The confidence of saudi consumer in the seasonal sale of the international brands - Literature review Example

?Methodology Introduction This study aims to fill the knowledge gap about how Saudi consumers choose international brands and their views on seasonalsales. To do this, how international brands perform on the Saudi market is examined in detail, as is the strategies that businesses use to increase the trust of consumers in their products. This study also presents the international brands that operate in Saudi Arabia, with the aim of providing a clear and concise picture of the fashion market in Saudi Arabia, the brands that are present, and the way that consumers respond to the market. In order to complete these objectives secondary research of the available literature will be undertaken, including newspaper articles, journal articles, reliable web sources, reports and books. Secondary research was chosen as a method for research, and there is a wide range of literature that looks at seasonal sales, consumer loyalty, and consumer response to the market, already present. Methodology Secondary research was chosen as the method of research for this study. This involves using qualitative and quantitative data that has been gathered by other individuals for different purposes. This will be collected through examining the literature surrounding Saudi consumers, international brands and seasonal sales in detail, collating the information and using statistical analysis to look for patterns and trends. There are a number of advantages to secondary research. Firstly, it is cheaper and less time consuming than primary research . This is because the information has already been collected, it is a matter of finding, collating, interpreting and analysing it. Because of this, a larger data set can be examined than is able to be through primary research. Secondary, sometimes secondary research can give more accurate data than can be obtained through primary research . This is because a large amount of data is being collated, which gives a clearer picture than little data, and there may be government surveys or censuses that reach a large number of people that can be taken advantage of. However, it is important to take the original source and context of the data into account wherever possible to prevent accuracy being compromised . The disadvantages of secondary research are that the questions asked in the original research may not correspond to the questions that are being asked through secondary research. This can make the results not relevant for the current question, or biased towards one particular part of the population. This problem is amplified by the fact that the context of the primary data is sometimes unavailable. This study has attempted to avoid this problem by incorporating data from a wide range of different sources, aiming for sufficient replication to avoid any bias from one or a few studies. One primary method of research that could be used for this study would be the questionnaires to directly determine the opinions of the consumer population. Questionnaires are a good method of primary data gathering, as they enable sampling of a wide range of people and do not intrude on the population . For this study in particular, there was difficulty obtaining permission to conduct either internet based, or mail based surveys of the consumer population of Saudi Arabia, and there was concerns that not all of the survey responses would be legitimate, as the culture of Saudi Arabia is very private and the country has strict religious rules . For this reason, and the advantages cited above, secondary research was chosen as the method of data collection for this study. Finding Secondary Sources Once the focus of study and the questions being asked has been determined, the next step in secondary research is to find and collate data. A large amount of data is needed, and generally speaking, the more data is analysed, the more realistic the results will be. For this study secondary sources will be found primarily through the use of internet based search engines, primarily focusing on peer-reviewed items, as these are on average more reliable, and secondarily focusing on internet articles and newspaper articles. Google Scholar will be used as the primary method of searching for sources. This search engine looks at peer-reviewed sources, such as journal articles, reports and books. It provides a good method of obtaining many sources as well as finding bibliographic information for those that are not obtainable online. It is an effective source as it examines not only the titles and abstracts of sources for key words but also the content of the source, which most scholarly search engines do not do. Secondary databases that will be used include: ProQuest and Scopus. In addition the standard Google search engine will be used to find sources that are not peer-reviewed such as newspaper articles and web pages. These will be examined for reliability and accuracy before inclusion. A range of search terms will be used in each of these databases to address the questions proposed in the previous section. A sample of these is listed below: Saudi consumer "international brand" Saudi consumer "international brand" fashion Saudi consumer confidence Saudi seasonal sale Saudi sales Saudi sales international fashion There are a range of different types of secondary sources available and these differ in availability and usefulness. One key type of secondary resource is books. Books are not often available freely online; rather physical copies generally need to be sought out, with library catalogues providing good sources for these. There are often many books available on a given subject, and it is likely that some of the information contained within them will be relevant while other information will not be . Using books that are peer-reviewed is often more reliable, as these have been through an extensive review process to verify the validity of their assumptions, methodology and experimental processes . For this study care was made to look at books that were no more than ten years old for data on consumer behaviour and opinion, as this was time based and there was a likelihood that anything that was significantly older would be very different than the present day. Ten years was chosen as an adequate period as it allowed for sufficient data to be gathered without causing too much of a time effect on the outcome. Where possible, the year of the book and of the data was recorded. Journal articles were also used. These were generally all peer-reviewed and sourced primarily through search engines such as Google Scholar, as explained above. Journal articles are subjected to a rigorous peer-review process before they are accepted for publication, which helps to ensure the validity of their assumptions and results. They can range anywhere from a single page to 20 or 30, and may look at a single specific focus, or cover a wide range . There are often many journal articles on a given topic, with slightly different approaches or topics, making them an excellent source for finding information . Beyond peer-reviewed sources there are many other useful sources of information, such as statistical data from government websites and websites that look at imports and exports. Sites such as these are important as they are able to provide more up-to-date information than peer-reviewed sources can, as there is a time consuming process involved in getting articles and books peer –reviewed . Likewise, newspaper surveys may also provide up-to-date information, as they can be published much quicker than journal articles can. Generally searching for sources takes place in the researchers native language, in this case English, but this is not always sufficient when the source population does not speak English, or also speaks another language. In this case it is important to look for articles, books and other sources that are written in Arabic, the official language of Saudi Arabia . Collating and Analysing the Secondary Sources Information from the secondary sources needs to be collated in a way that is understandable and able to be analysed. A large number of sources will be used; although the exact number will be dependent on how many results the search engines find. To help avoid differences in definitions across literature, prior to gathering data from sources, definitions for each of the major terms will be created. Seasonal sale: A promotion or discounts that businesses make during different seasons in order to increase sales of products, often those that are likely to be popular for that season. Consumer: An individual or household that makes use of the goods or services from the economy. International brand: In terms of this study an international brand is one from the western world that is common in Saudi Arabia. Data will be collated in terms of similar themes. For all sources the author and date will be recorded, as will factors such as consumer opinion of seasonal sales, whether sales are considered truthful and whether consumers buy items during seasonal sales or at full price. Statistical analysis will be used to examine the significance of observations and opinions where sufficient information is available, and where it is not information will be collated and examined in depth. Statistical analysis will involve regression analysis to test for trends in the data, as well as ANOVA and t-test analysis to test for the differences between groups and effects of factors such as time on the results. Data will be collated and presented graphically so any trends can be identified. Limitations One limitation of the use of secondary sources for research is the definitions of phenomena. Even with widely used or apparently obvious definitions, there are discrepancies between how this is interpreted by different sources. For example, the definition of family size may mean the immediate family for many studies, while others include the extended family, and still others count only the family living at the location at that particular point in time. In reference to this study, definitions such as seasonal sale, consumer and international brand may vary between sources. While specific definitions for these terms are set prior to the initiation of research, not all secondary sources make their assumptions or definitions explicit, which may lead to some inconsistencies. Measurement error is another limitation. There is always some level of error associated with gathering primary data, and this is usually measured in terms of standard deviation and standard error where direct data is used. However, not all authors report these figures, especially not non peer-reviewed sources. In addition, sources of error such as consumers not answering surveys honestly are generally not evident, and this produces a level of error that cannot be accounted for or estimated. Reliability and time scale are also limitations. This comes from the fact that secondary sources span a large range in time periods, and collating this data may produce a distorted picture if examined trends change over time. In order to account for this in this study, the time period of the data obtained was noted, and for statistically analysis of data, a test was run to see whether the year was related to any outcomes. There are ethical issues concerning the culture that is being research. The Saudi Arabian culture is one of maintaining privacy, and information such as the amount of money that is spend on clothes, and the number of times that Saudi Arabians visit international brands is likely to be hard to obtain, and may not always be correct. Both men and women also have a tendency to hide their age, which also make analysis difficult. It is likely that some broad trends will be able to be identified through sources such as newspaper surveys and censuses, but it may not be possible to obtain individualised information. Conclusion This study aims to use secondary research to answer four main questions about the Saudi Arabia consumer market in regards to the fashion industry and seasonal sales. Data will be collated from a wide range of secondary sources, which will be found using primarily using scholarly search engines and databases using specific key phrases. Limitations of the results will be avoided where possible by clearly defining terms and excluding sources that use a vastly different definition, and by taking time scale into account when examining sources and during statistical analysis. Reference List Read More