Marketing Strategies in the UK Retail Car Business - Assignment Example

?  (Principles of Management) By Presented to Location Due The management masters MBA degree basically involves the studies on the various management theories and practices that are useful in the description, explanation of the various management problems and further in addition to apply the underlying theories in solving these management issues. The study equips the student in acquiring the relevant skills and qualification to perform the management practices in accordance with the management guidelines and procedures in the context of any management field. Management masters degree student studies the theories and the management principles in the various fields of management including management science and engineering, macro and micro management, policy making in all the organizations comprising of the various entities and business administration and the management which involves running of the companies, corporations, partnership and organizations. All of these fields are characterized with problem solving and decision making on the various management issues which is vital to the success and better performance of any organization in the context of the various department that are comprised in an organization. Through the study the student is able to make accurate, reliable and valid decisions on the management issues following the procedures and the guidelines that are consistent, feasible and in conformity with the better management practice and theories that aim at solving the underlying problems. With the effect of globalization and the advent of the new technologies taking its action in the various organizations, management has become an important tool and a vital aspect in the achievement of the set goals and objectives thus emerging the need to have a quality management team that is able to deliver the goal and objectives of the organization. Solving management problems requires the student to have adequate skills, qualifications and extensive understanding on the management and leadership which involves decision making. Although decision making has the tendency of being a natural and characterized with personal attributes it is important to integrate the various concepts of the management to improve the management decision quality and effectiveness. This implies that the management theories are acts as the facilitators of an effective, reliable, consistent and valid decisions made by the individual students who are the prospective managers of the various fields of management in the various contexts. The management theories assist management master’s degree students to be able to accurately interlink the management problem solving and the management decisions that are made at the various levels of management depending on the situation of an organization. The study of the management masters degree enables the students as potential managers to be able to apply the basic principles, laws and guidelines of the management process with the aim of optimally utilizing resources which are bound to be scarce. This process involves minimizing cost with anticipated maximum profitability and returns, and the whole process is facilitated by the modern management science and the availably technologies. In the field of management science and engineering the students of master’s degree will have acquired skills from the general management theories, operations management which is the core functional strategy of an engineering field, management system engineering, and information technology management - all these are incorporated with the decision making, game theory and the organizational theory. These theories mainly involve the designing of the economics management in engineering and the evaluation methods of the best engineering management practices. Secondly, there is the business administration where the study of the management theories is applied in the management of the corporation businesses as well as the non-profit making organization. The studies involve theories’ techniques and methods that are applied in the management of these corporations. This basically includes the strategic management, corporate governance, enterprise finance management, marketing management, project management and the logistic supply chain management. The students will be able to engage in the research and design in the areas where they are crucial to the successful implementation of the management strategies that have been proposed in an organization and need to be implemented. Another important field that the theories of the management is applied by the students is the macro-management policy formulation and the strategies that are used in the implementation process. These management theories underlie macro-economic management theories of financial management, technology management and information management. The importance of the management theories to the students of management masters degree is that they facilitate the quality of the decision making process which they are involved in for the day to day management and problem solving in the various fields of management (McDaniel 2006). Amina marketing proposal had inadequate findings to qualify for the award of the management MBA degree because of the methodology that she used in the collection of data and the analysis on the available data on the marketing situation in the retail car dealership industry in UK. This resulted into the rejection of the proposal by Dr Wang, her project advisor, based on the shortcomings in the findings section. To improve the findings section, Amina has to follow the next criteria in her proposal. The first step for her to improve her findings is to diversify the sources of data that are important in providing information which the findings are to be drawn from. This step involves the use of both the primary and the secondary data to that is going to be critically analyzed to obtain the findings on the market situational analysis. The internal primary data will involve the first hand information that is obtained directly from the companies and firms that deal with the purchase and selling of the motors in UK, thus there is the need to design an effective methodological approach that will facilitate the effective collection of the relevant data and information regarding the marketing strategies in the UK car dealership (McDaniel 2006). The sources from the secondary data should be enriched in that several sources have to be presented to enhance the reliability and the validity of the marketing strategies which have been previously adopted by car dealers and the extent of the success of these strategies in the achievement of the marketing objectives of these firms. This implies that she has to obtain a number of the literature reviews that will be useful in the enrichment and the facilitation of these secondary sources which are considered to be vital for any research proposal. The next important step after the identification of the reliable sources of data that is relevant to the UK car dealers marketing strategies is to establish criteria in which there is correct and accurate selection of the samples that will provide reliable, valid and consistent findings on the marketing strategies. This step should be identified by Amina to be an important step in making sure that the focus and the objective of the research proposal are not lost in the collection of data. The findings of a research proposal are important in the evaluation of the focus and the achievement of the proposal objectives and goals. Therefore, it is important for Amina to select samples that will translate into relevant, valid and reliable findings on the research proposal. The third step is to identify a suitable research tool and technique that is able to deliver the desired findings for the research process. Focus should be laid on the internal primary data collection in which Amina is going to get most of the data in her research proposal (McDaniel 2006). The techniques of data collection should collect data on the suitable and marketing strategies in the UK retail car dealership firms, so the selection of the data collection technique will depend on the target audience that the data is going to be collected. The identified target audience, who the information and data collection is to be conducted for, is the sales managers, employees, customers and other stakeholders associated with the car dealers in UK. Other sources of data such as the secondary data mainly the literature reviews will involve the application of the secondary data collection where the most suitable technique is to collect data through research on information about the marketing situation of the car dealership in UK in the online data bases, and also the previous research which had been done regarding the marketing strategies of the UK car dealers. The suitable techniques that can be used in the collection of the primary data in this proposal include focus groups which will involve: the major stakeholders of the various car dealers on the perception and the attitudes towards the situation on the marketing strategies of the selected car dealers in UK; the findings from the focus groups in the form of analysis of the whole marketing situation of the research topic and their reliability because of their lowest level of biasness in them. Another appropriate research technique for this proposal is the in-depth interviews which are targeted on collecting data from the sales managers and the customers of the selected car dealers in UK. The interviews are conducted in an effective and efficient manner where the selected questions that need to be asked are well prepared before the interview to ensure that no aspect related to the marketing strategies is left out during the interview process. Customers will provide vital information regarding the influence of the marketing strategies by the car dealers in their selection of cars; this will be conducted on the customers who are entering the premises to purchase the cars and those who are interested in purchasing, thus covering both the potential and the existing customers. All the interviews conducted should mainly cover the marketing strategies on the various selected care dealers on the emerging trends and the development of the new marketing strategies (McDaniel 2006). The last important technique is the adoption of observation to collect the qualitative data. Qualitative data acts as a complement to the other data that are used to generate findings on the research process. It involves observation on the change of the consumer behaviour, as new marketing strategies and also the level sales over a period of time are adopted. To get findings on the quantitative data the appropriate technique that Amina should use is to carry out a survey relating to the marketing strategies on the various market segments, more preferably on the customers with the various income levels, and this will enhance the findings on the effectiveness of the adopted marketing strategy on each of the different levels of income. Another general survey is conducted on the general public which will involve the use of social media and the general use of email. This will provide findings on the general perception and attitudes of the car dealers marketing strategies and techniques. Upon the collection of the data that is focusing mainly on the marketing strategies and the general market analysis and the situation of the car dealers in UK, discussion guide on the findings has to be developed to improve the validity and the reliability of the findings. To get the approval of Dr Wang on her proposal Amina should ensure that his draft proposal is clear of all of the inadequacies and shortcomings that have been pointed out by her project advisor. Therefore, for her to get the approval she has to make corrections on the highlighted specific areas that need modifications. The major areas on the draft proposal that need to be corrected, as highlighted by Mr. Wang, include the following: the description part of the proposal needs to be corrected, because the first draft has focused too much on the description of the UK car dealers industry, how the industry is operating and the nature of the business operations (McDaniel 2006). This, according to Dr Wang, is not that much necessary because the research topic requires the description of the marketing strategies. The description should be corrected in such a way that there will be focus on the marketing analysis of the UK retail motor dealers. The competition, UK retail motor dealers purchasing and sales trends and the general consumer behavior should be described in the context of the marketing strategies that are applied by the various car dealers. The description should further provide an insight on the marketing environment, competition sustainability strategies applied by the identified motor dealers and the influence of these strategies in the context of the marketing theories that give an explanation on the research statement problem. The clear definition of the statement problem should provide focus on the whole research process: this attributes to the clearly defined aims and objectives of the research proposal. Although there is a clear description of the statement problem, Amina has not used literature correctly which is the crucial part of any research proposal. In the draft the literature used has laid focus mainly on the motors and cars industry where there is less focus on the marketing theories underlying the marketing strategies on the UK retail car dealers. For this part to be approved, the literature used should focus on the marketing strategies that the car dealers in UK have developed as measures to address the eventualities that are attributed by the increased competition and rivalry in the UK among them. The theory of the marketing strategy should be the key focus of the literatures that have to be adopted in the research proposal (McDaniel 2006). There is also the need to make amendments on the methodology of the data collection. The draft provision of only interviews as the only data collection method is not adequate because of the biasness that surrounds this data collection technique and the sense that only the sales managers were interviewed. Amina should include in her proposal other techniques of data collection such as the use of secondary data, making of observations and conducting surveys. This will enhance the reliability and the validity of the findings and the sources of data. The proposal should have detailed findings from the data collected from all the sources indicating all the findings. The results from the findings are discussed critically, an analysis is presented on the findings with a detailed presentation and a final summary of the findings should be provided to be used to make conclusions. These corrections in the draft have to be made to meet the requirements of the project advisor to approve the proposal. For the consideration of rewriting the proposal Amina has to apply a new approach in writing the whole proposal. The new approach should be able to address all the shortcomings that had been highlighted by the project advisor on the achievement of management masters MBA degree. The following is the recommended approach for this marketing proposal: The first step in this approach is to study the research topic, the statement problem. Next, Amina should develop research objectives and the research questions in the context of the marketing problem identified. Then she should prepare the introduction of the market proposal and carrying out an evaluation on it. The next step is to identify a suitable methodology which involves the selection of the research design where there is the collection and the use of both primary and secondary data which should comprise qualitative and quantitative data. This step in the approach is crucial in determining the validity and the reliability of the data collected. Next, it is necessary to develop the discussion guide on the collected data - this should be followed by the organization and the presentation of the marketing research findings. The final step should involve the analysis of the findings and the interpretation of the marketing research results which should be a detailed discussion of the findings (McDaniel 2006). This should be followed by a conclusion which draws the relevant implications of the marketing strategies in the UK retail car dealers. Reference Carl D. McDaniel, R. H. (2006). Marketing Research Essentials. New York: Taylor & Francis. Read More