R069 success – what should you look out for in the assignment brief?
15 January 2024
Mark Sirot-Smith, Business and Economics Subject Advisor
Reflecting upon the first submission of work for R069 ‘Market and pitch a business proposal’, I thought it would be useful to review centres’ feedback. In this blog I have used the moderators’ report to focus on some of the key pointers to help your students access the higher mark band, mark band 3 (MB3). I will identify key tips task by task.
General guidance
On this course, performance outcome 1 (PO1): ‘recall knowledge and show understanding of enterprise and marketing concepts’ is only assessed in the examined unit, R067. This means that students should not waste time including lengthy theory and explanations in R069.
For example, in task 1 it is not necessary for students to explain all the different types of branding methods they could use. They simply need to state the methods they have selected and justify why they work in combination.
Task 1
Students must include a brief outline of their design and target customer profile from R068. This just needs to be a copy and paste from their R068 work.
In Part One, at least two competitors need to be researched and, in addition to the research completed for R068, students must focus on the strengths, weaknesses and unique selling points of their competitors.
In Part Two, for MB3, students must justify the combination of branding methods selected, rather than just explaining them, then make a case for why their brand personality is likely to succeed.
Task 2
Students must create three different types of promotional materials. These could all be forms of advertising; however, a mix of advertising, sales promotion and public relations would probably better help the student target their customer profile. As in Task 1, for MB3 students should focus on justifying how well the three selected methods complement each other and meet the needs of the target market, rather than justifying each choice individually.
The timeframe required can be a list or a table. A Gantt chart can be used but is not essential. The suitability of the timeframe must be considered in detail for MB3 (e.g. does it allow enough time for promotional materials to be developed? Does it allow the selected methods to work together?)
Task 3
To access MB3 for Part One of this task, students must provide detailed explanations of the full range of factors listed in the unit content of the specification (e.g. students should explain how the venue will impact their pitch, how their choice of media would be appropriate etc.).
Presentation slides alone will not be sufficient evidence for this section. Slides would count as a ‘visual aid’, students should also add to this speaker notes or prompt cards and a second visual aid – this could be a relevant handout, a mood board or an example of their promotional material.
In Part Two students will have at least three practice pitch feedback forms in their work (at least two from peers who watched their own practice pitch and one from their observation of a peer’s practice pitch).
For MB3 students must reflect upon this feedback and show how they have refined their work – this could be in the form of annotated slides or altered handouts.
Task 4
The final pitch must be made to at least two people, one of whom is the assessor and the other an independent witness. This witness must not be a student, but could be another teacher, a school governor, etc.
Task 5
To achieve MB3, students must ensure that all the bullet points in the assignment brief have been addressed for both parts of the task – the review of their pitch and pitching skills and their business proposal.
Under the promotional materials bullet, only approximate costs of producing promotional materials are required. There is no need for extensive research, rather an understanding that, for example, a magazine advert will be more expensive than a social media post.
Finally, please remember the subject advisor team for business and economics are here to answer any queries you might have as you work through the non-examined assessments for the Cambridge National in Enterprise and Marketing.
Further information
You will also find it helpful to read the full moderators’ report and moderated candidate exemplars on Teach Cambridge.
Stay connected
Share your thoughts in the comments below. If you have any questions, you can email us at support@ocr.org.uk , call us on 01223 553998 or message us on X @OCR_BusEcon. You can also sign up to subject updates to keep up-to-date with the latest news, updates and resources.
About the author
Mark recently joined OCR, after over 30 years in teaching, lecturing and senior leadership in a variety of secondary schools and FE colleges. He loves being active: walking his dog, playing tennis and visiting his three grown-up children in the midlands and north, especially if it coincides with a Crystal Palace away game!
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