Conducting a Marketing Audience - Research Proposal Example

MARKETING AUDIENCE RESEARCH STUDENT’S NAME: INSTITUTION: INSTRUCTOR’S NAME: DATE: WORD COUNT (1750) Table of Contents Executive summary 3 Introduction and background 3 Methodology 4 Ethical considerations 5 Analysis 6 Findings and recommendations 7 Limitations 11 Reference 12 Executive summary Conducting a marketing research is an essential part when it comes to marketing, there are many ways businesses use to conduct a market research. The use of internet to conduct a market research is gaining popularity and we find that most businesses have adopted various ways of determining the customer behavior through carrying out an online market research. On the other hand there is a rising number of people who shop online globally. Statistics shows that most people have changed their mode of shopping and adopted the use of internet to get access to their goods and services. Conducting a market audience research was useful in analyzing the collected data and determining the factors that influence online retail shopping. The report describes the results finding and the conclusions drawn from the research. Introduction and background Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong defined marketing as “social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others.” Marketing should be customer oriented since customers wants must be recognized and satisfied. Marketing should start with an idea about a want satisfying product or service and continues until the customer wants are satisfied (Philip and Gary, 2011).globalization and technological advances have resulted to development of different forms used by companies and organizations to market their products. There is a shift towards internet marketing which has gained popularity since adoption of technology in market industry. A research on marketing audience was conducted and the results analyzed as per the response of internet users. A descriptive research was conducted with the purpose of developing skills related to designing and undertaking quantitative/descriptive research; collecting, analyzing and interpreting quantitative data. In order to come up with conclusions and recommendations, it is important to write a report that will be used in making judgments. The report consists of results from the descriptive research and the findings. The methods used to collect data should also be availed in the report as well. The research was carried out to examine the determinants of Australian consumers’ attitudes towards online retail shopping. In order to carry out the above research, some questions were constructed to help in finding the results of the research project. Research questions i) How does self concept dimensions relate to online retail shopping attitudes? ii) What is the impact of individual characteristics on online retail shopping attitudes? iii) What is the impact of Internet usage motivations on online retail shopping attitudes? iv) What are some of the meaningful market segments among online retail shoppers? v) How can social desirability bias influence the results of the research? From the above question, objectives of the research were developed using the question. The purposes of developing these aims are to act as guide towards finding the results. Objectives include: i) To examine how self concept dimensions relate to online retail shopping attitudes; ii) To evaluate the impact of individual characteristics on online retail shopping attitudes; iii) To determine the impact of Internet usage motivations on online retail shopping attitudes; iv) To identify any meaningful market segments among online retail shoppers; v) To understand how social desirability bias may influence the results of the research. Methodology Since the research is descriptive the methods used to collect data were the use of survey method whereby a survey was conducted among online shoppers and the results collected through a constructed questionnaire. Some considerations were made in methodologies which are individual characteristics, self concept, internet usage motivations, Market segments and social desirability. The assumptions made in the methodology were; consumers have their own way of shopping online, consumers have different categories of goods and services online, the demand for goods and service is constant; the supply of goods and services is constant as well. The sample considerations were also made such that each methodological consideration represented such as the gender, the frequency of shopping online, and the motivators for online shopping. When it comes to data collection, the survey was done by considering the audience responds towards the questions in the survey. Some ethical considerations were developed to enable the audience provide the right answers. Considering the probability of the audience to provide the right answers was done by conducting a pre-test whereby the survey was conducted among the few audience to test the relevance of the constructed question towards their responses. Analytical considerations were also made during analyzing the collected data. The considerations include levels of accuracy and the reliance of information in making decsisions.95% was the level of confidence used in analyzing data. Ethical considerations In every conduct, there must be some ethics to be applied. For the case of research, it is important to develop ethical considerations especially that targets the respondents. This is because these audiences are not familiar with the researcher and therefore these ethical considerations will motivate them to provide the relevant information. The first ethical consideration is the privacy of the respondents, whereby they were assured that the information gathered from them will be used for the purpose of study only, and therefore the information would not be disclosed. Secondly the researcher ensured that the respondents understood the aims of the study by interpreting to the respondents. Another consideration is about the appreciation of the respondent, for their time to answer the questions. Analysis After collecting data, analysis was done to find out the results that can be used in making conclusions .analysis data was done using statistical program for social sciences SPSS and Ms Excel. These applications were used to analyze data. The purpose of analyzing data by using this software is to enable the researcher to come up with correct results. The analysis undertaken includes data cleaning, data coding and checking the responses. Data cleaning involves the process of ensuring that all the data provided is relevant for analyzing, therefore the researcher ensures the questions and answers were relevant. It involves deleting amusing responses since not all the respondents participate in answering the questions and they end up providing irrelevant answers. Also deleting respondents who are not involved in the age bracket of those who were targeted in the survey was done to ensure that the collected data was appropriate. Data coding is the process of entering the data to the SPSS software and in this case it is inclusive of developing variables. Data coding enables the results to be analyzed by commanding the computer to perform analysis. Checking the responses is part of data cleaning whereby these responses were analyzed in according to the objectives of the research project. The procedures done in analysis are aimed at drawing conclusions from the results analyzed and therefore the researcher should be keen enough to avoid coding wrong data. A model was developed and used in analyzing the constructs; it therefore enabled the researcher to collect the relevant data. Findings and recommendations From the analysis we can interpret the information and come up with recommendations regarding the frequency on the use of internet. The descriptive shows the results for standard deviations and the mean for all the constructs used in collecting data. The results of the constructs shows that respondents are more attracted to online shopping considering the response provided under each construct. The constructs included; affective attitude, risk aversion, impulsiveness, variety seeking, convenience seeking, price consciousness, information motivations, work motivations, entertainment motivation, social-interaction motivation and social desirability. Social desirability was recorded the highest factor motivating consumers to shop online with the mean of 14.88 and standard deviation of 1.74.impulsiveness was the lowest factor with the mean of 3.78.the frequencies were analyzed on the age, nationality and the gender of respondents. The results shows that male are the ones who dominate when it comes to purchasing goods online ,they recorder a number of 55,while female recorded 45.this shows that male frequently visit the internet to shop. Communication mode comparison was done by determining the frequently used means of communication through internet and email was considered the most used. When it comes to the location of the used, most respondents use home as the location for communicating. The histogram below illustrates that most people used 2-3 different types of devices to access the internet. The most used device is Smartphone since most people can get access to the internet by the use of internet enabled mobile phones. Other used devices were laptop, followed by desktops and tablets. Social desirability was found to be the most determining factor that motivates people to shop online. The results were analyzed and presented using a histogram below. The purpose of these results to the managers is the impact on the decisions made when determining the most convenient means of marketing. The results are important to the managers because they will use them to market according to the target market. When conducting a market research, these results will be used to determine the most convenient means of reaching the audience. It is clear that most people have adopted the way of shopping online and this occurs under influence. The young generations are the most victims who use internet in their daily basis and this information will help managers to find the appropriate target market for their products.int the future, the results will be used to analyze the frequency on the use of internet by people. Managers will use the results to determine the performance rate for online shoppers and therefore may use in making decision concerning production and distribution of goods through online. For the big organizations the results will be used to determine whether decisions to open branches overseas are appropriate to enable the delivery system to be accomplished. Also the channel of distribution is determined by these results since most people shop online, it is important to develop an appropriate distribution channel that ensures delivery of goods and services in time and at the right place. Limitations The results presented are not 100% accurate and therefore relying mostly on these results may pose a risk to the business or company. This is because the respondents do not provide the exact answers when it comes to conducting surveys. The fact that the research methodology involved the use of a questionnaire as an instrument, the accuracy level form the respondents is not 100%.soem assumptions made while collecting data on the factors that influence online shopping also limit the use of the results in making decisions. For example assuming that demand is constant and that people will always hop online is not appropriate because at some certain point, the level of economy will force people to reduce spending and withdraw from shopping online. There is also a limitation on the frequent use of internet to shop, this is supported by the fact that continued globalization results to changes in technology and hence the change in customer behavior as well. Therefore the rate of online retail shopping is subject to change as people embrace other technological changes considered effective. There are also changes in trends whereby customers who shop online are of certain age, therefore it impossible to predict the future trend of people who will use intent to shop. In this case, the result shows that the young generation spends most of their time online and therefore they prefer shopping online. The future is not yet determined on whether the trend will continue for the same age group. Reference Bellman, S., Lohse, G.L. and Johnson, E.J. (1999). Predictors of online buying behavior. Communications of the ACM, 42(12), 32-38. Bianchi, C. & Andrews, L. (2012). Risk, trust, and consumer online purchasing behaviour: A Chileanperspective. International Marketing Review, 29(3) 253-276. Brashear, T. G., Kashyap, V. Musante, M. D. & Donthu, N. (2009). A profile of the Internet shopper:Evidence from six countries. Journal of Marketing Theory & Practice, 17(3), 267–281. Ko, H., Cho, C. H., & Roberts, M. S. (2005). Internet Uses and Gratifcations: A Structural EquationModel of Interactive Advertising. Journal of Advertising, 34(2), 57-70. Rohm, A.J. & Swaminathan, V. (2004). A typology of online shoppers based on motivations.Journal of Business Ressearch, 54, 748-757. Read More