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Training Package

BSB15 -Business Services Training Package

Course Name:

BSB42415 Certificate IV in Marketing and communication

Unit Name:

BSBMKG408 Conduct market research

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Student Name

Current Address

Assessor Name:

Result

Individual Assessments result

Assess 1-Activity

S NS

Final Result

Assess 2- Written

S NS

Assess 3- Project

S NS

Assessor Signature

Date

Feedback to Student

I have received the Assessment Feedback on _________________________(Date)

Students Signature

Assessor Signature

Date

BSBMKG408 Conduct market research (Activity and Assessment responses) This is the document to submit at the completion of this unit.

Student’s Name

Assessor’s Name

Assessment Competence and assessment information

To be assessed as competent participants must provide evidence of their knowledge and skills relative to this unit of competence.

They must successfully complete a number of assessment activities to the standard and the performance benchmarks required for the qualification level.

Cheating and plagiarism

Cheating and plagiarism are unacceptable and will be subject to disciplinary action.

Plagiarism is using the ideas or work of another person/s as if they were your own without giving proper credit to the source.

If participants use materials from published authors, to support their assignment work, they must cite and reference the works correctly; if they do not know how to do this the trainer/ assessor should provide assistance or direct them to the Harvard referencing system (or similar) on the Internet.

Cheating is defined as obtaining, attempting to obtain or aiding another to obtain credit for work or any improvement in evaluation of performance, by any dishonest or deceptive means.

Instructions for participants

Trainer/ assessors should provide participants with clear advice and information about the: date, time and place for assessment

structure of the assessment

number of times performance must be observed amount or type of assistance participants can expect assessment environment

resources required for assessment

performance standards or benchmarks relevant to the qualification (at the appropriate AQF level)

BSBMKG408: Conduct market research - Formative assessments (Workbook exercises)

Activity 1.

1.When conducting research on behalf of your organisation or for a client organisation, how will you determine the most appropriate data sources to use? (30-50 words)

The first criteria will be cost associated with the various data sources used. The primary data sources are generally more expensive and time consuming as compared to the secondary sources. The second criteria is the importance of the issue studied, generally the more important aspects require that primary data is gathered and analysed.

2.Why are cross-checks and cross-references necessary when gathering background market information? (75-100 words)

Both cross checks and cross referencing relate to the quality of data that has been collected by the organization. Background market information can come from many sources. The authenticity of information thus gathered should be ascertained by checking the same information through some other source. This can be done by getting same information with the help of some third party. Cross referencing is an academic way for authenticating a secondary data source. This means that the same source has been used by some other relevant study as well.

Activity 2.

1.Provide three examples of sources and three examples tools you might use to collect and

collate data. Choose an example of each and explain why would you use them in a short sentence?

Survey is a source of primary data and questionnaire is a tool used to conduct a survey. We will use this method when there are a large number of respondents across a geographical area. Internet is a source of data and qualitative analysis is a tool used to collect the data. We will use this type of data collection when the variables cannot be expressed in terms of numbers. The internet as a source of data is also used to collect quantitative data. This form of data is used when the researcher is interested in studying the relationship between some variables.

2.Why should your desk research include the collection and analysis of data relative to the organisation's current and past performance? (100-150 words)

The trend analysis is an important part of the research and in marketing, this analysis is even more important especially in terms of customer retention and sales figures. The organization’s current and past performance analysis will mean that the researcher is completely aware of the weaknesses in the organization and he can come up with appropriate solutions to these problems through research.

Activity 3.

1.Why do you think it might be necessary to obtain approval for the format of market research documentation? (30-50 words)

This will be necessary because the presentation of data should be uniform across the organization. The format will be approved by the higher authorities and they will know what specific information will be presented to them and in what manner. This uniformity will make the interpretation of this data much easier.

2.Describe and explain the reporting formats that might be required to follow when submitting desk research results.(30-50 words)

The qualitative data gathered will be presented in the form of graphs while the quantitative data will be presented in the form of tables extracted from the data analysis software like SPSS.

Activity 4.

1.What is the difference between working and null hypotheses? Provide your own examples of each. (75-125 words)

The null hypothesis is a statement that is accepted or rejected on the basis of data analysis and results. The working hypothesis is not explicitly written while conducting the research. Statistically the working hypothesis is the opposite of the null hypothesis and usually uses the inequality sign.

2.How do these hypotheses help to focus the research? (50-75 words)

These hypotheses include the variables to be used in the research. The literature review provides evidence from the past research on the topic under consideration. The relevant data will be gathered to check whether the stated relationships exist or not. The end result is the rejection or acceptance of the null hypothesis.

Activity 5.

1.Under what circumstances might you need to conduct qualitative market research data on behalf of your organisation or an organisation for which you consult? That is, why would you choose to conduct qualitative rather than quantitative research, what would your intentions be with regard to the data collection and analysis and what would you expect the results to show? Use an example to illustrate your response. (50-75 words)

Qualitative data is used to ascertain the association between the variables that are not easily quantified. Example can be given when association between honesty and job satisfaction is studied. Data for both these variables will be gathered with the help of questionnaires and the results will show graphs depicting the answers by the respondents.

2.Explain what a measure of central tendency is and how it is used in analysing/ quantifying market research data. Provide an example to illustrate your response. (100-150 words)

The measures of central tendency show how much the values in the data tend to move towards the centre of the data. In other words, how much difference is there between the individual values and the measure of central tendency used? In the previous example, honesty can be analysed using the mean of scores of respondent on the given scale. The median is the middle most value of the data which can be used when the variables like intelligence level are used in a study. It will be wrong to take the average of intelligence scores ignoring the very low and very high scores. In this case median will be more appropriate. Mode is used when the frequency of occurrence is the most important aspect in the data CITATION htt181 \l 1033 (https://statistics.laerd.com, 2018).

Activity 6.

1.Identify when and why face-to-face surveys might be used as a research method. (30-50

words)

This method will be used when the data gathering company has a huge amount of resources both in terms of time and finances. The other reasons to use this way may be that the researcher needs to gather direct responses.

2.Identify when and why focus groups might be used as a research method. (30-50 words)

This method is used when opinions of more than one person is required on an issue without showing any intent to prove anyone right or wrong. These focus groups are constantly observed by the researcher conducting the research and he notes all the responses without coming to the forefront.

3.Identify when and why formal written surveys might be used as a research method. {30-50 words)

These types of surveys will be used when the response has to be gathered from a wide range of geographical area. This is also less costly as compared to the face to face survey method.

Activity 7.

Why is it essential that market research plans demonstrate that they will collect information that will enable clear identification of customer needs, wants and expectations? Who might be the potential respondents be if this is the aim of the research? (75-100 words)

All marketing efforts undertaken by the company should be focussed on the customer. This means that the market research should also be focused on the customers. The major aspect of the customers that is important for the marketers is their needs and wants. The expectation is also an important part of the process. The satisfaction of customer needs is matched to the expectation that he has about the performance of product. The customers should be directly approached if the market research wants to obtain data on customer needs and wants.

Activity 8.

1.Explain the procedures that you would follow to identify and to select respondents for a product/ service survey. (25-50 words)

Choosing a sample from the population is the way to identify the respondents. The sample will depend upon the research goals and the product or service that has been used for the research.

2.A person who has been involved in product development tells you that there is no need to determine the market for that product and that it should be marketed to all people. You are trying to tell them that it is necessary to identify specific respondents when conducting market research. How would you politely tell them that they are wrong? (75-100 words)

The mass marketing is an expensive procedure and it is also suitable for the products which have a large number of close substitutes. Market segmentation is an easier way to reach the target market with tailored products. This method is also less expensive as compared to mass marketing. The major advantage of segmenting market is that all the parties involved in the formation of marketing plan will clearly know who their customers are. This will help the business in focusing all the resources towards attaining the customer satisfaction.

Activity 9.

Explain how you might recruit and qualify respondents to provide feedback on the quality of furniture in a hotel room. {50-75 words)

The recruitment will be done based on the fact that the person has used the facility of residing in that particular hotel or used the furniture from the same outlet as used by hotel. The qualification of the respondents will also include that they have visited the hotel for a minimum number of times. The recruitment aspect can also include the rewards of stay at the same hotel.

Activity10.

1.You have asked a junior staff member to prepare the facilities and equipment needed for a research event. How would you explain the importance of doing this? Provide at least three examples of reasons you would give to them.

The sales of the company have been on a drop and we have to research out the reasons for this decline. There is a major segment in the market that has not been targeted by our company and market research has to be conducted to assess how this segment can be targeted effectively. The market research will also allow us to explore some new markets for our products.

2.The junior staff member is preparing resources need to gather data from a focus group. The focus group is made up of women who will be asked to provide feedback about moisturisers and other skin products that they use. What will the staff member need to prepare? Provide at least five examples.

The demographic information should be gathered related to the women. The various variants of the moisturisers and other skin products should be researched. The prices of these various products should also be noted. The data on products that are specific to skin types should also be gathered. Data on the reactions on skins after using these products should also be gathered.

Activity11.

1.You have asked parents with infants to complete a written survey about the safety features they look for when choosing cots and bassinets. What information/ data might it be necessary to record after this market research is complete? Provide at least five examples.

The material that the cot is made up of, the chances that the kid will fall off the cot, he ages of infants, number of hours that the infant will be spending in the cot and prices of different makes of the cots.

2.Why is it necessary to ensure that survey information and data are stored and safeguarded appropriately? (100-150 words)

The researcher has to make sure that the data collected is only used for the purpose for which it has been originally gathered. Leakage of such data will mean that this can be used for some negative purposes. This is especially true for the personal data like address and phone number. There should be a clear statement on the survey forms that indicate that the data will be kept safe and will be used for the said project only. Failing to keep the data safe may lead to some legal action from the respondents.

Activity 12.

1.What procedures would you follow to check the quality of the data you collect during market research? Provide at least ten examples.

We can check the reliability of the measures used to represent a concept. The validity aspect is used to check whether components of the concepts are valid over time or not. The quantitative data is checked for outliers which can affect the measures of central tendency used. The regression model run on the quantitative data must represent the relationship between variables in a powerful way. This is shown by the value of R estimated in the regression output. There should be no multicollinearity between the independent variables which can affect the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. All the variables should be checked for normality because the absence of normality can affect the results of the analysis. The secondary data should be gathered from the sources which contain published articles from certified journals.

2.You have been exceptionally careful when conducting market research and the due date for your market research report is looming. Do you need to conduct quality checks in this instance? Explain. (50-75 words)

There is no need to run extensive data quality checks in the case where we have been exceptionally careful while conducting the research. This is because all the prerequisites have been already fulfilled for maintaining the quality of data. The report should be delivered on time as there may be certain negative implications of being late in the official work.

Activity13..

1.Identify five ways data can be aggregated and summarised in visual formats.

Charts, Diagrams, pictures, graphs and tables

2.You have been asked to categorise market research data relating to men's' shaving habits. Would you categorise the following types of data as quantitative or qualitative? You are only required to answer with one word.

a.the number of disposable razors they use in a month

Quantitative

b.the reasons they choose the type of razor they do

Qualitative

c.the amount they spend on razors in a week

Quantitative

d.their opinion about different brands of razors

Qualitative

e.ideas about changes that might be made to razors to make them more effective

Qualitative

Activity 14.

1.You are designing software files for entering data and information. What are the features that you will need to include? Provide at least three examples.

Graphs showing the annual sales of the last 5 years

Advertising expense incurred by the company

Customer responses on the effectiveness of advertising campaigns

Graphs showing the annual sales of the last 5 years

Advertising expense incurred by the company

Customer responses on the effectiveness of advertising campaigns

2.Why do filing and data entry procedures that you will develop alongside your software need to systematic? (30-50 words)

This is necessary to make sure that there is coherence between the internal record management and the data that has been collected and collated with the help of software. The data analysed with the help of software should bring the appropriate changes in the company, this will be possible only if there are roughly same data available in the internal records and the software.

Activity15.

1.How can a force field analysis assist in presenting data relative to proposed change, and how does market research data contribute to the analysis? (40-60 words)

A force field analysis is conducted to see what forces will react to a certain proposed change and what will be the magnitude of these forces. There are some driving forces that have tried to bring the change and there will be some restraining forces that are implemented by the vision and mission of the company. The market research data will contribute in minimizing the restraining forces by justifying with the help of data that change is necessary.

2.To whom might you submit/ communicate your research report and findings? Provide at least five examples.

Top management, suppliers, advertisers, customers, shareholders/owners

Summative assessment 1

Question 1.

Why do market research workers need to understand the key provisions of legislation and what role does training play in this area? Provide an example of legislation that market research workers need to be aware of. (200-250 words)

The market research workers need to be aware of various legal provisions in the field of data gathering and security of the data. This is important because the leakage or misuse of the data may result in some legal action by the parties involved. The market researcher must also be aware of the data that can be obtained and that cannot be obtained by them. The training plays a vital role in improving the understanding of these provisions on the part of employees who are directly involved in the data gathering for market research. The data handlers also have to be trained in respect of how to avoid data leakage or snatching. An example can be given about the contact information gathered by a company and the same has been shared with some other advertising company without the consent of the provider. Now if the second company sends some messages to this person at some awkward time of the day and he comes to know that hi information was leaked by the company; he can take some legal action against the company for mishandling the data. All the employees should have ample training in handling the data in a responsible manner.

Question 2.

Outline desk research processes in four steps.

Develop the research questions

Identify a secondary data set

Evaluate the secondary data set

Prepare and analyse secondary data

Develop the research questions

Identify a secondary data set

Evaluate the secondary data set

Prepare and analyse secondary data

Question 3.

What are quantitative and qualitative data? Explain the differences and their use in market

research. (250-300 words)

Qualitative data is gathered directly from the field work observations, open ended interviews are used to extract this data from the respondents. These data are retrieved by naturalistic inquiries, studying the real-world settings to induce long and detailed responses from the respondents and make case studies out of this data. The inductive approach applied to a large number of cases yields some similar patterns and themes which are the major output of qualitative data CITATION Mic05 \l 1033 (Patton, 2005). When the researchers want to induce some historical pattern in consumer behaviour, they will use the qualitative data analysis. Quantitative data are used to deduce the results based on the historical data. The sales data analysed to deduce that advertising efforts have not been able to increase the sales to a desirable level, is an example of quantitative data used in market research. The main difference between the quantitative and qualitative data is that the variables involved in the qualitative data are not represented as numerical values. These data are generally collected in the form of attributes of the customers. The quantitative data on the other hand is collected with the mindset of running various quantitative analysis on it to get the required outputs. The presentation methods of two types of data are also considerably different. There is also a clear difference between the ways in which the quantitative and qualitative data are used by the end users or companies in our case.

Question 4.

Describe the techniques/ practices you would use to identify potential research respondents/ samples. {100-150 words)

Sampling can be done by simple random sampling in which respondents will be chosen randomly from the entire population. If there are several distinct groups living in the community, quota sampling can be applied to make sure that reasonable representation of all groups is done in the sample. Members sharing some common characteristics can be grouped to form strata and stratified random sampling can be undertaken to make sure that these strata have adequate representation in the sample. The sampling technique should be chosen carefully because the samples should represent the population adequately. The selection of sampling technique will affect the usefulness of the overall market research project.

Question 5.

How would you determine the reporting formats that should be used when presenting research results? Provide at least five examples.

Graphs, tables from SPSS, charts from excel, pictures and diagrams

Question 6.

Outline typical sections contained in a market research report. Provide at least eight examples.

Executive summary, Introduction, Research question, literature review, variables defined, data collection methods, , data analysis, Results, Conclusion.

Summative assessment 2

Project1.

Write a detailed report on the processes involved in market research. In your report you will need to consider:

the value of market research

the purpose of market research

relevant legislation

methodologies and strategies that would be used to:

conduct desk research

develop hypotheses for testing

design, draft, test and use survey tools

recruit research respondents

collect, collate, summarise, quantify, analyse and interpret data

place data and survey results into a report format

make recommendations and suggestions based on the survey data

(1,500-2,000 words)

The most important term in the above expression is value. This is defined as the actual worth placed to the products a company by its customers. Thus, the value of market research is the actual worth of the process undertaken by the company. The companies have not been able to ascertain the value of its product to the customers and similarly the value of the market research is not exactly known to the companies as well. The value of market research should be ascertained by the end result of such research. In the market research perspective, the value will be the effectiveness with which problems are identified and their reasons are identified. The proposed solution to these problems will also identify the value of market research.

The purpose of market research will be to identify the characteristics of some certain segments of the customers. These characteristics will include the demographics like age, gender, income, history of any skin disease and the perception about using the skin care products. After gathering the demographic information, the next step will be to ask the respondents about the products they use and their perceptions about their behaviours about different products. This market research is based on studying the opportunity to target new segments within the given market for some skin care products. The age will allow us to differentiate the respondents so that the variety of products that can be offered is properly identified. The gender will also help us to differentiate the products according to their effectiveness for men and women. Some of our products will be premium priced so the information on income will provide us what exact pricing strategy can be used by us. Finally, history of any skin disease will allow us to ascertain if we need to include some medicated products in the line or not. Some information may also be gathered on the kind of skin they have so that the variety of products also includes the skin specific products CITATION Ham14 \l 1033 (Al-Shatanawi, 2014).

Another purpose of conducting market research is that some of the existing products are not performing well on the sales figures. The secondary data will be collected in order to ascertain the main geographical areas where sales have been affected in the highest proportions. Once the geographical area has been selected then the factors that may have affected the sales are listed down. These factors are taken up from the similar past researches that have been published in the journals and other relevant secondary sources. An example of such factors is that the pricing strategy adopted by the company in the particular area is not appropriate. Thus, further research will try to find a justified pricing strategy for that particular geographical area.

The relevant legislation may include the data security issues that have to be cared for in order to make sure that the data is used for the purpose for which it was collected in the first place. The data aspects like personal contact and income should not be leaked to any other marketer or irrelevant person. The nature of products is such that the type of skin for which the cream is best suited should be clearly mentioned on the pack as well as the statement that this product is for external use only. The pack should also contain a clear mention of the expiry date. All these precautions will save the company from any legal action in case of any issue faced by the customers.

The desk research will include developing the research question which in our case will be concerning the needs of the customers related to skin products. What are the various requirements of the customers in this particular geographical area and how can the company cater these requirements?

The secondary data will be collected in order to study the present trends in the usage of skin related products. There will be some existing products available in the market and the company will have to research through them in terms of pricing, features and other aspects. There will also be some reviews about these existing products made by these customers. These reviews will help the company to analyse what are the real needs of the customers in this particular geographic area.

The secondary data collected will be analysed separately for all the aspects including pricing, features, distribution and promotion. The analysis will consider the pros and cons of all pricing strategies, consider the pricing strategy for the competitors and then decide on the most appropriate pricing strategy for its own products. Data related to people already using one or more of the skin products will also be gathered to study their behaviours as consumers.

H01: All the pricing strategies are not equally effective for skin related products

H02: All the advertising strategies are not equally effective for skin related products

The survey will include the questionnaires that will take responses from the people about the various pricing strategies. Without using the technical language, the questions will be asked to ascertain the effectiveness of price set by the competitors and their opinion if the price is justified or not. Some direct questions will also require to answer the price range within which the products should lie. Advertising response will be taken by taking the feedback on various advertising campaigns run by the competitors. We also gathered information on whether the companies are providing the same features in their products as depicted in their advertisings. The reaction of customers to the various modes of advertising are also reviewed to know what modes work best in case of skin related products.

Research respondents will be from all age groups and both genders. The basic criteria for choosing the respondents was that they must be using any of the skin related products or intend to use them. The age groups are 15-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64 and 65+. The number of respondents has been kept almost equal in all the groups. The questions started with the basic information gathering and then two or three questions each will be assigned to 3 pricing strategies. In order to keep the length of questionnaire reasonable, the advertising aspects will be judged with the help of another questionnaire. Two or three questions each will be asked pertaining to some major advertising techniques and the responses of all the customers will be recorded.

The questions seek the responses from respondents in the form of likert scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. These responses were tabulated and presented in the form of graphs on excel. The results show that the customers seek quality in the products and are not that much concerned about prices. The association between pricing and consumer behaviour has been assessed using the chi squared test and the results show that there is insignificant association between the two attributes. This means that the first null hypothesis will be rejected and it will be concluded that as long as companies are providing quality product to their customers, pricing strategy does not matter. There was another analysis between the age groups that studied if different age groups differ in their views about the pricing strategies. In order to ascertain these differences, ANOVA was used as a statistical tool and there was significant difference between the age groups when their responses to different pricing were obtained.

The advertising aspect also seek responses on the likert scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Two or three questions were allocated to each possible mode of advertising and responses will be shown with the help of graphs on excel. The individual modes were compared by using the one way ANOVA and there were no significant differences between the advertising modes in the opinions of the customers. Similarly when the effectiveness of these modes is studied across the age groups using ANOVA, there is no significant differences among these groups. Thus, the second null hypothesis will be rejected and it is concluded that all advertising modes are equally effective in case of skin care products across all age groups.

The primary recommendation is that the companies producing skin care products should focus on the product quality. With a high quality product, they can even charge a price higher than their competitors. In case of the advertising mode, the company should assess its own internal resources and then decide on the appropriate advertising technique. It is highly recommended that the company should deliver what it is communicating to the audience because the advertisements will create a perception in the minds of the customers and they will then assess the actual product against that perception.

H01: All the pricing strategies are not equally effective for skin related products

H02: All the advertising strategies are not equally effective for skin related products

Observation report

The tasks listed in the observation report will provide performance evidence. Observations should occur over a period of time-to be nominated by the RTO.

Performance can be observed in an actual workplace, in a simulated workplace or as a result of role plays.

RTOs should contextualise the tasks:

to fit the industry/ organisation/ environment in which assessment will be conducted

in line, where necessary, with reasonable adjustment practices

to ensure that suitable performance benchmarks are applied and explained

If performance of particular tasks cannot be observed participants might be asked to explain a procedure or enter into a discussion with the assessor.

In some instances tasks might relate to the production of work products (portfolios/ documents/ outcomes). Although it might not be possible for the assessor to observe the total process, the end product of work can provide evidence of performance.

If assessors are not able to directly observe performance due to the complexity of the tasks or to the need for tasks to be repeated or observed over time, evidence collected by a third party might supplement the assessment.

Evidence criteria

Context and date of observation

Outcome

Yes/No

Analyse research information

Identify options for information collection and collation tools and methods

Conduct initial desk research using appropriate sources to gather background market information

Create a report on initial research findings

Develop research methodology

Develop hypotheses and research objectives for market research

Describe options for quantifying data

Identify market research methodology and determine, develop, test and amend required survey tools