Study Guide, Exam Two

BUSI 107, Spring 2006

1) Culture is the fundamental determinant of a person's wants and behavior. The growing child acquires a set of values, perceptions, preferences, and behaviors through his or her family and other key institutions. What values are the typical American young children exposed to?

2) Explain the concept of multicultural marketing.

3) People from the same subculture, social class, and occupation may lead quite different lifestyles. A lifestyle is a person's pattern of living in the world as expressed in activities, interests, and opinions. Lifestyle portrays the "whole person" interacting with his or her environment. Given this information, describe the LOHAS (an acronym) lifestyle described in the text and its usefulness in marketing.

4) Abraham Maslow sought to explain why people are driven by particular needs at particular times. Describe Maslow's hierarchy of needs. How does Maslow's theory help marketers?

5) Perception is the process by which an individual selects, organizes, and interprets information inputs to create a meaningful picture of the world. For a marketer, what is the key point of perception?

6) Explain the differences between a belief and an attitude.

7) If you were a purchasing agent facing a modified rebuy situation, how would you describe that situation?

8) Business-to-business (B2B) cyberbuying has become increasingly popular between purchasing agents and buying centers. How could "pure play" auction sites be used to conduct cyberbuying?

9) A starting point for discussing segmentation is mass marketing. Explain this concept.

10) When a marketer attempts to segment a consumer market, two broad groups of variables may be used. What are those two broad groups of variables? Give an example of each broad group.

11) Characterize psychographic segmentation.

12) Differentiated marketing typically creates more total sales than undifferentiated marketing. However, it also increases the costs of doing business. Assume that you are a marketing manager that is considering using differentiated marketing. What five costs that you encounter on a rather regular basis would most likely be higher because of your decision to pursue differentiated marketing?

13) Assume that you are marketing manager attempting to explain the concept of brand equity to a new employee in your department. What would be your explanation?

14) As a marketing manager, you have made a commitment to having a strong brand. List five advantages shared by other strong brands that you will most likely have to emulate to accomplish this objective.

15) As a branding manager, you have recommended to your board of directors a corporate policy of blanket family branding. Write a brief statement outlining the advantages of blanket family branding.

16) According to advertising executives Jack Trout and Al Ries, positioning is not what you do to a product. What is the proper perspective according to Trout and Ries?

17) With respect to points-of-parity, explain why a product does not have to be equal to a competitive product to be compared to that product.

18) As a company seeks to establish a category membership designation, how does the company approach points-of-difference? What is done first?

19) To communicate a company or brand positioning, marketing plans often include a positioning statement. What form should this statement follow?

20) As a marketing manager, you have the following facts about your product offering presented to you: (1) there is a slowdown in sales growth; (2) profits are stabilized; (3) competition has increased; and, (4) both profits and sales are likely to peak soon. Given these facts, what stage of the product life cycle is your product most likely in?

21) Most marketing managers know that most products are in the maturity stage of the life cycle. The maturity stage has been characterized as having three sub-stages or phases. What are those phases?

22) You have been given the assignment of critiquing the product life-cycle concept by pointing out weaknesses in the concept. What are the weaknesses that should be pointed out to an aspiring marketing manager?

23) According to information provided in Michael Porter's model that describes segment structural attractiveness, the threat of mobility can be encountered. In which of the five forces described by Porter would such a threat occur?

24) Restaurants and beauty parlors are examples of a form of competition known as monopolistic competition. Characterize monopolistic competition.

25) You are about to change the emphasis of your organization from a competitor-centered company to a customer-centered one. What are the advantages to making such a switch?