What Is a Constraint in Marketing? (chron.

com)

Understanding the significance of constraints on

marketing

Card 1 – Legal constraints

In your group, you need to research each of the Acts listed below and think about how each of them
will act as a constraint on the marketing mix and the marketing activities within a business.

 Sale and Supply of Goods Act (1994)

 Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations (2008)
 Consumer Protection Act (1987)
 Consumer Rights Act (2015)
 Plus any other legislation which you think is relevant.

Once you have carried out your research, you need to produce a presentation which will be
performed to the remainder of your class. This presentation should include:

a) A brief summary of each piece of legislation.

b) Is this legislation needed? Should businesses be honest and truthful even without
legislation? Explain your answer.

c) What penalties may be experienced if this legislation is broken? Use examples to support
your explanation.

You may find the website listed below useful for your research:

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/sale-of-goods-act
Card 2 – Voluntary constraints
In your group, you need to research:

 The role of the Advertising Standards Authority

 The CAP broadcast code
 The CAP non-broadcast code.

Once you have carried out your research, you need to produce a presentation which will be
performed to the remainder of your class. This presentation should include:

a) A brief summary of the role of the Advertising Standards Authority and how they may be
seen to constrain the marketing activities of a business.

b) Does the advertising of products such as Apple iPhones put pressure on children and young
adults to have the latest gadgets? Is this a problem? What are the rules and regulations
about advertising to children under 16?

c) What do the CAP broadcast code and the CAP non-broadcast code state that businesses
should/should not do in relation to advertising? Use examples to support your explanation
e.g. an ‘Oh Lola!’ perfume advertisement was banned by the ASA for breaching the CAP
broadcast code. How? Why?

You may find the resources listed below useful for your research:

https://www.asa.org.uk/About-ASA.aspx

https://www.cap.org.uk/Advertising-Codes.aspx
Card 3 – Ethical constraints
In your group, you need to discuss the following ethical issues. You then need to produce a
presentation which will be performed to the remainder of your class. This presentation should
include:

a) What impact are the examples listed below likely to have on the ‘Place’ section of the
marketing mix for the businesses involved? What impact might this have on ‘Price’ and the
other sections of the mix?
- Walt Disney to reconsider outsourcing to Bangladesh (May 2013)
http://business.time.com/2013/04/30/bangladesh-factory-collapse-will-force-companies-
to-rethink-outsourced-manufacturing/
- Apple admits using child labour (February 2010)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/7330986/Apple-admits-using-child-
labour.html
- Asda’s Bangladesh workers go on webcam (April 2010)
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/apr/01/asda-bangladesh-workers-webcams

b) Stereo-types – Do stereo-types exist in advertising and promotion? Is it ethical to use stereo-

types in advertising? Use examples to justify your answers.

c) Is online custom advertising an invasion of privacy? Use examples to debate the two sides of
this argument and then reach a conclusion.
Card 4 – Cultural constraints
In your group, you need to discuss and research:

 The types of cultural constraints which may affect marketing activities and marketing
decisions within a business
 The following examples of marketing failures due to cultural constraints:
- Pampers – Japan
http://impaktpartners.com/services/global-marketing-expertise/
- KFC – China
- http://impaktpartners.com/services/global-marketing-expertise/
- Coca-Cola – introducing a new recipe (1985)
http://www.coca-colacompany.com/history/the-real-story-of-new-coke
- Heineken – 1994 World Cup promotional campaign
https://languagelens.wordpress.com/tag/heineken/
- Plus other examples which you can find

Once you have carried out your research, you need to produce a presentation which will be
performed to the remainder of your class. This presentation should include:

a) An explanation of the cultural constraints which businesses might face.

b) An explanation of the examples researched and how each of these affected marketing
decisions within that business.

c) What are the drawbacks to a business of not considering cultural issues when making
marketing decisions?
Card 5 – Financial constraints
a) In your group you need to research the following financial constraints. Start by finding out
what each term means:
- Budget constraints
- Cash flow or liquidity constraints
- Stakeholder preferences e.g. shareholders may want high dividends, consumers may
want low prices.

b) Once you have researched this information discuss how you think each of the 4P’s will be
affected by these financial constraints and list your ideas. You could do this by using a large
sheet of paper and dividing it into 4 sections – one for each ‘P’.

c) Once you have devised your ideas, you need to prepare a presentation which will be
performed to the remainder of your class. This should consider each of the 4 P’s in turn and
explain the financial constraints on each one. Use examples to support your work.

You may find the resources listed below useful:

http://www.ehow.com/info_8295420_constraint-marketing.html

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/set-a-marketing-budget-to-fit-your-small-business-.html

http://bizfinance.about.com/od/cashflowanalysis/g/Cash_Flow.htm
Card 6 – Technical constraints
In your group, you need to discuss the following technical constraints:

 ICT limitations
 Legislation e.g. Data Protection Act (1998) - with reference to use of the internet

You then need to produce a presentation which will be performed to the remainder of your class.
This presentation should include:

a) An explanation of the ways in which ICT can constrain marketing decisions and activities,
with reference to the 4 P’s. You could consider this in terms of the constraints on how a
business can use ICT within its marketing activities and/or how not having access to ICT
might constrain marketing activities.

b) An explanation of how the Data Protection Act can constrain the methods of promotion used
by a business.

c) What are the Nuisance Calls and Texts Task Force? How might their recommendations
constrain marketing activities? Use examples to support your answer.

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/marketing/

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/data-protection-act#link-5

http://www.which.co.uk/campaigns/nuisance-calls-and-texts/know-the-issue/

http://www.which.co.uk/documents/pdf/nuisance-calls-task-force-recommendations-388317.pdf
Card 2 – Voluntary constraints
b) Does the advertising of products such as Apple iPhones put pressure on children and young
adults to have the latest gadgets? Is this a problem? What are the rules and regulations about
advertising to children under 16?

Rules and regulations about advertising to children and young adults

The Advertising Codes contain strict rules to protect children and young people from
potentially misleading, harmful, or offensive material. This is because children are less likely
to be able to understand and process commercial messages in advertisements than adults.
Children are also more likely to be adversely affected by inappropriate, scary or offensive
images.

Children experience advertising in many forms like on TV, YouTube, apps, radio, magazines,
movies, the internet, online games, text messages, social media and more. For example, the more
the child watches the TV, the more toys that child is likely to want and ask for more.

The rules and regulations surrounding marketing to children have become stricter to ensure that
quality and age appropriate content is first. Even popular apps like social media; Facebook requires
users to be at least 13 years old to be able to use it.

Advertisers may not collect any personal data from children under the age of 13. This falls under the
Children’s Privacy Protection Rule Regulations. Some data can be collected from teenagers from
the age 16 and older, but it should be nothing more than a first name, state and age. But the
addresses, last names, birthdates and social security numbers cannot be collected from anyone
under the age of 18.

If we advertise to children, we should keep these thoughts in mind:

 The content of advertisements targeted at children must be age-appropriate.

 Children should not engage in risky behaviour or using products that are harmful to their
health or development.

 Children's personal data, such as their name, address or birthday, should not be collected or
shared without parental consent.

 Advertising for products such as toys, food, drinks and clothing should not contain
misleading claims or exaggerate benefits.

 Avoid advertisements from undermining parental authority or placing unfair pressure on

children to buy products.
 It is illegal to advertise tobacco products to anyone under the age of 18. This includes
cigarettes, pipe tobacco, smokeless tobacco, and other tobacco products.