1. 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.
Marketing
Explain what market research is, how it can be carried out and why it could be important.
Market research is when a business gathers information about their target markets or target
customers. When carrying out market research you need to find out what people want,
need and believe. Once you have found out this information, it will help you when it
comes to deciding how to market your product.
Explain market analysis. Why is it done and who could carry it out for you?
In market analysis, you study the attractiveness of a special market and you can use it to
analyse the target market for clients and determine courses of action, which would
improve sales. Looking at the customer’s desire and satisfaction is a large part of the
analysis. The reason for carrying out market analyses is to examine the customer’s loyalty
levels, the brand perception, but mainly to come up with a way to draw shares away from
any competitors and increase your own.
Explain marketing strategy using examples.
Marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organisation to focus on certain
opportunities with an aim to increase sales and achieve a competitive advantage. This
strategy combines all of its marketing goals into one comprehensive plan.
Why is advertising so important to an organisation?
Use examples to help you explain.
Advertising is important because it helps to sell the products and stimulates sales.
Advertising raises the awareness for that market and by doing so the image for that brand
can build. This differentiates the competitions products, which means that the customers
can have a preference from one brand to the other.
What is brand promotion and what methods could you use to promote a brand?
Brand promotion is a way to increase product awareness, sales, customer loyalty and
competitiveness. Businesses use brand promotion use to show the consumers what is
different and good about their products, as well as showing off the products available.
It is important for a business to put some sort of effort into getting messages across to
the public.

2. PR
What are some of the key principals involved in managing the message?
To manage a message that you are giving to the public you need to make sure that you
identify the name of the product, identify the benefits it will give to the customer, and most
importantly create a sentence or phrase which includes that information.
What is positive publicity? Find an example of it to help explain.
Positive publicity is when a business is publicised in a good way, or for something good that
they have done. Publicising your products can help with sales and let the public know that
your product exists. Ways of getting positive publicity include:
Event sponsorship
Conduct a poll or survey
Organise a tour of your business or projects
Issue a report
In public relations terms, what is spin? Find an example to help you with your response.
Spin is a form of propaganda, which means influencing the attitude of the community by
only showing one side of an argument. Spins can include highly manipulative tactics and
can change people’s views. The techniques of spin include selectively choosing
information to give to the public, which supports your purpose, and also changing phrases
that avoids the question asked.
Why might a person or a company engage in damage limitation?
Using an example will improve your grade.
A company or person might use damage limitation to make a big problem or situation as
small as possible, or seem less of a concern than it actually is. For many people, damage
limitation or damage control seems like a scary task and ordeal. It is trying to place a
positive spin on a negative situation or process. A good example of this would be BP during
the oil spill. Although the negative was the actual spillage and the news and other
organisations were shedding harsh light onto the situation, and worrying the public, BP
ensured they reassured the public that they were working to get the situation resolved. A
similar thing happened during the horsemeat scandal and Tesco. Although the discovery
of horsemeat being used instead of beef was horrific, Tesco’s spokes people reassured
everyone that it would be resolved and their food would be 100% British beef.
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.
A major benefit to an organisation hosting an event is the publicity they will gain. Hosting
an event will also benefit organisations because the publicity will gain high interest in a
wide range of people, encouraging them to attend and that will then in turn increase
revenue, sales and gain new customers and client basis.
What is lobbying and who is most likely to be influenced by it?
Lobbying is to influence or advise those who wish to influence. Lobbying relates to politics,
the UK government and any other public bodies. A lobbyist is a person who works to
produce a campaign to persuade people to vote in a certain way or in their favour. A
good example of this would be when people are asked to vote for their next prime
minister, each candidate campaigns in their favour and trying to persuade the public to
vote for them over someone else.