Unit 17 Marketing Research Plan Assignment

Introduction

The main attribute of marketing is to influence how the consumers consider about the company and about its merchandises. To influence what’s, when’s and how’s of the buyer behaviour, business managers is required to primarily analyse the reason behind it. Buyer behaviour is very tough to analyse but at the same time it is tremendously significant aspect that marketer is required to enact. If a marketer can select purchase attitude of its chosen customer, the person will be in an improved level to aim merchandises and services. Buyer behaviour is concentrated on the requirements of people, teams and companies.

Task 1

1. Describe the main stages of the purchase decision making process and explain three theories of buyer behaviour in terms of individuals and markets.

Purchase decision making process includes the following stages,

1. Crisis identification
2. Common want explanation
3. Merchandise condition
4. Dealer exploration
5. Offer solicitation
6. Dealer identification
7. Command custom condition
8. Act reassessment

• Crisis identification: It will take place when a company identifies a crisis or want that could be met through the purchase of a merchandise or service.
• Common want explanation: Let us consider that a company need to better its services or merchandise and for doing that, this stage specifies the traits of the services and merchandises required that are clearly defined.
• Merchandise condition: In this stage, a company will define the condition of the merchandise or services which will get ready with the discussion of the technical team.
• Dealer exploration: In this stage, a company need to find the dealer of the products required which could be actualized by assessing the trade directors or by having searched about with the help of a computer. It will clearly pick out those individuals who have better status and gives excellent arrangements.
• Offer solicitation: After the exploration is done then a company will welcome dealers to present their suggestion, in this regard arrangement by the dealer may get required.
• Dealer identification: In this stage, the company will select the dealer. Causes such as competitive costs, trustworthy interaction, value merchandise and services and so on are considered to be utmost significance in this respect
• Command custom condition: In this step, the company management will make a command custom condition. It will also manifest ultimate order with chosen dealer and an array of varied substances and their technical aspects for the need of post sales, time of release return procedures and guarantees and so on.
• Act reassessment: Post the command custom condition, in this stage companies will evaluate the acts of the dealer’s merchandises or services. This may assist companies to alter, possess, or discard the dealing with the dealer.
• Theories of buyer behaviour in terms of individuals and markets: The main attribute of marketing is to influence how the consumers consider about the company and about its merchandises. To influence what’s, when’s and how’s of the buyer behaviour, business management is required to primarily analyse the reason behind it. Buyer behaviour is very tough to analyse but at the same time it is tremendously significant aspect that marketer is required to enact. If a marketer can select purchase attitude of its chosen customer, the person will be in an improved level to aim merchandises and services. Buyer behaviour is concentrated on the requirements of people, teams and companies.? Discussing about purchaser, basically there are two kinds of purchasers identified as the final customer and the next is the business purchasers.
• Final Customers: Those people and houses who purchase products and services for private intake.
• Business Purchasers: Those companies that purchase merchandises and services for the utilization of manufacturing their merchandises and services or for the objectivity of reselling and leasing them to others at an income.

Abraham Maslow depicts via his well-known theory that individuals are inspired by specific wants at specific times. He stated that every buyer begins with a want, of which physical want, communal reception are references of want. Why it is require for an individual to use a large amount of money and time on private safety and on achieving communal prominence. The answer to this is that individual wants are assembled in chain of command from the most persuasive one in the beginning to the least persuasive one in the end. These requirements possess physiological wants, protection wants, communal wants, self-respect wants, and personal realization wants.

A person often wants to accomplish such aspects via the most important wants that can actualized when an individual’s stage’s wants are exhaustively satiated and then the person will attempt to satiate the next stage’s wants such as any individual’s physical and safety wants is needed to get satiated to such a point that he is satisfied for receiving the telecom services as this service can be associated to fitting-in stages the reason being a lot of individuals take this service for interacting.

Freud stated that individuals are very much ignorant regarding the real psychological forces that design their characteristic. He stated that individuals will when they start growing have many pent-up feelings which are never discarded or under full control which are sometimes defined via dreams, words or deeds and so on.

His theory stated that individual purchase decision making are affected by the subliminal actions that the buyer might not completely analyse. For instance, if an individual purchases a Mercedes, might state that he purchased it because it is very relaxing and makes a rank declaration. At a more profound stage, the main logic might be to discard the sense of inadequacy.

For many purchases, the customer will pursue a common scenario of choice-making by taking into consideration an aspect to make a choice. The buyer will identify a want for doing a purchase that aggravates study on merchandises and pricing. For instance, the choice to purchase a colour television might be taken into consideration when the previous one gets obsolete and requires a high cost for repairing. The customer will examine the new colour television on the market, assess concepts, advantages and pricing and finally make the choice to buy. The customers feeling post the buying of the merchandise is also a concern. If the person is satiated by the act, he will be more inclined to buy that brand the next time. (Ungson, 2014)

2. Explain the factors that affect buyer behaviour.

Buyer behaviour is profoundly influenced by cultural, communal, individual, and psychological attributes which are at times not under control. These factors are defined by the below mentioned points,

Cultural aspect

• Culture: It is the main issue supporting any individual’s needs and attitudes. A person’s attitude is mainly educated. With the passage of time, our culture is getting inclined towards materialism which states that individuals will purchase more technological products so altering culture is challenging for those companies which have not progressed technology wise.
• Sub-culture: Every culture has lesser sub-cultures. It is generally a collection of individuals who possess the similar worth scheme based on basic life knowledge and circumstance.
• Social Class: Social classes are the society’s everlasting and organized segments whose members beliefs in shared worth, likings, and aspects of doings activities. It is not identified by taking into consideration the aspects such as service, earnings, learning, capital and different attributes are taken into consideration.

Communal aspect

• Assembly: An individual’s pattern of taking action is changed by the assembly to which the person fit in. Assembly can impact a company’s selected customers in a particular way.
• Suggestion assembly: Suggestion assembly for an individual is that assembly to which he praises. It operates as direct or indirect aspect of opinion or suggestion in developing an individual’s attitude or characteristics. Individuals at times are affected by suggestion assembly to which they are not part of.
• Family: It is a very important customer purchasing segment in the community and it has been examined broadly. Marketing managers must give a huge concentration to the actions of customers which profoundly affect the buying choice while purchasing merchandises or services.
• Position and rank: An individual can simultaneously belong to various assemblies such as family, company and clubs and so on. A position includes actions that an individual is required to implement in relation to the surroundings around the person. Every position includes a rank depicting the basic admiration referred to it by the community.

Individual aspect

• Age and living sequence aspect: Selection of food, dress material is most of the time concerned with age. Individuals alter their purchasing behaviour with alterations in their age. Buying is also affected by the level of the living sequence levels which affects a family.
• Profession: A person’s profession affects the selection of products and services purchased.
• Financial scenario: An individual’s purchase scenario is impacted by financial scenario in a very important aspect. For instance, economy of Pakistan is in a very bad condition therefore people will possess little financial strength for purchasing merchandises or services which states that this scenario is very significant for any organization.
• Standard of living: Standard of living is an individual scenario depicted in the person’s psychology. People who are of the same culture, sub-culture, social class and profession may consist of different standard of living. Standard of living depicts something which is beyond an individual’s communal class or attitude.
• Attitude and personal thought: Attitude states the particular psychological scenario that guides towards contrastingly steady and long-term replies to an individual’s personal world. Every individual’s specific behaviour has an impact on the person’s purchasing aspect. It is generally explained in scenarios such as personal assurance, independence, flexibility, and forcefulness.

Many business individuals use a concept connected to attitude which is ‘individual aspect’. The thought which individual aspect display is that individuals take into consideration and replicate their individualities. Therefore, to analyse the focused customer’s psychology one needs to ascertain the relationship amongst individual aspect and ownership.

Emotional aspect

• Encouragement: Individuals at the same time have various wants. Some are biological which is hunger, thirst, or uneasiness and the rest is physical which takes place from the urge of identification, respect, or possession. A want converted to a purpose when its insufficiency is practised up to a powerful stage which forces an individual to satiate it. Two well-known theories in relation to encouragement were stated by Sigmund Freud and Abraham Maslow.
• Insight: It is the aspect which helps an individual to choose, categorize, and evaluate knowledge to create significant image of the world. For instance, individuals consider a company as a better organization as a result of which a plethora of individuals will purchase its merchandises or services as the loyal consumers will refer it to different people.
• Knowledge: When individuals take initiative they gain knowledge. Knowledge is mainly alteration in the person’s attitude as a result of experience. When a person’s purchases a company’s merchandises or services and get influenced by its advertisement, and if the person realized the company’s commitment about the merchandise or service to be true then the customers will educate themselves about the merchandise or service in an affirmative sense.
• Trusts and approach: A trust is a meaningful expression that an individual has about something. It may possess original education, understanding, or loyalty and it might or might not possess a psychological aspect. It is of huge significance to any company’s marketer the reason being it gives structure to its varieties picture that changes buying choice.

Approaches are contrastingly stable assessments, sentiment, and inclination regarding a material or thought. It designs individual’s choices and non-choices scenario. Altering an individual’s approach is an herculean work to do. (Bathgate, 2013)

3. Evaluate the relationship between brand loyalties, corporate image, and repeat purchasing.

Prior to defining the relationship between brand loyalty, corporate image and repeat purchasing, it should first be understood about their explanation.

• Brand loyalty: Varieties that customer normally purchase from the same producer constantly over a period of time and not purchasing it from other traders within the segment. It also states the magnitude to which the customer repeatedly buys the similar variety in the merchandise category.
• Corporate image: The insights          and thoughts of a company by the customers as the consequence of communication with the company and the aspect in which the company showcases its own self. Companies have normally concentrated on the structure of interaction and promotional documents, utilizing symbols, logos, written materials, and colour for designing an approving notion on focused assemblies, but lot of supplementary activities add to a affirmative corporate picture which takes into consideration the public relation programs.
• Repeat Purchase: This phrase states the scenario where the consumer purchases the similar variety which was bought by him in the past which is also referred as re-buying. Brand loyalty can be quantified by a set of repeat purchases. For the retention to take place the customers bought the merchandise repeatedly and for this reason the business is required to manufacture good quality merchandise compared to their rivals. (Aaker, 2009)

Task 2

1. Evaluate different types of market research techniques and prepare a marketing research plan to obtain information in the given scenario.

There are two major classifications of market research techniques which are primary market research and secondary market research.

Primary Market Research

The below mentioned techniques are the five primary market research techniques that are taken into consideration most of the time,

• Concentrated assembly: One of the significant aspects for using primary market research is with the help of concentrated assembly. This aspect takes into consideration an assembly of individuals in a place and questioning them about meaningful scenarios in relation to the merchandise, its growth, their choices, and reaction and so on. This kind of concentrated assembly can be operated at any place which is reasonable for the organization. Now a days, with the digital development in technological aspect and the internet, it is now feasible to carry out the function virtually also, with the help of the concept known as video conferencing. But the major aspect to be considered here is that the assembly of individuals who come together have certain similar aspects. For instance, it may happen that they should be in the similar age bracket, the similar gender etc. This segmentation of the assembly or the identification scenario must be based on the focused customer or the merchandise or service of the organization. People who have involved themselves in such concentrated assembly are then consoled by complimentary coupons, vouchers, presents or financial support and so on. Concentrated assembly comes under the qualitative examination approach and assists organizations in understanding many things about the consumer or business aspects.
• Review & Opinion polls: Another excellent and very impactful approach to do primary market research is via reviews and opinion polls. The concept ‘reviews’ is a elaborate concept that takes into consideration a variety of aspects like review opinion polls, review documents, review interviews, and consumer satiation cards and so on. One of the most basic examples of this examination aspect is the response document which is issued to the consumers when the bill is presented at any restaurant. It is a direct aspect of understanding if a consumer is satiated with the company’s already available services and merchandises or what aspect of alteration will the customer is interested in viewing. Reviews are also made in the type of digital opinion polls in recent times that allow companies to receive a plethora of responses and then assess it for more supervision.
• Inspection: There are two main inspection techniques or examination aspects which are utilised in primary market research, and they are inspection via communication with the concerned individual. This type of assessment aspect falls under the quantitative basic assessment because with its help, examiners assess or quantify the attitude of the respondents or the users in common. This is considered to be a individual step in contrast to reviews and opinion polls and so on.
• Tests and trialling: This aspect of basic assessment includes scientific examination where assumptions and changeable and so on are utilised. This is a quantitative method of market assessment which can be either be used in the open surrounding or it can be used in a closed surrounding. To analyse this kind of assessment, we can use a reference. A food product organization makes three types of different packaging designs and then distributes the merchandises to various customers. Then after a short span of time, it assesses the output and draws the inference in regard to the packaging design which is favoured.
• Exhaustive interviews: It may be considered to be a quantitative step to primary market research, but this step, basically, is a qualitative assessment that considers the types of preferences a consumer possesses. Interviews in contrast to concentrate assembly include communication amongst one mediator and another respondent and various kinds of forms and means that may get utilized for carrying out them. Interviews might not all the time be confined to a particular scenario of questions but may be in the scenario of a dialogue with the focused consumer aspect. This sort of assessment aspect assists to explore the need of the consumer on a more profound level, and the results can be reviewed for getting into a finale for the ultimate merchandise distribution.

Secondary Market Research

Secondary market research majorly delves with gathering data from various resources and then drawing a finale. The two major kinds of secondary market research techniques are mentioned below,

• Inner resources: Inner resources are the types of secondary market research resources that are present from the previous time and are gathered in the company’s record. Inner resources involve knowledge that has gathered by the organization and is beneficial for the later assignments and so on. For most of the organizations, inner resources may consider sufficient to grow innovative merchandises and services, and there is no requirement for exploring the outer surrounding.

For instance we can consider the following:

1. Balance Sheets: The balance sheets whish were used before in the organization can be taken suggestion from, to ascertain the stats and figures that could b beneficial for the assessment.
2. Profit and loss documents: They can be taken help of for analysing what type of merchandises and services were considered for earnings in the past.
3. Catalogue evidences: This is another set of information which is utilised as a type of secondary market research and concentrates on various stats and numbers.
4. Revenue numbers: Organizations reserve their prior revenue numbers due to the fact that they could get assessed for more evaluation.

• Outer resources: In the scenario when the inner resources are unable to get enough data, outer resources are utilised. Outer resources are considered as those resources that depict the information that was taken by various organizations and individuals. These are received from the outer surrounding of the company and take into consideration a number of resources. Outer resources can be broad and diverse and therefore an individual should pursue a organized step for evaluating them.

For instance we can consider the following:

1. Government resources: Various government resources are utilized for gathering a plethora of important knowledge about various matters.
2. Universities and colleges: Various college students and researchers gather and record documents that can be again utilised by organizations.
3. Internet: It is considered to be the most utilised secondary market research resource but has the negative aspect of various non-reliable resources with not completed data.
4. Competitor document: At times, organizations utilize the knowledge, gathered and placed by various companies which also takes into consideration those collected by their rivals.

The aspect of research that I am considering is exploratory research the reason being it will get done for a particular assessment for the largest retailer in the United Kingdom named Sainsbury. The main aspect of this assessment is to evaluate the specific market for the Sainsbury’s and then, to design a strategy for launching it in other parts of the world. I have noticed that the HNI clients of London go to Sainsbury only to buy some selective products which are mostly high valued products so I decided to do the research near those stores which mainly serves the HNI customers. I will also utilize various techniques such as assessment and suggestion assembly conversations for actualizing the excellent outcome prior to begin my research and that is the reason why I have decided to take into consideration qualitative technique for my research.

Stages of Market research plan

Stage 1: In this stage, I need to understand the specific client base for finding out there notion of the retail store.

Stage 2: I need to set up assessment scenario which means in this stage I need to explain the main reason and purpose of the research.

Stage 3: I need to have assessed the worth of knowledge. In this stage, I consider the result of the assessment to select if the worth of the data required for the research is effective or not.

Stage 4: In this stage, I need to give structure to the research, in which the following aspects are to be done which are,

• Data gathering aspect should be chosen. For that the aspects like mail assessment, personally regulated surveys, and specific assembly aspects are to be considered.
• Sampling method is required to use for the gathering of documents when the data gathering aspect is completed. This is required to be utilized by considering the HNI clients of Sainsbury.
• After the sampling method is completed then the opinion polls should be structured. Different opinion polls must be structured for the male customers and the female customers to get the accurate information. Apart from that, basic interview opinion poll for interview is required to be prepared the reason being the most suitable candidates can be used in the survey.

Step 5: Information is required to be gathered, organized, and cross charted.

Step 6: Information is to be assessed in this stage and assessment should be done depending on the information needed.

Step 7: In the last stage, a presentation needs to be prepared and all the judgments is to be made. (Faarup, 2010)

2. Evaluate techniques that will be used to assess customer response.

Techniques for evaluating customer response: - It is very significant for Sainsbury to analyse and keep record of their customer response. This is a significant aspect of Sainsbury that mostly there is a customer response centre which is structured inside Sainsbury. Customer Response centres allocates marketers to have influence over branding, messaging, the quantification of output, and offers revenues with effective equipments for producing leads, and grow faithful supporters.

There are various techniques utilised for evaluating customer response and they are:

1. Telephone
2. Postal
3. Technological
4. Specific Assembly
5. Opinion Polls and so on

• Telephone: It is the most appropriate aspect of evaluating customer response from consumers who in other times may not be reachable.
• Postal: This is a very useful approach for evaluating customer response but most of the time it can be wastage of time and resource the reason being that many consumers assess these mails as spam and destroys them without giving a look at them.
• Technological: Technological aspect of evaluating includes websites, emails and so on which are needed to search for customer responses. But in this technique too, the Spam aspect comes into consideration which may reduce its usefulness to certain extent.
• Specific assembly: A specific assembly is an aspect of qualitative assessment in which a section of individuals are questioned about their likings for merchandise, service, advertisement, method, or wrapping. This method permits many different viewpoints and scenarios in regard to the merchandise should be highlighted and needs to get discussed with the businessmen who are having concern about the merchandise.
• Opinion Polls: Opinion polls are a very easy and useful approach for selecting customer responses. Opinion polls have related questions which needs get distributed in various assemblies or people to give their responses. This method is beneficial but often individuals do not give correct data or view as a result of which it becomes a bit untrustworthy. (Kachwala, 2009)

3.  Secondary data: Use sources of secondary data to achieve the research objective for the given scenario

After analysing the various aspects from different research methodologies, Inner resources and outer resources are used.  Inner resources are the types of secondary market research resources that are present from the previous time and are gathered in Sainsbury’s record. Inner resources involve knowledge that has gathered by Sainsbury and is beneficial for the later assignments and so on. For Sainsbury, inner resources may consider sufficient to grow innovative merchandises and services, and there is no requirement for exploring the outer surrounding. The balance sheets which were used before in Sainsbury can be taken suggestion from, to ascertain the stats and figures that could be beneficial for the assessment. Profit and loss documents can be taken help of for analysing what type of merchandises and services were considered for earnings in the past. Catalogue evidences are another set of information which is utilised as a type of secondary market research and concentrates on various stats and numbers. In the scenario when the inner resources are unable to get enough data, outer resources are utilised. Outer resources are considered as those resources that depict the information that was taken by Sainsbury and individuals. These are received from the outer surrounding of Sainsbury and take into consideration a number of resources. Outer resources can be broad and diverse and therefore an individual should pursue an organized step for evaluating them.

4. Primary Data: Design and complete a customer satisfaction survey for the given scenario and review the success of the completed survey.

For designing the customer satisfaction survey for Sainsbury the following questionnaire need to be prepared,

1. Which kind of accessories do you prefer buying?

........................................................................................

2. How do you choose which store to visit at Sainsbury?

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3. Which store do you often visit and why?

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4. How do you select about specific products?

........................................................................................

5. What will be your general reply if another Michelin starred restaurant is opened at Sainsbury?

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6. How much do you think the Michelin starred restaurant will attract the HNI customers of London?

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7. What is the location you are referring for the Michelin starred restaurant at Sainsbury?

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8. What kind of conveniences you wish to have in the Michelin starred restaurant?

........................................................................................

9. Any suggestions, kindly convey

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After the survey is completed, a huge data has been collected from the HNI client base who visits the Sainsbury retail market. Before opening the Michelin starred restaurant at Sainsbury, it was very much required to get their views as because this sort of restaurants are very premium restaurants and without doing a proper market research will only affect the business of the restaurant in a negative way. But now after the survey is done, it has been found out that most of the HNI clients who visit Sainsbury are pretty much excited about the opening of the restaurant and they have given their valuable suggestions which will really help in the market research analysis. Hence, the survey which was made at Sainsbury was pretty much a successful endeavour.

5. Assess the validity and reliability of your market research findings.

The validity and reliability of the market research finding scan be considered by the following methods,

• Secondary data is accessible which is absolutely proper.
• It is less costly to collect Secondary data in comparison to primary data.
• The time required in searching secondary resources is very little compared to the collection of primary data.
• Secondary data can give more accurate information than primary data.
• Secondary data can beneficial in explaining the population and designing the sample to be used.
• Secondary data plays a significant role in assessing the examination when the aspect is to explain the assessment crisis.

Conclusion

It may be considered to be a quantitative step to primary market research, but this step, basically, is a qualitative assessment that considers the types of preferences a consumer possesses. Interviews in contrast to concentrate assembly include communication amongst one mediator and another respondent and various kinds of forms and means that may get utilized for carrying out them. Interviews might not all the time be confined to a particular scenario of questions but may be in the scenario of a dialogue with the focused consumer aspect. This sort of assessment aspect assists to explore the need of the consumer on a more profound level, and the results can be reviewed for getting into a finale for the ultimate merchandise distribution.

Reference

Aaker, D. ( 2009). Managing Brand Equity. Simon & Schuster. Copyright
Bathgate, I. (2013). Principles of Marketing: A Value Based Approach. Palgrave Macmillan. Copyright
Bititci, U. (2015). Managing Business Performance: The Science and The Art. John Wiley & Sons. Copyright
Doole, I. (2008). International Marketing Strategy: Analysis, Development and Implementation.

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