Neil K Chitti

        

                        Unit 3: Investigating Marketing

Introduction

For a business to be able to work more effectively the business itself has to have an organised structure; to do this setting themselves targets to achieve on certain time scale.  The business may set themselves Aims but they will also set themselves smaller goals, which they would achieve on a much smaller period to determine the company to achieve its main aim.

Objectives can be:

  • Understanding customer wants and needs
  • Re-launch of product
  • Increasing brand awareness

For the business to achieve these objectives, the business needs to identify its target market through the use of market segmentation and think of:

  • How markets are segmented, ie, geographic, demographic and psychographic.
  • Niche or mass marketing

And the use of appropriate research methods, you need to understand the purpose of market research:

  • To identify target markets
  • To identify competition

        


Principles of Marketing

Complaint:

Objections to a poster, for a chocolate bar, that featured a bare-shouldered woman sucking the chocolate bar. The strapline asked "how much would you like this girl's job?” The complainants objected that the poster was offensive because the way in which the woman was eating the chocolate bar simulated oral sex.

Codes Section: 5.1 (Ed 10)

Adjudication:

Complaints not upheld the advertisers said the poster that showed a beautiful girl eating a Cadbury's Snowflake bar, a white textured chocolate centre covered in milk chocolate, followed a long tradition of Cadbury's Flake advertising portraying beautiful woman eating "The crumbliest, flakiest, milk chocolate in the world". They explained that the advertising campaign had always appealed to their female consumers who believed eating a Flake chocolate bar was a moment of personal and private indulgence; Flake advertisements always featured similar imagery and eating sequences. The advertisers pointed out that the only addition to their long tradition of Flake advertisements was a strapline, which invited Flake eaters to consider how much they would like to take the place of the woman and be paid to eat a delicious Cadbury Snowflake. They said the desire to be "the Snowflake girl" was featured in a Sunday Express supplement published before the poster launch. The advertisers were surprised that the complainants had read the poster in the way described and added that they had never intended to cause offence. The Authority considered that most readers were likely to be familiar with the terms of the long running advertising campaign that highlighted the pure indulgence of enjoying a Flake chocolate bar. Because of that familiarity, it concluded that the advertisement was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence.

Source www.ASA.org.uk

Marketing is about understanding the customer’s needs and making sure that the end products of the company are at the highest level of quality so they go onto please the customers and their needs.

Marketing also has the power in a number of ways to manipulate the behaviour of customers and their views.

Good or bad Marketing strategies can determine the success of the business.  The main aim of a business is to meet the needs of all the customers and they should be able to:

Understanding Customers Needs 

It is vital to understand the needs of customers.  The needs of each customer can vary in different business as they will get different customers buying different items.

Some of the customers needs are:

Good customer service – This would be good after sales service provided to the customer and good service provided at the point of purchasing the product.  Business should provide friendly environments for the customer to shop in, offer a goods return policy for the customer, offer free helpful advice for the customer when they are confused to buy a product and fast checkout service.

Understanding & keep ahead of competition 

Businesses should keep an eye on local competitors and consider the risk of being beaten by the competition.  And a business should take into account of the competition prices they charge so they can achieve to offer a better product and service at a cheaper cost for the customer.

They need to offer a product that is unique compared to other competitions and it should have a low risk of being copied so the business stands to stay ahead of the competition.  For example a business should get all the latest products first so more customers are attracted to purchase because no one else will have them, even before the competition stocks the products.

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Communicate effectively with its customers to satisfy customer expectations 

The business will have to think of new innovative ways in which they could have a stronger communication between customers, suppliers and contractors.

And other ways in which a business can communicate with its customers are by the use of telephone, fax and email.

Co-ordinate its functions to achieve marketing aims

Businesses will have to expand on how they will meet the aims and objectives they have set for themselves to achieve.  The company may well have to change the way they deal with the level of production in order ...

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