BUS_INST 239 Marketing Management Professor Ginger Pennington

Northwestern University Spring 2014

STUDY GUIDE
(aka, How Not to Fall Behind in this Class Guide)


What is the best way to keep up and ensure that you are prepared for the exams in this class?

1) Come to class! Make use of the lecture slides posted on Blackboard + take your own notes.
2) Use this study guide to review concepts each week. It will help you determine the most
important things to focus upon, particularly in the reading. The textbook is a bit dense it
presents a lot of definitions, lists, examples, etc.. This study guide will help you zone in on the
key information that I want to make sure you take away from what you read.
3) Be active in your groups case work and in class discussions. Challenge yourself to really
apply what youve learned from the reading / lectures. Applying principles in practice is the
best way to TRULY learn and absorb them!

My style for writing exams is a mix of multiple choice and short answer / short essay. My focus is on
application, not recitation of definitions, etc. In other words, my goal isnt for you to memorize a ton of
material (only to promptly forget it a few weeks or months down the road!). I want you to grasp how
these concepts are useful in business and in the real world & gain experience thinking strategically.

The Study Guide is organized by sections, roughly in the order we will cover topics in class. Use this, in
combination with the class lecture / case wrap-up slides, your notes, and the textbook to make sure that
you fully understand the basic concepts (including the main issues involved in our case studies, which is not
specifically covered in this study guide).

Week 1: INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING, BASIC FRAMEWORK
Text Chapters 1 and 2

- What IS marketing anyway???
- Do you understand what is meant by push versus pull in marketing-ese?
- How is the modern marketing concept different from other strategic orientations based on production,
product, or selling?
- What is the difference between a product-orientation vs. market-orientation of a business?
- Do you understanding the meaning and origin of the phrase marketing myopia?
- Why do loyal customers often hold such great value? In what ways to they help profitability?
- Why is it that even a highly loyal customer group might not necessarily be an attractive target segment?
- Other key terms: market segment, differentiation, value proposition, ROI




Week 1: QUANT BASIS / MARKETING MATH
Course packet reading (see also Appendix 2)

- You should understand the basic categories of cost: variable and fixed
- Unit contribution: what it is, why does it matter, and how do you calculate it?
- Can you distinguish between revenue vs- gross profit vs- operating profit?
- Break-even analysis: Know what it is, why it matters, when we use it, and how to calculate it.
- Know how to calculate margins. Why is it important to not only understand your own firms margins but
also the margins of your channel members and competitors?
- What is ROI and how do we calculate it?
- What is cannibalization and how might one quantify the amount of money lost?


Week 2: CONSUMER ANALYSIS (CB basics and STP process)
Text Chapters 4, 5, and 7

- The factors which exert influence over consumer behavior are varied and numerous have a sense of
the diversity of these factors & the broad categories of influential forces (cultural, social, personal,
psychological).
- What are the steps consumers go through on the path to purchasing?
- What are some ways to capture consumers attention & get them to NOTICE your message?
- Should consumers be very worried about the effects of subliminal advertising? Why or why not?
- Why is capturing consumers attention not a guarantee that they will perceive your message in the way
you attended?
- What are some general techniques firms can use to conduct marketing research and learn more about
their customers and/or potential customers?
- Do most firms in todays marketplace use undifferentiated or differentiated marketing? What is
differentiated marketing? Niche marketing?
- Why do firms segment the market? What are the benefits to the firm? To the customer?
- What are the major types of variables upon which market segmentation can be based?
- What is psychographic segmentation?
- What is meant by behavioral segmentation have an understanding of the major types of behavioral
segmentation that can be used (occasion, benefits, user status, usage rate, etc.)
- What makes a segment ATTRACTIVE as a target? (beyond mere size & buying power)
- Can you describe the STP process and how/why firms carry it out?
- What is a perceptual map and how can they be used?
- If asked, could you construct a thorough and complete positioning statement?
- What is a value proposition?


Week 3: COMPANY, COMPETITOR, AND ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS
Text Chapters 3 and 18

- What environmental forces should marketers take into consideration? You should have a general
understanding of the macro forces that should be on a firms radar (demographic changes, the
economy, social, political, cultural factors, etc.)
- What is meant by core competency? What must a particular company strength have to make it truly
qualify as a core competency?
- How can you identify current and potential competitors? Direct and indirect?
- What are the basic playing fields upon which firms tend to compete (cost leadership, niche focus,
operational excellence, product leadership, etc.)?
- What is a SWOT analysis?
- Why is sometimes advantageous to be the second mover?
- What are Porters Five Forces that determine competitive intensity? Do you understand them on a
broad level? (I.e., can you explain the basic concerns in real language not just listing or providing
definitions).

Week 4: PRODUCTS & BRANDING
Text Chapters 8 and 9

- Whats the difference between a product line and a product mix?
- What are the variety of different considerations that fall under the Product umbrella of the Marketing
Mix? In other words, when you approach a case analysis and need to make product recom-
mendations, what sorts of things should you take into consideration?
- How does branding help consumers? Sellers? What are the benefits of branding?
- What is meant by brand personality?
- What is meant by brand equity?
- How to firms come up with new product ideas? (product development process)
- What is concept testing?
- What are some reasons new products often fail?
- What are some advantages and disadvantages associated with line extensions?
- What are the major stages of the product life cycle (PLC)?


Week 6: PROMOTION & ADVERTISING
Text Chapters 15 and 16

- Can you explain the main distinguishing characteristics of promos versus advertising?
- What is the short-term impact of promos? Where does the sales lift come from and how long-lasting
are these changed purchasing habits likely to be?
- Understand some of the main risk of using price promotions. Are there specific purposes for which they
are more versus less effective? How can marketers be smarter about their use?
- What are the three primary types of advertising objectives? (See Table 15.1)
- What characterizes a good advertising objective?
- Be familiar with the range of media choices and reasons why you might prefer one to another.
- How do companies determine their ad budget? Basic rules? Objective and task method?
- What is a creative brief? Why are they important?
- Be familiar with common variables employed in ads (use of fear, humor, sex appeal, etc.) and when
these tools are more or less likely to be effective.
- How can companies gauge the effectiveness of their advertising efforts?
- We will NOT focus much on the personal selling process in this course (beginning of Ch. 16).

Week 7: PRICING
Text Chapters 10 and 11

- What is the idea behind customer value-based pricing?
- What are some ways we might try to determine how much value customers perceive for our product?
- What other major strategies might firms use to determine price (competitor-based, cost-based, etc.)?
- What is target costing?
- Pricing considerations involve an understanding of basic quantitative concepts we covered earlier in the
term. Make you have a good grasp on these basic concepts reviewed in this weeks reading: fixed
costs, variable costs, economies of scale, experience curve, break-even analysis.
- What is the difference between skimming and penetration pricing? When might you use each
approach?
- How is the price elasticity of demand calculated? What does it MEAN? Can you explain elastic versus
inelastic demand?

Week 8: CHANNELS
Text Chapter 12

- What is a marketing channel?... what are some various ways that they can add value?
- When determining whether to take on additional channel members, what are some primary
considerations? Why do firms often opt NOT to just go it alone?
- Whats the difference b/w a wholeseller & a distributor? Who provides more services?
- What is meant by horizontal and vertical channel conflict?
- What is a Vertical Marketing System or VMS? (corporate, contractual, & administered types)
- What is the difference b/w intensive, exclusive, and selective distribution? Why would a firm prefer
one over another?
- Note: Your textbook covers some issues related to Marketing Logistics (pgs 357-365) but this is not
something we will focus on in this course or on the exam.

Week 9: IMC & DIGITAL
Text Chapters 14 and 17

- You will note that much of Chapter 14 covers topics we discussed earlier this term in the Promotion
lectures (ways of setting the ad budget, use of emotional appeals, celeb endorsements, push vs pull,
etc.).
- What is the goal of integrated marketing strategy? What does it attempt to do?
- What is WOM (word-of-mouth influence)? Buzz marketing? Why do some consumers seem to spark
viral message spread more than others?
- What is direct marketing? What are some of the distinct forms it can take?
- What is experiential & guerilla marketing?
- What are some of the different ways that marketers use mobile devices to deliver messaging to
consumers? What makes for especially effective mobile marketing ?


Week 10: ETHICS
Text Chapter 20

Why does marketing sometimes get a bad rap? Do you have a sense of both the good (benefits)
and bad (problems and ethical boundaries) of modern marketing practices?