marketing

• what is market research?


  involves finding out what customers want
• how can a market be segmented?

  • age
  • income
  • gender
  • location
• how is market research useful?

  it helps a business understand its customers and competitors. helping a business create a good marketing mix
• by identifying and satisfying customer needs, business will be able to..

  • increase sales
  • stay competitive
  • create targeted market
• market research can be used to find..

  market opportunities
• two sets of data in marketing

  • quantitative
  • qualitative
• what is quantitative data?

  quantitative information is anything you can measure or reduce to a number. asking "how many chocolate pizzas will you buy" will give you a quantitative answer
• what is qualitative data?


  qualitative information is all about peoples feelings and opinions. 'what do you think of chocolate pizza?" will give you a qualitative answer
• why might qualitative data be tricky?

  hard to compare two peoples opinions
• what is primary research?

  doing your own research
• egs of primary research:

  • questionnaires
  • phone surveys
  • interviews
  • focus groups
• what's the pros of primary research?

  • save costs on telephone rather than face to face
  • provides up to date data
  • provides relevant data
• what are the cons of primary research?

  • expensive
  • time consuming
  • many people won't respond to surveys
• what is secondary research?


  research looking at other peoples work
• egs of secondary research

  • market research reports
  • government publications
  • articles in newspapers
  • magazines
• pros of secondary research

  • cheaper than primary
  • data is easily found
  • instantly available
• cons of secondary research

  • not always relevant to businesses needs
  • out of date data
  • not specific
• why is it important for a business to correctly identify their target market?

  so that a business can create a targeted marketing strategy which will mean that the business doesn't waste money by creating ineffective promotional material / by creating a product the target market won't buy
• stages of a product life cycle

  1. research and development
  2. introduction
  3. growth
  4. maturity
  5. decline
• maturity stage


  demand reaches its peak, promotion becomes less important. as the product grows the business will try to make the product more widely available. towards the end of the phase, the market becomes saturated and there's no room to expand
• what are extension strategies?

  things that businesses can do to keep their products selling after they start to decline
• egs of extension strategies

  • adding more or different features
  • using new packaging
  • targeting new markets
  • changing advertisements
  • lowering price
• what is a product portfolio?


  a list of all the profits a business sells
• product portfolio

  • range of different products
  • aims to have a balanced PP
  • if one product fails, they should still be able to depend on the others
• what is the Boston matrix?

  its a way for a firm to analyse its product portfolio, market share of each product is considered as well as how fast the market the product is in is growing
• Boston matrix components

  • stars
  • cash cows
  • question marks
  • dogs
• question marks

  • new products
  • small market share
  • high market growth
  • not profitable
  • need heavy marketing
• stars

  • high market share
  • high market growth
  • future cash cows
• cash cows

  • bring in plenty of money
  • high market share
  • low market growth
  • in maturity phase
  • costs are low
  • produced in high volumes
• dogs

  • low market share
  • low market growth
  • lost causes
  • need to be discontinued
• why might firms broaden their product portfolios?

  they may broaden their portfolios to increase sales, target a different segment of the market or compete with other companies
• how can businesses broaden their portfolios?

  • adding products to an existing range - eg adding new flavours of smoothies to a smoothie shop
  • increasing range of products - a smoothie shop could produce smoothie ice lollies made form locally produced fruit
• benefits of developing new products

  • overall sales for the business may extend the life cycle of existing products
  • appeal to new market segments
  • can initially charge higher prices before competitors bring similar products into the market
  • good for firms reputation - exciting when new products launch, people will be naturally interested in future products
• risks of developing new products

  • costly and time consuming
  • end up wasting resources if customers are not interested
  • might not be able to produced the new product on a large scale at a low cost
  • risk reputation if new product is poor quality
• what does being market driven mean?

  firms will use market research to find out what the target market wants, then make the product based of it. Usually meaning the product is useful
• what is being product driven?


  firms will design or invent a new product and then try sell it. this often means they make something nobody really wants
• why is a strong brand image good for the product?

  • they are easily recognised and liked by customers
  • increases sales
• what is product differentiation?

  its about along your products distinctive in the market, making customers want to buy your product instead of competing products
• how can you achieve a product differentiation ?

  to give the product a unique selling point. this is some feature that makes it different to its competitors (eg a special feature)
• design mix

  1. function
  2. cost
  3. appearance