Market research involves finding out information about a target audience such as demographics, interests, and buying behaviors. It is important for building audience profiles and determining what makes a product appealing. Market analysis examines market characteristics like trends, size, shares, and levels of saturation to inform business decisions. Advertising is crucial for communicating with mass audiences and raising brand awareness. Methods of brand promotion include sponsorships, endorsements, social media, and word-of-mouth marketing. Public relations involves managing messages around incidents and using positive publicity like charitable giving or media stunts to benefit brand perception.

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 finding a market’s demographic, which is its audience. Market
research is important because it allows a company to find out an audience’s hobbies
and interests are. It allows you to build up an audience profile after you have carried
out market research. Demographics you will need to find out is age,gender,class,
income and personality etc; every single product appeals to a specific demographic.
Market research lets you find out who you are completing against to appeal to a
certain market. For example If you wanted to create a pair of speakers, you will have
consider your competition, which may be Sony or Samsung. You will have to find out
who are interested in buying speakers and details about them. You will need to identify
want makes your product stand out from the rest.
An audience profile can be made through primary and secondary research. Primary
can involve interview and focus groups. It can be could on social media because you
can check who interacts with your information. You could use cold calling people and
asking them directly what they think. Secondary research involves research the
internet and books and other companies for statists for example. Secondary research
needs to checked because it can be invalid and untrustworthy; it worth using invalid
information to help with your market research as it will give you invalid results.
Explain market analysis. Why is it done and who could carry it out for you?
-market book page 17 btec unit 3 and a2.
Market analysis is analysing the market. You will need to know if the saturated or not.
The level of saturation can depend on the competition, prices and technology and
consumer buying power.
You need to research the market characteristics because you need to find out trends,
market size and market shares. This Allows company to make decisions and plan for
the future; they will know what to do next.
Companies will need to know how popular something because they will how much to
invest into a product. It is very risky investing a very large amount of money like, like
250,000, into a product that will not take off because it will be a big loss.
Another thing they will need to consider when bringing out products release dates,
depending on the time of year. A good example of this is the film Frozen because the
film has winter vibes to it and was released in November/December in the
winter/Christmas period. If a company was thinking of launching a new pair of
sunglasses, it make more sense to launch them in the summer time because that’s
when people are most likely to wear them.
Not carrying out any market analysis can end in failure or it could turn out well, if you
you’re lucky. An example of a product brought out with hardly any market analysis is
the Sony Walkman. This music player was a risk because they didn’t know if it would

2. be popular because it had no recording function. However a month after the product
was introduced in Japan the thing was sold out and was popular with consumers of all
ages.
Problems may occur whilst carrying out market research. The data that is collected
may not be the data you want; for example the market you want to launch your new
product into may be full or unpopular. Gathering secondary research; someone else
so it could be unreliable and invalid. Your research only valid and worth using if it
carried out recently, if the research you collect has been done in the past you will have
consider it may not reflect the market NOW. If you are creating a product you want to
launch in 2017, you will need to research market information from 2016/17 not 2013
because that was the markets 4 years ago, the market will certainly have changed by
then.
Small and medium sizes companies may get other people to carry market them
whereas larger companies may carry it out. Market analytics can carry out primary and
secondary research. They can see who in interacts with posts, like age and genders,
so they can see what more popular. Market with markets officers.
Explain marketing strategy using examples.
Marketing strategy short or long activity to fulfil ,certain needs.
Staff, time and cost.
Growth could be a strategy, more advertisements to gain students to york college.
Pre-existing products and changing to aim to new market.a few more people .similar
audience .
Product development is development a product to make to better or expanding a
product e.g apple 5c ,5 and 5s. accories for it.
Market development-
Completely new demographic to their original market. addias advert.
Divertisificaition is making a new product for a new audience. If apple made a blender
? virgin has made lots of products for dffferent product. Virgin airways , virgin mobile .
ANSOFF
Top left – small companies (safest option)
Bottom right –large companies (good or bad )
Top right- expanding
Why is advertising so important to an organisation? Use examples to help you explain.
Payed form of communication. You find advertising in tv,print (buses, newpapers and
radio). Scales-local (york) ,regional (north Yorkshire) ,national (uk ) and international
(the world).
Full service agencies , carry out everything for a company .leaflets distributers ,
different people work on those to the creating the websites .
Avertsing is getting your messages out to as many people as possible-reaching mass
audiences. Certain groups.
Most effective methods of communicating to mass audiences.
Supermarkets advertisements :
Asda to tesco ,prices match. Brand switch get to go from one supermarket to another.
Switching back. M&S to back to tesco ,offering discounts. Seasonal aisles. Recipe
changes and packaging change .
Continuiting in advertising ,
Addition or adaptations of theme . e.g meerkat or go compare (keep characters and

3. changing the scenerios)
Demostations of introducing a product to the markets. Easy to get the product to
audience and make them aware. If advertising fails ,the product could fail,to increase
sales and market share.
Very important.
What is brand promotion and what methods could you use to promote a brand?
Endorsements to brand promote. Proting your brands to get more sales.brand
promoting is making people aware of a brand.
Methods to promote-
Sponsorships coke cola sponsored the 2012 Olympics.sports have a lot of
sponsors,football and formula one.pay money to sponsors them.
Endorsemtns are also used. Using a celebs to endorse our product . Cheryl Cole used
in loreal adverts. David beckham for whisky. Can have a massive impact on the brand
and make the them more popular. Don’t have to be in TV advertisements they could
be someone saying it on their shows.
social media –
people can promote brands on their page. Kylie jenner may get payed a certain
amount of money to post a picture with a brand but they have no contract. Or people
may do it just because they like a product.
word of mouths ,recommendations throught speech.
PR
What are some of the key principles involved in managing the message?
(public relations).
Refers to a message that is put about in the event of an incident . important how a
company respounds to problems occurring. The company comes out and explain the
incident of what is happening. Put out a message early and often because news
reporters get their start. If they say it first they have less chance of it being twisted and
look like they are hiding something. No room to twist the truth and putting out false
information. Reflects the brand negatively so they need to handle and manage a
message well. Page 3 and page 4.page 1 and 11 principle of message managing.
What is positive publicity? Find an example of it to help explain.
Through sponsorship and endorsement but also do other things. They can give to
charities. Media stunt which gets a lot of media coverage.
Message in a bottle guinesss 1959
Charities (human chain ,1989)
Racing for victory
Apple stores ( people clap as people walks in)

4. In public relations terms, what is spin? Find an example to help you with your
response.
Spin is taking a fact using it as an advantage. Form of f propaganda, propaganda is a
forced message. Not telling the full truth , giving parts of the truth but not the full truth.
Spin doctors, they create spin propaganda.
Why might a person or a company engage in damage limitation? Using an example
will improve your grade.
Damage limitation will be used to minimise the negative perception. Using positive
publicity to lower and prevention damage to the company. Managing a message.
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.
Media in one place and good coverage. Convey a solid message to the press.
See all the clients and offers to get more of an understanding.
Further brand loyalty and feel positive about the brand .interacting with consumers.
Try before you buy.
What is lobbying and who is most likely to be influenced by it?
Lobbying usually are paid persuaders to influence decisions.
Give someone a certain amount of money.
To influence the government or political bodies to keep something going.
For example trying to ban something.