Reference no: EM132633500

Learning Outcome 1: Apply marketing research process to collect, organise and analyse to receive qualitative data for deeper understanding of business problem/opportunity

Learning Outcome 2: Critically appraise ethical implications of marketing research process.

Learning Outcome 3: Able to develop judgements on the business problem by using marketing research for effective decision making

Learning Outcome 4: Prepare research report for the given research problem.

Part A Task

From the activities in Unit 1, 2 and Unit 3 you are expected to build clear understanding of the needs and expectations of the customer and influence of the environment on the various stakeholders of the business including the customer. Based on this knowledge and activities in Unit 4 you are required to develop and undertake a focus group to draw on the organizing, implementing and analyzing your findings of your research problem. In particular you will be expected to provide explicit evidence of using theory from Unit 4 and principles of ethics which form critical part of any marketing research process. This TMA requires you to draw on the focus group that you undertook as one of the marketing research activities in Unit 4 and be able to synthesize the information to develop knowledge which assists you towards effective decision making. Also work in collaboration with others to draw maximum insights and form informed opinion such as with customers to understand their attitude and behavior, with team members and stakeholders to work in congenial manner and make accurate decisions based on their expertise and be able to reflect and propose to team on your experiences and learnings to make decisions that add value for the organization.

Task:

You are member of core marketing research team of a company and are expected to present your judgements on the existing marketing problem/opportunity by following a marketing research process for the same to collect data and develop deeper understanding. The results will be presented to all the members of the team in the form of a report.

The marketing research process undertaken is for a new product to be launched in market and garnering understanding of customer attitude towards this product and whether they would purchase it. You are expected to draw on the collecting, organizing and analyzing findings of your research problem and be aware and adhere to ethical principles while collecting data. Based on this marketing research process you are also expected to reflect upon your experiences to be able to follow appropriate course of action for the given problem/opportunity. To achieve this task you would be required to:

A. Follow all the steps of the marketing research process

1. Defining the problem- Discuss the decision problems faced by the company to launch this new product and what are the key things it want to know by conducting this focus group

2. Formulation of research questions- Provide the research questions to address the key problems faced by the company

3. Research Design- In research design you

• Discuss the type of research you are doing ( Exploratory/descriptive or casual) with suitable justification

• Literature review- Review existing research on the key decision problem and the nature of the product such as if you are launching a new sanitizer especially for toilet seats, and want to understand attitude of customer on product attributes, in literature review you can discuss concept of toilet hygiene; various ways on improvements of hygiene conditions of public and shared toilets; perception of females associated with the risk on using public and shared toilets; Various diseases associated with using public and shared toilets etc.

4. Sampling Design- You describe the type of sampling method you followed and address the following

• Sample design: Based on the research questions, you need to describe what information you seek and from whom.

• Define your target respondent population and sample (participants) with justification on choosing this sample

• Provide Sample size

5. Type of Research used- Discuss the type of research method for example for using focus group you will write Qualitative research method and then discuss the following about focus group

• Discuss focus group logistics including time, location, frequency with proper justifications

• Incentives ( if any)

6. Data collection and Analysis- Discuss the process followed to collect for example note taking, recording with prior permission etc and process used for data analysis such as thematic analysis etc. The discussion needs to be presented in proper tabulated manner as appendices with complete transcript and identification of the emergent themes.

B. Findings

On basis of major themes emerged from the focus group, synthesize the result and describe the findings with respect to your research questions. The discussion should be reflecting marketing professional's sound reasoning, experiences drawn from verbal and non-verbal inputs of the participants and results drawn from the focus group.

C. Able to develop judgements on the business problem by using marketing research for effective decision making

On basis of the marketing research process followed you should be able to form a deeper understanding based on data collected about the business problem/opportunity and present your judgment to the entire team for effective decision making in form of a report. You should be able to propose the effective measures the company should take to address this problem/opportunity based on principles of marketing/marketing approaches.

D. Critically appraise ethical implications of marketing research process

You should provide evidences of good understanding the ethical principles applicable to your marketing research process and adhere to the same. Hence you have to ensure that the ethical principles are followed in the data collection process and are suitably described in the report and attaching the evidences in appendices

TMA requirement is that TMA is augmented based on the TGF discussions. You would share your identified decision problems in the TGF. Based on the discussion and reviews, you should finalize your business problem, be able to develop your problem definition, formulate the research questions and objectives and identify the appropriate methodology.

Word limit: 1500 words

Part B

Personal experience sharing

We would like you to reflect on what you have learned personally from undertaking the focus group discussed in Part A of this TMA.

This learning can be from both a professional and personal perspective, for example:

Are there certain actions or behaviours during the activity that you did particularly well or that you would wish to improve?

Word limit: 500 words Academic writing

Be able to write cohesively, follow the academic writing approach in writing and presentation; adherence to the structure; use of academic language; no grammatical errors; extensive use of quality references with proper citations.

TMA Specification: TMA submission will be conditional. It is expected to be build based on the discussions on the tutor group forum (TGF) activities and developed further. Hence the submission and active participation in TGF will allow you to qualify for the TMA submission. If student submits and actively participates in making revisions based on feedback provided he will be allowed to submit the TMA.