Click on the box next to each answer. Keep track of your own score.

1. Lifestyle trends are part of a/n:
   • A. sociocultural environment. CORRECT  
   • B. economic environment. INCORRECT  
   • C. political environment. INCORRECT  
   • D. internal environment. INCORRECT  
2. The U.S. Census Bureau website is a source of:
   • A. primary data INCORRECT  
   • B. internal secondary data INCORRECT  
   • C. external secondary data CORRECT  
   • D. competitive intelligence INCORRECT  
3. The Audit Bureau of Circulations provides independent, third-party audits of print circulation, readership, and website activity.  This is a source of:
   • A. primary data INCORRECT  
   • B. internal secondary data INCORRECT  
   • C. external secondary data CORRECT But another answer could   also be correct.  Which one?
   • D. competitive intelligence COULD BE If you are looking for  information regarding  the activities of  competitors, then you  would be doing  competitive intelligence  research.
4. As a generalization, we should first attempt to collect what kind of data in the conduct of most kinds of research associated with formulating marketing strategy?
   • A. primary INCORRECT                                          
   • B. secondary CORRECT Using information that already exists is typically faster  and lower in cost for answering many marketing  questions.  For many marketing strategy issues,  secondary data alone is adequate.  
   • C. qualitative INCORRECT Qualitative data could come from primary or secondary  sources. Research that collects qualitative data  is sometimes an important predecessor to collecting  quantitative data - e.g., running an exploratory,  open-ended focus group study before running a  closed-ended survey. But with regard to generalizing  about most marketing strategy situations, another  answer is more universally correct.
   • D. survey INCORRECT Compare with Answer C.                                          
5. "Scanning for opportunities and threats" means that we are collecting information about:
   • A. our organization's objectives. INCORRECT                                          
   • B. our organization's internal resources. INCORRECT Our own abilities give us strengths and weaknesses that  allow us to take advantage of external opportunities  and to steer clear of or ward off external threats.
   • C. the marketing mix. INCORRECT Our formulation of the marketing mix is the way we take  advantage of external opportunities and steer clear  of or ward off external threats.
   • D. the external environment. CORRECT Opportunities and threats are presented to us by  competitors, technology, economic conditions,  government regulation, and such.  
6. Kim stays in a hotel and a week later receives an email request to complete an online survey. Kim never gets around to completing the survey. A problem with this sampling method is:
   • A. It is too random; anyone might or might not take it. INCORRECT That's not what we mean by random "sampling".  If we desire random sampling, we want to ensure that  every member of the population (in this case, anyone  who was a guest in the hotel) has an equal chance of  completing the survey. Perhaps most guests are  non-responders just like Kim, and only those with  remarkably good or remarkably bad experiences  self-select to complete the survey.
   • B. It is not random. CORRECT If we desire random sampling, we want to ensure that  every member of the population (in this case, anyone  who was a guest in the hotel) has an equal chance of  completing the survey. Perhaps most guests are  non-responders just like Kim, and only those with  remarkably good or remarkably bad experiences self-select  to complete the survey. Note that we don't always want  a random sample (e.g., quota sampling), but that in this  case, the issue of asking only those who do email and  the issue of self-selection in responding are likely to  lead to bias (directional error, causing meaningless  results).
   • C. Online surveys are never reliable. INCORRECT Two issues: The question deals with concerns about sampling,   not with the method of data collection, so this answer  doesn't fit if just for that reason. Additionally,  there is nothing necessarily wrong with collecting  survey responses online in contrast with face-to-face  or through the mail or on the telephone.  
   • D. Online surveys tend to result in bias. INCORRECT The question deals with concerns about sampling, not with  the method of data collection, so this answer isn't  the best fit for that reason. However, online surveys  that allow self-selection could result in biased  (directional error) results if there is reason to  believe that some non-responders would have responded  if a different format was offered and that  particular set of non-responders would have given  different answers from those who were disposed toward  taking online surveys.  
7. The Griswold family has special channel-changer box sitting next to the TV set. This box keeps track of what shows are being watched and knows when someone is in the room or not while the TV is on. Data is sent back to a marketing research firm that enlists a sample of families like the Griswolds. This sample of families is known as:
   • A. primary data. INCORRECT Data is what the researcher collects.  The question asked about the sample.
   • B. a simulation. INCORRECT
   • C. a panel. CORRECT
   • D. a control group. INCORRECT
8. Terry is wondering what kind of pizza people like best and mails out a thousand surveys to addresses randomly chosen from the local telephone book. Two hundred completed surveys, or twenty percent, are returned. This twenty percent is:
   • A. a control group. INCORRECT A control group is associated with making comparisons in  experimental research. This isn't experimental research.
   • B. a reporting panel. INCORRECT                                          
   • C. represents the market potential. INCORRECT                                          
   • D. the response rate. CORRECT The next question is, "Is a twenty percent response  rate too low?" The problem is that we don't  know how the non-responders would have answered  the survey, and the feelings and beliefs of that  eighty percent could very well change the results  of the survey. In this case, a twenty percent  response rate is probably much higher than would  typically be expected from her sampling method --  but that doesn't change the fact this response  rate might produce meaningless results (it depends  on several factors such as how she constructed the  survey instrument). Terry could have increased the  response rate by enclosing a gift certificate with  the survey or by offering entry into a drawing for  a prize, but often such inducements to increase  response rates create even worse issues of bias.
9. If Terry in the above question is trying to predict what kind of pizza would be the best seller, which type of forecasting is most likely being used?
   • A. judgment method INCORRECT Terry is most likely not asking people for a forecast, but  is asking survey respondents about feelings, beliefs, and  behavioral intentions with regard to pizza attributes  or consumption.
   • B. counting method CORRECT Terry is most likely counting people's preferences on either  an open-ended or closed-ended survey, using the  preferences with the highest frequencies as indicators  of the highest selling items in the future.
   • C. time series method INCORRECT There is no data that is correlated with time.
   • D. association/causal method INCORRECT Bad guess.
10. A professor at a large midwestern American university asks students about their attitudes toward use of marijuana. All students who were surveyed are sophomores residing in on-campus dorms, all were between the ages of 18 and 22, and most come from upper middle class families. Because the survey was confidential, everyone who was asked to participate did participate, and in an anonymous followup survey, every participant said that honest, accurate answers had been given. On the basis of these survey findings, the professor wrote a report entitled, "Use and Attitudes of Young Americans Toward Marijuana Use." This research lacks:
    • A. a control group. INCORRECT A control group is only relevant to an experiment; it  appears that this survey was a mere observation  of self-report behaviors and that no groups were  being compared or contrasted.
    • B. external validity. CORRECT However these students responded to the survey probably  isn't generalizable outside of that sample -  students who live in the dorms at a particular  large middle-class midwestern university. While  the survey very well could have collect some data  that says something valid about that student body  or that is indeed generalizable to the rest of  the US population, the title of the report  suggests that the professor is claiming a broader  generalization that cannot be made - so the study  lacks validity that can be generalized or  externalized from that sample.
    • C. internal validity. This probably isn't a relevant issue since this was an  observation of self-report behaviors rather than  an experiment.
    • D. flexibility. INCORRECT
11. Competitive intelligence has to do with:
    • A. analysis of the competitive environment. CORRECT Sometimes when you're not sure of an answer, you get   psyched into assuming that the most intuitively obvious   answer is probably incorrect. I'm always amazed when some of the easiest questions   elicit a high rate of wrong answers. See Answer B also.
    • B. analysis of the external environment. INCORRECT Actually, CI *does* have to do with analysis of the   external environment, but given that a more specific   answer is included in the choice set, this one can't   be counted as best.
    • C. the human resource capabilities of competitors. INCORRECT See answer D if you thought that this might be correct.
    • D. the level of threat posed by competitors' strategies. INCORRECT Yikes!  You're way off!
12. When an organization systematically goes through its customer records to find segments, purchasing patterns, and trends, it is doing:
    • A. data mining. CORRECT  
    • B. CRM INCORRECT  
    • C. ABC analysis INCORRECT  
    • D. customer profitability analysis INCORRECT