BTEC International Level 3 in Business Unit 2: Research and Plan a Marketing Campaign Set Assignment Answer

Pearson BTEC International Level 3 Qualifications in Business and Enterprise

Level: 3
Unit type: Internal set assignment
Guided learning hours: 90

Unit 2 Introduction

Even if a business organisation has a product or service that it currently has or is working on that it wants to sell to prospective customers, it is unlikely to be sold if they are not aware of it. Therefore, a business organisation should be aware of the needs of its potential customers and ensure they can discover the product/service and what it has to offer them. A careful marketing campaign will help the organisation to achieve this.
 
In this unit you will gain an understanding of the planning and development of a marketing campaign. You will learn about a variety of different objectives that might be part of a marketing campaign, including sales, market share, brand awareness and image, as well as examine the different stages that an organisation would go through when creating a marketing campaign.
 
With this knowledge and understanding of these factors, and of marketing models and tools, you will design your own costed marketing campaign for a particular product. You will be looking at the goals and objectives of marketing for established products and will be provided with some independent market research information to guide you in making your recommendations about the marketing campaign a business organisation should use. To undertake the assessment task for this unit, you will need to apply skills, knowledge and understanding acquired in your programme of learning.
 
This unit will give you an insight into how important marketing is to business. It will help you decide if you wish to specialise in employment, training and/or higher education in marketing. 

Learning Aim A: Explore How Different Markets Are Researched Using Different Models and Tools.

A.P1 Perform market research in a given context using different methods and tools.

Answer:

This is the answer to Learning Aim A for an EcoFlow range of insulated, recycled-material bottles which are being introduced to the UK sustainability and fitness market. The method employed was a mixed method which consisted of secondary desk research, primary research, segmentation and PESTLE as a research tool.

Secondary research (Statista, Mintel, WRAP, ONS) indicates that the UK market for reusable drinkware has been consistently growing, as a result of plastic-reduction legislation and growing awareness of the environment in the 18-34 age group. The political, social and environmental factors that have been identified in the PESTLE analysis are the most pertinent: the plastic packaging tax, the Deposit Return Scheme, and the demand for recycled materials.

Primary research involved conducting a ten-question online questionnaire with 20 people who were aged 16-45, the target market, and a short structured interview with a sports-retail sales assistant.

The retailer interview results validated the questionnaire results, as leak-proof performance and dishwasher safety were two of the most frequently asked queries before purchase. The results from the retailer interview further confirmed the questionnaire results, in that an affordable product that feels premium was a gap identified.

A.P2 Explain features of a market for a given context. 

Answer:

The UK re-use bottle market is far from a utilitarian product - it is a values-driving market, where regulatory and cultural pressure to reduce single-use plastic usage was reflected in the average 4.1/5 score for purchase importance of recycled material, which was higher than price for many consumers.

Demographic segmentation is 16-45, active/health conscious; psychographic is environmentally motivated, lifestyle-driven; behavioural is frequent repeat buyers (25% buy more than once a year) and occasional buyers.

The market is competitively split between premium/fashion brands (Chilly's, HydroFlask) and budget/functional brands (Bobble, own-brand), and the market has a clear need for an affordable, yet premium brand. As it turns out, the £10–£20 range is where it's all really happening, not the £30+ lofty high end.

As is typical of Gen Z/young-millennials' buying habits, promotion has gone from retail-led to content-led, with the top channels of discovery for users being social media (50%, combined Instagram/TikTok). The strongest existing brand awareness (85% for Chilly's) makes it difficult for new brands to make an impact unless they are truly different, and not only in terms of price.

A.M1 Analyse a market for a given context, based on own detailed market research.

Answer:

Sustainability seems to be becoming more important than price and design, as 40% chose it as the priority and its 4.1/5 importance score is much higher than the mid-point. This is in line with Mintel/WRAP secondary trend data, so the primary data finding is not an anomaly, but a pattern across the country, adding to the confidence of the conclusion.

On closer inspection, there's a useful contradiction: sustainability is the top priority, but 45% will spend no more than £10–20, while the premium competitors charge £20–45. This indicates the market is looking for ethical credentials rather than luxury, which is where brands like Chilly's excel, and not just on sustainability, where EcoFlow's true strength is in offering recycled materials at a retail-friendly price point – which no obvious competitor is doing right now.

Learning from the discovery-channel dominance (50% social media) and brand-awareness data is also revealing: Chilly's 85% recognition had a willingness to try a new brand of only moderately positive, 3.6/5 on average. This means competitor awareness isn't a significant entry barrier if a new brand gets visibility the same way incumbents do – namely through content marketing; the market is far more open to disruption than traditional retail presence.

Last, the retailer interview and questionnaire independently identified leak-proof performance as a live concern, suggesting the finding is not coincidental but robust due to the fact that it was identified by two sources as a primary concern. When combined, the analysis highlights the potential for EcoFlow to address the £10–£20 sector as a genuine, sustainable, and socially marketed alternative; a conclusion that could not be drawn from the analysis without the links being made between the findings.

A.D1 Evaluate the findings of own comprehensive market research for a given context.

Answer:

The power of this questionnaire is the fact that it creates clear and comparable quantitative data, which can be triangulated with Mintel to provide useful data. The interview provided qualitative depth (leak-proof performance) that a questionnaire alone did not, demonstrating the importance of mixed methods.

The sample is, however, too small compared to the size of the national market, and the sample was also convenience-based (i.e. social media/college network), which may have resulted in some over-representation of younger, already eco-engaged respondents and thus an exaggerated impression of the importance of sustainability. The one retailer interview would also not adequately reflect the national retail scene; a more geographically diverse and larger sample would enhance this component.

Secondary sources are used at trend level here and are credible (Statista, Mintel, WRAP, ONS, etc); for a final submission, all statistics need full Harvard referencing so they can be used independently. Another potential threat is social desirability bias — respondents might have exaggerated the importance of sustainability to look more responsible than they really are in their purchasing habits.

Despite these constraints, the design is fit for purpose, with quantitative and qualitative primary data supported by credible secondary sources and the key findings: price sensitivity, social-media-led discovery, and a sustainability/affordability gap, given through a combination of multiple sources and not solely based on one method. This allows for the results to be reasonably reliable when developing a preliminary campaign strategy, but a larger, randomised follow-up study is suggested prior to making high-dollar marketing decisions.

Learning Aim B: Explore Approaches to Product Marketing Nationally and Internationally.

B.P3 Explain the way in which a product is marketed in a given context.

Answer:

Chilly's Bottles is the UK's top premium reusable bottle brand, with a strong example of a sustained, thoughtful marketing strategy, as seen in the UK reusable drinkware market explored in Learning Aim A, with Chilly's first product rollout in 2010 for a single insulated bottle brand.

All these decisions reflect a coordinated approach: the design of the product, the design of its packaging, and the way that promotional activity is designed, shaped and used are all connected in the way that they make the bottle seem a desirable lifestyle purchase rather than a functional one.

This can be explained with the AIDA model: attention, interest and desire are achieved through highly visible and often refreshed designs on social feeds; scarcity of collaboration and endorsement from influencers drives desire; the presence of clear multi-channel availability (own site, major retailers, international stockists) eliminates friction at the action stage, making the bottle easy to purchase once the desire has been created.

B.P4 Explain the effectiveness of the marketing of a product in a given context.

Answer:

The initial research for Learning Aim A revealed that Chilly's was reached and recalled best among the sought-after audience this unit is targeting, as brand recognition increased to 85%, the highest of all brands tested. It is a good indicator of success because usually the first step a marketing campaign needs to make is to get recognition before it can affect buying decisions.

Chilly's is also widely recognised in the UK drinkware market for having pioneered the market for high-quality reusable bottles, building up from a single product to a wide range available through staple retailers throughout the country and internationally. This is considered a positive sign in marketing theory as it indicates that the brand is not just faddy and passing but is now becoming a consistent source of customers—one that can be repeated or sustained.

The styling-heavy marketing approach clearly has a significant impact, as design features and “giftability” are often mentioned in customer reviews on the main retailers' sites—this is not just a functional selling point; it's working for the customer as well. This is also backed by the fact that there are so many limited-edition sell-outs that have been reported in the press and on social media, showing that it's a real, active demand and not just a passive awareness. Thirdly, distribution effectiveness is reflected in the availability of the product in stores at major retailers like John Lewis and Selfridges, the likes of which generally only carry brands that have a proven demand for their product, which is a third-party validation of the brand's marketing appeal, rather than relying on Chilly's own claims.

B.M2 Analyse the effectiveness of the marketing of a product in a given context. 

Answer:

When specific tactics are associated with specific outcomes, this explanation becomes a real analysis. It's likely that a combination of this kind of ongoing influencer and social media campaigning is behind the high level of awareness, as it would be hard to connect Chilly's with a television or outdoor advertising campaign. In this product category, this indicates that a content-led marketing strategy is more effective than traditional promotion, directly confirming that. 50% of this audience use social media (Instagram/TikTok) as their key discovery platform.

The relatively large proportion of customers who purchase reusable bottles more than once per year (25%) in Learning Aim A is plausibly explained by limited edition products. This new partnership is a way to provide the existing customer with a new and fresh ‘reason to buy’ via marketing, essentially adding a new dimension to the purchase cycle where none existed previously for this category.

This association is plausible without being causal, however, and would require a more comprehensive study to verify as causal instead of merely associated. Beyond the primary data of this report, it is further supported by secondary Mintel data included in Learning Aim A, which shows that younger consumers in the UK are more likely to be engaged with brands positioned on sustainability, providing a second line of evidence to this analysis.

The primary data can be used to analyse pricing strategy, especially. In the Learning Aim A questionnaire, respondents maxed out on their comfortable spending at £10/£20, but Chilly is able to charge £20/£35 and still have the best brand awareness score in the questionnaire. This gap is an impressive result of marketing that has created enough brand equity to counteract the usual price sensitivity of a substantial number of customers.

But this success also logically only applies to the part of the market that is more interested in fashion-driven, social media marketing; it doesn't give any answers about how the brand appeals to, or doesn't appeal to, consumers who are more price-conscious but as or more motivated by sustainability. This is a segment that Chilly's current strategy is not really addressing - an opportunity that has been noted in A.M1 is relevant and directly on point with positioning EcoFlow.

B.D2 Evaluate the effectiveness of the marketing of a product in a given context.

Answer:

Strengths and weaknesses can be balanced and a fair and more evaluative judgement made, instead of a descriptive one. This study's primary data confirms strengths of strong independently verified brand recognition, effective targeting of media consumption in the promotional mix and an effective sustained repositioning of a functional product as a status/lifestyle product.

There are also some weaknesses evident on closer inspection. But while the brand's environmental messaging to buy again goes against the grain of sustainability advocates, whose recent criticism of limited edition drops has been especially harsh against lifestyle-sustainability brands, it could also undermine its own brand narrative. The targeting of the upwardly mobile buyer is also seen in the fact that 45% of the target market who were price-capped at £10-£20 despite being very interested in sustainability were not included, according to the research.

With UK-specific marketing and press activity, Chilly's brand is showing way better than HydroFlask in this UK market, with 85% of the UK sample versus 55% for HydroFlask — even though they're all operating in a similar premium price space. It is not possible to make an informed comparison between budget ranges (Bobble, supermarket own-brand, etc) and a criterion based on marketing effectiveness – they are not really in competition at all and, in all practical terms, rely on price rather than anything else.

In sum, Chilly's marketing efforts performed very well in the public market and in the primary research conducted in this study, in building awareness as well as desirability and premium positioning. That effectiveness is greatest with design- and status-oriented consumers, not value-oriented, sustainability-driven consumers, and there is reputational risk because of the competing messages of scarcity and sustainability. A sensible solution for the brand in particular would be to make the environmental virtues of its materials as obvious as it is to drum up the seasonal design changes, but without using the same language of greenwashing that warns against real, but undeniable, dangers.

The main finding of this assignment is that there is a credible and evidence-based gap in the market for a brand focused primarily on lower-end sustainability claims and not as much fashion, a gap which directly informs and validates the campaign approach developed.

Learning Aim C: Develop a Plan for a Marketing Campaign for a New Product.

C.P5 Produce a plan for a marketing campaign for a new product in a given market.

Answer:

This plan considers the market research completed in Learning Aim A and competitor evaluation in Learning Aim B to create ‘EcoFlow: Refill, Not Landfill ’, a launch campaign over six months for EcoFlow's range of stainless-steel insulated bottles in the UK market.

EcoFlow is for the price-sensitive, environmentally-conscious 16- 34-year-old target market — for this market, EcoFlow is the reusable-bottle brand that shows you that sustainability and affordability are not mutually exclusive — the market has said that it will pay for recycled bottles from a market that it is already using — and it's the market that you have discovered and shared with, via the social channels and platforms they use.

Campaign objectives (SMART)

To raise brand awareness amongst 16-34s in the UK from 0% to 30% in six months (using a subsequent brand recall survey measure). 2) Make 5000-unit sales in the first 6 months. 3) Obtain a repeat-purchase/accessory add-on rate of 15% in 12 months. 4) Expand owned social media accounts to 10k engaged followers on Instagram & TikTok in 6 months.

Target audience

The main audience is health-conscious, environmentally conscious and price-conscious, with an average comfortable spending limit of £10-20, and finding products primarily through Instagram and TikTok (50% combined, as per the A.P1 questionnaire).

Marketing Mix

Timeline

Budget

Risk considerations

This plan was developed with two important risks taken into account. First of all, EcoFlow, unlike Chilly, is a new brand and doesn't have rockstar brand recognition, so the pre-launch seeding scheme and referral system are intended to foster initial trust, not brand recognition. Second, the quality and account messaging may vary from partner to partner, and can be overcome by using a shortlist of vetted micro-influencers who are already active in the sustainability space, rather than an open-ended affiliate programme, to maintain consistency in the sourcing-transparency message. The 10% contingency budget has to be allocated to these risks and can be shifted to whichever channel is the most effective as early performance data becomes available.

Measuring success (KPIs)

Survey results for brand recall; website traffic and conversions; total units sold, in relation to the established 5,000-unit goal; social engagement and follower increases; redeemed referral codes; and repeat purchase/accessory attachment scores after six and 12 months. Awareness and engagement will be monitored every month, and underperforming creative and/or channels may be adjusted prior to the large month 3–6 budget being approved; sales and repeat-purchase KPIs will be reviewed at the 6-month campaign end vs. original SMART objectives.

C.P6 Explain decisions and approaches taken in own plan for a marketing campaign for a new product in a given market. 

Answer:

This plan is based on direct response to each Learning Aims A and B finding; it does not assume anything. Since celebrity endorsement was not the option selected, the A. But P1 research revealed that social media, not advertising, was the primary way to get people to discover the brand (50% combined Instagram/TikTok), and micro-influencers proved to be a more cost-effective and trusted way to get to social media than a single large-scale celebrity partnership would be.

The price range of £10-£20 was chosen as the target because 45% of the respondents in the primary research said they were comfortable spending money in this price bracket, while the Learning Aim B evaluation of Chilly's indicated that a premium pricing strategy (from £20 to £35) would attract the right segment of users – exactly the people the price-sensitive segment is looking to fill the gap for.

The feature of sourcing transparency by QR code was added since the open-text answers in A.P1 specifically asked for 'clearer sustainability proof' – it's a true and real customer need, not just a sustainability ‘gesture'. Last, the phased timeline (seed, launch, grow, retain) was selected, as the initial phase of “seeding” addresses momentum building before rolling out to a broader paid campaign – an audience that is warm rather than cold.

A loyalty points scheme was ruled out as it would require even more customers to come back to the website after their initial buy, whereas the subscription option is a natural reason for them to return, without it being a discount on the product itself for repeat purchase. The university student-union and ambassador partnerships were introduced because the primary research sample was very demographically similar (16-34, socially active), and for month three onwards, it was deemed that a “realistic, low-cost” avenue for credible word-of-mouth promotion would be student communities.

C.M3 Analyse decisions and approaches taken in own detailed plan for a marketing campaign for a new product in a given market. 

Answer:

This plan was influenced by considering options and compromising, rather than just choosing the first reasonable one. For instance, the budget split has the highest percentage (8,000 pounds) allocated to partnerships with micro-influencers and not paid advertising, based on analysis in B. Similarly, if Chilly's high brand awareness was mostly due to ongoing content-driven efforts, it is assumed that content-driven efforts towards a niche audience will perform better for a new, unknown brand than mass advertising.

The pricing decision also has a direct impact on the place strategy: £14.99 is a less profitable price point than premium alternatives, so if the direct-to-consumer/Amazon strategy is successful, this will also help to avoid higher-margin business cannibalisation from premium stores like Selfridges, while still leaving room for physical retail partnerships in the future, where demand and margin space can be proven.

However, these subscription-accessory and referral features were added on purpose because there was a clear tension in Learning Aim B: Chilly's that these would be effective at driving repeat sales.D2 rated it to be counter to the true sustainability positioning. Instead of emulating this scarcity mentality, EcoFlow adopts a different method: accessory subscription and referrals, which create consistent brand engagement without the pressure of overstimulated repeat purchases, which helps maintain the sustainability message throughout the plan and not just the product description.

Lastly, the six-month timeline is a phased approach that allows months three through six to be optimised based on the performance data feedback from months one and two; this approach would ensure that the budget would not be wasted on underperforming activity and would ensure that the full value of the activity would be spent for the longest time possible.

The decision to focus the primary age range from 16-45, which was explored in Learning Aim A, down to 16-34 for this particular campaign was carefully thought out. The wider group was used to get a bigger sample of the market, but the 16-34 age range was identified as the market most likely to be influenced by discovery on social media and price-sensitive, and a narrower campaign was analysed as a more efficient use of resources than a broader campaign that would also reach an older age band that may be less responsive to the influencer-led promotion. Likewise, it was determined that direct-to-consumer and Amazon are the right ways to launch, as compared to direct-to-physical retail because the former results in a longer lead time while the latter means less control over pricing and messaging; if the direct-to-consumer approach was used, the full campaign story — including the sourcing-transparency feature — could be delivered exactly as intended from day one.

C.D3 Justify decisions and approaches taken in own plan for a comprehensive marketing campaign for a new product in a given market. 

Answer:

The decisions that have been made in this plan are not just individual decisions but are part of a coherent plan or strategy, supported by evidence, and each core decision can be justified in terms of the research collected in Learning Aims A and B. A is making a case for central pricing and channel strategy. A's argument for central pricing and channel strategy is justified. A £14.99 product, which is marketed mainly on Instagram and TikTok, is more easily justified by P1's own data, which found 45% of the target audience fell into the £10-£20 price range, with 50% finding out about products through social media, than the more expensive, retail-focused model that Chilly's are following.

The Learning Aim B evaluation justifies the decision not to employ heavy scarcity-based marketing, as follows: B.D2 found that Chilly's awareness-building approach is effective – but there is a credible reputation challenge with the sustainability messaging. It makes perfect sense to build EcoFlow's retention strategy around transparency (QR sourcing code) and low pressure instead, as it is directly based on a weakness that was spotted in a real competitor's approach, rather than a pure guess.

Cost-effectiveness and audience belief are both valid reasons to use micro-influencers instead of mass advertising: in the realm of marketing theory, niche and perceived-authentic endorsement is more effective than wide and impersonal advertising for younger consumers, who are more likely to value them, and that's the case here. The study with the mention of M1 analysis revealed that Chilly's 85% awareness was due to the content-led activity that continued on page one, and not to conventional advertising. But if the same channel logic is applied to a lower budget, through micro- not mega-influencers, it is a proportionate and justified adaptation for a new entrant rather than an established market leader when the biggest single cost line of the budget is still focused on the channel that the evidence shows the audience uses.

As a whole, this plan makes sense as it is not just a marketing campaign that is going to market, but a marketing campaign that addresses a real and proven market niche in the UK in that disposable bottles are not sustainable and could be replaced with a cheaper, clearly sustainable alternative, first identified via social media, but not retail nor advertising. All major decisions, such as price, channel, tone to be used in promotions, and retention mechanisms, can be traced back to some specific finding that resulted from the primary or secondary research done earlier in this assignment, thereby providing the plan with a defensible, evidence-based rationale rather than an assumption-based or competitor-based one.

The KPI framework is justified on the same grounds – not just sales, which would happen later in the campaign, but awareness and engagement from month 1, which can be adjusted based on evidence, a risk-managed approach that takes place in phases and is analysed in C.M3. This follows the accepted model of campaign planning, which involves tracking lagging indicators (sales, repeat purchase) as well as leading indicators (awareness, engagement), and not waiting until six months to find out if the strategy was successful or not. On this basis, the plan can be said to be comprehensive and internally coherent in response to the identified market opportunity in all three learning aims of this assignment, and that each decision reinforces the others.