Deck 1: Marketing Planning

Question 1

Marketing plans are unwritten guidelines for the business center's marketing programs and allocations over the planning period.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

While marketing plans' horizons vary from product to product, the typical horizon is annual.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Marketing plans usually have a longer time horizon than strategic plans; a horizon of three to five years or more with annual updates is not uncommon.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Competitors often determine a brand's profits as much as any action taken by the marketing managers.

Question 5

Frequent reevaluation of planning strategies can lead to erratic firm behavior and make the planning process more burdensome.

Question 6

A thorough marketing planning process utilizes experience from product managers and not from the various managerial levels.

Question 7

The marketing planning sequence is a logical flow of events leading from data collection and analysis to strategy formulation to auditing the performance of the plan.

Question 8

Category analysis identifies factors that significantly impact the attractiveness of a product category in which the product competes at a given point in time.

Question 9

Decisions about pricing, channels of distribution, advertising and other relevant marketing programs are described in the situation analysis section of the marketing plan.

Question 10

The final three parts of the marketing plan-financial documents, monitors and controls and contingency plans-form a cohesive unit and are therefore important components.

Question 11

A written document containing the guidelines for the business center's marketing programs and allocations over the planning period is known as a

A) Mission statement
B) Marketing plan
C) Marketing mix
D) Financial plan
E) Positioning strategy

Question 12

The single most important activity of the marketing manager is

A) Creating effective advertisements
B) Developing the marketing plan
C) Designing profitable products
D) Gathering market data
E) Building effective distribution systems

Question 13

Identify the INCORRECT statement pertaining to marketing plans

A) They generally have a quarterly horizon
B) They focus on a product or one or more product lines
C) They involve situation analysis
D) They make use of information from the sales force
E) They include objectives, strategies and programs based on background analysis

Question 14

All of the following are benefits of having a written marketing plan EXCEPT:

A) It calls for disciplined thinking
B) It provides a vehicle for communications between functional areas of the firm
C) It ensures that prior strategies that failed are forgotten
D) It pinpoints responsibility for achieving results by a specified date
E) It provides continuity when management turnover occurs

Question 15

The length of the planning period is affected by all of the following factors EXCEPT:

A) Seasonality of demand
B) Product development lead times
C) Bottom-up planning
D) Competitive intensity
E) Frequency of shifts in customer tastes

Question 16

The Internet has

A) Had an extremely limited impact on marketing planning
B) Led to planning assumptions being valid for longer times
C) Reduced the typical "annual" planning period of marketing plans to a "quarterly" horizon
D) Made it necessary that assumptions underlying the marketing plan be checked frequently
E) Lengthened the time horizons for marketing plans

Question 17

Marketing planning

A) Is done at the higher levels of the firm
B) Focuses on broad objectives
C) Takes place at the business center level
D) Strategies are mostly general
E) Typically focuses on objectives such as return on investment / assets

Question 18

The strategic plan

A) Is an operational document
B) Typically focuses on an annual time frame
C) Is made at the business center level
D) Focuses on specific objectives and strategies
E) Usually has a horizon of three to five years or more

Question 19

Which of the following is typically NOT an objective of a marketing plan?

A) To define the current situation facing the product
B) To encourage careful and disciplined thinking
C) To establish a market orientation
D) To set broad objectives at the corporate level
E) To pinpoint responsibility for achieving product objectives

Question 20

Competitor orientation is especially important in today's business environment because

A) There are less competitors and longer life cycles
B) A majority of products and services are monopolies
C) Competitors often determine a brand's profits
D) Competitors' actions usually remain unchanged
E) Of its negative relationship with customer orientation

Question 21

According to research a significant and positive relationship exists between all of the following, EXCEPT the firm's degree of

A) Customer orientation
B) Competitor orientation
C) Selling orientation
D) Interfunctional coordination
E) Performance

Question 22

Critical oversights during the planning process are most likely to be the results of

A) Hasty planning
B) Having diverse strategic options
C) Using both line and staff executives in the planning process
D) Using flexible planning structures
E) Developing contingency plans

Question 23

The advantage of structure in the planning process is that it

A) Forces discipline on the planners
B) Takes precedence over the content
C) Reduces planning to form filling or number crunching
D) Gives little thought for planning purposes
E) Helps to make the process more bureaucratic

Question 24

While the appropriate length for planning documents will vary according to individual circumstances, most plans are likely to be

A) 40-60 pages in length
B) 60-90 pages in length
C) 35-50 pages in length
D) 50-70 pages in length
E) 20-30 pages in length

Question 25

Identify the INCORRECT statement pertaining to the frequency of planning.

A) Frequent reevaluation of strategies can lead to erratic firm behavior
B) Often a company adopts its fiscal year as its planning cycle
C) Frequent planning can make the process more burdensome
D) Plans revised less frequently than necessary can deteriorate a firm's competitive position
E) The appropriate planning interval is easy to determine and can be done with precision

Question 26

The successful implementation of a marketing plan requires a broad consensus from

A) The marketing department only
B) The product manager only
C) As many corporate departments as possible
D) Consumers and competitors
E) The finance department alone

Question 27

Which of the following uses of a planning document is most often overlooked?

A) Generating funds
B) Identifying future threats
C) Identifying future opportunities
D) Preparing for contingencies
E) Establishing a market orientation

Question 28

Management compensation should

A) Be totally based on rewarding market share
B) Concentrate solely on margins
C) Be oriented to achieving planned objectives
D) Be solely determined by rank and experience
E) Be randomly assigned

Question 29

Which of the following statements about a "thorough" planning process is NOT true?

A) It utilizes experience from several managerial levels
B) It employs only internal information sources
C) It allows sufficient time for data collection / analysis
D) It employs a variety of incentives for the planner
E) It considers employment security and advancement

Question 30

Identify the INCORRECT statement about marketing planning.

A) It provides intangible benefits
B) It leads to lesser variations in profitability
C) It has a disciplined approach to strategy development
D) It adequately considers the external environment
E) It guarantees improved market performance

Question 31

The marketing planning process is best described as a

A) Linear process
B) Sequential process
C) Longitudinal process
D) Circular process
E) Parallel process

Question 32

In this approach to planning the marketing plans are formulated by either senior or middle management with the aid of staff and product management and then implemented by the latter.

A) Top-down planning
B) Parallel planning
C) Contingency planning
D) Bottom-up planning
E) Situation-specific planning

Question 33

Generally, _____ planning is characterized by better implementation.

A) Top-down
B) Parallel
C) Contingency
D) Bottom-up
E) Situation-specific

Question 34

Typically this is the first step in a sequential planning process.

A) Audit
B) Update the facts about the past
C) Negotiate final plan
D) Analyze historical and background data
E) Measure progress

Question 35

The historical and background data analysis step in marketing planning is used to

A) Monitor progress of the plan
B) Determine variances of planned versus actual results
C) Select a basic objective
D) Forecast competitors' actions
E) To develop budgets and profit and loss figures

Question 36

Identify the step of the sequential planning process that is critical to the planning process because it outlines in detail what will be done with the product during the year or the appropriate planning period.

A) Negotiate
B) Update the facts about the past
C) Develop objectives, strategies and programs
D) Analyze historical and background data
E) Measure progress

Question 37

The _____ financial statements, developed during the planning process, typically include budgets and profit and loss figures.

A) Pro forma
B) Pro rata
C) Auditing
D) Dollar
E) Payroll

Question 38

The _____ step of the planning process provides important diagnostic information for both current and future planning efforts and acts as a source of feedback on the planning effort.

A) Audit
B) Negotiate
C) Measure progress
D) Develop pro forma
E) Collect background data

Question 39

All of the following are part of the situation analysis section of the marketing plan EXCEPT:

A) Category analysis
B) Competitor analysis
C) Customer analysis
D) Planning assumptions
E) Executive summary

Question 40

The category definition portion of the marketing plan

A) Provides a detailed description of the firm's product
B) Defines the competitor set
C) Identifies a product's market potential
D) Defines factors impacting the attractiveness of a category
E) Outlines planning assumptions

Question 41

Resource analysis or self-assessment is a critical section of

A) Planning assumptions
B) Category analysis
C) Competitor analysis
D) Customer analysis
E) Pro-forma analysis

Question 42

These are helpful in dynamic markets where either new products or new competitors create the need for changes in strategy before the end of the plan's horizon.

A) Budgets
B) Customer service programs
C) Fixed plans
D) Historical data
E) Contingency plans

Question 43

Typically the implementation "instructions" for the marketing plan are contained in

A) The marketing objectives / strategy
B) The executive summary
C) Situation analysis
D) Supporting marketing programs
E) Planning assumptions

Question 44

This section of the marketing plan specifies the type of marketing research and other information necessary to measure progress toward achieving the stated objectives.

A) Monitors and controls
B) Executive summary
C) Contingency plans
D) Customer analysis
E) Situation analysis

Question 45

These are often previously considered strategies that were discarded.

A) Financial strategies
B) Operational plans
C) Management strategies
D) Execution plans
E) Contingencies

Question 46

Define a marketing plan and describe its main objectives.

Question 47

Identify and explain some of the most common mistakes in marketing planning.

Question 48

Briefly compare top-down and bottom-up planning. Are these approaches mutually exclusive?

Question 49

Explain the various steps in the planning process.

Question 50

Briefly explain situation analysis in context to the marketing plan. What are its various components?