Secondary Research
Secondary or desk research is the use of existing, already collected data. This could be anything from Department of Trade and Industry reports to a company's sale statistics. Also company reports, government statistics, and surveys published by research organisations can be used as secondary sources of information. Desk research is quicker and cheaper than field/secondary research, but findings are not necessarily accurate or always relevant to your product.
In the results from the research of what a business has collected is vital to the businesses survival and the difference between whether it makes a loss or profit. The results are usually used in product development or the business aims to work around what they have found out and adapt to customers needs and the industry.
Promotion
Promotion is also a key area of marketing. Promotion is the process of how a business raises awareness of its product, many different techniques are used to achieve this objective, some examples are; television adverts, posters, free samples of the product or internet. Raising awareness of a businesses product/service gives the public a taster of what they are offering and could also give the business customers.
Sales
Sales are the distribution of the product/service to customers. Businesses use a variety of techniques to achieve this effect;
- Selling their products through other shops (retailing). Some businesses have their own shops (farm shops are an example) though most businesses opt for the retailing option.
- Personal selling, such as when sales representatives or the company persuade and encourage customers to buy their products. This is common in some industries such as the finance industry where salespeople contact potential customers either by telephone or in person
- Internet selling is becoming an increasingly more important and larger sales method for a variety of businesses e.g. play.com, Sainsbury and Tesco’s. The internet nowadays seems the more easier alternative for selling products and consumers find it more convenient meaning more businesses are investing and researching how they can sell their products over the net effectively
- Catalogue/mail-order, used by some company’s such as Argos (Argos Extra) and Index (Index Extra), this is also seen as a convenient alternative to shopping on the high street, where customers order products from the catalogue and either phone up the company to make the order or phone them directly.
Marketing, Cadbury Schweppes
Cadbury Schweppes, as a global corporation they depend on the effective use of marketing in every aspect from sales to market research. This was shown in 2002 when they upped they’re marketing expenditure by a considerable amount from the year before (2001);
“Our total marketing expenditure in 2002 was £547 million. At constant exchange rates this represents an increase of 12% over total marketing spend in 2001. Our marketing to sales ratio increased to 10%, the sixth consecutive year of increase in this key indicator of marketing investment.”
(Taken from the Cadbury Schweppes website, )
This information shows how increased marketing expenses and effective use of it can increase a company’s performance and its sales. Marketing is important for a company such as Cadbury Schweppes because it is such a large company, which depends on precise information so its able to run effectively, also different types of research are needed for their different products because after all Cadbury Schweppes in a confectionary and beverages provider to the world. Being such a large company and also having such a large marketing expenditure (as show above) you would expect Cadbury Schweppes to have marketing campaigns all over the place, but they’ve smartly used their resources effectively by incorporating information from their research into their products, like no GM products are found in their food now, this appeals to many customers nowadays as they require healthier and safer alternatives. Also they’ve noticed from research how customers care about how they acquire their ingredients for their products, so taking this into consideration Cadbury Schweppes has joined in the “fair trade scheme”, this basically gives the supplier of the products to Cadbury Schweppes rights to improve their livelihood and they’re overall income from their family business or whatever;
“We share with the Fair Trade movement a commitment to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and their families. We want all farmers to receive a fair return for their cocoa crops and Fair Trade is one way of achieving this goal.
In the Fair Trade system a social premium is paid on top of a minimum price for cocoa beans, which are bought from farmer co-operatives. The premium, which is $150 per tonne above the minimum or world market price (whichever is greater), goes into a social development fund run by the cooperative. Any direct benefit to the farmer comes from the efficiencies of the cooperative system, which keeps costs low, and from those savings farmers can receive a small annual bonus.”
“It is vitally important for the whole industry that all farmers receive a fair return for their cocoa crops. We endorse the goals of the cocoa industry to help all farmers produce quality cocoa beans in an environmentally sustainable way that also generates wealth for the farmer and his family and the communities in which they live and we are committed to the achievement of these goals.”
(Taken from the Cadbury Schweppes website, )
Also they’ve developed more of a younger generation friendly approach towards how the company expresses itself by offering a more interactive and colourful website its more appealing to the younger generation who might look at the site, also they give out student packs and information about their company which is also very useful to allow younger people to find out more about their company.
By developing all these marketing factors Cadbury Schweppes has been able to promote its image successful, interpret information and use that information effectively to be able to have positive sales figure after all of this.
Marketing, McDonalds
McDonalds has had very hard times in recent years, having to cope with changing consumer needs and quicker developing competitors such as subway which offers a more healthier alternative to McDonalds which is what consumers nowadays want. McDonalds launched a whole new scheme to change their global image, menu and customer variety. With recent rivals from the US such as subway McDonalds has had to adapt itself to meet consumer needs and the ever-changing industry. Their latest change to adapt to the industry was a revitalised menu which offered more variety to the more health conscious consumers of modern day society, with a variety of low calorie snacks and salads McDonalds has made a turn around and shown that it is still able to meet consumer needs. Also there newest promotional scheme, “I’m lovin’ it” endorsed by Mr Justin Timberlake himself was a very effective scheme, it showed that McDonalds had changed its global image and at the same time appealed more to the younger generation seeing as it was endorsed by a international star.
“In September 2003, McDonald's announced a sponsorship deal involving the pop star Justin Timberlake. He will appear in five advertisements throughout the English-speaking world, promoting the company's products. The company also will sponsor the singer's world tour, but refuse to say how much they are paying him although some experts suggest it's in the region of $6 million (£3.6 million). The marketing campaign will be entitled 'I'm Lovin' It' and the associated tour of 35 European cities is entitled the "McDonald's Presents Justin Timberlake 'Justified' World Tour 'lovin' it' live".”
(Taken from )
Another sort of promotion McDonalds has been trying is sponsoring, by doing this McDonalds has funded local schemes such as the “grassroots football”, but at the same time its promoting itself as a very charitable company and this may appeal to customers and convince them to eat out at McDonalds
By effectively using their resources and the research, which they gathered, they produced an effective and quick campaign to boost their sales again in the US and other countries where sales lacked for a small period.
From the “I’m lovin’ it” scheme alone they boosted sales within a year in 2003 to once again gain some profit from sales, also to improve on sales figures McDonalds improved there current menu by adding a more wider range of meals and also made adjustments to current meals on the menu.
