MS 06 Marketing For Managers Sample Paper

MBA - Master of Business Administration

Note : (i) Attempt any three questions from Section A.
(ii) Section B is compulsory

SECTION A

1(a) What are the major reasons that have enabled the service sector in contributing about 50% of GDP to the Indian economy?

(b) What variables would you use in segmenting the market for the following products and why?
(i) Credit card
(ii) Sports car

2(a) “Marketing research is the key to the success of a company.” Discuss the above statement, keeping in view an example of the recent past where application of market research helped in formulating the right marketing strategy.

(b) Discuss briefly steps of marketing research process.

3(a) Discuss the major objectives of advertising. Give examples in support of your answer.

(b) Identify the advertising medium which is more effective in terms of cost and reach in relation to other media available to the marketer. Illustrate your responses with a specific advertising campaign.

4(a) Discuss the various stages of a new product development process by taking the example of an electric car as a new product concept.

(b) How can test marketing be helpful in launching new products?

5. Write notes on any three of the following: (i) Marketing Strategies in the decline stage of PLC (ii) Market Intelligence (iii) Sales potential vs Market potential (iv) Channel Participants (v) Attitudes and Perceptions

SECTION B
Read the case given below and answer the questions given at the end.

An electronic gadgets manufacturing firm wanted to market in India a small, hand-held electronic instrument for measuring blood pressure at home. The price of the instrument was fixed at around Rs. 3000 a piece. Being a specialty product, it was perceived to have only a limited clientele. As the firm had no established channel of distribution, it decided to take the direct-marketing route. The product was unique in the sense that it offered the convenience of constant monitoring of blood pressure at home, in office or anywhere, without having to visit the doctor. It could save a lot of time and inconvenience, especially for busy professionals, executives, businessmen and all those who had a hectic work schedule. Since it was a relatively expensive product, senior executives, professionals and businessmen above 45 years of age, having an income of more than Rs. 15,000 per month were expected to be the prospective buyers. The firm adopted the following procedure for identifying and enlisting prospects.

In order to prepare a cold list, an advertisement of the product, along with a coupon, was released in two leading business newspapers in Bombay. Interested individuals were asked to fill up the printed coupon and send it to the firm within 10 days to get a free booklet on management of blood pressure. Personal particulars relevant to identifying the ‘qualifying prospects’ Such as income, age, profession, residential address and details of any health-related problem were to be filled in the coupon. A majority of the people who responded were found to be suffering from blood pressure, obesity or heart-related problems. A cold list of about 5,000 individuals was generated on the basis of filled-in coupons. This list was further scrutinized and names of individuals below 40 years of age and those who did not fulfil the income criteria were dropped, as were the names of apparently non-serious respondents who might have sent the coupon more out of curiosity. The residual list of about 3,500 respondents was treated as the hot list.

Another alternative to this newspaper ad approach, as suggested by the research agency was to obtain a list of credit card holders from reputed banks such as ANZ Grindlays Bank, Citibank, Canara Bank, State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda. The firm could then have sorted out the names of card holders who were above the age of 40 and occupied senior executive positions in private or public organizations. This would have formed the cold list. Next, the firm could have sent a brochure and a personal letter to them offering to arrange a free demonstration of the product at their residences. All those who responded would have formed the hot list. However, this approach was not taken due to some logistic problems. The respondents were then clustered into different segments on the basis of their health status : those who had only mild blood pressure but no other problem; those suffering from obesity and blood pressure both; those suffering from blood pressure and some cardiac problem; those who had blood pressure and diabetes with or without some cardiac problem; and so on. This database of all the listed people with their detailed health profiles helped the firm in identifying specific needs of the respondents.

Questions (a) What elements of promotion mix would be more appropriate for the company to market blood pressure instruments, and why?

(b) What should be the long run promotional strategy for the company?