MKT 500 Marketing Management-DQs

1. According to Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz, "Consumers now commonly engage in a cultural audit of [product and service] providers. People want to know your value and ethics demonstrated by how you treat employees, the community in which you operate." Discuss the concept of social responsibility marketing and how it impacts both companies and consumers.

2. Marketing has often been defined in terms of satisfying customers' needs and wants. Critics, however, maintain that marketing goes beyond that and creates needs and wants that did not exist before. They feel marketers encourage consumers to spend more money than they should on goods and services they do not really need. Take a position: Marketing shapes consumer needs and wants versus marketing merely reflects the needs and wants of customers.

3. The firm's success depends not only on how well each department performs its work, but also on how well the various departmental activities are coordinated to conduct core business processes. List and briefly describe the five core business processes.

4. Consider Porter's value chain and the holistic marketing orientation model. What implications do they have for marketing planning? How would you structure a marketing plan to incorporate some of their concepts?

Referenced Book: Marketing Management (15th Edition) by Kotler, P. & Keller, K. L.