Question

original: the product offering, the heart of an organization’s marketing program, is usually the starting point in creating a marketing mix. a marketing manager cannot determine a price, design a promotion strategy, or create a distribution channel until the firm has a product to sell. moreover, an excellent distribution channel, a persuasive promotion campaign, and a fair price have no value when the product offering is poor or inadequate.
source: lamb, charles w., et al., mktg. 12th ed., e - book, cengage, 2019.
paraphrase: lamb, hair, and mcdaniel observe that the quality of an organization’s marketing program determines the quality of the product offering.
which errors in the practice of paraphrasing are evident in the example above?
check all that apply.
☐ synonyms that distort the original’s meaning
☐ missing source information
☐ misunderstanding of original’s meaning
☐ excessive use of original’s words, phrases, and sentence structure

Explanation:

1. Synonyms that distort the original’s meaning: The original states the product offering is the heart of the marketing program and that other marketing mix elements (price, promotion, distribution) depend on the product, and a poor product makes other elements valueless. The paraphrase says the marketing program’s quality determines the product offering’s quality, which reverses the causal relationship, so synonyms here distort meaning.
2. Misunderstanding of original’s meaning: The original’s core is the product offering’s centrality and primacy in the marketing mix. The paraphrase misinterprets this as the marketing program’s quality determining the product offering’s quality, showing a misunderstanding.
3. Missing source information: The original source is Lamb, Charles W., et al., but the paraphrase uses “Lamb, Hair, and McDaniel” (incorrect authorship) and doesn’t fully include the source details as in the original (e - book, Cengage, 2019 are missing), so source info is missing.
4. Excessive use of original’s words, phrases, and sentence structure: The paraphrase doesn’t overly use the original’s words; it’s a misinterpretation rather than over - relying on original language, so this is not an error here.

Answer:

• Synonyms that distort the original’s meaning
• Missing source information
• Misunderstanding of original’s meaning