reducing the product's pleasing qualities. The challenge posed by salutary products is to add some pleasing qualities so that they will become more desirable in consumers' minds.

Major International Marketing Decisions

This graphic shows the six major decisions in international marketing. These are looking at the global marketing environment, deciding whether to go global, deciding which markets to enter, deciding how to enter the market, deciding on the global marketing program, and deciding on the global marketing organization. Each of these decisions are discussed in greater detail in the following slides.

Table 15.1 - Indicators of Market Potential

This table provides the indicators of market potential. Possible global markets should be ranked on several factors, including market size, market growth, the cost of doing business, competitive advantage, and risk level. The goal is to determine the potential of each market, using indicators such as those shown in this table. Then the marketer must decide which markets offer the greatest long-run return on investment.

A Need for Action

To curb direct marketing excesses, various government agencies are investigating not only do-not-call lists but also do-not-mail lists, do-not-track online lists, and Can Spam legislation. In response to online privacy and security concerns, the federal government has considered numerous legislative actions to regulate how online, social media, and mobile operators obtain and use consumer information. For example, Congress is drafting legislation that would give consumers more control over how online information is used. In addition, the FTC is taking a more active role in policing online privacy. Marketers are required to call for strong actions to monitor and prevent privacy abuses before legislators step in to do it for them. Self-regulatory principles call for online marketers to provide transparency and choice to consumers if Web viewing data is collected or used for targeting interest-based advertising. The ad industry has agreed on an advertising option icon, a little "i" inside a triangle, that is added to most behaviorally targeted online ads to tell consumers why they are seeing a particular ad and allowing them to opt out. Of special concern are the privacy rights of children. In 2000, Congress passed the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which requires online operators targeting children to post privacy policies on their sites. They must also notify and obtain parental consent before collecting personal information from children under age 13. Many companies have responded independently to consumer privacy and security concerns. Still others take an industry-wide approach. For example, TRUSTe, a nonprofit self-regulatory organization, works with many large corporate sponsors, including Microsoft, AT&T, Facebook, Disney, and Apple, to audit privacy and security measures and help consumers navigate the Internet safely.

Training Salespeople

Training programs have several goals. First, salespeople need to know about customers and how to build relationships with them. Therefore, the training program must teach them about different types of customers and their needs, buying motives, and buying habits. It must teach them how to sell effectively and train them in the basics of the selling process. Salespeople also need to know and identify with the company, its products, and its competitors. Therefore, an effective training program teaches them about the company's objectives, organization, products, and the strategies of major competitors. Today, many companies are adding digital e-learning to their sales training programs. Online training may range from simple text and video-based product training or Internet-based sales exercises that build sales skills. Training may also incorporate sophisticated simulations that re-create the dynamics of real-life sales calls. One of the most basic forms is virtual instructor-led training (VILT). Using this method, a small group of salespeople at remote locations logs on to a Web conferencing site, where a sales instructor leads training sessions using online video, audio, and interactive learning tools. Training online instead of on-site can cut travel and other training costs, and it takes up less of a salesperson's selling time. It also makes on-demand training available to salespeople, letting them train as little or as much as needed, whenever and wherever needed.

Sustainable Marketing

Under its "Plan to Win" strategy, McDonald's has created sustainable value for both customers and the company. Now, 80 percent of the chain's menu is under 400 calories, including this Egg White Delight McMuffin, which weighs in with eight grams of whole grain against only 250 calories and five grams of fat. The McDonald's "Plan to Win" strategy also addresses environmental issues. For example, it calls for food-supply sustainability, reduced and environmentally sustainable packaging, reuse and recycling, and more responsible store designs. McDonald's has even developed an environmental scorecard that rates its suppliers' performance in areas such as water use, energy use, and solid waste management. Thus, McDonald's is now well positioned for a sustainably profitable future.

Sustainable Marketing Principles

Under the sustainable marketing concept, a company's marketing should support the best long-run performance of the marketing system. It should be guided by five sustainable marketing principles, which are consumer-oriented marketing, customer value marketing, innovative marketing, sense-of-mission marketing, and societal marketing. Consumer-oriented marketing means that the company should view and organize its marketing activities from the consumer's point of view. It should work hard to sense, serve, and satisfy the needs of a defined group of customers, both now and in the future. According to the principle of customer value marketing, the company should put most of its resources into customer value-building marketing investments. By creating value for consumers, the company can capture value from consumers in return. The principle of innovative marketing requires that the company continuously seek real product and marketing improvements. Sense-of-mission marketing means that the company should define its mission in broad social terms rather than narrow product terms. Brands linked with broader missions can serve the best long-run interests of both the brand and consumers. By following the principles of societal marketing, a company makes marketing decisions by considering consumers' wants, the company's requirements, consumers' long-run interests, and society's long-run interests.

Social Media Marketing Advantages and Challenges

Using social media presents both advantages and challenges. On the plus side, social media are targeted and personal, so they allow marketers to create and share tailored brand content with individual consumers and customer communities. Social media are interactive, making them ideal for starting and participating in customer conversations and listening to customer feedback. Social media are also immediate and timely. They can be used to reach customers anytime, anywhere with timely and relevant content regarding brand happenings and activities. Social media can be very cost effective. Although creating and administering social media content can be costly, many social media are free or inexpensive to use. The biggest advantages of social media are the engagement and social sharing capabilities. Social media are especially well suited to creating customer engagement and community. Social media marketing also presents challenges. Most companies are still experimenting with how to use them effectively, and results are hard to measure. Social networks are largely user controlled. Marketers cannot simply muscle their way into consumers' digital interactions - they need to earn the right to be there. Rather than intruding, marketers must learn to become a valued part of the online experience by developing a steady flow of engaging content. Through its extensive online and social media presence, Etsy has created an active and engaged worldwide brand community of buyers and sellers in what it calls "The marketplace we make together."

Recruiting & Selecting Salespeople

When recruiting, a company should analyze the sales job itself and the characteristics of its most successful salespeople to identify the traits needed by a successful salesperson in their industry. Super salespeople are motivated from within, they have an unrelenting drive to excel, they have a desire to provide service and build relationships. They also have a disciplined work style. They lay out detailed, organized plans and then follow through in a timely way. Super salespeople build the skills and knowledge they need to get the job done. They also understand their customers' needs. The company must recruit the right salespeople. The human resources department looks for applicants by getting names from current salespeople, using employment agencies, searching the Internet and online social media, posting ads and notices on its Web site and industry media, and working through college placement services. Another source is to attract top salespeople from other companies. Proven salespeople need less training and can be productive immediately.