1. Consider some of your favorite brands and their products. What role does the brand name have on the success of these products? Explain the significance of brand names in product planning, incorporating examples of real brands when possible. Be sure to identify key product mix strategies, as well. 2. Explain the concept behind market segmentation and the difference between geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral segmentation? Explore differences in purpose and function, providing an example or possible situation that would involve each.

3. As with most things in life, even products have a lifecycle. After defining what product lifestyle is and discussing its impact, choose a product example to help illustrate and identify each of the stages in a product lifecycle, briefly describing each.

4. Think about all of the products that you utilize in your everyday life and select three to examine in terms of product liability risks. For each product, identify potential defects, describing each, and explaining how these are liability risks.

5. When it comes to marketing, the overall functions that are involved go far beyond simple billboards or TV commercials. Identify the seven functions of marketing, provide an example of a related activity for each function, and categorize those activities.

2. the external environment (connect)choose whether each example belongs in the general, task, or internal environment.exampleenvironmenta worldwide recession task environment / general environment / internal environmentlocal mothers asking their community grocery store to carry no-salt cheerios-type cereal for their babies task environment / general environment / internal environmentchoose the phrase that best completes the following sentence.the relationship between the task environment and the general environment is best described as: a one-way system: changes in the task environment affect the general environment, but changes in the general environment do not affect the task environment.an open system: changes in the task environment affect the general environment, and changes in the general environment affect the task environment.a one-way system: changes in the general environment affect the task environment, but changes in the task environment do not affect the general environment.a closed system: changes in the general environment do not affect the task environment, and changes in the task environment do not affect the general environment.©bloomberg via getty imagesmanagement in the newsin april 2010, the explosion of british petroleum’s (bp) deepwater horizon oil drilling rig and the accompanying oil spill dramatically changed the external environment in which all oil companies operate. the explosion released more oil than any other accidental spill in history and had a huge impact on the waters and surrounding communities of the gulf coast. the conditions that led to the spill, the attempts to stop the spill, and the clean-up and aftermath of the spill prompted debates in the u.s. senate, concern on wall street, and attention from companies all over the world.match each oil spill event with a specific dimension of the general environment.eventgeneral environment dimensionbp stock prices falling 25% during the first month after the oil spill oil seeping into pelican nesting grounds, which will place the brown pelican back on the endangered species list people moving from louisiana to oklahoma to avoid the effects of the spill