Lesson Element

Unit R065: Design a business proposal

The importance of customer profiling

Instructions and answers for teachers

These instructions cover the learner activity section which can be found on page 3. This
Lesson Element supports Cambridge Nationals Level 1/2 in Enterprise and Marketing.

When distributing the activity section to the learners either as a printed copy or as a
Word file you will need to remove the teacher instructions section.

The activity
This lesson element introduces learners to the importance of a business knowing their
potential and existing customers, so that the products and services that they produce will
appeal to them. Loyal customers will trust the products and services that are produced and
hopefully will want to purchase new products which in turn will increase profits for a business.

During this lesson element learners will have the opportunity to see how a customer profile
could be devised by looking at a number of different visual resources.

Suggested timings
 Activity 1: 10 minutes

 Activity 2: 40 minutes
 Activity 3: 5 minutes

We’d like to know your view on the resources we produce. By clicking on ‘Like’ or ‘Dislike’ you can help us to
ensure that our resources work for you. When the email template pops up please add additional comments if you
wish and then just click ‘Send’. Thank you.
Whether you already offer OCR qualifications, are new to OCR, or are considering switching from your current
provider/awarding organisation, you can request more information by completing the Expression of Interest form
which can be found here: www.ocr.org.uk/expression-of-interest
Looking for a resource? There is now a quick and easy search tool to help find free resources for your qualification:
www.ocr.org.uk/i-want-to/find-resources/

OCR Resources: the small print

OCR’s resources are provided to support the teaching of OCR qualifications, but in no way constitute an endorsed teaching method that is required by the Board, and the
decision to use them lies with the individual teacher. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the content, OCR cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions
within these resources.
© OCR 2017 - This resource may be freely copied and distributed, as long as the OCR logo and this message remain intact and OCR is acknowledged as the originator of this work.
OCR acknowledges the use of the following content: Page 5, Family Shopping,Dmitry Kalinovsky/Shutterstock.com; College student, Billion Photos/shutterstock.com; Whitewater
rafting, Ammit Jack/Shutterstock.com; Musician playing cello, BortN66/Shutterstock.com: Page 6, Man at computer, ruigsantos/Shutterstock.com; Happy couple, ESB
Professional/Shutterstock.com; Father and son, Jack Frog/Shutterstock.com; Group of smiling friends, Maksim Shmeljov/Shutterstock.com
Please get in touch if you want to discuss the accessibility of resources we offer to support delivery of our qualifications: resources.feedback@ocr.org.uk

Version 1 1 © OCR 2017

Activity 1
As a starter, you could ask your learners to consider the following products and services and think
about the type of people that they are aimed at:

 Electric scooter
 The latest Apple iPhone
 Haribo sweets
 Gaming chair
 Activity wrist tracker
 Coach touring holiday around Scotland.

Ask the learners to discuss as a group who these products and services would appeal to and why.

This is a good introductory task to enable your learners to consider the age, gender, occupation,
lifestyle interests and income of potential customers in order to build upon the concept of a
customer profile.

You could provide your learners with a copy of the table on page 4 to record their answers.

Activity 2
Ask your learners to look at the images of people on page 5 and produce a customer profile of the
individuals. This could be completed as an activity in pairs or individually. Learners could then
present some of their profiles to the rest of the class and see what differences they have to their
peers.

This activity enables learners to practice building up a variety of different customer profiles and
also shows learners how important it is for businesses to know their customers as, ultimately,
without their customers, there would be no business!

Activity 3
By completing the two activities relating to the topic of ‘Customer Profiling’, learners should have
an understanding of how useful customer profiling can be to a business. To ensure understanding,
tutors could read the following statements to the group. Learners could respond using either a
green card to agree with the statement, or a red card to disagree with the statement. Cards can be
found on page 7.

1. Customer profiling will guarantee an increase in the profits for all businesses.
2. Customer profiling will help a business to understand their customer needs and wants.
3. Customer profiling does initially take time to build.
4. Customer profiling is a cheap method of gaining customer opinions.
5. A customer profile is a detailed drawing of a customer.

Answers:
1. Red card
2. Green card
3. Green card
4. Red card
5. Red card.

Version 1 2 © OCR 2017

Lesson Element
Unit R065: Design a business proposal

The importance of customer profiling

Learner Activity
Knowing your customers is a vital part of any business. Businesses often build up customer
profiles of the people who will be attracted to their products and services, as this helps a
business to decide who to aim certain products at, using a variety of different methods. This
could include: where they should advertise, how much they should sell products for and the
types of products or services that their customers will purchase.

Activity 1
Look at the specific list of products and services below:

 Electric scooter
 The latest Apple iPhone
 Haribo sweets
 Gaming chair
 Activity wrist tracker
 Coach touring holiday around Scotland.

Who do you consider might want to purchase these products or services? Think about the
following:

If the person may be male or female, what age they might be, what their job is, how much
money they might earn and what they may like to do in their spare time.

Write down your thoughts, considering the above categories.

Once you have thought about the products and services, your teacher will ask you to
participate in a group discussion so you can share your thoughts with others. Are your ideas
the same as your peers?

Version 1 3 © OCR 2017

 Customer profiles

Item M/F Age Job Income Lifestyle activities

Electric Scooter

Most recent
Apple iPhone

Haribo sweets

Gaming chair

Activity wrist
tracker

Coach tour

Version 1 4 © OCR 2017

Activity 2
In pairs, look at the following different images of people and produce a detailed customer
profile of the individuals. Once completed, share some of your customer profiles with the
rest of the group to see if they agree or disagree with your ideas.

Image M/F Age Job Income Lifestyle activities

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Version 1 5 © OCR 2017

Image M/F Age Job Income Lifestyle activities

Image 5

Image 6

Image 7

Image 8

Version 1 6 © OCR 2017

 Activity 3
You have completed different activities relating to Customer Profiling which is an important
part of business. Your tutor is going to read several statements to you. Use the red and the
green cards that your tutor will provide, to answer the statements. The red card represents
you disagreeing with the statement and the green card is if you agree with the statement.
Think before you select the card and consider which one you will hold up.

Red card = I disagree with the Green card = I agree with the
statement statement

Version 1 7 © OCR 2017