Marketing & the 4 Ps
True or False: Marketing is just another word for advertising.
False — marketing covers everything a business does to understand, reach, and persuade customers, including the product, price, place, and promotion
A company divides customers by whether they live in a cold or warm region. Which type of segmentation is that?
Geographic
Name two parts of brand identity.
Logo and visuals, name, voice, and positioning
A new streaming service offers its first three months for $1 to build subscribers quickly. Which pricing strategy is this?
Penetration pricing
Name one Price decision and one Place decision that would make sense together for a brand aimed at budget-conscious students.
A low or competitive price (or penetration pricing) paired with a channel students already use, such as online, a campus store, or a big discount retailer
Name all four of the 4 Ps.
Product, Price, Place, Promotion
What is an "anti-persona," and why would a company bother creating one?
A description of someone who is clearly NOT the target customer. It makes the boundary of the target market concrete and keeps marketing focused on the people it is built for
One brand's captions are all lowercase, full of slang and jokes. Another brand's copy is formal and minimal. Which part of brand identity is different?
Voice — how a brand "talks"
A water bottle brand prices its bottle almost exactly the same as the three other bottles on the same shelf. What pricing strategy is this?
Competitive pricing
A brand targets busy parents but runs its ads only late at night on a gaming platform. What's the mismatch?
The promotion doesn't match the target customer's habits. It's reaching the wrong audience in the wrong place
A candle sells for $2 at a dollar store. A nearly identical-looking candle sells for $40 at a boutique. Which Ps are at the forefront in changing how customers see these two candles?
Price & Place — price signals quality, and where it's sold reinforces the message
People tell a survey they want healthy snacks, but the sales data shows chips outsell fruit. Which research approach would catch this gap between what people say and what they do?
Observing behavior
What does "positioning" mean?
Where a brand sits in customers' minds relative to competitors
Name one distribution channel from class and one reason a company might choose it.
Retail stores, online direct-to-consumer, third-party marketplaces, or wholesale to other retailers, with a reason tied to where the target customer shops
Your persona does nearly all her shopping on her phone. Which of the 4 Ps does that influence most directly, and how?
Place & Promotion — the product needs to be easy to buy on a phone, and the ads should reach her there
This "P" involves conducting market research, such as surveys and focus groups, to determine the features, design, and branding of what the business is selling.
Product
A meal-delivery app notices that people who open it on Sunday evenings are far more likely to subscribe than people who open it at other times. Which type of segmentation does this describe?
Behavioral
A budget-friendly grocery chain suddenly redesigns its stores and logo in gold and black, with formal language. Name one risk.
Answers may include: confuses or alienates its existing customers, creates a mismatch between its look and its prices, undermines its consistency, or signals a price change it can't back up
Which element of the promotion mix is "earned" rather than paid for, and what's an example?
Public relations (earned media coverage), such as a news story or press feature about the company
A company's persona is a thrifty college student, but the product has premium pricing and is only sold in expensive boutiques. What's wrong with each choice, and which P would you change first?
Premium pricing doesn't fit a thrifty customer; boutiques aren't where she shops. Most groups should change Price first because it's the biggest barrier
A company makes a great product at a fair price, and it's easy to buy, but sales are flat and surveys keep showing "I've never heard of it." Which P is the weak spot, and what are two specific moves to fix it?
Paid ads, social media or influencer content, PR, sales promotions (discount, loyalty program)
A startup says, "Our target market is anyone who likes music." What's wrong with this, and rewrite it into a persona-level target in one sentence.
It's too broad, which means appealing strongly to no one. Accept any specific rewrite with concrete details, e.g., "A 16-year-old who teaches themselves guitar on YouTube and buys gear secondhand."
A brand's logo says "luxury," its social posts are goofy meme humor, and its stores look like a warehouse. What's the underlying problem, and what's three fixes you'd propose to help its identity?
The brand identity is inconsistent and isn't telling a cohesive story. If budget-fun: playful logo, meme voice, warehouse-style stores. If luxury: refined logo, polished voice, upscale stores
A company sells handmade, premium leather wallets. Choose a pricing strategy, a distribution channel, and one promotion method that all fit together.
Premium pricing (high price signals craftsmanship), a channel like the company's own website, a boutique, or a craft market (keeps the exclusive feel), and a promotion like social media/content, influencer partnerships, or PR (shows the craftsmanship)
A local bakery wants to grow. Its regulars are retirees who live within five miles and come in every Saturday. Name two segmentation types this describes, then give one Place or Promotion choice that fits these customers and one choice that would be a mistake.
Geographic (within five miles) and behavioral (every Saturday); also demographic (retirees). A fitting choice: in-store signs, a local newspaper ad, or a loyalty card. A mistake: a social-media-only campaign aimed at teenagers, or online-only ordering