1. Explain briefly what you understand by the 'marketing environment' of a business.

2. Suppliers and intermediaries are important stakeholders in the micro-environment of

the business.' Explain the evolving role and functions of these stakeholders in today's

marketing-orientated business.

3. Critically discuss the role the firm itself plays in the micro-environment.

4. Define the terms repertoire and empirical. What has been your repertoire of fast-food

outlets in the week, and the past four weeks? If someone tells you there is empirical

evidence about some issue, what do they mean?

5. You are managing a local brand of organic fruit juice and a market research study reveals

the following:

a) 68 per cent of the people who bought your brand in the first three months of the

the year did not buy it in the second three months

b) 32 per cent of your customers bought a competitor's brand during the second three

months.

6.How would you explain such findings to your boss? How would you suggest

that it could be determined whether these results were good or bad?

What are the main variables used for segmenting consumer markets?

7. List three very different car brands or models. What do you think is the segment that

each appeals to? How do car manufacturers attempt to target the group of users?

What tactics do they attempt to use to position the cars differently?

8. What are the characteristics that segments must have to be useful?

9. Think of an example where the users of a product are not the buyers themselves. What

are the implications for targeting?

10. What is the central role of market research?

11.What are the key stages of the research process?

12.Define qualitative and quantitative data.

13. Is it possible to make sound marketing decisions without market research? What

advantages over 'gut-feel decision-making do research offer decision-makers?

14. Outline a research design using observational research for the following situations:

a) The Department of Transport wishes to know the level of seatbelt use in cars.

b) McDonald's wish to know the demand for drive-through versus eat-in versus take-out

services for one of their metro stores.