Theme 1 - Meeting Customer Needs Flashcards
Benefit of a mass market?
(Line of analysis)
- Mass market
- Produce a product that appeals to a range of demographics
- For example high and low income groups
- Increased sales volume
- Increase output - Factory
Increase sales - Shop/retailer - Increased orders from suppliers
- Discount for bulk buying
- Lower unit variable costs
- Increase in gross profit
Drawback of a mass market?
(Line of analysis)
- Mass market
- Less specialised in meeting needs of specific demographic
- Reduced knowledge of specific customers
- Products less likely to satisfy customer needs
- More price elastic
- Lack of differentiation
- Pressure to keep prices low
- Lower sales revenue
- Lower gross profit
Benefit of a niche market?
(Line of analysis)
- Niche market
- Can develop a specialist understanding of the target demographic
- E.g. what bird watchers like to do on holiday
- Can more effectivley meet their needs
- Creating a holiday/ product tailored to them
- More effectivley than mass marketing/ generic products
- Differentiation focus
- According to porter
- Competitive advantage
- Increased sales
Drawback of a niche market?
(Line of analysis)
- Niche market
- Focused on the specific needs of a specific segment
- E.g. halal baby food
- Suitable only for babies and people who eat halal foods
- Limited potential sales
- Lower sales revenue
- Lower net cash flow
- Reducing current ratio
- Increasing risk of liquidation
- Making the business less attractive for investment
Benefit of online retailing?
(Line of analysis)
- Combined with the rising popularity of purchasing online
- This could lead to increased sales volume
- More raw materials/ stock would be required
- Increased orders from suppliers
- Discount for bulk buying
- Lower variable unit cost
- Increased gross profit margins
- Increased retained profit to reinvest
Drawback of online retailing?
(Line of analysis)
- online retailing may not be beneficial
- As customers can more easily find alternatives online
- They can easily compare the prices of products
- Making them more sensitive to changes in price
- More price elastic
- Pressured to lower prices
- Lower gross profit margins
- Lower retained profit
Benefit of dynamic markets?
(Line of analysis)
- Dynamic markets are fast changing
- Meaning new customer trends appear quickly
- If the business is able to adapt to trends quickly
- They may be able to differentiate from competitors
- By gaining a first mover advantage
- This can allow them to have charge higher prices
- Whilst competitions are still trying to adapt
- Leading to increased revenue
- Increased gross profit margin
- More retained profit
- Able to invest in market research or R+D
Benefit of dynamic markets?
(Line of analysis)
- Dynamic markets are fast changing
- Meaning new customer trends appear quickly
- If the business is able to adapt to trends quickly
- They may be able to differentiate from competitors
- By gaining a first mover advantage
- This can allow them to have charge higher prices
- Whilst competitions are still trying to adapt
- Leading to increased revenue
- Increased gross profit margin
- More retained profit
- Able to invest in market research or R+D
Drawback of dynamic markets?
(Line of analysis)
- Dynamic markets change rapidly
- Products and services need to change to keep up with trends in the market
- Requires high investment into R&D
- E.g. paying high wages of scientists and engineers
- Leads to increased cash outflows
- Lower net cash flow
- Reduced cash reserves
- Poor liquidity
- May be unable to pay day to day bills
- Forced to sell non current assets in order to cover payments
- Business unable to operate
Benefit of product orientation?
(Line of analysis)
- Product orientation involves focusing on developing the product
- Lots of investment is R+D of the function of the product
- Improved innovation by having unique features
- Differentiate from competitors (Such as)
- Customers willing to pay higher prices
- More price inelastic
- Increase prices without significant fall in demand
- Increased revenue
- Higher gross profit margins
- Increased retained profit
- Able to invest further in R+D to continue innovating
Drawback of product orientation?
(Line of analysis)
- Product orientation can be expensive
- Lots of investment into R&D is needed in order to innovate
- Increased fixed costs
- E.g. paying high wages of scientists/engineers
- leading to lower operating profit margins
- Reducing retained profit
- Less capital to reinvest in further R&D
- May be unable to effectively differentiate
- Unable to pursue porters differentiation focus/ leadership strategy
Benefit of market orientation?
(line of analysis )
- Market orientation involves focusing on customer wants and needs
- This allows the business to create products based on trends
- And use market research to quantify demand
- Allowing them to produce products which are likely to have a high sales volume
- Benefit from marketing economies of scale
- Fixed cost of market research can be spread across more units
- Lower fixed costs per unit
- Increasing operating profit margins
- Able to reinvest in conducting further market research
Drawback of market orientation?
(line of analysis)
- However market research is needed to find out customer wants and needs
- High amount of invesment need into market research
- Eg. questionnaires and focus groups using a large sample size
- In order to find out customer wants and needs
- Leading to increased cash outflows on wages for specialist researchers
- Lower net cash flow
- Reduced cash reserves
- Poor liquidity
- May be unable to pay day to day bills
- Forced to sell non current assets in order to cover payments
- Business unable to operate
- Limiting innovation
- Less likely to develop unique and competitive products
- (No differentiation)
Benefit of primary market research?
(line of analysis)
– Primary research involves collecting new data
- Which is up to date and specific to the business
- Eg. questionnaires and focus groups
- Which allow the business to effectively identify customer wants and needs
- Create a product which meets needs effectively
- Build customer loyalty
- Price inelastic
- Increasing sales revenue
- Increasing profit margins
- More retained profit to reinvest
Drawback of primary market research?
(line of analysis)
- However primary market research can be expensive
- May need to hire specialist researchers to conduct research
- Eg. questionnaires and focus groups using a large sample size
- In order to find out customer wants and needs
- Leads to increased cash outflows on wages
- Lower net cash flow
- Reduced cash reserves
- poor liquidity lower volume of data is collected as a business may not have the cash to pay for researchers
- Resulting in unreliable results as less people are asked
- Resulting in the wrong product being produced or wrong price being charged