Marketing
3.1 Marketing, competition and the customer
3.1.1 The role of marketing:
- Identifying customer needs
- Satisfying customer needs
- Maintaining customer loyalty; building customer relationships
3.1.2 Market changes:
- Why customer/consumer spending patterns may change
- The power and importance of changing customer needs
- Why some markets have become more competitive
- How business can respond to changing spending patterns and increased competition
3.1.3 Concepts of niche marketing and mass marketing:
- Benefits and limitations of each approach to marketing
3.1.4 How and why market segmentation is undertaken:
- How markets can be segmented, e.g. according to age, socio-economic grouping, location, gender
- Potential benefits of segmentation to business
- Recommend and justify an appropriate method of segmentation in given circumstances
3.2 Market research
3.2.1 The role of market research and methods used:
- Market-oriented businesses (uses of market research information to a business)
- Primary research and secondary research (benefits and limitations of each)
- Methods of primary research, e.g. postal questionnaire, online survey, interviews, focus groups; the need for sampling
- Factors influencing the accuracy of market research data
3.2.2 Presentation and use of market research results:
- Analyse market research data shown in the form of graphs, charts and diagrams: draw simple conclusions from such data
3.3 Marketing mix
3.3.1 Product:
- The costs and benefits of developing new products
- Brand image – impact on sales and customer loyalty
- The role of packaging
- The product life cycle: main stages and extension strategies; draw and interpret a product life cycle diagram
- How stages of the product life cycle can influence marketing decisions, e.g. promotion and pricing decisions
3.3.2 Price:
- Pricing methods: cost plus, competitive, penetration, skimming and promotional; their benefits and limitations
- Recommend and justify an appropriate pricing method in given circumstances
- Understand the significance of price elasticity: difference between price elastic demand and price inelastic demand; importance of the concept in pricing decisions (knowledge of the formula and calculations of PED will not be examined)
3.3.3 Place – distribution channels:
- Advantages and disadvantages of different channels
- Recommend and justify an appropriate distribution channel in given circumstances
3.3.4 Promotion:
- The aims of promotion
- Different forms of promotion and how they influence sales, e.g. advertising, sales promotion
- The importance of the marketing budget in making promotion decisions; need for cost effectiveness in spending the marketing budget
3.3.5 Technology and the marketing mix:
- Define and explain the concept of e-commerce
- The opportunities and threats of e-commerce to business and consumers
- Use of the internet and social networks for promotion
3.4 Marketing strategy
3.4.1 Justify marketing strategies appropriate to a given situation:
- Importance of different elements of the marketing mix in influencing consumer decisions in given circumstances
- Recommend and justify an appropriate marketing strategy in given circumstances
3.4.2 The nature and impact of legal controls related to marketing:
- Impact of legal controls on marketing strategy, e.g. misleading promotion, faulty and dangerous goods
3.4.3 The opportunities and problems of entering new markets abroad:
- Growth potential of new markets in other countries
- Problems of entering foreign markets, e.g. cultural differences and lack of knowledge
- Benefits and limitations of methods to overcome such problems, e.g. joint ventures
Revision Notes
Article Count:
30
Interactive quizzes
Article Count:
15