Marketing Flashcards
List seven methods of field research
Personal interview Telephone survey Postal survey Hall test Focus Group Epos Test Marketing
Describe personal interview and discuss for 3 marks
Personal interview: face-to-face interview that can be held in the street or at a persons home.
Allows two way communication, the interviewer can respond to customers body language tone of voice and facial expression to encourage fuller responses.
It can take a lot of time to conduct interviews.
Customers feel this kind of questioning is a nuisance and may not respond.
Describe telephone survey and discuss for 4 marks
Telephone survey: individuals are telephoned at their home and asked specific questions.
Easy to target specific customers such as a certain local area.
Information obtained immediately and can be clarified if necessary.
customers may feel these are intrusive and not respond.
Only short surveys were carried out.
Describe postal survey and discuss for 4 marks
Postal survey: questionnaires are sent through the post to selected individuals.
Target specific customers such as sending to an affluent area or certain town.
Customers can complete survey at a convenient time
questions must be simple and easy to follow for best results.
customers often view postal surveys as junk mail and will simply ignore them.
Decribe Hall test and discuss for 4 marks
Hall test: individuals are invited to try out a product and then give their opinion on it.
quality feedback gathered based on product trials allowing changes to be made.
inexpensive and easy to do.
customers’ opinions and feelings can be more difficult to analyse.
customers may feel they need to give a positive response as they have been given a free product.
Describe Focus groups and discuss for 4 marks
Focus group: selected individuals are involved in discussions about an organisations product or service.
more in depth feedback can be gathered.
customers have agreed to participate so responses are more likely.
participants often paids increasing R&D costs.
Strong personalities within the group can sway discussion and opinion.
Describe EPOS field research method and discuss for 5 marks
EPOS: used to gain an insight into what products are selling in each store.
gathers vital information about customer behaviour such as when they buy what they buy how they react to promotions and price changes, which can allow an effective marketing mix to be formed and inventory ordered accordingly.
allies retailers to offer promotions for example money off coupons, tailored to individuals customers needs and preferences.
can be expensive to set up systems.
It can be time consuming to set up.
information incomplete if customers decide to shop elsewhere at times.
Describe Test Marketing and discuss for 3 marks
Test Marketing: product is launched on a small area to gauge the consumers response.
changes can be made to products before they are launched to a wider market.
money can be saved on launching a product to a wider market if it is unsuccessful in test area.
customers in one area may have tastes that are not representative of the wider market.
State 5 sources of desk research
Competitors website online news articles trade magazines financial statements government publications et
Discuss desk research for 5 marks
Timely - desk information quick to gather compared to field research
Cost effective as does not require trained interviewers etc
Available - already exists so is easy to look up
Not objective - collected/presented by someone else to suit their purpose
Not appropriate - not collected specifically for the purpose of an individual business
Discuss A wide product portfolio 8 marks
Advantages
Seasonal fluctuations can be evened out
Allows organisation to spread risk over different markets
Can meet the needs of different market segments
Newer products can replace those at the end of the life cycle
A range of products increases brand awareness
Easier to launch new products with large existing portfolio
Disadvantages
High costs in developing/researching so many products
High marketing costs to promote so many products
Bad publicity surrounding one product can affect the whole product portfolio
Describe skimming and discuss for 4 marks
Skimming:
Price is set high to begin with and lowers over time
Eg:
The price of most recent ipad
Lack of competition means prices can be set high
Sufficient hype around a new product enables higher prices to be set increasing profits
High initial prices can put off some customers who wait for the price to fall
Results in low initial sales
Describe penetration and discuss for 3 marks
Penetration:
Price is set low to begin with to penetrate the market and increases over time
Eg: A new product has a trial price
Encourages customers to try a new product
Gain repeat custom even when the prices rises as customers like the product
Very little profit can be generated during the initial low price period
Discuss social media 6 marks
Advantages
Target marked contacted directly due to liking or following the businesses social medial page meaning that you only market to customers that are interested
Information on new products, promotional offers can be uploaded immediately
Consumers can leave comments which can be used to improve the product
Disadvantages
Difficult to engage with new customers as they have to voluntarily agree to see businesses updates
negative reviews/feedback can put off potential customers
effective social media is time consuming, large organisations will need to employ someone to take charge of their social media account
