Strategic Planning & Analysis Flashcards

A brand tracker shows aided awareness at 72% but unaided awareness at 18%. This gap most likely indicates:

Answer: The brand lacks top-of-mind salience despite broad recognition

A large gap between aided and unaided awareness indicates consumers recognize the brand when prompted but rarely recall it spontaneously, signaling weak top-of-mind presence.

Which of the following BEST describes a 'north star metric' in a marketing analytics strategy?

Answer: A single metric that best captures the core value delivered to customers

A north star metric is the single most important measure that reflects the product or service's core value creation, aligning teams around a common goal.

A strategic plan recommends repositioning a brand from 'affordable' to 'premium.' Which analytics approach should validate whether this shift is feasible?

Answer: Price elasticity and willingness-to-pay research

Price elasticity and willingness-to-pay research quantifies whether the target audience will accept premium pricing, validating the repositioning's commercial feasibility.

In competitive analysis, a 'perceptual map' is used to:

Answer: Visualize how brands are positioned relative to each other on key attributes

A perceptual map plots brands on a two-axis grid based on consumer perceptions of key attributes, revealing whitespace opportunities and competitive clustering.

A marketing strategy team is evaluating whether to acquire a competitor. Which financial analytics metric is MOST relevant to the strategic decision?

Answer: Net Present Value (NPV) of the acquisition

NPV discounts projected future cash flows to present value, enabling a direct comparison of acquisition cost against long-term expected returns.

Which strategic planning concept describes the minimum level of product quality and service needed to compete in a market without being at a disadvantage?

Answer: Table stakes

Table stakes are the baseline capabilities every competitor must have just to be considered — they provide no differentiation on their own.

A marketing analytics team must prioritize three strategic initiatives with limited budget. The BEST framework to use is:

Answer: ICE Scoring (Impact, Confidence, Ease)

ICE Scoring quantifies each initiative across impact, confidence of success, and ease of execution, enabling data-driven prioritization under resource constraints.