Chapter 11 Marketing Solutions
Question - 1 : - Explain the advantages of branding to marketers of goods and services.
Answer - 1 : -
Branding is an important function performed by a marketer. It has following advantages to the marketers
(i) Enables marking product differentiation.
(ii) Helps in advertising and display programmes.
(iii) Differential pricing.
(iv) Ease in introduction of new products.
Question - 2 : - List the characteristics of a good brand name.
Answer - 2 : -
Following are the characteristics of a good brand name
(i) It should be short, easy to pronounce, recognise and remember e.g., Bin, Vim.
(ii) It should suggest product’s qualities e.g., Genteel, Rasna.
(iii) It should be distinctive e.g., Zodiac.
(iv) It should be versatile to accomodate new products which are added to the product line e.g., Maggie, Videocon.
(v) It should be capable of being registered and protected legally.
(vi) Chosen name should have staying powers e.g., it should not get out of date.
Question - 3 : - What is the societal concept of marketing?
Answer - 3 : - The societal concept of marketing means an extension of marketing concept. Apart from the consumer satisfaction, it pays attention to the social, ethical and ecological aspects of marketing.
Question - 4 : - List the characteristics of convenience products.
Answer - 4 : -
Following are the characteristics of convenience products
(i) These goods are purchased at convenient locations with least efforts and time.
(ii) They have regular and continuous demand.
(iii) They are purchased in small quantities and per unit price is low.
(iv) They are mostly branded and have standardised price.
(v) The competition is high as the supply is greater than the demand.
(vi) Sales promotion schemes play an important role in the marketing of such products.
Question - 5 : - Enlist the advantages of packaging of a consumer products.
Answer - 5 : -
Importance of Packaging
(i) Helps in raising the standard of health and sanitation.
(ii) Helps in self service outlets as consumer can easily decide on his own what to buy.
(iii) Innovational opportunity e.g., new types of packaging availability have made it easier to market the product.
(iv) Product Differentiation Packaging is one of the very important means creating product differentiation.
Question - 6 : - What are the limitations of a advertising as a promotional tool? Enlist.
Answer - 6 : -
Following are the limitations of advertising
(i) Less forceful (ii) Lack of feedback
(iii) Inflexibility (iv) Low effectiveness
Question - 7 : - What is marketing? What functions does it play with process of exchange of goods and services? Explain.
Answer - 7 : -
Marketing is a total system of business activities designed to plan, price, promote and distribute want satisfying goods and services to present and potential customers. Marketing is concerned with exchange of goods and services from producer to consumers which involves many activities.
(i) Gathering and Analysing Market Information
This is done to identify the needs of the customers and take various decisions for the successful marketing of the products and services.
(ii) Marketing Planning
Another important activity or area of work of a marketer is to develop appropriate marketing plans, so that the marketing objective of the organisation can be achieved.
(iii) Product Designing and Development
The design of the product contributes to make the product attractive to the target customers.
A good design can improve performance of a product and also give it a competitive advantage in the market.
(i) Standardisation and Grading
Standardisation refers to producing goods of predetermined specification which helps in achieving uniformity and consistency in the output which reduces the need for inspection, testing and evaluation of the products.
Grading is the process of classification of products into different groups, on the basis of its features such as quality, size etc. It ensures that goods belong to a particular quality helps in realising higher prices for high quality output.
(ii) Packaging and Labelling
Packaging refers to designing the package for the products. Labelling refers to designing the label to be put on the package. Packaging provides protection to the product and also helps in its promotion. Labelling helps in self service.
(iii) Branding
Brand names help in creating product differentiations i.e., how the product can be distinguished from its competitors.
(iv) Customer Support Service
Marketing management relates to developing customer support service such as after sales services, handling customer complaints. All these aim at provides customer satisfaction which is a key to marketing^success.
(viii) Pricing of Product
Price is an important factor affecting the success or failure of a product in the market. The marketers have to analyse properly the factors determining the price of a product.
(ix) Promotion
Promotion of products and services involves informing the customers about the firm’s product, its features etc and persuading them to purchase these products. It includes four method advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and publicity.
(x) Physical Distribution
The important decisions areas under physical distribution include managing inventory, storage, warehousing and transportation of goods from one place to the other.
(xi) Transportation Transportation involves physical movement of goods from one place to another. A marketer has to perform this function very efficiently keeping in mind the nature of product, cost, location of target market etc.
(xii) Storage or Warehousing
In order to maintain smooth flow of products in the market, there is a need for proper storage of the products. Further, there is a need for storage of adequate stock of goods to protect against unavoidable delays in delivery or to meet ‘out contingencies in the demand. Wholesalers and retailers are playing an important role.
Question - 8 : - Distinguish between the product concept and production concept of marketing.
Answer - 8 : -
Basis of Comparison | Product Concept | Production Concept |
Belief | Product concept believes that consumers favoured quality products and profit can be increased by increasing the product quality. | Production concept believed that consumers will be favouring products that are readily available and are affordable. Therefore, profits can be maximised by increasing the production volume. |
Focus of the business | The main focus areas were on improving product quality and addition of new features to the product. | The primary focus was on improving the production quantity and also reducing the production cost. |
Methodology | Product quality and improvement of features was the primary emphasis. | Production efficiency was the primary point of emphasis. |
Question - 9 : - Product is a bundle of utilities? Do you agree? Comment.
Answer - 9 : -
A customer at the time of purchasing a product will look forward to the utility that the product offers. Customers seek many types of benefits from a product which can be social, psychological or functional. Therefore, it can be said that product is a bundle of utilities as there are many benefits of owning the product.
Question - 10 : - What are industrial products? How are they different from consumer products? Explain.
Answer - 10 : -
The products that are used as inputs in the production of other goods are known as industrial products. These goods are used as raw materials for producing finished goods, on the other hand consumer products are those products that customers utilise for consumption. The points of distinction between industrial and consumer products are as follows:
Basis of Comparison | Industrial Products | Consumer Products |
Number of Customers | Customer number is limited. For an instance, oil producing seeds are not purchased by many. | Higher number of customers for the end product. For an instance, the oils produced from seed have many customers. |
Channel of Distribution | Shorter channels of distribution are required for such products. | These products require both short and long distribution channels (which depends on the type of product) before reaching the end user. |
Location | It is concentrated in areas where there are industries which require such products. | These products are easily available through local retailers. |
Demand | Industrial products demand is based on consumer product demand. | Consumer products set the requirement for the industrial products |
Role of Technical Features in Decision Making | Important role of technical features | Technical features do not have a role in decision making as consumer products do not have technical complexity. |