Making Marketing Decisions (Edexcel GCSE Business)

Exam Questions

2 hours27 questions
11 mark

Which one of the following is an element of the design mix?

Select one answer.

  • Cost

  • Price

  • Product

  • Quality

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22 marks

Case Study

Mind Candy Ltd produces games and apps for computers and mobile devices. Its most successful game was Moshi Monsters. The game was aimed at young teenagers and was a global hit, with 80 million users in 2012.

In 2013, Mind Candy made large losses as sales revenue fell due to the falling popularity of its games. This was blamed on the short product life cycle of Moshi Monsters and increased competition in its market. As a result of these losses, Mind Candy reduced its workforce of software developers.

Mind Candy now needed to raise £1.2 million of extra finance. It required this finance to pay existing costs and fund the development of new apps such as Petlandia. Mind Candy believes Petlandia will allow it to return to organic growth. The app is free to download and allows players to design a virtual version of their own pet. This virtual pet can go on an adventure within the app. The adventure is then turned into a personalised storybook which can be purchased for £19.99.

Outline one method Mind Candy could use to extend the product life cycle of one of its games.

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32 marks

Case Study

Mind Candy Ltd produces games and apps for computers and mobile devices. Its most successful game was Moshi Monsters. The game was aimed at young teenagers and was a global hit, with 80 million users in 2012.

In 2013, Mind Candy made large losses as sales revenue fell due to the falling popularity of its games. This was blamed on the short product life cycle of Moshi Monsters and increased competition in its market. As a result of these losses, Mind Candy reduced its workforce of software developers.

Mind Candy now needed to raise £1.2 million of extra finance. It required this finance to pay existing costs and fund the development of new apps such as Petlandia. Mind Candy believes Petlandia will allow it to return to organic growth. The app is free to download and allows players to design a virtual version of their own pet. This virtual pet can go on an adventure within the app. The adventure is then turned into a personalised storybook which can be purchased for £19.99.

Outline one method Mind Candy could use to promote its new app.

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42 marks

Case Study

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is a fast food chain that sells fried chicken. Amongst its most popular products are Popcorn Chicken, Boneless Chicken boxes and Zinger Tower burgers. These are freshly cooked in batches in each of its 900 restaurants across the UK.

In 2017, KFC changed the company it used to transport its supplies of chicken. It replaced Bidvest with DHL. Bidvest had three distribution centres across the UK, but DHL only had one. In February 2018, DHL started to have logistical problems causing many KFC restaurants to run out of chicken. This led to a temporary closure of many KFC branches due to poor supplier reliability.

As a result of these closures, KFC started losing market share to rival fast food restaurants such as Burger King. KFC used social media and a viral advertising campaign to apologise to customers. It also considered lowering the prices of its most popular food items to win back lost customers and recapture market share

Outline one benefit to KFC of using social media to interact with its customers.

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52 marks

Case Study

Iceland is a supermarket that sells frozen food. Although the grocery industry is very competitive, Iceland enjoyed a successful 2017. Sales revenue increased by 2.0% allowing profits to increase by £9.5 million to £160 million.

Iceland believes this success has been due to improved marketing. It has introduced new products using the Slimming World and Millie’s Cookies brand names. It also launched a new advertising campaign called ‘The Power of Frozen’. In addition it has developed a new store format called ‘The Food Warehouse’. These stores are much larger than a normal Iceland store which allows them to stock more luxury products. Iceland hopes that The Food Warehouse will help it to appeal to high-income customers and it plans to open more stores.

Figure 3: Iceland’s new packaging
Figure 3: Iceland’s new packaging

In 2018, Iceland received positive publicity from its decision to ban all plastic packaging on its own-brand products by 2023. It intends to replace plastic with recycled paper, as shown in Figure 3. A survey of 5,000 of its customers showed that 80% of them agreed with the change. Pressure groups, such as Friends of the Earth, have welcomed Iceland’s decision. Plastic waste has caused pollution of the world’s oceans and has killed marine life. Pressure groups hope that Iceland’s decision will be

Outline one factor that could influence Iceland’s choice of pricing strategy for its range of new products.

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61 mark

Which two of the following are examples of goods?

Select two answers.

  • Cars

  • Education

  • Hairdressing

  • Televisions

  • Train Journeys

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72 marks

Case Study

Tesla is a public limited company based in California, USA. Its founder and main shareholder, Elon Musk, wanted to produce an electric car that is affordable to a large number of potential customers. This car is called the Tesla Model 3 (Figure 3).

Introduced in 2017, the basic version of the Model 3 was originally priced at $50 000 and the company wanted to reduce this price to $35 000 by 2019. However, this was difficult to achieve because Tesla’s California factory suffered from low levels of productivity. These problems resulted in Tesla making a $976 million loss in 2018.

Figure 3: Tesla Model 3 electric car
Figure 3: Tesla Model 3 electric car

Following the introduction of tariffs on US imports by the Chinese government in 2018, Tesla decided to invest $5 billion in the construction of a new car factory in Shanghai, China. This factory will use flow production. However, with only $2.4 billion of available capital, Tesla needs to raise external finance to fund it.

In 2019, Tesla decided to close most of its showrooms to reduce costs. The company believes customers will be happy to purchase electric cars using e-commerce.

Outline one drawback to Tesla of using e-commerce to generate sales.

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81 mark

Case Study

ASOS plc is an online fashion retailer which targets customers in their 20s. The company started in 2000 and since then it has grown significantly. One of the main reasons for its growth is what Chief Executive Nick Beighton calls, the ‘ASOS Experience’.

Figure 4: Automation at an ASOS warehouse
Figure 4: Automation at an ASOS warehouse

The company focuses on high quality logistics to distribute its products and increased use of warehouse technology. This has resulted in a warehouse and distribution system which is almost fully automated (Figure 4). This allows ASOS to deliver customer orders the next day, so long as the order is placed online before midnight. Automation has also given ASOS the ability to increase the range of clothes it can sell on its website.

Figure 5: ASOS’s Instagram bio
Figure 5: ASOS’s Instagram bio

However, the market for clothes in the UK is becoming increasingly competitive. Despite a significant growth in sales, ASOS’s profits have fallen. This has caused the company’s share price to fall. ASOS has responded by focusing on viral advertising. Its latest campaign is to get customers to use the hashtag #AsSeenOnMe (Figure 5) when they are showing off their latest ASOS outfit on social media. In return, ASOS gives customers the opportunity to be featured on the ASOS Instagram feed which has 7.1 million followers.

State one element of the marketing mix.

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91 mark

Sales of Juanita's self-help book, Reach for the Moon, are growing rapidly after a slow start.

State the stage of the product life cycle at which Juanita's book is currently placed.

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101 mark

Which one of the following is a benefit of retailing?

Select one answer.

  • Customers can buy products at any time of any day

  • Customers have the opportunity to browse and try products

  • Small businesses can easily compete with larger businesses

  • Businesses usually have lower rental costs

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112 marks

Outline one drawback of using advertising as a promotional method.

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122 marks

Case Study

Mind Candy Ltd produces games and apps for computers and mobile devices. Its most successful game was Moshi Monsters. The game was aimed at young teenagers and was a global hit, with 80 million users in 2012.

In 2013, Mind Candy made large losses as sales revenue fell due to the falling popularity of its games. This was blamed on the short product life cycle of Moshi Monsters and increased competition in its market. As a result of these losses, Mind Candy reduced its workforce of software developers.

Mind Candy now needed to raise £1.2 million of extra finance. It required this finance to pay existing costs and fund the development of new apps such as Petlandia. Mind Candy believes Petlandia will allow it to return to organic growth. The app is free to download and allows players to design a virtual version of their own pet. This virtual pet can go on an adventure within the app. The adventure is then turned into a personalised storybook which can be purchased for £19.99

Outline one factor that may have affected Mind Candy's pricing strategy for Petlandia.

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1
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3 marks

Explain one method a business could use to differentiate its product.

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2
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3 marks

Explain one benefit to a business of withdrawing a product when it enters the decline phase of its product life cycle.

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3
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3 marks

Explain one benefit to a business from improving the aesthetic element of a product’s design mix.

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4
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3 marks

Explain one drawback to a business from differentiating its product.

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5
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3 marks

Explain one reason why aesthetics may be important in the design mix of a product.

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66 marks

Discuss the likely impact on a business of carrying out extensive advertising.

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76 marks

Case Study

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is a fast food chain that sells fried chicken. Amongst its most popular products are Popcorn Chicken, Boneless Chicken boxes and Zinger Tower burgers. These are freshly cooked in batches in each of its 900 restaurants across the UK.

In 2017, KFC changed the company it used to transport its supplies of chicken. It replaced Bidvest with DHL. Bidvest had three distribution centres across the UK, but DHL only had one. In February 2018, DHL started to have logistical problems causing many KFC restaurants to run out of chicken. This led to a temporary closure of many KFC branches due to poor supplier reliability.

As a result of these closures, KFC started losing market share to rival fast food restaurants such as Burger King. KFC used social media and a viral advertising campaign to apologise to customers. It also considered lowering the prices of its most popular food items to win back lost customers and recapture market share.

Analyse the impact on KFC of changes to its marketing mix following the 2018 logistical problems.

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83 marks

Explain one pricing method a business may use when launching a new product.

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93 marks

Explain one benefit to a business of balancing its product's design mix.

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106 marks

Discuss the benefits of using sponsorship of high-profile sport events as a promotional method.

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113 marks

Explain one reason why place is an important element of a successful marketing mix.

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12
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6 marks

Case Study

Tesla is a public limited company based in California, USA. Its founder and main shareholder, Elon Musk, wanted to produce an electric car that is affordable to a large number of potential customers. This car is called the Tesla Model 3 (Figure 3).

Introduced in 2017, the basic version of the Model 3 was originally priced at $50 000 and the company wanted to reduce this price to $35 000 by 2019. However, this was difficult to achieve because Tesla’s California factory suffered from low levels of productivity. These problems resulted in Tesla making a $976 million loss in 2018

Figure 3: Tesla Model 3 electric car
Figure 3: Tesla Model 3 electric car

Following the introduction of tariffs on US imports by the Chinese government in 2018, Tesla decided to invest $5 billion in the construction of a new car factory in Shanghai, China. This factory will use flow production. However, with only $2.4 billion of available capital, Tesla needs to raise external finance to fund it.

In 2019, Tesla decided to close most of its showrooms to reduce costs. The company believes customers will be happy to purchase electric cars using e-commerce.

Analyse the impact on Tesla of lowering the price of its Model 3 electric vehicle (EV).

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19 marks

Case Study

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is a fast food chain that sells fried chicken. Amongst its most popular products are Popcorn Chicken, Boneless Chicken boxes and Zinger Tower burgers. These are freshly cooked in batches in each of its 900 restaurants across the UK.

In 2017, KFC changed the company it used to transport its supplies of chicken. It replaced Bidvest with DHL. Bidvest had three distribution centres across the UK, but DHL only had one. In February 2018, DHL started to have logistical problems causing many KFC restaurants to run out of chicken. This led to a temporary closure of many KFC branches due to poor supplier reliability.

As a result of these closures, KFC started losing market share to rival fast food restaurants such as Burger King. KFC used social media and a viral advertising campaign to apologise to customers. It also considered lowering the prices of its most popular food items to win back lost customers and recapture market share.

In order to regain its lost market share, KFC considered two options:

Option 1: lower prices

Option 2: use viral advertising.

Justify which one of these two options KFC should choose.

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212 marks

Case Study

Iceland is a supermarket that sells frozen food. Although the grocery industry is very competitive, Iceland enjoyed a successful 2017. Sales revenue increased by 2.0% allowing profits to increase by £9.5 million to £160 million.

Iceland believes this success has been due to improved marketing. It has introduced new products using the Slimming World and Millie’s Cookies brand names. It also launched a new advertising campaign called ‘The Power of Frozen’. In addition it has developed a new store format called ‘The Food Warehouse’. These stores are much larger than a normal Iceland store which allows them to stock more luxury products. Iceland hopes that The Food Warehouse will help it to appeal to high-income customers and it plans to open more stores.

Figure 3: Iceland’s new packaging
Figure 3: Iceland’s new packaging

In 2018, Iceland received positive publicity from its decision to ban all plastic packaging on its own-brand products by 2023. It intends to replace plastic with recycled paper, as shown in Figure 3. A survey of 5,000 of its customers showed that 80% of them agreed with the change. Pressure groups, such as Friends of the Earth, have welcomed Iceland’s decision. Plastic waste has caused pollution of the world’s oceans and has killed marine life. Pressure groups hope that Iceland’s decision will be repeated by other supermarkets in the UK.

Evaluate whether Iceland is likely to benefit from its decision to ban all plastic packaging on its own-brand products. You should use the information provided as well as your knowledge of business.

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39 marks

Case Study

ASOS plc is an online fashion retailer which targets customers in their 20s. The company started in 2000 and since then it has grown significantly. One of the main reasons for its growth is what Chief Executive Nick Beighton calls, the ‘ASOS Experience’.

Figure 4: Automation at an ASOS warehouse
Figure 4: Automation at an ASOS warehouse

The company focuses on high quality logistics to distribute its products and increased use of warehouse technology. This has resulted in a warehouse and distribution system which is almost fully automated (Figure 4). This allows ASOS to deliver customer orders the next day, so long as the order is placed online before midnight. Automation has also given ASOS the ability to increase the range of clothes it can sell on its website

Figure 5: ASOS’s Instagram bio
Figure 5: ASOS’s Instagram bio

However, the market for clothes in the UK is becoming increasingly competitive. Despite a significant growth in sales, ASOS’s profits have fallen. This has caused the company’s share price to fall. ASOS has responded by focusing on viral advertising. Its latest campaign is to get customers to use the hashtag #AsSeenOnMe (Figure 5) when they are showing off their latest ASOS outfit on social media. In return, ASOS gives customers the opportunity to be featured on the ASOS Instagram feed which has 7.1 million followers.

In order to increase its profits, ASOS is considering two options:

Option 1: lower prices

Option 2: advertise on more social media channels.

Justify which one of these two options ASOS should choose.

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