3 Scenarios If I Am Marketing Manager - Coursework Example

Running Header: Marketing Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: The Question For each of the following scenarios, you are the marketing manager, commissioning market research. You are required to think about some of the issues and likely responses that will come from research providers, in response to your brief. For EACH of the three scenarios answer the following: The scenarios and research questions are: 1. You are the marketing manager of Commonwealth Bank for Australia. You want to determine what consumers on the market feel about your performance in relation to other banks in the market. You also want to see if the new advertising campaign you have been running is getting noticed. You have a big market research budget. 2. You are the marketing manager of the Wallis Mainline Drive in movie theatre at Gepps Cross in Adelaide. You want to see if there is going to be demand for ‘babe in arms’ sessions in Adelaide, where parents can bring their young children to nominated sessions of current movies (and not have to worry if they cry or make a noise or run around). You have a moderate research budget. 3. You are operating a new hair salon on Rundle Street and want to understand how loyal your new customers are and how to attract new clients to the business. You have a very limited research budget. Answer 1 To survey what customers feel about the performance of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, I would use the personal interview method of data analysis. The main reason of using this method is because it is flexible and therefore it can be collected in various locations and times. According to Bovee et al. (1995) the method can also be adapted to specific individuals and circumstances of the customers being reached by the advertising campaign. It is also flexible in a way that interviewers are able to use their acquired knowledge and interpersonal skills to explore the market to acquire various ideas raised by the respondents. Personal interviewing is also necessary to use in this market research because it gives direct feedback from the participants. According to Denzin and Lincoln (2000) the researcher is assured that the response is from the person intended unlike other methods of data collection. The method gives a good opportunity to investigate because as a marketing manager I will be in a position of using both verbal and non verbal ways of acquiring information. Observation can also be used to acquire information about the advertising campaigns. The research yields detailed, rich and new insights. Since the research is about a bank operating in a wide geographical area it is necessary to get meaningful information which will help the bank to either change their advertising campaigns or to develop their strategies. Weller and Romney (1998) explain that personal interviews enable people to get sensitive information and one can learn from the conversational tone of the respondent. Personal interaction with the respondent is also beneficial as they feel more relaxed and candid to give beneficial information. The interaction also gives an opportunity to explode the topic to depths for example by use of probes. They may also be able to talk about other aspects that the Bank should aim at improving. Personal interviews also give interviewers an opportunity to explain their questions therefore increasing accuracy and clarity. Zikmund et al. (2007) argues that though personal interviewing is necessary to use in a big market research, it also has some drawbacks such as it is time consuming and therefore as a marketing manager I will have to set up a given time frame for conducting the interviews and inputting notes for the analysis. The interviews need much preparation for example by training the interviewers on how to ask questions and also by ensuring that they are confident and have the ability to conduct the interview. The interviewer may be biased by various factors such as tone of voice, rephrased questions or inadequate note taking. The method is also a disadvantage since too much flexibility may lead to inconsistencies and therefore the interviewer should be careful about flexibility. The bank had set up a big budget for the research and therefore this method is convenient as it requires a large amount of money for training, scheduling, inputting data and analysing (Weimer 1995). Answer 2 For the survey of the Wallis Mainline Drive in movie theatre at Gepps Cross in Adelaide, to see if there is going to be demand for ‘babe in arms’ sessions in Adelaide, where parents can bring their young children to nominated sessions of current movies (and not have to worry if they cry or make a noise or run around) and having a moderate research budget, I would choose online questionnaire. Ghosh (2005) explains that the reason for using this method is because of its low cost, it also takes less time to process data and it is flexible to use as one can use various social media such as Twitter, Facebook or Youtube. Online questionnaires are cheap and having a moderate budget in collection of this data it will be convenient to use as the costs incurred in training, focus group and travel are eliminated. Online questionnaire is also quick to send and to reach a great number of people in less time. Unlike surveys and interviews, online questionnaires are quick to formulate as it is able to segment qualitative data with qualitative results. There is deep feedback form the respondents and since the research is about movies, the questionnaires should be placed where there are sensitive topics about movies and children. Holliday (2007) puts it that this method is also effective as there is no moderation or control of data collection environment. This method can discuss sensitive topic as one does not have to leave a name or identification and so people are free to give their opinions without personification. Deep engaged conversations can be formed between the researcher and the respondent for example through chatting from the social media. The method is free and authentic therefore anyone with access to the internet can participate in the research. This is important as it can reach a great number of people and this improves the rate of response. According to Michael (2010) it is also easy for the respondents to hit ‘reply’ and respond unlike in interviews where one has to think about the best response to give. Online questionnaire will be effective to use at a movie theatre since it offers flexibility since it can be adapted to particular people and circumstances. Pictures and videos could also be used which offer a good picture and influence will more people to respond to the question. Personal interview could also be effective as it provides interactive features if the interviewer had appropriate technology but this will not yield much benefit as it will be hard to approach parents as some would not be willing to offer their children. The method however requires constant management and maintenance yet there are no tools for managing data collected from social media. The method also has some drawbacks as the response will depend on the website where the questionnaires are placed. To increase response rates, the questions should be presented on online panels and social media advertisements. Digital divide is major issue in this as there could be people willing to respond but have no access to the internet therefore less responsiveness (Michael 2010). Answer 3 In operating a new hair salon on Rundle Street, to understand how loyal my new customers are and how I can attract new clients to the business, I would use telephone survey method in collecting the needed information. In this research, my main reason for using this method is because the researcher is mostly targeting their customers as the sample for them to give information about the services offered by the salon. Kotler et al. (2007) shows the major factors considered include timeframe, the budget, sample size, the accuracy of data collected and its complexity. Most customers leave their contact information with their salon managers and therefore they can easily be contacted. These surveys have a great response level since it is easy, faster and cost effective. Surveys are useful in describing characteristics of a large population and there is no better method that provides general capability. Telephone survey is also convenient to use at it will improve understanding of how people choose which salon to visit. My major focus will be especially women since they mostly visit salons unlike men and my target group will be those who are working. The method is also flexible as it can be administered to various locations and states. Surveys require one to have a large sample size in order to make the results statistically significant to the researcher. Kothari (2001) describes that the researcher is also not limited to the questions they are to ask the respondents. The researcher is also able to interact with the customer and this gives the respondent confidence and they feel free to answer and criticize the business in case there is a problem they have noted. Interaction also enables the respondent to understand that their information is necessary to develop the business and that they will benefit from the services offered. Surveys need the researcher to have standardized questions making the data collection method more precise (Daivadeenam 2002). This enforces uniform definitions upon participants and ensures that similar data is collected from various groups. However, standardization of questions forces the researcher to formulate general questions and appropriate for all respondents. Surveys also require unchanging study design to acquire the much needed information and for easier analysis. Creswell (2003) describes that the researcher should ensure that about 80 percent of the participants respond to the critical questions. If this is not the case, then the research should be repeated as the data will not help the salon manager to formulate better strategies of attracting new customers. This method is not appropriate since some respondents may find it hard to disclose information or to recall certain occurrences. The respondents may also be pressurised to give quick responses to the researcher and some may need some time to recall and comprehend the question. The other method that would be appropriate to use is through, mail questionnaire where the question will be administered to the clients after the services are offered. This will be quicker though some customers may not be willing to give sensitive information (Daivadeenam 2002). References Bovee, C, Houston, M & Thill, J 1995, Marketing, 2nd edition, McGraw Hill Inc, USA. Creswell, J 2003, Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Daivadeenam, P 2002, Research methodology in extension education, Agrotech Publishing Academy, Udaipur. Denzin, N & Lincoln, Y 2000, Handbook of qualitative research, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Ghosh, B 2005, Scientific methods and social research, Srerling Publishing, New Delhi. Holliday, A 2007, Doing and writing qualitative research, 2nd Edition, London: Sage Publications. Kothari, C 2001, Research methodology, Methods and techniques, Wiley Eastern Ltd., New Delhi. Kotler, P, Brown, L, Adam, S, Burton, S & Armstrong, G 2007, Marketing, 7th edition, Pearson Education Australia, Frenchs Forest. Michael, M 2010, Pros and cons of new online qualitative research tools, Market research, viewed 18 May 2011, Weimer, J 1995, Research techniques in human engineering, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice Hall.  Weller, S & Romney, A 1998, Systematic data collection, Qualitative research methods series, Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications. Zikmund, W, Ward, S, Lowe, B & Winzar, H 2007, Marketing research, Asia pacific edition, Cengage Learning Australia, South Melbourne. Read More