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Product mixes are typically measured by depth and width of assortment.  Depth refers to the number of different product lines that a firm offers while width refers to the variety within each product line.

The starting point for any product-planning effort is to assess the firm’s current product mix, looking for gaps in the assortment that can be filled by new products or modified versions of its existing products.

By spreading the costs of its operations over a series of products, a firm may reduce the average production and marketing costs of each product.

Coleman Company’s offering of a product line of camping products, including everything from ice chests to trailers, exemplifies its belief that these products are highly related in consumers’ minds.

The product life cycle consists of four stages (introduction, growth, maturity, and decline) that astute marketers have no difficulty identifying for both entire product categories and their individual product offerings.

Electronic books represent a new technology in the introductory stage of the product life cycle.  Because of this, electronic book producers might have to incur financial losses until the product reaches the growth stage of the cycle and begins to gain wider acceptance by the public.

The emergence of new innovations or shifting consumer preferences can help push industry sales into the maturity stage of the product life cycle.

An “instant bust” is a new product that fails relatively quickly.  Its life can be modelled using the four stages of the product life cycle; each of these stages would be graphed as being very brief.

Marketers can increase purchase frequency and use by persuading customers to try a product year round, rather than on a seasonal basis.

Surveys indicate that of every 58 new product ideas that firms come up with, only three are commercially successful.

According to the text, the most important characteristic of a superior product is that it offers features or attributes that competing products do not.

When used as part of an overall new product development strategy, product improvement involves improving the quality of existing products, rather than modifying them, to increase sales.

A product diversification strategy focuses on developing new products for a firm’s existing markets.

The creation of a venture team by the 3M Corporation to investigate a new line of adhesive products would involve gathering together a group of specialists from different areas of the organization on an ongoing basis to perform the task of new product development.

A working prototype of a new product must be available for examination by members of focus groups for concept testing to be valid.

A major weakness of test marketing is the communication of new product plans to competing firms.

In the awareness phase of the consumer adoption process, consumers make a trial purchase of an item to determine its usefulness.

Marketers attempt to place purchasers into categories in the diffusion process depending upon their relative time of adoption.  Since the categories are based upon a normal distribution, standard deviations are used to partition them.

Product deletion decisions should be based on periodic reviews of all of the products a firm offers.  During such reviews, an organization might decide to retain a product that is unprofitable in order to complete its product line.

The Hazardous Product Act, passed in 1969, sets standards for product safety in Canada and has prompted companies to voluntarily improve safety standards for their products.

A product mix is comprised of

Domino’s Pizza introduced buffalo wings into its menu in the early 1990s. At that time, company executives were concerned that the product would take sales from its pizza offerings.  Executives were concerned about the concept termed

Individual offerings that appeal to different market segments but are closely related to the existing product line are called

When Coca-Cola introduces new flavours and sizes of Coke, it is applying a ________________ strategy.

The product life cycle is a useful tool for managers because it

The stage of the product life cycle in which sales volume rises rapidly, and word of mouth and mass advertising induce hesitant buyers to make trial purchases is

In the maturity stage of the product life cycle, profits level off or decline slightly due to

The miniskirt is an example of

Product life cycles can be extended even though no new customers enter the market if marketers

Tide laundry detergent, with more than 50 modifications of packaging, cleaning performance, sudsing characteristics, aesthetics, and physical properties, is an example of

According to recent surveys, of all the new products introduced, about ____ percent are truly new products and ____ percent are line extensions.

Which of the following is the least likely cause of a product’s failure in the marketplace?

The development of the CD-ROM is an example of

When organizing for new product development, specialists from different areas of the organization who are pulled together as needed to develop new products are generally called

Conducting research to determine unmet needs and wants of consumers would be useful for which part of the new product development process?

Selecting one to three cities considered reasonably typical of the total marketing campaign and introducing a new product to these areas prior to a national launch is called

The stage in the adoption process reached when an individual learns about a new product but lacks information about it is called

Kate Hunter is often an opinion leader. She is younger and better educated and has a higher income and social status than other consumers.  In the consumer adoption process, she is most likely

A new product innovation that seems to be far superior to previous products in the same category hastens its adoption by offering its potential users a greater level of

A new product innovation that has a low level of complexity