Marketing
The bringing together of buyers and sellers to exchange goods and services
Marketing plan
a document which outlines the goals, the intended marking mix and the target market for the business
Market research
Studying the buyers and or sellers of a good service to provide the firm with information to increase its profits
Primary research
The collection and collation of original data via direct contact with potential or existing customers
Secondary research
Information that has already been collected and is available for use by others
target market
The specific group of potential buyers that the firm aims to sell to
survey
A questionaire that gathers information about the target market
The marketing mix
The essential elements of a good marketing strategy. The combination of product, place, price and promotion
Product
The features of the good or service being sold
Promotion
Increasing the awareness of the product to potential customers to persuade them to buy
Place
The distribution channel which gets the product to the customer
Price
What a buyer must pay to purchase the good or service
Cost-plus pricing
Where the price is the cost of making the product plus a profit mark-up
Competitive pricing
Where the price is the same as, or just below, what competing firms are charging
Price skimming
Where the price is set high because it’s a new product so it has ‘novelty value’
Promotional pricing
Where the price is set very low for a short time only
psychological pricing
using numbers and decimals to make the customer believe the product is cheaper than it really is
dynamic pricing
Where businesses charge different prices for their products depending on which customers are buying them or when the products sell
Price competition
Where the firm lowers the price of its product to encourage customers to buy it
Examples of price competition
discount or sale, interest-free terms, buy one get one free, using loss leaders
Price war
When a group of competing firms all reduce their price to try and have the lowest price
Non-price competition
When a firm tries to increase sales by any method apart from reducing the selling price
Examples of non-price competition
Gift with the purchase, loyalty programmes, great service, location, branding, advertising, packaging, sponsorship
Loyalty programme
offering special deals for customers who continue to purchase from the firm or group of firms
service
Extra help from the firm provides to support customers using its good or services
location
The site of the business
branding
Where colours, images or a logo are used to present a business or its product.
advertising
Paying a 3rd party to communicate details of your product or business to potential customers. Any form of paid promotion
packaging
The container in which the good is sold; how it is presented
sponsorship
A way of advertising where a firm provides finance to an event. Paying to have the name or brand of your product associated with a particular sport or organisation.
What encourages people to buy products?
Brand, design quality, packaging and features
Penetration pricing
Where the price is set well below competitors prices in order to enter a new market
Promotion
Increasing the awareness of the product to potential customers to persuade them to buy.
Uses of promotion
It informs customers about the product, where it is and what does. It persuades them to buy it
Aims of Promotion
Attention, interest, desire and action
service
all things a firm offers apart from the product
competitions
firms may offer a prize to increase sales where the entracnce of the competition is the purchasing of a product
loss leaders
pricing a produt below the cost of production to attract customers to spend more on other products