2.1 The Role of Marketing Practice Questions

Text 1 — Bloomwick Candles Ltd

Rhea Oduya started Bloomwick Candles Ltd in 2021. The business makes hand-poured scented candles, which it sells through its own website and at craft fairs across the region. Rhea talks to customers at every craft fair she attends and keeps a record of what they tell her. She found that many of her customers buy candles as gifts rather than for themselves, and that they often ask for scents that are not sold anywhere else.

In 2024 Rhea used what she had learnt to launch a gift box range. She also began sending a monthly email to 4 300 customers, telling them about new scents, prices and delivery times. Bloomwick Candles Ltd now employs three part-time staff.

	2023	2024
Candles sold	11 400	14 250
Revenue	£85 500	£114 000
Customers on the email list	0	4 300

Petalwick Flowers

Keeley Ward owns Petalwick Flowers, a florist in a small market town. A supermarket on the edge of the town sells cheaper bunches of flowers.

Keeley talks to her customers whenever they visit. Several said they could only shop at weekends, so she changed her opening hours so that the shop is now open on Sunday mornings. Others said her bouquets were too expensive for an everyday gift, so she added a range of small bouquets priced at £15. Many customers buy flowers for family birthdays, so Keeley now sends them a text message a week before the date with a picture of that week's bouquets.

Table 1: Number of customers served by Petalwick Flowers

Year	Number of customers
2024	7 200
2025	8 100

Pulse & Parsley

Pulse & Parsley is a sole trader business in Norwich owned by Marcus Oyelaran. Marcus started the business in 2022 after noticing that very few shops near him sold fresh plant-based ready meals. Pulse & Parsley sells six meals, each priced at £6.50, from a stall at two farmers' markets each week and through its own website. Marcus employs three part-time staff.

Marcus talks to customers at the market every week. Many are students and young workers who want a healthy meal that can be heated in five minutes. Others are older customers who have been advised to eat less meat but do not enjoy cooking. After several customers said the portions were too small to share, Marcus added a larger sharing meal priced at £11.00, which now sells out most weeks. Customers tell him they value meals cooked the day before and being able to speak to the person who cooked them.

Two large supermarkets in Norwich sell plant-based ready meals for as little as £3.00. Marcus is deciding whether to add a value range of three meals priced at £4.00, or to keep selling only his current meals.

Table 1: Pulse & Parsley's weekly sales revenue in October

Week	Sales revenue (£)
1	1 430
2	1 560
3	1 210
4	1 640