CHAPTER 4
THE MARKETING ENVIRONMENT
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. “________ fever” results from the convergence of a wide range of forces in the
marketing environment—from technological, economic, and demographic forces to
cultural, social, and political ones.
a. Marketing
b. Cultural
c. Technographic
d. Millennial
Answer: (d) Difficulty: (2) Page: 117
2. The ______________________ consists of the actors and forces outside marketing
that affect marketing management’s ability to develop and maintain successful
relationships with its target customers.
a. marketing organization
b. marketing system
c. marketing network
d. marketing environment
Answer: (d) Difficulty: (3) Page: 118
3. Which of the following terms best describes the environment that includes the forces
close to the company that affect its ability to serve its customers—the company,
suppliers, marketing channel firms, customer markets, competitors, and publics?
a. microenvironment
b. macroenvironment
c. global environment
d. networked environment
Answer: (a) Difficulty: (2) Page: 118
4. All of the following would be considered to be in a company’s microenvironment
EXCEPT:
a. marketing channel firms.
b. political forces.
c. publics.
d. customer markets.
Answer: (b) Difficulty: (2) Page: 118
5. Which of the following BEST describes the environment that contains the larger
societal forces that affect the company-level environment—demographic, economic,
natural, technological, political, and cultural forces?
a. microenvironment
b. macroenvironment
c. global environment
d. networked environment
Answer: (b) Difficulty: (2) Page: 118, 123, Figure 4-4
6. All of the following would be considered to be a part of a company’s
macroenvironment EXCEPT:
a. demographic forces.
b. marketing channel forces.
c. technological forces.
d. natural forces.
Answer: (b) Difficulty: (1) Page: 118, 123, Figure 4-4
7. Finance, research and development, purchasing, and manufacturing are all activities
that are a part of which element of the microenvironment?
a. the company’s internal environment
b. the suppliers.
c. the marketing channel firms
d. the publics
Answer: (a) Difficulty: (1) Page: 119, Figure 4-1
8. __________ management sets the company’s mission, objectives, broad strategies,
and policies.
a. Top
b. Mid-level
c. Marketing
d. Tactical
Answer: (a) Difficulty: (1) Page: 119
9. ________________ are an important link in the company’s overall “value delivery
system” since they provide the resources needed by the company to produce its
goods and services.
a. Marketing intermediaries
b. Competitor networks
c. Suppliers
d. Service representatives
Answer: (c) Difficulty: (2) Page: 119
10. _________________ help the company to promote, sell, and distribute its goods to
final buyers.
a. Marketing intermediaries
b. Competitor networks
c. Suppliers
d. Service representatives
Answer: (a) Difficulty: (2) Page: 120
11. _____________ include resellers, physical distribution firms, marketing services
agencies, and financial intermediaries.
a. Marketing intermediaries
b. Competitor networks
c. Suppliers
d. Service representatives
Answer: (a) Difficulty: (2) Page: 120
12. Firms that help the company to stock and move goods from their points of origin
to their destinations are called:
a. financial intermediaries.
b. physical distribution firms.
c. suppliers.
d. marketing services agencies.
Answer: (b) Difficulty: (2) Page: 120
13. Which of the following would be an example of a marketing services agency?
a. a warehouse
b. a transportation firm
c. an insurance agency
d. an advertising agency
Answer: (d) Difficulty: (3) Page: 120
14. All of the following are considered to be a type of customer market EXCEPT a:
a. business market.
b. competitor market.
c. government market.
d. reseller market.
Answer: (b) Difficulty: (1) Page: 120, Figure 4-2
15. Which of the following would be considered a customer market?
a. a business market
b. a competitor market
c. a geographic market
d. a gender market
Answer: (a) Difficulty: (3) Page: 120, Figure 4-2
16. The type of customer market that buys goods and services for further processing is
called a:
a. business market.
b. consumer market.
c. government market.
d. reseller market.
Answer: (a) Difficulty: (2) Page: 120
17. If your company were to make a product, such as a suit of clothes, and sell that
product to a retailer, your company would have sold to the ___________ market.
a. reseller
b. business
c. government
d. service
Answer: (a) Difficulty: (1) Page: 120
18. If your company were to make light bulbs to be used in photocopiers, you would
most likely be selling to a ________________ market.
a. reseller
b. business
c. government
d. service
Answer: (b) Difficulty: (2) Page: 120
19. A ______________ is any group that has an actual or potential interest in or
impact on an organization’s ability to achieve its objectives.
a. competitive set
b. marketing intermediary
c. supplier
d. public
Answer: (d) Difficulty: (2) Page: 121
20. All of the following are significant publics that affect an organization’s ability to
achieve its objectives EXCEPT:
a. charitable publics.
b. financial publics.
c. media publics.
d. citizen action publics.
Answer: (a) Difficulty: (3) Page: 121, 122, Figure 4-3
21. _____________ publics include workers, managers, volunteers, and the board of
directors of an organization.
a. General
b. Financial
c. Internal
d. Local
Answer: (c) Difficulty: (2) Page: 122
22. The Acme Corporation is considering building a plant in the inner city, and will have
to displace a seven block area of an old neighborhood. Which of the following
publics must be dealt with to make sure that the new construction can be successfully
accomplished with a minimum of difficulty? (Choose the most significant of the
choices offered.)
a. financial public
b. internal public
c. media public
d. local public
Answer: (d) Difficulty: (2) Page: 122
23. All of the following are among the major forces considered to be in a company’s
macroenvironment EXCEPT:
a. demographic forces.
b. natural forces.
c. technological forces.
d. competitor forces.
Answer: (d) Difficulty: (2) Page: 122, 123, Figure 4-4
24. The study of human populations in terms of size, density, location, age, gender, race,
occupation, and other statistics is called:
a. geothermy.
b. demography.
c. ethnography.
d. hemos-popography.
Answer: (b) Difficulty: (1) Page: 122
25. All of the following are areas that marketers in the United States track within the
demographic context EXCEPT:
a. package design changes.
b. changing age structures.
c. geographic population shifts.
d. the changing American family.
Answer: (a) Difficulty: (1) Page: 122, 123
26. The single most important demographic trend in the United States is:
a. the geographic shift in population.
b. the changing American family.
c. the changing age structure of the U.S. population.
d. the better-educated and more white-collar workforce.
Answer: (c) Difficulty: (3) Page: 123
27. According to the latest research by American Demographics done in October 2000,
Baby Boomers account for which of the following percentages of the total U.S.
population?
a. 16.4 percent
b. 25.8 percent
c. 28.2 percent
d. 37.2 percent
Answer: (c) Difficulty: (3) Page: 123, Figure 4-5
28. There was a major increase in the annual birthrate in the United States following
World War II. This increase lasted until the 1960s. The people born during this
time period were called:
a. birth dearth.
b. baby busters.
c. Generation X.
d. baby boomers.
Answer: (d) Difficulty: (1) Page: 124
29. All of the following would be among the lucrative markets that appeal to the baby
boomer market EXCEPT: (Choose the least likely.)
a. financial services.
b. travel and entertainment.
c. computers.
d. high-priced cars.
Answer: (c) Difficulty: (2) Page: 125
30. Author Douglas Coupland called the generation that followed the baby boomers
___________ because they lie in the shadow of the boomers, and lack obvious
distinguishing characteristics.
a. Generation Y
b. Generation X
c. Generation D
d. Yuppies
Answer: (b) Difficulty: (2) Page: 125
31. Generation Xers are given that name because:
a. they hate police and all forms of authority.
b. they lie in the shadow of the boomers and lack obvious distinguishing
characteristics.
c. they are yuppies and dinks.
d. they believe in Malcolm X as a hero figure.
Answer: (b) Difficulty: (2) Page: 125
32. Which of the following generations was once labeled the MTV generation?
a. Baby boomers
b. Generation X
c. Generation Y
d. Generation D
Answer: (b) Difficulty: (2) Page: 125
33. Another name for Generation Y is the:
a. MTV generation.
b. War babies.
c. Shadow generation.
d. Echo boomers.
Answer: (d) Difficulty: (3) Page: 126
34. Which of the following generations has grown up with the Internet, mobile
communications, and video games?
a. Baby boomers
b. Generation X
c. Generation Y
d. Generation W
Answer: (c) Difficulty: (2) Page: 127
35. The increase in working women, people marrying later and having fewer children,
and the number of nonfamily households increasing coincides with which of the
following trends?
a. the changing age structure of the population
b. the changing American family
c. increasing diversity
d. a better-educated and more white-collar population
Answer: (b) Difficulty: (1) Page: 127
36. _____________ areas are small cities located beyond congested areas found in larger
cites. They offer many lifestyle advantages for today’s urban commuter.
a. Metropolitan
b. Telecommute
c. Micropolitan
d. SOHO
Answer: (c) Difficulty: (2) Page: 128
37. The U.S. population is becoming better educated. As an example, in 2000,
________ of the population had completed high school and 26 percent had completed
college.
a. 84 percent
b. 75 percent
c. 90 percent
d. 96 percent
Answer: (a) Difficulty: (3) Page: 129
38. Marketers are facing increasingly diverse markets, both at home and abroad. The
_________ market has been ignored in the past, despite the fact that with 54 million
people in this market, it is larger than the African American or Hispanic markets.
a. gay and lesbian
b. India/Pakistan
c. disabilities
d. infant
Answer: (c) Difficulty: (3) Page: 131-133, Marketing at Work 132
39. Factors that affect consumer purchasing power and spending patterns make up the
______________ environment.
a. demographic
b. economic
c. natural
d. technological
Answer: (b) Difficulty: (1) Page: 131
40. Marketers pay close attention to income distribution as well as average income.
Which of the following groups usually must stick close to the basics of food, clothing,
and shelter, and must try hard to save?
a. the comfortable middle class
b. the working class
c. the upper-class
d. the under-class
Answer: (b) Difficulty: (2) Page: 134
41. According to Engel’s laws, as income rises:
a. the percentage spent on food rises.
b. the percentage spent on housing increases.
c. the percentage spent on other categories increases.
d. the percentage spent on savings remains constant.
Answer: (c) Difficulty: (3) Page: 134
42. According to Engle’s laws, as income rises:
a. the percentage spent on food declines.
b. the percentage spent on housing increases.
c. the percentage spent on other categories decreases.
d. the percentage spent on savings remains constant.
Answer: (a) Difficulty: (2) Page: 134
43. Concern that resources such as forests and food be used wisely is an outgrowth of
which trend in the natural environment?
a. the shortage of raw materials
b. the rapid pace of technological change
c. the increased cost of energy
d. increased pollution
Answer: (a) Difficulty: (1) Page: 136
44. 3M runs a Pollution Prevention Pays program that has led to a substantial
reduction in pollution and costs. This would be an example of responding to which
of the following?
a. Nader’s raiders
b. the “green movement”
c. governmental regulation
d. international competition
Answer: (b) Difficulty: (2) Page: 137
45. According to the text, the most dramatic of the environments that affects marketing
and shapes our world today is the ________________ environment.
a. natural
b. demographic
c. economic
d. technological
Answer: (d) Difficulty: (2) Page: 137
46. Which of the following countries leads the world in research and development
spending?
a. Japan
b. Germany
c. United States
d. England
Answer: (c) Difficulty: (1) Page: 138
47. The set of laws and regulations that guides commerce and that limits business for the
good of society as a whole is called:
a. public policy.
b. consumer protection.
c. public interest group action.
d. social responsibility.
Answer: (a) Difficulty: (2) Page: 138
48. The ____________________ prohibits monopolies and activities (such as price fixing
and predatory pricing) which restrain trade or competition in interstate commerce.
a. Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)
b. Clayton Act (1914)
c. Federal Trade Commission Act (1914)
d. Robinson-Patman Act (1936)
Answer: (a) Difficulty: (2) Page: 139, Table 4-2
49. The __________________ supplements the Sherman Act by prohibiting certain types
of price discrimination, exclusive dealing, and tying clauses (which require a dealer to
take additional products in a seller’s line).
a. Federal Food and Drug Act (1906)
b. Clayton Act (1914)
c. Federal Trade Commission Act (1914)
d. Robinson-Patman Act (1936)
Answer: (b) Difficulty: (2) Page: 139, Table 4-2
50. The ___________________ amends the Clayton Act to define price discrimination
as unlawful. It empowers the FTC to establish limits on quantity discounts, forbid
some brokerage allowances, and prohibit promotional allowances except when made
available on proportionately equal terms.
a. Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)
b. Federal Food and Drug Act (1906)
c. Federal Trade Commission Act (1914)
d. Robinson-Patman Act (1936)
Answer: (d) Difficulty: (3) Page: 139, Table 4-2
51. Laws that prevent companies from neutralizing competition reflect which reason for
the existence of legislation affecting business?
a. to protect companies from each other
b. to protect consumers from unfair business practices
c. to protect the interests of society
d. to protect businesses from unfair consumer demands
Answer: (a) Difficulty: (2) Page: 140
52. Laws that require truth in advertising and prohibit deceptive packaging reflect which
reason for government legislation of business?
a. to protect companies from each other
b. to protect consumers from unfair business practices
c. to protect the interests of society
d. to protect businesses from unfair consumer demands
Answer: (b) Difficulty: (2) Page: 140
53. Regulations that arise to ensure that firms take responsibility for the social costs of
their products or production processes stem from which reason for government
legislation of business?
a. to protect companies from each other