Marketing Fundamentals Quiz

Marketing Fundamentals

• Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
• A market is a group of buyers with different needs and wants (e.g., geographically, demographically, or by product).
• Companies that focus on meeting customer needs generally perform better.
• Value is a perception and is subjective and can vary between individuals and situations. It refers to a product's total offering.
• Value includes reputation, product features, associated ideals, quality, and price.
• Value can be considered as quality divided by price.
• Form utility is the transformation of raw materials into usable products or services.
• Place utility is availability of products where customers need them.
• Time utility is availability of products when customers need them.
• Possession utility is enabling customers to own (or use) a product or service.
• An exchange is a mutually beneficial transfer of offerings of value between buyers and sellers.
• Transaction value for sellers comes from profits, prestige, education, delight, motivation, and engagement.
• Marketing evolution: trade→ product orientation→ sales orientation→ market orientation→ societal market orientation.
• Corporate Social Responsibility: businesses hold an obligation to act in the interest of the societies that sustain them.
• Sustainability: A business philosophy that is needed to ensure future success.

Marketing Mix

• The marketing mix consists of the 4 Ps: Product, Price, Promotion, and Place/Distribution.
• Environmental analysis is crucial for identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
• These factors affect a marketer's ability to create, communicate, deliver, and exchange offerings.

Micro-environment

• Micro-environment focuses on forces within an organization's industry that affect its ability to serve customers.
• These include competitors, partners, and target markets.

Macro-Environment (PESTEL)

• Macro-environment factors include political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal aspects, all of which can influence marketing efforts. These factors are external and cannot be controlled directly.

Market Research

• Market research gathers information about customers/target markets.
• Data is objective factual information often compiled for this purpose.
• Market Research informs decisions, such as market segmentation, sales performance, and the 4 Ps.
• Big data provides insights into customer behavior and preferences.
• Quantitative research (e.g., surveys) provides numerical information.
• Qualitative research (e.g., interviews) investigates underlying attitudes and emotions.
• Data collection techniques include surveys, experiments, and observations.
• Research must consider relevance, timing, resources, cost-benefit analysis, and ethical responsibilities.

Consumer & Buyer Behavior

• Consumer behavior describes the actions of individuals and households who buy goods and services for personal consumption.
• Influences on consumer behavior include situational factors (physical, social, time, motivational, and mood), group influences (cultural, social class, social reference groups, family, roles, and status), personal characteristics (demographics, lifestyle, personality, self-concept, motivation, perception, beliefs, and attitudes), and cognitive learning theories (experience and repetition), learning theories, and behavioral learning theories (emphasizing acquisition of processing new information).
• Consumers make decisions based on various factors, including beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions.
• The decision-making process may include recognizing a need, searching for information, evaluating alternatives, making a purchase, and evaluating the purchase.
• Business markets have different criteria than consumer ones.
• Types of buyer behavior include: Straight rebuy, Modified rebuy, & New task purchase.

Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning

• Market segmentation divides consumers into groups with shared needs and wants. This allows for targeted marketing strategies.
• Principles include Measurability, Accessibility, Substantiality, and Practicability of segments.
• Target marketing involves evaluating segments and selecting the most appropriate targets.
• Positioning involves creating a desired image or perception of a product or brand in the minds of consumers.
• Perceptual maps are visual representations of how consumers perceive competing products.

Product

• A product is a good, service, or idea offered to a market for exchange. Marketers must consider product life cycle and the product's role in satisfying customer needs.
• The total product concept includes core product (benefit), expected product (features), augmented product (differentiators), and potential product (future possibilities).
• Categories of products are convenience products, specialty products, and shopping products.
• Brand image is a consumer's beliefs about a brand.
• Brand equity is the added value a brand gives to a product.

Pricing

• Pricing is an important variable in marketing. It is directly related to profitability.
• Pricing can be based on cost-based, demand-based, or competition-based methods.
• Effective pricing strategies consider customer buying behaviors, company costs, and competitors’ actions.

Packaging & Labelling

• Packaging is important to identify products and can communicate product changes, appeal to customers, and differentiate from competition.
• Labelling plays a crucial role in promotional and legal aspects of product presentation.