ASSIGNMENTS FOR MARKETING PRINCIPLES

Assignment #1 An Introduction to Marketing

Read chapter 1. Be prepared to answer the following questions if called on.
1. What is marketing?
2. What is a market?
3. Define the terms ultimate consumers and organizational buyers. Give examples
of each.
4. What is a target market? Why do most organizations focus on satisfying the
needs of one or more subgroups of a market rather than the entire market?
5. What are the four controllable marketing mix factors that make up the
organizations marketing program?
6. What are uncontrollable environmental factors?
7. Identify and describe the four distinct stages or eras of the market orientation.
8. Is marketing good or bad for a society. Support your answer. Find an article that
supports your argument and attach a copy. Be prepared to discuss your article in
class. Consider a society with no marketing.

Assignment #2 Strategic Planning and the Strategic Marketing Process

Read chapter 2. Be prepared to answer the following questions if called on.
1.
2.
3.
4.

What is strategic planning and why is it important?

Identify and define the three organizational levels.
What is a mission statement?
What are organizational objectives (goals)? Give some examples of different
types of objectives (goals) organizations might pursue.
5. What are organizational strategies?
6. What is business portfolio analysis? Draw an example of a growth-share matrix.
Label the axis. Identify and describe the four quadrants of the matrix. How
might strategic decisions differ depending on the SBUs placement in the matrix?
7. Define the strategic marketing process. How does it differ from strategic
planning?
8. What are the three main phases of the strategic marketing process? Briefly
describe the purpose of each phase.
9. What is a situation (SWOT) analysis?
10. Define the following: Marketing objective (goal), target market, and product
positioning.
11. Identify and define each of the four marketing mix elements that are specified in
the marketing program.
12. How do the objectives set for a marketing program in the planning phase relate to
the evaluation phase of the strategic marketing process?

Assignment #3 The Marketing Environment

Read chapter 3. Be prepared to answer the following questions if called on.
1. Define environmental scanning. Why is it important?
2 Environmental trends typically arise from five sources. What are they? Find an
article in a recent newspaper, magazine, etc. relating to a current trend in any of
the five source areas. Briefly discuss the trend. Attach a copy of the article.
3 What are demographics? Describe how America is changing demographically.
How should companies like Fisher Price and Disney respond to these changes?
4 Who are the baby boomers, generation X and generation Y? Why is it important
for marketers to identify and study these generational cohorts?
5 How have marketers responded to the changing racial and ethnic composition of
the U.S. population? Can you think of some specific examples?
6 Why must marketers gauge and anticipate economic conditions? Define
inflationary and recessionary economy.
7 What does the Consumer Confidence Index measure? How might changes in the
CCI impact business success?
8 What is the difference between gross, disposable, and discretionary income?
9 What are some examples of new technological developments rendering older
products obsolete?
10 How does legislation protecting competition benefit consumers?
11 What is the difference between patent law and copyright law?
12 Define the term trademark. What does the Lanham Act do? Why would Xerox
be concerned about its name becoming generic? Describe some of the recent
changes in trademark law.

Assignment # 4 Ethical and Social Responsibility in Marketing

Read chapter 4. Be prepared to answer the following questions if called on.
1. Define ethics. Define laws. Explain the differences between legal and ethical
behavior in marketing.
2. How do societal values and attitudes affect the way businesses and individuals
behave in the marketplace?
3. What does caveat emptor mean?
4. What rights are included in the Consumer Bill of Rights and what do each of
these rights mean?
5. What is economic espionage?
6. What is meant by social responsibility?

Assignment #5 Consumer Behavior

Read chapter 5. Be prepared to answer the following questions if called on.
1. What is the study of consumer behavior?
2. Identify and define the stages of the consumer purchase decision process.
3. What are the three problem-solving variations and how does each relate to the
consumers level of involvement? Give examples of one product youve bought
using each of the problem solving methods. What was your level of involvement
with each purchase?
4. What are psychological influences on consumer behavior? Give examples.
5. Describe Maslows Heirarchy. Name one product you might buy to satisfy a
need at each different level of the pyramid.
6. Define perception. How does selective perception affect consumer behavior?
7. Define behavioral learning and cognitive learning. Give examples of each.
8. Define attitudes. Describe how your attitude toward a specific product has
influenced your purchase of that product.
9. What are sociocultural influences on consumer behavior? Give examples.
10. What is consumer socialization? Identify a way that you have adopted your
parents marketplace behavior.
11. What is the family life cycle? In which stage would you characterize your
family?
12. Identify a membership, an aspirational and a dissociative reference group for you.
13. What is the difference between culture and subculture? Describe a subculture that
you personally belong to. List a product or service you buy as a result of
subcultural influences.
14. What are situational influences on consumer behavior?

Assignment #6 Market Segmentation and Target Marketing

Read chapter 9. Be prepared to answer the following questions if called on.
1. Define the following: market, market segment, and target market. How do they
differ from one another?
2. Why do business firms segment markets and subsequently concentrate on
satisfying the needs of specific segments?
3. What is market segmentation?
4. What are the primary bases for segmenting consumer markets?
5. Identify a product or service. Explain how you might segment the market for that
product or service using geographic segmentation.
6. Identify another product, or service. Explain how you might segment the market
for that product or service using demographic segmentation.
7. What is psychographic segmentation? Visit the following website:
strategicbusinessinsights.com/vals. Take the VALS survey. On question 39, if
you are not currently employed, include your best estimate of what your
household income will be when you get your first full time job. What is your
VALS type and description. How well do you think these results describe you?
8. Visit the following website: yawyl.claritas.com. Click on zip code look up.
Enter your zip code. Write down the most common PRIZM segments for your zip
code area. Print out a description for one of the segments.
10. What criteria might an organization use to select target segments to pursue?
11. What is product positioning? Draw a perceptual map that illustrates how
competing products in a market might be positioned. How do organizations
determine the most appropriate product positioning strategy?
Assignment #7 New Product Development
Read Chapter 10. Be prepared to answer the following questions if called on.
1. Define the term product.
2. Describe how a product item, product line and product mix are different from one
another?
3 How are consumer products classified? Give an example of a convenience,
shopping, specialty, and unsought product. When comparing convenience, and
specialty products, how might pricing strategy, distribution strategy, and
promotion differ?
4 How are business products classified?
5 When is a product considered new?
6 Google New Product Failures. Identify three of the more well known product
failures. Using Marketing Reasons for New-Product Failures on page 253,
analyze why these products may have failed.
7. What is the new product development process? What is its purpose?
8. List sources of new product ideas. Have you ever had a new product idea? What
was it? What circumstances led to your idea?
9. What are the seven major stages in the new product development process?
Briefly describe each stage.

Assignment #8 Product and Brand Management

Read Chapter 11. Be prepared to answer the following questions if called on.
1. Define Product Life Cycle.
2. Study figure 11-1. What are the stages of the product life cycle and what are the
characteristics of each stage? Give an example of products or services you
consider to be in each stage.
3. In what stage do sales peak? In what stage do profits peak?
4. How do marketing mix strategies differ as the product moves through the product
life cycle?
1. Define the terms brand name, trademark, and brand equity.
2. What five criteria are used most often when selecting good brand names?
3. Create a new brand name for a new bar of soap, snack, or retail outlet . Visit the
website www. uspto.gov. Check to see if the name has been registered. Enter
your brand name to find out if someone has registered your chosen name.
4. What is a family (multiproduct) branding strategy? What are the advantages of
this strategy? What is an individual branding strategy? When might this strategy
be used? What is private branding and mixed branding?
5. What are the major benefits of product packaging and labeling?
Assignment #9 - Pricing
Read chapters 13 and 14. Be prepared to answer the following questions if called on.
1. Define the term price.
2. Assume you were pricing items for a yard sale at your house. How would you price
the items if your objective was to maximize the profit margin per item sold?
How would you price them if your objective was to maximize sales volume? In
other words, clear out the inventory. If your next-door neighbor was also having a
sale the same day and had many of the same items for sale, how would you price
your items to maintain the status quo?
3. What is a demand schedule and a demand curve?
4. What is total revenue and how is it calculated using a demand schedule?
5. Define the concept of price elasticity of demand. What is elastic and inelastic
demand? How is it affected by the availability of product substitutes? How might
the price elasticity of a product impact total revenue when the price is changed?
6. Define break even analysis, fixed cost, variable cost, and total cost.
7. Answer number 7 of the Applying Marketing Knowledge questions on page 341.
Also draw a break-even chart illustrating the break-even point for this question.
8. Distinguish between skimming and penetration pricing. What are the circumstances
in pricing a new product that might support skimming or penetration?
9. Discounts are often used to adjust prices. What are quantity, seasonal, and cash
discounts?
10. What are trade-in allowances and promotional allowances?
11. Distinguish between FOB Origin Pricing and Uniform Delivered Pricing.
12. Do you think odd-even pricing works? Why or why not?
13. Compare and contrast loss leader pricing and bait and switch pricing? Which is
considered illegal? Why?
14. What is price discrimination? What is price fixing? Identify some deceptive
pricing practices outlawed by the Federal Trade Commission Act.

Assignment #10 Marketing Channels

Read Chapter 15. Be prepared to answer the following questions if called on.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

What is a marketing channel?

What are channel intermediaries? What three basic functions do they perform?
Distinguish between retailers, wholesalers, and agents?
What is the difference between direct and indirect channels?
What is intensive, selective, and exclusive distribution? How might specialty,
shopping, and convenience goods relate to intensive, selective and exclusive
distribution?
6. What is dual distribution? How might Hallmark use dual distribution? What are
some possible dangers to a manufacturer of using a dual distribution strategy?
7. What are vertical marketing systems? Identify and define the three types of
vertical marketing systems?
8. What questions should marketers consider when choosing a marketing channel
and intermediaries?
Assignment #11 Integrated Marketing Communications
Read Chapter 18 pages 457-464. Be prepared to answer the following questions if
called on.
1. Define promotion.
2. List and define the five promotional elements. Describe or bring an example of
each to class.
3. What is Integrated Marketing Communications? Why is it important?
4. Define communication.
5. Describe the communications process. What are the components? Give examples
of noise in the communications process.
Assignment #12 Advertising
Read Chapter 19 pages 485-502. Be prepared to answer the following questions if
called on.
1.
2.
3.
4.

What are pioneering, competitive, and reminder ads?

Identify and describe the steps taken to develop an advertising program.
What are advertising objectives? Give an example.
List and describe four methods of setting the advertising budget. Which method
would you use and why? (see pages 471-473)
5. List three types of appeals that are commonly used in advertising. Give an
example of a fear appeal that you have seen.
6. Review the major media types. List an advantage and disadvantage of each major
media type.
7. Explain the difference between pretesting and posttesting advertising copy.

Assignment #13 - Sales Promotion and Public Relations

Read Chapter 19 pages 505-512.
Be prepared to answer the following questions if called on.
1. What is the difference between consumer sales promotion and trade sales
promotion?
2. Collect four examples of consumer sales promotion. These may be collected from
magazines, newspapers, product packaging, etc.
3. Which sales promotion tool is most common for new products?
4. What are product placements? Give an example of a product placement that you
think has been particularly effective.
5. Identify three types of trade-oriented sales promotion.
6. What is cooperative advertising?
7. Identify and describe three publicity tools.

Assignment #14 Personal Selling

Read Chapter 20 pages 519-531. Be prepared to answer the following questions if
called on.
1. What is personal selling? What is relationship selling?
2. What are the three broad forms of personal selling? Briefly describe each.
3. Identify and briefly describe the stages in the personal selling process.