Functional Benefits Of Oligopoly

Question 1

1.1)

The concept of societal orientation implies that marketers should try and market in a way that is sustainable and enriching for the long-term welfare of society. The four issues marketers should consider are: environmentalism, consumer rights, ethics and social responsibility. (Johan Strydom, 2014)

1.2)

• Functional benefits – Benefits of using products that can be perceived by touch, such as the screen size of a new iPhone.

• Emotional benefits – These are benefits that make customers feel a sense of achievement or excitement. Example: If a customer buys a new perfume, he/she may feel more attractive.

• Image benefits – These benefits are those that give customers social status and a higher self-image by using brands that

An example of this is SA Brewery as it dominates the beer market of South Africa. (South African Reserve Bank nd)

An Oligopoly is a market state where a small number of firms own a large part of the market share. An Oligopoly usually has high barriers to market entry. The number of firms in an oligopoly must be low enough for the actions of one firm to significantly impact the others. (Investopedia nd) An example of an Oligopoly would be the infamous rivalry between Coca Cola and PepsiCo.

Monopolistic competition is characterised by a large number of firms marketing similar but slightly different products. It contains characteristics from a monopoly as well as from perfect competition. Consumers have many substitutes to choose from in this market structure. An example of this would be the breakfast cereal industry. (J Strydom 2014)

Perfect competition is a market state where there are a sufficient number of buyers and sellers so that all elements of a monopoly are absent and the market price of goods and services are beyond the control of individual buyers and sellers. E.g Farmers selling fruit in South

Data already exists and was either previously produced by the business or by an outside source.

Primary data takes more time and is relatively expensive to collect, but the data is usually more relevant to the business. Secondary data is cheaper and easier to obtain, but may be less reliable (or relevant) than primary data.

4.3)

Formulate the research problem and objectives – In this step the marketing manager must precisely identify the true problem that the organisation is faced with, determine what needs to be achieved and decide on the type of research that must be conducted.

Create the research design – The research design is used to plan the research that must be conducted. It specifies how the data will be collected, processed and analysed.

Collect, process and analyse the data - In this step the data is collected and processed. The researcher must analyse the data and put it into a format that is easy for the decision maker to interpret.

Communicate information to the marketing decision maker – In this step the researcher communicates the results to the decision maker in the form of a report. From there on, conclusions and recommendations are