Download Unit 10: Marketing Decisions

Advanced GCE Applied Business
Unit 10: Marketing Decisions
An introduction for students
1
Overview



This unit is worth 1/3 of your overall A2 Applied Business grade.
It will be assessed by an externally assessed examination.
The examination will be sat in January 2010 (re sits can be taken in June
2010)
Content Overview
o Effective marketing campaigns do not just happen. They result from having a
clear vision of the desired outcome, careful planning and thorough
application of that plan.
o This unit will provide students with the basis for effective decision making
and planning in the marketing process.
o Students will learn about the type of decisions that have to be made to bring
a product to market. Students will identify these decisions and how they
contribute to the overall marketing plan.
What students will learn
10.1 Influences on marketing decisions
Students need to understand the wide range of influences on an organisation,
both internal and external, and the types of decisions that have to be made
relating to these influences in order to keep the organisation moving forward
in line with management plans.
To achieve this, organisations have different marketing objectives, strategic
or tactical, depending on how the objectives support the business plans.
Analysis of the organisation’s current and future situation can be made using
planning tools such as SWOT and PESTLE analyses to inform marketing
decisions in terms of:
• whether a product should be developed or launched
• whether these decisions are strategic or tactical
• competitive advantage
• whether the timing is right
• whether the correct market has been identified.
2
Students need to learn the impact these may have on the marketing mix. To
do this, students need to investigate influences that impact on the planning
process, such as:
• marketing environment, both macro and micro
• competition
• social, cultural, environmental, economic issues.
10.2 Marketing decisions and the planning process
Students need to understand how to produce plans for the development of
the marketing mix using tools such as:
• product life cycle
• Ansoff
• portfolio analysis tools, eg the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix.
Students also need to know how a business uses these tools to decide on a
marketing strategy for:
• product development, eg supplementary products, add ons
• pricing strategy, eg market penetration, skimming the market, price
leadership, market-based competitive pricing
• promotional strategy, eg deciding what to say, deciding how to say
it,
unique selling points (USPs), above-the-line, below-the-line, use of
new media, public relations, budget, timescales, media mix
• distribution channels, eg direct to end user, via a retailer, via a
wholesaler
• target market, eg consumers, trade customers (b2b), retailers,
wholesalers, large organisations, small organisations, new customers,
existing customers.
10.3 Research to inform marketing decisions
The type of research carried out will depend on:
• the element of the marketing mix being addressed
• the type of market.
Students need to understand the process of marketing research and how it
informs the decision-making process. This will include:
• size, shape and dynamics of market
• sampling, eg deciding on sampling frame, random sampling, quota
sampling, stratified sampling, cluster sampling
3
• information-gathering systems, eg primary and secondary sources,
desk
and field research
• results analysis.
10.4 Investigating marketing campaigns
Students need to research real campaigns and draw conclusions about the
effectiveness of the underlying marketing decisions. This will include how
effective the campaign was, based on the following criteria:
• measuring and monitoring
• identifying the target market
• analysing the marketing processes
• constraints identifying the target market
• analysing marketing processes and constraints.
Assessment evidence
This unit will be assessed through an external assessment.
This test will consist of short-answer and extended-answer questions based on a
case
study or a real business.
The mark students achieve for this assessment will be their mark for the unit
The external assessment will require evidence of:

being able to demonstrate knowledge, skills and understanding of the
subject content of this unit and relevant business skills

being able to apply your knowledge, skills and understanding of the
subject content of this unit and relevant business skills

being able to use appropriate methods to carry out research and
analysis relevant to the subject content of this unit

some ability to evaluate and reach reasoned judgements on the
suitability of planned campaigns or the results of campaigns carried
out, based on the subject content of this unit.
4
Assessment objectives
Each unit is assessed using the below criteria;
AO1 Knowledge, skills and understanding — learners demonstrate knowledge and
understanding of the specified content and relevant business skills.
AO2 Application of knowledge, skills and understanding — learners apply knowledge and
understanding of the specified content and relevant business skills.
AO3 Research and analysis — learners use appropriate methods in order to obtain and select
information from a range of sources to analyse business problems.
AO4 Evaluation — learners evaluate evidence to reach reasoned judgements.
Grade Boundaries
Unit 10 is marked out of 90. The exam board then coverts this into a mark out of 100.
The boundaries for the mark out of 100 (which applies Unit 10) are as follows;
Mark
(out of 100)
80+
70+
60+
50+
40+
< 40
Grade
A
B
C
D
E
U
5