1.

Identify the key elements

of a customer-driven marketing strategy and discuss
the marketing management orientations that guide
marketing strategy. (pp 8–12) 195
To design a winning marketing strategy, the company must first
decide whom it will serve. It does this by dividing the market into
segments of customers (market segmentation) and selecting
which segments it will cultivate (target marketing). Next, the company
must decide how it will serve targeted customers (how it will
differentiate and position itself in the marketplace).
Marketing management can adopt one of five competing market
orientations.

The production concept holds that management’s

task is to improve production efficiency and bring down prices.

product concept holds that consumers favor products that offer the
most in quality, performance, and innovative features; thus, little
promotional effort is required.

The selling concept holds that consumers

will not buy enough of an organization’s products unless it
undertakes a large-scale selling and promotion effort.

The marketing concept holds that achieving organizational goals depends

on determining the needs and wants of target markets and
delivering the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently
than competitors do.

The societal marketing concept holds that

generating customer satisfaction and long-run societal well-being
through sustainable marketing strategies keyed to both achieving
the company’s goals and fulfilling its responsibilities.
2.List the marketing management
functions, including the elements of a marketing
plan, and discuss the importance of measuring and
managing return on marketing investment. (pp 53–58) 206
To find the best strategy and mix and to put them into action, the
company engages in marketing analysis, planning, implementation,
and control. The main components of a marketing plan are
the executive summary, the current marketing situation, threats
and opportunities, objectives and issues, marketing strategies, action
programs, budgets, and controls. To plan good strategies is
often easier than to carry them out. To be successful, companies
must also be effective at implementation—turning marketing
strategies into marketing actions.
Marketing departments can be organized in one or a combination
of ways: functional marketing organization, geographic organization,
product management organization, or market management
organization. In this age of customer relationships, more and more
companies are now changing their organizational focus from product
or territory management to customer relationship management.
Marketing organizations carry out marketing control, both operating
control and strategic control.
Marketing managers must ensure that their marketing dollars
are being well spent. In a tighter economy, today’s marketers face
growing pressures to show that they are adding value in line with
their costs. In response, marketers are developing better measures
of return on marketing investment. Increasingly, they are using
customer-centered measures of marketing impact as a key input
into their strategic decision making.
4. Outline the steps in the marketing
research process. (pp 103–119) 202
The first step in the marketing research process involves defining
the problem and setting the research objectives, which may be exploratory,
descriptive, or causal research. The second step consists
of developing a research plan for collecting data from primary and
secondary sources. The third step calls for implementing the marketing
research plan by gathering, processing, and analyzing the
information. The fourth step consists of interpreting and reporting
the findings. Additional information analysis helps marketing
managers apply the information and provides them with sophisticated
statistical procedures and models from which to develop
more rigorous findings.
Both internal and external secondary data sources often provide
information more quickly and at a lower cost than primary
data sources, and they can sometimes yield information that a
company cannot collect by itself. However, needed information
might not exist in secondary sources. Researchers must also evaluate
secondary information to ensure that it is relevant, accurate,
current, and impartial.
Primary research must also be evaluated for these features.
Each primary data collection method—observational, survey, and
experimental—has its own advantages and disadvantages. Similarly,
each of the various research contact methods—mail, telephone,
personal interview, and online—also has its own
advantages and drawbacks.
5. List and define the major types
of buying decision behavior and the stages
in the buyer decision process. (pp 150–156) 222
Buying behavior may vary greatly across different types of products
and buying decisions. Consumers undertake complex buying
behavior when they are highly involved in a purchase and perceive
significant differences among brands. Dissonance-reducing behavior
occurs when consumers are highly involved but see little
difference among brands. Habitual buying behavior occurs under
conditions of low involvement and little significant brand difference.
In situations characterized by low involvement but significant
perceived brand differences, consumers engage in
variety-seeking buying behavior. When making a purchase, the buyer goes through a decision
process consisting of need recognition, information search,
evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and postpurchase behavior.
The marketer’s job is to understand the buyer’s behavior at
each stage and the influences that are operating. During need recognition,
the consumer recognizes a problem or need that could be satisfied
by a product or service in the market. Once the need is
recognized, the consumer is aroused to seek more information and
moves into the information search stage. With information in hand,
the consumer proceeds to alternative evaluation, during which the information
is used to evaluate brands in the choice set. From there, the
consumer makes a purchase decision and actually buys the product.
In the final stage of the buyer decision process, postpurchase behavior,
the consumer takes action based on satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
6. List and define the steps in the
business buying decision process. (pp 176–180) 164
The business buying decision process itself can be quite involved, with
eight basic stages: problem recognition, general need description,
product specification, supplier search, proposal solicitation, supplier
selection, order-routine specification, and performance review. Buyers
who face a new task buying situation usually go through all stages
of the buying process. Buyers making modified or straight rebuys may
skip some of the stages. Companies must manage the overall customer
relationship, which often includes many different buying decisions
in various stages of the buying decision process.
Recent advances in information technology have given birth to
“e-procurement,” by which business buyers are purchasing all
kinds of products and services online. The Internet gives business
buyers access to new suppliers, lowers purchasing costs, and hastens
order processing and delivery. However, e-procurement can
also erode customer-supplier relationships and create potential security
problems. Still, business marketers are increasingly connecting
with customers online to share marketing information, sell
products and services, provide customer support services, and
maintain ongoing customer relationships.