4.2

Question 1

what is marketing planning?

Answer 1

Marketing planningis a process where a company must decide which marketing strategies will be the proper ones to attain their corporate and strategic objectives. It requires an analysis and information about a particular market. To achieve this, we need to formulate a “marketing plan”.

Question 2

what is a marketing plan?

Answer 2

A marketing plan is the document that outlines the firm’s marketing objectives and the marketing strategies to be used to achieve these objectives.

Question 3

what conpotnets make up a market plan?

Answer 3

Marketing objectives – they need to be SMART (i.e. increasing sales in 10% by the end of the year)
Strategic plans – steps to be taken to achieve the objectives
Detailed marketing actions – specific marketing activities to be carried out (i.e. pricing strategies)
The marketing budget - funds required for the marketing strategy
Some companies also include a marketing audit in their marketing plan which is basically an examination of the current climate in which the business operates. Market research plays a key role in this investigation.

Question 4

what are the benifits of market planning?

Answer 4

Identifies needs and wants of consumers and determines the demand for product

Identifies new and/or potential customers

Improves coordination between departments in the firm

Improves motivation and staff confidence

Question 5

what are the limmitations of makket planning?

Answer 5

It is time-consuming and costly
If the firm uses improperly analysed data, it leads to faulty marketing decisions
Creates unrealistic financial projections if information is interpreted incorrectly, this could lead to the wrong marketing decisions
Identifies weaknesses in the firm overall business plan which might create additional problems once the marketing decision have been made.

Question 6

what is a market segment?and hence, what is market segmentation?

Answer 6

A market segment is a sub-group of consumers with similar characteristics in each market. Hence, a market segmentation is the process of dividing the market into smaller or distinct groups of consumers with the aim to meet their needs and wants.
Markets could be segmented Demographically, Geographically or Psychographic.

Question 7

what is a demographic segment?

Answer 7

Demographic Segmentation – refers to marketsegmentation according to age, race, religion, gender, family size, ethnicity, income, and education.Demographicscan be segmentedinto several markets to help an organization target its consumers more accurately.

Question 8

what is a geographic segment?

Answer 8

happens when a business divides its market on the basis ofgeography. You can geographically segmenta market by area, such as cities, counties, regions, countries, and international regions. You can also break a market down into rural, suburban and urban areas to identify consumers more accurately.

Question 9

what are psychographic segmentation

Answer 9

Psychographic Segmentation – it involves dividing the market into segments based upon different personality characteristics, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles of consumers. The advantage of thissegmentationis that it allows the firm to engage in product design and marketing in a focused manner.

Question 10

what are some advantages of makret segmentation?

Answer 10

The firm can spot and compare marketing opportunities examining the needs of each segment and determine to what extent the current offering satisfies these needs. Segments which have low level of satisfaction from current offerings represent excellent opportunities for the firm.

The firm can modify its product/service since marketing appeals to suit the target segment

Segmentation facilitates setting up of realistic selling targets and priorities

Management can identify new profitable segments which deserve special attention

Appropriate service packages can be developed for each market segment

Question 11

what are the disadvantges of makret segmentation?

Answer 11

Larger inventory (stock) must be maintained by both the manufacturer and the distributors

Promotion and distribution expenditures increase when separate programmes are used for different market segments

Segmentation increases costs. When a firm attempts to serve several market segments they produce more and hence increase their cost of production

When characteristics of a market segment change, investment made already might become useless

Question 12

what is a target market?

Answer 12

Atarget marketis themarketa firm wants to sell its products and/or services to. It includes atargetedset of customers for whom it directs itsmarketingefforts. Hence, targeting is the process of marketing to a specific market segment

Question 13

why do we need to idenity a target market, and what startagies can be used?

Answer 13

Identifying thetarget marketis an essential step in the development of amarketing plan. A firm can use these strategies: mass marketing (undifferentiated marketing), segmented marketing (differentiated marketing) and niche marketing (concentrated marketing)

Question 14

what is mass marketing?

Answer 14

Mass marketing (undifferentiated marketing) - when a firm decides to ignoremarket segment differences and appeals to the wholemarketwith one offer or one strategy, with the aim to reach the largest number of people possible, sell more products and hence have a larger profit.

Question 15

what is segmented marketing?

Answer 15

Segmented marketing (Differentiated marketing) - is the process of dividing an entiremarketup into different customersegments. Targeting or targetmarketingthen decides which potential customersegmentsthe company will focus on. Segmented firms aim to get a stronger position in their segments

Question 16

what is niche marketing?

Answer 16

Niche marketing (concentrated marketing) - Where a business targets a smaller segment of a larger market, where customers have specific needs and wants. Firm can market their products more efficiently and effectively by targeting the consumers they can serve best and hence get more profit

Question 17

what is postitioning?

Answer 17

Positioning is defined as an effort to influence consumer perception of a brand or product relative to the perception of competing brands or products

Question 18

what is positionings aim?

Answer 18

It aims to simplify the overwhelming information that costumers might face when making the decision to buy a product. Therefore, marketers might plan a position that will give their products a competitive advantage in the market.

Question 19

what is the ost useful tool in positiing?

Answer 19

Position (or perception) map – this is a visual representation of how the customer perceives a product in relation to other similar competing ones.
It is important to remember that this is all about ‘perception’ and perception differs from person to person, so do the results of the positioning map.

Question 20

what acutally happens on a position map?

Answer 20

Products or services are ‘mapped’ together on a positioning map. This allows them to be compared and contrasted in relation to each other.

This is the main strength of this tool. Marketers decide upon a competitive position which enables them to distinguish their own products from the offerings of their competition.

The marketer would draw out the map and decide upon a label for each axis. They could bepriceand quality or comfort and price or fashion and price. The individual products are then mapped out next to each other and any gaps could be regarded as possible areas for new products.

Question 21

outline the diffrances between niche and mas marketing?

Answer 21

Niche market – focuses on a small group of people who have specific needs and wants (i.e. gluten free products - crisps).

Mass market - focusses on a large and broad part of the market where there are many similar products on offer. Consumers, in this case are less specific about their needs (i.e. just crips!).

Question 22

if you ahve a niche product what will the marketing have to be and what are some examples?

Answer 22

Niche- Advertising in Health Magazines
Placing the products in “free from” in a supermarket
Make deals with doctors to “recommend” our brand

Question 23

if you have a mass product wht will the marketing have to be and what are some examples?

Answer 23

Since this is not “specific” for customers we can use TV adds, Billboards, flyers etc.

Question 24

what is a unique selling point?

Answer 24

Unique selling point (USP) – refers to any aspect of a business, product or brand that makes it stand out from the competition.

The concept of a USP is one of the basics of effective marketing that has stood the test of time. It could be a lower price, a smaller version of the product, offering extra functions, or even simply producing a standard product in a range of colours or designs.

A business needs to look at its USPs compared to competitors. If it doesn’t have any, the business will probably struggle to make the product seem attractive to customers

Question 25

what is important to rember about USP?

Answer 25

** Important - Do not confuse USP with business slogans or with mission statements(although they can be directly linked). Having a catchy slogan or a memorable mission statement does not, on their own, automatically give a business a unique selling proposition**

Question 26

what is differencation?

Answer 26

Differentiationrefers to the process of distinguishing an organization’s products from those of other firms in the same industry. In other words, what makes the product or service “different” or “stand out” from the competition?

Question 27

Businesses can sue different strategies for Differentiation, what are they?

Answer 27

Product differentiation ,Service differentiation, Price differentiation,Distribution differentiation ,Relationship differentiation, Image/reputation differentiation

Question 28

what is product differentiation?

Answer 28

Product differentiation – refers to physical differences in a product. For example, durability, reliability, performance, etc. This, however, could be a “short-term” strategy since product features can be easily copied by the competition (pattens, copyrights, etc. have a limited durability and some business choose not to use them!)

Question 29

what is servise differentiation?

Answer 29

Service differentiation – refers to the “non-physical” differences a business has. For example, customer service, delivery, installation, training etc.

Question 30

what is price differencation?

Answer 30

Price differentiation – when determining pricing strategy, the business must be able to recognize that costumers are willing to pay different prices for a product. This, of course, depend on many factors. Price differentiation offers different prices to different customer segments based on factors like location, demographics, and buying behaviour. Examples range from ticket prices (child vs adult) to BOGOF, train times charging different prices a different times to charging a high price in an affluent area compared to a poorer one.

Question 31

what is distrobution differenciation?

Answer 31

Distribution differentiation – this refers to the path the product takes to get to the customer. With the developments of e-commerce online distribution is a good example of this type of differentiation. However, not every business can take advantage of this since for certain products “online delivery” is not an essay option (i.e. large manufacturing machinery).

Question 32

what is relationship differenciation?

Answer 32

Relationship differentiation – this has to do with “people” and how the relationships between the employees and customers develop. Hence, this type of differentiation is closely related to service. Customer want to be able to trust the business and employees have a big role in building that trust .

Question 33

what is image/repuration differentiation?

Answer 33

when a business has a good reputation (image) in the market it makes it more difficult for other businesses to enter it. However, this Reputation is not easy to have or maiming. Aspects, like quality, good customer service, performance of the product contribute to the companies’ reputation and image.
However, it is important to mention that a business reputation or image is not automatically achieved, is “earned” and hence maintaining this is of upmost importance.
Companies that want to maintain a good image or reputation, normally require large marketing budgets.