Erik Cartman just took a new position with Colorado Research, Inc. Erik's first customer, the president of a local bank, wanted a bank image study to be conducted measuring not only the client's bank's image, but that of his competitors as well. In designing the research project, Erik talked to several of his friends one night about how they viewed their banks. Erik charged the client for this and billed it as "Exploratory Research—Focus Group." The next day Erik tried to remember most of what his friends had told him. Some of the issues were "closeness to home" of branch locations, "cool online banking," and "friendly tellers." Erik took these issues, made up some of his own and put them into a semantic differential scale format. After the research study, Erik wrote a report and referred to the semantic differential scale he devised as a "Standard Marketing Research Scale to Measure the Construct of Bank Image." What Erik did was:
A) correct; he used exploratory research to generate most of the items for his measurement of bank image.
B) correct; although he used some of his own opinions, they were based upon experience and he did make use of a focus group.
C) incorrect; the measurement of bank image was incorrect as bank image should be measured only by using Likert scales.
D) incorrect; we do not know if the scale Mr. Cartman devised was valid or reliable, but he was unethical in presenting the measurement as "standard marketing research."
E) correct; Erik saved considerable time and money by creating his own measurement of the construct.
Answer: D) incorrect; we do not know if the scale Mr. Cartman devised was valid or reliable, but he was unethical in presenting the measurement as "standard marketing research."
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Marketing Chapter 8
- In the ________ stage, a firm most likely faces a trade-off between high market share and high current profit.
- Which of the following is true about the introduction stage of a new product?
- In which stage of the product life cycle will promotional expenditures be significantly high in an attempt to create consumer awareness of a product and its features?
- When a product hits the ________ stage, profits level off or decline because of increased marketing outlays to defend the product against competition.
- Flurrbies, a line of winter accessories by a leading fashion label, quickly fell in and out of favor with customers. Flurrbies represents an example of a(n) ________.
- Which of the following would most likely have the longest duration in a market and be characterized by several periods of renewed interest?
- Fads are characterized by their ________.
- Some products that have entered the decline stage can be cycled back to the growth stage through ________.
- Which of the following is true of the product life cycle (PLC)?
- A product life cycle has five distinct stages: product development, introduction, growth, maturity, and ________.
- Which of the following statements is most likely true about the product life cycle?
- ________ is used to study the course of a product's sales and profits for the duration that it is produced and sold in the market.
- An innovation management system would most likely be used by ________.
- When an end user's problems and experiences define a new product, the approach is called ________.
- The team-based new product development approach saves times because departments work closely together in ________.
- Under a ________ product development approach, one company department works to complete its stage of the product development process before passing the new product along to the next department and stage.
- Under a ________ new product development approach, company departments work closely together in cross-functional groups, overlapping the steps in the product development process to save time and increase effectiveness.
- Using ________, researchers measure consumer responses to new products and marketing tactics in laboratory stores or virtual online shopping environments.
- ________ is the stage where a product and its proposed marketing program are introduced into realistic market settings.
- Evans and Hills, a beverages manufacturing company, has developed a new line of specialty teas and is seeking regular input from the test marketing process. To facilitate this process, the firm uses BuyerScan, a software that generates store-by-store, week-by-week reports on the actual sales of tested products and the impact of in-store and in-home marketing efforts. Which of the following approaches does this scenario illustrate?
- In which of the following cases is little or no test marketing most likely recommended for a new product?
- Wayne Industries, a retail and home improvement store, is developing a new lawnmower. The marketing strategy for the product has already been developed and presented. A prototype has also been developed by the company's R&D team. The prototype is now being tested rigorously to ensure that there are no product liability issues. Once the prototype of the lawnmower passes product tests, the next step is most likely to be ________.
- If a product passes both the concept test and the product test, the next step is most likely to be ________.
- In a sequential new product development process, once a product or service passes the business test, it moves into ________.
- In a sequential new product development process, which of the following is true of the product development step?