Different Age Demographics - Research Proposal Example

Table of Contents Page Introduction: Aim & Objective 2 2. Analysing Brands.3-4 3. The Research Rationale..5 4. The Research Question..6 5. Research Approach Methodology..7-8 6. Data collection and analysis....9 7. Scope and Limitations of the Research: Validity and Credibility...10 8. Conclusion11 9. Appendix.12-13 10. Bibliography.14-16 1. Introduction: Research Aim and Objective The main aim of this research proposal is to identify and analyse the relationship between different age demographics and rational in the buying behaviour and decisions when one is purchasing branded grocery and/or clothing items. The fundamental basis for this investigation into branding is to clearly identify what branding is and the importance of brand name and brand image to specific age groups. Into the initial secondary research, it was found that there are many various studies in the field of branding and consumer behaviour, all of them focusing on the existence and influence of age demographic factor but not paying much attention on its role and influence in consumes' choice of clothing and grocery brand. Harrison-Walker (1995) states that it appears that age demographics receive 'scant' attention in the marketing communications literature. Figure 11 shows a general outline of the overall research process as well as a guideline on the structure of the project itself. Due to the rapidly changing environment that is the industry of clothing and grocery, any company needs a clearer understanding of the nature of purchasing varying by age category. This would enable a successful and efficient segmentation and differentiation of its products to the different age groups. With this mind, here is a list of objectives to be accomplished during the process of the research as well a general guideline and outline throughout the research: - To generally identify the terms of brand and focus groups (semi-structured interviews). Identify and evaluate the academic and practical studies available upon the area. Identifying the importance of brand name to each acknowledged age group when buying clothing items. Also track its image significance. Generally identify each group's buying habits providing the link with academic/practical sources. To establish the motives in making buying decisions by each particular group, providing the link with academic/practical sources. Review the findings on the basis of comparison and contrasting and analysis of the results for the different groups, tracing and identifying the differences and similarities and make the final conclusions and recommendations. 2. Analysing Brands The brand name of any product has always been considered essential and vital as it was something, which once attached to an ordinary product, made it extraordinary or special. A key function of brands is quality certification. Brand reputation has considerable value more so where consumers find it difficult to judge quality for themselves. Often connected by the price, Premium Branding has enabled producers to establish consumer loyalty, increase consumer and customer awareness and develop and establish extensions of the brand. This makes branding a paramount element of the Marketing Strategy. Although, it was always demanding 'a great deal of long-term investment, especially for advertising, promotion and packaging' (Phillip Cotter 2003). The Image of a Brand, in the eyes of the consumer, may also act as a so called filter or perception of 'good or bad' products. This is easily influenced by marketing variables and/or other social influences over which the commercial marketer has limited control. Although commercial marketers tend to say they have ultimate and very strong control, the reality is slightly more fickle combined with the changing environment and ultimately customers' tastes, wants and needs. However, Marketers anticipating this turbulent environment learned to segment markets, so to focus their time, effort and energy toward a particular target market, influencing the importance placed by each individual customer upon brand name or image headed for positive direction that is consumption or purchase of the product. Demographics continue to be one of the most popular and well-accepted basis for segmenting markets and customers according to Kotler and Armstrong (1996). The three key elements of demographic segmentation variables are age, gender and life cycle. Age is a very important demographic variable since purchases vary by age category as well as also allows the Marketer to determine how wants and needs change and grow as an individual matures. In today's world, kids are faced with so much information, from a very wide source. Their parent's background often comes from a different culture and tradition. This makes it almost impossible to track or predict the child's behaviour and taste, making it even more complicated when mature. No wonder then that very little attention has been paid to the influence of age demographics in consumer decision-making. With branding becoming more popular than ever it is essential that Marketers understand such key demographics in an attempt to differentiate their products from their competitors. According to Assael (1998) and Kelly (1998), the most important age demographic to marketers is the adolescent age group. The adolescent age group are demanding popular brands such as FCUK, Nike, Addidas, GAP, Topman etc, anything that contributes to their 'cool' images. Hence, their buying decisions would greatly depend on 'coolness' of the brand name and image, the perception of or attitude towards them wearing or consuming a particular brand by their peers. The questions that needs to be asked at this juncture is does this apply to other age groups In essence, it should as people still communicate with others, sharing similar thoughts and feelings. However, on the other hand, mature people tend to be more individually mindset, so this may differ. The focus and purpose of this investigation is to showcase the importance that three distinct age demographics place in brand name and image when purchasing popular items of clothing or grocery items. The three age groups examined would be 12-18, 30-45 and 55 and over. This will illustrate a particular distinctive and in a way mature stages of the human life. The years missed out in between the groups are to be considered as either too early for consolidation of habits, taste and distinctive behaviour or too unstable due to various reasons. The first age group is the one attracting the most attention and the other two are rather to be used for comparing and contrasting purposes, so to observe the differences and variations tending to evolve over the time. 3. The Research Rationale Branding was established as the main concept and topic of the dissertation and instead of comparing and contrasting Branding in lets say two countries, this dissertation would be based on a single country, the UK, so to reduce the physical constraints to a more suitable and doable dimension. Branding was broken down into looking specifically at the discovery and identification of correlation between different age sectors and rational in buying decisions when purchasing grocery and clothing items. For any reasonable person, the age is a simple, yet critical demographic variable, since purchases vary by age or do they Perhaps people buy the same items of clothing and grocery but they are motivated or attracted to them for different reasons. It is more than reasonable to assume that the difference in age between consumers will have a considerable impact upon how they view brand name and brand image. 4. The Research Question The research primarily seeks to answer: What are branding Demographics and what do other academic studies have to say upon the topic going by the significance of brand in the consumer minds in terms of clothing/fashion items and grocery 5. Research Approach and Methodology: There are a number of options available along the way of achieving the optimum scope and focus and therefore obtaining the desired and relevant results. The process of choosing a research strategy, which was selected for the purposes of this particular research, is described in Figure 22. According to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2003), business and management research is often a mixture between positivist and interpretivist, perhaps reflecting the stance of realism. The research approach in its turn largely depends on the degree of clearance of the theory to the researcher at the beginning of the research. Taking into consideration, the data will be collected and compiled and the theory will be developed as the result of data analysis, the inductive approach is suggested to follow. A clear distinctive between strategy and tactics should be made at this interval as suggested by Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2003). Strategy is concerned with the overall approach one adopts whilst tactics consists of the finer details of data collection and analysis method. This research undertaken should use a mixture of strategies with main focus on survey and ethnography. As this is only a student research paper, it will use some aspects of the above-mentioned strategies bearing them in mind. The research will take the form of cross-sectional studies which is basically 'the study of a particular phenomenon (or phenomena) at a particular time (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill 2003). If there were no time and resource constraints faced, longitudinal studies would be used. This would enable the tracking and study change and development of and within this research topic as well as maintain the reliability and validity of the research results as these two are bound to change over the period. However, conducting focus groups involves certain extent of exploratory studies, which are valuable means of finding out 'what is happening to seek new insights; to ask questions and assess phenomena in a new light (Robson 2002). Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2003) suggest that the emphasis lies in the studying of a situation and/or a problem, which would enable the explanation of the correlation between the variables. This is especially true in undertaking this research, as it will be studying different demographic variables, and establishing a relationship between them. A semi-structured interview is to be used to gather information for this relatively small scale investigation into branding. A focus group approach will be used in gathering the information. Each focus group to be conducted will contain between 10-12 people and these groups will be made up of members of the public within the Hucknall, Nottinghamshire area. The three age groups to be looked at are:- 12-18 years of age 30-45 years of age 55 years and over Participants will be chosen on the basis that they fall into one of the age groups as mentioned above and there would be an even split between male and female participants within each focus groups to ensure a fair and unbiased perspective. However, this may not always be the case. Disposable Income would not initially be a major factor for this research. However, depending on the variables this may be adjusted and used later on. There are certain pitfalls which must be taken into consideration when interviews are undertaken. Such pitfalls in the field of personal interviews and group exercising are ethnical issues, stereotyping, the halo effect, confidentiality, embarrassment, harassment, personal dislike and a few others. Therefore, it must be crystal clear why the interview is carrying out the research, the purpose of the research. If the respondent requires copies of the interview transcript and findings, all must be provided to each participant and invitations will be made either verbally or in written form. Participants will all be notified if findings are to be published. 6. Data collection and analysis The use of focus groups will establish primary type of data. However, secondary data will be used for initial research purposes mainly because of its usefulness and availability with the current resource and time factors taken into consideration. Secondary data includes both qualitative and quantitative data and both can be used in both a descriptive and explanatory research (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill 2003). The data used maybe raw data, where there has been little if any processing, or compiled data that have received some form of selection or summarising (Kervin 1999). See Figure 3 for types of Secondary Data. Additionally, focus groups will be placed on multiple sources through various media channels such as websites, industry publications and statistics, journals, magazines, and books. Please refer to the Bibliography section for details. Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2003) suggest that the evaluation process should correspond with the following three fields: they will enable you to answer your research questions and meet your objectives the benefits associated with their use will be greater than the costs be allowed access to the data In other words, secondary sources that appear relevant at first may not in closer examination be appropriate to the research questions on objectives. Itewart and Kamus (1993) state that if one is using secondary data, one is at an advantage compared with researchers using primary data. This is due to the fact that the data already exist and therefore one can evaluate them prior to use. However, there is a range of validity and reliability criteria against which one can evaluate potential secondary according to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2003). Please see Figure 33. The complete summary on the process of evaluation of information throughout the research to be undertaken is detailed in the Process Flow - Figure 3. Research will be done on the guidance of the Process Flow in searching for information as well as analysis and sorting of data. Although, the fact of the researcher having to deal mainly or rather wholly with secondary data, commands very little control over its quality, which is only precise suitability in terms of validity and reliability must take place. Research obtained will be continuously cross-checked with objectives, questions and propositions of the researcher, paying particular attention to the initial objectives. 7. Scope and Limitations of the Research: Validity and Credibility This research is particularly based on theory, literature and practice on the topic. As a result, one of the objectives of this investigation is to compliment and provide additional theoretical and practical information to already existing ones. The research undertaken would be a small-scale investigation based on people's own attitudes and opinions on their buyer behaviour towards the branded items. There is a possibility for a lack of validity in the resulting conclusions and recommendations. This might only be correct for the chosen area that is chosen country or even town area but not the country as a whole. However, by using sound and reliable research methods, this would reduce the possibility for the lack of validity as a whole, although not able to influence the scale factor. Due to the time and financial constraints, a relatively small scale investigation is to be conducted using approximately 120-140 people within the Hucknall, Nottinghamshire area taking parting the research focus group, which as mentioned above might lack in scope and validity of the research. The main aim is to gather qualitative information on a relatively small scale, which is why no statistical analysis is to be applied to the end results. It is believed that the research results would be quite valuable for supermarkets in the Hucknall area - namely Tesco, Aldi, Iceland and Morrisons. This would enhance already existing knowledge via challenging or further contributing to previous studies. 8. Conclusions The main reason for undertaking the subject matter for this research is that it was felt that this particular area was somewhat understudied at present, which allows the proposed research proposal with great potential for being new and unique to a certain extent. Such as it is, contributing greatly to the overall value of the research providing that it is commenced using the sound methodology and academic approach. Every attempt will be made to put as much effort as possible, so as to satisfy the above requirement. There is also the possible constraint issues (as already mentioned) mainly time and resource, which are predominantly unavoidable in student research but perhaps can be slightly minimised. Using pest-practice research techniques along with a very narrow focus should hopefully alleviate this. This would allow concentration of all one's efforts and resources upon the desired results. 9. Appendix Figure 1 - Marketing Research Adapted from Philip Kotler (2003) 'Marketing Management' (11th Ed.) Prentice Hall. Figure 2 - The Research Process Onion Adapted from Mark Saunders, Philip Lewes and Adrian Thornhill (2003) 'Research Methods for Business Studies Students' (3rd Ed.) Prentice Hall Figure 3 - Evaluating potential secondary data sources 13. Bibliography Books: Adamantios Diamantopoulos & Bodo B Schlegelmilch (2000) "Taking the Fear Out of Data Analysis" Business Press Arnold D (1992) "The Handbook of Brand Management", Century Business: The Economist Books Bailey, V (1995) "Essential Research Skills", Collins Education, London Claude W Burrill and Johannes Ledolter (1999) "Achieving Quality Through Continual Improvement" John Wiley & Sons Gerry Johnson and Kevan Scholes (2002) "Exploring Corporate Strategy" (6th Edition) Prentice Hall LeCompte M. D. & Preissle J (1993) "The Qualitative Approach" Prentice Hall Mark Saunders, Philip Lewes and Adrian Thornhill (2003) "Research Methods for Business Studies Students" (3rd Ed.) Prentice Hall Michael Armstrong (2003) "A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice" (9th Edition) Kogan Page Philip Kotler (2003) "Marketing Management" (11th Edition) Prentice Hall Philip Kotler et al (1999) "Principles of Marketing" (2nd European Edition) Prentice Hall Krueger R. A (1988) "Focus Groups: A Practical Guide For Applied Research" Sage Publications Morgan D. L. (1990) "Focus Groups as Qualitative Research" Sage Publications Bingham, Walter V. Dyke and Bruce V. Moore "How to Interview" Harper (1991) Peter Chisnall "Marketing Research" (6th Edition) McGrawHill (2001) Kahn, Robert L. and Charles F Cannell, "The Dynamics of Interviewing" Wiley, New York 1957 Cooper, Peter and Alan Branthwaite "Qualitative Technology; New perspectives on measurement and meaning through qualitative research", Proceedings of the Market Research Society Conference, 1977 Gordon Wendy (1999) "Goodthinking: a Guide to Qualitative Research" Admap, Henley-on-Thames Hope Olson, School of Library and Information Studies (2001), Quantitative "versus" Qualitative Research: The Wrong Question" Bradley, Jana (1993), Methodological issues and practices in qualitative research Winter R (1989), Learning from Experience. Principles and practice in action research, London: Falmer John Lofland & Lyn H Lofland (1995), Analysing social settings, 3rd Edition, Belmont, Wadsworth Anselm L Strauss (1987), Qualitative analysis for social scientists, New York: Cambridge University Press Journals/Articles: "Big brands boost sales" Grocer, Volume 225 16th November, 2002 Morgan, D. L. Spanish M. T. (1984) "Focus groups: a new tool for qualitative research" Qualitative Sociology Joseph P Flood "Focus groups improve wilderness management efforts" Parks & Recreation, May 2002, Volume 37, p 24 Denise Threlfall (1991) "Using focus groups as a consumer research tool" Journal of Marketing Practice: Applied Marketing Science, Volume 5, Number 4, pp 102-105 The Qualitative Report- an online journal dedicated to qualitative research and critical inquiry since 1990, Qualitative Research Resources on the Internet http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/qualres.html The Marketing Research Process: surveys- http://www.ukans.edu/cwis/units/coms2/po/index/html Websites http://www.questia.com - online library http://www.google.com - search engine http://www.business.cm - Business Search Engine http://www.emerald.co.uk - Online journals library http://www.keynote.com - Industry Reports Website http://www.economist.co.uk - The Economist magazine http://www.kompass.com - Online Company Information Database http://www.mintel.com - Industry Reports Read More