GB 101 FINAL EXAM REVIEW CHAPTER 11

What is marketing? How does it facilitate exchanges?

Marketing is a group of activities designed to expedite transactions by creating, distributing, pricing, and promoting goods, services and ideas. Marketing is more than just selling and advertising the product, it's satisfying the consumer. In the exchange process the buyer must feel good about the purchase or the exchange will not continue.

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

Marketing research is a systematic, objective process of getting information about potential customers to guide marketing decisions. Marketing research is vital because the marketing concept cannot be implemented without information about customers. Marketing information systems is a framework for accessing information about customers from sources both inside and outside the organization. This information is important to planning and marketing strategy development.

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

Specific laws require advertisement to be truthful and that all health claims be documented. Changes can arise from social concerns and economic forces such as price increases, product shortages, and altering levels of demand from commodities. For example climate change, global warming, and the impact of carbon emissions on our environment have become social concerns and are causing businesses to rethink marketing strategies.

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

The idea that an organization should try to satisfy customers' needs through coordinated activities that also allow it to achieve its own goals. It's important because A firm's marketing department needs to share information about customers and their desires with the entire organizations. Many companies fail to grasp the importance of customers relationships and fail to implement customer strategies.

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

Demographic: age, sex, race, ethnicity, income, education, occupation, family size, religion, social class. These characteristics are often closely related to customers' product needs and purchasing behavior, and they can be readily measured. Geographic: Climate, terrain, natural resources, population density, subcultural values. These influence consumers' needs and product usage. Psychographic: personality characteristics, motives, lifestyle. Soft-drink marketers provide their products in several types of packaging, including two-liter bottles and cases of can, to satisfy lifestyles and motives. Behavioristic: some characteristics of the consumer's behavior toward the product. These characteristics commonly involve some aspect of product use. Benefit segmentation is also a type of behavior segmentation.

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

Buying behavior is the decision processes and actions of people who purchase and use products. Perception: process by which a person selects, organizes, and interprets information received from his or her senses, as when experiencing an advertisement or touching a product to better understand it. Motivation: an inner drive that directs a person's behavior toward goals. A customer's behavior is influenced by a set of motives rather than by a single motive. Learning: brings about changes in a person's behavior based on information and experience. Attitude: knowledge and positive or negative feelings about something. A person who feels strongly about protecting the environment may refuse to buy products that harm the earth and its inhabitants.

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

Buying, Selling, Transporting, Storing, Grading, Financing, Marketing Research, and Risk Taking. They all must be performed to accomplish objectives and generate exchanges.

What is a marketing strategy?

A plan of action for developing, pricing, distributing, and promoting products that meet the needs of special customers.

What is market segmentation? Describe three target market strategies.

A strategy whereby a firm divides the total market into groups of people who have relatively similar product needs. (1) concentration approach: a company develops one marketing strategy for a single maker segment. (2) multisegment approach: the marketer aims its effort at two or more segments, developing a marketing strategy for each. (3) niche marketing: a narrow market segment focus when efforts are on one small, well-defined group that has a unique, specific set of needs.