Introductory Certificate in Marketing: 501 - Understanding Customer Relationships

Understanding Customer Relationships Assignment Brief September 2014
Introductory Certificate
in Marketing

501 Understanding Customer Relationships

Assignment Brief and Mark Scheme

September 2014

Candidates are required to answer ALL tasks.
Tasks One, Two and Three are worth 25%, Task Four is worth 15% and format
and presentation is worth 10% of the marks

CIM Regulations

Candidates must ensure that they are CIM studying members
and have registered for this assignment by the required CIM
deadline (printed on page six of the guidance notes. Once
booked, if candidates later find that they are unable to submit to
the September 2014 session they will need to book and pay
again to submit to the December 2014 session using the
December 2014 assignment brief. Fees are not transferable
between sessions and extensions to the published deadline
dates will only be considered on medical grounds.

If an assignment is received from a candidate who has not
booked by the above closing date, the relevant assignment
entry fee will be raised along with a 100 late entry fee.

Candidate
Declaration

Candidates must adhere to the CIM policies and guidance
notes relating to word count, plagiarism and collusion when
compiling this assignment and include the following declaration
statement on the front cover of the assignment:

I confirm that in forwarding this assignment for marking,
I understand and have applied the CIM policies relating to word
count, plagiarism and collusion for all tasks. This assignment is
the result of my own independent work except where otherwise
stated. Other sources are acknowledged in the body of the
text, a bibliography has been appended and Harvard
referencing has been used. I have not shared my work with
other candidates. I further confirm that I have submitted an
electronic copy of this assignment to CIM in accordance with
the regulations.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing 2013


Page 2

Guidance notes for candidates

These guidance notes refer to all CIM and CAM assignment briefs.

Assignment regulations

Candidates must complete the assignment brief published by The Chartered Institute of
Marketing (CIM) for the relevant academic session. Candidates are able to ask for advice
from regarding the brief, the marking scheme and grade descriptors. Candidates and tutors
should also understand and apply CIM policies relating to assignments, including word
count, plagiarism and collusion; these are available on the CIM Learning Zone at
www.cimlearningzone.co.uk. Each assignment must be completed individually.

Context

Candidates must refer to the guidance notes in each specific assignment brief.

Confidentiality

Candidates using organisational information dealing with sensitive/confidential material or
issues, must seek advice and permission from the organisation about its inclusion in an
assignment. Where confidentiality is an issue, candidates are advised to anonymise their
assignment so that it cannot be attributed to a particular organisation.

When submitting assignments to CIM, candidates may choose to opt out by ticking
the box on the assignment/project front sheet, indicating they have not given CIM
permission to use the work for any other purpose.

All CIM examiners sign a confidentiality agreement and cannot mark any assignment where
there is a declared conflict of interest. All assignments are stored securely and are shredded
confidentially after 12 months.

Assignment criteria and mark schemes

The assignment brief includes the assessment criteria and mark scheme, together with
guidance notes. The guidance notes indicate the types of information and the format that are
required. It is important that, when assignments are issued, discussions take place between
candidates and tutors to clarify understanding of the assignment brief.

Assessment criteria and mark schemes are included so that candidates can see where
marks will be allocated and are able to structure their assignment accordingly. CIM reserves
the right to amend the assessment criteria and mark schemes where appropriate.

Grade descriptors

Grade descriptors, used by examiners as part of the marking process, comprise the
following elements:
evaluation
application
concept
presentation.

The weightings of these elements are used to inform grades within a level and differentiate
between levels. To maximise marks, candidates need to consider the weighting of the four
Introductory Certificate in Marketing

Page 3

elements at the relevant level.
Relative weightings Concept Application Evaluation Presentation
in Marketing
45% 30% 15% 10%
Professional Certificate
in Marketing
40% 30% 20% 10%
Professional Diploma
in Marketing
30% 30% 30% 10%
Chartered
Postgraduate Diploma
in Marketing
15% 30% 45% 10%
CAM Diplomas 40% 30% 20% 10%

Tutor guidance to candidates

Candidates are able to ask their tutors to give feedback on ONE draft of an assignment
and/or answer specific subject-related questions related to the assignment. Feedback given
will be focused around the mark scheme requirements, guidance notes, how the submission
relates to the grade descriptors in relation to the candidates chosen organisation.

As tutors are not part of the official CIM marking process, they are not in a position to
indicate possible grades through verbal feedback. Candidates should not submit their
completed assignment to their tutor to request guidance for improvement as tutors cannot
review completed assignments and return these to candidates with suggested changes.
Evidence of an Accredited Study Centre doing this will result in the assignment being sent
back unmarked.

Word count policy

The total number of words used for the whole assignment must be indicated on the front
cover of the assignment. Pages must be numbered for ease of reference.

Candidates must comply with the recommended word count, within a margin of -/+10%. For
some tasks a specified number of pages is given as an alternative to the word count.

Areas included in the word count are as follows (unless otherwise specified in the individual
assignment brief):

tables
charts
diagrams
graphs
references (information such as specific quotations, author information)
headings

Areas excluded from the word count are:

contents ( if used)
executive summary (if required or used please refer to specific brief requirements)
bibliography
appendices.

Page 4

Therefore, if candidates use tables to present their answer in the main body of the text, the
words used (or where appropriate, the number of pages) will be counted and the rules
relating to word count or number of pages will apply.

When a task requires candidates to produce presentation slides, with supporting notes, the
word count applies to the supporting notes only. Where a task requires candidates to work to
a specific format, for example, PowerPoint slides, candidates must refer to the specific
briefs guidance notes.

Where candidates work has contravened the word count policy it will be reviewed by the
Senior Examiner and the CIM Reasonable Adjustment, Malpractice and Irregularities
Committee before a final decision is made on whether the assignment will be assessed.

It is important that candidates adhere to the word count policy, as assignments that
exceed the recommended word count, or number of pages, may be declared null and
void and the candidate will be asked to complete and submit a new assignment.

Presentation

Candidates should present their work professionally, using tables and diagrams to support
and/or illustrate the text. Unless tables and diagrams are specified as a requirement of a
task, they can be included in either the appendix or the main body of the text. If tables are
included as appendices, the findings must be summarised or referenced within the main
body of the text for marks to be awarded.

Text must be 11 point, and tables, diagrams and charts must be no smaller than 9 point. The
font size must be legible and not compressed. Preferred fonts include: either Arial, Calibri or
Times Roman.

At the top of each page (in the header) candidates must insert the unit name and their
membership number (9 point) and at the bottom of each page (in the footer) insert page
numbers (9 point). Candidates must not include their name in any part of the assignment.

Guidance on inserting PowerPoint slides into Word documents is available on the CIM
Learning Zone www.cimlearningzone.co.uk website.

Appendices

Appendices should only be included where necessary and should be used to accommodate
tables and diagrams to support/illustrate the main body of the text. No marks are awarded
for work included in the appendices, and these should not be used as alternative locations
for work that should appear in the main text. Appendices should not include published
secondary information, such as annual reports or company literature, etc.

Referencing and professionalism

A professional approach to work is expected. Candidates must:

identify and acknowledge ALL sources/methodologies/applications used
use the Harvard referencing system (notes on Harvard are on the CIM Learning Zone
websites)
express work in plain business English. Marks are not awarded for use of English, but a
good standard of English will help candidates to express their understanding more
effectively.

Page 5

All work that candidates submit as part of the CIM requirements must be expressed in their
own words and incorporate their own judgements. Direct quotations from the published or
unpublished work of others, including that of tutors or employers, must be appropriately
referenced. Authors of images used in reports and audio-visual presentations must be
acknowledged.

Plagiarism and collusion

Academic offences, including plagiarism and collusion, are treated seriously. Plagiarism
involves presenting work, excerpts, ideas or passages of another author without appropriate
referencing and attribution. Collusion occurs when two or more candidates submit work
which is so alike in ideas, content, wording and/or structure that the similarity goes beyond
what might have been mere coincidence. Plagiarism and collusion are serious offences and
any candidates found to be sharing their own work, copying another candidates work,
quoting work from another source without recognising and disclosing that source, or using
agencies that provide assignment writing services will be penalised and their assignment
may be declared null and void.

It is a candidates responsibility to understand what constitutes an academic offence,
and, in particular, what plagiarism and collusion are and how to avoid them. Useful
guidance materials and supporting CIM policies are available on the CIM Learning Zone
www.cimlearningzone.co.uk website.

In submitting the assignment for this unit, and completing the relevant declaration statement,
the candidate is confirming that all the work submitted is their own and does not contravene
CIM policies, including those on word count, plagiarism and collusion. Tutors sign the Listing
of Candidates form, confirming that to the best of their knowledge the work submitted is the
candidates own. If a tutor has concerns about the authenticity of a candidates submission, it
is highlighted on this form. CIM reserves the right to return assignments if the necessary
declaration statements have not been completed.

A candidate believed to be involved in plagiarism and/or collusion for one or more tasks will
have their work reviewed and plagiarism detection software may be used. A candidate found
to be in breach of these regulations may be subject to one or more of the following:
disqualification from membership; refused award of unit or qualification; disqualification from
other CIM assignments/qualifications; refused the right to retake units/qualifications.

Where a candidate has breached CIM regulations, the candidate and the Accredited Study
Centre will be informed of the outcome.

Submission of assignments

Candidates are responsible for submitting a hard copy AND an electronic copy of the
assignment to their Accredited Study Centre by the given deadline. Candidates must
complete all CIM paperwork to accompany the assignment. CIM will not accept or mark an
assignment that is sent to CIM by an individual candidate.

A candidates Accredited Study Centre is responsible for ensuring the assignment is
submitted to CIM by the required CIM deadline.

It is CIMs policy to mark the hard copy assignments only. The electronic copy is required for
validity checks and will not be accepted by CIM as a substitute for the hard copy.


Page 6

Hard copy instructions

The assignment must be held together by a treasury tag in the top left hand corner, but not
bound or put in a wallet of any kind.

Electronic copy instructions

Candidates must submit an electronic copy of their assignment to their Accredited Study
Centre, according to the following guidelines:

candidates can only submit ONE file per unit to their Accredited Study Centre
file types that are acceptable are: .doc .docm .docx .rtf .pdf
the maximum file size per submission is 4mb; candidates should make every effort to
reduce the size of the file submitted.

Candidates Accredited Study Centres are responsible for submitting an electronic copy of
each candidates assignment to CIM.

Final grades

Final grades will be sent to candidates within three months of the CIM deadline.

Assignment deadlines

CIM has strict deadlines for Accredited Study Centres.

September 2014 assignment session
In order to submit to this session, candidates must register by the deadline: 27 June 2014 (online: 4
July 2014). Candidates must submit the assignment by their Accredited Study Centres deadline,
which will be different to CIMs deadline. It is the candidates responsibility to contact the tutor for the
submission deadline.

A candidates Accredited Study Centre must submit the assignment and accompanying paperwork to
be received by CIM no later than the CIM deadline: 5 September 2014.

Results released: November 2014.


Page 7

INTRODUCTORY CERTIFICATE IN MARKETING

UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS

ALL TASKS ARE COMPULSORY

Background

You are to assume the role of a Marketing Assistant for your chosen organisation. You have
been asked to carry out a series of tasks to help the organisation improve its customer
relationships.


Page 8

Understanding Customer Relationships Guidance Notes

General guidance

The purpose of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to apply the knowledge you
have gained on the course to a real-world situation of your choice.

Gaining knowledge of marketing theories and principles is only of value if they can be used
to:

identify what an organisation has been doing in the past
analyse how effective that has been
evaluate options for what it should do next.

In this assignment, therefore, the more you can demonstrate effective use of the theories
and principles you have learnt in the context of your chosen organisation along the above
lines, the better mark you will achieve.

Appendix Two contains useful information on how to frame a report, discussion paper and
presentation notes.

Format and presentation

Marks for format and presentation are awarded in the following areas:

Relevance to tasks: how well you focus on what the brief is asking you to do, avoiding
irrelevant material
Use of supporting concepts: how well you use theoretical models and apply them to
the scenario you are describing
Professional tone: your assignment should be written in the third person and should
avoid subjectivity
Required format: specific formats are prescribed for certain tasks and there is guidance
on these formats in Appendix Two. You should also make your assignment easy for the
examiner to read by using headings and sub-headings to draw attention to what you are
discussing.

In addition, 10 marks will be awarded for format and presentation of the assignment, giving
the following total mark breakdown:

Task One 25
Task Two 25
Task Three 25
Task Four 15
Format & presentation
10
Total marks
100


Page 9

Preparatory Work

You are asked to choose an organisation with which you are familiar and one that can be
used across all four tasks. Clearly, the more you know about the organisation the better. If
you are working at present, your employers organisation is probably the most obvious
choice.

If you are not working at present, you need to find an organisation for which you can find out
some key information as identified in the Organisation Summary template (Appendix One).

You are asked to choose an organisation with which you are familiar, which must be used
across all four tasks. As preparatory work, you are asked to include background information
about your chosen organisation as outlined in the Organisation Summary template (see
attached in Appendix One). This should be no longer than one page and be included as an
appendix to your assignment. This will not be included in the overall word count and will not
be marked.

Some suggestions for choosing an organisation include:

a local business that you know well (and where you can perhaps ask the owner for some
information)
your CIM-accredited study centre (ask permission from your tutor to use this option)
if you do not have an obvious choice, then researching online for information should offer
some suggestions; a good source of case studies is The Times 100 Business Case
Studies at http://www.businesscasestudies.co.uk/
many well-known companies provide enough information on their corporate websites to
enable you to base your assignment on them.

You should discuss your choice of organisation with your tutor.

The reason for completion of the Organisation Summary is so that the examiner can get an
overall view of the chosen organisation, and assess how relevant your responses to the
tasks within the assignment relate to the organisation.

You are asked to complete the Organisation Summary and insert this into the Appendix
section of your report.

Organisation Summary to be included in the Appendices, no marks allocated


Page 10

Task One Customer information for marketing

Collecting relevant information about customers is important to any organisation, as the
development of relationships with customers is difficult to manage.

Your manager is keen to improve relationships with customers and has asked you to
produce a report outlining the information your chosen organisation should collect about
its key externalcustomer groups and how it could use that information to improve
relationships with customers.

Produce a report that:

identifies TWO key external customer groups for the organisation, and briefly
explains why they are important
describes the information that would be valuable for the organisation to collect about
customers within these TWO key external customer groups, in order to build
relationships with them
identifies the sources of that information, and examines how easy it would be to
collect
explains how the organisation could use the collected information to improve its
relationships with customers in ONE of these key external customer groups.

Maximum word count: 800 words


Page 11


ASSESSMENT CRITERIA AND MARK SCHEME

Assessment Criteria
Mark
Available
CIM
Examiners
Mark
CIM
Moderated
Mark

Identification of TWO key external customer
groups for the organisation, and brief
explanation of their importance

5

Description of the information that would be
valuable for the organisation to collect
about customers within these TWO key
external customer groups, in order to build

7

Identification of sources of that information,
and examination of the ease of collection

7

Explanation of how the information
collected could help build relationships with
customers in ONE of the key external
customer groups identified

6

Total Mark

25

Marked by_________________________________________ Date_______________
PRINT NAME

Senior Examiner____________________________________ Date_______________
PRINT NAME


Page 12


Guidance notes

This task covers aspects of Parts 1 and 2 of the syllabus. It asks candidates to describe
what information the organisation should collect about its customers, where it might find that
information, and how the information could be used to develop the relationship with those
customers. The following parts of the syllabus are particularly relevant: 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 2.2, 2.3
and 2.4.

Identification of TWO key external customer groups for the organisation, and brief
explanation of their importance

When identifying external customer groups (and depending on the type of organisation),
candidates might want to consider end-user customers (eg, consumers) and/or
intermediaries (eg, wholesalers, retailers). In a not-for-profit organisation, the definition of
customer can be wider for example, in the case of a charity, both the beneficiaries of the
charity and the donors could be considered as customers.

Note that this task asks candidates to consider groups, NOT individual customers.
Candidates are also asked to explain the importance of these key external customer groups
to the chosen organisation. In this context candidates may wish to consider, for example, the
opportunities that these groups present in terms of their potential, or the threats they present
if they were to defect to competitors.

Description of the information that would be valuable for the organisation to collect
about customers within these TWO key external customer groups, in order to build

Information to be collected about customers could include demographic details, past sales
activity, information about specific needs or wants of those customers, or the factors that
influence their decision-making. When describing this information, candidates should think
about how it can help the chosen organisation build better relationships with the customers
in those groups.

Identification of sources of that information, and examination of the ease of collection

The first question to ask here might be whether the information needed can be collected
from the customers themselves, or whether other external sources are required.

In identifying sources of information about customers, consideration should be given to the
need for:

secondary information
o internal information that already exists within the organisation
o external information, for example from market research sources

primary information: primary research may need to be undertaken to source the
information you consider necessary (Please note: you are not being asked to carry
out this research, simply to identify that it could be necessary)


Page 13

Candidates should also consider how easy it will be to collect the required information.
Information existing within an organisation makes collection easier, but if the information
does not exist within an organisation, candidates need to consider how and where it can be
collected. For potentially very valuable information, finding it may be worth considerable
effort.

Explanation of how the information collected could help build relationships with
customers in ONE of the key external customer groups identified

This final part of this task requires candidates to link the information collected to the building
of relationships with the identified customer group. Candidates should consider models of
customer relationship management and the role that information about customers can play
in helping the organisation develop its customer relationship techniques.

The emphasis here should be on relationship-building rather than simply increasing sales.

Please refer to Appendix Two for guidance on writing a report.


Page 14

Task Two Communication with customers

Communicating with customers is an important element of any marketing programme, and is
a particularly important part of the relationship-building process.

In your role as Marketing Assistant, your manager has asked you to produce a discussion
paper, outlining how the organisation can communicate with ONE of the key external
customer groups identified in Task One, in order to help develop relationships.

You are asked to prepare a discussion paper for use by members of the marketing team
that:

identifies ONE of the key external customer groups to be targeted, and explains why
you have chosen that group
describes a model of communication, and explains how it applies to the development
of relationships with the key external customer group of your choice
recommends the TWO promotional tools you would consider best for this task,
justifying your recommendations
describes how the success of communications using these tools might be measured.



Page 15



Assessment Criteria
Mark
Available
CIM
Examiners
Mark
CIM
Moderated
Mark

Identification of ONE of the key external
customer groups to be targeted, and an
explanation of that choice

3

Description a model of communication, and
an explanation of how it applies to the
development of relationships with the key
external customer group of choice

9

Recommendations, with justification, of TWO
promotional tools

9

Description of how the success of the
communications using these promotional
tools might be measured

4

Total Mark

25

Marked by_________________________________________ Date_______________
PRINT NAME

PRINT NAME


Page 16


Guidance notes

This task covers aspects of Parts 2 and 3 of the syllabus. It asks you to consider how the
organisation communicates with its customers, the tools available for that communication,
and how the organisation can measure the effectiveness of the communication. The
following parts of the syllabus are particularly relevant: 2.1, 3.1, 3.2, 3.5, 3.6 and 3.9.

Identification of ONE of the key external customer groups to be targeted, and an
explanation of that choice

When planning communication, it is important to understand both who the recipient of the
communication is and what its purpose is. You are asked to identify ONE key external
customer group in this part of the task.

Description of communication model and explanation of how it applies to relationship
development

Good communication is an essential element of any marketing campaign; understanding
how communication works is therefore important to any marketer. This task asks you to
describe a model, such as the Schramm model, that helps understanding of how
communication works and then explain how the elements of your chosen model can be used
to help build relationships with the customer group you identified in the first part of this task.

Recommendation, with justification, of TWO promotional tools

Within the P for Promotion element of the marketing mix there are a wide variety of tools that
can be used these are often categorised into advertising, sales promotion, public relations,
direct marketing and personal selling. This part of the task is asking you to recommend TWO
of those promotional tools that could help your organisation build better relationships with the
customer group you identified in the first part of this task.

Keep in mind the elements of the communication model you explained earlier, and use them
to justify your recommendations. They should help you to explain why you are making each
recommendation.

Description of how the success of communications using these tools might be
measured.

No marketing activity should be carried out without being aware of how the success of that
activity is going to be measured.

When describing your suggestions for measuring the success of the communications you
recommended in the previous part of this task, bear in mind that successful promotional
activities are not only about increasing sales: you should also consider what other objectives
the promotional activities were designed to achieve.

Please refer to Appendix Two for guidance on preparing a discussion paper.

Page 17

Task Three Customer service and maintaining relationships

The provision of customer service is important in developing and building relationships with
customers, and your manager is aware that customer service could be improved within your
organisation.

Your manager has asked you, in your role as Marketing Assistant, to prepare a presentation
for the members of the marketing team in order to start the process of improvement.

Prepare a maximum of TEN slides, together with speaker notes, that:

explain how good customer service can help build customer relationships
describe how the organisation could develop a customer care programme in order to
improve customer service
explain how customer feedback could be used to monitor the effectiveness of a
customer care programme.



Page 18



Assessment Criteria
Mark
Available
CIM
Examiners
Mark
CIM
Moderated
Mark

Explanation of how good customer service
helps build customer relationships

7

Description of how the organisation could
develop a customer care programme

10

Explanation of how customer feedback
could be used to monitor the effectiveness
of a customer care programme

8

Total Mark

25

Marked by_________________________________________ Date_______________
PRINT NAME

PRINT NAME


Page 19


Guidance notes

This task covers aspects of Parts 2 and 4 of the syllabus. It asks candidates to consider the
links between the service that customers receive and the level of relationship that can be
built with those customers. In this context, you should be aware that the level of customer
service provided by any organisation depends on many different departments within that
organisation, and therefore an organisation-wide programme is necessary to ensure that the
customer service delivered, is what the customer should expect. The following sections of
the syllabus are particularly relevant: 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, as well as 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3.

Explanation of how good customer service helps build customer relationships

This part of the task asks you to consider the link between customer service (which can
involve many departments in an organisation) and the process of developing and
maintaining a relationship with those customers.

Description of how the organisation could develop a customer care programme

The development of a customer care programme is an essential step towards delivering
good customer service. This part of the task asks you to describe how a customer care
programme could be developed for your organisation.

Such a programme needs to take into account what level of service the customer expects,
as well as how all the different people within your organisation should provide customer
service, and how these two elements can be built into the programme.

Explanation of how customer feedback could be used to monitor the effectiveness of
a customer care programme

Getting feedback from customers is an essential part of monitoring customer care
programmes. In this part of the task, you should consider the various methods that can be
used to gather that feedback and how those methods can be linked to the objectives of the
customer care programme you recommended earlier.

Please refer to Appendix Two for guidance on preparing a presentation.

Page 20

Task Four Personal skills development

Working within an organisation requires a number of skills in order to contribute towards the
performance of that organisation. It is important that individuals are encouraged to review
their achievements and skills in relation to self-development.

For this task, you are asked to research TWO marketing roles that you would be interested
in pursuing in future.

In preparation for discussion during your appraisal, you are asked to prepare notes that:

identify and describe TWO marketing roles
identify the skills required to fulfil ONE of those roles, and review your own strengths
and weaknesses in relation to these skills
outline an action plan that clearly identifies any training that would be beneficial, and
the costs involved, in order to improve your skills in these areas.



Page 21

Task Four Personal skill development


Assessment Criteria
Mark
Available
CIM
Examiners
Mark
CIM
Moderated
Mark

Identification and description of TWO
marketing roles

4

Identification of skills required to fulfil ONE
of these roles, and a review of personal
strengths and weaknesses in relation to
those skills

6

An outline of an action plan, with clear
identification of any beneficial training
and the costs involved, in order to improve
skills

5

Total Mark 15

In addition, 10 marks will be awarded for format and presentation of the assignment, giving
the following total mark breakdown:

Assessment Criteria
Mark
Available
CIM
Examiners
Mark
CIM
Moderated
Mark
Task One 25

Task Two 25

Task Three 25

Task Four 15

Format and presentation 10

Total Mark 100

Marked by_________________________________________ Date_______________
PRINT NAME

PRINT NAME


Page 22

Task Four Personal skill development

Guidance notes

This task is primarily designed to cover Section 4.7 of the syllabus, but there are
opportunities within it to make use of many other aspects of the syllabus.

Identification and description of TWO marketing roles

Candidates should research different marketing roles (for example, by looking at
advertisements for marketing jobs), and then give a brief description of what is involved in
those roles.

Identification of skills required to fulfil ONE of these roles, and a review of personal
strengths and weaknesses in relation to those skills

Candidates must choose ONE of the roles that they have identified, and assess their current
skills in relation to those necessary for the role. They should reflect on their own skills,
compare them with those seen as being necessary in the chosen role, and then consider
how they could be improved, in order to prepare for the final part of this task.

Development of an action plan to improve skills, and identification of relevant training
and costs

Having identified what skills are needed to improve, candidates are now asked to identify
how to go about improving them, including any training necessary. Candidates should
include the costs of any training, in order to ensure that the costs can be justified.


Page 23

APPENDIX ONE

Organisation Summary
Organisation name

Size
For example:
s turnover
number of
employees

Type
For example:
profit/non-profit
local/national/global
legal entity

Products/services
supplied

Customer base
For example:
B2B/B2C
distributors & end-
users
types of end-user
customer

Competitors

Other important
stakeholders

Other relevant
information

Appendix One should not include additional published secondary information.

APPENDIX TWO

Formats

Report

When producing a report, candidates should adopt a formal style by writing in the third
person. The document needs to be well structured, accurate, concise and clear. The
following format provides one standard approach to compiling a report. You could choose
relevant sections from it, although an alternative approach is acceptable if it results in a
systematic, well organised document.

Title Page: the title of the report, who the report is written for, who it is written by and
the date.

Terms of reference: the purpose of the report.

Procedure: the process followed.

Executive summary: the main points of an in-depth report, enabling the reader to
understand the report without the need to read it in full.

Findings: main findings of research. This section needs to be clearly structured and
should present facts, not opinions. There also needs to be evidence of analysis and
application of the research findings. Charts and diagrams should be included in the
appendix and referred to in the findings. It is important that conclusions and
recommendations are separated out and not included in this section.

Conclusion: summary of findings and the implications of these findings to the
organisation(s). It is important that new information is not introduced in this section.
The emphasis should be on drawing together what was presented under findings in a
well-structured summary.

Recommendations: provide informed recommendations based on findings. It is
important that all relevant sources are noted within the report. These can be included
within a reference section at the back of the report and referred to when relevant in the
main body of the report.

Discussion Paper

A discussion paper is a document created as a basis for discussion, rather than as an
authoritative statement or report. It can take different forms. The following example
illustrates a possible approach:
Date
Author
Audience
Purpose
Executive summary
Background information (how does the problem/issue arise)
The main points of discussion, the contentious points, pros and cons, opportunities and
threats
Summary
Next steps
References
Bibliography

Page 25

Presentation with speaker notes
The assessment criteria give a good guide to the structure of the presentation. Marks are
awarded for the format of both the presentation and the speakers notes, in relation to
how they will be used to communicate to the audience. Candidates are encouraged to
use graphical techniques within the slides as required.
Presentation slides should be developed with the audience in mind, and therefore the use
of jargon and slides containing a great deal of information should be avoided. Speakers
notes should be complete enough for someone who is delivering the presentation to fully
understand what they need to say, but they do not actually need to be a script.
Please note the difference between the slides and speakers notes: the former will
probably not exceed a few lines and will use visuals, the latter can explain in words with
much more detail. The former should be concise; the latter should clarify and explain.
PowerPoint has a useful speakers notes section below each slide that is ideal for this
task.
Guidance on how to insert PowerPoint presentations into Word is available on the CIM
Learning Zone.


Introductory Certificate in
Marketing: Grade Descriptors
Level 3

Concept 45%

Application 30%

Evaluation 15%

Time Management
and Presentation
10%

Grade A

This grade is given for
work that meets all of
the assessment
criteria at the
level to secure at least
70% and
demonstrates a
candidates ability to:

develop appropriate research
strategies for secondary
research

identify relevant information
from a range of suitable
sources

evidence comprehensive
knowledge and understanding
of the basic principles of
marketing

consider and apply a range of
information to a specified task

produce well structured,
and logical responses to a
given task using marketing
terminology correctly

evidence detailed
understanding and
application of basic
principles of marketing

express ideas effectively,
applying appropriate
marketing terminology
accurately

apply a variety of
illustrative examples to
underpin concepts used

draw valid conclusions

reflect and evaluate own
learning across unit and
assess how this will
affect current and future
practice

plan, review and
complete work within
the specified
deadlines/time and
produce work of a
professional standard
of presentation, format
and tone

Grade B

work that meets all of
the assessment
criteria at the
level to secure at least
60% and
demonstrates a

develop an appropriate
research strategy for
secondary research

from more than one suitable
source

evidence detailed knowledge
and understanding of the basic

consider and apply a range of
information to a specified task

produce structured
responses to a given task
using marketing
terminology correctly

evidence sound
understanding and

express ideas clearly,
applying appropriate
accurately

apply examples to
illustrate findings

draw reliable
conclusions

learning on aspects of
the unit and assess how
this will affect current
and future practice

plan, review and
the specified
deadlines/time and
produce work to a high
standard of
presentation, format
and tone

Grade C

work that meets
enough of the
assessment criteria at
the Introductory
Certificate level to
secure at least 50%
and demonstrates a

develop an appropriate
research strategy for
secondary research

from a suitable source

evidence a satisfactory level of
knowledge and understanding
of the basic principles of
marketing

apply a minimum number of
sources of information to a
specified task

produce responses to a
given brief using sufficient

evidence a basic
understanding and
application of the basic

outline ideas and concepts
using appropriate

apply examples to support
findings

draw satisfactory
conclusions

learning on aspects of
the unit and assess how
this will affect future
practice

the specified
deadlines/time and
produce work of an
acceptable
presentation, format
and tone

Grade D

borderline work that
does not meet enough
of the assessment
criteria at the
level to secure a pass
and is within the band
45-49%. This may be
due to:

an inability to develop an
appropriate research strategy
for secondary research

insufficient sources of
information being used to
underpin research for the
discipline

repeating case material rather
than evidencing knowledge of
the basic principles of
marketing

a lack of detail and argument
when analysing information for
a specified task

limited use of marketing
terminology

a lack of basic
understanding and
principles

insufficient use of
and/or incomplete grasp of
key concepts

limited use of examples to
support findings

superficial conclusions

little evaluation of
learning and/or impact
on future practice

work not being
completed within the
specified
deadlines/time and
errors in presentation,
format and tone

Introductory Certificate in Marketing: 501 - Understanding Customer Relationships

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Introductory Certificate in Marketing: 501 - Understanding Customer Relationships

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Understanding Customer Relationships Assignment Brief September 2014

You might also like