Plan Market Research Assessment Essay

Introduction This Project scope â€Å"Regain† has been designed to involve all stakeholders of D.A. Garden Supplies so that all aspects of the business can be be analysed through collecting invaluable information and data by the research methods below. Our aim is to identify the cause of the problem that the business is going through right now so that future marketing can be targeted accordingly for positive results. With proper research and strategic planning, D.A. Garden Supplies should be able to recover its lost and on its way to a successful future. Preliminary project scope Project name: Regain Project Owner: Even Tan Sponsor: D.A. Garden Supplies Stakeholder: David and Alison Required resources, sample size and research assistance Resources required for the scope research will include human, financial and physical resources. These will be required for each type of data collection as follows: Focus Group – This is a small group of customers in a discussion to focus on the main thought of cause to the problem, the competition. Could be held in the lunch room over a 1 hour period. An external marketing professional would need to be hired to conduct the focus group and 6 participants from the target market would also be required for the discussion. Physical resources required are pens, paper, tea and coffee, brochures of competition and light refreshments. Overall cost including preparation of the focus group would be $550. Survey – After the focus group has taken place the survey can be developed from the data collected. The 5 min survey could be conducted at the local shopping centre focused on surveying a minimum of 30 to 60 people from the  target market over a 6 hour period. An external interviewing professional would need to be hired to conduct the survey and briefed on who to approach and what to say. Physical resources required include surveys, pens, clipboard and a bag to store completed surveys. Overall cost including preparation of survey and external staff would be $450. Research Reports and Internet Research – A specialist market research organisation will need to be hired to conduct this research and for analysing the data from these reports, survey results, interviewed staff and experiment of product. The cost for analysing this data into a detailed report would cost $740. Another cost would be the purchase of secondary data from Ibisworld. The â€Å"Garden supplies retailing in Australia market research report† is $845 and this will provide invaluable information into the industry. Interview Staff – This could be held in the lunch room each one of the 9 staff members should have a half hour interview conducted by external marketing professional. Physical resources required are a questionnaire and light refreshments. The total cost would be for development of the questionnaire and 4.5 hours of interviewing the staff, this would cost $650. Research Method and timeline This research are using both quantitative research and qualitative research, since it conducted surveys, focus group and meetings in order to gather needed information. Using qualitative method such as focus group able us to develop our survey, This way we know we will ask the correct questions that are needed when surveying our customers and potential customers. This method was chosen as it is beneficial in developing a successful survey. Using quantitative method for this research because it is easily analysed using statistical methods. For example, a survey is carried out to obtain information about people, such as their opinions, preferences, attitudes, expectations, likes and dislikes. This method was chosen as it directly targets our customers and potential customers to get their opinions on D.A. Garden Supplies and the competition. This whole research process going to take 2 weeks, that give us, the researcher enough time to analyze the data and come out with a detail solution on the problem. Data gathering Types of data required This research need a combination of data in order to get the best result. Secondary data- this data is information that already exists, information like the â€Å"Garden supplies retailing in Australia market research report† are statistics conducted by government. This resource is easier and cheaper to obtain, and it provide a great insight on the market itself. Primary data- this data does not exist, it requires the researcher to communicating with people or making observation about people and situation in order to generate the data. Although it is much harder and time consuming compare to secondary data, it is the most valuable resource for the company since it targets the specific problem that the company has. Formal Research and informal research- Conducting a survey able to cover a broad range of topics and able to gather as much information as the research need to, Informal research such as asking opinions from staff about the company and customers feedback and analysing the company sales statistics from internal records are the easiest way to gather in the shortest among of time, however, be careful with the data as it might be data that are not as subjective as primary and secondary data. Quantifying the data The sample size is chosen to maximise the chance of uncovering a specific mean difference, which is also statistically significant. The reason larger samples increase your chance of significance is because they more reliably reflect the population mean. Therefore it is necessary to conduct any survey or interview with as many participants as possible that is acceptable under the given financial budget. Data processing method There are some consideration in deciding how to process the data gathered will include: -type of analysis that will be required -the amount of data to be collected -available budget -available time Hiring an analyst able to handle a more complex data, and able to receive the most accurate data in a short amount of time. Less complex data can be dealt with a specialist statistical software, however it requires specific training and the software itself is expensive. Small market research can be dealt with Microsoft Excel as it able to handle basic statistics. Lastly, very basic calculation with small data sets can be undertaken using a statistical calculator. This research includes both quantitative and qualitative data, and result can be complex because it involves personal feelings and opinions from staff and consumers, therefore, hiring a statistician consider as the most appropriate method for this research, as they have the experience to deal with complex data and able to analyze all data and turn it into results that are easy to understand. Although it is expensive to conduct, if this research has done correctly, it could help D.A. Garden Supplies turn into a successful business. Draft Research Objective After our previous consultation and analysing the information in the scope the main objective is to find out if â€Å"the competition was the main cause for the 5% drop in sales† The sub-objectives are; 1) To examine customers and potential customers attitudes on the competition. 2) To identify needs of customers. 3) To determine whether new products need to be introduced. By using market research D.A. Garden Supplies will analyse the competition find the cause of the 5% drop in sales and then use this information to increase overall sales by 10%. Feasibility of the research and Conclusion Focus groups, interviewing staff and secondary data are all forms of exploratory research which essentially gather qualitative data, its findings are inconclusive and should not be used for final or important decision making. Therefore to make a final decision a survey or experiment must be conducted as they are both descriptive research which have quantitative data which makes the findings conclusive and useable. Therefore after analysing the above research methods, it could conclude that the focus group and survey would be the best data collecting methods to use to â€Å"find the cause of the 5% loss of sales profit for D.A. Garden Supplies† as it targets the customers and potential customers directly which will provide information needed to find whether the competition is the main cause. Although for the purpose of this research we will be using all of the research methods above as this will determine a thorough result. With this vital information we can eliminate the cause in future marketing plans making D.A. Garden Supplies sales successful in the future. If you find this project proposal are acceptable, I will need you, the business owner, David and Alison, and all other stakeholders to approve this research proposal.