Learning Outcomes
1. Apply marketing research process to collect, organise and analyse to receive qualitative data for deeper understanding of business problem/opportunity
2. Critically appraise ethical implications of marketing research process.
3. Able to develop judgements on the business problem by using marketing research for effective decision making
4. Prepare research report for the given research problem.
Word Limit: 2000 words
This guide contains details of the assessment for BB844 which comprises of one tutor-marked assignment (TMA) which is for 100 marks with weightage of 50% .
For this TMA you will be using concepts and ideas from Unit 1, 2, 3 and 4. Draw on the learnings from Unit 2 (Who is the customer?) to understand the importance of all the stakeholders in the organization and on its marketing process and be able to identify their roles, expectations and influence on the marketing activities and work in a collaborative manner to develop synergy, from Unit 3 (Understanding the environment) be able to understand the influence of micro and macro business environment on the organization and its marketing activities. This knowledge equips you to understand the customer and his behavior vis a vis the dynamic environment he operates and show variations in his behavior toward the offerings of the organization. You also need to understand Unit 4 Information systems and customer insights to conduct the marketing research in structured manner as per steps in the process.
The TMA comprises two parts:
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 to assess how your brand stands out in your competitive landscape, the focus group is conducted to draw useful insights. Focus group will help you understand how people truly feel about your brand, product, or service. The focus here should be on your company — not the larger industry landscape or your competitors. You also want to collect your customers’ feedback and suggestions for improvement which is crucial to retaining customers and turning them into promoters of your brand.
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 ( 40 Marks)
1. Defining the problem- Discuss the decision problems faced by the company to assess where brand stands out in competitive landscape 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.
A. Findings (15 Marks)
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.
B. Able to develop judgements on the business problem by using marketing research for effective decision making (15 Marks)
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.
C. Critically appraise ethical implications of marketing research process (10 Marks)
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 (70 marks)
Part B
Personal experience sharing (10 Marks)
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 (10 Marks)
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.
(to be shared with students)
| Part A | Criteria | Marks |
| Marketing research process | Application of marketing research process of focus group discussion. Problem Definition; Research Design; Sample Design; Research type; Data collection and Analysis | 40 |
| Findings | Key Findings or Key Insights (Five bullets); Overall observations | 15 |
| Able to develop judgements on the business problem by using marketing research for effective decision making | Propose the effective measures the company should take to address this problem/opportunity | 15 |
| Critically appraise ethical implications of marketing research process. | Describe various ethical principles that hold good in the marketing research followed and how were they adhered to | 10 |
| Part B | ||
| Personal experience sharing | What is the learning outcome of the focus group activity in terms of data collection and conduct of the activity | 10 |
| Academic writing | Cohesive writing; presentation; language and grammatical errors; References; Word Count | 10 |
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