Sample Exam Questions
Question 1: a. Is the PLC (Product life cycle) concept useful in developing Marketing strategies? Describe why or why not? What are the limitations of the PLC concept?
A strategy is a fundamental pattern of present and planned objectives, resource deployments, and interactions of an organisation with markets, competitors and other environmental factors.
b. What are the advantages available to Google with their Google maps (as a Pioneer firm) in the Internet search engine market? What are the advantages available to any of the follower firms in the market?
c. Under what conditions to pioneer and follower strategies each have the greatest probability of long-term success?
Question 2: a. Explain the term ‘sustainable competitive advantage’
b. Discuss five (5) differentiation and five (5) overall cost leadership strategies a firm can pursuer to create sustainable competitive advantages
c. What are four (4) different types of businesses based on their intended rate of product-market development as proposed by Miles and Snow?
d. You are the marketing manager for a generic products division of a major pharmaceutical manufacturer. Your division is a low-cost defender that maintains its position in the generic drug market by holding down its costs and selling generic products to distributors and pharmacies at very low prices. What are the implications of this business strategy for each of the 4Ps in the strategic marketing programme you would develop for your division?
Question 3: a. What is market orientation? What are the advantages and drawbacks of being ‘market oriented’ for a firm like Qantas Airways?
Lecture 1: Market orientation is implementing a more customer-focused approach to marketing. This involves companies that make what they can sell as opposed to selling what they can make.
Market oriented companies have a broad