No more than 1000 words
requires write a structured essay in which you give an example where you have come into contact with marketing and explain this example in terms of course concepts. The essay is structured in the sense that there are four parts to the question to answer.
Question: Write a structured essay of no more than 1000 words, in which you discuss the following. Please make sure you read the guidance notes on the next page before attempting the essay.
Part (a) Describe a situation where you personally have come into contact with marketing in some shape or form
Part (b) Analyse the situation you have described above, using two concepts
Part (c) Discuss the ethical implications of the marketing situation you have described above
Part (d) Discuss what marketers of a product or service relating to the situation you have described above could learn from your description and analysis in parts (a) to (c).
Guidance notes:
Required to write a structured essay. This means that should be in the four parts indicated in the question above. It is acceptable to use headings for each of the four sections, but you should not number your paragraphs or include an executive summary or contents sheet. For, part (a) can be considered as equivalent to the introduction to the essay and part (d) can be considered as the conclusion.
Part (1): Virtually everybody in modern society comes into contact with marketing in some shape or form. Most commonly this is as a consumer. Almost everyone buys goods and/or services regularly or at least from time to time. Your example could, therefore, be an instance where you have come into contact with marketing practice as a consumer. This could be in the form of a major purchase, say a new piece of household equipment, house insurance, a holiday, a computer or in the form of a more routine purchase, for example, for regularly purchased food or household items.
Many people also come into contact with marketing practice by marketing something themselves. This could be as part of your job, for instance as a salesperson, a shop assistant or similar role. It could be as part of voluntary work or even as part of marketing yourself, for examples, 'selling' your skills as part of a job application.
You should choose an example that involves you personally or, failing that, a close friend or relative. General examples are not acceptable.. Give a bit of detail about your example, enough to be able to analyse it using course concepts, but be mindful of the word limit. It is probably best to spend no more than about 150 words on this part.
Part (2): In this part you are required to select course two concepts and use these concepts to analyse your examples from part (a).
You must choose at least two course. you have chosen (Choosing appropriate course concepts and then applying them to a real life example is an important part of academic practice and for making course content relevant to work contexts.
In this part two concepts you have chosen and what study sessions they come from, before giving a brief description or definition of these course concepts. You should then explain how these concepts can be used to analyse and explain the facts of the example that you gave in part (a). Part (b) is the weightiest part of the carries the highest proportion of marks.
Part (3): This part asks you to consider the ethical implications of the example you have given in part (a). You should start by stating whether or not you think there are any ethical implications arising from this example. Even if there are no glaringly obvious ethical problems with the example, you should consider whether there are any issues that you can see and that the people marketing this product might want to bear in mind. Remember that ethical issues can relate to any part of the marketing mix and also apply at the level of marketing strategy, for example, in targeting. If you feel there are no ethical implications whatsoever to this example, you should explain why you think this is the case, referring to different aspects of the marketing mix and/or marketing strategy. You should spend no more than 150 to 200 words on this part
Part (4): The final part asks you to think about how the issues you have discussed in parts (a) (b) and (c) could help marketing practitioners. What could the people marketing the good or service you have described in part (a) learn from your analysis in parts (b) and (c)? You should make some suggestions about how they could improve their marketing practice (even if only by a little bit - there is always room for some improvement) or on what aspects of their practice they should concentrate most.
These suggestions should follow logically from your discussion in part (b) and/or (c). For example, you could make suggestions about how they could best segment the market, on what aspect of the marketing environment they should focus their market research, on what aspects of consumer behaviour they should focus, how they might improve their marketing mix or what social or environmental impacts of their marketing they should consider and/or improve. Again, you should spend no more than about 150 to 200 words on this part.