LCCI level 4 rok 2003.pdf

SERIES 1 EXAMINATION 2003

ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS

LEVEL 4

(Code No: 4041)

THURSDAY 13 MARCH

________

Instructions to Candidates

(a) The time allowed for this examination is 3 hours.

(b) Answer all 4 questions.

(d) All answers must be clearly and correctly numbered but need not be in numerical order.

(e) While formal accuracy is expected, adequate and appropriate communication is essential

and candidates must judge the length of their answers in this light.

(f) When you finish, check your work carefully.

(g) The use of standard English dictionaries and cordless non-programmable calculators is

permitted. Candidates whose first language is not English may use a bilingual dictionary.

________

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ASE 4041 1 03 1

QUESTION 1(a)

Read the following article from Marketing Week magazine and answer the questions that follow it.

Credit will be given for answering the questions in your own words and demonstrating comprehension,

rather than quoting directly from the text.

If Undelivered

It is 5 years since Robin Mitchell moved on from his job as Finance Director at the direct marketing

agency Craik Jones. He is now Head of Market Development at the company, but every week he

still receives 10 or 11 pieces of direct mail addressed to him as Finance Director. Even the Institute

of Direct Marketing (IDM) regularly sends mail to him at his old job, despite the fact that he has e-

mailed twice to tell the IDM about the change.

Mitchell believes this experience sums up everything that is wrong with business-to-business (B2B)

direct mail. He says that many of those involved in the sector are salespeople, who try to send out

as much mail as possible, rather than marketers who care about the perceptions created by their

mailings. It is cheap and easy to set up a B2B direct mailing house, and many of those involved

tend not to be too fussy about the letters they send out, he claims. Not only are many of them

wrongly addressed, they are also unappealing, in their plain brown envelopes. “It’s a law of

diminishing returns. If you mail 1,000 people but only get a 2% response rate3, that’s still 20

replies and you continue doing it,” he says. “B2B direct mail is open to a man and his dog working

from a shed.”

His views come as the latest report from the Direct Marketing Information Services (DMIS) shows

that 56% of B2B mailings are immediately thrown away by the managers who receive them. The

response rate to such mailing stands at 3% in the survey. While so much of the mail received is

binned, the good mailings tend to be swamped by the bad, making it an uphill struggle to get

noticed. The most worrying finding for the industry is the level of errors in mailings. Almost two-

thirds of items are incorrect in some way, which is a record level. “The biggest category of errors is

out-of-date information, such as name, title or address. One in 7 items carry this type of error,

which is likely to reflect the high turnover of business managers – a typical marketing manager is

now in a post for just 12 months”, says the DMIS report.

But Mitchell says there are ways to tackle rampant inaccuracy. At Craik Jones, for example, an

audit of B2B targets is conducted every quarter, to catch up on details about people who have

moved jobs. But he warns against using this approach as a Trojan Horse, taking the opportunity

presented by the check to sell to clients, as they may be annoyed by such tactics.

Kathy Connor, a marketing consultant, says the biggest challenge facing B2B mailings is that there

are few address lists in this area, so most clients use their own databases. “Targeting needs to be

tighter, yet it is more complex than consumer mailing as so many people influence purchasing

decisions. You often need to do multiple targeting,” she says. But this raises the sensitive topic of

duplicate mailings – something bound to irritate recipients and those who filter the mail alike. The

DMIS survey says 59% of respondents agreed with the statement that “getting duplicate mail

annoys me intensely.” Connor believes the solution is to improve targeting and the relevance of the

mailing for each business market – this can be done with careful planning and creative

development of a campaign to fit the market. “The right creative work will stand out if it is relevant

to the individual mailed. E-mail marketing complements direct mail activity in this sector.”

But others believe that e-mail marketing is still in its infancy in the B2B field. As few as 1% of e-

mail addresses are recorded on contact lists within the direct mail industry, and there are few signs

of growth in this figure, as many people are wary of giving out their e-mail addresses. One agency

boss recounts how he took a 3-week holiday and returned to find 1,100 e-mails waiting for him on

his computer.

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QUESTION 1(a) CONTINUED

But, according to Carlson Marketing Manager Director Steve Grout, targeting has to be honed to

ensure that mail reaches the right people at the right time. But it is also necessary to understand

the dynamics of the decision-making process for each business and category, and to find out who is

involved in purchasing decisions and when. He says messages need to be relevant, of course, but

they should also be presented in a straightforward way as the managers being targeted do not have

time to wade through reams of information. But he emphasises that overall, direct marketing works

best when it plays a part in a wider campaign, whether it’s e-mail, interactive or telemarketing.

The DMIS survey must make depressing reading for many in the B2B mailings field, as it is the

mistakes and poor creativity of mediocre outfits that queer the pitch for higher-quality operators.

But most practitioners are still optimistic that with the right sort of creativity, and more time spent

researching companies – how they work and who takes the decisions – business mailings can still

be effective.

(i) What 2 instances of irony are presented in paragraph 1 and what is the implication of these

ironies?

(3 marks)

(ii) What difference is the author identifying between ‘salespeople’ and ‘marketers’ and how does

that difference demonstrate itself?

(3 marks)

(iii) What do the following figures from the DMIS survey represent?

(1) 41% (The balance of 56% + 3%)

(2) 1 out of 7?

(2 marks)

(iv) Explain the Trojan Horse metaphor in this context.

(2 marks)

(v) Why is ‘multiple targeting’ necessary, but risky, and what is the solution to this dilemma?

(3 marks)

(vi) What part does e-mail play in direct marketing, but what is the problem associated with it?

(2 marks)

(15 marks)

QUESTION 1(b)

Situation

You work in the Marketing Department of a large company. As a result of the DMIS survey you are

considering how to improve the direct mail marketing activities. You plan to have a meeting to discuss

this topic.

Task

Write a memo to all the members of the Marketing Department. Using ideas from the text, explain the

background to the meeting and outline the proposals you wish to discuss. Invent any further details

as necessary.

(10 marks)

(Total 25 marks)

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OVER

QUESTION 2

Situation

You are the Head of Department in a consultancy firm, Beaver & Co Ltd. One of your employees,

John Green, has recently undertaken a fairly straightforward consultancy contract with a client. Otter

Industries, on their order processing system. The remit was to:

• analyse the current system

• make recommendations for improvements

• give a suppliers’ list for software recommendations.

John Green finished the report while you were away on business and sent it without your approval,

which he is not authorised to do. On your return you read the report and it appears to be very sub-

standard.

Read the following conversation between yourself (A) and John Green (B)

(A) John, the Otter report – I’ve had a chance to look at it now and I have to say I was not very

impressed. For a start, you shouldn’t have sent it off before I’d ok’d it.

(B) Well, I asked Peter ( another Senior Consultant ) and he said that as you weren’t back until

yesterday and they had been putting a hurry on it, I should send it anyway.

(A) I spoke to Peter and he says that he told you to let him have a look at it – but, apparently, you

didn’t.

(B) Well, it’s more or less the same as the Caxton one, and everyone thought that was fine, so

there shouldn’t have been any problems.

(A) It was not the same at all. Your analysis section in the Caxton report was 20 pages, this one is

barely 10 – I couldn’t get any kind of clear picture where you were starting from with them or

what they need at all.

(B) OK, it was short, but I think I drew most things out from that into the recommendations.

(A) What? Apart from the fact your grammar was very dodgy at points, and the whole report looked

a mess, I couldn’t make head nor tail of the recommendations: I couldn’t make out what were

your ramblings and musings and what were actual recommendations. For example, in the third

section, I finally realised you were suggesting 2 alternatives – but they’ll never get that, it

sounds like they should do both things simultaneously. And even if they do get it, you’ve given

them no idea on what basis they should make the decision. You’ve got to be clear!

(B) Well, the woman I talked to seemed to have a good grasp of the problems anyway.

(A) That’s not the point – it that were true they wouldn’t be paying us a fat fee. As for what the poor

woman is going to do next – you didn’t give her any suppliers’ details of the recommended

software – most of it is too vague for anyone to be able to act on, and you know we’ve got a

pro-forma attachment for that, so there’s no excuse.

(B) Well, what do you want me to do about it?

(A) I don’t want you to do anything more on this contract. I’ll deal with Otter. But I’m going to have

to put this in writing – it might have to go on your file.

Task

(a) Write a memo to John Green. Outline the problems with the report that were discussed in the

conversation. (You will enclose a copy of the report with your annotations and comments, so you

don’t need to invent any more details.) Although he has done good work in the past, underline to

him the gravity of this incident. You have decided that you won’t give him a formal notice of

disciplinary action this time, but you will if anything similar happens in the future.

(12½ marks)

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QUESTION 2 CONTINUED

(b) Write a letter to Maria Paulson, Head of the Sales Department at Otter Industries and the

person with whom John Green chiefly liaised over the report. Explain that there has been some

kind of mistake and she has received and earlier version of the report. Make some excuse

about why John Green will not be sending the final version and tell her it will be necessary for

one of the other consultants to spend one day in the company next week. This will obviously

not cost the company any extra money. Tell her that you are sure that this extra day’s

consultancy and the final report can be prepared within 14 days. Offer some kind of fee

reduction as an apology for the delay.

You may assume letterhead paper is used, but lay out the rest of the letter appropriately.

(12½ marks)

(Total 25 marks)

QUESTION 3(a)

Situation

Your work in the Human Resources Department of a company. Your boss, Peter Holding, the Human

Resources Director, recently made an opening key note address at a Human Resources conference

(HR TODAY, Brighton Conference Centre).

Task

Your boss has given you the transcript of his speech and asked you to summarise its most

important details for a short article in the Company News Bulletin. He wishes to show the

employees of the company that he is publicly committed to valuing them and their contribution to the

company.

(12½ marks)

Peter Holding, HR TODAY, Brighton Conference Centre, September 2002

“Releasing Your Assets”

Only 60-65% of portfolio decisions made by institutional investors, pension fund and money managers

are based on financial information. Instead, according to findings from the Cap Gemini Ernst & Young

Centre for Business Innovation, those responsible for most of the stock in the economy place great

emphasis on issues such as how well a company has executed its business plan, employee morale,

corporate culture and organisational structure.

This shift in emphasis illustrates the change that is taking place in business. No longer is the bottom

line of profit all-important. It is as crucial that a company nurtures its main asset – its employees.

Although the customer is still king, companies realise that it is their employees who deliver the

performance of value to the customer. Many factors have prompted this shift, including cost

pressures, the need to identify additional sources of competitive advantage , and a greater emphasis

on retaining staff due to lower unemployment.

Nowhere has this change impacted more greatly than in human resources. The need to focus more

on internal “customers” has put pressure on companies to release HR staff from a largely

administrative role to a more strategic one that addresses increased productivity, employee

commitment and career advancement. Only by addressing these issues will a company truly be able

to empower their employees.

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