Exam 13: Marketing: Helping Buyers Buy

Using advances in technology to maintain databases of customer information is more important for firms involved in mass marketing than it is for those firms using relationship marketing.

Which of the following would be considered part of a firm's marketing mix?

Getting the product from the producer to the consumer is a production-related process and not related to the marketing mix.

Mini-Case Briana, a successful executive, is also a cardio queen. For years she worked out at Forever Fitness Gym, the only gym in her small hometown. However, she felt that the environment at Forever Fitness was too masculine, and discovered that her female friends agreed. They disliked the small, smelly locker room, and the limited selection of cardio equipment. Most of them eventually quit going to Forever Fitness. Briana talked to Jim Nasium, the owner of Forever Fitness, about things he could do to attract more women, but he had little interest in making any changes. "I've got all the business I can handle," he told Briana. "Why should I spend a bunch of money to redecorate and add extra equipment? Besides, lots of the guys who work out here tell me they like the simple, no-frills atmosphere." Frustrated by Jim's indifference, Briana began looking into the possibility of starting a gym to appeal to young, well-educated women. After visiting gyms in other towns and talking to several friends to get ideas, she came up with a detailed plan for her gym. She then described her ideas to women in the community to see how much interest there was in this type of facility. The extremely positive response encouraged her to go ahead with her plans. It took a while, but she ultimately obtained the financial backing to go into business. Briana calls her new health club ShapeUP. It offers a spacious and attractive locker room, better cardio equipment, a child care area so young mothers can have someone watch their toddlers while they work out, and exercise classes designed to appeal to young women. When a woman joins her club, Briana schedules a free session with a personal trainer who works with the new member to design a personalized workout program. Briana tries hard to keep close to her customers by maintaining a social media presence, sending them a monthly e-mail newsletter, and routinely sending surveys asking what they like and don't like about ShapeUP. She wants to please her existing customers and keep them coming back. In fact, now that ShapeUP has a strong membership base, Briana believes it is more important to keep existing customers loyal than to attract new customers. In addition to the comments from her own customers, Briana also spends a lot of time tracking economic, social, and competitive trends in the fitness industry, trying to identify factors that can affect the marketing success of her club. She subscribes to several journals and magazines that cover trends and report on research findings related to the business. She has found that these publications provide her with an inexpensive source of useful information. -When Briana wants to obtain information to research changes in her market or determine what her customers are likely to want in the future, she relies on the articles and data available in trade journals, feedback from surveys, and personal interviews of her customers. Which of the following statements about Briana's sources of information is most accurate?

The first step in the marketing research process is to

The consumer market consists of all the individuals or organizations that want goods and services in order to produce other goods and services to sell, rent, or supply to others.

________ is a process used to test consumer reactions about a product among potential users.

Elodie is a sales representative for a textbook publisher. She spends a great deal of time visiting college professors who have already adopted one of her books for use in her classes. She makes sure they have all the supplements to the book they need and are informed about when new editions will be available. Elodie's emphasis on keeping her existing customers satisfied is consistent with the philosophy of relationship marketing.

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have a value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

Compared to consumer markets, B2B markets

Pham, after years working with the consumer market, has just been transferred into a new job dealing with buyers in the B2B market. Which of the following correctly identifies a key difference Pham will likely notice between consumer markets and B2B markets?

Betty's Blossoms Nursery's social media presence has taken the company a step in the right direction toward building relationships with its customers. Betty posts her weekly recommendations to followers and even provides supplier sources for all kinds of rare and hard to find plants and shrubs. Customers provide other customers with reviews and comments about various plants they purchased through Betty's Blossoms and can message Betty's team with any questions or comments. As an extension of customer relationship management, this company is practicing

Several years ago, Canadian Sam Holman realized there may be a need for a stronger, more durable wood baseball bat. He went through the process of developing the SamBat, a maple bat of precise dimensions. He set a price with a reasonable margin, he decided to take special orders and sell bats directly from his garage, and he promoted the bat with sales calls to professional baseball camps, where ball players could sample the bat. In marketing terms, we recognize that Mr. Holman designed the

The Southside Sweetery has a loyal following. When it recently moved from its longtime storefront to a famous resort area, it took a big risk. However, the owners were confident that its unique candies, cookies, and pastries would win customer raves. Fortunately, one of the members of the family business was convinced the sweet shop needed to stay in touch with its customers. Southside collects names and email addresses of its customers and maintains a presence on a few social media sites in order to send messages about promotions and coupons to valued customers. Marketing professionals refer to this strategy as

Relationship marketing makes heavy use of media such as television, radio, and newspapers, to convince large groups of customers to buy a standardized product.

Pequeno Pesos Restaurants, Inc. is a chain of restaurants featuring authentic, affordable Mexican cuisine around the United States. The company is looking to expand its reach and to improve its menu. Which of the following is an example of secondary data the owners of Mucho Tacos might find useful?

Separating a market by the amount of the product consumed is known as volume segmentation.

Concept testing involves placing a product in a place where consumers will buy it.

Secondary data consists of information that has already been compiled by others and is published in journals and books or made available online.

B2B markets tend to be