Midterm Exam, Mark 6361, Fall 2007

Name: __________________________________

UH ID:__________________________________
Please write your UH ID# on the scantron as well and blacken the matching circles.

Multiple Choice: Each questions worth 2 points. Choose the one alternative that
best completes the statement or answers the question.

1. What distinguishes a panel from other sources of market research data, we said in
class, is the fact that panel data:
a. are free
b. come from businesses, not consumers
c. come from consumers, not businesses
d. come from the same respondents in different time periods
e. reflect behavior, not opinions

2. Marketers selling to organizations are likely to encounter inelastic demand, we said in

class. Therefore:
a. Personal relationships will not be important
b. Price cuts may not increase total sales
c. Salespeople may “adjust” their forecasting estimates
d. Compared to consumer marketing, buyers will be smaller
and more widely dispersed geographically
e. Purchases by governments will not be factor in total sales

3. Brand can play a number of specific roles within a company’s brand portfolio. For
example, a __________ is positioned to compete directly with one or more
competitors’ brands so that more important and profitable brands retain their desired
positioning.
a. cash cow
b. mid-market brand
c. low end, entry level brand
d. high end, prestige brand
e. flanker

4. A ___________ occurs when the parent brand is used on a new product targeting a
new market segment within a category currently served by the parent.
a. joint venture co-brand
b. line extension.
c. category extension
d. multiple sponsor co-brand
e. same company co-brand
5. _________ is the ability to prepare, on a mass basis, individually designed products
to meet each customer’s requirements.
a. Concentrated marketing
b. Clustered marketing
c. Specialized
d. Niching
e. Mass customization

6. __________ has been defined as a deeply held commitment to re-buy or re-patronize

a preferred product or service in the future despite situational influences and
marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behavior.
a. Delight
b. “Deep” satisfaction
c. Satisfaction
d. Loyalty
e. Value delivery

7. Frequency programs acknowledge that ________ of a company’s customers may well

account for _____ of its business.
a. less than 5 percent; nearly all
b. 75 percent; a slight majority
c. most; most
d. 30 percent; 50 percent
e. 20 percent; 80 percent

8. To enhance its marketing efforts, a wise marketer makes it _____ to complain.

a. easy
b. very difficult
c. moderately difficult
d. a two-step process
e. None of the above. Since complaints are not positive,
companies should discourage them altogether.

9. Fidelity Investments puts through certain customers’ calls more quickly than others to
improve the value of the company’s customer base. While on the phone, the longer-
waiting customers hear messages encouraging them to complete their transaction via
the company web site. This is an example of
a. Enhancing the potential growth potential of each customer.
b. Making low-profit customers more profitable.
c. Increasing the longevity of the customer relationship
d. Managing phone queues via illegal and discriminatory
practices
e. Reducing customer defection rate.

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10. Which is true of competitive advantage?
a. Benjamin Franklin first talked about it.
b. It is the ability to copy the best practices of other
companies
c. Being the fastest to the market guarantees competitive
advantage, according to Porter’s Five Forces
d. Companies that hope to endure must continually invent
new advantages.
e. A characteristic that is of no importance to customers can
be a customer advantage.

11. Which of following is true?

a. If marketers raise expectations too high, the buyer is
likely to be disappointed.
b. If the company sets expectations too low, the buyer is
likely to be disappointed.
c. If marketers raise expectations too high, they will soon
have many copycat offerings competing in the marketplace.
d. If marketers raise expectations too high, they won’t attract
enough customers.
e. If the company sets expectations too low, exceeding
buyers’ expectation becomes difficult.

12. ________ are trademarkable devices that identify and differentiate the brand.
a. Brand equities
b. Intellectual properties
c. Brand promises
d. Brand elements
e. Consumer knowledge bases

13. Marketers are advised to define a strategic business unit (SBU) in terms of :
a. production process employed, key material(s) employed,
price level
b. customer groups served, customer needs met,
technology employed
c. relative market share, length of time the company has been
in this business, uniqueness of its offering compared to competitors
d. management strength, autonomy within the parent
company, relation of this SBU’s products to the company’s other
products
e. price, product, promotion, and distribution

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14. According to the work of Frederick Herzberg ________.
a. Marketers can use laddering to determine the appropriate
appeal to be used in their ads
b. A person moves from stated instrumental motivation to
terminal ones.
c. A bottle of Estee Lauder perfume arouses a different set of
motives in consumers than an Avon perfume.
d. Polite store clerks will not necessarily be a satisfier for a
consumer, but impolite ones would be a dissatisfier.
e. People are driven by particular needs at particular times.

15. Which of the following is an example of a behavioral segmentation variable?

a. Education level
b. Family life cycle
c. Stage of readiness to buy
d. Lifestyle
e. Occupation

16. Aaron’s hunting and fishing activities, his interest in military history, and his opinions
about an all-volunteer army reflect his _________.
a. demographics
b. personality
c. social class
d. lifestyle
e. self-concept

17. A new supplier is least likely to make a sale to a prospect involved in which of the
following buying situations?
a. Direct purchase
b. Functional rebuy
c. Modified rebuy
d. Straight rebuy
e. New task

18. Advertising usually has its greatest impact at the ___________ stage of new task
buying.
a. trial
b. adoption
c. interest
d. awareness See page 105.
e. evaluation

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19. A(n) _______ establishes a long-term relationship in which the supplier promises to
re-supply the buyer as needed at agreed upon prices over a specified period.
a. over-run contract
b. purchase order contract
c. blanket contract
d. superior order contract
e. specialized contract

20. The point of showing in class that a bank might target those newly divorced or a
school of nursing might target men was to emphasize the potential payoff from:
a. casting as wide a net as possible
b. selecting related segments to target – two or more with
obvious similarities
c. focusing on one segment
d. directing marketing efforts to the largest possible segment
e. directing marketing efforts to the segment closest to the
organization’s current customer base

21. When we talked about stars, dogs, cash cows, and the like, we made the point that
a. it is useful for a company to relocate periodically
b. it makes sense to earn surplus cash with some products
and invest that cash in other products
c. tax considerations should be included in marketing
decisions
d. growth markets are the least profitable
e. companies with high market share relative to competitors
have the most difficult time gaining profits

22. We talked in class about PRIZM to make the point that

a. Lifestyle segmentation is easier to accomplish than
demographic segmentation
b. Segmentation by types of neighborhoods can be helpful
for finding similar segments in different cities
c. Demographic segmentation is only helpful for retailers
d. Demographic segmentation considers activities, interests,
opinions
e. A segment and a sector are different words for the same
concept

23. Marketing strategy has three elements, we said in class:

a. concentration, development, and diversity
b. sales potential, sales budgets, and sales forecasts
c. markets to target, products to offer, and differential
advantage over competitors
d. attaining, retaining, and growing customers

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 e. customer identification, customer relationship management,
and customer experience management

24. The marketing activity particularly concerned with consumer learning and memory,
we said in class, is
a. product mix selection
b. choosing channels of distribution
c. designing packaging
d. designing advertising
e. planning pricing

25. To win back lost customers, the textbook recommends

a. immediate action – call to ask what problem led to their
defection
b. delayed action – waiting a month or two, so the
customer can assess how they view their new supplier
c. price cuts as the only useful method once a customer has
selected a new supplier
d. raising prices, so the customer will see the company as
higher in quality
e. changing the product, so the customer will not object to a
higher price

26. Marketers should consider the political-legal environment because

a. legislation affecting businesses decreases over time, and it
is wise to seek opportunities as regulations expire
b. marketing transactions are unaffected by pressure groups
c. legal departments are not involved in marketing issues and
leave them to marketing managers
d. special interest groups are declining in influence
e. competitive behavior, product safety, and product
labeling are regulated

27. The textbook suggests improving the quality of marketing intelligence by

a. establishing a consumer advisory panel
b. asking competitors to share pricing plans, in exchange for
sharing one’s own pricing plans with them
c. replacing the purchase of information such as scanner data
with survey data
d. using a “trial and error” approach to marketing decisions
e. avoiding observational data and focus groups

28. Based on environmental considerations, marketers should be concerned with

a. promoting branded products over ‘store brand’ substitutes

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 b. helping shoppers to justify visits to stores rather than
purchasing from Websites
c. increasing the number of disposable items in the product
mix
d. increasing prices to reduce unnecessary consumption
e. learning how buyers use and dispose of products

29. The textbook recommends increasing “structural ties” with buyers. An example,
for an airline, would be
a. promoting a Visa card that awards miles flown on that
airline
b. price reductions on specific, less popular routes
c. increasing the number of flights on more popular routes
d. creating a “low price, low frills” airline with the same
ownership but a different brand name
e. raising prices, to add prestige to flying that particular
airline

30. Thinkers, achievers, strivers, and similar categories are terms associated with
a. income, education, and other variables measured by the
U.S. Census
b. primary motivation and resources, within the VALS
Network
c. Zip codes
d. sector of the U.S. in which these segments are found
e. the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS)

Please turn over this page to answer short-answer questions.

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Please BRIEFLY answer each question. Each answer is worth up to 10 points each.
Complete sentences are not necessary. Be sure you say SOMETHING in response
to each question.

31. Michael Porter lists five factors that determine the attractiveness of a market (you could also
think of it as an industry) in which an organization might decide to compete – or not to.
Please list any four of the five (I stop reading after four.)

You got five points for showing up. Then you got one point additional for each correct
answer – or five altogether if you got them all. See pp. 161-2, where it tells you that Porter
lists threats of intense segment rivalry, of new entrants, of substitute products, of the
bargaining power of buyers, and the bargaining power of suppliers.

32. To be useful, says the textbook and a slide we discussed, methods of segmenting a market
must rate favorably on five key criteria. Please list any four of those criteria (I stop reading
after four) and in one sentence, explain the meaning of any one of the four (just one, please,
but make clear which one) to a college sophomore.

You got five points for showing up. Then you got one additional point for each correct
answer. This was the slide with pink ovals, or as listed on pp. 127-128 market segments
must be measurable, substantial, accessible, differentiable (please notice what that means),
and actionable.

33. The textbook and a slide we discussed in class list five stages in the consumer buying
process, beginning with problem recognition. Please list any three of the other four (I stop
reading after three), and suggest for a bicycle retailer how marketing dollars could be
effectively employed in targeting consumers at the problem recognition stage.

You’re getting the picture….5 points for showing up, then in a diagram you will see at the
top of p. 92 the stages are listed: problem recognition was followed by information search,
evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, postpurchase behavior. The bicycle retailer
needs to help people see that they need a bike, a second bike, or a new bike – however that
would be done. It could NOT be done by designing a “better” bike – retailers don’t do that,
right? You got one point added to the 5 for each correct answer, or 5 if you got them all
correct.

34. Explain “derived demand” to a college sophomore, briefly, and why it matters in forecasting
sales for any business-to-business marketer.

Again, 5 points automatic. Most people did either OK or well on this. For a full 10 points I
had to see some reference to the customer’s customers, but I gave partial credit for knowing
something to indicate an understanding that demand for one set of offerings might depend
on demand for another.