Principles of Marketing CLEP
Free Study Guide

Name of Exam: Principles of Marketing CLEP

Number of Questions: 100

Time Limit: 90 Minutes

ACE Recommended Passing Score: 50

Practice Test Available?: Yes - Click here

Quick Prep Package Available?: Yes - Click here

Cost: $80 + Sitting Fee (Usually no more than $20) at your testing site. Military can take CLEPs for free with Tuition Assistance. Check with your Educational Officer!

Difficulty 1-5 : 1
(One being the easiest, and five being the hardest)

Exam Description:

The Principles of Marketing CLEP covers the material covered in most introductory marketing college courses. Subjects such as ethics, marketing research, services, marketing strategy planning and others are covered

The exam will also test your knowledge of trends that affect marketing. These include technological, political, social, cultural, economic, legal, and demographic factors.

Personal Thoughts:

This is one of the easier CLEP exams out there, and I always suggest it as a start for any beginning test taker. We live in a society of marketing. We're bombarded with it all day long, and much of the information on the Principles of Marketing CLEP will be intuitive to most of us for that reason.

With some study and a healthy dose of common sense, the average test taker won't have too hard of a time with this one. Let's see what the exam will cover. Wikipedia has an absolutely outstanding "Marketing" category that covers everything below. Considering it rivals any textbook I've ever read on the subject, I'll be using that for the bulk of this review.

Exam breakdown:

According to the College Board website, the Principles of Marketing CLEP exam is broken down as follows:

45%-50%	Marketing Mix
22%-27%	Target Marketing
17%-24%	Role of Marketing in a Firm
08%-13%	Role of Marketing in Society

Areas of Study

I'm still experimenting with the best way to cover the needed material. I'm going to break down the percentages above with the topics that fall under each category. This should allow you to decide what you need help with, and only study those areas in which you feel a little weak. Less wading through masses of resources, and more targeted studying.

If you like this style, please let me know via the "Contact Us" form. The end goal here is to give you the information in the most helpful manner.

Alright, here we go:

Marketing Mix
(45%-50% of the Principles of Marketing CLEP exam)

• Product and Service Management - A basic breakdown as it applies to the product lifecycle. You'll probably be asked to know the different aspects of that as well so be sure to follow the links.
• The 4 P's (Marketing Mix) - The following all tie into this, so know it well.
• Branding - The trick with these links is finding one that explains not just the definition of the topic but also how it applies. This one does that, so be sure to read it all.
• Pricing Policies - Once again, read it all. Follow the links such as sticker shock, inflation, price point, and elasticity as well. Between this one and the next two, you should have pricing down.
• Pricing Policies Part II - Don't skip this one. You'll find the answers to quite a few questions on the Marketing CLEP inside this link.
• Pricing Policies Part III - Goes into more detail on Pricing Policies, and covers much of the information you may be asked about on the Principles of Marketing CLEP. Read the entire thing, but pay special attention to "Break Even Analysis", "Cost Oriented Pricing".
• Distribution channels and Logistics - Self explanatory, but know the basics.
• Integrated Marketing Communications
• Promotions - Know the basic techniques, which makes for some interesting reading even if you're not taking the Principles of Marketing CLEP. It's fun to see how often we're led by the nose with advertising.
• Marketing Application in E-Commerce - Extremely interesting reading, though anyone who has spent some time on the Internet will recognize many of the terms here. Any website owners will be intimately familiar with these concepts.

Target Marketing
(22%-27% of the Principles of Marketing CLEP exam)

• Consumer Behavior - The best explanation I've seen, as it gives you what you'll need for the Marketing CLEP. Know the different types of behavior, as well as the stages.
• Market Segmentation - Best description I've found for this one.
• Segmentation part two - Pay attention to the bottom where it talks about Price Discrimination. I did have a question on my Principles of Marketing CLEP referencing this term, which I didn't know at the time.
• Market Segmentation Approach - I'm including this because it gives a few examples of Market Segmentation in action, along with some Pro's and Con's. This may help some of you understand the concept better.
• Positioning - This ties into Segmentation, so make sure you understand both.
• Business-to-Business markets - Know what it is, as well as that this type of commerce far out-paces Business-to-Customer commerce (B2C).

Role of Marketing in a Firm
(17%-24% of the Principles of Marketing CLEP exam)

• SWOT Analysis - Understand how to use it, and how businesses use this tool for marketing..
• Marketing Concept - Read up on the other concepts as well, and know why the Marketing Concept works so well today.
• Marketing Strategy - A good overview of the definition and how it is used in a company.
• Marketing Strategy (Detailed) - Goes into waaaay too much depth for what we need for the Principles of Marketing CLEP, but do a quick review of each of the topics under this category.
• Marketing Environment - A great but simple breakdown of this important topic.
• Marketing Decision System - Ugh. This was a pain to find. My old link was dead, so after 15 minutes of searching I came across this.
• Marketing Research
• Marketing Information System - A down and dirty breakdown of the purpose and how these systems work.

Role of Marketing in Society
(08%-13% of the Principles of Marketing CLEP exam)

• Marketing Ethics - An extremely interesting read.
• Nonprofit Marketing - Just the definition, you can see the below link if you want more detail.
• Nonprofit Marketing - See the articles if you want more detail. Don't get bogged down here, just understand the challenges that nonprofits have when it comes to marketing and why.
• International Marketing - Don't go too deep since it's only a small part of the exam, but a quick review wouldn't be a bad idea.

Recommended bargain-priced study resources

Always check your library first! You may be able to find some of these for free. You don't have to buy the officially recommended resources all the time. If you're the type of person that prefers to study from a textbook source however, then please see below.

Principles of Marketing CLEP Quick Prep Package - Our own study package for the Principles of Marketing CLEP exam. Need those credits fast and don't have time to do all the research? We've done the work for you right here. Get our Quick Prep Sheet for this exam, two additional full-length practice tests, and even a mp3 file to study from. It's quick, it's cheap, and it's guaranteed to help you pass.

CLEP Principles of Marketing w/ CD-ROM (REA) -The Best Test Prep for the CLEP (Test Preps) - Not a bad resource though it's dated and too long for my taste. I wasn't impressed with the practice tests either, which is the reason we started making our own.

InstantCert Academy - Principles of Marketing Specific Exam Feedback - Two pages of study notes, specific topics of study, and after action reports.

If you don't know what InstantCert is, then click here for the scoop as well as a discount code: **InstantCert Academy**

You'll find an InstantCert link for every exam here if that gives you an idea of the amount of information they have available. It's an outstanding resource.

Closing Thoughts

It's not a hard exam, as noted by the difficulty level. This makes it a great place to get started if you're never taken a CLEP before.

There's quite a bit of information to cover, but you're probably not going to find this too difficult. We've covered everything we think you'll see on the actual CLEP in our Quick Prep Package, primarily to fill any gaps in your knowledge and teach you how to do the math-based questions. Don't stress over this one, you can do it!

Best of luck!

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