Market Research Assignment: Critical Discussion On Marketing Concepts

Question

Task: Section 1: Short Answer Questions (20 Marks) You are required to attempt all questions below. These questions are worth a total of 20 marks and all questions are compulsory.

1. Question: “Long term relationship marketing” requires knowledge of the market and knowledge of potential customers. Explain why these two are both critical in Long Term Relationship Marketing

2. Question: Identifying existing and potential competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats is defined as what type of Marketing Research analysis

3. Question: A client requests that you explain to them in your upcoming Research Proposal why their research campaign should include questions to identify how their brand is engaging and communicating with their consumers. Identify two reasons why these questions should be part of their Research Proposal.

4. Question: In your own words, explain two advantages market research would bring to an organisation experiencing a downturn in business due to the current COVID 19 Virus.

5. Question: Develop and provide two open ended questions that in your opinion would be applicable for a taste testing research campaign for a snack food.

6. Question: In their research brief to you, your client has determined the age target groups for the research campaign you are undertaking for them. Explain two reasons why your focus group moderator would not allow respondents who were outside of the target age groups be considered when developing their moderator guide. (2 marks)

7. Question: Your client is a Mobile Phone company and requires you to provide secondary research to them prior to developing their Market Research Strategy. Explain in your opinion why investigating secondary research among Mobile Phone users would be a logical first step to undertake before beginning to develop their research strategy?

8. Question: Classifying and expanding research findings are necessary in a research report. They are considered an important part of the key insights in your report. In your opinion, what benefit does your client receive for their business when you classify and expand research findings in in your client’s research report.

9. Question: Outlining the “Objectives” of a research study assists in the interpretations of the findings that lead to recommendations in a Research Report. Do you agree or disagree with this reason and briefly support your response with two explanations why you have arrived at this conclusion?

10. Question: Understanding the interests and motivations of a customer is considered necessary to fully appreciate “Consumer Behaviour”. Provide two examples of what Nike shoes would need to understand when examine the consumer behaviour of customers for their sport shoe range?

Section 2: Medium Length Questions
You are required to attempt all of the questions below. Each question is compulsory.

1. Question: Based on your opinion, provide four reasons why you consider quantitative research is valuable?

2. Question: Based on your opinion, provide 3 reasons what you personally consider are the limitations of quantitative research.

3. Question: A client sends you a page of questions they would like to use in a Qualitative Marketing Research Study. However, they have not given you any of their market segment requirements. Provide 2 two reasons why you believe market segment requirements are important for you to know before beginning to construct the questionnaire for you client.

4. Question: You are the Marketing Research Manager at a small boutique Marketing Research Company.

In a question from a potential client specialising in artist management they ask you to outline 3 disadvantages of conducting face to face qualitative interviews among fans of their artists.

Provide 3 reasons why you either believe or disbelieve conducting qualitative face to face qualitative interviews among fans of their artists are appropriate.

5. Question: Based on what you have learned while studying Marketing Research across this study period, outline 4 separate reasons why you believe Marketing Research is important to undertake prior to preparing the strategy for an Integrated Marketing Campaign.

Section 3: Extended Response Questions (50 marks – 10 marks each)
Question 1: Market Conditions
For the one business you chose from the list above, your strategy will need to consider external market conditions and the success of the marketing of your one chosen business to date. List ways you would determine:

a) The current market conditions for your one chosen business
b) The current marketing weaknesses of your one chosen business
c) The future marketing opportunities for your one chosen business

Question 2: Target Audience Research Design
What secondary research would you look at to determine the audience profiles of your one chosen business? What are the advantages of secondary over primary research for determining the profiles?

Question 3: Target Audience Sampling Design You have decided to conduct a survey of the potential target audiences for your one chosen business. How would you decide on the sampling demographic? Give reasons for your answer.

Question 4: Target Audience Survey Questions
For your one chosen business, outline whether you will use a Quantitative or a Qualitative methodology for them. Explain why you have chosen the methodology you have selected. Include in your answer 5 questions you would propose using based on the methodology you have chosen for this Target Audience Survey.

Question 5: Distribute the survey
There are several ways to conduct the survey you have outlined in Question 4. Describe your recommended distribution method for your one chosen business. Then provide one advantage and one disadvantage of the research distribution method you have recommended.

Answer

Section 1 of market research assignment
1. The knowledge of marketing theories, concepts, and analytical ideas are crucial to be acquired along with the idea and knowledge about the customers and their choices because in long term relationship it is essential to build a bridge between the two and implement a tactic that helps in sustain (Mooiet al., 2018).

2.The process of including all the areas mentioned falls under the category of Observation Market Research Analysis. It is the most powerful type of research.

3. The two reasons for including the question are,

• It will help in creating a good customer-brand relationship.
• It will help the company to evaluate its performance in terms of customer management and relationship.

4. The major two advantages are that it will help the organization to understand the market competition and its performances. Also, it will help the organization to understand the exact area where the organization needs to revise its policy to reverse the downturn.

5. The two questions are,

• Would you like to have it again?
• Would you like to recommend your friends and family to taste the snack?

6. The focus group moderator is based on the preferences and likelihood of the particular age group and outside the same would falsify the findings (Brace, 2018). Also, the age-specific is dependent on the capability of the particular group, and outside the same can be harmful.

7. The secondary research onmarket research assignment will help in understanding and analyzing the basic and the common purchase behavior and choice of the consumers when it comes to technological devices. The theoretical knowledge is essential as the first stage (Martin et al.,2017).

8. The classification makes the process much easier to be understood; it helps them to proceed with a systematic way and approach different classified categories differently.

9. The research objectives are the main mission of a research paper, and therefore, it helps in understanding what the barriers that the organization needs to work on to achieve the objectives are. On the contrary, it helps in identifying alternative methods to reach the main goal of the research.

10. Nike shoes must understand the two factors, i.e. The customers are related to sports or purchase shoes regularly or not. Similarly, the purchase habit and the price range of the shoe sold by the company.

Section 2
1. The reasons for considering quantitative research in the present context of market research assignment are as follows,

i. The particular type of research minimizes the scope of error and miscalculation. The analysis process of the research type is based on the calculation and statistical process; hence, the scope of error is less.

ii. It is quicker and easier to be arranged, and the information is mainly based on data and opinion of a population; hence, it can be obtained quickly (Tulung, and Ramdani, 2018).

iii. Much more fact-based findings and data collection can be obtained. The data are all applied and realistic than that of theoretical and lofty.

iv. The accuracy rate of the research process is high in this particular aspect of the research analysis process.

Hence, the particular research would be considered.

2. There are certain uncertainties or limitations exist. The limitations are discussed in the next section of market research assignment,
a. The process can often get affected by the dilemma or lesser idea of the sample. It can happen that the people who have been used in the survey are not very much aware of the issue or problem, or aware but not sure what they exactly prefer, and in certain cases the findings cannot be accurate.

b. It may provide an answer to the problems from personal experience but is not ideal for getting a core and deep understanding of the particular issue, which limits the reach of the researcher itself.

c. Lastly, it can provide a biased understanding and not the ideal situation. The biasness of the people can falsify the answer.

3. The qualitative analysis cannot be properly conducted without market segment requirement because, a. The questions can be random and will not discuss the real customer choice or preferences and will provide an inadequate answer to the problem.

b. Similarly, without understanding the market segments, the needs and requirements of the consumers cannot be evaluated; thus it will provide a set of questions that are general and not specific to the product and would be useless for the purpose.

4. The face to face interview between fans and artists can be appropriate to a certain extent. The reason why I believe the same is that,

• It helps the artist to understand the demands and preferences for the works made by them.
• The fans can interact with the artists, and that can create a better relationship between artists and his or her fans.
• The process can also create a good and healthy flow of communication where the scope of betterment can get higher.

Thus, these are the main reasons why I believe it is appropriate for marketing and good consumer management.

5.Market research is a very crucial step to be undertaken before the integration of the marketing campaigns (Fisher, and Kordupleski, 2019). The main reasons are

• The market research process often minimizes the risks of the poor marketing campaign, as the research provides a clearer idea of how the research process must be conducted.
• It highlights the USP and the market disadvantages that the company may have and draft the campaigning process accordingly.
• The potential customers, market segments, and targeted customers, etc. can be identified through the marketing research study.
• Forecasting of the marketing campaign process. With the help of a particular measure, the company can estimate and forecast the market reaction for the future.

Section 3
1. The company that has been chosen here is McDonald's,
a) The company is currently suffering through difficulties in marketing campaigns and profitability as the virus effect all over the world has decreased the rate of consumption rate has decreased by 22.2% all over the world (Rajawatet al.,2020).

b) The marketing weakness of the company is the open and fast-food takeaway facilities are not trusted very much because of the hygiene issue. The restaurants in many countries are totally closed; these are the major weakness of the organization.

c) The usage of the high maintenance of hygiene and COVID-19 sanitization measures can help out the company to regain its market performance to a certain level. Maintenance of sanitization norms for the staff, chefs, and customers, checking up on them on a regular basis are some necessary measures that can be undertaken by the company to regain opportunity. The introduction of vaccines can be another opportunity that would be delivered by the world for the benefit of the company to marketize the products effectively in the future.

2.As per the investigation on market research assignment, the secondary research is mainly based on books, journals, previously published reports, websites, etc. Here, for understanding the customer preferences and audience profile, previously published reports and academic websites can be considered (Raduzzi, and Massey, 2019).

There are certain advantages, and the secondary types of research have which the primary research methods are not able to provide.

• The major advantage the research process has is that it provides a deep theoretical understanding of the issues, along with that the previously done reports already clarify the reasons and understanding of the findings thus, the researcher only has to observe them; thus there is the lesser scope of faulty assumptions.
• Apart from that, another advantage is that it is cost-effective and user friendly. The sources can be identified from libraries and Computers without much of a hustle.
• The general idea about consumer psychology can be identified through the process of analysis. Hence, the process is better suited for the purpose.

3. For the business organization McDonald's the choice of the location or demography of the audience would be the USA, and the age group would be from the age of 15 to 55 years old, and all genders are going to be adopted for the purpose. The sample would be taken from the USA for the survey process, and the reason behind the targeted location, age group, and genders are based on the preference and majority consumers of the company in general.

• The choice for the location is that McDonald's has started from the USA, and the domination of the company is highest in the country itself amongst all the other fast-food chains. Thus, choosing the USA can be beneficial as the country is also full of diversity.
• The fast-food is mainly liked and preferred by people from the young and adolescence and also for the office goers.
• All the genders prefer the products; hence, it is beneficial for choosing people from every gender as a targeted audience.

4. The quantitative research methods would be more preferable for the purpose of the survey research for the company McDonald's and its targeted audience (Raduzzi, and Massey, 2019). The quantitative research will help in identifying and calculating the popular opinion of the people that have been taken for consideration in the research process. It has been observed that the research process will be able to understand the future campaigning and marketing process for the company and draft the design with accuracy. Hence the questions that can be asked in the survey to the selected sample sizes are mentioned below,

a) Do you think Mcdonald's products are safe to be consumed during the COVID outbreak?
b) Do you think the company takes all the necessary safety measures while preparing the products?
c) How often would you like to visit the local McDonalds restaurant to have a meal?
d) Would you prefer a takeaway or sitting facility?
e) Do you agree that outside foods are properly cleaned and cultured before preparing them in McDonald's?

5. There are various ways to conduct and distribute the survey amongst the selected sample. As in the current situation of COVID outbreak is enormous and face to face communication options are lesser, therefore, using electronic media is a better distribution option. For this purpose, uploading the survey on the website of McDonald's can be easier and effective to a certain extent. Yet there are advantages and disadvantages of the system exist as presented in the following section of market research assignment:

Advantages
The advantage of the system is that the regular customers and the main targeted customer base can be engaged through the process. Easy to be accessible by the people a d less costly in nature.

Disadvantages
On the other hand, it can lead to unnecessary and random answers. The participants can take it as a fun game and upload random answers which may lead to faulty findings of the research.

It may not gain much attention and as a result, provide a very small response.

Reference
Brace, I., 2018. Questionnaire design: How to plan, structure and write survey material for effective market research. Kogan Page Publishers.

Fisher, N.I. And Kordupleski, R.E., 2019. Good and bad market research: A critical review of Net Promoter Score. Applied Stochastic Models in Business and Industry, 35(1), pp.138-151.

Martin, G., Rentsch, L., Höck, M. and Bertau, M., 2017.Lithium market research–global supply, future demand and price development. Energy Storage Materials, 6, pp.171-179.

Mooi, E., Sarstedt, M. and Mooi-Reci, I., 2018.Market research assignmentMarket research. The process, data, and methods using stata.

Raduzzi, A. and Massey, J.E., 2019. Customers satisfaction and brand loyalty at McDonalds Maroc. African Journal of Marketing Management, 11(3), pp.21-34.

Rajawat, A., Kee, D.M.H., Malik, M.Z.B.A., Yassin, M.A.Q.B.M., Shaffie, M.S.I.B.A., Fuaat, M.H.B., AlDosari, N. and Santoso, M.E.J., 2020. Factors: Responsible for McDonald's Performance. Journal of the community development in Asia, 3(2), pp.11-17.

Tulung, J.E. and Ramdani, D., 2018. Independence, size and performance of the board: An emerging market research. Corporate Ownership & Control, 15(2).