Marketing Research Assignment on Management and Research Problems

Question

Task: Part A
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 drawing on the organizing, implementing and analyzing your findings of your research problem.

You are to write a report to the marketing manager of the organization you chose in the activity in Unit 4. You are required to summarize and evaluate the:

• Effectiveness of the marketing research process undertaken in conducting your focus group exercise (e.g. forming your sample group – marks will be awarded for evaluation of an honest assessment of what went according to your plans and what did not)
TMA requirement is that TMA is augmented based on the TGF discussions. You would share your identified focus problems in the TGF. Based on the discussion and reviews, you should choose your business problem, be able to develop your problem definition, formulate the research questions and objectives and identify the appropriate methodology.

Part B
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
• In what ways do you think you could improve your own practice in relation to gathering data analyse information and use intelligence

Word limit: 500 words (30 marks)

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.

Answer

Part A:
Introduction
Marketing research process helps to analyse the problems that are involved in the development of a specific marketing campaign related to a specific product of any organisation. A number of steps are involved in the marketing research process and differences are there in the management and research problem. Those steps and differences are identified here along with the evaluation of qualitative techniques used for primary data collection.

Steps involved in the marketing research process
The processes involved in the marketing research are identification of the problem, setting the research aims and objective, determining the design of the research, planning the sample, collecting the required data, analysing those data and formulating conclusion from the analysis.
Identification of the problem: In order to initiate the market research process the identification of the problem experienced by the organisation needs to be defined. The problem statement should be taken into consideration so that it can be found the way to deal with the problems and resolving it properly (FLEAC, et al. 2016).
Identifying research aims and objective: In the next step, research objectives and aims are needed to be defined so that the extent of the research problem can be defined. The research aim can illustrate the significance of the problem statement. Research Design planning: After defining the objectives and the problems related to the marketing research process, the design of the research needs to be determined. As the needed information is to be collected and analysed the specific procedure should be developed and Research Design can be a master plan into it (Benzo, et al. 2017).
Sample planning: It can be found that in order to collect the proper and first hand information, the population or number of samples is to be defined. The target population and right representation of samples are needed to be taken into consideration. Data Collection process: Collection of data is needed in order to resolve the problem regarding the marketing research. In order to develop the methods of market research, both the primary and secondary data can be taken into consideration (Kennedy, \ 2017). Whereas the human interaction can be used as the primary data source, the secondary data sources are comprised of the reports, articles journals and other Publications.

Data analysis: In order to generate the research, the collected data needs to be analysed so that the right outcome of the research can be generated properly. The responses of the respondents need to be categorised properly so that the transferring off the data to the data storage media can be developed properly. Moreover the right analytical technique needs to be chosen so that the outcome will be right.
Conclusion formulation: It is the final stage of marketing research process where the information is interpreted and conclusions are drawn to be used for managerial decision making. In fact the Research report will be developed upon this segment. Differences of the management and research problem in the given context To Management Research problem are dependent on the action oriented problems where as the research problem involves Collection of data, sampling and the analysis of collected data. The management research problem can be identified as one of the problems which are experienced by the management of a specific organisation (Birks, 2016). On the other hand, the research problem can be developed on many aspects which are not related to the organisation particularly. In the given context, thus, the research problem would be different as it is related to the problems of the marketing research and its problems

Application and evaluation of qualitative techniques for primary data collection
Primary Data collection is one of the most effective techniques that can be helpful in terms of making sure that real time data related with a particular subject is incorporated in the research. In this case, the researcher needs to make sure that he or she asks the right questions to the right stakeholders who will be considered as the research participants. However, there are several techniques related with primary qualitative data collection such as the following.

Individual Interview – It can be said that interview is the most popular technique related with qualitative research and in this case, researchers can acquire more detailed information from individuals who are directly related with a topic or situation (Horrocks, 2018). Creating list of questions and making appointments with the participants are the activities related with this technique.

Focus Groups – In this technique, research can get information which can be easily generalized. The statements from individuals are put under critical analysis as different people in the same location can provide contrasting information. Gathering a group of participants and creating a list of questions are the main activities. Observations – Observation can be regarded as the easiest way of collecting qualitative data and in this case the researcher sees a certain situation or event just to understand the changes or the developments which is visible to the naked eye (Choi, 2018). However, there are no guarantees of the researcher understanding specific changes in detailed manner.

Conclusion
The success of any business organisation largely depends on how the company and its management are able to align itself with changes in the internal as well as the external environment. However, understanding of the environment is very important and in this case, different research questions can be very helpful in understanding the alignment of the different business environments. The report was very effective in providing the opportunity to learn about such techniques.

Part B:
Are there certain actions or behaviours during the activity that you did particularly well or that you would wish to improve It can be said that I was very excited when I got the opportunity to execute this assignment and therefore I decided to put my best foot forward in execution of this assignment. However, during the execution phase I understood that I had issues with my time management skills. In this case, I faced some difficulties in managing my other personal commitment while being aligned with my academic commitments and therefore I think that there is some room for improvement in terms of time management and I must make time tables in order to accommodate my different commitments. I will try and make sure that I am able to cut down on my commitments so that the important activities are on top of my list in terms of allocating time.

In what ways do you think you could improve your own practice in relation to gathering data analyse information and use intelligence
I think that the most effective way to improve my research skills is by making sure that I am able to access all effective online sources. In my opinion, as technology develops, all the literature sources will be available online and therefore, in order to effectively execute secondary data collection, the online sources must be accessed. It can be said that the internet is also helpful in terms of primary data which is quantitative in nature. There are several websites and platforms in the internet that can be used for online chat and this will be helpful in gathering information from participants who live far from the researcher. However, in order to be effective in gathering data from these online techniques, one has to be aware of the websites and how the access them from different browsers. In this case I will also look to improve my research skills and make sure that I am able to surf the internet and learn about different platforms related with data collection.

References
Benzo, R., Mohsen, M.G. and Fourali, C., 2017. Marketing research: planning, process, practice. Sage.
Birks, D.F., 2016. Marketing research.In The Marketing Book (pp. 188-212).Routledge.
FLEAC, E., FLEAC, B. and Maiduc, S., 2016. Fostering Organizational Innovation based on modeling the marketing research process through event-driven process chain (EPC). TEM J, 5, pp.460-466.
Kennedy, A.M., 2017. Macro-social marketing research: philosophy, methodology and methods. Journal of Macromarketing, 37(4), pp.347-355.
King, N., Horrocks, C. and Brooks, J., 2018. Interviews in qualitative research. SAGE Publications Limited.
Roulston, K. and Choi, M., 2018.Qualitative interviews. The SAGE handbook of qualitative data collection, pp.233-249.