Marketing objectives

• Aldi is the fast growing discount supermarket chain, with 8.1% market share of the grocery market in the UK.
• Walkers is the market leader in terms of sales volume of crisps in the UK, selling 77 million kilograms in 2017.
• Marketing objectives can be related to sales volume, sales value, sales growth, market share, and brand loyalty.
• Setting realistic and relevant marketing objectives helps align the marketing strategy with the overall objectives of the business, and ensures that resources are allocated to achieve these objectives.
• Marketing objectives should be measurable, and the performance should be tracked to ensure progress towards these objectives.
• Marketing objectives are often similar to corporate objectives, particularly in relation to things like market share.
• Marketing objectives should help focus the marketing budget, as it is not unlimited in most businesses.
• Marketing objectives should be reviewed regularly to ensure they remain relevant in the face of changes in the external environment.
• There is a potential conflict between different marketing objectives, for example, increasing market share by cutting selling prices may have implications for brand awareness and brand loyalty.
• Marketing objectives should be ambitious, but it's important to be realistic about what can be achieved.
• Setting a marketing objective of being a 15 to 20 market share in a competitive market may be pushing it too far.
• Marketing objectives are specific goals, targets, and plans related to the marketing strategy, marketing activities, marketing performance, and business growth.
• There are five main types of marketing objectives: sales volume, sales value, sales growth, market share, and brand awareness.
• Internal influences on marketing objectives are factors within the control of the business, such as corporate objectives, financial position, and human resources.
• The quality and culture of a business are significant influences which are within the control of the business.
• Long-term social changes such as changes in demographics and changes in the regulatory and political environment may affect a business's ability to achieve its marketing objectives.
• Technological change disrupts many markets, introducing new competitors into the market and making product life cycles shorter.
• Competitors' actions influence the achievability and achievement of marketing objectives.
• Changes in consumer incomes, the rate of economic growth, and the extent to which households consumers have disposable income influence marketing objectives about sales growth and sales value.
• No business operates in a market in isolation, they all have competitors whether there are lots of competitors or one or two very large ones.
• The overall shape and size of the market in which a business operates is an important external influence on marketing objectives.
• A marketing orientated culture involves everyone in the business thinking about the needs and wants of customers and puts the customer at the center of the business decision making.
• Corporate objectives, what the business as a whole wants to achieve, are the most important influence on marketing objectives because they need to be consistent with the marketing objectives.
• The financial position of the business, particularly its financial strength, is also a key influence on marketing objectives as it determines the scope and scale of marketing activities.
• Human resources, particularly in service sector businesses, are a key influence on marketing objectives as the quality and capacity to serve customers is largely determined by human resource availability.
• Market research is traditionally split into two main categories: primary and secondary.
• Operational influences on marketing objectives include efficiency and productivity, which can constrain the achievement of marketing objectives if the business doesn't have the capacity to produce or deliver the increasing market share it aims for, or isn't sufficiently efficient or productive to do so.
• Primary research is collected for a specific purpose, such as gathering feedback from customers or testing new products.
• Secondary research uses data that already existed for a different purpose but may be used for research.
• Examples of primary research include focus groups, face-to-face interviews, online surveys, and mystery shoppers.
• The key advantage of primary research is that it's very focused on a particular research objective and should be fit for purpose.
• Depending on the methods used, primary research can provide very detailed insights into customer and other stakeholder views.
• The main drawback of primary research is the risk of bias due to the use of sampling.
• If the sample in primary research is not representative of the overall population, the conclusions drawn may not be accurate.
• Another potential drawback of primary research is that it can be costly and time consuming, depending on the scope and method of the research task.
• Examples of primary research tasks include testing new products before they are launched, gathering feedback from customers, and understanding customer needs.
• Secondary market research is one of the two main categories of research, with primary being the other.
• The key differentiator about secondary data is that it is data that already existed and can be useful for research purposes.
• Examples of secondary data include reports, transactional data, and sales transactions.
• Secondary research can also be data that's been obtained for different purposes which can then be used in research.