Carlos Sanchez is a chef specialising in Spanish cuisine. He has always wanted to work for himself and has decided to open his own small restaurant. Property prices are too high in the capital, so he has moved to a small coastal resort about $100$ kilometres from the capital. He has many important decisions to make. He is not sure whether Spanish cooking will be popular with the locals and the tourists. He is able to prepare many other types of dishes too. He could open just a restaurant or a takeaway too. If Carlos offers takeaway meals, he could either serve these in plastic containers for microwave heating, which are expensive, or in paper trays, which are cheaper. Carlos has noticed that there are few other restaurants in the area and no takeaways, although one well-known fast-food chain has recently closed down. There are no other Spanish-based restaurants. After finding a suitable shop site, Carlos then has to decide whether to decorate it for younger people's tastes and have loud pop music or in a more sober style with traditional Spanish music.

Evaluate the usefulness of market research to Carlos as he plans his new restaurant.

Look again at the Anticipation Guide on page How do the statements apply to the characters in the story and the speaker in the poem?

This company recently commissioned a primary market research report. The details are highlighted below:

Aim: To measure PepsiCo's brand's consumer perception as a 'healthy' product.

Sample size: $1000$ people in the USA from different age and income groups and from different regions.

Sampling method: Random - from grocery store loyalty card lists Survey method: Online questionnaire coupled with focus groups to gain first-hand knowledge of consumers' opinions.

Potential research problems: There may be a potential bias from the surveyed population. Surveyed people may have issues that prevent them from answering accurately - the questionnaire has been designed to ask questions in the easiest and least embarrassing way possible. The possibility of not being able to contact a respondent has been addressed by setting the computer to select an alternative customer to add to the sample.

Initial secondary research: Last year Coca-Cola's brands had $41 \%$ market share to PepsiCo's $29.9 \%$. Coca-Cola's sales fell by $20 \%$ in USA last year compared to PepsiCo's $8 \%$.

Discuss the possible problems PepsiCo might have faced when conducting its market research.

The 'I AM Nikon' advertisement campaign was launched in order to achieve the marketing objective of improving market positioning in the compact segment for Nikon. This advertisement campaign was launched with the concept of Nikon camera customers speaking from their perspective. Through this campaign, brand awareness in $12$ European countries increased dramatically with a $37\%$ rise in Germany alone. The marketing strategy was based around the idea that the photos people take tell a powerful story about the character that they want to project.

Supermarket distribution and point-of-sale displays were essential to achieving a successful sales increase, so Nikon's marketing agency created a partnership between Hollyoaks characters (a popular TV show in the UK), the supermarket chain Asda and Nikon. Buyers of Hollyoaks-branded cameras distributed in Asda could win a part in the Channel $4$ show. Sales of the cameras through Asda increased by $332 \%$ over the course of the campaign.

Evaluate Nikon’s decision to use new technology and social media as part of its promotional strategy.

Mohammed Ahmed is the chief executive of Ahmed Builders plc. The company specialises in the quality fitting out of shops for internationally famous retailers. These customers demand that work is finished to very tight time limits, so it is important for Ahmed Builders to keep stocks of important materials. Ahmed is keen to compare the performance and liquidity of his company with those of another building company which does similar work. He obtained a set of published accounts for Flash Builders plc and used ratios to help him in the comparison. These were the figures he used from both companies:

$$\begin{array}{|l|c|c|} \hline & \textbf{Ahmed (\$000)} & \textbf{Flash (\$000)} \\ \hline \text{ Gross profit (2014) } & 100 & 150 \\ \hline \text{ Net profit (2014) } & 20 & 60 \\ \hline \text{ Revenue (2014) } & 350 & 600 \\ \hline \text{ Current assets (as at 31 December 2014) } & 100 & 150 \\ \hline \text{ Inventories (as at 31 December 2014) }& 50 & 60 \\ \hline \text{ Current liabilities (as at 31 December 2014) } & 45 & 120 \\ \hline \end{array}$$

Using the data for Ahmed Builders plc and Flash Builders plc, calculate each company's acid test ratio.

The sales of Rajesh’s convenience store were recorded over a four-year period. The owner of the store has started to undertake a short-term forecasting exercise to help plan future purchases and stocks of goods.

$$\begin{array}{|l|c|c|c|c|c|} \hline & \textbf { Quarter } & \textbf { Sales (\$000) } & \textbf{ Quarterly moving} & \textbf{ Seasonal variation } & \textbf{ Average seasonal } \\ &&& \textbf{ average (trend) } & \textbf{ variation } \\ \hline \text { Year 1 } & 1 & 18 \\ & 2 & 24 \\ & 3 & 35 \\ & 4 & 27 \\ \hline \text { Year 2 } & 1 & 19 \\ & 2 & 26 \\ & 3 & 38 \\ & 4 & 29 \\ \hline \text { Year 3 } & 1 & 23 \\ & 2 & 27 \\ & 3 & 40 \\ & 4 & 32 \\ \hline \text { Year 4 } & 1 & 25 \\ & 2 & 30 \\ & 3 & 42 \\ & 4 & 35 \\ \hline \end{array}$$

Discuss the benefits and limitations of the moving average sales forecasting method for Rajesh.

Jupiter Confectionery Ltd manufactures four brands of chocolate bar. It is a well-established business and relies heavily on the traditional qualities of rich-tasting chocolate and prestige packaging to sell its products. It rarely introduces new brands - its last launch was three years ago and this required substantial investment. The other three brands are over ten years old. The products are:

Orion - the newest brand, designed to appeal to teenagers with 'Star Wars' wrappers and a competitive price. Sales are increasing at a steady rate.

Venus - the original product of the company, a rich, dark chocolate bar with a black and gold wrapper. The same size as most bars, but slightly more expensive - to suit its image. Sales and cash flow from this product have helped to finance the launch of the other three.

Sun - the firm's only attempt at boxes of chocolates. There was intense competition in this high-value and high-profit margin market sector. Sales figures are given below.

$$\begin{array}{|l|c|} \hline \textbf{ Year } & \textbf{ Sales of Sun boxes of chocolates (units) } \\ \hline 2010 & 120000 \\ \hline 2011 & 125000 \\ \hline 2012 & 115000 \\ \hline 2013 & 123000 \\ \hline 2014 & 124000 \\ \hline \end{array}$$

Mercury - this is a very sweet, soft-centred bar that has been very popular with older consumers. Sales have declined in recent years because of imports of healthier 'low-fat' chocolates. Old stocks are being returned by retailers.

The marketing manager is concerned both about sales of Mercury bars and the sales record of Sun boxes. Should they both be dropped or could sales be revived? The manager decides to analyse the current sales of the range of products by using the product life cycle concept.

Evaluate three extension strategies that Jupiter Confectionery could adopt for the Sun brand of chocolates.

Explain what is meant by the ‘physical evidence’ element of the marketing mix.

Give two examples of a four Ps marketing mix which could be considered to be inappropriate.

Tesco Lotus $-$ the brand name used by the European supermarket in Thailand - had $15 \%$ of the supermarket grocery (food) market in $2013$. Total sales in this sector amounted to ${\pounds25}$ billion. Two French-owned companies operating in Thailand were second and third on the list of firms' market shares $-$ Big $\mathbf{C}$ had $7 \%$ and Carrefour $4 \%$. If non-food items are included then Tesco Lotus has $43 \%$ market share. Being market leader gives Tesco Lotus a huge advantage $-$ and it is not standing still. It has plans to both open new stores and enter new markets. Recently, Tesco Lotus entered the fast-growing school-uniform market, worth $\$140$ million a year, with prices $20-30\%$ lower than traditional shops.

This expansion is not without its critics and the new Thai government has taken action to protect locally owned shops and to ensure good consumer choice is maintained. A new law is proposed that would severely restrict the opening of all new foreign-owned stores. Consumer groups are split on the new law - they want to keep the variety offered by local stores, but they enjoy the big stores and low prices too.

If Tesco Lotus's grocery sales increase by $\$ 2$ billion in $2014$, but the total size of the Thai supermarket grocery market increases by $\$ 10$ billion, calculate Tesco Lotus's $2014$ market share

The Cosmos Soft Drink Co. Ltd was concerned about its low market share. Despite extensive advertising in newspapers and magazines and colourful displays in most large retailers, sales remained disappointingly low compared to the well-known brands in the market. The image for its drinks that the company was trying to create was a sporty and youthful one. One of the reasons for this was because the directors had found out that the proportion of the population under $18$ was expected to increase in the next ten years and the sports-participation rates of most age groups were increasing. The directors were in agreement that the image was the correct one to have and that other factors were to blame for the poor sales performance. They decided to use primary research and conduct a survey of the general public. This was to be a telephone survey as they believed that quick results were essential to allow them to take the right measures to boost sales. A questionnaire of $30$ questions was drawn up asking for details of soft drinks bought and the reasons for purchase decisions, names and addresses of the respondents so that free vouchers could be sent, income levels to identify consumer profiles and many other details that the directors thought might be useful. About $120$ people were to be contacted by picking names using random sampling from the telephone directory.

The results of the survey proved to be very disappointing because many calls were not answered, some people refused to answer some of the questions and some of the elderly respondents said that all soft drinks were too sweet and fizzy for them anyway. In total, there were $35$ completed questionnaires. The directors were no clearer after the survey than before as to what could be done to increase sales of Cosmos soft drinks.

Explain two secondary research sources that Cosmos could have used.

Outline three benefits of e-commerce for consumers of foreign holidays.

The 'I AM Nikon' advertisement campaign was launched in order to achieve the marketing objective of improving market positioning in the compact segment for Nikon. This advertisement campaign was launched with the concept of Nikon camera customers speaking from their perspective. Through this campaign, brand awareness in $12$ European countries increased dramatically with a $37\%$ rise in Germany alone. The marketing strategy was based around the idea that the photos people take tell a powerful story about the character that they want to project.

Supermarket distribution and point-of-sale displays were essential to achieving a successful sales increase, so Nikon's marketing agency created a partnership between Hollyoaks characters (a popular TV show in the UK), the supermarket chain Asda and Nikon. Buyers of Hollyoaks-branded cameras distributed in Asda could win a part in the Channel $4$ show. Sales of the cameras through Asda increased by $332 \%$ over the course of the campaign.

Outline two ways Nikon used social media and new technology to promote its products.

Outline two other methods a business could use to enter an international market.