Some critics of marketing have suggested that market segmentation and target marketing lead to an unnecessary proliferation of product choices that wastes valuable resources. These critics suggest that if marketers didn’t create so many different product choices, there would be more resources to feed the hungry and house the homeless and provide for the needs of people around the globe. Are the results of segmentation and target marketing harmful or beneficial to society as a whole? Should firms be concerned about these criticisms? Why or why not?
> What are marketing analytics, and what kinds of insights are enabled by today’s marketing analytics solutions? What are predictive analytics?
> What is the difference between structured and unstructured data? What are some examples of each?
> Find an example of a brand extension that you believe negatively impacted consumer perceptions of the brand. Explain why you believe this to be the case by citing aspects of the brand extension that you believe were most detrimental as well as specific e
> What is data mining? For marketers, what are some of the most important applications?
> Describe the various sources of Big Data for marketers.
> How would you describe Big Data? What are some of the most significant sources of competitive advantage that Big Data offers?
> Explain the concepts of share of customer, lifetime value of a customer, customer equity, and customer prioritization.
> What is CRM? How do firms practice CRM?
> A study conducted by Adobe found that 77 percent of marketers surveyed believe that data on customer purchase histories can improve marketing performance, yet only 21 percent actually use it. Similarly, 88 percent believe that behavioral data can have a
> Describe the Internet and how Web 3.0 and 4.0 provide greater opportunities for marketers to interact with their customers.
> Imagine that you are building your own e-commerce site. Having a keen understanding of the importance of defining and putting in place a set of conversions and metrics in advance of launching the site, you have incorporated the definitions and developmen
> For this assignment you are going to act as a manual version of a software program that conducts sentiment analysis. Select a sample of comments (between three and five that do not contain any explicit words or expressions) created by users in response t
> As an admissions manager for a college or university, you are interested in exploring the use of predictive analytics within the admissions process to bring in students with a higher likelihood of graduating from the school and achieving greater levels o
> As an entrepreneur, you know you want to open a new grocery store, but you aren’t sure what kind of products you want to carry. Discuss the importance of national brands, store brands, and generic brands. Which brand or brands will your new story carry?
> When we consider data quality, what are the differences among validity, reliability, and representativeness? How can you know the data have high levels of these characteristics?
> What important issues must researchers consider when they plan to collect data online?
> What is a (computer) cookie? What ethical and privacy issues relate to cookies?
> GIGO—garbage in, garbage out—is mentioned in the chapter. What is the significance of this concept to market research?
> What are the main methods to collect primary data?
> Describe the purpose of casual research. How does it differ from descriptive research?
> What techniques can marketers use to gather data in exploratory research? How is this type of data collection useful?
> Explain how marketers practice the societal marketing concept and sustainability.
> Why is defining the problem to be researched so important to ultimate success with the research project?
> Define the concept of customer insights and the role it plays in market planning decisions.
> Assume that you are working in the marketing department of a major manufacturer of athletic shoes. Your firm is introducing a new product, a line of disposable sports clothing. That’s right—wear it once and toss it! You wonder if it would be better to ma
> How does a marketing decision support system (MDSS) allow marketers to easily get the information they need?
> What is the marketing information system (MIS)? What types of information does it include?
> How do probability and nonprobability samples differ? What are some types of probability samples? What are some types of nonprobability samples?
> What is a cross tabulation? How are cross tabulations useful to analyze and interpret data?
> Explain what descriptive research is.
> Explain the difference between primary data and secondary data.
> Are you willing to divulge personal information to market researchers? How much are you willing to tell, or where would you draw the line?
> Marketers in numerous industries can benefit from conducting market research on children. What do you think is the youngest age that would be appropriate to conduct research on a child? Why do you select this age?
> The American Psychological Association does not yet recognize Internet addiction as a problem. Should it? Why and why not?
> More and more companies are starting to employ customer insight specialists to make sense of the data collected about their customers. Do you think this position is really needed within companies, or is it just a fad? Explain your reasoning.
> You have been recently promoted at P&G and have been tasked with identifying five cobranding opportunities. These cobranded products could be P&G products or a P&G product cobranded with another firm’s brand. Describe each of the cobranding opportunities
> Some marketers attempt to disguise themselves as market researchers who want to ask you questions when their real intent is to sell something to the consumer. What is the impact of this practice on legitimate researchers? What do you think might be done
> Would you alter the settings on your computer to disallow cookies? Why or why not?
> One unobtrusive measure mentioned in this chapter involved going through consumers’ or competitors’ garbage. Do you think marketers should have the right to do this? Is it ethical?
> Would you be willing to participate in an ethnographic research study within your own home? Why or why not?
> Your firm is planning to begin marketing a consumer product in several global markets. You have been given the responsibility of developing plans for marketing research to be conducted in South Africa, in Spain, and in China. In a role-playing situation,
> Your marketing research firm is planning to conductsurveys to gather information for a number of clients. Your boss has asked you and a fewother new employees to do some preliminary work. She has asked each of you to choosethree of the topics (from among
> How does operational planning support the marketing plan?
> What is an action plan? Why are action plans such an important part of marketing planning? Why is it so important for marketers to break the implementation of a marketing plan down into individual elements through action plans?
> Give several examples of marketing metrics. How might a marketer use each metric to track progress of some important element of a marketing plan?
> What is utility? How does marketing create different forms of utility?
> You have been asked to give a presentation on the product life cycle to a small group of students who are interning at your firm this summer. Describe each of the stages of the product life cycle—introduction, growth, maturity, and decline—and give examp
> What is a test market? What are some pros and cons of test markets?
> Sometimes marketers will develop strategies to target multiple social class segments with the same product by offering it at different prices. What are some examples of products or brands that use this strategy and how do they accomplish it? Are there an
> What do you do when your customer starts to shrink, both literallyand figuratively? The sale of soft drinks in the U.S. is not what it used to be. The $98 billion soft-drink industry is beingchallenged by changes in consumers· attitudes toward bothsugar-
> Gamification was discussed in Chapter 6. For specific segments of a market, a gamification approach might help elicit a desired behavior from consumers, and of course in many cases the desired behavior is an increase in consumption of the related product
> Identify at least five alternative product options that you are interested in. Narrow down your selection to two or three choices. Which are the most feasible? What are the pros and cons of each?
> Describe the problem that might lead you to purchase this product.
> Make a final decision about which product you will purchase. Describe the heuristics that aided in your decision making.
> Use the Internet to gather some initial information about the product you chose. Visit at least two stores or locations where the product may be purchased to gather further information.
> If this is a product you have actually purchased, explain the reasoning behind your current satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the product. If not, develop several reasons you might be satisfied or dissatisfied with the product.
> Explain the steps in the business buying decision process.
> What is a buying center? What are the roles of the various people in a buying center?
> Describe the buyclass framework. What are new-task buys, modified rebuys, and straight rebuys?
> How do we generally classify B2B markets?
> Trace the evolution of the marketing concept.
> Explain what we mean by derived demand, inelastic demand, fluctuating demand, and joint demand.
> How do B2B markets differ from consumer markets?
> What are gender roles?
> What are opinion leaders?
> What are reference groups, and how do they influence consumers?
> What is the significance of social class to marketers?
> What are cultures, subcultures, and micro cultures? How do culture, subcultures, and microcultures influence consumer behavior?
> How do situational influences, such as the physical environment and time, shape consumer purchase decisions?
> What is personality?
> What are the three components of attitudes?
> List and describe the elements of the marketing mix.
> What is behavioral learning? What is cognitive learning?
> How does gamification influence consumers’ motivation to interact with brands?
> Describe Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as it relates to motivation.
> What is perception? Explain the parts of the perception process: exposure, attention, and interpretation. For marketers, what are the implications of each of these components?
> Explain the steps in the consumer decision-making process?
> Explain habitual decision making, limited problem solving, and extended problem solving. What is the role of perceived risk in the decision process?
> Explain the role of intranets and extranets in B2B e-commerce. Describe the security issues firms face in B2B e-commerce and some safeguards firms use to reduce their security risks.
> What is single sourcing? Multiple sourcing? Outsourcing?
> Explain what lifestyle means.
> What is family life cycle?
> What is involved in marketing planning?
> What is consumer behavior? Why is it important for marketers to understand consumer behavior?
> In the buying center, the gatekeeper controls information flow to others in the center. Thus, the gatekeeper determines which possible sellers are heard and which are not. Does the gatekeeper have too much power? What policies might be implemented to mak
> When firms implement a single sourcing policy in their buying, other possible suppliers do not have an opportunity to compete for the business. Is this ethical? What are the advantages to the company? What are the disadvantages?
> The practice of buying business products based on sealed competitive bids is popular among all types of business buyers. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this practice to buyers? What are the advantages and disadvantages to sellers? Should co
> M-commerce (short for mobile commerce) is a rapidly growing category of e-commerce that takes place via a smart phone or tablet instead of a desktop or laptop computer. How has M-commerce changed the way consumers shop? What do marketers need to do now a
> E-commerce is dramatically changing the way B2B transactions take place. What are the advantages of B2B e-commerce to companies? To society? Are there any disadvantages of B2B e-commerce?
> Consumers often buy products because they feel pressure from reference groups to conform. Does conformity exert a positive or a negative influence on consumers? With what types of products is conformity more likely to occur?
> Outsourcing and offshoring are practices often surrounded by controversy. What are the benefits of outsourcing for businesses? For consumers? What are the disadvantages of outsourcing for businesses? For consumers? Should outsourcing be regulated to prot
> Assume you are a sales manager of products used in landscaping. Your customers are municipalities that range in size from very large to very small. Your company offers its customers a wide range of products—everything from simple rakes and shovels to lar
> Think about some of the products and services you purchase each month (pizza on Saturday night or your smart phone bill) as well as a few impulse purchases you might make (new music from iTunes). Categorize each of these items according to Maslow’s hiera
> What does ii mean for a firm to have a competitive advantage? What gives a firm a competitive advantage?
> Briefly explain what marketing is.
> The country of Leverett is a small open economy. Suddenly, a change in world fashions makes the exports of Leverett unpopular. a. What happens in Leverett to saving, investment, net exports, the interest rate, and the exchange rate? b. The citizens of Le
> Who pays the inflation tax?
> An economy has the following money demand function: (M/P)d = .2Y/i ½. a. Derive an expression for the velocity of money. What does velocity depend on? Explain why this dependency may occur. b. Calculate velocity if the nominal interest rate i is 4 percen
> What are open-market operations, and how do they influence the money supply?
> An economy has a monetary base of 1,000 $1 bills. Calculate the money supply in scenarios (a)–(d) and then answer part (e). a. All money is held as currency. b. All money is held as demand deposits. Banks hold 100 percent of deposits as reserves. c. All
