Active learning ideas
Marketing objectives are the specific goals a business sets for its marketing activities, such as increasing market share, building brand loyalty, or improving the brand's image. These objectives must align with the overall corporate goals to ensure the business is moving in a single direction. For Year 12 students, the focus is on making these objectives SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound).
Activity 01
Set up stations with 'bad' marketing objectives (e.g., 'We want to sell more'). Groups must rotate through the stations, rewriting each objective to be SMART and explaining what data they would need to measure its success.
What is market share?
Activity 02
Provide students with data on the UK supermarket sector. Groups must calculate the market share for different brands and then set a realistic marketing objective for a smaller player like Lidl or Aldi to gain share from a leader like Tesco.
How do marketing objectives align with corporate goals?
Activity 03
Students individually list the pros and cons of focusing on keeping existing customers versus finding new ones. They then pair up to decide which strategy is better for a mature brand like Coca-Cola versus a new tech start-up.
Why is brand loyalty important?
A few notes on teaching this unit
Watch Out for These Misconceptions
Marketing is just another word for advertising.
Advertising is only one part of the marketing mix (Promotion). Marketing includes product design, pricing, and distribution. A 'Marketing Mix Sort' activity helps students see the breadth of marketing activities beyond just adverts.
Increasing market share always leads to higher profits.
Gaining market share can be very expensive (e.g., through heavy discounting or massive ad campaigns), which can actually reduce short-term profit. Peer discussion about the 'cost of acquisition' helps students understand this trade-off.
Methods used in this brief
Understanding Markets and Customers
Explore the methods of primary and secondary market research and the principles of market segmentation. Students will also examine the concept of price elasticity of demand and its impact on revenue.
8 methodologies
The Marketing Mix
Investigate the 7Ps of the marketing mix and how they are integrated to create a cohesive marketing strategy. Students will analyse how the product life cycle influences pricing and promotional decisions.
8 methodologies