1.

Explain briefly the market-skimming pricing strategy, then name and

explain two different situations in which marketers will use this strategy.
Such pricing works when the product’s quality and image support the higher price. In
addition, such pricing is used when products pass through the life cycle quickly and the
marketer, consequently, must recoup research and development costs early.

2. Explain intermodal transportation.

Intermodal transportation combines two or more modes of transportation, such as truck
and train, truck and plane, train and water.

3. Why might a marketer of laundry detergent be interested in viewing a

perceptual positioning map?
Perceptual positioning maps show consumer perceptions of their brands versus
competing products on important buying dimensions. Laundry detergent, for example,
may be placed on a perceptual map based on price and cleaning power; this allows a
marketer to view how consumers perceive their product with respect to others’ products
along those dimensions.

4. Some products remain in the maturity stage of the PLC for long periods of
time, whereas others pass through quickly. List and explain briefly three
possible conditions that may allow a product to remain in the maturity stage
for a long period of time.
Whether a new technology will soon replace the current one, whether the competitive
environment is especially fierce,
and whether the product can be modified slightly from time to time in order to keep up
with changing consumer
tastes may prolong the maturity stage.

5. Why might a company need to hire both an inside and an outside sales force?
For example, larger accounts may require special nurturing; therefore, an outside sales
force can call on those customers. Smaller accounts may be able to be taken care of by an
inside sales force.

6. A marketer’s fixed costs are $200,000, the variable cost is $8, and the
expected unit sales are 10,000. If they want to earn a 30 percent markup on
sales, what is the marketer’s markup price?
The markup price is $40.

7. Explain why typical husband-dominant or wife-dominant products of the

1970s may no longer be regarded as such.
More single-parent families and more dual-income families have changed the traditional
buying roles over time.

8. Name the three kinds of appeals for message content, give an example for
when you may use each of them, and explain why.
1) Rational - a rational argument may be good for advertising a computer because
individuals may buy based solely on features and price.
2) Emotional - trying to raise money for a children’s charity is more effective when the
campaign focuses on children who have special kinds of needs.
3) Moral - a moral argument may help when promoting environmentally friendly
behaviour (such as water conservation, not littering, recycling, composting, etc.)

9. Jenny is trying to develop a television advertising campaign for her product.

She is selling vitamins with all natural ingredients. Her main target market is
couples over the age of 45. Explain the idea behind each of the following
message execution styles and how it could be used to meet Jennyʹs needs.
Indicate which one you would use if you were Jenny, and explain why. (10
Points)
1) Slice of life
2) Fantasy
3) Mood or Image
4) Scientific evidence
5) Personality symbol
1) Slice of life: this approach shows typical use of the product within the target market.
This would show a mature
couple taking the vitamins, looking healthy and happy.
2) Fantasy: this approach would use some daydreaming or fantastic outcome of taking the
vitamins: such as a great
game of golf, or a happy marriage.
3) Mood or Image: this approach does not state product claims, but is uses visual cues to
communicate values such as
love, beauty, peace, serenity. This could be done by showing the product package, but
having no voices. Just happy
couples in romantic, sun-splashed locations, or happy romantic embraces.
4) Scientific evidence: This approach uses scientific data to show that one brand is
superior to others. This would
work, but only if Jenny has such data, since making such claims without supporting
documentation is a violation of
The Competition Act. If Jenny has such data, she could do a product comparison using
the facts.
5) Personality symbol: This approach creates a character that is supposed to be a
personification of the product. This is
hard to do with a vitamin, but perhaps an animal character could be used (like Tony the
Tiger). It would be humorous
and it may give the couples the idea that the vitamins were linked with animal vitality.
I would choose the slice of life. I would choose this because the target market can
identify with it, and it isn’t as provocative, or sensitive as some of the others could be,
particularly the fantasy, mood/image and personality symbol approaches. The scientific
evidence approach would be great, especially to focus on the natural aspects of the
vitamins. But Jenny may not have such information available at this time to support such
an approach.
 10. When would price cuts and price increases be necessary? (5 points)
Price cuts may be necessary when there is excess capacity. Another reason is that market
share may be falling in the face of strong price competition. A company may also cut
prices in a drive to dominate the market through lower costs. A major factor in price
increases is cost inflation. Rising costs squeeze profit margins and lead companies to pass
cost increases along to customers. Another factor leading to price increases is over
demand. When a company cannot supply all its customers’ needs, it can raise its prices,
ration products to customers, or both.

11. What do you understand by the term Logistics and enlist the logistics
functions?

Answer :

A value added flows from suppliers to final users

Major functions include

• Order processing
• Warehousing
• Inventory Management
• Transportation.

12. If you think of your store as a doorway and just on the other side of the
doorway is your customer who is reluctant to enter in the shop. How do you
get them to come in? You can choose to pull the prospect through the door or
you can push them through the door. Explain both concepts (pull marketing
and push marketing) with the help of examples.

Answer:
Push Marketing
A promotion strategy that calls for using the sales force and trade advertising to push the
product through the channel is called push marketing. For example the manufacturer
promotes the product to wholesalers, the wholesalers promote to retailers and finally the
retailers promote to consumers.

Pull Marketing
A promotional strategy that calls for spending a lot on advertising and consumer
promotion to build up consumer demand pull marketing. For example if consumer will
ask their retailers for the product, the retailer will ask the wholesalers and wholesalers
will ask the producers.
 13. What do you understand by direct marketing; discuss the advantages of
direct marketing?

Answer:
Direct marketing consists of direct communication with carefully targeted individual
consumers to both obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting customer
relationship, with no intermediary levels and is also called one to one marketing. It has
been hailed by some marketers as “marketing model of the next millennium”.

Advantages
It brings so many benefits to both Buyer & Seller which are as follows.

Advantages for buyers.

• Provides wealth of proportional information.
• Greater product access and selection.
• Handy, easy & private.
• Some companies allow buyers to design their own products online (For example,
HP allows customers to make their tailor made notebook online and quotes
immediately)

Advantages for Sellers.

• Because of its one-to-one, interactive nature, the Internet is an especially
compelling marketing tool.
• Continuous relationships with customers can be developed.
• Diminish costs and increase speed and efficiency.
• A powerful tool for customer relationship building.
• It can also be timed to reach prospects at just the right moment.
• The internet is a truly global medium and online marketing offers greater
flexibility.
• Buyers are now active participants in shaping the marketing offer and process.

14. Mr. Danish is a marketing head of credit card department at bank UBL. He
is interested in establishing a sales force to market the bank Visa card. What
do you understand by the term “sales force” and what steps Mr. Danish will
take to manage the sales force?

Answer:

Salespeople act for a company and perform following tasks.

Prospecting of new business,
Communicating with potential and existing customers;
Servicing customers and information gathering.
Help business customers and find ways to economize

Sales force Management: sales force are those people who represent the company to the
costumers and act as an intermediary linking costumers to the company.
Mr. Danish will first analyze the sales force. After that he will plan, implement and
control the sales force. In alkalizing of sales force Danish will select the best sale force
that are initiative, self confident and enthusiastic he will train his sales force according to
the rules and regulation of the company. Compensation is also very important for sales
force. By supervision Danish can motivates the sale force.

15. What is consumer black box? How many parts are in consumer black box?

Consumer black box is the behavior of the buyer. Consumer purchases many things in his
routine life. How consumer responds to various marketing efforts. Who, where, why are
the questions which are to be addressed in consumer black box. There are two parts of
black box.
1. The buyer’s characteristics influence how he perceive and react to stimuli.
2. The buyer’s decision process.

16. One of the disadvantages of personal selling is the high cost in maintaining
this type of promotional effort. Discuss it by giving your views regard cost.

The disadvantages of personal selling are:

• It is very expensive to deal with each contact
• Labor intensive
• Lots of calls may required to generate a single sale
• Attention of high caliber people is difficult to attain.
• It is costly to maintain and develop a sales force.

17. While deciding on the advertising budget a marketer should have to consider
some specific factors. List down any five factors which affect the budget
decisions of marketer.
• For new products huge advertisement is required and it also needs a
considerable budget.
• Competition and clutter: As there are also lots of competitors and there
clutters.
• Market Share: for high quality brands more advertisement is needed.
• Product Differentiation: when there are more than one products similar to
each other, heavy advertisement is required to differentiate the product.

18. Why companies are focusing more on logistics management? Give reasons.

Companies are required to be good in store, handling and move their goods so that they
are available to customers at right place and the right time with full satisfaction. It has
major impact on customer satisfaction and company costs. Modern logistics involves
planning, implementing, and controlling the physical flow of materials, final goods, and
related information from points of origin to points of consumption to meet customer
requirements at a profit.
It includes production of the product and delivery of the product to the customer ware
house or outlet. Logistics Management not only address the problems of outbound
distribution but also inbound distribution. It also involves in supply chain management
and value added flows from producer to supplier.
There must be some goals or objectives for logistics management like providing target
level of customer satisfaction with least cost. Logistics management is the coordination
of producer, purchasing agent market, marketers and customers. These activities include
forecasting, information systems, purchasing, order processing, inventory, warehousing,
and transportation planning.

19. You purchased a Television from Sony Company, shopkeeper offered you a
cash discount and mentioned this term 2/10 net 30 for making a payment. Do
you have an idea about cash discount and the term 2/10 net 30?

Answer:
30 is showing the last date of agreed payment to be paid and 2/10 is showing that if
you pay in 10 day then you have 2% discount of the agreed payment.

20. Discuss how channel members interact and how they organize to perform the
work of the channel.

All channel members are dependent on each other. They assign the task and goals to each
other and meet the objectives. They perform several functions and act as individual in
their own goals. They often disagree on the goals who should do what task and for what
reward. This create channel conflict.
1. Vertical Conflict in Channel
2. Horizontal Conflict in Channel
This confliction is solved by the strong leadership.

21. Pricing decisions can have important consequences for the organization and
the attention given by the marketer to pricing is just as important as the
attention given to more recognizable marketing activities. Discuss those
reasons due to which Price is considered MOST important?

Answer:
Pricing play a major rule in the marketing mix to achieve the strategic goals of the
organization. Pricing is important in competing the competitors, reseller needs and
government actions it depends upon the nature of market and demand. Following are the
some salient features under which price is considered most important:
1. Competitors cost of items
2. Economic Conditions of the country and end user
3. Interest Rate
 4. Government

In order to compete the market the company must considered the competitors pricing and
make its own strategy in order to penetrate in the market. While pricing the consideration
of economic conditions of the country are also important and impact of company’s price
on the overall revenue of the company. Economic factors like that boom or recession in
the country have a greater impact during price decision . Interest Rate also describe the
economical value of the country and help in price decision making. Government policy
against prices and taxes play more important role in the decision of pricing. Overall the
company should set price that give the resellers a fair profit and encourage.

22. While deciding on the advertising budget a marketer should have to consider
some specific factors. List down any five factors which affect the budget
decisions of marketer.

Answer:
Every advertising in the company is monetary and have impact on the budget. The factors
that can affect the budget decisions of marketer are following.
1. Media
2. Designing Message
3. Percentage of Sale Required
4. Advertising period
5. Advertising Mode

23. Retailers may offer one of three levels of service. Describe the types of
retailers on the basis of services they offer?

Retailers are divided into 2 groups, store retailers and non store retailers. The services
which store retailer performs are the product line sold, retail organization format,
control of outlets and relative prices charging. The service which non store retailers
perform are they do door to door selling, direct marketing, telephone and TV
shopping shows. Online services and internet Etc.

24. What do you understand by the term “Communication”, how many element
are in communication process. Enlist those elements with a brief explanation.

Communication: it is a process of sending and receiving messages and getting a

response.

In communication process there are the following 7 elements.

 Message: it is the data which sender wants to transmit

Media; it is a channel or medium used for communication. For example, internet,

phone or letter.

Decoding is a process in which the receiver translates the message of sender into its
original form.

Receiver is the person who receives the sender's message.

Response is the reaction of the receiver after he receives the message.

Feedback is the message of the receiver to the sender.

Noise is the distorted or barriers in the communication process.

25. Decision of the Pricing is very critical for marketers in today’s market, how
would you explain this concept of Price and write alternate names that you
can call the price? Are pricing for profit organization or for non-profit
organization? Discuss it.

There are the following factors which are considerable when sitting a price.

Price are in different types, for example, tax, rate, fees, tuition, interest, fare, toll etc.

Internal factors: marketing objectives, marketing mix strategy, costs, organizational

consideration.

External factors: nature of market and demand, competition, environmental factor i.e.
economic and government. Both profit and non profit organization use pricing
strategies.

26. E-commerce (electronic commerce or EC) is the buying and selling of goods
and services on the Internet, especially the World Wide Web. What do you
know about the benefits of using E-Commerce to buyer and seller?

ANS: Benefits of E-Commerce to Buyer:

• Easy and private
• Convenience
• Greater product access
• Easy to compare products
• Interaction is easy and immediate
 Benefits of E-Commerce to Sellers
• It builds relationship between consumer and seller
• Increased speed and efficiency
• Flexibility
• Access and reach is global
• Cost is reduced

27. Sales promotion is one of the methods of promoting the product in the
market. How would you describe it and how many types of Sales Promotion?

ANS: SALES PROMOTION: Sales promotion is offering of short-term incentives to

the buyers to purchase a product or use a service. It forces the buyer to do the purchase
now.
Types of Sales Promotion:
There are a total of nine types of sales promotion offers.
• Samples: Samples are offers of a trial amount of a product .It is a way to
introduce a new product.
• Coupons: These are certificates that give buyers a saving when they buy a
product.
• Premiums: These are goods offered for a free or at a low cost.
• Patronage rewards: These are cash or other awards offered for a regular use of a
product.
• Cash refunds: It is a reduction in price after purchase not at the retail outlet.
• Point-of-purchase promotion: In point of purchase promotion a display and
demonstration is taken place at the point of purchase.
• Advertising specialties: These are useful things on which the name of advertiser
is written and given to buyers as a gift.
• Price Packs: They offer a saving off the regular price of product. Reduced price
is marked by the producer directly on the label.
• Contests: Contests give consumer the chance to win something.

28. When choosing a distribution strategy a marketer must determine what

value a channel member adds to the firm’s products. So marketer must
assess the benefits received from utilizing a channel partner. Discuss the
benefits Offered by Channel Members in detail?

ANS: DISTRIBUTION/MARKETING CHANNEL: Marketing channel or distribution

channel is a set of independent organizations who are involved in the process of making
the product available to the consumers.
Each member in the distribution channel adds a value to the supply chain.
Therefore they must be managed well to achieve maximum benefit.
Benefits offered by channel members:
The channel members offer a number of benefits which are as follows
• Information
 • Matching
• Contact
• Negotiation
• Promotion
• Physical distribution

29. What do you understand by direct marketing; discuss the advantages of

direct marketing?

ANS: DIRECT MARKETING: Direct marketing is the act of narrowly targeting and
one to one marketing. Its main aim is to develop long term customer relationship. The
marketers interact with customers on a one to one basis.
There are various forms of direct marketing.
Advantages of direct marketing:
• It is a strong way of building long term customer relationship.
• It is convenient
• The buying process becomes easy
• It reduces cost and increase efficiency.
• It provides an easy way to compare products
• Greater reach to products

30. Decision of the Pricing is very critical for marketers in today’s

market, how would you explain this concept of Price and write alternate
names that you can call the price? Are pricing for profit organization or for
non-profit organization? Discuss it.

There are the following factors which are considerable when sitting a price.
Price are in different types, for example, tax, rate, fees, tuition, interest, fare, toll etc.
Internal factors: marketing objectives, marketing mix strategy, costs, organizational
consideration.
External factors: nature of market and demand, competition, environmental factor i.e.
economic and government. Both profit and non profit organization use pricing strategies.

31. A marketer plays an important role in increasing the sales of an

organization. What guiding principles did he follow to become a successful
marketer and which skills he needed?

ANSWER:
• He should satisfy the customers' need with quality product, competitive price and
satisfaction on the company's brand.
• He should meet the market demand by supplying sufficient quantity of his
products as, when and where demanded.
• He should use the modern techniques of promotion of his product or service to
convince the mind of customers.
• He should provide good after sale services to further satisfy the customers.
Feedback from the market and take remedial measures to improve the quality of
product, packaging and labeling should also be improved.
• He will have good market survey to ensure the improvement of his product and
competitive price.