Q :What is Marketing ?
A: Marketing is a societal process by which individuals
Q. What is conjunctive,disjunctive and lexicographic strategy ?
Conjunctive strategy : The conjunctive rule specifies any product not meeting a minimum cutoff level on any characteristics is eliminated
Disjunctive strategy : The disjunctive strategy or rule is a maximax strategy . Products are compared on their best characteristic. The product with the highest rating on its best characteristics is chosen. The minimax strategy suggests products should be judged on their weakest characteristics, and the one with the strongest weakest characteristics should be selected.
Lexicographic strategy: The lexicographic strategy first ranks the characteristics in order of importance and then selects the product rated best on the most important characteristics. If two or more products rate equally , the next most important characteristic is used as a tie-breaker.
Q. What is market segmentation?
A. Market segmentation is the process in marketing of dividing a market into distinct subsets (segments) that behave in the same way or have similar needs. Because each segment is fairly homogeneous in their needs and attitudes, they are likely to respond similarly to a given marketing strategy. That is, they are likely to have similar feelings and ideas about a marketing mix comprised of a given product or service, sold at a given price, distributed in a certain way and promoted in a certain way.
Q. What is Marketing Mix
A. The marketing mix is generally accepted as the use and specification of the 4 Ps describing the strategic position of a product in the marketplace. One version of the origins of the marketing mix starts in 1948 when Culliton said that a marketing decision should be a result of something similar to a recipe. This version continues in 1953 when Neil Borden, in his American Marketing Association presidential address, took the recipe idea one step further and coined the term 'Marketing-Mix'. A prominent person to take centre stage was E. Jerome McCarthy in 1960; he proposed a four-P classification which was popularised. Philip Kotler describes the concept well in his Marketing Management book (see references below)
Q. What are the 4 Ps of marketing
A. Although some marketers have added other Ps, such as personnel and packaging, the fundamental dogma of marketing typically identifies the four Ps of the marketing mix as referring to:
Product - An object or a service that is mass produced or manufactured on a large scale with a specific volume of units. A typical example of a mass produced service is the hotel industry. A less obvious but ubiquitous mass produced service is a computer operating system. Typical examples of a mass produced objects are the motor car and the disposable razor.
Price – The price is the amount a customer pays for a product. It is determined by a number of factors including market share, competition, product identity and the customer's perceived value of the product. The business may increase or decrease the product if other stores have the same product.
Place – Place represents the location where a product can be purchased. It is often referred to as the distribution channel. It can include any physical store as well as virtual stores on the Internet.
Promotion – Promotion represents all of the communications that a marketer may use in the marketplace. Promotion has four distinct elements - advertising, public relations, word of mouth and point of sale. A certain amount of crossover occurs when promotion uses the four principle elements together, which is common in film promotion. Advertising covers any communication that is paid for, from television and cinema commercials, radio and Internet adverts through print media and billboards. One of the most notable means of promotion today is the Promotional Product, as in useful items distributed to targeted audiences with no obligation attached. This category has grown each year for the past decade while most other forms have suffered. It is the only form of advertising that targets all five senses and has the recipient thanking the giver. Public relations are where the communication is not directly paid for and includes press releases, sponsorship deals, exhibitions, conferences, seminars or trade fairs and events. Word of mouth is any apparently informal communication about the product by ordinary individuals, satisfied customers or people specifically engaged to create word of mouth momentum. Sales staff often play an important role in word of mouth and Public Relations (see Product above).
Q. What are the requirements of effective segmentation?
A. The requirements of effective segmentation can be summarized by the word DAMAS:
- D Differential: it must respond differently to a different marketing mix
- A Actionable: you must have a product for this segment to be accured. You must be able to attract and serve the segments.
- M Measurable: size, purchasing power and profiles of segments can be measured
- A Accessible: it must be possible to reach and serve the segment efficiently
- S Substantial: the segment has to be large and profitable enough
Q. What are the variables used for segmentation?
A. The variables used for segmentation include:
- Geographic variables
o region of the world or country, East, West, South, North, Central, coastal, hilly, etc.
o country size/country size : Metropolitian Cities, small cities, towns.
o Density of Area Urban, Semi-urban, Rural.
o climate Hot, Cold, Humid, Rainy. - Demographic variables
o age
o gender Male and Female
o sexual orientation
o family size
o family life cycle
o Education Primary, High School, Secondary, College, Universities.
o income
o occupation
o education
o socioeconomic status
o religion
o nationality/race
o language - Psychographic variables
o personality
o life style
o value
o attitude - Behavioural variables
o benefit sought
o product usage rate
o brand loyalty
o product end use
o readiness-to-buy stage
o decision making unit
o profitability
Q. What is cluster analysis?
A. 'Cluster analysis' is a class of statistical techniques that can be applied to data that exhibit “natural” groupings. Cluster analysis sorts through the raw data and groups them into clusters. A cluster is a group of relatively homogeneous cases or observations. Objects in a cluster are similar to each other. They are also dissimilar to objects outside the cluster, particularly objects in other clusters.
Q. List some acronyms for market segments
A.
Customer segments
DINKY - Double income no kids yet => they can afford eg holidays and yachts
SOHO - Small Office, Home Office
VSB - Very Small Business
SMB - Small Medium Business / SME - Small and medium enterprise
VALS - Values Attitude and Life-Styles
LOHAS - Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability
SAM - Segmented Addressable Market
Market/product segments
BPO - Business Process Outsourcing
Comms - Communications Sector
DIY - Do It Yourself market
FMCG - Fast Moving Consumer Goods
FSS - Financial Services Sector
HoReCa - Hotel, Restaurant, Café
H&LS - Health and Life Sciences
ICT - Information & Communication Technology
RPO - Recruitment Process Outsourcing
Bogof - Buy one get one free
Q. What is Positioning?
A. A product's position is how potential buyers see the product. Positioning is expressed relative to the position of competitors. The term was coined in 1969 by Al Ries and Jack Trout in the paper "Positioning" is a game people play in today’s me-too market place" in the publication Industrial Marketing. It was then expanded into their ground-breaking first book, "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind".
Positioning is something (perception) that happens in the minds of the target market. It is the aggregate perception the market has of a particular company, product or service in relation to their perceptions of the competitors in the same category. It will happen whether or not a company's management is proactive, reactive or passive about the on-going process of evolving a position. But a company can positively influence the perceptions through enlightened strategic actions.
In marketing, positioning has come to mean the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand, or organization. It is the 'relative competitive comparison' their product occupies in a given market as perceived by the target market.
Re-positioning involves changing the identity of a product, relative to the identity of competing products, in the collective minds of the target market.
De-positioning involves attempting to change the identity of competing products, relative to the identity of your own product, in the collective minds of the target market.
Q. Explain the product positioning process
A.Generally, the product positioning process involves:
- Defining the market in which the product or brand will compete (who the relevant buyers are)
- Identifying the attributes (also called dimensions) that define the product 'space'
- Collecting information from a sample of customers about their perceptions of each product on the relevant attributes
- Determine each product's share of mind
- Determine each product's current location in the product space
- Determine the target market's preferred combination of attributes (referred to as an ideal vector)
- Examine the fit between:
The position of your product
The position of the ideal vector - Position.
Q. What are the different types of positioning concepts ?
A.
More generally, there are three types of positioning concepts:
- Functional positions
Solve problems
Provide benefits to customers
Get favorable perception by investors (stock profile) and lenders - Symbolic positions
Self-image enhancement
Ego identification
Belongingness and social meaningfulness
Affective fulfillment - Experiential positions
Provide sensory stimulation
Provide cognitive stimulation
Q. What are the different methods to measure positioning?
A. Positioning is facilitated by a graphical technique called perceptual mapping, various survey techniques, and statistical techniques like multi dimensional scaling, factor analysis, conjoint analysis, and logit analysis.
Q.What is the key strategy for positioning?
A. The key strategy is differentiating the offer.
Product can be differentiated by manipulating the below attributes
- Form
- Features
- Performance
- Quality
- Conformance quality
- Durability
- Reliability
- Repairability
- Style
- Design
Q. What are the differences which are worth establishing
A. The differences which have the following characteristics are worth establishing
- Important
- Profitable
- Affordable
- Preemptive
- Superior
- Distinctive
Q. What influences consumer behaviour
- Cultural factors
- Social factors
- Personal factors
Q. What are the social classes in USA
Ans :
- lower lowers
- upper lowers
- working class
- middle class
- upper middles
- lower uppers
- upper uppers
Q. How do Indian marketers classify the buyers in urban areas ?
Ans : They use a term called socieconomic classification(SEC),which uses a combination of the education and occupation of the chief wage earner of the household. This classifies all urban households into eight broad categories namely A1,A2,B1,B2,C,D,E1 and E2;with A1 signifying the highest purchase potential and E2 signifying the lowest.
Q. How is the classification done in the rural areas ?
Ans : For the rural areas ,the system uses the occupation of the chief wage earner of the household and the type of house to classify households into four broad categories from R1 to R4 in the descending order of purchase potential.
