T/F Exam 1 Questions

"Good" market segments should be heterogeneous within and homogeneous between.

FALSE - "Good" market segments meet the following criteria: homogeneous (similar) within; heterogeneous (different) between; substantial, and operational.

In a large company, the "buying center" refers to all the purchasing managers who work for the firm.

FALSE - A buying center is made up of all the people who participate in or influence a purchase—users, buyers, influencers, deciders, gatekeepers.

The main difference between a "product-market" and a "generic market" is whether customer needs are similar or different.

FALSE - A generic market is a market with broadly similar needs—and sellers offering various, often diverse, ways of satisfying those needs. In contrast, a product-market is a market with very similar needs and sellers offering various close substitute ways of satisfying those needs.

The term "marketing orientation" means making products that are easy to produce and then trying to sell them.

FALSE - A production orientation means making easy-to-produce products and then trying to sell them. Consumers of these products exist to buy the firm's output, rather than the firm existing to serve customers.

Marketing is basically selling and advertising.

FALSE - Although it's true that selling and advertising are parts of marketing, marketing is much more than that.

Opinion leaders for one subject or product are also usually opinion leaders for many other subjects or products.

FALSE - An opinion leader is a person who influences others. Opinion leaders on one subject aren't necessarily opinion leaders on another.

The main difference between attitudes and beliefs is that beliefs always involve liking or disliking, but attitudes don't necessarily involve liking or disliking.

FALSE - Attitudes are usually thought of as involving liking or disliking. Beliefs may help shape a consumer's attitudes but don't necessarily involve any liking or disliking.

Companies such as Campbell's can only implement one marketing strategy at a time.

FALSE - Campbell's has developed different soups that are targeted to the specific needs of different target markets. The marketing plan for each type of soup is different and fits into its overall marketing program.

Consumers use extensive problem solving when they put even limited effort into deciding how to satisfy a need.

FALSE - Consumers use extensive problem solving when they put much effort into deciding how to satisfy a need. Limited problem solving is used by consumers when some effort is required in deciding the best way to satisfy a need.

Economic needs are concerned only with getting the best quality at the lowest price.

FALSE - Economic needs are concerned with making the best use of a consumer's time and money, as the consumer judges it. Some economic needs are economy of purchase or use, efficiency in operation or use, dependability in use, improvement of earnings, and convenience.

In a market-directed economy, government officials decide what and how much is to be produced and distributed by whom, when, to whom, and why.

FALSE - In a command economy, government officials decide what and how much is to be produced and distributed by whom, when, to whom, and why.

In selective exposure we screen out or modify ideas, messages, and information that conflict with previously learned attitudes and beliefs.

FALSE - In selective exposure our eyes and minds seek out and notice only information that interests us.

Marketers who want to aim at people within several different cultures are usually able to use the same marketing mix for all of them.

FALSE - It is often useful to think of subcultures within cultural groupings. Failure to consider cultural differences, even subtle ones, can result in problems.

Compared to final consumers, manufacturers tend to be more spread out geographically.

FALSE - Manufacturing industries are concentrated in certain geographic areas.

A firm that tries to increase sales by selling new products in new markets is pursuing "market development" opportunities.

FALSE - Market development means trying to increase sales by selling present products in new markets.

Marketing only applies to profit organizations.

FALSE - Marketing applies to both profit and nonprofit organizations.

Marketing discourages the development and spread of new ideas, goods, and services.

FALSE - Marketing encourages innovation, which is the development and spread of new ideas, goods, and services.

Good marketing objectives should be ambitious and almost impossible to achieve.

FALSE - Marketing objectives should be realistic and achievable. Overly ambitious objectives are useless if the firm lacks the resources to achieve them.

Marketing strategy planning is the process of deciding how best to sell the products the firm produces.

FALSE - Marketing strategy planning means finding attractive opportunities and developing profitable marketing strategies.

Mass marketing means focusing on some specific customers, as opposed to assuming that everyone is the same and will want whatever the firm offers.

FALSE - Mass marketing vaguely aims at everyone with the same marketing mix. It assumes that everyone is the same—and it considers everyone a potential customer.

There are more final consumers than business and organizational customers, so more is purchased by final consumers.

FALSE - More purchases are made by businesses and other organizations than by final consumers.

Most marketing managers think that the economic-buyer theory explains buyer behavior very well.

FALSE - Most marketing managers think that buyer behavior is not as simple as the economic-buyer model suggests.

Straight-rebuy buying takes longer than modified-rebuy or new-task buying and offers more opportunity for promotion impact by the seller.

FALSE - Most of a company's small or recurring purchases are straight rebuys and take only a small part of an organized buyer's time.

Family, social class, reference groups, and culture are the psychological variables that affect a consumer's buying decisions.

FALSE - Motivation, perception, learning, attitude, trust, and lifestyle are some of the psychological variables which affect consumer buying.

Focus group interviews are a form of quantitative research.

FALSE - One widely used form of qualitative questioning in marketing research is the focus group interview.

Organizations always focus on economic factors when they make purchase decisions and are never as emotional as final consumers in their buying behavior.

FALSE - Organizations typically focus on economic factors when they make purchase decisions and are usually less emotional in their buying than final consumers.

"Positioning" means using a map to show where a firm's products are distributed geographically.

FALSE - Positioning refers to how customers think about proposed or present brands in a market. Without a realistic view of how customers think about offerings in the market, it's hard for the marketing manager to differentiate.

Attitudes, income, and opinions are the AIO variables used in lifestyle analysis.

FALSE - Psychographics, or lifestyle analysis, is the analysis of a person's day-to-day pattern of living as expressed in that person's activities, interests, and opinions, sometimes referred to as AIOs.

Qualitative research seeks clear yes or no answers.

FALSE - Qualitative research seeks in-depth, open-ended responses, not yes or no answers.

Reinforcement of a response decreases the likelihood of the same response the next time the drive occurs.

FALSE - Reinforcement occurs when the response is followed by satisfaction, that is, reduction in the drive. It may lead to a similar response the next time the drive occurs.

The Internet is an excellent source for primary data but not secondary data.

FALSE - Secondary data refers to information that has been collected or published already. One of the first places a researcher should look for secondary data is on the Internet.

Strong sentiments of nationalism facilitate growth in importing and exporting.

FALSE - Strong sentiments of nationalism can reduce sales, or even block all marketing activity, in some international markets.

International marketing typically requires less segmenting than domestic markets.

FALSE - Success in international marketing requires even more attention to segmenting. There are over 192 nations with their own unique cultures, and they differ greatly in language, customs, beliefs, religions, race, and income distribution patterns.

The problem with target marketing is that it limits the firm to small market segments.

FALSE - Target marketing is not limited to small market segments, only to fairly homogeneous ones.

Consumer products that are linked to cultural variables tend to be lower risk when entering international markets.

FALSE - The "continuum of environmental sensitivity" suggests that industrial products are more insensitive to the cultural environments in which they are placed than high-style consumer products.

The combined target market approach involves segmenting the market and choosing two or more segments, then treating each as a separate target market needing a different marketing mix.

FALSE - The combined target market approach involves combining two or more submarkets into one larger target market as a basis for one strategy.

The direct market environment includes customers, competitors, and the IRS.

FALSE - The direct market environment includes customers, the company, and competitors.

The technological environment includes such things as national income, economic growth, and inflation.

FALSE - The economic environment refers to macro-economic factors that include national income, economic growth, and inflation.

Macro-marketing emphasizes the activities of individual organizations.

FALSE - The emphasis with macro-marketing is not on the activities of individual organizations. Instead, the emphasis is on how the whole marketing system works.

The marketing strategy planning process starts with a narrow look at a market and becomes broader the closer the firm comes to developing a marketing mix.

FALSE - The marketing strategy planning process starts with a broad look at a market and narrows down towards specific strategy such as marketing mixes.

With the "multiple target market approach," the marketer combines two or more homogeneous submarkets into one larger target market as a basis for one strategy.

FALSE - The multiple target market approach deals with segmenting the market and choosing two or more segments, and then treating each as a separate target market needing a different marketing mix.

In business markets, suppliers usually want close relationships with customers; however, there's little benefit to the customer of having closer relationships with suppliers.

FALSE - There are often significant benefits of a close working relationship between a supplier and a customer firm. Such relationships are becoming common.

All marketing research projects are worthwhile because they gather new information even if the research doesn't have action implications.

FALSE - Though the information that comes from the research process is fascinating, if the marketing research doesn't have action implications, it has little value and suggests poor planning.

When the competitive environment moves toward pure competition, producers offer very different products that consumers do not perceive as substitutes for each other.

FALSE - When most product-markets head toward pure competition, competitors offer very similar products that consumers see as close substitutes.

It isn't necessary for marketing managers to be involved with marketing research specialists, since research requires statistical skills that managers usually don't have.

FALSE- Good marketing research requires cooperation between researchers and marketing managers. Marketing managers must be able to explain their problems and the information they need to the specialists.

A basic idea in the legal environment in the United States is that attempts by business to limit competition are considered contrary to the public interest.

TRUE

A close buyer-seller relationship in a business market may reduce a firm's flexibility.

TRUE

A common quantitative research approach is to use survey questionnaires with multiple-choice questions.

TRUE

A competitive bid is the terms of sale offered by a supplier in response to the purchase specifications posted by a buyer.

TRUE

A determining dimension for segmenting markets actually affects the purchase of a specific brand in a product-market.

TRUE

A drive is a strong stimulus that encourages action to reduce a need.

TRUE

A firm's "relevant market for finding opportunities" should be bigger than the present product-market but not so large that it couldn't expand and still be an important competitor.

TRUE

A formal marketing research project usually involves gathering primary data.

TRUE

A good S.W.O.T. analysis helps a manager focus on a strategy that takes advantages of the firm's opportunities and strengths while avoiding its weaknesses and threats to its success.

TRUE

A marketing information system (MIS) is an organized way of continually gathering, accessing, and analyzing information that marketing managers need to make ongoing decisions.

TRUE

A marketing manager should seek help from research only for problems where the risk of a decision can be greatly reduced at a reasonable cost.

TRUE

A marketing program blends all of the firm's marketing plans into one "big" plan and is the responsibility of the whole company.

TRUE

A marketing researcher using the scientific method develops and tests hypotheses about the relationships between things or about what will happen in the future.

TRUE

A marketing strategy and all the time-related details for carrying out the strategy is a "marketing plan."

TRUE

A marketing strategy is composed of two interrelated parts—a target market and a marketing mix.

TRUE

A mission statement sets out the organization's basic purpose for being.

TRUE

A straight rebuy is a routine repurchase that may have been made many times before.

TRUE

A successful marketing program benefits the firm by increasing customer equity.

TRUE

After making a purchase, buyers often wonder if they made the right choice. The resulting tension is called dissonance.

TRUE

By differentiating the marketing mix to do a better job meeting customers' needs, the firm builds a competitive advantage.

TRUE

CRM approaches are based on information from detailed customer databases.

TRUE

Clustering techniques can be used in segmenting to help find similar patterns within sets of data to identify homogeneous groups of people.

TRUE

Competitor analysis is an organized approach for evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of current or potential competitors' marketing strategies.

TRUE

Customer lifetime value (CLV) represents the total stream of purchase a customer could contribute to the company over the life of the relationship.

TRUE

Customer satisfaction is the extent to which a firm fulfills a consumer's needs, desires, and expectations.

TRUE

Customer value is the difference between the benefits a customer sees from a market offering and the costs of obtaining those benefits.

TRUE

Effective market segmentation is a two-step process that starts with naming broad product-markets and then goes on to segmenting these broad product-markets into more homogeneous submarkets.

TRUE

GE's strategic planning grid considers two dimensions—industry attractiveness and business strengths—to identify opportunities that may be categorized as growth, borderline, or no growth.

TRUE

Good relations with intermediaries, good locations, and good salespeople are some of the many resources of a firm that should be evaluated when searching for new opportunities.

TRUE

In cooperative relationships in a business market, the buyer and seller work together to jointly achieve both mutual and individual objectives.

TRUE

In monopolistic competition, managers sometimes try to differentiate very similar products by relying on promotion or other elements of the marketing mix.

TRUE

In the observation method, researchers try to see or record what the subject does naturally.

TRUE

Marketers should be aware of federal legislation, as well as state and local laws, when planning marketing strategy.

TRUE

Marketing can provide needed direction for production and help make sure that the right goods and services find their way to interested consumers.

TRUE

Marketing does not occur unless there are two or more parties who want to exchange something for something else.

TRUE

Marketing functions are performed by producers, consumers, and a variety of marketing specialists.

TRUE

Marketing managers should be able to explain the kinds of problems they are facing and the kinds of marketing research information that will help them make decisions.

TRUE

Marketing-oriented managers see segmenting as a process of aggregating people with similar needs into a group.

TRUE

Most retail and wholesale buyers see themselves as purchasing agents for their target customers.

TRUE

Motivation, perception, learning, attitudes, trust, and lifestyle are psychological variables that affect consumer buying.

TRUE

Often, attractive opportunities are fairly close to markets the firm already knows.

TRUE

Organizational buyers are often referred to as the B2B market.

TRUE

Organizations typically focus on economic factors when they make purchase decisions and are usually less emotional in their buying than final consumers.

TRUE

Product, Place, Promotion, and Price are the four major variables (decision areas) in a firm's marketing mix.

TRUE

Relationship-specific adaptations involve changes in a firm's product or procedures that are unique to the needs or capabilities of a relationship partner.

TRUE

Sometimes marketing managers use a positioning statement to provide focus for a marketing mix.

TRUE

The economic-buyer theory assumes that consumers know all the facts and logically compare choices.

TRUE

The external market environment is shaped by these four areas: economics, technology, politics/law, and culture/society.

TRUE

The function of marketing research is to develop and analyze new information to help marketing managers make better decisions.

TRUE

The group of people to whom an individual looks when forming attitudes about a particular topic is his or her reference group for that topic.

TRUE

The marketing concept means that an organization aims all its efforts at satisfying its customers—at a profit.

TRUE

The micro view of marketing sees it as the performance of activities that seek to accomplish an organization's objectives by anticipating customer or client needs and directing a flow of need-satisfying goods and services from producer to customer or client.

TRUE

The micro-macro dilemma occurs when a firm focuses its efforts on satisfying some consumers to achieve its objectives, possibly causing negative societal outcomes.

TRUE

The more heterogeneous a firm's target market becomes, the more likely the firm will see competition from an innovative segmenter.

TRUE

The three basic jobs in the marketing management process are planning, implementation, and control.

TRUE

Unless the problem is precisely defined, research efforts may be wasted on the wrong problem and may lead to costly mistakes.

TRUE

When a firm is doing similar research projects in different international markets, it makes sense for the marketing manager to coordinate the efforts so that comparisons across markets are possible.

TRUE

When evaluating opportunities, quantitative screening criteria help a manager decide what kind of opportunities to pursue.

TRUE

When selling to government customers, competitive bids are common.

TRUE

When a firm makes a total company effort to satisfy its customers, and profit—not just sales—is an objective of the firm, the company is practicing the "marketing concept."

TRUE - Three basic ideas of the marketing concept are: (1) customer satisfaction, (2) a total company effort, and (3) profit—and not just sales—as an objective.