e commodity in question. Second, there is the program target—people in the market segment with the “best fit” characteristics for a specific product.
Lots of people—may need trousers, but only a few qualify as likely buyers of very expensive designer trousers. Finally, there is the program audience—all people who are actually exposed
to the marketing program without regard to whether they need or want the product.
These three groups are rarely identical. An exception occurs in cases where customers for a particular industrial product may be few and easily identifiable. Such customers, all
sharing a particular need, are likely to form a meaningful target, for example, all companies with a particular application of the product in question, such as high-speed fillers of
bottles at breweries. In such circumstances, direct selling （marketing that reaches only the program target） is likely to be economically justified, and highly specialized trade media exist
to expose members of the program target—and only members of the program target—to the marketing program.
Most consumer-goods markets are significantly different. Typically, there are many rather than few potential customers. Each represents a relatively small percentage of potential sales.
Rarely do members of a particular market segment group themselves neatly into a meaningful program target. There are substantial differences among consumers with similar demographic characteristics.
Even with all the past decade’s advances in information technology, direct selling of consumer goods is rare, and mass marketing—- a marketing approach that aims at a wide audience -remains the only economically feasible mode. Unfortunately, there are few media that allow the marketer to direct a marketing program exclusively to the program target. Inevitably, people get exposed to a great deal of marketing for products in which they have no interest and so they become annoyed.
01. The passage suggests which of the following about highly specialized trade media?
A. They should be used only when direct selling is not economically feasible.
B. They can be used to exclude from the program audience people who are not part of the program target.
C. They are used only for very expensive products.
D. They are rarely used in the implementation of marketing programs for industrial products.
02. The passage suggests which of the following about direct selling?
A. It is used in the marketing of most industrial products.
B. It is often used in cases where there is a large program target.
C. It is not economically feasible for most marketing programs.
D. It is used only for products for which there are many potential customers.
03. The author mentions “trousers” in paragraph 1 most likely in order to ______.
A. make a compa
rison between the program target and the program audience
B. emphasize the similarities between the market segment and the program target
C. p
rovide an example of the way three groups of consumers are affected by a marketing program
D. clarify the distinction between the market segment and the program target
04. “the product in question” in Line 5, Paragraph 2 means ______.
A. “the product in the previous question”
B. “the product under discussion”
C. “the product on sale”
D. “the product in doubt”
05. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following is true for most consumer-goods markets?
A. The program target and the program audience are not usually identical.
B. The program audience and the market segment are usually identical.
C. The market segment and the program target are usually identical.
D. The program target is larger than the market segment.
Cloze Test
Most economists in the United States seem captivated by the spell of the free market. __16__. A price that is determined by the seller or, for that matter, established by anyone other than the aggregate of consumers seems pernicious. __17__. In fact, price-fixing is normal in all industrialized societies because the industrial system itself provides, as an effortless consequence of its own development, the price-fixing that it requires. Modern industrial planning requires and rewards great size. Hence, a comparatively small number of large firms will be competing for the same group of consumers. That each large firm will act with consideration of its own needs and thus avoid selling its products for more than its competitors charge is commonly recognized by advocates of free-market economic theories. __18__. Each large firm will thus avoid significant price-cutting, because price-cutting would be prejudicial to the common interest in a stable demand for products. Most economists do not see price-fixing when it occurs because they expect it to be brought about by a number of explicit agreements among large firms; it is not.
Moreover, those economists who argue that allowing the free market to operate without interference is the most efficient method of establishing prices have not considered the economies of non-socialist countries other than the United states. These economies employ intentional price-fixing, usually in an overt fashion. Formal price-fixing by cartel and informal price-fixing by agreements covering the members of an industry are common-place. __19__, the countries that have avoided the first and used the second would have suffered drastically in their economic development. There is no indication that they have.