business unit 2 aos 2

7Ps - People

everyone involved in delivering product or service, particularly employees who interact directly with customers. they have a major influence on customer experiences and customer satisfaction

7Ps - Process

the procedures, systems and activities used to deliver products and services to customers. Efficient processes help businesses operate smoothly and provide a consistent customer experience, reduce waiting times, minimise mistakes and improve efficiency.

7Ps - Physical Evidence

tangible elements of a business that customers can see, touch or experience. These cues help customers assess quality and professionalism of the business. includes building design, store layout, cleanliness, signage, employee uniforms, packaging

product life cycle

the stages a product passes through: introduction, growth, maturity, decline and extension

product life cycle - Introduction stage

period during which a new product is launched into the market. business tries to increase consumer awareness and build market share for the new product.

product life cycle - growth stage

product begins to increase sales to customers. brand acceptance and market share are actively pursued by the producers of the product.

product life cycle - maturity stage

product is fully accepted into the market and when sales reach their peak. sales plateau as the market becomes saturated.

product life cycle - decline stage

product no longer appeals to customers. may be due to being superseded by newer, or more technologically advanced, competitors or changing customer taste.sales begin to decline.

Extension stage

some products can be revived and begin a new cycle of growth and eventual maturity. can occur when product is marketed into new locations, through export to other countries, product diversification and enhancement

Expansion through Export

Sales can be sustained by carefully planned strategies that result in exporting to new markets or diversifying and satisfying previously unmet demand

Expansion through Diversification

businesses vary range of products or field of operations, through product diversification and geographic diversification

Product diversification

increasing range of products sold

Geographic diversification

operating in different locations both domestically and globally. helps minimise the risk of business failure if one market suffer sales decrease

Why do products decline?

Technology, Perception, Consumer behaviour, New trends, Climate change, Legislation, Economic circumstances

social media advertising

use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product and service through the use of ‘influencers’ who align themselves with a business or product.

social media advertising advnatage

easy to use and monitor compared to tradiitonal marketing methods

social media advertising disadvantage

limited control over what consumers write about the business’s product online, with freedom to discuss, review, criticise and ridicule a product

Email marketing

-adv: promoting special deals, member benefits and future events. This keeps the business at forefront of customer’s mind

-disadv: effectiveness harder to track, ends up in spam/deleted

data analytics

science of analysing raw data to draw conclusions about that information

data custodian

person responsible for the management of the data the business collects.

Data maintenance

process of keeping data so its current, complete and relevant to the business.

Data access

determining who is allowed to access the data and for what purpose.

Data security

ensuring the data is safe, with protections in place to stop unauthorised access and use, and if customers can trust the business with their data

Data privacy

businesses need to ensure their customers’ data is kept private and not shared with other businesses, organisations or people without consent.

AI and marketing

method of using AI to collect data, customer insights, anticipate customers’ next moves and make automated decisions that affect marketing efforts. allows businesses to understand customers so they can target the right strategy to right customers

Search engine optimisation

process of improving a business’s website to increase its visibility in search engine results. higher visibility can attract more customers, increase website traffic and improve sales/profits.

public relations

planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between a business and its publics. purpose is to project a positive image to the outside world through planned communications strategies and tactics

publics

stakeholders/groups the business interacts with and have a vested interest/impact on the business’s ability to achieve its objectives

4 ways of achieving public relations

Promoting a positive image, effective communication of messages, issues monitoring, crisis management

Promoting a positive image

reinforcing the favourable attitudes and perceptions consumers have regarding the business’s reputation

Effective communication of messages

using advertising, sales promotions, publicity and personal selling to convey information about the business and its products

Issues monitoring:

protecting sales by providing an early warning of public trends that could affect the business’s sales. Remedial action can be taken before much harm is done to sales

Internal publics

employees and managers. They expect fair pay and conditions, safe working environment. Good employee morale helps develop and maintain a positive image with external publics.

General publics

general publics’ feelings towards a business can affect its customers’ attitudes. Society expects fair and honest business practices and ethical, responsible decisions

Local community publics

important for small business because represents local residents. They expect business to be good ‘corporate’ citizen.

public relations campaign

series of public relations activities undertaken to achieve a specific objective

PR campaign stage 1 - Establish public relations objectives

Objectives outline what the campaign is trying to achieve, to be developed using smart, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound (SMART)

PR campaign Stage 2 — Identify the intended publics

pr campaign ‘target’ group is the publics towards whom the public relations strategies and tactics are directed

PR campaign Stage 3 — Develop specific public relations strategies and tactics

selecting most appropriate and effective media for the chosen publics, e.g. social media, electronic/print media advertising, brochures, letterbox drops

PR campaign Stage 4 — Implement the public relations campaign

action plan is devised to make sure the implementation runs smoothly

Stage 5 — Evaluate the results

success should be measured in terms of original objectives, before, during and/or after the campaign ends. A PR manager should be able to estimate whether any change occurred in attitudes of publics

Crisis public relations

strategies a business implements when an unforeseen event generates unfavourable publicity that may threaten image and reputation of business

crisis communication plan

outlines policies and procedures to follow when handling unfavourable publicity and news personnel when crisis occurs. purpose is to bring the crisis under control/limiting the damage, and dealing with intense media/public scrutiny

adv.s of maintaining positive PR with customer base

-expansion and maintenance of a customer base, and growth in customer loyalty.

-improved marketability, result in higher sales and improved market share

disadv.s of maintaining positive PR with customer base

-can cost money include employment costs of PR specialist staff

-little control over a PR campaign

Protection of consumer privacy

Business need to collect, use and store customers’ personal data in a way that a customer feel their data is secure and privacy is protected