- •1. Four basic factors necessary for any business. Give the arguments for (or against) the statement that business is essential for all economies.
- •2. Advantages and risks of entrepreneurship. How would you initiate the business if you were an entrepreneur?
- •3. Similarities and differences between a sole proprietor and a partnership.
- •4. Favorable and unfavorable points of a corporation. Which of the three businesses would you prefer to work for?
- •5. The difference between intermittent and continuous production.
- •6. Which method of production would you choose for a) custom-made goods and b) standard goods? What are the most important factors in these methods?
- •7. What two methods do employers use to select applicants for an interview? Suppose you are to employ a manager for your firm. Which method would you use?
- •8. The functions of the personnel department. Your first steps as the Head of the pd if you happen to be appointed to this post.
- •9. The general concept of marketing, its constituent parts. Types of markets.
- •10. Modern marketing – new principles.
- •11. The function of distribution from the view of a business manager. The role of a middleman in distribution.
- •12. The distribution system from the view of a customer. Different types of retail outlets.
- •13. The concept of promotion, its main activities. What type of advertising would you use for promoting a new kind of product your firm has just launched?
- •14. Personal selling – what way does it differ from other forms of promotion? Try to persuade a foreign firm to buy a new passenger airliner constructed in Russia.
- •15. Two types of sales promotion activities. What would you do to promote a new type of tea or coffee?
- •16. Interdependence of promotion and market situation. What would you do if the market turns out to be saturated with your goods?
- •17. Four aspects of international business. What is the main difference between Smith’s theory and Ricardo’s theory?
- •18. Discuss the activities of an exporting company and the reactions of the country importing products. How should the country protect its domestic industries?
- •19. The importance of computers. Your opinion about the advantages and disadvantages of using computers. The prospective ways of computer development.
- •20. Types of layout. Compare product layout and process layout.
10. Modern marketing – new principles.
In the past, the concept of marketing emphasized sales. The producer or manufacturer made a product he wanted to sell. Marketing was the task of figuring out how to sell the product. Basically, selling the product would be accomplished by sales promotion, which included advertising and personal selling. In addition to sales promotion, marketing also involved the physical distribution of the product to the places where it was actually sold. Distribution consisted of transportation, storage, and related services such as financing, standardization and grading, and the related risks.
The modern marketing concept encompasses [includes] all of the activities mentioned, but it is based on a different set of principles. It believes that production can be economically justified only by consumption. In other words, goods should be produced only if they can be sold. Therefore, the producer should consider who is going to buy the product - or what the market for the product is – before production begins. Marketing now involves first deciding what the customer wants, and designing and producing a product that satisfies these wants at a profit to the company. This is very different from making a product and then thinking about how to sell it.
Because products are often marketed internationally, distribution has increased in importance. Goods must be at the place where the customer needs them or brought there. This is known as place utility; it adds value to the product. However, many markets are separated from the place of production, which means that often both raw materials and finished products must be transported to the points where they are needed.
Modern marketing is therefore a coordinated system of many business activities, but basically it involves four things: (1) selling the correct product at the proper place; (2) selling it at a price determined by demand; (3) satisfying a customer’s needs and wants; (4) producing a profit for the company.
11. The function of distribution from the view of a business manager. The role of a middleman in distribution.
After a product has been manufactured, the next step is to find out which methods and routes should be used to bring it to market. This involves channels of distribution. Channel of distribution is the route or way that a product travels from the manufacturer to the consumer. It includes all the middlemen, transportation companies, warehouses and other. Once a distribution channel has been chosen, the firm must usually stick with it for a long time.
There are several forms of distribution. The simplest one is direct sale. For example, if you are a grower you can sell your produce directly to a customer at a roadside stand. However, most often the channel of distribution involves middlemen. They are people who take possession of merchandise and title to it or arrange for transfer of ownership. Middlemen play a very important role in distribution. The reason they are needed is that a particular customer or consumer desires many products, which come from many manufacturers, and it is impossible for the consumer to purchase each product from the producer. Thus, the job of the middleman is to collect the different products from the various manufacturers and then to divide them into amounts which the customers require. The middleman gives the product place utility by delivering or transporting them to where they are needed.
Generally there are two types of middlemen – merchant middlemen and agent middlemen. Merchant middlemen actually take title to the merchandise. For example, a person, who owns a warehouse, buys large quantities of goods from manufacturers and then distributes them to companies in smaller quantities. Agent middlemen arrange for the transfer of title between manufacturer and wholesaler. An example of an agent middleman is a broker who earns a commission by putting buyer and seller in contact with one another.
Companies choose channels of distribution according their objectives and the type of product they manufacture. Every company should identify the type of middlemen, the number of them and the channel responsibilities of each.