General notes

• What do businesses need to know about customer needs?

  What customers expect and need
• How can customer needs be categorized?

  Choice, quality, price, and convenience
• What does 'choice' refer to in customer needs?

  Having a wide range to choose from
• What does 'quality' refer to in customer needs?

  How good a product is for the price
• What does 'price' refer to in customer needs?

  How pricey a product is
• What does 'convenience' refer to in customer needs?

  Location of shop and ease of use
• Why is identifying customer needs important for a business?

  It helps provide goods customers want
• What can successful identification of customer needs lead to?

  Increased sales and business survival
• What is the purpose of market research?

  To decrease business failure likelihood
• How can market research help a business?

  Identify gaps, risks, and rewards
• What is the difference between primary and secondary research?

  Primary is collected data; secondary is existing
• What are the advantages of primary research?

  Specific, non-biased answers for your business
• What are the disadvantages of primary research?

  Expensive and time consuming to analyze
• What are the advantages of secondary research?

  Cheap, fast, and easy to conduct
• What are the disadvantages of secondary research?

  Not specific, may be outdated or biased
• What is market segmentation?

  Splitting people into groups by needs
• What are the advantages of market segmentation?

  Identifies underserved groups and product ideas
• What are the disadvantages of market segmentation?

  Not all fit into groups; can be costly
• What is market mapping?

  Identifying gaps and competition in the market
• What do the axes in a market map represent?

  Variables like quality and price
• What is competition in a business context?

  Businesses competing to provide goods/services
• What are the effects of weak competition?

  Less pressure to innovate or reduce prices
• What are the effects of strong competition?

  Encourages innovation and price reduction
• How does competition affect pricing strategies?

  Can lead to reduced prices for consumers
• How does competition encourage innovation?

  Businesses must improve to attract customers
• How can competition lead to an increased product range?

  Businesses diversify to meet customer demands