Ali Asghar

19U00380

Sec Q

BBA II

Marketing Management Midterm

1. Some fast-food restaurants offer tasty and convenient food at affordable prices, but in

doing so they contribute to national obesity epidemic and environmental problems. Which

one of the marketing management concepts/orientations is overlooked by these fast-food

restaurants? Justify your answer and also give a few examples of Pakistani firms that have

effectively used this concept. (10 marks)

Ans) These fast-food restaurants are so busy in making a profit for themselves that they most of

the times overlook the social marketing concept. The social marketing concept applies to the

firm’s duties towards the society which is to determine the needs, wants, and interests of

target markets and to deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than

competitors, in a way that preserves or enhances the consumer’s and the society’s well-being.

Social marketing concept is one of the newest philosophies from the five marketing

management concepts rather making it the one that is mostly overlooked by most firms. This

concept basically derives from the philosophies of consumerism and environmentalism as

consumers are getting more vigilant and want more to come for them out of a firm’s products

and services which helps them in receiving those neglected social services. They are also
concerned that if the firm is using environmentally sustainable methods into their production

which helps in environmental problems, resource shortages etc. Few Pakistani companies have

taken this into consideration and started to work on the societal benefits from their products

for example organizations such as Sapphire have substituted the use of plastic bags into

recyclable paper bags that help in reducing the plastic waste on the planet. Also, grocery shops

such as carrefour have also substituted plastic bags to cloth totes that are also charged for in

order to consume less.

2. Assume that you are marketing manager of a multinational company; you have to explain

to your colleagues that understanding consumer's perceived purchase risk is paramount,

explain them the different types of perceived risks that can be associated with the purchase

of a cell phone? What would you include in your explanation? (10 marks)

Ans) Perceived risks are uncertainty’s that a consumer faces when buying a product, mostly

such risks are associated with purchase decisions that are expensive. Understanding the

consumers perceived risks when buying from a company is paramount because when a

company knows exactly what the customer thinks about when making a purchase they can

implement numerous stratergies in order to erase or answer the queries the customer has in

his mind that makes him less reluctant in buying from them for example improving the product

in consideration to the doubts the consumer has in his/her mind or answering all of those

queries in the Q&A section on their website. The perceived risks associated when buying a cell

phone can be:

Functional risks, Perceived risks can include the fear and or doubt a consumer has that the

product they are buying will fail to perform its intended function. The consumer might be afraid

that if they buy the cellphone, the battery life would be poor or the screen might not perform

smoothly or the speakers might be poor quality.

Social, this type of risk associates to a consumer’s social status. If a person is wealthy or belong

to an upper social class, they want to buy products that people in their social circle would also

buy. For example, they may decide not to buy a cheap phone for fear that it might impact their

social status among the social circle.

Financial, every consumer suffers some extent of financial risk. They are afraid that a purchase

might strip them of their income sources at that time or in the future. For example, buying an

iPhone 12 could leave them with little to no money or with loans that will affect their income

for the next few months or even years.

Physical, an item that could cause bodily harm to a person or their family causes perceived risk.

For example, in 2016 the Samsung note 7 had a battery that led to it exploding when heated.

This caused the note 7 to discontinue and banned from certain places so health and safety is to

be considered before buying the cellphone.

Time, if the product malfunctions or breaks you’ll have to go back to the store that will need a

lot of time for fixing the cellphone.

3. Marketing has often been defined in terms of satisfying customers’ needs and wants.

Critics, however, maintain that marketing goes beyond that and create needs and wants that

did not exist before. According to these critics, marketers encourage consumers to spend
more money than they should on goods and services they do not really need. What is your

opinion of this on-going debate? Take a stance and defend your position using examples of

companies that you perceive to have created or satisfied customer needs. (10 marks)

Ans) Marketing does promote the good and services in such an appealing way that makes you

want the product more and some organizations might create such a marketing strategy that

makes the other person desire the product due to the importance of it for their reputation for

example a video game which became uber popular “fornite” had millions of players worldwide

the game was completely free and they earned money by creating this delusion that players

who don’t have in game bought skins for their characters are just bad at the game. This caused

more and more players to spend hundreds and thousands of dollars for the company. So,

marketing does promote in such a way that desire is created in the potential customer but

marketing does not force people to spend money. The customers decide how much money

they spend on the product or service they need.

4. You are working in the marketing department of an international company; you have to

briefly explain to your employees how companies can use the Internet to build their brands.

How would you explain it? (5 marks)

Ans) First of all to expand your horizons to the internet there must be a suitable and consumer-

oriented website. The website should be easily accessible by the target market the company is

focusing on and should be available to all people through all mediums. For example, if the
international company is about student’s school placements then the website should be

appealing to the student and which makes him/her feel secure and enthusiastic when opening

and approaching the website. This will also help in brand establishment as a website massively

gives away what the company stands for and what brand it’s trying to build. Also, other internet

mediums include social media such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter etc. these

platforms are extremely useful when reaching towards millions of users online. A message, a

picture or even a video can go viral on social media in seconds. Anything that goes viral from a

company’s part would draw in numerous amounts of customers in a matter of time. A company

can even use celebrity endorsement and post it on social media that will draw millions of

potential customers to the company and give the company a positive brand image.