Information for Decision Making - Research Paper Example

Information for Decision Making Name: Tutor: Subject: Date: INTRODUCTION Marketing research is concerned with the gathering of information. Marketing research is used in a wide range of circumstances to provide decision makers with the information that they require in finding solution to business problems. These solutions can be: Who the major customers are, how satisfied customers are with the product, how customers react to a decision to change the price or a product, service representatives hearing from customers and what will bring success to market. Marketing research is, therefore, needed to answer questions and acquire knowledge. Marketing research is a part of marketing decision making in that it improves the management decision making as it provides precise, applicable and timely information. Every decision that will be made poses a sole need for information and appropriate strategies can be established based on the information collected through market research. Market research unaccompanied by the intelligent usage of the market research does not guarantee success; it has to be accompanied by intelligent use of the market research to ensure business achievement. Having a competitive edge is more about how the information from market research is used and not who has and who does not have the information (Williams 2013).  Every five years organizations lose their customers; despite this fact, managers shy away from addressing these factors head on by attempting to know why their customers left. This result of the organizations’ failure to fulfill greater customer needs due to the managers’ perception of what they think their customers need. Marketing research is, therefore, important and helps organizations, managers and decision makers in making the right decisions which align with their customer needs for their organizations. The marketing research process can be divided into the following seven steps: Defining the problem, determining information needs and sources, designing the research, designing the sample, collecting the data, processing and analyzing the data and writing the report (Malone & Team 2013, p 77). MARKETING RESEARCH PROPOSAL FOR THE FIRST GROUP: BUS SECTOR BACKGROUND First Group was started twenty years ago as a small-municipality owned Bus Company in Scotland- North East. It is currently the largest transport operator in private hands, First carriers over 2.5 billion passengers every year. It is one of the largest bus operators in the UK with a fleet of 7,400 vehicles and operates about a fifth of the local bus services. In terms of their bus business, they are now one of the largest bus operators in the UK with a fleet of 7,400 vehicles which constitute around a fifth of local bus services which culminates in them carrying approximately 2.3 million passengers every day. The majority of the bus operation is in the urban areas where the bus provides the best solution to tackling traffic congestion. First Group works with the local authorities, stakeholders and the government to make prosperous relationships that can get maximum efficiencies and bigger benefits for customers, specifically through reduced journey times. First Group has in-cooperated many changes in behavior to suit the customers’ knowledge and perspectives of environmental-carbon footprints, for example, instituting recycling, but the mass, surprisingly, still use their own transport. The following is a research proposal that seeks to investigate issues around the service offered by First Group and why people still choose to use their own transport rather than the organizations offer. RESEARCH PROBLEM Since 1952, there has been an increase in car use, in the United Kingdom, increasing its modal share, although the use of buses has decreased. By the year 2003, 85% of the total distance travelled was by car or taxi with only 6% being by bus. Most people travel by car to work; 35% in London and 76% outside London despite the fact that people are being encouraged to use public systems in order to reduce congestion and greenhouse gas emission. The environmental message of carbon footprints has been well understood by the public in the United Kingdom. It is because of this reason that First Group: Bus Sector has changed its behavior in so many ways with the like of recycling. Despite these changes made by the bus sector, the public still seems reluctant to use the public transport and still prefers the use of their own transport. Once we begin to understand the attitude of the public towards the services offered by First Group: Bus Sector and the reasons why the public still chooses to use their own transport rather than the organization offers, and then we could begin to see the solution to the low number of people that use the public system in the UK, come up with marketing strategies that will increase the use of First Group: Bus sector and provide services that are desired by the public. This will retain the customers that we currently have and increase the number of customers that use our organization offer. This proposal, therefore, seeks to investigate issues around the service offered by First Group and why people still choose to use their own transport rather than the organizations offer (March, J, G, 2013, pp 114-116). RESEARCH OBJECTIVES Research will primarily focus on qualitative method of data collection. The main objective is to determine the knowledge and attitude of the first bus customers and people towards the public transport system in the main areas of operations of First Bus Company. This objective has been broken down to two objectives, which are: 1. To investigate issues around the service offered by First Group: Bus Sector in the main areas of operations of the bus company 2. To find out the reasons why people still use their own transportation rather than the First Group: Bus Sector offer in the main areas of operation of the bus. We have detailed further areas under each objective. 1. To investigate issues around the service offered by First Group: Bus Sector in the main areas of operations of the bus company This objective will try to find out the knowledge on the services offered by First Bus. It will also seek to find out the attitude towards the services offered by First Bus. It will seek to find out the concerns of the customers regarding the services offered by First Bus. It will also seek to identify ways by which the organization can improve its service delivery to its customers (Taylor 2013, p 121). The objective will attempt to identify what services are most appreciated by the customers and what services are not appreciated. 2. To find out the reasons why people still use their own transportation rather than the First Group: Bus Sector offer in the main areas of operation of the bus. This objective will strive to find out why people do not like the public mode of transportation. It will also seek to find out what people like about their own modes of transportation and what the organization can in-cooperate into its system in order for people to switch into using the public mode of transport. RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1. What are the issues around the service offered by the First Group: Bus Sector in the main areas of operations of the bus company? 2. Why do people still use their own transportation rather than the First Group: Bus Sector offer? RESEARCH SAMPLING TECHNIQUE The research will be conducted over a selected sample size of the entire population. The population is a First Bus main area of operation which includes: urban areas such as Aberdeen; Glasgow; Manchester; Bristol, Bath & the West; York; Leeds; Calderdale and Huddersfield; Eastern Counties; Berkshire and Devon and Cornwall. Since the target population includes both the customers of First bus and the general public, random selection will be made. Focus group discussions and a general survey will be used to gather information from the selected sample size (Rubin, A, & Babbie, E 2013, p 166). QUALITATIVE RESEARCH FOCUS GROUPS 10 focus group discussions will be carried out. Each major area of operation of the bus will be represented by one focus group, leading to a total of 10 focus groups in the 10 major areas of operation. Each focus group will constitute 8 to 12 customers who will be randomly selected and after getting their approval will participate in a focus group. The focus groups will be intended to gather information on the attitude of the customers of the first bus on the services offered, that is, their concerns regarding the services offered by the bus, ways to improve service delivery to customers, services that are most appreciated and services that are not appreciated. The participants/customers will be identified by the employees; that is the bus drivers (Hadad, Keren, & Laslo 2013, p 179). QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH SURVEY Survey questionnaires will be used to gather information about the knowledge of First Group: Bus Sector, knowledge of public transport that is presently available to the public, attitude towards the First bus sector in the UK, that is, what they like and what they do not like about the transport service in the UK, what people like about their own modes of transportation and suggestions that will make the public transportation by First Bus more appealing to the people (Frey, Schulz-Hardt, & Stahlberg 2013, p 215). DATA COLLECTION QUALITATIVE For the qualitative research, customers that will have been identified and invited by the bus drivers will be contacted by phone and asked to come to the venue. They will be picked up by the bus at different First Bus stops and taken into the focus group venue. The participants will be served with refreshments during the discussions and compensated with one month free ticket for First Bus. There will be a mirror behind which a researcher will sit and observe the participant's reaction to questions. The focus groups can be done in 3 day period. The moderator will ask questions and help frame them to the understanding of the participants. Tape recorders will be used to record the data. There will also be 2 note takers in the focus groups (Silverman 2013, p 45). QUANTITATIVE For the quantitative data collection, survey questionnaires will be posted online. Selected participants will have a mail of the link sent to them. The link will give the participants access to the questionnaire, and when they click on submitting, their answers will be collected and their results processed. Potential issues like the participant trashing the email, invalid email addresses and the participants’ inability to fill the questionnaire will be taken care of by the margin of error and so the computer will select another participant (Flick 2014, p 49). MEASUREMENT This marketing research main aim is to investigate issues around the service provided by First Bus and why people still choose to use their own transport rather than First Buses’ offer. The first question we would like to address is the services provided by First Bus that are most appreciated and those that are not appreciated by the customers (Caris, Macharis & Janssens 2013, p 89). Key elements in the research will include demographic data, knowledge and attitude of First Bus services. We will then figure out how to make the services provided by First Bus more appealing to the customers, what services to include in the bus service so as to increase the usage of First Bus and how to brand the offers given by First Bus in a way that will make the public use the Bus service (Myers 2013, p 99). To figure out what the customers like or dislike about the services offered by First Bus, ambiguous questions like how to rate First Bus inclusion of environmental message of carbon footprints-recycling will be asked. ANALYSIS Statistical software’s will be used to analyze the data collected. SPSS will be used to analyze the quantitative data while QSR NVIVO will be used to analyze the qualitative data. These will help us understand the perceptions of people towards the services offered by the First Bus and why people prefer using their own transportation, as opposed to those services offered by the Bus. Understanding this will enable us to come up with marketing strategies that will increase the usage of First Group: Bus Sector. REPORTING A minimum of 3 copies of the report summarizing the findings of the marketing research will be submitted. The report will contain suggestions on the services and marketing strategies that First Group: Bus Sector can use to maintain its client base, increase the number of customers and woe the public to using the First Group: Bus Sector. References Caris, A, Macharis, C, & Janssens, G, K 2013, Decision support in intermodal transport: A new research agenda Computers in Industry, 64(2), 105-112 Castellan, J, (Ed.). 2013, Individual and group decision making: current issues. Psychology Press. Castellan, N. J, (Ed.), 2013, Individual and group decision making: current issues, Psychology Press Castellan, N. J. (Ed.). 2013, Individual and group decision making: current issues. Psychology Press. Flick, U 2014, An introduction to qualitative research, Sage Frey, D, Schulz-Hardt, S, & Stahlberg, D 2013, Information seeking among individuals and groups and possible consequences for decision-making in business and politics. Understanding group behavior, 2, 211-225 Hadad, Y, Keren, B, & Laslo, Z 2013, A decision-making support system module for project manager selection according to past performance.International Journal of Project Management, 31(4) Malone, T. W., & Team, L. Y 2013, Is empowerment just a fad? Control, decision making, and IT. Sloan management review, 38(2). March, J, G, Ed. 2013, Handbook of organizations (Vol. 20), Routledge Matthews, G, Fallon, C, K, Panganiban, A, R., Wohleber, R. W, & Roberts, R, D 2014, Emotional intelligence, information search and decision-making under stress, Personality and Individual Differences, 60, S22. Myers, M, D 2013, Qualitative research in business and management, Sage. Rubin, A, & Babbie, E 2013, Brooks/Cole Empowerment Series: Research Methods for Social Work, Cengage Learning Silverman, D 2013, Doing qualitative research: A practical handbook. SAGE Publications Limited Taylor, D, W 2013, Decision Making and Problem Solving1, Handbook of organizations, 20, 48 Williams, C. (2013). Principles of management, South-Western/Cengage Learning Read More