general business data bank

Essay

101. Compare and contrast the traditional organizational chart for an organization against the modern customer-oriented organization chart.

102. Provide a customer-centered definition of the term quality.

103. Describe the concept of competitive advantage. Discuss the differences between competitive advantage and leverageable advantage.

104. Discuss the differences among customer equity, value equity, brand equity, and

relationship equity.

105. Characterize the five levels of investment in customer relationship building that a company can follow.

106. Today, companies are increasingly concerned about customer defection. There are five main steps a company can take to reduce the defection rate. Characterize those five steps.

107. Discuss the concepts of a data warehouse and datamining.

108. Assume that a marketing manager of a small company is in the process of implementing the use of a database to assist his or her company in its marketing efforts. Considering the information found in the text, list five ways that the marketing manager might be able to use the database for marketing efforts.

109. Describe four situations or cases when building a customer database would not be worthwhile for a company.

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110. John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, said “Make your customer the center of your culture.” Customer-centered companies are adept at building customer relationships, not just producing products; they are skilled in ________, not just product engineering.

a. service engineering

b. market engineering

c. cultural engineering

d. innovation engineering

e. management engineering

111. Next to the customers in a modern customer-oriented organization chart, we would expect to find the ________ of an organization.

a. top management

b. marketing department

c. middle management

d. front-line people

e. service department

112. eBay sees listening, adapting, and enabling as its main roles. This is clear in one of the company’s most cherished institutions: ________.

a. the Midnight Madness Bid

b. ecological concern

c. truth in advertising

d. the Voice of the Customer program

e. the Immediate Buyback Program

113. If you were to write a good working definition of the term total customer value, you should write ________.

a. the sum of value times (X) expectation

b. the sum of customer perceived value and actualized value

c. the perceived monetary value of the bundle of economic, functional, and psychological benefits customers expect from a given market offering

d. the difference between the prospective customer’s evaluation of all the benefits and all the costs of an offering and the perceived alternatives

e. the concept is simply a bundle of costs and expectations

114. When a consumer considers a product or service, he or she will choose whichever product or service delivers the highest ________.

a. customer perceived value

b. customer perceived cost

c. consumer discount

d. consumer relationship

e. consumer synergy

115. Buyers do not always make logical or rational decisions. They might purchase the most expensive and least quality item for example. Which of the following would be another good example of this behavior?

a. The buyer is not seen by the seller as being very intelligent.

b. The buyer might be under orders to buy at the lowest price.

c. The buyer might be underage.

d. The buyer might be under pressure to resist sales messages.

e. The buyer refuses to listen to or read any advertising.

116. If a company were to focus its marketing efforts on all the experiences the customer will have on the way to obtaining and using the offering, it would be focusing its marketing efforts on the customer’s ________.

a. perception system

b. cost versus benefit system

c. demand

d. psychological system

e. value-delivery system

117. Whether the buyer is satisfied after purchase depends on the offer’s performance in relation to the ________.

a. buyer’s reactions

b. buyer’s expectations

c. seller’s delivery

d. seller’s expectations

e. both the buyer’s and seller’s demands

118. All of the following are ways that a buyer forms his or her expectations EXCEPT

________.

a. from past buying experience

b. from friends’ and associates’ advice

c. from marketers’ information

d. from competitors’ information

e. from inherited traits

119. JetBlue Airways has significantly raised customer expectations by following what JetBlue calls the Values. All of the following would be considered to be among those Values EXCEPT ________.

a. safety

b. frugality

c. caring

d. integrity

e. fun

120. The Field Grocery system is considering using _________ to pose as potential buyers and report on strong and weak points experienced in the buying the company’s and competitors’ products.

a. intelligence agents

b. covert operatives

c. mystery shoppers

d. market mavens

e. opinion leaders

121. All of the following companies have been deemed to be leaders in their respective industries because of high consumer satisfaction scores (e.g., American Satisfaction Index [ACSI]) EXCEPT ________.

a. Dell (78)

b. Cadillac (87)

c. Google (82)

d. Yahoo! (78)

e. U.S. Post Office (75)

122. Marketing managers have two responsibilities in a quality-centered company. First, they must participate in formulating strategies and policies to help the company win through total quality excellence. Second, ________.

a. they must always have the lowest price in their industry

b. they must deliver marketing quality alongside production quality

c. they must have been approved by the J.D. Power and Associates

d. they must use six-Sigma

e. they must provide instant feedback from consumers

123. Advocates of ________ would be in favor of improving quality only on those dimensions that produce tangible customer benefits, lower costs, or increase sales.

a. TQM (total quality management)

b. PLC (product life cycle management)

c. ROI (return on investment)

d. ROQ (return on quality)

e. ROP (return on promotion)

124. According to research done by American Express, the best customers outspend those that are considered to be the best customers by significant margins. For example, in retailing the best customers outspend other customers by a ratio of ________.

a. 16 to 1

b. 13 to 1

c. 12 to 1

d. 5 to 1

e. 3 to 1

125. With respect to customer profitability analysis (CPA), the ________ customers are the most likely dropped as customers because of poor profitability.

a. granite

b. wood

c. iron

d. plastic

e. lead