MKT 301 Chapter 18 Questions

Although it might seem that the market leader has the most going for it, challengers often have what some strategists call a(n) ________. The challenger observes what has made the leader successful and improves upon it.

"second mover advantage"

From a market point of view, Universal Pictures film studio might see its competition as ________.

Broadway

From an industry point of view, Universal Pictures film studio might see its competition as

Columbia Pictures

________ involves first identifying and assessing competitors and then selecting which competitors to attack or avoid.

Competitor analysis

Which of the following statements is true of the approaches to marketing strategy?

Intrepreneurial marketing applies to companies that sometimes lose their marketing creativity and passion that they had at the start.

Which of the following is a negative aspect of a competitor-centered company?

It may end up simply matching industry practices.

Which of the following is a positive aspect of a competitor-centered company?

It searches out competitors' weaknesses

________ are those runner-up firms that are working to increase their market share in an industry.

Market challengers

________ can adopt one of two competitive strategies: they can challenge the leader or they can play along with competitors and not rock the boat.

Runner-up firms

What is the LEAST relevant question to ask when assessing a firm's main competitor

What are the competitor's locations?

In conducting ________, the company first identifies the major attributes that customers value and the importance customers place on these attributes. Next, it assesses its performance against competitors on those valued attributes.

a customer value analysis

Most competitors in the music download industry see Apple's iTunes Music Store as a ________ because it created a closed system with mass appeal.

bad competitor

Rather than competing head to head with established competitors, many companies seek out unoccupied positions in uncontested market spaces. They try to create products and services for which there are no direct competitors. This is called a ________.

blue ocean strategy

Most companies will compete with ________ rather than ________.

close competitors; distant competitors

Each competitor has a mix of objectives. The company wants to know the relative importance that a competitor places on all of the following EXCEPT ________.

company history

Gaining ________ requires delivering more value and satisfaction to target consumers than competitors do.

competitive advantage

Strategies that strongly position a company against competitors and that give the company the best possible strategic advantage are ________ strategies.

competitive marketing

To plan effective marketing strategies, a company needs to find out all it can about its competitors. It must constantly compare its marketing strategies, products, prices, channels, and promotions with those of close competitors. This is an example of ________.

competitor analysis

A company is guilty of ________ if the company forgets latent competitors and only focuses on current competitors.

competitor myopia

Fosters and Mason House, two major coffee brands, competed neck and neck based on their product attributes and price promotions. They were soon blindsided by the arrival of Starcoffeez, which focused more on the coffee experience rather than the coffee. This resulted in major losses for the two companies. This is an example of ________.

competitor myopia

Kodak's film business didn't lose out to direct competitor Fujifilm; it lost out to Sony, Canon, and other digital camera makers, along with a host of digital image developers and online image sharing services. This is an example of ________.

competitor myopia

A company can become so ________ centered that it loses its even more important focus on maintaining profitable ________ relationships.

competitor; customer

The first step in initiating competitive marketing strategies is to ________.

conduct competitor analysis

Many approaches to developing effective competitive marketing strategies exist. There may be ________ between the formulated side of marketing and the creative side, as creativity and passion help build and maintain success.

constant tension

Which is NOT one of the four orientations a company may have?

cost

American Express will do almost anything to build long-term customer loyalty and to capture customer lifetime value. Which of the following competitive marketing strategies is being pursued by American Express?

customer intimacy

When companies serve customers who are willing to pay a premium to get precisely what they want and the company responds quickly to satisfy these customers' needs, the company has achieved ________.

customer intimacy

A market research firm conducts a survey of soft-drink consumers to assess Pepsi's and Coke's strengths and weaknesses in attributes valued by both company's target customers. The market research firm is using a ________.

customer value analysis

An analysis conducted to determine what benefits target customers value and how they rate the relative value of various competitors' offers is known as ________.

customer value analysis

A company that is in a good position to identify new opportunities is a ________ company.

customer-centered

If a company is a market leader in one category, and a market challenger or market nicher in other categories, it will follow ________ strategies for each category.

different

Bosch is a German firm that manufactures home appliances such as dishwashers, ovens, and ranges. It competes with companies such as GE Elite and LG. Bosch is perceived as the class of the industry. Bosch pursues a(n) ________ strategy.

differentiation

If a company's offer delivers greater value by exceeding the competitor's offer on important attributes, the company can charge a higher price and ________, or it can charge the same price and ________.

earn higher profits; gain more market share

Most companies are started by individuals who live by their wits. They visualize an opportunity, take risks, and knock on every door to gain attention. Which of the following stages in marketing strategy is being illustrated here?

entrepreneurial marketing

When Gary Hirshberg started the Stonyfield Farm yogurt company, he stated that his company could do better with less advertising, less marketing research, and more guerrilla marketing. He came up with innovative marketing ideas to promote his products such as having sales personnel dress up as large yogurt cartons to distribute free yogurt samples. Which of the following marketing strategies was being implemented by Hirshberg?

entrepreneurial marketing

What are the stages that the approaches to marketing strategy and practice usually pass through?

entrepreneurial marketing, formulated marketing, and intrapreneurial marketing

The goal of performing a competitor analysis is to ________.

find areas of potential competitive advantage and disadvantage

Porsche is a German automobile manufacturer that competes against BMW and Audi, but only in the sports car and SUV segments of the automobile market. Porsche utilizes a(n) ________ strategy.

focus

Companies that operate large marketing departments, conduct expensive marketing research, spell out elaborate competitive strategies, and spend huge sums on advertising are using ________ marketing strategies.

formulated

Which of the following are market challenger strategies?

full frontal attack and indirect attack

Whereas the mass marketer achieves ________, the nicher achieves ________.

high volume; high margins

Rather than challenging head on, a challenger can make a(n) ________ attack on the competitor's weaknesses or on gaps in the competitor's market coverage.

indirect

Cozy Country Market entered the candle business with a unique product: a line of candles made from soy that produces less smoke and lasts up to twice as long as other candles. The firm sold this unique product exclusively to a few niches. The candles were priced at twice the cost charged for normal candles. The product was also sold online and in unconventional outlets not dominated by market leaders. In this case, Cozy Country Market was using a(n) ________ against the market leaders.

indirect attack

Companies can identify their competitors from both ________ points of view.

industry and market

Companies can identify competitors from one of two points of view: ________.

industry or market

From a(n) ________ point of view, Pepsi might see its competition as Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper, 7UP, and the makers of other soft drink brands. From a(n) ________ point of view, however, the customer really wants "thirst quenching."

industry; market

Companies that have been in existence for some time often lose the marketing creativity and passion that they had at the start. They often need to refresh their marketing strategies and try new approaches, known as ________.

intrapreneurial marketing

A product-oriented company focuses on ________.

its own products

A company's objectives indicate its satisfaction with its current situation and ________.

its strength with its current management/ how it might react to different competitive actions

Market niching is profitable because the company ________.

knows the needs of the target customer segment better than other firms that casually attempt to sell to the same segment

A market challenger that matches the competitor's product, advertising, price, and distribution efforts is most likely ________.

launching a full frontal attack

A company that pursues ________ will react much more strongly to a competitor's cost reducing manufacturing breakthrough than to the same competitor's advertising increase.

low-cost leadership

Companies can identify competitors from a(n) ________ point of view by defining competitors as companies that are trying to satisfy the same customer need or build relationships with the same customer group.

market

Nintendo, producer of the Wii video game console, might define its competitors as other makers of physically interactive video games. But from a(n) ________ point of view, it would include all firms making physically interactive recreational products.

market

Which of the following is a competitive position or role that firms play in the target market?

market nicher

Firms that serve small segments not being pursued by other firms are called ________.

market nichers

When companies watch both their buyers and their competitors, they are called ________ companies.

market-centered

A market nicher can most likely specialize along all of the following lines EXCEPT ________.

mass marketing

Some companies successfully pursue more than one of the three value disciplines at the same time. For example, FedEx excels at operational excellence as well as customer intimacy. However, more companies focus on excelling at a single value discipline while ________ the other two.

meeting industry standards on

Companies that pursue a clear strategy will likely perform well. Firms that do not pursue a clear strategy are called ________.

middle-of-the-roaders

The market subsegment that a company exclusively caters to may dry up, or it might grow to the point that it attracts larger competitors. This is why such companies practice ________.

multiple niching

Almost every industry includes firms that specialize in serving target subsegments called market ________.

niches

Computer mouse and interface device maker AdvTechPRO is only a fraction the size of software giant Terminal Time Software Inc. AdvTechPRO manufactures every variation of computer mouse imaginable (for left-handed people, wireless mice, shaped like actual mice, LED mice, etc.). Through skillful ________, the firm dominates the PC mouse market, with Terminal Time Software as its runner up.

niching

Walmart, Costco, and Southwest Airlines serve customers who want reliable, good-quality products or services that are also reasonable and easily available. These companies are all known for pursuing a value discipline known as ________.

operational excellence

When a company provides superior value by leading its industry in price and convenience, it has obtained ________.

operational excellence

Which of the following are value discipline strategies?

operational excellence, customer intimacy, and product leadership

A competitor analysis requires the assessment of all of the following EXCEPT the competitors' ________.

organizational hierarchy

Dell produces and delivers PCs of competitive quality at lower costs. The company constantly aims to achieve low production and distribution costs to win a large market share. Dell utilizes a(n) ________ strategy very effectively.

overall cost leadership

According to Michael Porter, what are three effective competitive positioning strategies?

overall cost leadership, differentiation, and focus

An industry often contains "good" and "bad" competitors. Good competitors ________.

play by the rules of the industry

If a company's aim is to make its own and competing products obsolete and serve customers who want state-of-the-art products and services, it is using a value discipline called ________.

product leadership

Samsung and Apple actively generate new ideas, relentlessly pursue new solutions, and quickly work to get new products to market. They serve customers who want state-of-the-art products and services, regardless of the costs in terms of price or inconvenience. Which of the following value disciplines is illustrated from this example?

product leadership

Which of the following is most critical for successful niching?

specialization

Companies need to know each competitor's product quality, features, and mix; customer services; pricing policy; distribution coverage; sales force strategy; and advertising and sales promotion programs. These are all the dimensions that identify ________ groups within the industry.

strategic

Country Kitchen and Perkins are both a chain of family restaurants featuring diner-like menus with reasonably priced items. These companies are in the same ________.

strategic group

In the audio equipment industry, Philips and Sony belong to the same ________.

strategic group

A firm should compete with ________ competitors in order to sharpen its abilities. Succeeding against these competitors often provides greater returns.

strong

If a company identifies its competitors from an industry point of view, it must understand ________ if it hopes to be an effective player in that industry.

the competitive patterns

An example of a company exhibiting a blue ocean strategy is ________.

the first digital tablet iPad released by Apple

Tomorrow's leading companies will succeed by seeking out unoccupied positions in uncontested market spaces. Such strategic moves, termed ________, create powerful leaps in value for both the firm and its buyers, creating new demand for new products.

value innovation