Deck 13: Measuring and Delivering Marketing Performance

Question 1

The contingency plan for a company has an alert set at sales declines of 20 per cent or more,compared to the previous month.In which stage of the contingency planning process would such an alert be set?

A)specifying response options
B)activating the contingency plan
C)tracking and monitoring the action plan
D)identifying critical assumptions

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The costs of occupancy,general management and the management of the sales force are all _____ for a multiproduct business.

A)marginal costs
B)standard costs
C)direct costs
D)indirect costs

Answer 2

D

Question 3

What would be a focus of questions relating to price while examining how adequately the firm handles each of the marketing-mix elements?

A)the actions of major competitors
B)cost-effectiveness
C)functions performed
D)sales force compensation

Answer 3

A

Question 4

What is the first step in a typical contingency planning process?

A)assigning probabilities of being right about the assumptions
B)ranking the importance of each assumption
C)tracking and monitoring the action plan
D)identifying critical assumptions

Question 5

At the product-market entry level,milestone achievement measures include:

A)level of awareness
B)reduction in marketing costs as a percentage of sales
C)per cent of store stocking
D)product sales by market segments

Question 6

Advertising managers track advertising costs by:

A)attitude change
B)new accounts
C)action plans
D)calls per sales person

Question 7

Which of the following is probably the single most important measure of performance?

A)profitability
B)market share
C)customer satisfaction
D)productivity

Question 8

Which of the following is not a variable that helps in finding useful decompositions of the sales data?

A)recency
B)frequency
C)reliability
D)monetary value

Question 9

Which of the following is a key issue in developing a set of marketing metrics as part of an overall performance measurement system?

A)alignment of metrics with the strategy
B)alignment of marketing plan with action plan
C)alignment of advertising campaign with distribution
D)None of the given answers are correct?

Question 10

Which of the following is a limitation in using profitability as the sole measure of performance?

A)Profit is linked to diminishing returns to scale and is a misrepresentation of true performance.
B)Profit is a short-term measure and can be manipulated by taking actions that may prove dysfunctional in the longer term.
C)Profit produces externalities,which invariably have a negative effect on the environment.
D)Profits cannot account for the network effects that are generated by multiple users in diverse locations.

Question 11

This type of performance measure typically involves comparison of a firm's performance in a given area against the performance of other companies.

A)balanced scorecard
B)benchmarking
C)scenario analysis
D)cost benefit analysis

Question 12

What is activity-based costing?

A)It bases costs on the different tasks involved in performing a given activity.
B)It identifies costs according to various expense categories.
C)It assigns both direct and indirect costs to the unit of analysis.
D)It identifies costs according to various income categories.

Question 13

Contribution analysis:

A)Helps in obtaining an accurate picture of a product's value by allocating all costs to it.
B)Involves fixed joint costs that cannot be linked directly to a single unit of analysis.
C)Is helpful in determining the yield derived from the application of additional resources.
D)Uses both direct and indirect costs to the unit of analysis.

Question 14

What is the purpose of marketing functions audit?

A)Evaluate the adequacy of the systems that develop the firm's product-market entry action plans.
B)Evaluate the firm's overall structure and the extent of synergy between the various marketing units.
C)Examine the profitability of the company's individual products,markets and key accounts.
D)Examine,in detail,the adequacy of the firm's ability to handle each of the marketing-mix elements.

Question 15

Once a business has established its performance standards,its next step is to:

A)Develop a system that provides usable and timely feedback data on actual performance.
B)Invest substantially on customer service training to ensure service standards are met.
C)Compose a marketing plan.
D)Implement the steps of the action plan.

Question 16

What is the first and foremost objective for marketing?

A)the rate of market growth
B)the level of sales the company achieves
C)the firm's plan of action for each product-market entry
D)to make certain the company does not overspend

Question 17

Which is typically the most expensive and time-consuming method of gathering feedback data?

A)company accounting records
B)marketing research
C)syndicated marketing information
D)transaction records

Question 18

The _____ evaluates the profitability of the company's individual products,markets and key accounts.

A)marketing productivity audit
B)marketing functions audit
C)control system audit
D)organisation audit

Question 19

Identify the first step in the performance measurement process.

A)evaluating data
B)setting performance standards
C)specifying feedback
D)obtaining data

Question 20

Which stage in a contingency planning process typically follows rank ordering the critical assumptions?

A)assigning probabilities of being right about the assumptions
B)ranking the importance of each assumption
C)tracking and monitoring the action plan
D)identifying critical assumptions

Question 21

When designing strategic monitoring systems there are two key variable types that must be monitored: those concerned with external forces and those concerned with the effects of certain actions taken by the firm to implement the strategy.

Question 22

North America's biggest general merchandise retailer Walmart,was founded by Sam Walton who not only initiated a cost leadership market strategy but also captured the information needed to control the company's operations.

Question 23

One way for top level executives to gain better knowledge of the customer experience is to personally visit key accounts or intermediaries to learn firsthand how to serve them better.

Question 24

When benchmarking,it is critical that a firm compares itself with another firm in the same industry.

Question 25

The only people in the business who need 'dashboard' design systems to measure marketing performance at the product-market and line-item levels are executive management.

Question 26

The six steps of the contingency planning process are designed to handle the probability of what if scenarios that can affect the company's desired overall strategic objectives or those of individual business units.

Question 27

Regarding performance a current trend is to use benchmarking which means the performance of a company's individual business units are measured and compared against each other.

Question 28

The most important performance measure is profit.However,there are good and bad profits.

Question 29

Write a short note on designing marketing metrics.

Question 30

Explain the importance of sales analysis.

Question 31

The most important non-financial metric is customer satisfaction which can only be measured one way by asking customers one simple question: how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or a colleague?
Customer satisfaction is the most important non-financial metric and can be measured in a number of ways: understanding and measuring the criteria used by customers to evaluate the quality of the firm's relationship with them; asking how likely they are to recommend the firm to a friend or a colleague; face-to-face approaches; customer relationship management (CRM)data to measure the lifetime value of customers.