UGC NET Management Paper II & Paper III - syllabus

Unit – I

• Managerial Economics – Demand Analysis -Production Function
• Cost – Output Relations
• Market Structures
• Pricing Theories
• Advertising
• Macro – Economics
• National Income Concepts
• Infrastructure – Management and Policy
• Business Environment
• Capital Budgeting

Unit – II

The concept and significance of organisational behaviour – Skills and Roles in an organisation – Classical, Neo – Classical and Modern Theories of Organisational Structure – Organisational Design – Understanding and Managing individual behaviour personality – Perception – Values – Attitudes – Learning – Motivation.Understanding and Managing Group Behaviour, Processes – Inter – personal and group dynamics – Communication – Leadership – Managing change – Managing conflicts. Organisational Development.

Unit – III

• Concepts and perspectives in HRM; HRM in changing environment.
• Human Resource Plarming – Objectives, Process and Techniques.
• Job analysis – Job Description.
• Selecting Human Resources.
• Induction, Training and Development.
• Exit policy and Implications.
• Performance Appraisal and Evaluation.
• Potential Assessment.
• Job Evaluation.
• Wage Determination.
• Industrial Relations and Trade Unions.
• Dispute Resolution and Grievance Management.
• Labour Welfare and Social Security Measures.

Unit – IV

• Financial Management – Nature and Scope.
• Valuation Concepts and Valuation of Securities.
• Capital Budgeting Decisions – Risk Analysis.
• Capital Structure and Cost of Capital.
• Dividend Policy – Determinants.
• Long – Term and Short – Term Financing Instruments.
• Mergers and Acquisitions.

Unit – V

• Marketing Environment and Environment Scanning; Marketing Information Systems and Marketing Research; Understanding Consumer and Industrial Markets; Demand Measurement and Forecasting; Market Segmentation – Targeting and Positioning; Product Decisions, Product mix, Product Life Cycle; New Product Development; Branding and Packaging; Pricing Methods and Strategies.
• Promotion Decisions – Promotion mix; Advertising; Personal Selling; Channel Management; Vertical Marketing Systems; Evaluation and Control of Marketing Effort; Marketing of Services; Customer Relation Management;
• Uses of Internet as a Marketing Medium – Other related issues like branding, market development, Advertising and retailing on the net.
• New issues in Marketing.

Unit – VI

• Role and Scope of Production Management; Faculty Location; Layout Planning and Analysis; Production Planning and Control – Production Process Analysis; Demand Forecasting for Operations; Determinants of Product mix; Production Scheduling; Work measurement; Time and Motion Study; Statistical Quality Control.
• Role and Scope of Operations Research; Linear Programming; Sensitivity Analysis; Duality; Transportation Model; Inventory Control; Queueing Theory; Decision Theory; Markov Analysis; PERT / CPM.

Unit – VII

• Probability Theory; Probability distributions – Binomial, Poisson, Normal and Exponential; Correlation and Regression analysis; Sampling theory; Sampling distributions; Tests of Hypothesis; Large and small samples; t z, F, Chi – square tests.
• Use of Computers in Managerial applications; Technology issues and Data processing in organizations; Information systems; MIS and Decision making; System analysis and design; Trends in Information Technology; Internet and Internet – based applications.

Unit – VIII

• Concept of Corporate Strategy; Components of Strategy Formulation; Ansoffs Growth Vector; BCG Model; Porter’s Generic Strategies; Competitor Analysis; Strategic Dimensions and Group Mapping; Industry Analysis; Strategies in Industry Evolution, Fragmentation, Maturity, and decline.
• Competitive strategy and Corporate Strategy; Transnationalization of World Economy; Managing Cultural Diversity; Global Entry Strategies; Globalisation of Financial System and Services; Managing International Business; Competitive Advantage of Nations; RTP and WTO.

Unit – IX

• Concepts – Types, Characteristics; Motivation; Competencies and its development; Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Small business – Concepts Government policy for promotion of small and tiny enterprises; Process of Business Opportunity Identification;
• Detailed business plan preparation; Managing small enterprises; Planning for growth; Sickness in Small Enterprises; Rehabilitation of Sick Enterprises; Intrapreneurship (Organisational Entrepreneurship).

Unit – X

• Ethics and Management System; Ethical issues and Analysis in Management; Value based organisations; Personal framework for ethical choices;
• Ethical pressure on individual in organisations; Gender issues; Ecological consciousness; Environmental ethics; Social responsibilities of business; Corporate governance and ethics.

Keying the Advertising

It is a fashion to advertise. Every advertiser wants to assess the effectiveness of advertising. The problem of assessment becomes more complicated when advertiser advertises through various media. Selection of media is not an easy job. Which media responded to the satisfaction of the advertiser? Is not an easy question to be answered? In other words there arises the problem of choosing how to advertise? and through which media’ Naturally one would select a media – mix that would serve one purpose the most. This can be easily done by keying the advertising. Keying means to adopt such methods at the time of adverting so that results may be very easily assured and to do so either of the following may be adopted.

1. Different address may be given to difference media, so that enquiries received may be scrutinized to find out which media, responds the best. The best media may be selected and continued for advertisements and the rest may be stopped to avoid unnecessary waste of time and money.

2. Different papers may be selected for the advertisement of different departments. so as to know which paper suits the requirements and of which department.

3. A coupon, blank order or space may be provided with the advertisement paper with a request that all requires should be media along with the coupon, or blank order or space duly filled in.

4. A request can be made to the enquirer or the prospective buyer, along with the advertisement that he should mention the name of the particular media which is the source of his information while making any enquiry. A scrutiny of all those inquiries may give an idea which paper or media is the best suited.

Concurrent Methods of testing Advertising Copy

Under this method, tests are conducted while the consumers are exposed to different types of media. For instance, a magazine reader may be observed while reading the magazine.Which carries an advertisement? The concurrent methods are

1. Consumer diaries
2. Co-incidental surveys and
3. Electronic devices.

1. Consumer diaries

Under this method, diaries are supplied to a few selected customers. They are also informed to record the details of advertisements they listen or read. The diaries are collected periodically. The result obtained from such a survey reveals the effectiveness of advertisement.

2. Co-incidental surveys

This method is also called as co-incidental telephone method. Under this method, samples of customers are selected and calls are made at the time of broadcast of the advertisement programme. The data obtained and analysed will give a picture about the effectiveness of an advertisement.

3. Electronic devices

Now day’s electronic devices are widely used to measure the effectiveness of an advertisement. They are mainly used in broadcast media. These are auto meters, track electronic units etc.

Post-Testing Techniques of Advertising Copy

The following are the post-test techniques for measuring the effectiveness of the advertisements –

(1) Recognition Test – It determines the readership of the advertisement in the newspapers and journals. This test is conducted by personal interviews with readers, and magazines or newspapers. The interviewers locate the readers of the particular issue of the magazine in question. They, then, go through the magazine page by page with the respondent indicating those advertising elements which he or she recognise as having read.

The data collected by this test indicate the proportion of qualified readership of a publication who claims to have ‘seen’, ‘read some’ or ‘read most of the elements of the individual advertisement. These measurements may also seek to obtain quantitative data regarding the parts of an advertisement which were seen or heard.

(2) Recall or Impact Test – The recognition test measurers the stopping power of the advertising but goes not tell us what the readers understood or retained of the advertisement. The recall test is designed to measure the impression of readers or viewers of the advertisement. If a reader has a favorable impression of the advertisement, he will certainly retain something of the advertisement. The measures of interest would be obtained by interviewing the readers or viewers or listeners, days after the advertisement or commercial is appeared in the newspaper, or on T.V. Interviewer asks the questions from the readers / viewers and in  response to the question asked, the reader reveals the accuracy and depth of his impression by his answers.

(3) Psychological Analysis – The whole process of advertising is psychological in character. It is therefore, natural to apply some psychological tests to measure the effectiveness of the advertising.

Four psychological testing techniques are most commonly used –

• (a) Tests of readability and comprehension;
• (b) Tests of Believability
• (c) Attitude tests; and
• (d) Triple Associates Test.

• Tests of Readability and Comprehension It this technique, by means of a series of penetrating questions and by other techniques developed by psychologists, the ease of readability and comprehension is determined, in advance of publication. It is determined by the interviewer under this method whether and to what extent the readers have gone through the advertisement.
• Tests of Believability An advertisement message effective. ness can be measured by the degree of credibility the readers have in the product. A scale technique is generally employed to measure the credibility by putting several statements or product claims before. the consumers and are created by them. The statement or product Claims gets the highest priority votes may be taken as the most effective statement or claim.
• Attitude Tests : A number of attitude tests are developed by the psychologists who can be applied to copy testing. Typical consumers are exposed to sample advertising messages, either printed or oral. The interviewer then asks series of penetrating questions, to determine the attitude produced by these various message. Psychological reactions such as age, involvement, the eye of person who would use the product and the personality of the product reflected by the advertisement being tested, are obtained. The researcher looks especially for elements in the advertising which arouse psychological hostility.
• Triple Hostility Tests – these ties in advertising with recall by seeking to learn the extent of the consumer association with the product, the brand name and copy theme. The test is useful only when the advertising features a specific theme or slogan, which the reader may remember. This procedure is sometimes known as theme penetration.

Pre-Test Methods of Advertising Copy

Pre-test method refers to testing the potentiality of a message or copy before printing or broadcasting. It is useful because the concepts in advertising may appear to be simple and effective to the advertiser or advertising to be simple and effective to the advertiser or advertising agency. It may be difficult from the layman’s point of view. All the elements in the advertising copy requires careful pre-testing to see that the matter it intends to be conveyed has been really conveyed, ‘prevention is better than care’. Pre testing methods are adopted on this basis. The following are some of the pre-testing methods.

• Check list method
• Consumer Jury method
• Sales Area Test
• Questionnaire
• Recall test
• Reaction test
• Readability test
• Eye-movement test

a. ChecklistMethod

The copywriters use checklist method to test the effectiveness of advertising copy. The purpose of this method is to ensure that all elements of the advertising copy are included with due importance in the advertisement. As it is a pretest method omissions can be included in the copy before release of the advertisement.

A checklist is a list of good qualities to be possessed by an effective advertisement. The researcher has to compare the advertisement with the checklist and tick the items present in the advertisement copy. Accordingly a copywriter can draw specific conclusions and make suitable changes in the advertising copy.

b. Consumer Jury method

This method essentially involves the exposure of alternative advertisements to a sample of jury; of prospects and the securing of their opinion and reactions to the advertisements. This test is designed to learn from a typical group of prospective customers gathered in one place or a sample of prospects that are independently, visited by interviewers or contacted by mail their preference for one advertisement over the other or for several advertisements out of a group. Advertisements which are unpublished are mocked up on a separate sheet and these are presented before the consumer jury either in personal interviews or group interviews.

c. Sales Area Test

Under this method advertising campaign is run in the markets selected for testing purposes. The impact of the campaign is evaluated by actual sales in the selected markets. The market with high sales is considered the best market for effective sales campaign. In other markets suitable changes are made in the advertising campaign.

d. Questionnaire Method

It is a list of questions related to an experiment. It contains questions and provides space for answers. The draft of an advertisement along with some relevant questions is to be sent to a group of target consumers or advertising experts. Their opinions are collected and analysed to find out whether the proposed advertisement is satisfactory or not.

e. Recall testMethod

Under this method, advertising copies are shown to a group of prospects.

After few minutes they are asked to recall and reproduce them. This method is used to find out how far the advertisements are impressive.

f. Reaction test

The potential effect of an advertisement is judged with the help of certain instruments, which measure heartbeats, blood pressure, pupil dilution etc. Their reactions reveal the psychological or nervous effects of advertising.

g. Readability test

All the listeners of advertisements cannot read it equally. So respondents are drawn from different socio economic and geographical backgrounds. This method is used to find out the level of effectiveness when and advertisement is read.

h. Eye movement test

The movements of eyes of the respondents are recorded by using eye observation camera when advertisements are shown to them in a screen. This helps to find out the attention value of advertisement.

PRE-TEST AND POST-TEST OF ADVERTISING COPY

Almost every firm spends thousands of rupees on advertising every year; it is very much pertinent to know the effectiveness of the advertisement copy. The main purpose of every advertising is to arouse the interests of the people in the firm’s product can everyone be perused by the same advertisement? Or will the same advertisement satisfy all types of people? The simple answer is in negative because people differ so greatly in their wants, in the economic and other motives which actuate them, and in the various ways by which their interest is aroused. It is why some advertisements are more effective than others. The amount is spent on advertising not only because the advertisement does not get to the right people but because it carries an appeal which does not interest those to whom it goes. An often quoted remark about advertisement is that half the money spent on advertising is wasted; but no one knows which half.

For this purpose, advertising copy research is done to see how will an advertisement succeeds in attracting the attention and stimulating the desire and action of the people for whom it is made and how will it delivers the intended message about a product or an idea. Advertisement copy is done to be sure of its effectiveness.

Copy Testing

Copy testing is a tool involving a procedure where the effectiveness of an advertisement is measured before it appears in its final form, during and after its exposure to the audience to determine whether and to what extent, it has accomplished its assigned task. In this way, the copy testing is a method used to control the effectiveness of future advertising. It addresses the following questions

–

(a) Will a proposed copy theme be effective at achieving advertising objectives?

(b) Does the set of advertisings that makes up an advertising campaign create the Desired interest level and image? And

(c) Will an individual advertisement attract the attention of the audience?

Types of Tests

The various methods of testing advertising copy are

1. Pre-test methods

2. Post-test methods

3. Concurrent methods