Analyse the advantages to a business of using online advertising.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2022). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. Understanding that online advertising involves using the internet to make customers aware of the products that a business has available
2. Making the link between advertising and the wider potential audience reached via the internet
3. The possibility of reaching a much larger number of possible customers
4. A business might also save on advertising costs; the cost of an advertisement on the internet is likely to be lower than for billboards, magazines, newspapers etc
5. A business can reach customers who would not have been aware of its existence if not for the online advertising
6. A business will be able to capture data about the number of people viewing the advertisement e.g. the geographical location of those people. This gives a business information that might be useful to future developments of the products/business
7. Reaching more customers will hopefully lead to an increase in demand and therefore might enable expansion of a business or a move into new markets.
8. Clear understanding of what secondary market research is
9. Candidates might also define what could be a new market.
10. Appropriate reference to entering into a new market e.g. the new market could be a new geographical market or a new demographic i.e., age group or income level.
11. Specific reference to a furniture product e.g. chairs/tables.
12. Secondary market research might not be completely relevant to a business.
13. The collected data might not be directly relevant to furniture or specifically to the type/style of furniture being offered by this business
14. The data has, by definition, been collected for another purpose and might not be relevant to this business proposal
15. Managers need to know how old the market research information is
16. A business might not be offering the same type of furniture to this new market or wants to discover the needs and preferred style of the new market in which case secondary market research is likely to be of little use.
17. If there is only limited information about the new market, might it be more appropriate for a business to carry out some primary research that has a focus on the product and the intended consumers?
18. The usefulness of secondary market research might depend on the similarity between the proposed new market and the cohort used for the secondary market research
19. If a business wants to find out the preferences of the new market, then it is more essential that primary market research should be undertaken
20. The usefulness will depend on the quality of the research already conducted and also the length of time since the information was collected
21. It might be that secondary market research is all that a business can afford and therefore is better than no research at all.
22. Will the furniture demanded in another market, either geographic or demographic, be very different? This will depend on the extent to which designs etc. differ between markets. If there is little difference, then the secondary market research could be adequate and save money for a business