HW-1483 Assignment - Marketing

The Rake Company is working on the launch of their new line of men’s personal care products. They have decided to break into the US market with a new deodorant, and both their research qualitative and quantitative research shows the following:
• Adolescent boys are the most concerned about body odor.
• Men over the age of 50 are the least likely to adopt new personal care products.
• Men in their twenties are second most likely to adopt new personal care products.
Rake’s product managers are also trying to decide which communications approach to take in the launch, as their marketing budget is very limited. They know that they need to reach a mass market, but are unsure which selling approach will work best.(2 pts each)
1. According to their research, which group are their Innovators? _
2. Which group are their Early Majority?
3. Which group are their Non-Adopters?
4. Which form of communications would be the least expensive for Rake to use?
5. If they decide to spend money, what kind of expertise will they need to manage their company’s mass selling effort – in television, news-papers, magazines, and other media?____
6. What kind of communications effort will they need to support advertising?_
7. What area of the Rake Company will be responsible for communication with non-customers, including labor, public interest groups, stock holders and the government?__
8. What kind of approach would be best for Rake to use in order to ensure a consistent and clear message reaches all of their audiences?
9. In general, what kind of selling approach would you recommend to Rake? ____
10. Why would you make this recommendation?______


The Mikarose Company sells women’s clothing and their tagline is ‘Re-inventing Modesty.’ They have identified a market of young American women who want to dress stylishly yet do not want to wear clothing that is too suggestive or revealing.
Initial market dimensioning has led Mikarose to believe that the average woman in their target market is between the ages of 25 and 40, and has two years of college education. She is working, and she wants to appear fashionable and attractive—at the same time she is not interested in clothing which is tight, low-cut or too short. Her annual clothes budget is under $1500, and Mikarose aims to capture a chunk of that budget.
Speaking of budgets, Mikarose is severely limited in the money they can spend. They are also aware that their target customer is wary of clothing that advertises itself as ‘modest’ because she does not want to appear frumpy or dowdy.

1. What approach would allow Mikarose to share in the cost of ads with other wholesalers or retailers?_____
2. What approach would focus on Mikarose as a company? _____
3. Would you recommend that they use this approach?
4. Why or why not?
5. Based on what the case study says, do you think Mikarose needs to do ‘pioneering advertising’?_____
6. Why or why not?
7. Mikarose has developed a line of fancy dresses for special events. As the wedding season approaches, would you recommend that they use direct or indirect approach in advertising?__
8. Why?
9. What technique could Mikarose use to encourage retail firms to advertise or otherwise promote Mikarose’s products locally? __
10. What kind of advertising should Mikarose use to try to develop selective demand for their brand? __

Matching: Personal Selling and Customer Service
Each correct answer is worth one point.

1. Customer Service Reps
2. Basic Sales Tasks
3. Sales Presentation
4. Close
5. Job Description
6. Sales Territory
7. Order Takers
8. Technical Specialists
9. Major Accounts Sales Force
10. Prospecting

Are supporting salespeople who provide technical assistance to order-obtaining salespeople.
______ Starts with a prepared presentation outline – much like the prepared approach and leads the customer through some logical steps to a final close.
______ Help the order-oriented sales people, but they don’t try to get orders themselves.
______ Work with customers to resolve problems that arise with purchase, usually after the purchase has been made.
______ That sells directly to large accounts – like Lowe’s or other major retail chains that carry plumbing fixtures.
______ Are order-getting, order-tracking, and supporting.
______ A geographic area that is the responsibility of one salesperson or several working together.
______ Is a written statement of what a salesperson is expected to do.
______ Involves following all the leads in the target market to identify potential customers.
______ The salesperson’s request for an order.
Multiple Choice: PRICING
Please circle the correct answer. Each correct answer is worth one point.
1. This form of pricing objective seeks to get as much profit as possible.
a. Target return objective
b. Profit Maximization Objective
c. Sales-Oriented Objective
d. Status Quo Objective


2. This policy offers the same price to all customers who purchase products under essentially the same conditions and in the same quantities.
a. One price
b. Flexible-Price
c. Skimming Price
d. Penetration Price
3. This form of pricing sets a fair price for a marketing mix that really gives the target market superior customer value.
a. Zone Pricing
b. Uniform Delivered Pricing
c. Freight-absorption pricing
d. Value Pricing

4. These kind of discounts apply only to individual orders.
a. Cumulative Quantity Discounts
b. Non-Cumulative Quantity Discounts
c. Trade (Functional) Discount
d. Everyday low Pricing

5. These are sometimes called slotting allowances –given to an intermediary to get shelf space for a product.
a. 2/10, Net 30
b. Allowances
c. Stocking Allowances
d. Push Money (or Price Money)

6. What is ‘bid pricing’?
a. Setting prices for a whole line of products.
b. Setting prices on several products as a group.
c. Setting one price for a set of products.
d. Offering a specific price for each possible job rather than setting a price that applies for all customers

7. What is the definition of marginal cost?
a. Focuses on the changes in total revenue and total cost from selling one more unit to find the most profitable price and quantity.
b. Is the change in total revenue that results from the sale of one more unit of a product.
c. Is the change in total cost that results from producing one more unit.
d. The extra profit on the last unit – is near zero.

8. What is the definition of total cost?
a. Is the sum of total fixed and total variable costs.
b. Is obtained by dividing total cost by the related quantity (that is, the total quantity that causes the total cost).
c. Is obtained by dividing total fixed cost by the related quantity.
d. Is obtained by dividing total variable cost by the related quantity.

9. What is the name of the pricing technique which sets some very low bargain prices to attract customers into retail stores?
a. Bait Pricing
b. Psychological Pricing
c. Odd-even Pricing

10. What is the name of the pricing technique which sets rather high prices to suggest high quality or high status?
a. Price Lining
b. Demand-Backward Pricing
c. Prestige pricing
d. Negotiated Price

FILL IN the correct term for each of these definitions. Each correct answer is worth 2 points.
Laws & Trade Agreements Important Acronyms Common Marketing Concepts
_____Lays out a plan to reshape the rules of trade among the United States, Mexico and Canada ______are codes used to identify groups of firms in similar lines of business. ____refers to reliably delivering products there just before the customer needs them.
____ A 1975 law requiring that producers provide a clearly written warranty if they choose to offer any warranty. ____are special identifying marks for each product readable by electronic scanners. _____Forecasting by combining the opinions of experienced executives, perhaps from marketing,
______A 1966 law requiring that consumer goods be clearly labeled in easy-to understand terms. ______An integrated economic and social unit with a large population nucleus. The analysis of a person's day-to-day pattern of living as expressed in that person's Activities, Interests, and Opinions-sometimes referred to as AIDs or psychographics.
_____A law passed by the U.S. Congress in 1977 that prohibits U.S. firms from paying ____An approach that puts information in a standardized format easily shared between different computer systems. _An online group of participants who are joined together by a common interest, and who participate in ongoing research.
_____A 1946 law that spells out what kinds of marks (including brand names) can be protected and the exact method of protecting them. ____ Internationally accepted system for a supplier to document its quality procedures according to recognized standards. ___When a producer uses several competing channels to reach the same target marker


SHORT ANSWERS: Each correct answer is worth 2 points.

1. What is a SWOT Analysis and what is it used for?

2. What is Total Quality Management?


3. What is the ‘portfolio management’ approach in marketing management?

4. What is a ‘new unsought product’? Give an example.


5. What is a ‘low involvement’ purchase? Give an example of such a purchase for yourself.

Answer will be sent by email as attachment.