A major factor contributing to the growth in the use of direct marketing IMC efforts is: A. increased use of credit and debit cards, and online shopping by consumers.
B. the reduction in IMC noise, allowing for a decreased lagged effect.
C. a shift from objective-and-task to rule-of-thumb budgeting.
D. expanded use of personal selling.
E. reduced government regulation of deceptive advertising practices.

You work as the sales manager for a company that sells office supplies to businesses of all sizes. because the profit margins are razor-thin, you need to ensure that you are getting the very best prices on paper, pencils, pens, post-it notes, and other office supplies from the manufacturers. when reviewing the quarterly profit statement, you realize that your costs are higher than they should be, and you trace the higher costs back to an employee who has been lax about getting competitive bids to ensure the lowest prices. when you conduct your research to determine the reason for the higher costs, and take action to bring those costs back down, in which of the key management processes are you taking part?