Exam 3: The Marketing Environment

Your company makes highly sophisticated components for military equipment. The U.S. Department of Defense is your largest customer. In recent years, you have expanded your customer base to include the militaries of all the major countries in the world. The following headlines appeared recently in the Sunday New York Times: "The Federal Reserve Board Chairman Sees Economic Growth Accelerating in the Third Quarter" "Congressional Republicans and Democrats Fail to Reach Compromise on the New Immigration Bill" "The Average Teen Spends Two Hours Per Day on Social Media Sites" "State Department Considers Imposing New Sanctions on Exports of Sensitive Military Technology" "Unemployment Rate Falls to 6.2%" Which one of the following statements is true regarding these headlines?

In a period of economic recovery, the best marketing strategy for FedEx would be characterized by which of the following features?

Which of the following is an advantage that self-regulatory agencies such as the BBB and the NARB have over governmental laws and regulatory agencies?

While Silk Soymilk engages in environmental scanning and analysis, the company is more likely to change its products and marketing strategies to adapt to environmental forces rather than trying to influence these forces. Silk Soymilk has a(n) ____ approach to marketing environmental forces.

Chad has a good-paying job. However, even though he has not received any official confirmation, Chad suspects that his job might be cut in the near future. Rumors in the grapevine hint that the company is going to go through massive lay-offs due to declining revenues. As a result, Chad has decided to forgo buying a house until he has a better idea of his job status. He has a lot of savings, but Chad knows he might need them if he becomes unemployed. In this case, Chad lacks

The proportion of the U.S. population that will be over 65 years of age is expected to decline by the year 2050.

An increasingly diverse cultural base in the United States means that marketers face increasingly diverse consumer markets.

Environmental analysis helps managers identify potential threats and opportunities linked to environmental changes.

The Better Business Bureau is probably the best-known

Although the monopoly is one of the four major market structures that theoretically exists in a free market capitalist system, the reality is there are very few true monopolies in the economy. This is the result of many federal laws and regulations that have been passed to limit the creation and power of monopolies. Which one of the following federal laws was passed to prevent the creation of monopolies in the economy?

The Federal Reserve Bank just issued its economic report on the U.S. economy for the quarter just ended. The following are some of the key points mentioned in the report: "Economic activity has continued to grow at a moderate pace since the last report." "Manufacturers report that business activity has picked up considerably in recent weeks." "Tourism activity has strengthened, no longer held back by harsh weather." "General merchandise retailers report that sales rebounded strongly in April and early May." "Retail contacts generally say that inventories are at satisfactory levels, that prices are mostly steady, and that the degree of discounting is little changed from a year ago." Based on these economic forces, you can conclude

Which of the following terms refers to consumers' propensity to buy?

A firm is trying to determine whether it would be advantageous to adopt a new computer system with advanced software. It is investigating how this computer system will improve its own operational efficiency. It is also examining trends in the industry to determine the impact that adopting this computer system might have on customers and society at large. The firm is engaging in _______________.

Assuming that inflation is low, high buying power characterizes the ____ stage of the business cycle.

Fluctuations in the economy follow a general pattern known as the business cycle. It includes prosperity, recession, depression, and recovery.

Consumer protection legislation deals with all of the following legal concerns except

The type of competitive structure that exists in the case where there are almost no substitutes for a product is a(n)

The strength of a person's "buying power" depends on economic conditions and

Monitoring the competitive environment guides marketers in developing competitive advantages.

An oligopoly exists when a firm offers a product that has no close substitutes, making the firm the sole source of supply.