MN3141 MCQ Assignment 1

Marketer A develops a fast food restaurant which provides customers a place to consume their food and also to socialise. The foods on offer take into account the prevailing culture and the disposable income of their intended customers.

• This marketer has taken into account customers' physical needs, wants and demands.

• This marketer has taken into account customers' wants and demands.

• The marketer has not taken into account customers social and physical needs, or their wants and demands.

• This marketer has taken into account customers' physical and social needs, wants and demands.

Answer explanation

This question requires you to be able to recognise course concepts when considering a business situation. This is an important skill when you are thinking of developing your own examples to illustrate course concepts.

Difficulty level moderate.

The correct answer is: This marketer has taken into account customers' physical and social needs, wants and demands.

The marketing orientation always promotes the customers' best interests.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

You should be sure that you are aware of the logic that explains why this is the correct answer. It is because customers may express a need and want for a product or service, which may actually harm them either in the short run or the long run. Think of the marketing of various popular fast foods.

 

This question is based on the notion that marketing oriented firms seek to address customer needs and wants. The question teases out the implications of this.

 

Difficulty level: Easy

 

The correct answer is 'False'.

This business orientation works on the assumption that unless customers are heavily persuaded to make a purchase they will not do so. This orientation may be particularly effective for the marketing of goods and services where customers may not recognise they have a need for the offering.

• Production orientation

• Product orientation

• Sales orientation

• Marketing orientation

Answer explanation

The correct answer is: Sales orientation

In the Study Guide, Vargo & Lusch (2004) are cited as saying that marketing initially started with a focus on the distribution and exchange of commodities, they describe this as being __________.

• Marketing-dominant logic

• Goods-dominant logic

• Profit-dominant logic

• Marketing orientation

Answer explanation

The reason why this is referred to as a goods-dominant logic is because marketers considered the marketing and distribution of goods as an end in its own right and did not consider the value component of the goods over the period that customers owned them.

 

This the concept of goods dominant logic is one which is applicable to a range of different topics in the course, it reflects a particular approach that marketers can have to their relationship with customers and the nature of the interaction between them (i.e. the extent to which customers are active or passive in the creation of the value that they receive).

 

Difficulty level moderate

 

The correct answer is: Goods-dominant logic.

A key factor accounting for the difference in behaviour between customers and clients is:

• Exchange

• Value

• Information asymmetry

• Segmentation

Answer explanation

It is argued that there is more information asymmetry between clients and marketers as opposed to the asymmetry that exists between customers and sellers. This leads to a greater level of perceived risk amongst clients a term generally used to refer to the people who buy professional services such as law, accounting and so on. See section 3.3 of the Study Guide for more information.

 

The value to you in understanding the issue underpinning this question is the recognition that information asymmetry is something which can differentiate between different types of buyers. This difference is important because it has implications for the way in which buyers make their purchasing decisions.

 

Difficulty level: Moderate

 

The correct answer is: Information asymmetry

Facebook defines its competitors in the following manner. Based on this information, how would you define Facebook's competitors?

 

[Facebook Annual Report 2014]

 

Companies that offer full-featured products that replicate the range of communications and related capabilities we provide. These offerings include, for example, Google+, which Google has integrated with certain of its products, including search and Android, as well as other, largely regional, social networks that have strong positions in particular countries.

 

Companies that develop applications, particularly mobile applications, that provide social or other communications functionality, such as messaging, photo and video-sharing, and micro-blogging.

 

Companies that provide web and mobile-based information and entertainment products and services that are designed to engage people and capture time spent online and on mobile devices.

 

Traditional, online, and mobile businesses that provide media for marketers

• United States based social networking sites and those in other countries

• Facebook's competitors are only products that offer social/communications benefits.

• Any organisations that seek to capture time that people spend online

• Google and Android

Answer explanation

This question aims to show you how firms can define their competitors in fairly broad terms, perhaps on the basis of the overall customer need that those firms are aiming to address. Defining competition need not be on the basis focusing on firms who sell products or services that have the same form as that sold by a company. See the chapter in Kotler and Armstrong dealing with the micro-environment for coverage of competition.

 

Difficulty level: Hard

 

The correct answer is: Any organisations that seek to capture time that people spend on line

In its battle with Shell plc, Greenpeace gathered the support of church leaders, other environmental groups and political leaders. This was designed to increase Greenpeace's salience in which manner?

• By raising Shell's dependence on Greenpeace

• By raising the power that Greenpeace had

• By raising the legitimacy of Greenpeace's claims

• By making Greenpeace dangerous to Shell

Answer explanation

This approach had nothing to do with coercion, the use of utilitarian power or normative power.

 

This question is specific to the issues covered in section 3.2.2 of the Study Guide. This question should help you to link a specific element of the satakeholder salience model to an example of marketing practice, this should help to show you how the concept can be used in real life.

 

If you want to find out more about this example you can refer to the following paper:

 

Isabelle Maignan O.C. Ferrell Linda Ferrell, (2005),"A stakeholder model for implementing social responsibility in marketing", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 39 Iss 9/10 pp. 956 - 977 Permanent link to this document:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/03090560510610662

 

Difficulty level: Hard

 

The correct answer is: By raising the legitimacy of Greenpeace's claims.

Smith et al (2010:7) argue that even stakeholders who lack power or legitimacy may still deserve to be heard because they may become powerful in the future.

• True

• False

Answer explanation

This is especially where the public or regulators become concerned about their welfare.

 

This question is based on Section 3.4.1 of the Study Guide. This is a relatively easy question because it is simply true or false. However, you should ensure that you are confident with the answer you provided and the reason why the right answer is correct.

 

Difficulty level: Moderate

 

The correct answer is 'True'.

Which of the following options contains only but comprehensively, the elements of the micro-environment?

• The company, suppliers, marketing intermediaries, publics, competitors

• The company, suppliers, marketing intermediaries, publics, economy, competitors

• Demographics, technology, natural environment, political and social environment, the company, suppliers, marketing intermediaries, publics, economy, competitors

• Demographics, technology, natural environment, political and social environment

Answer explanation

The correct answer is: The company, suppliers, marketing intermediaries, publics, competitors.

What is the missing word in the following quotation:

If the ____ needs are relatively well gratified, there then emerges a new set of needs, which we may categorize roughly as the safety needs.

 

http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Maslow/motivation.htm

• Social needs

• Self-actualisation needs

• Self-esteem needs

• Physiological needs

Answer explanation

This question tests your knowledge of the Maslow hierarchy and the different levels within it. You will need to know these levels and what they refer to, for a wide variety of exam questions.

 

Difficulty level: Easy

 

The correct answer is: Physiological needs