Chapter 7 Promoting Services and Educating Customers

Transcription

1 GENERAL CONTENT Multiple Choice Questions Chapter 7 Promoting Services and Educating Customers 1. and represent important ways to add value to a product. a. Reciprocation; classification b. Information; classification c. Information; consultation d. Reciprocation; consultation e. Reciprocation; mediation (c; Moderate; p. 167) 2. One approach to training customers, recommended by advertising experts is to. a. train employees like customers b. use radio advertising c. show service delivery in action d. design palpable service environments e. explain service procedures in advance (c; Moderate; p. 167). 3. Which of the following is NOT one of the four problems for marketers seeking to promote a service s benefits described by Banwari Mittal? a. Distribution b. Abstractness c. Generality d. Non-searchability e. Mental impalpability (a; Challenging; p. 168) 4. Which of the following would be classified under generality in intangibility? a. Safety. b. A hamburger. c. An airline seat. d. Facility appearance. e. Expert advice. (c; Moderate; p. 168) 7-1

2 5. outside peak demand periods poses a serious problem for service industries with, like hotels. a. Low demand; high fixed costs b. Low demand; low fixed costs c. High demand; high fixed costs d. High demand; low fixed costs e. High demand; low variable costs (a; Challenging; p. 168) 6. Ads based on strategies are often perceived as more informative than ads. a. visualization; text-only b. expert; power c. visualization; affective d. utilitarian; text-only e. visualization; expert (a; Moderate; p. 170) 7. Which of the following represents a broad target audience category? a. Donors b. Competitors c. Employees d. Contractors e. Franchisers (c; Moderate; p. 172) 8. Which of the following is NOT a common educational and promotional objective in service settings? a. Build awareness and interest in an unfamiliar service or brand. b. Reposition a service relative to competing offerings. c. Familiarize customers with service processes in advance of use. d. Encourage trial of competing products. e. Recognize and reward valued customers. (d; Moderate; p. 173) 9. An example of a form of personal communication is a. The internet b. Signage c. Press conferences d. Telemarketing e. Gifts (d; Moderate; p. 173) 7-2

3 10. Which of the following is NOT a communication task for which marketers use the Internet? a. Promoting consumer awareness and interest. b. Providing information and consultation. c. Facilitating two-way communications with customers through and chat rooms. d. Enabling customers to place orders. e. Reducing service demand through electronic tracking. (e; Moderate; p. 177) True/False 11. Communication is the most visible or audible of marketing activities, but its value is limited unless it is used intelligently in conjunction with other marketing efforts. (True; Easy; p. 164) 12. Communication efforts are used only to attract new customers. (False; Easy; p. 166) 13. Customers do not need training to help them perform well because they already know what they want. (False; Moderate; p. 167) 14. Giving price discounts is one way to encourage customers to try and switch to selfservice. (True; Moderate; p. 167) 15. In low-contact services, frontline personnel are central to service delivery. (False; Moderate; p. 167) 16. Mental impalpability refers to the fact that intangibles cannot be searched or inspected before they are purchased. (False; Challenging; p. 168) 17. Advertising and promotions do little to help change the timing of customer usage. (False; Moderate; p. 168) 18. Direct marketing involves efforts to stimulate positive interest in an organization and its products by sending out news releases, holding press conferences, staging special events, and sponsoring newsworthy activities put on by third parties. (False; Easy; p. 175) 19. Communications experts do not distinguish between personal communications and impersonal communications because they can both be directed at the same receivers. (False; Easy; p. 181) 7-3

4 20. Blogs (Web logs) are frequently modified Web pages in which entries are listed in chronological sequence. (False; Moderate; p. 185) Short Answer 21. Give an example of an intangible abstract concept in service promotion. Financial security (expert advice, safe transportation). (Moderate; p. 168) 22. List an advertising strategy used to overcome mental impalpability aspects of a service. Case-history episode (service-process episode, service-consumption episode). (Moderate; p. 169) 23. List an advertising strategy used to overcome non-searchability aspects of a service. Consumption documentation (reputation documentation). (Moderate; p. 169) 24. List the five W s in the checklist for marketing communications planning. Who is our target audience, what do we need to communicate and achieve, how should we communicate this, where should we communicate this, and when do the communications need to take place? (Challenging; p. 171) 25. What are the four key characteristics of a sticky Web site? High quality content, ease of use, quick download, and frequently updated. (Challenging; p. 178) 7-4

5 Essay 26. Describe the differences between traditional marketing communication strategies and service business communication strategies. Traditional marketing communication strategies were largely shaped by the needs and practices associated with manufactured goods. Services require consideration of intangibility of service performances, customer involvement in production, the role of customer contact personnel, the difficulty in evaluating many services, and the need to bring demand and supply into balance. Service quality is often subjective and identical service performances may mean different things to different customers. As a result, service business communication strategies are more likely to employ abstractions of concepts through metaphors or personification (e.g., The Prudential Rock signifying financial security). (Challenging; p. 168) 27. Discuss some of the key planning considerations of marketing communications. Planning a marketing communications campaign should reflect a good understanding of the service product and how well prospective buyers can evaluate its characteristics in advance of purchase. It is therefore essential to understand target market segments and their exposure to different media, as well as consumers awareness of the product and their attributes toward it. (Moderate; p. 170) APPLICATION CONTENT Multiple Choice Questions 30. Which hotel company utilized a non-traditional media campaign centered around remodeling a subway car to reposition its brand? a. Marriott b. Hilton c. Choice Hotels d. Westin e. Sheraton (d; Easy; p. 164) 31. Which firm uses humor (like the Loading Bar) to make its advertising for high-speed Internet service stand out? a. AOL b. Net-Zero c. Mystic d. Xenia e. Comcast (e; Easy; p. 175) 7-5

6 32. SAS International Hotels devised which of the following sales promotions targeted at older consumers? a. First to provide senior citizen discounts. b. Provided a discount percent equivalent to their age. c. A free hotel room if large family gatherings were held at the hotel. d. Free ballroom service for large family gatherings. e. Discount for large family gatherings. (b; Challenging; p. 176) 28. refers to a group of technologies for distributing audio or video programs over the Internet using a publisher/subscriber method. a. Podcasting b. Webcasting c. Websiting d. Webenabling e. Webscribing (a; Moderate; p. 181) 29. is a form of advertising through cell phones and other wireless mobile devices. a. Podcasting b. Mobile advertising c. TIVo d. YouTube e. Facebooking (b; Easy; p. 181) True/False 33. Accenture is a good example of a firm that promotes its ability to help clients turn innovative ideas into results. (True; Easy; p. 171) 34. Spring break travel is a good example of a hedonic service. (True; Easy; p. 170) 35. Firms can win wide exposure through sponsorship of sporting events and other highprofile activities like the Olympics and World Cup for soccer. (True; Easy; p. 175) 36. DHL gained significant favorable publicity when it safely transported two giant pandas from Chengdu, China to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. (False; Moderate; p. 175) 7-6

7 37. Sponsored links are ads that are not initiated by a search, but simply get displayed when a user browses a website. (False; Moderate; p. 179) Short Answer 38. What were the two important managerial implications of the hedonic versus utilitarian advertising study shown in the chapter? 1) Use pictures to tangibilize the value proposition and 2) documentation helps readers to visualize especially hedonic services. (Challenging, p. 170) 39. Give an example of a metaphor used to communicate a firm s value proposition. You re in Good Hands Allstate (Prudential s use of the Rock of Gibraltar, DHL s straight string) (Moderate; p. 169) 40. According to the chapter, why are BP s bright green and yellow, Texaco s red, black and white, and Sunoco s blue, maroon, and yellow so strikingly different? Corporate design is particularly important for companies operating in competitive markets. Gasoline is a particularly competitive industry and firms need to be easily recognizable in different locations. (Challenging; p. 188) 41. What is one of the most widely recognized corporate symbols in the world? McDonald s golden arches. (Easy; p. 189) 42. What form of communication, or communication medium, has made Google immensely successful? Word-of-mouth. (Challenging; p. 179) 7-7

8 Essay 43. Discuss mental impalpability and provide an example of a strategy in advertising used by a firm to overcome mental impalpability. Mental impalpability refers to the complexity, multidimensionality, or novelty of a service such that it is difficult for consumers to understand what the experience of using the service will be like and what benefits will result. An example of a firm that utilizes advertising strategies to combat mental impalpability is Accenture, who uses a golfing situation with Tiger Woods as a metaphor for the high-performance business that Accenture can provide. (Moderate; p. 168) 44. Discuss the impact that technology like TiVo has on marketing communications efforts. TiVo is the modern version of a VCR. It allows customers to pause and fast-forward through programs. This technology allows consumers to skip commercials. Developing a communications plan needs to account for this, specifically with respect to employing alternative communications strategies. More interesting/ entertaining commercials that customers desire to watch and product placement in television shows are some of the options available. (Moderate; p. 181) 45. Discuss the purpose of corporate design strategies and give examples of how this is done. The objective of corporate design is to provide a unifying and recognizable theme linking all of the firm s operations in a branded service experience through the strategic use of physical evidence. Companies can do this through color schemes (e.g., BP s green and yellow), central prominence of company names in corporate designs (e.g., FedEx), identifiable trademark symbols (e.g., McDonald s golden arches), and association with certain tangible symbols (e.g., T. Rowe Price and the ram). (Challenging; p. 189) 7-8