PASSAGE-2



When it came to promoting its new video-game console, the Wii, in America, Nintendo recruited a handful of carefully chosen suburban mothers in the hope that they would spread the word among their friends that the Wii was a gaming console the whole family could enjoy together. Nintendo thus became the latest company to use “word-of-mouth” marketing. Nestlé, Sony and Philips have all launched similar campaigns in recent months to promote everything from bottled water to electric toothbrushes. As the power of traditional advertising declines, what was once an experimental marketing approach is becoming more popular.

After all, no form of advertising carries as much weight as an endorsement from a friend. “Amway and Tupperware know you can blend the social and economic to business advantage,” says Walter Carl, a marketing guru at Northeastern University. The difference now, he says, is that the internet can magnify the effect of such endorsements.

The difficulty for marketers is creating the right kind of buzz and learning to control it. Negative views spread just as quickly as positive ones, so if a product has flaws, people will soon find out. And Peter Kim of Forrester, a consultancy, points out that when Microsoft sent laptops loaded with its new Windows Vista software to influential bloggers in an effort to get them to write about it, the resulting online discussion ignored Vista and focused instead on the morality of accepting gifts and the ethics of word-of-mouth marketing. Bad buzz, in short.

BzzAgent, a controversial company based in Boston that is one of the leading exponents of word-of-mouth marketing, operates a network of volunteer “agents” who receive free samples of products in the post. They talk to their friends about them and send back their thoughts. In return, they receive rewards through a points program—an arrangement they are supposed to make clear. This allows a firm to create buzz around a product and to see what kind of word-of-mouth response it generates, which can be useful for subsequent product development and marketing. Last week BzzAgent launched its service in Britain. Dave Balter, BzzAgent's founder, thinks word-of-mouth marketing will become a multi-billion dollar industry. No doubt he tells that to everyone he meets.

Questions:-

1.     What is the experimental approach being discussed in the first paragraph?
a. Word of mouth Marketing     b. Selling of video-game consoles, bottled water and electric toothbrushes                       c. Traditional Advertising             d. None of these

2.     What is the tone of the passage?
a. Neutral                  b. Biased                   c. Celebratory                     d. Critical

3.     What can we infer from Walter Carl's statement?
a. Amway and Tupperware are products where word of mouth marketing could be used.
b. Amway and Tupperware are consumers who appreciated word of mouth marketing.
c.  Amway and Tupperware are companies who use word of mouth marketing.
d. None of these

4.     What is the effect of internet on Word-of-mouth marketing?
a.  It is impeded by the internet.            B. It is encouraged by the internet.
c. Internet magnifies the moral issues of this marketing technique.
D.Internet has made it obsolete.

5.     According to the passage, in what order did different companies use word of mouth marketing?
a.  Nintendo before Sony, Nestle and Philips.       b.  Nintendo after Sony, Nestle and Philips.
c. Nintendo, Sony, Nestle and Philips: all at the same time.     d. None of these

6.     According to Peter Kim, what happened to Microsoft's marketing campaign for Vista?
a. It succeeded        b. It succeeded with some hiccups                    c.It failed       d.None of these

7.     Where does BzzAgent operate?
a. USA and India                 b.USA and UK          c.USA only    d. None of these

8.     What is the author most likely to agree to in the following?
a.  There is not enough evidence to state that word-of-mouth marketing is useful.
b.  There is enough evidence to state that word-of-mouth marketing is useful.
c.  Evidence shows that word of mouth marketing is a failed technique.
d. Word of mouth marketing is unethical.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PASSAGE-6

AT THE end of the 19th century, India's maharajahs discovered a Parisian designer called Louis Vuitton and flooded his small factory with orders for custom-made Rolls-Royce interiors, leather picnic hampers and modish polo-club bags. But after independence, when India's princes lost much of their wealth, the orders dried up. Then in 2002  LVMH , the world's largest luxury-goods group, made a triumphant return to India, opening a boutique in Delhi and another in Mumbai in 2004. Its target was the new breed of maharajah produced by India's liberalised economy: flush, flash, and growing in number. Other purveyors of opulence followed, from Chanel to Bulgari. In recent months a multitude of swanky brands have announced plans to set up shop in India, including Dolce & Gabbana, Hermès, Jimmy Choo and Gucci. And Indian women will soon be invited to spend over $100 on bras made by La Perla, an Italian lingerie firm. Only a tiny fraction, of course, will do so. B...
Read more

PASSAGE-21

The Indian government‘s intention of introducing caste based quotas for the ―Other Backward Classes   in centrally funded institutions of higher learning and the prime minister‘s suggestion to the private sector to ‗voluntarily go in for reservation‘, has once again sparked off a debate on the merits and demerits of caste-based reservations. Unfortunately, the predictable divide between the votaries of ―social justice   on one hand and those advocating ―merit   on the other seems to have once again camouflaged the real issues. It is necessary to take a holistic and non-partisan view of the issues involved. The hue and cry about ―sacrificing merit   is untenable simply because merit is after all a social construct and it cannot be determined objectively in a historically unjust and unequal context. The idea of competitive merit will be worthy of serious attention only in a broadly egalitarian context. But then, caste is not the only obstacl...
Read more

PASSAGE-25

Rohit brushed quickly past an elderly woman waiting on the platform ahead of him to get onto the metro. He wanted to be sure to get a seat to read his Economic Times. As the train rolled out of the station, he lifted his head from the newspaper and stared at the man directly across from him. A tsunami - of antipathy came over him. Rohit knew this man, knew him all too well. Their eyes locked.            As the train reached full speed, the ruckus of speeding wheels against the winding rails and a wildly gyrating subway car filled Rohit's ears. To this frenetic beat, Rohit effortlessly listed in his head all the reasons this man, whose eyes he stared coldly into, was an anathema to him.                             He had climbed the upper echelons of his firm using an imperious m...
Read more