mktg 451 chapter 4

Why is it important that marketing goals involve some degree of intangibility?

It makes the goal more motivational and promotes continuous improvement

In terms of setting goals and objectives, what is considered to be one of the major benefits gained from applying for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award?

It promotes the development of discontinuous objectives.

All of the following are benefits of SWOT analysis EXCEPT:

Its structured nature ensures that data and information are correctly categorized

With respect to the text's advice in conducting a SWOT analysis, which of the following best describes "Look for Causes, Not Characteristics"?

Focus on the resources possessed by the firm and/or its competitors that are the true causes for the firm's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

__________ typically occur within the competitive, customer, economic, political/legal, technological, and/or sociocultural environments of the firm.

Opportunities and threats

Your supervisor repeatedly informs you that "Goals without objectives are essentially meaningless." What is the rationale for such a philosophy?

Progress is impossible to track without measurable performance targets.

To successfully utilize SWOT analysis as a catalyst for strategic planning, the marketing manager must focus on several important issues. Which of the following IS NOT one of these issues?

The manager must find ways to transform key threats into strengths

With regard to Blue Ocean Strategy, the Four-Actions Framework is designed to challenge traditional assumptions about marketing strategy by asking four key questions. Which of the following IS NOT one of these questions?

Which factors used throughout the industry should be copied?

Expansion and growth, with new products and new markets, are the keys to Google's __________ approach to marketing strategy. Google uses this approach because it possesses many different strengths that coincide with key market opportunities.

aggressive

Marketing goals can be defined as:

broad, qualitative statements of desired accomplishments.

In the marketing strategy for Amazon, the following statement appears: Our strategy is designed to increase the percentage of repeat customers from 80 percent to 85 percent in the next 12 months. This statement is an example of a:

continuous objective.

The failure to understand the difference between internal and external issues is one of the major reasons for a poorly conducted SWOT analysis. This happens because managers:

list their marketing options or strategies as opportunities.

May firms, like the Altria Group, focus on diversification in their marketing strategies because they possess

many internal strengths and many external threats.

By focusing on efficiency of operations and processes, lower costs, and delivering good value, Southwest Airlines attempts to build a competitive advantage based on:

operational excellence

Microsoft's Windows platform dominates the market for personal computer operating systems. By continuously upgrading and stretching the technology underlying its Windows system, Microsoft is pursuing a strategy of:

product leadership.

Strengths are typically based on the existence and nature of the __________ possessed by the firm. Weaknesses stem from a lack of these important factors.

resources and relationships

The overall concept or model that guides the firm as it weaves various marketing elements together into a coherent strategy is called its:

strategic focus.

Firms possessing certain core competencies are more likely to create competitive advantages based on these competencies. However, before a competitive advantage can be translated into specific customer benefits, the firm's __________ must recognize that its competencies give it an advantage over the competition.

target markets

As a tool of Blue Ocean Strategy, the strategy canvas provides a way to visualize the firm's strategy relative to other firms in the industry. The central portion of the strategy canvas is the __________, or the graphic representation of the firm's relative performance across its industry's factors.

value curve

In terms of SWOT analysis, when does a strength become a capability of the firm?

when the strength can be tied to satisfying a customer need