Business Studies Course - Marketing
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Assessment - Reading

Read the text and then answer the questions opposite. Check with "Answers" at the bottom of the page.

What are the questions?
Joe Hodge of Hapman clothing is asking Sandra Sean of Verity marketing about N.E. wear's marketing campaign. Read Sandra Sean's replies, and try to decide what the questions were from the list opposite.

1. Joe Hodge:....................................?

Sandra Sean: Well, at the start of the advertising campaign we built in a complete set of metrics to help us to measure the campaign. This tells you how effective we were, and gives us feedback that helps us to make our next campaign even more effective.

2. Joe Hodge:....................................?

Sandra Sean: Well, we put up a series of billboards and posters in various parts of town. On the bottom we put a link to an internet site. But sometimes, these links were to www.newear.com, or www.newear.org. or www.ne-where.com, and each time we measured the hits to that internet site. This told us which advertisements attracted the most attention. And then we compared sales in those areas with sales immediately before we started advertising there, and that told us the effectiveness of the posters.

3. Joe Hodge:....................................?

Sandra Sean: Oh, no. For example with the special promotions, we set up a phone number just for the promotions, so we knew exactly how many people took up the offer, and every time we made a change to the terms of the offer, we tracked the response.

4. Joe Hodge:....................................?

Sandra Sean: Easy - We sent someone along who is trained at estimating the size of the crowd - though at many events, you can find out exactly how many there were through the ticket sales. If there was a TV audience, we factored that in too by looking at the ratings. Then we compared the number who had seen the advertisement with the increase of sales in the product, and this gave us a conversion rate.

5. Joe Hodge:....................................?

Sandra Sean: Well, it is not completely scientific. But it gives us a very good idea. We also tell salespeople if possible to ask customers how they heard of N.E. wear, or what they think of the advertising - there's nothing like hearing it from the horse's mouth. And we have our own benchmarks - this type of advertisement should bring X number of customers if seen at time Y in location Z. All of this helps cost effectiveness.

6. Joe Hodge:....................................?

Sandra Sean: I wish we could. But it is not that straightforward. For example, an advertisement in a magazine might interest a prospect, but it might take a special promotion to make him put his hand in his wallet - but he wouldn't do that if he hadn't also seen the first advertisement. In the end, there is only one way to judge a marketing campaign - if you, the person who paid for it, think it was worthwhile.

 

A. For example?
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B. But how about, well, the billboards we put up at sports events?
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C. How do we know what we got for advertising through Verity?
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D. So can you measure the effectiveness of a marking plan very accurately?
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E. But surely that only works for links to a website?
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F. And how accurate is this?
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ANSWERS