Question

NCERT Solutions Class 12, Business Studies, Chapter- 10, Marketing

The NCERT Solutions for Class 12 Business Studies provide a comprehensive and structured approach to understanding the subject. Developed by experts, these solutions offer a detailed examination of essential concepts from each chapter. Tailored to match the current CBSE syllabus, they are designed to improve your grasp of the material and increase your exam preparedness.

In these NCERT Solutions for Class 12 Business Studies, we have discussed all types of NCERT intext questions and exercise questions.

Concepts covered in Class 12 Business Studies chapter- 10 Marketing, are :

• Marketing
• Marketing Management
• Channels of Distribution
• Consumer Product
• Convenience Product
• Public Relations
• Trade Mark
• Marketing Mix
• Physical Distribution
• Sales Promotion
• Shopping Product
• Brand
• Labelling
• Advertising
• Publicity
• Promotion Mix
• Personal Selling

The NCERT Solutions for Class 12 Business Studies are an essential tool for students striving to excel in their business studies. They offer clear explanations, practice questions, and simple examples to clarify challenging business concepts. By utilizing these solutions, students can achieve a thorough grasp of business principles and improve their exam performance, setting the stage for academic success.

You can now easily access all the solutions and practice questions to begin your preparation.

Answer 1

NCERT Solutions Class 12, Business Studies, Chapter- 10, Marketing

Very Short Answer Type

1. State any two advantages of branding to marketers of goods and services?

Solution:

Branding is an important function performed by a marketer. He/she has to decide to lether the firm’s products will be marketed under a brand name or generic name.

It has following advantages to the marketers:

(i) Enables firm to differentiation product.
(ii) Facilitates advertising and display programmes.
(iii) Differential pricing.
(iv) Ease in introduction of new products.

2. How does branding help in differential pricing?

Solution:

Good branding helps in creating loyalty and habituality for product among the customers. As a result, the firm can take advantage of this and charge a different price (generally a higher price) for its product accordingly.

3. What is the societal concept of marketing?

Solution:

The societal concept is the new concept of marketing that aims at satisfying customer needs by taking proper care of society and the environment. According to this concept customer satisfaction must be within the ethical and ecological aspects of society.

Societal marketing should consider the following things:

• The consumer needs are most important
• Genuine modern and continuous development should be introduced in the product so as to increase its life and value
• The emphasis should be on building long-term customer relationships and not on doing business
• An organisation should market the product keeping in mind the consumer organisational and societal long-term needs and welfare

4. Enlist the advantages of packaging of consumer products.

Solution:

The advantages of packaging of consumer products are:

• Rising Standards of Health and Sanitation have led to buying of packaged products, considering it is free from adulteration.
• Packaging has led to new innovations, such as milk can now be stored for days through tetra packs.
• Customers might often get attracted to your packaging even if they don’t like your product in comparison to your competitors. This is mostly used in beauty brands.
• It helps you to differentiate your product from the competitors.

5. List five shopping products purchased by you or your family during the last few months.

Solution:

(i) Curtains,
(ii) Shirts,
(iii) Cosmetics,
(iv) Travelling bags,
(v) Hand bags.

6. A marketer of colour TV having 20% of the current market share of the country aims at enhancing the market share to 50 per cent in next three years. For achieving this objective he specified an action programme. Name the function of marketing being discussed above. (Ans. Marketing planning.)

Solution:

The function of marketing being discussed here is marketing planning.

Short Answer Type

1. What is marketing? What functions does it perform in the process of exchange of goods and services? Explain.

Solution:

According to philip Kotter, Marketing is a social process by which individual groups obtain what they need and want through creating offerings and freely exchange products and services of value with other.

Functions of marketing activities are as follows:

(i) Gathering and Analysing Market Information: To identify the needs of the customers, collection of market information is necessary. To gather market information the marketer makes a SWOT analysis.

(ii) Marketing Planning: Another important activity or area of work of a marketer is to develop appropriate marketing plans, so that the marketing objective of the
organisation can be achieved.

(iii) Product Designing and Development: The design of the product contributes to make the product attractive to the target customers. A good design can improve performance of a product and also give it a competitive advantage in the market.

(iv) Standardisation and Grading: Standardi-sation refers to producing goods of pre-determined specification which helps in achieving uniformity and consistency in the output which reduces the need for inspection, testing and evaluation of the products.
Grading is the process of classification of products into different groups, on the basis of its features such as quality, size etc. It ensures that goods belong to a particular quality helps in realising higher prices for high quality output.

(v) Packaging and Labelling: Packaging refers to designing the package for the products. Labelling refers to designing the label to be put on the package. Packaging provides protection to the product and also helps in its promotion. Labelling helps in self service.

(vi) Branding: It is the process of providing name to product so that it can be easily distinguished from other products available in the market.

(vii) Customer Support Service: Marketing management is related to developing customer support service such as after sales services, handling customer complaints. This aims at providing customer satisfaction which is a key to marketing success.

(viii) Pricing of Product: Price is an important factor affecting the success or failure of a product in the market. The marketers have to analyse the factors that determine the price of a product properly.

(ix) Promotion: Promotion of products and services involves informing the customers about the firm’s product, its features etc. and persuading them to purchase these products. It includes four methods advertising, sales promotion, personal selling and publicity.

(x) Physical Distribution: The important decisions are as under physical distribution include managing inventory, storage, warehousing and transportation of goods from one place to the other.

(xi) Transportation: Transportation involves physical movement of goods from one place to another. A marketer has to perform this function very efficiently keeping in mind the nature of product, cost, location of target market, etc.

(xii) Storage or Warehousing: In order to maintain smooth flow of products in the market, there is a need for proper storage of the products. Further, there is a need for storage of adequate stock of goods to protect against unavoidable delays in delivery or to meet out contingencies in the demand.

2. Distinguish between the product concept and production concept of marketing.

Solution:

Difference between Product and Production Concept:

Basis	Product Concept	Production Concept
Main focus	Product concept focuses on quality of the product.	Production concept focuses on quantity of the product.
Means	It can be achieved through continuous improvement in the quality	It is achieved through increased production leading to lower costs.
Objective	Its main objective is to maximise the profit through quality improvement.	Its objective is to maximise the profit through increased production.

3. Product is a bundle of utilities. Explain.

Solution:

A product is said to be a bundle of utilities because its main objective is to fulfill the needs and wants of the customer. It aims at becoming useful to the consumer to the extent that it becomes an integral part of their lives. For example, Toothpaste, every one of us uses toothpaste every day and can’t even live without it. It fulfills our need of keeping our mouths fresh and gum free. Now, apart from serving basic needs, brands also focus on giving something unique to their customers, a feature or a quality or at a price range that is unique from its competitors. This acts as an additional benefit to the consumers of the product. Since, a product delivers multiple utilizations and satisfies various needs and wants of the consumer, it can be said that it is a  bundle of utilities.

Answer 2

4. What are industrial products? How are they different from consumer products? Explain.

Solution:

Industrial products are those products, which are used as inputs in producing other products. Examples of such products are raw materials, engines, lubricants, machines, tools, etc. In other words, industrial products are meant for non-personal and business use for producing other products.

They are different from consumer products in the following ways:

• Consumer products have an advantage over industrial products with respect to the consumption power of the users.

• Consumer products go through a long process of production till distribution until it reaches the consumers whereas industrial products mainly require direct or personal selling.

• Industrial products are not available to the general public easily but consumer products are conveniently available.

• Industrial products undergo a lot of technicalities in their manufacturing process whereas consumers product don’t.

5. Distinguish between convenience product and shopping product.

Solution:

Difference between Convenience and Shopping Product:

Basis of Difference	Convenience Product	Shopping Product
Demand	Convenience products have a constant and regular demand.	Shopping products have a comparatively less frequent demand.
Nature of Products	Essential commodities come under the category of convenience goods.	Generally, such goods are durable in nature
Unit of Purchase and Price	These products are available in small units and have low unit price. Thereby, such products have low profit margin.	These products usually come in bigger units and have high unit prices. Thereby, the profit margin is also high.
Nature of Purchase	Such products are brought impulsively without devoting much time and effort. Example: Ice-creams, medicines, newspaper, stationary items.	Such products are not brought impulsively and the consumer devotes considerable time and effort to compare the price, quality, etc. of the product. Example Jewellery, furniture, clothes, etc.

6. Describe the functions of labeling in the marketing of products.

Solution:

The functions of labeling in the marketing of products are as follows:

Describe the Product and specify its contents- One of the most important functions of labels is to describe the product, its usage, cautions in use, etc., and specify its contents. For example:Packages of fast food products like ready-to-eat Dosa, Idli, or Noodles, describe the procedure of cooking these products.

Identification of the Product or brand- It helps in identifying the product or brand. For example, the brand name of any product, say Biscuits or Potato Chips imprinted on its package helps us to identify, from the number of packages, which one is our favourite brand.

Grading of Products- It helps in grading the products into different categories. Sometimes marketers assign different grades to indicate different features or quality of the product. For example, a popular brand of Hair Conditioners comes in different categories for different hair.

Helps in Promotion of Products- It aids in the promotion of the products. For example the pack of a popular Amla Hair Oil states, ‘Baalon mein Dum, Life mein Fun’.

Providing Information Required by Law- Another important function of labeling is to provide information required by law. For example, packaged food articles must have a list of ingredients declaration regarding vegetarian or non-vegetarian food additives and the date of manufacturing or packing on the label.

7. Discuss the role of intermediaries in the distribution of consumer non-durable products.

Solution:

The role of intermediaries in the distribution of consumer non-durable products are:

• Arrangement- The foremost role of an intermediary is to sort the supplies on the basis of their usage and functions.

• Collection- An intermediary has to keep a good collection of goods and services for easy and continuous supply.

• Allocation and Packaging- Here, the product and its supplements into smaller units.

• Building variety- Variety can be built by maintaining a collection. Intermediary can gather different products from different sources and sell them in combination as well, to build variety.

• Promotion of product- Intermediaries can help in the promotion of products.

• Meditation- He/she helps satisfy the needs of both parties by negotiating the price, quantity, quality, etc.

• Bearing Risk- Intermediaries bear the risk of keeping the goods with them until the final sale of the products. In between sale, demand, expiry, etc. of the products has to be dealt with by the intermediaries.

8. Define advertising? What are its main features? Explain.

Solution:

Advertising is defined as the impersonal method of promotion which is paid by the marketer to promote some goods or services. It is commonly use as the promotional tool of the company. The important features of advertising are as follows:

(i) Paid Form: Advertising is a paid form of communication which means the sponsor has to bear the cost of communication with the prospective buyers.

(ii) Impersonality: There is no direct face to face contact between the prospect and advertiser. It is therefore, referred as the impersonal method of promotion.

(iii) Identified Sponsor: Advertising is undertaken by some identified individual or company, who makes the advertising efforts and also bears the cost of it.

9. Discuss the role of ‘sales promotion’ as an element of promotion mix.

Solution:

Sales promotion is one of the most widely accepted and flourishing forms of promotion. It is concerned with the most important element in a purchase, the price of the product. Sales promotion is used to provide incentives to consumers. These include discounts, buy one get one free offer, gifts, hampers, etc. Any additional benefit provided to the consumers in terms of the promotion of the product is called sales promotion. It is an element of the promotion mix since its focus is on providing monetary benefits to consumers.

10. As the marketing manager of a big hotel located at an important tourist destination, what societal concerns would be faced by you and what steps would you plan to take care of these concerns? Discuss.

Solution:

As the marketing manager of a big hotel located at an important tourist destination, my societal concerns include ensuring that the environment, important tourist spots, and tourists visiting the place do not get impacted or harmed by the activities of the hotel. Also, I would focus on maintaining fair pricing for tourists.

11. What information is generally placed on the package of a food product? Design a label for one of the food products of your choice.

Solution:

The following information is generally placed on the package of a food product:

• Production Company
• Manufacturer or Manufacturing Company’s name
• Location of manufacture
• Date of expiry
• Date of manufacturing
• Price of the product(MRP)
• Contents present
• Precautions, if any

Answer 3

12. For buyers of consumer durable products, what ‘customer care services’ would you plan as a manager of a firm marketing new brand of motorcycle. Discuss.

Solution:

As a manager of a firm marketing new brand of motorcycle, I would provide the following customer care services:

• I would provide free timely service for a few years.
• Ensuring that all the spare parts are made available to the consumers
• Giving one free accessory to the consumers
• Laying down a wide variety of accessory choices
• Taking genuine feedback and working on it
• Listening to complaints and rectifying them. 

Long Answer Type

1. What is marketing concept? How does it help in the effective marketing of goods and services.

Solution:

Orientation of marketing implies that focus on the satisfaction of customers need, is the key to the success of any organisation in the market. All the decisions in the firm are taken from the point of view of the customers, e.g., What product will be produced, with what features and at what price shall it be sold or where shall it be made available for sale will depend on what do the customer want.

Marketing concept helps in effective marketing of goods and services by using the following:

(i) Identification of market or customer who are chosen as the target.
(ii) Understanding needs and wants of customers in the target market.
(iii) Dev elopment of products or services for satisfying needs of the target market.
(iv) Satisfying needs of target market better than the competitors.
(v) Doing all this at a profit.

2. What is marketing mix? What are its main elements? Explain.

Solution:

Marketing mix refers to the combination of four basic elements known as four P’s— Product, Price, Promotion and Place.

(i) Product Mix: Product mix basically concerned with the features related to a product e.g., range, quality, size, labelling, packaging, branding etc. All products must satisfy consumer needs and expectations. It aims at providing good quality products at fair prices.

(ii) Price Mix: It includes decisions relating to price determination, discounts and allowances, credit terms. It covers pricing objectives and pricing policies. Price should cover not only cost of production and selling expenses but also a reasonable profit margin. The price policy adopted by the enterprise should not only be cost based but also demand based and competition based.

(iii) Place Mix: Place mix links the seller and buyer. The choice of channels of distribution and transport are the two major issues here. There are various factors which help in deciding the channel e.g., the time and the place, where the goods have to reach or transportation.
It is the nature of goods, place of destination, cost and availability etc.

(iv) Promotion Mix: It refers to all marketing activities to increase the volume of sales of the product of an enterprise. It consists of means of marketing communication with a view to informing and persuading the prospective buyers to buy a certain product. It includes advertising, personal selling, publicity and sales promotion.

3. How does branding help in creating product differentiation? Does it help in marketing of goods and services? Explain.

Solution:

Branding gives an identity to the brand and the product. It associates a name, colors, brand representation, logo, etc. all the elements that come under branding. These elements of branding help in creating product differentiation. The entire process of branding helps in creating product differentiation. Brand, brand name, trademark, brand mark, etc. all contribute towards defining a brand in a unique manner and presenting it as a separate entity. It helps in marketing of goods and services in the following manner:

(i) It helps in identifying and distinguishing their products from the competitors’ products.

(ii) It gives an identity to your brand or your product and often the features of branding become so famous that the brand becomes recognizable through them. For example, Coca-Cola is easily identifiable by a combination of red and black. So, anyone who sees a combination of this color can immediately think of Coca-Cola.

4. What are the factors affecting determination of the price of a product or service? Explain.

Solution:

There are number of factors which affect the fixation of the price of a product.

Some of the important factors in this regard are discussed as below:

(i) Product Cost: The cost sets the minimum level or the floor price at which the product may be sold. There are broadly three types of cost—fixed costs, variable costs and semi variable cost. Total cost is the sum of all three. Generally, all firms try to cover all their costs, atleast in the long run. In addition, they aim at earning a margin of profit over and above the costs.

(ii) The Utility and Demand: The utility provided by the product and the intensity of demand of the buyer sets the upper limit of price, which a buyer would be prepared to pay. Infact the price must reflect the interest of both the parties to the transaction — the buyer and the seller. The buyer may be ready to pay up to the point, where the utility from the product is atleast equal to the sacrifice made in terms of the price paid. The seller would, however, try to cover the costs. According to the law of demand, consumers generally purchase more units at a low price than at a high price.

(iii) The Extent of Competition in the Market: The price is also affected by the nature and degree of competition. The price will tend to reach the upper limit in case there is less degree of competition while under free competition, the price will tend to be set at the lowest level.

(iv) Government and Legal Regulations: In order to protect the interest of public against unfair practices in the field of price fixing, government can intervene and regulate the price of commodities, government can declare a product as essential product and regulate its price.

(v) Pricing Objectives: Pricing objectives are another important factor affecting the fixation of the price of a product or a service. Apart from price maximisation, the pricing objectives of a firm may include.

(a) Obtaining Market Share Leadership: If a firm objective is to obtain larger share of the market, it will keep the price of its products at lower level, so that greater number of people are attracted to purchase their products.

(b) Surviving in a Competitive Market: If a firm is facing difficulties surviving in the market because of intense competition or introduction of a more efficient substitute by a competitor.

(c) Attaining Product Quality Leadership: In this case, normally higher prices are charged to cover high quality and high cost of R & D (Research and Development).

(vi) Marketing Methods used Price Fixation: Price is also affected by other elements of marketing such as distribution system, quality of salesmen employed, quality and amount of advertising, sales promotion efforts, the type of packaging, product differentiation, credit facility and customer service provided.

Answer 4

5. Explain the major activities involved in the physical distribution of products.

Solution:

Physical distribution covers all the activities required to move goods physically from manufacturer to the customers. Important activities involved in the physical distribution include transportation, warehousing, material handling and inventory control.

(i) Order Processing: In a typical buyer-seller relationship, order placement is the first step. Products move from the manufacturers to customers via channel members while orders move from customers to manufacturers. Therefore, a good speedy and accurate system of order processing becomes a necessity.

(ii) Transportation: Transportation is the means of carrying goods and raw materials from the point of production to the point of sale. It is one of the major elements in the physical distribution of goods. It is important unless the good are physically made available, the sale can not be completed.

(iii) Warehousing: Warehousing refers to the act of storing and assorting products in order to create time utility in them. The basic purpose of warehousing activities is to arrange placement of goods and provide facilities to store them. The need for warehousing arises because there may be difference between the time, a product is produced and the time it is required for consumption. Generally, the efficiency of a firm in serving its customers will depend on, where these warehouses are located and where are these to be delivered.

(iv) Inventory Control: A very important decision in respect of inventory is to decide the level of inventory. Higher the level of inventory, higher will be the level of service to customers but the cost of carrying the inventory will also be high because lot of capital would be tied up in the stock. The decision regarding level of inventory involves prediction about the demand for the product. A correct estimate of the demand helps to hold inventory and cost level down to a minimum.

The major factors determining inventory levels are:

(a) Firm’s policy regarding the level of customer service. Higher the level of service, greater will be the need to keep more inventories.

(b) Scope of accuracy of the sales forecast. In case, more accurate estimates are available, the need for keeping very high level of inventory can be minimised.

(c) Responsiveness of the distribution system i.e., ability of the system to transmit inventory needs back to the factory and get products to the market.

(d) Cost of inventory, which includes holding cost, such as cost of warehousing, tied up capital etc. and the manufacturing cost.

6. ‘Expenditure on advertising is a social waste.’ Do you agree? Discuss.

Solution:

The opponents of advertising say that the expenditure on advertising is a social waste as it adds to the cost, multiplies the needs of the people and undermines social values. The proponents, however argue that the advertising is very useful as it increases the reach, brings the per unit cost of production down and adds to the growth of the economy.
Following are the points of criticism:

(i) Adds to Cost: The opponents of advertising argue that advertising unnecessarily adds to the cost of product, which is ultimately passed on to the buyers in the form of high prices of the product. It is line that advertisement of a product cost lots of money but it helps to increase the demand for the product as large number of potential buyers come to know about the availability of the products, its features etc., and are persuaded to buy it. This increases the demand and therefore the production. As a result, the per unit cost of production comes down as the total cost is divided by larger number of units.

(ii) Undermines Social Values: Advertising undermines social values and promotes materialism. It breeds discontentment among people as they come to know about new products and feel dissatisfied with their present state of affairs. Advertisement in fact helps buyer by informing them about the new products which may be improvement over the existing products.

(iii) Confuse the Buyers: Another criticism against advertisements is that so many products are being advertised which make similar claims that the buyer gets confused as to which one is true and or which to be relied upon, e.g., there are so many brands of soaps, shampoos, cars, TVs, cell phones etc. which are advertised. The supporters of advertisement, however argued that we are all rational human beings who make our decisions for purchase of products on factors, such as price, style, size, etc. Thus the buyers can clear their confusion by analysing the information provided on the advertisements and other sources before taking a decision to purchase a product.

(iv) Encourages Sale of Inferior Product: Advertising does not distinguish between superior and inferior products and persuade people to purchase even the inferiors products. The desired level of quality will depend on the economic states and preferences of the target customers. Advertisements sell products of a given quality and the buyers will buy, if it suits their requirements.

(v) Some Advertisements are in Bad Taste: Another criticism against advertising is that some advertisements are in bad taste. They show something which is not approved by some people. Some advertisements spoil the relationship between employer and employee, husband and wife etc.
From the above discussion, we have learnt that though advertisements are crticised but still they have their own advantages. It is not a social waste, rather it adds value to the social cause by giving a boost to production and generating employment.

7. Distinguish between advertising and personal selling.

Solution:

Difference between Advertising and Personal Selling

Basis	Advertising	Personal Selling
Nature	Advertising is indirect and impersonal in nature.	Personal selling is direct or face to face communication in nature.
Coverage	It is a means of mass level of coverage.	Only limited number of people can be contacted at a time.
Medium	It involves use of oral, written+visual messages.	It is dependent on oral messages.
Cost	It is economical method.	It is costly.
Feedback	It lacks direct feedback.	It facilitates direct, immediate feedback.
Suitability	It is suitable for all types of products.	It is more suitable for product in the introductory stages of product life cycle.

8. Explain the factors determining the choice of channel of distribution.

Solution:

The decision of choosing channels of distribution depend on various factors, which are discussed as follows:

(i) Product Related Factors: The choice of channels of distribution depends upon the factors related to product. It includes whether the‘ product is an industrial product or a consumer product, perishable or non perishable. Industrial products require shorter channel and consumer products require longer channel.

(ii) Company Characteristics: The important company characteristics affecting the choice of channels of distribution include the financial strength of the company and the degree of control it wants to hold on other channel member. Direct selling involves lot of foods to be invested in fixed assets say starting own retail outlets or engaging large number of sales force. Similarly, if the management wants to have greater control on the channel number, short channels are used but if the management do not want more control over the middlemen, it can go in for longer channel or large number of intermediaries.

(iii) Competitive Factors: The choice of channel is also affected by what the competitor has selected as its channel. Sometimes, firm may decide to go for the same channel and sometimes absolutely opposite.

(iv) Market Factors: Important market factors affecting the choice of channel of distribution include size of market, geographical concentration of potential buyers and quantity purchased.

(v) Environmental Factors: Sometimes environmental factors also help in deciding the channel of distribution, e.g., in a depressed economy, marketers use shorter channels to distribute their goods in an economical way.