STUDY GUIDE. MARKETING 3300 CH.

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CHAPTER 1

1. What is marketing?
Is engaging customers and managing profitable customer relationships.

Goals of Marketing:
Attract new customers by promising superior value.
Keep and grow current customers by delivering satisfaction.

2. Traditional vs. contemporary marketing

Traditional

Making a sale
Abundance of products in the nearby shopping centers
Television, magazine, and direct-mail ads

Contemporary

Satisfying customer needs

Imaginative Web sites and mobile phone apps, blogs, online videos, and social media
Reach customers directly, personally, and interactively

3. The five-step marketing process: creating and capturing customer value (Figure 1.1)

4. Difference between needs, wants, and demand.

NEEDS
States of felt deprivation
Physical needs - Food, clothing, warmth, and safety
 Social needs - Belonging and affection
Individual needs - Knowledge and self-expression

WANTS

Form taken by human needs when shaped by culture and individual personality.

DEMANDS
Human wants that are backed by buying power.
5. Definition of a market offer
Products, services, information or experiences; Offered to satisfy a need or want.

6. Marketing myopia
Paying more attention to the specific products than to the benefits and experiences produced.

7. Customer value and satisfaction

Customers form expectations about the value and satisfaction of market offerings.
Satisfied customers buy again
Dissatisfied customers switch to competitors
Setting the right level of expectations
Low expectations may fail to attract buyers
High expectations may disappoint buyers

8. What is exchange?
Is the act of obtaining a desired object by offering something in return.
Marketing consists of creating, maintaining, and growing desirable exchange relationships.
Strong relationships are built by consistently delivering superior customer value.

9. What is market segmentation?

Refers to dividing the markets into segments of customers.

10. Target market

Refers to which segments to go after.
 11. Definition of a value proposition
The company must decide how it will differentiate and position itself in the marketplace.

12. Marketing management orientations (e.g., production orientation, sales orientation, marketing
orientation, societal orientation).
1. Production concept
2. Product concept
3. Selling concept
4. Marketing concept
5. Societal marketing concept

13. Customer relationship marketing

Is a business process in which client relationships, customer loyalty and brand value are built
through marketing strategies and activities. CRM allows businesses to develop long-term
relationships with established and new customers while helping streamline corporate
performance.

14. Tools for customer relationship marketing (e.g., loyalty programs, club marketing)

Frequency marketing programs

Loyalty rewards programs
Club marketing programs

15. Customer engagement

Customer-engagement marketing makes the brand a meaningful part of consumers
conversations and lives.
Greater consumer empowerment means that companies must practice marketing by attraction.
Marketers must find ways to enter consumers conversations with engaging and relevant brand
messages.
16. Consumer-generated marketing
Brand exchanges created by consumers
Consumers play an increasing role in shaping their own brand experiences and those of
other consumers.
Uninvited and Invited
Consumer-to-consumer exchanges
 Consumers invited by companies
New product and service ideas
Active role in shaping ads

17. What is customer loyalty?

Total combined customer lifetime values of all of the companys customers
Measures the future value of the companys customer base
Increases when the loyalty of the firms profitable customers increases
Better measure of a firms performance than current sales or market share

18. Definition of share of customer and how to increase it.

Portion of the customers purchasing in their product categories.

Share of Customer is increased by:

Good customer relationship management
Offering greater variety to current customers
Creating programs to cross-sell and up-sell to existing customers

19. Customer equity

Total combined customer lifetime values of all of the companys customers

Measures the future value of the companys customer base
Increases when the loyalty of the firms profitable customers increases
Better measure of a firms performance than current sales or market share
Clearly, the more loyal the firms profitable customers are the higher its customer equity. Customer
equity may be a better measure of a firms performance than current sales or market share. Whereas
sales and market share reflect the past, customer equity suggests the future.
CHAPTER 2

1. Steps of strategic planning.

Game plan for long-run survival and growth

Helps to maintain a strategic fit between its goals and capabilities and changing marketing
opportunities.
2. Definition, philosophy, and components of a mission statement.
Statement of the organizations purpose
Market oriented - defined in terms of satisfying basic customer needs
Emphasize the companys strengths
Focus on customers and the customer experience.

3. Portfolio analysis BCG growth-share matrix

Managements evaluation of the products and businesses that make up the company
Identify the strategic business units (SBUs)
Assess SBUs attractiveness and decide on the level of support SBU deserves
Direct resources toward more profitable businesses and phase down or drop its weaker ones.

The BCG Growth-Share Matrix

 Evaluates a companys SBUs in terms of market growth rate and relative market share
Problems with Growth-Share Matrix
Difficult, time consuming, and costly
Difficult to define and measure
Provides little advice for future planning

4. The product/market expansion grid

5. Downsizing
Products or business units that are unprofitable or no longer fit the companys overall strategy
Reasons to abandon products or markets
Rapid growth of the company
Lack of experience in a market
Change in market environment
Decline of a particular product

6. Value Chain
The process or activities by which a company adds value to an article, including production,
marketing, and the provision of after-sales service.

Companies should assess value chains

Internal departments
External: suppliers, distributors and customers

7. The value delivery network

Is composed of the company, its suppliers, its distributors, and its customers.
8. The four Ps of marketing (=marketing mix)

Marketing logic by which the company creates customer value and achieves profitable
customer relationships
Integrated marketing mix: product, price, place, and promotion
Activities for best marketing strategy and mix
Marketing analysis
Planning, implementation, and control

9. SWOT analysis.
 10. Typical content of a marketing plan

Section Purpose
Executive summary Brief summary of the main goals and recommendations

Current marketing Gives the market description and the product, competition,
situation and distribution review
Threats and opportunities Helps management to anticipate important positive or
analysis negative developments

Objectives and issues States and discusses marketing objectives and key issues

Marketing strategy Outlines the broad marketing logic and the specifics of
target markets, positioning, marketing expenditure
levels, and strategies for each marketing mix element

Action programs Spells out how marketing strategies will be turned into
specific action programs

Budgets Details a supporting marketing budget that is a

projected profit-and-loss statement

Controls Outlines the controls that will be used to monitor

progress, allow management to review
implementation
results, and spot products that are not meeting their
goals
11. Marketing ROI (return on investment).
Net return from a marketing investment divided by the costs of the marketing investment
Assessment measures
Standard marketing performance measures
Customer-centered measures
CHAPTER 3

1. Macro- and microenvironment

Outside forces that affect marketing managements ability to build and maintain
successful relationships with target customers
Microenvironment: Actors close to the company that affect its ability to serve its
customers
Macro-environment: Larger societal forces that affect the microenvironment.

2. Actors in the microenvironment

3. Five types of customer markets (consumer, business, reseller, government, international)

Consumer markets
Business markets
Reseller markets
Government markets
International markets

4. Major forces in the macro-environment

 5. Demography
Is the study of human populations in terms of size, density, location, age, gender, race,
occupation, and other statistics

6. Economic environment
Economic factors affect consumer purchasing power and spending
Changes in consumer spending
Differences in income distribution

7. Natural environment
Physical environment and natural resources needed as inputs by marketers or affected by
marketing activities.

8. Environmental sustainability
Concerns have grown steadily over the past three decades.
Trends:
Shortages of raw materials
Increased pollution
Increased government intervention

9. Technological environment
New technologies create new markets and opportunities.

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is technology to track products through various

points in the distribution channel.

Government agencies investigate and ban potentially unsafe products.

10. Political environment

Forces that influence or limit various organizations and individuals in a society
Laws, government agencies, and pressure groups.

11. Legislation
Legislation regulating business is intended to protect
companies from each other
consumers from unfair business practices
The interests of society against unrestrained business behavior.

12. Baby boomers, generation X, Y, and Z

The Baby Boomers

Born: 1946-1954
Coming of Age: 1963-1972
Age in 2004: 50-58
Current Population: 33 million
 Generation X
Born: 1966-1976
Coming of Age: 1988-1994
Age in 2004: 28 to 38
Current Population: 41 million

Generation Y, Echo Boomers or Millenniums

Born: 1977-1994
Coming of Age: 1998-2006
Age in 2004: 10 to 22
Current Population: 71 million

Generation Z
Born: 1995-2012
Coming of Age: 2013-2020
Age in 2004: 0-9
Current Population: 23 million and growing rapidly

13. Corporate social responsibility

Is a business approach that contributes to sustainable development by delivering economic,
social and environmental benefits for all stakeholders. CSR is a concept with many definitions
and practices.

14. Cause related marketing

Companies use cause-related marketing to
Exercise their social responsibility
Build more positive images
Primary form of corporate giving
Controversystrategy for selling more rather than a strategy for giving.

15. Cultural environment

Institutions and other forces that affect a societys basic values, perceptions, and behaviors.
Persistence of cultural values
Core beliefs and values have a high degree of persistence.
Secondary beliefs and values are more open to change.
CHAPTER 4

1. Definition and characteristics of a marketing information system (MIS).

Consists of people and procedures to
Assess information needs
Develop the needed information
Help decision makers use the information to generate and validate actionable customer
and market insights.

2. Big Data
Refers to the huge and complex data sets generated by todays sophisticated information
generation, collection, storage, and analysis technologies.

3. Sources of information: internal databases, competitive marketing intelligence, marketing

research.
Internal databases
Are collections of consumer and market information obtained from data sources within
the company network.

Competitive marketing intelligence

Offers insights about consumer opinions and their association with the brand
Provides early warnings of competitor strategies and potential competitive strengths and weaknesses
Helps firms to protect their own information
Raises ethical issues

Marketing research
Systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data relevant to a specific
marketing situation facing an organization.
Approaches followed by firms:
Use own research departments
Hire outside research specialists
Purchase data collected by outside firms

4. The marketing research process (Figure 4.2)

 5. Exploratory, descriptive, and causal research
Exploratory research
Used to gather preliminary information
Helps to define problems and suggest hypotheses
Descriptive research
Used to better describe the market potential for a product or the
demographics and attitudes of consumers
Causal research
Used to test hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships

6. Quantitative vs. qualitative marketing research

Qualitative Research. Qualitative Research is primarily exploratory research. It is used to gain
an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. ... Qualitative data
collection methods vary using unstructured or semi-structured techniques.

7. Components of a research plan.

Should be presented in a written proposal

-Topics covered in a research plan:
Problems and research objectives
Information to be obtained
How results will help decision making
Estimated research costs
Type of data required

8. Secondary data (with examples), advantages and disadvantages

Information that already exists
-Collected for another purpose
Sources:
Companys internal database
Purchased from outside suppliers
Commercial online databases
Internet search engines
 Advantages Disadvantages

Low cost
Potentially Irrelevant

Obtained quickly
Inaccurate

Cannot collect otherwise Dated

Biased

9. Research approaches: observational research, survey research, experimental research.

Observational research
Gathering primary data by observing relevant people,
actions, and situations
Ethnographic research: Sending trained observers to
watch and interact with consumers in their natural
environments
Survey research
Asking people questions about their knowledge,
attitudes, preferences, and buying behavior
Experimental research
Selecting matched groups of subjects, giving them
different treatments, controlling related factors, and
checking for differences in group responses

10. Primary data

Is information that you collect specifically for the purpose of your research project. An
advantage of primary data is that it is specifically tailored to your research needs. A
disadvantage is that it is expensive to obtain.

Ex. Landor researchers visit families, peeking into their refrigerators and diving deeply into
their food shopping behaviors and opinions.
 11. Types of samples

1. Probability samples:
Simple random sample
Stratified random sample
Cluster (area) sample

2. Nonprobability samples:
Convenience sample
Judgment sample
Quota sample

12. Data collection, processing, and analyzing

Data collection
Researchers should guard against various problems.
Techniques and technologies
Data quality
Timeliness

Processing the data

Check for accuracy
Code for analysis

Analyzing the data

Tabulate results
Compute statistical measures

13. Customer relationship management (CRM).

-Managing detailed information about individual customers
-Carefully managing customer touch points to maximize customer loyalty
-Consists of software and analysis tools that
Integrate customer information from all sources
Analyze data in depth
Apply the results

14. Big data and marketing analytics.

Marketing analytics consists of the analysis tools, technologies, and processes by which
marketers dig out meaningful patterns in big data to gain customer insights and gauge
marketing performance.

15. Consumer privacy (definition, issues).

Also known as customer privacy, involves the handling and protection of sensitive personal
information that individuals provide in the course of everyday transactions.
-Failure to address privacy issues results in
Angry, less cooperative consumers
Increased government intervention

-Best approaches for researchers:

Asking only for the information needed
Using the information responsibly to provide customer value
Avoiding sharing the information without the customers permission.
CHAPTER 5

1. Consumer markets
All the individuals and households that buy or acquire goods and services for personal
consumption.

2. Factors influencing consumer behavior (Figure 5.2)

3. Cultural factors

4. Social factors
 5. Personal factors

6. Psychological factors

7. Opinion leaders
Somebody who speaks out and get asked for advice a lot.

8. The five steps of the buyer decision process (Figure 5.4)

9. Stages in the adoption process: awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, adoption.

10. Definition of business markets

Business markets are huge and involve more money and items than consumer markets.
-Differ from consumer markets in terms of
Market structure and demand
Nature of the buying unit
Types of decisions and the decision process

11. Definition of a buying center

All the individuals and units that play a role in the purchase decision-making process.
Actual users of the product or service
People who make the buying decision
People and units influencing the buying decision
People who do the actual buying
 Individuals and units controlling the buying information

12. Eight steps of business buying behavior (Figure 5.8)

13. Straight rebuy, modified rebuy, new task for business buyers.

14. B2B social media marketing.

Must understand business markets and business buyer behavior.

-B-to-B marketers are now using a wide range of digital and social media marketing
approaches.
-Compared with traditional media and sales approaches, digital and social media can create
greater customer engagement and interaction.
CHAPTER 6

1. STDP (Segmentation, Targeting, Differentiation, Positioning) PLEASE GO INTO DETAIL

2. Segmentation variables in detail (geographic, demographic, psychographic, behavioral).

Geographic segmentation: Dividing a market into different geographical units.

-Such as nations, states, regions, counties, cities, or neighborhoods.
Demographic segmentation: Dividing a market into segments based on variables.
-Such as age, life-cycle stage, gender, income, occupation, education, religion, ethnicity, and
generation.
Psychographic segmentation: Marketers segment their markets using variables such as
-Social class
-Lifestyle
-Personality characteristics
The products people buy reflect their lifestyles.
Behavioral segmentation:
Occasion segmentation: Segments divided according to occasions, when the buyers
Get the idea to buy
Make their purchase
Use the purchased item
Benefit segmentation: Segments divided according to the different benefits that consumers
seek from the product.
 3. Requirements for effective segmentation (measurable, accessible, substantial, differentiable,
actionable).

Measurable Accessible Substantial

Differentiable Actionable

4. Marketing targeting strategies (Figure 6.2).

Target market: Set of buyers sharing common needs or characteristics that the company decides to
serve.

5. Positioning maps.
 6. Competitive advantage (what is it, how can it be generated).
An advantage over competitors gained by offering greater customer value either by
Having lower prices, or
Providing more benefits that justify higher prices.

Firms can differentiate in terms of product, services, channels, people, or image.

Choosing the Right Competitive Advantages

7. Possible value propositions (Figure 6.4).

CHAPTER 7

1. Definition of a product / service (market offerings include both tangible goods and services).

A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or
consumption that might satisfy a want or need.

A service is an activity, benefit, or satisfaction offered for sale; it is intangible and does not
result in ownership of anything.

2. Three levels of the product (Figure 7.1)

Core customer value deals with what is bought by the customer. For example, people who buy an
Apple iPad are buying much more than just a tablet computer. They are buying entertainment, self-
expression, productivity, and connectivity with friends and familya mobile and personal window to
the world.
At the second level, product planners must turn the core benefit into an actual product. They need to
develop product and service features, a design, a quality level, a brand name, and packaging. For
example, the iPad is an actual product. Its name, parts, styling, operating system, features,
packaging, and other attributes have all been carefully combined to deliver the core customer value of
staying connected.
Finally, product planners must build an augmented product around the core benefit and actual
product by offering additional consumer services and benefits. For example, when consumers buy an
iPad, Apple and its resellers also might give buyers a warranty on parts and workmanship, quick
repair services when needed, and a Web site to use if they have problems or questions. Apple also
provides access to a huge assortment of apps and accessories.
3. Consumer vs. industrial products
Consumer products are bought by final consumers for personal consumption. Consumer
products include convenience products, shopping products, specialty products, and unsought
products. These products differ in the ways consumers buy them and, therefore, in how they
are marketed.
Industrial products are those products purchased for further processing or for use in
conducting a business. The three groups of industrial products and services are materials and
parts, capital items, and supplies and services.
Materials and parts include raw materials as well as manufactured materials and parts. Raw
materials consist of farm products and natural products. Manufactured materials and parts
consist of component materials and parts.

4. Convenience, shopping, specialty, and unsought products

 5. Individual product and service decisions (Figure 7.2)

Developing a product or service involves defining the benefits that it will offer. The characteristics of
a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied customer needs is known as
product quality, one of the marketers major positioning tools. Total quality management (TQM) is an
approach in which all of the companys people are involved in constantly improving the quality of
products, services, and business processes. A product can be offered with varying features. Another
way to add customer value is through distinctive product style and design.
A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design or a combination of these that identifies the maker
or seller of a product or service. Consumers view a brand as an important part of a product, and
branding can add value to a consumers purchase. Brand names help consumers identify products
that might benefit them. Brands also say something about product quality and consistency.
Packaging involves designing the container or wrapper for a product. Increased competition means
that packages must now perform many sales tasksfrom attracting buyers to communicating brand
positioning to closing the sale.
Labels help to identify and describe the product or brand as well as promote the brand, support its
positioning and engage customers.
The first step in designing product support services is to survey customers periodically. Once the
company has assessed the quality of various support services, it can take steps to fix problems and
add new services that will both delight customers and yield profits to the company.

6. Product lines (definitions and decisions).

A product line is a group of products that are closely related because they function in a similar
manner, are sold to the same customer groups, are marketed through the same types of outlets, or
fall within given price ranges. For example, Nike produces several lines of athletic shoes and apparel.
The major product line decision involves product line length, which is the number of items in the
product line. A company can expand its product line in two ways: line filling and line stretching.
Line filling involves adding more items within the present range of the line. There are several
reasons for product line filling. These reasons include reaching for extra profits, satisfying
dealers, using excess capacity, being the leading full-line company, and plugging holes to
keep out competitors.
Line stretching occurs when a company lengthens its product line beyond its current range.
The company can stretch its line downward, upward, or both ways. A reason for downward
product line stretching is to plug a market hole that would attract a potential competitor. The
reason for upward product line stretching is to add prestige to the current product.

7. Product mix (product portfolio).

An organization with several product lines has a product mix. A product mix (or product
portfolio) consists of all the product lines and items that a particular seller offers for sale.
 For example, The Clorox Company is best known for its CLOROX bleach. But, in fact,
Clorox is a $5.6 billion firm that makes and markets a full product mix consisting of
dozens of familiar lines and brands. Clorox divides its overall product mix into five major
lines: Cleaning, Household, Lifestyle, Professional, and International. Each product line
consists of many brands and items.

8. Width, length, and depth of product lines.

9. Four service characteristics (Figure 7.3) (examples and applications)

Service intangibility means that services cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or
smelled before they are bought. To reduce uncertainty, buyers look for signals of
service quality. They draw conclusions about quality from the place, people, price,
equipment, and communications that they can see.
 Service inseparability means that services cannot be separated from their providers,
whether the providers are people or machines. Customer coproduction makes provider
customer interaction a special feature of services marketing. Both the provider and the
customer affect the service outcome.
Service variability means that the quality of services depends on who provides them
as well as when, where, and how they are provided. For example, within a Marriott
hotel, one registration-counter employee may be cheerful and efficient, whereas another
standing just a few feet away may be grumpy and slow.
Service perishability means that services cannot be stored for later sale or use. Some
doctors charge patients for missed appointments because the service value existed only
at that point and disappeared when the patient did not show up.

10. Brand equity vs. Brand value.

Brands are a key element in a companys relationships with consumers. Brands
represent consumers perceptions and feelings about a product and its performance. A
powerful brand has high brand equity. Brand equity is the differential effect that
knowing the brand name has on customer response to the product and its marketing.

A brand has positive brand equity when consumers react more favorably to it than to a generic
or unbranded version of the same product. It has negative brand equity if consumers react less
favorably than to an unbranded version.

-Consumer perception dimensions:

Differentiation
Relevance
Knowledge
Esteem

A brand with high brand equity is a very valuable asset. Brand value is the total
financial value of a brand. High brand equity provides a company with many competitive
advantages. A powerful brand enjoys a high level of consumer brand awareness and
loyalty.

A powerful brand forms the basis for building strong and profitable customer relationships. The
fundamental asset underlying brand equity is customer equity. This refers to the value of
customer relationships that the brand creates. The proper focus of marketing is building
customer equity, with brand management serving as a major marketing tool.

According to one estimate, the brand value of Google is a whopping $159 billion and Apple is
at $148 billion.

11. National brands (manufacturer brands) vs. store brands (private label brands).
National brands or manufacturers brands are marketed under the manufacturers own name.
The Samsung Galaxy tablet or Kelloggs Frosted Flakes are examples of national brands.
An increasing numbers of retailers and wholesalers have created their own store brands or
private brands To compete with store brands, national brands must sharpen their value
propositions, especially when appealing to todays more frugal consumers.
12. Brand development strategies (Figure 7.6).

Line extensions occur when a company extends existing brand names to new forms, colors,
sizes, ingredients, or flavors of an existing product category. A company might introduce line
extensions as a low-cost, low-risk way to introduce new products. Or it might want to meet
consumer desires for variety, use excess capacity, or command more shelf space from resellers.
A brand extension extends an existing brand name to new or modified products in a new
category. It gives a new product instant recognition and faster acceptance. But an extension may
also confuse the image of the main brand.
Multibranding offers a way to establish different features that appeal to different customer
segments, lock up more reseller shelf space, and capture a larger market share. A major
drawback of multibranding is that each brand might obtain only a small market share, and none
may be very profitable.
A company might believe that the power of its existing brand name is waning, so a new brand
name is needed. Or, it may create a new brand name when it enters a new product category for
which none of its current brand names are appropriate. For example, Toyota created the separate
Lexus brand aimed at luxury car consumers and the Scion brand, targeted toward Millennial
consumers.

13. Licensing.
Use names and symbols created by other companies or well-known movie characters or
celebrities for a fee.
14. Co-branding.
Occurs when two established brand names of different companies are used on the same product.
Because each brand dominates in a different category, the combined brands create broader
consumer appeal and greater brand equity. For example, Taco Bell and Doritos teamed up to
create the Doritos Locos Taco.
CHAPTER 7

1. Crowdsourcing (definition, how does it work).

Inviting broad communities of people into the new product innovation process.

2. Major stages in new product development (Figure 8.1) GO INTO ALL EIGHT STEPS.

IDEA GENERATION
Systematic search for new product ideas
--Internal idea sources:
-Internal social networks
-Intrapreneurial programs
--External idea sources:
-Distributors and suppliers
-Competitors
-Customers
IDEA SCREANING
--Screening new product ideas to spot good ones and drop poor ones as soon as possible
--Ways of screening new ideas:
*New idea write-up reviewed by a committee
*R-W-W frameworkReal, win, worth doing.
CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING
--Developing a new product into alternative product concepts
-Find out how attractive each concept is to customers
-Choose the best one
MARKETING STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
-Initial marketing strategy for a new product
-Three parts of the marketing strategy statement:
--Describes the target market, planned value proposition, sales, market-share, and profit goals

--Determines products planned price, distribution, and marketing budget

--Develops long-run sales, profit goals, and marketing mix strategy.

BUSINESS ANALYSIS
A review of the sales, costs, and profit projections for a new product
-To find out whether these factors satisfy the companys objectives.
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Developing the product concept into a physical product
-To ensure that the product idea can be turned into a workable market offering.
TEST MARKETING
-Alternatives to standard test markets
--Controlled test markets
--Simulated test markets
-Reasons for using alternative test markets
--Reducing the costs
--Speeding up the process
COMMERCIALIZATION
-Introducing a new product into the market
-Considerations for launching a new product
*When to launch
*Where to launch
-Single location, region, national market, or international market.
3. Product Life Cycle (PLC).

4. Style, fashion, and fad.

5. Stages of the PLC and their characteristics (Table 8.2)

6. Product decisions and social responsibility.

Considerations for companies

Public policy issues.
Regulations regarding acquiring or dropping products.
Patent protection.
Product quality and safety.
Product warranties.