Topic 2: Marketing

Question 1

What is marketing?

Answer 1

Marketing is the process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements, profitably

Question 2

What is market research?

Answer 2

Market research is the collection of information from customers and people who may become customers, finding out wheather or not they like or will buy the firm’s product.

Question 3

Explain the purpose of market research [10 points]

Answer 3

• to find out information about customers and what customers are likely to buy
• to help identify a target market for a particular product or service
• to reduce the risk of selling the wrong product or service
• to find out the best price to charge
• to find out how and where to advertise
• to find out the best place to sell a product or service
• it can show if particular packaging is attractive to customers
• it can make the business aware of any changes in consumer tastes
• it can allow the business to develop a successful marketing strategy
• it can prevent the business making expensive mistakes

Question 4

What is primary (field) research?

Answer 4

This is the collection of original information and is carried out by making direct contact with customers and members of the public who may become customers.

Question 5

What are the methods of primary (field) research?

Answer 5

1. Observation
2. Testing
3. Questionnaires
4. Interviews
5. Consumer Panels

Question 6

What are the advantages of primary (field) research?

Answer 6

• information is up-to-date
• competitors will not have the information/research
• the business can design the research so they can obtain exactly the information they want

Question 7

What are the disadvantages of primary (field) research?

Answer 7

• it can be very expensive
• it is a time consuming process to obtain
• it can be difficult to obtain

Question 8

What is secondary (desk) research?

Answer 8

This is research using published statistics, data and other information, which has already been collected and analysed.

Question 9

What are the methods of secondary (desk) research?

Answer 9

1. Government Publications
2. Internet
3. Newspapers and Journals
4. Firm’s Internal Records

Question 10

What are the advantages of secondary (desk) research?

Answer 10

• the information is cheap to obtain
• the information is available immediately - quicker than primary usually
• if the information is from a reliable source, it will be well researched and accurate
• the data available covers a wide range of sources
• the business can find out what its competitors are doing

Question 11

What are the disadvantages of secondary (desk) research?

Answer 11

• information can be out-of-date
• the information is available to every other business in the market, no competitive advantage can be gained
• data can be difficult to make sense of, the data may not have been collected for the same purpose

Question 12

Methods of Primary Research:
(1) Questionnaires and Interviews
ADVANTAGES