Business Studies 4 Marks Question

Following are the differences between advertising and personal selling (any four):

S.No.	Advertising	Personal Selling
1.	Advertising is an impersonal form of communication.	Personal selling is a personal form of communication.
2.	Advertising involves transmission of standardised messages, i.e., the same message is sent.	In personal selling, the sales talk is adjusted keeping view of the customer's background and needs.
3.	Advertising is inflexible as the message can’ t be adjusted to the needs of the buyer.	Personal selling is highly flexible. as the message can be adjusted.
4.	It reaches masses, i.e., a large number of people can be approached.	Only a limited number of people can be contacted because of time and cost considerations.
5.	In advertising the cost per person reached is very low.	The cost per person is quite high in the case of personal selling.
6.	Advertising can cover the market in a short time.	Personal selling efforts take a lot of time to cover the entire market.
7.	Advertising makes use of mass media such television, radio, newspaper, and magazines.	Personal selling makes use of sales staff, which has limited reach.
8.	Advertising lacks direct feedback. Marketing research efforts are needed to judge customers’ reactions to advertising.	Personal selling provides direct and immediate feedback. Sales persons come to know about the customers’ reactions immediately.
9.	Advertising is more useful in creating and building interest of the consumers in the firm's products.	Personal selling plays an important role at the awareness stage of decision making.
10.	Advertising is more useful in marketing to the ultimate consumers who are large in numbers.	Personal selling is more useful in selling products to the industrial buyers or to intermediaries such as dealers and retailers who are relatively few in number.

Features of Planning
(1) Planning focuses on achieving objectives: Organisations are set up with a general purpose in view. Specific goals are set out in the plans along with the activities to be undertaken to achieve the goals. Thus, planning is purposeful. Planning has no meaning unless it contributes to the achievement of predetermined organisational goals.
(2) Planning is futuristic: Planning essentially involves looking ahead and preparing for the future. The purpose of planning is to meet future events effectively to the best advantage of an organisation. It implies peeping into the future, analysing it and predicting it. Planning is, therefore, regarded as a forward looking function based on forecasting.
(3) Planning involves decision making: Planning essentially involves choice from among various alternatives and activities. The need for planning arises only when alternatives are available. In actual practice, planning presupposes the existence of alternatives. Planning, thus, involves thorough examination and evaluation of each alternative and choosing the most appropriate one.
(4) Planning is a mental exercise: Planning requires application of the mind involving foresight, intelligent imagination and sound judgement. It is basically an intellectual activity of thinking rather than doing, because planning determines the action to be taken. However, planning requires logical and systematic thinking rather than guesswork or wishful thinking.

• Measurement of Actual Performance: Once performance standards are set, the next step is measurement of actual performance. Performance should be measured in an objective and reliable manner. There are several techniques for measurement of performance. These include personal observation, sample checking, performance reports.
• Comparing Actual Performance with Standards: This step involves comparison of actual performance with the standard. Such comparison will reveal the deviation between actual and desired results. Comparison becomes easier when standards are set in quantitative terms.

Plans are prepared for the future and are based on forecasts about future conditions. Therefore, planning involves looking ahead and is called a forward-looking function.
On the contrary, controlling is like a postmortem of past activities to find out deviations from the standards. In that sense, controlling is a backward looking function.
However, planning is guided by past experiences and the corrective action initiated by the control function aims to improve future performance. Thus, planning and controlling are both backward-looking as well as a forward-looking function.

(I) Esteem Needs
(II) • Employee Recognition programmes: Recognition means acknowledgment with a show of appreciation. When such appreciation is given to the work performed by employees, they feel motivated to perform/work at a higher level.
• Employee Participation: It means involving employees in decision making of the issues related to them. In many companies, these programmes are in practice in the form of joint management committees, work committees, canteen committees etc.

Benefit of training to workers:
• Improved skills and knowledge due to training lead to better careers for the individual.
• Increased performance by the individual helps him to earn more.
• Training makes the employee more efficient to handle machines. Thus, less prone to accidents.
• Training increases the satisfaction and morale of employees.

Selection tests (Any four):
• Intelligence Tests: This is one of the important psychological tests used to measure the level of intelligence quotient of an individual. It is an indicator of a person’s learning ability or the ability to make decisions and judgments.
• Aptitude Test: It is a measure of an individual's potential for learning new skills. It indicates the person’s capacity to develop.
• Personality Tests: Personality tests provide clues to a person’s emotions, her reactions, maturity and value system etc. These tests probe the overall personality. Hence, these are difficult to design and implement.
• Trade Test: These tests measure the existing skills of the individual. They measure the level of knowledge and proficiency in the area of professions or technical training. The difference between aptitude test and trade test is that the former measures the potential to acquire skills and the later the actual skills possessed.
• Interest Tests: Every individual has a fascination for some job more than the other. Interest tests are used to know the pattern of interests or involvement of a person.

(I) Management is an intangible force: Management is an intangible force that cannot be seen but its presence can be felt in the way the organisation functions. The effect of management is noticeable in an organisation where targets are met according to plans, employees are happy and satisfied, and there is orderliness instead of chaos.
(II) Importance of management: (Any three)
• Management helps in achieving group goals: Management is required not for itself but for achieving the goals of the organisation. The task of a manager is to give a common direction to the individual effort in achieving the overall goal of the organisation.
• Management increases efficiency: The aim of a manager is to reduce costs and increase productivity through better planning, organising, directing, staffing and controlling the activities of the organisation.
• Management creates a dynamic organisation: All organisations have to function in an environment which is constantly changing. It is generally seen that individuals in an organisation resist change as it often means moving from a familiar, secure environment into a newer and more challenging one. Management helps people adapt to these changes so that the organisation is able to maintain its competitive edge.
• Management helps in achieving personal objectives: A manager motivates and leads his team in such a manner that individual members are able to achieve personal goals while contributing to the overall organisational objective.
• Management helps in the development of society: An organisation has multiple objectives to serve the purpose of the different groups that constitute it. In the process of fulfilling all these, management helps in the development of the organisation and through that it helps in the development of society.