Time is one of the costs customers pay, on the other hand, all the others are among the benefits they get.

While exploratory research aims to  provide insights about the nature of marketing problem or issue at hand, conclusive research proposes to test specific hypothesis and relationships.

Research process is flexible, unstructured and progressive in exploratory research, whereas research process is structured and formal in conclusive research.

While exploratory research employs  qualitative interviews, conclusive research uses surveys.

Thus, the correct answer is B

Marketing intermediaries are firms that help companies to promote, sell and distribute their products to final customers. Marketing intermediaries are also an essential component of company’s overall value delivery system like suppliers. Without marketing intermediaries, many companies cannot satisfy customers’ needs and wants properly.

Today, consumers are becoming more powerful against companies and for conscious consumers just good products and services are not enough to give a purchase decision. Consumer organizations, environmental groups, minority groups and other pressure groups generally question the marketing activities of companies in terms of the impact on the society’s welfare. (i.e. Greenpeace lobbies to improve natural life.) Public relation departments can help companies stay in touch with consumer and citizen action groups. Otherwise, the company may face protests and even boycotts. This represents citizen action publics

Strategic Marketing Plan comprises 5 actions to be taken as follows;

1. Performing a situational (SWOT) analysis
2. Setting marketing goals and objectives
3. Establishing positioning ve differentation advantage
4. Selecting the target market and measure the market demand
5. Formulating marketing mix

A company’s total promotion mix—also called its marketing communications mix—consists of specific blend of advertising, public relations, personal selling, sales promotion, and direct marketing tools that company uses to engage consumers, persuasively communicate customer value, and build customer relationships. Therefore, the right answer is C.

Data consists of numbers, records, symbols, and the like about facts.

In separate organizational unit, company sets a separate organizational unit which is responsible for disseminating relevant information to managers. A dedicated team concentrating its efforts on environmental scanning is the advantage of separate organizational units, but it is very costly for small and/or not- for-profit organizations.

That 'marketing is an exchange process' is one of the important points about marketing.

Alpha Generation is the newest generation. Alpha Generation is defined as the generation born after 2010. The right answer is A.

The company's macroenvironment involves demographic, cultural, natural, technological, legal and political, economic.

While a mission states the fundamental reason of existence of a business, vision reflects the businesses’ future. The right answer is C.

There is no such a thing as illusionist experience. Therefore the answer is D.

While evaluating environmental forces, we may consider the SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis is a technique that takes the findings of marketing audit and categorizes key points as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities or threats. In this analysis, whilst strengths and weaknesses stem from internally controlled factors, opportunities and threats are arisen from external factors.

Market-oriented companies give customers the highest priority while conducting business. Every department and employee should focus on contributing to the satisfaction of customers’ needs.

Business portfolio is the collection of businesses and products that make up the company.

Another important source of information of marketing information system is marketing research conducted by companies. Unlike internally generated information or market intelligence, marketing research collects information only
through projects or studies that are designed and carried out in order to respond to a specific marketing situations and decisions. For example, a smart phone manufacturer could acquire market intelligence about the size of the market in Turkey, key competitors and their brands in the market, market shares of these brands from various external sources. However, the manufacturer would need to
conduct marketing research in order to understand the profile of the target market or assess the smart phone users’ expectations from new models, things that they like/dislike in other models. These kinds of information normally cannot be obtained neither from internal sources nor through market intelligence.

Marketing environment is composed of actors and forces that affect the company’s ability to serve its customers successfully and create superior value for them.