Additional tips for Assignment 1 Assignment 1 Task 1 Define the business problem How long should your answer be? We chose not to specify the number of words because we expect a variety of answers and approaches. You do have to remember the context of this assignment. You are writing a market research plan as a consultant. Apart from the client, what you write will be referred to by the prospective market researchers. So you can't be too brief. There may be a need for you to explain or back up your description of the business problem. Why is it important to define the business problem? The recognition of the problem should be the primary responsibility of the business owner. However the market researcher should always verify whether the business owner has uncovered the true problem and not the symptoms of an underlying true problem. It is important for the researcher and the business owner to agree on the specification of the business problem so the research will be properly focused from the outset. If you have the definition right, then you are likely to have the research objectives and questions right as well. (mostly extracted from the textbook by Hair et al, with some variations). Topic 1 - Identify market research needs Identify market research needs Where does it (a market research idea) begin? The idea for a research may have started in a boardroom discussion. One of the managers may have raised an issue and it was then decided that there was a need to have more information. Or business decisions cannot be made without additional information about the market, consumers or competitors. Or it could have been initiated by you as the market researcher. You may have decided that you need to research an area that may help the marketing people. Most likely the request has come from the marketing department to assist in making decisions about some new product or marketing strategy initiative they are thinking about. So a marketing research project is conceived. Liaising with the relevant personnel No matter how the idea was initiated, the marketing research manager will have to be able to communicate with relevant personnel to determine what information can assist them in their operations and decision-making. Relevant personnel include customers, enterprise owners, managers, supervisors, suppliers, and anyone who is involved with the topic or issues of the research. Contribution of marketing research You may need to communicate the role of marketing research to enterprise activity to the relevant personnel. The contribution of marketing research may include information on best practices, information about competitors, clients and stakeholders, as well as information to enable predictions for marketing, policy making, service development and delivery, and strategic planning. As the market researcher, you may also involve yourself in analysing enterprise planning and performance documentation (such as correspondence, financial reports, information about sales and sales force performance, and internal reports) to determine research needs. Market research needs What is the business problem? Will additional information assist in solving the problem? If so, what kind of information do they need? How much will it cost to obtain the information? You must delve into the symptoms, the causes, the underlying issues, and all their ramifications. Then you must be able to translate your discussions into a list of market research needs. There is always the trade-offs between costs, the 'good to know' information, and the 'must know' information. For a start, your role as a marketing research professional is make a contribution by listening to all the discussions and coming out with the right research approach. Research needs may include: research on competition: comparing consumer attitudes to an organisation's services and those of competitors identifying frequency of use of competitors' products and services identifying key competitors and their strengths measuring awareness research on consumers: developing detailed consumer profiles identifying changes in attitudes and behaviour patterns identifying existing, potential or lapsed consumers research on distribution: identifying attitudes towards location identifying cooperative opportunities for distribution of information or services identifying demand for products or services at other locations research on pricing: identifying attitudes towards prices testing alternative pricing strategies research on products and services: evaluating competitors' products evaluating consumer attitudes towards presentation and packaging identifying potential new products or services or ones which may be at the end of their life cycle measuring attitudes towards existing products or services research on promotion: measuring advertising and promotion effectiveness testing alternative messages testing and comparing different media options At the early stage of your research, you will need to develop a statement of research needs. Then you will have discussions with the relevant personnel to get their agreement on your statement. Collaboration or participation of others is critical to any research project because those people are likely to be the users of the research results or you will require their inputs. https://ols.oten.tafensw.edu.au/ols/resource/127/subject/BSBMKG506B_1/4642/P0042709_CD_BSBMKG506B%20Ed%201/bsbmkg506b/index.htm https://ols.oten.tafensw.edu.au/ols/resource/127/subject/BSBMKG506B_1/4642/P0042709_CD_BSBMKG506B%20Ed%201/bsbmkg506b/index.htm https://ols.oten.tafensw.edu.au/ols/resource/127/subject/BSBMKG506B_1/4642/P0042709_CD_BSBMKG506B%20Ed%201/bsbmkg506b/index.htm