Business Studies Course - Marketing
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Assessment - Functions

Read this report about the effect of some of N.E. wear's marketing, and try to see which graph on the right is represented by each of the paragraphs below. Then answer the questions opposite. Check with "Answers" at the bottom of the page.

A: With our sponsorship of the Quigley free fall parachute competition, it can be seen that some 9000 people attended the event. Of that figure, 2630 took N.E. wear promotional material from the stand, and 717 actually purchased goods with a value of over £25. Therefore our sponsorship of the event just about broke even. This is before we calculate any value-added factors such as brand identification, image building and goodwill.


B: It can be seen that sales have been rising steadily since the product was launched, with substantial increases in every quarter. While we cannot expect such exponential growth to continue once we have reached market saturation, the starting figures must be considered very healthy. The only downturns have been in the after-Christmas sales slump, and when they fell back after a surge when Jimmy Milmer, whom we sponsor, won a gold at the Olympics.


C: When we look at return on investment, it can be seen that TV definitely gave the lowest average return. Though we reached very high audience figures, the cost of producing and showing the advertisements cancelled out much of the gains. By far the best performer was the model competition, which gave great returns for moderate investment. Magazine advertising and posters did well, but the promotions were rather expensive.


D: The demographic groups are listed in clockwise order. It should come as no surprise that teens and young adults are the main buyers, though purchases in the 35-50 group were stronger than expected. We did find a surprising number of over 70s buying our product, but further research showed that many of them were buying for their grandchildren (see the division of this group into own purchases and for younger relatives).


E: We displayed the 40sq meter poster on the side of the shop for two months. It can be seen that while sales followed an upward trend overall, in the time the poster was on display, sales more or less doubled. It is recommended that we use this poster space at least twice a year, and use the same tactic where possible with other large retail outlets.

 

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ANSWERS