IB DP Business Management Unit 4: Marketing -- Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, in the style and at the standard of the examination. They are not reproduced past-paper questions – the IB holds copyright in its own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available through your school or the IB store.

Related: Unit 4 study guide, revision notes, and the IB DP Business Management syllabus guide.

Section A

1. Distinguish between market orientation and product orientation. [2]

2. State two examples of primary research and two examples of secondary research. [2]

3. Name the three Ps added to the traditional marketing mix to form the seven Ps. [3]

Section B

4. A new bakery has developed a recipe it is proud of and is now looking for customers to sell it to, without having asked local residents what kinds of baked goods they actually want.

(a) Identify whether this bakery is market orientated or product orientated, justifying your answer. [2] (b) Suggest one risk this orientation carries for the bakery’s future marketing decisions. [2]

5. A business is choosing a sampling method for a survey about a new product aimed at a specific age group spread unevenly across different regions.

(a) Recommend an appropriate sampling method for this scenario, justifying your choice. [2] (b) State one limitation of the sampling method you recommended. [2]

6. A hair salon (a service business) is reviewing its marketing mix.

(a) Explain why People and Physical evidence are particularly important elements of the marketing mix for this business. [3] (b) Suggest one specific way the salon could improve each of these two elements. [2]

Section C

7. A clothing retailer operating in three countries is deciding whether to standardise its marketing mix globally or adapt it to each local market.

(a) Explain one advantage of standardisation for this business. [2] (b) Explain one advantage of adaptation for this business. [2] (c) (HL) The business’s sales forecast, based on a three-month moving average, predicts a 20% increase in demand next quarter, but current production capacity can only support a 10% increase. Explain one consequence of this mismatch for the business. [3] (d) Evaluate whether this business should prioritise standardisation or adaptation, given that its products are sold in three culturally distinct markets. [4]

Worked answers

1. Market orientation starts from customer needs, designing products to meet identified demand. [1] Product orientation starts from what the business is able to make, then seeks customers for it afterwards. [1]

2. Any two primary: surveys, interviews, focus groups, observation. [1] Any two secondary: government statistics, industry reports, competitor data. [1]

3. People, Process, and Physical evidence. [3]

4. (a) The bakery is product orientated: it developed its recipe first, based on what it wanted to make, and is only now seeking customers, rather than starting from confirmed local demand. [2] (b) The bakery risks producing a product that does not match what local customers actually want, meaning its marketing (pricing, promotion) will need to work harder to persuade customers to buy a product they did not ask for, rather than being built around confirmed demand. [2]

5. (a) Stratified sampling would be appropriate: because the target age group is spread unevenly across regions, stratified sampling ensures each region is proportionally represented in the sample, rather than risking a sample skewed toward regions that happen to be easier to reach. [2] (b) Stratified sampling requires knowing the underlying population’s regional breakdown in advance to set proportions correctly, which takes more time and information to arrange than a simpler method such as convenience sampling. [2]

6. (a) People matter because staff directly deliver the service (the haircut itself) and shape the customer’s experience through their skill and manner, unlike a physical product that exists independently of the person selling it. [1] Physical evidence matters because a service is intangible until experienced, so tangible cues – the salon’s décor, cleanliness, and staff appearance – signal quality to a customer before or during the service, standing in for the product inspection a customer could do with a physical good. [2] (b) People: invest in staff training to improve consistency of service quality. [1] Physical evidence: upgrade the salon’s interior or staff uniforms to signal a higher standard of service. [1] (Other valid, justified suggestions are acceptable.)

7. (a) Standardisation lowers costs, since the same marketing mix (branding, advertising materials, pricing approach) can be reused across all three markets without needing to design and fund three separate campaigns. [2] (b) Adaptation increases relevance to each local market, since the marketing mix can reflect each market’s specific culture, language and consumer preferences, potentially increasing sales compared with a one-size-fits-all approach that may not resonate equally everywhere. [2] (c) Because current production capacity can only support half the forecast increase in demand, the business risks stockouts and unmet demand if it does not expand capacity, invest in additional production resources, or manage the shortfall through other means (such as prioritising key markets); alternatively, it may need to revise its marketing plans to avoid stimulating more demand than it can currently fulfil. [3] (d) A strong evaluation weighs the cost savings of standardisation against the relevance gains of adaptation specifically for this business’s three culturally distinct markets: if the cultural differences between the three markets are substantial (differing tastes, sizing norms, or purchasing occasions for clothing), adaptation’s relevance advantage likely outweighs standardisation’s cost savings; if the markets are culturally similar despite being geographically separate, standardisation may be more efficient. A balanced answer might recommend a middle path – standardising core branding while adapting specific product lines or promotional messaging – rather than choosing one approach exclusively, and should reach an explicit judgement rather than only listing both sides. [4]

Why this set mixes qualitative and calculation-style questions

Unlike Unit 3, where nearly every question involves a numerical calculation, Unit 4’s assessment style is more evenly split between qualitative justification (recommending a sampling method, explaining an orientation) and applied numerical reasoning (interpreting a sales forecast against production capacity, as in Question 7c). This mirrors how Paper 1’s pre-released case study typically tests Unit 4 – asking students to justify a marketing recommendation for a specific business context, not just define marketing terms in isolation. Question 7 deliberately stacks two straightforward explanations (7a, 7b), an HL-only applied-reasoning question (7c), and a full evaluate-style question (7d) into one scenario, mirroring Paper 2’s typical final-question structure.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief – Business Management, first assessment 2024 – the same source cited by the Unit 4 study guide, revision notes, and the IB DP Business Management syllabus guide.