An up-and-coming Consultant

Okay, I will admit this is my second time score. :-/ First time I scored 70%, (A typical marketer.) I couldn't settle with that, so I waited a while and went back in and re-took the quiz. Even though this quiz appears to out-dated, it was still fun to take. I can live with an "up and coming consultant." :-)

Enjoy!

Jerry


You scored 80% (16 out of 20 correct).
Your IQ: 128
You ARE: An up-and-coming consultant

150-160: A marketing genius
130-149: A guru, a maven
110-129: An up-and-coming consultant
90-109: A seasoned professional
70-89: A typical marketer
50-69: A death-wish marketer
30-49: An incompetent
11-29: Dangerous to your company
0-11: Guilty of malpractice

1. "Speed-branding" (i.e. establishing a brand at warp-speed, often within 3-6 months) is a highly successful new approach to marketing. You said false. The answer is false. Speed-branding is a wonderful way of spending money quickly and seeing failure sooner! When the goal is to achieve success through the creation of an enduring brand, time and money will be better spent planning and powerfully executing a great strategy.

2. During the coming decade, most marketers will earn more profits from new products than from existing ones. You said false. The answer is false. In most product categories, more than 90% of the sales and profits come from existing brands. Moreover, the difficulty and cost of gaining and adding new customers is usually much greater than that of maintaining - perhaps even increasing - sales for an established franchise. (Chap. 2)

3. Companies should do everything possible to achieve a high market share because a high share leads to economies of scale that result in enhanced profitability. You said false. The answer is false. Recent evidence suggests that the relationship between market share and ROI is much weaker than previously thought. In fact, in many cases, it's actually negative. Companies think that economies of scale will result from buying share through promotions and discounted prices. They don't. In order to achieve economies of scale, you need to build a powerful brand and this requires a great strategy and implementation. (Chap. 2)

4. There is little agreement among marketers about what the concept 'brand equity' means. You said true. The answer is true. Brand equity still has no consistent meaning in the field of marketing; practitioners must agree on a meaning in order for it to be measured and used effectively as a tool. (Chap. 2)

5. A reasonable way to set the marketing budget is to take last year's figure and adjust for inflation.You said false. The answer is false. Because marketing climate and customer and prospect needs do not follow such formulas, setting marketing budgets this way does not make sense. Marketers should use serious modeling approaches to estimate budgets based on defined objectives. (Chap. 4)

6. Line extensions are a very risky way to introduce new products. You said true. The answer is true. Line extensions are risky for several reasons, but particularly because they tend to cannibalize the present product. (Chap. 7)

7. Focus group interviews are a serious marketing research tool that a manager can safely use to help make serious marketing decisions. You said false. The answer is false. Focus groups can be a helpful first step in a serious research process, but many marketers make the mistake of making focus groups the only step. (Chap. 5)

8. Businesses today invest more money in finding new customers than in further developing current customers. You said true. The answer is true. Most companies do not know what a loyal customer is worth in dollars and cents; generally, a current customer is worth 5 times more than a new customer. Nevertheless, most companies seem fixated on acquisition strategies (i.e. seeking out new customers), a phenomenon we have labeled the Death Wish Paradox. (Chap. 8)

9. The most profitable customers of a firm are usually its biggest customers. You said false. The answer is false. After profit contribution analysis, firms often discover that big customers are not the most profitable and, sometimes, not at all profitable. (Chap. 8)

10. Big companies generally make their marketing decisions after evaluating many alternatives in terms of profitability. You said true. The answer is false. Marketers often make their decisions based on a product's appeal, demand, share, and/or sales, not taking into account profitability. (Chap. 4)

11. The more appealing a new product concept is to prospective buyers, the more likely it is it will be a success. You said false. The answer is false. Our research has revealed that the most appealing concept (meaning people say they intend to buy it) is nearly always the least profitable. (Chap. 7)

12. Every company should strive to hold on to all of its customers. You said false. The answer is false. In every industry we have looked at, not every customer is so valuable to a company that they have to be retained - some may actually cost money. (Chap. 18)

13. The click-through rates of Internet banner advertisements are on the rise. You said false. The answer is false. Click-through rates for Internet banner advertisements are actually on the decline.

14. One-hundred-percent customer satisfaction is not an intelligent business objective. You said true. The answer is true. As customer satisfaction increases, sales and profits increase, but only up to a point. After that, the costs associated with increasing levels of satisfaction begin to erode profits. (Chap. 18)

15. Media planners at major advertising agencies know a great deal about the relative effectiveness of print, television, and radio advertising. You said false. The answer is false. Media planners do not know a great deal about the relative effectiveness of different media because there is little available data comparing it for different media types. (Chap. 11)

16. Because pricing is such an important component in the marketing mix, most big companies have a serious pricing strategy based on serious pricing research. You said true. The answer is false. Only about 12% of all American companies do any serious pricing research, and a third of these have no strategy with which to use it. (Chap. 14)

17. More than five percent of visitors to e-commerce sites buy something. You said false. The answer is false. Today, the correct number is under 3%.
18. Consumer and trade promotional programs tend to be more profitable than advertising. You said true. The answer is false. Only advertising can build a strong identity for a brand. If a brand is average (or inferior), promotion is simply a vehicle for offering it more cheaply, which can help sales but hurt profitability. (Chap. 12)

19. American e-businesses have more repeat customers and lower levels of customer churn than do European e-businesses. You said false. The answer is false. American e-businesses have higher levels of customer churn and less repeat business than their European counterparts.

20. Most marketing and advertising programs usually are measured in terms of their profitability. You said true. The answer is false. But they should be. In order to effectively track them, marketing programs must be tied to specific, realistic, and measurable objectives such as a percentage of repeat purchases, market share, and profitability goals in order to be effectively tracked. (Chap. 20)

Chapters refer to Kevin J. Clancy's book, "Marketing Myths That Are Killing Business: The Cure for Death Wish Marketing" (McGraw-Hill,1994)