Download Supporting documents – Marketing booklet

WHAT IS MARKETING?
Marketing is about promoting and selling goods and services that meet to
consumers' needs. It is important to find out what these needs are before
launching a new product. Marketing also involves providing information
about the goods and services for example, price and where they can be
purchased from.
WHY IS MARKETING IMPORTANT?
Marketing is important to the business as it will ensure that customers
know about the goods and services available.
Marketing can also persuade people to make a purchase and this
increases sales revenue to the business and helps the business make
more profit.
Marketing also increases brand awareness
Marketing helps the business compete
WHAT IS A MARKET?
Businesses sell to customers in markets. A market is any place where
buyers and sellers meet to trade products - it could be high street shops
or websites.
WHAT IS MARKET RESEARCH?
A business conducts market research to help identify gaps in the market
and business opportunities.
Market research involves gathering data about customers, competitors
and market trends
There are two main methods of collecting information:

Primary research (field research) involves gathering new data that has
not been collected before. For example, surveys using questionnaires or
interviews with groups of people in a focus group.
An advantage of primary research is that is can be designed so that it
meets the business’s needs. However, a disadvantage is that is can take
time to organise and can be costly.

Secondary research (desk research) involves gathering existing data
that has already been produced. For example, researching the internet,
statistics provided by the government e.g. census and national statistics.
An advantage of secondary research is that is often freely available.
A disadvantage is that it can be fairly general and it might be old and
therefore irrelevant.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN QUALITATIVE AND
QUANTITATIVE DATA?
Once the business has carried out its research it will analyse the data
using qualitative and quantitative data.
Qualitative data involves looking at data which is explained through
customers’ opinions, attitudes and feelings about a product/service.
The advantages are that the business can find out what customers are
thinking and through feedback they can get a better understanding of
what needs to be done to the product/service to make it more appealing
to customers.
The disadvantages are that the results can be biased, unreliable,
obtained from a small sample of people and it can’t be analysed
statistically/numerically.
Quantitative data involves looking at the collection of data which is
based on numbers and quantities.
The advantages are that it is easier to analyse because the data is based
on numbers and statistics which can be put into charts and graphs. You
can also see if there are any trends.
The disadvantages are that the sample of people is too small and it can
be biased.
HOW CAN A BUSINESS RESEARCH ITS TARGET MARKET?
A business could find information about its target market by carrying out
a survey. They could ask members of the public whether they would
purchase the goods and services and how much they would be prepared
to pay.
A business can also use census data to research the characteristics of the
population of the local area.
WHAT IS THE MARKETING MIX?
The marketing mix is the combination of product, price, place and
promotion for any business venture.
No one element of the marketing mix is more important than another –
each element ideally supports the others. Businesses change each
element in the marketing mix to establish an overall brand image and
unique selling point that makes their products stand out from the
competition.
PRICE
Business will use different methods of setting prices, these include;
Cost-plus pricing – calculating the cost of making the product and adding
on a mark-up. Eg a sandwich costs 50p to make, add say a 50% markup and the selling price will be £1.00
Penetration pricing – selling new products at a very low price to attract
customers and then increasing the price later.
Promotion pricing – special offers to encourage people to buy, eg buyone-get-one-free. This is useful when selling old stock
Competitive pricing – making sure that the price is lower than
competitors
Psychological pricing – eg 99p rather than £1.00.
PRODUCT
Tangible products are physical products that can be touched. Intangible
products include services offered that cannot always be seen.
PLACE
It is important that businesses make sure that their products are
available in a range of places for example; on the high street, website,
retail park and a market.
PROMOTION
There are many types of promotions that a business can chose from
including;
Advertising – this is promotion through the media like TV and magazines.
These promotions can be expensive but they can be very effective
especially TV as movement and pictures can be shown.
Other types of promotions can be cheaper like special offers and leaflets.
Successful businesses will target their promotions to save money and to
make them more effective. For example, a promotion for a perfume can
be put in a ladies magazine.
THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE INTERNET ON
PROMOTION
Social media and the internet have changed the way businesses deal with
promotion. One reason is because they know customers are interacting
on social media and the internet daily. Social media reaches a large
target market.
FACEBOOK
Facebook allows businesses to advertise on it’s website. Businesses pay
Facebook so that they appear on people’s timelines depending on what
they have searched for on the internet and Facebook. For example, if you
have been searching for a new watch on the internet, Facebook will then
put a company advertising watches on your timeline.
TWITTER
Most companies have Twitter nowadays. They can use Twitter to tell their
followers about new products they have or other information. Some
companies such as Tesco have 450,000 followers so whenever they tweet
something, such as special offer, it will instantly go to all those followers.
Another way companies can advertise on Twitter if they don’t have many
followers and want to get their name out there is by paying Twitter so
that they automatically appear on peoples Twitter feeds.
INSTAGRAM
Instagram lets people and businesses post pictures on to the website
which then appear on the Instagram page of anyone following their
account (similar to Twitter). Many businesses post pictures of new
products they are selling, this is very popular with clothing retailers who
post pictures of models in their clothes.
SNAPCHAT
Businesses now have their own Snapchat accounts which people follow,
they then create videos which people can view, many of these videos
promote the business’s products and events.
NETWORKING
Examples: Facebook, Google and Linkedln
Networking allows people to connect and share with others who have
similar interests and backgrounds
BLOGGING/MICROBLOGGING
Example: Twitter
Blogging/microblogging is when users will create short videos and written
entries. They will include links to other product/service sites as well as
links to other social media sites.
MEDIA SHARING
Examples: YouTube, Instagram, Vine, Pinterest and Snapchat
Media sharing is set up to allow users to share different types of media
which include pictures and videos. Media sharing has been set up to offer
social features to users which enable them to create profiles and
providing comments.
MESSAGING
Examples: Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Oovoo and Kik
Messaging is when users send a short text message, picture or video
message to either an individual person or a group of people. it takes
place in real time so is instant and feels that the message is more like a
conversation than email where you will wait for a response.
GAMING
Example: Minecraft
Gaming is when users can use action and adventure games through the
means of a computer, smartphone or games console. An example of
gaming is Minecraft. Gaming can be played on an individual basis or in
competition with other players over the internet. Gaming promotes
companies through advertising, many games available on iOS have pop
adverts promoting companies which have paid them.
(Source: Media Smart: Opening eyes)
EMAIL
Email is when mail is sent electronically from one user to another user. In
terms of promotion, a company may send information on products/sales
in an email to make customers aware. Businesses can send emails to as
many customers as they want at once so it is cheap and easy.
GOOGLE ADVERTS
Google is the world’s most popular website and is used by most people
around the world to search for things. A business can pay Google so that
it comes at the top of search results when certain words are typed in. For
example, The Ship pub in Wokingham might pay Google so that it comes
at the top when people search ‘Wokingham pubs’.
MASS MARKET
A mass market is where a product/service is aimed at a wide target
market. Examples include toothpaste, Cinemas, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk
chocolate, Facebook and Twitter.
NICHE MARKET
A niche market is where a product/service is aimed at a small, specialised
and specific market. Examples include Aston Martin and Porsche 911 cars
and Choccywoccydoodah wedding cakes made of chocolate!
TARGETED MARKET
A business may decide to sell to a particular group of people. Customers
can be separated by their characteristics for example;
*Age
*Socio-economic group
*Religion
*Gender
*Lifestyle
*Geographical location
Businesses can then alter the promotions and products to suit the target
market and this will enable them to sell more products. For example,
yellow baby clothes can be sold to the mass market but some parents
may not want to buy yellow baby clothes and so the business may make
more sales if it offers pink and blue clothes for sale.
PRODUCT-ORIENTATED MARKETING
Product-orientated marketing is providing products because the business
will know how to produce them. For example, Dyson produced their
vacuums because they know how to make bag less vacuum cleaners,
rather than finding out what the customer wants.
MARKET-ORIENTATED MARKETING
Market orientated marketing is providing products that customers want
after carrying out research. An example of market-orientated products is
mobile phones.