The nature and purpose of marketing; marketing objectives such as sales, market share, growth and brand; the relationship between marketing and corporate objectives; market orientation versus product orientation; and the role of marketing in adding value.

What this theme is asking

Eduqas wants you to explain what marketing is and why it matters, the objectives a business sets for marketing, how those link to the firm's wider corporate objectives, the difference between market and product orientation, and how marketing adds value. This frames the whole marketing module: everything else (segmentation, the mix, pricing) serves these objectives.

The nature and purpose of marketing

The purpose of marketing is to connect what the business offers with what customers want, so that the firm sells enough at a high enough price to be profitable. Done well, marketing reduces the risk of producing something nobody wants and builds long-term customer relationships.

Marketing objectives and the link to corporate objectives

This hierarchy matters in the exam: marketing objectives are not chosen in isolation; they flow from the firm's overall aims and, in turn, drive the marketing mix and budget. A mismatch (an aggressive market-share target that the corporate strategy of cautious survival cannot fund) is a classic source of analysis and evaluation marks.

Market orientation versus product orientation

A market-orientated business puts customer needs first: it researches the market, then designs and adapts products to match demand. This reduces launch risk and tends to build loyalty, but it requires good, ongoing research and can lead to imitation rather than breakthrough products.

A product-orientated business puts the product first: it focuses on making and improving the product and assumes customers will follow. This can drive genuine innovation (customers cannot always say what they want before they see it), but it risks producing something the market does not actually want. Most successful firms are mainly market-orientated but keep a product-orientated streak for innovation.

Adding value through marketing

Examples in context

A challenger drinks brand sets a marketing objective of reaching $10\%$ market share within two years to support a corporate objective of growth. A consumer-electronics firm stays product-orientated, launching features customers did not know they wanted, while a supermarket is strongly market-orientated, using loyalty-card data to stock what shoppers buy. A trainer brand adds value through design and image, charging far more than the manufacturing cost.

Try this

Q1. State two possible marketing objectives for a business. [2 marks]

• Cue. Any two of: target sales, target market share, sales growth, entering a new segment, building the brand and loyalty.

Q2. A firm sells a product for $\pounds 50$ with bought-in costs of $\pounds 18$. Calculate the added value per unit. [2 marks]

• Cue. $50 - 18 = \pounds 32$ per unit.