-Surveys and questionnaires (external) -intelligence reports (internal)
- Sale records (internal) - books and newspaper (external)
-Experimentation (internal) companies reports (external)
-Interviews (external) - customers reviews (external)
-Observation (external) -government data (external)
-Mystery shopper (external) - articles (external)
-Focus groups (external)
-Websites (external)
How does marks and spencer use market research in their business
Questionnaires
This is a list of questions asked by the company to a respondent. These questions are normally designed to get specific information. Which serves four basic purposes?
(1) Collect the appropriate data
(2) Make data comparable and amenable to analysis
(3) Minimize bias in formulating and asking question
(4) To make questions engaging and varied.
Marks and Spencer use questionnaire for their research because this helps them find out what they need to know for example audience, gender, employment, ethnicity, product knowledge and environmental friendly. This is so, their business progresses in a positive way because they would know what to offer in the market and how to go about it because they now have an idea of what the customers what to see and what is needed by them.
This image shows how they layout their questionnaires for their customers.
Observations
This is when the company watches an individual on how they perform on their skills and attitude wise this is so they have accurate results on how they would deal with a situation. This method is seen to be the best way due to the accuracy is produces.
Marks and Spencer hired a research company to play the role of a mystery shopper and investigate how the business works, what they offer, how they attract customers to their business and what services they offer. In order for their business to Improve they also used mystery shoppers to go in their own stores and later on give them a review of what they think and how they can improve the areas that need improvements.
This graphics shows the scores of the UK mystery shoppers that Marks and Spencer has used. Over the years they have increased and keep increasing which shows it is a good method of research but marks and spencer have decided to be more in touch with their customers they are going to replace the mystery shopper programme with an in depth survey for the customers.
Sales records
This helps the business know how many sales the business has made and which products are selling more and to what kind of customers. This is so they can know how to improve their sales through their records from previous sales so this would help them improve the products that sell the best so they can be bought more quicker than previous years. This benefits the business a lot because it is a very cheap and accurate way for them to research about their business and improve it.
Focus groups
Focus groups are a group of people assembled to participate in a discussion about a product before it is launched, or to provide feedback on a political campaign, television series, etc.
Marks and Spencer uses focus groups to help them decide on their products if their customers would buy them because it is important for a business to know what their customers like and what they do not like because they would be able to make improvements if the customers think they have missed anything because they need their product to fit with what the customers are looking for by offering them a range of things because they now know what their customers like. They invite a range of customers with different gender and age group so they know they are getting ideas not just for the younger generation or particular gender because it wouldn’t benefit the business. They also show them different pairs of jeans that haven’t been released so they get an idea of what customers their age would say whether they like, hate or must buy it and also discuss and share opinions about the style, colour, fabric and price and if it would make the amount of sales predicted by the business.
How Marks and Spencer uses secondary research within their business.
Websites
It is important for a business to indulge in websites because they would be able to collect information that would help the business. Marks and Spencer use websites to help them get reviews on products and collect information such as weekly sites visits, food revenue and number of stores. Marks and spencer record and identify how many people are visiting their sites and what products are being viewed because this would help their business make sure they always have that product in stock so they can make more sales and they also start introducing different products that are similar to the first due to them knowing what is liked by their customers and this would help the business financially.
Customer reviews
Customers reviews help Marks and Spencer improve on their product or services that they offer because the customers would give them their honest opinions and feedback on the product and they would decide if it is going to be a problem for the business and improve on it. They also need to make sure they observe all ages of people as this would improve the business because all their customers are going to be heard which would make them feel more valued.
Marks and Spencer obtain a lot of feedback on different product either on the internet, face to face and write a review so they can know what’s best for the customers. This image shows customers reviews online on jeans which was given 5 stars which indicates that is good this method is so the business know which products are making more sales so they can increase their supply or improve the product and lower supply or cancel supply on the less making sales products.
Intelligence reports
Intelligence reports is information that is important to a company’s market which is gathered and examined in order to create accurate and confident decision making. They are able to help the business by providing professional help and producing detailed reports.
Intelligence reports are produced by market research companies which are AC Nielsen, Millward Brown, Kantar world panel and Mintel. These companies help businesses like Marks and Spencer to examine so they are able to produce their annual reports.
This image is from AC Nielsen which shows how marks and spencer total sales and other businesses. According to Nielsen Marks and Spencer improved their sales of product which increased by 5.7% in 12 weeks and improved year on year from 4% to 4.1%. This method is good because Marks and Spencer would be able to improve their sales if they notice that their competitors are doing better than them.