AVCE Marketing assignment - As part of our marketing assignment we looked into the market of bottled water.

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AVCE MARKETING ASSIGNMENT – TASK 1/PART 1

As part of our marketing assignment we looked into the market of bottled water. We chose this market as the school has started a healthy living campaign and have introduced water vending machines. The school is trying to promote the drinking of bottled water as there are many health benefits in doing so. Yet how did bottled water become such a phenomenon? After all, it appears to be little more than glorified tap water, daintily repackaged to fit the needs of disgruntled dieters everywhere, mislead by twenty-first century media scare tactics like ‘your breath will stink if you don’t chew Extra’ for example, or ‘your dieting is in vain if you don’t drink bottled water’ – the Atkins diet could be to blame for the sudden explosion in tap water. Companies have capitalised on this increased interest, and to ensure maximum profit, Market Research is essential. Market research is the collecting of data, the aim of which is to understand better what is happening in the marketing place, as the marketing department of a firm needs to know about consumer's views and economic trends. It could also include information about rival companies’ products. If businesses didn’t use it, introducing new products would be in vain. Take for instance if a company brought out a line of contemporary moustache combs. There would be little or no market for them nowadays, compared to the 1970’s/80’s at least. So to keep in line, many businesses aspire to the ‘four P’s’ method:

  • Product
  • Price
  • Place
  • Promotion
  • Getting the mix right is essential to the possible success of a new product.

Primary data is data that you have gathered yourself, whereas secondary data is somebody else's data that you use. Field, or primary research is when new data is obtained for a specific purpose, this can be provided by the marketing department of a firm. Data is usually gathered by surveys, (face-to-face, telephone, or by post.) An advantage of field research is that the firm can have control over the whole process, and it can be more effective, but it does take longer and will cost the firm more. The method of research I will be using will be by giving out questionnaires, as it is a quicker and easier method than the alternatives. However, when working in a school, the main focus will be sampling. With survey targets being in classrooms/age groups, it makes sampling a lot easier.                                                                  

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Two main types of data are collected by market research; these are quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative is generally numerical data such as statistics whereas qualitative data is people's ideas and opinions. Qualitative research is often used to investigate reasons why people buy a certain product. Group discussions (also known as focus groups) are the main way of collecting qualitative data whereas quantitative data is collected in simple questionnaires / surveys.

It would be impossible for a company to ask every single person in a specific market or even all of its customers so instead a sample is chosen. The ...

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