At its core, marketing is meant to facilitate exchanges. As marketing managers, the most prevalent view we may take of exchange is that of our product for our customers’ money. What other exchanges may occur between marketers and customers?

Marketing isn’t limited to goods. Anything can be marketed – ideas, people, places and so on. Are some easier to market than others? Why or why not?

• Prospective buyers seek out exchanges that meet their needs in one or more types of utility. Choose two direct competitors and evaluate their respective offers in terms of the five types of utility. Imagine you have been hired as a consultant for one of the companies. How should the company improve the utilities provided by its offer to better meet prospective customer needs?
• Companies are encouraged to establish a competitive advantage. But Peter Senge (2006), author of The Fifth Discipline, advised, “The only sustainable competitive advantage is an organization’s ability to learn faster than the competition.” Do you agree? Debate Senge’s position versus other established sources of competitive advantage.
• Exhibit 1.4 summarizes the differences between firms that embrace transactional marketing and those that choose relationship marketing. Distinguish the situations in which transactional marketing would be recommended from those that would favor relationship marketing. Construct a set of contingencies for marketing managers to use in deciding whether transactional marketing or relationship marketing will be more effective in different situations.  Give an example of a company that uses transactional marketing and an example of a company that uses relationship marketing mapping each company’s situational characteristics to the contingency recommendations you identified.