Market research involves gathering information about target markets through surveys, focus groups, and interviews. This helps companies understand customer wants/needs and determine where to advertise. A market analysis presents research findings and identifies gaps. Marketing strategy sets objectives and outlines the product, price, place, and promotion plan. Advertising is important for raising brand awareness and shaping perceptions of products. Positive publicity generates goodwill while damage limitation aims to minimize harm to reputation from negative events. Lobbying seeks to influence legislation by advocating for special interests to politicians and parties.

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 research into your target market. You could do this by handing out
surveys and questionnaires or asking focus groups. You do this to find out what your
market want, what they need and what they like. You find this out by asking them
questions like what their favourite item is, what they think good customer service is,
etc. The focus groups and interviews are to find out more qualitative results. These
help you explain your reasons better and let you get a better look into your audience.
Once you find out this you can create offers and new products that will attract and
please your customers. For example Tesco finds out what people like to buy and put
offers on that particular item.
Market Research can also tell you where to advertise. From the market research you
can create an audience profile which states how much your market earn, their average
age, their gender and where they live. Once you know this you can aim your products
at them more and now where to place bus adverts and billboards. It is a waste of
money paying to have an advert somewhere where people can’t afford or are
uninterested in your product.
Explain market analysis. What is it done and who could carry it out for you?
A market analysis is a presentation that illustrates what you know about your audience
and market. Your findings from the research should be included in this. An analysis is
to make sure that your research is complete; it shows you what your research is telling
you and what else you need to find out before your business plan is solid.
The people who would carry this out are people on the marketing team, market
analysers.
Explain marketing strategy using examples.
It is a strategy that will get your product popular. It’s a plan that will make your product
better than the other ones available. It is also where you clearly state what your
objectives and aims are.
Aldi’s are:
Product – high quality ‘Like Brands’.
Price – Aldi offers lower prices than its competitors without compromising on
quality.
Place – Aldi outlets are expanding globally.
Promotions – Aldi uses a combination of above-the-line and below-the-line
promotions with a focus on its ‘Like Brands’ and ‘Swap & Save’
campaigns.http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/aldi/creating-value-through-the-marketing-mix/the-marketing-mix.html#ixzz2mW8x3spj
You need to state these clearly so everyone in the company knows what to aim for.
This will help the aims be achieved quicker and then you can more on to the next
ones. Most aims are about the size of your business or the quality of your

2. service/product.
Why is advertising so important to an organisation? Use examples to help you explain.
Advertising is important or no one would know about the brand. You need to advertise
your product so people can see it, know what it is and know what its purpose is.
Advertising is also important to give your product the look you want. It can make the
product look cool and unique or dull and boring. This is part of the reason why it is so
important, if your advertising campaign doesn’t portray what you want it to then it will
be a big waste of money.
Drinks adverts use splashes and liquid to show how refreshing the drink is. They could
do say it, write it down as a slogan but they show it as well. What you show is a lot of
what you portray, colours are a big part of this. Colours give off different moods and
messages’ so finding the right one for your advert is very important.
What is brand promotion and what methods could you use to promote a brand?
A good way to promote your product is to sponsor a TV programme. If you find out
what TV shows are popular and sponsor them then you will get coverage before and
after the show is shown.
Another way is to bring out new products, to promote the new Hunger Games film,
Catching Fire. They have brought out two new subs at subway that are hot and spicy
because of the title of the film. This is expanding the audience for both the film and
subway. The two have similar audiences but not as similar as you would have thought.
‘The Hunger Games’ is more for girls and subway is more of a general but mostly
guys. Working together means that they will attract new people and appeal to a wider
audience. This is good as it makes them more money.
PR
What are some of the key principals involved in managing the message?
Messaging is when you create a consistent story about your product or brand. The aim
is to avoid the audience receiving bad information about the companythat would
confuse the public on what to buy and who to buy it from. Companies and Brands tend
to have the same message through all types of media so it doesn’t get confusing.
What is positive publicity? Find an example of it to help explain.
Positive publicity is when your product or service is in the news in a positive way.
Many companies are in the news, like when people found out Primark and Nike used
child labour to create their products it was big news. This bad publicity though
because it puts people off of your product because it wasn’t made fairly.

3. In public relations terms, what is spin? Find an example to help you with your response.
Spin is when you manipulate events that have happened. You can make them positive
or negative. It is a very deceptive tactic used to make your products or brand look
better.
Politics are often accused of using this tactic as they promise things that won’t
happen. They interoperate things in ways that makes them seem good and their
components policies bad.
Why might a person or a company engage in damage limitation? Using an example will
improve your grade.
Damage limitation is when a business tries to limit the damage done to the business,
this includes physical damage and reputation. For example when BP had their oil spill
in Mexico back in 2011 damage control had to hit hard and fast. The spill meant a lot
of contamination and life dying because he mix of water and oil is really hard to get rid
of. They had to think of ideas quick so the damage was minimal. The spill gave the
company loads of bad reputation and companies they were associated with started to
say they weren’t associated anymore because tragedies like that have knock on
effects. It’s best to limit the damage so you don’t lose everything within a matter of
minutes.
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.
If it is for a hotel or service then it is a good way to show off your facilities and how
good your service is. If people enjoy themselves and like the way they were treated
they will return and book into your hotel when they go away.
If it’s a product that sells products its good to host an event as they can give away
samples of their products and let people try them out before they buy them.
What is lobbying and who is most likely to be influenced by it?
Lobbying is the when businesses are influenced to create legislation or conduct an
event that will benefit the influencer. People who do this are known as lobbyists.
People often lobby politicians and their party in order to get a certain activity legalised.
Greenpeace have contacts with some of the political parties and get them to back
them up/ They are even used in some campaigns since the company is one with a
good message. This would give the politician a good image but at the same time it is
better for Greenpeace as they are getting a lot of publicity from it.