PAZARLAMA YÖNETİMİ - Deneme Sınavı - 13

Marketing audit is a comprehensive, systematic, independent, and periodic examination of a company’s environment, objectives, strategies and activities to determine problem areas and opportunities. Marketing audit is more inclusive than other assessments. It covers all major marketing aspects of a company. If it covers only sales force or other marketing activity, then it is called functional audit.

Communication involves nine elements. The message’s sender and the message’s receiver are the two major parties or sides of the process. The message and the media are the tools used in the communication process. The other elements are encoding, decoding, response, feedback and noise.

Sender, receiver, encoding, decoding, message, media, response, feedback and noise are the elements of the communication process.

The process of putting thoughts into symbolic forms is called encoding. The shampoo’s newspaper advertisement may just show shining black hair and a few words. By these words and pictures, the marketer wants to give the message it intends. The shampoo ad consisting of a set of symbols and that is printed on the newspaper or aired on the television is the message.

Assume that some parts of the newspaper is teared and the receiver could not see the written part of the message. On the other hand, the receiver’s mind may be so busy with the very awful news about a traffic accident on the same page. Thus she could not give her attention to the ad. These types of unplanned static or distortion during the communication process are called as noise.

Promotional tools are designed for accomplishing specific marketing communication objectives. Not only the promotional tools, but also other marketing mix variables also send messages to consumers.

Promotional tools fulfill various functions for an organization. Promotional tools aim to influence or persuade the customers by sending some messages to them. The message transfer that is directed to certain known and individually addressed persons is called personal communications.

“Advertising is non-personal mass communication using mass media such as TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, etc.), the content of which is determined and paid for by a clearly identified sender (the company)”

There are various ways to present a message each using a different style, tone, words and format. Some of the popular message execution styles are as the followings: Slice of life. Lifestyle. Technical expertise. Fantasy. Mood or image. Musical. Testimonial evidence or endorsement. Scientific evidence. 

Personality symbol: In some of the ads, a specific character is created to represent the brand.

Sales positions may cover different types of selling positions.

Demand creator: This selling position requires sellers to use creative methods to sell physical products and mainly services. Since services are intangible and nonvisible personal selling helps a lot to create demand. A seller presenting new types of insurances like data security insurance to the industrial companies is an example of demand creator.

There are two different promotion strategies as push promotion and pull promotion. In the push strategy, promotional efforts are directed to sales force and intermediaries like the retailers. For example, a company may use trade promotion if it wants retailers to give a special support to the sales of a product. In return, the retailer promotes the product to its customers. Another example to push a product through channels may be a sales contest for the salesforce. The sellers may be offered a big prize if they sell a certain amount of product to the retailers.

The receiver of the message, (the newspaper reader) who has seen the shampoo’s brand will have some response. Response is the reactions of the receiver after being exposed to the message. Of course, the receiver may have many different responses. A girl may try the shampoo brand, may search for more information about this brand, or may ask the opinions of others on the social media. Ignoring the message may be another type of response. The correct option is D.

Traditionally the promotional mix has included four elements: advertising, sales promotion, publicity/ public relations, and personal selling. However due to the changing marketing environment like the introduction of communication technology, digital technology and social media, new tools are added to the blend of promotion mix. One of these new tools is direct marketing, and many books on marketing and marketing communication includes direct marketing in the promotion mix as well. The correct option is A.

Differences between personal and mass communication is seen on the table below. The correct option is A.

Promotional tools fulfill various functions for an organization:

The correct option is D.

Advertising performs the following functions in the marketing communication mix:

Informing: Think about the products that you know although you do not own. You may know how a product looks, how it is used, its price and etc. Advertising makes consumers aware of new brands, educates them about a product’s distinct features and benefits, and facilitates the creation of positive brand images.

Influencing: Advertising messages influence us to try the products. You may find yourself going to a supermarket to purchase a new chocolate or snack food to try it because of its advertisement on television.

Reminding: Advertising keeps a brand or company name fresh in the consumer’s memory. For example, you might have no need for a credit card when you have seen its commercial.

The correct option is B.

Technical expertise: This type of advertisement focuses on the company’s expertise in making a product or providing a service. For example, the ad explains a company’s 60 years of experience in making a product. The correct option is C.

Bonus packs offer the consumer more products at a lower price like 3 products for the price of 2. Since the consumer stocks more products in home, this promotion may increase the product usage. The correct option is D.

A seller with an undergraduate mechanical engineering degree visiting potential factories to sell ventilations systems is an example of technician seller. Here, the seller does not only sell a product to a customer but also consults to the company for the effective use of the product with his technical knowledge and expertise. The correct option is E.

In the pre-approach step, sales person arranges a meeting with the prospect and gathers important information about the customer. For example, if the prospect is an industrial customer, seller must have sufficient information about that company such as the size, what they produce, who their suppliers and competitors are and so on. The correct option is B.