MKT 3230 — Consumer Behaviour
Comprehensive Practice Exam #2 | Chapters 1–4
Asper School of Business
Name:
_______________________________
Total:
___ / 100
Date:
_______________________________
MC:
___ / 60
Essay:
___ / 50
Instructions: Part A has 60 multiple-choice questions (1 mark each). Part B has 10 essay questions (50
marks). Define key terms, apply them, and illustrate with examples. Essays are weighted heavily — manage
your time.
PART A — Multiple Choice (60 marks)
Chapter 1 — Consumer Behaviour & Trends
1. The set of activities in which people engage when selecting, purchasing, using, and disposing of
products to satisfy needs and wants is:
A) Market segmentation
B) Consumer behaviour
C) Relationship marketing
D) Demographics
2. Which of the following best reflects the idea that consumer behaviour involves more than the moment of
sale?
A) It only concerns the buyer
B) It is a process spanning before, during, and after purchase
C) It ends when payment is made
D) It excludes product disposal
3. A mother buys a cereal her child asked for after seeing a commercial. The child is playing the role of:
A) Payer only
B) Influencer and user
C) Buyer
D) Gatekeeper only
4. Descriptions of consumers by age, gender, income, and occupation are called:
A) Psychographics
B) Demographics
C) Behavioural data
D) Geographics
5. Dividing a broad market into subgroups of consumers who share similar characteristics is:
A) Relationship marketing
B) Market segmentation
C) Trade dress
D) Positioning
6. A firm that builds long-term, ongoing connections with customers rather than chasing one-off sales
practises:
A) Transactional selling
B) Relationship marketing
C) Shrinkage control
D) Subliminal marketing
7. Segmenting consumers by lifestyle, values, personality, and interests is called ______ segmentation.
A) Demographic
B) Geographic
C) Psychographic
D) Behavioural
8. Consumers increasingly renting or borrowing products on an as-needed basis rather than owning them
reflects the:
A) Sharing economy
B) Social shopping trend
C) Gender-blurring trend
D) Values-based consumption trend
9. A shopper who checks Reddit and Google reviews before buying is influenced by the ______ trend.
A) Sharing economy
B) Social shopping
C) Values-based consumption
D) Gender categorization
10. Large, complex datasets gathered about consumers from many digital sources are known as:
A) Big data
B) Trade dress
C) Primary research
D) Psychographics
11. Research a company collects itself, first-hand, for its specific question is called:
A) Secondary research
B) Primary research
C) Meta research
D) Archival research
12. The industry term for inventory loss due to shoplifting and theft is:
A) Slippage
B) Shrinkage
C) Leakage
D) Drift
13. A consumer deliberately buying from a company because it donates to causes they support illustrates
the ______ trend.
A) Sharing economy
B) Social shopping
C) Values-based consumption
D) Gender categorization
14. Which of the following is a 'want' rather than a broad 'need'?
A) The need for food
B) A craving for a specific brand of energy drink
C) The need for shelter
D) The need for safety
15. A software company selling its product to another business rather than to individuals is engaging in:
A) B2C marketing
B) B2B marketing
C) Social marketing
D) Relationship marketing
Chapter 2 — Perception
16. The three stages through which sensations are processed are, in order:
A) Encoding, storage, retrieval
B) Exposure, attention, interpretation
C) Sensation, adaptation, closure
D) Filtration, vigilance, defense
17. The immediate response of sensory receptors (eyes, ears, nose) to basic stimuli is:
A) Perception
B) Sensation
C) Interpretation
D) Attention
18. A perfume so faint no one can detect it falls below the:
A) Differential threshold
B) Absolute threshold
C) JND
D) Adaptation level
19. The smallest change in a stimulus a person can notice is the:
A) Absolute threshold
B) Just Noticeable Difference (JND)
C) Sensory threshold
D) Contrast point
20. A brand raises its price by a tiny amount hoping consumers won't notice; it is keeping the increase
below the:
A) Absolute threshold
B) Differential threshold
C) Attention span
D) Adaptation level
21. A consumer who is hungry suddenly notices every food ad around them. This illustrates perceptual:
A) Defense
B) Vigilance
C) Filtration
D) Adaptation
22. A consumer stops seeing a sidebar ad that appears on every page over time. This is perceptual:
A) Vigilance
B) Adaptation
C) Defense
D) Closure
23. Ignoring a graphic, unpleasant warning label because it's disturbing is an example of perceptual:
A) Filtration
B) Vigilance
C) Defense
D) Adaptation
24. A stimulus grabs attention by standing out from what surrounds it. This external factor is called:
A) Contrast
B) Vigilance
C) Closure
D) Salience
25. Seeing a logo with missing pieces as a complete image reflects the Gestalt principle of:
A) Similarity
B) Closure
C) Figure-ground
D) Contrast
26. Grouping products together because they share a similar look reflects the Gestalt principle of:
A) Closure
B) Similarity
C) Figure-ground
D) Contrast
27. An ad with one bold central subject clearly standing out from its backdrop uses the principle of:
A) Closure
B) Similarity
C) Figure-ground
D) Contrast
28. A brand's distinctive colour combination that earns legal protection is its:
A) Copyright
B) Trade dress
C) Patent
D) Logo mark
29. The colour most associated with trust, calm, and security is:
A) Red
B) Yellow
C) Blue
D) Orange
30. A brand positioning itself as 'the un-cola' against a rival is positioning by:
A) Attribute
B) Occasion
C) Users
D) Competitors
Chapter 3 — Learning & Memory
31. A relatively permanent change in behaviour caused by experience defines:
A) Perception
B) Learning
C) Motivation
D) Involvement
32. Learning based on forming associations between external stimuli and responses is:
A) Cognitive learning
B) Behavioural learning
C) Observational learning
D) Latent learning
33. A consumer learns to use a product by watching an influencer demonstrate it. This is:
A) Classical conditioning
B) Operant conditioning
C) Observational (cognitive) learning
D) Negative reinforcement
34. Before conditioning, food naturally makes a dog salivate. The food is the:
A) Conditioned stimulus
B) Unconditioned stimulus
C) Conditioned response
D) Neutral stimulus
35. A jingle repeatedly paired with a beloved brand eventually creates good feelings on its own. This is:
A) Operant conditioning
B) Classical conditioning
C) Positive punishment
D) Shaping
36. Operant conditioning explains behaviour primarily through its:
A) Stimulus pairings
B) Consequences
C) Sensory thresholds
D) Memory traces
37. A grocery app gives points on every purchase to strengthen repeat buying. This is:
A) Negative reinforcement
B) Positive reinforcement
C) Positive punishment
D) Negative punishment
38. A subscription that removes irritating ads once you upgrade strengthens upgrades by removing
something unpleasant. This is:
A) Positive reinforcement
B) Negative reinforcement
C) Positive punishment
D) Negative punishment
39. A rewards program removes your elite status if you stop buying, discouraging inactivity. This is:
A) Positive reinforcement
B) Negative reinforcement
C) Positive punishment
D) Negative punishment
40. A reward given after an unpredictable number of purchases (like a slot machine) is a ______
schedule, the most resistant to extinction.
A) Fixed-interval
B) Fixed-ratio
C) Variable-ratio
D) Variable-interval
41. Reinforcing small successive steps toward a target behaviour is called:
A) Shaping
B) Chaining
C) Priming
D) Extinction
42. Information from short-term memory being entered into long-term memory in recognizable form is:
A) Storage
B) Encoding
C) Retrieval
D) Rehearsal
43. Recalling the first and last items in a list better than the middle reflects the:
A) Von Restorff effect
B) Primacy and recency effects
C) Mood-congruence effect
D) Salience effect
44. Forgetting your old password because you keep recalling the new one is an example of ______
interference.
A) Proactive
B) Retroactive
C) Decay-based
D) Salience
45. A consumer picking their brand out of a lineup on a shelf (but who couldn't name it unaided)
demonstrates:
A) Recall
B) Recognition
C) Encoding
D) Priming
Chapter 4 — Motivation
46. An internal state that activates goal-oriented behaviour is:
A) Perception
B) Motivation
C) Involvement
D) Affect
47. The uncomfortable tension created by the gap between a present and ideal state is:
A) Homeostasis
B) Dissonance
C) Adaptation
D) Valence
48. A 'want' is best described as:
A) The underlying deficiency
B) The specific way a need is satisfied
C) A biogenic requirement
D) A permanent trait
49. Drive theory says we act to reduce tension and restore:
A) Dissonance
B) Homeostasis
C) Valence
D) Involvement
50. Drive theory struggles to explain why people sometimes delay satisfaction, known as:
A) Homeostasis
B) Delayed gratification
C) Extinction
D) Adaptation
51. Expectancy theory says behaviour is 'pulled' by:
A) Tension reduction
B) Expected positive outcomes
C) Stimulus pairing
D) Sensory input
52. Needs people are born with to sustain life (food, water, shelter) are:
A) Psychogenic needs
B) Biogenic needs
C) Hedonic needs
D) Acquired needs
53. Needs acquired through culture, such as status and power, are:
A) Biogenic needs
B) Psychogenic needs
C) Utilitarian needs
D) Physiological needs
54. Buying a blender because it performs a needed function reflects a ______ need.
A) Hedonic
B) Utilitarian
C) Esteem
D) Psychogenic
55. Utilitarian needs are performance-based, whereas hedonic needs are:
A) Function-based
B) Feelings-based
C) Cognitive
D) Biogenic
56. At the base of Maslow's hierarchy are ______ needs.
A) Esteem
B) Safety
C) Physiological
D) Self-actualization
57. The highest level of Maslow's hierarchy is:
A) Esteem
B) Belonging
C) Self-actualization
D) Safety
58. A criticism of Maslow's hierarchy is that:
A) It has no physiological level
B) Its order is culture-bound and people can pursue higher needs first
C) It ignores esteem
D) It applies only to services
59. Being torn between two undesirable options (a costly repair vs. an unaffordable replacement) is a(n):
A) Approach-approach conflict
B) Avoidance-avoidance conflict
C) Approach-avoidance conflict
D) Valence conflict
60. A boring, low-involvement product made interesting by pairing it with celebrities and novel scenarios
illustrates a marketer's attempt to:
A) Reduce the price
B) Increase involvement
C) Lower the absolute threshold
D) Create dissonance
PART B — Essay Questions (50 marks)
Answer all ten. Define, apply, illustrate. Point values in brackets.
Chapter 1
Question 1. Define consumer behaviour. Explain why it is described as a 'process' and why consumer
research matters to businesses. Illustrate. [5 points]
Question 2. What are consumer trends? Identify and describe FOUR trends influencing Canadian
consumers, with an example of each. [10 points]
Chapter 2
Question 3. Describe the three stages of the perceptual process. Explain the difference between the
absolute and differential thresholds and how marketers use them. Illustrate. [10 points]
Question 4. Discuss how marketers use the visual and olfactory systems in sensory marketing. Illustrate
each with examples. [10 points]
Question 5. Explain how consumers pay attention to stimuli. Discuss perceptual selectivity and the
personal and stimulus selection factors. Illustrate. [5 points]
Chapter 3
Question 6. What is consumer learning? Distinguish behavioural from cognitive learning, explain
classical and operant conditioning, and describe how each is applied in marketing. Illustrate throughout.
[10 points]
Question 7. Explain operant conditioning. Distinguish the four types of reinforcement and punishment
and explain reinforcement schedules and shaping. Illustrate each. [10 points]
Question 8. Describe the three stages of memory and discuss the factors that influence retrieval and
cause forgetting. Illustrate. [5 points]
Chapter 4
Question 9. Describe the motivation process, then explain how drive theory and expectancy theory build
on it. Illustrate. [5 points]
Question 10. Discuss Maslow's hierarchy of needs (levels, marketer use, limitations) and contrast
utilitarian versus hedonic needs. Then discuss consumer involvement and its marketing implications.
Illustrate throughout. [10 points]