UGC NET Commerce Marketing Management Syllabus

What is a product line?

A group of closely related products that function similarly, are sold to the same customer groups, marketed through the same outlets, or fall within given price ranges.

Define product mix (product assortment).

The complete set of all product lines and items a particular seller offers for sale.

Define the four dimensions of a product mix.

Width (number of product lines), Length (total number of items across lines), Depth (number of variants of each product), and Consistency (how closely related the lines are).

What are the stages of the Product Life Cycle (PLC)?

Introduction, Growth, Maturity, and Decline (often preceded by Product Development).

What are the characteristics of the Introduction stage of the PLC?

Slow sales growth, high costs per customer, negative or low profits, few competitors, and heavy promotional spending to build awareness.

What happens to sales, profits, and competition in the Maturity stage of the PLC?

Sales peak and slow, profits stabilize or decline due to heavy competition, and the firm defends market share through differentiation and modification.

List the steps in the New Product Development (NPD) process.

Idea generation, Idea screening, Concept development and testing, Marketing strategy development, Business analysis, Product development, Test marketing, and Commercialization.

What happens during the idea screening stage of NPD?

Poor or unsuitable ideas are filtered out as early as possible to avoid spending resources on ideas that do not fit company objectives or resources (avoiding DROP-errors and GO-errors).

What is test marketing in NPD?

Introducing the product and its marketing programme into realistic market settings on a limited scale to gauge consumer and dealer response before full commercialization.

List the major factors affecting price determination.

Internal factors (marketing objectives, marketing-mix strategy, costs, organizational considerations) and external factors (market demand, competition, economic conditions, government regulation, customers' perceived value).

What are the three general approaches to pricing a product?

Cost-based pricing, Value-based (demand/buyer-based) pricing, and Competition-based pricing.

Differentiate market-skimming pricing from market-penetration pricing.

Skimming sets a high initial price to 'skim' maximum revenue from segments willing to pay more; penetration sets a low initial price to attract many buyers quickly and gain large market share.

What is the cost-plus (markup) pricing formula?

Price = Unit cost + (Unit cost x desired markup %), i.e., adding a standard markup to the cost of the product.

What is psychological pricing (odd pricing)?

Setting prices that have a psychological impact, such as Rs. 99 instead of Rs. 100, to make the price seem lower or signal value.

Name common product-mix and adjustment pricing strategies.

Product-line pricing, optional-feature, captive-product, by-product, product-bundle pricing; and adjustments like discounts, allowances, segmented, promotional, geographical, and dynamic pricing.

What is the role of promotion in marketing?

Promotion communicates value to customers—informing, persuading, and reminding them about products—to build awareness, create interest, stimulate demand, differentiate offerings, and build brand image.

List the five elements of the promotion mix (marketing communications mix).

Advertising, Sales promotion, Personal selling, Public relations and publicity, and Direct (and digital) marketing.

Distinguish advertising from publicity.

Advertising is paid, non-personal, sponsor-identified communication; publicity is non-paid, non-personal news/media coverage about a product not directly paid for by the sponsor.

What is the difference between a push strategy and a pull strategy in promotion?

Push: producer promotes to channel members who push the product to consumers (e.g., trade promotion, personal selling); Pull: producer promotes directly to consumers who demand the product from retailers (e.g., advertising, consumer promotion).

What is a channel of distribution (marketing channel)?

A set of interdependent organizations (intermediaries) involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by the consumer or business user.

Describe the typical levels of consumer distribution channels.

Zero-level (direct: producer to consumer); One-level (producer-retailer-consumer); Two-level (producer-wholesaler-retailer-consumer); Three-level (producer-agent-wholesaler-retailer-consumer).

What are the three distribution intensity strategies?

Intensive distribution (maximum outlets), Selective distribution (a few selected outlets), and Exclusive distribution (one or very few outlets per area with exclusive rights).

What is channel management / what does it involve?

Selecting, motivating, evaluating, and controlling channel members, and managing channel relationships and conflict to ensure effective and efficient distribution.

Differentiate horizontal and vertical channel conflict.

Horizontal conflict occurs among firms at the same channel level (e.g., two retailers); vertical conflict occurs between different levels of the same channel (e.g., manufacturer vs wholesaler).

What are the five stages of the consumer buying decision process?

Need (problem) recognition, Information search, Evaluation of alternatives, Purchase decision, and Post-purchase behaviour.

What is post-purchase cognitive dissonance?

Buyer's discomfort/doubt after a purchase caused by conflict between the chosen option's drawbacks and the rejected options' benefits; marketers reduce it through reassurance and after-sales support.

List the four broad categories of factors influencing consumer buying decisions.

Cultural (culture, subculture, social class), Social (reference groups, family, roles and status), Personal (age, occupation, lifestyle, economic situation), and Psychological (motivation, perception, learning, beliefs and attitudes).

What are the distinctive characteristics of services in service marketing?

Intangibility, Inseparability (production and consumption simultaneous), Variability (heterogeneity), and Perishability (cannot be stored).

What is social marketing?

The application of marketing concepts and techniques to influence target audiences to voluntarily accept, reject, or modify behaviour for the benefit of individuals, groups, or society (e.g., anti-smoking, immunization campaigns).

What is green marketing?

The marketing of products and practices that are presumed to be environmentally safe—incorporating eco-friendly product design, sustainable packaging, production, and promotion to satisfy consumers while protecting the environment.

Define Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and contrast rural marketing with logistics' core goal.

CRM is the overall process of building and maintaining profitable customer relationships by delivering superior value and satisfaction to retain customers and maximize customer lifetime value; rural marketing serves dispersed, low-income rural consumers, while marketing logistics aims to deliver the right goods to the right place at the right time at the lowest cost (place utility and time utility).