Research Methods - International Business Management - Essay Example

Research Methods - International Business Management Abstract The research proposal is ‘the effect of the advances in communication on marketing strategies--in China photo album industry’. The following issues are taken into consideration while conducting research on the existing literature. 1. What practices by managements in photo album industry business influence marketing strategy? 2. What are the effects of modern marketing strategies on china photo album industry? 3. What decisions and advances in communication technology can result a change in marketing strategies of photo album industry? 4. Is increasing communication network a cause for the change of management practices in marketing strategies? 5. What are the fundamental reasons for the remarkable change in the marketing strategies? 6. What are the effects of the modern marketing strategies on the future activities of business management? The ethical issues, data handling and future analysis are part of the study. 1. Introduction The expansion of the businesses and increase of communications had resulted in new management strategies that can make marketing innovative. The management of business has spread into needs of the people, communications technology, recreation and culture of the different people due to advances in technology. The internet, information technology and TV were adding extra advantages to the marketing strategies. Due to these activities the nice business management can make marketing innovative. The marketing strategies implemented domestically and in overseas, will give power to the photo album industry in managing it. As every thing is changing in the present situation, the strategies regarding marketing in business also are changing rapidly. Continuity can be observed in that change. The unpredictable shift of the power due to the expansions in the economies raised need of the new management practices that can use the advances in the communications technology. This transformed the speed with which information spreads and this spreading of the information gives rise to new ideas and ways of marketing. This can increase the scope for the marketing also as the spread of the information can tell about the quality of the product in a far away place with increased speed. The part of the transformation resulted due to the number of products are derived from complex geography of production. This involves complexity in distribution and consumption. This is due to the vastness and extensive nature of the distribution and consumption as the needs and views of customers vary from place to place. These can be known by managements by communications technology and can make use them in the marketing strategies.1 The people who use the products manufactured far away from their place of living take into consideration the changes that affect directly their living, necessities and provisions for their children. This makes marketing easy but needs an extensive approach in case of photo album industry as the methods are new and innovative to this industry. The new and innovative business management prospects are due to the explosion and proliferation of global protest movements. 2. Main Bodies 2.1 Literature Assessment Evaluation of part one: In part one the Chinese photo album industry’s state in the present environment is discussed. The assessment was based on the needs of the customers and the role of the industry in meeting them. It was opined that the products delivered by industry should be according to the necessities of the customers using them. 2.1.1 The management practices according to market forces: The views shared by many writers regarding management and marketing differ and their evaluations generally result in policy decisions of the administrations. The practices of business management prevailing now are due to the permission for free markets to rule the business. This resulted in the enhancement of human material and the new management practices.2 Photo albums with self adhesive leaves originated in Japan and Korea. China also emulated it and the advances in communications technology can help in making the people in the marketing area of the companies know about it. 3 The operation of market forces claimed to be destructive but in real scenario is giving good results and this can be one of the concepts that affect the marketing strategies and a point of research. Empirical evidences can be used to evaluate results of marketing strategies due to the business management practices. The empirical and statistical data reveals trade, investment and population migration. These details are useful in deriving the new business management policies. The geographies of production, consumption have been transformed. The huge transformation in the nature of the degree of interconnection involves stretching and intensification of economic relationships that gives a scope for the research in the marketing strategies. 4 To record development in the photo album industry, the areas of marketing of the companies should have developments in print industry. The definitive description of marketing that spans individual, organisational, societal and cultural perspective in cross disciplinary manner need to be taken into consideration. While framing strategies and this concept of internet marketing needs extensive research regarding photo album industry. The key features that offer comprehensive overview of ideas, concepts, terms and approaches are as follows. Careers, structure, design, communications, cultures, diversity, innovation, change, strategy, power, leadership, learning, knowledge, ethics, theory, research, conflict politics are the major ones that are involved in the business organisation and management. These aspects can be the topics of the research as they differ from country to country and from place to place. The presentation of the photo albums and the design of them should differ from area to area. This can construct model of influence if the buying behaviour is extended according to Webster and wind model in 1972. The research done on the data based in the period 1970-95 indicates that new research directions and emphasis is required to improve the practices prevailing then. The practices in internet marketing should be developed in a photo album specific manner. This is possible by doing research in that area. The research determined that the reduction in use of self professed data can give accuracy to the results and the practices. The different reviews stress the need of research in neglected areas of influence.5 2.1.2 The choice of brand: It was a general opinion that the choice of brands is random and the share of brands in the market is equal. It is well known that the preferences exist regarding market share. The market share of photo albums has been decreased in the recent past. This demands innovation in the product to ease the efforts of the marketing photo albums. For this purpose the human behaviour regarding the choice of brands is stochastic or any reason if there should be known. It was believed that there will be an explanation for any behaviour and if that explanation is known in the form of cause, the marketing strategies can be explored. This gives extensive scope for the research involved in connecting the marketing with the choice of brand and features it offer. At one point of analysis, the difference between the behaviour with explanation and no explanation cannot be explained. To understand this situation, the individual customer behaviour is customised by randomness and this can be done by protecting the brand name. According to Frank M. Bass after exploring the behaviour the cause for selecting a certain brand can be explained and the marketing strategies can be framed accordingly. This is much more difficult in the case of a product like photo album that is having decreasing market demand. It was observed that the empirical evidence failed to explain the variance in the customer behaviour and this stresses the need for qualitative research instead of quantitative research. While doing the qualitative research, the quantitative analysis can be used as a supporting tool.6 2.1.3 Communication of business with the customers: In the communication of the business with the customers, the information systems and information technology are pervasive. The products like photo albums need product specific marketing strategies as they are the products which are not used daily. The business management needs hardware, electronics, and theoretical aspects of communication to make it marketing oriented. The applications range from low level protocol to high level networking and applications. This results in research of the advances in technology and how they can be used to integrate the business decisions and marketing strategies. The ideas of analyzing and approaching the problems can be done by combining the information systems and telecommunications technologies in the industry. 2.2 Research Question 1. What practices by managements in photo album industry business influence marketing strategy? 2. What are the effects of modern marketing strategies on china photo album industry? 3. What decisions and advances in communication technology can result a change in marketing strategies of photo album industry? 4. Is increasing communication network a cause for the change of management practices in marketing strategies? 5. What are the fundamental reasons for the remarkable change in the marketing strategies? 6. What are the effects of the modern marketing strategies on the future activities of business management? The ethical issues, data handling and future analysis is a part of the study 2.3 Research Strategy Evaluation of part one: In the part one the feedback is considered as crucial for taking a decision. The decisions taken according to the feed back can satisfy the needs of the customers to a large extent. After having feed back from the customers, the company which does the needful first will gain the hold in the market. Before acting on the feed back the SWOT analysis need to be done to know the strengths and weaknesses of the company and the strategy. This enables to remove them and enables the company to act accordingly. It will give good results if all the above mentioned things are done simultaneously after getting feedback. 2.3.1According to the research question, the research strategy should focus on management practices that resulted in the change of marketing strategies according to decreasing demand for photo albums. The proposal of the research should involve the integration of management decisions and marketing strategies. When considering about the management practices influencing the marketing, the adoption of internet marketing comes to fore. The e marketing, e commerce or internet marketing are valuable resources for managers involved in marketing and these play an important role in research of marketing strategies. These strategies should influence the practices of managements of China Photo album industry. The internet marketing will provide guidelines to the organisations on how to use the internet for marketing practices as it needs relevant software. The research on this topic should explore the internet marketing practices on the way they can increase the market orientation of the photo albums as the internet is not limited to a place or a country. An organisation can market its products in another country without having its physical presence through internet or networking with other organisations. This implementation of network marketing involves the study of environment in the place as the company can market its products through network In estimating needs, culture and environment of a place of interest for internet marketing, the study of the consumers also can be done on internet. The methods that can be adopted for the study of the consumers of a particular place on internet can be a topic for research as they have to create interest in them in using photo albums. By questioning them and offering free services for answering them, a manager can know the pulse of individual behaviour of the customers at a place. The methods of analysis of information will offer a wide area of research that can link with marketing strategies to develop album specific marketing strategies. The micro and macro environment for the internet are differentiated and this is the crucial separation in the marketing strategies. The techniques such as pay per click, free click search, viral marketing will help research about the market services and products through internet The presentation of the photo albums in the internet should create interest in the people to use them for their photos. 7 The research regarding the modern marketing strategies includes the marketing in rural areas. As the market demand for photo album has been decreased to some extent, the rural marketing can be a way to regain the lost hold. The companies which have repetition for urban presence are now striving for rural presence and penetration. The reasons are that the rural market is very much bigger than urban market and the expansion of the communication and transportation facilities are offering an easier way to reach rural market. It was observed that the dynamics of rural marketing differ from other marketing strategies and the strategies followed are also different. These strategies of marketing in rural areas involve the pricing strategies also. This aspect proposes the research on the integration of marketing and pricing strategies. The management of demand results in involvement of continuous market research of buyer’s needs and these problems at various levels need to be studied in the course of research.8 2.3.2 The role of guidelines to frame marketing strategy: The reasons for the changes can be found when the owner develops a written guideline that frames marketing strategy. The marketing strategy to increase market for photo albums should involve in the tactics that develop interest for photos in the people. This topic needs a qualitative research that can develop the guidelines regarding marketing strategy. The research includes reasons for taking off strategy actions and to develop interest in the people towards photography. This necessity for the change in marketing strategies arise due to the non description of the target buyer, the ambiguity about the segments, the company has to compete in, the inability of distribution channels, the absence of the uniqueness of the company, lack of efficient price strategy, lack of spending on marketing strategies like advertisement, absence of research and development, non allocation of funds for the research. The above aspects can be observed in the marketing of photo albums. The above can be termed as the reasons for the change marketing strategies and the way they affect the marketing can be a topic for the research.9 The organisations, which are highly linked and centralised, are less likely to adopt new evidence based strategies. The research regarding new strategies that are evidence based and less centralised must be done. Highly centralised organisations generally tend to stick to the present strategies and oppose the change. This cannot increase the market of a product that have minimum market and heavy competition. The changes in the communications can be easily adopted for marketing strategies in case of loosely connected ones. This is due to the need of connectivity in the organisation. The methods that can increase business for photo albums can be explored in the research regarding marketing strategies. This requires relationship building that can make online money making by enhancing the communication networking and using it for advertising. To make the customers to buy your products online, first of all they have to become the visitors of the company’s site. After becoming a visitor to a particular site, you can buy things online from that website. As the photo album is not a necessity, the pricing strategy and making it possible to book it through internet can increase the sales of the product. To make this a success the policies and strategies that can increase the visitors for the websites can be explored. 10 Industrial organisations are subjected to fundamental changes when the innovations take place in science and technology. These innovations are a result on extensive research on marketing research and can make companies to search the ways to enhance the future business activities. The increase of internet marketing demands a development of transport network of the company. This integrates the marketing and transportation of the company and forms another area of research that can be a part of future marketing strategies. 11 2.4 Research Design Evaluation of assignment one: The research design depends on collection of data, the quality of secondary data, recording of observations, conducting interviews and getting answers for questionnaires. The quality of the secondary data and the way questions are asked to get clear and correct answers will decide the course of research design. Selecting samples was found to be important in conducting survey for the research design. The number of the persons and the diversity in their nature also decides the quality of the Research. 2.4.1 Monitoring and surveys for the research design: The research regarding business management practices for photo albums should develop a strategy that involves a team filled with culture of photography. This team should be responsible for the research regarding future marketing and distribution activities. In this team, holding each other for accountability is needed for research regarding operational performances. This is to explore the ways that provide the customers the internal and external experiences and their expectations. This requires recruiting right people for the team. This involves the research regarding the supplier survey. The first of the two parts of the survey should rate each statement on a style scale. The scale is about completely disagree, disagree, somewhat disagree, don’t know/does not apply, somewhat agree, agree and completely agree. The research team should schedule the jobs effectively. The research regarding the openness in the employees is needed to explore the chances of enhancement of the operational activities. The suppliers and traders need to receive the feed back on the company’s activities. The feedback about the activities of the suppliers and traders can be asked for, can be used to assess the extent that is satisfying the customer needs regarding the storage of photos. The demonstration of the continuous improvement as a top company goal is necessary for this product. 2.5 Proposed Work Plan In the course of time the managements have to learn a great deal about the issues and need to understand the processes resolving them. The first step of the research is to search and study the best concept(s) of photography, photos and their storage that are accepted by many. This model of strategy though did not mentioned about photo album industry was proposed by Richard E. Neustadt and Ernest R. May of Harvard University. The important issues range from possible macroeconomic and political changes that affect the markets. The research regarding evolution of products and technologies and changes in the demographics of the company’s employees and customers is necessary to monitor the changes. The growing need to understand technological innovation and the influence of one’s industry will affect the potential future of a company. Experts opine that both technological innovations and influence of industry effect on potential future need to taken into consideration in the course of research. The analysis of china photo album industry results in incorporating a broader range of factors that recognise the socio economic or political vacuum. In the third part of the research the political or legal, economic, social or cultural and technological factors need to be taken into account in the form of PEST analysis before planning for the future operational activities. This analysis can be used for defining the potential opportunities and threats that a company can face. The researchers need to acknowledge the uncertainty of the future of photo album industry that involve both positive and negative trends and research regarding minimising the negative trends is necessary in the next part of the research. The last part of the research should be about understanding of the new economy according to advances in information technology. The economy when mixed with information technology, favour using the strategic and operating plans together. The science and technology need to be related with market realities to present the photo album in an innovative manner in the web site of the company and in the visual advertising. As the changes in science and technology are occurring faster than ever, the adoption of them in the research is necessary to find the market realities effectively. 12 2.6 Ethical Issues Evaluation of assignment one: The workers, owners and the marketers of the Chinese photo album had been interviewed and the issues that bother them were addressed. This enhanced the sales of the photo albums even in the neutral conditions. The questions around marketing strategies helped the managers to frame marketing strategies. The enhancement of quality in operational activities can be termed as the ethical issues framed by the managers with the feed back from the customers and the sales people. 2.6.1 Privacy and security: The ethical issues regarding marketing will enhance the quality in operational activities and avoid or minimise the frauds on internet. Using authorised, avoiding piracy of the software, protecting the privacy of the customer, protection from unauthorised use of customer’s credit card numbers on internet need to be followed while adopting the internet marketing strategies. Though the facilities offered are substantive and there is no protection for the customer’s privacy or for his accounts, the marketing strategy will be destined to be failed. The ethics regarding the online marketing should be strictly followed and the company must be responsible for the privacy and the protection of the identity of the customers. Though it may not bind over legally, it should take the moral responsibility about the protection of the customer. 2.7 Limitations The study and research in this paper is limited to the research done till now on changing strategies on marketing and business management strategies. The future planning analysis is based on the past research and the direct contact with the companies involved is not present. The reason is that the paper reviews, analyses and proposes the needs and changes in marketing strategies according to the changes occurred in the market till now. The future changes, though given importance the effect and strategies adopted in the past and present are given importance and the future strategies and needs are forecasted or expected according to them. The research involving and forecasting the future needs and the strategies is not present. 2.8 Proposed data handling and analysis In the marketing strategies involved in business management, the data handling and analysis is important. The analysis is to know what strategies are needed to be followed to capture the market. The data handling can be done in a protective manner to avoid it being in the hands of the competitors. As the marketing strategies involved in the business management need to follow some off strategy issues at a time, the secrecy up to some extent will result in success of the strategy. Though it does not mean that only secrecy of the strategies will ensure success, the short time bound strategies need secrecy in before implementation. 3. Conclusions The paper concludes that the changing environment, needs of the people, increasing technology involves marketing strategies that are part of the business management. 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