Unit 17 Marketing Intelligence Merit Copy

Introduction

Five years ago, Carlton Limited started functioning in West London. Ms. Wein is the initiator and current Managing Director of the company. Her aim is to provide better event management services to achieve long term programmes and to be one of the most renowned event management companies in London.

Event management creates and develops long scale programmes like festivals, parties, conferences, ceremonies, etc. It is necessary to study the market carefully, the new brands in the market and accordingly focus on customers to meet their demands. For example, arranging caterers, decorators in the marriage reception or any social functions etc.

To start the company, Ms Wein had invested £15000 which has been recovered later. Carlton Limited over the last few years have been performing very well and providing event services both locally and internationally.

Wein is much very much interested in providing quality services to her clients’ but she fails due to lack of practical knowledge.

Due to absence of proper knowledge regarding the customer and market behaviour, the company lagged behind and faced tough competition from the services offered by organizations globally.

Aim

The aim of the project is to show that whether the event management services delivered by Carlton Company satisfy the demands of customers in the city of Bradford in UK and whether the company succeeds in creating the required brand awareness among the customers or not.

Objective

• To analyse the market structure of the economy
• Clear understanding of the preference, likeness, of the customers in the city of Bradford and accordingly decisions taken by the Carlton Limited.

Task 2

AC 2.1 Different types of Market research Techniques

Marketing research assists in overall management.

Market research is needed to ensure critical information about the buying habits, needs and preferences of customers. There are many ways to perform market research:

• Surveys
• Focus groups
• Personal Interviews
• Observation
• Field Trials.

Online surveys, mail surveys are the various ways to collect information regarding a group of people in a community.

Like focus groups, personal interviews include open ended questions, and this type of survey provides more subjective information. Creating new products and placing them in the selected stores to test customer response builds rapport with local store owners for package improvements which is helpful price adjustments and help business owners to sell their products (Adams and Brace, 2006).

There are three types of market research:

• Exploratory research:  It helps business to discover new ideas and find new market opportunities.

Role of Marketing Research

It is the managers in the markets who take final decision. This is the first observation. The second observation is that marketing research does not lead to any success. In the field of science researchers work on deterministic models of the world. Say y=f(x) where y is the dependent variable and x is the independent variable. So x is a necessary and sufficient condition for y to occur. An increase in pressure is necessary and sufficient to bring about a rise in air temperature.

Marketing researchers work with probabilistic models of the form:

y = f(x1)..(fx2)...f(xn)...

Importance

• Identification of new products in the market.
• Anticipate future market trends
• To look after the customers whether they are satisfied with the products or not.
• Having up to date regarding the technology
• Always one step ahead of competitors

AC 2.2 Sources of Secondary data to achieve marketing research objectives

Secondary data is a data that is collected by someone for further research. Sources of secondary data can be of two types. One is internal and the other one is external. Internal sources of data are the first line of enquiry cheapest and convenient. Secondary data can be collected through journals, newspapers, articles etc. External sources of secondary data include Commercial market, the government, competitors, trade publications and the general media.

Open ended questions; a pilot study helps product managers to draw a conclusion.

Advantages of secondary data vary from source to source.

AC 2.3 Validity and reliability of Market Research Findings

By using the market research findings it helps use of market segmentation, increasing net revenue, study the demand patterns of the consumer.

Market reliability shows that whether the research which has been obtained is for general or for few individuals.

Limitations of Marketing Research

Marketing research is not a science though it uses some techniques of science. That is MR leads to misleading results. The results of marketing research are incorrect as the MR is done on the human beings and humans have a tendency to shift their taste and preference and behave differently. MR is not free from bias. The research conclusions cannot be verified. Inappropriate training to researchers can lead to false impression of questions to be asked for data collection.

AC 2.4 Marketing Research Plan

In order to create a marketing plan, it is important for Carlton Limited to identify the products which they are going to deliver in the city of Bradford in UK. The aim of the project is to show that whether the event management services delivered by Carlton Company satisfy the demands of customers in the city of Bradford in UK and whether the company succeeds in creating the required brand awareness among customers or not.

The organization will have to create a set of questionnaires for the focused groups to know their taste and preferences, likeness and accordingly Carlton will take decision which type of event products they are going to launch in Bradford. So it has to make a sample survey of a certain number of customers in the locality in order to get the general idea of their likeness and preferences.

The company also has to do research regarding the price of products and to do research regarding other competitors in the market.

Task 3:

AC 3.1 Market size trends within a given market

The potential numbers of buyers and sellers in an organization where they both does some transactions to fulfil their needs is known as market. Companies are very much interested in knowing the market size before launching of the product.

AC 3.2 Competitor analysis for a given organization

Competitor analysis identifies the competitors and evaluating their strategies to determine3their strengths and weaknesses relative to those of its own product or service.

A management concept which makes a difference between the companies within the same industry with similar business models, and or similar strategy combination.

AC 3.3 Organizations opportunity and threat for a given product:

SWOT analysis is made to evaluate an organizations opportunity and threat. The strength of Carlton limited is valuable know how , something to do well , assets , competitive capability , attributes , ventures and alliances whereas the weakness are something it does poorly , deficiency in the system , lack of proper knowledge about the products etc. Opportunities are best prospects, competitive advantage and threats are competitive behaviour, new product / service, demographics.

Task 4

AC4.1 Designing customer satisfaction survey report with the help of primary research

In order to build a customer satisfaction survey, Carlton Limited needs to gather some information with the help of primary data.

Primary data can be quantitative or qualitative in nature. The data which can be measured is known as quantitative data and the data which cannot be gauged is known as qualitative data. Primary data collection takes time and effort. The various sources through which the primary data can be collected are:

• Face to face interview method
• The survey method
• Experimentation
• Focused Groups
• Observational method

In this scenario, Carlton Limited designed a customer satisfaction survey questionnaire which helps the customers to access the level of satisfaction.

The survey will be carried out in order to accomplish the research and acquire primary data. The survey will be helpful in getting the responses from a wide range of population which will be helpful in taking proper decisions by the organization to increase the sale of its event management services both locally and globally.

In order to carry out a survey a set of questionnaires should be made through which large amount of information can be collected. The collected data can be analysed scientifically to know the problem actually and accordingly giving solutions. When data can be quantified, it can be used in comparing other research to show the change.

Questionnaire is prepared in order to know the likes, dislikes, preferences of the customers in order to take proper market decisions by Carlton Limited.

There are three types of Event management services. Corporate events, private events and other events.

Here a city is considered in UK namely Bradford where the citizens wants to include corporate events in their locality and so Carlton Limited in UK wants to launch certain corporate events there to meet the demands of the customers. In order to does this Carlton Limited have to make a survey of the customers who wanted this service to be launched? So Carlton Limited wants to know the customer behaviour and accordingly they will make their decision of launching corporate events.

Here a sample has been made on 100 customers of Bradford.

Gender

• Male
• Female

Age groups

• 20-25
• 26-31
• 32-37
• 38-43
• 44-49
• Above 50

How professional do you think we are?

• Highly professional
• Moderate
• Less professional
• Unprofessional

How reasonable our prices are in compared to our competitors?

• Highly reasonable
• Moderately reasonable
• Slightly reasonable
• Not at all reasonable

How much satisfaction you get by using our services?

• Highly satisfied
• Moderately satisfied
• Slightly satisfied
• Not at all satisfied

If you are satisfied with our services, give reason.

In future do you want to have our services?

• Yes
• No
• Indifferent

Which factors do you think are essential in case of providing services?(1-4,4 being very good)

• Price                
• Quality            
• Service               

Based on your experience how likely you want to hire our services?

• Definitely will
• Probably will
• Might or might not
• Probably will not
• Definitely will not

If you like to share any additional comments about our service , explain them below

AC4.2 Analysis of Customer Response

The analysis of the data can be done with the help of representative values. The averages are the important tools in analysing the data. The averages are mean, median, mode.

Gender	Number of respondents
Male	70
Female	30

In the above section it has been observed that out of 100 respondents, 70 are male and 30 are female who are availing these services.

Age groups	respondents
20-25	35
26-31	20
32-37	15
38-43	10
44-49	10
50 and above	10

Mean	32.6
Median	30
Mode	20

 

In this section the mean of 100 respondents is 32.6, median is 30 and mode is 20.

Types	Respondents
Highly Professional	60
Moderate	10
Less professional	20
Not at all professional	10

           

From the diagram it can be analysed that out of 100 respondents 60% said that the services are highly professional, 10% said moderate, 20% said less professional and remaining 10% said not at all professional.

 

Reasonable prices	Respondents
Highly reasonable	65
moderately reasonable	5
slightly reasonable	10
Not at all reasonable	20

From the above diagram it can be concluded that 65% of the customers said that the services are highly reasonable, 5 % said that the services are moderately reasonable, 10% said slightly and the remaining 20% said that the services are not at all reasonable.

Satisfaction	Respondents
Highly satisfied	60
Moderately satisfied	10
slightly satisfied	10
Not at all satisfied	20

Out of 100, 60% of the customers are highly satisfied, 10% are moderately satisfied, 10% are slightly satisfied and remaining 20% are not at all satisfied.

 

Factors	1	2	3	4
Price	10	30	20	40
Quality	20	30	10	40
Service	20	10	10	60

40% of the customers recommended that price is the factor which influences them to avail the services, 40% of the customers said that quality is the factor which influences them to buy and the remaining 60% said that the services are good.

How likely to hire our services	Respondents
Definitely will	60
Probably will	10
Might or might not	15
Definitely will not	15

 

60% of the customers will definitely like to have the services in future, 105 of the people may use the service, and 15% might or might not whereas remaining 15% will definitely not avail the service.

Survey is helpful in gathering huge responses from the customers. Surveyors used elements of mathematics, physics, engineering and law in order to gather information.

AC 4.3 reviewing the survey of the completed satisfaction survey

From the above data it has been observed that the Carlton Limited have good feedback and so in future they  want to expand the sales of their event management services both locally and internationally . Carlton Limited is Succeed in taking up the project as they get better responses from the customers.

Conclusion

From the above data it has been analysed that the project provides a deep insight into research methods. The collection of primary and secondary data is very much essential in order to conduct a research. The graphs are essential in analysing the data. Carlton Limited has to use different tools and techniques for making prediction and to run the business properly. This project will help Carlton Limited to derive all the important information that will be helpful to take decisions in future.

References

Adams, K. and Brace, I. (2006). An introduction to market & social research. London: Kogan Page.
boundless.com, (2013). Brand Loyalty. Boundless. [Online] Available at: https://www.boundless.com/marketing/textbooks/boundless-marketing-textbook/branding-packaging-10/branding
74/brand-loyalty-372-4144/ [Accessed 9 Dec. 2014].
Fitzgerald, S. (2002). Decision making. Oxford, U.K.: Capstone Pub.