Chapter 3: The Marketing Environment

Which of the following companies would probably be most interested in tracking discretionary income levels?

BMW automobiles

Heidi decided to spend some of her saved money on tickets to a Cold Play concert coming to town, and nowshe is planning on buying a new outfit for the concert. What type of resources is Heidi making decisions about?

Discretionary Income

__________ competitors provide very different products that satisfy the same basic customer need.

Generic

Which of the following provides protection for and regulates brand names, brand marks, trade names, and trademarks?

Lanham Act

___________ competitors are those that compete in the same product class, but their products have differentfeatures, benefits, and prices.

Product

International Office Supplies Wholesaler charges different prices to its various customers without any legal justification. This company is in violation of the

Robinson-Patman Act

Price discrimination is prohibited by the ___________ Act

Robinson-patman act

Which of the following acts was enacted to prevent businesses from restraining trade and monopolizing markets?

Sherman Anti Trust Act

If all the gas stations in a city collaborated to determine what gas prices should be charged, they would be violating the

Sherman AntiTrust Act

Which of the following would represent a brand competitor for Ford's Escape Hybrid sport utility vehicle

Toyota Highlander Hybrid

When PepsiCo takes the information collected through research and attempts to assess and interpret what it means for its soft-drink marketing efforts, PepsiCo is engaged in environmental

analysis

Companies that market products with similar features, benefits, and prices to the same customer group are known as _________ competitors.

brand

According to the textbook, a manager's duties in an environmental analysis include

checking information for accuracy, resolving inconsistencies, and assigning significance to the findings

What is the most important factor in distinguishing disposable income from income?

consumer spending

The best approach for a company to take when monitoring its competitors is

developing a system for gathering ongoing information about competitors.

Collecting information from secondary sources such as business, government, trade, and general-interest publications plays an important role in

environmental scanning

Dell Computer collects information about a wide variety of competitive, economic, political, legal and regulatory, technological, and sociocultural forces that affect its marketing activities. This process is called

environmental scanning

To monitor changes in the marketing environment effectively, marketers must engage in

environmental scanning and analysis

By offering credit and financing through its GMAC division, General Motors is trying to help consumers

expand current buying power at the expense of future buying power.

When a firm has many potential competitors and tries to develop a marketing strategy to differentiate its products from the competitors' products, a(n) _______ structure exists in the competitive environment

monopolistic competition

Three primary methods of collecting information for environmental scanning are

observation, secondary sources, and marketing research

Textile companies historically face issues concerning the use of child labor in foreign countries and the various regulations created concerning this labor. The type of marketing environment forces executives for these companies are most likely to try to influence are ______ forces.

political

Procompetitive laws are those designed to

preserve competition

Marketers who attempt to influence and change the various environmental forces have a(n) _____ response to these forces

proactive

Toyota has developed aluminum car bodies that are 100 percent recyclable and light enough to help conserve fuel. What kind of response is this to environmental forces?

proactive

Assuming that inflation is low, high buying power characterizes the _____ stage of the business cycle

prosperity

Although Matt's company engages in environmental scanning and analysis, he feels more comfortable changing his policies and strategies to adapt to environmental forces rather than trying to influence these forces. Matt has a(n) _____ approach to marketing environmental forces.

reactive

Marketers who view political forces as being beyond their control are taking a ___________ response toward these forces

reactive

If M&M Mars Candies found a magazine article that provided key information on the television viewing habits of major candy consumer groups, this would be an example of information obtained through environmental

scanning

The strength of a person's "buying power" depends on economic conditions and

size of resources that can be traded in an exchange.

In today's marketing environment, competitors can take on many forms. For example, Diet Coke can be seen as a competitor to Wrigley's Double Mint chewing gum. In this circumstance, these two products are described as ___________ competitors.

total budget

The textbook suggests that the best approach a firm can take in responding to marketing environmental forces is

variable