Business Studies Edexcel GCSE

•   Marketing: providing customers with a persuasive case for preferring your products to your competitors.
• Primary Research: when a firm carries out first-hand research by field work, e.g. a questionnaire about consumer perceptions of its products. This is usually more useful than secondary research because it is 'tailor-made' to the firm's requirements.
• Qualitative: in-depth research using focus groups or depth interviews. It is used to find out consumers' behavior and attitudes.
• Quantitative research: this deals with large quantities of data, e.g. a sample size of 500 for a survey. This allows statistical analysis of the results.
• Secondary research (or desk research): information from 'second-hand sources'. It could be survey results carried out by another firm, government statistics, books websites, etc. It is much cheaper than primary research but may not meet the firm's needs.
• Socio-economic group: the customers' social class. For example, people in the AB group are professionals and managers.
• Product Trial: consumer samples a product for the first time.
• Repeat Purchase: consumer regularly purchases brand.
• Brand loyalty: a strongly motivated and long-standing decision to purchase a particular product or service.
• Extension Strategy: an attempt to prolong the sales of a product and prevent it from declining.

• Boston Matrix: a tool that can compare the products of a business and work out which ones have the best prospects for the future.
• Stars: Products that are in a high-growth market with a relatively high share of the market. (HIGH AND HIGH)
• Problem children: products with a low share of a high-growth market. (LOW AND HIGH)
• Cash cows: products with a high share of a slow-growth market (HIGH AND LOW).
• Dogs: products with a low share of a low-growth market. (LOW AND LOW).
• Logo: A symbol or picture that represents the business.
• Brand: a product with a unique character, for instance in design or image.
• Differentiation: the process of making a product seem distinct from its competitors.
• Unique selling point: a key feature of a product that is not shared by any of its rivals.
• Marketing mix: how a business persuades customers to buy its products/services. It is focused upon having the right product/service that customers want/need, available at a price they are willing to pay, in a place they are willing to travel to and promoted in a way to appeal to them.
• Public Image: how a business is perceived by the general public, e.g. most people believe the Co-op to be an ethical business due not only to its business practices but also to the way it markets itself.

Key Words

• Customer expectations: what consumers expect they are going to receive for the service they have paid for. Clever companies aim to provide even more than was expected.
• Aesthetics: appeals to the senses such as product that look, smell or feel good.
• Patent: registering a new way of making something, so that no one can copy the idea for 20 years.
• Buffer stock: the minimum stock level held at all times to avoid running out.
• Retailers: businesses that sell goods to the public, i.e shops
• Stocks: items held by a firm for use or sale, e.g. components for manufacturing, or sell-able products for a retailer.

• Culture: 'the way we do things round here', in other words the accepted attitudes and practices of staff at a workplace.
• Quality control: putting measures in place to check that the customer receives an acceptable level of quality.
• Warranty: the guarantee by the producer that it will repair any faults in a product for a specific period of time- usually one year.
• Automated: processes that are fully carried out by machinery rather than people.
• Productivity: efficiency, measured by output per worker per hour.
• Durability: how strong the product is and therefore how well and long it lasts.
• Monopoly: when there is only one supplier, i.e. no competition  so one company has the market to itself.
• Red tape: implies tangling firms up in too many rules and regulations; stifling them.

• EU Grant: a subsidy available to new businesses which set up in areas of regeneration but there are conditions attached.
• Just in time: a system designed to reduce cash tied up in stock- firms buys raw materials only when they need them and only produce goods to order, reducing storage costs.
• Profit: the amount of money a business is left with after paying all of its costs. Total revenue minus Total costs
• Revenue: the amount of money earned by a firm from selling its products/services. Quantity sold x the selling price.
• Break-even point: the level of sales at which total costs = total revenue. At this point the firm is making neither a profit nor a loss. All output below this point is at a lass. All output above this point is at a profit.

• Break-even chart: a graph that shows total costs and total revenues and the break-even point where total revenue equals total costs.
• Margin of safety: the amount sales can fall before the firm's profit is wiped out.
• External sources: sources of finance from out the business, e.g. bank loan, venture capital.
• Internal sources: sources of finance the company already has, e.g. selling assets.
• Flotation: when a firm offers its shares for sale to the public for the first time on the stock exchange.

• Organisation chart: a diagram that shows the internal structure of an organisation.
• Centralised organisation: an organisation in which most decisions are made at head office.
• Decentralised organisation: an organisation which allows staff to make decisions at a local level.
• Motivation: the will to work.
• Communication: the passing of information from one person or organisation to another.
• Barrier to communication: something that prevents the flow of communication.
• Internal Communication: communication that takes place between people within the organisation.

• External communication: communication that takes place between the business and people or organisations outside of the business.
• Remuneration: payment to employees.
• Wage: a method of paying employees for their work, usually on a weekly basis.
• Salary: a method of paying employees for their work, usually calculated on an annual basis and paid monthly.
• Commission: a method of payment where workers' pay is based on the value of products they have sold.
• Piece rate pay: a method of payment where workers are paid per item or unit they produce.
• Time rate pay: a method of payment where workers are paid per hour that they have worked.

• Ethics: a set of moral principles
• Ethical: doing things because you think they are morally right e.g. refusing a bribe.
• Legislation: laws passed by parliament e.g. the sales of goods act, which says that goods sold must be fit to be used or you can get your money back.
• Socially responsible: acting in ways that show care and concern for all member of society e.g. recycling waste materials.
• Social Enterprise: a business that trades in goods and services but is associated with a social cause e.g. traidcraft
• Pressure group: a group with a common interest/goal who work collectively to further that cause. e.g. trade union
• Interest rate: the charge for borrowing money and the reward for saving. High interest rates mean consumers will have less disposable income because their mortgages and car loans etc. will cost them more so they will have less to spend on other goods and services.