• ads displayed on the boards of the Red Wings hockey games often just show a brand's name and nothing else. Fans often don't understand the purpose of this simplistic marketing strategy; however advertisers understand the subtle influence of:

  • Reminder advertising

  • Informative advertising

  • Comparative advertising

  • Perpetual advertising

• Search engine 'crawlers' rank websites on multiple categories using complex and dynamic algorithms. Which of the following would most likely not be an example of a ranking category?

  • Traffic to the website

  • Relevance of keyboards in the content of the website

  • Age of the website

  • Amount of TV advertising spent on promoting the website

• Bayer Aspirin and CVS Aspirin both have the same dosage, directions and active ingredient. Despite their similarity, Bayer costs nearly five times as much. In this case, Bayer Aspirin is known as a _____ brand.

  • Private

  • Value-added

  • Store

  • National

• Ads emphasizing the fearful consequences of texting and driving use _____ appeals in their message content.

  • Emotional

  • Rational

  • Reach

  • Frequency

• Which of the following profit characteristics represents the introduction stage of the product lifecycle for an e-reader?

  • Negative profits

  • High profits

  • Rising profits

  • Declining profits

• Which of the following is not an example of a line extension?

  • M&M’s Halloween colored chocolates

  • P&G selling six different brands of laundry detergent

  • Adidas running shoes for people with flat feet

  • The introduction of Coca-Cola’s New Coke beverage

• On an infomercial for a bottle opener, the spokesperson urges customers to call now before the product runs out. Adopting this _____ principle persuasion, sales can increase.

  • Reciprocity

  • Liking

  • Scarcity

  • Authority

• Covergirl intends to expose its new ad campaign to 55% of their target market during its first 6 months. To determine if they are successful in doing this, they will need to measure the campaign’s _____.

  • Reach

  • Push strategy

  • Media impact

  • Frequency

• Segmented pricing occurs when a company sells a product at two or more prices. What else defines segmented pricing?

  • The difference in prices is based on the marketer’s emotional state.

  • The difference in prices is based solely on differences in costs

  • The difference in prices is not based on differences in costs

  • The difference in prices is based on the economic situation at the moment

• _____ are paid links that emerge as search results when specific keywords are entered on search engines.

  • Organic listings

  • Sponsored links

  • Search engine links

  • Google listings

• Many middle-class consumers want to purchase high quality products but cannot afford them. Marketers understand this demand and find ways to offer high quality products with a _____ value proposition.

  • More-for-more

  • More-for-the-same

  • Less-for-much-less

  • Same-for-more

• The Dollar Shave Club sells razors and other shaving products to consumers all over the world. Which of the following would be considered part of the augmented product for Dollar Shave Club?

  • Their unique packaging

  • The quality level of their razors

  • The Dollar Shave Club brand name

  • Warranty offered on their products

• Tinder is an app that helps people fall madly in love with each other. While it offers its service for free, love-seekers can choose to pay a monthly fee which gives them access to a larger assortment of potential mates. What type of pricing strategy does this represent?

  • Cost-based pricing

  • Value-added pricing

  • Good-value pricing

  • Competition-based pricing

• Which of the following best describes a marketer’s strategy when engaging in market penetration pricing?

  • Setting a low price to attract a large number of buyers

  • Setting a low price to attract a large number of competitors

  • Setting a high price to attract a large market share

  • Setting a high price to skim maximum revenues from buyers

• Owners of B-Sharp, a store that sells musical instruments, adopt _____ segmentation when targeting consumers based on their musical lifestyle.

  • Geographic

  • Demographic

  • Psychographic

  • Concentrated

            You are about to set up a new automobile repair business.

            Explain:

a.         What are all the essential functions of the human resource department of automobile repair business

            b.       What is a performance evaluation/appraisal?

c.         Explain the advantages and disadvantages of a performance appraisal/evaluation to the employee.

How to construct a stakeholder analysis table (for Section I):

List your decision options across the top, the stakeholders along the side, and in the table indicate with plusses and minuses (i.e., + & -) the effect of each decision on each stakeholder. If a decision has a strong effect on a particular stakeholder, you can indicate this with more than one + or -.

For example, a generic stakeholder analysis table might look like:

---------------------------------------------------

                                                            Decision

                                                Decision A      Decision B      [note: for your paper don’t say Decision A;                                                                                                   use a descriptive label for the decision.]

Stakeholders

            Stockholders                    +                      -                 

Employees                        --                      +                 [note – these stakeholders are just

            Customers                        +                      -                  examples; your stakeholders will

            Community                      -                       +++            probably be different]

            .

            .

            .

            (etc.)

To conduct your utilitarian analysis, count-up the plusses and minuses, and pick the decision where the plusses most outweigh the minuses. In the above table, Decision A has 2 plusses and 3 minuses, for a net of minus 1. Decision B has 4 plusses and 2 minuses, with a net of plus 2. So, from a utilitarian perspective, Decision B is more ethical.

Incredible Shrinking Potato Chip Package
Topic: Cost vs. price vs. value issues
Characters: Jen, Brand Manager for potato chips at a regional salty snacks manufacturer
Derek, Marketing Director for the regional salty snacks manufacturer
Jen has been concerned about the profitability of the various items in her line of potato chips. According
to her potato suppliers, the recent drought caused a 35 percent reduction in the potato crop compared to
one year ago, resulting in a 25 percent hike in potato prices to large buyers like Jen’s company. Potatoes
accounted for almost all of the content of her chips (which also consisted of vegetable oil, one of three
different flavoring spices, and salt), plus there were packaging costs. To hold the line on margins, which
of late had been slim at only about 5 percent due to fierce competition from several other local and
regional brands, Jen would need to raise potato chip prices about 15 percent. On her most popular 7.5
oz. size, which had a price spot of $2.19 on the package, this would require a price hike of $.33, bringing
the price up to $2.52.
Jen wondered what would be the appropriate strategy to deal with this unfortunate circumstance. She
was very reluctant to raise the price to maintain the margin. First, she feared incurring the bad will of her
loyal customers; it wouldn’t be perceived as fair by them. Moreover, she was worried about competitive
responses; her other larger competitors might be willing to incur a loss in the short-run to keep their
customer bases and to attract price-hiking rivals’ customers. Jen couldn’t afford such a strategy since she
was evaluated solely on the basis of monthly net profits. Historical data in this industry revealed another
possible competitive maneuver in the face of rising ingredient costs: hold the line on prices and package
size while reducing the net weight of the package.
Jen was concerned that this might be a deceptive practice. She recalled from a Consumer Behavior
course she had taken in college a concept known as the “just noticeable difference.” This said that
relatively small changes in a stimulus (such as a price hike or content shrinkage) go unnoticed by
consumers. Jen felt intuitively that the price increase necessary to maintain margins would be noticed,
given the price sensitivity of buyers for snack foods. However, the past industry data suggested that
perhaps buyers might not notice the package size reduction needed to sustain profits, which in this case
would be 1.1 ounces.
Jen asked her boss, Derek, the Marketing Director, about the advisability of reducing the net weight of
the potato chips. Derek said that this was a practice known variously as “downsizing” and “package
shorting.” It was a very common practice among packaged goods manufacturers. For instance, he said,
candy bar manufacturers are subject to constantly fluctuating ingredient prices, and because there are
expected (“fair” or “reference”) prices for candy bars, package sizes are frequently adjusted without
informing consumers. Jim said that was a nonissue since marketers have been above board in labeling
products accurately as to weight, serving size, price, and quantity. Furthermore, the Food and Drug
Administration had no laws against the practice. Derek recommended downsizing the potato chips, but he
made it clear to Jen that the ultimate decision was up to her. Jen still had her doubts. After all, it would
seem that consumers who are in the habit of buying a particular product size generally don’t scrutinize the
net weight label on subsequent purchases. If this were true, it seemed to Jen that downsizing would be a
deceptive practice.

Answer the following questions:

Many factors are involved in building and maintaining an effective organization. An effective organization needs a supportive environment, good leadership, discipline, effective communication, challenge and empowerment. Some of the key fundamentals of building and maintaining effective organization are; maintaining the right size, developing the right mix of skills, committing to a common purpose and performance goals, committing to a common approach and developing mutual accountability. You are task with identifying a business/organization who has thrived over the years even in this hard economic times.  

The paper should have the following:

What characteristics of the team are most important to the organization?

What methods have they used to build an effective organization?

What are the reward systems in place if any to motivate their employees?

What is the financial health of the organization?

What is the work environment like in the organization?

How large is the work staff?

What is the diversity make-up of the organization?

What is the organizational structure like?

What makes this organization special or unique?

Discuss biodata, application blanks, training and experience evaluation, and reference check as selection predictors, when each should be used, and legal implications of each.

Discuss assessment centers in terms of dimensions typically used, and types of simulations thst are frequently applied. Discuss the validity of situational tests and legal considerations.

What are some valid economic justifications for mergers? Please see chapter Ch.22 for references to this topic.

Attention: Explain. Please answer in the form of paragraph, no bullet points or numerical and I will rate. Thank you in advance!

Analyze the leadership strategies individuals have used to manage this massive change of COVID-19 What has been effective? Ineffective? Explain your reasoning.

Answer all the following questions, using essay format Pick a firm/company/organization from your country that you are familiar with for example apple, ikea or mcdonalds

Question 1 Business strategy allows organizations to develop a clearer understanding of their own organization and what’s required for them to succeed.

a- Explain what business strategy is and discuss why the competitive advantages are temporary along with the four key areas of a SWOT analysis.

b- Give an example to show how you may apply the SWOT. (1000 Words)

Question 2

Define critical success factors (CSFs) and key performance indicators (KPI) Explain how managers use them to measure the success of MIS projects. (1000 Words)

Q. Discuss factors affecting the adoption of environmentally friendly technological innovation among firms. From your perspective what is the most important factor with realistic examples? (maximum 400 words )

Thirty years ago, Starbucks was a single store in Seattle’s Pike Place Market selling premium roasted coffee. Today it is a global roaster and retailer of coffee with some 13,000 stores, more than 3,750 of which are to be found in 38 foreign countries. The strategy of its owner was to sell to the company’s own premium roasted coffee and freshly brewed espresso-style coffee beverages, along with a variety of pastries, coffee accessories, teas and other products, in a tastefully designed coffeehouse setting.

In 1995, with 700 stores the United States, Starbucks began exploring foreign opportunities. Its first target market was Japan. Although Starbucks had resisted a franchising strategy in North America, where its stores are company owned, Starbucks initially decided to license its format in Japan. However, the company also realized that a pure licensing agreement would not give it the control needed to ensure that the Japanese licenses’ closely followed Starbucks’ successful formula.

So the company established a joint venture with a local retailer, Sazaby Inc. Each company held a 50% stake in the venture, Starbucks Coffee of Japan. Starbucks initially invested $10 million in this venture, its first foreign direct investment. The Starbucks format was then licensed to the venture, which was charged with taking over responsibility for growing Starbucks’ presence in Japan.

After Japan, the company embarked on an aggressive foreign investment program. In 1998, it purchased Seattle Coffee, a British coffee chain with 60 retail stores, for $84 million. In Asia, Starbucks’ most common strategy was to license its format to a local operator in return for initial licensing fees and royalties on store revenues.

In 2006, Starbucks announced that it believed there was the potential for up to 15, 000 stores outside of the United States, with major opportunities in China, which the company now views as the largest single market opportunity outside of the United States. Currently the company only has 350 stores in China.

1. What could be the main reason that triggered Starbucks to pursue FDI in Britain? .

2. Starbucks decided to pursue international investment through licensing, what would be the cause of that? .

3. Assess the reasons why Starbucks chose to embark on a foreign market expansion strategy outside of the USA.

4. In your opinion what type of international business activity should have Starbucks used? Explain your answer.

1. An important principle of change management is:

   		Make sure that DEV, QA, and PRD are set up technically correct
   		Have a data collection, standardization, and harmonization plan in place
   		Involve only top management
   		Educate users during planning for ERP on the system's benefits

1. All of the following are benefits of activity-based costing except:

   		Objectively assign overhead costs based on the cause and effect of a relevant cost driver to activities
   		Help businesses better analyze the cost of making and delivering items
   		Show the profitability by segment of the company
   		Allow for more accurate product overhead costing