Business Studies: Marketing Strategies

• Market segmentation is the process of dividing a market into smaller groups based on shared characteristics.
• Product differentiation can be achieved through price, quality, service, promotion, packaging, branding, design, and innovation.
• Strategic role of marketing management

  Coordinating with the other business functions to contribute to the achievement of the business's strategic goals
• Strategic role of marketing management

  1. Developing a marketing plan

  2. Detailing strategies to maximise sales

  3. Increasing brand awareness

  4. Improving customer satisfaction
• Marketing plan


  Crucial to helping a business achieve sales as it is the planning of activities that will bring the buyer and seller together
• Marketing plan


  Gives a business direction
• Profit centre


  Aspects of a business that directly derive revenue and profits
• Cost centre


  Particular areas, departments or sections of a business to which costs can be directly attributed
• Marketing is a profit centre as it focuses on generating revenue
• Marketing plays a vital role in achieving sustained sales growth
• McDonald's growth strategy is called Accelerating the Arches
• Main focus of marketing

  Maximise marketing effort with a focus on brand and affordability
• Another goal of marketing

  Increase brand advocacy where customers connection to the company is strengthened
• McDonald's spends 4$ billion on annual advertising
• Modified menu


  • Product
• Doubled down on delivery and Drive-Thru

  • Place
• Continued affordability


  • Price
• Operations


  The business processes that involves the transformation of inputs into outputs or, more generally, 'production'
• Marketing

  A total system of interacting activities that aims to plan, price, promote and distribute products to present and potential customers
• Strategic role of marketing

  • To coordinate with other key business functions to achieve the business's long term broad goal of profit maximisation - specifically through the development of a marketing plan that aims to increase sales, brand awareness and customer satisfaction
• Marketing concept

  A business philosophy that asserts that all business sections are tasked with satisfying customer needs and wants while fulfilling business goals
• How marketing is interdependent with other key business functions

  1. Marketing designs products and operations produces prototypes and final versions of products

  2. Finance sources funds for all marketing activities (eg. advertising)

  3. Human resources sources potential candidates of employees to perform marketing activities
• Production approach

  Following the industrial revolution, customer demand for products exceeded business's production capacity. As a result many companies began utilising standardised mass-production techniques to satisfy this demand. Marketing consisted solely of designing the product and delivering it
• Advantages of production approach

  • Allowed businesses to take advantage of economies of scale to cut costs
  • Little money was used on promotion
• Disadvantages of production approach

  • Products did not adequately meet customer's needs and wants
• Selling approach

  Following WW1, increased competition in the market led to businesses adopting selling techniques to differentiate themselves from competitors and gain a competitive advantage. Businesses invested heavily in promotion to demonstrate their product's superiority. However, product designs still did not account for customer wants
• Advantages of selling approach

  • Stimulates demand in the market and can encourage customers to spend more
  • Customers have increased choice
• Disadvantages of selling approach

  • Products were not designed to meet customer wants and could be impractical or unuseful which reflects poorly on the business
  • Aggressive sales techniques could be unwanted by customers
  • Requires ongoing, constant finance to fund expensive marketing activity
• Advantages of marketing approach

  • Customers needs and wants were fulfilled- increased customer satisfaction
• Disadvantages of marketing approach

  • Customer focused activities could be expensive
• Advantages of societal marketing approach

  • Businesses that behave ethically are rewarded by customers through sales
• Disadvantages of societal marketing approach

  • Ethical business practices can be costly- leading to extra fees being passed onto customers through increased prices
• Market

  A group of individuals who need/want a product, have money to purchase the product (purchasing power) and are willing to spend that money to gain the product
• Target market


  A group of individuals, current or potential customers who share common characteristics, that a business targets its marketing mix towards
• Types of markets

  • Customer
  • Resource
  • Intermediate
  • Mass
  • Industrial
  • Niche
• 3 influences on marketing

  • Factors influencing customer choice
  • Ethical issues
  • Consumer Law
• Factors influencing customer choice

  • Psychological factors
  • Sociocultural factors
  • Economic factors
  • Governmental factors
• Psychological factors


  Mental processes that influence customer behaviour including learning, attitude, motives, perception, personality/self image
• Psychological factors

  • Learning
  • Attitude
  • Motives
  • Perception
  • Personality/self image
• Sociocultural factors


  Factors relating to family role, peer groups, social class, culture that affect customer behaviour