Unit 3 Flashcards
What is the main role of marketing?
To convert the wants of an individual into a need.
Why must businesses build customer relationships?
To maintain the loyalty of its customers to the business and its products.
What is the customer base?
The group of customers a business sells its products to.
What is customer loyalty?
Once a customer base has been established, the marketing function must then aim to keep these customers.
What is a market?
All customers and consumers who are interested in buying a product and have the financial resources to do so.
What is a target market?
Individuals or organisations identified by a business as the customers or consumers of its products.
What is a customer?
An individual or business that buys goods and services from a business.
What is a consumer?
The final user of a product.
What are the two types of markets?
- Consumer markets.
- Industrial markets.
What are consumer markets?
Markets for goods and services bought by the final consumer.
What are industrial markets?
Markets for goods and services bought by the final consumer.
What is a business environment?
The combination of internal and external factors that influence the operations of a business.
Why do consumer spending patterns change?
- The price of the product.
- The price of competitors’ products.
- Changes in consumer income.
- Changes in population size and structure.
- Changes in tastes and fashion.
- Spending on advertising and other promotional activities.
What kind of response to changes in customer needs do businesses need to do survive in the long run?
It has to respond to any change in costumer needs.
Why do some markets become more competitive?
- Government intervention in markets.
- Growth of free trade between countries.
- Development of e-commerce and social media networks.
How can the government affect competition in markets?
- Legal controls that prohibit market domination.
- Selling off public sector organisations to the private sector.
- Deregulation.
- Providing financial and other assistance to new and small to medium- sized businesses.
What is deregulation?
The removal of government controls from an industry.
What is free-trade?
No barriers exist that might prevent trade between different countries.
How do businesses respond to changing spending patters and increased competition?
- Product development.
- Improve efficiency.
- Increased promotion.
- Look for new markets.
How does product development help?
It helps a business remain competitive and market research will help to identify how exactly the needs and wants of consumers are changing.
How does improving efficiency help?
The efficient use of resources will help a business to reduce average costs.
How does increased promotion help?
Increasing advertising to persuade consumers to buy your product and not that of competitors,
How does looking for new markets help?
Sometimes consumer spending patterns change so much, or the level of competition in a market becomes so great, that the better option is for a business to look for new markets for its products.
What is a niche market?
It is a very small part of the whole market.
What is niche marketing?
Developing products for a small segment of the market.
What are some benefits of niche marketing?
- Small firms are able to survive and earn profit even in markets that are dominated by larger firms.
- There is less competition in these markets. Firms do not waste scarce resources responding to competitor actions.
- Consumers will usually pay more for a high-status, exclusive product. This offers firms the opportunity to charge high prices and earn high profit margins.
What are some limitations of niche marketing?
- The opportunity to earn high profits might attract competitors and this will reduce prices and future profits.
- The small size of the market means that economies of scale are unlikely to be achieved. This means that unit costs are higher than they would be if the product was sold to a mass market.
- Small changes in consumer spending patterns could have a very significant impact on firms operating in niche markets.
What is a mass market?
A market for goods produced on a large scale for a significant number of end consumers.
What is mass marketing?
Selling the whole product to the same market.
What are some benefits of mass marketing?
- Mass marketing requires large-scale production. Larger firms often benefit from economies of scale which reduces unit costs.
- A much larger market has the potential for high sales and profits.
- Changes in consumer spending patterns might have less effect on firms selling to a mass market. This reduces the risk to firms who operate in mass markets.
What are some limitations of mass marketing?
- There is much more competition in the market, which lowers prices and profit margins.
- Not all markets are large enough to support a mass marketing approach.
- Consumers today are often looking for something slightly different from that offered by same product mass marketing. This has led to greater division of the whole market and reduced the scope for mass marketing.
What is market segmentation?
Dividing the whole market into segments by consumer characteristics and then targeting different products to each segment.
What is a market segment?
A part of the whole market in which consumers have specific characteristics.
What are some methods for how markets can be segmented?
- Geographic segmentation.
- Demographic segmentation.
- Psychographic segmentation.
What is geographic segmentation?
Dividing consumers in the market by geographic area.
What is demographic segmentation?
Dividing consumers in the market by factors such as age, gender, income, ethnic background and social class.
What is psychographic segmentation?
Dividing consumers in the market by lifestyles, personalities and attitudes.
What are some benefits of segmentation?
- Goods and services can be designed to meet the specific needs of consumers in each segment.
- Small firms which may not be able to compete in the whole market are able to operate in one or two segments.
- Segmentation of the whole market sometimes identifies a segment of consumers who have very specialised needs that are not being satisfied (opportunity for niche marketing).
- Marketing strategies can be better targeted at each segment. This reduces the waste of scarce resources.
- Price discrimination.
What is price discrimination?
Charging higher prices for very similar products in one segment than in another.
What affects how businesses choose a method of segmentation?
It depends on the product or service.
What is market research?
The process of collecting, recording and analysing data about the customers, competitors and market for a product.
What does market research give a business information about?
- Its customers.
- Its competitors.
- Its market.
What does the information obtained from market research help a business to do?
- Find out what consumers like and dislike about its products.
- Identify consumer tastes and preferences.
- Decide on the best promotion, packaging and distribution methods for its products.
- Unique selling point.
- Know the size of the market.
- Explain the research for the sales of its current products.
- Predict how the demand for its products may change in the future.
What is a businesses unique selling point?
The special feature pf a product that sets it apart from competitors’ products.
What is market orientated?
Products are developed based on consumer demands as identified by market research.
What are the two main benefits of a market-orientated approach?
- The risk of new products failing is reduced because they have been produced following market research which identifies the needs of consumers.
- Products that meet the needs of consumers are likely to last longer in the market than goods which have been produced using a product-orientated approach. This leads to higher sales and profits.
What is product orientated?
The firm decides what to produce and then tries to find buyers for the product.
What are the two categories that market data can be divided into?
- Primary research.
- Secondary research.
What is primary research?
The collection of first-hand data for the specific needs of the firm.
What is another way of saying primary research?
Field research.
What are the benefits of primary research?
- Data is up-to-date.
- Data is collected for a specific purpose which is directly relevant to the business.
- It is not available to other businesses, this may provide a competitive advantage.
What are the limitations of primary research?
- It is costly to collect.
- It is time-consuming.
- There is a risk of the data being inaccurate or containing bias.
What is secondary research?
The collection of data from second-hand sources.
What is another way of saying secondary research?
Desk research.
What are the main uses of secondary research?
- Internet.
- Government publications.
- Newspapers and magazines.
- Libraries.
- Market research agencies.
- Business records.
What are the benefits of secondary research?
- It is fairly cheap to obtain.
- It is easier and quicker to obtain than primary research data.
What are the limitations of secondary research?
- It may have been collected some time ago, so it is not up-to-date.
- It has not been collected for the specific purpose required by the business so it may not be as reliable or as useful as primary data.
What are the two types of primary research?
- Quantitative research.
- Qualitative research.
What is quantitative research?
The collection of numerical data that can be analysed using statistical techniques.
What is qualitative research?
The collection of information about consumers’ buying behaviour and their opinions about products.