Marketing Mix Short Answer Type Questions

Question 1.
What are the essential features of the product?
Answer:

Product should have the features of tangibility shape colour taste size weight etc., are the physical features of the product which help to identity the product.
Product also includes intanginble form of service like repair, banking service, insurance service.
It is identified and selected by the buyer on the basis of brand, package, warranty delivery terms etc.
Every product would have its own product life cycle.
Product are exchanged for money or some other things by the buyer from the seller.
Product should have an ability to satisfy the needs of customer.
Product must give customer satisfaction and business satisifaction.

Question 2.
Analyse the steps to an effective marketing plans.
Answer:
The steps involved in developing effective marketing plan are –
→ Define product/service: This is the first step in developing effective plan. What product /service the company is going to develop should be clearly defined & should be communicated to customer

→ Identity target audience: The company has to describe target market in forms of age, income, geographic location & lifestyle.

→ Define the brand it has to describe the message it wants to direct to target customer

→ Setting price: estimate monetary value the customer will receive.

→ Establish marketing budget: define specific amount the company require to Maximise the return on investment.

→ Choose marketing strategies: company should develop strategic fnarketing tools to deliver the message to the target audience

→ Determine tactices: list the specific action steps to achieve each strategy.

→ Establish Timing: to implement strategy specify timetable

→ Measure results: continuously measure results to implement effectively.

Question 3.
Why companies go for new products introduction? OR
What are the importance of product innovation?
Answer:
Every company wants to grow in the market there for company changes its product features and makes certain innovation in products quality and characteristics to introduce the product as new to customers.

Following are the importance of product innovation:
(a) Company growth:
Company growth and development is largely on new precuts. New product introduction creates new customers and also helps to expand the business.

(b) Higher profit margins:
New product development and introduction of new product in the market helps to increase sales and also helps to earn more amount of profit company must prepare good plan for product innovation because market is always covered by large number of competitions. Therefore it is inevitable to company to change product characteristics again and again.

(c) Business planning:
Company prepares plan for development of its position in the market. Technological innovations makes the company to go for new product development.

(d) Utilization of excess capacity:
Company produces good by converting raw materials into finished goods. To make the best use of by products in production process company is going for introduction of new product.

(e) Recycling of waste product:
Recycling of waste product in mass production lines, like scrap, waste, rejected materials etc. help the company by reducing the burden of costs. It may result in product innovation.

(f) Increases sales:
Re modeling or improvement inexisting products give more satisfaction to customers. It also helps for increase in sales of the company.

Question 3.
Why new product fails in the market?
Answer:
The following are the reasons for failure of new product in the market.

In adequate market analysis and market appraisal.
Insufficient and effective marketing support.
Wrong timing of introduction of new product.
Failure to recognize rapidly charging market environment.
Absence of formal product planning and development procedure.
Failure of the product to satisfy consumer needs and desires.
Poor product design.
Technological and production problem.
Product defects:
Failure to estimate strength of competitors.
Higher cost of production.
Sudden change in market conditions.
Delay in product launch.
Lack of innovation and novelty in product.
Poor marketing and sales promotion strategies.

Question 4.
Explain the essentials of goods brand name.
Answer:
A good brand name must possess following features:

It should be simple and easy to recoquise.
It should be easy to pronounce and remembers.
It should point out producer.
It should be original.
It should be legally protectable.
It should reflects directly or indirectly / product benefits functions, results and so on.
It should differentiate the product from those of competitors.
It should be meaningful and appropriate to products.

Question 5.
Briefly explain the types of brands.
Answer:

Individual Brands: under this method each product of a manufactures has a separate brand name.
Family Brand: Under this method all products of a manufacture has only one Brand Name, but restricted to a particular line.
Umbrella Brand: Irrespective of nature, use, price etc., if brand name is used by manufactures of different types of products, It becomes umbrella brand.
Combination device: Under this method a product has both company’s name and product name.
Private or middlemen brand: Under this method, products are not branded by the manufactures but by the middle men. Who have control over distribution.

Question 6.
Explain the functions of packaging?
Answer:

The basic function of packaging is to protect the contents of it from damage, dust, dirt, leakage etc.
It maintains intrinsic values or the quality standards for a larges period of time.
It facilitates for easy transportation of goods from one place to another place.
Attractive package enhances the market for product.
Good packaging can sell more easily and quickly because it works as a promotional tool.
Good package helps for easy identification of the product.
Package features communicate and motivate consumer to buy product.
It makes product handling easier and safe.
Good package reduces the risk of loss and helps the company to each more profit.
Packaging also used by the advertiser as a promotional tool.

Question 7.
What are essentials of good package?
Answer:
(a) It should protect the content:
Packaging must protect the contents of it against the natural and artificial factors of damage. Such as dust, dirt, watering, evaporation, shrinkage leakage fire, flood etc.,

(b) It should be attractive:
Good package design should be capable of catching the attention of people, package design, weaight material, colour combinations, picture, illustrations etc., are to be pleasing to eyes and appealing to brain, cosmetics, foods, Jewellary are packed in costly packages and these products are purchased by customers because of colourful attractive package.

(c) It should be convenient:
The package should grant high degree of convenience to manufacturer, distributor and consumer alike good packaging helps for ease in handling, transporting, storing, and using the package, consumers convenience is a more important thing in designing package.

(d) It should guarantee economy:
Good packaging helps for reducing packing and packaging expenses. It brings down the other expenses such as transport, warehousing, handling etc.,

(e) It should assure adjustability:
A good packaging has the ability of flexibility or is capable of being put to alternative uses paper packages are less expensive and plastic, metal, glass, packages are useful to house different types of product.

(f) It should be pollution free:
Consumable and reusable package should be used to minimize pollution problems. Because now a days. Packaging has environmental problems, particularly discarded packaging.

(g) It should be informative:
It should provide adequate information on package contents and facilitates handling for both. Consumer and those associated with distribution. It must identify the amount of product in the package the contents, brand name and other relevant information for the consumer.

Question 8.
Explain the objectives of pricing?
Answer:
Following are the objectives of pricing:

Standard or right price helps to increase sales.
Price also makes influence on covering more market share to a product or service.
Profit is the main object of pricing.
It helps to face competition in the market.
It helps the financial manager to take decision on cash flow management.
Stabilizing price and profits can be a long term objective of a firm.
Good pricing helps for survival and development of a company.
It is used as a promotional tool by the advertising department incase of sales promotion.
Pricing are set to get good return on investment.

Question 9.
What are features of promotion?
Answer:

All promotional activities are designed to inform the target customers about the firm’s offering.
Promotional activities help the consumer in his intelligent buying.
The main purpose of promotion is to persuade the people to buy.
Promotion aims at attracting customers using competition brand to its product.
Promotional expenditure is an investment for increasing sales.
Promotion reminds the customers in purchasing product.
Promotion provides information about the product.
Promotion includes advertisement personal selling, sales promotion publicity and public relation.

Question 10.
What are the importance of promotion?
Answer:

It attracts more customers to the product.
It encourages the intermediaries to buy and store goods of popular brand name.
It encourages the sales force by offering incentives to salesmen.
It boosts sales in the market.
It reinforces the brand image-with the customers.
Promotion is responsible for the creation of demand for company’s product through the exercise of conveying information to buyers to buy.
Promotion is essential for creating demand for new product.
Promotional activities are inevitable during the period of stiff competition.
Promotional activities helps to increase sales and also facilitates for mass production.

Question 11.
Explain the features of advertising?
Answer:

It is a means of non-personal or mass communication informing about goods or services.
It helps to introduce new product quickly.
It is also called as non-personal salesmanship because it performs similar functions like personal salesmanship.
It is giving sales message to public.
It is paid communication.
Advertising message communicate the information to large number of persons at a time.
Advertising aims at developing favorable consumer attitude towards the product.
The impart of adverting is longterm and cumulative.

Question 12.
Distinguish between advertising and personal selling.
Answer:
The differences between advertising and personal selling are –
Advertising:

It is an impersonal attempt to persuade the people to buy goods or services.
Through advertising, a large number of people can be contacted.
It cannot clarify the doubts of the consumers.
In case of advertising, demonstration of the product is not possible.
It is a one-way means of communication.
It saves much time.

Personal selling:

It is a personal attempt to persuade the people to buy goods or services.
Through personal selling, only limited number of people can be contacted.
It can clarify the doubts of the consumers.
In case of personal selling, demonstration of the product is possible.
It is a two way means of communication.
It is a time-consuming process.

Question 13.
Analyse the attributes of a good advertisement copy.
Answer:
The important attributes of a good advertisement copy are –
(i) Attention value:
It must draw the attention of the consumers and induce them to read the advertising message. Therefore, attractive colours, attractive pictures, bold letters should be used in the advertisement copy.

(ii) Suggestive value:
It must suggest the consumers about the advantage of using the advertised products. This can be done by presenting the advertising matter with suitable suggestive pictures.

(iii) Memorising Value:
It should leave lasting impression on the reader’s mind. This canbe done by using slogans in the advertisement copy and by repeating the advertisement.

(iv) Convincing value:
It must convince the consumers that the advertisement is the right thing they want. There should not be any misleading advertisement.

(v) Some mental Value:
It must awaken the interest of the consumers in the advertised products and induce them to buy the advertised product.

(vi) Educational value:
Advertisement should be capable of introducing new habits and should attract the people towards new products.

(vii) Simplicity:
It must be as simple as possible i.e., it should contains few words which can give more information.

Question 14.
Explain the features of personal selling?
Answer:
(a) Direct communication:
Personal selling is a two way communication process under this method of promotional tool. Persons are convinced by the salesman to buy product and service.

(b) Order presentation:
Personal selling is an art of communication. People are getting clarification for their doubts oral communication makes more impress on the public.

(c) Salesmanship is persuasion:
Sales persons are persuading public to buy the goods. This persuasion is not pressuring the public. It is an act of convincing the’consumer to buy goods.,

(d) Salesmanship is winning the buyers confidence:
Modern salesmanship aims of winning the confidence of the buyer by providing a solution to the buyer’s problem, and educating him.

(e) Salesmanship aims at mutual bench:
Salesmanship is not the art of making a profit at the cost of the buyer. It should benefit both. The buyer and the seller the buyer obtains a solution to his problem and satisfaction of his want salesman ship help in obtaining the maximum return for the money he spends.

(f) Salesmanship is an education process:
Salesmanship educates the people about this needs and their sales function. It also provide information about the products available their special features and their utility in satisfying needs of customers.

(g) Salesmanship is a creative process:
Salesmanship is responsible for creation of demand through problem solving approach. It studies customer needs and problems through customer view point and then suggest a solution to his problem.

(h) Customer feed back:
It helps in securing customer feed back. It also helps the manufacturer to understand about customer problem and tries to get solution for it.

Question 15.
What are the essentials of effective selling?
Answer:
Following are the prerequisites for effective selling:
(a) Knowledge of company:
Salesman must have knowledge of the company. He should collects details about objective of the company, types of products produced, market share of the company etc. It helps the salesman to do work confidently.

(b) Product knowledge:
Salesman should have knowledge of the products produced by the company, raw materials used for producing product, features of the product, customer benefits, etc. without adequate knowledge of the product a salesman cannot convince the public and convert them into a customers.

(c) Knowledge of competition :
The salesman should study the products offered by his competitors and determine their strength and weaknesses in comparison to his product. Awareness of competition enables a salesman to compare his product with that of competitors to give more investing knowledge about the product to buyers.

(d) Knowledge of customers:
A salesman must have adequate knowledge about both the customers wants and desires and the products offered by the firm to satisfy customers.

(e) Knowledge of selling process:
Selling process runs closely parallel to consumer’s buying process.

The salesman uses AIDAS formula – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action and Satisfaction. He undertakes the works of selling process through:

Collecting information functions of marketing
identifying buyers willingness to buy.
Matching functions of marketing with supply and demand.
Collecting feed back from customers.
Reducing customer dissatisfaction and assure repeat orders.

(f) Self knowledge:
The salesman should be clear about his strength and weakness. It must help him to continue his work confidently.

Question 16.
What is product differentiation? Describe its advantages.
Answer:
Meaning of Product differentiation:
Product differentiation means making an attempt to induce or direct demand to adjust itself to the manner in which supply has been segmented. Product differentiation is done through branding and-packaging. The seller thinks that demand can be directed to his differentiated market offering.

Advantages of Product differentiation:

It helps in effective utilization of existing selling and distributing facilities.
It helps in satisfying the changing needs of customers and industries.
It helps in total exploitation of distribution channel.
It helps in improving the turnover and profit of the existing products along with new ones developed.

Question 17.
State the advantages of intensive distribution.
Answer:
The advantages of intensive distribution are –

It provides greater security and stability in sales volume since the loss of one or few outlets does not impair the selling activity.
There is a minimum waste of communication as it reaches a large number of buyers.
Overheads distribution cost is spread over a wider network of dealers and safes volume.
In this method of distribution, a number of retail outlets are open for mass distribution, which helps the consumers in immediate satisfaction of their needs.
Opening of a large number of outlets throughout the country, indirectly helps in advertising and creating awareness about its product among the public.

Question 18.
What are the objectives of publicity?
Answer:
The objectives of publicity are:

To obtain favourable publicity for the company.
To build up a good corporate image for the company.
To handle adverse and false rumours and stories that break out.
To place newsworthy information to the news media.
To counsel or advise management about public issues and company positions and image.
To promote internal and external communications to promote understanding the institutions.

Question 19.
Briefly explain any two pricing methods.
Answer:
Methods of pricing:
(1) Price in line (pricing at the market):
The sale at current market price is desirable under free competition and when a traditional or customary price level exists. It is preferable when product differentiation through branding is minimum, buyers and sellers are well informed and we have a free market economy.

(2) Market plus (pricing above the market):
The sales above the market price under free competition is profitable only when your product is distinctive, unique and it has prestige or status in the market. Customer is inclined to put a greater value on the product if the package is very good or the brand is well known.

(3) Market minus (Pricing below the market):
The sale below the market price, particularly at the retail level, is profitable only to large chain stores, self, service stores and discount houses. These large retailers can sell well known nationally advertised brands 10 to 30% below the suggested retail prices, List prices or fixed resale prices by the manufacturers. If you have lower costs because your product is of inferior quality. You may have to fix lower price.

(4) Right pricing:
In the long run, the best pricing policy in a competition market is the market based method of pricing. It is safer to follow the prices of important competitors who dominate the market such a price policy will prevent price war and assure normal profit.

(5) Non price competition:
The seller should rely more on non – price factors to capture the consumer demand At present in many countries business firms avoid price reduction as a means of competition. With or without price competition, increasing emphasis is being given on the various weapons of non-price competition. Non-price competition devices are Branding, packaging, advertising etc

(6) Skim:
The cream price (high pricing) a manufacturer introduction a new product may adopt this pricing strategy deliberately to build up the image of quality and prestige for his new product. In the earlier stage of product life cycle, a strategy of high price associated with heavy expenditure on promotion and at the later stage of the PLC a strategy of lower prices with normal promotional expenditure pays a rich dividend.

(7) Penetration pricing:
This a pricing strategy of charging low price at introduction stage of a product if the product has greater elasticity of.demand, mass production provides substantial reduction in unit cost of production. Very strong competition is expected soon after the product enters the market. High income section of the population is not adequate. We have bulk of the population In the middle and lower income group.

(8) Uniform pricing:
A seller will charge all similar types of buyers exactly the same price and there will be no discrimination or difference among the buyers of the same commodity. There is no question of negotiation, bargaining. No favouritism is shown to any buyers. Terms of sale are the same for similar quantities of the product.

(9) Price discrimination:
The seller will sell same quantities to different buyers at different prices. Certain favoured customers are offered lower prices.

(10) Cost plus or mark up pricing:
This method is considered the best approach to pricing. It is based the seller per-unit cost of the product plus an additional margin of profit. There are four items in determining the sales price (1) cost of producing or acquiring goods (2) cost of operating (3) Interest, dipreciation Etc. (4 expected % of profit.)

Question 20.
Briefly explain the importance of pricing.
Answer:
Various objectives of pricing are:
(a) To achieve target rate of return on investments: An adequate return on investment on net sales is an important pricing objective. This idea is to secure a safficient return on capital employed after concerning costs of production and distribution on estimate is made of the profits requid and according to profits required prices are set.

(b) Price stability: In the objective a firm seeks to cut or eliminate cyclical price fluctuation and to avoid price wars. The aim is to live and let to live.

(c) Market share: Maintaining or improving the market share is a more worth while objective of pricing in governing markets. For ex. Firms manufacturing refrigerators, washing machine, etc. reduce price to capture a large share of the growing demand in India.

(d) Meet or prevent competition: In a market characterised by cut throt competition, firms aften take pricing decisions to meet or precent competition. An established firm may cut the prices drastically to prevent competitions from entering a market.

(e) Profit maximisation: Firms parsuing this objective try to earn as much as money as possible. Small and little known firms may try to change as much price as the customers can bear. Due to high profits, new entrepreneurs will be attracted into the industry and prices will come down in the long run.

(f) Survival: Survival is the fundamental objective of pricing most firms are ready to tolerate short term losses and other difficulties which are essential for continuous existence. Under this objective the price is fixed to achieve sales volumes that can meet the firms expenses.

(g) Public image:
Good public image is necessary for success in business pricing policy exercises a significant influence on the company imgae. A company with an established reputation based on existing price policy may introduce a new product line at any price.

Importance of Pricing as follows:
(1) Survival: Companies pursue survival as their Major objectives if they are plagued with overcapacity, intense competitor or changing consumer wants.

(2) Maximum Current profit: Many companies try to get the price that Maximize current profit. They estimate the demand & cost associated with alternative prices & choose the price that product maximum current profit flow or rate of investment.

(3) Maximum Sales Growth:
Some companies want to Maximize units sales. They believe that a higher sales. Volume will lead to lower unit cost & higher longrun profit. They set the lower price, assuming the market price is sensitive.

Question 21.
Analyse the attributes of a good advertisement copy.
Answer:
The important attributes of a good advertisement copy are –
(i) Attention value:
It must draw the attention of the consumers and induce them to read the advertising message. Therefore, attractive colours, attractive pictures, bold letters should be used in the advertisement copy.

(ii) Suggestive value:
It must suggest to the consumers the advantage of using the advertised products. This can be done by presenting the advertising matter with suitable suggestive pictures.

(iii) Memorising Value:
It should leave lasting impression on the reader’s mind. This canbe done by using slogans in the advertisement copy and by repeating the advertisement.

(iv) Convincing value:
it must convince the consumers that the advertisement is the right thing they want. There should note be any misleading advertisement.

(v) Sentimental Value:
It must awaken the interest of the consumers in the advertised products and induce them to buy the advertised product.

(vi) Educational value:
Advertisement should be capable of introducing new habits and should attract the people towards new products.

(vii) Simplicity:
It must be as simple as possible i.e., it should contains few words which can give more information.