Plan market research

Assessment Task 2: Project – planning market research

Part 1: Identify and present market research needs
The first part of this project requires you to prepare and present a power point presentation to your assessor
and class colleagues. Your presentation should last approximately 10 minutes. Your power point
presentation should clearly explain and provide sufficient detail on:
1. General information on the function and importance of market research.
2. The company’s position in the market place (and including market trends) and why you believe
market research would be of benefit to the company.
3. A statement of what you believe the company’s market research needs are (and as discussed with
your assessor in meeting prior to commencing Part 1) and based on the documentation that you
have reviewed. You will also need to state what the documentation is and explain how it assisted
you to come to your decision about what area of market research would be most useful.
4. Draft objectives for the market research to be conducted.
5. A scoping of the proposed market research that describes timelines for conducting the research,
human, financial and physical resources required, whether the market research can be conducted by
internal staff or if external assistance is also required, possible methodologies, sample size, etc.
At the end of your presentation you should seek feedback on your presentation and the planned market
research, including research objectives.
Your assessor and/or colleagues will provide you with feedback and you should use this to inform your
planned market research, including objectives.
Following the presentation, you must email your powerpoint presentation to your assessor and indicate
where you have made changes to your planned market research, including objectives based on any
feedback provided at the presentation.

Email:

To: ling@barklycollege.com
The purpose of this email is to update you regarding the changes has been made to present a more
effective marketing objectives and also the other relating information include in the presentation slides. The
report also include the approach to data collection for the planned market research. It also outline the types
of data that could be used in relation to the planned market research such as quantitative and qualitative
data. Possible combinations of types of data and data collection methods that would best inform the
research objectives also listed in the report. Besides that, it also shows how the data will be possessed and
reviewed.

Best regards,
Pei En Kong

Part 2: Plan market research

The next part of the project is to plan the type of data you will collect and how you will collect it, as
well as the costs of collection and analysis. For this part of the assessment, you will need to prepare
and send a briefing paper to your manager (supervisor) outlining your approach to data collection
for the planned market research. Your briefing paper should be written in plain English and should
be clear and easy to follow. Your briefing paper should be clear and include sufficient information
on the following:
§ The types of data that could be used in relation to the planned market research e.g. quantitative
and/or qualitative and primary and/or secondary

§ government statistics: The official statistical agency of Australia is the Australian Bureau of
Statistics. It’s a valuable source of information on economic, environmental, industrial, demographic
and regional statistics, used by governments, businesses, the education sector and the wider
community. The statistic provides online information, subscriptions, in-depth access to information
consultancy expert survey advice and statistical training.
§ qualitative data: It is the information about qualities, information that can’t actually be measured.
Some examples of qualitative data are the softness of your skin, the grace with which you run, and
the color of your eyes. It is the statement that use to describe the qualities of the data.
§ sales figures: It is the overall sum of expenditures made by consumers of a product or set of
products within some time frame and economic region. A marketing analyst working for a
manufacturing business might look at overall recent sales figures within product categories relevant
to their company’s product line to assess how confident.
§ The range of possible methodologies for collecting the data e.g. interview, focus groups, surveys,
analysis of statistics, etc.
● focus groups: It is a gathering of deliberately selected people who participate in a planned discussion that is
intended to elicit consumer perceptions about a particular topic or area of interest in an environment that is non-
threatening and receptive. The focus group is a collective on purpose. Unlike an interview, which usually occurs with

an individual, the focus group method allows members of the group to interact and influence each other during the
discussion and consideration of ideas and perspectives.

● mail surveys: Mail surveys are a quantitative marketing research data collection method in which respondents

complete questionnaires on paper and return them via the mail. Some marketing research companies specialize in a
particular marketing research methodology, and tend to recommend that method for any or all situations. Mail

surveys are an appropriate methodology for businesses and organizations to identify customer satisfaction or
member satisfaction, improvements and changes customers would like to see, customer reaction to an

organization’s future plans and time sensitive issues, such as customer complaints or problems.

● use of questionnaires and other tools by staff to record data about enterprise activities: Is a research instrument

consisting of a series of questions for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. It have advantages

over some other types of surveys in that they are cheap, do not requires as much effort from the questioner as
verbal or telephone surveys, and often have standardized answers that make it simple to compile data.

Questionnaires are also sharply limited by the fact that respondents must be able to read the questions and respond
to them.

§ Possible combinations of types of data and data collection methods that would best inform the
research objectives.
 § qualitative data: It is primarily exploratory research. It is used to gain an understanding of
underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. It provides insights into the problem or helps to
develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research. It is also used to uncover trends in
thought and opinions, and dive deeper into the problem. Some common methods include focus
groups, individual interviews, and participation or observations. The sample size is typically small,
and respondents are selected to fulfil a given quota.
§ quantitative data: It is used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical data or data
that can be transformed into usable statistics. It is used to quantify attitudes, opinions, behaviors,
and other defined variables and generalize results from a larger sample population. It uses
measurable data to formulate facts and uncover patterns in research. The data collection methods
are much more structured than qualitative data collection methods. It include various forms of
surveys such as online surveys, paper surveys, mobile surveys and kiosk surveys, face-to-face
interviews, telephone interviews, longitudinal studies, website interceptors, online polls, and
systematic observations.

§ How much data is needed e.g. if you are conducting interviews or focus groups, how many?

Types of data How much data is needed

case study 23,500

focus groups 15,000

literature searches 37,000

mail surveys 55,400

§ Data sources e.g. sources in relation to secondary data.

§ articles and advertisements: It is a means of communication with the users of a product or

services. Advertisements are messages paid for by those who send them and are intended to
inform or influence people who receive them. Advertising uses every possible media to get
its message through. It does this through television, print newspapers and magazines,
internet, direct selling, sponsorship and events.
§ government bodies: They are the group of officials who draw up the rules that govern the
actions and conduct of a body such as a school, university, or sport, and who ensure that
these rules are followed. By collecting data from these sources allow the company to prevent
facing any issue of misconduct the rules. Collectively all these bodies have considerable
decision-making powers which greatly impact upon the economic and social well-being of all
the residences.
 § industry associations and trade media: IBISWorld identifies 250 key success factors for a
business. The most important for the industry association industry are ability to attract local
support, ensuring pricing policy is appropriate and ability to educate the wider community.
Many operators in the industry association industry have improved their services, which has
boosted membership numbers and driven revenue growth.
§ other research projects: It allow more better understand evolving community needs and
inform program development and refinement. Besides that, it measures the outcomes of
programs and account for use of resources. It also allow to promote organizational learning
and create new understanding about what works and what does not.

§ How the data will be processed and reviewed e.g. manually or using specialised software and your
rationale for this approach.

§ data processing service experts: Data processing and information systems are a must-have
in an organization of any size. It does not count whether the company handle large volumes
of raw data or are involved with small amount of data, the company must know that data
conversion and data processing is vital to the company business and in making strategic
decisions.
§ packaged analysis routines or programs: It is a program package presented for routine
analysis, on a low cost minicomputer, of data obtained. The programs, with the aid of a
graphic capability, provide calculations of various properties of cell populations. The system
is designed to allow either direct analysis or for storage of raw data on tape files for analysis
at a later time.
§ specialist software packages: Efficiency is one of the main benefit for the company when
using a digital estimation software. It’s essential that the staff have the ability to track all the
back orders, stored materials and the ones that have already been installed in a recent build.
Estimating software drives this accuracy, allowing the company to establish the build’s
closest true cost.

§ The costs of the data collection methods discussed.

Data collection methods Costs

Selected data collection method 1: $4,500

Focus group

Selected data collection method 2: $2,000

Mail survey

Selected data collection method 3: $1,500

Use of questionnaires and other
tools by staff to record data about
enterprise activities
§ Your recommended options for collecting and analysing the data, including a consideration of the
costs of data collection against the budget.
Recommended data Costs Budget
collection methods

Selected data collection $3,000 $3,500

method 1: Interview

Selected data collection $3,500 $3,500

method 2: Observation

Selected data collection $1,200 $2,000

method 3: Focus group
session
Based on the above table, Interview and focus group data collection method is the most efficient
because the cost for both of the method is less than the budget allocated by more than $500.
You should provide the memo by the due date specified by your assessor.
Part 3: Develop a market research plan

The final part of the project is to develop a market research plan for approval by your manager
(assessor).
Your plan will essentially summarise the work that you have completed in Parts 1 and 2 of this
assessment task.
Your plan will need to be submitted with a covering email. The covering email should refer to the
plan attached and should also include a clear recommendation for why you believe the market
research should be conducted. The recommendation is to convince your Manager to undertake the
research so it needs to be sufficiently detailed, as well as providing a strong argument for
conducting the research.
Your plan should be clear and sufficient detailed and include:

Proposed email:

To: james.harden889@eryc.com.au
Cc: michael.porter283@eryc.com.au
Bcc: kristy.chan832@eryc.com.au

Subject: Proposal to conduct the market research within ERCY Fashion clothing company
Dear James,
As we know that because of the opposition of this industry we are confronting the regularly
changing requests from our clients and commercial center. To be more aggressive in this industry
we should be furnished with the better learning and comprehension of our market pattern and
conditions. Thusly I recommend that we have to lead the statistical surveying to be more learned
with our industry. The synopsis of reasons are as below:
§ Background to the planned market research – a summary of the information from the powerpoint
presentation

§ Function and importance of market research: The exploratory function of marketing

research occurs when researchers have a limited understanding or no knowledge at all about
a marketing situation or a particular outcome. For example, a company may be losing
customers or sales may be declining, but managers are not sure why. Marketing research can
be used to explore some of the possible causes of lost sales or customers.
§ Company’s market position: It refers to the consumer’s perception of a brand or product in
relation to competing brands or products. Market positioning refers to the process of
establishing the image or identity of a brand or product so that consumers perceive it in a
certain way. The positioning of a brand or product is a strategic process that involves
marketing the brand or product in a certain way to create and establish an image or identity
within the minds of the consumers in the target market.
§ Market trends: It is a perceived tendency of financial markets to move in a particular
direction over time. These trends are classified as secular for long time frames, primary for
medium time frames, and secondary for short time frames. Traders attempt to identify market
trends using technical analysis, a framework which characterizes market trends as
predictable price tendencies within the market when price reaches support and resistance
levels, varying over time.
§ Benefits of market research to ERCY Fashion clothing company: Once the company have
the research result, the company should have enough ammunition to formulate the most
effective way to communicate to the customers. The company should know what the
customer want, like or don’t like. The the company can tailor what the company say to the
customer to make the customer take action. Research might make it obvious that a new
product the company have planned may not be what the market wants or needs. The
company may then decide to make modifications on what the company are going to offer to
suit the audience.
§ Company’s market research needs: To market effectively, businesses need information,
information about customer wants, market demand, competition, distribution channels and
so on. This information needs to be updated regularly, because businesses operate in a
dynamic environment. The businesses need accurate and up-to-date information because
there are some factors such as changes in technology, changes in consumer tastes, change
in the product ranges of competitors and changes in economic conditions.
§ Market research objectives: A variety of problems can arise if research objectives are not
clearly defined at the beginning stages of the survey research project. The very first things
the researchers should do is work with the research team or clients to clearly identify each
research objective. Research objectives consist of general description describing the types
and categories of information the researcher wants to obtain from the survey. Throughout the
survey project plan, the main objectives inform and steer the research team in the right
direction.
§ Market research scoping: The scope of marketing research means the possible applications
of marketing research in corporate environment. Bulk of research is done to measure
consumer needs and wants. Besides, marketing research is carried out to assess the impact
 of past marketing actions. Some research is done to understand the competitive,
technological, social, economic, cultural, political or legal environments of the market.
§ Objectives of the planned market research

§ Is there a demand for my product or service?

It influenced by various factors, such as price, consumer’s income, and growth of population.
For example, the demand for apparel changes with change in fashion and tastes and
preferences of consumers. The extent to which these factors influence demand depends on
the nature of a product.
§ Who buys my products (e.g. age, gender, income, occupation, and lifestyle)?
Different types of people have different types of needs and wants. Even from the same
product. There are some free tool like SurveyMonkey to send out a survey asking the
audience what they are currently demanding with and ask them about the product.

§ Research methodology including types of data, data collection methods

The selected data collection methods are:
§ Selected data collection method 1: Focus group
§ Selected data collection method 2: Mail surveys
§ Selected data collection method 3: Use Questionnaires
Types of data used in the research project are:
§ Data type 1: Quantitative data
§ Data type 2: Qualitative data
§ Data type 3: Qualitative data
§ Data analysis methodology

§ feedback on results: It is the process in which part of the output of a system is returned to
its input in order to regulate its further output. It should be an essential part of education,
training and personal development. It helps learners to maximize their potential at different
stages of training, raise their awareness of strengths and areas for improvement, and identify
actions to be taken to improve performance.
§ statistical analysis: Business analytics software and services provider SAS defines
statistical analysis as the science of collecting, exploring and presenting large amounts of
data to discover underlying patterns and trends. There are two main types of statistical
analysis that are descriptive and inference, also known as modeling. Descriptive statistics
intend to describe a big hunk of data with summary charts and tables, but do not attempt to
draw conclusions about the population from which the sample was taken. It enables to
present the data in a more meaningful way. Inferential statistics are a way to study the data
even further. It allows organisations to test a hypothesis and draw conclusions about the
data.
§ Timelines for conducting the research
This market research started from 17/11/18 to 04/12/18.
§ The identified costs of conducting the research.
The costs of conducting the research is $13,500.