TU-91.1008 Basics of marketing

Preparation for TU-91.1008/2500 Basics of marketing
The purpose of this page is to list all relevant information for the marketing exam of TKK. Ideally, one would only have to read/memorize this page in order to pass the exam.

Old exam definitions
Define the following basic marketing concepts briefly and elaborate on the terms with an example. We are not looking for a textbook definition, show that you understand the concept and what it means for the business.

These definitions are all taken from old exams.

Other useful definitions
Other useful definitions mentioned in the lecture slides of Spring 2009.

Old Exam Essays
The following questions have all been taken from old exams.

Question: List the four different categories for marketing performance metrics and give examples of how they could be used in business. What are the pro's and con's of each metric's category?
Marketing metrics is the set of measures that helps firms to quantify, compare, and interpret their marketing performance. Different metrics provide information about different types of marketing impact.

Question: What is systems (or solutions) selling? Why should companies provide systems or solutions? Give practical examples how companies could use it in their business model.

 * From product-oriented to customer-oriented business models.
 * Companies are more than happy to tailor a combination of their products and services.
 * Integrate solutions, combine products and services from the company and third parties.
 * Customers want a relationship where the partner understands their needs and tailors and integrates a solution.
 * From selling manufactured goods to integrate solutions and maintenance of systems.
 * Practical example: Internet access -> Security -> PC and software leasing -> PC support
 * Philosophy of selling more to (existing) clients = more value capture = going downstream in a value chain.

Question: Define Marketing Management. What specific activities can be associated with the different stages? Illustrate the activities though an example of a company case.
Marketing management is the art and science of choosing target markets and building profitable relationships with them. The basic process in Marketing Management consists of
 * Analysis
 * E.g. SWOT analysis (Internal: Strengths, Weaknesses; External: Opportunities, Threats)
 * Planning
 * Specific strategies and goals for target markets
 * Positioning in the minds of the customers, differentiating against the competition, use of marketing mix tools (4P), marketing expenditure levels, channels, message
 * Implementing
 * Blends people, organizational structure, decision and reward systems, and company culture into a cohesive action plan that supports its strategies
 * Controlling
 * Operational – did we meet the budget
 * Strategic – did we match our opportunities
 * Customer acquisition, retention, and lifetime value; customer satisfaction, market share, turnover, brand awareness and preference

==== Question: Briefly explain the components of the marketing mix. How are things different if you are in the service business? What other critique have marketing practitioners and academics given towards the marketing mix concept? ==== The marketing mix is the set of controllable tactical marketing tools that the firm blends to produce the response it wants in the target market. The marketing mix includes everything the firm can do to influence the demand for its product.
 * Product
 * Product means the totality of goods and services that the company offers to the target market.
 * Selection, quality, design, features, brand, packaging, services
 * Price
 * The price is the amount a customer pays for the product. It is determined by a number of factors including market share, competition, material costs, product identity and the customer's perceived value of the product.
 * The business may increase or decrease the price of product if other stores have the same product.
 * List price, discounts, payment terms
 * Place
 * Place indcludes the company activities that make the product available to target customers.
 * It can include any physical store as well as virtual stores on the Internet.
 * Channels, warehousing, distribution, logistics
 * Promotion
 * Promotion represents all of the communications that a marketer may use in the marketplace.
 * Advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, relationship management

Kotler's additional 3 P's
 * People
 * Process
 * Physical evidence

Special characteristics of services
 * Intagibility
 * Cannot be felt or touched
 * Difficult to explain with marketing communications
 * Inseparability
 * Delivery/production simultaneous with consumption
 * Heterogenity
 * Numerous people involved
 * Perishability
 * Cannot be stored

*Critique
 * It might not suit for fragmented markets.
 * It does not explain how time changes things.
 * Focuses more on the seller's view of the market, not the customer's.

==== Question: Describe the components and the nature of the promotion mix (or marketing communications mix) in marketing communications. How and why should a company integrate their marketing communications? ==== The promotion mix is the specific blend of advertising, public relations, personal selling, and direct-marketing tools that the company uses to persuasively communicate customer value and build customer relationships
 * Advertising
 * Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor
 * Broadcast (TV & Radio), Print, Internet, Outdoor
 * Sales promotion
 * Sales promotion is the short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product or service
 * B2C: Discounts, Coupons, Displays, Demonstrations
 * B2B: Discounts, Demonstrations at fairs, package deals
 * Attract consumer attention and offer strong incentives to purchase.
 * Can be used to dramatize product offers and to boost sagging sales
 * Public relations
 * Public relations involves building good relations with the company’s various publics by obtaining favorable publicity, building up a good corporate image, and handling or heading off unfavorable rumors, stories, and events
 * Press releases, Sponsorships, Special events, Web pages
 * Personal selling
 * Personal selling is the personal presentation by the firm’s sales force for the purpose of making sales and building customer relationships
 * Sales presentations, Trade shows, Incentive programs
 * Direct marketing
 * Direct marketing involves making direct connections with carefully targeted individual consumers to both obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting customer relationships—by using direct mail, telephone, direct-response television, e-mail, and the Internet to communicate directly with specific consumers

Integrated marketing communications:
 * Customers don’t distinguish between message sources the way marketers do.
 * Companies often fail to integrate their various communications channels.
 * E.g. advertisements say one thing, while promotion sends a different signal, or the behavior of the company is inconsistent
 * Audit the pockets of communication spending throughout the organization
 * Identify all customer touch points for the company and its brands
 * Team up in communications planning

Question: Describe the concepts of segmentation, targeting, and positioning. Which tasks and actions can be associated with each stage? How can they be used to create competitive advantage?

 * Segmentation
 * First identify the segmentation variables and then segment the market. Then develop (customer) profiles of resulting segments.
 * Targeting
 * First evaluate the attractivness of each identified segment. Then select the most attractive segments for targeting.
 * This way, sellers can develop the right product for each target market and adjust their pricing, distribution channels and advertising accordingly.
 * All segments cannot be effectively served, one should target marketing efforts to a segment or segments.
 * Unfilled gaps can be filled.
 * Positioning
 * Positioning is the act of desiging the company's offering and image to occupy a distinctive place in the mind of the target market.
 * First identify possible positioning concepts for each target segment (using 4Ps). Then select, developt and communicate the chosen positioning concepts.

==== Question: Companies operate in a complex networked environment. Define the players in a marketing system. What are the roles and activities of different organizations in this system? Put yourself in the position of the company in this system. How do these players relate to you and have an impact on your business? ==== Answer

Question: Describe the stages of the marketing research process. Explain what is important or critical in each step.
Marketing research is the systematic design, collection, analysis and reporting of data relevant to a specific marketing situation facing an organization.
 * 1) Defining the problem and research objectives.
 * 2) *Distinquish what is a problem and what is a symptom of a problem.
 * 3) *Three types of objectives of a marketing research:
 * 4) *#Exploratory research
 * 5) *#*Used to better define a problem or scout opportunities.
 * 6) *#*In-depth interviews and discussions groups are commonly used.
 * 7) *#Descriptive research
 * 8) *#*Used to assess a situation in the marketplace, i.e. potential for a specific product or consumer attitudes.
 * 9) *#*Methods include personal interviews and surveys.
 * 10) *#Causal research
 * 11) *#*Used for testing cause and effect relationships.
 * 12) *#*Typicall through estimation.
 * 13) Developing the research plan for collecting information.
 * 14) *Research plan outlines sources of existing data and spells out the specific research approaches, contact methods, sampling plans, and instruments that researchers will use to gather data.
 * 15) *Written proposal includes
 * 16) **Management problem
 * 17) **Research objectives
 * 18) **Information need
 * 19) **How the results will help management decisions
 * 20) **Budget
 * 21) *Three research approaches
 * 22) *#Observational research
 * 23) *#*Observe subjects in relevant situations, i.e. shopping.
 * 24) *#*Combine observations with interviews = ethnography.
 * 25) *#Survey research
 * 26) *#*Gather data by asking people about their preferences, attitudes, etc.
 * 27) *#Experimental research
 * 28) *#*Give groups different treatments and then check for differences.
 * 29) Implement research plan
 * 30) *Collect, analyze and process the data.
 * 31) *E.g. mail the questionaries, hold the interviews ..
 * 32) Interpret and report the results
 * 33) *Try to avoid bias when interpreting.
 * 34) *Just because results fail to confirm original hypotheses, does not mean the research results are useless.
 * 35) *Communicate the results

Question: Define Corporate Strategic Marketing. Explain how marketing could be used on arenas outside of the traditional product or service markets.

 * Corporate Strategic Marketing (CSM)
 * Marketing the corporation in various competitive (corporate) markets
 * Emphasizing relationship management and network participation
 * Companies operate in various markets in addition to the traditional product or service markets
 * Try to identify which other markets you are actually in
 * How do they affect your to profitability, growth, and shareholder value
 * Creating and capturing demand (from products to buzz around firm)
 * Access to capital and increasing demand for stock
 * Support from gov’t regulation, policy, and subsidy
 * Int’l expansion
 * Enviromental/corporate social responsibility image
 * Developing capabilities and human capital
 * Dev’t of new products/services/businesses

Question: Define the Buying Center? How can it be used to plan and implement selling activities?
The buying center is the decision-making unit of a buying organization. The buying center includes all members of the organization who play any of seven roles in the purchase decision process.
 * 1. Initiators. Those who request that something be purchased. They may be users or others in the organization.
 * 2. Users. Those who will use the product or service. In many cases, the users initiate the buying proposal and help define the product requirements.
 * 3. Influencers. People who influence the buying decision. They often help define specifications and also provide information for evaluating alternatives. Technical personnel are particularly important influencers.
 * 4. Deciders. People who decide on product requirements or on suppliers.
 * 5. Approvers. People who authorize the proposed actions of deciders or buyers.
 * 6. Buyers. People who have formal authority to select the supplier and arrange the purchase terms. Buyers may help shape product specifications, but they play their major role in selecting vendors and negotiating. In more complex purchases, the buyers might include high-level managers.
 * 7. Gatekeepers. People who have the power to prevent sellers or information from reaching members of the buying center. For example, purchasing agents, receptionists, and telephone operators may prevent salespersons from contacting users or deciders.

Same person can occupy many roles and many people can have same role. The buying center may include people outside the target customer organization, such as government officials. A purchasing manager, for example, often occupies the roles of buyer, influencer, and gatekeeper simultaneously.

Each member of buying center have different decision criterias. I.e. engineer may be mostly considers about the actual performance of the product and users may give most weight to ease of use. It's also important to understand that in the end it's individuals, not the organizations who makes the decisions. Organizations only legitimate the buying decisions. So, in this sense, industrial buying decisions are both "rational" and "emotional".

Targeting buying center business marketers have to figure out:
 * Who are the major decision participants?
 * What decisions do they influence?
 * What is their level of influence?
 * What evaluation criteria do they use?

It's not likely to know these all, but every bit of information counts. Small sellers have to concentrate to the key buying influencers. Larger seller can go for multilevel in-depth selling to reach as more participants.

Question: What are the four main types on buying behavior in B2C marketing? What are the main marketing actions managers should focus on in each category to find success in business?

 * High involvement & Significant differences between brands (Complex buying behavior):
 * example: Houses, kitchen renovation
 * Sale is one-time, hit rate is the most important measure
 * Support evaluation and pre-sale learning
 * Salespersonel and selling activities are key.
 * Low involvement & Significant differences between brands (Variety-seeking buying behavior):
 * example: Retail food stuff (with differences)
 * Adding buying triggers.
 * Free samples, special deals
 * High involvement & Few differences between brands (Dissonance-reducing buying behavior):
 * example: Consumer electronics, top-line sport equipment
 * Decision making is difficult both pre- and post-purchase
 * Low involvement & Few differences between brands (Habitual buying behavior):
 * example: Foodstuffs (without differences), personal care products
 * Brand familiarity & promotion with convenience is key
 * Price/sales promotion

Potential exam essay questions
The following questions have not been in any previous exams. The contents of the questions should be taken from the lecture slides of Spring 2009.

4 marketing concept

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Question:
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