MARKETING PRINCIPLES FINAL EXAM 2026 COMPLETE
Q&A GUIDE
MARKETING PRINCIPLES FINAL EXAM 2026 COMPLETE
Q&A GUIDE
Note: This guide covers fundamental marketing
principles. Questions are designed to test
comprehension of core concepts, frameworks, and
modern applications.
Section 1: Core Concepts & Definitions
1. What is marketing?
A: Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating,
delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society
at large (AMA definition).
2. What is the primary goal of marketing?
A: To identify, anticipate, and satisfy customer needs and wants profitably, thereby creating
value for both the customer and the organization.
3. Define a 'need' vs. a 'want' vs. a 'demand'.
A: A need is a basic human requirement (e.g., food). A want is the form a need takes shaped by
culture and personality (e.g., a pizza). Demand is a want backed by buying power.
4. What is the Marketing Concept?
A: A business philosophy that achieving organizational goals depends on knowing the needs and
wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions better than competitors do.
5. What is Customer Perceived Value (CPV)?
A: The customer's evaluation of the difference between all the benefits and all the costs of a
market offering relative to those of competing offers.
,6. What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?
A: The overall process of building and maintaining profitable customer relationships by
delivering superior customer value and satisfaction.
7. What is customer equity?
A: The total combined customer lifetime values of all the company's current and potential
customers. It's a measure of the future value of the company's customer base.
8. What is a market offering?
A: Some combination of products, services, information, or experiences offered to a market to
satisfy a need or want.
9. Define 'marketing myopia'.
A: The mistake of paying more attention to the specific products a company offers than to the
benefits and experiences produced by these products (coined by Theodore Levitt).
10. What is societal marketing?
A: The idea that a company should make good marketing decisions by considering consumers'
wants, the company's requirements, consumers' long-term interests, and society's long-run
interests.
Section 2: The Marketing Environment & Strategy
11. What are the components of a company's micro-environment?
A: The actors close to the company that affect its ability to serve its customers: the company
itself, suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customer markets, competitors, and publics.
12. What are the components of the macro-environment (PESTEL analysis)?
A: Political, Economic, Social (Sociocultural), Technological, Environmental (Ecological),
and Legal forces.
13. What is a SWOT analysis?
A: A strategic planning tool that assesses an organization's Strengths, Weaknesses
(internal), Opportunities, and Threats (external).
14. What are the four growth strategies in the Ansoff Matrix?
A: 1. Market Penetration (existing products, existing markets).
2. Market Development (existing products, new markets).
3. Product Development (new products, existing markets).
4. Diversification (new products, new markets).
,15. Explain the BCG Growth-Share Matrix.
A: It classifies a company's SBUs (Strategic Business Units) into four categories based on market
growth and relative market share: Stars (high growth, high share), Cash Cows (low growth, high
share), Question Marks (high growth, low share), and Dogs (low growth, low share).
16. What is a marketing strategy?
A: The marketing logic by which the company hopes to create customer value and achieve
profitable customer relationships. It involves selecting target markets and building a profitable
value proposition.
17. What are the four Ps of the marketing mix?
A: Product, Price, Place (Distribution), and Promotion.
18. What are the four Cs, corresponding to the four Ps from a customer's perspective?
A: Customer Solution (vs. Product), Customer Cost (vs. Price), Convenience (vs.
Place), Communication (vs. Promotion).
19. What is the purpose of a marketing plan?
A: A written document that summarizes what the marketer has learned about the marketplace
and outlines how the firm plans to reach its marketing objectives.
20. Define market segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP).
A: Segmentation: Dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers with different needs.
Targeting: Evaluating each segment's attractiveness and selecting one or more to enter.
Positioning: Arranging for a product to occupy a clear, distinctive, and desirable place relative to
competing products in the minds of target consumers.
Section 3: Consumer & Buyer Behavior
21. What are the main factors influencing consumer behavior?
A: Cultural, Social (family, roles, reference groups), Personal (age, occupation, lifestyle), and
Psychological (motivation, perception, learning, beliefs/attitudes).
22. What are the stages in the consumer buyer decision process?
A: 1. Need Recognition, 2. Information Search, 3. Evaluation of Alternatives, 4. Purchase
Decision, 5. Post-Purchase Behavior.
23. What is cognitive dissonance?
A: Buyer discomfort caused by post-purchase conflict, often after a major purchase. Consumers
seek reassurance that their choice was correct.
, 24. What is the difference between B2C and B2B marketing?
A: B2C (Business-to-Consumer): Marketing to individuals for personal use. B2B (Business-to-
Business): Marketing to organizations that buy goods and services for use in production, for
resale, or for operational purposes.
25. What are the characteristics of B2B markets?
A: Fewer, larger buyers, derived demand, inelastic demand, fluctuating demand,
professional/personal relationships, direct purchasing, and multiple buying influences.
26. What is the buying center in B2B markets?
A: All the individuals and units that play a role in the business purchase decision-making
process. Roles include initiators, users, influencers, deciders, approvers, buyers, and
gatekeepers.
27. What is a reference group?
A: A group that serves as a direct (face-to-face) or indirect point of comparison or reference in
forming a person's attitudes or behavior.
28. What is brand personality?
A: The specific mix of human traits that may be attributed to a particular brand (e.g., sincerity,
excitement, competence, sophistication, ruggedness).
29. Define 'lifestyle' in a marketing context.
A: A person's pattern of living as expressed in his or her activities, interests, and opinions (AIOs).
It captures more than social class or personality.
30. What is 'perception' and why is it important?
A: The process by which people select, organize, and interpret information to form a meaningful
picture of the world. Marketers must work to break through perceptual "noise" to get their
messages noticed.
Section 4: Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning
31. What are the main bases for segmenting consumer markets?
A: Geographic, Demographic, Psychographic (lifestyle, personality, values), and Behavioral
(occasion, benefits, user status, loyalty status).
32. What are the requirements for effective segmentation?
A: Measurable, Accessible, Substantial, Differentiable, and Actionable (M.A.S.D.A.).
Q&A GUIDE
MARKETING PRINCIPLES FINAL EXAM 2026 COMPLETE
Q&A GUIDE
Note: This guide covers fundamental marketing
principles. Questions are designed to test
comprehension of core concepts, frameworks, and
modern applications.
Section 1: Core Concepts & Definitions
1. What is marketing?
A: Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating,
delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society
at large (AMA definition).
2. What is the primary goal of marketing?
A: To identify, anticipate, and satisfy customer needs and wants profitably, thereby creating
value for both the customer and the organization.
3. Define a 'need' vs. a 'want' vs. a 'demand'.
A: A need is a basic human requirement (e.g., food). A want is the form a need takes shaped by
culture and personality (e.g., a pizza). Demand is a want backed by buying power.
4. What is the Marketing Concept?
A: A business philosophy that achieving organizational goals depends on knowing the needs and
wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions better than competitors do.
5. What is Customer Perceived Value (CPV)?
A: The customer's evaluation of the difference between all the benefits and all the costs of a
market offering relative to those of competing offers.
,6. What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?
A: The overall process of building and maintaining profitable customer relationships by
delivering superior customer value and satisfaction.
7. What is customer equity?
A: The total combined customer lifetime values of all the company's current and potential
customers. It's a measure of the future value of the company's customer base.
8. What is a market offering?
A: Some combination of products, services, information, or experiences offered to a market to
satisfy a need or want.
9. Define 'marketing myopia'.
A: The mistake of paying more attention to the specific products a company offers than to the
benefits and experiences produced by these products (coined by Theodore Levitt).
10. What is societal marketing?
A: The idea that a company should make good marketing decisions by considering consumers'
wants, the company's requirements, consumers' long-term interests, and society's long-run
interests.
Section 2: The Marketing Environment & Strategy
11. What are the components of a company's micro-environment?
A: The actors close to the company that affect its ability to serve its customers: the company
itself, suppliers, marketing intermediaries, customer markets, competitors, and publics.
12. What are the components of the macro-environment (PESTEL analysis)?
A: Political, Economic, Social (Sociocultural), Technological, Environmental (Ecological),
and Legal forces.
13. What is a SWOT analysis?
A: A strategic planning tool that assesses an organization's Strengths, Weaknesses
(internal), Opportunities, and Threats (external).
14. What are the four growth strategies in the Ansoff Matrix?
A: 1. Market Penetration (existing products, existing markets).
2. Market Development (existing products, new markets).
3. Product Development (new products, existing markets).
4. Diversification (new products, new markets).
,15. Explain the BCG Growth-Share Matrix.
A: It classifies a company's SBUs (Strategic Business Units) into four categories based on market
growth and relative market share: Stars (high growth, high share), Cash Cows (low growth, high
share), Question Marks (high growth, low share), and Dogs (low growth, low share).
16. What is a marketing strategy?
A: The marketing logic by which the company hopes to create customer value and achieve
profitable customer relationships. It involves selecting target markets and building a profitable
value proposition.
17. What are the four Ps of the marketing mix?
A: Product, Price, Place (Distribution), and Promotion.
18. What are the four Cs, corresponding to the four Ps from a customer's perspective?
A: Customer Solution (vs. Product), Customer Cost (vs. Price), Convenience (vs.
Place), Communication (vs. Promotion).
19. What is the purpose of a marketing plan?
A: A written document that summarizes what the marketer has learned about the marketplace
and outlines how the firm plans to reach its marketing objectives.
20. Define market segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP).
A: Segmentation: Dividing a market into distinct groups of buyers with different needs.
Targeting: Evaluating each segment's attractiveness and selecting one or more to enter.
Positioning: Arranging for a product to occupy a clear, distinctive, and desirable place relative to
competing products in the minds of target consumers.
Section 3: Consumer & Buyer Behavior
21. What are the main factors influencing consumer behavior?
A: Cultural, Social (family, roles, reference groups), Personal (age, occupation, lifestyle), and
Psychological (motivation, perception, learning, beliefs/attitudes).
22. What are the stages in the consumer buyer decision process?
A: 1. Need Recognition, 2. Information Search, 3. Evaluation of Alternatives, 4. Purchase
Decision, 5. Post-Purchase Behavior.
23. What is cognitive dissonance?
A: Buyer discomfort caused by post-purchase conflict, often after a major purchase. Consumers
seek reassurance that their choice was correct.
, 24. What is the difference between B2C and B2B marketing?
A: B2C (Business-to-Consumer): Marketing to individuals for personal use. B2B (Business-to-
Business): Marketing to organizations that buy goods and services for use in production, for
resale, or for operational purposes.
25. What are the characteristics of B2B markets?
A: Fewer, larger buyers, derived demand, inelastic demand, fluctuating demand,
professional/personal relationships, direct purchasing, and multiple buying influences.
26. What is the buying center in B2B markets?
A: All the individuals and units that play a role in the business purchase decision-making
process. Roles include initiators, users, influencers, deciders, approvers, buyers, and
gatekeepers.
27. What is a reference group?
A: A group that serves as a direct (face-to-face) or indirect point of comparison or reference in
forming a person's attitudes or behavior.
28. What is brand personality?
A: The specific mix of human traits that may be attributed to a particular brand (e.g., sincerity,
excitement, competence, sophistication, ruggedness).
29. Define 'lifestyle' in a marketing context.
A: A person's pattern of living as expressed in his or her activities, interests, and opinions (AIOs).
It captures more than social class or personality.
30. What is 'perception' and why is it important?
A: The process by which people select, organize, and interpret information to form a meaningful
picture of the world. Marketers must work to break through perceptual "noise" to get their
messages noticed.
Section 4: Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning
31. What are the main bases for segmenting consumer markets?
A: Geographic, Demographic, Psychographic (lifestyle, personality, values), and Behavioral
(occasion, benefits, user status, loyalty status).
32. What are the requirements for effective segmentation?
A: Measurable, Accessible, Substantial, Differentiable, and Actionable (M.A.S.D.A.).
