The research will focus on restaurants, families who need the international food and halaal meat.
3.2 Information Needs
3.2.1 Critical Information
The indicative list of the attributes considered when selecting ZemZem.
The numbers of ZemZem buyers in Barry, Bristol, Cardiff, Newport and Swansea, and the percentage rate of ZemZem buyers in different areas.
What are the main products that the customers purchase in ZemZem.
Indication of how customers change their purchasing decisions.
The acceptable range of consumption cost for delivery service.
The acceptable time that the customers to receive delivery.
3.2.2 Interesting Information
Nationalities of the respondents involved in the research.
Respondents’ attitudes towards the delivery service which ZemZem supplied.
The respondents’ impressions of ZemZem’s competing shops.
How many percentages of respondents will consider purchasing in ZemZem when ZemZem supply delivery service.
How many percentages of respondents will consider order products by phone from ZemZem when ZemZem supply delivery service.
- Accuracy Levels
In this stage, high levels of accuracy are not required. The research instrument will take the form of a questionnaire which is structured enough to make the research more accurate. Moreover, the research must ensure that all respondents receive identical questions. The target audience are already restaurants and families. Therefore, there is minimal wastage in the approach.
A high level of reliability is expected because the survey will target the existing interesting audience, for example, restaurants and families.
-
Research Method
5.1 Secondary Research
The secondary research data will help ZemZem to build a scale of the marketing position. The following secondary data will be conducted as followed:
The competition trends in the consumer markets, for example, the number of the same kind supermarket like ZemZem in Wales?
5.2 Primary Research
Due to the apparent diversity of the potential respondents, it is anticipated that primary research will be conducted by means of a questionnaire, with the following design criteria:
The number of ZemZem buyers, and Separate these buyers into different areas, such as Barry, Bristol, Cardiff, Newport and Swansea.
Indicate the percentages of buyers in different regions, such as how many percentages of ZemZem buyers from Barry, Bristol, Cardiff, Newport and Swansea.
New delivery service may affect buyer behaviour in the future, for instance, how many percentages of respondents will consider purchasing in ZemZem or ordering products by phone from ZemZem when it supplies delivery service.
When customers shop in ZemZem, an intercept survey will take place there. Moreover, an intercept survey could take place near the mosque where 200 potential people go there to pray.
A personal survey will take place towards the owners and chiefs of restaurants face to face.
5.3 The Questionnaire
Not only quantitative questions but also qualitative questions will be covered in the intercept survey and personal survey. The questionnaire, which could allow the respondents to show their requirements, is as followed:
In order to encourage the participation, it should have open questions.
In addition, closed questions for short statements of fact are also will be needed.
The questionnaire will be no longer than five pages.
In order to inform the participations of the delivery service, the survey will be used to collect addresses and phone numbers of the respondents if they agree to it.
Make sure that the questions of the questionnaire are not ambiguous and are understood and explained well to respondents.
5.4 Data Processing
The final analysis in the form of Excel documents of each completed survey will be finished, and then research reports will be feed back to ZemZem. The report will contain all individual details about the respondents. This survey will allow ZemZem to review and interpret the statements made by the respondents.
- Resources
The main resources are time and money. The timetable will be shown in the section seven. The budget of the project is £2,000, which can be divided as followed:
Data research £ 200
Create survey instrument £ 300
Create questionnaire £ 400
Travelling expense £ 300
Collect and prepare data £ 400
Report and present report £ 400
Total £2,000
- Timetable
Week 1
Begin with secondary data research
Develop survey instrument
Prepare questionnaire
Week 2
Continue secondary data research
Refine questionnaire
Week 3
Complete secondary data research
Finalise questionnaire and provide survey
Intercept people outside ZemZem and near the mosque
Personal interview to restaurants owners and chiefs
Week 4
Analysis incomplete research reports
Analysis input from initial questionnaires
Data process
Week 5
Analysis input from structured surveyed questionnaires
Data process
Week 6
Data process
Week 7
Analysis input from structured surveyed questionnaires
Data process
Analysis and interpret the data
Week 8
Analysis and interpret the data
Prepare the research report
Final presentation to ZemZem
- Quality Issues
8.1 Ethical Issues in Marketing Research
There could be a criticism levelled about the recording of addresses and phone numbers. It could be considered that the respondents are afraid of theirs private lives will be disturbed. This is the matter for the marketing research to solve it.
University of Glamorgan
Business School
Academic Year: 2002-2003
Marketing Research for the Proposal of ZemZem- Critique
To: Robin Croft
Date: 20th December 2002
MSc in Marketing
Marketing Information & Research
Assignment 2: Critical Commentary (MK4H02)
Student Number: 02057832
Introduction
This report aims to explore and criticize the research proposal. In this report, the choice of research questions, the research methodology, the sampling and the achievement of the objectives will be covered to be criticized. In addition, the importance of marketing research and the functions of marketing research will also be discussed in this essay.
The research question
The client has started with a number of assumptions relating to the following areas:
Target market- who is the targeted consumers
Target market- how to access them
The expected information is likely to be gathered from them during the proposal which is as followed:
1. What kind of products do they buy in ZemZem?
2. How much money do they spend when they shopping in ZemZem?
3. Their opinion about the quality, price and service which ZemZem supplies.
4. Their reactions about delivery service of ZemZem.
It could be said that the outcome of the marketing research is regarded as the confirmation rather than as the guide of delivery service.
Accuracy level
The accuracy level is influenced by the following:
1. The research objectives.
2. The approached audience.
3. The resource restrictions:
(1) Budget
(2) Time
(3) Personnel
Because the client, ZemZem, did not understand the marketing research, the research objectives could be questioned. Furthermore, the accuracy level of the research result is not indicated in the proposal. Moreover, since in this proposal, the original customers and the restaurants are focused on, the potential consumers are sometimes ignored. Since there is limitation in time and budget, it is difficult to have a deep research results. Moreover, because some questionnaires consider their privacies, they sometimes will provide the wrong information about themselves. Therefore, the privacy of the questionnaire should be dealt with well.
Boundaries of the Research
The research focuses on five targeted areas: Barry, Bristol, Cardiff, Newport and Swansea. In addition, restaurants and families who need the international food and halaal meat are included in the research. Because of this, some hiking, potential customers are not involved in this research. However, because the goal of this research is to obtain the opinions about delivery service, asking the targeting audiences to do the research is enough to obtain the results.
The Research Methodology
Secondary research
Secondary data could be useful in designing the questions. But some of the small organisations, such as ZemZem, find it is difficult to find the information which the researchers needs from the secondary data. For instance, the marketing researcher of ZemZem can not get the information from the yellow pages, council government published data, and trade published data. Thus ZemZem has the problem in finding the relevant information from the secondary data.
Primary research
The personal survey is face-to-face meetings with an interviewer and a respondent. It can be used to obtain information about the type of people, how about their purchase behaviours, their likes and dislikes, their attitudes and opinions about the subject matter in the marketing researh. The personal survey, which is used in ZemZem’s marketing research, has some advantages and disadvantages. Personal survey is flexibility and easy to control. Moreover, because it is face to face, the quality and the level of response are better. For instance, when questionnaire has some problems in the question, he/she can ask the marketers about the questions that he does not understand. After explaining from the marketer, the response of questionnaire is more correct. However, because personal survey is face to face, it costs a lot of money; moreover, it costs much time of questionnaire and marketers. Moreover, it is difficult to arrange the appointment with the respondents. Secondly, when intercept survey is used in the public places; it is not easy to ask people to do the marketing proposal. The reasons are that some people are in a hurry; the time pressure will lead to low co-operation. But the advantage of intercept survey is that it is low cost because the marketer can meet high volume of peoples in the shopping centre or in the street. Therefore, it can save the travelling costs.
Sampling
It is impossible for the market researchers to ask every person who living in the targeted areas of ZemZem to do the research. Moreover, it is not necessary to choose all of the customers in ZemZem to do the research. Although the sample can not express the opinions for the total hiking population about ZemZem’s delivery service, it provides a means of understanding the opinions of the initial target audiences. It can be said that the purpose of a sample is to represent a large group of people with a smaller group of people. Finally, the advantages of using the sample are to save time and money.
Data Processing
The client, ZemZem expressed its desire to obtain the individual details of the respondents. And it is important to obtain the permission that ZemZem can contact with them in the future. It is not necessary to organisations to know their users because the purpose of marketing research is not to obtain the individual’s name. However, in this research, ZemZem wants to contact with the customers when the delivery service is going to supply. Nowadays, privacy is regarded as an important issue in the society. Thus, the details of the respondents are not always correct. Therefore, before the respondents attend the research, it is important to tell them that their private details will be kept safely. Moreover, market researchers must guarantee to the respondents that their details are not going to used in other situation, their details are only used in this research.
Market Research Methods
Market research can be carried out by the collection of primary data and secondary data. First, secondary research is using data and information, which has already been collected or existed in a book, government published data, and trade published data, directories and publications such as Yellow pages’ market research agencies and press published data. Second, primary research is the company collects its own data or information it needs. Secondary research is much cheaper than primary research, but from primary research, the organisation can get the information it needs directly. There are two main types of data collecting in marketing research, one is quantitative, and another is qualitative. Quantitative is normally numerical data, such as statistics. However, qualitative data is the ideas and opinions from the respondents. Qualitative research is often used to investigate the reasons why people buy a certain product or why people go to a certain shop to buy some products. Group discussion (also named as focus groups) is the main way to collect qualitative data whereas quantitative data is collected in simple questionnaires / surveys.
Marketing Research
Marketing research is a key element within the total field of marketing information. It links the consumer, customer and public to the marketer through information and used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine and evaluate marketing actions; improve understanding of marketing as a process and of the ways in which specific marketing activities can be make it more effective. Furthermore, the information should be specific which can identify the issue, design the method to collect information, manage, implement the data, analyse the results, and then translates the results. This includes activities such as quantitative surveys, qualitative, advertising, business-to-business, special groups, public opinion surveys and desk research. In addition, the information of marketing research is different from other forms of information. In any organisation, no matter the size is small or big, the market research is important because if they want to start a new business, they need to have budget to begin. However, many marketers believe that marketing decisions are better be made by striving for a complete understanding of the processes by which consumers decide to buy or not to buy their products. The belief is based on the assumption that it is possible to discover an underlying pattern and order in human behaviour that has the same status as the natural laws of physical sciences. Market research is the collection of data that will be of use to the company. This data is often about the company's customers but could also be about competitors' products or the whole market. In conclusion, marketing research can do many efforts. First, marketing research can organise customer reactions to a new product or a service when it is in the conceptual stage. Sometimes, several different concepts are tested in the same time, and the concept with the highest success probability will be adopted. Second, although using marketing research can get the ideas from potential customers about new products or services, sometimes it is unrealistic to expect any challenging ideas from them because their perceptions are constrained by their past experiences. Third, research can predict the potential sales when adopting new service or new product and the advertising costs required to achieve the maximum profits. Moreover, in some situation, research can predict the influences of price changes on product sales and indicate the reasonable charged price for a product. Fourth, research can identify the customer rate with the current products the customers buy when a new product is fresh in the market. Fifth, research can introduce important factors in buying decisions, establish customers vocabulary which they use in products, indicate the newspaper types which customers read, find out ration stations and TV programs which customers listen to and watch. Sixth, research can choose the intended advertising communication. Finally, research can deal with arguments. Using independent research results may be the only way to settle different opinions.
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