MAR3023 – Exam 4 Comprehensive Review

69 Q&A flashcards that cover key concepts from promotion mix and IMC through pricing, personal selling, and e-marketing to prepare for MAR3023 Exam 4.

What are the four main elements of the promotion mix?

Advertising, personal selling, public relations, and sales promotion.

How is advertising defined in marketing communications?

A paid, non-personal communication about an organization and its products transmitted to a target audience through mass media.

What is personal selling?

A paid, personal communication that seeks to inform and persuade customers to purchase products in an exchange situation.

Define public relations (PR).

A broad set of communication efforts used to create and maintain favorable relationships between an organization and its stakeholders.

What is a sales promotion?

Any activity or material that offers added value or an incentive to resellers, salespeople, or customers—e.g., coupons, contests, rebates, or free samples.

What is the core logic of an Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) plan?

Coordinating all promotion and marketing efforts for maximum impact on the target audience.

Name the four IMC coordination goals often called the “4 C’s.”

Consistent message, Coordinated tools, Complementary synergy, and Continuity over time.

What is a push promotion strategy?

A B2B approach in which each channel member promotes the product to the next level down the channel (producer → wholesaler → retailer → consumer).

Give two common tools associated with a push strategy.

Trade shows and personal selling incentives such as push money (spiffs).

What is a pull promotion strategy?

A B2C approach in which the producer promotes directly to consumers to create demand that pulls the product through the channel.

Give a classic example of a pull strategy product.

Children’s toys heavily advertised to kids to create consumer demand.

What is “push money” (also called spiffs)?

Extra commissions paid to retail employees as an incentive to push specific products.

List the primary elements in the communication process.

Source, encoding, message, communications channel, decoding, receiver, and feedback (with noise potentially disrupting any step).

In the communication process, what is ‘noise’?

Any interfering factor that distorts or blocks the message at any stage of transmission.

Define viral marketing.

Promotion that leverages social networks to generate and organically spread a message, usually via social media channels.

How does buzz marketing differ from other viral efforts?

It relies on unusual content and perceived scarcity to spark contagious word-of-mouth (e.g., Apple launch events).

What is influencer marketing?

Using endorsements from individuals who have established credibility on social media to affect perceptions and buying habits.

List the five main tiers of social media influencers from largest to smallest following.

Celebrities, mega influencers, macro influencers, micro influencers, and nano influencers.

Which influencer tier is typically the most expensive for brands to hire?

Celebrities (followed by mega influencers).

Name the three sequential stages in standard response models.

Cognitive (thinking), Affective (feeling), and Behavioral (doing).

During which response-model stage does the consumer form liking or preference?

The affective stage.

Give the modern definition of advertising.

Paid, non-personal communication transmitted through mass media to a target audience.

Provide two historical milestones in advertising media.

(1922) first radio ads; (1941) first television ads.

Roughly how many advertisements does the average American see per day?

About 3,000.

What is pioneer advertising?

Advertising that focuses on a product category rather than a specific brand—e.g., ‘Got Milk?’

Define comparative advertising.

Advertising that directly compares two or more brands on one or more product attributes.

What is reinforcement advertising intended to do?

Reassure current users that they have made the right brand choice.

Describe a continuous advertising schedule.

Ads run steadily throughout the year—best for products used continuously (e.g., toothpaste).

What is a flighting advertising schedule?

Ads run in heavy spurts followed by no advertising—suited to seasonal products.

Explain a pulsing schedule.

Combines continuous baseline advertising with periodic, heavier bursts at strategic times.

Define advertising reach.

The percentage of the target audience exposed to an ad at least once during a specified time period.

Define advertising frequency.

The average number of times a targeted consumer is exposed to an ad during a specified period.

How does recognition testing differ from recall testing?

Recognition asks if respondents remember seeing an ad when shown it; recall asks them to name or identify the ad’s sponsor from memory.

In Nielsen TV ratings, what does one ratings point represent?

1 percent of U.S. television households—currently about 1.2 million homes.

Give the formula for program rating.

Rating = (Households tuned to show ÷ Total U.S. TV households) × 100.

Give the formula for share of audience.

Share = (Households tuned to show ÷ Households using TV at that time) × 100.

If 6 million homes watched a show, 30 million had TVs on, and 120 million own TVs, what are the rating and share?

Rating = 5; Share = 20.

What is publicity in marketing?

Communication about an organization or its products transmitted through mass media at no charge to the firm.

Name two key differences between publicity and PR.

Publicity is short-term and largely outside the firm’s control, whereas PR is ongoing and planned by the organization.

Give an example of a product successfully launched primarily through PR.

Starbucks (also Palm, Botox, Segway).

What is the first stage in the personal-selling process?

Prospecting—identifying potential customers.

List the eight stages in the personal selling process.

Prospecting, pre-approach, approach, need discovery/diagnosis, presentation/prescription, overcoming objections, advancing the sale, and following up.

How do firms determine optimal salesforce size?

Add salespeople until the cost of one more equals the additional sales revenue that person would generate.

Name the three basic sales compensation methods.

Straight salary, straight commission, and combination plans.

Provide the basic profit formula used in pricing decisions.

Profit = Total Revenue − Total Costs, or (Price × Quantity Sold) − Total Costs.

What is markup?

The difference between the cost of a good and its selling price.

List three determinants of price elasticity of demand.

Availability of substitutes, percentage of income spent on the item, and product necessity (also time and brand loyalty).

Give an example of a highly inelastic product.

Prescription medication (others: gasoline, electricity).

State the breakeven formula.

Break-even quantity = Fixed Costs ÷ (Price − Variable Cost per unit).

Using fixed costs of $10,000, price of $100, and variable cost of $50, how many units must be sold to break even?

200 units.

What is an internal reference price?

A price developed in the buyer’s mind through experience with the product, used to judge actual prices.

Define price framing.

A strategy where a firm anchors the consumer’s perception by displaying a comparison price, such as MSRP or ‘You save’ statements.

What is product bundling?

Selling several products together in one package at a single price; unbundling is charging separately for previously bundled items.

List the three general pricing objectives.

Sales-oriented, profit-oriented, and customer-oriented objectives.

How do you calculate markup as a percentage of cost?

Markup ÷ Cost. Example: $15 markup on $45 cost = 33.3%.

What is price skimming and give one advantage.

Introducing a product at a high initial price and lowering it over time; advantage—recovers R&D costs and capitalizes on inelastic demand.

Define penetration pricing and give one advantage.

Setting a low initial price to gain market share quickly; advantage—discourages competition and fosters habitual buying.

What is the purpose of a loss-leader pricing strategy?

To attract customers with items priced at or below cost, hoping they buy other profitable products.

Explain captive pricing.

Selling the core product at a low price while pricing required ancillaries (e.g., ink cartridges for printers) higher to generate profit.

What is price lining?

Offering products in a line at a few predetermined price points, exploiting inelastic demand within each range.

Why does odd-even pricing influence perception?

Ending prices in non-round numbers (e.g., $4.99) makes them seem lower because consumers mentally truncate the price.

Define EDLP (Everyday Low Pricing).

A strategy of consistently offering products at low, non-sale prices instead of using frequent deep discounts.

What is prestige pricing and give its classic pearl example.

Setting high prices to convey quality or exclusivity; black pearls sold poorly until displayed at Harry Winston with a high price, after which demand surged.

Differentiate variable and dynamic pricing.

Variable prices change by known factors such as day or location (posted in advance); dynamic prices change in real time with demand (e.g., Uber surge pricing).

Name the five key characteristics of e-marketing.

Addressability, interactivity, accessibility, connectivity, and control.

What is the difference between addressability and accessibility?

Addressability is the firm’s ability to identify customer needs pre-purchase; accessibility is the customer’s ability to find information about the firm.

Give two reasons consumer-generated marketing has grown.

Consumers want to express opinions more, and they trust fellow consumers over corporations.

List three main ways firms use social media.

As a promotional tool (e.g., giveaways), a customer-service channel (quick, personalized responses), and a brand-management platform.