The Main Business Methods - Research Proposal Example

Research Proposal Table of Contents Introduction 3 Research Objectives 4 Literature Review 5 Research Methodology 6 Philosophy 6 Approach 7 Strategy 7 Data collection Method 8 Data analysis Procedure 8 References 9 Introduction The world of the 21st century exists in a highly competitive environment, which is filled with rapid paced development which is powered by fast growth. The emergence of the internet in the last couple of years along with the fact of the rapid development of various kinds of technological gadgets has resulted in the process of faster and better connectivity in the markets around the world. The global connectivity has increasingly helped in connecting the markets around the world, and has successfully converted the globe into a single and well connected entity. It is of high importance to mention that the better levels of technology powered connectivity are resulting in the successful diffusion of various global trends, which emerges from various markets around the world. Because of faster evolution of the globalized trends, it can be said that the consumers are getting more and more aware of their needs and wants. It also has to be said that the better connectivity is helping the rapid dispersion of global trends from the well established markets to the emerging markets, thereby creating the opportunity for development of consumer demands. This entire cycle of increasing in consumer demand is having a direct impact on the part of the consumers in a circular manner. Faced by growing domestic demands in the marketplace, multiple companies located in various markets around the world are increasingly trying their level best to enter the new markets as they promote significant amount of business opportunity As a result, a major shift of power balances is happening in the markets from the sellers to the buyers. The shift is more happening because of the large number of alternatives that are being currently made available in the market. This has brought the focus on communicating the value of the products to the right set of consumers. While doing so, the companies and business organizations focus on the process of usage of celebrity endorsers. Research Objectives The buying process is in general bifurcated into three phases, that is, ‘pre-purchase’, ‘purchase’ as well as ‘post-purchase’ (Rayport & Jaworski, 2003, p. 119). The decision making process of the consumers comprises of need recognition, search for information, alternative evaluation, purchase as well as post purchase analysis (Lamb and et.al, 2011, p. 189). With the rise of competition in the modern business world, marketing communication has become vibrant and filled with endorsements. As a result, it has become very challenging for brands to get noticed by the consumers. It is an increasingly complex job for marketing professionals to design an endorsement drive to distinguish their brands from their peers and draw the attention of consumers (Zafar & Rafique, 2012, p. 54). Advertisements and endorsements are primarily the means of communication used by the various organizations to reach out to their target consumers. Advertisements attempt to influence the prospective consumers to buy a particular product or procure a service (Kumar & et al, 2011). The significance of brand image has led to the emergence of the notion of brand equity (Aaker, 1991, p. 159). It can be said that the brand equity as a collection of multiple factors like brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand associations, perceived quality by consumers etc. Brand personality can be described as the collection of human attributes linked with a brand (Aaker, 1996, p. 151). The development of brand personality is the decisive aspect for brand accomplishment as it assists to set apart a particular brand from others, builds up the emotional characteristics of a brand and enhance the individual significance of a brand to the customer. In order to develop their brand equity and differentiate themselves from their contemporaries in an attempt to attract the consumers’ attention, brands make use of various forms of advertisements. One of the most popular forms of advertisement amongst consumer brands is endorsement by celebrities. The organization that is being selected in this particular case is Nike, which is a popular sports based consumer brand. Talking in the lines of research questions, the first research question will be to find out whether the celebrity endorsement has positive impact on purchase of highlighted brands? The main motive behind the conduction of research on the basis of the research question is to identify the level of association that consumers relate for brands endorsed by the celebrities. The second research question can be whether celebrity endorsements help in asking for higher prices for products from the consumers. The main motive behind conduction of the research on the lines of the research question is to analyse any level of correlation that might exist in regards to celebrity endorsement of consumer brands and payment of higher prices by the consumers. It is of high interest to mention that since celebrity endorsements for a particular series or range of products are pretty costly in nature all the nature, a suitable analysis will reveal the effectiveness and justification of using celebrity endorsements for achieving an increase in the ability of revenue generation and profitability from a product. The third research question can be whether celebrity endorsements help in better value communication for high premium products? The motive behind selecting this particular research question is to test the hypothesis that celebrity endorsements play a very role in communicating the values of premium products to the end consumers. Literature Review It is of high importance to mention that in the open market, the process of value communication of products and services in the form of advertising plays a very critical role in regards to influencing of consumer purchases. Thus, this makes it very important for the companies and business organizations to engage in the process of active and aggressive value communication. It has been often found that companies and business organization which own various branded products and services, actively engage in the process of value communication through the usage of endorsers. Companies and organizations believe that association of the brand with regards a popular endorser helps in inculcating the personalities of the endorser to the brand (Agrawal and Dubey, 2012, p. 106). It has been increasingly realised that the trends of using of celebrity endorsers in the process of value communication of products and services through advertising is actually picking up pretty fast. It is of high interest to mention that the social networks are increasingly finding importance in the process of measuring the effectiveness of the brand communication through celebrity endorsements (Gu, 2005, p. 4). Also, it has to be said that previous set of researches by other researchers has revealed that advertising which uses celebrities for communicating the values of the products enjoys a high level of popularity from the brand managers as well. Talking in regards to statistical data, it can be said that in the US, over 25% of the total number of television commercials use celebrity endorsers. Also in Germany, the percentage amount to around 12% (Erfgen, 2011, p. 1). Research Methodology Philosophy It is of high importance to mention that the research methodology forms a very critical part of the entire research study. From the point of definition, it can be said that the methodology of marketing research helps is the process of systematic study and analysis of problems in regards to the marketing of products and services (Beri, 2007, p. 4). Talking in a more specific manner, it can be said that the research methodology helps in the process of identification of the various issues that contributes to the formation of the main research problem (McDaniel and Gates, 1998, p. 10). Approach While talking about the nature of research, it can be said that the research methodology can be either qualitative or quantitative in nature. Talking in a more elaborate manner, it can be said that the qualitative kind of a research study is conducted mainly on the basis of secondary data. However, in cases, when tremendous need is felt for the purpose of conducting a primary research, the data is collected mainly through the conduction of open ended questionnaires, focus group interviews, as well as individual interviews. The quantitative kind of research talks about the conduction of research while using both primary and secondary data. It can be said that in this particular case, the primary data is collected by the usage of close ended questionnaires and surveys. It also has to be said that the basic design for the research can vary widely as per the nature of the problems that needs to be analyzed through the conduction of the research. It can be said that there can be three kinds of research like exploratory, descriptive and causal. Exploratory research is being conducted when the researcher intends to find out new insight in regards to the main research problem (Nargundkar, 2008, p. 22). The descriptive kind of research is being used to test the relationship between the multiple variables that have a significant amount of contribution and influence on the main research problem. A causal research is being implemented to test the cause and effect relationship of the multiple variables in regards to the focused research problem (Churchill and Iacobucci, 2009, p. 59). Strategy The strategy that can be applied for this research methodology can be best explained by highlighting about the various kinds of sampling techniques. It can be said that the sampling techniques can be either probability or non probability based sampling techniques (McDaniel and Gates, 1998, p. 33). Since, the usage of probability based sampling techniques highlights the chances of every element of the sample of getting selected, it is being advised to use the simple random sampling technique (Malhotra and Dash, 2008, p. 346). Data collection Method It can be said that if the researcher prefers to opt for a quantitative kind of a research, the process of data collection can be accomplished by the usage of close ended interview questionnaire. Data analysis Procedure The data that is being collected by using the survey instrument or the questionnaire can be best analyzed by using the various tools like bar graphs, pie charts, histograms etc. References Aaker, D. A. 1991. Managing brand equity. New York: Macmillan. Aaker, D. A. 1996. Building strong brands. New York: The Free Press. Kumar, N. & et al, 2011. Advertising and Consumer Buying Behaviour: A Study with Special Reference to Nestle Ltd. International Journal of Research in Commerce and Management, Vol. 2. Nargundkar, R., 2008. Marketing Research 3E. New Delhi: Tata McGraw- Hill Publishing. Zafar, Q., & Rafique, M., 2012. Impact of Celebrity Advertisement on Customers’ Brand Perception and Purchase Intention. Asian Journal of Business and Management Sciences. Vol. 1(11). Society for Business Research Promotion. Churchill, G.A., and Iacobucci, D., 2009. Marketing Research: Methodological Foundations. USA: South Western Cengage Learning. Rayport, J. F., & Jaworski, B. J. 2003. Introduction to e-commerce. New York: McGraw-Hill. Lamb and et.al, 2011. Essentials of Marketing. USA: Cengage Learning. Malhotra, N.K., and Dash, S., 2008. Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation, 5/E. India: Pearson Education. McDaniel, C. D., and Gates, R., 1998. Marketing Research Essentials. Second ed. USA: International Thomson Publishing. Beri, G.C., 2007. Marketing Research. Fourth Ed. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill. Agrawal, P., and Dubey, S.K., 2012. Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on Consumers’ Buying Behaviour. Global Research Analysis. Gu, Z.J., 2005. Celebrity Endorsement Advertising and Product Adoption through Social Networks. USA: New York University. Erfgen, C., 2011. Impact of Celebrity Endorsement on Brand Image: A Communication Process Perspective on 30 Years of Empirical Research. Germany: Universitat Hamburg. Bibliographies Bradley, N., 2007. Marketing Research: Tools & Techniques. New York: Oxford University Press. Easey, M., 2009. Fashion marketing (3rd ed.). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. Johnson, L., & Learned, A., 2004. Dont think pink: what really makes women buy-and how to increase your share of this crucial market. New York: amacom. Kotler, P., and et. al., 2007. Marketing Management; A South Asian Perspective, New Delhi: Prentice- Hall of India Private Limited. Schiffman, L. G., and Kanuk, L.L., 2007. Consumer Behavior. New Delhi: Pearson Education India. Shank, G. D., 2002. Qualitative research. A personal skills approach. Upper Saddle River: Merrill Prentice Hall. Read More