Skip to content
Study Hall
← BMI3C Marketing

BMI3C · Exam review

Marketing Exam Review

A practice exam with questions from all 4 units, then the key facts from every lesson, unit by unit. For a deeper look at one unit, open its test review.

Unit test reviews

  1. Unit 1. Introduction to Marketing~30%
  2. Unit 2. The Marketing Mix~30%
  3. Unit 3. Trends in Marketing~15%
  4. Unit 4. The Marketing Plan~25%

Practice exam

32 questions, the same number from each unit. Each one shows the lesson it comes from.

  1. Unit 1: What Is Marketing?
    1
    Which statement best reflects the marketing concept?
  2. Unit 1: Marketing and the Economy: Utility, Supply and Demand
    2
    Match each example to the economic utility it creates.
    A bakery turns flour, eggs and butter into croissants
    A hardware store stocks snow shovels before the first storm
    A grocery chain delivers to a rural address
    A dealership offers a monthly lease
    A label explains how to cook the product
  3. Unit 1: Consumer Behaviour
    3
    A shopper weights price at 40%, quality at 40%, and style at 20%. A pair of boots scores 7 for price, 9 for quality, and 5 for style (each out of 10). What is the boots' weighted score out of 10?
  4. Unit 1: Customer Relationships, Loyalty and Service
    4
    On an NPS survey, a customer answers 7. How is this response treated?
  5. Unit 1: Target Marketing and Positioning
    5
    For a pizza restaurant in London, Ontario, which is indirect competition?
  6. Unit 1: Marketing Research
    6
    A hypothetical online sneaker store expects a 2.5% conversion rate. If 4,800 people visit the site during a sale, how many purchases should it expect?
  7. Unit 1: Marketing Services: The Extended Mix
    7
    Customers rate one RATER dimension as most important: doing what was promised, accurately, every time. Name it.
  8. Unit 1: Not-for-Profit and Global Marketing
    8
    Why does a Canadian company selling prepackaged consumer products across Canada already need to think about adaptation?
  9. Unit 2: Products: Goods, Services, Events and the Product Life Cycle
    9
    Tonight's hockey game has 300 unsold seats. Once the game starts, those seats can never be sold. Which characteristic of services does this show?
  10. Unit 2: New Product Development, Product Mix and Packaging
    10
    What is the final stage of new product development, when the product is fully launched?
  11. Unit 2: Branding
    11
    Name the brand element that is a short, memorable phrase used in advertising to express the brand's promise.
  12. Unit 2: Place: Distribution Channels and Logistics
    12
    A hypothetical chewing-gum brand wants to be sold in every convenience store, grocery store and gas station in Canada. Which distribution intensity is this?
  13. Unit 2: Retailing and Wholesaling
    13
    What is the term for the design of a store's lighting, music, scent, colour and layout to influence shoppers?
  14. Unit 2: Advertising: Media Selection and the Creative Message
    14
    A campaign reaches 65% of its target audience an average of 4 times. How many GRPs does it deliver?
  15. Unit 2: Personal Selling, Sales Promotion and Public Relations
    15
    Put the steps of the personal selling process in order.
    1. 1Handling objections
    2. 2Follow-up
    3. 3Closing
    4. 4Prospecting and qualifying
    5. 5Pre-approach
    6. 6Approach
    7. 7Presentation
  16. Unit 2: Event Marketing, Sponsorship and Experiential Marketing
    16
    What type of marketing lets people interact with a brand directly, such as trying a driving simulator at a festival?
  17. Unit 3: Canada's Changing Consumers: Demographic and Social Trends
    17
    A hypothetical city has 260,000 residents, of whom 54,600 are aged 65 or older. What percentage are seniors? Round to the nearest whole percent.
    %
  18. Unit 3: Canada's Changing Consumers: Demographic and Social Trends
    18
    What term describes taking elements of another culture, such as Indigenous designs, without permission, credit or fair benefit?
  19. Unit 3: Ethics and Regulation in Marketing
    19
    Name the industry organization that administers the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards.
  20. Unit 3: Sustainability, CSR and Cause Marketing
    20
    What makes B Corp certification more believable to customers than a company's own green claims?
  21. Unit 3: Technology and Marketing
    21
    A social platform charges a CPM of $6. How much will it cost to buy 300,000 impressions?
    $
  22. Unit 3: International Marketing
    22
    A Canadian hoodie sells for $54 CAD. If 1 US dollar costs $1.35 CAD, what is the price in US dollars?
    USD
  23. Unit 3: Careers in Marketing
    23
    A sales representative earns a base salary of $2,000 per month plus 5% commission on sales. She sells $48,000 this month. What is her total pay?
    $
  24. Unit 3: Careers in Marketing
    24
    Which work setting would give a marketer the greatest variety of clients?
  25. Unit 4: What a Marketing Plan Is For
    25
    A business's only delivery van is old and breaks down often. In a SWOT analysis, this is a...
  26. Unit 4: What a Marketing Plan Is For
    26
    Why is the executive summary written after the rest of the marketing plan?
  27. Unit 4: Building a Consumer Profile
    27
    Match each profile layer to an example detail.
    Demographics
    Psychographics
    Behaviours
    Pain point
  28. Unit 4: Competitive Analysis
    28
    For a business that sells movie theatre tickets, which is an indirect competitor?
  29. Unit 4: Competitive Analysis
    29
    Which is the strongest competitive advantage for a small business?
  30. Unit 4: Putting the Final Plan Together
    30
    Which change would LOWER a product's break-even point, if everything else stays the same?
  31. Unit 4: Presenting, Implementing and Evaluating the Plan
    31
    A product sells for 40 dollars with a variable cost of 16 dollars and fixed costs of 30,000 dollars. A contingency plan would cut the price to 36 dollars. What is the new break-even point in units? Round up to a whole unit.
    units
  32. Unit 4: Presenting, Implementing and Evaluating the Plan
    32
    What do you call the difference between an actual result and its target?

Key facts by unit

Unit 1: Introduction to Marketing

What Is Marketing?

  • Need = a basic requirement (food, shelter, belonging). Want = a specific way of satisfying a need, shaped by culture and personality.
  • Exchange = two parties each give up something of value to get something they value more.
  • Customer value = perceived benefits compared with total costs (money, time, effort, and risk).
  • Marketing concept: find out what customers need and want, then satisfy them better than competitors while meeting the organization's goals.
  • Marketing process: understand customers → design strategy → build the marketing mix (4 Ps) → build relationships → capture value.
  • Eras in order: production → sales → marketing → relationship → digital and social.

Marketing and the Economy: Utility, Supply and Demand

  • Five economic utilities: form (production), and time, place, possession and information (mostly marketing).
  • Law of demand: price up, quantity demanded down. Law of supply: price up, quantity supplied up.
  • Equilibrium price: where quantity demanded equals quantity supplied. Above it is a surplus; below it is a shortage.
  • absolute value above 1 is elastic, below 1 is inelastic.
  • Total revenue test: raising price lowers revenue when demand is elastic and raises revenue when demand is inelastic.
  • PESTLE: political, economic, social, technological, legal, environmental forces outside the business's control.

Consumer Behaviour

  • Buying decision process: need recognition → information search → evaluation of alternatives → purchase decision → post-purchase behaviour.
  • Influences on buying: personal, psychological, social, and situational.
  • Maslow's hierarchy, bottom to top: physiological → safety → social → esteem → self-actualization.
  • Cognitive dissonance is post-purchase doubt; businesses reduce it with warranties, return policies, and follow-up.
  • B2C sells to individuals for personal use; B2B sells to organizations, usually with fewer, larger buyers and more rational, group decisions.

Customer Relationships, Loyalty and Service

  • Relationship marketing aims to attract, keep and grow customers over time; transactional marketing focuses on single sales.
  • multiply by profit margin for profit CLV.
  • churn rate retention rate.
  • CRM = recording every customer interaction and using it to serve customers better; loyalty programs supply the data.
  • Service recovery: listen, apologize, solve, compensate when appropriate, follow up.
  • NPS = % promoters (9 to 10) minus % detractors (0 to 6).

Target Marketing and Positioning

  • STP: segment the market, target the best segment(s), then position the offering.
  • Four segmentation bases: demographic (who), geographic (where), psychographic (lifestyle and values), behavioural (how they buy and use).
  • A good segment is measurable, substantial, accessible, and responsive.
  • Direct competitors sell similar products; indirect competitors sell different products that meet the same need.

Marketing Research

  • Research process: define the problem → plan the research → collect data → analyze and interpret → present findings and act.
  • Secondary data already exists (census data, reports, past sales); primary data is collected first-hand (surveys, focus groups, observation).
  • Qualitative data explains why (words, feelings); quantitative data measures how many or how much (numbers).
  • A sample represents a population; random samples reduce sampling bias, while convenience samples can increase it.

Marketing Services: The Extended Mix

  • Four characteristics of services: intangibility, inseparability, variability and perishability.
  • 7 Ps of services: product, price, place, promotion, plus people, process and physical evidence.
  • Service quality = perceived service compared with expected service; RATER: reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, responsiveness.
  • Gaps model: knowledge, standards, delivery and communication gaps together create the customer gap.
  • A service blueprint maps customer actions, onstage and backstage employee actions and support processes, separated by the lines of interaction and visibility.
  • yield pricing and reservations fight perishability.

Not-for-Profit and Global Marketing

  • For-profit organizations measure success by profit; not-for-profits measure success by progress on their mission.
  • Not-for-profits market to several audiences at once: donors, volunteers, and clients.
  • Social marketing uses marketing techniques to change behaviour for the good of society.
  • Standardization = same product and marketing everywhere (lower cost); adaptation = changed for local markets (better fit).
  • Cultural considerations for global marketing include language, colours and symbols, numbers, religion and customs, values, and laws.
Unit 2: The Marketing Mix

Products: Goods, Services, Events and the Product Life Cycle

  • Marketing mix (the four Ps): product, price, place and promotion, all chosen for one target market.
  • Product levels: core product (the benefit) → actual product (features, design, brand) → augmented product (warranty, support, delivery).
  • Services are intangible, perishable, inseparable and variable; goods are tangible, storable, separable and standardized.
  • An event is a planned experience at a set time and place — extremely perishable and created live.
  • Product life cycle: introduction → growth → maturity → decline. Strategy moves from building awareness, to beating new competitors, to defending share, to cutting costs or dropping the product.

New Product Development, Product Mix and Packaging

  • NPD stages: idea generation → screening → concept development and testing → business analysis → product development → test marketing → commercialization.
  • Costs rise at each NPD stage, so weak ideas should be dropped as early as possible.
  • Product mix width = number of lines; length = total products; depth = versions of one product.
  • Packaging functions: protect, contain and transport, inform, promote, add convenience.
  • CPLA labels (non-food): product identity and net quantity in English and French, plus the dealer's name and principal place of business.
  • Express warranty = stated promise; implied warranty = the legal expectation that a product is of acceptable quality and fit for its purpose.

Branding

  • Brand: a name, term, symbol, design or combination that identifies a seller's product and separates it from competitors.
  • Brand elements: name, logo, slogan, packaging and colour — used consistently everywhere the customer meets the brand.
  • Brand equity: the extra value a brand name adds beyond the product's features; it allows a price premium.
  • Brand loyalty ladder: non-recognition → recognition → preference → insistence.
  • National brands are owned by manufacturers and sold widely; private-label brands are owned by retailers and sold only in their stores.

Pricing: Strategies, Markup, Margin and Break-Even

  • Markup % ; margin % .
  • Contribution margin per unit
  • Break-even units always rounded up to a whole unit.
  • Profit
  • Discounted price ; Ontario shelf price with HST .
  • Skimming starts high and lowers the price over time; penetration starts low to win market share quickly.

Place: Distribution Channels and Logistics

  • Direct channel: producer → consumer. Indirect channels add retailers, wholesalers or agents.
  • Each intermediary adds a markup, but also performs jobs such as storing, breaking bulk and reaching more customers.
  • Intensive distribution uses as many outlets as possible; selective uses some chosen outlets; exclusive uses one or very few.
  • Logistics: order processing, warehousing, inventory management and transportation.
  • E-commerce shortens the channel but moves shipping, returns and customer service onto the seller.

Retailing and Wholesaling

  • Retailers sell to final consumers; wholesalers buy in bulk and sell to retailers and other businesses.
  • Retailer types trade off price, selection, service and convenience (department, specialty, category specialist, discount, off-price, warehouse club, convenience, non-store).
  • Location factors: trade area, target market nearby, traffic, visibility, access, complementary stores, competitors and rent.
  • Atmospherics shape mood and behaviour; visual merchandising uses eye-level placement, endcaps, cross-merchandising and planograms.
  • work backward with .
  • Wholesaler functions: buying and assorting, breaking bulk, warehousing and transporting, financing and risk bearing, market information.

Promotion: The Promotional Mix

  • Promotional mix: advertising, public relations, sales promotion, personal selling, direct marketing, and digital and social media.
  • AIDA: Attention → Interest → Desire → Action.
  • CPM , the cost to deliver 1,000 impressions.
  • Conversion rate .
  • Marketing ROI
  • Push strategy promotes to intermediaries; pull strategy promotes to consumers so they ask stores for the product.

Advertising: Media Selection and the Creative Message

  • Reach = % of the target audience exposed at least once; frequency = average number of exposures per person reached.
  • .
  • Scheduling patterns: continuous (steady), flighting (bursts with gaps), pulsing (steady base plus bursts).
  • Creative brief: objective, target audience, key message, support, tone and appeal, call to action and mandatories, media, budget and timeline.
  • Appeals: rational (facts), emotional (feelings), humour (memorable), fear (risk plus a solution).

Personal Selling, Sales Promotion and Public Relations

  • Selling process: prospecting and qualifying → pre-approach → approach → presentation → handling objections → closing → follow-up.
  • FAB: feature (what it has) → advantage (what it does) → benefit (what it means for this customer).
  • Consumer promotions pull customers (coupons, samples, contests, premiums); trade promotions push the channel (allowances, slotting fees, co-op ads, displays).
  • coupon cost includes face value, handling fees and distribution.
  • Canadian contests: disclose prizes and odds (Competition Act) and use a skill-testing question to avoid being an illegal lottery.
  • Press release: headline, dateline, 5 W lead, inverted-pyramid body with a quote, boilerplate, media contact.

Event Marketing, Sponsorship and Experiential Marketing

  • Event planning: objectives → audience → budget → date and venue → ticket pricing → sponsors, permits and insurance → promotion → run, manage risk and evaluate.
  • rounded up.
  • Risks are rated by likelihood and impact, then controlled with insurance, contracts, permits, contingency plans and accessibility planning.
  • Sponsorship: cash or in-kind support in exchange for association; tiers package benefits; category exclusivity limits competitors.
  • Activation is what a sponsor does to bring the sponsorship to life; without it, a logo is easily ignored.
  • Experiential marketing and pop-ups let people interact with a brand directly and are measured by turnout, sign-ups, social sharing and sales.
Unit 3: Trends in Marketing

Canada's Changing Consumers: Demographic and Social Trends

  • Demographics (age, household size, income, language, birthplace, location) are measurable and predictable, which makes them powerful for forecasting markets.
  • Statistics Canada's Census of Population runs every five years and is the main source of free secondary demographic data.
  • Approximate figures: about 19% of Canadians are 65+, about 23% are immigrants, and nearly 3 in 4 live in large urban centres.
  • Most of Canada's population growth now comes from immigration; multicultural marketing means language, products and cultural respect, not just translation.
  • Indigenous peoples are a young, fast-growing population; partner with Indigenous businesses and creators rather than appropriating designs.
  • Trend → implication → action: link each trend to a customer need and a change in the marketing mix.

Ethics and Regulation in Marketing

  • Competition Act (enforced by the Competition Bureau): no false or misleading representations to promote a product; both the literal meaning and the general impression of an ad count.
  • Canadian Code of Advertising Standards: a voluntary industry code administered by Ad Standards, which reviews public complaints and can ask that an ad be changed or withdrawn (it cannot fine).
  • CASL: commercial electronic messages need consent, clear sender identification, and a working unsubscribe method.
  • PIPEDA: identify your purpose, get meaningful consent, collect only what you need, and protect personal information (overseen by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada).
  • Quebec's Consumer Protection Act prohibits commercial advertising directed at children under 13.
  • Greenwashing = misleading environmental claims; they are treated as misleading advertising and must be supported by evidence.

Sustainability, CSR and Cause Marketing

  • CSR = a business's commitment to benefit society and the environment as well as its owners; triple bottom line = people, planet, profit.
  • Carroll's pyramid, base to top: economic → legal → ethical → philanthropic.
  • Cause-related marketing links sales to donations; trustworthy campaigns name the cause, the amount, the dates and any cap.
  • Green strategy touches all 4 Ps; packaging follows the waste hierarchy: reduce, reuse, then recycle or compost.
  • B Corps are for-profit companies certified by B Lab for verified social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability.
  • Circular economy: design out waste and keep products in use through repair, resale, rental, refill and recycling.

Technology and Marketing

  • Conversion rate
  • CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions)
  • Marketing ROI
  • SEO earns unpaid search traffic; paid search buys ad placements, usually priced per click.
  • Influencers must clearly disclose any material connection (payment, free products, relationship) with a brand.
  • Personalization trades convenience for privacy — businesses need consent and must protect the data they collect.

International Marketing

  • Entry methods from least to most involvement: exporting → licensing/franchising → joint venture → direct investment. More investment brings more control and more risk.
  • Licensing and franchising earn fees or royalties: royalty
  • Standardization keeps one global mix; adaptation changes it for local culture; glocalization blends the two.
  • Foreign price a weaker Canadian dollar makes Canadian exports cheaper abroad.
  • Tariffs tax imports, quotas limit import quantities, embargoes ban trade; trade agreements (such as CUSMA, CETA, CPTPP) reduce barriers.

Careers in Marketing

  • Brand managers run a brand's whole marketing mix; market research analysts turn data into insight; digital specialists run and measure online campaigns.
  • Event planners manage venues, suppliers, budgets, and schedules; PR specialists manage reputation and media relations; sales representatives build relationships and close sales.
  • Sales pay with commission: total pay
  • Ontario college pathway: OSSD with Grade 12 college prep courses → apply through ontariocolleges.ca → diploma (typically 2 years) or advanced diploma (typically 3 years) → optional graduate certificate.
  • Transferable skills (communication, teamwork, creativity, adaptability) matter in every marketing role.
Unit 4: The Marketing Plan

What a Marketing Plan Is For

  • A marketing plan's sections, in order: executive summary, situation analysis, SWOT analysis, SMART objectives, target market, marketing mix strategy, budget, implementation timeline, evaluation.
  • SWOT: strengths and weaknesses are internal (the business controls them); opportunities and threats are external (it does not).
  • SMART objectives are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
  • The executive summary is written last but placed first.
  • Market share:

Building a Consumer Profile

  • Process: segment the market, choose a target market, then build a consumer profile of a typical member.
  • A consumer profile has four layers: demographics (who), psychographics (why), behaviours (how they buy), and needs and pain points (what problem to solve).
  • A persona is a fictional person, but every detail must come from research data.
  • Every 4 Ps decision should be justified by something in the consumer profile.
  • Number of survey respondents with a trait:

Competitive Analysis

  • Direct competitors sell a similar product to the same market; indirect competitors sell a different product that meets the same need.
  • Compare competitors on price, quality, place, and promotion in a grid.
  • A positioning map plots competitors on two customer-valued attributes to reveal crowded areas and gaps.
  • A competitive advantage must be valued by customers, hard to copy, and sustainable.
  • Market share:

Putting the Final Plan Together

  • Break-even units always rounded up.
  • Profit at a volume
  • Conversion rate
  • Marketing ROI
  • Market share
  • A plan is financially sound when the sales forecast is comfortably above the break-even point.

Presenting, Implementing and Evaluating the Plan

  • Pitch structure: hook → opportunity → target customer → solution and positioning → marketing mix → numbers → implementation and KPIs → the ask.
  • One message per slide, written as an action title; large text, strong contrast, one template, honest charts that start at zero.
  • Chart choice: bar to compare categories, line for change over time, pie only for a few parts of a whole, table for exact values.
  • ;
  • Control levels: annual-plan (objectives), profitability (what makes money), efficiency (cost per result); watch leading and lagging indicators.
  • Contingency plan = trigger + prepared response + decision-maker and review date, often for best, expected and worst cases.