[Leon015]

Hello all!

One of the subjects I had this year was Marketing. On our test there the following question was asked: (IT WAS IN DUTCH, I TRANSLATED IT)

The normal campsite business is losing customers. Nature campsites are rising in popularity as people are seeking for quiet campings without noises like cars etc.
An owner of a normal campsite decides to start a nature campsite in addition to his already owned normal campsite.
In what way does the owner try to make his nature campsite grow?

A.Product Development strategy.
B.Market Penetration strategy.
C.Conglomerate diversification strategy.
D.Integrative growth of via forward integration.

I decided this must be A.
The market is still the same, it falls under camping/campsites. It even says that the normal campsite business is losing customers and the nature campsites is winning them (direct concurrents?)
The product however is slightly different, as a nature campsites is more basic.

Our professor decided the answer was C.
However, after I did some research I found out that a key part of Conglomerate diversification is, this is the definition used in some exercises in the book we actually use for this subject:

"If a company sought to grow via a strategy that required the company to seek new businesses that have no relationship to its current technology, products, or markets, the company would be using a diversification strategy called a conglomerate strategy."

How can someone say that a nature campsite is a totally new business with no relationship to its current technology, product or markets in comparison with a normal camping.

Am I wrong? Am I not seeing something? Or should A be right, or at least the answer C AND the answer A?

[paraclete]

well it is a diversification strategy, you just weren't given the right list of options and the trick was to see past the word conglomerate, personally I would have gone for B but then I don't have the benefit of your text