Why Many Environment Conscious People Do Not Use Buses - Case Study Example

Name: University: Course: Lecturer: Date: Why Many Environment Conscious People Do Not Use Busses Executive Summary This report is as a result of a market survey commissioned by FirstGroup to establish why people despite being environment conscious are yet to shift significantly from using private vehicles to using busses in their travel. It contains an introduction giving the general principles of market research and the background of company research. The problem statement gives a clear outline of what the issue prompting the research is. The methodology used in the report is also detailed as well as the findings that came from the research. Conclusion and recommendations make deductions from the observation and give the way forward respectively. Introduction Market research is the specific collection of data on information regarding a certain market of interest. It involves the interests of the customers, the competition as well as information on the relevant issues in business environment. It is mostly commissioned to enable the commissioning business to craft a winning strategy after getting a clear picture of the market and its demands. Market research can either be conducted by an entity outside the commissioning organization; this is referred to as agency market research while the one commissioned to be done by people from the organization is known as in house market research (Housden, 2008). In-house market research is sometimes subjective since the individuals involved may have their findings influenced by certain prejudices and traditions in the company. According to Arthur, 2013 agency research, on the other hand,has my advantages including a specific skill set, it may have conflict of interest since certain competing companies may employ the services of one research agent. This may also compromise confidentiality of the information gathered. Market research can be defined as either qualitative or quantitative. Qualitative market research seeks to understand the reason why market trends are the way they are. Why individuals purchase certain products and not others, why certain brands are priced a certain way etc. Quantitative research, on the other hand, has a more numerical orientation with a lot of interest being in quantifying aspects of the market either with specific figures or with comparatives. The research whose findings are represented in this report is mainly qualitative since it is geared towards helping decision makers at First Group make decisions based on customer attitudes in order to help them make decisions that will lead them to conserve the environment through the use of busses. There are, however limitations to the qualitative approach especially since many times the answers are not quite actionable. If, for example, a respondent says they do not use busses because they are not convenient, there is no way of know how the bus is inconvenient and therefore of knowing which action to take to remedy the situation. Background First group was established after the government of the United Kingdom deregulated bus services and companies were allowed to buy into the hitherto national and municipal bus companies. The company then was known as Badgerline bought the Bristol Omnibus Company and built it through acquisition and merger with GRT Bus Groups to become one of the biggest transport companies in the world. The company has extended its reach to the USA and Canada where it is involved in school transport and public transport contracts as well as maintenance of vehicles for governments and companies. It has also ventured into other means of transport particularly commuter trains in the United Kingdom. Problem Statement Being a public transport company, it is in the interest of the company’s bottom line for more people to use public transport than private vehicles in their travels. The company, also, being serious with its corporate social responsibility has a great interest in environmental sustainability especially on the issue of carbon footprints to which the company contributes to significantly due to the use of hydrocarbon fuels to power the almost 10000 busses distributed across two continents. On the issue of carbon footprints, the interests of the company bottom line and the fulfillment of its corporate social responsibility dovetail perfectly because if after sensitization members of the public realize that the use of private cars increases the emission of greenhouse effect gasses. They will use busses more thus bringing more revenue to the company even as it effectively brings down the level of green house gasses emissions. FirstGroup has taken measures to sensitize the public on the issue of climate change and it has carefully documented its carbon emissions and how they can be reduced in its website. While the company has taken deliberate effort to reduce its carbon emissions and worked hard to be a part of the public sensitization campaign and has seen more people go in to recycling and other green initiatives as a result. It has not seen a significant increase in the number of people who prefer using busses as a way of reducing the emissions. FirstGroup Bus Services would therefore like to know why members of the public in Scotland, prefer using their private vehicles which are a significant contributor of carbon emissions while they know and care. Research Objectives The objectives of this research are 1. To establish why many people still prefer the use of private vehicles instead of busses even after being effectively sensitized on the issue of carbon footprints and their effects on the environment. 2. To establish what might encourage people who do not use busses to start using them. 3. To establish a profile of the infrequent bus user or non user. 4. To establish why commuters think that busses are inconvenient. The action standard is to get commuters to rate FirstGroup busses better than ‘relatively convenient’. Research Design The objective of this research was to give a more precise definition of the situation that FirstGroup finds itself in; a situation whose causes were not clear. Of the three market research designs, exploratory research was the best suited for this situation. The use of projective techniques assisted where information would be sourced from secondary sources and other sources and analyzed in order to be interpreted according to its relevance to the situation at hand. Research Methods. This research involved people who were conscious of the effects of greenhouse gasses emission and still used a bus less than once every month and those who even though were conscious enough to change certain aspects of their lives still did not use busses at all. Those who use the bus once or less every month are referred to as infrequent bus users and those who do not use busses at all are herein after referred to as non bus users. Since it was geared towards outlining the experiences and views of different individuals in the focus groups, this research can be characterized as qualitative in nature. During the research, it was noted that the views of the environment conscious individual respondents whether they were infrequent or non bus users were largely the same and therefore, there was no real distinction between the two during the discussion. Sample of the focus group There were a hundred and thirty participants who took part in fourteen focus group engagements with each of the focus groups having around between six and 9 participants as shown in the table below Area Age Employed/Unemployed Annual Household income Aberdeen 30-45 Employed £25,000 and above Aberdeen Over 45 Employed £25,000 and above Glasgow 15-30 Mixed Below £25,000 Glasgow Over 45 Employed £25,000 and above Leeds 30-45 Employed £25,000 and above Leeds Over 45 Employed £25,000 and above York 15-30 Mixed Below £25,000 York 30-45 Employed £25,000 and above Calderdale 15-30 Mixed Below £25,000 Calderdale Over 45 Employed £25,000 and above Berkshire 15-30 Mixed Below £25,000 Berkshire 30-45 Employed £25,000 and above Devon 30-45 Employed £25,000 and above Devon Over 45 Employed £25,000 and above Cornwall 30-45 Employed £25,000 and above Cornwall 15-30 Mixed Below £25,000 Newport 30-45 Employed £25,000 and above Newport 30-45 Employed £25,000 and above The sample was deliberately designed to ensure that the views of different people from across geographical locations and social strata were captured. The discussions of the different focus groups were facilitated by members of the research teams in different venues in the areas where the participants came from. It was agreed that, in order to enable the participants to be effectively involved, the venues would be central and easily accessible. Members of the research teams who facilitated the focus groups given a list of topic guides to help them focus the discussion but the adherence to the text was not necessarily strict in order to allow for discussion of emerging issues that may not have been captured in the sheet. Data Analysis and Reporting The information from all participants was captured through recording devices and was later transcribed in order to have a full record of what the participants said. However the analysis of views was only done at the group level. Since, as indicated earlier, the method of research was qualitative, no statistical inferences were provided in the reporting. The reporting was geared towards understanding why certain people hold certain opinions and what similarities in views and circumstances if any exist among the individual participants. In order to stay true to its qualitative nature, this report endeavours, as much as possible, to avoid words that might be seen to be quantifying. The research, being focused on infrequent or non bus users is not necessarily about FirstGroup customers even where there has been infrequent use of busses but more on general bus use or lack thereof in order to give the FirstGroup a competitive edge. Perception of Busses While the group involved was not particularly used to bus travel, the views on use of busses were inordinately high. The report compiles the attitudes shown towards different aspects of bus travel from drivers to time schedule to routes and physical condition of busses. Attitudes or views that were found to be prevalent across a particular age group or social class were discussed in detail as emerging issues. The discussion concentrated more on the negative aspects of bus travel which hindered people from using them. Safety This pertains to the safety of driving by the bus drivers and also from emerging security issues particularly terrorism. It was observed that a big number of people who do not use busses have concerns on safety and security. It was noted, however, that among the younger participants, the complaint as to why they would rather use their own vehicles was that the busses were too slow. Attitudes of Other Passengers The interaction with other passengers in a bus is a central part of bus riding (Stradling et al., 2007). Some members of the focus groups felt that the use of busses was too intrusive due to the large number of people who are in a bus and some fellow riders in unwanted conversations. The more prevalent concern regarding fellow passengers was the issue of security with some participants feeling that their individual security superseded the need for the reduction of carbon footprints. Bus timetables The main concern regarding times and timetables were the length of time it took to travel by bus as compared to the same journey by private vehicles. The busses were seen to take longer with the drop offs and pickups. The rigid bus timetables also led individuals who wanted to travel in between the scheduled bus times to find it difficult to travel by bus. Bus routes The participant, while not well versed with the routes used by busses mostly felt that the routes were not well tailored for their travel especially to and from work thus making it more convenient for them to use private vehicles. Through the discussion, it emerge that the participants associated bus customers with people who could either not afford to drive, could not afford to drive or were not sufficiently socially conscious to know better. Conclusion This research was commissioned to show why environmentally sensitive individuals find it difficult to travel by bus even when doing so would see them significantly reduce the carbon they emit from their activities. It was observed that most of the reasons given were the same reasons all people give as to why they do not travel by bus. This seems to suggest that people are not yet willing to give up their convenience especially while travelling to places that are off the bus routes for the sake of the environment. Recommendations FirstGroup should continue with its carbon emission campaign to sensitize members of the public on the importance of maintaining a clean environment. The company should also continue with its efforts to reduce the emissions from its fleet. The marketing strategy should, however, remain conventional in while frequent market research is done to ensure that changes in attitude are captured on time in order to allow changes in the FitstGroup’s marketing strategy. References Arthur. L, (2013) Big Data Marketing: Engage Your Customers More Effectively and Drive Value . New Jersey. John Wiley & Sons Inc. Housden. M, (2008) Market Information & Research. Oxford, Butterworth - Heinemann. Stradling, S, Carreno, M, Rye, T, Noble, A (2007) Passenger perceptions and the ideal urban bus journey experience. Transport Policy Vol 14: 283-292. Read More