Theme 1

•  A niche market is a smaller market that targets the specific needs of customers
•  A mass market is a very large market in which products with mass appeal are targeted.
• The market size can be estimated or calculated by the total sales of all businesses in the market, estimated with either value or volume. Value being the total amount spent by customers buying the products and volume being the physical quantity of products that are produced and sold.
• Market share is the proportion of total sales in a particular market for which one or more businesses or brands are responsible. It is expressed as a percentage and calculated by sales of a business/ total sales in market ✕ 100.
• Dynamic markets - fast changing markets. They may grow, shrink, fragment, emerge or could completely disappear. Dynamic markets have a huge impact on businesses, a failure to adapt in a dynamic market can lead to the collapse of a business. 
• Businesses in a dynamic market have to constantly adapt to changes of trends, those that do are more likely to survive long-term.
• The marketing mix - elements of a business's marketing that are designed to meet the needs of customers. The four elements of marketing mix are often called the 4P's - product, price, place, promotion.
• A business can use the marketing mix to become more competitive by offering sales promotions such as BOGOF (buy one get one free). Have competitive pricing, adding value to products, and seeing where the most beneficial place is to sell that will invite customers to the businesses store.
•  Market orientation is an approach to business which places the needs of consumers at the centre of the decision making process. 
• Product orientation is an approach to business which places the emphasis upon the production process and the product itself.
• Innovation is important to some businesses as it allows them to add value to their products, making them different and unique from the competition, which means that customers are more likely to buy the innovative products.
• Market research is the collection, presentation and analysis of information relating to the marketing and consumption of goods and services. 
• Quantitative research is the collection of numerical data, statistics, numbers.
• Qualitative research is the collection of data about beliefs, attitudes and opinions.
• Methods of primary research include:

  • Questionnaires: able to record the views and opinions of respondents
  • Postal surveys: questionnaires sent out to people for them complete in their own time. 
  • Telephone interviews: this is a cheaper way of gathering information, more people can be covered.
  • Personal interviews: carried out in the street and questions can be explained. 
  • Focus groups: small group of people in a discussion led meeting led by market researches. 
  • Observation: watching the behaviour of customers 
• Methods of secondary research include:

  • Internal data: may be collected from existing business documents or other publications. 
  • External data: data available from outside sources, someone has already collected their own market research and the business can use this for their own personal reasons. E.g. gov publications, commercial publications, retail audits, general publications, internet website pages.
•  Bias in market research is when the results of research are skewed in a certain direction, this can happen by missing a step or by asking questions a certain way that give the market researcher a particular answer. 
• Social media can be used to gather MR as there are many different platforms such as facebook, twitter, instagram ,snapchat and tiktok etc. It can provide a cost effective and in-depth tool for gaining insights into a firm's customers, market, brand appearance. Most social media platforms offer numerous ways to analyse trends and conduct MR. By searching up the most popular trends and latest posts, it is possible to gain insight into emerging trends and see what customers are talking about. 
• A database is an organised collection of data stored electronically with instant access, searching and sorting facilities. 

  Benefits: 

  • Can reduce the amount of time spent managing data
  • Can improve the quality and consistency of data 
• Market segmentation is part of a whole market where a particular customer group has similar characteristics.
• Businesses can segment the market by their:

  • Geographical location
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Income
  • Social class
  • Ethnicity 
  • Religion 
  • Psychographic - grouping customers according to their attitudes, opinions and lifestyle. 
  • Behaviour: usage rate, loyalty, time & date of consumption
• Market positioning - the view consumers have about the quality, value for money and image of a product in relation to those of competitors.
• Market maps (typically a two dimensional diagram) shows two of the attributes or characteristics of a brand and those of rival brands in the market. 
•  5 ways to achieve a competitive advantage:

  • Product design 
  • Product quality
  • Promotion
  • Customer service 
  • Delivery times
• Added value formula: 

  Added Value = The selling price of a product - the cost of raw materials 
• The design mix. These design factors - function, cost and aesthetics - are mixed together in different ways in order to appeal to different target markets.
• The promotional mix is a set of different marketing approaches marketers develop to optimise promotional efforts and reach a wider audience. Which include:

  • Direct marketing 
  • Public relations 
  • Personal selling 
  • Sales promotion 
  • Advertising 
• Emotional branding is a term used within marketing communication that refers to the practice of promoting brands that appeal directly to a consumer's emotional state, needs and aspirations.
•  Price skimming - setting a high price initially and lowering it later.
• Price penetration - setting a low price when launching a new product in order to get established in the market.
• Mark-up pricing - the percentage added to unit cost that makes a profit for the business when setting the price.
• A direct distribution channel is when the manufacturer deals directly with the customer without any intermediaries.
• A multi channel distribution channel is when there are some or many intermediaries involved in the distribution. Such as retailers, wholesalers or agents/brokers.
• Benefits of online distribution to consumers:

  • It is cheaper because often online retailers have lower prices 
  • Consumers can shop 24/7 
  • There is generally a huge amount of choice
  • People can shop from anywhere if they have internet
• Benefits of online distribution to business: 

  • May not have to meet the costs of operating stores 
  • Lower start-up costs
  • Lower costs when processing transactions
  • Business can serve their customer 24/7
• An extension strategy is the name given to the action a business takes when it identifies a product is close to entering the decline stage of the Product Life Cycle.
• The boston matrix is used to help the business to classify the business units, product lines or products, based on their market growth and market share.
• B2B(business to business) and B2C(business to consumer) differences:

  In B2B one approach is to distinguish between outbound and inbound marketing strategies. Outbound involves directing marketing material at potential customers whether they are expecting it or not e.g. mail, email, telephone, targeted adverts. Inbound involves attracting potential customers to websites when they are looking for suppliers or solutions to problems.
• The law of demand is that demand varies inversely with price - lower prices make products more affordable for consumers. 
• The law of supply is that as the price of a product rises, businesses expand supply to the market.