BMAL 590 PRACTICE UPDATED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
GRADED A+
✔✔4 P's (expanded) - ✔✔Product: Will customers want what your company is prepared
to produce?
Price: Will customers pay what you would like to charge?
Place: Where and how will customers purchase your market offering?
Promotion: What can you tell your customers, or do for them, to entice them to
purchase?
✔✔Customer behavior - ✔✔The way customers select, purchase, use, and dispose of
goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and desires
✔✔Business-to-customer (B2C) - ✔✔(Customer involvement: low) Convenience
purchases: Staples (standard, frequently consumed goods such as bread or gas) and
impulse purchases (candy or National Enquirer available near the check-out stand).
(Customer involvement: moderate) Shopping purchases: Going online to
Citysearch.com to find a restaurant and make reservations when heading out of town.
(Customer involvement: high) Specialty purchases: A new car, fashion shows, an
expensive laptop computer.
✔✔Business-to-business (B2B) - ✔✔(Customer involvement: low) Straight rebuy:
You're out of toothpaste and you mindlessly pop a tube of your usual brand into your
basket.
(Customer involvement: moderate) Modified rebuy: You reach for your brand of
toothpaste but you try a new flavor.
(Customer involvement: high) New buy: You're buying teeth whitening strips for the first
time and think what attributes must you consider.
✔✔Types of Shopping: Customer Involvement - ✔✔It's not the type of product or
purchase that matters. It's the type of customer behavior (consumer or business level of
involvement) that is relevant and the marketing actions and reactions.
✔✔Customer involvement - ✔✔Low customer involvement: Customers don't care and
won't spend time thinking about brands. They will typically be somewhat price sensitive.
Moderate customer involvement: Some effort is expended prior to purchase to obtain
good value.
,High customer involvement: For expensive purchases, brand, uniqueness and quality
matter.
✔✔Buying Process - ✔✔The steps consumers go through when buying a product or
service
1. Identify needs/wants
2. Search for alternative solutions
3. Evaluate alternatives
4. Purchase
5. Evaluate post-purchase
✔✔Consumer buying - ✔✔People buying something for themselves or their household
✔✔Business customer - ✔✔A business customer is an agent buying something on
behalf of an organization.
✔✔Models of how buyers make decisions - ✔✔1. Lexicographic method
2. Average method
3. Use attribute importance
✔✔Lexicographic method - ✔✔A customer compares brands by the most important
attributes or dimensions. Brands that make the cut on the first dimension go into the
customer's consideration set. The customer then compares the brand on the next
important attribute and so forth, until only one brand is left.
✔✔Average method - ✔✔This method uses averages so one attribute can't make or
break a brand. If a brand is strong on one attribute and average on another, it will still
dominate a brand that was just average on all its attributes.
✔✔Use attribute importance - ✔✔Models can be made more complex by bringing in
weights to express how important the attributes are to the customer. Those important
weights underpin how segments of customers differ.
✔✔What factors influence customer behavior? - ✔✔External, internal, and situational
✔✔External factors - ✔✔Opinion leaders, family, culture, social class, and reference
groups
✔✔Internal factors - ✔✔Attitudes, motivations, learning, perceptions, and lifestyle
✔✔Situational factors - ✔✔Physical environment, purpose of purchase, and time
constraints
, ✔✔Roles in Big, Complicated Business Purchases - ✔✔(Example) Initiator: an
administrative assistant who notices a printer in the office frequently needs repairs.
User: every staff member who sends a job to that printer.
Influencer: the IT person who knows Brand X is cheaper.
Buyer: administrator who orders equipment and supplies.
Gatekeeper: accountant who controls the budget.
Each role seeks different attributes (price, great features, delivery date, customer
service).
✔✔B2B classifications - ✔✔Classified in segments according to whether they sell
installations, accessories, raw materials, parts, or business services.
The most important classification is whether a particular business cares about a
particular purchase, resulting in B2C that care (for example, are concerned with quality)
or do not care (for example, are price sensitive)
✔✔What is a key feature of B2B? - ✔✔The buying center
✔✔Differences between products and services - ✔✔1. Intangibility—services cannot be
evaluated using sight, touch, smell and communicating the benefits is often difficult
2. Perishability—services cannot be stored and hence matching supply with demand is
critical
3. Variability—service quality differs based on who performs the service unless
standardization in service quality is offered through training
4. Inseparability— in services the production and consumption cannot be separated
✔✔Product Life Cycle - ✔✔1. Introduction: An organization attempts to establish itself
as a pioneer/market leader (especially if there are few competitors), & product
development costs are high
2. Growth: Sales/Revenues & profit margins rise as consumers buy the product and
competition increases, & due to shakeout poor performing firms may exit the market
3. Maturity: Revenue peaks but profit margins erode due to high competition
4. Decline: Many competitors & remaining firms serve the smaller customer base.
GRADED A+
✔✔4 P's (expanded) - ✔✔Product: Will customers want what your company is prepared
to produce?
Price: Will customers pay what you would like to charge?
Place: Where and how will customers purchase your market offering?
Promotion: What can you tell your customers, or do for them, to entice them to
purchase?
✔✔Customer behavior - ✔✔The way customers select, purchase, use, and dispose of
goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and desires
✔✔Business-to-customer (B2C) - ✔✔(Customer involvement: low) Convenience
purchases: Staples (standard, frequently consumed goods such as bread or gas) and
impulse purchases (candy or National Enquirer available near the check-out stand).
(Customer involvement: moderate) Shopping purchases: Going online to
Citysearch.com to find a restaurant and make reservations when heading out of town.
(Customer involvement: high) Specialty purchases: A new car, fashion shows, an
expensive laptop computer.
✔✔Business-to-business (B2B) - ✔✔(Customer involvement: low) Straight rebuy:
You're out of toothpaste and you mindlessly pop a tube of your usual brand into your
basket.
(Customer involvement: moderate) Modified rebuy: You reach for your brand of
toothpaste but you try a new flavor.
(Customer involvement: high) New buy: You're buying teeth whitening strips for the first
time and think what attributes must you consider.
✔✔Types of Shopping: Customer Involvement - ✔✔It's not the type of product or
purchase that matters. It's the type of customer behavior (consumer or business level of
involvement) that is relevant and the marketing actions and reactions.
✔✔Customer involvement - ✔✔Low customer involvement: Customers don't care and
won't spend time thinking about brands. They will typically be somewhat price sensitive.
Moderate customer involvement: Some effort is expended prior to purchase to obtain
good value.
,High customer involvement: For expensive purchases, brand, uniqueness and quality
matter.
✔✔Buying Process - ✔✔The steps consumers go through when buying a product or
service
1. Identify needs/wants
2. Search for alternative solutions
3. Evaluate alternatives
4. Purchase
5. Evaluate post-purchase
✔✔Consumer buying - ✔✔People buying something for themselves or their household
✔✔Business customer - ✔✔A business customer is an agent buying something on
behalf of an organization.
✔✔Models of how buyers make decisions - ✔✔1. Lexicographic method
2. Average method
3. Use attribute importance
✔✔Lexicographic method - ✔✔A customer compares brands by the most important
attributes or dimensions. Brands that make the cut on the first dimension go into the
customer's consideration set. The customer then compares the brand on the next
important attribute and so forth, until only one brand is left.
✔✔Average method - ✔✔This method uses averages so one attribute can't make or
break a brand. If a brand is strong on one attribute and average on another, it will still
dominate a brand that was just average on all its attributes.
✔✔Use attribute importance - ✔✔Models can be made more complex by bringing in
weights to express how important the attributes are to the customer. Those important
weights underpin how segments of customers differ.
✔✔What factors influence customer behavior? - ✔✔External, internal, and situational
✔✔External factors - ✔✔Opinion leaders, family, culture, social class, and reference
groups
✔✔Internal factors - ✔✔Attitudes, motivations, learning, perceptions, and lifestyle
✔✔Situational factors - ✔✔Physical environment, purpose of purchase, and time
constraints
, ✔✔Roles in Big, Complicated Business Purchases - ✔✔(Example) Initiator: an
administrative assistant who notices a printer in the office frequently needs repairs.
User: every staff member who sends a job to that printer.
Influencer: the IT person who knows Brand X is cheaper.
Buyer: administrator who orders equipment and supplies.
Gatekeeper: accountant who controls the budget.
Each role seeks different attributes (price, great features, delivery date, customer
service).
✔✔B2B classifications - ✔✔Classified in segments according to whether they sell
installations, accessories, raw materials, parts, or business services.
The most important classification is whether a particular business cares about a
particular purchase, resulting in B2C that care (for example, are concerned with quality)
or do not care (for example, are price sensitive)
✔✔What is a key feature of B2B? - ✔✔The buying center
✔✔Differences between products and services - ✔✔1. Intangibility—services cannot be
evaluated using sight, touch, smell and communicating the benefits is often difficult
2. Perishability—services cannot be stored and hence matching supply with demand is
critical
3. Variability—service quality differs based on who performs the service unless
standardization in service quality is offered through training
4. Inseparability— in services the production and consumption cannot be separated
✔✔Product Life Cycle - ✔✔1. Introduction: An organization attempts to establish itself
as a pioneer/market leader (especially if there are few competitors), & product
development costs are high
2. Growth: Sales/Revenues & profit margins rise as consumers buy the product and
competition increases, & due to shakeout poor performing firms may exit the market
3. Maturity: Revenue peaks but profit margins erode due to high competition
4. Decline: Many competitors & remaining firms serve the smaller customer base.
