ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD admission and fellowship) · India · National Testing Agency for ICAR
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersGeneral marketing theory, from segmentation and the marketing mix to pricing, channels and communication, applied to food and agricultural products.
In the exams: agribusiness management PhD entrance and fellowship examinations, marketing (heavy); agricultural scientist eligibility tests (present)
ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD), Agri-Business Management Unit 4 (marketing and international marketing of agri-products)
Heavy unit. Definitions and classifications (marketing concepts, product levels and classes, buy classes, buying-centre roles, adopter categories, channel levels and middlemen), frameworks (STP, PLC and its variants, BCG and Ansoff, gaps model and SERVQUAL, Aaker and Keller brand equity, VMS types, power bases), pricing methods and strategies, IMC and budget methods, MkIS components and demand forecasting, and short numericals on break-even, markups, channel margins, price spread and efficiency indices.
How our questions for ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF spread across the units of Marketing Management. Difficulty: 37 easy, 77 medium, 35 hard.
| Pricing objectives, methods and strategies | 16 | |
| Product classification, product life cycle and new product development | 13 | |
| Channels and middlemen | 11 | |
| Marketing communications and IMC | 11 | |
| Marketing environment | 10 | |
| Segmentation, targeting and positioning | 10 | |
| The marketing mix | 10 | |
| Branding, packaging and labelling | 10 | |
| Marketing costs and margins | 10 | |
| Demand forecasting | 10 | |
| Marketing philosophies | 9 | |
| Customer relationship management | 8 | |
| Marketing information systems | 8 | |
| E-marketing | 7 | |
| Cause-related marketing | 6 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
A food processor re-orders the same grade of edible oil from its approved supplier every month without review. In the buy-class framework this is a:
B. Straight rebuy
A routine reorder from an approved supplier is a straight rebuy. A modified rebuy changes specifications, price or supplier; a new task buys something for the first time.
Further reading: Robinson, Faris and Wind, Industrial Buying and Creative Marketing, 1967
In positioning, associations that a brand must share with competitors to be considered a legitimate member of the category are called:
A. Points of parity
Points of parity are necessary but not unique; points of difference are the attributes customers associate strongly with the brand and believe they cannot find to the same extent elsewhere.
Further reading: Kotler and Keller, Marketing Management
Which set gives the five SERVQUAL dimensions?
A. Reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, responsiveness
Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry reduced service quality to five dimensions, remembered as RATER. The other lists are invented or mix unrelated concepts.
Further reading: Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, Journal of Retailing, 1988
A seed company that already sells maize hybrids adds three more maize hybrids. In product-mix terms it has increased the mix's:
A. Depth and length
Adding variants within an existing line deepens it and adds to the total number of items (length). Width would rise only if a new product line, such as fertilisers, were added.
Further reading: Kotler and Keller, Marketing Management
A company sells three competing brands of cooking oil in the same category. This strategy is:
D. Multibranding
Multibranding introduces additional brands in the same category to occupy several positions, at the risk of each earning a small share.
Further reading: Kotler and Keller, Marketing Management
A feed mill has fixed costs of 900,000 a year, sells feed at 60 per bag and has a variable cost of 42 per bag. What is its break-even volume?
C. 50,000 bags
Break-even volume = fixed cost / (price - unit variable cost) = 900,000 / (60 - 42) = 900,000 / 18 = 50,000 bags. Dividing by the price alone (15,000) ignores variable cost; dividing by the variable cost (21,429) uses the wrong denominator. Dividing by price plus variable cost (102) gives 8,824.
Further reading: Kotler and Keller, Marketing Management
A farm radio programme costs 150,000 for a slot reaching an audience of 500,000 listeners. What is the cost per thousand (CPM)?
C. 300
CPM = cost / audience x 1,000 = 150,000 / 500,000 x 1,000 = 300. 0.30 is the cost per single listener; 3,333 inverts the ratio. 3,000 multiplies by 10,000 instead of 1,000.
Further reading: Kotler and Keller, Marketing Management
Market share in kilograms sold is measured on which level of scale?
D. Ratio scale
Quantities sold have a true zero and equal intervals, so they are on a ratio scale. Interval scales lack a true zero; ordinal scales only rank.
Further reading: Kotler and Keller, Marketing Management
The Delphi method of forecasting relies on:
A. Anonymous rounds of expert opinion with controlled feedback
Delphi collects expert forecasts anonymously over several rounds, feeding back the group's views between rounds to move toward consensus.
Further reading: Kotler and Keller, Marketing Management
An agri-input website receives 40,000 visits from a campaign costing 150,000; 2.5 per cent of visits convert into orders. What is the cost per acquisition?
D. 150
Orders = 40,000 x 0.025 = 1,000. CPA = spend / customers acquired = 150,000 / 1,000 = 150. 3.75 is the cost per visit; 6,000 divides by 25 instead of 1,000. 15 converts 25 per cent of visits instead of 2.5 per cent.
Further reading: Kotler and Keller, Marketing Management
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