In this caf I need marketing research to assure that we get the best return on our marketing investments. From initially researching the product and market, to assuring that my marketing campaigns are successful, marketing research affects the bottom li
Unit 3 Investigating Marketing Coursework
Task 2:
Small business and new businessman owners, like me, operate on limited budgets and need to make every penny provide a return on investment. So in this café I need marketing research to assure that we get the best return on our marketing investments. From initially researching the product and market, to assuring that my marketing campaigns are successful, marketing research affects the bottom line and business success. So in this section I will be carrying out primary and secondary research on areas that will be involved with my product. This ranges from the product itself, target audiences, competitors etc. This will help me understand the market segment I am involved in, know more about my target audience and what their need and wants are.
Market research - Market research is about finding out answers to questions that specifically deal with whether or not there is a local/national market for your product/service: be that about price, quality, quantity etc. In market research I will be research a primary research means that I plan on my target customers, my products which is they happy to drink hot and cold drinks, and a provide my own questionnaire about my business and also in customers as well. Also I will plan a secondary research of my business.
Market research is an essential part of any business that wants to offer products or services that are focussed and well targeted. Business decisions that are based on good intelligence and good market research can minimise risk and pay dividends and by making market research part and parcel of the business process and conducting market research throughout the lifecycle of a product or service market research will bring the following benefits:
Market research will help me to better communicate - my current customers experiences are a valuable information source, not only will they allow me to gauge how well the currently meet the expectations that I can also tell me where I am getting things right and more importantly where I am getting things wrong.
Market research helps me to identify opportunities - If I am planning to operate a new service and want to know the preconceived attitudes people have then market research can help, not only in evaluating the potential for a new idea, but also by identify the areas where a marketing message needs to honed.
Market research will minimise risk on my business - Market research can help me to shape a new product or service, identifying what is needed and ensuring that the development of my product is highly focused towards demand.
About the marketing I hope that it will be helpful for me for planning a new business, which area related to gaining more profit and customer in first year of running a business, strategies on how to reduce the competition, reducing the problems and risked of my business, creating other strategies on how to promoting my business, strategies on gaining more customers from my company, or if my business are being growth and profitable in the future and other types of information that related to the market research in running a business. In planning my business I working on my primary/secondary research on my business and competition on how to compete my main competitors in my business - this is important part of running a business because this is one of the major problems why the one business is being down. So I will be realistic on my decision oh how to compete my competitors.
Primary Research - Primary research is research used to collect data for a specific task. In primary research I will explain my target market of my business and questionnaires which means to gathering more information about the customers wants and needs. It is designed to answer the specific question of interest from the organisation. Like for examples:
* What proportion of the customers believes that the level of customer service provided by the business is rated good or excellent?
* What do the customers think of a new version of a popular product?
Most primary information is gathered by asking customers questions or by observing their behaviour. The most accurate way to do this would be asking or observe all customer of a particular products usually known as the population. Asking or observation - means where notes are taken from occurrences that are happening. This provides insight into certain people, behaviours and characteristics of selected groups. This is good when you wish to see people's views without imposing a biased view. It is usually to carry out a survey of a sample of people who are thought to be representative of the total market. Survey - means a way of questioning a large amount of people in a less formal manner. This will provide a limited amount of data from a large amount of people; surveys are great if you wish to learn what is thought by a large audience.
There are various types of primary data's I used to my café which is the questionnaires
What I want to find for this information to running a new cafe:
Through my research I want to find out:
* Competitor's products, pricing, range of product lines.
* Size of market segment.
* The needs, wants and desires of the target audience.
* The average price of existing products.
* What would attract customers in advertising campaigns.
* How should I raise customer awareness for my business
I will use many research and methods of my primary research in order to find out these points, one of which will be using a questionnaire. I am hoping to get this 30 questionnaires to completed as possible in order to get a large view of the customers and process the results into data about I'm doing to my cafe. This will include questions that will help my decision making when re-launching the product and my business as well. I am going to observing, asking and record people's buying habits in hot drinks (coffee) which is my main product to my cafe from the major and big café restaurants. This will give me an indication as to who was buying the product, what they bought, what is the taste of these hot drinks, the style of the product and how much it was. I am also setting up to asking this group of people which is all middle age to get more information about my product within my segments. By carrying out this own research in my business, I am hoping to have more background information on my market, customers and competitors and use this to form a basis of my re-launch my café product. I think the most valuable data I will find is what the customer's desires and needs are, as I will try to exploit these areas in order to gain their custom and create customer awareness, which is the most important part in running a new business because I can get more customers in the first year of running a business. It would be easy for me to know what my potential customer want about business products.
Target Market Customers
I have a carried out a Primary Research just before I took a step any further. Primary Research is important especially in the business that I m a going to open because I want to know the response of people about eating food and drink coffee in cafe. This is really helpful because a business man like me will know exactly the target audience and that is one of its advantages. Below is the list of my target audience for the business:
* Age - middle class group of people likely 30 people ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
Target Market Customers
I have a carried out a Primary Research just before I took a step any further. Primary Research is important especially in the business that I m a going to open because I want to know the response of people about eating food and drink coffee in cafe. This is really helpful because a business man like me will know exactly the target audience and that is one of its advantages. Below is the list of my target audience for the business:
* Age - middle class group of people likely 30 people and above because in my research, mostly people at this age are really love drinking coffee during their break time or any time of there work. I will focus on my product on how to encourage this people to buy my product).
* Gender - The cafe will equally target is middle class age both high and low incomer. According to my research in Cafe, most middle class age which means adult who visits my cafe usually they drink hot drinks to relax particular in busy people who want to relax and take a time to eat and drink.
* Income - My café will be targeted both high and low incomer
* Occupation - different kinds of work with family
The Café's main target audience are the people age 30 and above which means Middle class people especially adults in working. These are the people that normally drink a hot and cold in café.
Sampling
Sampling is a small representative group of the target marketing and I have 30 people to ask for my questionnaires, which would be equal. The benefits of sampling are the:
* Its is very cheap for me
* Inputting and analysis of data is quicker for me
* Its got greater flexibility and control of research
There are also some disadvantages for sampling, such as:
* The sample is unrepresentative of my target market
* The sample is to small
* The people who I have asked do not respond
* Questions, which I have asked have been incorrectly constructed
So in sampling method that I have chosen to my café is Quota sampling because this is the easiest one to do and also it is very cheap for me because I have to put in no money for this method. This method allows interviews to go to the street corners to interview some of the people who where comes first in sight, as long as they end up achieving the correct quota. Quota sampling is the one used most frequently by market research companies.
Questionnaire
A questionnaire means is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents.
Before I started opening my business, I have asked people in Town centre in Birmingham and other some places where people who want to drink a delicious coffee and food. So I gave them questionnaires about the Café drinks and food for them to answer. I have done these questionnaires to have a feedback from people if they prefer to come in café to buy drinks and food or not. This is important because to know what people they like about in Café business and what the services they like.
For the first question I made on my business questionnaire, I have asked their gender. Asking people in both sexes will help me to know their response about Hot and cold drinks and food of Cafe business and their lifestyle. 18 people are male and 12 people are female.
I have asked people between 20-30 years old. Out of 8 people that I have asked are on their maturity years (20-30), 10 people between 31-50 and 12 people age of 51-70. Asking people with different ages is really helpful so that I can know their style of food and eating on those ages.
97% of people that I have asked usually drink and eats in a Café. This is really helpful for me and my business because I am setting up a Cafe business.
In the next question I ask about on how much they spend in one cup of coffee, mostly 76% more people are likely they spend to buy a one cup of coffee every time that they come and buy in a café. These questions are also one of the important part of planning my business on how to charge my product correctly. So in this information I will decide on what price I will charge in my products.
For this question, 20 people which are middle group of people usually visit in Cafe at dinner time and 4 people at lunch time (which is people working in day basis) while other 6 people during breakfast (which is working in morning basis. This question is very important to know my best time of the day during opening hours of my café.
I have asked these people what type of hot and cold drinks they prefer. So in my results of asking people 14 people prefer with coffee drinks, 8 people for Cappuccino, 2 people for tea, 6 people for Soft drinks and other type of Drinks are none. So totally the result was good even if some people still prefer to drink coffee in café.
In this question I have asked these people on when their visiting in the café, how important inside from the café. In the list 8 people answer the location, 10 for services of café, 3 for atmosphere, 7 people who answer for quality of food and 2 people out of 30 people a ask are the price. In this question I know what the customer likes inside from the business café.
In my next question I asked if they brought the same type of coffee each time they go in café restaurant. The results showed 14 people said No they don't purchase the same product each time but the rest 16 said yes. This statistics shows that nearly over 50% of people willing to purchase and go different café restaurant to drink a coffee and go relaxing as well. This is an advantage for me as its shows the correct approach I can get a large amount of new customers to try my product. The aim will then be to gain customer loyalty to get a much customer as possible.
When buying the coffee in café restaurant does the style and taste affect your choice of the product?
This question which I asked was whether the style and the taste affected their view of the product on the ones that they purchase a coffee. Even though over 40% of this people said yes that they want a good style and taste of coffee which is style and taste still has a vast effect from this group of people.
This graph shows that 25 people out of 30 that I have asked said that the drinks and food charges on the other café restaurants that they visited are affordable and fair enough. However, 5 people found the prices quite expensive and have not fair enough. This is really helpful for me to charge my customers fairly for affordable prices when I opening a new café business.
What do you think about the staff of the café you go? Are they nice for you?
All the people that I have asked said that the members of the staff inside in the café they go are nice and helpful. Therefore, having recruiting a new staff for my cafe must be good personalities which could be big advantage from the customers.
The result for this graph was excellent. 22 out of 30 people said that the food/drinks and service are excellent and other 8 people said that it was good. This can help me to when I starting a new café restaurant offer; I must need a very good and excellent product and services in my business to make sure that when my customers coming to my café, there are more interesting and happy to buy my product and to come back again.
All the people that I have asked said that they are satisfied about the environment/atmosphere, the charges of product, services and mostly the most popular the coffee of the restaurants they visited from the day to day basis they doing.
Results of Questionnaires
This question gave a good result about how interested in a Café potential customers are, with the majority of people having a positive view towards it. The results can never be 100% accurate as some people may fill in the questionnaire untruthfully to be polite and also, a good response does not always guarantee business. The results give good indication that there is demand for a Café and that people are prepared to try it. I think such a good response was gained because people like to try new things and also Cafes are a fairly new idea. Town centre in Birmingham is a home to many Café bars, and other big restaurant and other business which gives the town a modern edge, as do Cafes.
This all question I ask was asked to find out about repeat purchases and if the customer liked the Café, how often they would visit. The results show that the venture will be a success but it depends if the actual sales reflect the results of the questionnaire. I had good responses from almost everyone that I asked and I think this will prove to be a positive factor in how popular the Café becomes.
To conclude, the result of my questionnaire was good. These questions could be our guidelines throughout the success my business.
Conclusion:
I think that the questionnaire has shown a positive feedback showing that there is a large choice of products and nothing is holding my consumers back about buying new products (hot drinks) and they are willing to spend their money on it. I have also found out that there are a lot of loyal customers to certain types of coffee which is my main major product in my business I manage, however I will look at trying to gain the loyalty for my product. With a large percentage of my customers which are all middle age group of people which is adult people, it gives me a boost in the product being able to attract its intended audience and gain the customers needed for it to be a successful for my café restaurant.
Analysis overview
From the analysis of my questionnaire I have found what I need to ain for to appeal to the public.
* I will set up a café
* I will try to have a lower pries and better services as these are weaknesses of my competition, if just in case that some one who build a business for café.
* I will set a hot/cold drinks and food services as part of the my business
* I will have a consistent customer base as many people drink coffee at least one year for my business.
* I will ensure the quality of my products and services of my business
These are some examples of how to prepare my questionnaires in my customer in my café which is my business:
) Understanding the customer,
2) Making value for my customer,
3) Communicating value to my target market, good impression and
4) Making it easy for the customer to buy.
Evaluation of Primary Research:
Overall my primary research has been successful in finding out the buying and drinking habits of customers and what influences them on buying products in different types of café restaurant. I have found that health isn't a large factor for my business when looking at the audience but by promoting my own product to my business as health friendly I may be able to attract this audience, because mostly my customers which is middle age group are very socialised and very matured about the products, services and the inside of the business as well. So I will must aware that all of that thing are must be done as soon as I running a café. As this middle age group I will have to look at a marketing slant to interest them into my product and try creating customer awareness between them. Through this research I can see that the coffee market has potential for high sales figures for my cafe if my product is successful. By doing the primary research my cafe has great prospect with a success when I starting it.
Secondary Research
Conducting Secondary Market Research is a key part of successful marketing for my restaurant. It means gathering publicly available data that help me make the right decisions throughout the marketing process of the business.
Sources of Information
The sources I used to find a good knowledge about on how to manage and run a business, first is I visit the café online website and I fund the list of strategies of customer services, the prices they charges, environment policies, competition, and how they advertise they product to the consumer.
BBC News and news paper - in this sources I heard from the news in BBC that currently the economy today are very bad because there are lots of business are closing, many business are removing workers, bank crisis and credit crunch. This is one of the main problems for me because many banks today are not allowing to barrow money in some small business which is low profit. So in these sources I found that my business must a good profit to allowing me to barrow money from the bank.
I fund in this sources that currently the pound stood at $1.3915 against the dollar and was worth 1.0688 euros, this means that the pound are being weak, because in last year that pound was trading at more than $2, so its haft value against the dollar. I fund also the big fall in inflation in UK is 3.10% - the national statistic said that the biggest factor was the cut in VAT from 17.5% to 15%.
Forecast of UK Economy - The UK economy has experienced a long period of economic growth from 1993 - 2008. However, this unprecedented period of unbroken economic growth is coming to an end.
The UK economy is experiencing a number of problems
* Credit crunch leading to shortage of borrowing and lending
* Falling house prices, which is reducing consumer confidence and consumer spending.
* Record debt levels which leave little room for manoeuvre in a recession.
* Cost push inflation making it difficult for the MPC to cut rates. Inflation well above the government's target of 2%
* Increased government borrowing, as the cyclical downturn worsens the governments finances.
* Global economic downturn causing lower exports. E.g. even the devaluation in the pound has done little to boost growth.
* Persistent weakness in manufacturing sector - contributing to persistent current account deficit.
In the next 12 months, growth will slow and the economy will enter recession. However, with the slowdown in growth and lower oil prices, inflation will fall enabling lower interest rates. This will help the economy to recover.
Conclusion
The UK economy is doing well. However, the budget deficit will be an increasing problem because I feel that the government is being overoptimistic in projected tax revenues. At the moment the chance of a recession is pretty remote, but, with a global slowdown and a decline in house price growth. It is quite likely growth could be much lower than forecast in 2008 and 2009. So for build a new business, the UK economy this year must be more growing to make sure that I will not more worried about planning a new business.
Public - public sources would be my customers or the target audience of my café business. These sources are the most economical because they are free and can offer a lot of good information.
Commercial - commercial sources are equally valuable but usually involve costs such as subscription and association fees. I can use small billboards or posters and leaflets to have the familiarity of people about the Cafe. In my research I founded that this kind of promotion in business is very good to promote to the public because it's easy to know the customer about my business and its not costly money.
According to www.pewresearch.org, about third of he public say that they come in the café to drink hot and cold in less than weekly. Another third say they go in café to buy hot and cold drinks out about once a week and another third say they come to drink out twice a week or more.
When respondents were asked whether they eat and drink from the cafe such as big café restaurant like for example Starbucks or Costa, one third of the public say they never eat and drink such hot drinks. A quarter say they do come to café everyday, 44% say they do so about once a week and the remaining 19% say they do so twice a week or more.
In other site I found which is www.e-importz.com/ The National Coffee Association conduct annual surveys regarding coffee consumption each year. The gathered data below can be extremely beneficial to anyone wishing to start a business or just have an insight on coffee consumption.
* Specialty coffee sales are increasing by 20% per year and account for nearly 8% of the 18 billion dollar in coffee market.
* Coffee statistics show that among coffee drinkers the average consumption in the United Kingdom is 3.1 cups of coffee per day.
* 50% of the population, equivalent to 30 million British people, drink espresso, cappuccino, latte, or iced/cold coffees.
* Independent coffee shops equal $12 billion in annual sales.
* At the present time there are approximately 24,000 Coffee Shops across the country. Statistics show there will be approximately 50,000+ Coffee Shops by the year 2010.
* The average Espresso Drive-thru Business sells approximately 200-300 Cups of Espresso and Coffee Based Drinks per day.
* Over 50% of British over 18 years of age drink coffee every day. This represents over 30 million daily drinkers. 10 million British adults drink specialty coffee beverages daily; which include a mocha, latte, espresso, café mocha, cappuccino, frozen/iced coffee beverages, etc.
* Average Beverage Price - The average price for an espresso based drink is £1.45 and the average price for brewed coffee is 80 to 90 pence. This information is very helpful for me because I know now what price I charge in one coffee and other product from my café business.
* Coffee Cup Consumption per Day - Men drink as much coffee as women; each consuming an average of 1.6 cups per day. Women seem to be more concerned about the price than men. Among coffee drinkers, the average consumption in the United Kingdom is 3.2 cups of coffee per day.
* Time of day - 65% of all coffee is consumed during breakfast hours, 30% between meals, and the remaining 5% with other meals.
* Preferences - 35% of coffee drinkers prefer black coffee and 65% prefer to add sugar and/or cream. In this case I will provide or selling all kinds of coffee to the customers.
* Motivations - Women indicated that drinking coffee is a good way to relax. Men indicated that coffee helps them get the job done
Below you can see that coffee consumption every country in the world.
The conclusion of all research in planning for new café restaurant:
This research shows that the market segment is already large and is growing. It's changing in the way of new products such as good taste and style and middle age group's products are growing within the segment. These are continuing too be the two factors that I feel I should use to attract a large audience, as this niche market (is a focused, targetable portion of a market) of heath conscious customers is growing. I will have to be careful not to give of a feeling that my product (hot drinks and other beverage) is not good taste, style etc. as it could turn customers away from the product. This is very positive research and shows the potential the product has, as it is entering a growing market with an already large value. As for the intended audience it will still remain the middle age group of people (or adult people) as they have such a large influence on what products are purchased. However, I will try to incorporate a good taste and style aspect into my hot drink product, hoping it will attract more adults, gain trust and customer loyalty. I found adults aren't too interested in the look of the product like the taste, the style and the clean product so I won't lose any custom by aiming the products look and design on this my major customers. From the price range I found most popular I can produce my product so it will fall into that bracket of 50 pence up to £6 pounds which include my entire different product selling from my café restaurant. In advertising I will must be very careful of chosen on how to introduce my product and my café as well. As I said that I must doing only cheap advertised because I got only low budget in promoting, so my plan is I will advertised my product on leaflets, small billboards and other cheap advertisement. This is why it is so important for the advertisement to really grab the intended markets attention. As for buying habit's, the only factor I can see effecting sales will be whether the product is placed at eye-level. However, that will be due to where the product is sold those customers who buy my café products.
This secondary research could be very helpful because it lays the foundation for a useful and constructive market research report which a relevant industry insight to business owners and investors for strategically targeting unexplored markets.
Competition
In many types of businesses there is also a competition. Competition means business compete each other to make a profit for their organisation. In this area I will explain my main competition in my business I made. I have a lot of competitors at the city centre in Birmingham, this are -
Costa
This are the three location I fund where the Costa café are located. As you can see that Costa are have a 3 main business are in city centre, means that they encourage more people to come in a business because they are very good place where more people coming in town centre. So in my business this is also one of the main competition in my business because it's big company and lots of places where they business located. Also Costa are one of the popular café business in the UK so I will working hard to make sure that my café are more popularise in people in this area.
Sunrise café
In this second research I fund in Google map also is my competitors in this area because also it's popular and big café company where also they serve a good services in the customer. This company have lots of serving from the customer example, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.
But my truly and my main competitors is Starbucks café also located in City centre because it's very popular café in the world which is more than 15,000 retail location in America, Europe and Asia.
Starbucks
This is the map I fund in Google map which is the Starbucks located. The address is 97 Bullring Shopping Centre Digbeth, Birmingham, B5 4BG. This is very good location in Starbucks café because this road where the Starbucks located are road where all people going in town, so they encourage more people to come from business. Also I fund that they are 6 Starbucks business located in City centre so this is my major problem about competition against this company. So I will decide where is my business located, I need to make a good decision on the area where it's located. I need find very good location where it's more people and less competition.
Starbucks is a leading retailer company, roaster, and brand of specialty in the world. I will also research that Starbucks aim is to keep customers happy, supply customers with good quality food and drinks. However their prices are excessive and not competitive, example is they selling a one cup of espresso are £1.75. In this information I found about Starbucks are help me to work to improve my own product, services and also the customers. My proposal is based on competitive prices whilst providing excellent food and drink. Starbucks offer a wide variety of teas, coffees, other hot drinks, sandwiches, hot food, pasties, and many more. It also offers expensive surfing time.
I will work about on how to improve my customer's satisfaction. To do this I must provide:
* The best quality product in customers
* Customer services
* Good prices in product I made
* Other good offers
* Good atmosphere and environment inside in business
I believed that if I doing this for my customers, it will be good profit for my business in today and for the future.
About the target market would influence what range of products the shop was selling, for example adult people tend to enjoy more exotic coffee ranges. I think my café is for all middle class age people categories because nowadays every people during and after the work is likely they want to come in a café business to drinks coffee's and to relaxing.
I believe that when my café opens, it will attract customers away from other coffee shops and café's as my business will be not only providing food and drink but also an element of entertainment.
I must also consider that some days during the week will be busier than others therefore the number of visitors per day may differ. Saturdays and Sundays will most likely be busier because fewer people are at work or college and most of City Centre shops now trade on Sundays.
Even though there are some weaknesses in the prediction of sales it does give some indication of the possible income the business will receive. Hopefully the Café will attract more customers because after staff wages and bills are deducted from the total, the profit will be very low.
Secondary objectives
* Customers- my target market and the necessity of the service.
I will need to do a reasonable amount of research to help me sustain a good view on the population I will need to target to gain a decent market for my service. I also need to be sure that the local people will accept the service as if it doesn't be accepted I may have a big problem on my hands.
I will also need to consider the age of my customers and with this I will need to consider restrictions to entrance or will I have different sections for different ages.
* Costs- I will need to consider all costs and see if I am able to collect sufficient capital to invest in them.
I will have to take into account all of my costs, things which include land and building, fixtures and fittings, tables + equipment plus all other little costs.
* Location- I will need to identify and research on the specification of the property I need.
I will have to look at properties, which meet my needs and will be able to hold all my equipment and requirements. When choosing location I will also have to look at the local people their culture and whether security will be required.
* Competition- I will need to look up and identify my local and main sources of competition.
I will need to check the local competition and try to differentiate myself from them by finding a USP (unique selling point). This means the characteristics of the product or service that differentiates it from similar product produced by other company. It is what sets me and my business, or me as an individual and apart from my competition. Every business needs one because to:
* Makes you appear different from competitors.
* Tells potential customers exactly what you offer them.
* Tells customers why you are better than your competitors
After do all this thing in secondary research for my new business (café) I found lots of strategies about on how to compete within my competitors - I research the location where my main competitors is there, so I have an idea on how to build a good location to my business. And the last thing I found was all statistics, news and loads of information in the business world. In this area its very helpful to my business, because I know what am going to do when I planning a business, like statistics about the customers going in café to buy and what mostly age gender buy in the café.
Then by doing this I will be able to have ground to help me build the foundations of my coursework.
Jayson Calagos
Business Studies
Miss Joyce