BETC Business Diploma Level 3 year 1

M2: Explain the limitations of marketing research used to contribute to the development of a selected organisation's marketing plansM2: Explain the limitations of marketing research used to contribute to the development of a selected organisation's marketing plans
M2: Explain the limitations of marketing research used to contribute to the development of a selected organisation's marketing plans

M2: Explain the limitations of marketing research used to contribute to the development of a selected organisation's marketing plans


Using the PEST analysis in the article, answer the following:-

How does 1 political factor affect an organisations marketing plan:
The one political factor that will have an influence on the marketing plan of the business could be changes on the law; applied from the government. One of these laws could be the DPA (Data Protection Act). If the government removes this law a Business that thrives from information e.g. Google will be able to sell the information that they have to other business that would like to get the personal information their customers so they can gain more information on what their customers like and dislike. Therefore the business will have to change their marketing plan strategies to allow the business to grow by achieving customers' needs and expectation through this business will be able to make profit and taking advantage of the new change.
How does 1 economic factors affect an organisations marketing plan:
One the economical factor that could affect the business marketing plan will be inflation due to the fact that when inflation raises the business would have to increase the prices of goods. This means that customers are less likely to use the goods and services of the business. Therefore the business will have to reduce the price of goods and service to be able to make sales. This means the marketing plan strategies would have to allow the business to safely reduce the prices of their goods and services while still making break-even.
How does 1 social factors affect an organisations marketing plan
Education is one of the social factors that will have an effect on the marketing plan of the business. The reason will be that if people don't have enough education they will not be able to progress to the higher parts of their course and will lack certain skills etc. In result the business will not have the right IT technician that will have the knowledge of how repairing the computers and this will cause the company to spend more money on buying more new computers. Therefore business will have to change their marketing strategies plan in recruiting more qualified staff and providing high levels of training, which will cost money to the business.
How does 1 technological factors affect an organisations marketing plan:
Technologic in advance could be also one of the factors that will affect the business due to fact that the business provide customers with internet access. This means the business will have to buy brand new computers with the latest version of desktop so that the level of internet access remains high. Therefore business will have to spend more money and also train their staff to able to operate with the computers and this means that the company have less money to contribute to growth of the business.
Find 2 threats for Internet cafes (e.g. Google: research internet cafes)
Competitors -would be the number one threat of the business because of the high numbers of internet café available due to the fact that it is easy to open an internet café and also internet used in the household which means people are more likely to have contract in their household. Therefore the internet café are in competition with BT, Sky and the local competitors.
Library- would be the second treat for the internet café because they provide free internet access to the public. Therefore it will affect the internet café sales because people are more likely to use the library than the internet café.

Finally using examples from your Internet café, Fill in the table below
TYPES OF RESEARCH SOURCES/METHODS

DESCRIBE THE RESEARCH METHOD
(Primary / secondary, qualitative or quantitative data?)
AND THE INFORMATION IT PRODUCES
EXPLAIN THE LIMITATIONS OF USING THIS SOURCE
(Is what you found supporting Validity/ Reliability? E.g. How old is the information? From which country? Is the source respectable?)
YOUR JUDGEMENT
(How would you rate this information out of 1-10 (1=lowest & 10 = Highest) and would you trust it and make it a major point for your marketing decisions?
NEWSPAPER
ARTICLE

The Newspaper article is part of the secondary and qualitative research because it is a research that was done by someone else; this gives information about business and customers preferences through interviews.

The limitation of this is that it was written by someone so there a high risk of bias
Based on s small number of people so it is not always validated
8 - This will be my major point for my marketing decisions because you find the information in the internet and the information are based on the current market.
QUESTIONNAIRE IN FORM OF A SURVEY
This is a primary and quantitative research, which are research made from a researcher by asking potentially question to the consumers which give you a large numbers of people on this research.
This method might be unreliable because sometime people get bored and it is time consuming because you will need to analyse all the data, also cost money due to the fact that you will need to print a large amount of copy to be filled by the public. It is validated method because it is done on a large sample.
7 and 8- This will be my major point for my marketing decisions because it gives me clear I random information about people preference in figures and data that could be help me use form the internet café and also because it could give me a large sample, but only if it is done with lots of questionnaire.
ONS (Office for National Statistics)

This is secondary, quantitative research which is another type of research made from another sources. This gives you accurate information about the market with a high validity and precision. For example according to their article says that 70% of households in the UK have now internet access
This can be respectable because surveys have been carried out by professionals, but it might sometime be out of date or not related to the types of information needed for your business. In terms of validity and reliability it is a very good research method due to the fact that it is done from professionals who spend a lot of time and money doing researches.
9 and 10- I would trust this form of research because this research are well produce from professionals who spend lots of time in collecting, analysing information and money for doing the research.
COMPETITION Find out how many internet cafes exist in Croydon?
Find 2
COMPETITOR
WEBSITES

This is secondary and quantitative research because Croydon happen to have a large amount of internet café however by doing the research my result found is that there are 150 internet cafes in Croydon, surrey. The two competitors are: http://www.cyberzone.co.uk/internet_cafe.php

http://www.192.com/atoz/business/croydon-cr0/internet-cafes/puskas-brown-ltd/497f096cea866c4dc4471643d72bb7812a041a0a/ml/#


This source could sometime be either reliable or unreliable. unreliable because competitors may not give their correct answers but how their business is going and reliable because they will answers my question that could that gives me an idea of how the profitability or the success of the internet café would be by attracting more customers to spend more on the products and services.
8 and 9- This will be my major point for my marketing decisions because it is 50-50; I wouldn't trust on the answers but I would look at their service that are more likely to be used from their consumers and this will allow me to have an idea of how my target market want the service to be and also having the decision of what is necessary for the internet café.
IN STORE OBSERVATION (Mystery Shopper)


Store observation is primary, qualitative research that gives you eyesight of people behaviour when they are buying products, by having the decision of buying or not; this gives you the opportunity of analysing the way customers look at the products packaging.


This has low validity because most of the time it is only one person doing the observation; therefore it can be misunderstanding and might be interpreted wrong.
5 and 6 or 7 - This will be my major point for my marketing decisions because I do not trust this research that much for example this observation is done by one person it could be interpreting the information wrongly but if there were more mystery shopper it will therefore provide more information like what customers pick up more and not prefer.
FACE TO FACE (1-2-1) INTERVIEWS
Face to face interviews is primary, qualitative research that gives you answers for a specific question of what people likes or not likes.
The limitation of this could be based on the character of the customers. This is because they know that are monitored and try to pretend that it look better, also sometime different customers have different opinions and it is time consuming because of it is based on a small sample which determines the invalidity of it.
4 and 5- This will be my major point for my marketing decisions because the aim and adjective of the internet café is to be able to attract more customers. Therefore customers could be interview by anyone who is employed to do their job in making sure that they do what they have been asked for.

D2: Make the 9 recommendations below for improving the marketing research used to contribute to the development of opening an Internet café's marketing plans
Have you considered both primary and secondary research?
Yes, I did considered both primary and secondary research because primary research was carrying out through survey to know what your target want and expect from your service and secondary research was carrying out a basic level through the internet research.

What do you recommend?
I would recommend primary research because it gives you more essential information about the target market, by doing interviews, focus group, questionnaires, surveys and observations. These give you a good overview of what people likes and dislikes and increase your simple size also the diversity of the audience.
Does the primary use a range of different methods that provide both qualitative and quantitative data?
Yes, during the primary research I used different range of methods that provided me with both qualitative and quantitative data. This is because it allow me know what the public want and how they want an internet café to be similar to or different from the competitors, so with this it will help you satisfy their needs and expectation.
What do you recommend?
I would recommend using repeating question to increase the reliability; it gives you more specific information about the market target because qualitative research makes you understand people's behaviour, experiences and attitudes and also quantitative research will give me numbers of people that took part. This is because it will be easy to analyse the data by doing primary research.
Does the primary research contain any leading questions?
Yes, due to the fact that primary researches are essential for a business plan. Therefore the question allow you to Know that there is a sustainable market for your product and services and it is vital for a success of the business to able to understand what your audience expects from you.

What do you recommend?
I would recommend to use repeating question like "have you got internet at home" or "Do you use internet café", with this two types of leading question can be objectionable by answering with yes or no, but not all yes or no question are leading. It means that you might change the methods used during an interview by making sure question are open, so that it has not limit answers but most of time primary research doesn't use leading questions.
Is there evidence of using sampling? Is the sample size large enough?
No, mainly when you used secondary research because it provides you with information that has been made by someone else and also Google has most answers. Therefore there were no samplings because I did not have the time to sample any form of data used to collect information.
What do you recommend?
I would recommend using secondary research only as a backup because it is a quickest method of collecting information, less time consuming and save money. But it could be must better of using primary research that gives the opportunity to produce a large sample size; this would be qualitative because it give you the results that are replies from potential customers.

Does the method of selecting the sample sufficiently reduce the threat of bias in the result?
No, because I only asked student their opinions about having a new internet café and about a certain products and services, however I do not want to provide sample that produces threats of bias in the result because it will affect my research.
What do you recommend?
I would recommend having a large sample size that are good by using different methods such as location; to producing more numbers of a mix target groups to be able to reduce the threat of bias in the result. As result this would help business growth by following the opinions that used to improve the product and service.
Has the secondary data used come from internal and external sources?
Yes, they were conducted externally because most of the data I collected were externally; this is also because internal form of secondary research did not give me enough information about the marketing plan of the internet café while that external did give me more information about the marketing research of the internet café through newspapers reports and from the ONS (Office for National Statistics, this was both qualitative and quantitative data's from other internet café.
What do you recommend?
I would recommend ONS because it is respectable sources that are carried out by professionals, but the information it might sometime be out of date and it is reliable due to the fact that it is done from professionals who spend a lot of time and money doing researches and it is published on the websites.
Has the data been misinterpreted or out of date?
No, the data were not ministered or out of data because it is not good for the business however, in other cases looking at these data of how certain the business has preceded enables you to know your next step for your business plan and strategy.

What do you recommend?
I would recommend to always making sure that you check the data on the information and date given to make to the public are accurate, if not people will not take you seriously in this which means that you will lose credibility. And also recommend use sometime out of date data because it could also help you have a good idea to use qualitative data results as part of your marketing decision in term of changes of technology. This is due to the fact that people are more likely to use their phones, tablet and etc.

Does the data fit the purpose of the research?
Yes, the data are accurate because it the purpose of the research is to help you understand and gain more detail of customers' needs and also because it is everything that has to do with the internet café by giving information about previous statistic data of how the internet café has changed during the years.
What do you recommend?
I would recommend having different forms of research such as primary and secondary because it gives you the knowledge from different sources that allow your business to grow. It also gives you a chance to see different method applied on the marketing plan or compare how some particular business has been successful or not.

Conclusion

Firstly, you will need to decide which type of research is more successful for the internet café. This is because you need the knowledge for how the internet café operate and how to achieve your aims and objectives.

Secondly, I recommend primary research as a first method of collecting information about has the internet café in a particular area that more suitable for the business. By using surveys would be good to have a personal understanding of what consumers may like or not like and also gives you an idea of what people would expect from your internet café. To have a large sample size you will need to bring close to the institutions like colleges, library and station by giving survey in the street.

And last you have always to do secondary research ONS (Office of National Statistics) is a quantitative research which gives you accurate information about the market with a high validity and precision. This it is valid and reliable result because it is a very good method of collecting data although that it is out of date and also due to the fact that it is done from professionals who spend a lot of time and money doing researches.

Unit 3, Introduction to Marketing
Stephanie Neves ID