GCSE Business: Promotion, Branding and Market Maps

This material covers the part of the marketing mix that GCSE questions most often ask you to choose and justify: promotion. It also covers the product ideas that go with it: branding, the design mix, the product portfolio and market maps. It follows the DfE GCSE subject content for business, which asks for the marketing mix and the importance of each of its four elements, and for how businesses use segmentation to target customers.

The promotion questions go through the main methods (advertising in different media, public relations, sales promotions such as buy one get one free and coupons, point-of-sale displays, sponsorship, social media, targeted online adverts and viral advertising). They then ask which suits a particular business, weighing the finance available, the target market, the product and what competitors do. A gym for local over-sixties and an online bike-parts shop need very different promotional mixes.

Branding and product differentiation show why a strong brand image supports higher prices and loyalty. The design mix (function, aesthetics and cost) is applied to real design decisions, and the Boston Matrix classifies products as stars, cash cows, question marks and dogs to explain how a business balances its portfolio (for example AQA 3.5.4). Market maps are described in words, axis by axis, so that you can find the gap in the market and then question whether that gap has any customers (for example Pearson Edexcel, topic 1.2.3).

The quiz has twelve questions and the flashcards hold the terms and the four Boston Matrix categories. The written work has eight tasks, including recommending a promotional mix for a business with a fixed budget, which is a typical higher-mark question. In the oral exam the examiner asks one question at a time and ends with short feedback. The material is practice written by Zestly and is independent of any exam board.

• Describe the main promotion methods and the reasons businesses promote
• Choose and justify a promotional mix using finance, target market, product, market and competitors
• Explain the benefits of branding and a unique selling point
• Explain the design mix and the trade-offs between function, aesthetics and cost
• Classify products with the Boston Matrix and explain how a business balances its portfolio
• Identify a gap on a market map and explain the limitations of market mapping

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the DfE GCSE subject content for business (December 2015: marketing) and, for example, AQA GCSE Business 3.5.4 and Pearson Edexcel GCSE Business topics 1.2.3, 2.2.1 and 2.2.3.