Marketing is fun topic that we will cover within IGCSE Business, I have prepared lesson for each of the below topics. You must take the tests below to make sure that you fully understand each topic.
3.1 Marketing, competition and the customer
3.1.1 The role of marketing:
- Identifying customer needs
- Satisfying customer needs
- Maintaining customer loyalty
- Building customer relationships
3.1.2 Market changes:
- Why customer/consumer spending patterns may change
- The importance of changing customer needs
- Why some markets have become more competitive
- How businesses can respond to changing spending patterns and increased competition
3.1.3 Concepts of niche marketing and mass marketing:
- Benefits and limitations of both approaches to marketing
3.1.4 How and why market segmentation is undertaken:
- How markets can be segmented, e.g. according to age, socio-economic grouping, location, gender
- Potential benefits of segmentation to business
- Recommend and justify an appropriate method of segmentation in given circumstances
3.2 Market research
3.2.1 The role of market research and methods used:
- Market-orientated businesses (uses of market research information to a business)
- Primary research and secondary research (benefits and limitations of each)
- Methods of primary research, e.g. postal questionnaire, online survey, interviews, focus groups
- The need for sampling
- Methods of secondary research, e.g. online, accessing government sources, paying for commercial market research reports
- Factors influencing the accuracy of market research data
3.2.2 Presentation and use of market research results:
- Analyse market research data shown in the form of graphs, charts and diagrams; draw simple conclusions from such data
3.3 Marketing mix
- The limitations and benefits of developing new products
- Brand image; impact on sales and customer loyalty
- The role of packaging
- The product life cycle: main stages and extension strategies; draw and interpret a product life cycle diagram
- How stages of the product life cycle can influence marketing decisions, e.g. promotion and pricing decisions
3.3.2 Price:
- Pricing methods (benefits and limitations of different methods), e.g. cost plus, competitive, penetration, skimming, and promotional
- Recommend and justify an appropriate pricing method in given circumstances
- Understand the significance of price elasticity: difference between price elastic demand and price inelastic demand; importance of the concept in pricing decisions (knowledge of the formula and calculations of PED will not be assessed)
3.3.3 Place – distribution channels:
- Advantages and disadvantages of different channels, e.g. use of wholesalers, retailers or direct to consumers
- Recommend and justify an appropriate distribution channel in given circumstances
3.3.4 Promotion:
- The aims of promotion
- Different forms of promotion and how they influence sales, e.g. advertising, sales promotion
- The need for cost-effectiveness in spending the marketing budget on promotion
3.3.5 Technology and the marketing mix:
- Define and explain the concept of e-commerce
- The opportunities and threats of e-commerce to business and consumers
- Use of the internet and social media networks for promotion
3.4 Marketing strategy
3.4.1 Justify marketing strategies appropriate to a given situation:
- Importance of different elements of the marketing mix in influencing consumer decisions in given circumstances
- Recommend and justify an appropriate marketing strategy in given circumstances
3.4.2 The nature and impact of legal controls related to marketing:
- Impact of legal controls on marketing strategy, e.g. misleading promotion, faulty and dangerous goods
3.4.3 The opportunities and problems of entering new foreign markets:
- Growth potential of new markets in other countries
- Problems of entering foreign markets, e.g. cultural differences and lack of knowledge
- Benefits and limitations of methods to overcome such problems, e.g. joint ventures, licensing
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