Syllabus: Cambridge - IGCSE Business Studies
Module: 3.3 Marketing Mix
Lesson: 3.3.4 Promotion

Introduction

This article focuses on Section 3.3.4 – Promotion of the Cambridge IGCSE Business Studies syllabus. This component of the marketing mix explores how businesses communicate with their customers, raise awareness of products, and build brand loyalty.

Promotion is not only essential for exam performance but also a powerful lens into the real-world mechanics of commercial decision-making. Teaching this topic helps students understand the dynamics behind advertising strategies, sales techniques, and media planning—skills directly transferable to both business careers and general workplace confidence.

Key Concepts

According to the Cambridge IGCSE specification, students should be able to:

• Understand the aims of promotion, including informing, persuading, and reminding consumers.

• Distinguish between above-the-line and below-the-line promotion:

  • Above-the-line: paid-for mass media (e.g. TV, radio, newspapers, online).

  • Below-the-line: direct mail, sales promotions, sponsorship, personal selling.

• Evaluate different types of promotion based on business size, budget, product type, and target audience.

• Explain how promotional strategies can be integrated with the other elements of the marketing mix.

• Assess the effectiveness of promotion methods in given scenarios, including the use of digital and social media.

Real-World Relevance

Modern marketing is driven by data, creativity, and rapid digital evolution. A few examples that align with curriculum expectations:

• Nike’s “You Can’t Stop Us” campaign combined storytelling with visual innovation, showcasing how branding connects emotionally with audiences.

• Innocent Drinks is known for low-cost, high-impact social media promotion. Their humorous tone on Twitter and community engagement illustrate effective below-the-line marketing for SMEs.

• Greggs partnered with Deliveroo to run targeted ads and influencer promotions, merging physical retail with digital platforms.

• Gymshark, started by a student, used micro-influencers instead of big advertising budgets to grow a global brand—perfect for illustrating budget-conscious promotion strategies.

Encouraging students to identify current campaigns fosters media literacy and commercial awareness—two pillars of workplace readiness.

How It’s Assessed

In Cambridge IGCSE exams, Promotion can be assessed through:

• Short-answer and structured questions: e.g., “State two examples of below-the-line promotion.”

• Case study-based analysis: Students evaluate promotional decisions made by a business in context.

• Command words include:

  • Identify – recall promotional methods.

  • Explain – reasons for selecting certain types of promotion.

  • Analyse/Evaluate – assessing effectiveness in context of business objectives, market, or constraints.

Students should practise applying knowledge to unfamiliar scenarios and justify their promotional recommendations with logic and reference to the wider marketing mix.

Enterprise Skills Integration

Promotion lends itself to multiple enterprise and career-ready competencies:

• Decision-Making & Problem-Solving: Choosing between promotional methods based on budget, audience, and objectives.

• Data-Driven Thinking: Analysing market research or response rates to decide where to spend marketing budgets.

• Communication Skills: Exploring tone, clarity, and persuasion—key elements of professional and customer-facing roles.

• Creative Thinking: Designing mock campaigns or evaluating brand voice builds both creativity and commercial literacy.

Enterprise Skills platforms like Skills Hub Futures support this through decision-making simulations and marketing scenario tools aligned to real employer expectations.

Careers Links

Teaching promotion effectively supports Gatsby Benchmarks 4, 5 and 6:

• Benchmark 4 (Linking curriculum to careers): Highlight roles such as marketing assistant, advertising executive, content strategist, and PR officer.

• Benchmark 5 (Encounters with employers): Invite local businesses to discuss their promotional strategies, or use embedded videos showing real workplace campaigns.

• Benchmark 6 (Experiences of workplaces): Use employer challenge tasks, e.g. “Create a promotional plan for a new product with a £500 budget”.

These approaches bring the syllabus to life and help students see promotion not as a standalone topic, but as a career-relevant skillset.

Teaching Notes

Top tips for delivery:

• Use active learning: Role-play client–agency scenarios where students pitch campaign ideas. This has been shown to improve engagement and deeper understanding.

• Bring in real campaigns: Use Instagram reels, YouTube ads or TikTok trends as starting points for discussion and evaluation.

• Integrate other Ps: Reinforce that promotion doesn’t work in isolation. Ask students to consider how price or product influences promotional choices.

Common pitfalls:

• Students often confuse above-the-line and below-the-line. Use visuals and real examples to reinforce.

• They may default to generic terms like “advertising” without justifying their choices—encourage depth in evaluation.

Extension Activities:

• Set a “Dragons’ Den” style task: Students plan and pitch a promotion strategy for a start-up.

• Analyse a failed campaign—why didn’t it work? What would they do differently?

Support Tools:

• Skills Hub Futures provides ready-to-use marketing simulations and employer-set scenarios that support both exam prep and career readiness.

• Business simulations used in lessons improve higher-order thinking and can boost engagement and retention by up to 73% compared to traditional methods.