5.1b Pressure Groups

Question 1

What is a pressure group?

Answer 1

A pressure group is a group of people who join together to try and influence businesses or the government for a particular case

Question 2

What are some examples of pressure groups?

Answer 2

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Association of Accounting Technicians

Question 3

Why do pressure groups attempt to influences businesses and the government?

Answer 3

Many pressure groups focus on ethical issues (moral principles or standards that guide the the behaviour of a person or business), like reducing carbon dioxide emissions or stopping animal testing. Other groups look after groups of people , usually based on the work they do

Question 4

How do pressure groups influence the way businesses operate?

Answer 4

They can work in a number of ways;

• encouraging customers to increase the amount of product or service that is used- for example, customers increasing the use of low energy light bulbs
• persuading customers to boycott or stop buying goods from a particular business- for example, buying free range eggs rather than eggs from caged hens
• encouraging businesses to behave in more ethical ways that help other stakeholders- for example, pressuring a coffee shop to stock fair trade coffee

Question 5

What’s a possible case study to use?

Answer 5

Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization that bought shares in oil company Shell so that they could turn up to their annual board meetings and influence their decisions. This is another way in which pressure groups influence decisions

Question 6

Why’do organisations address issues raised by pressure groups?

Answer 6

Many of the actions of pressure groups are high profile and gain a lot of media attention which helps pressure groups achieve their aim

Question 7

How do pressure groups affect the product aspect of the market mix?

Answer 7

• By changing previous ingredients to use ethically sourced raw materials
• remove a product from the range because it is considered socially unacceptable

Question 8

How do pressure groups affect the price aspect of the marketing mix?

Answer 8

• Increase price as a result of paying a fair price to suppliers or improving conditions in which farm animals are kept
• Applying a government imposed minimum price on goods that are deemed harmful to the environment and/or society

Question 9

How do pressure groups affect the place aspect of the marketing mix?

Answer 9

• Not opening stores in certain locations due to local campaigns to support small local businesses
• sourcing local products or raw materials to reduce the carbon footprint

Question 10

How do pressure groups affect the promotion aspect of the marketing mix?

Answer 10

• Including complete and honest information on packaging
• obeying legislation banning the promotion of certain products, such as cigarettes
• renewing product placement in stores, such as supermarkets removing confectionery from child height displays at checkouts