Unit 1: Introduction to Marketing

Marketing involves creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings of value. Its nature is customer-centric and requires strategic planning. The scope includes market research, product development, pricing strategies, distribution channels, and promotion strategies. Marketing is vital for driving sales, building brand recognition, engaging customers, and competitive positioning. Consumer behavior examines how individuals decide to spend their resources, with types including complex, dissonance-reducing, habitual, and variety-seeking behavior.

Marketing
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├── Nature: Customer-centric, Continuous, Strategic
├── Scope: Research, Development, Pricing, Distribution, Promotion
└── Importance: Sales, Brand, Engagement, Positioning

Unit 1: Introduction to Marketing

Q1: What do you mean by marketing? Also, explain its nature, scope, and importance?

Marketing involves creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. Its nature is customer-centric and involves continuous strategic planning. The scope of marketing includes market research, product development, pricing strategies, distribution channels, and promotion strategies. Marketing is crucial for driving sales, building brand recognition, engaging customers, and achieving competitive positioning.

Q2: What do you understand by consumer behavior? Types of consumer behavior?

Consumer behavior studies how individuals decide to spend their resources on consumption-related items. Types of consumer behavior include:

• Complex buying behavior: High involvement, significant differences between brands.
• Dissonance-reducing buying behavior: High involvement, few differences between brands.
• Habitual buying behavior: Low involvement, few differences between brands.
• Variety-seeking buying behavior: Low involvement, significant differences between brands.

Unit 2: Marketing Research and Segmentation

Marketing research helps identify market opportunities, understand customer needs, evaluate strategies, and monitor trends. However, it can be costly, time-consuming, and subject to biases. Demand forecasting predicts future customer demand using historical data and statistical techniques. Market segmentation divides a market into distinct groups, target marketing focuses on specific segments, and product positioning creates a unique image in the consumer’s mind.

Market Research
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├── Applications: Opportunities, Needs, Strategies, Trends
├── Limitations: Cost, Time, Bias
├── Threats: Market changes, Technology, Ethics
└── Demand Forecasting: Historical data, Analysis

Segmentation
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├── Market Segmentation: Dividing market
├── Target Marketing: Focusing efforts
└── Product Positioning: Unique image

Q1: Write about the application, limitations, and threats of marketing research? Also, explain demand forecasting?

Marketing research applications include identifying market opportunities, understanding customer needs, evaluating marketing strategies, and monitoring market trends. Limitations involve high costs, time consumption, and potential biases in data collection. Threats include rapid market changes, technological advancements, and ethical issues. Demand forecasting predicts future customer demand using historical data, market analysis, and statistical techniques.

Q2: Short notes on:

• Market Segmentation: Dividing a market into distinct groups with common needs or characteristics.
• Target Marketing: Selecting a specific segment to serve and focusing marketing efforts on that segment.
• Product Positioning: Creating a distinct image and identity for a product in the target market’s mind.

Unit 3: Product Management

The product life cycle (PLC) includes stages from introduction to decline: introduction (low sales), growth (sales increase), maturity (sales peak), and decline (sales drop). Branding creates a unique identity for a product. The consumer adoption process involves awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption stages. Packaging protects and promotes products, while marketing mix decisions encompass product, price, place, and promotion.

Product Life Cycle (PLC)
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├── Introduction: Low sales
├── Growth: Sales increase
├── Maturity: Sales peak
└── Decline: Sales drop

Branding
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├── Unique identity
└── Consumer Adoption: Awareness, Interest, Evaluation, Trial, Adoption

Q1: Write about the product life cycle and branding?

The product life cycle (PLC) includes the stages a product goes through from introduction to decline:

• Introduction: Product launch, low sales.
• Growth: Rapid sales increase, profit growth.
• Maturity: Sales peak, market saturation.
• Decline: Sales decline, market contraction.

Branding involves creating a unique name, design, and image for a product in the consumer’s mind.

Q2: Write about the consumer adoption process? Also, explain packaging and marketing mix decisions?

The consumer adoption process includes:

• Awareness: Consumer becomes aware of the new product.
• Interest: Consumer seeks information about the product.
• Evaluation: Consumer considers whether to try the product.
• Trial: Consumer tries the product on a small scale.
• Adoption: Consumer decides to make a regular purchase.

Packaging involves designing and producing the container or wrapper for a product to protect, promote, and facilitate its use. The marketing mix includes product, price, place, and promotion.

Unit 4: Pricing and Distribution

Pricing decisions consider cost, competition, and demand, with methods including cost-plus, value-based, competitive, penetration, and skimming pricing. Discounts and rebates are used to encourage purchases. Channel management oversees the routes products take to reach consumers. Horizontal marketing systems involve collaboration at the same level, while vertical marketing systems unify producers, wholesalers, and retailers.

Pricing Decisions
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├── Methods: Cost-plus, Value-based, Competitive, Penetration, Skimming
└── Incentives: Discounts, Rebates

Channel Management
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├── Distribution routes
├── Horizontal System: Collaboration
└── Vertical System: Unification

Q1: Explain pricing decisions and methods? Also, explain discounts and rebates?

Pricing decisions are based on cost, competition, and customer demand. Pricing methods include:

• Cost-plus pricing: Adding a markup to the cost.
• Value-based pricing: Based on the perceived value to the customer.
• Competitive pricing: Based on competitors’ prices.
• Penetration pricing: Low price to gain market share.
• Skimming pricing: High price initially, then lowering over time.

Discounts are price reductions to encourage purchases, and rebates are partial refunds to consumers after the purchase.

Q2: Explain channel management? And short notes on horizontal and vertical marketing systems?

Channel management involves managing the route through which products reach consumers, including wholesalers, retailers, and distributors.

• Horizontal Marketing System: Two or more companies at the same level join together to pursue marketing opportunities.
• Vertical Marketing System: Producers, wholesalers, and retailers act as a unified system.

Unit 5: Promotion and Advertising

Sales promotion includes short-term incentives to boost sales, while the promotion mix combines advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling, and direct marketing. Advertising is a paid, non-personal communication method. Testing advertising effectiveness involves assessing how well an advertisement meets its objectives. Digital marketing uses digital channels, e-marketing involves electronic media, social marketing influences behaviors for social good, and rural marketing tailors strategies to rural consumers.

Promotion Mix
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├── Sales Promotion: Short-term incentives
├── Advertising: Paid communication
├── Public Relations
├── Personal Selling
└── Direct Marketing

Digital & Social Marketing
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├── Digital: Online channels
├── E-Marketing: Electronic media
├── Social Marketing: Behavior influence
└── Rural Marketing: Tailored strategies

Q1: Explain sales promotion and promotion mix? Also, explain advertising and testing of advertising effectiveness?

Sales promotion includes short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product or service. The promotion mix combines advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling, and direct marketing. Advertising is a paid form of non-personal communication about an organization, product, service, or idea by an identified sponsor. Testing advertising effectiveness involves assessing how well an advertisement achieves its objectives using methods like surveys, focus groups, and sales data analysis.

Q2: Short notes on:

• Digital Marketing: Marketing using digital channels such as social media, email, search engines, and websites.
• Electronic Marketing (E-Marketing): Marketing that uses electronic media, often synonymous with digital marketing.
• Social Marketing: Applying marketing principles to influence behaviors that benefit individuals and communities for the greater social good.
• Rural Marketing: Marketing strategies tailored to meet the needs and preferences of rural consumers.