Examination topics for the first years (BA Department)

1. Products and brands.

What is a product? The definition of the product.

Usually , a product is definite like something capable to satisfy a need or want .
Thus services, activities, people (politicians, athletes, film stars), places (holiday resorts), organizations
(hospitals, colleges, political parties), and ideas, as well as physical objects offered for sale by retailers, can
be considered as products.
What is a brand? Brand names. Brand loyalty. Brand- switcher.
A trademark or distinctive name identifying a product or manufacturer is called brand .
Some manufactures use their name (the 'family name') for all their products, e.g. Philips, Colgate, Yamaha.
Others, including Unilever and Procter & Gamble, market various products under individual brand names,
with the result that many customers are unfamiliar with the name of the manufacturing company. A lot of
manufactures practice the multi-brand strategy, which allows them to compete in various market segments,
and to fill shelf space in shops, in order to leave less space for competitors. It also gives them a great chance
to attract brand-switchers. Brand-switchers are consumers who buy various competing products without
being loyal to a particular brand.
Product lines and product mixes. Line- stretching and line filling.
Another strategy promoted by manufacturing companies there are product lines and product mixes. The
product line means a set of related products sold by a single company (e.g Danone has few different lines
like Activia, Casa Buna, Danonino, Actimel, Danette , Nutriday or Procter&Gamble – Tide, Oral B, Gillete,
Pantene, Pampers, Head and shoulders). The total number of product lines that a company offers to its
customers involve product mix.
The strategy of line- stretching(largi) means to introduce new products into product line .
Line filling (lungi) is a strategy that involves increasing the number products in your existing product line
in order to complete marketplace gaps and reduce competitors.

2. Marketing.

Defining marketing.
Marketing is the process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer’s needs. Marketers
have to identify or anticipate consumer needs, develop products or services that meet the needs better than
any competing products or services. They also need to persuade target customers to try the product or
service. In the long term they may need to modify their products or services to satisfy changes in consumer
needs and market conditions. Marketers can design particular features, attractive packaging, and effective
advertising, that will influence consumers’ wants. Marketing thus combines market research, new product
development, distribution, advertising, promotion, product improvement and so on.
The selling and the marketing concepts .
The selling concept assumes that resisting consumers have to be persuaded by vigorous hard-selling
techniques to buy non-essential goods and services. Products are sold rather than bought. The marketing
concept, on the contrary, assumes that a company’s choice of what goods and services to offer should be
based an the goal of satisfying consumers’ needs.

Target market.
Market segmentation is used to divide the market into distinct groups of buyers who have different
requirements or buying habits. Once a target market has been identified and market research has been
conducted, the company has to decide what products or services offer.

The importance of marketing research.

Rather than risk launching a product or service only on the basis of intuition, most companies undertake
market research. They collect and analyse information about the size of the potential market, about
consumers’ reactions to particular product and service features, and so on. There are four basic research
methods used by marketers:
  Observation
 Survey
 Focus groups
 Experimental research.

The marketing mix - The ‘4 Ps’

Once the basic offer, e.g. a product concept has been established, the company has to think about the
marketing mix, i.e., all the various elements of a marketing programme. The best known classification of
these elements is the `4 Ps’ : product, (quality, features, style, brand name, size, packaging, services and
guarantee), place, (distribution channels, locations of points of sale, transport, inventory size, etc.)
promotion (advertising; publicity, sales promotion, and personal selling, ) and price (basic list price,
discounts, the length of payment period, possible credit terms and so on). The marketing mix can. be
changed during the life of the product if necessary.

Producer and consumer market. (company - to - company marketing).

Consumer market is the market in which people buy products for direct consumption. Producer or
business markets are consisting of all individuals and organizations that acquire(dobindi, obtine) goods and
services that are used in the production of other goods, or in the supply (aproviziona, furniza) of services to
another.

3. Advertising.
Advertising informs consumers about the existence and benefits of products and services, and attempts to
persuade them to buy them. Informative advertising tells us what goods are available and gives the facts
about them so that a consumer can choose the article that suits him best. Competitive or persuasive
advertising tries to persuade people to buy the goods whether or not they want them.
Ways of advertising : Billboard, newspaper adds , TV and radio commercial, online advertising
,sponsorship, Flyers.
What is the best kind of advertising?
The best kind of advertising is probably word-of-mouth advertising , when people tell their friends about
benefits of product or services that they have purchased.
Why do most companies use advertising agencies?
Most companies use advertising agencies because they have more resources and more knowledge about all
aspects of advertising.
What is a media plan?
The choose of which ways of advertisement use for an advertising campaign, with what frequency and in
what proportion.
4. Advertising. Comment on the following topics:
Advertising often persuades people to buy things they don’t need
I do not agree with the statement that advertisement makes people buy things that they do not need, because
in my opinion people, especially adults always have the chance to choose whether they need this thing or
not. It is indisputable that the influence of advertisement is huge on humans, but often not so much as to
persuade someone to buy unnecessary things.
Children are most vulnerable segment in the society who is influenced by advertisements. The persuasive
techniques of advertising are powerful and have a big influence on the children and playing on their
emotions. Advertisers influence young minds very cleverly and the parents find it very hard to prevent their
children from this danger called advertisement .
Advertising does not present a true picture of products.
I agree with that, because there are a lot of cases when the advertisement is not presented objectively. For
example , you can hear about many specific features and advantages of a product on TV, but this does not
always coincide with reality, because the priorities are exaggerated.
5. Promotional tools. The four major promotional tools: advertising, sales promotions, public relations
and personal selling.

Advertising informs consumers about the existence and benefits of products and services, and attempts to
persuade them to buy them. Informative advertising tells us what goods are available and gives the facts
about them so that a consumer can choose the article that suits him best. Competitive or persuasive
advertising tries to persuade people to buy the goods whether or not they want them.
Sales promotion such as free samples, coupons, price reductions, competitions, and so on are temporary
tactics designed to stimulate the sales of the product. Free samples combined with advertising may generate
the initial trial of a new product in the introductory stage of the product life-cycle. During the maturity and
the decline stages marketers can try out promotional tactics such as reduced price packs, discounts,
competitions, free gifts, premiums, coupons, special offers, games, and so on.
Public Relations (PR) is concerned with maintaining, improving or protecting the image of a company or
product. One of the most important elements of PR is publicity which is any mention of the company’s or
product’s name that is not paid for. Many companies attempt to place stories (e.g. news releases) or
information in news media to attract attention to a product or service. Publicity can have a huge impact on
public awareness that could not be achieved by advertising, or at least not without an enormous cost. A lot of
research shows that people are more likely to read and believe publicity than advertising.
Personal selling is said to be quite expensive. Sales people spread information about the company’s
products and services and assist customers with possible technical problems.

6. Promotional tools. Imagine that you are responsible for promoting potatoes, to be sold in supermarkets.
Which tools would you use to promote it? You have a generous budget and are able to employ several
different tactics.

7. Market structure and competition. Give the definitions of these words. Market leaders, challengers
and followers. Establishing a niche. Monopoly, oligopoly, perfect competition etc.

Market leader: This is the highest market share company which retains its position by trying to expand the
total market or its market penetration, for example through an aggressive advertising campaign.
Market challenger: One or more non-market leaders which aggressively attack for additional market share.
Market follower: These are low share competitors without the resources to challenge or seriously contend
for market leadership.
Establishing a niche
A market follower, which does not establish its own niche is in a vulnerable position: if its product does
not have a 'unique selling proposition' there is no reason for anyone to buy it. In fact, in most established
industries, there is only room for two or three major companies: think of soft drinks, soap and washing
powders, jeans, sports shoes, and so on. Although small companies are generally flexible, and can quickly
respond to market conditions, their narrow range of customers causes problematic fluctuations in turnover
and profit. Furthermore, they are vulnerable in a recession when, largely for psychological reasons,
distributors, retailers and customers all prefer to buy from big, well-known suppliers.
Perfect competition exists when products are homogeneous, and there are many firms too small to have any
influence on the market price, and firms can easily enter and exit the industry.
A monopoly as a market in a particular product in which a single producer can fix an artificial price.

8. Efficiency and employment.

Casual employment
There is no standard definition of casual work. One common definition describes casual jobs as jobs that:
 Are short-term or temporary
 Involve irregular hours
 Aren't guaranteed to be a permanent job
Another definition describes casual employees as employees who don't get paid holiday leave or sick leave.
Generally speaking, casual employees are employed on an hourly, daily or weekly basis without any
obligations - from the employee or the employer .
Contract workers
A contract worker is not an employee of a company. He is a self-employed person who operates his own
business, usually as a sole proprietor. He is hired for a specific task or project, sets his own rates and pays
his own income taxes. A contract worker must find his own clients and complete a specific task for them. He
is not bound by the control of the company.
Agency workers
An agency worker is a person who has an agreement with an agency to work for another person. For
example, a secretary may have an agreement with a secretarial agency to do work for an office while one of
their employees is on leave. While agency workers do not have all the same employment rights as regular
workers.
An agency worker is an individual;who is supplied by a temporary work agency to work temporarily under
the supervision and direction of a hirer; and who has a contract of employment or any other type of contract
under which they provide their services personally for the agency.
An agency worker then is the individual typically supplied by employment businesses to a client to
work under the client’s direction and supervision.

9. Business ethics. Profits and social responsibility. The different opinions about the social
responsibility.

According to one quotation a company should be responsible for its social, environmental as well as
financial performances.
Some people argue that the objective of business is to make as much money as possible for companies’
owners, the stockholders or shareholders. Other people argue that companies have to be careful never to
cheat customers, but only for business reasons , rather than ethical one. Still other people insist that
companies have social and ethical responsibilities to their customers, their staff, their business partners ,
their local community, society in general , and the natural environment, that are as important than their
responsibility to provide a financial return to their shareholders.
According to Milton Friedman the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits . Friedman
argued that a company should have no "social responsibility" to the public or society because its only
concern(preocupa) is to increase profits for itself and for its shareholders. That responsibility is to conduct
the business in accordance with employers’ desires, which will be to make as much money as possible ,
while of course conforming to the basic rules of society.

10. The role of government. What are governments for? The J.K. Galbraith’ opinion about the role of
the government or the state. What is the Friedmans’ opinion of the activities of the US government?
The role of government is to ensure that the rights of people are protected .
Government takes care of the education, health care, housing, working conditions, social security, police,
public transport, traffic regulation and so on. Without it there would be chaos.
According to Galbraith , the state ,also, has many other essential functions like to carry about parks and
recreational facilities, libraries, the arts .Also the state has to support science and medical research and to
invest and regulate the environment. In other words, the government has to control society.
According to Friedmans’ the role of government has expand far too much. The state of US severely limits
people’s freedom to spend their money and work as they choose. They need to eliminate a lot of existing
restrictions , not add them.

10. Business cycle. Internal and external theories. Which of these theories do you find the most
convincing? What is the current situation in your country? Are most of the people you know currently
optimistic or pessimistic about the future?

Internal theory consider that the cause of the business cycle is self-generating, regular and indefinitely
repeating. The reasons that can cause a business cycle are : change in level of consumption, change in
people’s beliefs about the future , change in levels of wages and salaries, change in level of investments.
External theory look for causes of a business cycle outside of economic activity like technological, political
or demographic changes.
I think that business cycle is caused more by internal changes . It appears because the mood of entrepreneur
can be optimistic and pessimistic. When entrepreneurs are optimistic about future market conditions they
take up investments. Here stars the expanses phase of business cycle. On the contrary , the pessimistic
prevision reduces investments, production, employment and lead to a downturn. Is the same situation for
people level of consumption. When economic times are good they spend more money , and run up debts.
When rates, prices rise too much , people think that they pay more than they anticipate , and so they
consume less.
At the moment , the RM is in recovery phase of business cycle after the global crisis of 2007 -2009. All
economic indicators are in a continuous increase.
I think that in our country it’s a bit difficult to optimistic about our future because we have economical
instability . The people think that European integration will change for the better their lives .

11. International trade.

Can you imagine living in a country that did not import anything, where only locally produced food
and textiles and products were available?

I Can’t imagine living in a country that did not import anything. For example , if Moldova didn’t import
anything , it would be a disaster. Only area well developed in our country is agriculture, and yes, I could
live without imported food and eat only food grown in the country and renounce eat food other continents
especially fruits and spices.
Textile industry , also is developed , but prices at clothes and shoes are inflated. A lot of clothes and shoes
manufactured and imported from Asia are more cheaper.
Are other products such as home appliances, cars, industrial equipment, mobile phones and so on that are
produced only by industrialized countries like the USA, Japan, Germany, France, Britain .
Moldovan industry has a narrow specialization, and base in a big part on imported products.
Why do most governments impose import tariffs and quotas?
In order to protect jobs, local manufacturers and other areas what they think to be strategic industries .
Why have many developing countries recently reduced protectionism and increased their
international trade?
Because they want to liberalize their economy , lowering trade barriers and opening up to international trade.

Trade of Republic of Moldova.

Trade has a great importance for the national economy of Moldova. it is oriented more towards the CIS and
the EU. The main export items are food products like wine, vegetables, fruits, vegetable oils as well as light
industry products. Moldova imports of mineral products, machine building, chemicals, metals, wood,
materials for construction.