Marketing Chapter 7
With the finishes for The Spa chosen, you consider other ways to overcome intangibility. You appreciate that consumers are hesitant to purchase spa services that they cannot evaluate before consumption. What is the best strategy to address the intangibility of spa services?
Frame and post positive Trip Advisor and Yelp reviews at The Spa.
Which of the following statements regarding packaging is correct?
Innovative packaging can give a company an advantage over competitors and boost sales.
You have identified The Spa's focus on value creation through services. Marketing services can be challenging because they are experience-based products that cannot be touched. Services share four common characteristics that differentiate them from tangible goods: intangibility, inseparability, variability, and perishability. Review each of the following spa service examples and then drag it to the appropriate service characteristic.
Intangibility Because she cannot see, touch, or smell the Thai Tok Sen treatment before the message, Audrey is unsure of the tapping massage's quality and value. Inseparability Ryan just had his first cupping treatment from his therapist, Ava, and he's pleased. Ava was professional and attentive, and the therapy alleviated his aching muscles. Variability Jose loves getting weekly massages to treat his aching muscles from his therapist, Tim. Last week he was not happy with Tim's massage because the massage pressure was too hard and it felt rushed. Perishability Every day, The Spa at Verdure can provide up to 40 treatments across its 5 luxurious treatment rooms. On average, 30 treatments are booked each day, leaving 25% of its capacity unused.
Kroger, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, is one of the nation's largest grocery chains. It owns several brands sold in its stores, including Private Selection, Heritage Farm, and Simple. These brands represent which type of brand sponsorship?
Private brands
Which of the following statements regarding the important decisions in the development and marketing of individual products is correct?
Product attributes that communicate and deliver benefits to the consumer include quality, features, and style and design.
Which of the following is a pure tangible good?
Toothpaste
The quality of services depends on who provides them as well as when, where, and how they are provided. Which characteristic of services does this describe?
Variability
Which of the following is considered part of an augmented product rather than that of an actual product or core customer value?
Warranty
The founders of Life is Good started their business by hawking t-shirts on the street and selling them door to door in college towns. As the organization grew, the number of different lines of products it offered grew, too. Collectively, these assorted product lines might be described as Life is Good's __________.
product mix
When consumers evaluate service quality, they often do not separate the service from the provider because products are sold, produced, and consumed at the same time. Which two of the following strategies would have the most positive effect on the overall service encounter by addressing inseparability?
- Encourage customer coproduction - Design a professional dress code for employees
Which of the following correctly defines a product?
A product is anything offered to a market that might satisfy a need or want.
The name Plymouth Rock Assurance identifies the company as the seller of its services and products, which is also known as which of the following?
Brand
Verdure Health and Fitness customers are primarily busy working professionals. Currently 20%-30% of appointments booked by Verdure clients result in no-shows. Verdure management knows that one of the keys to profitability is maximizing therapy appointment reservations while minimizing unused appointment times and no-shows. The VP has asked you to develop a policy to address this inventory management issue. Which of the following reservation policies would benefit Verdure the most by minimizing unused appointment times?
Charge customers a fee of 50% of the service price when they miss an appointment.
Which of the following incorporates the advantage of brands operating in different categories with the combined brands creating broader consumer appeal and greater brand equity?
Co-branding
Which type of consumer products are frequently purchased with little planning, little comparison or shopping effort, and low customer involvement?
Convenience products
___________________ is the value of customer relationships that a brand creates.
Customer equity
Members of Verdure pay a premium price for their gym membership and are accustomed to professional, attentive customer service. Service quality depends not only on who provides the service, but also when, where, and how the services are provided. The Spa wants to ensure that its consumers receive the highest level of service at every interaction. What policy would most effectively reduce service variability and increase customer value?
Design a descriptive protocol for each spa service including clear delivery standards.
Perhaps the fundamental challenge in marketing services is intangibility because it limits consumers' ability to evaluate the product before purchase. One way firms can try to overcome the intangibility of services is by using quality signals. The Spa at Verdure is renovating its Spa area to increase its capacity to provide the new, Eastern-style treatments. As part of the renovation, new decor and finishes will be chosen. What quality of decor and finishes do you recommend that The Spa install?
Expensive high-end finishes: natural Carrara marble countertops, sleek Italian leather furnishings, opulent lighting
In determining product quality, what are the two dimensions of quality marketers must decide upon?
Level and consistency
When we see Hello Kitty on children's clothing, Disney characters on lunchboxes, and SpongeBob SquarePants on breakfast cereals, which form of brand sponsorship is being used?
Licensing
When Doritos comes out with new flavors of its tortilla chips, what brand development strategy does it employ?
Line extension
As you consider your task, you reflect on the customer experience you are working to develop. You understand that products can be placed on a service-goods continuum with purely tangible goods and purely services as endpoints. To choose the best marketing tactics, you evaluate The Spa at Verdure's position on the continuum. Which classification most accurately represents The Spa's position on the service-goods continuum?
Mostly a service
Prior to the merging of three distinct insurance company names into one new name, which of the following best describes the branding strategy used?
Mulitbrands
When Coca-Cola saw the growth of the bottled-water category, it launched DASANIÒ, its brand of bottled water. Which brand development strategy did Coca-Cola use in launching DASANI?
New brand
One of the other inventory challenges faced by The Spa is maximizing the number of reservations throughout the day and across the week. Although demand is strong for weekend and evening reservations, demand is soft for weekday, daytime reservations when most of Verdure's clients are at the office. The Spa at Verdure needs a strategy to address this capacity management issue, and the VP once again asks you for a recommendation. Which of these sales promotions would benefit The Spa the most?
Offer a 25% discount on the price of services booked during off-peak times.
___________ is the service characteristic to which marketers need to pay close attention when there are fluctuations in demand.
Perishability
The company's choice of its name, Plymouth Rock Assurance, and its motto, open double quote"More Than Just Insurance,close double quote" indicates the company is attempting to position itself in a particular manner. Which of the following would most likely be the intended position of the company?
Superior customer service through its products and services
Nailit Cosmetics is advertising its newest line of nail polishes, made from a nontoxic, water-based nail polish with amazing summer colors. Nailit is selling the products in specially designed bottles that make application easier. Which of the following is a core customer value for Nailit's line of polishes?
The desire to have beautiful nails
Prior to becoming Plymouth Rock Assurance, the company marketed three different insurance companies: High Point, Plymouth Rock, and Pallasades. Rebranding the three names into one, Plymouth Rock Assurance, was one part of the overall objective of constantly improving the quality of services and business products. This overall process is known as which of the following?
Total quality management
Customer service is a critical component in the service encounter. You now must decide how to train your staff to provide customer service. Choose the training option that will create the most customer value and reduce perceived variability.
Train the staff in customer delight—to understand the wants and needs of the customer and to exceed customer expectations.
Which of the following statements about service marketing is correct?
Training current employees better and hiring new ones with more skills can increase service productivity.
Which of the following statements regarding managing service quality is correct?
Unlike product quality, service quality will always vary.
Which of the following best describes the type of product Plymouth Rock Assurance offers?
Unsought product
The cartoon character "Jake" embodies the organizational values of Life is Good and is intended as a symbol of optimism and all that is right with the world. The "Jake" logo is an important symbol of the company's __________.
brand
Jim Laughlin, the director of communications for Life is Good, emphasized the importance of spreading awareness of the organization's goal of helping children through the sale of products to both customers and employees. If consumers rate Life Is Good more favorably because of these efforts, the company has increased its ____.
brand equity
For many of Life is Good's customers, understanding of the company's positive message and social role makes a significant difference in terms of their response to the company's products and marketing. If this improves the company's financial position, it has increased its _____.
brand value
Ad agency Young & Rubicam's BrandAsset Valuator measures brand strength along four consumer perception dimensions. Brand ___________ is defined in terms of how highly consumers regard and respect the brand.
esteem
Adding a new product line to an existing portfolio means that the line has __________________.
increased product mix width
Groups of __________________ products consist of materials and parts, capital items, and supplies and services.
industrial
A service firm must orient and motivate its customer-contact employees and supporting service people to work as a team to provide customer satisfaction. This process is known as _________________________.
internal marketing
The three functions of __________ include identifying, describing, and promoting the product.
labelingQ
Life is Good utilizes a percentage of its profits to support its own charitable foundation, whose purpose is to provide support services for frontline childcare providers. Its notion of "Do well by doing good" is encapsulated by which of the following concepts?
social marketing
When a company lengthens a product line by adding more items beyond its current range, it is ________.
stretching the line
Service _______ means that the quality of services depends on who provides them as well as when, where, and how they are provided.
variability