Reference no: EM132591601 , Length: word count:3000

Details of the assignment:

Prepare an individual essay of 3,000 words which critically analysis in both theory and practice the role market segmentation and marketing research plays in a strategic marketing. This should be undertaken with respect to a real/imaginary company of your choice located in the Middle East.

a) A critical analysis of marketing theory concerning ‘Market Segmentation'.

b) A critical review of how your chosen company could employ ‘Marketing Research' to develop appropriate market segmentation, targeting and position with its customers in the real world.
c) Coherency and referencing.
- You are required to use at least 12 academic references and use Harvard referencing.

Part A - Market Segmentation

1. Choose a company (you can make one up sensibly)
2. A brief background to the company
3. What is segmentation? - Brief definition plus the importance of segmentation.
4. How does your chosen company segment its market currently?
5. Discuss the various methods of segmentation
6. Evaluate different segmentation approaches and see if your company should adopt them, and if not, why not?
All the above, in red, should be underpinned with theory (references)
7. Provide a summary/short conclusion. Tell the reader what you are doing next, i.e. Marketing Research (what can be done better using Market Research)

Part B- Marketing Research.

8. Discuss your proposed research approach - what type of research design (exploratory, descriptive, or causal - or a mixture of two or more approaches) you feel would be appropriate.
a) Discuss descriptive research if you want to understand consumers' attitudes for developing segments.
b) Discuss exploratory, qualitative, research if you want to understand consumers' feelings and motivations
c) Add one or two references from marketing research literature.
9. Discuss your proposed targets (customers of the company).
a) Discuss how you intend to select respondents for your research (sampling issues: talk about random or non-random sampling methods briefly and suggest how you should select the respondents).
b) Add a reference about sampling here from marketing research literature.
10. Discuss your proposed questionnaire you want to use to gather data on customers
a) What kind of scales you are going to use to ask attitudinal, behaviour and demographic questions. (You are not required to design a questionnaire, just list down the points to be covered).
b) Add a reference about questionnaire design here from marketing research literature.
11. Discuss, briefly the important issues of validity and reliability here.
a) Add a reference about validity and reliability here from marketing research literature.

Part C - Coherency and referencing

Please note: You are NOT required to do any research or data collection. You are simply required to propose what you would do and how you would do it ifit was a real study.