Exam 14: Developing and Pricing Goods and Services

While the Universal Product Code (UPC) improves efficiency at the retail check-out counter, it has increased problems in controlling inventory.

Karen is a collector of fine art, particularly paintings. She has been looking for an original Lady Molly painting for months and has said that she is willing to go to extraordinary efforts to acquire this painting for her collection. Clearly this painting represents a good for Karen.

Many supermarkets carry plain packages that only identify the name of the product that is inside. For example, a label may read simply "peaches" or "green beans." These goods represent:

The critical component of a total product offer is always a low price.

Barker Brothers Pens utilizes a strategy of low priced pens to attract customers and discourage competition. This represents a strategy.

In the "Thinking Green" box in the chapter, it's become apparent that many companies are:

The Procter & Gamble (P&G) Company produces bar soap, disposable diapers, deodorants, laundry detergents, cookies, cake mix, shampoo, shortening, and many other products. These products are part of P&G's:

A bank's product line may include safety deposit boxes, car loans, and traveler's checks.

The two types of industrial goods are production goods and unsought goods.

Once a good or service nears the end of its product life cycle, the firm recognizes that:

The most common classification of consumer goods and services is based on producer or manufacturer behavior in the market.

One function of effective packaging is to protect the goods inside during handling and storage, as well as deter product tampering and theft.

American Building Products is the largest cement company in the Midwest. When the firm raised its prices by 8 percent, all of its competitors soon announced they too were raising their prices by 8 percent. It appears this industry is influenced by a strategy:

Sweet Dream Confectioners uses the same ingredients as most other producers of chocolate candies. In fact, taste tests suggest that the candy itself, while quite good, isn't much better than other well-known brands of chocolate. However, the company wraps its candies in expensive looking foil and places them in very attractive boxes. It promotes its products in advertisements as "the ultimate in chocolate experience." Sweet Dream charges a much higher price than most competitors, but sales continue to grow. This success indicates that:

Angie owns a small company that markets high quality office supplies to businesses. Angie faces stiff competition from some much larger firms like Office Depot. Which of the following competitive strategies would probably work best for Angie?

While the product life cycle is a good theory, it's not important for marketers to recognize what life cycle stage a product is in.

Virtual Electronics is considering a strategy to charge a very high introductory price for their automobile video theater. After identifying that their rival firms did not carry this new product, they chose this pricing strategy to achieve maximum profits. Virtual Electronics has chosen a strategy.

As consumers evaluate a product, price plays a small role.

One way firms can gain a competitive advantage without relying on low prices is by developing close, friendly relationships with their customers.

"If you create a better mouse trap, the world will beat a path to your door." This statement ignores the need for which step in the new-product development process?