Understanding the Functions of Marketing and PR

Use this work book to help you explain the functions of marketing and public relations. You should ensure you use additional examples to support your explanations.

MarketingExplain what market research is, how it can be carried out and why it could be important.

Market research is the process used to develop extensive knowledge on a product/subject. This knowledge can then be used to figure out who competitors are and gain an understanding of market prices and current developments. As well as this, market research can help give a company an indication of which processes lead to success and failure. An example of this would be IRN-BRU 32’s failure in attempt to become a competitor in the energy drinks market. Saturation in the market due to Barr having a conflict of interest relation to already having energy drinks in circulation lead to the drink being discontinued.

Explain market analysis. What is it done and who could carry it out for you?

Market analysis is done to collect important information on market trends, market size, and the current rate of growth within the industry, as well as other important data. If there is not already a section within the company for market analysis the work could be contracted out to a separate entity to carry out the research with more advanced methods, such as SWOT. The SWOT method will analyse strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats involved in a project. Perhaps if IRN-BRU 32 had used the SWOT method, the threat of saturation in the market could have been spotted beforehand and solved accordingly.

Explain marketing strategy using examples.

Marketing strategy allows companies to budget correctly and focus on a singular idea that they believe attainable, realistic, and the most profitable. All deals that take place through this process tie in with the company’s initial goals, objectives, and all-round ethos. TESCO – despite starting as a small group of market stalls, to becoming 2,500 stores almost a century later – remain loyal to their long-standing tradition of small price reductions. This is brought forth in the slogan that reads “Every little helps.”

Why is advertising so important to an organisation? Use examples to help you explain.

Advertising is of the foremost importance to any company as it is the main tool in creating and developing a brand. Advertising is a form of marketing used to maximise potential revenue, project company objectives and goals to consumers, become more trustworthy with current users, and become more identifiable with those that are not. An example of adverts trying to gain a degree of trust with consumers is by putting a well-liked celebrity in the advert. Examples being Ant & Dec with Morrisons, Kevin Bacon with EE, and Cheryl Cole with L’Oreal.

What is brand promotion and what methods could you use to promote a brand?

Brand Promotion is an alternate form of advertising, whereby you use the companies name in combination with another brand or team, therefore reinforcing the power of each brand. Methods used include sponsorship of teams and competitions, having their logo shown in broadcast media outlets as well as print media outlets. A smaller way of promoting the brand could be giving away small free gifts with the company logo on. Examples of team and competition sponsorship/branding would be the Red Bull X-Games, the Red Bull Formula One team, and IRN-BRU’s sponsorship of the Scottish Football League, which allowed them to reach out to their own target market through the promotion of another entity who have a similar demographic.

PRWhat are some of the key principals involved in managing the message?

One of the key principals involved in managing the message is to create a constant message across a company’s whole outlet. This is to create a degree of trust with consumers and avoid potential doubt in the customers mind when debating whether or not to buy the product.Constant communication is a necessity as it gives the consumers a feeling of self-importance and lets them know that their purchase was worthwhile and valuable to the company.Within this constant communication honesty is important as going back and putting out different information to what you have put out previously could create doubt in the buyers mind. A way to abide by this maxim is to be truthful when you do not know the answers to a consumer’s question.

What is positive publicity? Find an example of it to help explain.

Positive publicity is when the company is shown in a good light because of an event or accomplishment. An example of this would be every time someone wins the National Lottery, and is pictured with a large fake cheque. This publicity gives potential consumers the belief that they too could win and may lead to them buying a lottery ticket the next week, without being told about how many people fail to win.

In public relations terms, what is spin? Find an example to help you with your response.

Spin is the process of turning what could be negative publicity into either positive publicity, or just pinning it on another company or firm. An example of this would be when Tony Blair overstated the need for the war in Iraq. Hans Blix – who led the UN search for weapons of mass destruction - was quoted to have said “There were question marks but they changed them to exclamation marks."

Why might a person or a company engage in damage limitation? Using an example will improve your grade.

A person or company may engage in damage limitation if they feel their company or their own image is under threat in the public eye. Damage limitation is done to ensure

their image is not completely demolished and they can still continue their business.An example of this would be when TESCO were in the public eye for negative reasons during the horse-meat scandal and made a statement that they had cut off some of their suppliers and began a thorough investigation into what content was going into their meat.

What benefit could there be to an organisation to create an event? Use an example of a marketing or PR event to support your responses.

The benefits of an organisation creating an event are to advertisement their current business, as well as future business, and be able to contact consumers vocally. An example of this could be when Manchester City football club created an event to advertise that they were creating a new football club in New York. By doing this they were able to advertise both of their football clubs to new, old and future fans. These events are usually created to showcase good news within the organisation. This news is usually linked in with a success story involving the company. This creates more trust with customers and potential customers and acts as free advertising.

What is lobbying and who is most likely to be influenced by it?

Lobbying is the act of influencing or advising for a company or organisation. Many companies use lobbyers in important discussions to help push ideas with potential or current investors. Those most likely to be influenced would be the Government and its county councils, regional councils, and public services.An example of the government being influenced by lobbying would be the recent case of British Gas lobbying to reduce a government set target to insulate 87,000 homes by 2017 to the then figure of 32,000. This may have come about because of the friendship between David Cameron and Sam Laidlaw of Centrica, the parent company of British Gas.No rival energy firm are planning on starting a dispute in the industry by criticising British Gas in the public eye, but a source at one particular branch said: “We were aware that British Gas was constantly in Downing Street trying to get the targets lowered. We were never invited to Downing Street to put our case.”

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