Merry Christmas and Happy New Year - Enjoy the holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

As it is the Christmas Holidays it is unlikely any new content is going to be uploaded. This is due to this content being largely created at school and I won't obviously be having lessons (or free/study period) to create it in if I am not there. However, there may be some content as I prepare for AS Mocks in January 2017.

And, well, when this is posted we have not broken up yet. It has been posted on the morning of the last day before the holidays!
 

Types of Product and Managing Products

Managing Products

·         The product lifecycle.

·         Analysis of product portfolios.

·         Branding.

·         New product development.

Types of Product

	Convenience	Shopping	Speciality
Example	Chewing Gum	TV	Sports Car
Distribution (Place)	Very Wide	Wide	Limited
Price	The price isn’t really that important as it is normally relatively low	The price is important as customers shop around and compare different products	The price isn’t very significant, as it is a special purchase.
Product	There is some brand loyalty.	There is some brand loyalty, but there is also comparison between brands	There is strong brand awareness
Promotion	They aim the product at large numbers of customers, they aim to draw them into the store and use in store promotions to attract impulse buys	Will raise brand awareness	The products are very targeted (e.g. people of different wealth)
Process	They are often impulse buys	They may have payment and credit terms	May want payment terms
Physical Environment	It is not very significant	It is relatively significant	It is very significant
People	There is limited importance	Important as customers want staff to know about strengths of brands and the particular model product that they are buying	Very important as staff in store reflect on the brand a lot

Analysis of the Marketing Mix

Analysis of new product development decisions

May be required because…

• ·         An existing product is coming to the end of its product lifestyle.
• ·         There are new opportunities opening up due to changes happening in the market.
• ·         The business has a desire to build on the strengths of the brand.
• ·         It is a way of achieving growth.
• ·         To allow them to match what their competitors are doing.

Pricing decisions

• ·         Costs.
• ·         Positioning of the product.
• ·         The stage of the products lifecycle.
• ·         Price elasticity of demand.
• ·         The competitiveness of the market.
• ·         Other elements of the marketing mix.

Promotion decisions

• ·         The target market.
• ·         The message the business is trying to bring across.
• ·         The promotion budget.
• ·         The positioning of the business or the product.
• ·         The competitive environment.

Branding decisions

• ·         The brand represents a promise made by the business.
• ·         As customers, we recogniser brands and associate the brands with particular values.
• ·         The brand’s logo, slogan and anything else that makes it different from competitors recognised.

Distribution decisions

• ·         The degree of coverage (locally, globally and nationally).
• ·         Costs of different distribution strategies.
• ·         The target market.
• ·         Positioning
• ·         Competitors.

Labour Productivity, Calculating Costs and Capacity Utilisation

Green highlighted text is an formula.

Labour Productivity

Measures how many units one employee makes

Labour Productivity = Total Output/Number of Employees

Calculating Unit Cost

Measures the cost per unit.

Unit costs = Total costs/Total output

Calculating Costs

Total fixed costs = Total costs – Total variable costs

Total variable costs = Total costs – Total fixed costs

Total Costs = Total variable costs + Total fixed costs

Total Cost = Unit costs x no of unit costs

Unit cost = Total costs/number of units

No of units = Total costs/unit costs.

Capacity Utilisation

Capacity utilisation shows what percentage of the maximum possible output is being utilised (existing output).

Capacity Utilisation = Existing Output/Maximum Possible Output

Characteristics of Documents

Documents have many things.

Characters

• These are single letters or numbers.
• They can be formatted.

Paragraph

• A paragraph is a set of sentences.
• They are separated by line gaps. This done by pressing the enter key twice.
• Paragraphs can be formatted with indentation, alignment, line spacing and borders.

Page

• A page is a single side of paper, once printed.
• Pages can contain text, numbers, images, shapes, tables and other items.
• They can have multiple properties such as size, orientation, margins, backgrounds and borders.

Section

• A section is an area of a document.
• It can contain multiple and single pages.
• It has its own properties, which are similar to properties for pages.

Frames

• Frames are an independent area of a page that can contain text, images or tables.
• They have the same properties as paragraphs as well as other properties such as word wrapping, order, alignment and rotation.

Headers and Footers

• There are areas at the top and at the bottom of the page.
• They can contain text, images, etc and can also be formatted.
• They often contain page numbers.
• The first page and odd/even pages can have different headers and footers.

Footnote

• A footnote is additional information for reference. 
• They are indicated by a number letter or symbol.
• They appear at the bottom of the page.

The Boston Matrix

The Boston Matrix is used to analyse product portfolios. Each product can be put in an area based on Market Share and Market Growth.

Media Studies - The Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is one of the main rules when it comes to photography. It comes from the theory that the human eye naturally gravitates to certain points in an image. It is actually the most known rule of photography.

With the rule of thirds, photographs are divided with two imaginary lines horizontally and two vertically, splitting it into three rows, three columns and nice sections.

Important elements of the photograph should be placed on or near the imaginary lines on the image.

Some examples:

With landscapes, it is better if the horizon falls on the top imaginary line or the bottom imaginary line as opposed to directly in the centre (which is natural)

With portraits, it is best if the eyes are located where the horizontal and the vertical lines intersect.

Photos look better when they are located off centre.

Media Studies - Regional Identities Stereotypes

England

• Racist
• Like beer
• Football
• Think we all live in London
• Rich
• Posh
• Happy
• The Queen

Ireland

• Farmers
• Less intelligent
• Good at dancing and singing
• Religious
• Drunk
• Short
• Leprechaun
• Luck

Welsh

The Welsh are often shown as living in the middle of the countryside. 

Dialects are influenced by welsh grammar. 

There are many different accents as the welsh people in North Wales speak a lot like scousers as it isn’t far from Liverpool.

This is the same in the South as they have more of an accent which sounds like they are from Bristol as they are close to Bristol. 

Scottish

• Irn-bru
• Alcohol 
• Haggis
• Kilts
• Ginger
• Aggressive 

Brummies

• Unintelligent
• They sound thick
• Make up-minimal
• Class/status-low
• All football teams are bad
• Chavs

North London

• Intelligent, well learned, posh, wealthy, mock people of lower classes.
• Cashmere jumper, quits.
• Well spoken, correct pronunciation, not much slang.
• Minimal makeup.
• Middle and upper class.

South London

• Up for fights, net very intelligent, hard working, close friendships.
• Flat caps, cheap clothes, trench coats, football casuals.
• Minimal makeup.
• Low class.

Geordies

• Party animals-binge drinking
• Revealing, Tight Clothing
• Fake Tan
• Class/Status-lower middle/middle
• Newcastle or Sunderland.

Scousers

• Dangerous, Drinkers
• Tracksuits-Football-Stevie G
• Minimal make up or over the top
• Class/Status-Lower
• Chavs

Essex

• Image conscious
• Unintelligent
• Love to shop and party 
• Girls wear tacky clothes
• Boys are fashionable
• Fake tan
• Lower/ middle class

Southerners

• Arrogant and posh
• Suit and tie
• Tailored clothing
• Well spoken
• Minimal makeup
• Middle/ upper class

Northerners

• Loud, rude and drink a lot
• Party animals
• Lower status
• Cheap clothing
• Vowels over pronounced
• Make up, minimal or OTT

Yorkshire

• Flat caps, tweed jackets, dogs.
• Live in open field, always in country pubs and local shops.
• “Ey up“ “ah, tell thithat fer nowt”. Don’t pronounce Ts.
• Minimal makeup.
• Lower class.

Mancs

• Loud and funny
• Lazy and poor
• Football casual clothing e.g. Fred Perry
• Busy town centre
• Lower/middle class
• Only listens to bands like Oasis and Stone Roses

Product Lifecycle

What is the product lifecycle?

•      The different stages of a product’s progress in terms of sales.

•      It is plotted on a lifecycle curve.

•      Just before the product reaches the decline stage, the business can use extension strategies so that they can improve sales and increase the life of the business.

Extension Strategies

•      Extension Strategies are used to improve the sales of a product before it enters into the decline stage.

•      They will extend the life of a product.

•      They include: Finding new uses for the product, promoting the product more effectively, increasing the usage of the product, modifying or changing the product (e.g. creating a new version) and finding a new market segment.

Extension Strategies Examples       

•      Advertising – trying to gain a new audience for the product or reminding the existing audience that the product exists.

•      Reducing the price – This will make the product more attractive to customers.

•      Adding value – Adding new features to the product (this is common in tech products such as mobile phones).

•      Explore new markets –Try and launch the product in a country that doesn’t have they product or a similar product.

•      New packaging – Make the packaging better with subtle changes or brightening it up. This can also include repackaging things in a compilation – particularly music.

The Four V's of Operations Management

Volume Dimension

The intention of this is to have low costs, but have a high volume of output. An example of this is McDonalds. The volume of McDonald's operation is key to their business' organisation. This is due to the staff being able to work systematically and do repeated tasks - meaning the business is well organised. This means there are lower costs but still a high volume of output.

Variety Dimension

The variety offered. Bus vs Taxi is a good example as buses don't give the option to drop off and pick up where you want, but taxis do. This means that taxis have more variety. However, the more variety means there will be higher costs.

Variation Dimension

This is best explained with an example. There are two house building companies, QuickHouse Ltd and CustomBuild Ltd. QuickHouse shows the houses online, you order it, and the house is built using prefab methods. CustomBuild on the other hand, has show homes. You choose the features you want in your house and they build it for you. CustomBuild will have much higher costs as well as a lower volume of output compared to QuickHouse - CustomBuild may be able to build 2 houses in 6 months while QuickHouse could build 200.

Visibility Dimension

This dimension is related to the customers being able to track, see or order through the operations process. An example would be courier companies - who use online parcel tracking. This would be high visibility. While, on the other hand, there is low visibility, which would be something like a web development company - you can't directly see and track what they are doing.

Stages of Production (Business)

Influences on the Marketing Mix

Introduction         

•       The positioning of a product is not always fixed. It can change.

•       It may need to be adapted when internal and external conditions change.

Internal and External Influences

Type of product

•       A large influence is the type of product.

•       There are two types of product, industrial and consumer.

Consumer

•       Bought by households.

•       Differ in the way consumers buy them.

•       Different types of consumer product include:

•       Convenience – bought frequently, little planning required, low customer involvement, price usually low, mass promotion and widespread distribution.

•       Shopping – Bought less frequently, customers are careful about suitability, price, quality and brand, more selective distribution meaning fewer outlets, both the producer and reseller will advertise it.

•       Speciality – Unique characteristics or brand, buyers make a special effort when buying, high price, exclusive distribution or limited outlets and promotion is carefully targeted.

Industrial

•       There are multiple types of products for industrial.

•       Materials and parts – raw materials and components, sold mostly to other businesses and price and service are key issues.

•       Capital items – Products used in production (of another product) or operations. It includes IT systems, buildings and infrastructure.

•       Supplies and services – Operating supplies (just supplies) and business services (such as maintenance and security).

Marketing Mix for Business to Business

•       Specialist buyers and sellers – they know what they are talking about.

•       Dealing with professional buyers.

•       Buyer seller relationship needs to be good. There is an emphasis on repeat business.

•       The value of the purchase tends to be higher (as things are bought in bulk)

•       Quality and price are important as it affects another company. Prices are often negotiated.

•       Support is a greater requirement.

Absolute & Relative Cell Referencing

Advantages & Disadvantages of Computer Modelling

Normalisation

Computer Modelling

User Interfaces

Static & Dynamic Data

Sources of Data

Data, information and knowledge

Data types

Costs of producing information

Different user's needs of software

Who would use what and why?  For each user, identify software(s) they would use and define the features they will need in the software.

Accountant	An accountant would need software that allows them to input the information about the business’ finances and then generate reports and accounts for the business. This software would need to be secure to keep the financial information confidential.
Estate agent	An estate agent will need software which shows them a list of all of the properties for sale, schedule viewings, show prices and so on. This could possibly be web based or could be a program on the computer.
Shopkeeper	A shopkeeper may use EPOS software to allow them to log purchases, track stock, print receipts and so on. These are some of the features that they will need.
Secretary	Word (to send letters) and Excel/Access (recording data). They could use alternative Office software such as IBM Lotus or Apache Open Office.

Buttons, form controls, menus and templates

            Describe how standard/generic applications software can be tailored using buttons, forms, form controls, menus and templates and give examples of the use of each.

Buttons

Buttons are an important element in customising and user interfaces.

Buttons are commonly used on web pages to enable users to navigate to another area of the website, an external web page or to access a file.

They can also be used to activate commands. E.g. a macro is assigned to a button – the button activates the macro when it is clicked.

Forms

Data entry forms can be set up in most of the standard applications, e.g. databases, spreadsheets, word processing.

These data entry forms can be tailored to make them more ‘user friendly’ with things such as:

·        Auto filling. Has three purposes. One is to reduce amount of data entry required. Second use is to speed up data entry. Third use is to reduce the number of data entry mistakes.

·        Drop down boxes. User can choose from a list of available options simply be clicking on the appropriate one. Used for similar reasons as auto filling.

Instructions

Adding instructions are useful for users.

Error messages

Important that clear and timely error messages are displayed in order to assist the user. The first error message on the right would be of little use to most people.

Menus

Menus are commonly found in most applications. They enable users to quickly select from a list of available options.

Macros, Wizards, Templates and Style

Macros                                             

Definition	Purpose	Characteristics	Advantages	Disadvantages
·         A sequence of instructions defined as a single element.  When a macro is called the sequence of instructions is used ·         Can be written or recorded	Save time as things only need to be done once as they will be done automatically another time.	- Keystrokes or mouse clicks can be recorded to make the macro - The actions are saved as Visual Basic code which can be edited by hand. - Shortcuts keys can be allocated to macros, e.g. Ctrl+C to copy, Ctrl+v to paste. - Macros can be assigned to a button. When the button is pressed, the macro will run. - Macros can be saved for future use.	·         Saves time as you only need to do things once. ·         Large number of tasks can be recorded in a single macro. ·         Often more accurate than when doing tasks compared to doing them manually. ·         Easily automate a repetitive process. ·         Editable in visual basic.	·         Must be re programmed if there is a mistake in the macro. ·         Can spread computer viruses. ·         Unexperienced users may not understand macro code. ·         Security settings may block the macro.

Definition	Purpose	Characteristics	Advantages	Disadvantages
·         A template is a document, database, web page, worksheet that has been set up with a specific layout and text formatting prior to use	Saves time as you can just use something as been pre created as a layout.	·         Offer a number of options. ·         Make it quicker to produce a document or complete a task. ·         Take user through the process step by step. ·         May have a preview of the outcome.	·         Makes documents look good. ·         Makes sure the documents are the correct layout for the type of document. ·         Help inexperienced people complete tasks.	·         Number of options are limited. ·         The options that are wanted or needed may not be available. ·         Layout or format of the wizard may not meet the user’s requirements. ·         End result may look similar to other users or companies. ·         Lack scope f

Definition	Purpose	Characteristics	Advantages	Disadvantages
·         Automatic creation of preset templates using guidance from user ·         By asking the user some questions, a wizard provides help in making the best use of the available facilities	Makes it easier and saves time because the software will create a basis for what the users wants and then they can edit it a later date.	·         Can containing formatting. ·         Can contain standardised text. ·         Can contain standardised logos. ·         Frames for entering specific text.	·         Saves time.	·         If there is a mistake, every document using the template will have that mistake. ·         It is not possible for standard users to edit the template. ·         Template may not be suited to the audience or the situation.

Definition	Purpose	Characteristics	Advantages	Disadvantages
·         A set of instructions that have formats already set into them ·         They are character based and given a name, for example Heading 1 that applies a pre set formatting to the selected text	Makes sure that documents look the same throughout and have a uniform style.	Fonts, font sizes, colours, margins, heading.	·         Makes sure that all content in documents uses the same fonts. ·         Ensures that company documents are consistent. ·         Same stylesheet can be used for different documents. ·         If a change is made, all documents using the style are updated. ·         Enables different people to work on different parts of the document.	·         All documents produced by the company look the same. ·         May use fonts that are not installed on all of the company computers. They would see the documents with the default fonts. ·         Someone has to spend time developing the stylesheet. ·         Individual users are not allowed to change the stylesheet to adapt to their needs. ·         The user may not want the style reflected across the whole of the document.

Templates

Wizards

Styles