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The Association of Business Executives
QCF

Strategic Marketing
Management
Examiner’s Report and Suggested Answers

Unit Title:

Strategic Marketing Management

Unit Code:

6SMM

QCF Level:

6

Date of
Examination:

December 2014

Structure of paper: Answer all three sections
Section A: Answer all four questions

Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4

Section B: Answer one question

Either Q5 or Q6

Section C: Answer one question

Either Q7 or Q8

Introduction
There would appear to be a drop in the number of entries for this examination over June
2014, although there has been an improvement in the overall pass rates
...


Section A
Question 1
Learning Outcome 1: Understand the broad concepts and processes of strategic
development and marketing planning and the associated theoretical models and
frameworks
...

Suggested answer:
Marketing objectives can bring a number of benefits to an organisation
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 Can create unity
...

 They can reduce risk
...

(Each one should be discussed)
Although there are many advantages, many organisations find it difficult to define good
marketing objectives
...

Apathy - where staff may be de-motivated
...

Organisational culture - a lack of marketing orientation
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Examiner’s comments:
Generally this question was answered quite well
...
It is vital that candidates clearly identify the command word and do exactly what the
question requires
...

The strategic marketing literature has many product and market portfolio models
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Suggested answer:
There are many models that candidates may select here
...
What is important here is
that candidates are able to identify a suitable model, critically evaluate it and consider its
usefulness in today’s contemporary market place
...
Those who knew the models; these generally
described them well, and those who did not and therefore achieved very low grades
...
Where the majority of candidates performed poorly
was failing to CRITICALLY DESCRIBE the model
...
There were some good answers but most candidates
did not address this part of the question well and therefore failed to meet this learning
outcome
...


Question 3
Learning Outcome 3: Understand how organisations determine their strategic direction and
know how to identify and evaluate the various ways in which this can be achieved
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Explain this criticism and suggest an alternative to
strategic planning
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 Strategic marketing planning often occurs in an annual cycle, but a firm cannot wait that
time to address its problems
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Sometimes staff are
unwilling to challenge the plan
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The alternative to strategic planning is an opportunistic approach
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The advantages of this approach are:
 Opportunities can be seized as they arise
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Examiner’s comments:
This was probably the most difficult question on the paper
...
As mentioned above, candidates must do exactly what the examiner
asks
...
Sadly very few answers
showed any of the academic underpinning required at Level 6
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Critically evaluate how the size of a firm impacts on strategic marketing strategy
...

Candidates should make it very clear that all firms are very different and therefore to
generalise is dangerous; however, there are some general differences in characteristics
between small and large firms and these are summarised below
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 Often lack resources (funding, skills, professional expertise and time)
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 Many have a flexible culture and are relatively quick at making decisions
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 Many lack knowledge and knowledge management systems
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The owner is often involved in everything
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Large firms
 Tend to have a larger market share and can often influence the market
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 Most are managed by directors and owned by shareholders
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 They tend to be less successful at innovation
...
The question clearly asked candidates to CRITICALLY
EVALUATE how the size of a firm impacts on marketing strategy
...
We need discussion and evaluation and expected candidates to link
size to strategic marketing strategy
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Today the Internet is a vital tool for the strategic marketer
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Discuss these risks
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Connectivity - not all people have computers or the skills to use them or indeed want to
use them
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Cost – Can be very expensive to buy, replace and maintain
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Technical staff – specialist staff may be required and the loss of key staff is a major risk
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Technical faults – can be a major risk – breakdown can prevent delivery or payment
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Viruses and hackers – this can destroy data or steal confidential information
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Legal issues – may include privacy, unsolicited emails and copyright issues
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SPAM – unsolicited commercial emails
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8
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Examiner’s comments:
This was a very straightforward and popular question and was generally addressed quite
well
...
Sadly however many candidates simply provided
appropriate lists but failed to discuss the risks in detail
...
Again candidates must do exactly what is asked
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Evaluate the benefits of social media to the strategic marketer
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They
aggregate sites and usually place them in order of preference
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They are used by the strategic marketer to gather information and as an
advertising medium
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These are useful to the strategic marketer as a research
tool to ascertain what people are saying about a product or company
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c) Topic specific communities – These are usually business related and may include IT
communities, healthcare communities, sports communities etc
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YouTube and Facebook are good examples
...

Candidates should explain that social media are two-way communications and allow people
to publish and to participate in conversations online
...
These posts can make or break a product or corporate
reputation so the strategic marketer must be aware of what is being said
...
Sadly however this was handled poorly with candidates lacking analysis and reflective
evaluation
...

Once again the need to answer every part of the question in order to achieve high marks
must be stressed
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At a recent marketing conference a delegate was heard to say that, despite the
popularity of the product life cycle (PLC) concept, there is unfortunately no evidence
to prove that most products follow such a four stage cycle
...

Suggested answer:
Candidates should begin with a brief statement stating that the PLC is a theory that
suggests that products, like people, live a life
...
During the life cycle the product goes through different experiences
and the marketing support will vary during the various stages
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They should describe the PLC and ideally show it diagrammatically
...

Next candidates should address the issue as to whether it is a helpful theory to marketers
...
They may however have a different view, and if that is the case they
should argue their case strongly
...
Issues discussed here may include:
 The difficulty of predicting how long it will take to move through the stages
...

 The shape of the PLC will vary greatly depending upon marketing and environmental
issues
...

 Revitalisation of products can influence the course of the lifecycle
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For instance the growth stage may or
may not be associated with high profits
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 The PLC is production rather than a marketing orientated concept
...
They should show that it is more of a guide to what could happen rather
than a prescription of what will happen
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Examiner’s comments:

A very popular question with candidates and the PLC was generally well described, although
as usual, some described the wrong model! The question however required much more than
simply description
...
Again I must emphasise the
importance of reading the question very carefully and answering every part of it
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Question 8
Learning Outcome 4: Understand how to implement, measure and control strategic
marketing plans
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Given this, explain why relatively
few organisations handle pricing well
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Unfortunately many organisations do not handle pricing well
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 Pricing is often set independently of other mix elements and without taking into account
advertising and market positioning strategies
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 Pricing often reflects a defensive rather than an offensive posture
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Few candidates related their answer to the other
elements of the marketing mix or discussed the fact that pricing decisions are too heavily
biased towards cost structures, fail to take into account either competitors or customer
response patterns, or that pricing often reflects a defensive rather than an offensive posture
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Conclusions
Overall this was a fair but challenging examination paper which gave the candidates who
had prepared well the opportunity to achieve high grades
...
Concern must be expressed
that some candidates are not taught current thinking
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Recommendations to candidates and tutors for future examinations
My comments remain similar to previous reports
...
Spend some time at the beginning of the examination reading the question paper very
carefully
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2
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Failure to do this will almost
certainly result in a poor grade
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Tutors must pay more attention to the financial aspects of strategic marketing
management as this is a consistently weak area
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Do not waste time rewriting the question
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5
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6
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Many candidates fail to critically evaluate, discuss, assess etc
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At this level candidates are required to turn theory into practical application
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Lists, unless specifically asked for, are unlikely to provide sufficient content to achieve a
pass grade
9
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Candidates must read around the
subject and provide evidence to support their discussions
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Candidates should seek to produce quality not quantity
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Make sure every question is answered
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11
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Make sure you come to the examination with
appropriate examples
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Write legibly
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