1.

“Marketers have evolved beyond being merely product or production focused, where the
company mind-set is, ‘Let’s just build a better mouse trap’. We know that approach doesn’t
work.” (Iacobucci, D. (2012) MM3 Page 5)

What is marketing? In your answer, you should:

(a) Explain why marketing is critical to every organisation; (5 marks)

(b) Discuss the marketing framework; (5 marks)
(c) Describe the concept “marketing is an exchange”; (5 marks)
(d) Use at least two examples(to describe what is marketing), including one for-profit
and one not-for-profit organistion; (5 marks)

Q.1. Marketing: an organizational function in a set of processes for creating, communicating, and
delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationship in ways that benefit the
organization and its stakeholders.

Create value for customers:

 Understand the market place and customer needs and wants.

 Design a marketing strategy.

Deliver and communicate value:

 Construct an integrated marketing mix that deliver superior value.

 Build profitable relationship and create customer delight.

Capture value from customer:

 Capture value from customer to create value profits and customer’s equity.

Understanding the market place and customer needs:

Needs: State of felt deprivation.

Wants: The form taken by human needs as they are shaped by culture and individual
personality.

Demands: Human wants that are backed by buying power.

Market offering:
Some combination of products, services, information or experiences offer to a market to satisfy
a need or a want.

Product:
Anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use or consumption that
might satisfy want or a need. It includes physical objects, persons, services, places,
organizations, and ideas.

Customer satisfaction:
The extent to which a product’s perceive performance matches a buyer expectation.

Exchange:
The act of obtaining a desire object from someone by offering something in return.

Q.2 Describe the consumer decision-making process. Explain in what ways the consumer
decision-making process might change when it is applied to a high versus low involvement
product. Use an example to illustrate your answer.
Consumer behavior:
The phases consumer to through when making a purchase.

Purchase process:
1. Pre-purchase.
 Identify need or want.
 Search possible solution.
 Build consideration set.

2. Purchase:
 Narrow consideration set.
 Decide on retail channel.

3. Post-purchase:
 Customer satisfaction.
  Likelihood to repeat.
 Generate word of mouth.

Character influencing consumer behavior:

Cultural: Set of basic values, perception, wants, and behaviors learned from behaviors of
society, family, and other important institution.

Social: Relatively permanent and ordered division in a society whose members share similar
values, interest and behavior. It can be categorized into household, reference group, roles and
status.

Psychographic: Technique of measuring lifestyles and developing lifestyle classification.

Psychographic factors can be:

 Motivation.
 Perception.
 Learning.
 Beliefs and attitudes.
 Personality and self-concept.

Environmental influences:

 Economic.
 Technological.
 Political.

Marketing programs:

 Marketing objectives.
 Marketing strategies.
 Marketing mix.

Q.3. Having identified the major customer segments in a market, a company must select its
target or targets. Describe the criteria might it use to do this? Provide examples.

Market segmentation:
The process of classifying customers into groups with different needs, characteristics or
behavior. There is no single way to segment the market but the main variables on which the
market can be segmented are as follows:

Geographic

Dividing the market into different geographical units. For example:

 Religion.
 City.
 Density.
 Climate.

Demographic:

Dividing the market into groups based on demographic variable, such as:

 Age.
 Sex.
 Family size.
 Income.
 Occupation.
 Education.
 Nationality.
 Habitat.

Psychographic: Dividing the market into different groups based on their:

 Social class.
 Lifestyle.
 Personality.
 Beliefs and attitudes.

Behavioral: Dividing the market into groups based on behavior, such as:

 Knowledge.
 Attitude.

Q.4 ‘Why bother target marketing? By marketing my product to the entire market, I have a
greater chance of success.’ Discuss this statement by comparing the benefits of using targeting
as opposed to not using it. Your discussion should demonstrate the link between targeting and
the overall role and philosophy of marketing. Illustrate your answer with a company of your
choice.

Target market:

Set of buyers sharing common needs or characteristic that the company decide to serve.
Company can adopt one of the three target market coverage strategies:

Undifferentiated marketing:

Market coverage strategy in which a company might decides to ignore market segments
differences and go after the whole market with one market offer.

Differentiated marketing:

Market coverage strategy in which a company decides to target several market segments and
designs separate offers for each.

Concentrated marketing:

A market coverage strategy in which a company goes after a large share of one or a few
submarkets.

Discuss SWOT also.

Q.5 Explain product positioning. Discuss whether it is necessary to position a product or can a
product succeed in the market without a formal positioning strategy? Use examples to illustrate.

Product position:

The way the product is defined by consumers on important attributes, the place the product
occupies in consumer minds relative to competing products.

Positioning strategies:

Marketers can follow several positioning strategies. They can position their products on a
specific product attributes. Products can be positioned on the need they feel or on the benefits
they offer. They can be positioned according to usage, occasions, or classes of usage. A
product also can be positioned directly against the competitors or away from competitors but
ultimately the product can be positioned for different product classes.

For example:

 Some margarines are positioned against butter, others against cooking oils.
 Dove hand soap is positioned with bath oils rather than with soaps.

Choosing and implementing positioning strategy:

Some firms find it easy to choose their positioning strategy. For example, a firm that is well
known for a quality in certain segments will go for disposition in a new segment if it sees enough
buyers seeking quality but in many cases two or more firms will go after the same position then
each of the firm will find other ways to set itself apart such as promising high quality for a lower
cost or high quality with more technical service.

Q6 (additional question 2)

Brand:

A name, term, sign, symbol or design or a combination of these intended to identify the goods or
services of one seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.

Customer benefits of branding:

 Brand convey information e.g., ownership

 Brand signal consistent quality –Sony is a good brand
 Brand reduce consumer risks-comes about because brand is reliable and predictable in
quality
 Brands make consumer decision making easier.
 Brand confer status e.g., BMW

Umbrella brand approach:

Attaching the same brand name to products

 Subsequent product introductions are easier for the customer to understand and accept.
  Higher initial awareness level.
 Build stronger brand associations
 Strong financial outcomes

E.g. Disney movies, parks, clothing, etc.

House brand approach:

Introducing a new brand name for every product line

 Any problems with one brand should not influence the other brands.
 Brand images do not need to be consistent which allows for targeting multiple segments.
E.g. Marriott-Courtyard, Fairfield, Ritz
 Requires more advertising expense
E.g. Procter & Gamble has 80 major brands

Q.7. Describe the communication process, and the various steps between the sender and the
receiver. Discuss whether this process is necessary in the development of a communication
strategy. Describe the potential benefits of using the process and potential downfalls of not
using it? Use examples to illustrate.

Communication:

Communication is defined as a process by which information is exchanged between individuals

through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior.

Process of communication:

Communication involves nine elements. Two of these elements are the parties in a
communication, the sender and the receiver. These elements are explained as follows:

Sender:

The party sending the message to another party.

Encoding:

The process of putting thought into symbolic form. E.g. Big Ponds advertising agency
assembles words and illustration into an advertisement that will convey the intended message.
Message:

The set of symbols that the sender transmits i.e. the actual advertisement.

Media:

The communication channels through which the message moves from sender to receiver: In this
case, the magazine chosen by Big Pond Agency.

Decoding:

The process by which the receiver assigns meaning to the symbols encoded by the sender: A
consumer notices the ad and interprets the words and illustration it contains.

Receiver:

The party receiving the message sent by another party. The consumer who looks at the
advertisement.

Response:

The reactions of the receivers after being exposed to the message any of hundreds of possible
responses, such as the customer prefers Big Pond Service.

Feedback:

The part of the receiver response communicated back to the center is known as feedback.

Noise:

The unplanned static or distortion during the communication process that results in the receiver
getting different message from the intended.

The potential benefits of effective communication are as follows:

 Employee motivation: Employee motivation helps them feel part of business and giving
their best and effective performance as a part of the organization.
  Control and coordination: Effective control and coordination in the business activity
prevents different parts of business going in opposite directions.
 Decision making: Effective communication makes successful decision making easier i.e.
decisions are based on more complete and accurate precise information.
 Enhancing sales: Better communication with customer will increase sales up to the
profitable situation.
 Supplier relationship: Better and effective communication improves relationship with
suppliers with or within an organization.
 Improving Finance: As indicated communication is the connection between almost every
means, so efficient communication improves chances of obtaining finance. For instance,
keeping bank up-to-date of how business is doing.

Q.8. ‘Channels of distribution do not differ for goods and services.’ Discuss, using examples
to illustrate why this may or may not be true.

Members of the marketing channel move products from producers, imports to end consumers.
This overcomes the major time, places that separate goods and services from those who would
use them.

Information:

Gathering and distributing marketing research and intelligence, information about actors and
forces in the marketing environment needed for planning and aiding exchange.

Promotion:

Developing and spreading effective communication about an offer.

Contact:

Finding and communicating with prospective buyers.

Matching:

Shaping and fitting the offer to the buyer’s needs, including such activities manufacturing,
importing, grading, assembling, and packaging.

Negotiation:
Reaching an agreement on price and other terms of the offer so that ownership or possession
can be transferred.

Physical distribution:

Transporting and storing goods.

Financing:

Acquiring and using funds to cover the cost of the channel work.

Risk taking:

Assuming the risk of carrying other channel work.

Example: Holden and Ford sell their cars to a number of independent franchise dealers even
locally much less worldwide the car makers would be hard pressed to be able to afford to buy
out their dealers.

Q.9. ‘Why is it necessary to have intermediaries between a manufacturer and the consumer?
Who needs wholesalers, retailers and agents when the manufacturer can sell the product
direct?’ Discuss whether or not this is a valid suggestion. In your discussion you will need to link
the channel concept to the overall role and philosophy of marketing. Use examples to illustrate.

Distribution channel:

Distribution channel is a network of interdependent organization, intermediaries involved in the

making of product or service available for use or consumption by the consumer or industry user.

Many producers lack the financial resources to carry out direct and online marketing. For
example, Holden and Ford sell their cars through a number of independent franchise dealers.

Direct and online marketing would require produces to have the resources of all the
intermediaries in order to achieve the same mass distribution economies. For example, the pie
makers for N twenty or Jimmy’s would not find it practical to setup small pie shops around the
country. The use of intermediaries largely or extensively boils down to their greater efficiency in
making products available to target markets. Through their contracts, experiences,
specialization, and scale of operation, intermediaries usually offer the vendor firm more than it
can achieve on its own.