MKTG 3650 Exam 1

Which of the following is true with respect to buyers in business markets?

Business customers demand detailed information about a product's functional features and technical specifications.

Orders placed by business customers are usually smaller and more numerous than consumer sales.

False

Situational influences would likely not affect a high school senior searching for a college or university to attend.

False

The final step in the marketing research process is to assess the ethicality of the data collection phase.

False

The fourth stage in the business buying decision process is that of searching for products and suppliers.

False

All of the following are important concerns of business customers except

obtaining products that exceed specifications to ensure the best possible product performance.

Designing research procedures that produce reliable marketing data means that

others using the same procedure will get almost identical data

Any group of people who, as individuals or as organizations, have needs for products in a product class and who have the ability, willingness, and authority to buy such products is a(n)

market

A valid study

measures what it's suppose to

An overall plan for obtaining the information needed to address a research problem or issue is called the

research design.

Compared to a mail survey, telephone surveys have

higher response rates but higher costs.

A disadvantage of the concentrated targeting strategy is that

the firm's financial condition is tied to a single and specialized marketing mix.

A firm has conducted market research and found that customer satisfaction with its product is quite high. Nonetheless, repurchase behavior is very low. The research design evidently has a problem with

validity.

Digital influences have largely replaced

word-of-mouth referrals from neighbors, coworkers, and friends.

An on-site computer interview is a variation of the shopping mall intercept interview.

True

Business customers generally seek to obtain detailed information about a product before purchasing it.

True

Business to Business decision making process is very similar to the Business to Consumer business decision making process, the consumer is called the 'buyer' or 'purchaser' in B2B.

True

Buyers in producer markets purchase either raw materials or semifinished products.

True

Patronage motives influence where one purchases products on a regular basis.

True

Exploratory Research

- has loosely described data needs - has ill-defined sources to find/gather data - data analysis is informal, typically not quantitative

Conclusive Research

- typically large, objectively selected to permit generalization to a population from the findings - formally, typically quantitative, data analysis

Ryan is a B2B marketer working for a multinational firm. He needs to identify and locate potential customers in the U.S. construction industry. Ryan does not have much time to do this. He also does not have a lot of experience in this area. He wants to get this done as conveniently as possible. Which of the following would best fit Ryan's preferences as well as his desire to have the job done accurately?

Commercial data services

Eric works as a manager in the marketing department of a pharmaceutical firm. The time has come to develop sales forecasts for the next year. This year the company wants to increase the reliability of the sales forecast. Eric was asked to participate in this process because of his extensive market knowledge. He joins a group of other experts in the area. Individuals in Eric's group all submit their own forecasts. These forecasts are then averaged, and the results are given back to the group so they can refine them. The intent is to reach a consensus by working separately on these forecasts. What type of forecasting technique is this?

Delphi technique

Spectrum uses a segmentation strategy for its cable TV packages based on market characteristics such as age, gender, or income. Which of the following segmentation variables is Spectrum using?

Demographic

A person's self-concept may affect whether the person buys a product in a particular product category, but it has little impact on brand selection.

False

A segmentation variable is used to group smaller markets into one larger market.

False

All companies, no matter what their size or market position, maintain only one buying center.

False

What must the government do when it wants to buy a standard product?

It sends out a detailed description of the product to qualified bidders.

Many marketers are concerned about the number of potential customers within a certain area of land because of the different requirements to serve dissimilar areas. What is this segmentation variable called?

Market density

Lil Angels Kids Spa offers various treatments designed to appeal to the younger customer. Treatment options include manicures, pedicures, facials, tea parties, and dress up photos. Parents can even purchase a birthday party package. Currently, Lil Angels offers its services only to girls under the age of 14. Originally begun in Delaware, Lil Angels is considering opening its spa/salons in other parts of the country and is planning to expand its offerings to girls aged 14 to 17. The company realizes that some changes may be needed. For example, management wants to find out if the older girls will be interested in their birthday party and tea party services. Refer to Scenario 5.1. What method should Lil Angels use to forecast sales in new regions?

Market test

NAICS, is the acronym for

North American Industry Classification System

What are social influences that can impact the buying decision by a person?

Opinion leaders, social status, family influences

When Olivia goes to the first class of her Operations Management course, she finds out that in addition to the textbook she already purchased, she also needs a copy of the book The Goal. At which stage of the consumer buying decision process is Olivia?

Problem recognition

During which stage of the consumer buying decision process does a consumer decide from which seller he or she will buy the product?

Purchase

Mark is developing a market forecast. After reviewing years of sales, he noticed there seems to be a clear association between past sales and households with children. The more families with children locate to the area, the more sales seem to increase. Mark believes he can use this relationship and the information he has on households in the area to predict future sales. This is an example of what type of forecasting method?

Regression analysis

Which of the following statements about reseller markets is false?

Resellers are not concerned with how much space the product takes up as long as it has a high price.

Which of the following is an example of a behavioristic segmentation variable?

Usage rate

A database is a collection of information arranged for easy access and retrieval.

True

A major part of perception involves information processing.

True

Crowdsourcing refers to the process of taking tasks usually performed by a marketer or researcher and outsourcing them to a crowd, or potential market, through an open call.

True

Not all the behavioral patterns and values attributed to specific subcultures apply to every member of that specific subculture.

True

The North American Industry Classification System includes all three NAFTA partners.

True

When a firm's management is making the final selection of specific target markets to enter, it should consider whether the organization has the financial resources, managerial skills, expertise, and facilities needed to effectively compete in the selected segments.

True

A lumber firm sells wood products to both the construction industry and the retail industry. The company has the same sales representatives for both industries and often offers discounts for buying in bulk. The lumber firm sells different types of wood for each industry based on its unique characteristics. For instance, wood used for large construction projects must have a higher grade and quality than wood used for home improvement projects. Which type of segmentation is the lumber firm most likely to use?

Type of organization

During the evaluation of alternatives stage of the consumer buying decision process, the buyer selects the seller from whom he or she will purchase the product.

False

Esteem needs are the highest level in Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

False

Motives always operate at a conscious level.

False

Motives include knowledge and positive or negative feelings about an object.

False

The real value of marketing research to the organization can BEST be measured by

improvements in the ability to make decisions

Melvin works at an auto dealer. His company pays the Internet site AutoWurld.com to act as a neutral third party that provides access to an unlimited amount of vehicle listings and sales transactions. Melvin is in charge of monitoring this site to look for deals. His firm pays $395 a month for access. AutoWurld.com is an example of a(n)

independent B2B e-commerce site.

The final step in the target market selection process is

selecting specific target markets.

Precision Brake Company is a supplier of brake components to the manufacturers of lawn tractors and 4-wheel ATVs. It also sells its products to independent repair centers, dealers, and other wholesalers in Northeast and Southern states. Precision Brake has done research on the demand for lawn tractors and found that most manufacturers are in the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. Research also shows that most of the dealers who sell directly to individual consumers are in the Midwestern states, while dealers who sell to small business landscaping companies tend to be located in the Northeastern states. Company executives are considering expansion of its distribution to markets in the Midwest. Refer to Scenario 7.2. When Precision Brake sells to the individual dealers, they would be considered which of the following business types?

Reseller

Thoughts about who will be around when the product is used or consumed relate to which of the following situational influences?

Social surroundings

Which of the following would be considered an institutional buyer?

The United Way

Which of the following variables would most likely be used to segment a business market?

The geographic location of the company

Most business buying decisions are made by

a firm's buying center.

The sales forecasting method that consists of making a product available to buyers in one or more locations and measuring purchase response is

a market test.

One overlooked internal source of secondary marketing information discussed in the text is

accounting records.

Decreasing sales, increasing expenses, or decreasing profits

are examples of symptoms that point to larger problems

You are shopping for a laptop or tablet to use for taking notes, research, and studying. In this case, you belong to a(n)

consumer market.

Cadbury wants to know why sales of its new dark chocolate product is soaring in one country but not in another. After extensive research, Cadbury believes the answer lies in demographic and cultural differences among the populations. It conducts in-depth research that asks consumers in each country about their ages, occupations, eating habits, as well as how often they purchase its chocolate bars. It uses statistical analysis and predictive tools to come up with strong conclusions. Although Cadbury is fairly certain about its research, it realizes that it is still limited in providing evidence to definitively link demographic and cultural differences to being the cause of why sales differ so significantly among the two countries. Cadbury has most likely conducted _________________ research.

descriptive

Research that is conducted to clarify the characteristics of certain phenomena to solve a particular problem is called ____ research.

descriptive

Tiana knows her business has a problem because of an increasing number of consumer complaints received recently. She has decided how to make this problem a precise, researchable statement and should next move on to

designing the research project.

If your firm uses a ______________ targeting strategy, you can expect to need __________ production processes to support the strategy.

differentiated; more

Charles and Melody are searching for a health club to join. This purchase will likely be affected by ____ involvement.

enduring

Suppose that marketers at Lever Brothers are trying to determine whether the use of free samples of Snuggle fabric softener was the reason for a sales increase in a particular store. The type of research conducted to answer this question is

experimental

When a company has its sales forecasts prepared by management consultants, economists, or college professors, it is using a(n)

expert forecasting survey.

Nielsen Marketing Research is concerned about using surveys to conduct a marketing research project because

fewer people are willing to participate.

Marketers can influence consumers' evaluations by describing alternatives to products and their attributes in a certain manner, a practice known as

framing

Systems such as Acorn and PRIZM provide companies with lifestyle and demographic information about neighborhoods throughout the United States. This information is used to aid

geodemographic segmentation.

Crisco is an all-vegetable shortening that helps cooks around the globe create better-tasting meals for their families. The company is part of Procter & Gamble and Crisco was developed in 1911. They released their first print advertisement in 1912 and focused on how Crisco could be used as a replacement to lard and butter. Crisco is still a dominant brand today, and many families have the familiar blue tub of Crisco in their pantry as well as a container of liquid vegetable oil to use when cooking. Crisco believes its market is _______, where individuals have similar needs for the product. It therefore utilizes a _________ targeting strategy as it can incorporate a single marketing mix and direct it at the entire market for its products.

homogeneous; undifferentiated

Within the buying center, ____ are technical personnel who develop product specifications and evaluate alternatives, while _____ actually choose the products.

influencers;deciders

AT&T uses its sales reports broken down by geographic regions as part of its marketing research to determine which markets are most rapidly adopting high-speed Internet connections. In this example, AT&T is using

internal secondary data.

King Auto Supply sells car and truck parts, as well as tire replacement and balancing services. As King places its order for truck tires with Goodyear, it must also place an order for valve stems and balancing weights for the tires. Such business products are characterized as having ____ demand.

joint

The psychographic variable that includes numerous characteristics related to people's activities, interests, and opinion is

lifestyle.

In ____ sampling, there is no way to calculate the likelihood that a specific element of the population being studied will be chosen.

nonprobability

Many suppliers and their customers invest time and resources to build and maintain mutually beneficial relationships which are often called

partnerships.

The primary psychological influences on consumer behavior are

perception, motives, learning, attitudes, personality, and lifestyles.

Barry Steel provides steel for a variety of uses to its various customers. Customers have different needs for the steel, and thus Barry has to prepare the raw steel differently depending on how customers will use it in their production processes. The primary business segmentation variable in this example is

product use.

The five categories of situational influences are

purchase reason, time perspective, social surroundings, physical surroundings, and buyer's momentary mood.

A forecasting method that predicts sales based on relationships between past sales and other variables is called

regression analysis.

Shortly after moving into their new home, Eliot and Catarina Park purchase and install smoke detectors and an alarm system. The Parks are concerned about fulfilling their need for

safety.

Use the following to answer the questions. Because of the development of optical scanners and cable television, marketing researchers can now test the effectiveness of advertising more precisely. Volunteers in a minimum of six cities are offered food discounts in return for allowing marketing research firms to monitor grocery purchases and send trial commercials to their homes through cable television. The research subjects shop only at stores equipped with UPC scanners, and their purchases are identified by a special card. Respondents are also told that some of the commercials they see on cable television may differ from those seen by their neighbors. Buying patterns are then compared. For example, Kashi cereals tested a Crunchy Wheat promotion using this system. Half of the 5,000 participating homes in one city saw a commercial announcing the promotion; the other half saw a commercial that did not mention the promotion. Kashi used scanner data to evaluate the promotion's success and offered the commercials nationwide. Refer to Scenario 4.1. The 5,000 households that allowed their group purchases to be scanned are a

sample.

Use the following to answer the questions. Colin Jackson recently purchased Blue Waters Adventures, a kayak and canoeing rental business near the Chatsworth River in Arizona. Blue Waters Adventures had been in operation for five years and was located in an ideal area. Even though the winters in the area can be cold, kayaking and canoeing activities are generally popular year-round. After two months of operation, it became clear why the previous owners had sold the business. While the business appeared to be ideally located, sales were extremely disappointing. Refer to Scenario 4.2. Colin went to the university library and collected everything he could find on the kayaking and canoeing sports industries. He found a significant amount of information, but it didn't seem to be in the format that he could actually use in his analysis. Colin realized that he could just use this preliminary data as a resource to help him design his plan for utilizing focus groups and possibly for designing a survey. The preliminary data is referred to as _____, while the data from focus groups and surveys is ______.

secondary data; primary

Although telephone surveys can be conducted very quickly, a major limitation is

that only a small portion of the population likes to participate in telephone surveys.

Estimating the cost of entering a market and focusing on a specific target segment is important because

the organization's marketers need to know if they can reach the segment at costs equal to or below competitors' costs.

Which of the following is not a characteristic of a consumer market?

their purchasing decisions are always made by only one individual

Consumers that do not own dogs are not likely to be in the market for dog food because

they do not have the need or desire for dog food.