AQA A-LEVEL Business: Unit 3 - Marketing and decision-making Question Paper & Mark scheme

AQA A-LEVEL Business: Unit 3 - Marketing and decision-making Question Paper & Mark scheme Marketing - finds out customers need & wants - anticipate what customers will want in future Includes: - research - analysis - planning - "marketing mix" Marketing objectives - targets set for marketing department help businessess achieve overall objectives - targets tend to focus on sales i.e. increase company sales by 25% by end of 2019 Sales volume & sales value - sales volume (number of unites sold) i.e. sell 500,000 units over a year - sales value (amount of money come in from sales) i.e. £500 million in sales over a year Sales growth EQ: sales growth (%) = sales this year - sales last year / sales last year x 100 - helps indentify if sales are being gained or lost - can be measured over any time period Market size - total number of sales (or value of sales revenue) in a market over given period of time Market share EQ: market share (%) = sales / total market size x 100 - important to look at trends in market share & market share of competitors - to increase: entice customers from competitors or attract new customers in growing markets Market growth EQ: market growth (%) = new market size - old market size / old market size x 100 - helps indentify if market is growing (increasing demand) or if market is shrinking (decreasing demand). Brand loyalty - having a recognisable brand image helps improve loyalty to brand - helps to hold on to existing customers - important when products are very similar, customers tend to purchase those that are more recognizable Repositioning - changing a product, branding & image to shift to slightly different market sector i.e. Greggs from bakery to on-the-go food Internal influences on marketing objectives - Corporate objectives: marketing objectives should be aligned with overall goals - Finance: finance department allocates marketing budget, affecting the ability of the department - Human resources: allocates the capacity of staff for marketing, fewer staff limits how effective marketing is at increasing sales volume External influences on marketing objectives Market: state of the economy (economic boom = attempt to increase sales volume, recession = attempt to maintain market share) Technology: - rapidly changing technology shortens product life cycles, creates many opportunities. - goals are often based on sales & price to maintain competitiveness Competitors: actions of competition affect objectives i.e if competitors focus on low prices, marketing may focus on consumers seeing them as price competitive Ethics & environmental factors: awareness increasing amongst consumers, harmful actions damage brand image, marketing consider this i.e. using less packaging to show environment conscious Non-price competition - rivalry based on factors other than price (i.e. advertising, sales promotion, newest products) USP - USP meaning 'unique selling point'* - difference between competitor products that makes a product stand out Predatory pricing - cutting prices to force competitor out of market - illegal in EU & US Marketing mapping - shows both extremes of any of measures on a matrix in a simple way: Measures: - low vs. high price - low vs. high quality - basic vs. luxurious - youth vs. mature appeal Importance: - can help to spot gap in market - identify closest competitors - show how much customers are willing to pay Main reasons for market research - spot opportunities (i.e. buying patterns, growing markets, declining markets) - decide what to do next (i.e. develop advertising campaign before product launch) - identify is current strategies are working Quantitative market research - produces numeral statistics (facts & figures) - often based on larger samples that can be shown on graph & used to find correlations - collected using survey with fixed, predetermined answer choices - tend to be easier to collect (online, questionnaire, telephone) Qualitative market research - looks into opinions, attitudes, beliefs & intentions of consumers - not necessarily statistically valid but can identify things that quantitative data cannot - focus groups discussing a product i.e. interviews with open questions - tend to be more time-consuming & expensive