Basic Marketing: A Global Managerial Approach

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic

Marketing: A

Global−Managerial

Approach, 14/e

14. Promotion −
    Introduction to Integrated
    Marketing
    Communications

Text © The McGraw−Hill

Companies, 2002

418 Chapter 14

18. State Bank 19. myWedding.com

Questions and Problems

1. Briefly explain the nature of the three basic promo-
   tion methods available to a marketing manager.
   What are the main strengths and limitations of
   each?


2. In your own words, discuss the integrated marketing
   communications concept. Explain what its emphasis
   on “consistent” and “complete” messages implies
   with respect to promotion blends.


3. Relate the three basic promotion objectives to the
   four jobs (AIDA) of promotion using a specific
   example.


4. Discuss the communication process in relation to a
   producer’s promotion of an accessory product—say,
   a new electronic security system businesses use to
   limit access to areas where they store confidential
   records.


5. If a company wants its promotion to appeal to a new
   group of target customers in a foreign country, how
   can it protect against its communications being mis-
   interpreted?


6. Promotion has been the target of considerable criti-
   cism. What specific types of promotion are probably
   the object of this criticism? Give a specific example
   that illustrates your thinking.


7. With direct-response promotion, customers provide
   feedback to marketing communications. How can a
   marketing manager use this feedback to improve the
   effectiveness of the overall promotion blend?


8. How can a promotion manager target a message to a
   certain target market with electronic media (like the
   Internet) when the customer initiates the communi-
   cation? Give an example.


9. What promotion blend would be most appropriate
   for producers of the following established products?
   Assume average- to large-sized firms in each case
   and support your answer.
   a. Chocolate candy bar.
   b. Car batteries.
   c. Panty hose.
   d. Castings for truck engines.

e. A special computer used by manufacturers for

control of production equipment.

f. Inexpensive plastic rainhats.

g. A digital tape recorder that has achieved spe-

cialty-product status.

10. A small company has developed an innovative new
    spray-on glass cleaner that prevents the buildup of
    electrostatic dust on computer screens and TVs.
    Give examples of some low-cost ways the firm might
    effectively promote its product. Be certain to con-
    sider both push and pull approaches.


11. Would promotion be successful in expanding the
    general demand for: (a)almonds, (b)air travel, (c)
    golf clubs, (d)walking shoes, (e)high-octane un-
    leaded gasoline, (f)single-serving, frozen gourmet
    dinners, and (g)bricks? Explain why or why not in
    each case.


12. Explain how an understanding of the adoption
    process would help you develop a promotion blend
    for digital tape recorders, a new consumer electron-
    ics product that produces high-quality recordings.
    Explain why you might change the promotion blend
    during the course of the adoption process.


13. Explain how opinion leaders affect a firm’s promo-
    tion planning.


14. Discuss how the adoption curve should be used to
    plan the promotion blend(s) for a new automobile
    accessory—an electronic radar system that alerts a
    driver if he or she is about to change lanes into the
    path of a car that is passing through a blind spot in
    the driver’s mirrors.


15. If a marketing manager uses the task method to
    budget for marketing promotions, are competitors’
    promotion spending levels ignored? Explain your
    thinking and give an example that supports your
    point of view.


16. Discuss the potential conflict among the various
    promotion managers. How could this be reduced?

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